Introducing: Cammie

Hey there, friends!  Well, Christmas is officially over and now we're left with wonderful memories, good food in the fridge, mountains of wrapping paper, and new toys to play with.  I hope your holiday was as special as ours was.  One of the highlights of the day for me was spending some real quality time with my family in the afternoon/evening.  Another, although I know it's not about the gifts, was this new addition to our family.   Meet my Silhouette Cameo.  I call her Cammie.

Hey, people name their cars, I can name my much-coveted cutting machine, right?  She's more than a machine, she's a crafting accomplice, no?  Just so you feel like you didn't miss anything, why don't you come on in and watch me open her...

Yup.  Just as you suspected, I'm a big dork.  I was super-excited {as the flapping arms would indicate} because although it was the one big thing I really wanted, my husband and mom had done a stellar job of implying that it wasn't going to happen.  Sneaky-sneaks.

I was a good girl and played nicely with my family while they were here and didn't rush anyone out the door, but once the family had left and LC was in bed, it was time for Cammie and I to get acquainted!  I ran downstairs to grab the adhesive vinyl I'd bought from Pick Your Plum months ago in the hopes of having the means to cut it and searched everywhere for anything I could slap vinyl on.  Here's what I came up with.

Materials:
- adhesive vinyl
- clear plastic ornament
- Silhouette Cameo!!!!!

First, I put the vinyl on my cutting mat and loaded the machine.  Well, actually, first I read the instruction manual a billion times and installed the software.  But then I loaded the machine.

Isn't she pretty?  {Sigh of contentment.}

Then, I chose one of the designs in my library that came with the software, a snowflake, for a test run.  I sent it to the machine and it went to work. {Notice the tins there...homemade toffee and peanut butter balls...one needs energy to be creative, right?}.

And out came a snowflake!  Lookie!  I know it's hard to see, but it's there in all its machine cut glory.

I quickly stuck it on my ornament, and voilá!  Hubby, who wasn't even really sure exactly what a Silhouette was, let alone all of its endless creative possibilities, was duly impressed.  It was at that moment that I fell in love with Cammie.

*Side note: Sorry for the less than awesome photos...I was more interested in playing with my new toy than in getting craftgawker-quality pics, for once.  You understand, don't you?*

I went to the online store and quickly spent all but 40 cents of the $10 gift card that came as part of the package, buying sayings, fonts, and flowers.  Then, I went into the studio, typed up "one artsy mama" and started cutting it, along with the flowers I'd chosen.  I grabbed another plastic ornament {I have a million of them in my stash} and went to town.  And there you have it...the first ever One Artsy Mama personalized ornament.  Ahhhhhhh!

How fun is that?!  And it's so ridiculously easy.  Well, except for when I loaded the machine wrong and it cut in the wrong place, and well...we won't talk about that.  Lookie!

I didn't need any more ornaments and hubby wouldn't let me start vinyling everything in our house like I wanted to, so I had to settle for just this one last project before bedtime...Mackenzie from Cheerios and Lattes suggested making a control panel cover for Cammie!  It's one of the preloaded designs in the library; you just cut it out of scrapbook paper and ta da!  Isn't she stylish?  I think pink is definitely her color...just do me a favor and reassure her it doesn't make her look fat, ok?

Well, that's just a little tiny preview of what my girl Cammie can do!  I really REALLY wanted to head out to the store today to get all kinds of random things to stick vinyl on, but, well...this is happening.

And so I'm pouting.  And looking around the house for something I can prettify...hmmmm....what about the glass doors of the china cabinet?  Or maybe the wall?  Um, gotta run!

Hugs and Glitter,

Ornament Exchange: Felt Owls and More



 

I have to start off today by saying how much fun it was to coordinate the first annual One Artsy Mama Ornament Exchange this year!  I've loved checking the link party to see all the fun ornaments you made and received from each other.  We had 76 participants, which I thought was a fabulous turnout for our first try at this.  I've been so anxious to show you what I sent to my partner, Andrea, but I wanted to wait and make sure she received it first and had the fun of opening it instead of seeing it posted here first.  But now it's fair game, so here you go!!  This is what was in the package I sent to my partner:

Andrea told me she decorates in traditional red and green, so I made this fun little felt owl to adorn her tree.  She also told me she has two adorable boys, a 3 1/2 year old, and a 10 month old, and when Little Crafter heard that, he was excited to make an ornament for each of them too, using tri-beads, jingle bells, and a pipe cleaner.

