LollyChops

I gots big news, a sharsey and some other random stuff...

Hi everyone!  Whew... I have been so busy in the craft room this past week and a half I have hardly had time to come up for air (breath Lolly... breath!!!!).

Firstly I have to share some news I am pretty darn excited about!  About a month ago I applied for a design team position with ScrapyLand.  ScrapyLand is an on line paper crafts store + blog + message board of fantastic folks and I wanted to be on their first ever design team REAL REAL BAD!  So I tossed my name into the hat and found out earlier this week that I made the cut!  I am one of 4 girls who will be on this dynamic and fun team creating projects on a weekly basis!  I am going to be sharing a lot of what I do as part of my blog here - but I will also be encouraging you guys to go check out what the other SL Girls are also creating!  There is going to be lots of inspiration going on over there!

So guess what...!!!
Video tutorials are on the horizon!!!

My favorite guy in the whole wide world (Sir RonChops-A-Lot) gave me a video camera for Christmas (that guy is the coolest...honest to peanuts).  I have been having a blast trying to figure out the whole video tutorial thing (mostly laughing at myself in the process).

Those little flowers over there are going to be my first tutorial!  I will be doing my 3rd take tomorrow and will post whatever it is in whatever state it's in on Monday!  My first attempt was an hour long (and these things take like 30 seconds to make).  I was talking...  a lot... and I was out of the camera...  a lot.  So I tried again and this time I got it down to 27 minutes!  Sew...  I figure one more take and I should be down to less than 15 minutes!  I mean you think I talk a lot when I write.  har har...  I am Miss Chatty Cathy pants when I get on camera.  Not that any of you should be surprised by this revelation right?!?!?!

Nextly...  Just so you don't think I have been totally craft slacking I am going to share something I never ever share here (and it's stuff you will be seeing intermingled with everything else I am doing from now on)...

Scrapbook pages!

yep...  I scraped this whole week and wanted to share some of my projects.

So here they are (no LC border cause...  well just cause).

Our dearest friends got a new puppy for Christmas so I took some pictures of him and made a little page commemorating his cuteness...

...and guess what you guys...

...guess what they named him!!!

HANK!

Can you believe it!
Of all the names in the whole wide world of sports they named him HANK!
I actually squealed when I found out!  You can read all about Hank the Tree Stump HERE and download the Hank the Tree Stump embroidery pattern HERE.
I loves me some Hank the Tree Stump.

Poor RonChops is still recovering from the squeal cause I was sitting right next to him.
Poor guy.

I also did a page with DogChops and her Christmas Goose.
She's still carrying it around but is starting to leave it in random rooms now.
I think the love affair might be coming to a close...
...but then again...
... her and GooseChops are sitting right next to me so maybe they have rekindled the romance??
I'll keep you posted as this thing develops!

So lastly...  I also made a page commemorating the Christmas Eve snow we got!
Three.
Whole.
Inches.
!!!!!!!!!

I know you yankees are laughing at me over here with my impressive three whole inches... but this is Texas folks.  We never see stuff like round these parts!!!

Ron and I are still talking about it.  I think we sat on the couch the entire day with a fire blazing looking out the window the whole time.  It was pretty magical!  The last of the snow finally cleared up just yesterday (which is also pretty amazing).

So that's all I gots for today!  I will be posting my first ever video tutorial and the 2010 Calendars on Monday!  I hope to see you and your snow shoes round here again next year!

It's been a blast!  Thanks to each and every one of you (again) for joining me for this wild ride-o-crafts!  You all make it way more fun than if I was at this thing alone talking to myself!  I do enough of that in the craft room (just ask RonChops).

From all of us here at the Chops household... have a safe and happy new year you guys!

I loves the lot of yas.  Fur serious.

P.S.  Please let me know what you might want to see more of in 2010.  More paper crafts, more fabric, more sewing, less gabbing (kidding... muhahahahaha), more download and print freebies?  Bring it on!!!!

The Christmas Goose

DogChops is Goose napping after squeaking up a snow storm with her new pal.

Gets lots of rest and have a wonderful weekend everyone!

xoxoxoxoxo + Christmas HUGS!
Lolly & The Chops

Someone please throw those poor little glitter birds a life raft...

