LollyChops

Old McLolly had a farm... eieio!

Ahoy, Maties!!
I had the best birthday weekend ever!  My sister came to town on Friday evening and we went out to dinner (one of the Jonas Brothers was a table over from us with a bodyguard and a date...  it was almost as exciting as my birthday).  Ha!

I got to hang out with RonChops ALL DAY Saturday (something we have not done much of lately because of our respective jobs)...  when we woke up on birthday morning he hugged me and whispered "happy birthday" right off the bat (he knows I gobble that kind of thing up)!!!

Then Sunday we had a swim party at our house with my parents and sister...  BBQ and yummy cake for dessert!  It was FABULOUS!  Somehow in the middle of ALL that I managed to work up a project to share today!  I am pretty excited about it!

Enough with the chitter chatter Lolly old pants...  get on with it already!
I saw a zinc wall art circle thingy last week on Making it Lovely that I just about fell in love with (on-the-spot).  You can see it in this post HERE.  It's really a modern art piece but I was inspired to do something else...  entirely different!

Barnyard Circle Wall Art Thingy

The base for this project is an old particle board table top!
(if you are old like me... you might remember these from the late 80's)

These tables had 3 legs and were normally covered with a nice frilly ruffle table cloth / skirt thing.
It was a bear to adjust the skirt cause it got caught on the particle board edges...
(is it coming back to you yet???)

Oh how I miss those times!

**snort**

Well the 80's are over so it's time to get that fella out of the attic get crafty with it!

I unscrewed and removed the leg holder things and nailed a little picture hanger to the back...
(my grandpa gave me that little hammer and I love it to pieces!!!!)

I sprayed that fancy table top with Killz in a can!
(it's the most amazing stuff EVER!!!)!!!

One coat and I was ready to go!!!

I used October Afternoon papers (all different collections)!

Then I cut out a few circles...
(for all the newbies out there... when Lolly says a few...  she really means a few hundred)

So in reality it was something like...

19 different papers in (forgive me) 6 different sizes (remember that I love you all)...
...with roughly 8 of each size (schmooch).

I am not good at math...  but trust me...  that's a LOT of circles!

You guys are still with me right?????

Guys?????

This is where I usually loose everyone...

Before I started my circle cutting extravaganza...

I did a little prototype to make sure it was gonna look like I had envisioned it.

It looked ok so I forged ahead and then started cutting out 367 (thousand) circles.

I glued the biggest circles (2.5 inchers) down to the table top with a wet glue.
I wanted to make sure they were gonna stay on there good!

Once I had all of the larger circles covering the base...
(don't worry about the gaps cause you are gonna cover them all up!)

I started using 3 dimensional adhesives to lay the other circles over the top...
(I used all different brands...  pop dots, zots, MS pop dots, American Crafts pop dots...)
(I used TONS of the stuff...  tons I tell ya)!

I just keep on truckin' and layering circles...

Once you have exhausted your entire supply of 3 dimensional adhesives...
...and part of your Moms supply as well...


You will have something that looks like this...
(only not as over exposed as mine is I hope)

I was honestly gonna stop here...

But RonChops (the official chief craft inspector) took one look at it and thought that it looked kinda plain...

He actually said (this is a direct quote here folks)...
"So what are you gonna put on top of it... it looks kinda plain..."

PLAIN ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?
(6,423 circles and 7,426 pop dots and the man thinks it looks PLAIN????)

(I hate it when he's right!)

So I decided to add something else to it...

Thus enters the animals part of the project...

October Afternoon has a piece of paper in one of their collections that's covered in animals.
It's from their "Farm Fresh" line and it's called "Farmyard"
(fitting... right???)

I decided to replicate those animals in Adobe Illustrator and then turn them into .svg files I could cut with my Cricut and SCAL!
(and I am gonna share all the files I made with you towards the bottom so hang tight)

Soooo....  here we go...

We have Mr. ChickenChops...
He has a chicken body, chicken legs, chicken eyes, a chicken beak and a chicken wing!
(all separate .svg files)

All chicken.  All the time.

bock...  bock... bock!

Then I made a sheep... Ole SheepChops...
(aka LambChops)

Only once I cut him out he was rather plain and unsheepified...

So I cut cotton balls in half (cut side facing up) and glued them to his little sheepy body.

I think he looks rather sheepish now don't you???

Here we have PigChops...
...and for his little PigChops hooves...
I made "straps" with white pieces of paper and glued them to the feet and legs...

