Paper Cone Ornament Tutorial: Fancy Pants Designs

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone.  Before I head home for the holidays, I wanted to share a tutorial with you for paper cone ornaments. These are easy to make and can also be used as bows on your packages.  

Supplies:  Double sided paper, circle punch, large brad or flair, sentiment, twine or ribbon hanger.  My supplies are all from Fancy Pants Designs, the Merry Little Christmas collection. 

Start by punching out about 14 circles. 

Roll each circle into a cone, using a strong adhesive. Wet adhesives like Zip Dry probably work best. I used a clip to hold each cone together as the glue dried, which only took a few minutes. 

For the base, I punched a larger circle and stapled a twine hanger at the top. The staple won't show as the cones will completely cover the large red circle. After placing these four, I realized all my cones would not fit, so I trimmed the ends and that worked. See below. 

Add in all the cones or as many as will fit.  If, like me, you rolled some cones fat and some cones skinny, you may need to make some adjustments. I ended up using just 11 of the 14 cones and trimmed the ends off each to fit. 

I punched a hole in the center to help me gauge where the center was as I placed each cone.  A hole in the center will also be helpful if using a large brad as a decorative element. 

Here's a side view. You can see the dimension of the cones. I love how they look. 

To complete the ornament, I topped the cones with a flair button and a sentiment ticket. I used the ornament here as a package bow. It can be removed and used by the recipient as an ornament. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

Creative Gift Cards: Inside a Snow Globe

I love to give and receive gift cards but I also really appreciate a good presentation. For my friend who is a big coffee fan, I gave her a Starbucks gift card inside a homemade snow globe.

Starbucks has these super cute snowmen gift cards this year that work perfectly for snow globes. 

I only needed a few ingredients to make my own snow globe and I already had everything on hand in my house. Bonus!  I used an old pickle jar. I dumped out the last few pickles and cleaned the jar. 

If you want your snow globe to last awhile, be sure to use distilled water or cooled boiled water. This helps prevent mildew and cloudy water. I added a tablespoon of light corn syrup to make the glitter and sequins fall more slowly. 

To create the scene, I added little bottle trees from Fancy Pants Designs in front of the Starbucks card. I used Gorilla Glue to adhere them. Be sure that you use an adhesive that will not break down in water. 

I wrapped the Starbucks snow globe with a gift card that said: In case of emergency, break glass. Of course, she wouldn't really need to break the glass to get the ornament. Just turn the jar right side up and unscrew the lid!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a great weekend. I'll be back on Monday with tutorial for paper ornaments.  

Toilet Roll Reindeer: Christmas Crafts for Kids

I have a children's holiday craft today: reindeer made from toilet paper rolls. These are super quick and were easy to make with items we had around the house.  

We started with three empty toilet paper rolls, cut each roll in half, then choose patterned paper to cover them in. I used paper from Fancy Pants Designs, the new Timber Grove collection.  

We cut the paper into strips, 2 inches wide by 6 inches long, then glued the strips around the rolls. 

After the glue was dry, we punched two holes for antlers near the top of the toilet rolls.  I ran one long pipe cleaner through both holes. The middle of the pipe cleaner is the perfect spot for an ornament hanger. 

To curl the antlers, we wrapped the pipe cleaners around a pen. 

Decorate as desired. 

Then they're ready for the tree!

Cookie Cutter Ornaments: My Creative Scrapbook

I love homemade ornmaments on a tree.  Today, I have some easy ones to make using cookie cutters. 

I used metal painted cookie cutters from Wilton as my base but any type will work.

Start by tracing the cookie cutter on patterned paper. I used Bo Bunny's Mistletoe collection, which was included in the December kit at My Creative Scrapbook.

I dut out the shape then used a glue medium to attach it to the back of the ornament.  I'm partial to Claudine Hellmuth's multi-medium matte.

Decorate as desired. This cookie cutter was meant to be a candy cane, but I liked it better as a stocking.  Artistic license and all that!

