Weekly Update

Well, this last week has gone by pretty fast! I feel like I was out running errands all week. But I did manage to get some crafting done.

Flowerpocalypse Update: Still going strong! Don't forget to visit my Facebook page to see all of my daily flower projects. My favorite for the week is this purple gerbera daisy designed by Lia Griffith. You can get the instructions and templates by clicking here. Over the rest of the year, I think I might make a bunch of these in all sorts of colors. But then again,she has so many other flower tutorials I want to do. I have 346 days left so I can probably do them all!

In other crafty news: I've recently become obsessed with Perler Beads. If you aren't familiar with them, basically, you put them on a peg board in whatever pattern or picture you want, and iron them to melt the beads and fuse them together. I've seen some really elaborate works of art on Pinterest. I haven't really got the ironing part down yet - how much to melt them or whatever, but ironing has never been my strong suit. Here are my first tries:

 Aren't they cute? I have a ton more ideas, but each one of those beads are placed by hand so it can take a while.

I'm also doing the Documented Life Project again this year. This isn't a great picture, but here's this week's page:

It looks like I put the magazine cut out at an odd angle, but she was just standing funny in the picture, I think.

Flowerpocalypse 1/365

Happy New Year! In 2015, I'm doing a project where I'll be making something every day that is or has a flower. This might be a 3-D paper flower, a rubber stamped flower on a card, a painting, a doodle, or anything else I come up with! I've been thinking of it as flowerpocalypse, but it's probably better to call it flower a day or something like that.

I probably won't post to this blog every day- maybe only once a week, but I do plan to post to my Facebook page every day. Click here to visit my Facebook page.

Here is my first flower of the year! It's a paper flower. I've been making these for years, so I don't remember where I originally got the instructions. There are similar tutorials all over the internet if you want to make your own. The paper is the inside of an envelope from a Christmas card I received, and I thought it was too pretty to just throw away. I've made stems for this type of flower before, but this one is just the flower.

AEDM #3

Day 3 of Art Every Day Month.

Daily Ornament Day 25

Merry Christmas! Today is the last of my daily ornament series, and quite frankly, I'm glad it's done. 25 posts in 25 days is a lot for me, considering I had one post in November, one in October, and before that it was August when I last posted anything.

Today's ornament is something that I might do every year. The ornament itself is basically the same as Day 6 and Day 16, but this time I used a picture of my nephew Andrew.

I liked the idea so much, I also made one with a picture from last year.

I didn't try to match the papers I used because there is no way I'll remember to save certain paper just for that, but you could make a bunch (18? or more?) of blank ones and just add a picture every year and you'd have a matching set!

Daily Ornament Day 24

Today's ornament is one of my favorites. I think it's really cute. There are a lot of tutorials for making paper rosettes but I'll quickly explain how I made mine. I started with a strip of white cardstock, 12 x 1 1/2 inches. I used a border punch along one edge. Then I accordion folded the strip- it's probably about 1/4 inch sections, but I did it so it would match up with the pattern of the border punch. I glued the ends together. The next part is a bit tricky and a little hard to explain. You have to flatten the folded strip and hold it flat while gluing a circle of cardstock to the center to make it stay down. I used a circle on both sides; I'm not sure if it was necessary but it worked for me. The glue I used took a really long time to dry so I had to hold it flat until the glue set. It kept wanting to pop back up.

To decorate it, I added a red circle to the center and a die-cut gingerbread man that I embellished with white gel pen. I've had the die-cut for 14 or 15 years - back when no one had their own personal machines and you'd buy themed packs of die-cuts at the craft store. (Yes, I do have hoarder tendencies but I was right! I did find a use for it. Now to find uses for all the rest.) I wove ribbon through the holes from the border punch, leaving a loop for hanging at the top, and tied a bow at the bottom.

I really like how this turned out, except for the lopsided bow. I can never tie a pretty bow.

Daily Ornament Day 23

Today's ornament comes from the Creative Studio at hp.com, specifically this project. It was a little awkward to put together as there were no instructions, but I found a similar project that did have instructions and followed those where I could and improvised the rest. The result is a 3-D bird with moveable wings that can stand on it's own if you want, or you can add a ribbon for hanging.

Daily Ornament Day 22

Today's ornaments were inspired by my Charlie Brown ornaments from Day 20. I thought they were really cute and I wanted to do another cartoon. Danger Mouse was always a favorite. In fact my dog's full name is Annabelle Dangermouse.

These ornaments are hand-cut paper with some drawn details. And I think they're awesome. I want to make some magnets like this for my fridge.

Daily Ornament Day 20

Today's ornaments, while technically ornaments, were used as name tags on my brother's Christmas gifts. I saw something similar done in felt, which were themselves inspired by a set of ornament shaped cookies.