...soooo...

You have perfect little pigs feet!

I also sprayed his little piggy body with some Shimmerz Spritz in the color "Bed of Roses"...
I think that gave him some pigtastic depth... don't you?!?!?!

Nextly...

I painted chipboard letters with....

TEAL!!!!

Whew...  a project just isn't a project without the tangy zip of teal right???
(or is that miracle whip...)

I also made a little fence too!
(the .svg files for the fence are at the bottom as well)

...I inked the edges and stuck the pickets together with green brads!

Then I stuck the fence to the board and started arranging animals and letters...

With an oink oink here and an oink oink there...
...here an oink there an oink everywhere an oink oink!!!

I cut off the edges of the fence and kinda rounded them in the shape of the board...

Then I played around with arranging animals and letters again...
(I kinda liked "friends" down there but the animals were hanging off the bottom too much)

EIEIO!

I did not like how the letters blended with the board so I tried some different finishes...
(clockwise from left...  MS glitter bead ball things, diamond dust and diamond glaze)

I still can't decide which I like best so the letters are still plain for now!
(and teal... which is utterly fabulous of course!!!)

Here is a close-up of the top...

...and a close-up of the bottom!

...and a pic with my now standard brick back drop...
I dunno about the letters for "friends"
I think they blend too much?!?!?!

UPDATE:
I am thinking about changing the letters to black and making the fence posts darker...
...once I saw these pics I realized there was just not enough contrast!!!!
What do you guys think????
I am torn and don't know what to do!!!!
(calgon...  take me away!)

ACK!!

...and in case you have a Circut and SCAL you can cut the animals out yourself...
(just a heads up... this is a .zip file with all of the animal pieces grouped by color and placed in individual .svg files )

...or you can just print the files, cut them out and trace them onto any paper you like!

I looooove October Afternoon and these papers were a blast to work with!
I think this little project would look awesome in a kids room don't you???

That's all folks!  I hope you enjoyed today's project!

I'll be back next week with who knows what...???
(hopefully a Sizzix video...  poor RonChops has been working a LOT lately so he's had no time to do the editing for us)!

More HUGS than you can stand!!!

P.S.  I am waaaaay behind on comments and email!  I hope to be able to ketchup this week!  Pretty please bear with me!

P.S.S.T.  My owl bag class has been scheduled! You can choose between purple or teal!

It's going to be at 10:30 am on Saturday, July 10 at Scrapper's Boutique, North Richland Hills, TX (817-503-0777)!
(I posted the wrong date on my FB!!!)

I hope to see you there!

I will also have owl bag kits for sale as well!  I'll post the details as soon as they are available.

Last thing I swears... I have been asked to join Donna Downey's design team!!!!!!  I'll share more on that later!  WOO HOOT!

Back in the saddle again...

Howdee Pards!  I am feeling loads better and had myself a super duper FUN crafty weekend!  I have a tiny flower felt project, a wrap skirt share and a crafty download and print freebie that will get you so organized you won't know what to do with yourselves!

Hang on cowgirls cause this cattle drive is about to get underway!

We are going to start with the download and print freebie firstly... cause Lolly loves her some organization stuff (it's the OCD in me...  a.k.a ARD (amazingly retentive disorder...  it's a disease I made up to help me cope with my overly organized all the time issues)).  You guys have those issues too right???

Ok I fibbed... duck, duck, GOOSE...
Actually... before we get started with crafts I wanted to share some DogChops adventures from last week...

When I came home from work on Thursday evening I was not greeted by my beloved and faithful doggies...  oh heck no!  They were too busy visiting with Duck Chops' girlfriend in the back yard.  It seems she's taken up residence in our pool (again) and was having herself a nice little Thursday afternoon swim.

At first the dogs were circling the pool (licking their chops) and watching her like she was a plateful of BBQ ribs.  They kept looking at me like "hey lady...  it's great that you are home and all... but we have MUCH more pressing matters to attend to out here...  we'll get back to you in a bit..."  My feelins' were hurt!!

After a time she wore them out and they had to take a breather...

Duck watching evidently requires breaks.
Who knew!?!

Gettin' Organized is FUN!
I came up with some download and print freebie templates to help me get my Sizzix dies organized.  I think I have just about every single flower die Sizzix makes and every time I want to create flowers (which is almost every time I do something crafty) I have to paw through the stacks of dies to figure out what's what (it's lame potatoes).

