Ornaments

I made these paper ornaments for our 12 Days of Christmas swap on Paper Traders.   It's hard to tell from the scan, but I hand painted a pearlescent top coat to highlight specific elements before layering on the chipboard and paper punched pieces.

I also made some ornaments for friends and family... these were done by gluing vintage sheet music to wooden forms and then layering the bird images from napkins.  I got the idea for these cute button berries from Sassy & Sweet Notes - aren't they cute?

Big Aspirations

I had originally made this ATC with the hopes of joining Marion Bockelmann's annual blog swap but I was just too busy to get all of my cards made in time for the deadline.  Instead, I am contributing this ATC to the Paper Traders monthly winner-take-all lottery.

In the Spirit of Crayola

Liz is hosting a token/charm swap in our Paper Traders group.  Her theme is the 16 colors that come in a box of Crayola crayons: red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet, red-violet, carnation pink, brown, white, and black.

I gave mine a common theme by using various asian papers for each one.  I got the idea from vintagepix' button charms that I saw on Flickr.  It took a little trial and error but I finally figured out the secret for doing these without too much mess...

I adhered the paper behind the clear buttons (which I got from Stampin'Up!) using crystal lacquer (diamond glaze, papier glass finish, etc.) but I had trouble with it oozing out through the buttonholes when I pressed them together.  My solution was to cut the ends off of some cheap cotton swabs that had plastic stems (like tiny straws) - they fit perfectly in the holes and the excess glaze oozed up inside the straws instead of all over the front of the buttons... then I placed my finger over the top of the straw when I removed each one, creating a tiny vacuum that sucked out the excess goo!

All I need to do now to finish this project is to make a cute little storage/display box...

APC's

I was recently invited to join a Flickr group for Altered Playing Cards. Since I've only done a few of these, I thought maybe I should try doing more.