7 Gypsies Receipt Holder

I've had this receipt holder from 7 Gypsies sitting around with my other "to-do" projects for over a year, maybe two.  I finally got it out tonight.  I printed the family pictures with low color making them look older although all were taken this fall and winter.  I used a yellow patterned paper from CTMH's "Elemental" paper pack for the background.

I added misc. bits and pieces I had in my studio.  The dominoes, eight and six, represent the year we got married (1986).

There's a ticket stub from Tom and my annual trip to Alpine Valley to see Jimmy Buffett, along with some mini flip flops.

"Family" is made from miniature Scrabble letters.

We're all Cubs fans, so I added a ticket stub from a trip to Wrigley Field.  I made the fleur de lis with a small wooden disc, CTMH inks, and a CTMH stamp to represent Mardi Gras and our time living in Louisiana.

I had some extra chipboard letters I used to include each one of our initials.  Jess & Neal both attend the University of Iowa and we've all always been Hawkeye fans, so I added the tiger hawk.  Once I got started on this project, it came together in less than three hours.

Show Devils Freak Show Layout

Doing a little scrapbooking this Christmas Eve Day.  And what says Christmas more than a Freak Show Layout?

These pictures are from October when me, my friend, and two nieces went to see my first cousin's daughter in her traveling side show act, Show Devils.  Her name is Serana Rose, and she and her boyfriend, "The Enigma" have traveled around the U.S. and Canada and several other countries swallowing swords, eating glass, and performing nasty tricks with chainsaws.  Not my usual kind of entertainment, or my usual crowd, but she's family, and I thought it would be fun to see when she was performing in central Iowa. 

That's me in the bottom right touching the implanted horn on The Enigma, who is covered in puzzle piece tattoos. Even the whites of his eyes are tattooed blue.  His ears are notched to look like puzzles.  Eeek.  I made the curtain-like feature across the top of both pages by cutting circles then cutting them in half.  Then I added the large CTMH peal opaques to look like tie-backs.

All of the papers are older stuff from my massive stash.  Most everything and the "Freak Show" title are from an old K&Company Scrap Pad To Go.  I tried to use papers and colors that had an older Vaudeville / side show feel to them.  All the pictures, papers, and insets are edged in black ink.  I used a white colored pencil on black cs for my journaling.

30 Sucks!

I saw this idea on Pinterest and made it for my niece who turns 30 on Christmas Day.  The glass base is the same $1.97 one from Wal-Mart that I used for my Bath Sponge Sundaes.  Inside is a styrofoam ball that I tinted a little with pink ink and shimmer gel.  I stuck 30 suckers in the ball, added the sign and ribbon, and that's it.

And, here's my 30-yr-old niece, Katie, when we surprised her at work with her sucker bouquet. 

Collage Cubes Puzzle

I made this gift with CTMH's new "Collage Cubes."   This picture is my sister, her two grandsons, and my niece cooking hot dogs at my mom's farm.

  It comes with nine chipboard cubes and the base, all white.

  It measures 6" x 6" so you can cut a picture to that size, then cut it in two-inch squares to fit the cubes perfectly.  I inked the edges of the cubes first for a little distress between all the sides.

This side is pretty plain, just six different colors of cardstock with numbers embossed in silver.  I used a two-inch square punch for the cs that had a fancy edge.

This side is a current picture of the two brothers who received this collage cube as a gift.  The one on the left, Luke, is two, and Jack, on the right, is five.

I just stamped on this side and added some glitter gel highlights.  Here's a tip:  Watch out where your words break on the cubes.  I inadvertently ended up with the center cube here saying "F-U" when held alone.  LOL.

For this side, I only used a 5"x7" photo and trimmed it to 4"x6", so I added the embossed star design to complete the side.  (Sorry this picture is out of focus--it's not really.)

For the final side I just stamped some animals I thought little boys would like and added some Stickles around the edge.  I covered the base with cs and glued around a ribbon and bow.  The gift was a hit, and it was really simple and fast to put together.

Christmas Cookies

Jess solved the problem of what to do with a broken gingerbread man:

Bath Sponge Sundaes

Besides the gift below, I gave my lunch group friends all one of these "sundaes" at our little gift exchange.  It's yet another idea I found on Pinterest.  If you know me and I haven't harassed you yet into joining Pinterest, I just don't know what else I can say to you to get you to check it out. 

Anyway, what's in these sundaes?

The sundae dish is from Wal-Mart ($1.97).  I put a pair of pink gloves in the bottom, but pink soaps would be cute too.  A white net bath sponge sits on top of the gloves, and looks a lot like whipped cream.  I stuck a pink emery board in one side to look like a spoon handle and a candy cane on the opposite side to mimic a striped straw.  A tiny red ornament is the cherry on top.  Lastly, just add a ribbon or bow of your choice.  Easy!!!

Lunch Group Gifts

Today was my Lunch Group Christmas exchange.  Three fellow court employees and I used to gather for lunch almost every day.  We don't anymore, and we're not all still even in the same building, but we still get together from time to time, and for years we have gathered for a Christmas gift exchange.  Because there are four of us, we're not young, we're not thin, and we probably looked this excited to go on our lunch breaks, I thought this stamp from Art Impressions Girlfriend line would make a great tag.  I colored it with copics.  The giftbags--lunch sacks, of course.  And it's hard to read, but the license plates are LNCHGRP. 

Snow Flurries Thank You Card

Another easel card for an extra special holiday thank you.  I used one of my favorite winter stamps, CTMH's Snow Flurries and also a sentiment from the Thank You stamp set.  I used some adhesive sparkles for the centers of some of the snowflakes and added CTMH's glitter gel to some of the smaller ones.  The icycles are a MS punch.

