Let it snow!

Winter has come to my home town!  The trees are covered in frost and snow, and I have to admit that I love this time of year.  After all, I get to start thinking about hot chocolate, reading by the fire, snowmen and Christmas baking!

So this month, when the Trendy Twine team was challenged to make a tag complete with a snowman, glitter and Candy Cane twine, I knew just what to do!

I love how the twine adds a bit of dimension to this cutie (a stamp from a digi store called Dillybeans)! I simply tacked it in place along the stamped image with a bit of Glossy Accents (you know I love it!), and tied a bow.

I coloured her with Copics, fussy cut the shape, and added a bit of Stickles to the left hand side of the image to add a bit if dimension and glitter!  Once attached to the tag, I added some more of the Candy Cane twine as a tassel and tied it in place with some silk ribbon.

Finally, I added a mini tag to the top – because the only thing better than getting a cute tag attached to a gift is getting a cute tag that you can reuse!

Now, I just need to get to some Christmas baking so I have something to attach this tag to!  It has to be gluten free coming from our house, so let me know if you have any good recipes!

And once you are done that, come out and join us this month for the challenge over at Trendy Twine! You don’t have to have Trendy Twine to enter, and there are goodies to win!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Starting her early!

The blue snowflake paper designed by my two year old! I let her loose with some Distress Stain and, voila!

It’s CropChocolate.com project time again, and this month, I wanted to share a project that I actually completed with my two daughters!  We were challenged to come up with a family friendly project, so I decided to see what my two year could do if I let her loose with some Distress Stain. To get my 9 month old involved, I used fingerprints to create some stamped snowmen.  Personally, I think the results are fantastic, but I would love to hear what you think!

Here’s how you can do it too:

Materials:

• Any size plain coloured cardstock – Just be aware that this technique does involve a fair amount of splashing, so a larger piece works best!
• Distress Stain – Broken China
• Distress Ink – Broken China
• Jar or container
• Paint brush
• Sandpaper
• Crackle Accents (optional)

Snowflake Paper

1. Using your Distress Stain (Broken China), add a few dabs to the bottom of a container.  Add about 4-5 tbl of water.
2. Take your paint brush and saturate with the watered down Distress Stain.  Using a flicking motion, or by tapping the paint brush, splash colour down onto your cardstock.
3. Using the Distress Satin in the container, randomly dab the stain onto your paper. Use a forceful arm movement so the stain splatters when it hits the cardstock. The harder you hit the dauber onto the paper, the more your splatter will look like a snowflake.
4. Trim your paper down to the size you will need for your project.
5. Using the coordinating Distress Ink in Broken China, use an applicator to swirl ink onto your cardstock.  Start on the outer edges and move inward in a circular motion.
6. Take the sandpaper and run it along the edges of your paper to distress.
7. Using the Distress Ink in Walnut Stain, run your ink pad along each edge of the paper. If needed blend with a foam applicator.  This will give the edge of your paper a slightly “burnt” appearance.
8. Optional step – Using some Crackle Accents, apply generously to the snowflake splatters you have created. Set aside to dry.

Alternative project idea – you could just use this technique to dress up some brown or white butcher paper for unique hand embellished wrapping paper. 

Snowmen Stamps

1. Using Distress Ink in Broken China, simply press a finger into the ink and then place down firmly onto cardstock.  Use different size fingers for each of the levels of the snowmen.
2. Using a jounraling pen or permanent marker, draw in eyes, arms, and buttons on your snowmen.  Add a small scrap of oragne cardstock for a nose.
3. If desired, cover the ink fingerprints with Crackle Accents.  Allow to dry and then assemble your card!