Maya Road Bottle Cap Ornaments

Hi Everyone!

One of our Christmas Eve traditions is everyone receives a new ornament.  For the past few years I have been making the ornaments that I give.  This year I am using Maya Road bottle caps to create some of those ornaments.

I used my Spellbinder standard circle dies to create the background paper for each ornament.  I used circle die #13 for the 4" Maya Road bottle cap and circle die #9 for the 3" Maya Road bottle cap.

I used a Spellbinders Nested Pine Tree die to create this first ornament.  Lawn Fawn's Puffy Clouds border dies were used to create the snowbanks.  I love those dies.  I use them to create not only clouds, but also snowbanks, hills, and ocean waves.  I added rhinestones to the tree for ornaments. 

This second ornament was created for my daughter who loves the red truck carrying a tree theme that you can see on so many things.  I used a die and a stamp that were included with a recent edition of Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine.  I painted a scrap of paper with Sparkling H20 watercolor paint for the truck. When the paint dried, I used the die to cut out the truck.  I added tiny brads to the tires for hub caps.  The road was created with a piece of ribbon.  The truck and the tree are adhered to the bottle cap with foam tape. 

Here's another truck ornament I made.  This time I added a tree from Michaels to the top of the truck.

I used my craft drill to drill 2 small holes in the top of each ornament.  Then I threaded a piece of twine through the holes and knotted it to create a hanger for each ornament. 

I have other ornaments to share with you on another day.  Have a great day!

Paper Ornament

Hi Everyone!

This afternoon I watched a video that was presented by Jennifer McGuire.  She showed ways to create paper ornaments.  Here is the link to her video.

I do not have the dies that she used and I do not need them.  I have some other dies that I can use. 

I used a Sizzix ornament die for today's paper ornament.  I cut the ornament out of chipboard 3 times.  I cut it out of patterned paper twice.  I used chipboard and gold glitter paper to cut 2 each of the top of the ornament. 

I adhered the 3 pieces of chipboard together and then glued the patterned paper to the front and the back of the ornament.  I glued the gold top to the chipboard top.  Then I glued the tops to both sides of the ornament.

The sentiment was cut from a Lawn Fawn sentiment die. 

I glued ribbon that is 1/8" wide along the side of the ornament to give it a finished look. 

Thanks for the inspiration, Jennifer McGuire.  I love my ornament and plan to make others.

Have a nice night!

Vintage Christmas Trees

Good Morning!

I was browsing through Pinterest last night when I saw a photo of some vintage Christmas trees that were made from paper.  I thought they looked adorable and easy so I decided to create some of my own.  The ones on Pinterest are standing in small wood slices, but I didn't have any of those so I substituted green bottle caps from Tropicana Orange Juice.  Yes, I have a stash of them.  They are leftovers from my preschool teaching days.  My students used them for a variety of projects.

I had plenty of paper, skewers and stars so I got to work.  I created a pattern for a triangle and traced it onto the back of each paper.  I cut out the triangles and scored the paper.  The tree made from musical notes paper was scored at one inch intervals.  The other two were scored at half inch intervals. 

Then I folded the score lines back and forth like you do when you create a paper fan.  I used a heavy duty paper punch to punch a hole through each fold.  Since it is a heavy duty punch I was able to do it with one firm punch.  I threaded a skewer through the holes on each tree. 

I used a craft drill to drill a small hole in each bottle cap and pushed the skewers into the holes.  I used a hot glue gun to adhere the stars to the tops of the trees. 

I love the way they turned out and I don't mind the bottle caps at all.  My new motto to myself is "Save some cash.  Use your stash". 

Have a great day!

More Halloween Cards

Hi Everyone!

I have a few more Halloween cards to share with you today. 

I used a Sizzix cat die and a Martha Stewart witch paper punch to help me create this first card.

The cat and the moon were stamped with a Memory Box stamp.  The branch was stamped with a stamp from PaperTrey Ink's "Take a Bough" clear stamp set. 

I stamped candy corn over and over again on the layering paper for this card.  I colored the images in with markers.

Today's last card is my favorite.  I used a Lawn Fawn stamp to create the tree trunk background.  The blue background was created with distress inks.  The trees were stamped with a Memory Box stamp.  The ghosts and moon were die cut. 

 

Have a great day!

 



Halloween Cards

Hi Everyone!

Today as I was about to send out some Halloween cards I remembered to take pictures of them. 

I used double sided Halloween patterned paper on this first card.  The spider embellishment was created with a Martha Stewart paper punch.

I stamped a Lawn Fawn bat image over and over on this card.  First I colored each bat with a colored pencil and then I used gamsol to blend my coloring.

I used a piece of spider web patterned paper for the layering paper on this next card.  The sentiment was created with a Lawn Fawn stamp.

That's it for today! Stop by tomorrow to see more Halloween cards.

Wine Corks Pumpkin

Hi Everyone!

Like many of you I read magazines, receive online newsletters, follow blogs, and search the Internet for crafting inspiration.  While I was searching for Thanksgiving ideas I saw many images of pumpkins that were created from wine corks.  I decided to create one of my own.  I grabbed my stash of recycled corks and counted out 25 of them.

