Upcycled Christmas Card Ornaments

Instead of throwing away all those glittery Christmas cards you have sitting pretty over the mantle, why not create something beautiful and eco-friendly with them?  I made these pretty sphere ornaments using all the cards I received over Christmas using this cool and easy tutorial I found here.

In the tutorial use your Christmas cards instead of scrapping paper and she has you use a big paper punch but since I don't have one I just traced the bottom of a mug for the bigger one and a tea light candle for the two little ones and just cut them out.  Even if you can't cut perfectly along the lines (I certainly can't) they should still turn out just fine.  If not, say your kid made them!  I also just used the blade of my scissors to score the lines instead of a fancy scoring tool.  You may have seen the Martha Stewart version of this tutorial but Martha doesn't know how to take step by step pictures and being a visually oriented person I found that immensely frustrating.  I also just plain old don't like Martha.  But enough about my opinion, they turned out lovely (and cuter than Martha's)!  Enjoy the tutorial and have fun!

EEK! A Mouse!

Aww isn't he cute?

So I discovered the most disturbing sight when I opened up my cabinet full of corning ware today....  mouse crap EVERYWHERE!  Now I didn't find the actual mouse but the little stowaway has been sneaking into my bottom kitchen cabinets probably from where the plumbing comes in and making himself right at home by raiding my garbage can and leaving what he doesn't like in my baking dishes along with making them into his personal toilet.  How nice.  To top it off Kaylie wants to keep it if she finds it.  Let me think about that... no.  Pet store mouse is one thing, wild dirty mouse who craps everywhere is another!

However I am grateful that I discovered this today and was able to take the time to bleach and wash everything in the cabinets tonight instead of scrambling tomorrow to clean and bake and being late to the in-laws on account of a mouse poop emergency!  Now I know why Zoe has been obsessing with trying to get into that cabinet for the past week.  And does that little mouse ever have a plan in store for him tonight!  The cabinet will be left open so the kitties can go to work and if he does manage to evade certain death (I almost kind of hope he does) there is an empty coffee can with peanut butter in it and a paint stick ramp so he can get in but not out.  Hopefully by morning my house will be mouseless!   

Christmas Crafts

I've been keeping myself busy with DIY crafts for the holidays as you know if you've been following my blog!  I've made stepping stones and painted pine cones with my daughter and these past weeks I've scoured Pintrest for some awesome DIY projects to add to my own boards on my profile!  I also love Etsy's How Tuesday blogs for cool DIY projects as well!  I'd love to do them all but there's only so many hours in the day so I settled on making Ribbon Trees and Pyramid Gift Boxes!  They turned out so cute!

For the trees all you need are ribbon, hot glue, and paper mache or a rigid cone.  I'm having a woodland theme for Christmas this year and green and brown are some of my favorite colors anyway so I chose those colors for my trees.  I experimented with alternating 3/4" ribbon for the taller tree and 1" ribbon for the smaller one.  The only thing not listed in the ribbon tree tutorial (click the link to go see it) I found on how to make them is how to make paper mache which turns out to be super easy. 

Paper Mache Cone:

• All you need are equal parts Elmer's glue and water or equal parts of flour and water and about 2 tablespoons of salt per cup of flour used to keep your flour mache from getting moldy.  
• I made a cone shaped "mold" out of heavy card stock so the paper mache had something to support it while it dried.  Unless you want to reuse your mold there's no need to wrap it in plastic cling wrap.  
• I cut 1/2" wide strips about 5" long or so from a paper grocery bag to dip in the goo and I rubbed the mache on them till they were thoroughly wet on both sides but not dripping.  
• Make sure to overlap when you wrap the cone and no more than 3 layers at a time.  
• Make sure it dries completely before applying any additional layers.  If you use a paper grocery bag 3 layers ought to do you just fine, that's what I did for mine.
• Once dry I painted my cones dark brown to match my ribbon but paint yours to match the color ribbon you'd like.
• Then follow the tutorial for ribbon trees, it's easy!