I figured it would help to make up some templates we could ALL use to help not only organize die cut shapes...  but other stuff as well!  Think stickles, glitter, pens, paints, inks, punched shapes, embossing powders, etc...

I think it's easier to see colors, shapes, etc...  if you have them right there in front of you.  That way you can hold up the items from the project you are working on to see what will work best together.

 Sew... these little PDF templates will help you do just that!

I made them so you could label what you are sharing under each space.  You can change the text to whatever font, size and even color you want (teal text being my favorite text color of course).

I have included a little instruction sheet about how it all works as the first page.  If you have any problems with it, just let me know.  We'll figure it out together!

The pages are broken up so you can accommodate different numbers of of items on each page.  I created 6 different pages with space for 1 - 24 items (the boxes get smaller and smaller as the number of spaces increase)!

I placed 3 - 3/16th hole guides up at the top of each page (if you have a Crop-A-Dile - it's the larger hole punch size).  My plan is to use rings to bind the pages together (with a snazzy decorated cover).

I pretty much spent the entire day Sunday working on these templates (printing them out and testing my shapes and misc products on them so see how everything will work together) so I only got to place a few of my die shapes on the pages.

Here's how I started putting things together...

I die cut my shapes using random scraps of paper and paper I knew I would probably never use.

I then ran the shapes through my Xyron to get them all nice and sticky!
The smaller shapes I just added rolled adhesive to.
(did you know that Xyron evidently comes with dog legs too?)

I edited the templates and added the name of each die in the "type label here" space.

I printed them out and started adhering my shapes to the spaces.

For my Sizzix dies I mostly used the 2 space template.

Remember...  if you follow the directions on the first page, you can change the font face, size, and even color to anything you want (that seriously makes me happy)!

As I get the rest of my shapes and products added to these templates, I'll be sharing them with you.  My goal is to get them ALL organized by next Monday.  Ahem...  lofty goals are good right?

Here are pics of the products I am going to try to get organized:

Distress Inks, Viva Decor Pearl Pens and Glimmer Mist!
(I know Glimmer Mist has color swatches on the back of each bottle... but I want to see them all together cause I think they are so darn pretty)!!!

Embossing powders...
I am going to stamp a bird shape in each box and then heat emboss it with all of my different colors...
I think it's going to look sooo neat!!!!

My glitters, Stickles, Smooch inks, and alcohol inks.
Those alone could take me a goat load of time to get through!

You can get the PDF template below by clicking on the "Download & Print PDF HERE" button!

So now I gotta share a little peep of the skirt MomChops made me Sunday afternoon!  I don't have many pics as it was getting dark outside...  but that one WAY up at the top is basically the gist of it.

We went to a FABULOUS fancy schmancy fabric store on Saturday and I picked out 4 fabrics for her to make me wrap skirts!  I got designs from Moda and Kaffe Fassett that literally take my breath away (I am way over the top excited!!!)!  She's going to finish up the rest of the skirts this week, so I'll share the other 3 next Monday!

I am going to be making embellishments for the bottom corner of the skirts (the side that hangs down in the front)...  I think it's going to add something extra special to each skirt!!!

Using my NEW organization method I BUSTED out my die cut flower shape papers and compared them to the flower that was in the skirt...
(I actually changed the felt colors from this picture...  the two yellow/gold colors seemed to work better together) 

Once I found shapes and colors that worked well with the pattern in the skirt...

I made up this flower in nothing flat, beaded the center and POOF!

Matching flower for bottom edge of my new fabulous skirt!!!!
YAY!!!!!

I have not figured out how I am gonna get this puppy on there yet (since I cannot wash the flower I have to make it removable).  If anyone has any ideas how I can accomplish this, I am all ears!

Last to lastly...  here are some of the amazing projects and other neat stuff you guys have been sharing with me (YAY for crafts!!!).  I totally love it when you send me your creations!  It's the coolest thing ever!

Manu from Italy made up the crocheted flower pic from my last day of Wall Flowers Week (you can see it HERE).

Manu also made up a TON of butterflies...  here are just a few of them (in teal no less).
I heart teal.
(you can learn how to make these butterflies in this post HERE)

Sedna from Spain also made up some of the flowers from Wall Flowers Week (you can see the post HERE)...

...and she sewed them to these fabulous shoes!!!!
I totally love this idea!

...and last to lastly (for real this time)

This share is totally COOL and random!

