If I get any slower....I'll be backing up!

Believe it or not, I started editing these last Wednesday night...got sidetracked and competely forgot about posting them till I sat down here to work on bills....LOL....I had a blast doing this but if I EVER decide to do it again, it will have to be a planned out a bit better..like a couple months earlier!  LOL...

So, I wanted to surprise my wonderful friend, Maxine, with  a twelve days of Christmas.  These will not be in the order that I actually delivered them but close...I've slept too many nights to remember the complete order.  Also, not all these photos are mine...some I had to get from Maxine cause I forgot to take pictures in my rush to get it all done on time. 

Each 'gift' was delivered while she was working but I didn't fool her as she guess the very first day!  Each gift was accompanied with a gift tag that I made with the twelve days of Christmas on each one.  I cut each day out of glitter paper and affixed each to a gift tag. The only image I have of the gift tags was the day 2 tag with the magnets but you get the idea.  The glitter paper is by American Crafts and it was super thin...a bugger to cut in the Cameo!  It was just too thin but all I had in the colors I wanted to use. 

Ok...on to the pictures!

Day 1 has no photo, just a jpg file saved from my files as I forgot to take a picture of them.  I made her gift tags for her presents so this was the first gift, as I wanted her to be able to use them.  She is a huge snowman collector!  I added glitter to the snowflake and around the hat and scarf.  This was cut from Kraft cardstock, layered onto white cardstock and then the snowman, snowflake, patterned paper were all printed and cut on the Cameo. 

 

Day 2...Refrigerator magnets.  I ordered the glass tiles from Sun and Moon Crafts kit and was really impressed with their service.  I ordered on a Tuesday and had them by Thurs.  Super service!  I designed the pictures in Silhouette Studio and then did a print and cut and used Fantastic Glaze and Glue to adhere them to the tiles.  Added a magnet to the back and they were done...pretty easy and pretty darn cute!  You can see the gift tag in this photo.  All the tags looked like this except I changed the day and the image with each tag. I got the images from the Silhouette store.  Some of them, like this one, had way too much scroll work for my cutter to cut at this small size. So, I did a bit of editing and removed some of the scroll work.  They would be stunning at a large size but I was cutting them at an inch or less...

Day 3:  Snowman ornament.  This was a Pinterest idea.  This is not the ornament I gave to Maxine.  Its one I made up first but I didn't like it with the ping pong ball.  I did hers with a bigger smooth styroform ball and liked it much, much better but I don't have a photo of it.  The hat is made from a baby sock and then I just painted on the face and added the trim and bow.  On hers, with the bigger ball, the hat looks better proportioned with the face.  I bought some more balls and socks and going to make some for myself.  On this day, I also gave her a cookie gift box with cookie mix, icing and sprinkles and a note that stated that it was a cookie exchange....I didn't have time to bake mine so I was just gifting the supplies and she was to bake them and give them back!  LOL....

Day 4: Snowman Candy Jar.  This was a jar from our Dollar General.  It's actually a spice jar, I think, cause it had a sprinkle type top under the lid.  I removed that top and painted the jar lid gold.  This was another Pinterest find and I just copied it.  Everything was either scrapbook paper that I had and cut on the Cameo. I downloaded a free svg file from SVGCuts to make the tiny hat and just downsized it to the size I needed, added some gold trim I found in my Christmas ribbons and bows box and added a small pompom to the top.  Glued this to my Styrofoam ball the very last so it wouldn't get man-handled while I painted the face. The red ruler paper section is another lid from another jar that I wrapped the scrapbook paper around and then added some flat scrapbook to the top to glue the rosette to. The snowflake tag was all cut on the Cameo and then layered up and glued to the front of the jar, on the flat part.  The gold ribbon came off a package I had been given a few years back and saved...the face is all painted with craft paint except for the nose and that is the end of an orange golf tea that I cut down.  I pressed it into the ball and then removed it and added glue to the hole, replaced the 'nose' and let it dry.  I think it is super cute!  Need to make some more of these for gifts!  I can see them in several holidays...maybe a bunny for Easter. 

Day 5: Snowman pillow.

This didn't come out like my mind thought it would but luckily, she liked it...I bought a round pillow form and then made the cover.  I used felt to make the snowman, cut it out on the Cameo and then used Heat N Bond to add it to the pillow cover.  Added some buttons and ribbon and that project was done and ready for delivery.  Whew....day 6, coming up! 

