And The Winnah IS...

Isn't it pretty?

I thought so - that's why I chose this gift over the Christmas stocking I showed you last time...

It was made using a 3" styrofoam base, covered with some of our current ribbons.

I cut the ribbon into 1" pieces, doubled them, then pinned them to the base using VERY short little straight pins.

It takes quite a bit of time to make - and it took even longer because Melie decided I needed help!  LOL  Yep, that cat sure does love ribbon!

I'd made a couple of these about 4 years ago - one was made using DSP that we carried at the time...

Here's a close up of how I made it, in hopes you can get a better feel for how I did it.

And here's the one I made using ribbons current at that time.

For this year's version...

...I purchased a 3 " styrofoam cone, a 3-1/2" wooden base, and a napkin ring.  I painted the wooden items with green acrylic paint.  I cut the tree skirt using red felt and our 3" circle die - it was a PERFECT fit!  Then I decorated the skirt using glitter glass.  I also sprayed the tree with adhesive and sprinkled our very fine gold glitter all over it.

I was very pleased with the outcome!

Need more info?  Contact me and I'll be happy to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by - come back again soon...

The Forgotten Christmas Gift

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that early in December I'd attended our annual Christmas luncheon with a few other demonstrators.

We exchange gifts that have been made using something from Stampin' Up!

The gift can begin by being something purchased inexpensively, but which we've personalized with SU "stuff".

Sometimes I get an idea for this year's gift early in the year and then just hug it to my heart until it's time to get crackin' on getting it done.

Sometimes, like this year, I wait til the last minute (that's my middle name, by the way - Last Minute Lulu!).  So I made a trip to that big craft store, looking for ideas...  I always want it to be something I haven't seen any of the other demonstrators using or sharing.

And while there, I purchased materials to make not one, but TWO, items.  I decided I'm make them both and which ever one I liked the best (i.e., the one I messed up the least!  LOL) would be the one I used for the gift exchange.

Well, I'm not going to show you THAT one today - nope, I'm going to share the forgotten gift.

So whaddya think?

OH!  You want to see what it is, and what I did to it?


OK - let's try this one...

That's better - now you can see it's a Christmas stocking that I decorated, using the Big Shot and the Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die.

I cut the rickrack (and everything else I used on the stocking) in felt.  I did have to piece the rickrack in order to get it all the way around the top of the stocking.

Here are a few close ups of other items I used to decorate the stocking.

I used the ornaments Framelit to cut the two pieces on the left.  I used the Scentsational framelits for the candy cane.

I added rhinestones and the clear Dazzling Details to add some sparkle to the ornaments and then used the silver pen from the Holiday mini as well as Dazzling Details on the candy cane.

For the green ornament I added pearls and used the Red Dazzling Diamonds.  The gingerbread man has buttons made from retired sparkly brads (can't think of the exact name - but if you bought some, I'll bet you have some hanging around somewhere!).  His eyes are Dazzling Diamonds.

The Christmas tree was quite a challenge!  I used the retired sparkly brads again, as well as a couple of glitter brads, then went over it with the red Dazzling Diamonds.

Another gingerbread man - decorated the same way.  And finally the cup of cocoa that I decorated with the red Dazzling Diamonds...

The whole thing came out really cute! 

So why was it the Forgotten Gift? 

Well, it just wasn't as unique to me as the one I actually took for the gift exchange!

I'll share that with you another day...

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

Time and Again...

Thought I'd post something that ISN'T Christmas, although you could certainly whip these up to give as gifts, if you're still in need of a unique idea.

I took a plain ole clock I'd purchased at a big box store - I think it cost about $5.00...

When I was remodeling the kitchen, I played around with the idea of adhering decals to ceramic blocks to make the backsplash.  Never happened (and still not done!  LOL), but I'd ordered a variety of the decals from Olympic, so decided they would look good on the clock.

And I was right!  I did have to cut them up a bit, otherwise they were too long.  But when it came down to it, I just added the bottom pieces in between the top pieces, and all was right with the world again...

Then I took the white clock face off and stamped on it with colors that are in my bathroom ( this clock is for the master bath).  It's pink with light green accents.

I recognize some stamps from Creative Elements on there, and then I just added what I liked that went with them.  I remember I did have to stamp off on a couple of them or the color would have overpowered all the other images.

After I got it all put back together again (easy, peasy, by the way), I took it into my bathroom and discovered that EVERYTHING in there is white - obviously, the clock is not.  So I took it back out to my stampin' garage and sponged around the decals with Early Espresso.  That somehow seemed to make it look much better, hanging on the pink wall, and it still blended in with the white woodwork and vanity.

Here's another photo of it, a little closer...

It came out SO CUTE I may have to go looking for more of these and make another one!

Thanks for stopping by - come back again!

Twist & SHOUT!

Isn't this purdy?!!

This is a new concept in gift card holders for me, and this is the first one I made after viewing a video on how to make it.  I THINK it was on Sandi MacIver's blog.

Anyway, I thought it was VERY unique, so I made the one above using Primrose Petals CS, some DSP from Be Of Good Cheer (two different patterns) and the winter boot from the Bootiful Occasions stamp set.

And then I went ON making them!

