Wrapping up the Holidays 2013

The year is over, and we're all getting ready ease on down that 2014 road.  Just thought I'd share a few of the projects I did for Christmas, 2013.

This is the Christmas card I sent. It was a free pattern from Bird's Cards. She is the most generous crafter out there, freely sharing some really amazing files. Easy to make, and very simply pretty. It's an easel card, which I love because so much of the time I'm having to lean photo cards against something. Of course, I made the mistake of sending them out without any instructions, explanations or photo of how to stand it up, so I'm sure most of the people I sent them to had no idea what they were to do with it. Yup, this was a lesson learned. Oh well!

I made some Christmas ornaments this year. My favorite was one for my dear friend's new baby girl. I glittered the inside using a mixture of Modge Podge and water as the adhesive. Then I cut vinyl for the name and baby footprints for the front.

And, here are a few more I made the great nieces and nephews. One other one is glittered, but the rest are made with a floating image in side. They are made with vinyl on clear acetate that was rolled up and placed inside, and then unrolled. I put the names on the outside.

Next I did a vinyl project from SVG Cuts. They do 99.9% paper patterns, but they just wanted to make a vinyl collection to change things up. This pattern came from SVG Cuts' Christmas Gifts Vinyl SVG Collection. My husband pieced together a couple pieces of scrap wood for me, then I sanded the edges. I first painted it white, and then sprayed on chalkboard paint. I then sanded the edges to make it look a bit distressed. After it completely dried, I applied the vinyl. I gave it away at our Bunco Christmas party, and it set upon the recipient's mantel as shown in the photo below.

The next projects were a couple of firsts for me. Made my daughter and son-in-law sweatshirts with a greyhound on them. They adopted Annie, a brindle greyhound this year. I cut the pattern from freezer paper, and ironed it on the sweatshirts, then used fabric paint for the images.

Then I used HTV (heat transfer vinyl) for the first time ever. Made this shirt for my hubs, who builds ukuleles.

I've made this box before, and posted the photos in a past blog posting, but just thought I'd drop in the photo of this one-piece box from SVG Cuts. These are so fast and easy, and are the perfect size for so many things. It comes from the Christmas Open House SVG Kit. It can be made with a solid front, or with an opening that you put in clear acetate for see-through top (like I did in the previous postings).

This next gift was not a paper craft at all, but I still wanted to share it. I do some graphic design, and make some posters for children's theaters. This was a poster I had made for a show. When my great-niece played the part of young Alice in her elementary school's production of Alice in Wonderland, I made this poster for her to remember it by. I luckily had retained the old poster file with the layers, so I was able to take out all of the children, and put my great-niece into the Alice spot, and then fill in the others with actual Disney character photos. She was so proud of this...and I was a bit proud also. I love the way it turned out.

And, one last little project. This is a small box with some note cards (box is 3-1/8" square) that was made with the We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board. Saw a great youtube tutorial on how to make a box with this tool. Quick and easy! The ribbon ties in the back to hold the box closed.

Well, that's it for now! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

So long, 2013!