Xmas Honey Fruit Bread

 A recent trip to Japan enabled us to sample lots of delightful, tasty treats.  There was a fruit bread that we especially enjoyed from a European bakery (lots of them in Japan).  I made it my mission to recreate the taste of this bread.  While my version doesn't have exactly the same look or taste, it is pretty close. The Japanese version was darker and more packed with fruit.  I liked the rustic look of the Japanese loaf but felt it was too dense with fruit.  My husband and I both think that my version of the fruit bread is as good as the Japanese one. He says it tastes even better....what a nice guy!  I am happy that I was able to recreate a pleasurable treat and now I am able to make it in the future for friends and family.  Happy Holiday Baking !

Gnomes for Xmas

Recently, I traveled to Japan and was surprised to see Xmas was in full swing there.  Not unexpected, there were Santas everywhere and strangely there were lots of gnomes, too. I suppose it must be the European influence....lots of Swedish and French products for sale.  Of course, I purchased a few small gnomes and stuffed them into my already bulging suitcase.  Wanting more gnomes, I decided that I could probably make my own...so I did!  

I started by blending white Hearty clay with a bit of red and orange Hearty clay.  When I achieved the flesh hue I desired, I formed three cone shaped bodies and three little ball noses.

Next I cut some green felt into skirts....no need to be perfect as gnomes are the older, grungy version of woodland fairies..LOL!  I cut wired extra wide Xmas ribbon to form the pointed caps.  (I used a pencil and Fabri-tac glue to shape ribbons into conical hats.) I cut off the wire on the top of the cap but left the wire on the bottom edge to add some support.  The gnomes were easily assembled with glue once the Hearty Clay was dry. I used wool roving for the hair and beards. (Sometime you can find wool roving at HM Ben Franklin Crafts but you can always just pull apart fluffy yarn.) If you feel your gnomes might encounter moisture you can coat the exposed clay surfaces with a clear matte acrylic sealer.

My family of gnomes is large now but I am already planning the next gnomes...perhaps bigger with movable arms (pipe cleaners inside a sleeve?).  Hope you'll be GNOME for the Holidays!

Gnome-made Goodie Boxes

Do you save empty cookie or candy boxes in the hope of repurposing them?  I do!  I am especially fond of the boxes from Asia because they are so cleverly designed and very sturdy.  This first box is a slider so it was easy to cover it.  I simply wrapped the outer part with Xmas wrapping paper that I purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts in Mapunapuna.  This wrapping paper is from Japan and comes in large, flat sheets. There are many printed papers to choose from and they all have the benefit of being strong and thin...just what you need to paper over cardboard boxes.

For additional decoration, I stamped, colored and fussy cut out a Whimsy gnome image.  I adhered the gnome with foam dots and added an oval label from my stash.  For extra cuteness I printed out 'gnome-' and added it to the label. Get it? "Deliciously Gnome-Made For You" A ribbon was added to balance out the design of the box.

This second box was easy to paper over after I carefully took it apart and flattened it. Then I glued the unfolded box onto the wrapping paper and trimmed away the excess paper.  I refolded and decorated the box similarly to the first box (adding some clear sparkle glitter hear and there).

The inside of this box had some dividers to separate the treats.  I think I might make chocolate covered candied ginger or dried apricots to fill this box.  The first box seems perfect for my homemade Xmas cookies.  I am proud that I was able to recycle these boxes into some pretty, festive containers.  I hope that you will try to do some repurposing and not just toss away perfectly good boxes.  Don't forget to save the boxes from your holiday treats this year! Recycle!

Hello Kitty Baby Card

In the last six years, my husband's side of the family has welcomed eight babies into the clan.  Of those eight only two of the babies are girls, so I was happy to have the opportunity to make a baby girl card.  I chose a Hello Kitty theme because I have always been a fan of hers and I recently heard that she's celebrating an important birthday.  It was fun to look into my drawer of HK crafting supplies and dust off the dies that I purchased from HM BFC a long time ago.  With this Hello Kitty fairy die I was able to quickly assemble the card using a single sheet of K and Company Itsy Bitsy Baby Girl paper.  (The back side coordinated with the front.)  I tried to use plain white paper for Kitty, but it didn't show up well so I switched to a pearlized white DCWV paper from a 6x6 pad. In the photo the white paper still doesn't stand out but at different angles it does shimmer and sparkle.  I didn't want to make Kitty's whiskers black because that made them too obvious so I just colored them in with grey ink.  Finally, for the fairy wand I decided that a frosted sticker heart would be perfect for a topper. It was a very easy, quick card to make for the newest addition to out family.  I hope she likes it..... especially since her initials just happen to be HK! 

