Christmas Toys

Well like most crafters I always get tools and supplies for presents. I do that sneaky thing of posting a wish list on amazon and sending it to those who ask - what do you want for Christmas?  

This one punches holes in metal that are 1" to 1/2"

You have to whack the pins pretty hard so hubby gave me

his short handled sledge hammer.  Oh dear another hammer. 

This punches smaller holes for accents or adding 

rivets and jump rings. It goes threw 20 gauge metal like butter. 

No strain on my hands at all. 

After cutting the disks I put them in the dapping block

and shaped them into bowl shapes. Then I ran them 

threw some flame and then back to the dapping block. 

I nipped the bottoms of the disks with the blue handled punch

to get these zagged edges. Then to keep the patina I gave them

a coat of clear spray varnish. 

These techniques will be taught in my stamped metal class

on January 21st at the Rivergate JoAnn. 

On the sewing front I'm making Ian another monster. 

This one will have a zipper mouth and a little vest

that buttons. It's to teach him how to work buttons and zippers. 

After putting away all the Christmas decorations and cleaning up the 

house playing was needed so this was a fun little project. I got lots

of ideas of other things to make with these new tools. 

Well now it's time to answer that age old question

what's for dinner? To the kitchen I go in search of an answer. 

Does anyone else's husband ask you this question before it's even lunch?

Christmas Day

Well Christmas was just wonderful this year. We got to see all our family. Hubby's sister from out of town was here and she hadn't been home for Christmas for so many years. It was just great to see everyone. 

Several days before Christmas we went to see Ice.

I'd never been and it was a real treat. 

Needless to say it was very cold in there. They supply these big blue coats for you to wear and the one hand I was using to take photos was really frozen when we got out. It was beautiful thou and it's hard to image how they make these huge statues from ice. Hot coco was a wonderful treat when we where done. 

We started off Christmas day at my sister in laws home

with a yummy breakfast she made.

She's a great cook and we all ate way too much. 

There there was the crazy package opening. 

Then around noon we headed out to my sister's home

to have Christmas with them. 

On Christmas day my husband's grandmother

went to her heavenly father. This is her the first day 

I met her. She greeted me at the door with a beautiful smile

and open arms. She told me that day that anyone who

could make her grandson happy was a wonderful person. 

It really touched my heart then and I'll never forget those words. 

Mary Elizabeth Vaughn would have been 92 on

new years day. She will be missed, but she left

behind a large loving family who will treasure

her memory for ever. 

Well Christmas is almost here and I know everyone is busy with family, friends, baking, presents and getting our homes ready for all the visiting. I am working a few hours today but then need to come home and do some serious house cleaning. I've been using my cutting table to wrap presents on and the craft room looks like a tornado hit. I still have about 5 gifts left to wrap and then clean up my mess. Then the last minute baking of cookies and I think I can say it's done. 
I miss sewing and playing with my other crafts but during this busy season there just isn't time for playing. 


One little last thing I need to get done today is put an old drawing in a frame. 
This drawing was done for my little sister when she was around 4-5 and hung in her bedroom. My mom had saved it all these years so now I'm going to reframe it for another 2.5 year olds bedroom. It's marker and ink and when I look back at a drawing I did when I was 17, well it really brings back memories of how I used to draw all the time. 

I saw a video on u tube about adding color to metal with Tim Holtz Alcohol inks. 

So I had to run out and get some of these right away. 

They are in the scrap booking section of your craft store. 

After I had done all the texturizing to the metal I just dropped a 

drop of each color onto the metal and swirled it around. 

It dries quickly and then I followed that with a clear coat sealant. 

With a little experimenting I think this will become a great new

way to add color to my metal jewelry. 

Here is another necklace that I used the Tim Holtz metal accents on. 

The key in the bottom dangle and the metal on the top that looks

like the hardware from a dresser drawer were from his collection. 

The hardware was attached with rivets on to the brass base. 

And just wanted to share this - I was cleaning my sewing room 

and was tossing out this old pillow, but it seemed that my 

little buddy thought it still had some good use left in it. 

Thou he just barely fit, he took it over right away. 

There won't be much time left for posting and I'm sure

few have time to read posts with Christmas just a few days away. 

So I 'd like to wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas. 

Last Minute Gifts

Yesterday I had a visit from Angel and Ian and we looked at all my

trees and just had a good time. I had started making soap that morning

and finished up after they left. So I got a good amount made. 

I got started making soap for my hubby and he now 

has become hooked on the home made soap and isn't too fond

of "store soap". So every few months I get out the few supplies 

it takes a whip up a batch. This time I made extras for a few gifts. 

 Some cling wrap and a little paper and

some of my scrap booking supplies.

 Simple little packaging.

This is a small quilt (32" square) for a sweet little girl

who just loves Olivia the pig. 

This is a drag around quilt for a 18 month old. 

It was a 5 min job on the cutting and layout 

thanks to my Accuquilt. I used the 12" block set. 

Sewing it together was a snap too. 

Well today I'm doing some experimenting with a new technique for

adding color to metal. I'm excited about this and will show you

the results tomorrow. It has tons of possibilities. 

The Holiday's Are In Full Swing

Well it's officially the Holidays now with Christmas parties and visits to see family I don't get to see too often. Yesterday was a whirl of activities and I had a lot of fun. First I was off to the Music City Modern Quilter's Guild Christmas Party. We had so much food and I of course ate too much. We had a secret santa swap and also did a dirty santa with fabric. After stealing someone's fabric (sorry Trudy) I ended up with some beautiful grunge fabrics from Moda. One of my favorites!

We had a show & tell and one of our members brought all 

these darling aprons she is making for presents. 

Leah of Burgundy Buttons models one - aren't they cute!

After the meeting Stefanie, Trudy and I went by the 

new Archiver's in Cool Springs. I'd never been into one of

there shops before and oh my what trouble I can get into in there. 

They had way too much Tim Holtz stuff and I did fall pray to 

getting a few things. What can I say. I use a lot of his

metal embellishments in my jewelry and I love his 

paper's and inks for my scrap booking

 My secret Santa was a beautiful table runner

which in now on my coffee table. 

Note my comfy chair in the background

with my pillows/quilts and knitting. 

 Today I've been working on a bib necklace which I'm calling Winter Ice. 

Here are some of the components. It's going to have a lot of bling. 

A Day out of Shopping & Fun

Yesterday was a fun day. I went over to my friend Stefanie's house and we went to the quilt shop where she was picking up several custom order quilts from her quilter. I of course had to do some shopping while I was there. 

 I just love this fabric. There are about 10 designs

in the collection and it was very 

hard to pick just two. I just may have to go back. 

I'm trying to get a stash of 30's fabrics collected and

picked out a pretty blue and aqua set yesterday. 

We also dropped by JoAnn's and since the jewelry

stuff was on sale for 40% off...well you know what happened. 

This is my project for this morning. I'm making a 

pillow that was inspired from the book below. 

Also have to get ready for class tomorrow

and open house at JoAnn's.