Fimo Clay flower hair clips and earrings

I bought some little resin hair clips at a craft fair recently with the intentions of coming home and trying to make some of my own at a fraction of the price.  However, once I got to looking at all the pretty forms and dyes, I decided I better not open that can of worms right now.   Instead I used some fimo clay and some dies from Martha Stuart that can be purchased very cheep ($6 for a set of 4 with a coupon) at your local J's-both of which I already had.  The completed resin flowers and filigree clips like the one I purchased can be found on etsy, then you just glue them together, still cheaper than the craft fair, but not as cheep as the clay.   My friend and I used about 25 cents worth of fimo clay to make 14 flowers - which we turned into 5 sets of clips and 2 pairs of earrings.  The molds (click here to see mold) are intended to make elements for cards, but the flowers are too bulky for cards for me, the fern and butterflies that come in the set are nice and flat/light though.

Press softened clay into mold until the back is level/flat. I used a craft knife of some of them to make them perfect for the earrings, but then you don't see the back for the hair clips, so why bother?

Pop out of die and bake according to package directions (we did 30 min. at 275)

If you are going to use them for beading, you can poke a head pin though them prior to baking.  We just left the wire in for baking.

Glue to clips - clipping them to the edge of something makes it easier, we just used super glue

Then, of course, make a cute package to give the away in!  I used a shaker box sizzix die I just got, it is AWESOME and perfect size for this kind of gift (and little candies too!)

I also have some cards from last week to share since I was too lazy to post anything.....

Thanks for looking!

Santa's sleigh gift card holder svg

I am mailing off a gift card and wanted to incorporate it into the card.  I made this little sleigh so that the gift card would stick out like a package.  If you weren't using a gift card, little squares of patterned paper to look like gifts would also be cute.   The svg is below as todays freebie,  it includes three parts for the sleigh and the Merry Christmas writing   To make the sleigh a little pocket I just glued the bottom and top layers along the very edges only - see photo below.  Thanks for looking!
PSI_SantasSleigh

Christmas Cards

 Yesterday was finals for me, so today I am re-couping, relaxing, and making some cards.  This first one I made for Frosted Designs 5th day of Christmas Challenge : 5 things of gold

These are the stamps I used

It has 7 gold brads, the background is stamped in gold ink, the edges are done with a gold leaf pen, and there is a gold cord wrapped with the ribbon.  I liked this one so much I made 6 of them.

The next one was done for Cas-ual Fridays Knotty or Nice Challenge.  The ribbon is in a knot, and I knotted on a bell too!

Doh, I got sidetracked and missed the deadline for this one by a couple hours :(

Next I made two for the Less is More One Layer "in a row" challenge.  My snowflakes are sort of in a row, so hopefully they count.  I used punched snowflakes as masks and then sponged on some blue.  They look sort of blotchy in the photo, but they are quite soft in real life, I liked them so much I made several to send out.  The second entry is a $1 stamp from Micheals I've had for years, its a cutie.  I used a score pal and cuttlebug folder to emboss.

Thanks for looking!  Tomorrow I'm working on gifts!

2013 Matchbook Calendar tutorial and freebie

Time for my annual matchbook calendars.  If you haven't made these before, they make a great little stocking stuffer or something to toss in a card.  I recommend printing the calendar on standard copy paper and using cardstock or double sided designer paper (heavy) for the covers.  In years past I have used my cricut or stamps to decorate the covers, but this year I used some fabulous images from The Graphics Fairy .  I have picked 3 and sized them for covers and set to print on one page (jpg link below).

So here is how you make them....

1: Print you calendars and and covers (print covers on white cardstock if using images provided).

2: Cut calendars to 2 1/4 by 2 1/2.  Be sure to cut so that the months are close to the top and the white emtpy space is at the bottom of each month.

3: Cut your base - if using the ones provided, just cut off the white,  if using other cardstock, cut your paper to 2 1/2 by 6 inch.

4: Score your base at  1/2 inch

5: Fold bottom and staple in your stacked calendar sheets












6: Fold top down to staples and press flat.

Embellish as desired - I have found in years past that ones with pop dots or any raised items on the top don't hold up well in my purse, they catch on things, so if this is for a purse, flat embellishments/stamping does best.  If you'd like to see samples from years past, see my post HERE (2009) , or Here (2011), or Here (2012) Enjoy!

2013 Matchbook Calendar PDF

Matchbook covers

A few challenge Christmas cards

Today I took a break from school work to make a few cards for challenge blogs.  I made this on for red and green challenge on the Less is More site.  I used fresh vintage and greetings of the season (both Stampin Up)

I made this one for Retro Sketches.  Papers are from and Authentique Christmas pack, I used a spellbinders die for the label and cricut (Noel cartridge) for the poinsettia.

I made this one for Frosted Designs First day of Christmas challenge (had to include a bird).  I used a memory box stamp that has a bird and I used some my minds eye card bases which I am wanting to use up!

I made this one for Freshly Made Sketches

Then I made this one for a challenge, but then realized you were supposed to make tags, not a project with tags....oh well.

Whew, busy day!

Cricut Noel and felt poinsettia Christmas pillows

Last week I went looking for holiday pillows for the living room, but all I could find was tan with colored images, since I have a tan couch I didn't think it would look nice since the tans would be slightly different.  My only choice was to make my own.  I did one with fabric paint ( two posts earlier).  I wanted them all to be different so for my second I made a pottery barn sort of knock off (the PB pillow was white on tan for $50, mine is white on green and only about $5).  I'm sure theirs is much nicer, but..$ yikes.  I cut the poinsettia leaves from craft felt sheets, stitched them on, then stitched jingle bells in the center.  Today I did the 3rd pillow using the NOEL cut on the Noel Christmas cricut cartridge.  It was cut at 10 inch from stampin up fabric (they have 3 fat quarters on sale for 0.99).   I started by putting permanent heat-n-bond on a 12 inch square of fabric, cut my images, then ironed the pieces onto cream colored fabric.  I stitched a 1 inch red border around the cream and did the back in the green, so it used up most of the two fat quarters.    Each pillow took me about 30 minutes - perfect for a daily crafting "fix" -  and I have something I can use for years, I might have to make them for every season!  I'm linking these up with Christmas cheer link party over at Happy Hour Projects, thanks for looking!

Holly Edged Christmas Card and svg file

Oh my goodness, tomorrow is December!  I need to make some cards and quick, here is todays card along with an svg file.  There are a few extra holly leaves on the file, just in case you need some on the inside, or for accents, etc.   I cut the card base from craft and then lined the inside (verse side) with white so that the holly would pop on the bottom. The labels on the card are from spellbinders (labels and tags collection) and the stamp is from Stampin Up (Greetings of the Season set).   Thanks for looking!

PSI_HollyEdgeCard