I really loved how mine turned out!  I'll probably make more next year or to give out as gifts ;)

My next craft project was to make Pyramid Gift Boxes as shown on Etsy's How Tuesday Blog.  The directions are all on the link I just provided and there's also a template to use too.  I enlarged the provided template up on my scanner to the size I needed to be able to fit the painted pine cones Kaylie made to give out as gifts.  I was just going to tie them to gift bags but the pyramid boxes are a much cuter alternative!  You can also use the little boxes to hang on your tree as ornaments too!

Meet the New Set - Moss!

Now that craft shows are over I have more time to get around to listing several new pieces that have been floating around for some time now.  I'm also pretty stoked that my sales in my shop have been picking up for the holidays!  I just shipped out four orders yesterday all over the US!  Yay!

Anyway onward to some fresh pretty things!  I made this beautiful series out of Russian Serpentine, one of my favorite stones.  I love the rich earthy green and the dark matrix running throughout which almost resembles reptilian skin.  The Moss Necklace features an array of textures and shapes with rich and warm copper and the perfect combination of the green Russian serpentine.  I really enjoy completely hand forging jewelry and it's just amazing to me that it came from a bit of wire and stone beads!  The chain features copper links, wrapped bar links and some hammered s-links for added texture.  The pendant has a lovely Russian serpentine bead suspended in the middle of the swirly frame that has been wrapped with little copper seed beads.  The necklace is finished off with a hammered hook and eye clasp.  I really enjoyed making this and I do hope it finds a loving home someday!

Next is the matching Moss Bracelet made with five 14mm Russian serpentine coin beads hugged with little copper coils and joined together with hammered s-links that have been oxidized and polished to give a lovely rustic finish.  The serpentine beads are various shades of light and dark green which gives this piece a little added pop of color.  It closes with a simple hook clasp.  This one was pretty tempting to keep for myself!


Last up are the Moss Earrings.  Lightweight and delicate, the 8mm round beads are capped and wrapped with swirly copper wire for a unique and decorative touch.  These lovely baubles dangle from my very own hand forged French hooks.

Each of these is available separately in my Etsy Shop and I hope they all find happy homes!  Before I forget I also wanted to mention that I will be participating in Free Shipping Day for US customers coming up on December 16th!  Tons and tons of online merchants are participating as well, check it out!  However in addition to free shipping day, I'm offering free first class shipping in the US for this entire month!  No code is needed to get your free shipping either.  Just don't forget the Christmas order deadline for shipping in the US is the 19th!

Lastly, here's two awesome treasuries you can check out!

My Christmas Finds!

Curious little Zoe, isn't she festive with her jingle collar?

Obviously I love handmade, there's no beating around the bush on that issue!  I wanted to share with you two items I recently purchased for Christmas gifts!  There's no worry either that any surprised will be spoiled since these gifts are for ME!  I fully take responsibility for the fact that I am IMPOSSIBLE to shop for so to spare my husband waiting in the long lines at the return counter I usually get my own gifts and tell him he bought them for me.  I use his money after all so it's not entirely untrue, right?  If you're thinking it's no fun that I spoil my own surprises it's not.  Not that I don't like being surprised on Christmas day, I just hem and haw over what I want and it takes me forever to pick out something and regardless I still razor blade the tape on packages to peek just like I did when I was 6 so there's no surprising me anyway :)  Tisk tisk, I know.  My ma was smart when I was little and used to pack the special items in bigger boxes packed tight with bags of rice so I had no way of guessing!  I will remember that when my own little one starts sneaking peeks!

I love the detail!

