WOYWW I won blog candy!

Yesterday afternoon the postman brought me a wonderful package from my friend Jo in Liverpool, England! I am so excited to have won one of her bitty buckets plus a few jewels and stamps - many thanks, Jo.  You must check out her work at JoZart; she is multi-talented and a sweet soul.  Here is the cool bitty bucket that hangs off the edge of my desk to keep scissors, pencils and other bits n' bobs handy.

 Don't you just love that cool print fabric of people in conversation? And that hot pink liner is so cheerful on today's snowy afternoon. 

 Thank you for your kind words of welcome to Ophelia, my Christmas gift from St. Donald. Believe me, I didn't put her under the tree, she did this all by her little self. She has settled in nicely and likes to sit by the window and watch the birds at the feeder as big fluffy snowflakes float by. 

Here's hoping you make something fun today. Hugs!


 

Wow, two weeks since my last WOYWW

Hello and Happy New Year to all on this eleventh day of Christmas! What with Christmas travel out of town for a week and all, I didn't have anything to report. The only crafting that I've done is online shopping for stash stuff. When that arrives I expect to hit the atelier with a full head of steam.

Briefly, the tags and origami gifts for the teens were a huge hit. How can I top that for next year? The nephew liked his tag so much that he put it in the family xmas tree. That made me feel special.

The husband, St. Donald, surprised me with a second xmas gift yesterday that I suspect will be on my work desk in the next few days.  Meet Ophelia! 

 Since he brought this one-year old female home from the shelter yesterday, she hasn't left our sides. She is super curious and extra affectionate. Can't wait to introduce her to the room of stash.

Well, it's time for you to hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and see the desks of our dear blog friends. 

Hope you can make something fun even if it's only just a smile!  Hugs to all.




  

Hello WOYWW -ers

Another Wednesday, with Christmas just 3 more wake-ups away! I've put the finishing touches on the Tim tags/gifts for my 5 nieces and 1 nephew. Thought I would post them for you to see tonight. No, the kids aren't going to peek. Nor will their parents. After all, teenagers don't read blogs by their crafty auntie. 

Hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and have a look-see at work desks around the world. There are some very talented and ultra wonderful people with really cool things going on. I highly recommend you turn on the Christmas music and grab a cup of cocoa to enjoy as you hop about the world.

First, a very merry Christmas to all. Second, a very happy New Year. May you have health, happiness and enough of what you need.

On with the show and a little bit of tell. Here you see one of the 12 tags of Christmas directed by none other than Tim Holtz. After adapting his tag (faith) I origami-ed some money (butterfly) and glued it on the back. Actually, I didn't glue the cash to the back of the tag, just the pipe cleaner body. 

 Next I used my new Stampotique stamps with Prismacolor pencils, and cut out the image. I distressed inked the edges and mounted it on distress inked and stamped card stock. I love, love, love the holiday background stamp (stampotique, too.) Isn't this dear the cutest thing!

 These are the finished gift packages. Card on top, tag and origami-ed money inside. And to think it took soooooo long to get to this point. For just 6 kids. Nothing for the adults and gasp! nothing, nothing, nothing yet for St. Donald. Yikes, I better do something quickly as we leave Thursday, yes, in just a few short hours, for Indianapolis, IN - Christmas at mom's - age 82 and going strong. I don't know what to get him - he gets what he wants or needs throughout the year and has all the electronics, gadgets, golfballs and golf clubs a man could want. To top it all off, he doesn't believe in gift lists. It couldn't be more maddening! sigh

Past years' gift for him haven't gone so well, at least 4 returned items; the idea of and A-Z Christmas fell flat. I bought him gifts that started with the letters a-z, for example, ABCE were children's Erasers in the shapes of A-B-C clever, right? Wrong. Evidently there were too many packages to open or something. I had fun putting it together, I guess that in itself is a kind of a gift.

