Happy New Years!

I'm sure that you've all kinda figured out, but I've taken off this week to relax and enjoy after all the Christmas madness! Adam has been so much fun, it's been easy to forgot to blog, clean the house, make dinner, you name it !

I hope that the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 brings all the happiness that you deserve to you! I hope that you party like an animal, whether it be a lion or a chipmunk! I hope that 2011 brings inspirations and the time to complete them!

Please be safe and happy!
Andrea

(I'll check in on Monday with fantastic projects... I hope!)

Printer Tray Presents and more...

Hello again,
Sorry, I know my blogging is becoming increasingly erratic. I can't guarantee that it'll get much better before or even right after Christmas, but I still have a lot to share so hang on tight!

I wanted to share a present that I created for my girlfriend - I love it! I used Cosmo Cricket's Circa paper line, which is awesome and I must get my hands on more!! I made a copy of a picture of her Mom from when she was younger and I made copies of new pictures of my friend and her family. I love the way this turned out, I love the collage feeling of the whole thing! The only thing that I'd do differently is that I would add more 3-D aspects, I would have something resting on the actual wood dividers and I'd try to use more metal and fabric. I really want to make more of these, so we'll see what my next one looks like.

I also wanted to share a quick and easy idea of wrapping. I made this fun little Christmas Artist Trading Card for a class a few months back and was thinking that I'd save it and turn it into a tag for Christmas. When I was wrapping gifts I grabbed the card and decided that it would look really cute glued to a plain kraft gift bag so I tried it and I loved it!!

Andrea

PIllows, pillows, PILLOWS!!

I finished my 1st batch of Christmas presents! Yay! We had our annual cookie day yesterday where me and 3 of my fantastic girlfriends make a serious amount of cookies! Well, I didn't do much, I've been pretty tired, but the rest of them put me to shame! Anyways, we exchange our homemade presents on cookie day so I finished mine up on Saturday morning, 1 whole day before the deadline - whoop-de-doo! And I was pretty proud of them, to be honest! Today, or maybe tomorrow, I'm going to start on my next round, which is only 2, maybe 3, maybe 4 (depending on the time situation), presents. My last batch was 6 homemade presents.

So, the project that I'm showing today are Silhouette Pillows. Now, you can use your Silhouette SD computer software to actually cut out the silhouette of someone once you have imported the picture or you can do it the old fashion way - by hand - like I did! I was very sneaky and had each of the kids come over (I used husbands, texts, uncles, whatever!) where I took a few pictures of their profiles - I suggest taking more than one just in case! Then, print the picture on cardstock and cut it out, then trace it onto Silhouettes Heat Transfer Material and cut that out. Once you have that done, iron it onto the fabric of your choice. I then took fabric that I thought would match their home decor and did a strip all the way around the fabric square with the silhouette on it. Then sew on the backing in another coordinating fabric, stuff with pillow and hand sew shut! Very fun, very personal and, I think, super cool!

Princess Maya with her pillow... isn't she just as cute in black and white as in person!

Ruan and Mia, love how Mia's silhouette is just as dainty as she is!  And I love the hair in Ryan's silhouette!

Here's Jen, Anna and Aaron... it was a challenge just to get Aaron to sit still long enough for this pic!

Only 4 days left till Christmas morning!
Andrea

Christmas Presents have taken over my world!

Do you remember a post... it was a while back... where I said that I was on my game with present making? We'll, I was crazy! I have no game! I'm hoping to find game some time soon! I need to have 9 presents made by Sunday... I have 4 of them done! And, you might be thinking, "But you have today and Saturday, you're golden", but that's where you're wrong because we're having my Mother-in-Laws 60th birthday party here on Saturday! And I have a cold, but whatever, massive snot production coincides with massive craftiness for me!

So, wish me luck while you look at another fun book that I created using LifeStyle Crafts Winter Wishes! I used the same pattern as the other book that I made a few weeks back, but I used a super cute skating penguin die from Cottage Cuts for the cover. I used all Basic Grey's Jovial line for the book, I know it's kinda lazy to use only 1 paper line per project but it helps when you have a lot to do, it takes the guess work out! This book is 6 x 6 inches, it has the fan folded binding that the pockets are glued to and a spine cover which helps hold the book together and gives it a nice finished look!

See you all soon!

Andrea

100 Posts and Nap Time News

I just heard Adam's door open, so this blog post might be cut short! And I don't even care that he only played in his room instead of napping because he was so cute to hear! He was singing his own version of "The Grinch" and "Frosty the Snowman" and he was telling his "friends" (aka - stuffed animals) that he is going to his cousin's house tonight and what they would play... so stink'in adorable! We'll be paying around 5:30 tonight but for now, it was just the sweetest thing.

So, yesterday was my 100th post! Whoopie! I kinda wish that I would've planned it a little better and done something huge but... I'll do something big for post 200!

Here's a fun card that I made using, what else? Cosmo Cricket's Mitten Weather. I love this card, it was a last minute change for a class and it just fell together so nicely. I think that the fun, ruffled red/white gingham ribbon was the "wow" factor in the card. I also love the Santa stamp from Stamp'in up - love the vintage feel of it and I used Copic markers to color it in. I only have 2 colors, red and blue, but I figure that I'll get more as I need them - they're kind of an investment! Anyways - I also put Flower Soft diamond white on his beard and hat, just for fun. I am going to add a saying, probably just "Ho Ho Ho" before I mail it! Hope you enjoy!

Andrea

Fa La La Book

Here's an album that I made using all Basic Grey's Jovial paper line. I used the Element Sticker and the Chipboard stickers that coordinated with the same line. I also used a few embossing folders because I love how much they add for so little work!! My goal was to make 25 pages for 25 Days of Christmas but I think I scrapped in with 23 pages... oh well. I can always add when I'm feeling inspired again!

Remember, you can always enhance your book with a fun pocket and page, and if you made some of your pages different sizes and shapes then I think it really helps stretch your supplies and keep your interest! The fun part about using this paper was that since the paper was so cute, I didn't really need a ton of work for my pages, I was able to keep them pretty simple which made the whole project easier!

Only 12 days till Christmas! Are you ready??
Andrea

Wish Coupon Book

Here is a fun idea for a project using Life Style Crafts Winter Wishes Gift Set.

I'm planning/hoping to make a few of these for friends to hold their Holiday pictures, but I know that they're also a cool way to give someone gift cards or even for a child to make a coupon book for a parent or grandparent.

The "Book" is 6x6. The accordion fold that the pockets are glues to is 5 x 6 in. with a fold every inch. I think that if you included different size pockets that would be fun, add a cute message or picture in the smaller ones and a gift card in the larger one... whatever you do, you'll knock the stockings off of the recipient!

Have fun!

Andrea