Winter Thank You Card with Wonderland

I used the Wonderland Workshop on the Go papers and stampset Winter for this easel card.  It's a winter no-necessarily-Christmas themed card.  The "thank you" sentiment is from CTMH's "Thank You" stamp set.  The icycles are a MS punch, and I added CTMH Glitz glitter gel to them and the inside snowflake for a wintery look.

This picture, albeit a weird photo colorwise, shows the easel.

Congratulations Card with You and Me

This card was made for a December graduation.  I used stamps and papers from the You and Me set and an ordinary tag from the office supply store.  It's based losely on the card "Button Flowers Birthday" by Kim Hughes published in the book "The Best of Stamp It! Cards" from Papercrafts.

Find Your Style Congratulations Card

I used CTMH's Find Your Style Stamp set for the butterflies, and You and Me for the words.  The background is CTMH smoothie cs embossed on my Cuttlebug.  Ink colors are CTMH's vineyard berry & black.

Owl Lunch Sack Gift Bag

Another project I saw on Pinterest.  This owl is SO simple.  Cut the top of an ordinary lunch sack, add a piece of B&T paper, and cutout eyes, beak, and feet.  I used punches for the eyes and feet.  A little ribbon to hold the fold over at the top, and that's it!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Some retro, nontraditional Christmas colors give this card a "cute" look to go with the fawn.  The deer and sentiment are from the CTMH stamp set Bundled Buddies.  The background snowflake is from Snow Flurries.  CS colors are white, black, blush, and pear. The white snowflake is a punch.

Jingle Christmas Cards

Both of these cards were made with CTMH's Jingle papers.  The mittens in the first card are from the Winterland Workshop on the Go stamp set, and the sentiment is from Snow Flurries.  I love the look of the baker's twine with this paper.

More Christmas Cards!

This card has kind of a modern look and lots of sparkle.  The tree is from CTMH's Tannenbaum stamp set, and the sentiment is from the Snow Flurries set.  The CS colors are CTMH's Pear, Sky, and Dutch Blue.

Kind of a different color combo for Christmas, this card almost looks masculine.  The snowflakes are all punches, and there's a little pearl embellishment in each snowflake's center.  The sentiment is from the Tannenbaum stamp set.

Believe Santa Card

The cute papers used here are from CTMH's Believe set, and the Santa is from the Believe Workshop on the Go exclusive stamp set.  I colored the Santa with copics outlined him in a very light grey to give him a little depth.  The Santa inset is raised with dimensional adhesive under the green mat.  The only embellishments are  the button and baker's twine.

Special Olympics Scarf

I made this scarf to donate to Special Olympics Iowa.  My crochet skills are limited, but I can make easy projects including scarves.  The Special Olympics organizations around the country accept scarves and gift them to the Special Olympics participants.  Red Heart yarn is a sponsor.  To find out more specifics about the colors to use and where to donate a scarf for your state, click HERE

Bundled Buddies Christmas Card

There is a lot of "bling" on this card that doesn't show up well in the picture.  The animals are all from the CTMH stamp set Bundled Buddies, and each of their scarves were colored with Spica glitter pens.  The trees (also from the Bundled Buddies set as is the sentiment) and the snow are highlighted with glitter gel.  The background paper is from the CTMH paper set Elemental.

Some Random Cards

I made some random birthday, thank you, baby, and Christmas cards tonight.  here are a few of them.  They were all made with with miscellaneous supplies, and many were from "scrap candy" I had stamped, colored, and cut out that was sitting in a pile all ready to fasten to a card.

Cardstock Christmas Tags

Three simple Christmas tags that came together very quickly.  All are composed of cs only, no B&T.  The tree and snowman have baker's twine, and the snowman has a couple black CTMH opaques for eyes.

Orange Slice Pumpkins

Another Pinterest find, I made these orange slice pumpkins in just a few minutes.

Take about nine orange slices and wrap them in plastic wrap.  Twist the wrap closed at the top and secure with floral tape.  Add a paper leaf, and it's done.

I bought the orange slices at Walgreens for 99 cents per bag and made two pumpkins from each bag.

Easy Paper Christmas Ornaments

These cute ornaments are super easy.  Start by cutting or punching out 12 circles.  I used a scalloped circle punch because it is the biggest circular punch I own.  Two-sided B&T paper works best.  I used a retired Christmas paper from the Close to My Heart "Jingle" collection. 

Next, ink all the edges, front and back.  I used CTMH's Tulip ink.

Fold all the pieces in half.  My scallops didn't always match up perfectly, and it doesn't really matter.  I tried to keep the stripe somewhat straight.

After you have this little pile of cute taco shells, pile them all up in one stack.  Fold them so like sides are together.  In my case the tone-on-tone red sides faced each other and the brighter stripes faced each other.

Next, flatten out the stack and put a couple staples right in the crease to hold the circles together. 

On the right edge of any circle in your stack, adhere a glue dot about one third of the way from the bottom.  Fold over the flap on the left. 

On the flap you just turned, adhere a glue dot about one third of the way from the top of the circle, again on the right edge.  Fold over the flap again from the left.

  Keep doing this, alternating the glue dot from the bottom third to the top third, all through the stack of circles until you come around to the first flaps you glued.

This is what you'll have:

All that's left to do is embellish.  I used a CTMH Just Bloom, some ribbon, and a brad on this ornament, all held to the top of the globe with a large glue dot.  These are super simple!

I found this pattern on Pinterest.  It was pinned from the site http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/.  Pintrest is my latest online obsession.  There are endless crafting, cooking, and decorating ideas. If you're not a member yet, SIGN UP. If you want me to invite you, email me, and I'll send you the link. If you are a member, do me a favor and pin some of my blog posts!