Walking Dead Christmas Ornament

We might be two months away from the start of season 8, but it's never too early to make some Walking Dead swag for Christmas.  (The new season starts October 22nd to be exact.)

When I was playing with my alcohol inks I decided to play around with some yellow and red which gave me a perfect canvas for this ornament.  After all the Walking Dead is all about slashing those zombies while our lovable characters fight to survive.  And so the run of red kinda reminded me of that which is why I chose to create a Walking Dead ornament with this one.

The file that I used for this ornament is one that was shared in one of my Facebook groups, and is a personal use only file.  It's the second Walking Dead ornament I've made and in case you missed it, you can view my first one here.  That particular ornament featured Rick and Carl so of course this time I had to feature Daryl.  

What do you think?  Perfect gift for a Walking Dead fan?  

Christmas Carolers

I have another quick and easy ornament to share with you today.  I decided that this year I would try using the alcohol ink rather than glitter method for my ornaments.  If you've never used alcohol ink for your ornaments check out the video how to here.  It's so simple that you'll be asking yourself why you didn't try it sooner......at least I did when I saw how easy it was.

When Silhouette was running their Christmas in July store this Carolers Silhouette file by Hero Arts was one of the many files that I purchased.  It's a fun file, easy to cut and absolutely perfect for this alcohol inked ornament.

Seek Him

Today I have a quick and easy Christmas ornament to share with you.  I really love the look that you can get using alcohol inks instead of glitter in the glass ornaments.

All you need to get started is a glass ornament, alcohol ink and a can of compressed air.  If you've never done this before you can check out the video by Tim Holtz and Ranger Ink here.

After I inked my ornament I started looking through various Christmas files in the Silhouette Design store until I came across some that I liked.  Great thing about that is that right now until the end of the month they're having a Christmas in July sale.  And for the first time ever it even discounted files that I wanted to use commercially.  😁

The file I used for this ornament is by Kolette Hall and is titled Seek Him with Wise Men Phrase.

Santa, I Know Him

It's time for a Christmas in July project.  Today I'm sharing a Christmas towel and matching ornament that I created.  I found these great waffle weave towels on Amazon for a great price so I decided to purchase a pack to play around with.

For this towel I used the North Pole Santa's Elf sketch from Thanks4theAdventure.  Out of the various companies I've seen offering sketches, Aimee's is by far the best.  I love that her designs look finished and stand out no matter what you're embroidering them on.

When I stitched out my towel I did something different than what I hear others do.  In the different groups I'm in I hear the ladies talk about using a water soluble stabilizer on top of their towels.  But, in a stabilizer class I took the instructor talked about how WSS washes away and after a while the stitches start to drop.   She then went on to say that using a heat removable topping like Floriani's Heat 'n Gone eliminates that issue.  So I've started using Heat 'n Gone on top of my towels.

For my ornament, I did a google search for the ninny muggings quote, found one I liked and traced the image.  While that was cutting, I added a couple drops of green, red and yellow alcohol inks in the ornament and sprayed a couple puffs of compressed air to swirl them around.  I've only made a couple of ornaments like this but they're pretty fun.  Especially since no two are alike.

Walking Dead Ornament

I realize it's only March but I have several boxes of ornaments screaming to be altered and turned into something other than clear glass.  Since I've been playing with using alcohol ink for wall art I thought I'd try my hand at ornaments as well.  This is just one of the half dozen I've inked.

 

Creating the ornaments was easy.  I gently added a couple drops of ink into the ornament, allowing it to run down the side and then swirled ever so slightly.  Then using a can of compressed air with the straw inserted I gave quick taps to allow the air burst to spread the ink inside the ornament.

 

Once dry I looked at how each ornament turned out and when I looked at this one I knew it was perfect for turning into a Walking Dead one.  The file I used for this ornament is one that was shared in one of my FB groups.

 

And there you have it.  My very first Christmas ornament AND project for 2017.  😁

Red Truck Ornament

Five more days until Christmas.  Four for crafting, and I am feeling the pinch.  I don't have all my presents made or purchased.  It's just been a crazy, busy, chaotic past few months.  But I'm getting there.

 

Today I'd like to share a Christmas ornament I made.  It seems that the latest trend is the vintage red truck - AND - YES - I jumped on the bandwagon.  I saw this Christmas Truck file over at Apex Cuttables and just had to sit down and play with it.