This is one of those projects that starts out one way in your mind and quickly morphs into something else entirely.  My intention was to make some lovely little white glitter birds perched on a white painted twig...  (very wintry) and somehow I ended up with multi-colored glitter birds perched on what RonChops has aptly named The Crafty Crocheted Life Raft...

So...  how do we get from one extreme to the other?

Don your snorkel and follow me into the depths of the craft room (I promise not to be as cheesy next year...  ok not really but sometimes the cheese factor gets so deep around these parts that I should start serving virtual crackers).

How it all started...
I found several types of foam birds with feathers in the floral department of Hobby Lobby, Michaels and JoAnns (yeah I actually went to all three places... you can ask poor RonChops...  the man was on the bird tracking mission with me one fine Saturday morning).  A task I am sure he'll never repeat.  Ever again.  Ever.  Amen.

At first I could only find colorful birds and since I wanted a wintry white wonderland of birdiness - all those colorful birds were not going to cut the mustard.

BUT...  JoAnns saved the day and I found some that were all white with clips on their bottoms!

So several types of birds later (and a twig scout of the back yard)...  I had my birds and twigs.

I attached the birds to the unpainted twigs just to make sure they were going to look ok and I was pretty excited by the results!

I first spray painted the twigs with white spray paint.
Once I had a good coat on them I brought them inside and painted one more coat with white acrylic paint.

Then it was time to get the glitter on the birds...

I experimented with the multi-colored birds at first so I could see how the glitter went on them.
I simply painted glitter glue on his little birdy body and then sprinkled white sparkly  glitter all over him.

As I suspected...  you could definitely see everything clear through the glitter....

Soooo...

I painted all of the rest of the multi-colored birds white...
...I was not worried about getting paint on their beaks or eyes because I wanted to paint them black once the glitter festival was over!

Ahhhh....  MUCH better!
(this is with eyes and beaks painted black)

The glitter I used for this bird was different from the first bird....

...and this my friends is the exact moment when the project started to veer off course...
...way off course...
...like call the coast guard and come rescue the glitter birds cause it's about to get crazy off course...

Backstory...Martha came out with these fabulous new glitters this past season that are like little mini sticks of glitter (instead of little glitter squares).

So I had to have some and busted out the 50% off Michaels coupon that came with the December MS Living so I could get a whole glorious set of this ultra fabulous stuff!

BUT...since I was still in experimentation mode...
I decided to try some regular glitter glue on the next bird.

So I squirted a ton of glitter glue on the bird....

...and spread it all around with a paint brush...

...and you could barely see a thing...
...the glitter was just too light...

Sooooo...

...I went completely insane and busted out some of those Martha Stewart glitter sticks and sprinkled them all over him (right on top of the glitter glue)!

...and it was FABULOUS!!!!

Since that was so fabulous I decided to try another of my new Martha Stewart products (the glitter balls)...and...

 

...ummm...
...not so fabulous...

So I applied more glue and more balls and even more glue and more balls...

...and then I ended up with this poor lumpy fella.
RonChops came in to check on my progress and looked at him and said...

"whoa...  what exactly is the bally stuff you have on there anyway...???"

Sew...

I went back to the glitter sticks!
I loves me some glitter sticks!!
(I found out it's not actually called glitter sticks but tinsel-cut glitter)
You can see it HERE.

The name "Tinsel-Cut Glitter" is so elegant and so Martha Stewartesque.

"Glitter Sticks" is straight up LollyChops (insert banjo music here).

These are several of the glitter bird variations drying on my holiday kleenex box that RonChops got me all special (this was when I was in the throws of the sniffles this past month).
The reason I loves it so much is because a) it's teal and b) it's got a snowman on it.
I love teal and snowmen (and RonChops too)!!

So once I finished glittering up my birds with the glitter sticks...

It was time to introduce them to the dogs.

At first DogChops was a little nervous...
...a little trepidations...

CharlotteChops was in mid-sooze and could not be bothered with such things.

When I put them down in front of her she just kinda sniffed at them and then...

Stood back up and licked her chops...
So I had to put them away so we could avoid a doggie stomach pumping ER trip!

Once I had them on the branch...
(notice how I decided to try nearly every color in the MS Glitter Sticks pack...)

...the vision I had of pure white snowy birds on a lovely wintery white branch was thrown by the wayside...

