Quick, Inexpensive, Cute Ornaments in Minutes!

I'm so excited to be guest posting on See Vanessa Craft, showing you the quickest and easiest Christmas ornament project EVER! It would seriously take you longer to stand in line and buy an ornament than to make this one.

And it uses one of the hottest entertaining trends of 2013 ... the paper straw!

Ready? Let's get started. Here's what you'll need:

- Paper straws (found on Amazon for $5 with free shipping ... less than 4 cents per ornament!!)

- photos

- needle and thread

- narrow-blade scissors

- tape

1) Cut lengthwise down the paper straw.

 2) Slide the photo into the slit you just made in the straw.

3) Cut straw to size, and repeat for the bottom of the photo.

4)  Run thread through the top straw for the ornament hanger.

5) Tie.

6)  Use a small piece of tape to adhere the straw to the photo in the back. Cover with patterned paper.

7) BONUS STEP: add a date and name on the back. 

Wouldn't this be a neat tradition to have a photo from each year for your child? Or for couples on each anniversary? Or entire families? Or even using your Christmas card photo? What about using the Christmas card photos you receive in the mail and just cut off the sentiment portion?

Yet another idea is to use extra school photos - either for your own tree, or to pass out to friends and relatives. This is a perfect craft to outsource. Put your kids to work and have them do the assembly. It's really hard to mess this one up!

I used photos from our Christmas card photo shoot, and have them hanging on their own tree in the foyer. It's a great conversation-starter for guests who drop by.

 
Why be limited to Christmas ... pair a neutral-patterned straw (like gray and white stripes or birch tree bark) with favorite photos from throughout the year. Or make a literal family tree. If you don't want to use photos of people, use photos of birds that visited your garden this year. How cute would that be ... a bunch of bird photos in a tree! So many possibilities! I hope you're inspired to make something fun : )

Many thanks to Vanessa for inviting me to be part of her 20 Crafty Days of Christmas! I always love the awesome projects she shares on her blog.

Sharing with:
Ginger Snap Crafts,Creations by Kara, Handy Man Crafty Woman, What I Learned Wednesday, My Girlish Whims,

Framed Barn Stars for Christmas, and ...

 

... the revived Fusion challenge! We are back with a whole new set of fun challenges for 2014. And we have a design team call searching for 5 awesome new designers. Why don't you consider it?

  
For this challenge I focused on the white pillow with the red deer head. So very simple and striking. Here's my train of thought on what I was going to make:
  

 1) white card with a red tree,

2) a bunch of framed red trees,

3) a bunch of framed red stars

4) a bunch of framed 3D red barn stars

5) a bunch of framed 3D ombre red barn stars

6) a bunch of framed 3D ombre red barn stars with a "sentiment" below

And there you have it. A project that even my 9 year-old son commented on when he got home from school today.

 This rough wood frame ($2 from a garage sale) is perfect for this project. The folksy wood with the modern design gives a nice contrast.

After making the barn stars in four different shades of red (see general how-to description in prior post), I arranged them inside my mat and took a photo so I'd have a reference in case they (or I) got messed up.

As it's a relatively simple design (solid colored stars), I like that it's dimensional to give it a little more interest. Having it next to a light source brings out even more shades of red. I will admit that gluing the edges of all those stars took some time, but I was excited about the result so I didn't mind.

The popped up gold letters are a nod to the holiday season. And to Taheerah's inspiring post on all things gold in the Moxie Fab World

Now, where to display it?

My original plan was for it to hang in the guest bathroom downstairs.

I thought it would go well with my red and white Marimekko hand towels. Since the bathroom is small, I always keep holiday decorations there limited to one color + white so it stays fresh. 

I also like it on top of the living room armoire with the long pine needles.

SIDE STORY: You would not believe the stress involved in getting this photo. 

By the time I thought to take the photo, I had only minutes to put the frame up and snap away. You see, the bus was arriving with my kids who are militant about making sure no one comes close to touching Charlie, our Elf on the Shelf. Once he's touched, he loses his powers. They've watched, with horror, kids touching elves in their boxes at Barnes and Noble, and lamented the poor soul who unknowingly buys that now-powerless elf. They've roped off an entire room to make sure no one inadvertently touches Charlie after he fell from his shelf during a wrestling match. They're serious about protecting Charlie, and their lifeline to Santa. And I'm serious about protecting their belief in Charlie, especially since my oldest is 9 and reaching the non-beliver stage any minute now.

So, in my haste to remove the frame from behind our Elf, Charlie gets knocked down. Seconds later my 9 year-old dashes into the house on his way to the bathroom. Panic! Do I attempt to put Charlie back and risk getting caught (by either the one who finished peeing, or the one who hasn't come into the house yet), or do I leave Charlie on the floor and have to answer a million questions?

I take a chance, and throw Charlie back into place. His legs won't bend back into his arms. DARN. IT. I fumble; he tips over. I fumble again. Finally, in what seems like minutes, I get him to stay in approximately the same position he started in. 

"Mom, did you move Charlie?"

