Merry Christmas and More

I just love Christmas especially when the decorations are up and the tiny sparkling lights are all lit up.  I usually like to add at least one handmade decoration each year.  Carly and I went to the thrift shop in town hunting for something cool to upcycle.  I found a tennis racket.  It was $1 so just the right price.  They also had lots of greenery and bits and pieces of glittered poinsettia, plastic snowflakes and bits and pieces of ribbons.  So..out comes the handy dandy glue gun and I just started layering things together.  I researched pinterest on how to tie a bow and I thought I had it right the first time, but it just did not turn out well.  So, I really read the instructions and then tried again.  Guess what?  It actually helps to read all the directions!  LOL

I'll post a photo soon.  I just keep forgetting until it's late and I know the photo will turn out best in light.

Tony has brought home lots of scrap pieces of wood from a long time ago and I'm eager to paint a sign with one of the longer pieces.  It's December 23rd, so part of me thinks, it's too late, but then another part of me says, "go for it"!

One more half day left...maybe!

Merry, merry Christmas to you and yours!

My Funny Instructions

I had to post this photo because I thought it was pretty hilarious!  So, I made these penguin candy wrappers and jotted down the instructions.  I received a special order to make more so I pulled out this sheet to make more.  When I looked at it for the second time, I thought to myself...how do I actually figure out how to make these again!  Look below and you'll see how hilarious this is...

LOL

Holiday Boutique Goodies

More photos from the Tracy High School Holiday Boutique

One woman who purchased a few of these cuties said she was mailing them to New Zealand to a friend.  How awesome is that?  My stuff out in New Zealand!

Hey, that's me!

Holiday Success!

I really should have my daughter take photos more often.  I know I'm a bad photographer, but does she have to be so good? 

Here are some photos of our last boutique.  When we know we only have one table, we try to get creative in our vertical displays.  And we only put out a small amount of stock of same items. 

This boutique was well attended and we had a steady flow of customers.  As always, we have tons of fun with each other and talking to others.  Although I was a little disappointed with the other vendors, I still managed to spend some money.  I bought myself a scarf and there was an incredible artist behind us who sketched her own images on cards.  I bought an elephant which I plan to frame and Carly bought a gnome holding a balloon.  Once I frame it, I'll post a photo.  I grabbed her business card but it's not with me right now.  I'll hook you up with her info later.  There was only one person at her table, but she's part of a mother-daughter team (she was mom).  I love that!  In fact, there was another mother-daughter team across from us.  They were Stampin' Up demonstrators and sold many, many cards.  Very nice!

The gal next to us made her own jewelry.  Very nice too!  If you're in the market, here's her info:
www.jealousyjewels.com or www.jealousyjewels.etsy.com.

Ok...now for those photos:

I'm having issues with the photos so there are only three for now.  For those who notice my vintage Christmas tablecloth, they came from a yard sale from my parents' neighbor.  When the wife passed away, husband had a big yard sale.  I really should have bought more she had lots of cool vintage Christmas items.  Sometimes you don't know what you need until it's too late.

Cocoa for Two

When I bought these tubes, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  Then the idea of cocoa shots came to mind.  I planned on doing individual ones but then decided to make a set instead.  Two tubes filled with cocoa and one with marshmallows.  I also tied on a candy cane and an adorable tag.  It's funny, I didn't think I had anything cocoa or warm wishes themed.  I have some coffee stamps, but they are coffee pots not cups.  Anyhow, I checked with my stamping friends to see if I could borrow something from them and of course they were more than gracious to share.  Then I realized that I have a cup on my Season of Joy cricut cartridge with a tag option and I also overlooked that I have a stamp that actually says, Warm Wishes For A Happy  Holiday.  Perfect...

So I was glad I decided to actually SHOP MY STASH.  LOL

These photos do not do it justice, but they did turn out so cute.  The tops are covered with a scallopped circle and then tied with jute.

I placed the trio in a 4" cellophane baggie and then tied with burlap ribbon.  I placed the set in a mug to display, but what a great gift!  I'm hoping that inspires shoppers to purchase and present the gift in this manner.

Who Wants Candy?

I made a bunch of decorated candy bars.  One for everyone on  your list...Angels, Grinch, Santa, Penguin, Reindeer and Snowman.

Each candy bar was covered with a piece of patterned paper or cardstock and then decorated accordingly.
Angel:  SU! Pennant Punch (body), SU! Butterfly Punch (wings), 1" Punch (halo), 1/2" Punch (head); small heard for hands
Grinch:  Head Shape cut with the cricut, pennant punch (hat), circle punches for eyes and drew the smile
Santa:  SU! scallop circle punch for beard, 1 3/" circle punch for face, square punch for hat, 1/4" punch for nose and pom pom.
Decorate as you see fit.  I also made tags with just layers of scraps and stamps.