 

This ornament I did differently than all my others.  I didn't think that the glitter technique was right for showing off this fun, memory making truck.  So instead, I decided to fill the ornament with miniature Styrofoam balls, or foam pebbles.  This is the same 2 inch, flat disc ornament that I have used for the majority of my ornament making this year.  I find that they are much easier to work with than the round ball shapes.

 

If you haven't finished your gift making yet, these would make great little gifts to give to friends, family, teachers or other service providers you frequent.  Just add their family name and year on the reverse side of the ornament and it's personalized and ready to go. 
 

Elf Surveillance Cam

 

Happy Saturday everyone.  I am delighted to be your guest designer at Jaded Blossom Stamps today. Christmas is my favorite time of year to craft for and the past several months have been full of inspiration and fun.  In fact, one of today's projects that I have for you is based off a project from one of my FB groups.

 

As I'm sure many of you have noticed the Santa and Elf Cams have been a HUGE hit this year.  Another big hit again this year are the elves from Dollar Tree.  Last year I missed that craze but this year I jumped on the bandwagon. 

 

So for my first project, I made a couple of these fun Elf Cam gift sets using the elves and tins from the Dollar Tree.  My ornaments were made using the floor wax and glitter method.  If you've never made glitter ornaments before you can view a tutorial at the Ornament Girl here.

 

I also wanted to create a "report card" to go along with the set because after all what's the point of the Cam if the elf isn't going to report back to Santa?  For the report card I used the Elf Shoe Frame from the Silhouette store and stamps from the Elf Report Card by Jaded Blossom Stamps.

 

 

For my second project, I decided to combine my love for papercrafting with my love for plastic canvas.  I've had this kit of Toymaker Elves sitting in my stash for a while, and so I decided to take it with me on vacation and stitch these guys together.  I love how they turned out especially once I filled them with some peppermint bark.  The stamps that I used for these are the Winter Candies candy stamps from Jaded Blossom Stamps.

 

I hope that you've enjoyed the projects that I created to share with you today.  Thanks for stopping by, and many thanks to the wonderful team at Jaded Blossom for allowing me this opportunity to be a guest designer for all of you.

 

Have a safe and blessed and Christmas holiday season.

 

Harry Potter Book Ornaments

I wanted to try something a little different while making some new ornaments for our Christmas tree.  This year I decided to try these Harry Potter book ornaments.  They were very easy to make and Hobby Lobby had the needed ornament ball. 

 

 

 

Instead of using a red ribbon like was done in the tutorial I went with a color coordinating ribbon.  Sadly all I had in my stash were the thin ribbons, but that's okay since these are for me.

 

Now I just need to get my tree up since I'm behind the eight ball on that one.  Tradition has always been my birthday or Thanksgiving and I missed both of them this year.  But I will get it done this weekend.  😊

 

 

Beaded Fairy

I made several of these Christmas fairies last year.  Only they were done in the traditional red and green colors.  These days I'm seeing quite a bit of blues, silvers, pinks and other soft/cooler colors as the norm for Christmas decorations.  So with that in mind I decided to make a few of these up in a teal and peak color.

 

I bought this kit years ago from Mary Maxim and now it's no longer available.  A company called The Beadery made this kit and still makes several others.  Over the years I've purchased several of their kits and have always loved how easily the ornaments were to put together.  Thank goodness I saved the patterns so that I'd have them for when I wanted to make more.

 

As for my beads, I buy them from a craft company called Bolek's Craft Supply.  They have great prices and fast shipping.  I've been buying supplies from them for 30 years now and have never been disappointed.

Baby's First Christmas

I realized the other day that with all the different Christmas ornaments I've made lately I had forgotten - somehow - about Baby's First ornaments.  Don't ask me how I forgot such and important milestone, especially since this will be my granddaughter's first Christmas, but I did.......until now.

 

For these I used a combination of Silhouette files and text from one of my groups.  From the Silhouette store I used:  Baby's First Christmas and Baby Footprints.  The remaining verbiage is my own and/or from another file that was shared in one of my groups.

 

These were very easy to put together and I love how they turned out.

