Happy New Year - Quick Party Hat Idea

Happy New Year to everyone! It has been a busy yet wonderful holiday. I made these quick and easy party hats to wear tonight to ring in the New Year kind of festive looking. I got the idea from 

Whimsy Decor - who had a wonderful New Year's place setting idea.

I printed out a clock graphic from Graphics Fairy. I drew in the hands. 

I printed out a party hat on some music cardstock paper - also from Graphics Fairy. The party hat pattern I got from Oh Happy Day blog. I resized it to fill the page to make it large enough. 

I printed out "2012" on cardstock. All the cardstock I used was off white.

I used some leftover curling ribbon from Christmas presents to top the hat - and some sparkly garland that I haven't put on my tree in ages around the base of the hat. I just stapled the garland on. I used some gold elastic - left over from the gift wrap - for the tie that goes under your chin. 

I put the clock on the hat using a jewel brad - and I used double sided tape to adhere the 2012 banner. I think I will use these again next year and change the date. 

All the best to you in the New Year!

Wrapping Survival Kit

Do you know anyone that has wrapping issues? I am big on survival kits - and this kit is probably one of the handiest ones I have made. I only made one this year - but I am thinking of doing more for next year. I know that I could have used this gift wrapping survival kit on many occasions. Here is what I put into it....

1. Boxes - I bought these boxes at Stitches. They were the nicest boxes I have seen - I bought them for 50 cents too!

2. Gift Bags - I made an assortment of bags - but $ stores have a good assortment if you need to make this in a hurry.

3. Ribbon - I bought ribbon at a fabric store and put them on a fancy cards. I also included some jute to tie tags on. I attached all of these on a metal ring. 

4. Tags - I made tags, and printed out some tags for an assortment. I put them in a little glassine bag to have them all together.

5. Tape, scissors - and not pictured here - PEN. I put all of these in a plastic case so they are together and easy to find. 

6. Tissue - I bought a big multi colored pack.

7. Gift Wrap - I bought 2 colored rolls and a roll of kraft paper. 

8. Door Hanger - handy to let others know you would like some privacy.

Here are some close ups of my hand made items.

This is the card I wrapped the ribbon around. After cutting out the shape with my lacy labels cricut cartridge, I inked the edges. You can download the image below for personal use.

Right click on the image - click on copy image - paste into your favorite program - resize as desired -  and print. 

I put everything into a large burlap bag that I purchased at a $ store. To finish it off I added a survival kit sign and a bow. 

Here is the survival kit sign image. You can download the image for personal use.

Right click on the image - click on copy image - paste into your favorite program - resize as desired -  and print. 

I am thinking it would be a good idea to give my husband one of these - he always seems to have  wrapping issues. 

Thanks for stopping by and happy wrapping!!!

Linking up to....

Tip Junkie

Lil Luna

The Best Gift Around a Christmas Tree.... Quick Gift Idea

I have always loved this quote, and then I saw this idea HERE on a blog called Your Creative Juices for a simple yet sweet gift idea using this quote.

I made the quote labels. I used a frame from Graphics Fairy, and a clip art from The Vintage Workshop. I did two gifts - one with a roll of wrapping paper and one with ribbon. I tied a bow in the wrapping paper and attached the quote tag. For the ribbon gift I made a cardboard ribbon holder and wound 3 yards of ribbon around it. 

The card was cut from the Lacy Labels Cricut cartridge, size 2 1/2. For the background of the card I printed sheet music from Graphics Fairy.

I gave these gifts out yesterday and they went over well. I am thinking they will be something that will be helpful for preparing for Christmas - with a quote that invites the Christmas spirit. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to...

Graphics Fairy

Christmas Treat Bags Made from an Envelope

This week I will be doing lots of baking, getting little gifts ready to hand out at work. Sometimes I get stuck at what to put the little goodies in that I make. These bags are a perfect solution. I learned how to make these treat bags earlier this year. These are a perfect size for putting candy in, and small amounts of baked goodies, as they are a little bit bigger than a candy bag that you get at a corner store. These are made from an envelope that is cut to fit in your printer.  To go to the tutorial Click here!

I used these graphics from the Graphics Fairy...

