Partly Paper

Sorry, it took me a minute to find my USB cord for my camera... I swear things get too crazy around here sometimes and I forget what direction I'm supposed to be going in.... Anyways, I've found a few moments, here and there, to create a few little craft projects for Christmas.

The Santa images below were taken from a Christmas Postcard Book put out by Christmas Traditions. They are actual nice photocopies from vintage Christmas postcards collected by the Merck Family. You can see I've began working on them by glittering some of the postcards elements, in hopes of creating a set of six vintage style ornament hangers to add to our tree. I'm remaining hopeful of making it into the studio {{{BEFORE CHRISTMAS}}} to finish these up.

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While playing with my new Cricut Expressions, learning the ropes to cutting, ect. I cut out the lettering for this "Winter Wishes" banner for our tree. The font cartridge is Stone Script, I believe, cut at 2" and I used the medium sized shipping tags to build my foundation collage upon and then used sheer ribbon to tie each tag to the lametta tinsel garland. Not the best picture, but here it is hung on our tree!

And speaking of the Cricut Expressions, I have to say that I'm so loving mine! I haven't played with it as much as I'd like too, but what I've done with it to date has been amazing! I also made a few decisions regarding the software and the cartridges as there's so many options out there available. I downloaded a trial version of CDS {Design Studio} and explored it yesterday. In my opinion, this software should have come pre-programmed into the machine! I don't really care about the e-catalog right now but I suppose if one had a lot of the cartridges and the jukebox connectors, it could come in as a handy reference. But the program with the ability to actually see where your cuts are on the paper on your screen is amazing! not to mention the ability to weld letters and words and phrases!!! So, I'm intending to purchase it, learn to really use the machine and the diecuts in my artwork, exploring with techniques, and playing. I'm thinking I'll use CDS until my warranty expires, then purchase the SCAL that will enable me to cut my own fonts from my computer.

I've decided this will work best for me as I continue to work on organizing the studio and establishing an area that works best for both me and the machine. I've some ideas in mind but nothing concrete... but I'm excited about the possibilities this brings into my life and my art!

So, back to the art... I cut several of these 5" stars out of chipboard, decoupaged them with sheet music, matted and framed one of my favorite Christmas postcard images to it, then hot glued tinsel to the edges. Here it is tucked in our tree as the tree topper which works perfectly surrounded by golden twigs, shiny sparkly sprigs and berries, and gold glittered red silk poinsettas. TFL!!!!