 

Autumn Secret Gift Card Tags

When I first purchased this i-crafter tag die set I did so because it was a good size and had some good words and images to die cut on the tags.  However, on closer inspection, I realized that there was a putt- out tab that could turn the tag into a surprise gift card holder....so neat!  After cutting the front panels using the putt-out tab  and the 'For You' dies, I die cut a second tag from brown card stock.  The printed front tag and back tag were adhered to each other with thin double stick tape on the bottom and two sides of the tags. Leave the tops of the tags open so that you can insert the gift card.  Finally, I chose coordinating twine, yarn or cording and attached them to the tags.  I also added some matching Simple Stories washi tape (from HM Ben Franklin Crafts) to the back of the tags for added interest. I heard that the i-crafter brand/company was discontinued so I think you'll need to quickly shop at HM Ben Franklin Crafts before all the lovely die sets sell out. I know you'll make good use of this tag set if you purchase it.  I'm already planning some Xmas gift card tags.  Maybe you'll get one!  

Thanksgiving Forest Feast Shaker Cards

                                              

When I spied the Sprinkletz 'Fall Harvest' confetti, I knew I would incorporate it into a Thanksgiving shaker card.  I started these cards by cutting a printed card stock just slightly smaller than a coordinating card blank.  I placed the printed piece in a Heiko sealable clear cellophane bag and taped down the extra edges of the cello bag after adding in the confetti.  This whole confetti panel was adhered to the card blank with double stick adhesive tape.  Next I stamped out, colored and die cut the Lawn Fawn 'Forest Feast' images. These characters, tree stump, and food items were attached to the cards with foam dot adhesives. Finally, the foiled chipboard words (from my ancient stash) were glued to the cards.  As with my other full face confetti cards these were a breeze to complete.  I love the playful look of the scenes and the creatures remind me of some of my family members...hahaha!  I hope that you will have a joyful and abundant Thanksgiving family feast.  Enjoy life!

Foiled Leaf 'Thankful' Fall Card

 I'm really in love with the Pink and Main 'Autumn Splendor' Foilable Sheets. I guess it's because when I think of autumn all I can see are pumpkins and leaves...LOL!  Anyway, together with my Minc machine I was able to make a panel of foiled leaves. With the leftover used foil piece I made another panel running a Fall Ombre panel through the Minc machine.  It is this panel that I used to make this card. I love the muted fall colored background with the shiny bright leaves.  Using my Hero Arts Autumn Leaves Fancy Die on the foiled panel, I cut a window.  I made a little bag of confetti (foiling leaf pieces) and adhered it behind the window.  (Heiko cello bags work better with the foil leaves than zip bags which have too much static. If I decide to use foiling pieces again, I will add small beads to the bag so that there will be more movement within the bag.)  

The panel with the confetti window was attached to a gold foil card blank and a 'Thankful' green ribbon glued at an angle. It was hard to photograph this very shiny card, but I hope you can see how lovely it is to shake the confetti within the leaf window.  I didn't photograph it, but on the inside of the card I glued the leaf that was die cut from the front. The HA leaf die cuts out veins in the leaf so it looks delicate and realistic.

The first foiled panel was large enough to cut two tags.  It was easy-peasy to make the tags using the Hero Arts Infinity Nesting Tag Dies.  My favorite part of making tags is finding just the right yarn or ribbons for the ties.  I'm very pleased with what I found in my stash and 'grateful' for being a hoarder. Hahaha!  If you are a crafter then you are probably a hoarder, too! Take pride in your crafty habits and make beautiful things for everyone. Celebrate Autumn!

American Indian Inspired Necklace

 I spent a semester in Santa Fe during my college years.  It was there that I fell in love with Indian jewelry and pottery.  At that time, the Indian made items were relatively affordable, but I was a poor college student so I just acquired a few pieces.  To this day, I still search in antique/thrift stores for that one lucky find of American Indian jewelry or pottery. While not on the hunt for the genuine collectible/antique, I collect beads, rocks, and even pottery shards with an Indian look.  Sometime, I actually put them all together into an American Indian inspired jewelry piece.  The necklace in the photo above is something I made just recently.  I lucked out and found a silver bezel wrapped pottery shard (supposedly very old) at the Tucson Bead Show.  The pottery shard is the focal point of this necklace that was made with silver beads, two sizes of jasper beads and tiny turquoise beads. I left the silver beads unpolished to give the piece a more ancient look, but I think I may polish them up a bit to match the bezel around the pottery shard.  Happily, this necklace came together rather quickly and the design pleases me.  Now I need to find an outfit to match it. LOL!

