Happy New Year!

I can't believe we are headed into a new year.  The last year went by so quickly - or at least it seemed to me that it did.  I think that is what happens when you get older - the years go by at warp speed.  Anyway, the holidays really snuck up on me this year.  I am usually able to make all my holiday cards and get them sent out in time for the holidays.  Not so much this year.

I just could not get my act together and get them all made.  One of my friends suggested I make some Happy New Year cards.  That seemed like a good idea and gave me more time to make a few cards to send out to some friends.

The cards pictured here were made with the My Favorite Things Peek-A-Boo Squared die.  The numbers were cut out using the Sizzix Lollipop numbers dies.  The glitter paper and other specialty papers were purchased at Hobby Lobby and the card base is made out of Papertrey Ink's Smokey Shadow card stock. I cut out the Happy New Year sentiment on the inside of the card with my new Silhouette Cameo (LOVE this machine!).

I wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Santa Came Early.........

I received a new Silhouette Cameo for Christmas.  Actually, I sold my Cricut Expression and all my cartridges to help Santa with the purchase.  I am really having a blast cutting with this new machine.  I loved my Cricut Expression and used it a lot, but the one thing that the Cricut did not do well was make intricate cuts and that is the one thing I really wanted it to do.  Sooo... after much research - reading blog posts and watching YouTube videos - I decided to invest in the Cameo.

Like anything else there is a bit of a learning curve, but the Cameo is very easy to use.  When I first started downloading images from the Silhouette store it was not going well. The folks at Silhouette were updating their website and that created a lot of glitches.  I had an issue associated with this and called customer service - my issue was resolved with this one phone call -  the Silhouette customer service was excellent.  The Silhouette website is now running smoothly.  I know this because I visit it about once a week to use my gift cards that came with my Silhouette to purchase and download images.

I purchased my Silhouette from Overstock.com.  The package included the Silhouette Cameo machine, a dust cover for the machine, glitter and adhesive paper as well as $35 in downloading gift cards to the Silhouette store.

The designs I have been gravitating to on the Silhouette store (and there are thousands of designs in the store) are the ones that are the most intricate to cut.  It is so much fun to lift these designs off the cutting mat and see the beautiful results.

The Silhouette does not cut chipboard, but that was not high on my priority list as I have Sizzix and other dies that have that capability.

I really am enjoying the Cameo!  If you have any questions about the Cameo, please don't hesitate to ask and I will be happy to try to answer them.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Whew.... Project Complete

A few weeks ago I shared one of the boxes I made for a 12 Days of Christmas project on a blog post.  I have finally finished the project which was made for some friends who have four little girls.

Following are some photos of the finished project:

This project took about a month to complete.  I first cut out the parts of the box from light weight chipboard using the Sizzix Box, Candy Drawer Die.  I then painted the raw chipboard with white acrylic paint.  Next, I selected paper out of the Bright & Jolly paper pad from Recollections (I think I purchased this from Michael's last year) and cut the paper down to size to cover the box parts.  I pre-scored the paper where the score lines were on the cut out box pieces and then used Mod Podge to glue the paper to the box parts.  Next, I folded the box parts on the pre-scored lines and put the box together using the super strong redline tape.

After all that, I decorated each box using items I purchased from Hobby Lobby (holly leaves, red bows, small wreaths, small snowmen ornaments and Peace, Joy, Noel ornaments).  I die cut the numbers from glittered card stock using the Tim Holtz Word Play die by Sizzix and the Lollipop Numbers die set also by Sizzix.  I glued everything to the front using Beacon's 3 in 1 craft glue.  The drawer pulls are small wooden spools painted in various colors of acrylic paint (red, blue and green) with Christmas brads glued to the center of the painted spools.

Each drawer contains a small bag with candy or other small gifts and these bags are decorated with a tag that denotes the day of Christmas it is (i.e. first day of Christmas, etc.).  The stamp set I used to make the tags is an ADORABLE set by Penny Black and is called 12 Days of Christmas.  I forgot to photograph the tags for this blog post, but you can go to my YouTube channel and see the finished product including some of the tags.

The top sign was made using heavy chipboard, silver glitter paper and a felt Ho, Ho, Ho ornament from Hobby Lobby.  I purchased the Santa on a spring from Hobby Lobby as well.

Finished just in time to mail it off.  I hope the recipients will like it and I hope you like it!

Never Be Afraid to Try....

When I have time,  I love reading the blogs of artists like Linda Duke. Her blog is called Linda's Works of Heart.  Her creations are pure eye candy.  I just love everything she makes.  Her style seems so elegant to me.   I came across a Christmas tag she featured in an October 31st blog post and absolutely loved it.   I really wanted to recreate it, but was not sure if I could come close to the beauty of what Linda created.  But then I could hear Loretta's voice in my head saying "never be afraid to give something a try."  Well, I did give it a try.  You can let me know what you think of my effort.

Linda's tag was done in cream and silver and was absolutely breathtaking.  I used creams and blues for my tag.  The paper I selected was taken from the O Christmas Tree paper pad by My Mind's Eye. This is a Christmas paper pad from 2010.  I also used two Spellbinders dies - the larger circle is the largest of the Splendid Circles dies and the next circle is the third largest of the Lacey Circles dies.  I cut a rosette using the Tim Holtz rosette die (the die with the two sizes of rosettes on it.  I used the larger of the two sizes from this die) and my circle cutter to cut a 2.75 inch backing circle for the tag.  I used Doodlebug Glitter and spritzed the entire piece with Lindy's Stamp Gang Frozen Jack Frost Starburst spray.  The silver wired tinsel came from Hobby Lobby (a 72 foot roll for $7.50 - half price - not bad!).  The blue ribbon is some I have had in my stash forever - it is .25 inches wide.

It took awhile to make this tag, but I think it was well worth the effort!