Before you start decorating the cookie cutter, think about how you want to attach a hanger.  If you have a strong hole puncher like a Cropadile, you can punch a hole in the top, then thread in twine for a hanger.  Otherwise, you can just tie twine around the top of the ornament. Either way works well.

On this ornament, I punched a hole at both the top and bottom of the ornament and ran twine through both holes with a jingle bell anchoring the bottom. I used baker's twine from Trendy Twine.

On this ornament, I traced the house shape, then pop-dotted the windows and doors. It's important to add dimensional elements prior to putting the paper on the back of the cookie cutter. Once the paper is glued on, it is really tight to work inside the ornament.  

To finish this ornament, I added a roof line, chimney, scallop trim and a tree. Decorating both inside and outside the cookie cutter gives a nice dimension.

I hung these outside to show them in natural light.

And they look so pretty on the tree.

The design team at My Creative Scrapbook has tips and tutorials for the holidays every day this month on the MCS blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Well, hello December!

December does this every year:  I blink and it’s here! 

December is ushering in lots of exciting things.  The new issue of PaperHaus magazine is out and it’s amazing.  I’m excited to be a contributor. You can see the new issue here.  The PaperHaus blog is giving away 12 great prizes, one prize a day for the first 12 days of December. Be sure to hop over there and leave a comment. Today’s prize is from Prima.

December 1 also marks the day for sneak peaks for the new kits at My Creative Scrapbook. Below is a sneak at one of my projects.  The full reveal is December 5 and the Design Team has outdone itself.  The holiday projects are amazing and we'll have tips and tutorials on the blog every day this month.

Last year, I decided to document my family’s holiday season with a December Daily.  It was the first time I undertook the project and I’ll be honest: I didn’t finish.  So this is the year!  The year to finish last year’s December Daily that is.

I did journal every day last year and I put a post it note in my December Daily of what we did. So even though I didn’t finish the album, I have a good record of what we did and for most days, I printed the photos, and slipped them in the page protectors too.  But since I didn’t have all my foundation pages premade, I found I just couldn’t keep up.

So, this year on my blog, I am going to post each day of my 2011 December Daily. Some days will be pages I’ve already done and some will be new pages that record last year’s activities.   When I get to December 25, I will have completed my 2011 December Daily. Yay!  That’s the plan anyway.

I started my December Daily with a photo from outside the house looking in.  I used an Ali Edwards template for 6x8 pages and followed her general design. Every day except Dec. 1 has a foundation page on the left and a journaling/photo page on the right. 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your December is off to a great start!

Easy Handmade Christmas Ornaments

One of my favorite things to get into the holiday spirit is to make Christmas ornaments, especially paper crafted ones.  I love that homemade touch on our tree.

This year, I made Christmas ornaments using lightweight chipboard frames, patterned papers and small embellishments.  Holiday paper is of course best for this project but you can also use non-holiday lines for a bolder look.

I started with the new Once Upon A Time collection from Little Yellow Bicycle.  I love the red cardinals featured throughout this line and wanted to spotlight the pretty birds.

To make the two smaller ornaments, I used the “hanging wreaths” patterned paper in this collection and two round frames from the chipboard shapes. 

I pop-dotted the paper and chipboard together to give a little dimension then embellished the ornaments with sentiments and bows from the clear cut shapes. To hang them, I added Peppermint Stick twine from Trendy Twine.

To make the large ornament, I used the Vintage Santa paper in the frame, then embellished it with a tag, a vellum tape pennant and a cardinal from the fabric favorites.

I don't have my tree up yet, but you can get a feel for how the ornaments would look on a Christmas tree in this photo.

This type of ornaments isn't limited to holiday paper.  I also made chipboard frame ornaments using The Good Life collection from Fancy Pants Designs.  This line was included in the November kit at My Creative Scrapbook.

I loved the decorative chipboard in this Fancy Pants line and the way the chipboard frames could be layered.  On each of these frames I layered a plain small frame on top of a larger, decorative one.  I backed each frame with patterned paper then added sentiments and small embellishments.

