On the first day of Christmas...

Hello!

Can you believe I'm already posting about Christmas again?  I'm the world's biggest "thank goodness the holidays are over" kind of gal, yet here I am, making Christmas ornaments.  OK, it's not my fault, my lovely friend Heather Hudson of My Artistic Adventures is hosting her second challenge on her new challenge blog, the theme of which is "On The First Day of Christmas."  The timing couldn't have been better as I had recently seen her tutorial on making gorgeous glitter Christmas ornaments (here), so...how could I not make some too?

These little cuties lend themselves to all sorts of embellishments, and I chose two of Heather's collage sheets for mine.


 

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Lots of possibilities with these sheets!

I used a tiny tag on this one after first covering it with Glossy Accents for shine and durability.  Some vintage lace trim, silky crinkly ribbon and a button attached with a bit of baker's twine finishes it off.

The level of detail in her bits and pieces is amazing, even the tiniest ones.

I edged the sentiment blocks with some translucent glitter.  Some seam binding, a flower and two of the teensiest little jingle bells I've ever seen complete this little darling.  Oh, and some pink hand-dyed cheesecloth for a bit of shabby charm.

I went with an unconventional color scheme here using a pinky peach and black combination.  Both the cardinal and sentiment have been covered with Glossy Accents and I finished it with black silk ribbon and two more itty bitty jingle bells.

This could be left on display year 'round if the owner so chooses.

Thank you so much for joining me today and I do hope you'll pop on over to her challenge blog and enter your creations!  After all, there are only 349 more days until Christmas!  (The challenge runs from today, Jan 16th, to Feb 14th at 12am EST.)

Happy crafting!





And don't forget the coupon code good for  15% off a $5.00 or more purchase in Heather's Etsy shop
MYARTISTICADVENTURES


Challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge - "A" is for Anything Christmas

Frilly and Fussy

Hello!

I've been going through FC (Fussy Card) withdrawals lately, so I thought I'd enter the latest Fussy and Fancy challenge (buttons) and really pile on the F&Fs (Fussies and Fancies).  I also wanted to enter the latest Frilly and Funky challenge, too because their challenge is to include both a bird AND nest on one's project, and I've been seeing quite a few clever handmade nests out in blogland and wanted to give it a try.  How fun are THESE!

Is this fussy and fancy and frilly and funky enough?

The stamps are all from the Inspired By Stamping store because they work so well together.  To start with, I used French Country Backgrounds to stamp the chicken wire pattern at the bottom of the pink layer.  I just love the country flavor it imparts without being too homespun.  (Not that there's anything wrong with homespun, mind you, just not for this particular card.)

The sentiment is comprised of the two stamp sets: Just Because for the frame and All Year Wishes I for the sentiment itself.  I sponged the inks on the frame stamp in various colors and inked all the edges.  The shape was cut with the Fancy Labels I die.

The doily was cut with my snazzy new Silhouette Cameo.  I see a long and fruitful relationship with this machine in my future.

These two pieces are stamped with the IBS Summer Postcards Add On stamp set.  I colored the flower image with Copics.

Check out the little heart.  It's a button I made using shrink plastic then stamped it with the aforementioned French Country Backgrounds before shrinking it , then tied it with linen twine.  Just p'ecious.

The bird is a digital image that I fussy cut (told you I was having withdrawals) and glittered up with clear and blue glitters.  The nest was so much fun to make.  I used one of my homemade large glue dots to wrap thin rope twine around, then glued some pearl beads and mini pearls in the center.  By the way, the rope twine was wrapped around some ribbon in 4 or 5" increments in a recent stamp order (from Inspired By Stamping, I think!) and I saved them thinking they might come in handy.

And last but not least, I sprinkled some vintage buttons all around and added some IBS Small Flowers.  Talk about exquisite little blossoms. 

And that, dear readers, is my card today.  Thank you for taking the time to come visit, and I hope you are having a lovely Father's Day weekend.  I know we are (F&F&F&F withdrawals notwithstanding).

Happy crafting!

Challenges entered:

Fussy and Fancy #91 - Button Up
Frilly and Funky - Birds and Nests
The Ribbon Reel #55 - Treasure Pearls (lace doily, twine nest, pearl eggs, ribbon)
Crafty Ribbons #48 - Anything Goes w/ribbon