Merry Geek-Mas

Earlier in the year, I started making ornaments for our tree. I was doing my usual Glitter and Paint Ornament thing and had an idea for some of the Olive-ish Green colored paint I have...

A Grinch! So I practiced a few times and then made this one:

After I made that one, and showed it Shaun and he was impressed with it (He thought it may have been store bought), I had the idea for other ones I would love to have for the tree including My Little Pony, Batman, and Captain America. We have yet to make Captain America, but we did get to make the others:

I say "we" because while it was my concept and I did the paint and some of the other stuff, It was Shaun's awesome drawing skills that really helped me bring the Cutie Marks and the Batman Logo to life.  I then wrote the names of the Mane Six Ponies on the back, in a style that they would use themselves, I imagine. I LOVE the way they turned out.

Here's how they look on the tree:

Our tree is kind of accidentally My Little Pony themed because in addition to the six cutie mark ornaments we made, Shaun gave me a set of MLP ornaments last year or the year before, and we have two foam ornaments we bought (Pinkie and Dash) and we bought a Princess Luna figurine ornament this year. So since it has so much Pony-themed  on it, I said maybe one year I will make the mini ornaments (like the paint ones) with the colors of the ponies and make it an intentionally themed tree. That could be fun.

What do you think of our "Geek Tree"? We LOVE it. Someday, we'll have even more of the things we love on it, too. :)

Cards, Cards Galore!

I recently shared the birthday card I made for my friend Susan's birthday in October,  and had realized that I have been particularly bad at sharing all my projects this year. So I figured I would share all the cards that were made this year (and one from last year,I think) that may or may not have been shared yet, up to that card.

So buckle up, it's a long(er) ride! :)

A Chicken card I made for Shaun's mom's birthday last year.

Inside of Chicken Card.

Valentine's card for Hubby, with the envelope I made for it as well.

Inside of it. Realized I forgot to take pictures before writing the happy (stamp only said V-day)

St. Patrick's day card made with a Leprechaun I asked Shaun to draw for me. So, combining our talents. :)

Easter card. of course. Bunny drawn by Shaun, modeled after one of our stuffed animals, Sunny Bunny.

Birthday card for our friend Corina, whose birthday was in May. Another multi-layered Purple...

Close up of embelishment

With the envelope I made.

 We think Shaun's dad may never have received the Father's Day card I made in 2013, so I essentially remade it, but slightly different.

Birthday card for my sister Heather, whose birthday was in June. Yep, more purple. Lots of people I know like purple, it seems.

 I really wanted to use the anchor stamp I had bought a few weeks prior just to be able to use it for something, and this idea for a Bon Voyage card came into my head and I started working on it. I love this card so much! I didn't even have a reason to make it, but once I did, I gave it to our friends who, conveniently, were leaving on a cruise soon.

 This card came about because our Director at work is expecting soon and we threw her a surprise Baby Shower with a Nautical theme. So I volunteered to make a card because I already had the perfect things for it! Obviously, it is pretty much the same card as the Bon Voyage card above, but it is a bigger card (a bit over 5x7 so that everyone could sign it) and I added a few different touches.  It was a big hit! Our Director told me she plans on framing it in the baby room! You don't get much higher a compliment than that.

Inside of Baby Shower card.

 Our department's Morale Team did a whole production for a week for Customer Service Week, and I really wanted to thank them for all their hard work.So I made this card, and had everyone on our team sign it before I gave it to them. Bonus: it let me use my brand new silver embossing powder. :)

Eight Shades of Purple Bithday Card

This is a birthday card I made for my friend Susan whose birthday was October 3rd. (I know, that was forever ago! I am sort of working randomly with actually sharing things I make these days.)

She loves purple, so I made it completely purple-centric. On just the card, there are eight different shades of purple. (Though you may not be able to see all of the shades in the picture due to light, trust me, they are there.) If you add in the envelope (that I also hand made), there are twelve different shades of purple.

A funny story about this card: Susan had been over to my place to make cards several weeks before my birthday in August, and she made a totally random card with my supplies....then gave me the card for my birthday because she felt it was very me. (And it was.) That wasn't her intention when making it, but it just worked out that way.  A few weeks after my birthday, she came over for some other crafting to work on a costume element for her Princess Bubblegum costume, she gave me some heart buttons that she had bought that she didn't feel worked and she didn't need. When making her card, I needed something to finish it off and remembered the buttons and that there was a sparkly purple one. Perfect! And a perfect nod/joke to the fact that she gave me a card made with my supplies.

Here's the card. What do you think?

A little closer.

To show the inside of the envelope and the confetti I included in the card.

Have Yourself a Wreathy Little Christmas

This is a Christmas/Holiday Wreath I made today. After making a Halloween wreath (I'll post in another post, I am working backwards at this point), I knew I wanted to make a Christmas wreath too, I just didn't know what. A friend and I went to Michaels for some inspiration and I decided I would make a red and silver/white themed one after finding some cute red/white sparkly baubles.

This took me about 3 hours (or even less) today, and I just LOVE how it turned out! Overall, I spent less than $10 on this wreath as well. The baubles were $7.99 at Michaels, but I had a 20% off everything coupon yesterday, which made it about $6.40; the wreath form, flowers, and red/silver sprigs all came from the Dollar Tree, and I had the ribbon at home already. Gorgeous wreath for $10 or less? Score!

For how beautiful it turned out, you'd think I'd been designing and making wreaths for years, not that this was the second wreath I'd ever made...

What do you think?

Without flash to show colors.

A closeup of how shiny the decorations are. I love Shiny!

A fun CARD-is

This year, for our friend Ken's Birthday (who got this card last year), we thought it would be fun to send him a Doctor Who card. We thought about it for a while and hubby said to make the Tardis, but I didn't have ideas on how to do that.

Then one day, it hit me: Literally, MAKE THE TARDIS, so I made it as a gatefold card so you can open it, and it will be "Bigger on the inside".

I even found a Doctor Who font that was the same as the font used for the logo in the beginning of the show, for the inside sentiment. How's that for attention to detail?

Unfortunately, we learned Ken never received the card, so he only gets to see it this way, too, which just breaks my heart, but hopefully it can at least be admired. :)

I even hand made the envelope, and wrote in the flap "Yep, even envelope is handmade--Red, Just for you."

Here's the card and envelope-as always, click for larger images:

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? :)