Noel

 Have been wanting to make one of these signs for a long time. I purchased a 1x8x10 that was on the clearance rack and had them cut it down to 6'.  Then I sanded down the edges to deter any stickers. I wanted it to be a soft muted blue color so I used white acrylic paint and added some military blue to it and also some black.  I painted both sides and then kinda slapped the paintbrush around to give it some texture.

Then I printed out the letters on my printer at like a size of 770. Then I went around the outline on the back with a dark lead pencil.  I placed each one on the board about 1 1/2 inches apart and outlined each letter. I then painted each one with just white paint.  When dry I outlined each letter with a fine black marker.

 Then I tore apart an old wreath I had in my stash.  I hot glued some of the branches to the top and sides above the 'N'.  I added a good sized red bow and a gold bell that was tied with another little red bow.  I hot glued them on as well.  The I added another little patch of branches as the bottom below the 'L' and added another gold bell.

 Then I found a few small pinecones laying around my house and thought they added that last little touch it needed.

So cute....................for the first one.  There are a few things I would do different but those will have to wait for next time.

Hope you are having a great holiday season!
Hugs,
~Jody

Christmas Cards

Hi All,

Just wanted to show you another take on Tim's December tag.  I actually used his inspiration for my Christmas cards this year with a little twist.  I used his lamppost die for my center piece instead of the wreath and I used some rusted metal snowflakes instead of the star.  Well I started with some rusted metal snowflakes but realized early on that I didn't have enough so I duplicated them with some grungepaper and some brown paint with a little dry glitter thrown in or actually on, literally.  They turned out good.

I cut the 'believe' from his script holiday words in red and then sprayed them with heirloom gold

The yellow light in the lamp post, I used some plastic packaging and covered it with some sunshine alcohol ink

So do you think the snowflakes look like they are metal?

  I covered the back of the tag with some darker tan and stamped Merry Christmas on them with a couple of smaller snowflakes and signed them.  Got them in the mail just this past Monday.  Good thing too because we had a pretty good snow storm here on Tuesday.  About 6-7" I think they said. 

Hope you are having a joyous crafting holiday season.
Hug,
~Jody

Winter Wonderland...............................better late than never

Before I begin, I would just like to say Happy Birthday to my little sister, Kelly.  She would have been 54 years old today.  She has been our guardian Angel for 34 years now. Love and miss her so much.

A few years ago, or maybe it was just last year, Tim posted an inspiration piece from one of his media team members named Emma Williams. She called it Winter Wonderland.  Well, I just got mine done.  I loved how she made the sleigh 3D and the jingle bells vintage looking.  I actually just fell in love with the whole thing and decided to make my own.

I went to Michael's and got a platform for it and so it began.  I covered it with gesso, texture paste and distress glitter to get the snowy effect.  I made up the sleigh and the 'reindeer' and got them all painted.  Then I tried to put it all together one day and realized my platform was much longer than the one Emma used.  It must have thrown me off quite a bit because I stalled out, right there, lol.  It sat on my buffet all year.  I just kept looking at it, and looking at it, every time I walked by.  It finally donned on me that I just needed to add some extra trees, like more than she had on hers.  But by then, Christmas was had long past and the passion for it had left me.

When I was putting out this year's Christmas decorations, I had to move the little platform with falling down reindeer and sleigh to another place.  Well it ended up being put IN the buffet for safe keeping.  I got all the decorations done and then one day it popped in my head that I should finish that little Winter Wonderland.  So I salvaged it from the depths of the old buffet and took it into my craft room.  I mussed and fussed with it, for most of the day, finding little trinkets and bells and things that I could decorate it with. And it is finally done, over a year later, lol.  See what you think.

The trees I used were from my little Christmas Village.  I didn't end up putting it up this year so I borrowed it's trees.

I had some little blue stars left over from a 4th of July project so I added them to my sleigh. They kinda matched the word 'JOY' since it was done in blue too.

The little snowman was from one of my tea party invitations or menu cards from years past.  It is made out of shrink plastic with one of Tim's old snowman dies.  He had a swirl of blue on him so I added him to the scene as well.