    Snow Girl - pictured above

Jolly Santa 

Santa Driving a Car  

There are many other graphics to pick from. The possibilities are endless. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to....

Graphics Fairy

A Merry "Kiss"mas Candy Jar

This candy jar has been on my to-do list for a while. It was an exciting project to do.

Here is how I made it:

1. THE BASE - I used a 5 1/2 inch terra cotta pot, spray painted it with semi-gloss black - about four coats. 

2. THE BOWL - bought a glass bowl from a dollar store. It was really good (thick) glass, which made the candy jar very impressive. I bought two bags of kisses - but to fill the bowl, I would have needed four bags. I glued the bowl on to the upside down painted terra cotta pot with epoxy glue. 

3. THE LID - I used a 5 1/2 inch terra cotta saucer. I spray painted the saucer with semi-gloss black. The  handle on the lid is a drawer knob that I spray painted black, and glued on with epoxy glue. 

I tied a bow on the dish to make it festive. 

Give this with a card that says, Merry "Kiss"mas, and you have a sweet gift.

I gave this gift out yesterday and the recipient was thrilled about it!

Gotta like that!

Thanks for stopping by!

How to Speed up the Aging Process - A Rusting "Try"al

I seen a rusting recipe on Pinterest - and wanted to try it on some ornament hooks. My tree is going to be more rustic this year, and the silver hooks are not going to work - so another Pinterest idea got put into action. Here is what I did....

I bought some cool ornament hooks at the $ Store. I checked out the link to the rusting recipe from a blog called Lipstick and Laundry. You need to check out what she rusted - CLICK HERE TO SEE!
I cut the recipe in half and used a yogurt container. I stirred the concoction with all disposable utensils JUST IN CASE. Once you put your metal in it will foam up - so make sure you have a big enough container.  I used 1 cup peroxide, 1/8 cup white vinegar and 1 tablespoon salt.

The ornament hooks took one hour to rust. I have some bells rusting - I will leave them for 24 hours. I didn't want to chance dumping the remains of this recipe in my sink, or grass - so I dumped it in a ditch with weeds and gravel.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuffed Muslin Ornaments

I wanted my tree to look different this year without spending a lot of money - and these muslin ornaments were the solution. For the ornament above I used the silhouette frame from Graphics Fairy for the outline, and Noel is from a free font called Christmas Cheer.  I made these ornaments using muslin, and I made them the same way I made the stuffed tags a while back - CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE TUTORIAL. 

I did put on some of the ornaments a rusted ornament hanger. I rusted the hangers myself. CLICK HERE to go to the post on how to rust metal objects.

Here is another ornament, using the same silhouette frame from the Graphics Fairy with the Joy to the World in the frame that is one of the options with that graphic.

Here are a few other ornaments I made. We are putting our tree up tonight - I am very excited to see how it turns out. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to...

Graphics Fairy

Paper Tole Nativity Made from Christmas Cards

Paper tole is the process of making a dimensional picture out of several copies of the same image.

I made this paper tole nativity a few years ago. I had a package of Christmas cards with quite a few left over - and I knew I wanted to paper tole these cards. There is an avid paper tole crafter in my church who was a sweetheart and guided me through this project. She thought I was crazy for picking such a hard project for my first paper tole experience. What made it difficult was the small size of the pictures.

Since I made this a few years ago - I do not have the pictures to make a tutorial - but I found a paper tole tutorial using a stamped image CLICK HERE.

Trying to get a picture with the right angle to show the depth of the picture was a challenge. 

I just love how this turned out. I framed the work of art in a $store shadow box. It wasn't in the frame department - rather the picture deptartment. It had a 3D teapot in it that I removed. This was way cheaper then paying to get it framed. 

I hope this gives you some ideas....

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to....
"Lil Luna

Book Page Snowman Gift Bag

I am on a mission to make gift bags right now. I am loving the book page craze out there and so I decided to put that on a gift bag. Here is how I made it:

1. I copy and pasted book page graphic from Graphics Fairy, to my favorite publishing program. I added the cute snowman dingbat that I downloaded for free. The font is called "Janda Christmas Doodles" and it has a lot of adorable pictures on there. I like dingbats because you can paste them onto a background and it looks like you have drawn it on there. The font size of my snowman is 450. After printing I cut the image out, and colored in his nose.