Traditional Style Ornaments

I know, I know.  Christmas in July ended yesterday but I got so busy with things that I didn't get a chance to post these last ornaments and I didn't want you to miss out.  :)

 

 

 

In addition to all the fun, playful ornaments I've created I wanted to create some more traditional ones as well.  For these ornaments I used the following files from the Silhouette Design Store:

 

• Nativity Circle Shepherd
• Round Deer Birch Frame
• Birch Trees with Two Deer
• Snow Maiden
• Snow Fairy on Flourish
• Winter Love
• Snowy Deer

I love how these all turned out and I think that the designs lend a touch of elegance to the ornament.   Of course I can't decide which one I like best but I think I'm leaning towards the Snowy Deer on the tear drop looking ornament.

 

 

 

But now I'm off to enter these into the following challenge:

 

Hiding in My Craft Room - Freestyle with a Twist (Christmas) - Ends August 6th

Gingerbread Cuties

As Christmas in July begins the wind down I have a couple more ornament sets to share with you.  Today I have some cute Gingerbread faces.  Once again the file for the ornament is one that was shared in a couple of FB groups that I belong to.

 

The boxes; however, are ones that you can find in the Silhouette Design Store.  Not only did I use the 3D Puffy Box Pinked file, but I also used the 3d puffy ornament box artisan circle.  As you can probably tell I love the way these boxes put together and how well they hold the ornaments.  It just completes it all so well.

 

And now I'm off to enter my ornaments into the following challenge:

 

DL Art - July Linky Challenge - Ends Sunday, July 31st

 

 

 

He's a Mean One - Grinch Ornaments

Other than Rudolph the Grinch is my all time favorite Christmas character and my all time favorite Dr. Seuss.  It's so bad that I almost wanted to cry our first year at Universal when I got to have my picture taken with the Grinch.  All the childhood memories that came flooding back was pretty awesome.  And so every year that we go I see out the Grinch.

 

So this year when I saw that someone had shared these wonderful Grinch faces I knew that I had to make an ornament or two.  Sadly when I set out to make my ornament boxes I didn't have enough Grinch paper in my stash.  But I think I chose some papers that were still fitting enough for a Grinch.

 

Once again I used the 3D Puffy Box Pinked file from the Silhouette store for my boxes.

 

And now I'm off to enter these ornaments into the following challenges:

Hiding in My Craft Room - Christmas in July - Ends July 30th

DL Art - July Linky Challenge - Ends Sunday, July 31st

Snowmen Ornaments

How about today we cool things down just a little bit?  Today I'm going to share a couple of different snowmen ornaments that I've created.  All which have their own little ornament box for gifting.

 

The first set of ornaments are ones that I first started making about five years ago.  And I haven't finished making boxes for all of them as I was doing a test for sizing so only completed one.  These little guys were born out of a place card setting I saw here using the round ornaments. 

 

 

Their place cards were made using the plastic ornaments that come apart so that you can fill them with goodies.  But since I wasn't doing that with mine I glittered the inside and then used my Cricut for the following cuts:

• George for the eyes
• Christmas Cheer for the noses

Both the eyes and noses were cut from vinyl and adhered.

 

 

 

The next set of ornaments I have to share were created using my Silhouette and some files that were shared in one of my Facebook groups.  These were really fun and I love the way that they turned out.  Quick, easy and oh so adorably cute.

 

 

 

And the ornament boxes?  Well those are from Silhouette store.  The round snowman with hat is in the scalloped ornament box and the snowman faces are in the 3D Puffy Box Pinked.

 

Now I'm off to enter my ornaments into the following challenges:

Hiding in My Craft Room - Christmas in July - Ends July 30th

DL Art - July Linky Challenge - Ends Sunday, July 31st

 

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge - Anything Goes - Ends July 31st

 

Avenger Ornaments (With Box)

Today I'm sharing a set of Avengers ornaments that I created.  This is another file that I found in one of my groups but there the lady sharing the file had used the images on glasses.  Pretty nifty idea, but I wanted to try them on ornaments and that's just what I did.

 

After creating the ornaments I had to have a box to put them in.  I started with the Box Christmas Ornaments - file number 50053, from the Silhouette Design Store.  This box had the least invasive cover.  However, when I finished cutting it out the lid still covered too much of the ornaments so had to get rid of the design and replace it with a simple square opening.

 

 

 

In addition to changing the lid of the box I had to alter the size so that it would accommodate the 2" disc ornaments (and later the cube ornaments) I've been making.  It wasn't too difficult to do - even though I'm somewhat of a novice with the software. 