Grateful Girl Card with Confetti Shaker Heart

The Whimsy Primitive Gratitude Quick Card Fronts pack was so sweet, I just HAD to get it.  I had a difficult time deciding which image to use, but settled on this one because it had a sweet little heart hanging from the bare tree. The little heart coordinated with the confetti heart window that I had planned to construct on this card.  It was easy to make the confetti window by first die cutting the small heart with the Spellbinders die.  Next, I made a small, clear pouch of confetti hearts using a Heiko clear bag and tape.  This confetti bag was attached with tape to the back of the heart window. Then the card front was adhered to the Whimsy Prim Colonial Americana Designer Paper which was cut to size to fit the brown card blank.  You can see the print of Prim Colonial Americana paper behind the heart window. 

In this photo you can see what the card looks like with the confetti filling die cut heart.  To finish off the card I added the words that were cut from a word panel that was contained in the Whimsy Card Front pack. The only drawback of this card front pack was that it contained only one each of eight card designs and I always like to have extras in case of 'accidents'. Luckily, this card was created with no problems. Whew!  I like the images in this card front pack so much that I think I'll purchase another one. You'll certainly be seeing more cards like this one in the future so please keep visiting this blog site and leave a comment if you have the time...love hearing from you! 

'Enjoy the Little Things' Colonial Card

As a frequent traveler to the east coast and collector of antiques, I am drawn to the rustic, simple look of colonial objects.  When I spied the new sets of Whimsy stamps and papers I immediately knew that I had to buy some.  After flipping through the pad of plaid papers, I settled on this blue and brown one (hard choice..so many good ones).  I used my Crop-a-Dial (We R Memory Keepers) to clip the corners of the plaid paper and the brown kraft blank card.  At first I was planning to use regular twine around the plaid sheet but then 'discovered' a multi-colored twine in my stash of assorted yarns and ribbons.  The colors of the twine matched perfectly with the plaid paper....how lucky!  (I think you could dye your twine if you aren't happy with plain brown twine.)  It was simple to stamp the doll, house and saying on beige card stock.  I fussy cut out the images and used a Sizzix die to cut out the saying.  I rubbed on some ink to age the papers and used a reddish Copic pen to add some color.  The doll and house were adhered with foam adhesive dots.  I really agree with the saying on this card and feel that it has special meaning for this Thanksgiving season.  I hope all of you in blogland enjoy and appreciate all that you have even if it is not as grand as you hoped and imagined your life to be. Be grateful and generous to others!

 

Thankful Pumpkin Card

This card had its start with a foiled orange pumpkin designed paper made with my Minc machine, some Pink and Main orange foil, and a Whimsy pumpkin foilable design card.  I didn't like the white background that remained after the card was foiled so I used Tim Holtz distress sprays to color in the background.  I used my We R Memory Keepers Crop-a-Dial corner rounder to clip off the corners of the brown kraft card, plaid (Whimsy) card stock and the foiled pumpkin card.  Next I stamped the saying from the Whimsy Prim Little Things stamp set onto a beige card stock and then used a Sizzix die to cut it out.  I rubbed on some green ink and distressed the label a little with metallic sprays.  In hindsight I should have heat embossed the saying in gold or copper powder because I wanted more metallic shine to match the ribbon.  Anyway, all the parts were glued with Fabri-Tac or adhered with double stick Heiko tape.  I like the way the colors matched on this card to give a very autumn-ish look and went along with the grateful/meaningful saying.  Life is good so be thankful!

 

Welcome to Our Haunted House

Yes, Halloween is over for this year, but I wanted to share this last card which almost didn't get created because I forgot that I had just purchased the Whimsy Haunted Houses Designer Paper pack.  This is a gorgeous pack of papers featuring spooky Victorian houses.  I live in a Victorian style house so of course I was drawn to the illustrations. While our house is not scary-looking (it's pink!), it still has deterred trick-o-treaters over the decades.  This card was created rather easily requiring only the trimming of the designer paper, stamping and embossing the words with Hero Arts iridescent lavender embossing powder, fussy cutting around the words, and adding a few tiny lavender rhinestone stickers.  I wish this photo did justice to the card but a lot of the subtle details are loss in the reflective shine of the camera's flash.  Actually, I need to be a better photographer. LOL!  I'll keep practicing.  Next year I'll start my Halloween crafting earlier...do I say this every year?  Okay... well...onward to autumn and Xmas crafting...YAY!  

