Long-time-no-post! I can't believe it's been 2 full weeks since I posted … or that I've only posted twice this month! … then again yes, I CAN believe it as December always seems to be a gong show around here! In the buzz and whirl that is the run up to Christmas I seem to be in survival mode … just barely keeping my head above water. Naturally making sure the kids have a lunch in their backpack takes priority over blogging … and once school is done wrapping presents, baking and trying to RELAX takes precedence. Now that "the big day" has come and gone I'm trying to GENTLY ease back into a mini-routine and a *little* work. Of course "*real* pants" are still optional and "pants are optional" is still my mantra for the week … so I bring you this post from the comfort of my leggings and stretched out *sick* sweater (you know what I'm talkin' about - that sweater we all have that we wear when we are sick … it is over sized, stretched out, faded, likely has one or more holes, is COMPLETELY the wrong colour for your complexion and likely smells like a wet hamster but is sooooooo comfy and cosy. Ya - THAT sweater!)
So! Here I am (now that you have that great visual of what I look like this morning!) ready to share a few of my favourite gifts and ornaments for 2015.
I HAVE to start with this years ornament. If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know that I love traditions at Christmas and perhaps my favourite one is that each year I make a tree ornament for my girls. The idea started when Rebecca was born. I had discovered "quilling" (rolling thin strips of paper) and made a few paper snowflakes on her first Christmas. I thought it would be nice to make one every year so that, when she was grown and moved out, she would have a box full of lovingly made ornaments for her tree. I made quilled ornaments for the first two Christmases but by the third year I was tired of them, a) they are very time consuming b) by the third Christmas we were living at my moms and I didn't have my crafting supplies c) I wanted to try something new. Yesterday the girls and I dug out their special ornament boxes and went through them. It really made my heart smile to see how many they have! I have made at LEAST one every year (except 2004 … ??!!) … and aside from the ornaments that were made by ME there are dozens of hand-carved wooden ornaments made by my dad (given to them each year) as well as ornaments that either the GIRLS made or that we made together. I absolutely LOVE that their trees can be FULL or ornaments when they are older .. and that they are all hand made. LOVE!
So! As always, I spent about 100 hours surfing through Pinterest for ideas and settled on these stunning pieces of loveliness …
I have to admit, it wasn't until one of my friends bought the Festive Flower Punch that I really considered buying it. I'm not a fan of "fussy" and time consuming … but I also can't live with someone owning a product I don't have so, when it went on the Weekly Deal at 25% off I bought one. It sat on my shelf until I decided to try making a flower. Naturally I had no idea what to do so I headed to Youtube to watch a video on it. Here is the Stampin' Up! video I watched ...
For my flowers I used a hot glue gun to speed things up. That is a MUST, in my opinion! The glue used in the video would simply take too long for this impatient crafter! I also used my silicone mat to make sure I didn't have any glue "incidents" on my craft desk.
Once I punched out all my pieces (8 large petals, 4 small, two "centres" and two 1" circles I folded the petals in half (like in the video). I would fold 1 flower, then glue it as the rough glimmer paper did feel like sandpaper against my fingers after a while so I had to split the steps up to save my skin! The assembly process took 10 minutes per flower … so I made 6 per hour.
I made 6 of each flower, for a total of 24. I gave my mom 12 (3 of each colour) and kept 12 myself … and putting 2 in the girls' keepsake boxes.
Oh .. I also attached some cord to the back of each ornament. I simply attached it with the (retired) Sticky Strip.
Mom loved them. So do I!
Wanna see two more of my favourite gifts/decorations from this year? Ok! They come from y eldest, Rebecca (12 years old). She insisted on making everyones' gifts … and they couldn't be MY idea …or come from Pinterest. I freaking LOVE what came out of her imagination (and my crafting stash). Check them out …
The bottom picture is what she made for Craig. She just made figures out of pompoms and cotton balls. You can't see it very well but the black blob in the background is a reindeer. LOVE it!
Right! Doodles is giving me stink-eye which means it's time for his walk.
Pop in again soon to see more projects. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the holidays and have a stampy day!
Tam