As I write this I'm kinda feelin' like this guy...

but then I jest.  I choose to wait for more snow to fall and enjoy the Christmas tree and lights on the houses around town.  Remember....

Be sure to make something fun. ...and to all a good-night!  





 

Hey there, hi there, ho there!

I'll explain this photo at the end of today's post. But I just had to pique your curiosity. 

 

 The first of the holiday's guests have come and gone. St. Donald and I are dad and mom to 7 international exchange students. Because they are so far away we are lucky that the youngest of the crew, Ghufran age 20, lives in Toronto now. He is in his 3rd year at Ryerson University and is originally from Afghanistan. 

There is a long version and a longer version of his saga. In short, he came here when he was 16 for a year of high school and then returned to Afghanistan to his family and to start college. Unfortunately, he and his family received threats and G (Ghufran) wanted very much to return to the States to be safe. A resourceful young man and entrepreneur, G managed to get an invitation to be a counselor at an international youth conference that was held in Washington DC. He had done this once prior to leaving the states and found the experience wonderful and enriching, thus he wanted to do it again.

 We made arrangements for him to come "home" to Buffalo to spend a week with us in August before he planned to return to Afghanistan. Just before our visit was up, he skipped the Canadian border to seek political refugee status. Can you imagine any 17 year old that you know who might be willing to give up everything and start over in another culture and country?  So this is where he went to high school and has lived on his own for the last 4 years. For those doing the math, he'll be 21 in April. So that's the short version.  

 He came from Toronto to Ft. Erie, Ontatio, Canada by bus on Friday afternoon. The it is always better for either the St. Don or me to go pick him up and go through U.S. Customs with G than for him to go alone. It's always best to have a sponsor in his situation. 

 So at Customs we do the usual routine, pull up to the booth, turn off the car, hand over our documents and car keys and wait for 2 armed Homeland Security folks to come escort G into the building. A hour and a half and many questions and statements later, we are free to go and on our merry way to Christmas in Orchard Park. Yippee! I'm still in the short version.

  He spent 2 night here in his own bed: friends to see, lunches and dinners with former teachers, bowling, movies and laughter. G left today on the next leg of his journey - off to NYC and then San Diego, California for Christmas, then the reverse again on January 2nd back to Toronto. I promise this is the short form!

 Then straight away off he will go to Prague for a 10 day international youth conference. Remember I said he was an entrepreneur? He found scholarships, donations and matching funds to cover the $3,000 cost of the trip. This and manage a straight A average in his courses.

 Not only am I proud of his accomplishments, I am in awe of his ability to set and reach his goals. More proud momma details in another post.

 This in short is why I haven't done any crafting of late. Now to the explanation of the above photo. Tonight I did manage to do some origami folding of cash-ola, moolah, bucks, dollar bills as gifts for the nieces and nephew. a necktie, a heart and butterflies. I'll tape these to the back of the tags I made a couple weeks back and voilà, gifts will be finished. We don't go in for all the rushing, buying, wrapping and spending. There is already enough to do for the holiday food and guests.

 Tomorrow I'll explain my families silly and simple method of gift exchange...it's inexpensive and fun. Until then, make something fun, If you can't craft, then make a smile! 

WOYWW - go see Julia and her friends

I forgot to send you over to see Julia Dunnit's Stamping Ground to join in the fun blog hop of WOYWW. Enjoy the ride!

Wake up - it's WOYWW & tags#6, 7, 10 & 12

Phew! I've been tagging like a madwoman to complete Tim's 12 tags of christmas and forgot to post what I've done. Has that ever happened to you? Yeah, I thought so. 

So I slept until noon today (fighting another 2 day migraine) and thought I'd better march on and get these goodies posted to share with you. This is the aftermath of the 12 tags of Christmas! Stuff everywhere on the desk and floor, too There is a little clear space on the craft mat for some new projects tomorrow.

 Here' my next love...some sweet holiday stamps from Stampotique. I've ignored them since they arrived, but now they will be the center of my universe. 

