4th of July Craftiness

I added a few new ornaments to my 4th of July tree this year. I made these three little barrel ornaments from empty ribbon spools. I store most of my ribbon on old fashioned clothes pins so when I buy a new ribbon spool I take it off the spool and transfer it to the clothes pin. What to do with the empty spool besides toss it?

Why make an ornament of course!

Below are the basic steps to make an ornament. First remove the ribbon. Then carefully take off the round chipboard sides so you just have the "spool" left. I added some music paper to this spool with a decoupage medium.

When that dried I used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the spool and threaded a hanging loop through the hole with bakery twine.

The next step was to find a die about a half inch larger in diameter than the spool. One of my scalloped Spellbinders "nesties" worked perfectly! Solid colored card stock or paper with two sides works best as you will see both sides.

I centered the first scalloped circle on the table, centered the spool on top and glued the inside edges. Then I added glue to the top of the spool and centered the other circle on the spool. If your pattern paper has a definite up or down design, be sure to line up the pattern with the hanging loop.
Next step was to weight the spool until the glue dries. I used a several items sitting on my table to weight the spool. A plastic jar bigger than the spool and floral frog.

When the glue is dry, it is time for the fun part! Since these were for my 4th of July tree I used my stash of patriotic papers and embellies to decorate both sides. Crepe paper ruffles, glass glitter, glitter paper, Stickles, punches and dies. On several of the ornaments I also added some paper border trim around the spool. 

I had some bits and pieces left over and put together this tiny garland ornament. Each pennant is only about an inch tall! 

Thanks for looking! As always, any questions post a comment! 

Happy 5th of July

 Happy 5th of July! 

I have not been here for over 2 months!!!! Life has just gotten in the way of my crafting and blogging. 

 I decided to re-arrange my craft room, move my sewing stuff to another room. It has taken me a lot longer than planned and still I am not finished. But I will save that for another post!

I did get my 4th of July tree up! I made a few new ornaments and also fixed one that did not survive the heat and sunlight of the solarium. I made a loopy chain garland from chenille stems in red, white and blue to circle the tree. I also made some little barrel ornaments I will share in another post. 

The ornament on the left started out with some patriotic crepe paper that disintegrated but the collage stayed intact. I added it to a vintage red Christmas light reflector. All shiny & new. 

I also finally scrapped my photos from my Newspaper article post about my 4th of July tree. 

I bought the photos from the Press Democrat and scrapped them on the lay out below. In my album I will have the layout on one side and the newspaper in a page protector next to it.

I used lots of red, white and blue of course! 

Thanks for looking!

Love is in the Air

Love is in the air and red hearts are appearing all over my house.
It is not yet February, but my Valentines are up on display, to spread some love around my home.

Like my last collage I posted Winter wishes, I also made one a few years ago for Valentines Day.
It goes in the same frame that changes out with the seasons and holidays.



The collage is full of Valentine motifs surrounding a big glitter heart and swirl. A heat embossed chipboard key to my heart, a rhinestone centered velvet flower and some vintage Valentine images. Easter and spring will go up next. 

I made the collage below using my Cricut and most of the images came from the Zoo Balloo cartridge. I did not realize the cart had this cute house and tree on an animal themed cartridge. The papers are mostly Basic Grey and the rub on title is from Jenni Bowlin.

Below is my Valentine banner. Five chipboard hearts covered with pattern paper, crepe paper ruffled circles and LOVE in sparkly red glitter. 

I have some vintage and reproduction Valentines I like to display in my photo holder. 

A big pile of punched hearts sewn together makes a sweet garland. 

I had a few friends come over to play with paper and stamps on Thursday and I made these little matchbox Valentine treats for them. The boxes are cut from a die from Stampin' Up and the label and bird are Stampin' Up punches. A sweet treat!

Our projects we worked on Thursday were this sweet card that can be a Valentine, wedding or just because card. All supplies are from Stampin' Up. The basket below was our other project. 

The little basket is one I made from inspiration I found on this blog, thelittleblueroom, via Pinterest. 

I changed the handle and style a bit and added the two little tags, both are crafted with 

stamps and punches also from Stampin' Up. 

A little red and white bakers' twine from Martha Stewart ties it all together. 

My Valentine tree is all decorated for the holiday. Christmas and angels have come down and red hearts and love have gone up. 

Many of the ornaments are ones I have made just for the tree. 

This paper covered chip board heart with a felt rose is a new one for this year. 

  

These four below are some I made the first year I put up a Valentine tree in Jan. 2010. In 2009 I had gone on a vacation right after Christmas and by the time I was taking down my tree in my solarium, it was mid January. So I decided I might as well leave it up a few more weeks and turn it into a Valentine tree. My family liked the tree and thought I should decorate a tree for every holiday. And now I do! 

Each year I create a few more ornaments for the tree. Vintage images, glitter and tinsel come together to make some love filled decorations. 

Most of my Valentine decor is up on display, but if I find some new inspiration, there will be more! I love to craft for the holidays and every year I bring out my decorations I am reminded of the fun I had crafting them all.

As always, if you have a question about the supplies or techniques I used, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you! 

Winter Wishes

Now that the Christmas season is over, even though my Christmas tree is still up,
I have taken down most of my holiday decorations.

One of the holiday decorations I have for every holiday or season is my Holiday Collage. I have a 12x12 scrapbook shadow box frame that I bought at Michael's.
Each new holiday or season gets a collage.

I wanted to take down my Christmas collage but was not ready to put up my Valentines collage, so I made this "Winter" collage. A snow and New Years theme. I got the idea for a holiday collage from my friend Jenny. She has a frame she changes out each holiday and when she made hers, she inspired a bunch of her crafty friends to make holiday collages of their own.

I went through my stash of crafty/scrappy supplies and put together a big pile of stuff to work with. All   the papers have a blue/teal color range. Lots of glitter papers too.

I used a clip art of a 1907 New Years card and a little card board ornament of a cherub that I have had in my stash for over 25 years for my "New Years" part of the collage.

The Bingo card is from October Afternoon and the little snowmen are left
overs from my snow globe project.
The white deer is from Martha Stewart, I covered it in glitter.
The glitter trees, bird and house are cut from Sizzix dies.
The felt snowflakes are from Stampin' Up. I layered the snowflakes and added rhinestone/pearl brads from Michael's in the centers.
"Snow" is cut from my Cricut and "Day" are Making Memories letter stickers.
The "winter wonderland" cut out is from My Minds Eye.
The little cameo is from Websters pages and the silver star is an ornament from Target.

Because my scrapbook frame is also a shadow box I could use some very dimensional elements like my snowmen on the Bingo card. I just had to trim a little from the backs so they would lay flat. 

Lots of glitter glue, pearls and glitter added sparkle to the collage.

Below the collage in the frame. 

I have made a collage for every season and will share them all as I change out the frame.

Now to put away all the stuff I pulled out to make the collage :)

Thanks for looking!

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