Reindeer:  Cut snowflake on the cricut and trimmed some antlers, random size circles for other portions of the face
Penguin:  Large heart for the face, oval for the belly, smaller heart for the beak, and half the butterfly punch for feet

I already forgot the size of the hat (I want to say 2 1/2" circle) and scalloped strip around the whole bar.  There are also skinnier ovals on each side of the belly for the wings.  They are hard to see since they are black.

The reindeer's tags are an assortment of scrap layers and the stamp is from SU!  These two are my favorites!  I didn't take a photo of the snowmen, but if you search past posts on craft faires, I made the snowmen with a printed wrapper with a fleece hat.  So cute!

Visions of Sugar Plums or Other Candy Goodies

I made these last year too.  The instructions to make them are on the website by Queen Bee's Quest.  I had a hard time filling the kisses into the trees but for some reason this year, it was easier.  I didn't love these initially, but after packaging, I did fall in love with them.  For the tags, I watercolored some green on paper.  After it dried, I stamped a Christmas tree.  Then I stamped a sentiment on green vellum and placed it on top of the tree tag.  Placed an eyelet on top and secured them together.

These house nine candy kisses and two nuggets.  CUTE!

Little Kisses

These fun boxes were created by scoring every inch on a 6 3/4" x 5" piece of cardstock.  Score every inch on the 5" side and then one inch on each side of the 6 3/4 side.  Make the top scored area in a tab shape (cut triangles at the edges).  After cutting the tabs on the sides, fold at each score line and glue the tabs together to form the box.  The box fits 5 kisses across the bottom, but I added an additional 4 kisses to really fill them up.  I used washi tape to seal the tab to the box and then tied bakers twine around the box and to attach the scallopped circle tags.

Just another cute little stocking stuffer or little gift for your coworkers and friends.

The stamp set I used is from CTMH and I colored the images in with CTMH alcohol markers.  These would be super cute with a sturdy patterned paper.  The punches are from SU!, scallopped circle, 1 3/8" circle and 1 1/4" circle.

Nugget Tins

I love these nugget tins.  I really wish I bought more, but it never seems practicle at them time.  So I wanted to come up with three different styles and these are what I came up with:

The blue ornament was featured earlier (see details on how I made them).  

Polar Bear:  this stamp set is from CTMH.  I used my Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge to cut the "stamp" rectangle that coordinates with the stamp.  You can't see, but I gathered a good amount of teal string and placed it on top of the corrugated cardboard strip that was wrapped around the tin.  The silver mesh ribbon was purchased at Joanne's as a after Halloween sale.  I paid less than $1 for the roll.  I love it!

Tree:  After placing a doily on top of the tin, I cut a tag shape from the same cartridge as above.  The tree was created by cutting three trees, scoring them in half and then attaching them back to back on one side each to create the 3D shape.  I used glitter glue and drew circles on all layers.  Tied them together with red twine and added a strip of silver glitter paper and a small white tag.  

Each of the 12 nuggets that are in the tins are wrapped with a 1x3" strip of paper and just scotched tape to the back.

Papers are an assortment of Christmas papers I have in my stash.

Even the Naughty Deserve Something Nice

I have been busy, busy, busy in the Command Center getting ready for the Tracy High School holiday boutique on Saturday, December 6th.  Here are some of the things I've been working on:

 I'm going to do a separate post for each item to give more details on each item.  Stay tuned...

Pattie Holders

Oh my gosh!  I'm in love with these little guys.  I saw something similar on Pinterest with the Santas, but you know me...I had to do more with them.  Here's some photos:

The triangles start with a sheet of 3 x 3.5" cardstock.  Mark 1" from top and bottom and then cut from corner to mark, etc until you get two same size triangles.  

Santas: SU! scallop punch, word window punch, 1/2" circle punch and my Creative Memories oval cutter for the face.

Penguins:  CM oval, SU! Three in One heart punch, banner punch for both the hat and trim.

Trees:  lots of scrap paper triangles and a CM star punch

LOVE these!

Cute as a Cupcake

So it seems that everything is cute and easy in Pinterest land.  I saw these cute baby item "cupcakes" and checked out the instructions and it seemed sooooo easy.  Just layer the items and roll.  NOT.  I brought the items to work to finish them.  Yeah, no...they basically looked like baby items rolled up.  Not a cupcake like the Pinterest photo showed.  So, I tugged and re-rolled and messed around a little more and finally came up with something that me and my co-workers thought looked like cupcakes.  So add some ribbon around each one, cute handmade tag and put it all together in a cellophane gift bag.
viola...