Anyway this year picking gifts for myself was pretty easy as I already had an idea of what I wanted!  I collect little vintage metal trinket boxes at flea markets and I have them all over the house.  I love them but they all share one flaw, they're small and I can't put much in them other than a few rings or so.  I have a cute piano shaped one on my bedside table that I have crammed full of necklaces that are my favorites and I wear too often to stash in my jewelry chest.  The hinge is a little busted but I still love it, it's just overflowing now!  So I'd seen some super awesome handmade glass jewelry boxes made by Kelly at Galeaz Glass in some treasuries I was also featured in in the past and I quickly bookmarked her shop!  I had this one here custom made just the way I liked and it turned out GORGEOUS!!!  I love the jewel like peridot color and it's soldered with copper foil, YES!  Now I can fit everything I need in it!  She does amazing work and does more than just boxes too.  I may snag one of her sun-catchers for my mom's birthday later on!

Next up I'm getting a new phone at the end of the month when my upgrade is due.  Thank GOD because my BlackBerry drives me CRAZY!  It's falling apart and I can hardly use it anymore!  Knowing that and also knowing that I want a new Droid 3 (I'd actually LOVE the Razr but a bit out of my budget, ok a lot out of my budget) I will need a new case for it as my Golla pouch I have now won't fit.  Instead of settling for some overpriced case I don't really like I thought I'd scour Etsy for that perfect phone case that I can also stash my license and credit cards in when I don't feel like lugging around my purse that somehow now weighs 10 pounds.  Oh wait, I have a kid, THAT'S why!  I wanted to find one with owls or some kind of cute birdie print on it and lone behold I found the PERFECT one for the perfect price!  Is it not SUPER CUTE?  I got this adorable pouch from Mariella at Juici Bags on Etsy!  It's nice and roomy and well padded too.  The cute matching button is actually a velcro closure so your cards are still secure but a cinch to get to.  The little handy clip is great for keys or attaching to your purse so it never gets lost.  As in I won't have to dump out the contents of my purse all over the sales counter to find it when I hear my phone ring or I need to get my Visa!  Ok I'm not quite that disorganized, but you get the picture.  She also makes more than just phone pouches; she makes iPad covers and a slew of iPod cases for various sized models.  All are really cute!

 

I just love all the wonderful things you can find on Etsy without having to wait in line at the stores and you're helping out another crafter every time you buy something!  Can't beat that!  Between Etsy and Amazon, I don't think I've stepped foot in a department store this year for gifts.  Sorry Wal-Mart but I just don't need you!  I hope you all have found wonderful treasures on Etsy as well, support handmade! ;)  As for the rest of my family I've made scrapbooks of Kaylie from Picaboo for the grandparents and I've made my own handmade goodies that I've shown in a past blog post (Kaylie made some too) and custom jewelry to give to friends and family along with cookies, lots and lots and lots of cookies!

Craft Show Success!

Scrabble display, I just LOVED the new oak and hemp trays!

Last Saturday marked my last craft show of this season and I'm so happy it went over well!  I was at the American Legion in Rapid River as part of the Christmas in Rapid River celebration held all throughout the town.  I'm usually mildly skeptical about smaller shows since I've had my share of total busts but this one was just as good as I was told by the other vendors!  I met a lot of great people there along with some familiar faces and although the weather was a bit questionable the turnout was pretty good for there being four craft shows in the same town at the same time!  Maybe I can get that Amazon Kindle Fire I've been drooling over for my birthday next month after all :)  I will for sure be back for the next show in May!

New hemp and leatherette busts

I also was super happy that I got to use my new displays I purchased with funds made at the Eskymo Christmas Craft Show at the Escanaba High School two weekends ago.  They were a little pricey compared to the old displays but they looked awesome and really showed off my jewelry soooo much better!  No longer will I spend forever picking off each and every fuzz stuck to black velvet displays!  That drove me crazy!

Got lots of compliments on my handmade ladies :)

I think for next year I'll do a spring show at the Legion in May and then I'll definitely be back for the Eskymo and Christmas in Rapid River shows again.  I'm still pondering over doing the Waterfront Art Festival in August or not.  The cost is a little steep for my budget not to mention having to rent or purchase a canopy large enough fill up a huge 15'x15' booth.  I do know it's a huge show but we'll see!

