A Crafty Christmas

This year I have pretty much

stuck to my vow

of either crafting our Christmas gifts

or having shopped for them during the year

so that I could save money and not have to spend much in December.

I must say it has been quite nice not having 

to go out into the crowds!

I have also been trying to use things I already have

for the crafted gifts...

I thought I would share with you 

the ornaments that I made for the Christmas Swap over at

Button Floozies 

 

I used the cardboard boxes that jewelry comes in.

I painted them blue and then sealed them with ModPodge...

The snow is the liner form the box...

 Santa is a vintage cupcake topper!

I keep my eye out for these at yardsales and thrift stores all the time!

Of course I added glitter galore!

The trees were plain and I gussied them up a bit...

The tinsel and paper were from Michaels Arts and crafts.

All the button accents are vintage

especially since this was a Button Floozies swap!

head on over there with the link at the top

to see some of the other ornaments

that were exchanged.

It was really satisfying to make use of 

items I already had for a change!

Hope you enjoyed a peek at these.

Happy Tuesday all!

                 

It is finally upon us.....

I have been waiting for you...

and

you finally showed up today...

Hello Fall!

Hope you all have a great weekend...

working on getting my mojo back.

I have been in a bit of a creative slump lately

so I decided to work on some much needed organization of my

studio space again.

I went at it quite fiercely a few months ago

and then of course ended up with a lot of outside work 

on my plate that got me off track.

I'm also hoping this will help me...

 Participating for the 2nd time in 

The Fall in Love with Buttons swap at Button Floozies.

We alter an Altoids tin and then fill with lots of new and vintage buttons.

I had a lot of fun with it last year...

Here is the one I sent off for that swap

(just in case you didn't see it)

It was very inspiring and ever since I have been

snatching up buttons when they are reasonable 

and my best friend even let me have a look through a jar of buttons that

belonged to her grandmother.

She let me have quite a few-

but I won't part with those....definitely will be used for some special projects.

Do you have something that helps when

you seem to lose direction or feel uninspired?

I'd love to hear about it for a jumpstart.

Happy First weekend of Fall!

Christmas Button Swap...

I've been away for a few days

because I went on a little road trip to Asheville/ Canton N.C.

this week....

Story for another post!

I wanted to finally share what I created for the

Christmas Button Swap over at

Button Floozies

I exchanged with three other ladies

and after much inhaling of glue

a glitter sneeze incident

and a lot of tweaking with tweezers

this is what I created for them...

I used the spools you get with ribbon for the base

and hand glittered all the buttons

to give them a Christmasy sparkle...

I also decided to sparkle up the reindeer

and chose a color theme for each decoration...

I wanted to make them a bit Kitschy cute.....

I had a lot of fun creating these and hope they made

it to their destinations in one piece...

I found some great colorful tags on Etsy

that I just had to order after I started this

because the colors fit so well with my theme

so then I created these to accompany them.....

I have so enjoyed all the swaps I have done so far

with this group!

Special thanks to Laurie for encouraging

me to start and for being such a wonderful

host!

Altered Altoid Tin / Button Swap.....

This month I participated

in a Fall Button Swap

over at

Button Floozies

I'm not necessarily an avid button collector

but

 when I see interesting ones I do pick them up.

This swap was especially fun because

it required we alter

an

Altoid Tin

So much fun!

This is the tin that I made.....



I decided to use a bird
fluffing up her nest for winter
as my theme.





The string on the side is attached to the birds mouth
it has a tiny charm attached that says
"Made for you"





As well as buttons,
I placed a few odds and ends.
The kinds of random shiny
things birds pick up
from time to time.



I  lined the sides with
straw, string,colorful yarn, and shredded ribbon.
Just what a bird would use to fluff the nest.



Then I made a nest to place the finished tin in
and
 bundled it with some more of the colorful yarn.



I placed the nest carefully into this  mesh bag
and tied it with this lovely autumn leaf.
Inside the package is one of my
Trading Cards which also had a bird theme.
I had so much fun coming up with my concept.
It was my first time
making one of the altered tins.
I definately think it can become addicting!

I was so excited when my box arrived!
My swap partner
Julie
of
Blue Pig Designs

made this beautiful box.....



The lid is a raisedfloral design.
I'm guessing clay or resin.
She beautifully shaded the design in blue and gold,
and
I love the fringe trim...

These are the lovely buttons

that she sent..

Happy, shiny, sparkly ones and the red ones especially,

have great little designs.

You can check out others in the swap over at

Button Floozies
Thanks to Laurie for hosting!
I can't wait for the next swap!

Happy Tuesday!