 

Halloween Chocolate Dipped Rice Krispies Lollipop Treats

These tasty treats are super easy to make if you start with Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats. (Costco sells a big box of 60 pieces.)  Because the bars are softer than ones you would make from scratch, I suggest that you dip each bar in melted chocolate, decorate them with the candy sprinkles (purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts), and then let them harden on wax paper. The chocolate melt candy wafers are available at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  To melt them before dipping, just follow the directions on the bag.  Once the chocolate has solidified, you can insert the lollipop sticks (also available at HM BFC).  (If you try to put the stick in when the bars are undipped, the bars may fall apart.) Slipped into a cello lollipop bag (from HM BFC) and tied with a ribbon or pipe cleaner, these treats are sure to make your spooky trick-o-treater give you a toothy grin.  Enjoy the sweet, treats which are the perks of enduring the scariness of Halloween night. Boo! 

Quick Decorated Halloween Bag

I needed a Halloween bag to deliver treats but all I had were flowery ones or plain white bags.  Since of course I couldn't give handmade Halloween treats in a plain bag, I opted to decorate a white one. I started by spraying the bag with Tim Holtz Distress Mica Stain (sold at HM Ben Franklin Crafts).  I love this product because not only does it come in really cool colors, it imparts a nice metallic sheen which is perfect for Halloween.  After the bag was dry, I glued on some cut pieces of printed card stock from my stash (collected over years). To jazz up the bag even more, I wound two orange sparkle pipe cleaners around the handles and glued on purple sparkle pom poms.  This was an easy fix to change a boring bag into a colorful, exciting treat bag.  If you don't have Halloween paper scraps lying around, you can always hurry down to your nearest HM Ben Franklin Crafts store to buy some 12x12 sheets and then you WILL have leftover paper scraps to use on your next projects.  Halloween seems to come around faster and faster every year. I love having Halloween supplies on hand so I can spooky-up anything in a jiffy.  Have a colorful, spooky, decorative Halloween!  
 

Howl-o-ween Card

This card started with a Pink and Main Spooky Eyes Foilable Panel and Purple Cheer Foil.  Using my Minc  mini foiling machine, I applied the foil to the Spooky Eyes panel.  Then I cut out a 3-1/2" circle with a Spellbinder die.  I glued the 'spooky face' moon to a 5-1/2" square card made from a printed Halloween card stock that I 'found' in my stash. I stamped the howling wolf from the Lawn Fawn Wolf Before and After and the wolf from the Wild Wolves set.  Both wolves were colored with water color pencils and Copic pens before die cutting them with the matching dies.  These wolves were adhered to the card with adhesive foam dots.  Finally, the words from the Lawn Fawn Happy Howloween set were stamped on a strip of scrap (this is the print on the inside of the card).  That was it...super easy Howl-o-ween Card! Hope you're having Halloween fun incorporating new products with what you've been 'saving'.  My stash is going down one sheet at a time...LOL! only 381 to go! Hahaha!

P.S. I forgot to mention that after foiling the Spooky Eyes panel, I decided to spray on Tim Holtz Distress Inks (purple and green) and wipe some of it off  because the panel was too white.  

Halloween Scene Card with Confetti Moon

 

Recently, I bought some Halloween confetti so of course I just HAD to make a confetti card. LOL!  Rather than make the whole card a shaker, I decided to just make the moon opening contain shakable confetti.  This card started with Pink and Main Foilable cards and transfer foil. To make the background I used the purple foil that was peeled off the foilable card after it was heated in the Minc Heidi Swapp mini machine.  This normally thrown away used foil was applied to a color blend foilable card.  I really like the spooky faces that lurk in the purple background.

Next the Lawn Fawn die was used to die cut the scent from black paper.  I used a circle Sizzix die to cut out the moon from the foiled background.  Behind the moon I taped a small cello (Heiko) bag filled with Halloween confetti.  Then the whole scene was glued together and then taped to a yellow card blank with double stick (Heiko) tape.  Although it looks complicated,  it was quite simple to construct this card because there was just die cutting and no coloring.  If you haven't invested in a foiling machine (like Minc) I think you will be surprised that it is not very expensive but that owning one unleashes a multitude of creative possibilities.  I guess I'm like a magpie and I love shiny things so foiling really appeals to me.  I think Halloween is an especially fun time that just seems to need something spooky and shiny.  Happy Scary, Sparkly Crafting!   

