Medallion Tree

I was blog surfing (blurfing) for Christmas decoration ideas and came across the instructions and a video to create this tree. Fran Sabad has some amazing creations on her blog. While this tree does take some time to create the end result is amazing. I've made two of them so far and have one more to make before Christmas.

Supplies Used:
Paper: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Old Olive DSP, Chocolate Chip DSP, DCWV Glitter Pack
Accessories: Score Board, Stylus, Spellbinders Scallop Circle Nestabilities Dies, Star Punch, Small Paint Can, Ribbon, Hot Glue

Rosette Wreath

My previous post shows the card I gave my friend for her birthday and this is what I gave her for a gift. She saw the wreath in the holiday mini catalog and loved it and told me that I could make her one for her birthday. We had a good laugh about it but I decided to give it a try and see if I could make one. I matched the paper to her card by using the apple cider designer series paper, really rust, garden green, river rock and some chocolate chip card stock as well. Buttons, various brads, paper punched elements and linen thread were added to the centers of the rosettes. Everything was adhered to a styrofoam wreath base that was wrapped with rust colored organza that I found at Joann's. I absolutely love how this turned out and so did my friend. I think I'll have to make one for myself too!

Supplies Used: Paper: Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Garden Green, River Rock, Dusty Durango, Close to Cocoa, Apple Cider DSP; Other: Buttons, Brads, Various Punches, Linen Thread, Styrofoam Wreath Base, Hot Glue Gun, Sticky Strip

Wedding Arrangement

This "floral" arrangement was created for a co-worker. I have made various arrangements for her to give as gifts at the many weddings or events she attends. This arrangement was for her to give as a wedding gift. The wedding colors were green and chocolate. She provided most of the supplies along with 25 one dollar bills. Since I have made other arrangements for her I wanted to make something a little different. I started with creating the flowers using the dollar bills. I wasn't sure what kind of flower to make using the dollar bills so I went searching on the interent and found this tutorial. I made 4 flowers using 4 one dollar bills and 3 flowers using 3 one dollar bills. I also made 12 flowers using Hershey kisses as the centers and two 3" scallop circles punched from chocolate chip card stock as the flower petals. Once I had all the flowers made I just started arranging them in the vase that was filled with glass pebbles. To finish the look I created a large bow and added that at the front of the arrangement.

Personalized Mugs with Cookies

I thought I would show you these cute mugs with gingerbread cookies my daughter made as gifts for family members this year. She wanted to give gifts but she is also on a budget and decided that a personalized mug with hot chocolate and cookies would be a nice gift. She saw an idea here using tiny gingerbread houses on mugs but didn't have enough time to make the gingerbread houses. She used standard cookie cutters and just cut a notch in the cookie so the cookie could still hang on the mug. You can actually buy cookie cutters with the notch built into the cutter but she improvised and I think they came out great.

Hershey Kiss Roses

This was created for a co-worker. I had made something for her previously and she liked it so much that she asked me to make something to give as a wedding present. I wanted it to look more like a rose and not be so obvious that they were Hershey kisses. Each Hershey kiss rose was wrapped using the decorative petals that can be found at almost any craft store in the wedding section. Some roses have 2 petals and some have 3. There are 25 flowers in the vase and each one has a dollar bill attached to it. To make the vase look fuller some of the roses also had gold tulle attached. The vase was filled with glass floral pebbles to keep the roses in place and wrapped with an organdy ribbon bow.