Finally Finished!!

It is 1 a.m. on Christmas morning and I am finally finished with everything needed for Christmas!  The stockings are hung and the presents are under the tree.  I am the only creature stirring in the house (the kids and my husband have been asleep for hours).  I thought, what the heck?  A few more minutes before going to bed won't make a difference this late at night (or should I say morning?)

I finished 2 projects today that I am really excited about.  First, I etched a mirror for my parents' Christmas gift.  I made the stencil using my Cricut, etched the glass and finished off with some felt ribbon.  It was difficult to take a picture because of the reflection - and I am not the best photographer.  But, this is pretty good.

I also made 2 money holder cards for my niece and nephew.  We have no idea what to buy them any more (they are 14 and 18) so money is the next best thing. 

To make the money holder card I cut a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock into an 8 1/2 x 7 1/4 piece.  I folded at 3 1/2" and 7".  This gives a flap at the one side.  I folded the flap in and attached it with 2 pieces of sticky strip at the ends - this gives you a pocket to hold the money.  I embellished the front, added the moula and put it in an envelope. 

I found a really great website called Stamp on This the other day.  You can visit them at http://www.stamponthis.com/ They have tons of materials for stampers to use:  chipboard coasters, card boxes, clear paint cans and the money card envelopes I used for this project.  They have a great selection and the shipping was super fast (I did not expect to get my package before the holiday - the package was a happy surprise yesterday).  I am really looking forward to spending some time with my new treasures!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  Take time to enjoy your family!

Almost finished making Christmas gifts!

I can't believe Christmas is only 3 days away!  I still need to make gifts for my parents and grandparents - I think they are getting scrapbook calendars with pictures of the boys.  I guess I will be up late tomorrow night!


Here are the the teacher gifts that my 4-year-old gave to 2 of his teachers.  I used acrylic frames and added Designer Paper where the photo would normally be.  I printed a mini calendar using Word, cut it, mounted on a piece of cardstock and put it together with 2 brads.  I adhered the calendar and post-it pad and embelished with a ribbon.  I also included a binder clip covered in a piece of DP to compliment the note holder.  Another cute and easy project!  I have one frame left - I think I will make one for myself over the holiday!

Some More Christmas Gifts

With only one-and-a-half days left of school, I am finally finished making all of my Christmas gifts for co-workers.  I am really pleased with the way everything turned out.  After work today, I stopped at the Dollar Store to pick up some stocking stuffers for the kids and I picked up some hand sanitizer, glass votive holders and votives.

I used my Cricut to cut some letters and snowflakes out of silver vinyl, adhered them to the hand sanitizer bottles and tied them with some ribbon.  I am going to give these to our school nurses.  Super easy and super cute!

I also needed to make gifts for the three secretaries in the main office.  Again, I cut some stencils with my Cricut and etched designs on each of the glass votive holders.  I added a sweet smelling candle and some ribbon and voila!

Gifts for School

I spent a lot of time this weekend finishing up making Christmas presents.  First on my agenda was gifts for my 4-year-old's preschool class and teachers.  Since he is in a regular preschool class and an afternoon Stay & Play, he has 4 teachers ~ that means 4 teacher gifts.  So, I made 2 desk calendar/post it holders and 2 treat jars and wrapped in really cute gift bags.  (I will post the gifts later this week).  To make the gift bags I used the Bag-A-Lope tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com - it was so easy and super cute!  Check it out here:  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/bag_a_lope/

I cheated a little bit - instead of stamping the front of each bag, I covered them with Designer Paper (SU! Dashing, ret.).  I used extra pieces of ribbon I had in a jar and added the tags I had made before.  I am really pleased with the way these turned out!

For his classmates, I made reindeer candy canes.  I cut the reindeer shapes on Chocolate Chip paper using the Doodlecharms cartridge for the Cricut.  I then used my Mono Multi Liquid Glue to adhere googly-eyes and a 3/4" Real Red circle (I used a punch for that).  I  must say - I am pretty proud of these as well.

