Monday, December 27, 2010

Belated Post: Our 2010 Christmas Card

I make our Christmas cards every year.  Yes, I'm crazy.  This year it took me a whole week every night after work and a day or two during naptime.  Here they are...




The circle flap is supposed to be taken off and hung on the tree as an ornament, but no one got it. Sad.



I try to come up with something new and original every year, and I'm really proud of this year's.


I think our photo turned out really well, too.  I just set up my camera on a barstool and set the timer.  I think it's really cute.  Just ignore the fact that my husband isn't wearing his wedding band.  We are still married, he's just forgetful.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Quilled Monogram Plaques

I decided to make gifts for my cousins this Christmas, for no other reason than I'm crazy.  I think they were a hit Christmas morning, so maybe I did something right.  I made 10 total, and they were all completely different, but of course, I didn't get a picture of all of them, so here are a couple.


I started with blank wood plaques I got at JoAnn for a couple bucks (rectangular for the boys, curvy for the girls).  On some of them, I painted the wood opaque white before painting the edge a color, but on most some of them, I just did a light whitewash with a sponge roller.  Then I painted the edge with one of the acrylic paints I had in my stash, and distressed them a little.

I created the monograms in Photoshop (using Rockwell font), printed them, traced the smaller initials onto the plaque, and the larger initial onto fancy scrapbook paper.




Hmm, my first attempt at cutting out an S didn't turn out so well.  I didn't realize I had to trace the reverse onto the paper since I was cutting it out from the back side.  Duh!


Much better the second time around!



I painted the first and middle initials onto the wood using black acrylic.


When I traced the initials onto the wood, I made marks at the top and bottom of the big initial for placement later.  I just Mod Podged it on.


I did some simple quilling, and voila!


After all the quilling was done, I sprayed a glossy clear sealant on them to protect the paper.  You can see from this picture that I started out doing more intricate designs, but each of those took three hours each, and I decided I didn't have enough time for that, so I simplified my design.  I still think they look pretty good, though.


The finished product included a ribbon for hanging!


Here's a close-up of one of the more intricate ones.

I love quilling. It is so fun and rewarding, but time consuming. Remind me to start making my gifts in October next year.

FYI: I've added these to my shop.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

My Favorite Ornaments

I've been wanting to do a post on my favorite ornaments so I could play along with Flamingo Toes' Our Favorite Ornaments Party, but my ornaments and I were three states apart. Now that we're all reunited, here they are!


Of course, who doesn't have a s'mores ornament?  We bought this one (obviously) for our first Christmas together.


I bought these ice skates for our "rustic" tree and I love how it looks like they were just haphazardly thrown over the branch.


I love anything Disney, so this Mickey and Minnie ornament makes me happy.  We got it at Disney World last year and it resides on our rustic tree as well.


We bought this ice cream cone ornament at the Southern Christmas Show either last year or the year before (I can't remember). The bottom is an actual mini ice cream cone and the top is a ball ornament. Clever, huh?



My aunt bought me this little owl in New York last month, and I just love him.

  
I bought a set of 4 of these at Target three years ago and they make me smile each time I take them out of the box.

Christmas is only 3 days away... can you believe it?