So long 2011, Hello 2012

2011 was a good year, 2011 was a bad year.

Mostly good, as all of my family is healthy, we have a safe, comfortable home and I started my blog!

The bad is that I lost my full time job in September and though I have not found a new one, we are able to still live comfortably and I have enjoyed a bit of a work break after 32+ years of working.
I have looked for work but have not found anything yet.

The following 12 photos are snippets of our lives this past year. Not necessarily the best or worst, but a bit of something from each month.

January

New Years Day, 2011. All around the table for dinner. Bill is not wearing a shirt as he had surgery (shoulder replacement) just 3 days before. 

February

Snow, snow, snow!! It seldom snows here in Occidental, so flakes that last a bit on the table are something to get excited about :)

March

Nothing much going on this month but I did craft this Lucky Day wall hanging from 

my vintage supplies. 

April

My hubby and I went to Petaluma to check out the spring Antique fair and sale. Found  a few treasures, but it is always fun to see the value of things I already own! 

May

Scrapping with some friends on the Russian River. A beautiful spot to craft, chat and relax. 

June

Family reunion time! My hubby's family celebrates with a reunion here on the ranch every year, but my family, not so often. We should though, because we had a great time!

July

We had lots of fun activities going on in July, but I think Henry and I enjoyed a Giants game at AT&T park the most. Especially as the Giants won!

August
August was a quiet month, I worked a lot. But we did take time to help Aunt Joanne celebrate her birthday. Happy Birthday Joanne! 

September

Since my job ended in September and I had been working a lot the last few months I decided I needed a real vacation. So I went up to my sister's in Oregon for a week to shop and play. 

October

I was off work just about three weeks when my old employer called me and asked if I could go to Boulder, CO and help out for a week. A free trip to Colorado, sure!

November

My friend Jenny was expecting a baby and our friend Heather and I hosted a shower for her with all our scrappy, crafty friends sharing in Jenny's joy. Jenny was due on Jan 2nd, but her sweet Isabel could not wait that long and she arrived on December 15th, a healthy bundle of JOY! 

December
December is always a busy month, with all the holiday activities, decorations and baking. One of my favorite things to do is bake goodies to share with friends and family.
One of my favorites is decorating sugar cookies with my boys.

Right now there is less than three hours until 2012. I hope the new year brings
everyone good health and happiness.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Mini Snow Worlds

I had a very nice Christmas day, but now that Christmas is over, I am sad the season 

will soon come to an end. 

But my sister Lou will be visiting this week through New Years, so Christmas and the holidays will last a bit longer here at our house. 

Christmas morning just before the gift unwrapping frenzy begins!

I have one more holiday project to share before the season is over. I made a large temporary snow scene under a cloche that I had been wanting to put together for the holiday. 

Snow white bottle brush trees, two glass glittered deer in a snow dusted setting. 

I had fun making this scene, so I wanted to make some more. I found a couple of glass pieces at an antique store and made a couple of mini snow scenes. 

These two were the part of a shrimp cocktail set, the larger, the base for the ice and 

the smaller piece, holds the shrimp. 

The little snowmen were made from Model Magic from Crayola. An easy to work with clay that dries quickly. The little hats were also made from the Model Magic. The carrot noses are painted toothpicks. The little crown a scrap of gold paper. I painted the snowmen and added eyes and blushing cheeks with paint. Each completed snow person got a dusting of fine crystal glitter from Martha Stewart. 

I made little houses from glitter card stock. An assortment of bottle brush trees complete the scenes. Each scene rests on a circle of glitter card stock. 

I put each scene together by first hot gluing the snow people, houses, trees and embellishments to the glitter card stock circle. I turned my "jar or dome" upside down and put in about 2 spoonfuls of creamy white glitter. This I have had for several years and have not been able to find more. 

I wish I could find it again as it worked so well.

Then I ran a small bit of clear glue, 3D crystal effects by Sakura around the rim. I placed the glittered circle upside down over the rim and carefully flipped the whole dome right side up. I made sure the dome was centered over the circle, while holding the rim to the glitter card stock base. 

I then ran a line of hot glue around the edge, between the glass rim and glitter circle and placed some tinsel trim along the hot glue line. On top of each dome, I glued a button, bauble or knob to each. When all was set, I gave the whole thing a good shake to settle the snow. All complete! 

I had so much fun I wanted to make more and was lucky to find more of the shrimp cocktail cups and small glass bowls at my local thrift store for a great price!

Two mini globes.

Two little penguins and their igloo. 

Two Giants fan snow people with their orange glittered house for my sister and her hubby, 

big SF Giants fans!

