holidays

Imagine That: No-Bake Gingerbread House Banner

In The Studio

The color of the month over on the Imagine blog is Gingerbread and the idea that wouldn’t leave my mind was gingerbread houses.

Basically, this project has all the fun of decorating gingerbread houses/cookies without having to clean up the kitchen. It’s fabulous for crafting with kids, and the sky’s the limit on how much or how little you want to decorate the houses.

Using chipboard or craft cardstock and whatever house die or cut file you want takes care of the base of the banner, getting you closer to the the real fun that much sooner.

And here’s something I’ve learned about working with the Cotton White StazOn Studio Glaze: you can’t be stingy if you actually want it to show up as white rather than clear. Let the Cotton White build up or go back and add a second layer, if need be, especially against dark backgrounds. And layering one color of StazOn Studio Glaze over another while both are still wet works just like layering royal icing on cookies–beautifully!

Make sure to head over to the Imagine blog to see the video of how this project comes together!

Imagine That: Rinea Foil Cornucopia

In The Studio

Imagine teamed up with Rinea foil this month and I’m so glad they did. I’d heard of the lovely double-sided foiled papers but hadn’t had the chance to work with them, yet.

Since the foils are so pretty on both the front and the back, I wanted to do something that showed off that feature. What better than a 3-D bit of paper sculpture that also happens to work as a place card holder?

Above is a cleaner look at the pattern I drew out for the cornucopia. Each row is 1/2″ tall and the spine is 1/2″ wide. On the main piece, the spine is the part you cut up to, plus a separate spine for what will ultimately become the bottom of the cornucopia. After the first four rows, the spine and the “arms” (ribs?) shift over by 1/8″ each row to create a little bit of a curve or angle without having to crush or crunch the paper into shape.

Even though the process somewhat resembles trying to dress an octopus in a onesie at first, I promise these do come together quickly! And once you add a simple stamped and lettered place card inside, your table decorations are taken care of in no time.

Make sure to check out the Imagine blog for the video that goes with this project to see just how simple these cute cornucopia can be!

Imagine That: Simple Shapes Christmas Cards

In The Studio

Fact: There’s only so much room in the craft storage area of your choice–be it a shelf, a closet, or a dedicated room–for supplies. And way too many awesome, cute supplies on the market for one crafter to hoard, right?

Today’s project for the Imagine blog is an answer to that, of sorts: a way to utilize the more all-purpose items in your craft stash to create holiday cards without spending anything extra on special supplies.

The only holiday-specific items were the sentiment stamps, (which I already had from previous years’ projects). So take a look through your pattern stamps, pull out the basic dies or punches, and put them together in some new ways.

Incidentally, this is also a great way to involved kids in holiday crafting as the techniques used here are very simple and straight-forward. They might need a hand with the heat part of the embossing, but otherwise the little ones can have a field day creating the patterned cardstock and decorating the completed cards.

Make sure to hop on over to the Imagine blog to see how each of the three cards came together!

Imagine That: Naughty or Nice Reversible Stocking

In The Studio

Shall I add another voice onto the fire of “where did the year go” lamentations? I suppose I shall–dude, this year is flying by! I have no idea where it went and not nearly as much as I would have liked to show for it, but I have a cute craft today that can help get you on the way to holiday preparedness.

Two sides of the same stocking–which side you flip is between you and Santa!

Holiday prep was another of our prompts and, combined with the color of the month (Sangria), I decided to go with a classic Christmas stocking with a twist. One side of the linen cuff reads Naughty, with some prickly holly leaves, while the other says Nice, paired with a pair of pretty poinsettias. Both feature a bit of heat embossing, which is the real highlight of this project (I think).

In preparation, I tested several Imagine mediums to see which would give me the result I wanted.

  • Versamark (pad and marker): definitely held the embossing powder but became part of the fabric rather than sitting up on top like heat embossing on paper.
  • Delicata (and other pigment inks): Also sunk into the fabric a bit more than I wanted, wicking through the fibers in some cases–this was problematic for details.
  • Creative Medium: Great through a stencil but I think you’d really need a good mask (like freezer paper ironed-on) to hold the integrity of finer details in a design. Did maintain it’s raised quality after heating.
  • On Point Glue: Perfect for fine details! This was what I used to embellish the Memento Marker and All-Purpose Ink words and art on my stockings.

Because of the heat embossing, you definitely want to make sure the fabric you’re decorating can take the heat without melting. Mine was felt (wool felt) and linen and I made it specifically for this project. If you’re purchasing one to decorate, make sure you test in an inconspicuous place before starting.

The full process can be seen in the video over on the Imagine blog!

Imagine That: November Projects

In The Studio

For all my US-based readers, I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving. Non-US readers? I hope you had a happy Thursday. We’ve gotten into such a groove with the Thanksgiving prep over the years that it’s become quite relaxing to host my family for dinner each year and I really do think it was our best turkey yet (for more on how we do our turkey, check out this vintage post all the way from 2010! Todd’s Turkey).

I have a lot to be thankful for this year with the new job, new friends being made here in Thomasville, and I recently got the all-clear on a health issue that’s been hanging over my head for the last two months (more on that another time, perhaps). Todd and I celebrated 10 years together at the beginning of the month, too, and my heart couldn’t be more full of love. I’m also grateful for the opportunity to create projects for Imagine/Tsukineko and share them with not just my own readers but theirs as well!

Another thing I’m not only grateful for but excited to get to do is that I’m going to Creativation in January! I’ve wanted to go to this trade show for as long as I’ve known it existed (which has been a good long while considering how long I’ve been knocking around the craft world in one way or another) and this fall I just decided I was going to make it happen. And, yes, I’ll be hanging out quite a bit at the Imagine booth, so if you’ll be there please stop by and say hello! Until then I’m counting the days and happily removing links from my paper chain!

And now here we are in Christmas build-up with the end of the year hurtling towards us. Last year we had a very quiet Christmas just the three of us (Todd, Duncan, and I) with minimal fuss. We barely even did presents, as well, concentrating on stockings instead, and it was glorious. Of course, if you’re in the mood to give a simple gift to friends, teachers, coworkers, etc., consumables are the way to go, and a little bit of pretty packaging goes a long way to make a simple gift seem like so much more.

Warmest wishes to you all and a Happy Holiday season!