Woodland animals

Hi Everyone!

A few weeks ago I bought a magazine called Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts.  I have seen copies of this magazine in JoAnn Fabrics and at Barnes and Noble.  This particular issue of the magazine has a lot of fun ideas in it.

One idea that I liked is on page 58.  It is called "Nature's Charmers" and they suggest you use adhesive-back white birchwood paper to create the animals and the tree. 

Well, I didn't have any of that paper, but I did have paper that I bought at JoAnn's that is 8.5" x 11" and is called 110 lb kraft paper.  This paper cuts easily with scissors.

There are patterns in the Pattern Pack at the back of the magazine for each of the animals and trees.  You enlarge the animals. 

I made a fox

and a bear.

I also made the doe,

the squirrel, and a tree.

I haven't made the deer with antlers yet.

They look great displayed on my kitchen window sill.

Have a nice night!

Christmas Cards Day Two

Hi Everyone!

As promised I am back to share more Christmas cards with you today. 
 

I repeatedly stamped a pine branch stamp around the edges of some white tag.  Then I added some pine cones here and there.  The sentiment was created with a Hero Arts stamp.  Then I ran the tag through a Cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder.

First I ran a piece of parchment paper through a Cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder.  Then I paper punched some trees.  I cut off the paper punched trunks and used woodgrain paper to create some new ones.  The dotted tree is adhered to the paper with foam tape.

 

I like the simplicity of this card.  I stamped the 3 trees onto patterned paper.  Then I used a Lawn Fawn puffy clouds border to create a snowbank.  I ran the paper through a Cuttlebug Season's Greetings embossing folder.  I added a star brad to each treetop before I adhered my paper to a blank card.

Will be back tomorrow to share more Christmas cards.

Enjoy your day!

 

Christmas Cards Day One

Good Morning!

Every year I create some Christmas cards with a knitting theme in memory of my mother who always knitted our hats and mittens.  This year I was thrilled to learn that Lawn Fawn has created a paper line called "Knit Picky."  I chose to use that paper for some of my cards. 

 

This card is one of my favorites.  The ball of yarn and knitting needles were cut with some Memory box dies.

 

 

I used a Sizzix stocking die to create the stockings on these cards.

The stocking on this card was stamped with a wooden stamp from Rubber Soul.

The layering paper on this card isn't from Lawn Fawn.  It was in my stash.  I used a Sizzix mittens die to create the cutout mittens.  The small stamped mittens were created with a stamp from Lockhart stamps. 

I hope that this cards inspire you to create some of your own.

Have a great day!

More Gift Tags

Good Morning!

Brr!  It's cold today.  Okay, you're right.  I heard you say, "What do you expect, it's December in New England." 

December it is.  In our home that means Robbie and I bake lots and lots of cookies.  So far we've made chocolate truffles and Nana cookies.  Nana cookies are molasses cookies that my grandmother always made for us. 

I shared photos of gift tags the other day and today I'll share some of the others that I photographed that same day. 

I heat embossed the sentiments with glittery red embossing powder.  Those adorable hats are stickers.

A snowy scene on tags.  The snowflakes are buttons.  The snowmen are stickers.  The trees are made of wood.  I sprayed the trees with Maya Road Evergreen Metallic Mist to make them turn green. 

I used a snowflake embossing folder to emboss the layering papers on these tags.  The penguins are adorable stickers.  The stores had such cute stickers this year.

The trees are brads from Eyelet Outlet.  I used Lawn Fawn's Puffy Clouds border dies to create the snowbanks.

 

 



 

The reindeer were paper punched.  The sentiments are washi tape.

Have a great day!  Stay warm!

Gift Tags

Hi Everyone!

My paper crafting life has been busy, busy, busy.  I told a friend of mine, busy is good, but it's nice to finally have some time to write a post for my blog.

A few weeks ago I found some large kraft tags in a local store and knew I "needed" them.  Sometimes I use tags as "tags" on packages and other times I use tags as the background for little scenes I create for my cards.  I own several tag dies, but I still buy some pre-cut ones from time to time. 

