Gingerbread Christmas

I just want to apologize for not keeping up with my blog to well lately. I have made sure to post the blog candy because so many of you look forward to it and I just can’t disappoint you :) but I have been disappointing myself by not getting my artwork posted.

However it has been the holidays and I have been so into doing things with and for my family. This is my little prince Quinton eating the gingerbread cookies I made for him. I also did a gingerbread house but he has to wait for Christmas eve to eat that with the other kids in the family… and I filled the inside of the little house with party favor toys so when they break it open there will be a fun surprise :)

Bottled Fairy

 

This is really a lousy picture but she is soooo small. This little bottle fairy's bottle is only 1 ½ an inch high and I could not get the picture to come out clear. She is done with my front back images so she looks cute no matter how she twirls around on her neck cord. Her wings are of acetate and stand off of her body to give her a more dimensional look

Three little kittens ,,,^..^,,,~~,,,^..^,,,~~,,,^..^,,,~~

 

... are hoping for mittens :)) and since they are faithful friends they should get them too! I could not wait to play with the new Christmas hats and cats and dogs collage sheets but it was really hard to photo because I used a gold paint pen on the hats and it has sparklies all over it.

Fairy Magic Kit

We were all given these little tins at the last meeting at our local stamp club. We were told to decorate them any way we liked and we would trade them the next meeting. I decided to do a fairy but I could not send her off to a new home with out all of her necessities :)

Getting Rusty :D

 Inspired by my newest design team member Jen Crossley, I did this little fabric wall hanging I wanted to share :)

Tinsel Ornaments *<} :o } >>>

Have yourself a vintage little Christmas
.·::·.·:*:·.·::·..·::·.·:*:·.·::·..·::·.·:*:·.·::·..·::·.·:*:·.·::·.

 

 These really are easier than they look, they are just dressed up ornaments from the dollar store. The instructions for the styles I have done are below but you really could just let your imagination run wild. Each ornament has the same image on the backside but I used my mirrored images available at my little etsy store.. it so that it would look the same no matter what side you were looking at. I will also be recommending some products that I have used but I am in no way connected with these companies, I just like there products.

First decide what images you are going to use and cut them out. I love to do intricate cutting by if your not great with cutting things out you can just leave a quarter inch margin around the edge. If you do this however it will look better if you take a gold paint pen and run it around the edges.

 

The simplest ones were the last three you see on the bottom. To make these just crisscross a couple of shiny pipe cleaners and give them a couple of twists in the center as you see in picture 1. Then weave some tinsel back and forth around them as you see in picture 2. Curl the ends of the pipe cleaners and glue your images on. One on the front and the other on the back. If you want something a little more durable you can buy the flat wire ornaments. I found the star I used on the last one also at the dollar store.

For the birdcage I used five silver pipe cleaners and then twisted them together with a gold one. Then I wrapped one end of the gold pipe cleaner to form a ring as you see in the picture 3 and left the other half long. Once that was done I attached the other half of the gold pipe cleaner to the hanger on a Christmas bulb leaving only about two thirds the length of the silver ones. This will keep the “cage wires” from pulling straight when hung. Then glue another pipe cleaner around the circumference of the bulb and attach the silver pipe cleaners to that and curl the ends up. Wrap some tinsel around the center gold pipe cleaner and embellish to your hearts content.

 

I have recently discovered a glue called Zip Dry paper glue and I use it for just about everything. It sets quickly so your not holding things forever while they dry. It is the type of glue you find on the backside of a sticker so if you glue something where you don’t want it you can use another product called Un-Du scrappers solution to remove it and place it in the right spot without ruining the image or item you removed. As you can imagine, doing this kind of project your going to get glue all over your hands and enviably on the project where you don’t want it. However you can use the Un-Du to clean up your project too.                          

For the hot air balloon I used string tinsel. It may look like pipe cleaners but it is not. Cut a length of it long enough to go around the top section of the bulb and attach four lengths to it evenly spaced as you see in picture 6.Glue that around the top section of the bulb as in picture 7. Wrap a wooden block in foil paper and attach the tinsel strands to the sides of the block and embellish as you like. 

The others are just old fashion glass ornaments and a tree topper that I glued embellishments onto. I used Tinsel garlands, foil pipe cleaners, bead trim, fabric trims and I love Dresden foil. It is hard to find so if you don’t happen to have any Dresden foils try going to your party store and picking up some gold foil doilies from the wedding section. The edges of these can be cut off to form paper lace and sometimes you can find lacy medallions in the center that can be cut away and used too.

Star Gazing Shadow Box

This little shadow box is about 2 1/2 inches deep and it is a 5 x 7 opening but you really can't see the depth in the picture. The little stars you see are really on the back wall of the box and the fairy stands out from that. She is two dimensional as her translucent wings stand off her body.