What the heck. How does bathroom-boy remember exactly what direction Charlie was facing?!

I quickly "confessed" that as I was photographing the framed stars, I accidentally bumped Charlie with the frame. "You didn't touch him then?" I assured him that Charlie is fine. Which is true. Kinda/sorta.  

Anyway, thanks so much for looking! I hope you'll consider the Fusion Design Team Call, and while you're there, think of a card or two to enter. Lots of inspiration in this one!
-Kelly

Sharing with:

 for their challenge to use wood and/or a frame (yes, and yes) Thanks Lyndal for letting me know : )
Ginger Snap Crafts,Creations by Kara, Handy Man Crafty Woman, What I Learned Wednesday, My Girlish Whims,

CFC #122: Christmas Thank You Card

Do you have any clever ways to incorporate a tree (or part of a tree) in your CAS project? We'd love to see them in the CAS-ual Fridays Gallery this week. Aside from amazing and impressing your friends, you also stand to win a $25 gift certificate to Ellen Hutson!

Lots of dies on this card ... we've got Papertrey's Framed Out little Polaroid die, and Fillable Frames #4 layered on the bottom.

The tree is made out of the petals from CAS-ual Fridays' Four Petal Die. Just separate the petals and rearrange them in the shape of a Christmas Tree. This tree takes 3 of the die cuts. I bent the tips up on the end for more dimension.

The angled background is stamped in Memento Tsukineko's Metallic Silver ink with CAS-ual Fridays' Out Loud text border stamp.

I picked Amy Tangerine's "aren't you lovely" rotary stamp because I wanted this to be a Christmas thank you card. I think the sentiment is a nice, non-traditional way to say "thanks, you're awesome!"

The double-sided patterned paper for the tree and the inside of the card is Crate Paper Peppermint.

Sure hope to see you in the gallery this week. Thanks so much for looking. I truly appreciate every visit!!

-Kelly

CFC#121 - Pick a Feather Card

We've got an eight-feather card today.

Why 8? Well, there are 8 letters in "Thankful" and "Hanukkah," 8 nights of Hanukkah, and a CAS-ual Fridays Challenge to make a card using 8 of something. The talented winner this week will win a gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp.

Here's the front of the 4" x 4" tri-fold card.

Page 2

And finally the inside. I am so in love with these papers. They are all from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm line.

The die letters and feathers are from My Favorite Things Die Namics (High Rise Upper Case and Feathers and Arrows). There is just a tiny bit of adhesive on the bottom of the feathers to keep them in place, but they are meant to be flipped through and pulled out if desired.

As an added bonus, there are 8 letter dies on this card ... y-o-u-a-r-e-s-o.

It was really fun going through my stamps to find appropriate adjectives (all from CAS-ual Fridays). This idea could easily be adapted to anyone you need to make a card for. I love that you could pick very specific adjectives that would just apply to them. Like "sweet to my kids" or "artistic" ... as long as you like your handwriting you could make up anything for a very personal card.

Can't wait to see your 8-related creations in the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge gallery!

Thanks so much for looking! 

-Kelly

CFC#120 - Wreath Ornament Made from Flower Die

This week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is a collaborative one with the very popular and star-studded Curtain Call challenge. The nice thing is that you get two challenges for the price of one this week ... with no extra crafting effort you can link them up to both places!

I'm curious to see if the winners will be the same or different at both challenges!

 
The talented winner will receive a prize from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps, and just in time for the November release.

Lots of photos for this post, but there is a how-to included. Based on the quality of the first couple photos, I will let you figure out what time of the day I was making the felt wreath : )



So fun to find different uses for the four petal die. Originally I thought I'd make a Christmas tree from it. That will probably come later, but for this project it turned into a wreath. To make the leaves on the wreath, I die cut felt with the large four petal die and simply cut it in half. All the half pieces are glued to a ring (made from chipboard with circle dies).



Next I die cut white felt with the small four petal die, cut that in half, and then straightened out each section so the petals are more linear instead of clustered. You can do that easily with felt by pulling it, for paper you would just have to crease the middle so the petals are linear.

For the bow I used a large four petal die cut in half and straightened out, wrapped a thin strip of paper around for the knot, and cut/notched two long pieces for the tails.



 Here's the progression of the card. It started plain, which I liked, but wanted to see what another layer would do. So I added the smaller four petal die on the inside of the wreath. I dunno, maybe a little too chunky now for the card. Then I added berries from a small hole punch.



Here's the final card. I used kraft paper based on the inspiration photo. American Crafts Kringle & Co paper on the inside, Christmas Carols for the sentiment. Still, I wasn't as happy as I thought I was going to be.

So I turned it into a Christmas ornament. With all the work that went into it, it's nice having it be an ornament because it seems less likely to be thrown away. You never know, right?!

I cut a circle out of the kraft paper, embossed the sentiment, and glued it behind the wreath. One advantage over the card is that it's much easier to make sure the sentiment is positioned straight and just right.

I think I'll keep it as an ornament.

Can't wait to see your creations in the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge gallery!

Thanks so much for looking! 

-Kelly