Year End Review and Voting!

We made it a full year - Yay!  Well, half of us completed at least one project every month of 2012.  I'll take that.  It's tough to be this crafty, but fun.  I was surprised at the variety of projects that were completed.  It was fun to see everyone's take on things.  The most important thing I learned this year by crafting more was if I think I can rock something out quickly - add AT LEAST an hour to my warped sense of time.  I seemed to loose a lot of sleep this year to crafting because I got a little carried away.

 The blog served as a place to encourage crafting and share our current crafts with each other.  As further incentive I told those that that completed at least one project in each month would be eligible for prizes!  To help us decided how we did please take a moment to fill out our survey!  The polls will be open through the remainder of January.  Results will be shared the first week of February. Thanks for checking out the blog this year and stay tuned for our 2013 projects!

Christmas Ornaments

 
I bought clear glass ornaments at Hobby Lobby.  I squirted floor cleaner inside the ornament and then dumped out the excess.  Then, I put a bunch of extra fine glitter inside the ornament and shook it up.  The floor cleaner causes the glitter to stick to the inside of the glass ball.  Once that was completed, I used my silhouette to cut out the vinyl and I stuck in on the ornament.  I had plans to make a whole bunch of these this year, but somehow I only got this one vinyled.  Perhaps next year, I can make one for each of the boys.

Wordy Thirty Birthday Party

Karen and I decided to throw our Middle Sister a Surprise Party for her upcoming 30th Birthday.  We decided a "Wordy Thirty Party" would be a great theme after we searched the internet/Pinterest for ideas. Val really enjoys a good read and is going to school to be a "Book Doctor." Here are some of the decorations that we did.  It turned out great and it was a lot of fun to put together.  We spent a fun night of playing games, eating and lots of laughing! (P.S. The only book harmed in the production of crafts was an old Encyclopedia for the letter A - the only one of the set that we found at my Grandparents house.)

Here is our version of a book wreath after seeing this one.  I cut 2 -  8 inch circles out of card stock to be more durable, glued them together, then I rolled and glued/taped pages down.  On top of that I cut 2 - 6 inches pieces of card stock, glued them together, then again rolled and glued/taped pages down.  Then I cut a 4 inch piece of card stock out, lettered it with stickers, inked the edges with black ink to make it stand out a bit.  Then I laminated it and taped it down onto the other rings with double sided tape.  Used masking tape on the back to attach a ribbon to hang the whole thing.

We made two of these hanging garlands.  The hearts were made out of the encyclopedia pages after seeing this tutorial.  (BTW, these were super easy to put together and I totally plan on doing this as a Valentine's Day Garland in Red Tones:)).  Then flowers were added to the ends to hide where we taped it up.  Found the tutorial for the flowers here.

Here is a closer look at the Garland.

Here we made several items.  Karen pre-made the poofs, so all that needed to be done party day was the "poofing" - Mike and Zoe took care of that:)  Here is how to make those.  We also had two vases that we  decoupaged encyclopedia pages onto and placed tea lights in them.  In the center is a mini sign with a quote: "Don't Drink to Get Drunk. Drink to Enjoy Life." - Jack Kerouac.  Instead of making Jack Kerouac's favorite drink we made Mojitos, a favorite drink of Hemingway.

Here is the "corsage" we made Val to wear.  We just took one of the flowers, cut out circles, on the Silhouette and attached them with double sided tape.  Then used a big safety pin to attach it to her!

The dinner table!  Made a table runner out of torn out book pages.  Embellished the ends with a fancy daisy punch.  Then cut the sides of the runner with decorative scissors.  Some light dinner reading - haha!  We used books Val had as a center piece, then took a bowl, filled it with cut and rolled encyclopedia pages.  On top of that was a sucker ball (Styrofoam ball with dum dums stuck in it).  Then we made a party sign with book worms and stuck that in there as well.  Beside the center piece was a "book" I made with the silhouette and then it was filled with book marks that we had all made.  Everyone that came to the party made a book mark with a special message, book quote, or drawing for Val.  Then I laminated them and tied ribbon to them.

Close up of our center piece.

Close up of the "book" that held our handmade bookmarks.

Glow in the Dark Shirt

I still had some glow in the dark heat transfer left over from other projects so when I saw this shirt, I thought - ooooh I can totally make the moon out of that!  So that is exactly what I did:)  I made the moon out of glow in the dark heat transfer and then I did the wording out of silver heat transfer.  I gave it to my book doctor sister as a birthday present and then made one for myself as well as I seem to stay up way to late - often stuck in a book.

Photo Props

 Since we were hosting several Christmas Parties we decided to have some fun.  I cut out a bunch of photo props on my Silhouette and put them together and placed them on sticks.   I also covered a big piece of cardboard with wrapping paper and lined it with tinsel to use as a backdrop.  Everyone had fun dressing up.

My Tester:)

Nativity Blocks

 This year for Christmas I made a bunch of Nativity Blocks as presents.  I bought Craft Blocks with the hole cut in the bottom so I could insert a strand of lights (100 fits).  Then I found a Nativity Scene that I liked at the Silhouette Online Store and cut out several on black vinyl.  I then adhered them to the blocks and tied a ribbon around the block.  I made 11 of these this year and people seemed to enjoy them.

This was the set I did for myself.  I have had the small block for a while and decided to expand the "scene."

Sharpie Mug

Karen also made some Sharpie Mugs for Christmas Presents and Birthday Presents.  Here is one of them "Par-Tea!"  Some of the reviews on Pinterest stated that the Sharpie will wash right off (some reviews said the same thing of the porcelain pen).   She wrote on the mugs (purchased at Target) and then baked them at the 350 for 30 minutes.  She then tried washing them when it  cooled down and yup, it came right off.  So round two she baked them for the same amount of time and then turned it up to 400 for an additional 15 minutes.  That seemed to do the trick.  Several washings later and it seems to be sticking:)