They are made of paper, with a jump ring at the top which I used to tie onto the package with ribbon. I think they came out really cute and I may make more from different TV shows or movies.

Daily Ornament Day 18

Today's ornament came from this tutorial. It was a lot harder than I was expecting and I'm pretty sure I didn't get it quite right, but it makes for an interesting ornament.

Daily Ornament Day 17

Today's ornament is a 3-D star made by following this tutorial. I used regular copy paper to try out the technique and decided I liked the look of the white paper. Before I glued the two pieces together, I used Glimmer Mist in Iridescent Gold to give it some sparkle. The paper was a little thin for the amount of Glimmer Mist I used- I can be a bit heavy handed with it. I was afraid it would collapse into a soggy, glittery mess, but it dried all right and I think it turned out pretty cute.

It's hard to see the shimmer, so here's a close-up to give you an idea.

Daily Ornament Day 16

Today's ornament features a picture of my dog, Annabelle, looking very unhappy in her Christmas dress. I just covered a square of cereal box cardboard with Christmas paper, glued on the picture, and added a ribbon. Very simple, and you can use any picture, even something out of a magazine if you want. I printed the picture at 2 1/2 inches and the cardboard square is about 3 inches.

Daily Ornament Day 15

Today's ornament is pretty simple, but really cute. I followed this tutorial. I didn't have any wobble eyes, so I used paper.

Daily Ornament Day 14

For today's ornament, I used the tutorial and template found here. 
I used sheet music instead of book pages. I got the sheet music from here.
I didn't use glitter like they did in the tutorial, mostly because glitter and I do not get along.
I think it's cute, and would look really good on a rustic tree, with a popcorn and cranberry garland- that sort of thing.

Daily Ornament Day 13

Today's ornament was more difficult to put together than I was expecting, partly because I tried to get fancy and add beads, and partly because the thread I was using was too short for what I was trying to do. I got it together in the end even though it's not perfect. Then again, no one would believe I made it if it was perfect! I don't think you can see it in the picture, but I outlined the swirly pattern on the paper with a gelly roll clear stardust pen (which I absolutely love and use a lot).

The template I used is from here, although I didn't really follow the tutorial. I probably would have been better off if I had. But I like how it turned out.

Daily Ornament Day 12

I feel like I've cheated with today's ornament. It's actually a favor box that is a free printable from Paper Glitter. I don't know if I've said, but I'm doing these ornaments each day, not in advance, and I only have a list of vague ideas I'm working from. I just make whatever I feel like making that day. (Well, night. I've mostly been making the ornaments late at night, which is why these posts are going up very early each morning.) Anyway, tonight I have a headache and printing, cutting out, and putting together something that someone else made is about all the "creativity" I can stand.

Daily Ornament Day 11

Today's ornament is based on this tutorial. I used doubled-sided patterned paper and 12 circles instead of the 9 used in the tutorial. I think it makes for a much fuller ornament.

Daily Ornament Day 10

Today's ornament was made by following this tutorial. The only change I made was to randomly stamp in silver ink all over the ornament. This is basically the same type of ornament as Day 5 and Day 8, just using a different shape and 4 of the shapes instead of 8 or 10. This one would also be pretty cool if you used 6 or 8, but it was hard enough getting the shapes to line up correctly with just 4. Even though I had printed lines to cut, I was off a bit in several places so I had to go back and trim a bit here and there. Overall, I think it came out pretty good.

Daily Ornament Day 9

For today, I made three ornaments since they are all very simple.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but the purple one is made of cardstock that has a bit of a sheen to it. It's not glittery, but pearlescent maybe? I inked the edges with silver ink and added a ribbon hanger.

The blue flowered on is cut from a piece of Tim Holtz paper. It's basically the same as the purple one, except I used blue ink on the edges.

The black and white one is just the shape, covered with washi tape. Actually, to be specific, it's SMASH tape. I inked the edges of this one with silver ink.

So that's it for today. Nothing spectacular, just quick and easy. The longest part was cutting them out. If you had a die cut machine or one of the electric cutting machines, you could make a tree full in a very short amount of time. You could add bows or other embellishments. They could also be used as gift tags on presents.

Daily Ornament Day 8

Today's ornament is basically the same as the one from Day 5.  I just used a different shape and alternated the snowflake paper with a solid blue, and added some beads.

Daily Ornament Day 7

Today's ornament was made following this tutorial. I used some pages from an old hymnal. Since I knew some of the words would show, I used Christmas carols. To finish it, I added a ribbon hanger and a paper flower I made a while back.
The paper I used was really thin and it was more difficult to put together than one I made in the past out of a magazine page. I think the problem might have been the thickness of the paper. So if you decide to try one, I really do recommend thicker paper. It doesn't have to be really thick- even cheap printer paper is thicker than what I used.