52 Tags Challenge for 2012: Weeks 1-4

Hi all,

Janis at Pause Dream Enjoy has a year long challenge to make a tag a week and at the end of the year you have a nice tag album. You can find all the details here. I am hoping to complete this challenge this year. I have been following the challenge so far, but have yet to post any of the tags I have made.

So here are my tags:

Week 1: What are your goals, hopes dreams, resolutions:

This is from the Daily Grind paper line. It pretty much sums up my goals for this year. All I did was accent the hearts and flowers with diamond glaze and added some glitter to the word play and the me in time on the bottom.

All my tags are from Elegant Edges. Pg 38 Oblong Shift. cut at 5 inches.

Here is the backside of the tag, listing my actual goals. I used a CTMH stamp set to make the patterned paper, and an older journal card from Creative Memories. (use what I have!)
Here is week 2:

What is the last book you read? Well mine was The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I am a big fan of The Lord of the Rings and I haven't read The Hobbit in many years, so I thought I would re-read it again.
The main character was created using the beardless gnome from Freshly Picked. I confess, I do not really like to make "people" in my crafting. I never can get their faces right, and I don't own any peachy Keen face stamps. (gasp!) Anyway...the sword and Mountains are from Paper Doll Dress Up, and the dragon is from Pagoda. That cloud paper is printed from my Imagine Best Friends.

Here is week 3: What do you think of when you hear "Warm and Cozy"

Well I think of snuggling in front of the fireplace:

The fireplace is from Christmas Cheer. I cut it several times in different colors and hand cut the pieces to get those extra layers. The Couch I made welding a couple of shapes from George together on my Gypsy. The hair pieces are from Paper Doll Dress Up. I used Rosie Day Embossing folder for the background.
Here is the back of Warm and Cozy..I found this great little journal card with a Fireplace on it in my stash! The sticker is Creative Memories.
Week 4: What are your favorite colors:

Mine are Pink and Green. I just love those color! My background paper was made with several different border stickers in my colors. I layered them next to each other and then trimmed off the edges. The font is Gypsy Font, welded together. I added some bling too!

Well..Hopefully I will be able to keep up with this challenge. I have pre-cut my base pieces to save me some time later on.

Go check out the challenge at Pause Dream Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Christmas Express 3D

Hi all! Well Here we are in the week before Christmas. I have been crafting quite a bit lately making presents for people.

I have discovered the delights of Make the Cut software. I had been resistant to getting it, as I was afraid of how complicated the software might be. My only experiences thus far were using Cricut Design Studio and my Gypsy. However I love so many of the SVG files that are out there, as well as having the ability to cut any font.

I am very happy to say that I LOVE it! True, I am still a complete novice, but I am learning the more I mess around with it.

So here is my first project using Make the Cut and an SVG I purchased from Lettering Delights called Christmas Express Train 3D:

Here are close ups of all the individual cars:

The Engine:
I added embossing, glitter and gems to most of the cars. On the engine, I also added a large antique gem from my grandmothers stash of goodies as the headlight. The holly was cut from Christmas Cheer.

Train car 2:

Train Car 3:
This one I added some heat set star studs that I bought forever ago and never used.

Train car 4:
The Little Christmas tree is a bell. there is one on each side. I also added a little bakes twine bow.

Train car 4:
The Caboose:

Its hard to see from this angle, but I added a little metal candy cane charm to a spiral clip and stuck it on the back end of the caboose.

I made 4 sets of these, one for myself and one for three very good friends of mine. I can't wait to give these to them.

So, as my first SVG cut, I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I look forward to expanding my crafting to new areas with this software.

Hope everyone has a Great and Crafty Holiday!

Jan

My Countdown to Christmas Project

I saw a project like this in the Stampin' Up Holiday Mini Catalog, amd I thought I could make one myself.

I made four sets, one for our home and one each for my sister, and my two cousins.

Cutting, scoring, and folding 100 boxes was a little time consuming, but I hope that we all will get many years use out of the sets.

I used Tags, Bags, Boxes and More for the box. The boxes were cut at 7.75" I used my Gypsy to hide the original holes on the sides and placed in smaller ones. I then strung a piece of gardening twine for the handle.


I used DCWV's new 12 x 24 stacks for the paper on the fronts: Adhesive Backed Pattern Stack cut into 2" squares and Adhesive Backed Texture Stack cut into 1.5" squares. The numbers were cut at 1.25" from Designer's Calendar.

My daughter thought that the back sides needed something as well, so I cut random Christmas and Winter icons and put them on the back sides. The cuts were from various cartridges, cut at the biggest size in order to fit on the 2.5" box side

Cartidges used: Create a Critter, Chrismas Cheer, Winter Frolic, Doodlecharms, Winter Lace, Christmas Solutions, and my Imagine Snow Angel Cartridge.

The completed boxes were hung from some more Garden Twine using mini clothes-pins, and I made bows with jingle bells for the corners and center support hooks.