Ornaments 2025

Every year, I make ornaments for two of my grandchildren.  My mother did that for her two and I thought it was a great idea . . .

 Cardstock:   Neenah #110 Solar White,  Marcos Carnival Cover

Red, Concord & 9th Glitter Paper: Gold, Silver

Inks:             ColorBox Silver, Gold

Emb Pwdr:   PastTime Glitter Silver, All Night Media Glitter Gold Tinsel

Dies:            Spellbinders 2013 Heirloom Ornament, Pretty Quick 

Poinsettia Bauble & Banner, Memory Box Garden

Sprig, Concord & 9th Take a Bough                   

Doo Dads:    Mark Richards Metal Stickers Silver, Gold        

 

Here are the boxes I make to mail them.  The ornaments are dimensional and a little on the delicate side, so some extra protection is a good idea.  Since each is labeled, it also helps to keep them organized.

 

BOXES

Cardstock:   Recollections #110Kraft

Dies:            Papertrey Ink BulkMail Envelope, Tim Holtz 

Alphanumeric, Pretty Quick Poinsettia Bauble

& Banner                    

Place Cards

 Just for a change of pace, my friends and hosts decided that this year's Thanksgiving  main entree was going to be on the very light side.  While we've heard of others who decided to go the Mac and Cheese route this year, we went for hot dogs and sauerkraut!  I brought some vegan hickory smoked dogs and a bunch of sides and along with what everyone else brought, we had an admittedly unusual but exceedingly scrumptious repast.

In light of the informality, I thought it would be fun to go in the opposite direction and make place cards for everyone.  I pulled out a couple of embossing folders and then added a handful of leafy die cuts I'd painted with glittery watercolors and propped up with pop dots.  I really enjoyed this first attempt at making place cards and am thinking I'll use any excuse to make some more in future!

 

Cardstock:   Scrap Burgundy, Toast, Canson Montval #140 Watercolor   

Inks:             Distress Brushed Corduroy

Colorants:    Jacquard Piñata Brass

Waterclrs:    Various glitter Watercolors by Iuile of Etsy

Dies:            Stampin’ Up Classic Rectangles Small, DieNamics

                     Falling Leaves, Impression Obsession Small Leaf Set,

                     Memory Box Creekside Leaves, Taylored Expressions

                     Leaves, Tim Holtz Alphanumeric Tiny Upper  

Emb Fldr:    Stampin’ Up Bricks & Bark, Taylored Expressions Blistered

Home Stink Home

My adorable friend Vangie's compassion extends to all living things and she cannot bring herself to kill even a stink bug.  She says, "They just want to be warm, so I put them in our laundry room because it shares space with the furnace."  OMG! 

Because we don't go the serious route for birthday presents, I made her a stink bug house to hang on the laundry room wall . . .

 

The doorways are open at each end in case the little critters actually want to take up residence.  The windows have acetate panes which make them look quite realistic and I thought some brightly colored flowers would keep things perky.  This was a bizarre idea for sure, but also one that is going to bring on a lot of laughs!

 

Cardstock:   Strathmore #100 Bristol, Scraps: Red, Yellow, Green,

                     Blue, Brown   

Dies:            Wodwad 3D House, DieNamics Accent It Labels & Tabs,

                     DieVersions font Hint of Lime, Punch Bunch Flowers,

                     Cottage Cutz Nested Stitched Scallop Squares     

Doo Dads:    Chipboard Hanging Panel, acetate         

Dream

Last year, I saw an adorable idea using giant paperclips (4” long!) topped with Spellbinders’ Decorative Dress Forms.  The Paperclip Bookmark inspiration was on Splitcoast Stampers [HERE]* and I decided these would make perfect Christmas gifts for six of my nearest and dearest, including the members of my stamp club.  So here they are . . . 

The more I did, the more I wanted to do, so like Topsy, the project just grew!  As I’d die cut plenty of dress forms, I had leftovers and decided to use them to decorate the gift bags as well.   Unfortunately, the bags have a slight sheen which produced a glare no matter how I angled the bags, so please forgive the poor photography.
 

I had a ball with these little ladies and I’m looking forward to making more of them!

Cardstock:      Marcos Jute, Antique Linen, Bazzill Raven, assorted designer

                                papers    
Stamps:           Creative Catalyst Tweed Border, Frog’s Whiskers Straight
                                & Narrow Border, So She Stamps “Dream”      
Inks:                Distress Old Paper, Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy,
                               Papertrey Ink Chai,  ColorBox Black           
Dies/Punches:              Spellbinders Decorative Dress Forms, Fancy Tags, Fancy
                               Tags 2, Memory Box Pippi, Isabella Butterflies
Emb Powder:    Judikins Detail Black
Doo Dads:        Martha Stewart Border Stickers, K & Company
                                 Adhesive Trims, brads, paper flowers, Staples Mega
                                Clips, aquarium  gravel (to weight the box and make
                                 it more stable), crystals, Black gift bags

* The Splitcoast Stampers Tutorial at this link features a different project, but the accompanying video shows clear instructions on how to make the decorated paper clips featured on my blog.  I added a few steps to the original instructions in order to give the box and the giant paper clips greater stability – anyone interested in the details is welcome to write me for further instructions.

Asparagus Redux

I have lusted after the Inktense watercolor pencils for nearly two years.  I love how vivid they are on Kraft cardstock and also how easy it is to get a watercolored look when coloring and then using a water brush on top.  So when I came across the opportunity to get the full 72 piece set for half price, I sprung!  To heck with buying food and paying the rent . . .

The problem was storage – I’ve long since run out of desktop real estate, so I needed something handy but portable.  The ends of the pencils are color-coded which makes them ideal for horizontal storage, but this would never work for vertical storage as I would never store any pencil tip down.  Also, as some of the color coding is dark, it’s hard to tell the colors apart when they’re all grouped together.  Dividing them up by the eight color families seemed the best solution.  So I haunted the dollar stores looking for slim, tall-ish square glass containers.  I came up empty. 

Then I remembered that canned asparagus comes in narrow, tall cans and so my problem was solved!  These are narrow enough to take up minimal space, yet with plenty of room for future colors to be added (let’s have some more yellows and oranges, please!).

We ate asparagus every day for a week, after which I peeled off the labels and washed the cans.  I diecut felt circles to use on the inside bottoms of the cans which keeps the tinny noise level down.   Then I cut up eight different black and white designer papers, applied Crafter’s Pick Incredibly Tacky Glue with a brayer for even coverage, and put these on the cans, starting at the center of the paper and working outwards.   For even easier color identification, I glued strips of colored cardstock to cover the seams, and diecut scalloped strips from the same colors to go around the tops and hide the metal rims.  Except for the felt bottoms, I decided against fussing with the interiors – way too anal even for me.

Lastly, I diecut colored butterflies to cover the seam from the scalloped strip and add some lighthearted whimsy.  Then I happened upon the perfect-sized wooden box which I gessoed in black, painted with black acrylic, and then stenciled on some butterflies on all four sides with molding paste.  The whole arrangement is lightweight and very easy to take from its nearby home and set it on my desk for some serious fun with colored-pencil-watercoloring!

 
Cardstock:                     Pre-printed papers, various colored scraps

Inks:                                Gelly Roll Clear Star                                                   
Dies/Punches:               Memory Box Butterflies Isabella, Pippi, Spellbinders
                                              Standard Circles, Sizzix Decorative Strip Dots & Scallops
Doo Dads:                      Dreamweaver stencil Oriental Butterfly, Felt (used on the
                                              inside bottom of the cans), American Traditional
                                             3-D Molding Paste