There you have it: quick and easy Christmas ornaments.  Adding these to Paper Issues holiday linky party and to Tip Me Tuesday.

Echo Park Handprint/Footprint Ornaments

Echo Park Paper gave its in-house team and Fresh Face designers a challenge to make holiday projects with children. My child is 2 so that did present a challenge.... I went old-school and made ornaments using my son’s handprints and footprints.

This is an easy and fun project to do, but a bit messy, as it does involve a toddler with paint on his hands and feet. Right before bath time is a good time. Just sayin’.

We started with handprints. I enlisted my mom’s help and we painted Cory’s hand with red acrylic paint then stamped his hand on cardstock. We tried both white cardstock and kraft to see which we liked better.

After the handprints dried, I cut them out to form Santa’s face and beard, adding googly eyes, a button nose and a brad smile. I hand-drew a hat from Echo Park paper then used a small circle punch and some adhesive pearls for the trim. We finished the ornament with a “ho ho ho” sticker and a twine hanger.

To make the penguin, I painted Cory’s foot with black acrylic paint and stamped his foot on white cardstock. After the black paint dried, Cory used his fingers and some white acrylic paint to give the penguin a belly. We added arms (flippers) and a hat using Echo Park paper (Metro Dots and Stripes), stickers and brads. We finished the penguin with a chipboard greeting and a twine scarf.

You can find more about this project and other Echo Park projects with kids on the EP blog.  　

Supplies:

CS: Bazzill Basics

PP: Echo Park Paper (Holly Jolly, Metro Dots and Stripes)

Brads: Echo Park Paper and American Crafts

Button: Making Memories

Adhesive Pearls: Close To My Heart

Paint: Plaid

Punch: Marvy Uchida

Twine: The Twinery

Echo Park's Holly Jolly Holidays Blog Hop

Welcome to the Echo Park Paper "Holly Jolly Holidays" Blog Hop! We've created a special one-day blog hop event in which you can hop from one designer's blog to the next, viewing beautiful holiday cards.

Here's the card I created. The tree detaches and can be hung as an ornament. 

I used a brad to make the sentiment a swinging element. You can push the title in toward (and under) the tree to better fit the card into an envelope. To detach the tree, pull gently at each corner and hang as an ornament.  
 

 
Be sure to follow the blog hop list below and leave a comment on each person's blog. Finish up at the Echo Park Paper blog with a final comment. THREE winners will be selected to win a collection kit of their choosing. Comments can be made through midnight MST today for a chance to win! Winners will be announced on December 8 on the Echo Park Paper blog.


The hop order:

Leslie Ashe

Lowri McNabb

Vanessa Menhorn

Izzy Anderson  <----- you are here
Wendy Sue Anderson
Carolyn King
Tamara Tripodi
Linda Auclair
Kandis Smith

Patricia Kumfer

Amy Heller

Echo Park Paper

Thanks so much for playing along!


Echo Park Card Supplies:
Holly Jolly: 6x6 Paper Pad
Season’s Greetings: Chipboard Accents, Brads, Borders, Journaling Cards

Victoria Gardens: Picket Fence

Metro Dots and Stripes: 6x6 Paper Pad

Everybody Loves Christmas: Wrapping Paper

Other:  Bazzill Basics cardstock, Twine from The Twinery, Fiskars border punch, Bernina sewing machine

Finished card size: 5 x 6 inches

Ornament Card

The Create blog by Northridge Publishing is having a challenge this week to create a Christmas card using non-traditional colors.  I made an ornament card using Mitten Weather and Pixielicious lines from Cosmo Cricket. The little red star is from October Afternoon's Rocket Age collection. Love that line!

The ornament detaches from the front to hang on the tree.

For more details on the challenge, visit the Create blog.

Update:  My card was featured on the Create Blog on 12/1/2011. You can find the post here.

Supplies:
cardstock: Bazzill Basics
patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket
chipboard: Cosmo Cricket
stickers: Cosmo Cricket (tag); October Afternoon (star)
doily: WRMK
gems: Martha Stewart
twine: The Twinery
sewing machine: Bernina