Some sites suggest using a paintbrush and acrylic paint to paint the ends of the corks.  Several sites suggest dipping the ends of the corks into a puddle of acrylic paint and letting the excess drip off. 

I found some orange acrylic paint in my stash.  I poured a puddle of it onto a paper plate and dipped one end of 24 corks into orange paint and the end of one cork into green paint.  It took more than an hour for the paint to completely dry.  Then I painted the other ends of each cork. 

When the corks were completely dry I used a hot glue gun to glue them together.  I know that the pumpkin was supposed to look rustic, but I didn't like the natural look of the sides of the pumpkin. I decided to paint them.  I also used a paintbrush to add a little paint to the spaces between each cork.

I still wasn't happy.  The orange paint wasn't dark enough for me.  I glanced up at the clock and it was 8:30 at night.  I thought about asking Robbie to drive me to JoAnn's to buy some darker paint, but then I had an idea. 

I poured some orange paint into a bowl.  Then I added some red paint and stirred the 2 colors together.  The orange got darker.  I painted the entire pumpkin again and was happy with it. 

I used an oak leaf die to cut some green felt leaves and hot glue gunned them to the top of the pumpkin.  Here's my creation.

 

 

Have a great day!

 



 

 

Mason Jar Bands Pumpkin

Hi Everyone!

Sorry that I continue to post so irregularly.  I am not sure where the time goes.  It seems as if I am always busy crafting, cooking, and cleaning. I manage to find a little time each day to craft, but rarely stop to photograph what I made. 

Today's craft has a story and a great message to you fellow crafters.  If you search the Internet you will find many suggestions on ways to use mason jar rings to create a pumpkin.  I was inspired by the suggestions at this link, but as you will see I didn't follow their suggestions completely. 

I wanted to create a pumpkin.  I looked through my mason jar bands and found some that were white and some that were silver.  I thought to myself that I could use what I have or go out and buy more bands so that they would all be the same color.  I chose to use what I had. 

Many of the posts suggest that you spray paint the bands, but I didn't have any orange spray paint.  I looked at my craft supplies and thought ribbon or washi tape might work.  I decided to try ribbon.  I looked through my stash and even though I have tons of ribbon I only found one unopened orange roll and 2 orange rolls that had very little ribbon on them. 

So I kept searching and pulled out some golds and browns and figured they could work because after all I was creating a fall pumpkin. 

Well, you can see how my pumpkin turned out and I absolutely love it.  I used 1/4" wide Scor-tape to adhere the ribbon to each mason jar band.  My bands are strung together with twine and the pumpkin's stem is made from cinnamon sticks. 

So my message is...shop in your stash.  You may end up having exactly what you need!

Have a great day!

Happy National Coffee Day

Happy National Coffee Day!

I am mainly a tea drinker, but I do enjoy a hot cup of French Vanilla coffee from time to time.  Marie, on the other hand, has coffee flowing through her veins.  Her coffee consumption habits are such that she helps cement the country's reputation for being the biggest coffee consuming nation in the world.

With Marie and many of my friends in mind I recently created some coffee themed cards. 

I used some coffee bean patterned paper from a dcwv paper pad to create this first card.  A Sizzix mason jar die cut the card into its jar shape.  The sentiment was created from an impresscardsandcrafts.com stamp.

 

 

The coffee cups on this next card were created with stamps from PaperTrey Ink's "Heart-2-Heart #1 Mini Stamp set ".  I adhered foam tape to the back of some of the cups to add dimension to the card. 

 

 

 

 

Today's last card is a gift card holder.  It's a great card to give to a coffee lover along with a gift card to their favorite coffee source.

 

 







Enjoy your day!

Granola

Hi Everyone!

I've been busy creating all sorts of things for Marie and Dan's upcoming wedding.  I'll be posting pictures of my creations for the bridal shower and the wedding in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, my sister, Paula and her husband, Robert arrive in Massachusetts tomorrow.  They'll stop here for a quick visit before they head North to visit friends and family.  Then, they'll be back to spend time here in a couple of weeks.

I made a yummy bag of homemade granola for them to munch on as they travel. 

 

 

The recipe is from a great book I purchased while we were on vacation.  It's called Food Gift Love by Maggie Battista.  If you like to create gifts you'll want to find this book.  Maggie gives all sorts of suggestions on ways to create small batch food gifts and package them. 

 

 

 

Here's a description of the book.

In Food Gift Love, Maggie Battista, a food-gift guru and rising star of the blog world, celebrates her expertise in and enthusiasm for small-batch, hand-crafted foods. She features 100 memorable, edible gifts for any occasion with simple, delicious recipes, detailed wrapping instructions, and stunning photography. There are countless ways to share the pleasures of food with people you care about—from simple homemade infused salts and sugars to instant-gratification gifts like fresh ricotta and flavored butters; from jams, pickles, and vinaigrettes to irresistible cookies, desserts, savories, and spirits that will impress fellow food fans. There’s helpful information for creating your own Food Gift Love pantry at home as well as creative guidance on how to wrap food gifts with style. This book will inspire cooks, food-lovers, and DIY fans to be year-round food gifters.