The cupcakes are a receiving blanket, onesie and cap rolled up.  The key is to gradually lower the roll instead of straight across.  I don't know if that makes sense, but if you try it, you'll get it.

Another key...cute packaging and of course expecting parents.  Congratulations Becky and Jeff!

Snowflake Ornament...How Adorable Are You?

I've been pinning a lot on Pinterest looking for new ideas for the upcoming Christmas craft boutique. I saw these cute ornaments and decided to take their idea and make it my own.  First of all, they hand measured and cut their petals...I used my Cricut Art Philophy cartridge to cut the petals and then cut them in half.  The petals were cut at 3 1/4".

After cutting, stamping and inking all sides.  I then cut a snowflake for the middle.  The snowflakes were cut at 1 3/4". 

I tied a snippet of ribbon to the back of the button using the thinner ribbon to create more fullness.  Then put it all together...

I will add ribbon to the back for hanging but I basically made these to top some Nugget Boxes I'm making for the boutique.  I'll take photos of those later.

Funny

I received this package at work...do you like my new name?

When I told Kenny about it, he asked why he was getting packages at my work.  LOL

What a name!?!

How Many Weeks 'Til Christmas?

Yesterday Carly and I participated in a Fall All Handmade Boutique in Manteca.  The weather was wet the day before but was nice and dry on Saturday.  There were plenty of black clouds threatening to let loose, but nothing but dry skies between 9:00 - 4:00.

There were plenty of customers and lots of great vendors.  We did OK.  Wish we would have done better but we didn't concentrate on the Christmas treats that we normally do.  It just felt too early to bring those out.  So, another great day spent with my daughter and I did my own shopping.  I bought a beautiful dream catcher for a good friend of mine's (not yet born) grandchild.

I'm excited to gift it to her soon!

Here are some photos of the booth:  There was a misunderstanding and we thought we were going to be indoors with a one table limit.  Well, that's not what happened.  We were outdoors with the normal 10x10 booth space.   We made it work...

We still had fun!  We're looking forward to the Christmas Boutique at Tracy High School on Decembrer 6th.  I'll post more details later...

Thanks A Lot Fall!

I had so much fun attending a stamping on candles and fall wreath class tonight.  The instructor used all Stampin' Up products and I absolutely love how everything turned out.  The new In Color colors are gorgeous and perfect for fall.  I learned a new stamping technique called "Baby Wipe Technique".  I loved how this image turned out with all the great colors.  I can't wait to create more beautiful candles using this technique!

The leaves were individually cut with a Sizzix and then crumpled, inked and then hot glued to a grapevine wreath.  Cute wooden shapes and natural twine was used to add some fun accents.  Beautiful!

Tea Anyone?

First I want to show you guys just how messy I am...this is my work area.  I'm not sure how it's possible to make anything with this postage stamp size work area.  I have stacks of material everywhere!

And on the side:

These are boxes in the making and here are some of the finished products

Here's a close up of the tags attached to the outside:

I got the dimensions and instructions for the boxes on Splitcoaststampers.com.  Go to their tutorial section.  The "Merry and Bright" tags are cut with the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge and the copper stripes are from a stamp set that came with the cartridge (CTMH).  Merry and Bright are an old stamp from Stampin' Up.  The gold mesh ribbon was bought at a yard sale for $.25 the roll.  Papers are just a mixture from my stash.

Christmas Is Almost Here!

More Christmas tags...These are from a swap we did with my local scrapbooking group...Scrappin' in Patterson.  There were only four of us that participated, but it was still fun.  Can you guess which ones are mine?  

Mine are the two with the scallop circle punches.  I made a whole lot of these to use for this swap as well as for our personal use.

Christmas is almost here folks!

I used my scallop and circle punches from Stampin' Up but also the Artbooking Cricut Cartridge for the tag shapes.  Stamps are also from Stampin' Up.  I just used scrap papers for the tags and some twine for the "ribbon".

M.I.A. But Now I'm Back

Hey there, we had a great time in Orlando, Florida two weeks ago.  It took me a good long week to recover and get back to my mojo.  I can't wait to scrap those photos...but in the meantime, I still have plenty of projects on my plate.

I will be participating in an All Handcrafter's Boutique on November 1st in Manteca.  This will be my second time with this boutique.  Carly and I did pretty well last year and we really, really liked what we saw.  It's nice to be a part of a boutique that actually focuses on handcrafted items instead of home based businesses.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just when I think of boutique, I think of items I cannot get somewhere else or order from a catalog.

I'm planning on making more pop up cards and some of those tea bag dispenser boxes.  I'll make one to see if I like it, but the photos sure do look cute.  I'll post soon.

In the meantime, this little cutie got filled with lots of Disney character signatures!