Jessie is a Raptor Coordinator at a wildlife center and she was wrapping poor baby Cooper The Hawk's" feet!
(here on out known as "Cooper The HawkChops")
...and it just so happened that the wrapping was TEAL!

GIMME A "T" !!!!!!

GIMME AN "E" !!!!!!

GIMME AN "A" !!!!!!

GIMME AN "L" !!!!!!

WOO HOO!!!!!  You gotta marvel when someone is handling a HAWK and notices that the wrapping for said Hawk's talons (mighty SPOOKY talons if you ask me) is TEAL and then thinks to themselves...  "selves... that wack job LollyChops loves teal...  I think I'll snap a pic of Cooper the HawkChops tealey talons and send it to her!!!"

I mean seriously.  Is that cool or what you guys?!?!?!?!?!

Tealey talon hugs,

P.S.  If you have any issues with the PDF, let me know...  AND if you get your organization on you gotta send me pics ok!!!!  You know how I gobble that stuff up right?!?!?!?!

P.S.S.T.  More hugs than you can stand (with 3 tealey talons on the side).

Tissue Paper & Paper Flowers Tutorial

I debated sharing this tutorial for a couple-o-reasons.  Reason 1.  It's a craft that has been around since before I was born and reason 2... it's a craft that has been around since before I was born.  I feel like I might be a 100 years old at this point.  My crows feet asked for slippers the other day cause they were getting cold. 

Since it's new to me I figure it's got to be new to someone else too so I am doing it anyway!  I have a teeny tiny little LollyChops spin on it towards the bottom...  so if you are a crafting goddess and have made 6 zillion of these flowers (starting from before I was born (which would make you over 100))...  put your teeth in and hang with me till the wee bottom...  pretty please.

Supplies you'll need to make tissue paper flowers:
Tissue paper (seeing as how this IS a tissue paper flower tutorial it would stand to reason that some form of tissue paper will be required)
16 HUGS (just checking to see if you are actually reading this)
Pipe cleaners or floral wire
Scissors

Extras (for pizzaz):  glimmer mist, brads, 2 inch Styrofoam balls, ribbon, more hugs (still checking), a flower girl (seriously), and lastly... Martha Stewart magic sprinkles.

As I stated last week, I purchased a Martha Stewart tissue paper flowers kit a few months ago on clearance at Malwart.  I hoarded it until last weekend and then went totally crazy and made like 6 zillion tissue paper flowers (which now makes me a tissue paper flower crafting freak).  Since the kit only makes 24 flowers and wanted to make 6 zillion, I had to create my own templates to keep me going (the 1 pound of M&Ms certain unnamed people might have consumed while making 6 zillion tissue paper flowers might have had a hand in my the success.... but there is no way to be sure without further extensive testing)!

Since I know a lot of people cannot find these kits I figured I would share some of the details and the templates I made so you can make them too!

Let's get started!!

Cut 6 pieces of teal tissue paper in a rectangle.
I'll allow you to use another color...
...but just this once...
I used an 8 x 5 piece.
Accordion fold the tissue paper starting from the shorter side.

You can either snip a triangle point (think picket fence post) on each end after you do the accordion folds...

...or...

Scallop or pinking edge the 6 layers of paper before starting with you accordion folding.

Tip:  Picket fence points make for spikier flower petals and scallops and pinking edges make them just a little softer.
It's just personal preference on which style you prefer!

Once you have the entire thing folded up, you will want to fold it in half.

Wrap a piece of floral wire or a pipe cleaner around the center and twist it tight.

Your folded tissue paper cinched with the wire should look something like this.

Fan it out a little because it will make the next step a little easier.

Start with one side and pull a single sheet of tissue paper up - one at a time...

...just keep pulling each sheet up...
Until you have them all pulled up towards the center.

The bottom will look something like this once you have one side done.

Go ahead and do the other side in the exact same way and...

VOILA!!
You have a finished TEAL flower!!!
I added a fancy brad to the center but you can poof it and cover up the center entirely if you want.
Fancy brads are not required but add some extra special fanciness to it.
I like fancy fanciness don't you?

So... I decided to make a little mini pomander using a smaller sized tissue paper (the 5 x 3.5 inch rectangle)
Here is how you do this...

Start with a small Styrofoam ball and poke each tissue paper flower wire into it.
I used a 2 inch ball.
When the wires poke through just bend them over.
It helps to keep the flowers securely in place.

Keep going along and fill the entire shape with the tissue paper flowers.