This little guy was fairly easy and quick {and cheap!} to make.  

Materials:

- three colors of felt {body, wings, beak}

- google eyes

- scissors

- hot glue

- thread and a needle

- cord or ribbon

- optional: some kind of glitter paint or glitter mod podge

First, I cut out two identical owl shapes.  I just freehanded it, making it round at the bottom and adding two points at the top.  Then, I cut out two identical small heart shapes and a triangle from coordinating felt.  I hot glued the wings, eyes, and beak to one of the owl shapes.  After that was finished, I put the two owl shapes together and hand stitched around them, leaving a small opening at the bottom.  LC helped me put polyfil in to make them puffy, and I finished sewing the bottom.  Finally, I added glitter to the wings, and threaded a piece of cord through the top to make a hanger.  Easy peasy.  And I had all the supplies on hand so it didn't cost me anything either!

Of course, LC decided he needed an owl too...he wanted blue {his favorite color} with purple wings {Ravens color} and a football!  I was happy to comply...

 

I totally love how they turned out!  I made pink and purple versions too...who can resist a little owl?

 

 

There are lots of other easy and quick ornaments you can make with felt too...that's been my project of choice around here lately for some reason.  I made a few things and got hooked!  Here are a few other felt ornaments that will be decorating my tree and my gift packages this Christmas season:

 

FELT ORNAMENTS

I made these with my friend Kelly the same night we made the bottle cap snowmen.  We freehanded the ornament shapes and basically made them the same way I made the owls.  You just cut two pieces, glue on any embellishments you want, hand stitch around the edges, stuff, and add a hanger.

 

I was inspired to make these by some really cute ones linked up to Shine on Fridays by Christine at the DIY Dreamer...definitely check out her version too!  Kelly's ornament is the red one at the top, and mine are the pink and green ones at the bottom.







 

FELT MONOGRAM ORNAMENTS

I am sooo in love with these!  Again, it's the same process.  Trace and cut two circles, cut out a monogram, glue it on, sew around the edges, stuff, and hang!  I frehanded my letters {mostly because I'm lazy}, but you can also print them out on the computer for a pattern or if you're lucky enough to have a Silhouette, well, you know what to do.

 

The inspiration for these came from Pinterest {of course}!  I think they're absolutely adorable not just as ornaments but also to tie onto everyone's packages instead of using a paper gift tag.

 

And, of course, if you missed them, there are also Little Crafter's

FELT TREES

Be sure to check out the post for pics of him making them and learning to sew!

 

 

Anyway, the possibilities are endless!  And most of us have everything we need just laying around the craft room already!  So, what are you waiting for?  Grab yourself some felt, some glue, some thread, and a needle, and get started!  I'd love to see what you make.

 

Happy Crafting!

Handmade Holidays: LC's Felt Tree Ornaments

I am so SO excited, friends.  This next installment of the Handmade Holidays series is being brought to you by my favorite crafter in the whole wide world.  Little Crafter himself!!  

I figured since I've had friends sharing their ideas for handmade Christmas decor and gifts this week, why not let the little man show you one of his latest projects?!  Here it is:

The idea {like many others} originally came from Pinterest.  LC has his very own board and from time to time we'll browse around and he'll do some of his own pinning.  Thursday morning, we came across this pin {originally from Forest Fairy Crafts} and LC was immediately intrigued.  "I want that on my board, Mommy!" So, we pinned it, and several hours later, we made it since we actually had all the supplies on hand.

Here's what you need:

- green felt

- assorted beads and/or sequins

- thread and needle

- scissors

That's it.  Really.  I bet you have all that just laying around your house already.

The faceted multicolor beads we used as well as the sequin mix came from our friends at CraftProjectIdeas.com, so now is a good time to thank them for those!

STEP 1: Cut two tree shapes from green felt.

