Some Christmas projects to share

I've been busy trying to make Christmas gifts. The first piece is a "To Do" book. I used some "to do" lists from a planner that I couldn't use, cut chipboard for the covers, and bound it with a book ring. I used My Mind's Eye and DCVW paper, K & Co. 3D flowers, chipboard letters and ribbon from Target (unknown brand), book ring from Staples, and recycled chipboard. I like how it came out.



From the same planner, I used blank grocery and menu lists. These are printed back-to-back so one side has a grocery list and the other side has a blank menu form. On one cover I put "groceries" and on the other cover I put "menu" so it can be used from either side. Again, this has chipboard covers and a book ring binding.



Lastly, I've been trying to create Christmas cards. I've come up with a very simple design which is okay but it needs some ummph. The word "joy" is double mounted with foam tape to add height/dimension. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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More organizing and working on some Christmas cards

I found these cute little wooden clothes pins at the Dollar Tree the other day. I thought these would be perfect to store some of my ribbon on. I saw this idea in M's one day but thought they were charging too much for the ribbon on pins. So, now I have some of my ribbon on clothes pins and some on embroidery floss cards



and all stored in glass cracker jars on my ladder shelves.


While at M's I picked up this idea sheet in Martha's aisle. She made poinsettia tags using one of her leaf stamps. What a cute idea! So, I used my 50% off coupon to buy the stamp, which came with two different leaf images. This is the image she used for the poinsettias.


Martha's idea sheet instructed me to use silver ink to stamp the image onto red paper or cardstock. I decided I wanted to use gold ink with gold embossing powder for a raised image instead. So, I broke out my dusty embossing gun and powder (which must be at least 10 years old each) and got to work.


I stamped seven petals for each flower.

Cut the petals out and mounted them in circle shape onto a 2" square cardstock using foam adhesive tape to add some dimension. Even so, I don't think there's enough height. Maybe I need to use higher foam tape. Or, just skip the tape altogether.


For the flower centers, I used my Xyron machine to add adhesive on both sides of yellow cardstock. I removed the adhesive from one side and added Stampin' Up! Dazzling Diamonds glitter, pressing it down to make sure it stuck to the adhesive. I shook off any extra glitter and poured it back into the jar.


I then punched out 3/4" circles to use as the centers of the flowers. On some flowers I added a rhinestone flower on top of the yellow center. On one flower I tried to punch several smaller yellow dots to mount on top of the 3/4" yellow center. That was too much work and I didn't like the look after all. I tried to salvage this center by adding diamond glaze. Yuck, but passable. I've got to figure out how I want to finish the cards. I'll probably mount them onto a square card, add some ribbon and a greeting inside and call it a day.


I decided to try a different design and came up with this card. I like this look and Miss Diva thought it was too cute. I think I'll make a bunch more.

I had a great time at the crop

I hosted another crop this weekend. It was an intimate gathering of fun, spirit-filled ladies who got a lot of work done. Each cropper got either a fall brad set, fall ribbon set, and epoxy sticker set or an acrylic stamp set, stamp block, ribbon spool, and epoxy sticker set all enclosed in a fall color take-out box as a gift. Also, everyone received a door prize which was a perpetual scrapbooking calendar, a Rainbow Color Selector with masks, or an 81 piece chipboard letter set in fall colors.

I decided this crop would have a holiday season theme since it's almost Thanksgiving. For the crop I served a mini holiday dinner of roast turkey, cornbread dressing, green beans with sausage, gravy with giblets, and German chocolate cupcakes. Hmmm, hmmm, good! I was pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully my turkey came out. Martha you've got competition (smile).


While the croppers were here, they asked about some of the things I have in my studio. This got me to thinking that I should share some of these finds with you.

I bought this "Hand Stamped by" rubber stamp from Paper Angel about 10 years ago. I don't think they carry this exact style anymore. However, they have a lot of wonderful designs to choose from. I just placed an order for three more personalized stamps.

I keep an inventory of my tools and supplies in a 6" x 9" binder. I have a companion binder that I use to catalog my stamps. The inventory book has a front cover sleeve. I made a simple cover using American Craft sticker letters for the title, green grosgrain ribbon, and K & Company paper, all of which I've had for ages.

Inside are tab dividers for various categories.


I modified some of the insert pages to fit my needs. Here is a page where I cataloged my Making Memories paint. (Sorry my photo software wasn't rotating my pictures properly.)




You can get this inventory binder system from Create A System, although I think the binder cover they offer is preprinted with design instead of a sleeve.

During the crop I worked on the CD calendars I will give away as Christmas gifts. Because I'm using some bulky embellishments on some pages, I need to think of a better way to store the extra pages when they are not in use. I am also considering binding the calendar using a Bind-It-All instead of using a CD case. But I haven't acquired that tool just yet. One cropper mentioned that HSN had a great deal on this item. There was a vendor at the Great American Scrapbooking Convention who offered a special during the show. However, I wasn't sure I would use this tool often enough to justify its purchase. Now, I wish I had bought it.


Finally, some of the croppers expressed an interest in attending classes that I may offer. I love making mini albums and they were interested in my "Friends" album. If I can find all of the supplies I used in this album, I'll offer this as a class. Stay tuned.

If you're in the Washington, DC metro area, I hope you can join us for one of my monthly crops. In 2008 I'm going to hold them on the second Saturday of each month.