For now I'll be busy getting back to the usual grind and cranking out new items to list in my shop, custom orders, and a few new items I had at the shows but haven't listed yet!  Not to mention juggling Christmas dinners and get togethers, fighting people for that perfect ham at the grocery store, and wondering why oh why did I not buy that nice snowblower on clearance last year!  Let the fun begin!

Here's a few awesome treasuries for ya!  Take a peek!

Mommy and Me Arts and Crafts

Now that it's that yucky. rainy, cloudy, dreary and cold transition between fall and winter Kaylie has been spending more time inside which of course makes her a little antsy when she doesn't feel like playing with her cars or doll house.  My solution?  Arts and crafts time!

I'm a huge fan of either buying handmade or making your own cute Christmas gifts to give out to family and friends.  Besides leaving more money in your wallet it's more meaningful and of course unique!  This year I had Kaylie help me make some gifts to give out to her grandparents and great grandparents now that she's older and loves to help!  I bought this inexpensive kit and I had her help make these cute hand print stepping stones to give out!  She loved smashing her hand in the cold mushy plaster and then squish all the little tiles and gems in too!  After they dried I painted her hand prints and dated each one.  Grandmas love this kind of stuff :)  Sorry the photo is terrible, I took it on my phone and then forgot to take a better picture before wrapping them!

She's so focused!

Today it was especially dreary outside so I had Kaylie bundle up and go out with me to pick up pine cones under the tree by our house.  She's always collecting pine cones so she's pretty much a pro at this one!  We put them all in a paper bag and then picked out the best looking ones the squirrels hadn't ravaged and cleaned all the dirt out of them.  Now there's tons of fun things you can do with pine cones so I made sure to keep extras for later projects too.  I figure we can make peanut butter and bird seed pine pine cone feeders for the birds with the "ugly" pine cones later!  I told her that today we're going to paint pine cones and hang them on the Christmas tree!  Anything involving ridiculously messy projects are a gigantic favorite for my 3 year old!  She was so focused, making sure she got every nook and cranny slathered with red paint.  She picked the red paint and told me I could paint mine green.  By the time she was finished painting her three pine cones she looked like Dexter after a kill!  Everything set aside to dry and half a roll of paper towels later and LOTS of soap later, the little ornaments turned out super cute!  I just tied a bit of twine around the top for hanging and once she's had her nap she can hang her pine cones on the tree!  Perhaps next year we'll add to them and decorate them with glitter glue but cleaning paint out of her ears (how kids get messy in the weirdest of places is beyond me) was more than enough for me!


While she was napping I did another quick batch of pine cone ornaments using genuine copper paint on the tips and finishing them with a verdigris patina for an awesome look!  It's a bit time consuming but they turned out great!  I just need to clear coat them and add twine to hang.  We're having a "woodland" theme for our Christmas tree this year so these and the painted ones are a perfect fit!  Now if only we had an oak tree so I could make acorn garland...

Once I make it to the grocery store and buy more flour I'll have Kaylie help make some salt dough ornaments to give as gifts too.  They're super easy to make and very cheap as well!  I'll share the recipe with you :)

Salt Dough Ornaments
2c All Purpose Flour
1c Salt
1c Water

-Preheat your oven to 200 degrees
-Mix the flour and salt thoroughly and gradually add the water, mixing with your hands till soft
-Roll dough on floured surface and cut out shapes with cookie cutters.  Use a toothpick to make hanging holes on the tops for string.
-Bake approx 3 hours or till hardened, checking every so often to make sure they don't burn.
-Let cool and paint with acrylic craft paint.  Coat generously with a clear sealant like polyurethane to protect them from crumbling over time and to protect the paint.

Cutsie ornament made with salt dough

Of course you can also make your own shapes since the dough is much like play-doh and you can hot glue ribbon hangers instead of poking holes.  You can write on them with permanent markers to personalize them too.  I actually have a cute pea pod ornament made with salt dough that was given to me for Kaylie a year ago.  The possibilities are endless with this recipe!

