Archive for December, 2009

On Capadia Designs (Link) she sent us to a link that showed a video of how to use pledge floor shine and glitter to make glitter balls.  The above link will get you to Diane’s website, then explore her various posts, she is one talented lady.

I decided I would take a stab at making them (after all they made it look so easy).  I got my clear ornaments at 50% off at M’s, and I have seen them at HL and JA.

Take the top off the ornaments and pour some of the Pledge floor shine into the bulb and swirl it around until the inside of the bulb is covered.  Pour out the excess and then pour in the desired color of glitter you want.  There are not precise measurements, it’s more of a trial and error.  However, here are somethings I learned: 1) Excessive floor shine left in the ornament will make you use a lot of glitter to soak it up.  If you coat the inside good and pour the excess floor shine out, you can keep adding glitter to get it to the coverage you want.  2) If you use white (I used a MS white crystal fine), it is harder to get a good coverage.  3) For some reason the silver glitter I used (MS) worked better than the gold glitter (MS).

This takes literally no time at all.  There is silver, white, yellow gold, a white gold, red and black.  The awesome thing about this is the glitter is on the inside and when you hang the ornament or store it away glitter is not getting everywhere.

I made these for some friends and actually if you wanted to take it up a level you could put some additional embellishments on the outside of the ornament.  Hmmmm, not going there this time….I’m just going to tie some ribbon around them.

This year I decided to make my own tags to go with our gifts.  I know call me crazy but I have all the supplies and various carts to make them so, if I can find the time why not?

Isn’t this snowman cute!  This is the tag for my son-in-laws gifts, a cute little snowman in a vest.  I’ll make the tags personal, like Travis’ gifts will all have this snowman with a vest.  That way even if they don’t look at the back I can just look at  the tag.

I started out with a white snowman a red vest and red hat.  These are cut from the cart Snow Friends.  The To: and From:  stamps I found at Tuesday Morning.  I love the font, it looks whimsical.

I pieced him together and added some white Scribble 3-D paint and I doodled around the vest and drew in his face.  I thought something was missing so I set it aside to think about it.

I didn’t think the fur on the cap really looked like fur so I added white Flower Soft and a little cotton ball to the end of the cap.  I used glossy accents to make sure the little cotton ball and Flower Soft stayed in place.

Looks like real fur!

I placed the To: and From: on the back of the tag.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the stamps to work with white ink, but luckily I had a white pen that worked just perfectly and I just wrote all of it.

It works perfectly, now I just need the energy to make all the tags for our gifts.  I think I’ll do each one as I wrap the gifts maybe it won’t feel so overwhelming.

Oh the stress we add to ourselves during the holidays, but I really am enjoying this one.  I love the creativity. 

Who knew it would be so difficult to take a picture of a lighted Christmas Tree.

Here is a new ornament.  It’s mercury glass with a subtle embellishment.

Here is the top of the tree and if you click on the picture you can see the various items I revamped to help match the new colors and you can also see the black eucalyptus.

Loving the new colors and loving the new look.  This is my first year to have a tree with white lights.

So here is the finish product with the black and white paper with a pop of red or white ribbon.  When I went to get a new tree skirt I actually took, a red with black skirt, a grey skirt and this black and white skirt over to the paper I had purchased to see which one looked best.  The black and white was the perfect choice.

Now, I have to get busy and get some Christmas cards and some tags for gifts made before I forget whose gifts are what that are under the tree.

I needed something black to add to the top of my tree.  This was a little more difficult than I thought it would be.  I finally decided to go with some black silk eucalyptus leaves.

I like to buy in odd lots (3, 5, 7).  This makes the appearance seem more random.

I took perfect pearls and put them in a mister and added water then I shook it until it mixed.  I then sprayed it on the black eucalyptus.

Let me suggest you spray this on a craft mat or cover your table with newspaper because spraying an item this large gets messy.

If you click the picture you can see how the leaves takes on a luster from the sprayed on Perfect Pearls.  This helped remove some of the starkness off of the black.  Since I sprayed all of this on a craft mat all it took was a couple of baby wipes to clean it up.  Love the craft mat. 

This is the finishing touch to the tree, so watch the post tomorrow for the pictures.

This is a real simple ornament to make.

Take a clear glass ornament and fill it 1/3 to 1/2 full of some white styrofoam pebbles.  I found the styrofoam pebbles for $1.99 at HL. 

Unfortunately, I had to do these a little at a time.  I couldn’t get them to slide down a funnel because of static electricity.

The first thing I tried was using a Star Dazzle (you can find these @ paperwishes.com)  for an outline and then covered it with etch-a-glass.

However, I didn’t put enough etching cream on it and it didn’t etch the ornament.  It also ruined the Dazzle, bummer.  When I took the etching cream off it had done a little etching but you need to put a lot of etching cream on it so it doesn’t dry out.

So, I saved the day by pulling out a sticker that had a design made with crystals.  Tied a black velvet ribbon and it is ready for the tree.

So simple, so sweet and it looks great on the tree.

Ok, I don’t usually enter contest but I thought this one was worth the effort.  A lot of nice prizes and it would make a nice Christmas for several people in my life.

That’s over $3,800 in gifts!  Here is the link to see what I’m talking about.  

So, here we go keep your fingers crossed!

