Playing With Claudine Hellmuth in my Craft Studio on a Snow Day

Playing in the snow? I wish, but the kids are a little old and crusty about all that anymore, so I am inside playing with Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Line products instead. Nothing quite like getting gloriously messy is there? Her new stamps work so beautifully with her paint line, and I used Archival ink for the clear outline stamps just in case I needed or wanted to get it wet again for some reason before I put it all on the mini canvas.
Maybe I can talk my kids into a few snowballs and some cocoa later, but for now the craft studio is warm, cozy and providing plenty of fun!
Head over to the CLASSroom blog and leave comments on the 12 Days of Christmas posts for chances to win really great crafting products!

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Steampunk Graphic 45 and UTEE Jewelry

The Steampunk collection from Graphic 45 was the perfect paper for my UTEE jewelry! There is a post over at the CLASSroom with a tutorial and helpful hints for creating projects similar to this if you are interested. Very easy and great for gift giving, these are the kind of projects that people oooh and aaaah over and are amazed that you did it yourself. You can keep the smile on your face when you let them think that it took all day to make when in reality it was only an hour or so :o)

Be careful though, once you start making them everyone on your list will want one and you may have to start your own Etsy shop to keep up with the demand...

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Quick Gift Card and Money Holders

I wanted to share a quick way to make some gift card and money holders that will also double as tags and ornaments. It is fun when you wake up on Christmas morning and on the tree there are all kind of extra little goodies that have been left by Santa and the elves! And having a really great gift wrapped up with a cute tag letting everyone know who it is for that is also holding an extra little treat raises the excitement to a whole new level!





















 I used some really FAB Hambly products to make a few of these fun items and did a quick walk through to share how you can do it too!

For a money holder I started with a piece of Hambly Silver Chicken Coop overlay that was trimmed at 3" wide and 7" tall, then a piece of inexpensive laserjet transparency for the back at the same size.

 Stitch around three side, I left one of the long ones open because I wanted it to be easy to slip the money in and out, but if you are a prankster you could do it the other way.

 Carefully place a rub-on in the location you would like it to be, and starting rubbing!!






















 Add a place for the to and from and maybe a snowflake for the tree topper, it is all good!






















Punch a hole in the top and then add the cash and then it is ready to be hung on the tree or tied to a gift box! And who doesn't love a little cash? The perfect gift for all occasions!

If you are giving gift cards, do the same thing only measure for the gift card instead. This time I placed the inexpensive transparency as the top layer and put a rub-on there as well for a little more dimension, so cool!
Add the gift card and place on the tree or as the gift tag! The great thing about these bad boys is that they are re-usable too! Sturdy enough to use every year for the kids that are at home, or re-purpose as a page element for extra pictures or a pocket for some journaling, cute!!!

For a fun gift tag that can start as an ornament until you are ready to get it onto the box fold a pleated flower and then hot glue the ribbon or string on.
















Very festive, and again you can re-purpose to a page by snipping off the ribbon, and putting it on a card or page! I found the kraft card stock stickers came off pretty easily and it would look great with a button or a big bow in the center instead!






















And if your brain isn't ready to explode with all of these fun ideas, and you need a quick gift as well, place some of those gorgeous rub-ons  onto some glass containers and give the gifts of goodies!

Who doesn't love some delish snacks in adorable containers that can be used year after year?

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Tussy Mussy Tutorial

Do you love to make flowers, or interested in learning how? I wrote and photographed a really fun and easy to follow tutorial for making flowers and a Tussy Mussy holder for the flowers in Ellen Hutson's new E Magazine called Create that is on sale now in her digital download section of her shop.

 

This designing and photography for this project took a lot of creative energy and time, so please give credit back to me if you create the flowers or the Tussy Mussy. The magazine also has really useful information for coloring with Copic Pens, and some very interesting interviews with Claudine Hellmuth and Brandin O'Neill. There are also fun techniques to try and some really great templates included as well. 50 pages of really high quality information for your paper crafting cravings.

Perfect gift for yourself and a very inexpensive gift certificate can make it a wonderful gift to those hard to shop for friends and family that love creating as well  :o)

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I Have Been Keeping a Big Secret!!

And I am so excited that I can finally let the whole world know!

In May 2011, from the 27th through the 29th I will be in fabulous Palm Springs with some extraordinarily talented artists sharing and teaching what I love to do! Art-Full Horizons is an opportunity for people who love creating to come and enjoy time with others who love to do the same thing! An exciting schedule that is packed with all kinds of delightful events, a gorgeous place to hang out and lots of new friends just waiting to be made!
I hope some of you can come and play with us!!
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Snowflakes That Fall

So simple, but I love it.
Some snowflakes cut out of Hambly's gorgeous pearl white with screen printed gold snowflakes. I stitched the swirls on my sewing machine and then adhered the little snowflakes into place.
This picture of Carter being used as a shield by his daddy during a snowball fight is so super cute that I really wanted it to shine. Our family loves the snow and this picture captures that fun so beautifully :o)

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Peace On Earth

Not a lot of time to post, but wanted to share...

So here is a little Christmas card made with some Doodlebug and Basic Grey that makes me happy and keeps my priorities for this season straight, hopefully it works for you too!

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Glitz and Glam!

A really fun tutorial to make your own stamps and to recreate the look of this tag are up in the CLASS room.

It is one of the favorite tags I have ever made, the combination of the sparkle from the glitter and embossing powder mix with the metal details makes me weak in the knees!!


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So Very Merry

Are you in the holiday spirit yet? I was struggling to find some, we have been really busy and there just hasn't been the time or more importantly, we haven't made time to appreciate the reason for the season. A sweet friend and I spent the evening together at the Dickens Festival at the Utah State Fairgrounds and while it was light on the Dickens and heavy on the noisy and bustling, it was a great way for me to find my holiday spirit. I think taking the time to slow down and step away from everything that is constantly pulling on me was what it took for the merry to find a way in.
A card made with Doodlebug's adorable Christmas line is almost sweet enough to need a trip to the dentist's office to fill the cavities it creates. This is what the holidays are about for me, time with my loved ones appreciating all the reasons that we have to make merry. So nice to be reminded of that and get back on track.

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Day 6

Ellen has been working and playing so hard that she asked me if I wouldn't mind helping her make a couple of tags for the 12 tags of Christmas with a feminine twist over at the CLASS room. I loved doing this last year with Lisa, so I was thrilled when Ellen invited me to share some ideas there.

This is sneak peek of what you will find over there, instructions and all!
If you have time, play along, you will find loads of inspiration and some fun and time saving tips. Ellen and I share what we have learned from our trials and errors and pass this helpful information along to you!
Wishing for snow and lots of merry!
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There Was This One Time...

 One of the projects that I made as a Guest Artist for Pink Paislee was this layout. I love this color combination and the background treatment was fun to think up, The one layer was misted with a mix of Ranger Dimensional Pearls that had been diluted with water in a Mini-Mister. The circles were punched and then inked individually to get different depth of color to make them more interesting. I don't know how I thought of the diagonal stitching, but I had done it on this layout first and like it so much that I used it for the Hambly one I did with the squares. I will most definitely be using that again as I am so enamored with the results. The picture was stitched on three sides so that it could hold some hidden journaling. The paper has so much script on it already that I didn't want the story to have to fight for attention or distract from the design. The little butterfly was easy to color with more dimensional pearls that had been diluted and applied with a paint brush. It makes a great pull tab for the journaling card.

Laurel is such a great story teller, she always has fun anecdotes and thrives on the opportunity to share some of her days occurrences. We love that she is so open to sharing her life with us, and is quite entertaining.

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