This one started with Cherry Cobbler CS (don't you just LOVE that color?!!?).  I embellished with the Champagne Glimmer paper, punched with the Scallop Trim Border punch.  Then I cut one of the doilies from the Sizzlet die Delicate Doilies, cut a piece of the Be Of Good Cheer DSP with the 2-3/8" scallop punch.  Another, smaller, scallop punched out of Champagne Glimmer Paper topped those two items.  Next I added one of the Faceted Vintage Designer Buttons, a pearl, and a smidge of the Cherry Cobbler tulle.

After I took this photo, I realized there was no "To/From" tag in it, so I used the words from Chock-Full of Cheer, stamped on Whisper White CS, punched a hole in the end and tied a piece of the Cherry Cobbler Sweater Trim ribbon to the tag.  This one's the fanciest one I made.

I really like the one with the snowman on it.  I cut out the little trees from the Stylin' Snowfolk set.  The snowman himself came from the Snow Much Fun set.  Then I tore some white CS to look like snow drifts, attached them to the front of the gift card holder, added some "snow" (glitter) with the 2-way glue pen and maybe a little white Shimmer Paint.

BRIEF DIRECTIONS:
This gift card holder is SO EASY!  Cut your CS to 4-1/4" x 10-1/8".  Score from top RIGHT to bottom LEFT;  fold, place the flat side on your Scoring Tool and score at 5-1/2".  Fold and decorate to suit!  The gift card itself goes on the inside, so don't forget to decorate the inside as well!

And believe it or not, it fits into a regular card envelope.

I thought these were so unique, I just HAD to make some!

Need better (or more detailed) directions?  Contact me and I'll be happy to supply them to you.  And remember, this doesn't just HAVE to be for Christmas!  I can see these for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day - whatever!  It all depends on your choices of CS, DSP and embellishments!

Already made a few of these?  Won't you share YOURS with me?  Just leave me a comment along with the link to yours!

Thanks for stopping by - come back again soon!

Thanksgiving & ORNAMENTS

I mentioned the other day that I'd gone out of town for Thanksgiving weekend.  I went to visit with several of my downline, who also happen to have been friends, BEFORE they signed up with Stampin' Up!

Susan, Mick & I drove from San Diego on Friday night.  Susan had to work Friday, so we left around 6 PM.  It's about a 5-1/2 hour drive to get to Roxy's, and, generally on a Friday night the traffic is NUTS!!

All those Los Angelenos (and other southern Californians) hit the road to Vegas on Friday night...  And they can't seem to WAIT to get there and contribute their hard-earned bucks to the casinos...

But this past Friday night traffic was very light!  Guess everyone had gone to Grandma's house on Wednesday and were spending the weekend.  Hooray!  We had a breezy trip over...

Roxy is actually Susan's downline (they've been friends lots longer than I've known either one of them, so it made sense...) and Roxy's friend Colleen, is HER downline.

We all got together on Saturday afternoon for Show & Tell.  Colleen makes lots of cards to sell to friend and relatives, so we got to see a BUNCH she has ready to mail out.  All very creative!

And I brought a box of things to share with all of them.  I think the best part about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is the sharing.  Very few are reluctant to share whatever they're currently working on - and very few object to anyone's CASEing their ideas (CASE: Copy And Share Everything).

So, I showed them all a very simple little gift card holder I'd just discovered on-line - and I'll share it with you in my next post.

Susan had decided before we left, that she wanted to make the ornament from the front of the Holiday catalog for her Bunco ladies - that's TWELVE of these babies!



So, we gathered everyone's framelits, Susan stamped her art out, and I started cutting them out.

You need 20 each of both the larger and the smaller ornaments for each ornament.  There are 12 people in Susan's Bunco group - you do the math!  That's a BUNCH of ornaments to stamp, cut out, and do the rest of the magic to turn them into these beautiful items.

OK, to be specific, we needed 240 of EACH of the ornaments in order to complete 12 finished items..

Roxy elected to cook the turkey while Susan and I toiled away stamping and cutting...  Which was OK by us!  We will get to eat the results of her handiwork in a couple of hours!

So Susan just kept a cuttin' and while she was doing that, I was folding them all in half...  When we finished (at 11 that night!) all 240 were cut out and all but 60 of each of them were folded and ready for her to do the next step - gluing them all together to create a 3-D ornament.

Roxy had invited a couple of friends to join us for Thanksgiving dinner.  Cheryl, standing alongside Susan, is an artist - I mean a REAL artist!  She paints in oils, acrylics and watercolors, and sells her items at craft shows in the area.  She brought a number of her things along to show us after dinner.  They were all beautiful  And she thought our ornaments were beautiful!  A gal after my own heart!  LOL.

I talked to Susan today - she's got everything glued together but the pieces I didn't fold.  They'll be the back pieces.

She said she might come down one night this week so I can help her glue these babies together.  I hope she does!  Projects always go faster when you're working and chatting.

And there's still plenty to do to get them finished, so I'm sure we can fill at least one evening, trying to complete them.

Oh - and all those people driving to Vegas that we missed Friday evening?  Well, we didn't see them on Monday when we drove home, either !  Yeehaw!  A record 4-1/2 hour return trip - and no speeding!  Also only one pit stop, but that was OK.

Thanks for stopping by  - come back again!