A little family of three for my friend Jenny whose little angel Isabel 

was born just a few weeks ago. 

The whole little snow globe family. I have a few more to put together, one each for my sons. I have lots of little snow figures made as once you open the package of Model Magic, it is hard to seal, and it can dry out, so I made snow figures until the clay was gone. 

This was a very fun project and I enjoyed making each little scene. 

These will stay out through January, as they are too much fun to pack away! 

Happy Holidays to all and wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year.

Berta

Mini Christmas Shadow Boxes

I love to craft for the holidays and since I have collected lots of Christmas scrapbook papers and vintage images I wanted to make some more holiday ornaments this year.

The ornament below started this project. I loved this image I downloaded from the Graphicsfairy. All the singing kitties are just too cute. My niece loves kitties and I thought of her when I saw it. I wanted to make an ornament for her and needed to decide how to use this image. I thought of a collage with the image, but could not put together something I really liked.

I wanted to use this little vintage kitty ornament also so I had to come up with a way to use both.
I came up with the idea of making a mini shadow box.
I started with the dimensions of the of the graphic. This one was cut about 4x6 inches.  

The next was made from Christmas paper and chipboard embellishments.
It measures about 2 1/2 in. by 4 in. The following photos show the measurements and diagrams of how I made the ornaments.

Pattern paper,chipboard from Basic Grey.

I measure the image or paper I want to use, and then choose a card stock weight pattern paper or card stock that coordinates with my image. I allow just a bit extra, about 1/8 in. to the height and length of the image I want to use, for ease when folding.

Card stock weight paper works best. I then add 1 1/4 inches to all sides.

Start at one edge and score at 1/4 in. Then 1/2 in. beyond the 1/4 in. line. Then 1/2 in. again from the last line. Do this on all 4 sides. I use my Martha Stewart Score board for this as I can score one side, turn 1/4 turn, score again, turn 1/4 again, score,  until all 4 sides are scored.

After the paper is scored I trim the corners as shown. On the short edge I cut into the paper to the inside score line. On the long edge I cut into the paper to the second score line only.
I trim the long edge of the flap that remains slightly so the paper will fold neatly.

I pre-crease all the fold lines before I start to adhere. I start at the first long side fold. I use my ATG adhesive to hold the paper together. I run a line of adhesive on the 1/4 in. fold and the second (inside) 1/2 in. section. Keeping the flaps free I fold up one long edge. Then repeat on the other long edge.

I then fold in the first short edge, starting with the "flaps" and glue where shown. Then glue the short 1/4in. flap into the center. Repeat on the final side. You now should have a "box" similar to the inside of a match box.

Now time to embellish. Start by adhering your image to the inside of the box. Then make holes in the top fold, for your hanging wire. I used chenille sticks, but ribbon or tinsel would also work. Do not glue in the chenille or ribbon hanger if you want to add glitter to the edge. But make holes before you add glitter.

I found the easiest way to add the glitter was to take a scrap of paper or plastic packaging and run a thick bead of glue in a rectangle shape on this the size of your box and then dip the box edges in to the glue, then into the glitter of your choice. Let dry completely.

Add your hanger now and any trim or embellishments you like. Mini trees, packages, vintage holiday ornaments or greenery. On the Home for the Holidays I also put some glue on the bottom edge and sprinkled on some glitter "snow". 

Image from justsomethingimade.

Paper and image from Graphic45

I hope you like my little shadow boxes and as usual, any ???'s. Just ask! 

Thanks for visiting!

Vintage Holiday

My house is almost decorated for the holidays. The village is set up, the Santas and snowmen are displayed. I have a small forest of mini trees decked out in the living room as well.
All five of the big trees are up and decorated.
Each of my sons have their own tree, so I only have to decorate 2 trees.
I get help with the main big tree as it is usually 11 feet tall. Since we grow them here on the ranch cost does not matter, so we can go as big as will fit. And with so many trees I need  a lot of ornaments to fill to fill them out. And since I love to craft, crafting special ornaments for the trees is even better.

The little deer ornament below was made from a music paper pin wheel. The ends of the pleated paper were cut on a diagonal to make points at each fold. I added a crepe paper rosette, then layered a circle of super sticky sheet on top of that. I cut the little image of the deer from patterned paper about a 1/4 inch smaller than the adhesive circle. I centered the paper circle in the middle and and sprinkled glass glitter on the remaining exposed adhesive. Added a little vintage poinsettia and all done.