I am so pleased with how it turned out.  Glad I waited for the inspiration to return and I'm glad too that it did return.  Loved the old world feel to it.  Hope you like it too.
Hugs,
~Jody

Baby Mason Jars

Tim had a really good idea on his blog yesterday, using his little baby mason jars for filling with goodies and giving for gifts. I just happen to have some homemade peanut butter fudge sitting on my counter and was scheduled to have lunch with a girlfriend today. So in the spirit of Christmas, I ran over to Hobby Lobby to see if I could get some of the baby mason jars.  SCORE...............they had four or five packages. Armed with my weekly coupon I purchased one package and quickly ran home to wash them out and fill one with said fudge.

I then plugged in the hot glue gun and proceeded to glue a piece of burlap to the top of the lid.  I inked the edges with walnut stain first and then glued it down in a few places around the lid.  Then I strung a little gold bell on a red ribbon and tied it around the burlap with a bow.  I inserted a wreath branch in behind the bell.

I added one of my little gift tags  and tied the little gold thread around the whole thing. 

As I was headed out the door to go to lunch, I remembered to take a photo.  It's not a real good one but you can get the idea. It was quaint and cute and well received!  What a great idea!!
Hugs,
~Jody

12 Tags Dec 2015

Wow, it's been a long time since I've done a tag from Tim's blog.  I was especially drawn to the burlap background.  He does such amazing work, I love trying to replicate his projects.

I had some burlap on hand but most of the other stuff I had to duplicate another way.

The scroll stencil I didn't have so I used the negative piece of his Elegant Flourishes die that I had in my stencil box.

The paper punches I didn't have but I did have the Festive Greenery die so I cut the branches out one at a time, that took a long time, lol.  I believe they are somewhat larger than the punches but I made them work.

I didn't have the bow tie die either so I free handed it, lol. It turned out pretty good, good enough anyway.

I didn't have the jingle brads but I did have little bronze and gold jingle bells.  The bronze ones I used just like they were and the gold ones I covered in silver mixative.  It helped tone down the gold a bit, it worked.

I used an old stencil brush with some white acrylic paint to make snow splatter and.........................

the words I had to print off the computer.  In order to make the background black, just use the excel spreadsheet and type out the words like you want them.  I used to have a font that looked alot like some of his stuff but it crashed with my last computer so alas I had to use a different font.  I will find the other one again though and reload on my new computer again.  Anyway, you just have to make the background black in the cells where you typed your words and it will print that way.  Pretty cool huh!

I didn't care for the sewing on the card so I decided to forego that, besides my sewing machine is covered with other things right now and the thread would not have matched.

I didn't have the mirrored stars either but I did have some clear pearly ones which I covered with mushroom alcohol ink.  It turned out well.

Tim didn't say what he colored the seam binding with at the top of the tag so I used some walnut spray stain on mine and added it.

Love how it turned out.  I love the vintage rustic look of it.

Thanks for checking it out!
Hugs,
~Jody

Happy CyberMonday

Everyone...............................

Hope you are having a great Monday.  I have been doing some more crafting.  Made a few more necklace/earring sets and some more gift tags.

This set is Faux Onxy and Silver

This set is Faux Turquoise and Silver

A couple of the different gift tags that I made are:

I need to get back in my craft room and get some Christmas cards made.  If you'd like to check out my Etsy shop, here's the link.  Hope you have a great day!

Hugs,
~Jody

Busy, busy busy........................................

I have been soooooo busy crafting, I have forgotten to put some pics up here for you to enjoy.

I had a rather unique experience happen a couple of weeks ago and it really got me motivated.  I received an email from PayPal saying that I had been paid $XX for some Thanksgiving die cuts that I had in my Etsy shop, 5 YEARS AGO.  I had to scramble to find a picture of what the person ordered so I could make them and get them in the mail.  I was so surprised!  And I still don't know how they found the item to purchase it.  I hadn't done anything with my Etsy shop for over 5 years, but I never closed it either.  The pictures of the items I had in it were still there but the listings were expired.  Still kinda baffles me.  I sent an email to the person that ordered them asking but they never responded.

Anyway.........................it got me motivated.

I have since made some beautiful jewelry

And some Gift Tags (several variations)

And some Christmas Die Cuts

These are just a few of the items I have put in my Etsy shop and I wanted to invite you to take a look.   My shop name is Unique Unicorn Designs and the link is here.   Enjoy!