Candy Corn Halloween Earrings

Did you love candy corn as a kid?  I did and I still do! For me, it wouldn't be Halloween without candy corn so of course when I found glass candy corn beads, I had to get some.  I held on to the strand of candy corn beads for awhile before I decided to use some of them to make earrings.  They were simple to make requiring just gold filled ear wires, gold filled ball tipped head pins, Swarovski crystals, tiny white beads, and of course the candy corn glass beads.  The tools I used to fashion these earring were two small tipped pliers and jewelry wire cutters. If you can't find glass candy corn beads, I suggest you make your own candy corn with Fimo clay (sold at HM BFC)which can be baked to look very similar to real candy corn.  Also real candy corn can be painted with 1-minute UV-LED resin and hardened under a UV lamp to resemble real candy corn.  I recommend not drilling the candy (it will probably crack) but rather gluing on a gold filled bell cap to hang the resin candy corn from the earring wires.  I hope that you will have some safe Halloween excitement and create some fun Halloween jewelry for yourself. Have a candy corny kind of Halloween!

 

Autumn Fox with Halloween Treat Boxes

 As you can see the Autumn Fox and I are still busy and having fun making Halloween treat boxes.  Like the last set of boxes, these were made with an i-crafter die (Valentine Gable Box).  As with the i-crafter die used in the last post, this set comes with small dies to make labels and embellishments but I chose not to use them because I was making Halloween themed boxes. It was easy to use the pages in the Simple Stories 6x8 Faboolous paper pad to die cut out the boxes ( only two sheets needed per box) and hand cut the labels from pages within the pad.

                                                  

Fabri-tac glue and Heiko tape were used to assemble the boxes and simple thin ribbons were tied through the die cut holes.  I like the unique style of these boxes and the fact that they have adequate space for yummy treats. I had fun matching the papers to the labels contained within the Simple Stories paper pad.

For this box the ghost label was hand cut and iridescent glitter applied over the ghost image that was spread with glue.

   

This box was probably the most successful of the three boxes because the label fit well on the box with just a little trimming and the extra part of the label was adhered to the back of the box (not shown). The basic supplies for these boxes are very minimal and many boxes can be constructed from just the paper pad and and die set.  I hope you'll take the time to make some special Halloween treat boxes for the special little (or big) ones in your life. I know they'll always remember your generous handcrafted Halloween sweetness.

Halloween Milk Carton Candy Boxes

 I spied an  i-crafter Milk Carton Box die at HM Ben Franklin Crafts and thought it would make great Halloween Candy Boxes. Using papers from a Doodlebug 6x6 Halloween paper pad, I was able to make each carton from just two sheets of paper.  Some of the sheets in the pad had labels which I hand cut and attached to the boxes by using a tiny hole puncher and some skinny ribbon to tie the labels to the boxes. The i-crafter die set had parts to cut out a label and the word, 'candy' but I chose not to use them.  I had to measure and cut out the candy image panels before attaching them to the boxes with Fabri-Tac glue.  I also used Heiko double stick tape to join the sides of the boxes. At HM Ben Franklin Crafts I discovered a new extra skinny Heiko double stick tape which was useful for some of the smaller joints of the boxes.  These boxes can hold quite a lot of candy for some lucky trick-o-treater. If you get started now, I'm sure you can make enough candy boxes for your neighborhood ghouls and goblins!

                                       

Autumn Leaf Papered Box

On a recent trip to the east coast, I spied some autumn oak leaves that were just starting to change color.

They were so pretty that I had to collect and press them.  I knew that I would find some use for the multi-colored autumn leaves.  Once at home I decided to use them to decorate a few boxes.  Beginning with a sturdy L'Occtaine box, I covered it with a fibrous beige washi paper. This was easily done by laying the top of the box onto the washi paper and cutting around it leaving a margin of paper large enough to wrap around the box top sides.  Next glue (Fabri-Tac) was applied evenly to the top surface of the box and the paper was pressed onto it.  The sides of the box lid were then covered with glue and the paper pressed down so that there were four wings on the corners.  These wings were then trimmed closely to the box top corners.  The same thing was done to cover the box bottom.

I decided that I wanted to waterproof my box so I applied 1 minute UV-LED resin to both the top and bottom of the box. I did a little of the box at a time using a small LED light to cure the resin. (Both the resin and light are available at HM BFC).  The resulting box was waterproof but shiny and the washi paper became translucent so that the outer surface of the box became quite yellow.  To correct the look of the box, I decided to try spraying on a Krylon matte finish.  It worked!  The box is now more natural looking (matching the leaf and washi paper).  The box is still yellow so next time I make an autumn leaf box I will use a white or beige box.  Also I will skip applying the resin and just spray the papered box with the matte finish.  So what am I going to do with my autumn leaf box?  Well, of course I will use this one to house the acorns gathered with the leaves. Other leaf boxes will probably be used for gift giving. Next, I have a plan to convert the acorns into jewelry! I love Autumn!