2014 Christmas Cards

Now that they've been given out/mailed and likely received, I can share the Christmas cards I made  this year. I did make several more of the Kitty ones like I made last year, but made quite a bit of cards that were different. I really like that I found some ideas that can be recreated if necessary, and that's what I was aiming for since you never know when you'll need to have a card in a pinch. Here they are:

The Kitties and Doggies before I colored them

 This Santa one came about because I had made a card like this with a stencil, but did not like the way it turned out, so hubby, being much more artistically inclined for drawing than I am, drew me a Santa face, so I recreated the concept card I had made and it turned out so much nicer. I really like it! And, it's one I can recreate over and over if needed.

 This was a card I made specially for our friends who love cats. Since I liked the Santa so much, I asked hubby to draw me a kitty and he came up with this one, and I turned it into this card. I love it, I think it's so cute.

 I came up with this way of saying Merry Christmas randomly and of course had to use it with a kitty themed card! :)

What do you think? Do you have a favorite? :)

5th Anniversary Ornament

After looking all over stores and Amazon for a special ornament to commemorate mine and hubby's 5th Anniversary throughout this year and not finding anything, I decided to make something-I just didn't know what.

I was thinking that I wanted to make a heart-shaped version of either the Glitter Ornaments or Paint Ornaments, but I was unable to find any heart-shaped glass ornaments to fill, so that plan was out the window as quickly as it was in my head. I did, however, find a cardboard base ornament that could be decorated, so decided to make something with that. So I made this cute little ornament- a sweet memory and decoration for a sweet price of less than $5:

Isn't it adorable? Even though it's not a complicated thing, hubs and I really love it!

Here it is on the tree:

I love that you can see it clearly from even across the room. :)

(And yes, we have stockings for our stuffed animals....)

And I learned some useful information as I was experimenting while working on this: when painting things made out of cardboard base like this, Paint by itself takes forever to cover the surface without streaks or cardboard showing through. But paint + clear glue (which is what I had, I'm sure white glue that dries clear works, too) = magic. I did it as an experiment just because, but it drastically reduced the number of coats needed and the time spent working on it versus paint alone.  So, if you're ever painting cardboard, maybe this trick will work for you, too.

Painted Skully Floral Decoration

One day when shopping at Michaels for something else, I found this skull floral pick (always find things at Michaels that you didn't go for...) for 0.99 and, me being me and loving skulls, had to have it-despite not having an idea for it.

When I got home, I decided to decorate it like a sugar skull, since I do love how those look. Here's some pictures of the process to see how I did it:

Painted White with a foam brush

Here's one finished side of it

I remembered to take an "in progress" picture for this one, heh. I just outlined the design in pencil (keeping it simple since I am not really artistically inclined) and then colored in with markers.

The other side finished