 Day 6: Merry & Bright Shadow Box..

These were all the rave on the Silhouette Facebook page.  I used a Christmas tree file that I downloaded from the Silhouette Store and some snowflakes to make the chalkboard like background.  I'm sure I should give credit to the chalkboard background but I didn't save this information and I can't find it right now...but leave it to be that its not mine! LOL...I added the snowflakes and tree and then printed it on my Ultra Premium Epson paper.  I made a mat out of cardstock and layered it over the top of the background.  This is all in a shadow box that I picked up at our Dollar General store. The size is 8 x 10, so its a bit bigger than the 8 x 8 size that we use for the subway art months.  I then cut the title out of white vinyl and added to the front of the glass.  The wording was a purchased file from the Silhouette store.  Added some DG store ornaments to the inside and it was done.  I ended up making 4 of these...one for me, Maxine, Jerri Ann and Kristen.  Mine was in red and silver, Kristen's was in all the bright Christmas colors and Jerri Ann's was totally different. She uses blue and silver ornaments and I used that beautiful Silver glitter cardstock like I used for the deers on my Christmas cards for her background. The blue/silver ornaments and silver glitter were stunning together but I should have done something different for the wording cause the white got kind of lost in all that silver.It didn't 'pop' like the white did on the black background. I might make her another one next year and change things up!  These are super easy to make!

Day 7:  Merry Christmas Banner.

Now this is not my image...Maxine shared this on Facebook, so I just took it from there. You would have thought I'd have at least one image of this cause I made one for me too...LOL..but no, I didn't get a shot of it on my fireplace.  Anyway, this is just made out of cardstock and adhered to cereal box chipboard.  You can't see it very well in this image, but the background is a digital file called Painted Fresh Snow by Sahlin Studio.  The font is DJB Paulam and the tree came from the Silhouette Store.  I print and cut all the banner tags and then used a hole punch to punch the holes.  I had some red and white gingham ribbon in my stash that I used to tie them all together.  So they wouldn't slide around, I glued the ribbon on the back on each tag once I threaded them through the holes.  My plans are to make these but add the cardstock tag to thin pieces of board to make them really sturdy.  Another project, for another time. 

Day 8:  This one was really easy but you will have to just imagine it....I have no picture of it to share!  LOL....I made her a tin of Kettle Korn...my recipe!  Bill and I fix this a lot and love, love, love it.  It's fixed in a Stir Crazy popcorn popper.  It's like Kettle Korn but we don't add salt...just the sugar. We used to use plain sugar but have changed to Splenda Blend now.  I've tried it with plain Splenda but it just didn't glaze the popcorn right.  But, the Splenda Blend glazes the popcorn and cuts the sugar calorie count in half...

Sugared Popcorn

3 Tablespoons Buttered Popcorn oil
1/2 cup popcorn
1/4 cup Splenda Blend

Heat oil in popper till hot (I usually add one kernel corn and when it pops, the oil is ready).  Add the popcorn and then sprinkle the Splenda blend on top of the popcorn.  Put the lid on the popper and let it pop!  Yummm...

Day 9: Joy to the World tray.  I picked up these trays at our local antique store, painted them black and added the wording with white vinyl.  I really like these!  The hardest part was determining the size of the circle to fit the text in. 

Day 10:  Easiest gift of all!  I had purchased her some card making supplies....just threw it in a gift bag attached the tag and delivered it...no photo!!

Day 11:  Her Name and wedding date sign.  This is her photo also!  I had this picture frame in the basement.  It was originally a wood look but I painted it cream and distressed it.  The background is made with scrapbook paper and then I added the wording with black vinyl to the front of the glass. 

Day 12:  Lantern with snowman and trees inside.  This was her main gift and I delivered it on Christmas Eve while she was home.  I had tons of fun with all this and hope she enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed doing it for her!  Maxine and I share a lot of the same interests.  She makes cards and is an avid gardener..  When the kids were little, we did couponing and refunding together...and, she has been a friend for over 45 years now! 

Whew...this took me the better part of a whole day to post!  No wonder I hesitate to post much...LOL...have a great day!  I'm off for my walk!