A Silver Anniversary Christmas Ornament

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the date of this day. I loved being a Christmas bride, and 25 years ago I married the hubs. We are thankfully still going strong and are so blessed. I cannot even fathom life without him, and truly look forward to the next 25, God willing. Instead of a card this year, I thought the silver milestone called for something a little different. I made him an ornament with lots of symbolism, which cannot even express my love and our years together of course, but hopefully he likes it...even if it is a little bit cheesy. :0)

A wood plank, a wood dowel, a ritzy frame, wired rhinestones, glittered 25 (not just for Christmas anymore hehe), gold and silver Tim Holtz Idea-ology trimming, metal ribbons and  story stick Idea-ology, lace left over from my wedding dress, and a cocktail napkin left over from then too, is all what I started with.

I painted over the wood panel with one coat of Brushed Pewter Distress Paint from Tim and Ranger. Once dried, I inked the edges of it with Hickory Smoke Archival and heat embossed it with Silver Super Fine Embossing Powder. Then I lightly inked in some of the words from the Valentine Layering Stencil from Tim and Stamper's Anonymous...the hubs birthday is Valentine's Day too by the way.

I printed out a wedding photo of us in black and white, placed it in the frame, and took off the easel on the frame so it would lay flat when I adhered it down on the panel with Multi Medium. I began tying 25 ribbons to the wood dowel, staggering them into a Christmas tree shape, each ribbon signifying a year of our marriage. The three burgundy (a color in my wedding) signify when a child was born, and the strips of lace from my wedding dress scraps mark a 5 year interval. I was tempted to throw in a few black ribbons for less than stellar years, but I figured those years shaped us into who we are so I left the pattern alone...gold, silver, ivory. Once I tied all the ribbon, I wired in the rhinestones, and painted the ends of the dowel silver. I adhered the tree with Multi Medium and added the glittered 25 to the top. I also collaged the sentiment from the napkins onto cardstock, and matted it into a small tag.

I used Currant and Crimson Alcohol Inks to color in the ribbons and story stick. I added the large ribbon and story stick to the frame so it looks like a present, and the smaller under the 25. I drilled holes in the panel for the hanging part, which was more rhinestone wire.

 

 

 

 

 

I'll be back Monday for sure with my last project for this Christmas and for the year, but hopefully I'll finish my huge Christmas project by the end of the weekend, however, it's not looking good and might have to wait until next year. We will see. Thanks for stopping by, and I truly hope all of you are well.

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Alcohol Ink Lift Poinsettia Christmas Cards

Here are the Christmas Cards I sent out to family this year. I LOVE Tim Holtz and Ranger Alcohol Ink and the new Lift Ink is sublime with the inks....just love the stuff...and without out these would be blah to me. I love the toile look, as that motif is in abundance throughout my home, as well as the buffalo check, so these were totally so me. Hope you enjoy!

 

I pounced four different colors of reds and grays onto White Yupo Paper.

I used poinsettias from three sets of Tim's stamps from Stamper's Anonymous, and stamped them onto the Yupo with the Alcohol Lift Ink. Then, I stamped the lifted images onto Distress Heavyweight Cardstock. I did this twice to ensure great images and lift. The stamp platform is essential in doing this so you have perfect placement every time. Finally, I laid a paper towel on top of the Yupo and stamped again to remove all the Lift Ink left behind, and this made perfect ghosted images.

I sewed and mounted the papers onto kraft, metallic, and colored cardstocks, and added layered ribbons as well. I used a toothpick and Silver and Gold Mixatives to add dots in the centers of the flowers and berries.

I die cut poinsettias using Gold and Silver Metallic Cardstock and more Distress Cardstock, and them embossed them with the coordinating Texture Fade. I also die cut the words from the same Metallic Cardstock.

I pounced on Pitch Black Alcohol Ink onto the silver poinsettias and Crimson on to the gold poinsettias, and then foam taped them all together.

Gun Metal and Tidings Stickles finished the centers of the poinsettias.

I had to finish these on the road, and so it was assembly line style, which was fun.

 

Thanks for stopping by again everyone. I'll be back again tomorrow.

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Every Time A Bell Rings...Ornaments!

From It's a Wonderful Life, "Every time a bell rings, an Angel gets his wings.", or in this case 'her' wings. I made these for an ornament swap, and kept one for myself, as I loved them so much.