More cards.................

Hi everyone, have been keeping busy making more Halloween cards.  I was poking around Pinterest and came across an old technique that Tim did on a Christmas tag back in 2008.  He painted a tag black and then clear embossed a flourish on it.  Over the top of that he painted some juniper paint.  Before it dried he wiped with a cloth over the top of it, leaving the embossed flourish showing thru.

I decided to try it with some Halloween colors.  I used black cardstock instead of painting some black but then I clear embossed this Raven stamp I have.  It is about 4 x 5 so it covered most of the front of the card.  Then I painted over it with orange paint.  Using a damp cloth, I swiped over the entire thing leaving the stamped images free of paint.

 

I added some other embellishments across the front along with a couple of bats and a spider that I made out of shrink film. The gray web looking stuff is actually cheesecloth that I colored with Pumice Stone Distress stain.  The 'hocus pocus' words are stickers. Love how the background turned out.

The other one I made, I used a another technique that I saw on Pinterest.  Apparently it was a technique that Tim used in his latest online class, somewhat altered.  They used aluminum foil to cover a piece of cardstock, glued it on. Then they embossed it with a leaf flourish. Then they covered it with black paint to get it in the crevices and wiped the excess off.

So.................. using my Halloween inspiration, I covered a piece of black cardstock with aluminum foil. I let it dry a little first so it wouldn't crack or tear.  Then I embossed it with the spider web embossing folder.  Then I covered that with black paint and wiped the excess off.  It turned out really cool looking, don't cha think?

I added some orange cardstock under a black 'Happy Halloween' ribbon, a big spider I die cut and coated with glossy accents.  A couple bats, a crossbones and a die cut '31' round out the rest of the embellishments.

I still have a witches' hat I wanted to decorate.  Have had it for several years and never got it done so I'm thinking now is the time.  I used to wear black halloween hats to the "Black Hat Society" tea parties I used to attend when I lived in FL.  Really miss those ladies and those tea parties.  One of them, Gloria, actually sent me an invitation to the Halloween tea party she's giving this year.  Sure wish I could attend.  I'll make and wear my hat and be there in spirit. Love you girls!!

Hugs,
~Jody

Trick or Treat

Hey peeps, are you ready for Halloween?  I have all my decorations out and I bought a pumpkin for the front porch.

I have also been making some cards and stuff.  First I made this like panorama out of a cigar box.  I saw one similar on Tim Holtz's blog that was made out of his configuration boxes and I didn't have any of those.  I am trying really hard to just use what I have and not buy anything else, I have so much.  So..............I made mine out of a cigar box and I made all the little boxes inside myself out of chipboard.  The bottom one I made a drawer so you can pull it out and drape something over the top of it.  I had some Gasparilla beads that had skulls and crossbones on it so I cut it up and used some of them.  I used some Tim Holtz ideology, bottles, and letterpress letters as well as some other things I had in my halloween  arsenol. I even decorated the lid so when it's open it looks like it belongs, then I can close it again.

Halloween Panorama

The cauldron was made of that clay stuff you can form anything out of, the web looking stuff is cheesecloth that I colored using Pumice Stone Distress Stain

The little bottle of red 'eyeballs' are actually those micro beads and they came in that little vile.  The skull hanging out of the drawer was a left over earring, lol, remember I just used what I had.

The skulls were from the Gasparilla beads with some wishbones.  I still need to put some labels on my bottles but my printer is down right now so as soon as it is repaired I'll make some labels.

Here we have the letterpress letters and a little wooden barrel of poison.

It is a great addition to my Halloween decorations and I just love it.

I have also put together a couple of cards. The first one I used Tim's spider web embossing folder and a big black sparkly spider.  I cut the 31 from some orange foil that's in my stash.  Love the wide black/white ribbon with a button stitched on.  See what you think.

I even added some black fringe yarn down the side for an added attraction as well as the the word 'eek'.

I used the same Halloween Script thinlits to make the 'happy halloween' letter on the inside of the card.

The second card was made with the candlestick die from Tim Holtz.  I placed some black netting over the top of the orange base first. Then I added all the goodies.

