From one Holiday to the Next

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We were snowed in most of the week here at the North Pole, I mean, Michigan. We were not plowed out until Christmas Eve at 9PM! The kiddos got loads of toys and sweets. Santa must've thought me good this year- I got Starbucks and Michaels giftcards and a whole box of Martha Stewart glitter in every color! He also left a Wii here, which Dearest is hooking up as I type. We've also watched many of our favorite Christmas movies, and a new one highly recommended by sweetie Candice Carpenter, Bing Crosby's White Christmas. I had never seen it before, but it's now my favorite Christmas movie (move over Elf!).
I've been working on some new Valentine's goodies for the shoppe. I must give a standing ovation to Lisa's Altered Art. Her collage sheets are lovely and may show up in a few art treats later on. Meanwhile I've been busy keeping my fingertips pink and red with dye inks. Here's a beauty from one of my kits at etsy. I'm still working on techniques that will minimize the tearing in separating layers of wet crepe streamer. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Also have many ribbons soon to be added to the sale block. I've placed a few on vintage flashcards or these lovely mini-cards from Jenni Bowlin. They are hand-dyed, as well, with lovely subtle shadings. Scrumptious!

Here's the full Spun Sugar set, with dyed ribbon and matching crepe. This crepe streamer was originally ivory, although that side is down in the picture so you only see the dipped pink end. I have several larger kits I'm putting the finishing touches on. Hopefully will be up soon!

I've got the Joy!

My eldest daughter needed a gift for her second grade teacher, but changed her mind last minute. We came up with this quick gift idea. (being as banners are such a popular trend right now- she still had to explain to her teacher what it was!)

We used the lovely Jenni Bowlin Christmas Bingo cards for the backdrop, then covered them with vintage German Scraps, Christmas picks, cut digital collage images, dresden, tinsel and pom-pom garlands, a stamped image of a cardinal (insisted upon by sweet girl). JOY is made from Cricut's Storybook cartridge (yes, I use that one frequently!). All strung on bakers twine and tied up with seam bindings in red and hand-dyed cream!)
Closer ups of the individual letters- Hot glue gun works well for adding the picks, garlands, and dresdens. Otherwise Zip-dry is my personal glue choice for papers.

Sugar Shoppe

I'm hoping to add more basic paper elements to the shoppe soon. Items that can be used for your own crafting. I've started with one set of SugarCubes (basic crepe rosettes). This particular set is Marzipan. You can add collage images, glitter, sparkle, buttons, ribbon, and all little fun sorts of items to them, then they can be added to collages, scrapbooks, mixed media, altered journals, banners....

You may have noticed some of the new sections I've added to my shoppe (waiting to be filled). My thoughts on SpunSugar include all sorts of trims, like the vintage red and white ribbon there now, and also I'm experimenting with dyeing both seam bindings and crepe streamers.

Raw Sugar will be small kits most likely with a few SugarCubes, some seam binding, and some Swarovski crystals all in coordinating themes.

Sugar Rush is to be larger kits including those above, plus some vintage images, fancy papers. I have so many ideas floating around my head, but most of them will have to take place after the holidays.

Generally French

My wishlist has almost always include one of these gorgeous decorating boxes from the French General
I finally broke down and made my first purchase:The holiday decorating box! (I believe it is currently referred to as the Star Bright box). This compact box holds a surprising amount of heart palpitating goodness. Here is the first layer

After unearthing all the trims and notions containers, the second layer filled with dresden, feathers and stamen. The silver underneath is a type of cloth/tissue I will savour as long as it holds out.

Removing the beautiful cloth layers to reveal pretty papers and old labels. What fun it will be to create with this lovely box of notions!

Vintage Trimmings

I'd been eyeing this trim at French General for ages. It's so unique, and truly vintage. And now it's finally mine. All 36 metres of it (that's a lot!). I might be sharing some soon. On the website it appears to be white and red, but the background is truly more ivory colored. I had a hard time deciding between the geranium red, bright petal pink, or ocean blue. Guess I'll have to save up for the next roll.

Sugar Follies

I am almost ready to add some items to my etsy shop. The first batch will include these element sets, which I call Sugar Follies. They will be a grouping of coordinating items that can be included in scrapbooks, altered objects, in home decor, or just plain collecting (something of which I seem to do frequently). These three sets each have a crepe rosette/flower, decorated prima-style flowers -mostly mounted on a manila shipping tag, ribbon or other decorative trim, and mini vintage-style flashcards.
Here is Nutcracker
And Jack Frost

And finally, Snow berries

Melting Marshmallows

I am participating two new banner swaps (Hot Cocoa and Candy Cane). I am creating the "H" and a blank for the Hot Cocoa set. (We use blanks to start, finish, and separate words on a banner). I chose to create a crepe rosette dusted lightly with mica flakes. Center round is old German print, then a Cricut Storybook H and snowflake brad. Background is a candy stripe red ribbon and swirl, again from Cricut Storybook.

The blank uses Cricut Joys of the Seasons Ice Skate, with silver blades! Chalked to age, assorted scrapbook papers, prima, doodlebug velvet brad, and some craft pom-pom trim. I hope my swap partners are pleased.