Ho, Ho, Ho Quick Card

Hello, Stampin' Friends! I've been working really hard recently on getting ready for the Mt. View Holiday Bazaar. It's a huge craft and gift fair, and I'm super excited to be going back for the second year in a row. I've got Holly Jolly spread all over my desk, painty fingers, and glitter on all the things...but the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge calls, so I grabbed some scraps of what I've been using and made this quick and easy holiday card.

I used the outer edge of the ornament banner sticker from the workshop kit to mask off the scalloped border, sponging it in with a soft craft brush. I stamped around it with snowflakes and stars from the Whimsical Holiday Set, then filled in the card front with an older, retried PML card, Aqua shimmer trim, and washi tape. I used another PML card for the snowflake square, and nabbed the Ho Ho Ho sentiment from the die cuts of that Holly Jolly Kit I've been using for so many non-scrapbooking projects.

I finished embellishing with a pink snowflake sticker (Holly Jolly kit), some small white snowflake nail embellishments, and red glitter gems. Then I went around the edges of the stamping and snowflake with a glitter pen, and also added some shimmery lines to the plaid pattern of the background. 

The Mt. View Holiday Bazaar is on Saturday, November 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be arts and crafts, gift items, home decor, antiques, food and more. If you're in my area, I hope you'll stop by and say hi!

A Blog Hop with Heart(s)

Welcome to the Blog Hop with Heart(s). This month's theme is, of course, hearts! You might be arriving here from BECCA'S BLOG. You can find a complete list of blogs at the bottom of this post. Let's hop!

I have the simplest little project this month. When I heard the theme was hearts I made a lot of plans, but today Mac came home from school complaining that he needs his Valentine's Box for his classroom. Ahem, what do you mean? I guess a note was sent last week, but moving is killing my last brain cells, so I missed that part. We duct taped a small box (something we aren't lacking around here right now, lol) with shiny silver duct tape. Then we used scrapbooking cardstock and more red duct tape to create a Harry face and scarf to fit on the top of the box. Everything was eyeballed and handcut, because dinner had to be made and time was of the essence, YKWIM? We filled his glasses with acrylic hearts, which I attached with strong glue so they won't pop off. Then I sawed a mouth into the face (sorry, Harry) so kids can stuff the Valentines in. Max is thrilled, we are all caught up, and Harry is pretty darn cute. We even wrote "alohamora" on the back where he can open the box to get his goodies out!

Next up on the hop is SHELLY'S BLOG. I'm sure you'll {HEART} all the projects, so be sure to keep hopping until you end up back here!

Amie

Stephanie

Jayma

Katy

Becca

**Wendy** You are here!

Shelly

Tricks and Treats Blog Hop

Welcome to this month's Blog Hops with Heart Tricks and Treats Blog Hop! This hop has lots of creatively awesome Halloween treats for your craft loving heart. You may be arriving here from BECCA'S BLOG. A complete list of hoppers can be found at the bottom of this post.

I made some super sparkly pumpkin decor using cream colored craft pumpkins and Cricut cut paper flowers. I used washi tape to create a dip line, then painted the pumpkins with mod podge and coated them with chunky gold glitter. I added a second coat of mod podge and sprinkled on some tiny gold sequins. A third coat of mod podge sealed in the sparkly goodness!

On top of each pumpkin I used Liquid Glass to secure a variety of rolled paper flowers cut from Sweet Leaf, Glacier, and Thistle cardstock. I inked the edges of each flower before rolling and securing with Liquid Glass. After the flowers dried then I attached them to the pumpkins, tucking in sprigs of leaves cut from Whisper cardstock as I felt the need. 

Next up on the hop is KATY'S BLOG. Happy hopping!

Complete October Hop List:

Amie

Becca

Wendy (You are here!)

Katy

Stephanie

Day 342: Harry Potter Wall Decor

Speaking of Max's Harry Potter obsession, a little side project we've been working on this week for his new bedroom after the move are these awesomesauce Harry Potter style letters to add to his wall over his bed. He wanted them to look like the Golden Snitch...

I ordered our custom letters from an Etsy Shop called Ally's Custom Art. The price was reasonable, and she shipped out out pieces super fast! I had Max help base coat the letters with some gold acrylic paint front and back. I filled in the sides for him, and then added three coats of Gold Extreme Glitter acrylic paint, and two coats of Glossy Mod Podge. I love Extreme Glitter paint - the sparkle is outstanding, and it doesn't shed glitter everywhere.

I may retake these pics after we get moved in my shiny new Shot Box to see if that helps to capture how sparkly and gorgeous they are. Max was ready to hop in the car and drive to Oregon that night just to hang his name in his room. I'm sure it'll be mentioned as soon as we get out of the car at our new place Saturday night, lol. 

