Jingle Belles - Not a Creature Was Stirring

I had so many ideas for the Jingle Belles creature challenge.  I just couldn't pull them all together before the deadline and that is sad given we have had 2 whole weeks.  You may not see all of them here in time to post to the challenge blog, but I am going to make sure that I get them done to add to my Christmas Card stash.  

Try as I might, I couldn't get those glittery snowflakes to sparkle for the picture. The crinkled blue paper on the bottom (meant to be ice) also has a sheen to it.  Not much better in the close up - sorry!

 

So I'm mulling about a swan with a wreath on a pond and a deer in a circle of snowflakes.  They're all laid out on my work table as soon as I can get to it.

But in the meantime, speaking of creatures.......... we've been doing a major purge (as I've mentioned in several posts I'm sure) and I keep coming across unfinished projects and project ingredients that I had forgotten about.  Some of them are appropriate for this time of the year.  So as a kind of reward for time spent in "the room of surprises", in between sorting and dumping, I'm going to put some of them together (hopefully).  And the creature involved in this one is little felt bears.

When our kids were little, I supplemented our income by making crafts and doing craft shows - mainly selling holiday ornaments and I do think I did quite well.  I still have people telling me they still put out my ornaments every year.  I'll give you a sneak peak at what I'm currently working on from long ago with a little tip.

Here's what I found......

Camel colored felt, embroidery floss, little flowers, pearls, candy cane, netting, and a tiny top hat.  Oh, and a pattern for a little bear.

Here is my tip for working with cutting patterns from felt.

First, you will need to have some freezer paper.  The kind with the wax on one side.  You iron the felt to the waxed side leaving the unwaxed side face up.

On the unwaxed side you can easily use a pen or pencil to trace around your pattern and, since the paper stays attached to the felt, it is easy to cut out.

Once your shapes are cut out, you just peel the paper off.  No pinning is required.  This works particularly well with small shapes.  (Top to bottom these bears are 2 1/4")  You just have to make sure that your paper is firmly melted onto the felt.  There is no residue left behind when you remove the paper.

So with some blanket stitching these little creatures are ready to be dressed.  But you'll have to come back to see that. 

In the meantime, let me get over to the Jingle Belles blog and see what other holiday creatures are to be found!  Click here to join me.

Election Day 2020

No - not a political post, just some patriotic color - pictures saved from last week before we got our killing frost.  I dug out my red, white, and blue scarf and donned my pearl earrings in memory of RBG - Ruth Bader Ginsberg when we did some errands today.  Trying to keep from watching the news because this will not be over for a few days due to all the voting by mail ballots that will have to be counted.  Here in NJ there was no in-person voting unless you had a disability and needed to use a voting machine.  We filled out our ballots 2 weeks ago and turned them in and were able to track them to make sure they were received and counted.  This election on top of the virus numbers climbing continues to increase anxieties everywhere.  I hope this little bit of color makes you smile.

Inktober 2020

Well, with the end of October came the end of Inktober.  This year I was going to do a daily drawing inspired by the prompts for the original "Inktober" but I found myself not wanting to try to come up with ideas for those prompts and opted to go with Inktober Tangles.  Specifically what was called the "Lunar Project".  

Did you know, of the 1600 craters of the moon only 31 of them are named for women?  We had two full moons within October's 31 days.  So instead of randomly drawing the selected tangles on a tile or in a sketchbook, this project began by taping together, on the back, 12 tiles in a square.  Then I drew a the largest circle that I could fit into it.  The circle represents the moon and the tangle Blind Membranart was used to draw in the craters.  I fit 25 craters on the surface of the moon and used the 4 corners and 2 of the sections of the circle frame to make up 31 spaces in all.  There was a list of 31 daily tangles.  I randomly numbers the spaces and began to fill in the craters as the month progressed.  I finished by adding color with my General's watercolor pencils.

Truth be told, I think that this looks more like a tray of Easter eggs than the moon.  But I do like the way it turned out.   Maybe I should have stuck with just black and white.

There are a few November challenges floating around that I was interested in but I'm not sure I'll get to any of them.  I really have to catch up with our Christmas cards and I've come across a few unfinished projects during our "household purge" that I would like to finish before the holidays.  