Thank you for Created By Hand

 Love this challenge and I need to find the time more often to play :)) Don’t miss all the other entries this week as everyone always needs Thank you card ideas! Created Byhand

Mixed Media Monday Purple & Blue

I did a really simple card for this weeks theme at Mixed Media Monday, but it was fun to get a little ink under my fingernails …lol

Going Batty

My back is better but I am still having trouble stamping. You would not believe the muscles you use in your back to stamp …lol. It has been driving me batty but I can still play with my soldering iron so I did this little pendant. Just one pendant but a different picture one each side :)

Quinton's First Birthday Cake ... Jungle

Wow … this year has just flown by! My little grandbaby turned one yesterday! This is a picture of the cake I made for his big day! I had stayed up until 2:00 AM making the little animals but when I walked into the house with that cake Quinton's eyes just lit up! ... so it was worth all the work. His room is done in jungle and his monkey is his favorite toy. Once we got to the cake and he realized that you could eat those toys it was hilarious! We let him pick the animal he wanted and then we sat him in his high chair with the little top section. His Mommy and Daddy try not to give him sugar too much so it was hard for him to believe he could eat all he wanted. He ate half of that elephant and about a third of that top little cake. I don't know where he put it because we had just eaten about a half an hour earlier. I only have the pictures I took of the cake before we went over there because I forgot my camera. There were lots of cameras there though and his mommy said she will send me copies of all of them … I will post one as soon as I get one too! :)

Web Woman Coffin 4 Created By Hand Challenge

This is for the Created By Hand Challenge this week. This little charm/pendant measures 1 1/8 th of an inch long and is two images sandwiched between glass.... just one charm but the picture shows both sides of it.

Halloween Shoe 4 Theme Thursday Paper Shoe Template Pattern

I recently found a new challenge site I love. It is called Theme Thursday. I have been watching it for a while but when they posted the theme this week was Halloween I had to play. I went all out and designed a pattern for this little stamped witches shoe. You can really have fun with it as it could be used for a party favor for many occasions. Some ideas are pink with boa feathers for a little girls birthday or how about white glitter paper for a wedding? The pattern for this is available in my little etsy store Altered Artifacts.

Wishing Box

A little wishing box to fill wishes to be remove as they come true :)

Mixed Media Monday ... Numbers ATC's

 

There are several challenges that I really enjoy looking at what everyone else has done and I get a chance to play once in a while too. This week at Mixed Media Monday the theme was Numbers, so here is my entry. I have also placed these on my ATC’s for trade page but I want to trade them as a set. So if you too have a little triptych set email me and we can set up a trade :)

Witches Graveyard

This is not the greatest picture because I don’t know how to use my cousins camera very well but my camera is on its way home from California! Please notice the scary eyes in the keyhole of the rusty backdrop. This backdrop and the rusty things piled up on the corner is from a doorknob mechanism that I took apart. The spider web and spider (plastic) were rusted with the new rusting technique that my son came up with for me. This is one technique that I will cover in the Halloween workshop. It is such a cool technique and only takes a few minutes so it is instant gratification. The little ghost witch is printed on transparency and then I cut the point for her hat from the background I cut away. I draped the cheesecloth across the back for the picture so that the little witch would her transparency but it did not work so great. I will try for a better picture when my camera comes home.

Spook Show Workshop

 Click on the thumb above to go to the larger picture

Thanks to my cousins camera I was able to get a picture of what I have been working on the past few days. This is three projects for a mini workshop that I will be overseeing at The Latest Trends yahoo group. I just put up a new collage sheet for both of the assemblages … Spook Show and Pranksters too. I will be offering it 50% off plus postage to all workshop members who will be making an assemblage for the workshop. I will be covering laminating collage images to chipboard... how to match the images up for a front back image so that you can make ornaments like the Pumpkin Sitter that you can see hanging in the center of the picture on the left side. This technique is also used on the Prankster’s assemblage. This was done for the center of the table so it can be seen from all sides. I turned it around in the picture to the right so you could see the backside. I will also cover how to clean up the edges so that it looks professional and you wont have those pointy cut bumps. Then my spray glue glitter technique is very useful for holiday projects too. I have some great tips to make all of this really easy and you can do something as simple as the hanging ornament or a little more intense and do an assemblage. It doesn’t start until next month so you have plenty of time to come on over and join the fun!

Gothic Arches ...For The Birds

 

The theme over at Gothic Arches this week is “For The Birds” so here is my little twist :)

Asian Collage Shrine

 

 

These are some of the collage swap cards I did for one of the groups I am in. In the center you can see it closed. I used cardstock that was red on one side and black on the other. Then I embossed Asian text in red and closed it with a spiral paper clip. Then I collaged the inside. Some were done in reveres with the red on the outside and the black on the inside. It was a fun swap and I am excited to see what I get back :)

Got Mouse?

This is my entry for the Gothic Arch challenge this week. The theme is Cats ,,,^..^,,,~~