Day 341: Harry Potter Painted Bag

Ok, so this is the bag that started the whole project ball rolling. Totes adorbs, right? Max was like, "Mom! I need that bag, please." I said, "Max! I need to not have my card charged and then never see the product shipped, thanks." And off to Hobby Lobby we went...

These bag projects were fairly easy and inexpensive. I already had most of the paint colors we needed, so all I bought were the canvas totes (which we upgraded and got these string backpacks) and the fabric medium to mix into the acrylic paints (plus the correct red for Gryffindor as per Max's choice). I used a ruler to sketch in the Harry Potter face and scarf stripes. I used a mason jar lid ring to make his glasses, tracing inside and out to get the thick black frames. I left his eyes the color of the canvas tote and free handed the green pupils, because the books are always better (Sorry, Daniel, we still heart you). Max is over the moon thrilled about his new Harry Potter tote bag, and I only wish we'd found this project before Max's Harry Potter party. It's definitely a Keeper. Have a Ronderful day, Stampin' Friends!

P.S. hee hee...three hours sleep makes puns ever so funny...#sorrynotsorry #harrypotterforlife #idon'tevenknowwhyI'mhashtaggingthisblogpost #don'tletthemugglesgetyoudown  

Day 340: Lego Miniman Painted Bag

Today I'm sharing Gabe's bag, which was by far the fastest and easiest of the three painted totes we made. Gabe could not stop giggling when I showed him the freshly painted bag. 

You can see that my ironing skills leave a bit to be desired, since he looked more wrinkly after I ironed him than before. I was worried that I needed to use a pressing cloth (which are who knows where in my boxes) or a layer of packing paper between my iron and the paint, but after a bit of messing about I bit the bullet and just went iron onto the paint directly and it worked just fine. I didn't slide it back and forth, just did a press and hold for a few seconds motion moving bit by bit to ensure I got every bit of the painted area. My iron was just fine, no clean up necessary, and the design didn't smear a bit! Tomorrow I'll share my favorite of the three bags we made.

Day 339: Yoda Painted Tote Bag

So couple weeks ago Max and I saw the CUTEST tote bag on one of those Facebook ads, and they were offering to give it away for free. Score, right? Except when you looked at reviews for the company making the offer, lots of people were complaining about a variety of issues, and I didn't feel comfortable at all with handing over my credit card details to a company with such a shady reputation. Good thing we are crafty round here, eh? 

So I started with one bag for the youngest child, and then, as these things do, it snowballed into three bags, because every boy needs his own bag. Today I'm sharing Ben's bag. Ok, don't judge me too harshly, because I have never claimed to be an actual artist. I like cutting up pretty paper and gluing it back together - like quilting, but less work! I don't draw much, or even paint much unless you count splattering watercolor paint everywhere, but when your child looks at you with the big blue eyes, and you just finished packing all his toys into big boxes and are prepping him for a big unexpected move, then you get creative for him real fast. So I found a simple Yoda cartoon that thrilled him to pieces. Then I sketched with a pencil until my Yoda sort of looked like the cartoon Yoda. Did you know you can use an eraser on a canvas tote bag?

Once Ben had approved the Yoda, I painted him with standard acrylic paints mixed 2 to 1 with fabric medium. He was supposed to be on a white background, but them someone dropped yellow paint onto Yoda and he ended up hovering over a lake of (tie-dyed) fire. Luckily, Ben thought that was awesomesauce.   After you've finished your painting, you let the project dry for 24 hours and then iron it to heat set the painted areas...now you can imagine these canvas totes draped over moving boxes all over my living room... Although the project was a bit of a departure from the packing I was supposed to be doing, they will be useful during the move, as each boy will be carrying his own car toys and books for the long drive to Portland in their sweet new totes!

Day 251: Halloween Party Crafts

I meant to make a Halloween card to share tonight, but last night's craft time was commandeered by my sweet husband, who decided he needed a Halloween costume...for Friday...at nine o'clock at night. So instead of getting crafty, I had time to finish Max's class snack project and put together a costume.  

I cut these jack-o-lantern faces on my Cricut, using the new Artistry cartridge. Then I popped them onto these peach cups using Liquid Glass. I used Liquid Glass to attach the wiggly eyes to the cheese sticks too. Then on my way to school to deliver the snack and run the bingo station I came to my senses and stopped for paper plates and paper towels to mop up all the peach juice we inevitably ended up spilling while opening up the peach cups. Lesson learned! 

You may have seen this picture already if you follow on Instagram or Facebook. This is the end result of John's last minute lazy Halloween costume request. He's had this hoodie for a few years. I printed a picture of E.T. and backed it with cardstock. I taped on some baker's twine, then tied and taped it to a medium sized cat stuffy that was then swaddled in a towel. Then John found this (Amazon) shipping box in the recycle and stuck one of the boys' foam toys through the box for a bike handle. His costume was a hit, and won Most Original Costume at his work costume contest. Now the boys are clamoring to see this classic movie.

