What my "roll" was all about.....

I'm finally getting a chance to do a (hopefully) quick post on the things I made right after Christmas when I was on my "roll" making stuff! I had so much fun and couldn't stop. Trouble is.. I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I did. But I think you'll get the idea.

The first photo that I showed on my last post, was a pile of Christmas card boxes.

I've been having a blast making all sorts of things from Dollar Tree Christmas cards! You get 18 cards in a box for $1.00 (here in Oregon) and they are mostly 5x7 cards and really nice quality.

I made all sorts of little post it note books and photo frames, which I showed on my blog post dated December 10, 2019 HERE.  Those were all given away as gifts. I also watched a gal on YouTube who was using the cards to make die cut embellishments, so away I went! I spent hours die cutting.  I have a Sizzix cutting machine and used my fancy oval dies, some star dies and a little lantern die to put together a cute lantern. I also cut some florals and doilies. I will use these on next year's cards. I mean.. the boxed cards are really pretty as they are - but that is too easy to just send out those!

These are some of the cards - so very pretty!

I cut some of sentiments on the insides of the cards, into fancy ovals.

So now I have the idea to go to Dollar Tree, and see what other cards they may have.. I don't think they have Valentine's Day boxed cards, but you never know!  

Next... my post showed a pile of Christmas fabrics. Here's what I made:

Draw string fabric gift sacks! I had used up all the ones I previously had in my stash. My sisters and I each try to make some fabric gift bags each year, and then they get passed around with gifts inside. This year, I didn't have very many (which sister hoarded them???) so I wanted to make some for next year. So I made about 15 gift sacks from Christmas fabric I had bought.  I also scanned in the fabric to my computer, so I can print it out as paper for cards or boxes, etc.  

It was such pretty fabric! I had bought it originally to make some fabric Christmas pumpkins.... yes.... pumpkins. I finally made a little fabric pumpkin AFTER Thanksgiving, and loved it so much, decided I'd make some with Christmas fabric.

But grand ideas just don't come to fruition sometimes, do they? So instead, they became gift sacks. Maybe next year I'll get pumpkins made BEFORE Christmas! As my mom used to say: "a day late and a dollar short"..... that's me.

I decided to make some of the red Christmas fabrics into Valentine's Day gift bags. I added some pretty floral fabrics and bows and lace.

A friend had given me some pretty Christmas fabrics, so that's what got me onto the roll to scan fabrics into my computer. I printed out some pages from the fabric paper, and made a bunch of Christmas tags. I then made up each piece of her fabric into a gift bag for her. So she got 4 gift bags and some matching paper tags for each! I forgot to take pictures of those sweet bags, but they were darling. She had purchased the fabric from the local thrift store.

Here's the fabric scanned:

Fabric that is now paper I can print out as many times as I want.

The cutest fabric - what cute cards I can make next year!

This made the cutest gift tags!  I made a TON of Christmas gift tags and gave them as gifts to everyone.

I have a new "all time favorite" on YouTube. Her name is The Posh Paper Lady. She is who inspired me to make many of my little gifts using the Dollar Tree Christmas cards. She also had a video while ago entitled Sweet Little Bags and I've made a ton of those darling little bags!  The finished size is 4-3/4" x 7-3/4" and they are the perfect size for so many gifts. There is also a little gusset on the side so something a little thicker can be put into the bag. 

I made this sweet little bag and tucked in 3 of my handmade Christmas cards, with envelopes - great gift!

The gusset on the side of the bag enabled me to put in candy bars or thicker items. I used my fancy cut scissors to cut along the top edge, and mostly use a little gold binder clip to close the sack. On some sacks, I punched holes on the top and strung ribbon through the holes and tied a pretty bow.

I got an idea in my head to buy some cheap (but nice) wrapping paper that I saw at our local discount store, and make some of my own little pink gift sacks to use to package my Etsy shop items. I just happened to see this pretty pink flocked paper at our local discount store.  It was $1.49 for 2 large sheets and I could make 8 bags from it.

  

And while I was at it, I made myself a new "logo" sticker to put on the front of these sweet little bags. I printed it on regular paper and vellum paper. I like the vellum (see 2nd photo below) as you can see the pink through it. Which one do you like?......the one printed on the vellum or the one printed on regular white paper, with the white border around it?  (Note: I did somewhat copy this logo from The Posh Paper Lady. Although I'm frilly and "girly" I loved the simplicity of her logo tag. Of course, I had to add some flowers to it!)

Some of these I will decorate with other embellishments I made, and paper flowers.

Vellum on the left, plain white paper on the right. Which one?

And while I was on a roll making these sweet little bags, I made a few larger flat fold gift bags from my older Christmas papers, plus some little post it note holders.

I LOVE this truck paper. I think this was my last sheet.

These hold 3x5 post it notes that I got............ where?.............yup............The Dollar Tree!

Hand doodling made it more fun.

And while I was using some of my older papers, I made a "rosette Christmas tree" - I found the video on YouTube, but now can't remember who it was. There are several tutorials out there.

The bottom "mat" is a crocheted doily I made last summer - I made several that are red and white or green and white, to use over the holidays.

In between all my making and creating, I've managed to put quite a few hours in working my (part-time) job for an attorney here in town. I only work from my home and mostly do his billings, but somehow he talked me into doing some HUGE projects of organizing large files and writing down all the work he did on them! It's horrible and I don't like it! I may have to put a "nix" on that type of work as it cuts into my crafting time!