I purchased the 3 packages of 12 tags each that the store had in stock thinking that I would have more than enough of them.  Was I ever wrong.  I ended up using one of the tags as a pattern and now this season I have created about 100 tags. 

I sold or gave away many of the tags before I photographed them, but I took pictures of the ones I finished today.

I ran the background paper and some white metallic tag through a snowflake embossing folder.  The full snowflakes are attached to the tag with foam tape to give the tag dimension.  The tags that I cut in half are adhered to the tag with Scor-tape. 

The belt buckle on the Santa suit tag was created with the pull tab from a can of Diet Pepsi. 

 

The three dimensional Santa stickers on these tags are the cutest stickers I have ever seen.  I found them at Michaels.  I used Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Border Dies to cut the snowbanks on these tags and many of the other ones I created.

The gingerbread person on these tags were created with stamps from PaperTrey Ink's "Holiday Button Bits" clear stamp set.  The sentiments were created with Washi tape. 

I used Cherry Metallic Mist from Maya Road to add color to many of my Maya Road letters.  I ran my letters through my Xyron X Maker to put adhesive on the back of them. 

That's it for today.  Marie and some of her friends are coming here tonight for a Pinterest Craft Party.  I'll share the projects they are going to make another day.

Have a great night!

Merry banner

Hi Everyone!

I am on a banner making kick.  For starters I plan to create a banner to hang in my kitchen window and in each of my 2 dining room windows.  A couple of days ago I shared the JOY banner that I hung in one of my dining room windows.  Today I want to share the one I created for my other dining room window.

My banner was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest that was created by plaidonline.  You can see their banner at this link.

I was trying to decide how to create the triangles for the tree shape when I realized that if I turn a triangle that I cut from my We R Memory Keepers Banner Punch Board upside down it looks like the tree shape that I wanted.  I used kraft tag to cut five 6.5" triangles.  Then I used 3 patterned green papers to cut five 6" triangles. 

If you don't have a banner punch board there's no reason that you cannot create and cut your own triangles.

I used a hot glue gun to glue a cinnamon stick to the back of each triangle to create my tree trunks.

I used a hot glue gun to glue a piece of a drinking straw to the back of each tree. 

I threaded a long piece of baby ric rac through all of the straws to connect the trees together.

I found a package of 2" foil die cut letters in my stash.  I used foam tape to adhere the letters to my trees.  Then I used my hot glue gun to adhere a dimensional star to the top of each tree. 

 

Now the banner is hanging in my dining room window, but it's too bright to take a photo of it.  Next I plan to create a snowflake like yesterday's creation to hang above it. 

 

Have a great day!  It's getting cold outside.  Brrr...

 



Snowflake

Hi Everyone!

I am a little hesitant to share what I created today because the tool I used doesn't seem to be available any place.  I decided to show you what I made anyway because maybe you'll find the tool or maybe you already have one and haven't used it in a while. 

I used my Martha Stewart Crafts Small Triangle Ornament Template to create a snowflake that is about 12" wide. 

To make this snowflake you need six 6" squares of paper.  I used 6 squares of Neenah white metallic paper.  The resulting snowflake is shiny and beautiful.

You use the template to create 6 single ornaments.  Then you glue the 6 ornaments together to create a snowflake. 

I used some double sided Halloween papers in October and made the same decoration, but didn't call it a snowflake.  I also made one using some double sided pineapple paper and hung it in my kitchen window. 

The decorations are very easy to make.  It takes about an hour to make one snowflake.  So if you have the tool dust it off and make some snowflakes.  If you don't have the tool, keep your eyes open.  You never know one might appear in the clearance section of some store.

 
Have a great night!

Joy banner

Hi Everyone!

I put this banner together in less than an hour.

I used a We R Memory Keepers Banner Punch Board to cut the triangles.  I added letters that I cut from a Sizzix die. I layered a piece of foam tape, a letter, a piece of foam tape, and finished with a letter to add dimension to the banner.  The white header was created with a Martha Stewart border punch. 

