I have no idea where the time goes. Just yesterday it was Halloween and here we are through the holidays and more than half way through January 2017!
But we did have a wonderful, relaxing Christmas.
I cannot honestly say what I made over the past couple months. I know I made more Christmas cards. I am pretty sure I did not remember to photograph them lol
Here is a project I made just a few days before Christmas.
I found this 14 x 14 shiplap sign at a local craft store. It had a thin white wash on it.
I base coated it with cream colored acrylic paint and then applied vinyl lettering.
I then painted the entire thing black.
Next came a vinyl manger followed by a coat of dark red.
I then peeled up all the vinyl to reveal the prior colors.
The red had bled a bit under the manger vinyl so I dry brushed a bit more over the black to make it look like that is what I intended all along :-)
I wanted to stencil a star but the vinyl wouldn't stick to the red paint so I cut a star from glitter card stock and glued it on.
I love how it turned out! I picked up another sign at the same time which is about 12 x 24. I need to get working on it so I can hang it in the same spot.
That finished up 2016.
So let's start 2017!
My best friend (and collage roommate) Cathy...I call her Helen (long story lol) has a birthday this month. Of course I made her a card!
This is the Pansies box card from the Springtime box cards set at SVG Cuts. I love how it looks just like a basket full of pansies sitting on my desk. I think she is going to love it.
And of course I made her a little something to go with it.
I have a big box full of mint tins. I stared into that empty tin for over a week trying to decide what to put inside.
I finally decided on 'mermaid'. But what exactly should be going on?
I searched through the Cricut image library for mermaids. I found several. Once I had chosen a few that fit beautifully into my tin I needed to decide what kind of scene she would be living in (which would help me pick which mermaid to use)
I thought of sunken ship and this mermaid seemed to be looking at something so she was chosen.
I googled images of sunken ships until I found one I liked that would look good cropped into the lid. I then searched for an under water scene to fill the bottom of my box.
I used the Cricut Explore Print Then Cut feature to get my backgrounds cut to the correct size.
The mermaid is from the Cricut image set "Mermaid Party". Her tail is cut from Cricut glitter card stock, Her top is cut from Cricut Pearl paper. Both of these papers cut beautifully even at such a tiny size. (the mermaid is only about 3" tall)
All the plant life was also cut with my Explore. I really pushed the intricate cuts to the limit on this project and the Explore still performed beyond belief.
My only problem was her eyes and mouth. They are sooooo small. The Cricut cut them but being so teeny I couldn't handle them and found it easier to paint them on instead of making a gluey mess.
The final touch was to glue the plants into a gravel/sand base so that it created a 3D scene.
I fell in love with it and kept asking hubby if it would be horrible of me to keep it lol
So, because it is just wrong to keep the gift you made for someone else (or so hubby kept insisting), I made another one.
Same backgrounds and plants but instead of a fushia and lavender brunette mermaid I maid a copper and dark red blonde mermaid. She also has a couple sea shells on her ocean floor.
Now I had a bigger dilemma.....I loved BOTH of them. How on earth do I decide which one to send?
I won't tell you which one I kept (because I just mailed it today and in case she reads this blog I want her to at least have a little surprise lol) But the decision came down to this.....one box opens easily, the other kept sealing itself shut! Ha!
Thanks for stopping by!
I wish you all a year full of peace, love, health, happiness and lots of crafting time!
