On the 22nd Day of Christmas Crafting...

 

Still finishing up my outdoor decorations in the frozen tundra we call Chicagoland. Today I wrapped a couple cardboard boxes, wrapped them in colorful plastic tablecloth sand added bows to them both. Next I took some leftover plastic bowls( from my Halloween crafting) bought from my local Dollar store, glued them together and created ornaments out of them. The ornament holder is made rom sample-sized cups I snagged from a thrift store eons ago (I use them when I paint).The hooks are over-sized jump rings.

I decorated each with a White Posca marker and adhesive bling. They sit gracefully at Santa's feet in my lamp post garden in front of the house. And if the weather doesn't warm up, they will be the last decor I put outside before Christmas!! Yikes, it's cold...Note in the photo below, the grass, though frozen, is still green. The weather went from mild to freezing that fast. I am so glad I stuck those metal candy canes into my grass last week...

On the Fifth Day of Christmas Crafting...

 

Earlier this month, I strolled through an Amazon returns store when the prices were lowest at $1 each item. The box this came in was closed, so I took a chance and scored a large sealed poster of the Grinch, along with one of his dog and another with his hand held out (maybe to hang something from it.

I was inspired to create this "wreath" out of one piece of an embroidery hoop and spray painted it white. After attaching the Grinch to the hoop, I added a sprig of pine tree to the top. Then I took three green glittery ornaments from my Christmas stash and wrote the words, "Stink, Stank, Stunk" with glossy 3D paint. I hung them from the hoop and now I have another new Christmas wreath (never mind, the craft fair brought a new owner to mybooth and they now have this fun wreath for their own home...

24 Days of Christmas - Day 20 - Ornament Wreath

 

I finally gave in and created an ornament wreath. It only took me a few years to decide to make one (slow and steady wins the race LOL). I dug inti my stash and pulled out a small grape vine wreath I had purchased at the thrift store in years gone past. It wasn't the most beautiful one; in fact, I bought it solely for the wreath shape!

I pulled out my leftover bag o' ornaments, which also held jingle bells and holy berries. Grabbing my hot glue gun, II adhered almost all of them onto the wreath. I missed a few times, and now have a lovely burn blister on the top knuckle of my ring hand. I'm glad you didn't hear the obscenities I screamed as I tried to get the glue off my fingers as quickly as possible! 

I tried to fill in all the little holes in my ornament-covered wreath, mainly with small leaf sequins and tiny lightbulbs that go to my ceramic Christmas tree. A leftover piece of ribbon(?) and a small silver bow was almost my final act. I finished off the day by running cold water on my poor crispy finger...

24 Days of Christmas - Day 15 - Front Door Decor

 

I am just powering through my Christmas craft stash! Today I took out this metal hanger. The only things it held were dusty greens, so I refreshed the bunch and added gold and silver ornaments and red balls/beads. I decided to go with the original red slightly tarnished or aged color. Onto it, I adhered strings of pearls on the front. I also added a goldish bow and a hanging, uh, thing? It's a tiny ornament from which a tassel is attached. One lone pearl rests in the middle of my hanger and I am finished.

This was a quick make, since the frame of my project was ready to embellish. I love finding metal designs that I can alter, paint or embellish. I find loads of them at thrift stores at decent prices. This was a purchase I made last year and put away. You can find some great deals both just before and after the holidays.

24 Days of Christmas - Day 6 - Alternative Tree

'tis the season to figure out where your Christmas tree is going! If you have a small living room like I do, space is tight. Last year's tree was just the top of a pre-lit tree I inherited from my mom. It lasted through last Christmas, then met its demise due to old age and improper storage.

I also have a habit of rearranging my living room furniture often...like twice in 2023! So when my neighbor's daughter came over with a jewelry ring holder, I figured this might be a good way to think outside the box. The first thing I did was to color the hand from PURPLE to white. I used spray paint.

I painted her nails gold and pulled out my box of holiday crafting supplies. I found some felt border in the shape of holly leaves that I ran up down her arm and added my own take on holly berries (adhesive-backed red gems).The bottom needed something, so I added a cuff of lace. I just might have gone overboard with the gold bows all around the cuff, but by the time I changed my mind about them, the hot glue was dry and those ribbons ain't coming off without a fight, I gave up.

I then hung  a few assorted tiny ornaments onto each hand. They kept slipping around on her fingers, so I used a tiny dab of glue to each finger. I just couldn't get a background up and better lighting, so I used Photoshop to "spray paint" the background to match the sign I had put my Christmas Hand Tree against. 

It looks kind of funky, but I just came back from 2 weeks in the Caribbean and got a shock of cold weather and instant holiday lights, decorations and a countdown until the big day. I am crafting these goodies day by day instead of having most of them ready and scheduled like I did for Halloween. 

FYI: Never go on a trip over Thanksgiving for 2 weeks. My body had acclimated to the heat and humidity and lack of anything Christmas-y. It's like jet lag but instead of my sleep being off, my calendar for the holidays is off and I am freezing!!

Time to root around for another make for tomorrow. I'm already missing two days out of my 24 days of Christmas celebration!! Happy crafting, y'all! 

Scribbles Designs is Ready for the Holidays

Today I reached a milestone - I finished this year's Christmas card stash! This one and other cards I've made after December 1 are being hand-delivered. AS you may have guessed, the new challenge theme at Scribbles Designs is "Getting Ready for Christmas.
And what better way to get ready is to decorate the tree? My card features a lovely selection of Christmas balls, ready to hang. The Scribbles Designs' images I used are  #889 Mason Jar, and a Friday Freebie, Ornaments. I chose the Decosse's Dynamite Designs paper before I colored my images, so the paper set my monochromatic vision. Color-blocking seemed to fit the card nicely, with a few lines of adhesive jewels and some rub-on holiday greetings.

