Go Glitter!

I have been eyeing these glitter ornaments on Pinterest for a couple of years. I planned to make them as Christmas gifts last year, but it just did not happen. This year, however, I was determined. The glass ornaments were purchased at Michael's. The various glitter colors that I used were purchased at Joann.

I read several other blog posts before I tackled this project. Following this, I went on the search for clear floor wax that could be used to glitter the inside of the ornaments. I have to tell you I probably agonized over which floor wax to purchase more than anything else. This seems crazy, but I wanted to make sure the glitter would stick. I usually hate glitter ornaments because they tend to leave glitter everywhere. This way the mess is only in the beginning. One key lesson here is to be sure that the wax covers the inside of the entire ornament adequately. There is no going back once you have applied the glitter.

I gave out these ornaments with names on them to many of my friends this year.

I went through quite a bit of my ribbon supply as well. I found that the wider ribbon was much more difficult to tie on the ornament. However, it seemed to stand out more. However, I could tie a nicer ribbon with the smaller size. The Cricut cartridge Cursive 101 was used to create the lettering. The vinyl I used came from a variety of places. The cheapest I found came from Joann Fabrics. It was less than $6 a roll on sale. I was very excited with this discovery. Since these include a $5 coupon for Cricut digital images, I think I got a great deal.  

In addition to making these ornaments, I also made some special ornaments with pet names. I used the same font cartridge, but I also used a paw print (for dog ornaments) and a cat silhouette. The paw print was composed of a couple of different images, because I did not like any of the Cricut paw print images that I had. 

Layering the vinyl on these ornaments was easier than I expected. One issue that I had though was bubbles along the edges of the cat and paw print cut outs. I am not sure this is avoidable, but I do plan on doing some experimenting to see if I can get the images to lay flat on the ornament. Next time around I plan on cutting the edges of the vinyl sheet to see if I can bend it more to the shape of the ornament. We will see if that works. If it does, I guess I will issue a recall for those who received one of these. :)

Christmas Scraps

I always have good intentions with Christmas cards. In fact this year I have been pinning Christmas card ideas like crazy. I had every intention of making really elaborate cards this year. Obviously, that fell through. I have such a full container of scrap paper that I just wanted to use some of the leftover paper scraps I had there. I was actually able to make 32 cards using predominantly scraps. I did have to cut the base of the card using brown paper, but all the rest could be found in that overflowing drawer.

I rarely use stamps on cards. I feel like I just do not know how to make the most of them, but I do think these turned out nicely.

The cards are A2 in size. I used the brown paper as the card base and the background for the stamps. On some of the cards I added red bling for a Rudolph effect. I could not decide if I liked the cards better with or without the red nose, so I included it on only about half of the cards. I also used ribbon on the cards. I have an abundance of ribbon that I never use, and I really wanted to incorporate that on the cards as well. I was able to use about three rolls of ribbon to make these cards thus opening up space on my ribbon dispenser for one of those many rolls that reside in my closet.

I really think that my resolution for the New Year needs to be to use the plethora of supplies that I already have. I have been trying to break myself from buying whatever paper, stamp, etc. that I see on sale. It is getting easier, but wait, what is that I see? Christmas paper on sale. I really have to have it. Wow, this might not be easy.

Winter Wishes

This week's challenges at Fantabulous Cricut and The Paper Variety had to incorporate snow in some way. How appropriate given that we are expecting 10-12 inches on Sunday night/Monday morning. We had a little snow today, so it has been a great day to work in my scrap room. Have I mentioned that my scrap room is also the cat's room? It makes for some challenges sometimes, but it is great to have a space. Here is my entry for the challenge.

This picture was actually very difficult to take. The shadow behind winter and the snowflake are both silver foil, and I kept getting my reflection. The word "winter" with the shadow were both cut from Gypsy Wanderings. The flake was cut using Christmas.