Mokume Gane Christmas Ornaments

Autumn has arrived here in Virginia, and I couldn't be happier about it. It's my favorite time of year. The onset of cooler weather and the vibrant colors of the changing leaves often makes me feel inspired, and cooler weather also means I usually pull out my polymer clay and try out new ideas, as well as old favorites.

This year was no exception, and my first order of business was to play around with the mokume gane technique. If you're unfamiliar with mokume gane, here's a link to a little tutorial on Sculpey's site. This technique has been around in the polymer clay world for years, and yet this was the first time I've ever tried my hand at it. I have no idea why I waited so long, because it's so much fun, fairly easy, and the results can be complex and stunning. I'm sold!

To get a jump on creating for the holiday season, I made these Christmas ornaments. If you're interested in purchasing any of these, they're available for sale in my Etsy shop.

Christmas in May!

Finally, here are the tags i did for Tim Holtz's "12 Tags of Christmas - 2009". To see Tim's tags, go here. i didn't stray far from his designs, and discovered the challenge was in trying to pull off what he'd done with few of the same supplies. i had fun with them and ended up using them as ornaments on our tree.

As for ingredients, i wouldn't even know where to start! If you wanna know something specific, just ask and i'll try to help!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! After the holidays and when things have settled down i'll be updating. i was following Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas (only have 2 left to complete!) and will post pictures of my own creations.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Christmas will be here too soon...

...so i started making cards about a month ago. i hope i can afford the postage this year! Might have to scale back my list...

This card was a lot of fun to make. i started with navy blue CS and stamped the branches with white pigment ink. Then i splattered some white paint on top. i punched the edge, added the ribbon and then added the main image on top. i love this little tree stamp!

Ingredients: CS-stash; stamps-can't remember the set name, but it's by Inkadinkado, the branch is from Leafy Silhouettes by...? oops, can't remember...; ink-Colorbox chalk, Pallette Hybrid, Colorbox pigment, Ranger Archival; ribbon-Michael's; Sharpie; star brad-Jo-Ann's; white acrylic paint.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!

Simple Christmas cards

Like a lot of people, we're on a tight budget this Christmas. In addition to shortening my Christmas card recipient list, i've also been working on some simply designed cards. They're easier to make, less time-consuming, and without the addition of a lot of bulk, they're cheaper to send. Here's a few recent ones:

Ingredients: CS - Kraft, stash; PP - unknown; stamps - Martha Stewart Christmas Tree Stamps; ink - Versafine; snowflake punch; pop-dots.

Ingredients: see above.

i think my dad may be getting this one.

Ingredients: CS - Kraft, stash; stamps - Martha Stewart Christmas Tree Stamps, Limited Edition Distressed Background, Fancy Pants Simply Stated, Papertrey Ink Mixed Messages; ink - Pallette Hybrid, Ranger Distress; pop-dots.

So, your frugal tip for today is make simpler cards! This is especially helpful at the holidays when we're all short on time, need to make lots of cards and can always stand to save some money.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Frugal Crafter and a few Christmas cards...

So, today's frugal tip concerns embellishments. Available today is a huge variety of embellishments for your paper-crafting needs. i sometimes buy these pre-made embellishments for special projects, but whenever i can i make my own using stamps and/or punches. i find it's not cost-effective to buy an embellishment i use frequently, such as flowers, in every color i would need. i make exceptions for those lovely velvet and felt flowers, but for paper i just buy a few varieties of punches to make my own in any color or type of paper/CS i choose.

For this card, i punched snowflakes for embellies and added paper ribbon, another cost-saving technique. Awhile back i purchased a set of ribbon/lace stamps, knowing that they'd pay for themselves very quickly.

Ingredients: CS - stash, Bazzill; stamps - Martha Stewart Clear Pattern Stamps, Autumn Leaves Freestyle Alphabet, Art Warehouse Ribbons and Lace, small snowflake (unknown); ink - Pallette Hybrid, Versamagic; brads - MM.

This card has more homemade snowflake embellishments - this time i added eyelets and some gold Stickles for bling.

Ingredients: CS - stash, Bazzill; stamps - Sassafras Lass Stunning Spirals, Martha Stewart Christmas Tree Stamps, Studio G; ink - Versamagic, Pallette Hybrid, Colorbox Chalk; eyelets - MM; Stickles; pop-dots.

And one more... For this one, i added stamped ribbon to cut down on bulk and keep things simple.

Ingredients: CS - stash; PP - My Mind's Eye; stamps - Martha Stewart Christmas Tree Stamps, Papertrey Ink Take a Bough; ink - Pallette Hybrid; Stickles.

Most of you long-time crafters know these tips already, but hopefully someone reading this will discover a new idea.

Thanks for stopping by, and i hope you're all having an inspired day!

Better late than never!

Hello, everyone! Not having internet at home has really limited my online usage; i've missed my friends on here! It's not all bad, though - i have more time for other things in my life that require my attention, so it's good to set this aside sometimes. Anyway, i've worked on a few new things, some papercrafts, some polymer clay, as well as learning to make the best Thai food i can (YUM!), but until i finish some projects and get more pics, i thought i'd share some Christmas cards i made and sent this past December. Not timely, i know, but oh well...





i don't have the time today to list all the ingredients for these cards, so if there's something you'd like to know, just ask! i'll try to make it a habit to post every Monday with something new, so check back in then.

Hope everyone's well and is having a wonderful day!

Hello, everyone!

It's been awhile since i've posted, i know. Aside from being super busy, we no longer have the net at home, for now. Until we get it back, my posts will be few and far between. i've been making tons of Christmas cards and hope to post them before too long...
i hope everyone is well and has a wonderful Christmas! And happiest of New Year's!

Christmas sneak peeks...

i have been spending hours over the last few days in my craft room, hunched over my desk making Christmas cards and working on the batch for my customer. i have so many things i want to show here, but can't yet. Some of the x-mas cards will be going to people who read my blog, so i don't want any spoilers. i do, however, have some little sneak peeks of the x-mas batch...





i've been making good use of the new Papertrey Ink set Take A Bough (thanks, Dana!) - it's a lot of fun to play with!

This year i decided to keep most of my x-mas cards fairly simple, relying more on paper and stamps than embellishments like ribbon and metals. By doing this, i'm able to make more cards more quickly (a big plus since, like last year, i plan to make all of the cards i need to send out and not rely on any store-bought ones) and i spend less on shipping.

Well, i'm off to make some grub for Z.'s dinner. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!