While neither card, nor layout, nor mini album, that was my crafting last night. Tomorrow I'll have Nevermore pages for you - thanks for stopping by!

DIY Glitter Mason Jars

Some of you have been asking me where I got the glittery mason jars from my craft fair display. I made them, and it was so easy! I grabbed a few jars from my canning stash, some Glossy Mod Podge, and a jar of Silver Kid Glitter.  put a coat of Mod Podge on the bottom half of my mason jar and liberally poured on the glitter. After that layer dried (because I wanted a kind of glitter ombre), I added another coat of Mod Podge, this time all the way up to the neck and sprinkled on more glitter, getting lighter on the top half. I added one more layer of Mod Podge after that dried, over everything to seal in the sparkles. Custom sparkle mason jars for WAY less than I almost spent of cute silvered glass display jars...one more reason to love glitter!

I'm linking up to the Paper Issues It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas Party!

Check out the holiday fun!

Ruffle my Feathers

This week Stasha over at Northwest Mommy asked for a list of top ten irritating things. I could probably write a bazillion about things little boys do that drive me crazy...but since I love them so, instead I'm gonna count my blessings and do a listicle on Crafty things that make me make a sad face.

Top Ten Crafty Things that Ruffle my Feathers 

See what I did there? Crafty puns totally make me giggle. Sorry if that distresses you! 

1. When you click on a Pinterest Pin that goes...nowhere. Seriously, folks, pin from the actual blog post!

2. When you finish a complicated scrapbook title page treatment (diecuts, glitter, distressing, layers...you know, the usual!) only to figure out that you've spelled it wrong. Like that Forth of July layout when I was preggo, right clubbers?  

3. When I hear repeatedly at a craft fair that my prices are amazingly low and my crafts are totally awesome...but not selling enough to pay for my babysitting bill. 

4. When you peel the backing off red line or foam tape, and then can't get the backing to get off your fingers. Sometimes that static is clingier than the adhesive!

5. When you drop a stamp/sparkle/sticker and cannot find it anywhere...until you ask your stamp buddies to help and then it's suddenly right in front of you.

6. When my sweet hubby reads over my shoulder while I'm typing to you, dear stamping friends...and corrects my spelling or grammar. Ahem.

7. When I finish a card and flip it over to stamp on my signature on the back...only to find that I've glued the card front on upside down. 

When in doubt, add glitter!

8. When you meet people who hate glitter. I eat glitter for breakfast, lunch, and tea. I cannot relate.

9. When you find an awesome craft blog, and they don't have a Follow by Email feature. I LOVE to Follow by Email. Every morning my email is happily filled with amazing projects and fabulous blog posts...and if your blog won't let me follow by email...well, then I'm not following at all. Sad.

10. When I'm in the middle of creating and I have to stop abruptly to go, you know, participate in my real life. It's hard to shift gears quickly, once you've gotten into the groove. There's just not enough time in the day for everything I want to craft! That is not to say I don't love every bit of caring for these three little monkeys. I just needed to finish applying that last coat of glitter!

Let it Snow...Man

Whew! Another craft fair in the bag, and now it's time to kick back, relax, and catch up on some Glee! Before I head off to a well deserved foot rub, a lot of you were interested in these adorable snowmen tubes. There were pretty fun to make...although, if I never have to stuff another mini marshmallow into a plastic envelope again...

I got the 1x8 clear bags from ClearBags.com. My team orders clear bags as a group as the shipping charges on small orders can be quite overwhelming. I could start stocking these in my stash if there's enough interest! After carefully filling the bags with marshmallows (tip - stuff in a couple and then shake to get them to move on down the line), I used Liquid Glass to glue on wiggly eyes and hand-cut Sunset Cardstock noses from a piece of scrap paper. The mouth was done with black puffy paint, just the super cheap stuff. I like it better than a sharpie because of the dimension when it dries, like it's lumps of coal.

The Plastic Top Hats I got from Amazon. There's 144 in a package, so you might want to share with a friend (or 2)...although the longer I have my package, the more things I find that would totally look cute wearing a teensy tiny top hat! Baby carrots? Totally way cuter in a top hat. Cracks me my three year old right up!

I wrapped the top hats in a bit of Washi (kind of a PITA since I had to cut it into 3rds and a bit overkill now that it's all said and done, but I never claimed to be a reasonable scrapper - it's adorable, right?) and a line of glitter glitz (way easier and looks awesome). Then I tied on a bit of ribbon for a scarf. This was one of my best sellers (and drew the most comments) at my booth today. I wouldn't say I need to run to the bank ASAP with my craft fair earnings, but I sold more at this booth than I have at my previous craft fairs...combined. I have one more super adorable top hat project that I'll post soon. 