Wrap some wire around the base of a nice piece of ribbon...

Poke it into the Styrofoam ball (once it's filled with flowers) and...

VOILA!!
You have a tissue paper pomander that would be totally awesome as a brides maid or flower girls practice bouquet...
(or heck...  real bouquet too...  why not!!)

Next up...

Golf anyone?

The MS kit came with this totally cool little round form (pictured on the right up there).
I decided that we needed some other little round form options to get the same effect...
Thus enters... the golf ball.

If you don't have any golf balls, call 1-800-Mom-Chops!
MomChops & DadChops live on a golf course and have more than enough to go around
(many many many times over!)

I actually found this golf ball in my yard.

I don't live anywhere near a golf course.

I hung on to it cause I saw major craft potential in it.
I actually see major craft potential in nearly everything...

It's a curse really.

Sew...

Take a rectangular piece of tissue paper (I used the 8 x 5 inch piece) and wrap up half of that golf ball like a piece of candy (twist the ends nice and tight).

Leave some of the golf ball peeping through so you can get it out of there.

Snip ONE end (closer to the base than I have pictured here)...

Make up about 5 of them...

Gather them all together (I included some of the pearl stem doobers than the MS kit came with in this one)
Don't worry about how the petals look right now, you can twist them around once you have the base cinched together.
Trust Lolly!

Wrap a piece of wire around the base to help hold it all together.
This is the hardest part of making this flower cause they all want to slip out!

Wrap the base with some nice floral tape...

and...

VOILA!!
You have one wacky balloonish looking flower!
(but it's cool regardless of it's wackiness)

So Lastly...!
(heavens to betsy...will this tutorial ever end???)
Stay tuned!

The MS kit came with these petals as well...

I used them as a template and then made this beautiful flower!

You basically cinch the center with a wire and twist the petals until they are all splayed out.
You place a tiny ball in the center that's been wrapped in tissue paper....
Then floral tape wrap the base and you are good to go!

Sew...I really really really love this shape, so I decided to make a paper version!

Since I was feeling lazy crafty AND I wanted to use what RonChops had gotten me for Christmas...
I kinda cheated.

I created a template in Adobe Illustrator and then imported it to my Sure Cuts a Lot Software (SCAL)
(my SCAL template is available below)
SCAL allows me to cut any shape I can draw in Illustrator with my Cricut Expression.
You can read about SCAL HERE and the Cricut Expression HERE.

BUT...  it's ok if you don't have either of these cause I have a nifty template you can use just as well (download below)!

Here are my flower petal shapes all cut out (on two sided paper).
These kinda look like wacky spoons if you ask me.

First distress the edge.
You can use a distressing tool or you can just use the edge of a scissor blade.

I inked the edges with brown...
(it totally looks like a bow tie now - no more wacky spoon)

I smooshed it up GOOD!
Now it kinda looks like a barbell!
(use your craft muscles obtained from years of crafting with Lolly)

I smoothed it out and inked the wrinkles...
(which is kinda like applying makeup to my crows feet)

Once you have 6 distressed, smooshed, edge inked and wrinkle inked bow ties...
Give those poor little baby bow ties a Valium cause they are going to be stressed out from all that manhandling!
(while they are napping finish up that pound of M&Ms you started on earlier)

Punch a tiny little hole in the centers.

Stack them all up and poke a little brad through the holes...

...and...

VOILA!!

You have a nifty flower you can use on a card, scrap book page or altered art project!

You can download the .svg file for SCAL below.
Large flower petal .svg HERE.
Smaller flower petal .svg HERE.

Or you can download the PDF of these templates below (so you can cut them out by hand).

 

Thanks for hanging with me until the bitter end!

I hope you all have a lovely week!

 

P.S.  I am having a super secret card drive.  If you are interested in helping me out, please leave me a comment and I'll email you the details!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxo!!

P.S.S.T. The word of the day is VOILA!! (but only in teal with two exclamation points)!!

The Mad Tatter's Teabag Template

Sometimes I get so goofy with the titles of these posts I feel all embarrassed for myself.  This is NOT one of those times.  Ok so maybe it is just a wee little bit.

The Mad Tatter
I have a few things to share today.  We'll start with the whole mad tatter reference.  My sister was here last week for a visit and decided that she wanted to learn tatting.  In case you don't know what tatting is you can learn all about it HERE.

Her and my mom went to half price books, they found a couple books on tatting and within 24 hours she was a tatting fool.  You can see some of her very first work below.

