Fun Holiday Project!

I try and make little gifts for co-workers and friends each Christmas -- this year I came up with the idea to make inspiring sentiments using my Cricut ;o)

They really are easy to do - - pine boards cut down to size, sanded and painted and then sanded again to give the edges more of a 'rustic' look - I did use an electric sander to make the process faster ;o) I then ran a rag of stain across each one to fill in the sanded exposed wood areas. Next, I had fun using my Cricut machine, white vinyl and the Cuttin' Up and Mickey font cartriges to cut out my sentiments. Then it was just the fun of applying the vinyl to the sign fronts.

Now....comes the really fun part -- GIFTING them!!! ;o) I absolutely love love love everything about Christmas and I love to give presents but I would really honestly not prefer to receive any ~ there is really nothing I need ;o)

Sooo...if you would happen to be one of my friends or co-workers who have received one of these thanks soo much for your friendship ~ YOU are my gift ;o)

~TFL & Enjoy~

More Fun Flowers!

Here is what I have been working on lately!! I thought these would be fun to give for Mom's day and I made one extra too --- I am still deciding who to give those to ;o)

I chose 'dynamic duos' colors again:

Ruby Red/Cameo Coral

Pumpin Pie/Apricot Appeal

Taken with Teal/Tempting Turquoise

Brilliant Blue/Bashful Blue

Perfect Plum/Pale Plum

Once again I used Jiminy to help with this task, you know my Cricut! lol This is the 'doodlecharms' cartridge and it's the 'flower 2'. I cut them out at 3" using the shadow feature.

I had to play with my new Bind-it-All tool and did this with my coasters. This was FUN!!

I covered each coaster with the Rustic SU! timeworn collection paper. I cut each piece into 4" by 4" squares and used Modge Podge to glue each piece on. I let them dry and then used the sanding blocks to sand each side...giving it the rustic look!

Then I punched them with my BIA and used ribbons to string the 'pot' together!

Next, I used glue to glue a blank coaster to the bottom and secure the sides. I also secured a piece of the green floral foam to the inside bottom at this time too.

Then I took some Glorious Green cardstock and ran it thru the shredder to make it look more like grass for the pot.

Just like on my other flowers I used the BBQ skewers and painted them for the stems. I also used the stampin' dimensionals to build up the sides of the skewers to hold the front of the flower to the back of the flower. (Please see my other post for detailed pics of this)

I had fun decorating the center of each flower again ;o)

~TFL & Enjoy~

Incessant Birthday Flowers

There is an 80 "something" year young lady that I adore and she is having a birthday this coming Saturday.

I had no idea what to give her this year. Last year I had made her the stamped acrylic post it note holder and matching pen for her to set beside her telephone. Then earlier this week I came up with this idea thanks to the wonderful world of blogging -- her flowers were beautifully stamped using the Office Accountrement set and the Oval Punches!!! I would love to give her all the credit and the link here but believe it or not I can not find her blog now -- gosh! that drives me crazy when I do that! -- why DO I do that?? I do remember, though, that she used a Target Dollar Spot bucket and her tag said "Spring" -- Also, her stems were lollipop sticks that she she found in the baking section and she rolled them thru an ink pad to color them.

Anywhoo --- How about some flowers that won't spoil or die?? ;o)

I started this by painting a flower pot --- I mixed plain acrylic white paint with gable green re-inker drops. Then I painted 4 bamboo skewer sticks with regular green acrylic paint (I didnt worry too much about matching these colors!)

Side Note: I picked up the bamboo skewers at Wal-Mart this week over near the grills -- they sell them in packages of like 100 for .97 cents or something crazy great like that ;o) As these were drying I started on my flowers!

Jiminy, my friend, did these for me --- you know my Cricut!! The flowers are from the Doodlecharms cartridge ---- flower 1 cut at 4 1/2 and also the shadow cut at the same size for those of you who want the technical specs *wink wink* I also used the other flower 'center' -- cutting two for each flower cut out, one for the front and one for the back too (cut 8 total).

The colors of the flowers were chosen from my other friend, the SU! Color Coach. I decided to take those colors and do the 'dynamic duos'. Here they are --- Apricot Appeal & Pumpkin Pie, Cameo Coral & Ruby Red, Bashful Blue & Brilliant Blue, Pixie Pink & Pink Passion. I cut out two of each of the colors --- so two brilliant blue and two bashful blue as an example because I did one for the front and one for the back of the skewer.

I decorated the front center of each flower with SU! embellishments -- one is done with sticky tape and beads, the second is done with a clear button and gingham ribbon, the third is done with a colored button and silver cord and the fourth is done with two punches of the flower punch and a colored brad.

I mounted the dynamic duos on top of each other as shown and then on the back of the center of one of the flowers I used the stampin' dimensionals and stacked them 3-high to get to the right height I needed. As you can see in the picture --- I did them kind of in the shape of a square with a dimensional scrap of a long piece going down the center -- that center long piece is just one piece, I didnt stack that one. That piece is just to hold the skewer in place! Then just simply added the skewer and lined up the other flower to the other side and stuck them together!

Next I just stuck a piece of the floral foam in my pot and stuck my skewers in the floral foam as shown. I did cut some of my skewers off so they were not so tall with a pair of wire cutters (? hey they work for skewers too!!)




Next I took some green paper grass that I had gotten on clearance after Easter and stuffed it in the bottom of the pot ... that will work!

Then I simply wrapped some grosgrain ribbon around the pot and used my two tag punches and used the "It's Your Birthday" stamp set and stamped 'happy birthday' on the tag and used some silver cord to attach that to the grosgrain ribbon. Then I just used a few pieces of coordinating ribbons and tied them next to that just to add a bit more dimension. I also added two pieces of ribbon to the Brilliant Blue flower stem -- as it looked liked it was just 'looming' out there -- it can be seen from the back moreso from the front stem. Here are a few views from the side and also from the back. I didnt want the back to be too plain or ugly (just the skewer there) so that is why I finished them off like I did --- and I thought it would be fun to give this a try --- especially since Jiminy did all the cutting for me ;o))

I am sure she will enjoy this --- it will be fun!

~Enjoy & TFL~