Had some left over black flocked cardstock that was cut in squares so I glued them all together. Pulled a cotton ball apart and spread it around.  Added some distress stained cheesecloth underneath the word 'spooky' and some little black flowers at the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring has sprung, Fall has fell and Winter will be as cold as..................

well you probably know the ending to that saying...................lol

I have really taken a liking to the fall season since I have moved back to WY from FL.  The cooler temperatures are so awesome.  I am still able to have the windows open a little bit at night, there is a fabulous cool breeze that blows through, I love it!

The leaves have started to fall from the trees and soon the colors will become so vibrant that I will need to make another trek up to the mountains (oh darn!) to see them all.  In the meantime, I have created a little reminder as some home decor.  Somewhere in my travels I ended up with this great frame and when I unpacked here I put it on a hook in my living room, knowing that sooner or later I would find something to put in it.  Well, it hung there long enough without anything in it that a good friend made comment to me, something about an empty picture frame hanging on the wall, lol!

So, I decided to change that.  Here is what I came up with

I started with a plain piece of chipboard from the back of a tablet. Covered it with gesso and then some Distress Stains in autumn colors. Then I added some 'bricks' with some embossing paste and one of the Tim Holtz stencils and inked them up as well. 

I found some little wooden letters in my stash and was quite tickled to find the actual letters I needed (FALL).  I added some Distress Stains to them in Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade and then sprayed them with water to make the colors bleed together.  Then I inked the edges with Vintage Photo.  The 'has' was printed from a label maker and the 'fell' was from one those old Dymo label makers so no stamping here.

The leaves were made from the Tim Holtz Layered Leaf die and embossing folder.  I first smeared out some distress inks on my craft sheet and sprayed it with water and swiped a manila folder through it to get the coloring. Then I cut out the leaves and embossed them and inked them with Walnut stain.

I added a piece of wire mesh under the letters but over the top of the bricks for some dimension and a few embellishments in the top right hand corner.  I also found a metal leaf in my stash and hung it from the mesh.  It just kinda spoke to me when I found it, lol.

I wanted to enter it into the Frilly & Funky Challenge Blog Stamps be gone, hence no stamping here! This will make a great home decor item for years to come!

It's St. Paddy's Day again............

OMG, am I ever glad I wrote down all those user id's and pw before I left FL, lol, I would have never found this blog again.  My memory is getting worse and worse.  As you can see I haven't been able to get back here very often and I don't remember things that are not used on a daily basis, and even that's iffy, lol!

Anyway, Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.  I have been busy making some tags and now I want to make a banner and a few cards.  I still have about 10 days or so but I better get busy.

Here are the tags that I have been working on.  I just did the usual distress stain swipe on the tags to start with.  I used Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles. Then I did the technique that Tim used on his March tag.  I stamped my shamrocks and embossed them with clear embossing powder. I didn't have the stencil he did but I had the eye chart one so I used that.  I covered it in areas with embossing paste and then sprinkled gold embossing powder over it and left it to dry.  (Probably could have gotten a bit more on the one on the right, I think that's the one I did first, can ya tell, lol)  That's a very cool technique.  Didn't realize that you could cover that embossing paste with embossing powder, leave it to dry and then come back to it later and hit it with the heat gun and it would still melt and turn shiny.  What a cool idea, I love it.

I found some 'gold coins' in my stash and I used the little hole maker of his to put holes in each side of the coin and also in the top of the wish bone.  I threaded some jute string thru the holes and tied it in a bow on the other side.  I typed "Happy St. Patrick's Day" on the computer and printed it off on plain white paper and then distressed it with ink and cut it out to fit in the oval charms.  Had some little metal charms in my stash as well but they were silver so I covered them with some gold alcohol ink and wiped off the excess.

Then I just used some cream colored seam binding dipped in the same distress stains in the hole at the top. I attached everything with jump rings to a pin and pinned it to the seam binding.  I glued another tag to the back of each one (cuz they were kinda messy) and added a sentiment there.  And I inked them up well.

Added some little shamrocks and a hat to the back, as well as a little stamp.  See the jute tied in the back, that worked out well, lol.  

Anyway, that is what I have come up with for my St. Patrick's Day tags.  Hopefully I will get some cards done now and a banner.  I'll be sure to share with you, if I do.  Hope you all have a lovely week and may the Luck of the Irish be with you!

Hugs!!