Create a Christmas project and link it to  the Scribbles Designs Challenge Blog for your chance to win some awesome digis! Good luck and happy crafting!

Have a Beary Sweet Christmas at the 12 Months of Christmas Challenge Blog

I remember my first teddy bear. It was cinnamon-colored, and half my height (at the time). I was four, and I promptly named her Cinnamon, Cindy for short (very original, huh?). My bear and I had many adventures together, sharing secrets and laughing and sometimes crying, but always hugging each other. And one day, she was just another stuffed animal, and I had grown on to other things, other friends, other adventures. But I still have the fondest memories of my Cindy bear, which inspired me to create my DT card today for the 12 Months of Christmas Challenge blog..

My card features images from an Imagine That! DigiStamps Set called Beary Merry Christmas. One of my images is Copic-colored, and the other two are pre-colored. Can you tell which one? LOL

I used some lovely papers from Decosse's Dynamite Designs, including the set of papers made especially for this month's challenge: A Beary Sweet Christmas Paper Kit, Christmas Bear w/sock; It's Ornamental Paper Kit, Green Balls patterned paper; Glitterati Paper Kit in Gold; Heartland Paper Kit, Green Hearts; December Delights Paper Kit, Deck the Halls 1

I added the following element from Decosse's as well: Mommie Dearest Mini Kit, Bow 3 and Red Brad (?).
Both are sponsors for this challenge:

Sponsor and Prize Info for this challenge:  

• Guest Sponsor:  Imagine That Digistamp (ITD)
• Guest Sponsor bio: 

Imagine That Digistamp is a 'family-friendly' shop that caters to card-makers and scrapbookers alike! All stamp sets that include an outline for you to color also include a digitally pre-colored version for quick & easy crafting. We also offer many digital paper packs, kits/bundles, Word Art, Alphabets, Chalkboard Art, and free Blogwear. What will YOU imagine?

We also invite you to join in our monthly Creative Link-Up! If you use an image from Imagine That Digistamp on your project (and follow the other rules), you earn a featured set for the month. All entries following the rules* earn a chance at a $10 gift certificate to the store! We'd love for you to come over and join us!    

• Main Blog: http://imaginethatdigistamp.blogspot.com/
• Store: http://www.imaginethatdigistamp.com/index.html
• Private Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/imaginethatdigis/

*In order to have a chance to win the prize from our guest sponsor, we want you to create a card that has a BEAR as the focal point. You can choose to use any kind of bear image--whether real, cartooned or of the teddy bear variety. If you do follow the optional theme, be sure to add FT after your name so that we include you in the draw for the prize.
BUT, that you don't need to follow the theme to link up your cards and earn a free paper each month or for a chance to win the featured paper set. You only need to follow the theme if you want a chance to win this month's sponsored prize of...

 a $10 gift certificate to the Imagine That Digistamp store.

• Additional Sponsor: Décosse's Dynamite Doodles
• Prize being offered: One free digital paper to everyone who links up a minimum of two cards to the challenge. Cards can be anything goes for this prize, they only have to follow the theme if they want a chance at the sponsor's prize. The mini set of six digital papers called A Beary Sweet Christmas, will also be offered up as a prize to one random winner.
• Link:  As I don't have a store, you can simply link to my personal blog--http://decossesdynamitedoodles.blogspot.ca

That's all for now! I can't wait to see what you've created when I check out the links at the 12 Months of Christmas Challenge blog! Have a beary crafty time!

Challenges I am Entering:

Victorian CHristmas at Ike's World Challenge Blog

Merry Christmas from Ike's World Challenge Blog! The newest challenge is at its midway point, and its theme is a "Victorian Christmas." No, the thee is always optional, and as you can see, I took the Anything Goes route and arrived at the digital card above. Since my blog background is white. the card base did NOT show, but it does have a white cardstock background, and prints up nicely for perfectly flat, one postage stamp mailing. As you can see, it also looks great on a computer. Since my sister lives in Berlin, mailing even a letter is expensive from the States. She isn't coming home for Christmas, so I'm sending her this card electronically. In fact, I send her digital cards frequently. I miss her a lot.
Anyway, my card features:

Ike's Art Images: Kitten Kristmas

Papers: Decosse's Dynamite Doodles Ornament 2, December Delights Paper Kit 

& Gold, Glitterati 1 Paper Kit

Digital Elements: Pixel Scrapper Melo Vrijhof's Scatter, Christmas Day Set

Whether you create with a Victorian Christmas in mind, or have other ideas in mind, link your creation (anything goes) to Ike's World Challenge Blog for a chance to win a sweet girt certificate to the Ike's Art Store!

Good Luck and Happy crafting! And Happy Holidays from me to you!

Happy Holidays from Scribbles Challenge Blog!

It's that time of the year, crafters! Time to get going (or finishing) that stash of Christmas cards. With that in mind, the new theme at Scribbles Challenge Blog is "Happy Holidays." Whether you celebrate St Nick's Day, St Lucy, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas or any other winter holiday, link up your card or project for your chance to win free digis from the Scribbles Store!
For my card, I used a FREEBIE from the store called Ornaments. Of course, all my papers and embellishments came out of my stash. I colored my ornaments in non-traditional colors and adhered them to my card with dimensional tape.
Do you put up a Christmas tree? How do you decorate it if you do have one? Not only do I have the store-bought globes, but some very precious handmade ornaments, created by my mom, my grandma, me (as a kid and an adult) and the kids and grandkids. They give my tree history and character. Of course, I also pile on the lights and garlands to finish it off, with an angel on the very top to watch over us.
However you celebrate the holidays, have fun! And don't forget to link up your Holiday project at Scribbles Challenge Blog!