2. I picked a background paper, inked the edges with light brown ink, sewed around the edge, and adhered it to an 8x10 kraft gift bag.

3. I glued on the snowman, snow flakes and "Merry Christmas". The Merry Christmas was cut out using the Cricut cartridge - Joys of the Season - size 2 1/2. The snowflakes are from a Martha Stewart punch. I added some jewels to the centers of each snowflake.

I just love that snowman - he is soooo cute! Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to....

Graphics Fairy

Lil Luna

Make Your Own Family Photo Christmas Card

I saw a family photo Christmas card idea on Pinterest - which originally came from an Etsy shop called Announcing You.  I loved the photo strip idea and so I made it into this years Christmas card.

It is easy to make your own family photo Christmas Card. Here is how I made mine:

1. Use the publishing program of your choice on your computer. I have a Mac. I use Keynote.

2. Choose a background color. I chose grey. 

3. Insert a white square and stretch it the length and width you desire. Insert desired pics and crop them to fit the white rectangle. After all the pics were the size I wanted - I rotated the rectangle and pics 2 degrees.

4. Type in a sentiment.

5. After I was happy with how everything looked, I clicked on File and then export. I clicked on the images button, made sure it said JPEG file, and saved it to my iphoto. In iphoto I cropped it to constrain it to a 4x6, but you can choose whatever.

6. Now I will transfer it to a jump drive and print it out at my favorite photo lab. The going rate in my city is 19 cents per picture - not bad for a family photo Christmas card.

Here is my family photo card from last year...

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to...

Whipperberry

Silhouette Christmas Tags

Here is another project from my pinterest to do list - Christmas silhouette tags. The inspiration for these tags can be found HERE on a blog called Anne's Paper Fun. 

First I printed out a a book page background (found on Vintage Moth) - and cut it into tag sizes. Then I printed some mini tags using a dingbat that you can download for free HERE called "Christmas Cheer". The tags on Anne's Paper fun blog had the silhouettes printed directly on the book page - but I couldn't find any digital silhouettes I liked, so I cut some silhouettes out with my Cricut, using "A Child's Year" cartridge. I glued the silhouettes on the tag - added a black tag for a background and put it all together with some jute. I used cream cardstock for my paper, and of course used Tim Holtz antique linen distress ink to make the paper more interesting. I read somewhere that you can use shoe polish to distress paper and get the same effect. That would be interesting to try one day. 

I was playing around with some different ideas like the monogram. I think the child on the rocking horse was fitting for a Christmas tag. I sure like the dingbat "Christmas Cheer" - it has some neat images on it that could be used as silhouettes for these tags. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to....

Whipperberry

Break Glass In Case of Emergency - Gift Idea

I saw this idea on Pinterest - but I can't give credit to the proper person as the link did not have a link. Please let me know if you are the genius behind this idea so I can give you the proper credit. I wanted to make this for my hubby to put in his "man cave" and I still plan to do that - but this one I made for my nephew who apparently loves Pepsi. 

Supplies - I used a wooden plaque from the dollar store, and a photo cube - also from the $ store. After I painted the wood black - I adhered the cube to the wood with epoxy glue. I adhered it so that I could add/remove the can of pop. I used the mini can that fit in the cube. I glued glass marbles to the bottom. I printed the "Break Glass in Case of Emergency" on a sticker sheet and stuck it to the wood. Very simple and very effective - it made for a good laugh at the birthday party - and I think a perfect idea for a teenage boy. There are so many things you can put in one of these. There are also shadow boxes at some $ stores that you could put chocolate or other items in. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to...

Lil Luna
Gingersnap Crafts
Tatertots and Jello

Make Your Own Halloween Plates

I made these Halloween plates by printing on contact paper and adhering it to the bottom of a glass plate.
Here is what I did....

1. I purchased glass plates from the $ Store and washed them. The sticky tag didn't come off nice - so I put some peanut butter on and scrubbed it off.

2. I printed out a circle from my computer and tested on my plate for size - I was lucky the first time - I got a size that worked. It is best if the circle is a little smaller than the flat circle part of the plate.