So I had to come up with a plan B (or in my case it's always plan C since I am a Chops...  we always skip over plan B and go straight to plan C... it's just the way things are done).

Thus enters the life raft part of the craft project...
(you knew that was coming right??)

I had these random crocheted strips laying around
(they were leftover from another project that went awry)
(I could actually devote an entire closet to all of my craft project misfits)

So I sewed them around a grapevine wreath...
That's what you would have done too right?
You have all of these birds, teal and green crocheted strips and a wreath...
The logical choice is to combine them.
Right?

Hello?

(enter the cricket cone of silence)

Ok so maybe not.

Anyway... I perched the glitter birds at the top of the crochet strip encrusted wreath...
(these birds had clips on their bottoms so they went on pretty easy)

AND...

Are you ready....

Are you sure you are ready????

TA DA!

It's The Glitter Birds Life Raft!!!

Ahhhh.
Ummmm.

Yeah.

So I actually saw RonChops see this for the first time when he did not know that I could see him looking at it... (I was in stealth mode...nearly invisible really)

...and he had this totally horrified look on his face...

I think it was a mix of "oh man is she really going to leave that hanging up in the living room" combined with a side of "what in the heck is that thing anyway" with a said out-loud exclamation of "that looks like a life raft!!!!"...

Yep... he's right.  It totally does.

So we just about died laughing and then started discussing how I could have done it differently.

Several of his suggestions were as follows:
1) Make the crocheted stripes red and white and slant them so it looks more like a candy cane
2) Leave the birds either one or two colors only (he was not digging the whole multi colored birds thing AT ALL)
3) Maybe go back to the wintry white branch with wintry white birds idea (my favorite)

Moral of the story...  when you get overly excited about your craft supplies stay focused so things don't get too out of hand.  A wintry white vision of birds in snow this is not!

For now I have to leave that thing hanging over the mantel.  It's too funny not to leave up there!

That's it for today folks!  I am sad to say that I did not get the calendars done this past week (boooooo Lolly).

Between working too much and still rocking out with The Sniffles there was just not time.

Those calendars are nearly done so keep your eyeballs peeled for them in the next couple weeks...

Oh and I am going to be kinda sporadically posting between today and January 11 (think of it as a bloggy vacation).  I'll drop in with pictures of what I am working on (like those Christmas cards over there) but no tutorials.  I need to get focused and caught up on all of your comments and email and projects and such over the next three weeks so NO crazy long posts until I get things more organized!

Wrapping it up!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for hanging out with me these past 16 months!!  When I started this blog I had no idea I would meet so many wonderful people and that we would have so many crafty adventures together!

I loves you guys!!!

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday!

P.S.  I can't wait to see what this next year brings can you?!?!?!?!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program...

I have been fighting some major sniffles for about 3 weeks now and it's finally got the better of me!

I'll be back next Monday with...

The Glitter Birds Project

&

The 2010 Calendars!

Hope everyone has a terrific week!

P.S.  If you're feeling lucky go check out Carrie's birthday giveaway HERE.  Please tell her to send some Dexter wrinkles my way cause I have the sniffles and need some puppy lovin'...

A sneaky gift idea + double chocolate waffle mix

  How do you know when LollyChops is in full out hairy holiday craft scramble mode?

   When she has to start doubling up the projects in a post (and they contain more than 40 pictures each (but not this post so don't be scared)).

When that happens you know something is a rye in this bread basket-o-crafts!!

I always think it's best to start off Mondays with love so I have a little drama to share (so much drama around here these days...  Friday it was my Pioneer Woman cookbook signing cop-out (speaking of...  don't you just LOVE my signed copy!!!).  Thanks again to the complete stranger (Kristy) who I met in line and not only got it signed personalized to ME she also mailed it to me LIGHTNING fast).  I am going to add some extra glitter to my coffee today in her honor! 

So when I came into the craft room Sunday morning there were two new additions to the window sill.

Initially they were just minding their own business.

Each lost in their own thoughts...  until he reached out an antler...

 
Thusly begins "The Glitter Deer Love Story"...  haha...  ok maybe that was only funny to me.

