Start thinking of 2016 Christmas.....REALLY??

I hope everyone had a wonderful 2015 Christmas.  Ours was very nice, spent with my parents, children, and grandchildren....can't get much better.

Every year for Christmas, one of the gifts I purchase is a Christmas ornament for each grandchild.  This year, I looked and looked for the perfect ornament and nothing tickled my fancy until I was in Michaels looking at the wooden ornaments and I thought I should create their ornament instead of buying an already made one.  So, in the basket went 6 wooden shaped ornaments.

 

Once home they sat on my craft table for weeks untouched.  I would go in and look at them and play around with ideas but nothing.  So I thought, well, maybe making the ornaments wasn't such a good idea. 

I made one more trip to the department store to look at all the ornaments and still none of them made me think of any of grandkids.  I walked away and decided I was done with the yearly Christmas ornament; no ornaments this year for the kids.

And then it hit me - I have all these fun photos of Christmas projects we have done this season and I want the ornaments to bring back fond childhood memories, so why not incorporate the special projects on the ornaments.  Finally, I was ready to create!!!

I printed photos onto regular cardstock then cut them to fit the ornament and glued them into place.  Once they dried, I sanded the edges of the ornaments and the photo so all was smooth and no paper edges were hanging off.

 

I painted the edges and the little bit of wood showing on the top of the ornament with acrylic paint.  Once, they dried, I sanded again to give a distressed look.  After sanding the second time, I inked over the top with Tim Holtz's, Distress Ink vintage photo.  The last step for painting, I coated the photo and wood with Mod Podge to seal and protect the photo.

 

 

 

After everything was good and dried, I glued garland around the edge of the ornament, added twine and a bow to complete the project. 

 

I forgot to take a final photo of the ornaments, so had to call in the help of my kids and have them send me a photo of the completed project.  One ornament, we are hoping is hidden in a granddaughters room.

 

 

It was a fun and easy project that I hope will bring back memories of Christmas decorating, baking and crafting.

 

(I am telling you this a little late, but now is definitely the time to stock up on crafting projects for 2016.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspired or Copied

We create and design new items all the time, but where do these ideas come from? 

One of the dilemmas I have when designing, am I stealing someone else's design that I have seen at one point in my crafting journey?  Is what I just created really something I CREATED or did I copy someone else's idea.  Did I file an image away in my internal filing cabinet and suddenly, it came to the forefront of my memory when I saw this new beautiful paper.

So my dilemma - is it mine if I "designed" something that looks kind of like someone else's?  Then again is that what being inspired is all about?  Am I copying someone or did they inspire me, did they set my brain in motion for creativity?

Siri's definition of INSPIRED -
     adjective - of extraordinary quality, as if arising from some external creative impulse.
     verb - fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

I am going to stick with being inspired.  Rhonna Farrer recently said that none of our ideas are ours.  Good ideas come from God and that really struck true for me.  He is my inspiration and he has put so many wonderfully, creative, talented people in my life to INSPIRE me. 

I hope that I am able to inspire others, the way that God has inspired me.  This summer after scrolling through Pinterest, I was inspired to create a fairy book for my granddaughter.  Below is a photo of the photo book that I created. 

My granddaughter and I share a special fondness for fairies and fairy gardens.  This book will be filled with our fairy journey and as I told her, fairies are "FAIRY true".

Inspire to be inspired!

 

Black Friday - A great find!

I kicked off the Christmas season with the best finds of Black Friday; Russian tea cakes, Oatmeal Cherry White chocolate chunk, Ginger, Peanut Butter cookies, fudge and cinnamon sugar almonds. All made in the comfort of my "over-the-top" noisy, messy home by precious little hands.

I look forward to our Christmas cookie baking chaos every year.   This year, we missed my daughter and littlest granddaughter due to icy roads.  Yes, we baked enough to share and saved for them.

Once the cookies were distributed, the dishes cleaned up, the floor mopped and the house back to normal (normal is SO quiet and empty feeling) I headed to the craft room for something to do.

I am glad I did - the mixed media technique class is officially completed and ready to share.   If you are interested in playing with paint, fabric, maybe even a sticker or two, jump on over to heartsisters.com and sign up.  

Seating is limited.

Heart Sisters Mixed Media Class

Meet Teresa & Mixed Media Class http://www.heartsistersscrap.com/heart-to-heart-1/2015/11/22/meet-teresa

Mixed Media Class - Chalk paint

One of the medias, I will be sharing in my Mixed Media Technique class is chalk paint.  With a little bit of chalk paint and chipboard, you can create a mini chalkboard that can be used in so many fun ways. 

I am excited to share the process in the Heart Sisters Scrapbooking class on Dec 10, 2015 from 6 to 8 p.m.