The next ornament started with 4 inch wide sheets of music paper strips I scalloped edged with my jumbo scallop scissors. One of the best Dollar Store items I have ever bought! I scored the paper at each "scallop" and connect 3 strips to make a circle.
On top of that I placed a vintage Christmas light reflector I scored at my fav thrift shop, The Legacy. A big gallon sized bag stuffed with odds & ends of reflectors for .25 cents! About 30 or more reflector pieces. On top of that I placed a scallop circle of glitter paper and a circle with a Santa image.

My next ornament uses one of my favorite vintage images from clearly vintage. I started out with 3 inch squares of music paper rolled into a cone and adhered. I then adhered all of the cones to a 3 inch circle of chipboard. I started at the top, bottom and side points, 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock
and 9 o'clock. I adhered the points with glue. Then filled in the circle with more cones. I made sure all the cone "points" faced the same direction in the circle.
After they were dry I placed several thick foam squares in the middle of the circle and placed another chipboard circle edged with glass glitter in the middle of the paper cones. You only need to put glitter on the outside 1/2 in. edge of this circle.
Then a circle punched from my vintage image printed on matte photo paper on top the glittered circle. A few silver leaves and a vintage pink rose finish the ornament. I re-enforced the punched circle for the hanger with more music paper on the back.

Here is the same image adhered to a glittered chipboard snowflake. A few flowers and rhinestones and you are done. Super simple!

The Santa star here looks very simple, but when you turn the ornament around as in the second photo, you see a three dimensional star.

The shape is formed from a flat 5 pointed star. 

Cut a star from chipboard and score as shown in the black lines below. Fold each point tip to center in a mountain fold and each section where the points meet to center in a valley fold. Fold each score line and do the same with a piece of music paper. Layer and adhere these together. Cover a large square of chipboard with pattern paper and place the folded star right side up on the chipboard square (pattern paper side down). Make sure all the folds are even and adhere the edges of the raised star to the chipboard square with liquid glue. Hold in place with your hands until set.
When glue is completely dry, trim away the excess chipboard square. Edge the star with glue and add glass glitter. A sticker is added to the front and back. Poke a hole at the top and add a hanger. 

The last ornament is made from another light reflector. This a silver star with a red metallic flower in the center. I added a silver glittered scalloped circle over the flower and placed a chipboard image in the center of that. 

I punched holes at the top and bottom of the star and strung beads and two old vintage glass Christmas garland beads on to silver pipe cleaners. 

Thanks for looking and if you have any ???'s, let me know.

Can-O-Tags

While out shopping in November and checking out the new holiday decor I found this "Can-O-Tags" at Target. 50 Chipboard tags with with ribbon ties in a can for $5. Some are plain, others have greetings. Seven different sizes and colors. They were cute as is, but being the crafty girl I am, I knew I could some glitter, stamping, punches and more I could make them mine.

The "plain" tags.

The snowflake tag is below with a few embellishments. Two heat embossed stamped trees, a twisted music paper rose misted with pink spray mist and a vintage velvet leaf. A pre-made puffy sticker, a cute fussy cut snow couple and two pre-made chipboard  shapes.

To the silver circles I added some punched snowflakes with rhinestone centers,
a sticker & chipboard house.

The Merry Christmas was already printed on these tags. I added a little plastic gift charm to one, a Santa image cut from paper and others with decorated with glitter glue and rhinestones.

This tag came already printed with Happy Holidays. I added a puffy pre-made sticker to one, embossed and punched paper birds to two others. An embossed die cut ornament and another with a paper poinsettia made from punched leaves. 

And three glitter paper punched reindeer with red glitter glue noses. 

The green circles were embellished with a stamped and colored snowman image. I cut Santa hats from red glitter paper, felt ribbon and a pom-pom. I die cut a red "joy" and dotted the "I" with a rhinestone.

I added a red felt poinsettia to one silver tag. A die cut pair of mittens to another. A paper Santa image edged like a postage stamp to the third.
A four got little button snowmen with black glitter paper top hats.

The red scalloped tags got some stamped trees, a big glittery star and two vintage paper images.
And two have little velvet paper gingerbread men with candy canes.

And I couldn't let the little can go to waste. It now will be a cute little can filled with homemade 

hot cocoa mix ready to gift. I wrapped the can with some holiday paper from Stampin' Up and a steaming cup of cocoa cut with my Cricut. 

I stamped to and from on the back of all the tags. 

All of the embellishments were added from my stash, so all 50 fancy tags cost just $5 and my time. 

Now I just need to buy and wrap my gifts and I am set! 

Any ??'s about the stamps, punches and papers I used, let me know. 

Thanks for looking!

A