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~

Rosettes and Princess

UPDATE ON THIS BLOG POST!  I don't think this post hit many peoples' inboxes, so I'm posting it again, just in case you did not receive it. I checked with a few of my fellow bloggers and they hadn't received this post. So here it goes again! (posted on April 13, 2019)

Another month gone by,

Where did it go?

Did in hide in the clouds?

Or did it hide in the snow?

Did it hide in the sunshine?

NO.... the sunshine was broken!

Did it hide in the flowers?

NO.... they had not yet awoken....

From a long winter's snooze...

I kind of had the blues....

So I hid in my craft room...

Took off my shoes.......

AND MADE STUFF! 

Yup... I've been making and making and making. I feel like I've been living in a cave for a month! 

I did venture out in my yard today and inspected everything, and I do see that (finally) a few things are starting to bud out. I'm so happy!  Maybe I can come out of my cave now!

My big lilac bush on top left, Irises, Grape Hyacinths (I think?) lower left, and one lonely tulip.

I've made a few things for the little shop here in town, called The Hummingbird Junction. What a darling shop! I've made some Prayer Boxes, a Princess Treasure Box, Easter pillow treat boxes (forgot to take pictures), and some pretty rossette wands. 

The Prayer Boxes are origami boxes...... and I made all of the little prayer request tags to put inside the boxes.

Found these darling little animal buttons at a local 2nd hand store. They are perfect for the little boxes. I have some pink and blue elephant buttons too.. so will make some more Prayer Boxes for those.

I had some pretty "Princess" papers with sentiment tags, so I thought a treasure box would be very appropriate for a little Princess!  I made the tags also....... and once done, they were so cute I put them (digitally) in my Etsy Shop here.  They come six to a sheet and you can print them out and cut them for tags for the little Princess(es) in your life... for gifts or tucked into cards or notes.

I also printed out some pretty colored tags from digital papers I purchased from Etsy. I use my Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper Punch to punch the pretty tops to the 2" wide tags. Makes quick tags!

I'll definitely be making more sweet Treasure Boxes and Prayer Boxes, now that I have all of my prayer request cards made.

My tulip (again),  top right are strawberries just barely peeking up, lower left is some sort of really HARDY geranium that can survive over these cold winters, and lower right is my peach rose. That geranium has gotten HUGE. They grow to become large shrubs that can be about 4 feet across and 3 feet high!

I've become obsessed with paper rosette wands again (and rosettes in general)! I've made tons of rosettes for my Etsy shop (probably 3-4 years ago). I see them on YouTube, and they come and go, but alot of the gals seem to be making them again, so I joined right in!

You can also use cupcake liners or crepe paper to make the rosettes.. so I, of course, had to immediately run to the Dollar Tree to buy cupcake liners and crepe paper!  Oh I'm such a sucker for trying something new and different.

This wand above has a clear cupcake liner on the back (white) but it was kind of cheap and thin (from the Dollar Tree). I'm going to get some nicer ones to use.. and of course, there are TONS of them in all colors, polka dots, stripes, etc. to buy online. I'm in trouble.

I used paper straws for the wands. The are very sturdy and found some at the Dollar Tree. Now I've learned (from YouTube of course!) that I can make my own paper straws! Any paper I want, any color, etc., so I'll be doing that too.

I'm on a mission this year to use up some of my older papers and stickers for various projects. Except um.m.m.m.m.m.  that doesn't count buying digital printables from Etsy (and other sites) does it?  I may use some of the rosettes in my Etsy shop to make some rosette wands for my shop... but they may be too costly to ship.

My little fairy garden needs revamping. The one little clump of daffodils is from my neighbor's yard. So at least I have a little pop of yellow.

I made a sweet little "Life" photo album for my (soon to be) daughter-in-law. She's the one who has the gems/rocks/jewelry shop in Astoria, Oregon. She loves dragonflies, so I used a little charm she had given me for the front cover.

I've also made two good sized photo albums for my Etsy shop. They were so fun to make and I used up some of my older vintage style papers and emphemera.

"Shabby chic 6x8" photo album, sturdy paper, with pockets & (8) 5" x 8" photo mats, vintage girl, 22 tags, roses, pinks, greens, yellows."

The above sweet album can be found HERE in my Etsy shop.

"Vintage style 4x6 photo album, 7 pages, 14 pockets, 7 top pockets, tags, photo mats, Mother, birthday, pink, rose, gray, cream green, lace."

The above vintage style album, perfect for Mother's Day, can be found HERE in my Etsy shop.

I also put this pretty, very sturdy (on 110 lb. paper) vintage "thinking of you" card in my Etsy store. I love these clock faces (free digital printables) I found at Shabby Art Boutique. Kerryanne is from Australia, has a wonderful blog, and store, and quite often has free "shabby" printables that she makes herself. 

This card has its very own matching (very sturdy) envelope!

Well friends... that's what I've been up to. I may have to come out of my cave one of these days, put on the gardening gloves, and do a little sprucing up in our (very tiny) yard.  I know most of you are already seeing many signs of Spring where you live. We are SO behind here... the snow just melted a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Spring!

~Marilyn~