Don't you just love them!  GLITTER DEER!!  I got them at the dollar store Sunday!  I spotted them from across the store and stealthly hurried over (so as not to draw any attention to them dare someone else pick them up before me)!  I am actually hoping that I can soak off all of the glitter and re-apply an even better glitter coat to their deer-y little bodies!  I'll keep you posted on deer progress (har har har)!

So for today's project we have something kinda sneaky and simple...
(and maybe just a little 1970s...I dunno)

You take cans of General Foods International drink mixes...
(with the drink mix still inside and sealed up tight)

...and you decorate them with paper and ribbons and glitter and such...

...and you give them away as gifts.

Totally not even kidding.
Might seem kinda silly but it's CHEAP and they are actually really FUN to make.
Trust Lolly.

I am only going to show you how I put one together...cause I love yas and want to spare your sanity...
...but only for today...

My next post is gonna drive you batty.
Honest to peanuts.

I started with a piece of double sided "My Mind's Eye - Colorful Christmas - Winter Wonderland" paper.
You can get it HERE.

I decided to cut around the stitched lines and use that as the top layer

Hey:  Sorry the pictures are so bad.
It's cloudy and rainy here and I just could not get enough light going on in the craft room.

I ran both pieces through my Xyron and turned them into a gigantic paper sticker (fabulous stuff).

...and then I stuck the whole thing to the side of the drink mix can...

Only I goofed on this one and made it too short...

...so I added another piece of paper to the top of that
(again...using my Xyron to turn it into a giant sticker).

The 12x12 paper is not long enough to go all the way around the can...

...so you have to come up with something decorative to cover that up!!!!

Hello, fun...  this is Lolly calling!

I know. I know.
Maybe it's just me that gets a kick out of needing to make something decorative to cover up holes and such!

So I threw some stickers and tree die cuts on there and POOF...  your open ends are covered up nice (and crafty).

I also added some dingle berry pom-poms on there just to make it kinda cute!
RonChops tells me I should not call them dingle berries...
He says there is a negative connotation there?!?!?!
What do you think?

I decided that I wanted a piece of paper to cover the lid as well...
So I measured the inside of the lid and cut a piece of paper to size...

and...

Used my corner chomper to round the corners...
The 1/2 inch rounded corner fits the lids PERFECTLY!
(I was so excited about it working out like that)

I simply glued the paper to the lid and I was all done!

The paper with the little houses is by American Crafts and it's called MerryMint.
You can get the paper with the larger houses and scenes HERE and the little house strips HERE.
I cut the shapes out and used a matching Bo Bunny spotted paper as the background for the little houses.

To add a little more interest to the sky area of the tin, I cut out little clouds that I had run through my CuttleBug (Swiss Dots folder) and also punched some snowflakes and added Stickles to them.
(If you are not a paper crafter you probably have NO idea what in the heck I am talking about right now...
but if you are you are hopefully sitting there nodding)

I also made up another one using an empty tin that I am going to use for tags.
I did not make this one Christmasy as I want to use it year round.

Oh and I used my new super fabulous white pen!
You can watch a review on white pens HERE.
(I actually got this pen because of this review)

I made a PDF of the instructions to make the drinks, so all you have to do is print them, cut them out and tuck them under the plastic lid!
I also left a space so you can write the flavor at the top!

You can download that PDF HERE.

So about that Double Chocolate Waffle Mix...
I am co-posting again today with Sara from Our Best Bites.  She came up with a gifty jar mix for Double Chocolate Waffles and I came up with a 2.5 inch circle you can punch out or cut out and place on top!

Easy Cheese!

 
You can get the PDF for them below:

Head over to Our Best Bites to get the skinny on making up these mixes to give as gifts!
To use these labels you will want to either use a 2.5 inch circle punch or just simply cut them out!

So that's all I gots for today!

I'll be back later this week Monday with another SIMPLE holiday craft project...
(just a hint...glitter birds!!!!!)

Holiday HUGS!

 

P.S.S.T.  Thanks so much for all the emails and comments you guys have been bestowing upon me lately!  I am reading every single word but cannot always write you back!  I am working on that but it's real hard.  Know that I read and cherish everything you take the time to send to me/say to me!  You guys have me laughing DAILY!

O.M.T.  I added a way to sign up for email notifications up there on the top right side (in case you don't use RSS readers).  I have been asked to add this feature for a long time and I finally got around to it!!

I loves yas.  For serious.
xoxoxoxoxo's