advent calendar creation

Christmas time is magical! Well, I want it to be magical. But sometimes in all the hubbub and business, shopping and partying, prepping and scheduling, we forget about why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. We get burnt out and exhausted from everything that we think needs to be done. And so I set about coming up with a way to gently remind myself, and my family, of the reason for the season. A good friend of mine made an advent calendar like this and posted it to facebook. I'm so glad that she did! I stole her idea and ran with it!

My first stop was the dollar store. They have six cup muffin tins for a buck! I thought about using mini muffin tins, but when I decided to put mini candy bars inside the tins, one for each of my family members (that's 4), mini wasn't going to cut it. So full size it is. And it's a good thing too! From a design standpoint, my Cricut had a hard enough time cutting the details at full size. I shudder to think about what I would have gone through trying to cut the images any smaller.

I used the basic cartridge, Printing 101 for the numbers set at a size 3. And I used two Christmas cartridges, Joys of the Season, and Christmas Cheer. I had to play with the size of each image. I still don't understand how to use my Cricut properly! So for me it was a bit of trial and error using sizes 1 1/2 - 3, depending on the image.

I used my trusty Stampin' Up paper (but I think that it's just a little too thick for the Cricut) and stuck with a traditional color scheme of Old Olive, Real Red. I used Soft Suede to make it feel a bit homey, and threw in pops of color when needed for an image. I even got out my glitter paper to give it a bit of sparkle. I really do think that glitter is the herpes of the crafting world. It's pretty much banned from my house! ; )

To adhere everything I used Tombow mulit purpose adhesive. Lots of tiny pieces made glue, not a tape runner, my tool of choice. I have to say that this project took me all day and then some! I was at it from breakfast until the wee hours of the next morning! But all the hard work and time was worth it, as I am in love with the results!

The back side of each muffin cover has a scripture reference and a short devotion. The idea is that each evening, the four of us will gather to take just a few minutes to read the Bible and remember all that God has done for us in giving us his son, Jesus. Just a short pause in what I know will be super busy days and nights! 

As I write this, it's now December 10. We started off with a bang, but we are already a few days behind! Ah well. The best laid plans... We'll catch up!

Merry Christmas and happy stamping!

it's a love/hate relationship

Oh paper piecing. How I adore and detest you all at the same time! It's time consuming, and it's slightly frustrating, and it required tweezers. Tweezers!! But look at the results! Adorable! I so love this card. Even though it took me forever to design and assemble. Even though I had more glue on my fingers than on the card. Even though a few choice words flew out if my mouth during the process. (Can we talk about how tiny those eyes are?!)

And even though it's not perfect (the yellow body shows behind the black on the penguin; the glue shows on his eye), it is simply irresistible and I can't wait to give it to my husband! After I put this card together, my best friend gave me the most amazing tip for adhering the eyes. The very worst part of the project. She puts a tiny dot of glue where she wants to adhere the tiny pupils. Then she uses the Zig Two Way Glue Pen (fine tip) to pick up the pupil and place it. The glue is tacky and holds on to the pupil when she lifts the glue pen away. Pure genius!

Happy stamping! And Happy Thanksgiving!

sponging starlight

My goal was to use a non-Christmas themed stamp set. I was prepping for my Christmas Stamp Camp and I was running out of Christmas stamps for the ten projects that we do. So I pulled out this retired set and got to work making a Christmasy scene out of it. Woodland creatures attracted to the Star's light made a bit of sense. Now, I know that if I were being true to the setting of the first Christmas, more likely animals may have been camels and sheep. But I had deer and rabbits, so I ran with it.

I got out my trusty Post It Notes to sponge a twilight sky, a little hill, and most importantly, starlight! When I was matting my work, it was looking a bit too tidy, so I roughed up the edges of the mats with a distressing tool. The finishing touch, I think! At Stamp Camp, it was fun to see how the ladies worked up their starlight scene. Each one was a bit different. I more defined hill here, more orange in the starlight there. I love seeing what they come up with! Nine times out of ten their projects end up looking better than my original!