Using a combination of vintage items and Tim Holtz Idea-ology and Sizzix goodies, I threw it all together, using Ranger Multi Medium and Alcohol Ink, and few extras. I forgot to take step out photos, but they are pretty self explanatory. I used Pearl Mixative to color the soap dishes, and Gold Mixative on the bells, wings, Roses, and fragment dolls. I pounced on Mushroom Alcohol Ink on the gold frames.

Using a Leather piece from Sizzix, I embossed it with Tim's Kaleidoscope 3D Texture Fade...LOVE this one. I adhered it to the soap dish and then attached the frame on top of that. Then I just added the pieces on with Multi Medium and Jump Rings. The sentiment is computer generated, and I added Platinum Stickles around it. The flower bases that the Baubles are in are from Prima Mechanicals called Metal Lotus.

 

 

 

Thanks again for stopping by. I'll be back tomorrow with Christmas Cards.
I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Christmas Gift Tags

Hey everyone, and happy one week to go! Yikes! I have several things to share with you this week, and hopefully I'll have time to get to them all. I decided to throw in a nasty head cold in the mix of last things to do. Yuck. Anyway, these are the tags I created this year to go on presents. They were super easy to make, and I did each while wrapping presents.  

Using three stamp sets from Tim Holtz and Stamper's Anonymous and three inks and a Stickles from Ranger, I was able to whip 30 of these out pretty quick...an hour and a half.

I stamped the holly from Tim's Yuletide Set on three places in the upper portion of the kraft tags, and the sentiment from the Christmastime Set, in Jet Black Archival. I used a white pen to color in the open areas on the sentiment, and Christmas Red Stickles to color in the berries. I also like to ink over the holes on the kraft tags to make them match the colors a little better...I'm strange that way.

I added names to each tag using Tim's Worn Text letters...love that set...stamped in Wendy Vecchi's Red Geranium Archival. Then I gave the letters shadow with the white pen. I sewed around the bottom edges of the tag, and added string in the holes. I also inked the edges in Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. Simple and yet special for the recipients.

I also made some simple black and white tags as well, just using a wide width white pen and regular white pen, doodling, and then added more Stickles.

I tend to go a little nuts and get messy while wrapping, but then I love to clean it all up and stack the presents strategically under the tree.

I'll be back again tomorrow with ornaments. Thanks for stopping by, especially at this busy time! 

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Ranger Letter IT Christmas Ornaments and Cards

Hello all! Today, I have a double Christmas crafty treat for you...a tutorial over at Ranger for making these cute little Letter IT Sliced Wood Branch Christmas Ornaments with lots of Tim Holtz goodness too, AND a tutorial here for making two of the same style yet different color Letter IT Christmas Cards! Hope you enjoy both and thanks for stopping by.

These ornaments were super fast to make and fun too. I'm going to use these to adorn family Christmas presents, and after the presents are opened the fam can hang them on the tree...bonus! Here are some close ups of each one. 

 Now onto the cards...

For these cards I think I used almost the whole gamut of the Letter IT product line. The gray metallic tones card is more my style, but I wanted to make one with bright nontraditional colors as well to see if I could, and I think it's so stinking fun. The gorgeous calligraphic hand-lettered stamps are so eye catching...I wish my handwriting was this beautiful.

I laid out my design like this so I could use the space as efficiently as possible, using all the Christmas words stamps.

Using the pinks, blues, and greens, I stamped and heat embossing in coordinating colors and did the same for the gray card.

I turned the stencil so I could do more of a candy cane pattern alternating colors. Then I used Tim's design ruler to outline the stamps with the Metallic Pens and a green gel pen.

Using another set of stamps, Encouragement, I used the 'believe' to stamp the main focal image word on the small tags and heat embossed with Ranger's Black Embossing Powder.

I colored string with Distress Spray Stain in Antiqued Bronze for the gray card, and used the Rose Madder Archival Ink to color the string for the other card, then tied fussy bows. I stitched and layered cardstock behind the main cards.

I stamped and cut out the holly leaves and colored them in with more coordinating colors of Perfect Pearls.

Again, thanks for stopping by. I'll be back soon as I've done nothing lately but Christmas craft the days away, as I'm sure most of you are as well...'tis the season!

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!