I've made a few other cute papercrafting (larger and more time-consumming) projects, but I'll save those for my next post. This is long enough!

Have a good rest of January everyone! Oh... and my tree IS down and decorations put away. Phew............

~Marilyn~

Starting off 2020 on a "roll".............

What have I been doing? I'm on another "roll" like I tend to do sometimes.. and I can't stop! I kept meaning to take pictures for a blog post, but every day I forget... so here is a sneak peak.. and more to come if I can ever remember to pick up my camera during the daylight hours! 

Yup... I'm still working on Christmas stuff..... for next year now!

My tree is still up.... decorations still out....my house needs cleaning......and now that I want to show you what I've been doing, I realize I haven't really taken many photos!  And I know I made last minute things for Christmas gifts, but don't think I took photos of those either. That's what happens when you begin a new "roll".............

But believe me...... I really HAVE been busy!  More to come soon.

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and New Decade.... and hope everyone is well.

~Marilyn~

Bits and Pieces

It's been awhile! I've been busy and so much going on! Just thought I'd try to do a "quick" post of little bits of what's been happening in my life. So hard for me to make a short post but I'll try......

First.. I want to THANK SO MUCH my blogger friend, Marilyn, at Mountain Top Spice, for the wonderful goodies she sent to me (below).  She is just so awesome and has the most gorgeous photography on her blog. We like to send each other little things we've made, to try to inspire each other.

BEAUTIFUL garden album made from chipboard. It's 8x8 and just wonderful!

Darling little "junk journal" full of sweet pages and little surprises!

Thank you SO MUCH Marilyn! Your last blog post about Fall was just so beautiful.

I continued on making more Christmas cards in November, and played with some projects that use Christmas cards from the Dollar Tree! Amazing what you can do with one or two 5x7 cards!

Here are two little booklets.. using 1 card each! One is a photo frame to hold two photos, and one is for a 3x5 post it note pad.

Post it Note holder.

On the left, I put acetate with a pocket at top to slide in the photo. On the right, the flowers at the bottom form a pocket to tuck a photo in.

I used a smaller card here, regular A2 size that I had in my stash from last year. This made a darling little photo frame!

The pockets at the bottom and black bows hold the photo in place.

These were so fun to make that I had to rush to the Dollar Tree and get more packs of cards. They are quite sturdy and the photo frame feels like you've used chipboard, but you haven't. Thanks to Posh Paper Lady for her wonderful tutorials on YouTube, using Christmas cards. I have so enjoyed watching her Christmas videos recently. They are unique and fun and I've made many of her projects.

SNOW:  We had a nice little snow storm about a week ago of about 8 inches. I didn't take pictures but here is one I took today. Still some snow left.. and I love that our little vine maple still has some pretty red leaves on it.

Snow almost gone. It was so cold and so much ice on the roads! I'm so glad it's almost all melted and we are now having some warmer temperatures for a week or so.

TRIP:  We took a fun (though exhausting) trip up to Astoria, OR to see my son and his fiance and her son. Before we went, I did most of my Christmas shopping for them, and wrapped the gifts and packed in the car.  It's about a 5-1/2 hour trip and I did almost all of the driving as my husband is still having trouble with getting contacts that work for him for driving. He just can't see t drive, especially at night. There was a 2 hour night drive the last night coming home, and I drove and it was awful! The roads were covered with packed snow and ice and gravel, and it was so hard to see as I was driving curvy and winding roads in pitch black. 

My son and his fiance are in their new/old place (that they remodeled all summer) and had just moved in about 3 days prior to Thanksgiving. So they were exhausted, and yet she still managed to have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.

Beautiful long old oak table all set for the feast. Their kitchen is huge with big windows looking outside to the woods. I loved their place and was so glad to see it finally.

This is an 8 foot oak table that my son refinished for his sweet lady. It had been in storage for a long time and he did a beautiful job. Look at all the kitchen cupboards and those beams. Love it.  (Ignore the waste can!)

Their house is a 2 bedroom, rustic, on 1 acre in the woods south of Astoria, OR. What a lovely place! I love all the trees there, and tons of blackberry bushes, which I miss so much here.

Lots of old growth timber on their property. My son has so many plans for trails in the woods, benches to sit on and a little "man cabin". I'm so happy for him. He's 41 and this is the first home he's ever owned.

After our 4 day visit, we planned to head home. Got a call that morning, early, that my husband's son's wife was on her way to the hospital to have their baby! She wasn't due until December 18th, but how fortunate that it was then, and right on the way home! So we stopped on the way and I got to hold my sweet little step-granddaugher, Izzy. She is my husband's son's first child. So many firsts!

BUNDLE OF JOY!!

ANOTHER TRIP:  Now.. I'm heading out tomorrow to go to my chiropractor 5 hours away. During all this time (between mid October and now) I've somehow gotten a pinched nerve or something in my neck and shoulder, and have been having pretty bad pain from it. Have tried two chiropractors here where I live but both have just made it worse. So time to go to my "miracle worker" who I know can fix it.  So I'll be staying there for 4 days so that I can go see him twice for adjustments.  I really don't want to make that long trip alone, but no choice, as with pain, there is no quality of life and I can't do what needs to be done!

So if I don't post until after Christmas, everyone have a wonderful December and Christmas celebration. We are staying home this year... may make a short run to my sister's 70 miles away, but that's not so bad - weather permitting of course.

Happy Holidays!

~Marilyn~