 I'm not very good at doing original things, but I'll consider using some of Tim's techniques as a jumping off point to make a little something extra. 

 Here are my tags #10 and #12. Improv and -ish were the name of the game since I didn't have the snowman die or the corners for the Joy card. I also failed to read and follow directions for the snowman, pretty typical of my impatience to finish something I think is cool. I continue to work on patience as a virtue!

Tags #6 and #7 turned out well. I love the texture fade technique, but that was the easiest part of the poinsettia tag. Pretty labor intensive. But I'd do it again in a heart beat. A little PS here, I've decided not to do #8 since I don't have any  of the materials. I'll try to do an -ish post after the holidays.

Since I was a couple days late and a dollar short I was completing 2 and a half tags per day to catch up. Oh yeah, I had that cold thingy that laid me low for several days.  St. Donald was doing sudoku and watching movies while I played tag. We're compatible like that - each has own interests and we don't mind being alone while being together. 

I shipped off a box of tags to the mother for her Advent card surprises and brought a couple more to Charlie in her new assisted living home. 

Yesterday was another lake effect blizzard here, but being the good Buffalonian that I am, I drove to Canada for the monthly appointment chez la coiffeuse. The hair is now ready for holidays in Indianapolis with the fam. Driving was somewhat dangerous, but then loyalty to one's hairdresser is more important, just drive slowly on the most traveled highways. The Queen Elizabeth Way was closed, so I took the scenic route, what I could see of it. lol  

That's about it for today, I do blather on, but at least it's in large print. rofl  Hope you've had time to make something fun. Warm hugs.
  
 

Tags for all! and money's nice, too

I've been wondering what to give my teenage nieces and nephew for Christmas that is NOT a plastic gift card. Been there, done that, sooo over it. This is today's Tim tag #9 and I think I've found the answer.  Here's what happened in the atelier today

 Yep, I made a bunch of 'em. Each of the darlin' teens (the kids) will get one of these babies and on the back I'll tape an origami folded moolah: cold, crispy cash to spend as they wish. I chose a different saying for each of them. Mom gets the "Jul" (pronounce yule) tag since she is of Swedish descent (minus $$). There's one for Charlie, and two for me. Naw, just kidding. One for another dear friend, Rachel. I give them to her as I make them, sort of like an irregular advent calendar gift!

I did change up some of Tim's directions because I was doing so many...8 in all with one in the trash. I had to have something of an assembly line going. To make it easier to color the tags I used Wild Honey reinker with the heirloom gold perfect pearls spray on the craft mat instead of tapping the distress ink pad (wild honey and brushed corduroy.) This way I could dip the tag, dry it and move on quickly to the next tag. I had a really good rhythm going, too. And that glue gun was such a handy fellow. He'd been sitting in the drawer for over mumble mumble mumble years without ever being touched!

I love the honey color, warm & sunny. The kids can have the tag out or hang it up all year instead of being limited to Christmas.

Not having any pretty buttons kinda had me bummed, but got me to wondering what to use instead. D'ya know those old coins you've been saving as souvenirs? Well, I found a use for them. They are very cool and vintage to boot. Old French francs (well, duh yeah, I was a French teacher), Swedish and Norwegian kroner, British pence (one of the nieces was born in Basingstoke), Spanish pesetas, and a Russian ruble that came from out of nowhere! With a coin on the front then a couple of bucks taped on the back folded like butterflies or somethin' easy but eye-popping, that ought to keep the theme going.

I used grungeboard letters 'cuz I don't have the papercore or Tim's alphabet die. Painted 'em black, didn't sand them, just gave 'em a dollop of glossy accents to shine them up. Perfection was NOT in today's crafting vocabulary. It was not a labor intensive tag, which is why I enjoyed it so much. Another zen experience in the studio. ooooohmmmmm

Drop me a comment and let me know how you change some of the steps to simplify your art. You know me, I love to learn and share shortcuts to art! Hope you made something fun today.