I plan to hang little banners like this one in my windows this holiday season. 

Have a great day!

Christmas Scrabble Frame

Hi Everyone!

I think I may be ready for Christmas this year.  I've created gift bags, cards, tags, stocking stuffers, and decorations. Today I want to share one of my favorite projects.

The space for the picture in this frame measures 9.5" by 9.5".  I trimmed candy cane paper from SEI so that it measured 8.5" x 11" and printed a grid on it.  If you enlarge the photo and study it you'll see the grid lines.  They helped me place the Scrabble tiles.

Then I used paper punches and dies to create embellishments for the frame.  I used foam tape to adhere them to the paper and to add dimension to the picture.  I plan to hang my frame over the fireplace, but it could be placed on a frame easel and displayed on a mantle or table. 

Have a great day!

Christmas Gift Bags

Hi Everyone!

I've been using things in my stash to help me create treasures.  Today I'll share some of the gift bags I made this weekend.

I have a collection of paper straws.  I cut some of the green ones up and used Scor-tape to adhere them to a gift bag.  The tree trunk is a piece of a cinnamon stick.  The snowflakes are buttons.  Not sure why I have so many in my stash, but they are coming in handy for my Christmas projects. 

I purchased the tree cutouts on this bag from SEI many years ago.  The snowflakes are silver gems.  I added a sparkling red gem to the center of each of them.  The sentiment was created with a die from Lawn Fawn.

I also purchased the Santa cutouts from SEI many years ago.  I used a hot glue gun to adhere a sparkly white pompom to each hat.  I sprayed a bottle of Maya Metallic Red Mist onto the Maya Road letters to give them color.

This dimensional Santa was also from SEI and was waiting in my stash.  He fit perfectly onto a small bag.

That's it for today.  Have a great night!

Gift Tags

Hi Everyone!

I cannot believe that it has been 3 weeks since I posted anything here.  I have been crafting for about 12 hours a day for weeks.  I did my first craft fair in 7 years last Saturday.  I have been planning, prepping and teaching craft classes.  I have been working on things for Marie's wedding. 

I hope to get back into the blogging routine soon.  Today I will share one quick idea with you. 

I've used tags with metal rims for gift tags in the past, but I only recently discovered that one of my paper punches creates a circle that fits perfectly into one side of the tag.  On one side of the tag the metal rim is slightly wider than it is on the other side. 

Here are 2 of the tags I created recently.

I used paper punches to create the trees, bell, and bow on the bell. 

I stamped "To" and "From" on the back side of each tag. 

The tags are cute and easy to create. 

Have a great day!

Thanksgiving Cards

Good Morning!

Before I was a card maker, Christmas and Valentine's Day were the only holidays that I mailed cards to a few of my friends and my immediate family.  Now I send out cards on a few more holidays and Thanksgiving is one of them. 

I stamped the pumpkin onto 3 orange patterned papers and just the leaf and stem onto a scrap of green patterned paper. Then I fussy cut the leaf and stem and an outlined section from 2 of the pumpkins.  I adhered the pieces onto the remaining pumpkin and glued it to a piece of layering paper.  It was easy to cut the pumpkin pieces, but the stem was a bit more challenging.  In fact I cut off a little of the stem as the curl of it was too hard to cut.  The finished card leaves me wanting to make a few more of them.  We'll see.

This card makes me think of my friend Toni who now lives in Ohio.  She loves wreath stamps.  I stamped the twiggy wreath onto the gingham patterned paper.  I paper punched the leaves and bow from papers in my scrap bin and adhered them to the wreath.  Looks good to me.

 



I die cut the door and added some clear plastic to the openings to make it look as if the door has glass in it.  I used my Scor-Pal to score lines along the white layering paper.  Then I stamped a smaller version of the twiggy wreath onto that paper.  I added the leaves and bow before I adhered the door to the card.  The pumpkin is adhered to the card with foam tape to give the card dimension.

That's it for today.  Peggy, Martha, Angela, Amy, and Kathy are coming here for a potluck lunch and I need to get things ready for them.

Have a great day!