Christmas Card Photos!

I'm on the ball this year and got my photos taken for this year's Christmas card photo!  Kaylie was soooo excited to wear her Christmas dress for the photos.  As she puts it it's her "Christmas princess dress"!  I just wanted to share some of the cute shots I got :)

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals!

Is everyone pumped about the biggest shopping deals of the season?  Of course the one year I finish my Christmas shopping early all the local stores here decide to start their black Friday deals at midnight instead of 5am!  Oh well, I don't need a new big screen or camera so I guess it doesn't matter anyway!

My Esty Shop will be having a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale too!  Use coupon code SHIP4FREE (all caps) to get free shipping on your entire order!  This offer ends Monday November 28th at 11pm EST.

Red Poppies Scrabble Pendants

Please do mention to me in a convo or message to seller if you would like me to ship someplace other than the address provided to me by PayPal.  If you're sending a gift I can include a little gift tag made of pretty scrap booking paper with a sentiment to include with your gift at no charge.  Again, just convo or put in the message to seller what you'd like it to say!

Hand Stamped Gift Boxes

If you're ordering from my shop don't forget about my super cute hand stamped gift boxes to put your jewelry in!  They make your gift extra special with that handmade touch and did I mention they're super cute?  They're available in three sizes and if you need help determining which size would be best, just send me a quick convo on Etsy and I'll help you out!

Swirly Birdie

Also new in my shop, Swirly Birdie Necklace!  this adorable little bird has been hand shaped and wrapped with little swirlies for a cute touch!  The entire pendant has been oxidized and shined for a lovely antique finish!  It hangs on an 18' 2.4mm copper plated ball chain.  A very cute gift for the bird lover!

Autumn Glitter

I have a new bracelet in my shop that I'm hoping finds a happy home!  Autumn Glitter is alive with sparkling goldstone and beautiful white magnesite wire wrapped by hand using solid copper wire!  A beautifully carved gold stone leaf and genuine Swarovski crystal grace the middle of this unique piece that looks gorgeous all year round!  Earthy and rustic, this would be perfect for that down to earth gal in your life!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family!  Also here's a treasury I made and a couple treasuries I've been featured in, check them out!

Chirstmas Shopping, New Merch and Upcoming!

SOLD and re-listed!

Isn't this jewelry box SUPER cute!

Galeaz Glass on Etsy makes them!

I'm very happy my sales have been picking up a bit more with the biggest shopping season of the year looming over us.  The stores are getting crazy and thankfully I'm nearly done with my Christmas shopping list!  Jealous?  All I have left is to buy something for my father-in-law tell my husband ideas for the hardest person on our list-me!  I have my eyes set on a GORGEOUS handmade glass jewelry box made by Galeaz Glass on Etsy and a new pouch with cute owls on it for the new Droid I'll be getting the end of December (I sooo HATE my BlackBerry, I think I see a sledgehammer in its future), I'm still deciding which Etsy shop to buy from though, there's so many!

Autumn Sunrise

I recently listed two brand new items in my shop.  The first is Autumn Sunrise, a new pair of wire wrapped copper earrings featuring some oh so lovely autumn jasper beads!  I've wire wrapped these beauties by hand using sold copper wire which I've oxidized and shined for a rustic and vintage touch.  They also hang from hand forged earring hooks made of copper wire.

Cobalt Coral

Next up is Cobalt Coral, I had bought these wonderful blue genuine coral beads some time ago but had no real plans for them till now!  They were too pretty to pass up and had such a wonderful texture!  This necklace features the lovely 14mm coral bead as a focal surrounded with ornate bead caps and beads with lots of dainty brass chain fringe dangling below!

Coming Soon!

I also wanted to give everyone a sneak peek of two items I just finished doing photo edits on!  they'll be listed in my shop before Thanksgiving and (if they don't sell before then) they'll be with me at my next craft show Decemeber 3rd at the Rapid River American Legion from 9-4pm!  If I missed you at my last show, I hope to see you there!

