Christmas Decorations

A couple projects I have been working on to get ready for Christmas.

I finished these trees today. The bases are foam tree forms from the Dollar Tree. Everything else was stuff I already had. I used paper cut in small triangles and glued on with hot glue. Topped one with a bow and put in a small pot wrapped with ribbon. The stick is a bbq skewer wrapped with tinsel trim. The other is topped with a star sticker. The base is a mini storage cup also wrapped with tinsel trim.

The wreaths are ones I have been making over the past two weeks. I learned how to do this from a video by Sylvia Tabor. Some are gifts, but at least one will be for us. I probably will make at least two more before I decide who gets what. 

Or maybe I'll just keep them all!

Thanks for looking.

Cathy

#KSDNOV Alter Something!

The November challenge over at the Kraaft Shaak (a great kommunity over on Google +) is to alter something.

I was sitting in my craft room trying to think of what I could do when I saw this.
 

This has been hanging in my room just like this for at least 2 years. It's a Puffs tissue box. Already quite beautiful, I had pulled the top up to make a hanger for it, stuck some wood excelsior in it for a nest, then promptly forgot about it. So I decided it was about time to finish this project.

This picture shows the back of the box as well as some other items I thought I would use.

Here is the side of the box. I needed to cover the logo so I stuck flowers on top. The green flourish started out as silver like the ones you see in the bottom corner. I covered the silver flourish with green glitter to make it match the box.

 

Can you see the mistake I made here? There is a lump of hot glue where I had originally put the outer bird. When I put the branch on I decided I would rather have the bird perched on the branch.

Here you can see the completed project. I have glued some more flowers on the box to cover that hot glue mess. I really like the way this turned out, and that it was pretty enough that I didn't need to add too much to make it look great!

 

Thanks for looking!

Cathy 

Stamp Carving

This past week I won a stamp carving kit from Heather over at the Kraaft Shaak.

 I had to start playing today but I was afraid to cut into the stamp material and mess it up. Fortunately, during the weekly live show Sandra (go visit her - she's doing a week long stamp carving series!) showed that you can also use erasers to carve. Off to the dollar store I went!



First cuts

I started with a simple shape on some small round erasers. I had drawn some candy monsters earlier this week based on Marie Browning's post on the Tombow Blog that seemed simple. The biggest problem was how small the parts were. I wanted this to be flexible and interchangeable, so I did all the body parts separately. 



Cleaning up

I enjoyed doing these a lot. I know I need to refine my skills but I was pretty happy with my first time ever stamp carving.






Finished stamps










Special thanks to Heather, Sandra, Tina, and Marie for the products, information, and inspiration.


Thanks for looking!
Cathy







WOIW "Time"

The Word of Inspiration this past Wednesday was "Time" 



Please ignore how crooked I glued this!

I used this as a reason to cut a cuckoo clock file I've had for a    couple years. I wanted it to be a real clock though. I remembered a clock we received as a wedding gift that I hadn't used in years. I sized the cuckoo clock to match the real clock face.





I decided to make this an autumn themed clock and chose papers to match. The original file had pine trees that I decided to make pumpkins instead, to match the theme better.

I added the banner with the quote from Ecclesiastes to complete the clock. I liked that it tied in both the thought of seasons and time.

Thanks for looking!

Cathy 

A Special Birthday Gift

For a very special birthday girl!

This is a gift for a special 4 year old. The tutu is made of 1" elastic, tulle and ribbon in coral and teal. I cut the elastic at about 22", overlapped an inch and sewed. This is the only sewing in the project. The tulle and ribbon were cut to 24", then folded in half and wrapped around the elastic. I followed instructions I found on YouTube by searching for "tutu tutorial." 

 

The wand and crown were made using the Cricut cartridge Once Upon a Princess. I used glitter cardstock and bling from my stash that matched the tutu as closely as possible. I also painted a 12" dowel white then covered it in glitter glue to make the wand handle. I added tulle and ribbon to both the crown and wand.

 

 

 

Here is the set together. Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Thanks for looking!

Cathy 

Sketching

I have found a new to me craft/ art form. Sketching. I find it very relaxing, but I don't know how good I am at it. In a way it doesn't matter, because the process is what I enjoy working through right now.

Here are a few of the sketches I've done over the last week.

My father

There are a lot of words here that I'm just not ready to let out yet. Let me just say I almost used this drawing for the WIW Pain post.

Cherry Blossoms

I did this sketch this morning. It's the second time I've drawn this but I wanted to add it to my sketchbook.

My sulky son doing school, with Eddie Munster hair

My first face sketch inspired by the gals in the Kraafters Kommunity

I like this one so much that I've made it my profile picture for now. FYI this looks nothing like me!

Thanks for looking!

Cathy

WIW Pain

Heather over at the Google + community Kraafters Kommunity has started a new way to inspire us called Word of Inspiration Wednesday. Every Wednesday she will give us a new word for us to use as a springboard for our creativity. This week's word is pain.

This is my sketch of pain and a quote I found in my old notebook of inspirational quotes and poems. Please be kind - remember I am new at sketching.

 

Thanks for looking!
Cathy