...I have now given her the new cuddly nick name of...  The Mad Tatter.
I stink at anything involving yarn or string (other than crochet and even that I am not all that terrific at).  Heck I still have two scarves on my knitting needles that I cannot finish because I have NO IDEA how to cast off!  Since my sister - The Mad Tatter - is over there showing us up by making lace....

...I will now show you much easier crafts that don't make your brain hurt.

Teabag Holder for Gifts-n-Stuff Template
A few months ago I saw a really cool project over on Spoonfull of Sugar (you can see their elegant take on this project HERE).  It was for little tea bag holders that were so precious they made my brain turn pink!  I was completely smitten and stashed it away in my notebook of ideas I need to try someday.  So that day is today!

Once I had the template worked out I decided to create a download and print freebie so you can make them too!  It's at the bottom of this post in the usual spot.

It's Tea Time!

First...  print the template on heavy card stock paper and cut it out.
Crease along the lines that say "fold here"...

There are 3 different ways you can close these up.

You can use this nifty notch and die cutting toll thingy from Basic Grey (you can get one HERE).
It comes with a zillion ideas and 3 different die cutters that you can use with the handle.
It makes doing closures on little tidy packages like this a breeze!

 
Once you have the notch cut it will look something like this.
You run a line of glue in the areas I have colored pink.

Fold the right flap over and glue it down just on the inside of that crease.
It will make a little pocket that looks something like that pic up there.

If you go with the die cut notch when you close the little pocket it will look something like this.

BUT if you don't want to mess with a notch die cut tool...  you can try something easier...

VELCRO!
Yep...  you can get some of that sticky sided Velcro and cut it into small squares.
You just stick the squares on either side and viola...  you have a closed tea bag holder...
My thinking with using Velcro was that you might just make this little tea bag holder so stinkin' cute that the person who receives it will carry their tea bags around in it...
(yeah I know no one carries tea bags around but in my fantasy world filled with handmade things they do)!!!

So if you don't want to mess with die cut tools and Velcro tabs...

You can use glue dots (or Zots - those are what I use).
The receiver will have to rip the package open thus destroying your crazy CUTE packaging.
That's just not something that makes my heart feel special.
I like the idea of them keeping it forever.
Cause you know...
...it's too precious to throw away.

Right?

So see... there is some tea.
You can get two in there but it's a little snug.  If you want to make it to hold more than one tea bag you can make the template longer and give yourself more of a pocket.
I mean who really only carries around one tea bag at a time.
Actually...  who really carries tea bags around?

hmmmmm

Raise your hand if you carry tea bags around!!

Anyone?

Helloooooo?

Dog Chops to the rescue!
She had to work at it but she got her hands up!

Ok so moving on...

My favorite way to seal them up tight is the Velcro method.  It's pretty snazzy and fast and like I said...  folks will now have a cute tea bag carrying case for ever and ever.  Ahem!

 I decided to share a one way you can decorate the holders.  Quick and easy stuff.  Trust Lolly!

First get some chipboard hearts.
I used these HERE.

Trace around them onto paper and cut the shapes out...

Ink the edges of the chipboard hearts before you glue the paper to them...
Let them dry.
Let me rephrase that...

Really really really really let them dry...

...or you will end up with ink ALL over the table, the dogs, your hands, your nose... the list goes on.

Once they are so dry you could feed a cactus with them...

Just glue the paper to them.

Assemble nicely on the tea bag holder you just cut out, folded, scalloped, stamped AND inked...

...and poof...  in as easy as 15 minutes you have a tea bag holder (kidding... it only takes like 13 minutes...  I was rounding up).

You can ALSO use the tried and true patented smooshy stack method to make some nice butterflies or hearts for the fronts!

You can read all about the smooshy stack super top secret assembly at this post HERE.

Since I shared a pic of DogChops I have to share my craft table too...
(it's actually pretty clean all things considered).

OH!!!  ...I need to share the teeny tiniest of pictures of my first Scrapy Land Design Team project!

That's all I can show until it's officially revealed!

I worked on this sucker for about 20 hours!  I officially started on it Friday night at a crop I went to at my favorite store on the whole entire planet (Anthologies) and finished it up late on Saturday evening (more like Sunday morning really).  It was really and truly a labor of love!  I cannot wait to share it with you guys!

So that's all I gots for today!

You can download the template for the tea bag holders below.

