Well, here's the pictures I promised of the ornaments I made for my nieces and nephews this year. I found these tins on sale at Target and thought they'd make good shaker-box ornaments. These are the 5 designs I came up with.



You might recognize these 2 guys from the light box in the last post. Aren't they cute? I found these snowflake buttons after I'd already finished the snowman ornaments, but I thought they'd be cute with the little ice skater. I snipped the button hoop off the back. One of the snowflakes is loose in the ornament, and the other is glued to the front. I also put some glitter and fake snow inside the ornament to shake around. I stamped extra ornaments for the bottom one and coated them with dimensional glaze to make them shiny.


I have to say that this little guy is my favorite. He was a lot of work though. I stamped all the little candies and cut each one out. There's gumdrops, a lollipop, peppermint candy, jellybeans, and of course, the gingerbread guy. Since I made 6 of this design, that was a bit of cutting. The fake snow didn't look quite right in this one, so I put microbeads to look like sugar in the bottom along with a plastic candy cane and some of the jellybeans I cute out. What do you think?

Well, I seem to be coming down with something, so I think I'm going to call it a night and get some sleep. Thanks for looking!

I'm Crafting Again!

Well, we've finally settled in here and Mike has set me up a nice crafting spot in the room we're in. It's quite large, and we were able to get my crafty stuff out of storage, so I've had a chance to play around a bit lately! First off, here's a candle I made for our new Pastor and his family for inviting us over for lunch a few weeks back.

What do you think? Carole and Darlene had a fun time watching me make the candle. I hadn't seen their house yet, and had no idea how they decorated, but figured these colors would be pretty neutral.

Then I saw this neat "light" box over on Splitcoast. I didn't have the same stamp sets she had, but I thought Stampin' Up!s Holy Tritych would make nice Christmas gifts. It's hard to see in the picture, but there is a battery operated tealight in the bottom of the box so it lights up.

After I had finished several of the ones above, I found these hedgehog stamps from Penny Black. My friend Sonja loved the little hedgehogs that Stampin' Up! used to have, so I knew I had to do something with these for her, and this is what I came up with.

I managed to get a picture of it with the light on inside. If you click on the pictures, you can see them bigger and some of the details better.

Well, I'm off to get the little one out of the tub before she becomes a little prune. Tomorrow I will post some pics of the ornaments I made for my niece and nephews this year.

Playing with Digital Scrappin'

Since I haven't done anything physical lately, I thought I'd post some of the digital pages that I've done. Here's one I did a few months back. I'm still new at the digital scrappin' thing, but it is a lot of fun to play with. I love it when i remember to write down quotes from the kids.

Settling In

Well, we've finally made it to Wisconsin. We're settled in at my Mother-in-Law's, but I don't have any of my craft stuff! :o( I do have a few things here, but not much. I'm currently crocheting a blanket, and making a stocking for Nick for Christmas. Most of my days are spent home schooling the girls (for once, we're not behind schedule) and doing what I can to help Mike in getting our house started.

I've also spent some time getting our recent photos uploaded to the computer and adding albums to our Picasa website. You can check it out here. I'm still behind, but it's getting there. I'm hoping to start scanning some of Mike's heritage photos and digitally scrapping them. As soon as I do, I'll start posting some more items here.

Anyway, that's it from our side of the world. We pray that all is well on your.

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:33

In Transit

I apologize for not posting anything here for such a long time. All my stuff is packed up, and we're starting on our new adventure of being retired and civilians! We leave tomorrow for the States and on to Wisconsin. As soon as we get the house built and my craft room set up I will be posting more projects here. Actually, I'm quite sure I will not be able to wait that long before I create something, so I may be posting before then. Who know? Till then..God's blessings.

Some recent projects

Here's some shots of the projects I've worked on lately. The first one is a cake I made for a friend of mine for her Red Hat Society party. This one was fun to do and it's getting easier for me to work with the fondant. I usually have a hard time getting the wrinkles out near the bottom of the cake. This one was easier since it had the big purple ribbon to help hide any wrinkles that I couldn't get out.

These next ones are a key chain I made. I stamped the image on shrink plastic and colored it with watercolor crayons. After shrinking it, I coated the top with Crystal Effects and some extra-fine glitter. The bead is one that my sister bought for me while shopping in Hiroshima.

The movers come in a couple of weeks, so I think I will do some crafting this next week before all my stuff goes into storage.

Have a blessed day!

Introduction

I've finally decided to stick my toes into the blogging world. I will soon be leaving many of my crafting friends behind as we retire from the Marine Corps and move back Stateside. I hope that by starting this blog, it will encourage me to keep in touch, and maybe help inspire them and others to have fun and get creative. After all, God is the Ultimate Creator, and we are all made in His image! :o)

I'm not sure how much I will post in the next few weeks as we prepare to move, but I will do my best to get to know the ins and outs of blogging and post as much as I can.