Hot Cocoa Bottle

Good morning and welcome to another Creative Paperclay® post.  With Christmas literally just days away I am scrambling for those last minute gifts.  Sometimes you just need a little something for someone and that is what I have for you today. I had made a project awhile ago using some snowflakes that I cut out of vinyl and then I was left with all these scraps of snowflake cutout from the vinyl.  I hate to see anything go to waste so I used them up like this... I started out using an empty bottle because I have soooo many and adhered those pieces randomly on the bottle. 

 

 Some of those pieces were pretty close to the edge and if I was to etch them I might go over, so I just used some scrap pieces of contact paper and adhered those close to those edges.  Then I added my glass etching paste and let that sit for about 10 minutes.

Because I hate waste I use whatever I have on hand and scrap the etching cream off of the item that's being etched and put it back into the bottle.  I've been using this same bottle of etching cream forever.  

 Once I removed those pieces of vinyl the snowflakes came to life.  

I LOVE IT!!!

 Now you might  be wondering why this is a paperclay post?  Well, the bottle was a Maggi bottle and the lid wasn't going to cut it.  

So I rolled out some paperclay and put it around the lid.  I wasn't worried about smoothing it out because... 

while it was still wet I rolled it over my "wood grain" embossing folder to give it dimension. 

Once it was all dry, I just used my exacto knife to cut away some of the clay so that it had a perfect fit  

and painted it brown, black, brown, watered down black, etc. until I got the "look" of a cork 

See the dimension?  Isn't that cool? 

and here is my faux cork.  (really baaaad picture) 

Next I rolled out some paper clay and 

used an embossing folder and sandwiched the paperclay between it.  

and gently used my rolling pin to get a good image embossed. 

Then I used my snowflake cookie cutter to cut the shapes out randonly

and let them dry overnight.

I made a boat load of these and have another project to show you soon. 

Very cool embossed snowflakes.

Then I painted them white and embellished 

them with some gold glitter glue.

I filled the bottle with hot cocoa mix and added two of my paperclay 

snowflake ornaments and now I have the perfect gift to give to someone. 

I am really liking this project and I have just the perfect person in mind to give this to. 

I really wished the camera could pick up on the etching better,

but in person this looks magnificent. 

I added a bow and now I have a perfect "gift"

I hope I've inspired you to use some Creative Paperclay® and hope you come back to check out more of my projects.  Until then, as always, have a great day and God Bless.

Glitter Personalized Ornament

Good morning,

here is a quick ornament I made for my son's girlfriend.  You've probably seen these all  over the web for the past few years, but I just love making them.  In fact, I think all my kids and grandkids have about 3 or 4 each.

All you do is take those ornaments you can get at Michaels for crafting.  Pull the top off and pour in some floor wax and swish it around .  Make sure to get it coated all evenly to the top.  Then just turn the ornament upside down back into the bottle and let it drip.  Then I took some "fine" glitter in yellow (her favorite color) and added it to the inside of the ornament and kept turning the ornament until it was completely coated with the glitter.  It's so simple and quick.  Then I vinyled her name in red and layered it onto the ornament.  Tied a pretty ribbon around it and there it is.

I will be giving her the ornament tonight (actually last night when you read this) since we are having dinner together.  Now she can have her own personalized ornament hanging on her tree in her apartment.

See you next time, and as always, have a great day and God Bless.

Mugs for gift giving

Good morning friends,

today I am showing you another creative way to give gifts for multiples.  Hubby always gives his employees something for Christmas and it usually involves me making it (lol).  I've done personalized ornaments, pen sets, etc.  This year he went shopping and came home with insulated mugs and said:  "here, do something with these."  and here we go

These mugs  

with names vinyled 

on the lower half 

I used my cricut and cut out ornament shapes and

stamped "Merry Christmas" on them 

The mugs had come with a tag that told you about the mug, 

so I took the paper off and stuck it inside and used the "ring" 

the tag was on to attach my own tags. 

ornament on back side of "ring" and bow on front side. 

cute huh? 

I added a pouch of hot cocoa mix inside the mugs

Then I wanted to package them up instead of wrapping them. 

After the 4th of July I got this bag of 50 cellophane baggies for $.25, can't beat that price.

These would be perfect as they had red and stars on them.  Kinda Christmassy I think. 

dropped a few candy canes inside the baggie and 

tied them shut with some green ribbon

viola...a personalized gift for everyone. 

I hope you've enjoyed another simple Christmas gift for multiples...

I should be back tomorrow for yet some more Christmas idea.

As always, have a great day and God Bless.

Tennis Shoe Bank

Good day all...

I've been so busy creating and working both job that it is so hard to get here and blog about what I've actually done.  I've got about 12 projects I would like to share with you, but by the time I get done making the project between working a full-time and part-time job and home life I'm too tired to edit my pictures and write up my posts.  Blogging can be exhausting!!!  :)

I am here today to show you a quick project though.  My boss at my part-time job asked me if I could "bling" up a bank she bought for her daughter.  And here is what I did:

this is the bank shoe.  (Forgot to take a before picture) 

I didn't have any vinyl that matched the "tennis shoe", so I used alcohol inks 

on white vinyl and tried to get as close to the color of the "blue" I needed. 

Just put some of the inks together and keep blending until you get your desired affect. 

Keep blending.... 

This is the color I wanted to come close to and... 

here is the color I created.  I then cut her name out with my cricut.  As you can see 

I had to cut the "e" out a couple of times because it just wouldn't cut right and...

here it is. I also added some rhinestones to match 

the peace sign on the side of the shoe. 

My boss loved it...maybe I will get a raise.  LOL  Naaah, she's a great boss and she treats me very well.

So remember, if you don't have exactly what you need to make a project, 

think outside the box and make it work.