Holiday Earrings

Before I start I'd like to offer the following disclaimers:

1. I am not a professional photographer by any means.
2. It isn't easy to take good pictures with very little natural light (Oh, how I love the grey winter days in Central New York).
3. Shiny stuff is really hard to photograph.

Okay. I feel better now.

This afternoon after putting the boys down for their naps I tackled one of the approximately 8.2 million projects on my Christmas Craft To Do List. I wanted to make something small for our local children's librarian and also for the women that watch my kids at the YMCA while I workout.

I decided on giving each lady a pair of either snowman or Christmas tree earrings. I started making these two years ago and they are very simple to put together. I won't get in to how you bend and wrap the head pins here (there are tons of tutorials online if you want to learn). I will show you the tools I used and the sizes of the beads (all the beads I used are Swarovski - very sparkly).

Tools:

Supplies Needed for Snowmen:

For Trees:

Finished Products (ooooh pretty):

Those trees were especially hard to photograph. I don't normally use the 12mm Margarita beads. Our librarian is a big fan of bling though, so she'll appreciate the extra bit of sparkle.

Here you can see the difference in size between a tree with the 12mm bead on the bottom and one without. The taller one is still only about three-quarters of an inch tall, so it's not outrageously large (I actually think I might like the 12mm version better).

Of course you can go nuts with the color combinations and even use crystals on the snowmen in place of the pearls.

So there you have it, a quick and easy way to add a little sparkle to your holidays.

Late to November

Since I can't post anything until December 26th (I've been crafting my face off!) I'm posting pics from a baby shower we threw for my friends Larry & Theresa last year. It was a Pirate-themed co-ed baby shower on the beach, because, what other theme can you do for the couple who met at a Jimmy Buffett concert?


I made the invitations by dyeing plain 8.5"X11" office paper and envelopes in coffee and air-drying them, then ironing them flat. The Pirate Boy stamp came from Buffalo Stamps. I wanted a pirate baby, though, so I cut off his cute little head.


I searched the internet for a baby stamp and found this bear on ebay. It wasn't worth the trouble of actually ordering it & waiting for it to get shipped, so I decapitated the bear with Photoshop & used my Pazzles & runner stamp material to create a "bottom half" stamp. (This is probably copyright infringement, but since I wasn't making any money off of it I'm fine with that.) I also made the "Pirate on Board" stamp with the Pazzles from a stock image from the internet. I stamped the images (other images came from a $1 stamp set from Joann's, Studio G if I remember correctly) and used black embossing powder for a raised, glossy image. The text is in "Pieced of Eight" font, printed in a regular inkjet printer. I inked the edges using Tim Holtz's "Walnut Stain" to further age it.

I also made "Thank You" cards with the Pirate Baby embossed in black, and a watermark image on the envelopes. I made seals by punching small circles, stamping an "Aargh!" in black and adding a glue dot (with the paper backing still on one side) so Mom & Dad didn't have to make an extra stop at the store.




I made silkscreens for all of the images on the quilt. I stamped images from the pirate sets I had, scanned them, enlarged them & used them on the 12"X12" quilt patches. The anchor & ships wheel came off of the internet, though. The quilt reverses to a Firefighter theme, since Baby John's father is in the fire department, and a Pirate/Firefighter quilt is the coolest thing a baby could hope to puke on.



My friend Pam had the "Pirate Baby" made out of stained glass at Creation Station in Silver Creek, NY, to match.

Instead of "Baby Bingo," because that is lame, we did "LARRY" with Dad as the center square.
They loved it!

Also, we had cake. It matched the invitations. It was delicious.

This is how we roll at the beach.

November

Hi!!! Erin was gentle in reminding me about this... I've been so MIA. Sadly since getting a roomie all of my craft stuff has been locked away in storage...

SO, for anyone still looking for an idea for the month (sorry this is SO late!).....

As the holidays approach, focus on making a gift(s), OR something that makes your own life easier!

This for me means, most of the ladies in my life will be getting a vintage cake plate! I'll be spending a day of thrift/antique store shopping looking for vintage plates and candle holders to glue together with the Amazing E6000 (glue) from Michaels that I've heard works well. SUPER cheap, easy and great for gifts! :) Have fun!
Happy Holidays!