I did these particular items as starter items for Teacher gifts or small holiday stocking stuffers, and sold them for $1. How cute would that snowman be paired with a mug and a packet of cocoa? Therefore I am linking it up to the Heart 2 Heart Gratitude challenge, as that's where my "extra" snow buddies are headed...to express our gratitude to the teachers and helpers that make my kiddos lives at school a better place. Plus a few for my ETSY shop when I get around to posting them this weekend. 

(P.S. Some of those links are Amazon affiliate links, and if you click through to purchase I may receive a tiny bit of compensation. I will only link items I've actually used AND liked. Buying stuff through my affiliate links is a great way to support my crafty little blog at no cost to you, kind of like a little tip jar.  Thanks a bunch!)

Come visit the Tigard Playschool Bazaar!

I'm so excited to be headed out to the Tigard Playschool Holiday Bazaar. You might have seen us on the news, as recently our spunky little preschool was robbed of our Jog-a-thon funds. Thankfully, many sweet, wonderful members of the community have sent donations, and I am so grateful for the kindness and love in our community.  Of course, in any school, there's always a need for more funds, so if you are local, and have some time, stop by the bazaar and shop local while supporting our adorable preschoolers! 

Besides a full roster of creative crafters, we will be having a choir performance, and a raffle for a fabulous $1200 Traeger Grill. Can you imagine what a great holiday gift that would be? This grill is so top of the line, it looks like you could launch a rocket ship with it (says the girl who's in love with her cast iron skillet). The bazaar is from 9-4 at Tigard United Methodist Church in Tigard. Here's a link to a map/directions - we are tucked off 99W behind the Jiffy Lube at 99W and Walnut. 

I'll be there all day with a variety of hand crafted items (including my new Sparkle scarves) and a steaming cup of tea from my favorite coffee shop, Jubilatte, which is located right inside the church. I hope the bacon jam gal will be back this year!

Do you love my blinged out Mason Jars as much as I do? I'll do a post on them soon.  Now I've got to get to bed so I'll be bright eyed and bushy tailed when I get to visit with you tomorrow.

Ho, Ho, Hope to see you there!

Tick Tock Crafty Clock

I figured it's about TIME that I shared one of my more out of the box projects from my Extravaganza booth table top. This is an actual working clock that I built using our 6x6 canvas and the Bracket Frame. I painted the Frame and Canvas using a combo of Pearl Paint and gray acrylic paint using just a plain old cheap sponge brush. 

I used Liquid Glass to adhere an Artbooking chevron overlay cut from the computer text ProPlayer B&T over the painted canvas and then trimmed the edges flush to the canvas. I added the clock face using a combo of the ProPlayer Assortment mounted gems and Pixie Glitter Alphabet numbers.

The clock "innards" I bought at Joann's and they were not attractive upon purchase - cheap looking gold plastic did not match my clock, so I painted the clock pieces with silver spray paint and then coated the minute and hour hands with Silver Glitter Glitz and Sparkles. I topped it off with a gem from the new Base and Bling. 

I did back the Bracket frame with some Chipboard covered in black cardstock...and make sure that before you adhere that to your bracket frame with a huge thick layer of Liquid Glass and let it dry overnight that you actually carve a tidy hole in the chipboard so you can add a battery to your clock workings easily. Much easier than going back with an exacto knife later and trying to guess where the hole should be. Ahem.

I'm linking this project up to the Get Your Craft On Party over at Today's Creative Blog - if you've been out there you know all the creative goodness oozing out of these parties! If you haven't, well, get on over there and get your craft on!

Time flies when you're having fun - I'll be hanging with my brother and his family, visiting from California this weekend! I hope you've got fun plans, too!

Friday Favorite Things!

I'm so excited to be back for another week of Friday Favorite things. Congrats to last week's Winner, Casandra Bennet...and thanks to all of you for entering and reading along with me!

Today I am sharing a couple of rings that I made using the new Sarita textiles and the Base and Bling Ring Bases coming out August first. 

First up is a simple flower ring that I made using the pinked edge of the golden textile. I cut a narrow strip all along the pinked edge. Then I applied one of the new Base and Bling circle adhesive spots to the ring top and started applying the textile in a circular pattern working from the outside towards the center. Then I covered up the center with a Red Base and Bling flower gem.

MY second ring to share today is also a textile ring. For this project I hacked 5 (mostly) round circles from the blue dotted Sarita textile. I folded each circle in half, then half again and scrunched them onto the Base and Bling adhesive dot on the ring base. Then I used hot glue to pop one more scrunched circle on top to complete my "flower" ring. Both rings took just  minutes to make!

Ready to win? Pin any (or all) of these images to your Pinterest for bonus entries this week - and you can pin another one every day for even more chances to win!

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