If you are interested in learning some basic steps to mix media and making a mini chalkboard, sign up now at Heartsistersscrap.com.  Class is scheduled for Dec. 10, 2015 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Have a Great Weekend!
Teresa

Prayer for Paris

My heart goes out to all the people in Paris during this time of tragedy.  In a blink of an eye, yours, mine, anyone's life can be changed.  

My prayer goes out to each and everyone of you.

Our Father, Who art in heaven 
Hallowed be Thy Name; 
Thy kingdom come, 
Thy will be done, 
on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread, 
and forgive us our trespasses, 
as we forgive those who trespass against us; 
and lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Come sit stay in crop it's a PAWty

Little late in posting. This is our big PAWty crop for the Bonner animal rescue.  A portion of all the croppers registration fee will go to the rescue. 

We have had a fun weekend.  We started the evening celebrating Iris' 80th birthday.  Then when everyone was starting to get really quiet and settle down, we had a fire drill to liven it up. 

Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the weekend brings.

STAY TUNED.

Brought to you by Lurking Skull

This weekend is costumes, candy, and  trick or treating for many.  I will be heading out with grandkids for a fun evening .  But during the day, we are preparing for the Heart Sisters Scrabooking Events, LLC crop that is happening November 6th through November 8th.  We have a great group of lady's joining and have a few seats open that are calling your name.

Give yourself a treat before the holiday rush and come join our fun!  http://www.heartsistersscrap.com/ 

Happy Halloween and hope to see you next weekend.

Lurking Skull - Fall Projects

It is almost Halloween time and you can tell by all the fun people are having on Facebook.  One of my friends posted how to find your Halloween name by the first letter of your first and last name.  So until Halloween, just call me Lurking Skull.

While I was lurking around in my skull (haha, I lurk there a lot), I decided it was time to bring up the Halloween decorations.  I found the star and pumpkin project from last year.

The pumpkin was a fast and fun project.  I used stickers from the line Simple Stories, "Sweater Weather" and then Modge Podged over the top to make sure the stickers didn't pop off.  

With a quick cut out of the top, I added a bouquet of fall flowers from Michaels to create a festive center piece for the fall season.

The star took a little more thought and time, but well worth it when finished.  It is a tin star with coordinating paper; that's it!   I used the paper pack from My Mind's Eye, "The Spider's Web".

After cutting and figuring out placement of paper, I modge podged into place, then went over the whole star with Modge Podge.  For a finally touch, I sprayed with a clear glitter paint to give it a nice sparkly look.

Sounds easy enough, but I had a little difficulty with the placement of paper on the star and keeping the bubbles out when applying the paper.  Those were a couple of tricks, but in the end I received the treat.

It is always fun when hanging with your scrapping friends, creating, laughing, and eating junk food.

I would love to hear about fall projects.

Enjoy the fall season,
    Lurking Skull, aka Teresa

Foxy Fall Weather

What a gorgeous week we had; cool nights and sunny days.  It was perfect for family gatherings, fall clean up, and outdoor fires at night.  I really have to focus on the beauty of this time of year because I catch myself missing out due to focusing on what the next season will bring.  I realized the other day I sounded like a negative Nellie with a little mix of gloom and doom.  I do NOT like cold!!! 

BUT, for now, I am going to focus on FALL and the beautiful weather God has provided for us.  And with saying that – I had time to sneak in a couple of fall cards using the bits and pieces of Echo Park, The Story of Fall paper left over from the layouts I did.   I think Mr. Fox is too cute to be sly.

 

 

 

Enjoy your weekend!

Fast and Furious Week

 

 What a week this has been! 

My husband has started a new remodeling project, so we have a nice haze of dust on everything.  I have family coming into town, so keep trying to dust that haze away.  My “real” job has been super busy, SO, have taken much enjoyment in my “FUN” job.  This week’s fun is a Disney Album.

 



Snippets of a few layouts
 

My coworker has a friend whose family was granted a trip to Disney.  So, while they have been playing in Disney, I have been working fast and furious at putting together a Disney album.  My co-worker has been sending me journaling updates that she has pulled off of facebook to enter into the book.  My heart sisters are helping with layouts, so, we can have this all completed by next week.  We can do this – YES WE CAN.

Off I go to dust away the haze of remodeling and go into the crafting zone……..

 

The first photo for the book!

Heart Sisters Fall Layouts

I have been crafting for as long as I can remember.  I have done everything from crocheting and sewing clothes, to painting ceramics, but found my passion is quilting and scrapbooking.

Scrapbooking is what has led me to this fun and exciting new adventure, working with Heart Sisters Scrapbooking Events, LLC (Heartsistersscrap.com).

Our first class will be two fall layouts using echo park, The Story of Fall, paper.  Class will be Oct. 27 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.