STEP 2: Sew beads onto one of the pieces of felt.  This was so exciting for LC because it was the first time I ever let him use a needle and thread.  I showed him how to pull the needle up from the back, thread on a few beads, then push it back down through.  Priceless.

 Look at his concentration!!  He had so much fun with this, and from time to time, he'd just grin and say, "Mommy, I'm sewing!"

STEP 3: Sew top and bottom of tree together, leaving an opening to stuff it.  At this point, I got to show Little Crafter how to do a simple whip stitch.  He, of course, caught on right away.  I held the two pieces together, and he pushed the needle through and pulled all by himself.  He literally made this entire thing with very little help from me whatsoever, other than verbal guidance.  He's four.  No wonder his Poppy calls him "Boy Genius."

STEP 4: Stuff with polyfil and finish sewing shut.  He loved the stuffing part.

STEP 5: Add a hanger using silver cord, jute, or ribbon.  We threaded ours through using a large needle, but you could also use hot glue on the back.

Isn't it adorable?  LC generously decided that the first one he made was for his daddy.  Then he made one for me, which has lots and lots of purple for the Ravens.  It also has an "M" for Mommy, an "E" because it will remind me of my stuffed elephant Peanut, and a "B" for "MomBy."  This is what I was told.

Finally, he made his own.  He got into a pattern this time, doing a sequin, then a bead, then a sequin, then a bead...you can tell that his three favorite colors are red, blue, and purple!  

Once they were finished, he hid them in each of our stockings.  Apparently we get to have them the day we put up our tree...which can't come soon enough for me!

LC hopes you enjoyed his craft!  Stay tuned next week to see some other felt ornaments, this time made by Mama, as well as the one I sent for the Ornament Exchange!  Until then,

Happy Crafting!

Thanksgiving Placecards {the prequel}

Hey, friends!  Today it's my turn to share a Fall-related Paint Tutorial with you as part of this week's Crafty Cornucopia challenge!



<a href="http://myfavefinds.com/"><img src="http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k591/loulou711/cc.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>

 

So, you know I like to keep it real around here, and today is no exception because...my "wonderful-in-my-head" paint project, um, kind of turned out to be a craft fail.  But, I'm sharing it anyway.  And really I think it's kind of actually only a half-fail...see what you think.

 

You may have noticed that I participated in a fun Virtual Thanksgiving dinner with some other bloggers recently, and my job was to create the placecards.  You may have even seen the pretty ones we were able to create, but what you didn't see was our first attempt.

 

It all started on Facebook.  My friend Cassie asked me to test out some salt dough and clay recipes and tell her which one was the best so she could make Christmas ornaments with her kids.  Since we'd tried salt dough before, I decided we'd try this alternative recipe from The Woodside Kitchen.  Instead of salt, flour, and water, it's baking soda, cornstarch, and water.  You mix it on low heat until it looks like mashed potatoes {enter my trusty assistant}, then form it into a dough ball.

 

Then you roll it, cut it, and stamp it {if you like}.  So far, so good.  We hadn't been able to find a leaf cookie cutter {we found one several days later at Target}, so I used one of our dinner glasses to make circles.  We poked holes using a straw, and used alphabet and leaf stamps to imprint our family's names. 

Then, you bake them.  I don't know if I didn't bake them long enough or what happened, but they never felt as solid to me as the salt dough ones do.  I felt like if I pushed on them too hard, they'd break kind of like a cookie.  Despite my misgivings, we went ahead with the project and LC painted them.

 

I did the detail work, painting in the names and designs, then we went over them with Sparkle Mod Podge.  We tied jute through the holes and embellished them with little punched out cardstock pieces that I stamped the word "grateful" on.  Pretty, aren't they?

 



 

 

 

Unfortunately, here's what happened.  It wasn't even that we did anything to them; all they did was sit on the counter, but after a day, they started to have visible cracks {you can kind of see the crack in the Grammy ornament in the photo above}, and they continued just to pull apart all by themselves until finally they just started to split like this one did.

 

Waaah!  Craft Fail!  So much time and effort, and that's what we have to show for it!  Boo hoo.  I hate when that happens. 

 

But, here are the silver linings...

