25 Days of Christmas - Day 9 - It's MINE!!

Woo Hoo!! Day #9 is here and it features MY gifties . I am so excited to share my creations, FINALLY!! I made Vintage style paper ornaments. They feature ancestor pics from my family. They were created with many steps and in 5 shapes. I found the inspiration for them in one of my fave books Pretty Little Felts.


The ornaments were packaged in "Genie Bags" made from brown paper bags, recycled Christmas Card fronts and scrapbook papers with numbered tags cut with my Cricut.

Here are the basic steps:

1) shapes were cut out by hand, 2 per ornie on cardstock covered with vintage dictionary pages, which were then adhered together.
2) the edges of the frames were painted with cream acrylic paint.
3) frames were traced and cut out from cream colored felt.
4) pics were scanned, scaled, printed and cut out.
5) felt frames were brushed with Elmer's Glue-All and covered with Martha Stewart Glitter and Mica Flakes and allowed to dry overnight
6) Sheets of glitter shapes were made and punched.
7) pieces of plastic packaging were cut to make the "glass" for the frames.
8) pics were glued down, followed by the "glass" and topped with the glitter frames.
9) glitter shapes were adhered.
10) pieces of vintage trims and laces were added.
11) holes were punched in the top and a stain ribbon hanger was added.

Whew!! Seems like a lot when I write it all out!! :) And to think I made 35 of them!! I hope the recipients enjoy them!! They were a joy to make and share!! I shared a few here, as each one was different. Please click on the pics if you wish to appreciate the sparkly details!!

Stay tuned for tomorrow and another giftie!! :)

"CHRISTMAS" letters skinny book mingle

This is my first skinny book and I am loving the dimensions (3 x 6). We were to make 9 skinny pages, with each containing one letter of "CHRISTMAS." The hostess will then swap them back out to us and we can bind them as we wish. I knew immediately the background papers I wanted to use from my new DCWV Christmas stack. I just wasn't sure of the image. After several trial and errors I found this great Santa Jumping Jack Puppet pattern.

So, here's the how-to on my pages:

• I cut the bases from cereal boxes and adhered the papers to the front and edged them with Stazon ink pads.
• On the back I used glue lines on the edge to stick down the vintage trim.
  
• I then adhered the slightly smaller papers to the back, stamped some black swirls and added the "be merry" greeting.
  
• After printing and cutting out the Santa puppets I ran them through the Xyron sticker maker. I can't imagine what I would do without that little guy!!
  
• I assembled the puppets and added them to the front.
  
• I also added some glitter shapes for some sparkle.
  
• The letters were cut using my Alphalicious Cart.
• Before stacking the letters I ran the top stack back through the Xyron so the tops were adhesive as well. I them applied coordinating glitter.
  
• Then the letters were adhered to the pages.
  
  

I must confess I am very happy with how they turned out. :)

Altered Hershey Bar

Here's another ART goodie to share. For this swap we were to make an Altered Giant Hershey Bar with a Christmas theme. This is headed to my friend Wanda. I hope she enjoys it!! :)

I removed the original wrapper to use as a template. I cut a replacement from Christmas scrapbook paper and wrapped it around the chocolate bar. I cut out a tag from a coordinating paper featuring a smiling snowman. Punched the tag and tied it up with a ribbon. I added some sparkle with punched glitter snowflakes and added a bit more bling with a glitter gel pen. Easy Peasy yummy giftie.

Make your own Glitter Dots and Shapes Tutorial

I am working on a project for a 25 Days of Christmas swap (I'll be able to share that later on December 9th!!) One of the embellishments I am using are Glitter Dots. It is a very cool and effective embellishment to use on your ART. I learned about them from the book Pretty Little Felts. From there I of course tweaked the idea to make it my own. I not only made Dots but other Shapes as well.

You need to assemble:

• Fine glitter (I used Martha Stewart antique silver and antique gold
• Glue (I used Regular Elmer's Glue-all)
• White cardstock
• Hole and Shape Punches
• Old Credit card or stiff piece of card stock
• Wax Paper (Not pictured)
• Acrylic Sealer (Optional)
• Glitter Tray (Optional)
  

Place your cardstock on a sheet of wax paper; squirt with glue

Spread your cardstock with an even layer of glue using the credit card or the cardboard.

Sprinkle liberally with the glitter(s).
I used each glitter separately and also did one piece that was a blend of the two.

Let dry completely!!

I learned the hard way (by being impatient) that this is an important step. Leave it alone overnight and your glitter will stick much better!!

Tap off the excess glitter.


Now to use them......punch out your glitter dots or shapes and glue to your ART!!

I'm not sure if you can tell or not but the top half of each sheet above was sprayed with the sealer, while the bottom half was left untouched. If you click the pic you can probably see the difference.

Ta-Da.....cheap, quick and easy glittery embellishments!! :::Smiles:::

Now, for the Acrylic Sealer.....all I had handy was matte finish. It did keep the glitter from shedding as much but also dulled it down. Depends on the look you are going for. I'm thinking that gloss sealer might be the best of both worlds. I will try that on the next batch I just made tomorrow when they are dry. I also have a batch currently drying on a copper colored paper to see if I like that better!! :)

I did run them through my Xyron sticker maker and that worked great!!

Glitter disclaimer.....you will have glitter in your hair, guaranteed when you are done with this project!! :::Smiles::: But that makes it a good day, don't you think??