I only bought my Cricut about a month ago - and I love it.  And, I know so many people say that you can get rid of all of your punches and dies for the Big Shot - I absolutely DISAGREE!  Yes, I can now cute so many more images, shapes, and fonts than I could with the punches and dies that I have; but I am still using my punches and Big Shot.  I used the Big Shot and the Two Tags die to cut the tags I have been using for all of my Christmas gifts - no Cricut cartridge has those awesome shapes.  I also am still using my punches as much as I was before getting the Cricut.  I still use them to punch out stamped images (setting up the Cricut to do that would take way too long) and also for simple things - like Rudolf's nose.  It was so much faster to punch 20 3/4" circles than to set up the Cricut to cut them.  Anyway, I do love my Cricut - but I will always love my Big Shot and my punches, too!  There is always room in my heart for another crafting tool!

A merry little elf...

I feel like one of Santa's elves.  I am slowly but surely finishing making all of my Christmas gifts.  I have been experimenting with glass etching and it wasn't going very well (I ordered some better etching creme - hopefully that will work better).  So, I decided to try adhering vinyl to the glass - it turned out pretty well.  I will add a ribbon and maybe some candy or cookies.  This was pretty easy - I need to make five for gifts for co-workers, so easy is good!

Yet another Christmas card

I really love shaped cards, so I decided to try an ornament shaped card.  (I will admit that I did cheat - I used my Cricut to cut out the ornament card).  I am hoping to continue to make some cute shaped Christmas cards in the next few days.  ~with all of these cute Christmas cards, it will be hard to decide which ones to send out!

Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas...

I have had that song in my head all day!  I am starting to really get in the holiday spirit.  Since I am participating in Secret Santa at work, I decided to make a few hand-stamped gift tags for her gifts.  They were so easy to make:  I cut the tags using the Two Tags die for the Big Shot, stamped, and punched out the detailed images with the Curly Label, Ornament, Scalloped Oval and other punches.  I will add ribbons when I attach them to the gifts tomorrow.  Quick and easy, but oh, so cute!

The Weekends Go So Fast!

We had a lot of family time this weekend so I didn't get much time in my craft room.  I am working on a set of Christmas cards for my Relay for Life team to raffle off this week.  I do have 2 projects to share:  the first is one of my favorite projects that I have done in a long while.  I used the Days to Rember Calendar ($9.95) from Stampin' Up! and scrapped each page.  Each page has a photo mat for at least 1 picture each month.  The really neat thing is that at the end of the year you can take the pages off and put them into a scrapbook.  If you set it up right (there are instructions) the pages will be in chronological order in a scrapbook.  It turned out so cute!  I plan on giving these as gifts this year.

Want one?  Email me and I will order you a calendar!

Want one already finished?  Visit my Etsy store (later this week) to buy one!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CrazyCraftinMama

The other project is a very simple notecard.  This will be another fundraiser for my Relay for Life team and we will be making a variety of cards using SU's Ribbon of Hope stamp ($7.95).

Finally Friday

It's been a long week and I am so happy it is the weekend.  I am really tired so I am going to bed early; but I want to at least post something today.  This is a very pretty holiday card - versatile to use throughout the winter. 

I embossed the snowflake in white and added a rhinestone brad in the center- the snowflake stamp is from the Pattered Pines hostess set in the current SU! Holiday Mini.  The background is shimmery paper (Christmas Cocoa Specialty) and the ribbon is felt.  This card makes me feel warm - a feeling we won't be getting much of in the next few days!

Want a set of 5 these cards with envelopes?  Visit my Etsy store!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CrazyCraftinMama

I also have kits with all the materials ready to assemble.  Kits include all pre-cut cardstock, felt ribbon, brads and envelopes to make 5 cards.  All you need to add is the stamp!

Kits are $10 - visit my website for details!

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze20wcc/id2.html

Very First Post

For my very first post, I am going to share some of my Christmas cards.  I am a member of a Relay for Life team and we held a Christmas Card making party/fundraiser today.  Here are the pictures of the cards we made.