Friday, December 21, 2012

Die Cut Train Engine Ornaments

I have a quick holiday oriented post today.  Another custom order birthed a fabulous idea: Making my paper die cut train engine into a Christmas ornament!  I was struggling with how to personalize them, but then I had an idea that I just loved: smoke bubbles!

I had to figure out how to attach the smoke bubbles to the engine stack.  Enter: my so seldom used ribbon!


The ribbon is a little short to hang directly on a tree, but one can use those thin wire hooks that are meant for the round, breakable ornaments.  Those hooks can be purchased separately (because we all invariably loose a few each year!)

I made them reversible so if they spin or twist, they are complete on both sides.

The length of the name is limited.  I could always make the ribbon longer, but I think there is still some maximum.  My own nephews do not have long names.  They would fit perfectly in here.  If I find the time over the holidays, I might make a few for my tree!

Wishing you all a HAPPY and SAFE holiday season!

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Side Step Card Baby Girl Dresser

Here's another style of card I have been meaning to try for a while.  A manager at my work is due to have her first baby at the end of December and we had a baby shower for her on Friday.  Even though I have been working evenings of late (right to bed time), I had promised I would make her a special card.  So I stayed up past midnight one night to create this thing.  I was going to go for simple for my time constraints, but I really wanted to try this out.

The great thing about a side step dresser card is that you can make it for boy or girl simply by changing the colour scheme.

Click to read the poem.
I used my Hot Off the Press teddy bear stamp (coloured with copics with a sakura sparkle gel pen for the bow), my Quickutz onsie die, and my Stampin' Up! safety pin and welcome baby stamp.  I used some old button shaped brads I had and some lace someone gifted me.


I didn't have much else to stuff in the drawers - at least nothing small enough.  For something learned and completed at midnight, I think it turned out well.  I'm not often fond of tent fold cards, because they inevitably flatten out.  If I had more time, I'd have stuffed the folded card under something heavy for a day to really reinforce those folds.


My co-worker liked it.  That's what mattered!