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme:

TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

1. Spending lots of time with family.
2. A Gypsy.
3. Finding a way to give back. 
4. itune card
5. Photoshop
6. Lots of Grandkids

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?

Anything my children make and my Mother’s crochet work.

 
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?

An elaborate Christmas stocking.
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?

A burnt orange Papermate Ink Pen.   That year  ( I was 12) we were not expecting to have Christmas at all and my Aunt’s co-workers gave us a basket of items we split with our neighbors and I ended up with the pen.  Now, over 40 years later I still remember the impact that gift had on my life.  Simple, yes, costly, no, made me feel blessed.
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?

My children are 32 and 36.  They want simple things like boots, calendars and items for hobbies.
6. What is your favorite holiday food?

A Cherry-O Cream pie, creamy and smooth made with cream cheese and eagle brand milk.  Yummmm!
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?

Yes, yes….cards, ornaments and decorations.
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?

Christmas Carole and then there is the Muppet Christmas Carole and White Christmas and I love Holiday Inn, a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.  Yes, I count all of them as my favorite!
9. Favorite holiday song?

Winter Wonderland, the imagery is beautiful.
10. Favorite holiday pastime?

Great cup of tea and a favorite movie, with the Christmas tree light up and the fireplace roaring with my cat curled up in my lap.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well, not completely done.  I thought my black and red clock would work with the new mantle items but it doesn’t it sort of sticks out like a sore thumb.

There is a star-burst mirror that would go great with this but it’s a little pricey (even at 50% off).  So, I’m hoping it will still be there after Christmas when everything is 70% off.

The two reindeer and peace are from M’s and I had to go to two different M’s to get a set.  They have a nice soft topaz glitter on them.

The candles run on batteries and I used the lids from some clear containers to lift them up and graduate them.  That was on an earlier post.

This is one of my favorite things – the Nutcracker.  A couple of weeks ago I was at JA’s and spotted him.  However, I didn’t pick him up and when I started putting the mantel decor together I of course wished I had.

Lucky me I went back to JA’s to pick up the berry vine and discovered he was still there.  He is all white and silver glitter.  A great addition to this layout.  The Mercury glass goblets are from M’s, and I put battery operated flicker candles in them so they would not get too hot and crack.

The sleigh is from HL and it worked perfectly with the reindeers.  The tall cylinder vase I’ve had for a good 7-8 years. I put silver ribbon in the bottom and then stuck in some silver branches.  This adds height to this end of the mantle and that gives some symmetry to the entire decor.

Our fireplace sits catty-corner in our living-den area and the mantle is large, so it takes big pieces to fill up the entire space.

Those little black stockings with hounds-tooth tops were found at HL.  I just love it when you start a new color theme and seem to be able to find all kinds of things to match from different stores.  This all started with the “believe” banner for my Santa Claus collection then it just exploded all over the living-den.

I bought this “believe” that was glittered in silver and added the wire to it.  However, it did not show up on the tree so I decided to see if I could make it darker.

First, I decided I would see if I embossed it with black embossing powder if it would show up better than the glitter.

Although it did darker it, it came out splotchy and uneven.  I tried to go back and add more embossing powder where it looked like it was sparse but it still did not meet my expectations.  Click on the picture for a closer look and you will see how uneven it came out.

So I pulled out my Allene’s tacky glue and squirted a clump onto my craft mat.  I love this craft mat!  I have not found anything that will stick to it, so it makes it perfect to do messy projects on.  I also have these small foam brushes that has foam applicators on each end.  I don’t remember what store I picked them up from but you can bet it was either HL, M’s or JA’s.

Now this is more like it.  I’m using MS’s black onyx glitter.  It covered beautifully!

I decided to glitter all of the silver words and I actually had a green word that I glittered black.  They work perfect with the new color pallet of my tree.

I did notice that the “believe” was covered better than the “faith” and “merry” that I glittered.  The reason was because I had already embossed the “believe” so I was using black glitter over black embossing powder.  However, when you see them on the tree you can’t see that.  So, I let that little be of perfectionism slip right out of my mind.

If this black glittered had not resulted in the results I wanted, I was going to pull out the flocking.  Whew!  I’m glad it worked.

I was at HL and found this little bird ornament without a tail.  They only had two left and one of them had white feathers for a tail.

I asked the cashier if they were willing to give me an additional discount on the bird without a tail.  This bird was already 50% off and she gave me an additional 50% off of that price …..so it cost me $1. 

I had feathers at home, but no white ones.  That’s ok I put together several of the red feathers I had and glued them in with E6000.

Sweeeeeeeet, works well with my new Christmas decor and got it at a great price.  Now he has a sweet little home on my tree.  Never know what you will find and I think this mercury glass bird was a steal, even if I did have to feather his back-end………..oh that doesn’t sound right does it!

To get the full affect double click on the picture and see what Henry is seeing!

It doesn’t happen often here in Texas but occasionally it swings (or should I say floats) through town.

Henry was not for sure what that was floating down from the sky, but he sure was interested.

Love this shot, with the bright read Japanese Maple shining through the big snowflakes.

Snowed enough to put a dusting on the neighbors yard.  Our yard doesn’t get a lot of the snow because we have these 20 something year old Red Oaks that shield the house and yard.

And just as quick as it started, it also was done.  The ground was too warm so the snow was not going to be sticking around for long. 

It sure made it feel like Christmas, so I popped my Ipod in the speakers and rocked to some Christmas music.