 

1. We didn't really waste much money because I spent less than a dollar on supplies.  Everything else we already had on hand.

 

2. The design turned out really cute!  So, we could always replicate the design idea {or you could!} using salt dough or another more solid material.

 

3. The painting part wasn't the fail!  So hopefully Carrie will still ask me to participate the next time she has a fun event like Crafty Cornucopia going on...

 

So, while it's a disappointment, at least I got a few pretty pictures and a nice idea for another time.  Plus, it gave me an excuse to buy the leaf shaped cookie cutter when we found it and make up another project, right?  And anyway, today is all about being thankful.  So, I'm going to chalk it up as a fun day with my Little Crafter and I'm going to focus on all the good things instead!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Counting My Blessings,



 

 

Stenciled Glass Ornaments



In honor of this week's Crafty Cornucopia paint challenge, I thought I'd share another paint project with you {even though it's Christmas-y instead of fall-themed}.

By now, I'm sure most of you have seen the incredible array of products I got to sample from Martha Stewart's holiday paint line.  Of course, a certain little friend of mine wanted a piece of it all and I got no rest until I came up with a project he could do.  So, we picked up a pack of glass ornaments and I let him go to town.  Here's what we came up with together:

Materials:
- Martha Stewart glass paints, assorted colors
- Martha Stewart adhesive stencils
- Martha Stewart paint daubers
- glass ornaments
- ribbon

These were so easy to make that a four year old could do it.  Literally.

I let him choose his stencils and colors.  We stuck the stencils on {he liked it because they were like stickers} and then I showed him how to dab the paint in the "hole."  He was so focused and did a really great job!!

 

Once the stenciling was finished, we let the paint dry, then stuffed the ball with some shiny red filler we had in our stash.  How fun is that?  Little Crafter is so incredibly proud of himself for making this, and quite frankly, I am too!  Pretty darn impressive if you ask me!

 



 

He agreed to let me play a little too, so I made this one with lots of snowflakes in white, silver, and aquamarine.



The possibilities are endless!  It was a really fun project for us to do together, which I always love.
We are having too much fun with all our "toys" from Martha Stewart and Plaid...be sure to keep watching for more projects we've made, especially during the Handmade Holidays series the first week in December!

Happy Crafting!



Bottle Cap Snowman Ornaments

Happy Thanksgiving-Week, friends!  I know it's still just a little tiny bit early to be thinking about Christmas decorations {or is it?}, but my friend Kelly and I got together on Saturday night and made some of the cutest ornaments!  I just couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving to show you, so here they are {well, some of them, anyway}...

 



 

We got the idea from Kelly's Pinterest board, where she had pinned this little guy from She Who Makes.  Here's how we made ours:

 

Materials:- bottle caps

- white, black, orange, and red acrylic paint

- paintbrushes

- ribbon

- hot glue gun and glue sticks

- buttons

- scissors

- optional: glitter and/or sparkle Mod Podge

 

STEP 1: Paint the inside of each bottle cap white.  It's a little tricky getting it to coat completely, so you'll probably need to so several coats, letting it dry in between.  You can paint the outsides too if you really want, but we didn't.

 

 

STEP 2: Glue three bottlecaps to a piece of ribbon.  You'll also want to put a bit of glue in between each bottlecap to hold them together.  Form a loop with the top of the ribbon and glue in place.  {Thanks to Kelly for being my hand model...you didn't even know I took this pic, did you?  I'm so sneaky like that. ;)}

STEP 3: Use the end of a paintbrush or a toothpick to paint eyes, a nose, mouth and buttons on your snowmen.  Once they were dry, I added some sparkle Mod Podge to mine.

STEP 4: Tie a ribbon or yarn between the first and second bottle caps to make a scarf and accent with a button if you like.

Here are Kelly's two snowmen:

 

...and here are mine.  She said they could be the hubby and me, so I think I need to make a little two-bottle-cap one to be Little Crafter, don't you?  

 

 

I'm all about it.  Easy, cute, and ridiculously cheap to make...my kind of crafting!  Stay tuned to see some of the other fun ornaments we made together!

 

Happy Crafting!

Counting my blessings,