 

I purchased the bakery bag that I used for the granola from King Arthur Flour.  I used some of my rubber stamps to decorate the bag.  The idea for decorating came from the above mentioned book. 

 

Have a great night!

 

 

 



 



Summery Shaker Cards

Good Morning!

I am addicted to creating shaker cards.  Since they are thicker than a standard card they won't go through the machine at the post office.  I put them in a padded envelope to protect them.  Since they don't weigh very much, the postal worker doesn't charge me for mailing a package.  He just charges a little more than the cost of mailing a standard card. 

Here are 2 of the cards I made recently.

When I create shaker cards I run a powder bag over the piece of transparency and along the edges of the foam tape.  It works great.  The sequins move freely and don't clump together. 

Enjoy your day!

Summer Z-Fold Cards

Happy Sunday to all!

A few weeks ago I watched a video by Jennifer McGuire on z-fold cards.  I decided to create some of my own. 

Toni sent me some scalloped circle dies.  I think they look like suns and thought they'd look great on some summery z-fold theme cards.

 

 

I used a large die to create the sun on the fronts of the cards and a smaller die to create the sun on the inside of the cards.  I wrote a brief message on the small suns.

 

 

Thanks for the dies, Toni.  As you can see I am having a lot of fun with them.

Have a wonderful day!

Have a Doggone Great Day

Hi Everyone!

Today's "to do" list is a long one so I am going to share just one card.  I used the adorable dog stamp from The Stamps of Life's "birthday4cookie" clear stamp set as the focal point of my card. 

I fussy cut the dog image and then I carefully cut off his head!  I adhered just the dog's body to the card.  Then I attached a mini action wobble from Art Impressions to the back of his head before I adhered it to the card.  Now the head wobbles back and forth. 

Have a great day!

Happy National Watermelon Day

Happy National Watermelon Day!

I love eating slices of watermelon.  They're sweet and juicy and are so refreshing.  I created some watermelon cards to add to the collection of fruity cards that I've been making.

This first card is similar to one of the strawberry cards I posted the other day.  As I mentioned in that blog post I find coloring to be very therapeutic. 

I use my rubber stamp with a monkey munching on watermelon over and over again.

Here he is again.  I used the Sunny Studio window trio square die twice to cut the squares on this card.

When I die cut the squares out on the above card I had some leftover squares with watermelon slices on them.  I decided to use them on a card.

I hope that you enjoy some watermelon today!

Popsicle and Ice Cream Cones

Good Morning!

Instead of purchasing individual sheets of patterned paper, I often choose to purchase 6" and 12" paper pads.  Sometimes, some of the images in the 12" pads are too large for my cards, but I use those papers for the gift bags and boxes I create. 

I usually cut my layering papers so that they measure 4" x 5.25" or 5.25" x 4" which means I can create one card from a 6" paper and six from a 12" one.

When I am in a creative mood, but don't need to create a particular type of card, I flip through the paper pads to see which papers jump out at me. 

It will come as no surprise to you that some of the summer pads have ice cream and popsicle papers. I pulled out those papers.  Then I looked through my stamps, brads, and dies to see what I have that could work with those papers. 

I used a window trio circle die from Sunny Studios to create the circles on this card.  The ice cream cone brads are from Eyelet Outlet.  They have been discontinued, but there are some ice cream cone flatback resins there.

I was inspired to create this pop up card after I watched a video that was presented by Jennifer McGuire. 

Here's the front of the card.  You can see a scoop of ice cream through the window in the card.

Here's the inside of the card.  Now you can see the entire ice cream cone.  I used a Spellbinders die to create the ice cream cone.  The cherry is a brad.

I found a couple of different kinds of popsicle patterned paper in my stash.  The large popsicles were created with a Sizzix die.  The small popsicles are brads.
 

It's another humid day.  Would you rather have a popsicle, an ice cream cone, or some other cold treat?

Strawberry and Grape Cards

Good Morning! 

I love giving people who touch my life a handmade gift bag with some cards in it.  It makes me happy to create something for them.  It makes them happy to receive a little gift.  When they send out the cards they make other people happy.  After all who doesn't like to find a card or package in their mailbox?

Lately, I've been creating some "fruity" cards which I will share with you today and on Friday which happens to be National Watermelon Day. 

I find stamping the same image over and over again, heat embossing each image, and then coloring the images in to be very therapeutic.  I created this card the other night after a very long day.

 

I have a collection of brads and some decorative buttons in one of the drawers near my desk.  They are sorted into muffin liners that Toni gave me years ago. 

I prefer to add brads to my cards in place of buttons because they are flatter and go through the mail more easily.  I added a strawberry brad to this simple card.

 

 

 

Here's a card I created using some paper from an older PaperTrey Ink collection. 

Here's another "grape" card created with scraps.

Have a fun-filled day!