 

 

 

To finish off the lid of the box I adhered a piece of acetate on the inside.  And now I have a set of ornaments in their own little box ready for gifting.

 

With that, I am off to enter my project into the following challenges:

Die Cuttin Divas - Anything 3D - Ends Sunday, July 24th

 

DL Art - July Linky Challenge - Ends Sunday, July 31st

Military Ornaments

 

I found a couple of files in one of my Silhouette groups that I decided to play with and turn into Christmas ornaments.  My family has several generations of members who have proudly served in the Air Force, Marines, Army and Coast Guard.  So I thought why not celebrate this in a unique way this year.  (Sadly I could not find a cut for the Coast Guard)

 

I started with the Air Force ornaments since I had some of the small heart shaped ones leftover from the clearance sale at Michaels last year.  I couldn't figure out what I was going to do with them but when I saw this logo I thought it would be perfect for this style.

 

 

 

After seeing them posted in another group, I then moved on to the Marines ornament.  The lady that made them first used an acrylic paint to fill her ornament and they looked great.  However, I like the look of the glitter so that's what I stuck with.

 

 

 

Then I moved on to the Army ornaments.  I thought these would look better done on the cubes because of the shape of the logo.  Something about placing that on a round ornament just didn't seem like a good idea.  And I was right.  The cubes were perfect for these ornaments.

 

And there you have it.  My short series of military ornaments.

Ninja Turtle Ornaments

Today I'd like to share some more ornaments with you.  I saw where another lady in one of my Facebook groups had made these on the cubed style ornament so I decided to give that a try this year as well. 

 

This is my first time making these ornaments and I thought it'd be fun to make these to have with the hats that I crochet.  I made them in both the flat disc and cube shapes.  And I think that they both turned out really cute. 

 

 

 

Now if only I could find some kind of really cute turtle or comic book style paper that I could use for packaging these guys.  I haven't given up hope yet and there is still time.  I had almost given up hope on being able to find a box that I could package my sets in and then I found one in the Silhouette store.  But then I cut it out and it was way too small to fit four of these in.  So I had to play around with measuring for the size I need,  ungrouping the cuts and resizing them until I had it just like I wanted.  It took a couple hours but I got it done.  More on that in another post.

 

So what are you making for Christmas in July?  Have you started any fun projects yet?

Ornament Set

I know.  I know.  Christmas is over and we now have, what? 362 days until Christmas?  But with as busy as things were I never got a chance to share these ornaments with you.

 

The fuzzy slipper ornament is a free pattern that I found at free patterns dot com.  They have a variety of patterns for crochet, beading, papercrafting, plastic canvas, etc.  The other three ornaments:  birdhouse, santa skating and the plate of cookies are from the book Homemade Christmas.  This one was published by Kount on Kappie back in 1989.

 

When I was at Joann's this past weekend I noticed that there were plastic canvas pattern books on the rack.  I saw the same thing when I was at Hobby Lobby in Birmingham over Thanksgiving week.  Who knows, maybe this 'dying' craft is starting to make a resurgence, and we'll see more of it in the coming months.

Christmas Eve Ornament

I have another ornament I'd like to share with you today.  This one is from the Leisure Arts leaflet 361, titled Santa's Workshop in Plastic Canvas.  As with so many great patterns from years gone by this was another creation designed by Dick Martin.  (This particular pattern was published in 1985.)

 

I've never created the entire project from this leaflet.  Instead I've only created a variety of the ornaments and this calendar of December 24th is one of my favorites.

 

And since today is December 24th it was the absolute perfect day to share these ornaments with you.

Christmas Fairy

 

Today I'd like to take a break from papercrafting and share with you a beaded Christmas ornament I've made.  This Christmas fairy is from a kit created by the Beadery.  I actually purchased this kit a couple years back and like with all kits, I kept the directions so I could make more later.   I'm even going to make some in with teal and pink beads next time and see how they turn out.  I think that would be a pretty combination.

 

As hard as you might think it is to buy beads for creating beautiful beaded ornaments, it is actually pretty easy.  There's a company that's been around since I was a teenager that my mom used to purchase supplies from called Bolek's Craft Supply.  These guys are amazing as far as variety, pricing and quick turnaround. 

 

And there you have it.  Just another one of my crafty passions.