3. Cut out two pieces of contact paper that will fit over the circle. With one of the cut out contact papers, put double sided tape on the peel off backing and adhere over the printed circle. The plastic side should be facing up to be printed on. I used two varieties of contact paper - one from the $ store and the other from Zellers. The Zellers contact paper was way better quality and not as shiny. Both did work but I definitely liked the matte contact paper.

4. On your computer, copy and paste desired images in the circle - if you use printing reverse it. The images I used were from Graphics Fairy. Click Here to go to the skull - Click Here to go to the Skeleton Man. Put the contact paper sheet through the printer in a manner that the image will print on the contact paper.  Do not touch image as it is like a dry erase board and the ink will smear.

5. Take the pre-cut contact paper - peel off the back and stick it on top of the printed contact paper. You might get some bubbles - but most if not all of them can be worked out by pressing them firmly.

6. Remove the contact paper from the printer paper. Cut around circle.

7. Remove backing.

8. Apply to plate. If you have the good quality contact paper, it can be removed for washing and put on again after. Stick it on the fridge or window until dishes are washed and re-apply if desired. The cheaper contact paper didn't work so well taking it off and using it again.

So there you have it - make your own custom Halloween plates!

Check out some of my other Halloween posts...

Print on burlap and make a banner - Click Here

Halloween Food Ideas - Click Here

Planter with a free typography printable for a lantern or other uses - Click Here

Trick or Treat Wood Blocks - Click Here

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to...

Tatertots and Jello
Graphics Fairy

Halloween Food Ideas 2011

I saw this CUTE idea and HAD to do it. Please go look at the blog where I got this idea from. It is called "The Smith Family" blog. She has a whole Halloween party laid out for you to look at - FABULOUS. I liked this idea because it was super easy and super cute. CLICK HERE to go to the post.

Sandwiches are easy to make - the only extra touch is printing out the clip art, cutting it out and adhering the legs and hats to toothpicks. 

Here are the links to the clip I used - LEGS CLICK HERE   HATS CLICK HERE

I saw this idea on BHG. They had a refried bean dip with lettuce for grass. I made a black bean dip RECIPE HERE, and made guacamole for the grass. The guacamole helped hold up the tree and grave stones. Cut out shapes from tortillas, brush with oil, cook until golden brown. 

Also, check out the gingerbread skeleton men I made. Click HERE to go to the post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to...

Tatertots and Jello

Gingerbread Skeleton Man Cookies

I saw this really good idea on Pinterest - gingerbread men that were iced like skeletons. Gingerbread cookies are one of my favorite cookies. The secret I think to good gingerbread is to not cook them that long. The longest time I leave my cookies in the oven for is six minutes - but it does depend on how thick they are. Click here for my gingerbread cookie recipe - and the royal icing recipe.

My icing is something that needs to be improved upon - but I basically strived to make a bone shape in each arm and leg - an anchor like piping for the ribs, and then the skull. My icing could have used a bit more sugar to thicken as it spread a bit after I piped it - but I got the hang of icing after a while. The first few were really creepy looking - but hey - they are for Halloween!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Halloween Burlap Banner

I have been admiring the burlap banners that I have been seeing around - and I thought I would make a couple of small banners. I recently tried printing on burlap with the Thanksgiving Block project - and it was so much fun - I wanted to run burlap through my printer again but this time using a bit of color.

       I made an "eek" banner and a  "boo" banner.

This is how I did it....

1. I made the graphics on my computer (I have the images below so you can use these for personal use). I ironed burlap to freezer paper and then ran it through my printer. Last time I don't think I ironed the freezer paper to the burlap long enough - when it went through my computer it made a freeky sound - but it still worked - this time it didn't make the sound which was much more pleasant.

2. I cut out the banner with the freezer paper still attached as it is easier to cut. I also left an inch of burlap on top of the banner to fold over and encase the string.

3. I took the freezer paper off.

4. I folded over the top encasing the jute I used to string the banner and stitched the length of each pennant.

                                                          Here is where I hung them...

   Here are the banner images so you can try them yourself... Right click, copy and paste, resize in your favorite publishing program.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to....