Happy stamping!

a new discovery

I just love Stampin' Up's stamp set, Snow Much Fun! I adore snowmen in all their forms. The ones the kids and my husband build in the backyard, the resin ones I place in my windows every Christmas season, those melting ones I see atop cookies on Pinterest. They all capture my imagination. I think that it stems from the classic Christmas movie and song, Frosty the Snowman. And from a recurring dream that my childhood snowmen DID come to life and frolicked on my childhood front lawn. I really did think that they had snow ball fights and decorated the pines across the street while my family slept, unaware.

In any case, snowmen make me smile. And so does this card. Particularly because I discovered a "new" technique. I've been using Classic ink and Aqua Painters for years. Beautiful watercolored flowers, sweet watercolored woodland animals, stunning watercolored landscapes. But lately I've been drawn to white snowmen on craft colored paper and pondered how in the world one would go about making them. Clearly the snowmen I was seeing were watercolored. But the white color had me stumped. I'm not sure why I was being so dense, because the answer was so simple. Craft ink! White craft ink and my Aqua Painter was the simple solution. Using craft ink works exactly like using classic ink. It just takes a bit more cleaning up.

 I will be making a ton of these cards this season. I love the homespun look of the sponged Crumb Cake paper with the white snowman popping out from it! Paper piercing lends a touch of texture, as does the Chocolate Chip ribbon. Sponging Chocolate Chip ink onto the edges of the patterned paper ages things a bit. I think that this is my favorite Christmas card I have ever made. Yup. It really is.

Happy stamping!

Speedy delivery

I love bestowing gifts on friends and family! I love it even more when the gift is hand made. But sometimes, an occasion creeps up on you, and you don't have time to knit a scarf, or string a necklace. 

My co-worker's birthday did that to me. The good news is that I knew that she would love a Hershey bar. Easy peasy, right? But I just couldn't hand her chocolate and call it a day. A conundrum. 

Then I remembered a project that my best friend did awhile back! A chocolate bar slider! The ribbon holds the candy in the sleeve, and when you pull on the knot, the candy slides up! 

I got to work with just 30 minutes until I needed to leave for work. I used an acrylic block, markers and a spritz of water to make the paper for the butterflies, and embossed them with Melon Mambo embossing powder. I love how they turned out! And I love that this simple little thing really made my friend's day! 

Happy stamping!

Simple elegance

Sometimes there is one element on a card that bumps it up a notch. On this card, I think that the ribbon really makes a statement! I'm such a craft supply cheapskate that I rarely use opulent ribbon. It just costs so much money that even when I buy a roll of it, I let it sit in my stash, afraid to actually use it. Silly, huh? Especially when just a little piece makes such a huge difference on a card! Without the ribbon this card would be just "meh".

I have to say that I'm quite happy with how that knot turned out. Tying knots in ribbon is harder than you'd think! And don't even get me talking about actual bows. I've probably used up my allotment of under-my-breath-curses trying to tie cute little bows! Although I have found that tweezers help the process a teeny bit. 

The other element that I love on this card is the use of gold embossing powder. I used it on the sentiment, the ornament, and if you look closely, it's on the edges of the dry embossed panel. It adds a subtle touch of elegance to the card. 

Happy stamping!

Winter memories

Snow Much Fun is one of my favorite Christmas stamp sets! It really is just so cute. It lends itself to water coloring, and to using markers with a blender pen. I chose the former with this card featuring a non-traditional color palette. Crumb Cake, Tempting Turquoise, and Soft Sky with a pop of Real Red! 

Normally I shadow white elements with gray ink. But I remembered my girls making snowmen when they were little. They were so excited about snow falling to the ground! They just couldn't wait to get out there and make a snowman! Often, there really wasn't enough snow for a proper snowman. So what they ended up with was a small, dirty, muddy snowman. So I used Crumb Cake for the shadowing. I love the results!

Now, when I look at this card, I get to reminiscing about winter fun when the kids were small. It puts a smile on my face!

Happy stamping!