It’s a wrap! Christmas clearance wrapping paper

One of my favoritie places to go in any store is the clearance section. Holiday clearance is one of my faves. Clearance shopping with a plan always works out great. After the holidays I always get clearance wrapping paper, not just for the obvious reason of wrapping gifts. I look for useful paper crafting designs. I use wrapping paper for christmas cards and scrapbooking. Scrapbook paper comes in single sheets and paper pads, but buying all kinds can really add up. Wrapping paper really gives you more bang for your buck. If I can find non-holiday specific designs it is a real boon. I got some great kraft paper with snowflake design and a great red tartan design. Here is some of my other wrapping paper designs I scored this year, and all for $10. total.!

I love this owl design, owls are big right now and I dont see that dying out anytime soon. These are quite a “hoot”!

Cardinals are such a classic Christmas design, and these lovlies are no exception.

I adore this blue on brown damask design, the paper itself is nice and heavy with an embossed texture. Great to work with. Although not a holiday design it was with clearance.

This particular paper was clearance as well but it is actually sold as a roll of paper table liner for Thanksgiving. I like the neutral toile and it can be used for all kinds of paper crafts not just holiday.

I was thrilled to see this paper in clearance because again it is not holiday themed but a stunning magenta and gold design. When I opened it I found that it is not wrapping paper but drawer liners!
The paper itself is a nice heavy thickness and scented to boot!

Keep an eye out for clearance papers and remember they are not just for wrapping anymore!!!

New Years free clock face printables (cd size and plate)

For New Years this year I remembered something I saw on Pinterest about printable clock faces for cds. I was so excited to do this for my party however the link is no longer available. Drats I said to myself. So I whipped open my Corel Paintshop Pro and made my own. I noticed many comments on Pinterest that other people were disappointed as well so I am offereing my printable versions. I made several different clock versions , 1 set sized for mod podging on old cds (the cds are 4 3/4 inches around) and 1 set of 6 inch size for using under clear plates (either to be glued to the back of the plate or simply used between the plate and charger.

All my images are print ready sized 8.5 by 11 inches ( standard printer paper size) and are click to enlarge.
Simply click to enlarge and right click and save , then print as is.

Some helpful tips:

• Use card stock for printing, as regular printer paper is too thin and will curl.

• for cd use, use a black sharpie and cover around the edge and some of the cd.
  This will give a nice border and hide and miscuts you make since you will be cutting this by hand.

• I used outdoor Modge Podge (the green label) to make mine water resistent.
  This is just a precaution.

This will not make them waterproof or dishwasher safe.

• Handwash only.

Here are my cds while in process.

These are the plate size shown in a tablescape.

Shown here I used mine in vinettes.

Here are the click to enlarge images for using with old cds.

Here are the click to enlarge images to use under clear plates (they are 6 inches around)

Happy New Year!!

Christmas 2012

O how I love Christmas decorating. I love searching blogs and Pinterest for new inspiring ideas. Here are some photos of my home for Christmas 2012.

click to enlarge

These are my snownball vinette I did with some faux snowballs I purchased from Micheals art & crafts and placed in a vintage blue enameled bucket and added a wooden Merry Christmas I covered in glitter.

Here is a vintage wood sled that I added and wove vintage jute upolstry ribbon to. My vintage ceramic christmas tree and a wooden birdhouse I did. I saw a similar birdhouse at a shop but knew I could copy it for much cheaper. I took a plain unfinished wood birdhouse, painted it white, stained the roof and added a mini wreath to the front.

My chandelier I added fresh pine branches to.

Here is one of my dining room table and one of my faux mantle I created with antique gilt mirrors and a shelf with two carved brackets.

I hope you enjoyed a peek into my holiday home. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

My next post will be about vintage clock face coasters and a free printable to make your own!

Merry & Bright handmade cards and Free printable

With Christmas season just around the corner I had to “get on it” with making my Christmas cards.

This year I did several designs. One design I did “Merry & Bright” I did with my printer. Since I find rubber stamping to produce less than stellar results with so much room for error, you know stamp image not even, image corner edging showing, then the world of embossing …tiny granuales embossing in places you don’t want embossed. Have I sad enough, LOL? So this year I found a design I really like with out being overly time consuming or expensive. Resulting in my Merry and Bright design. Here is the finished card.

I created an 8.5″ x 11″ printable of the ornament strings, cap, bow and wording in Corel Paint Shop Pro. This was to avoid finding a rubber stamp for the design and to result in a consistent final image. I just needed to
cut my section out , layer it on my card and add buttons for the ornaments. Voila!
This image shows the printout on the left and my cutouts on the right.

Here are my own designs for you to use making your own Merry and Bright cards. They are formatted to 8.5″x11″, just open to full size , right click & save. I used water color paper for my designs, it has a really nice texture.

Fall-o-ween 2012

As I mourn the closing of my pool I do look foward to holiday decorating. The following are this years fall-o-ween pictures.

This year I added a zombie cellar with lightweight boards lightly tacked to my cellar window frames and dollar store hands.

Dressing a Chair

On one of my usual jaunts to my favorite thrift stores I spotted this dress for $5.00. Ok it is so NOT my style or size. But I was drawn to the pale blue color and noticed it was 100% linen with mother of pearl buttons along the side. Hmmm…this is definitely my decor style…then AHA it hit me. I was in need of new fabric for  one of my side chairs. The dress was a plus size and looked to be plenty of fabric and as it turned out it was. Here is a photo of my chair in a dress…. I even used the mother of pearl buttons along the back of the chair. I am  so happy with how this turned out.

 

Cresent rolls packaging pendant

Cresent Rolls packaging as pendant?!

At first I am sure most people would think I have gone off the fashion deep end with such a comment but I assure you I have not. Upon rolling up my cresent rolls one night for dinner I couldn’t help but notice that the little silver cap ends looked an awful lot like empty pendants. Mind you the above picture is of pizza dough packaging and not cresent rolls as I did not have another packaging for my before photo so I improvised.

So I set them aside and cleaned them up, removing the ink date information and little bits of paper that are in the edging. This is what they looked like after I cleaned them up a bit, they are aluminum and clean up nicely and do not rust. They also accept resin fill without damage or rust. On the left is the end cap before I cleaned it up and on the right is cleaned up.

Here is what they looked like after I glued a scrapbook paper bird image in one and a leaf skeleton in the other and filled with resin.

Finally here is one I added to a beaded necklace I also made. Pretty nifty and a great recycle/upcycling if I do say so myself!