Every Seven Days - a continuation

 Week 14 - Balance

This isn't balanced but just layered.

Week 15 - X Marks the Spot

A seed pod with the seeds of our volunteer cleome.  I have almost a full 8 oz. Cool Whip container of seed saved.  Some of it will go to our neighbor who has asked for it.  Some of it will be sown in the field across the street in hopes that they will flourish there.

Week 16 - Delicate

I put together a "delicate" rainbow of flowers from our yard not knowing at the time what the prompt for the next week would be.

I had to bring them in to enjoy it a little more.

Week 17 - Colorful

So you see that I could have used last week's creation for this prompt but decided to try something else.

This challenge will be ongoing until December 27.  It's going to be chilly from now on - at least here in the northern hemisphere.

Happy Halloween 2020!

This Scare Crow has been in the works for over 25 years.  I had all the makings for it stored in the closet in our den turned storage room and had forgotten all about until we started emptying out that closet and room.  Since it was the right time of year for it, I put it all together.  Ingredients include some old black sweats, a black ski mask, black umbrella fabric, yellow plastic funnel, dowels painted yellow for the legs, yellow rubber gloves for the feet/claws, ping pong balls for the eyes, and a wire hanger to help spread the umbrella wings.  I stuffed it with bags full of plastic bags.  Creepy or cute?  You decide.

Our little ghost and welcome sign.  We don't usually get any trick or treaters on our street - no sidewalks or street lights, and the houses are pretty far apart which keeps them away.

The card made for our oldest grandson (4-years).  I told him that the dinosaur skeletons had been mischievously smashing all the pumpkins.  He thought that was funny.  

We got to see him in his costume on Halloween Eve.  He was an Air Force Fighter Pilot with the handle of Red Horse (his creation).  He was excitedly explaining to us his gloves which turned into mittens.

He and Papa planted the annual Christmas amaryllis bulb.  Hopefully it will bloom by Christmas this year.  Last year it was almost Valentine's Day.

This is the card I made for the littlest (18-months-old).  

He was a little ducky.  And we were so glad to see him on Halloween, if only for a little bit.

We brought him lots of goodies from his older cousin, including this little ride on tractor that we had first given to the older one at about the same age.  This little guy is a daredevil though and wants to climb and stand on everything.  So he has to be well supervised when playing.

And lastly, some K-cup carriers that I put together the last minute for the ladies.  I bought a package of Pumpkin Spice Caramel coffee at The Christmas Tree Shop last week and I love it, but coffee has been causing me some internal discomfort, so I am passing what I didn't use along.

We were away overnight last night and had ice on the steps of the condo this morning and found that we had a killing frost here when we got home late this afternoon so all of the delicate flowers are done for the year.  It looked quite like Halloween with all the dead plants in the back to welcome us.  The mums don't mind the cold weather as much and will be good for a little longer, but tomorrow HWNSNBP will be emptying the planters.  I'll have some last pictures of those flowers to share soon.  

Pink Christmas......For the Cure! - Jingle Belles

 

One more for Pink Christmas ------ just in the nick of time.  With the help of the little gnomes and some cute Christmas house stickers a little pink snowy scene came together.  (It only took me two days to find those gnome dies but I did!!!)

Check out all those beautiful Pink Christmas cards at the Jingle Belles blog.  Remember, Lauren and Stephanie are each making a $2 donation for every Pink Christmas card made to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  

I'm Dreaming of a Pink Christmas - Jingle Belles

I haven't made a Christmas card in months and I'm sure that'll be my demise very soon, but I couldn't go any longer without taking part in the Jingle Belles Challenges, especially the one this month for Pink Christmas.  There are a few guidelines for this challenge including it must be a new design, it must have a winter theme, and the basic caveat is that it should be mostly PINK.  Why pink?  Well, we're in the midst of Pinktober - Breast Cancer Awareness month and our hostesses, Stephanie and Lauren each pledge $2 for every card that is made to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  A pretty good cause, don't you think!  So here's my first entry..........

