Christmas Love ( and a Few Snowmen )

Deb here sharing one of my favorite holiday crafts - and a whole lot of love this season.. This month, Susan's Creative Team is sharing the ways that we are brightening someone's day. It could be a friend or maybe even a stranger. But we all know that the holiday season is hard for some and it only takes a small act of kindness to let someone know that they are not alone.. Share a bit of your creativity -- a card, some beads, a drawing or jewelry. Whatever it is that you make from your heart. For the past few years, I have been making these glitter ornaments and I think they are just beautiful. Of course, my boyfriend has a different opinion of glitter overall ! But if you ask me, what are the holidays without GLITTER !!! I paired my love of glitter with my love of Susan's snowmen and came up with these tags...

• I started off with some Kraft tags and added a bit of glitter washi  across the bottom and Holiday washi down the right side.
• From the Crate Paper "Snow Day Collection", I cut several different size squares out of the snowflake paper. I stapled the larger snowflake squares to a sentiment on the same size square and attached then to the left side of the tag along with a smaller square at the top of the tag. 
• The Snow Way stamp set has the cutest designs and seemed perfect for my tags. I used Colorbox Color Pop ink in Mystery to stamp the images and then colored them with a variety of my favorite markers. All elements were adhered using Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue, except for the snowmen which were popped up using foam dimensionals.

• I buy clear plastic or glass ornaments and Pledge Floor Care with Future. It has to have Future in it or else the glitter does not adhere as well to the sides of the ornament.
• Using a funnel, put a small amount of Floor Care into the ornament and swirl it around to coat the entire inside. Pour the excess back into the bottle ( or small paper cup ) to reuse.
• Place glitter into the ornament using either a funnel or else a paper cone. Swirl the glitter to coat the entire inside and then pour the excess out to re-use, I sometimes mix different colors of glitter so I don't waste any.
• I use every kind/shape of ornament -  heart, oval, lightbulb, plain, patterned. Some of the prettiest have designs of snowflakes or patterns that show through when rest of the interior is coated with glitter. 
• Every kind of glitter can be used in these ornaments. I used Martha Stewart glitter for these but have also used less expensive glitter, tinsel glitter etc... 

So, what am I going to do with my cute little tags, you ask ?? Well, two of the places that give me joy are the book store and the coffee shop. So I will be dropping off a few at each of those places to some booksellers and baristas. Several more will be left on a shelf or table for anyone to find.  I challenge each of you to share a bit of yourself this holiday season ( and all year long ) by creating something and giving it away.. I am doing this to continue in the spirit of the Christmas Love Campaign that was started by Susan K Weckesser to honor her late father. I hope that you will join me and brighten someone's day.

Snow Way stamp set

Thank you for visiting.. I hope that my project has inspired you.

Debra Davison

Susan K Weckesser Creative Team

Festive Jars with Snow Way Stamp Set

Hello crafty friends

The theme for this month over on the Susan K Weckesser team blog is Craft some Love. The idea is to create a home made gift to give out to someone even a stranger. Just spread the love.

I altered these jars i bought from Poundland and used the DecoArt Chalky Finish Glass Paint to alter the colour. It will take two coats and a day to fully dry before you seal it. I put the lid on a bit too early and took off a layer of paint.

I used Susan's Snow way stamp set to create these cute watercolor tags.

I decorated the jars with anything that sparkled including tinsel trims and gems. I used a hot glue gun to hold everything in place.

For this one i glued pearl beading around the base and used blue gems for a more icy look.

I used big red flat back pearls for berries

I used the Clearsnap Color Pop Mini inks to color the tags and mixed Fresh with Night to get a darker green. I mixed the two blues together to get a lighter shade.

Thank you for visiting

A Reel Snowman

Hello crafty friends, Samantha here today and I would like to share with you a super easy Christmas decoration which is perfect for your tree or mantle.

 I was a complete numb nuts and forgot to take photos during the making process so I hope my directions make things clear for you.

I began with an old wooden cotton reel and gave it a coat of gesso and then painted it pink. I added a turquoise ribbon around the centre. Next I cut a piece of wire and twisted the loop in the middle, which becomes the top and the two ends then go in to the centre hole of the cotton reel and glued in place. The wire also had a couple of coats of gesso and some white acyclic paint along with some glitter for Christmas bling. A cotton wool ball made some fluffy snow. I used a punch to make the snowflakes really easily by punching out of white card and decorating with glitter.

 Finally I stamped the snow person on to white card and coloured using Prismacolour pencils. When cutting him out I didn't go all the way around to leave a tab at the bottom which was used to glue him in place.

Susan's wonderful Snow Way stamp set which is shown below can be found here at Unity Stamp Co.

I do hope you like my snowman and I hope I've inspired you a little. I promise to take photo's next time!!

Wishing you a wonderful day,

Samantha Read 

Susan K. Weckesser Design Team member

There's snow people like snow people

Hello crafty friends! 

Sam here with a very sparkly make perfect for your Christmas tree.

Firstly an apology as I got so carried away with this cute little snow person that I totally forgot to take photos until he was finished!

I began with a tin tea light holder as a base and gave it a couple of coats of gesso and then finally a coat of white paint to get a nice finish. I used a pink piece of paper and stamped the snowflake and white embossed for the background. Some Martha Stewart silver glitter was then glued to the edges along with some silver sequin starts and finally a silver pipe cleaner was stuck in place to finish the background.

I stamped the snow person on white card and coloured with Pro Markers adding a little glitter to the stars I then glued him/her in place.

My finishing touches were the text and a pink crystal flower and of course some silver thread to hang with.

I just love the stamp set I used which is shown below and can be found here

How adorable are they and you've got to have snow people at Christmas time right? :)

I hope I've inspired you a little and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas time!

Wishing you a lovely day.

Samantha Read

Susan K. Weckesser Design Team Member