Coming Soon!

In case you haven't seen them yet, I now have a new gifting option that I mentioned was coming soon!  I now offer super cute hand stamped kraft boxes that you can purchase as an upgrade from the organza bag when you purchase jewelry from my shop!  They're only a few bucks each, come tied with a cute little twine bow and you have several stamps to choose from!  All I ask is that you please purchase your upgrade and jewelry together to save you shipping as there's no extra shipping charge for the box if you purchase it with jewelry from my shop!

Hand Stamped Kraft Boxes!

Lastly, I'd like to show you all some sweet treasuries I've had the honor of being featured in, check them out!

It's That Christmas Craft Show Time of Year Again!

Oh my it's been a reeeally long time since I've posted in here!  Lots of crazy things have been going on and I guess I kind of put this on the back burner!  Hubby got a new job at Schwan's as a Route Sales Rep and he just loves it!  I'm very happy for him for landing this job, especially with how young of a family we are.  No more job hopping!  I've been busy with Kaylie's preschooling since she didn't get into the early preschool class I wanted her in this year.  She's only 3 so it's ok, there's always next year but with all the requirements for schooling now I want to make sure she's well prepared!

Sasha

We also added a new furry addition to our house.  In no way did I want to have four cats in our house, three was more than plenty but my mom mentioned to me that she saw a cat at the pound that looked just like our cat, Sasha, we had to give away when Kaylie was a baby.  For whatever reason after we moved into our new house and Kaylie was just starting to walk Sasha decided to pee on everything Kaylie owned.  We tried everything in the book to correct this bad behavior but nothing worked so we were forced to take her to the shelter.  Now I explicitly told the shelter she should be placed in a home without young children.  Long story short, she ended up back in that same shelter because she doesn't get along with children.  Ugh, how can people be so dumb!  I felt sooooo bad for poor Sasha and went to visit her to see if it really was her.  She had no tail, lime green eyes, and a brown patch by her ear, yup this was indeed Sasha!  Sushi, as the shelter had named her (seriously? Sushi?) remembered me and the lady said I was the first person she saw "Sushi" come out from under her blanket for.  How could I leave her there right?  So I brought her home and crossed my fingers that the peeing would not happen again.  It's been about a month and she's actually been perfectly fine to my amazement.  Kaylie is older now so she does listen when I tell her to leave Sasha alone so Sasha isn't stressed out like she was when Kaylie was too little to know better.  I never wanted to give her up in the first place but we're happy to have our Sashie Bear back :)

Wire wrapped tree branches

Cute little dress form necklace displays I made

I knew that old crate would come in handy

Well now for what I came here to write about!  It's that busy time of year again for Christmas shopping and craft shows!  I just had my first Christmas craft show on Saturday at the local high school and it was great!  I was really reserved about it at first since I seemed to have a string of bad luck for the past few private shows and a horrible craft show that wasn't even advertised this past spring that I did.  But, I got very close to my sales goal for the day and had a great time meeting tons of new people!  I got tons and tons of compliments on my jewelry and my displays!  A few people even wanted to buy some of my handmade displays!  I was really hoping to sell out of some clearance items and to sell some more mini paintings but oh well, I still have another show coming up in a few weeks!  As I expected my Scrabble pendants were quite a hit!  I'm super stoked that I made enough to pay myself back for the folding banquet tables I bought (those are sooooo nice to have) and to replace all my black velvet displays with oak, natural hemp and cream leatherette displays.  They were a bit pricy but I think the new displays will look so much better on my tables than the black ones!  Now I get to take a little break between shows and get a chance to list some new items.  I've got one more show on December 3rd at the American Legion in Rapid River from 9-3pm!

One of four tables, this one with Scrabble pendants and earrings

I also wanted to point out recent treasuries I was featured in for the NNNTeam and Etsy Hearts Beads Team!  Take a peek!