I found that pink background paper in my stash and thought "pink snowballs" (my favorite snack cake by the way) and if you have snowballs, you most likely have snowmen ..... dressed in pink.  With a nice little lime green tree to celebrate.  And with all those snowmen, you might need to do a slimline card to fit them all in.

Those little snowmen were all fussy cut while I was catching up on some PBS shows.  (I highly recommend "Last Tango in Halifax" and "The Durrells of Corfu" if you like Britcoms.  Note:  I always thought it was pronounced COR fu but they, the Brits and the Greeks, pronounce it cor FU...... and that's my contribution for odd knowledge today.)

I have another card in the works which was my original thought and should be done with that later today.  In the meantime, should you want to check out all the pink loveliness please do click on this link to the Jingle Belles blog!

Recent Cards

Rachel asked if I could make her a couple of wedding cards kind of last minute.  They're not attending the weddings, but she still wanted to wish them well.  She didn't give me anything to go on this time like she usually does so I kept it pretty neutral.  White, ivory, and kraft with a little hint of gold.

The gold strip was in the scrap box and I decided to use my gold shimmer paint to give some sparkle to those flower centers.

I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with a mailer for these, although I didn't take a picture.  I used a Cheez-It box turned inside-out.  I took the box apart at the seam and cut off the parts that were the top and the bottom. I then flattened it out so that the piece that was the seam attachment became the flap.  I just used some of my decorative duct tape to tape up the sides and the flap - packing tape was an option.  It was very sturdy as a mailer so those cards did not bend.  I'll take pictures next time.

The next two cards were for anniversaries.  My son and daughter-in-law's and ours.  I had stamped this shell frame earlier this year and finally got around to coloring it about a month ago in preparation.  I almost forgot about it when I was trying to think of a design for their card.  I usually try to do a beach theme for them as they were married on the beach.  And I still have a bunch of Bermuda Bay cardstock from the invitations.  The lovebirds below are similar to the two that I made earlier in September.  

This card was for my mother's birthday.  I got the Concord & 9th Painted dots turnabout stamp earlier this summer and just got around to trying it out.  There are four different shades of blue in the circles and you need a MISTI for this which I'm lucky to have.  Each time you stamp a color you turn the paper a quarter turn and use the next color and turn, and so on and so forth.  The MISTI keeps the stamp in one place on the lid with the paper snug in the corner on the bottom so it's perfectly lined up each time.  I made several of those backgrounds so you may see some more of this in the future.

The next two are currently just card fronts - I have two people in mind for these which will be thank you notes and I'm finishing up something that I'll be sending along with them.  Those dotted backgrounds look kind of like my stamp from up above but they're not stamped.  They're recycled from a tissue box as are the pumpkins.   Sometimes the boxes are so pretty and they just scream to me to be repurposed.  I took out a Hero Arts kit from a few autumns back for the sunflower stamp and pumpkin dies.  I really love the way these came out.

I have some additional tissue boxes saved for some more cards - stay tuned.

Every Seven Days Continuation

 Art from nature - I had this queued up a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post it, so I've brought it up to date.

Week 7 -  Connect

A second entry for Connect

Week 8 - Good Words

Week 9 - Yellow

Week 10 - Light 

I don't have a created work for this, but I am posting a picture taken on our Table 7 crabbing trip of my fishing bobber in the water.  I just loved the way the sun was shining on the water.)

and closer.......

Week 11 - Small

(This is my little flamingo on stage in a giant dahlia.)

Week 12 - Weave

Another less complicated weave using two different grasses.

Week 13 - Square

It doesn't cease to amaze me, when I look at the photos posted from around the world for this challenge, that the seasonal differences are so apparent.  Our trees are disrobing here and in the southern hemisphere I'm seeing the trees just starting to bloom.  And there are so many pictures from people who live near large bodies of water.  Shells, stones, driftwood, sand, etc. are all very prevalent in these nature creations.  I've been dependent on what's been blooming or found on our property for the most part.  I'm hoping that once we get into the colder weather that I can keep up with the themes.  Although, the challenge originator does allow for using natural elements in the home if you can't get out.  So you might be seeing some more like this in the future...........

A bouquet made from apple and cucumber peels.