I hope everyone is staying warm (it was 17 for the low over the weekend here - that's just plain ole cold)!

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead (and I will see what I can do about your calendar requests).  The two projects I did this past weekend left no time for more mini calendars!

P.S.  xoxoxoxoxoxo (could you tell that was a Valentines craft???).  Did the excessive amount of hearts give it away???

Chicken fried camera with a side of calendars...

My video tutorial is not going to be shared with you guys today as it's on it's way to California for it's BIG screen debut!!!!

WOO HOO!!!!

The folks at the Canon factory are going to be up to their knees in my swirly flower tutorial in about 4 days!

I am pretty sure that we'll be seeing LOADS more crafts on the Canon site come next Monday!

Wondering what in the heck I am talking about???

Well... something bad happened on Saturday after I was done filming (I cut my tutorial time to 14 minutes... down from the hour long diatribe of the first version).  I was real proud of myself!!!  RonChops and I connected the video camera (the one he got me for Christmas) to his beloved Power Mac desktop...  and well ummmm...  about 5 seconds into it we smelled something.  Not a good something...  a chicken fried camera something.  Only there was no gravy and no mashed potatoes.

We fried the camera (completely) AND (as an added bonus) both of the fire wire ports on his Mac too (yip-e).  We kinda sat there in stunned silence after it happened and spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone with Apple tech support (those guys are amazing!!).  Sadly the camera has to go to California to be fixed (with my crafty flower tutorial still inside) and the apple going to be taken to the place where apples go to be fixed (someplace local).  Talk about deflating the crafty sails!

So instead of a nice video tutorial + calendar combo...  I just have some calendars today.  I changed them up a little from last years version in that I did not do the vellum overlay or a cover (you can see the ones from last year HERE).

If you really really liked the vellum overlay thing let me know and I'll post that next week...  I used vellum for my own personal craft room calendar and I was getting kinda annoyed that the ends were curling on me!  I was thinking I could use brads to nail them down some but I dunno...  those of you who printed them last year and used the vellum will have to let me know what you think.  The photo corners I used to help tack them down kept falling off on me too!

I also created some really teeny tiny versions that you can use in scrapbook layouts and on cards and such. 

Let's get started with the teeny tiny ones first and what you might do with those... and then we'll move on to the big fellas!

I spaced them nicely so you would have room to cut or punch them out.

I really really REALLY love the scrolly border punch from Stampin' Up!
You can get it from this nice gal HERE!
If I could have only one punch in my arsenal it would be this fella.
He's the coolest!!!

I made these little calendars small enough to work with just about any 1.5 inch punch...
So they are pretty easy to work with.

I like to back my punched shapes with a background color and since my favorite punch does not have a one size up shape to go behind it I simply place it on a piece of colored card stock...

...and freehand cut around it.
Easy Cheese!

So for the bigger ones...
I print them all out on 110lb card stock...
Then I cut just inside the dotted border with a paper trimmer...

...and Zuttered them together!
You can read all about the Zutter binding thingy HERE.
If you don't have one that's ok!
You can see how I put these together last year with a simple hole punch at this post HERE!

You can download the teeny tiny calendars below...

...and the whole set of the bigger ones below this (click on the "download and print PDF here" image)...

 

You guys still with me or are ya sound asleep?
I almost feel like I cheated you today...  this is so short and so boring you might actually be getting on your jammies and calling it a day!

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It looks like the video camera (complete with the tape STILL inside) should be back in about 3 weeks (I hope).  So it's gonna be a while before I have any video tutorials round these parts.  I am pretty bummed about to tell you the truth.  I was really looking forward to this today.  :(

I'll be back next week with something new and fabric-y!

Hope everyone has a great first week of January (can you believe it's 2010...  crazy!!!)!

P.S.  RonChops has been giving me a hard time about these calendars all weekend.  Evidently they do not meet his cool craft seal of approval.  He's rather fond of vellum and has been telling me all day that he thinks I need the vellum overlay thingy...  OH and AND he's totally not fond of the font I used either.  He really likes the handwriting fonts.

If you guys are with RonChops (basically if you want to gang up on me) that's cool.  I'll work up a vellum-y and handwriting font-y version just for you (and RonChops too of course...  I cannot have him harassing me about these calendars all year long...  it's only January for crying out loud!)...  But if you guys think he's crazy (MUHAHAHAHA) that's cool too!  Inquiring minds want to know!

P.S.S.T. xoxoxoxox's