Christmas Subway Tiles

I'm still getting the hang of this Subway Art thing but I had fun with the one I did for Thanksgiving and decided to do some for Christmas.

For the Thanksgiving "tiles" I used wood plaques but for these I used actual tiles. The kind you can get inexpensively at any hardware / building supply store. I got these for $.47 ea at Home Depot:

6x6 Ceramic Tile

I created the word art on my computer , this time highlighting one "word" ( OK I know it's a number!) in red. Printed off several sizes to play around with. I really want a laser printer because sealing this inkjet stuff before I Mod Podge it is hit or miss on the smearing. Anyone with any smear proof tips, speak up!

I printed these on Christmas themed scrapbook paper so I'd have a design within a design and used a coordinating piece of paper as the background for the tile:

The red smearing isn't too bad is it?

Some of the tiles I covered completely and others I let some of the tile show. On this one I sanded around the edges.  I embellished all of them with various buttons and rhinestones.

And this pic is because I'm still playing around with the color accent feature of my camera :)

 

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Back to Christmas...More Ornaments

I'm bouncing back and forth between Thanksgiving and Christmas like I think a lot of us are. In my case it's partly because I'm doing a craft fair the weekend before Thanksgiving because I'm insane.

You know these? :

These are not the ball ornaments but the flat round ones? Like if you flattened the ball ornaments. I tend to stock up on stuff like this after Christmas when they're on sale so I had some on hand. I did buy some new K&Co  stickers. "Snowglobe" they're called and that's exactly what they look like...the snowglobes you shake and then snow comes down. So I had this idea. I squeezed some glue inside...whatever dries clear (I used Diamond Glaze on this one because it dries pretty fast and I wanted to see if this idea panned out, but since it's pricier and I'd end up using a lot for these, I switched to plain diluted white glue for some others. Takes longer to dry but cost effective! Then added silver glitter and just shook it kinda like a snow globe:

I didn't want it to coat the whole thing so it's just kind of wherever it went. After that was dry, I took one of the "Snowglobe" stickers and stuck it to the front:

I decided it needed something more, so I hot glued a silver pipe cleaner around the sticker. Put the cap back on and finished off with a bow, a button, and a rhinestone:

I also did some more with the paper mache ornaments. These are super simple and fast:

 

Plain paper mache ornament, covered with polka dot wrapping paper from stash ( this is from Paper Source and I think they carry it every year). Adhere paper to orny with Mod Podge. Add clear alphabet stickers. Add bow, buttons and I put rhinestones in the center of the buttons. I hot glued braided trim around the edges to finish.

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Thankful Cards

When my son was little, it always bothered him how things went immediately from Halloween to Christmas. Thanksgiving was the overlooked holiday as far as all of the stores and decorations went. So I made sure that we decorated properly for Thanksgiving and that we celebrated it the same way that we celebrated the other holidays which in my case means sending cards. Not quite as many as I do for Christmas but more than I do for Halloween. Given that it's always a busy time of year, I don't always have time to stamp the quantity of cards I need to make so I look for creative alternatives that still allow for a handmade touch and imprint. My computer is an invaluable art tool and it took me a while to stop feeling like I was cheating by using it.

My handwriting has gone downhill since the days when the nuns used to emphasize penmanship and with so many cool fonts to choose from it's just too much fun, so I like to use the computer to generate sentiments.

Created the "Give Thanks" panel using a leaf graphic from my graphics program, altering the color, using a transparent cracked effect and then layered the sentiment on top. Printed on white cardstock and matted with black. This card was made using metallic copper cardstock (Stardreams) and the DCWV Premium Stack "Naturals" that I used for my "Turkey Tails" banner. Finished with "M&My Big Ideas" Copper Willow foil sticker. Stickers are another great tool to use when you have to make a lot of cards.

For some of the other cards I made, I selected a Thanksgiving Corn graphic, changed it to black and white, used the same transparent cracked effect in my graphics program and an option to color behind the image in a complementary brown. Printed, trimmed, matted with black. As with the first card, finished with complementary colors of adhesive rhinestones.

 This card uses transparency overlays by Colorbok. Package of 10 ( it's called Nectar) was $4.99 regularly but I bought on sale for 40% off at JoAnn's. I fell in love with the copper foil effect of this so of course I bought 2 packs! Each design is different. For the cards I made using these, I just mounted using Diamond Glaze on a panel of DCWV foiled paper (Naturals) and the put the focal sentiment on top of the transparency using a foam dot.

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Thanksgiving Party At All Thingz Related

 

 

And The Winner ...

of the "Gratitude" banner in recognition (and gratitude) of reaching 400 followers is......

Thanks again for all the support and sweet comments!

Meet My BFF: Blog Feature Friday!

I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to start paying it forward / giving it back to the blogging community. It's been six months since I started blogging and in that time, there have been so many encouraging and generous bloggers who have shared their time, tips, and talents. I've been really blessed to have several of my projects featured and have made some great friends along the way. So I'm kicking off  a weekly feature called "BFF" aka "Blog Feature Friday"

Each Friday I'll feature a blog that's new to me. It may be a brand new blog, or a blog that's been around that I've just discovered. It may have 2 followers or 2,000. This week I'm teaming with and featuring Jo at Smilemonsters who's kicking off a similar thing.





We found each other on a blog hop when I saw this beautiful ring of hers linked up and had to go check it out!

 
Isn't that the cutest thing?! It's felt and she has a great tutorial here.
Not only does she have wonderful craftastic stuff like this awesome chalkboard transformation:

and look at this banner ( you know I'm a little banner cuckoo) made from brown paper bags:

she's got yummy treats like :

Uh huh...Oreo Cookie truffles. Need I say more? So go visit Jo at Smilemonsters, this week's (and the first ever!):

Vintage-y Christmas Ornaments

So I was in Pottery Barn and they have all of their Christmas decorations up. I'm seeing lots of stuff with music themes and paper and I decided to be good and play with what I already had which includes a bunch of post-season bargain paper mache ornaments. You know, these:

 

I covered with some sheet music from a book I picked up. It's not Christmas music, but if someone's going to take the time to read the ornament they've got way too much time on their hands. 

Mod Podged the sheet music on, filed around the edges with an emery board, downloaded this great Santa from The Graphics Fairy, converted him to black and white, MP'd him on and trimmed it with adhesive rhinestones.

This is Father Christmas in his original form. I just went around the image with glitter glue. And what's Christmas without a star?

Now if you want to see a GREAT Pottery Barn knockoff? Go see what Vicki at Rusty Rooster Vintage did!

Copycat Pottery Barn Ornaments

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Guess What Happened Last Night?

No, I didn't make another banner in my sleep, although kind of. Sometime last night my little blog hit 400 FOLLOWERS!  Imagine my surprise this morning?! That calls for a celebration. And since we're in the month of giving thanks, and I thank all 400 of you for coming on this crazy ride with me, I think it's fiitting to show some GRATITUDE with a giveaway. I don't have any sponsors like some of you. Can't offer you a Silhouette ( although if someone wants to hook me up with that....just sayin') but I would like to offer one of you chocoholics a chance to win a "Gratitude" banner, made by me, for you! Just like this one:

Here's how:

• Be a follower of The Answer Is Chocolate blog
• Leave a comment on this post

That's it! I can't handle more complexity than that right now :) This will run through Saturday November 6 and the winner will be announced on Sunday November 7!