Polished to Perfection

Directions for a Paper Christmas Wreath

Sorry for the delay in this post..I just ran out of steam last night...So here with a full night of sleep..are the complete directions...Happy Crafting!! My house is looking very festive!!

Now while I was busy making Christmas trees number 5-7... Angela was busy making this great paper wreath...It looks stunning on my wall ...I kidnapped it for photography and never gave it back!!

Supplies you will need: 12" styrofoam wreath - your finished wreath will be 14",30-40 - 6" x 3" strips of cordinating paper. (You can make a much fuller wreath by doubling the number of strips),1- 12 x 12 sheet of red cardstock for the bow and lots of straight pins.

Directions for the Wreath:

1. Cut 30-40 strips of paper 6"x 3" -amount will vary depending on the size of your wreath and how close together you place your strips. (We suggest cutting one strip and following the directions to the end and see if the strip will fit the size wreath you purchased)
2. To make this project a little easier, rather tha placing individual strips on the wreath, Angela placed fringed strips. To make the fringe cut 2/3 of the way into the strip and make your cuts about 3/4" wide.  For her wreath one cut of the fringe overlapped.
3. Next start attaching the strips to the wreath using straight pins.  Make sure to overlap the rows so that the foam wreath does not show. As you place each strip of paper on the wreath use a pencil to curl the fringe to get this great sassy look.

Now originally Angela - had a velvet bow on her wreath...but my husband insisted that we needed to make even the bow out of paper.  So you can imagine the voice in her head..."I should have known...there would be another step or two to finish the project"

Directions for Making the Paper Bow:

1. Cut a 6" x 12" piece of red cardstock and place it on your scor-it bord with the 6" side at the top.  Now score at 1" intervals. Now flip the paper  45 degrees and score at 3" intervals. Pick up the right hand side of the sheet and fold it into the center line.
2. Now fold the left hand side into the center line.Starting at the top fold the score lines like an accordian.  Next using scissors cut about 2 1/4" into the valleys of the accordian folds of the bow....this will allow you to fluff out your bow.
3. Now cut a 1" x 3" piece of paper and wrap it around the center of the bow and adhere it. Now cut 2 tails - 1" x 7" and Cut out a notch in the bottom of each strip.  Using a glue gun attach the 2 tails to the back of the bow.
4. For a little bling use Christmas Red Stickles to add glitter to the top edges of the bow, as well as on the center of the bow and add a little accent to the bow tails.  Set aside to dry. Adhere bow to wreath using a glue gun. 
5. Now find inexpensive 3 'D ornaments to embellish your wreath.  Angela used gold snowflakes and trimmed off the back of each ornament.

Have fun creating...we would love to see what we inspired you to create...Sorry for the delay in posting directions...I got the fun part of this project...writing the directions!!

Directions for making the American Traditional Designs Paper Turkey

This is Step 1- engineer your Turkey Body...you will need a 3" Styrofoam ball, a  6" Styrofoam egg and a 5" Styrofoam heart and 2 -3" pieces of dowel. When finished your Turkey will stand 10" high including the hat and he is 11" wide. Using a bread knife cut your large egg as shown in the above photo. Use dowels to connect your Styrofoam pieces. Do not glue your Styrofoam pieces together. (You still need to airbrush or paint the head and airbrush the feet and cover it with paper)

Since this paper is not double sided, the first thing I did was adhere the plaid and the polka dot back to back to make my own double sided paper.  I highly recommend using a 4" Xyron Cheetah Runner to do this...don't skimp on the adhesive as you will be cutting these papers into 1/2" strips.  Start placing your feathers on the Turkey on the back end of the egg, where you sliced off the egg.  You will be using 2 lengths of 1/2" strips to make the body of your Turkey.  The strips with the plaid facing out are 4" in length the strips with the polka dots facing out are 3" in length.   The plaid strips are 1/2" x 4", and the Polka Dot strips are 1/2" x 3".  Unlike your Christmas tree each row you place on your body will have a 4" strip then a 3" strip - alternating. Place the strips adjacent to each other. The loopy ends will now be uneven - like architectural shingles. Placing your feathers in the right direction is the hardest part of the turkey.  When you get your Turkey dressed to about his waist, starting placing in his wings with Murdock Country Creations Autumn Striped Polished Stone Paper, these strips are all 4" x 1/2" and 2 pieces of Polished Stone Paper have been adhered back to back to make these double sided as well. Now continue working around the wings.

Here is the front view of the Turkey. When we got to the very front chest of the turkey (we ran out of plaid paper so we airbrushed the backside of the polka dot paper with E97 and Y  to give him a beard. From a design perspective this also tied the overall design of the Turkey together by balancing the airbrushed color in the back of the Turkey with the color in the front of the Turkey. Here is a closeup of how we placed the beard. We actually made 2 fans by placing the pin through all the strips and then gently fanning them out. The bottom fan for the beard has 5 - 4" strips and the top has 4 -4" strips.

(sorry for the blue type and the underlines...I seem to have a computer gliche)

Now airbrush the edge of the Styrofoam heart and the head with  E97.  I love how they both shimmer after airbrushing...who knew that Styrofoam could look so cool!  Now if you do not yet have a Copic Airbrush System you can paint your head and heart...However they will look very different painted as the color will be opaque.

Next trace around the heart onto the Sunshine Daisy paper from A2Z Essentials ( we used this paper for my large Pumpkin.)  You will need to buy special glue to glue your paper to the Styrofoam.  I used Aleene's Foamtastic -which bonds all types of foam.

Since this is going to be my Thanksgiving Centerpiece - I thought he needed a sign.  This great Happy Thanksgiving Stamp is from Hampton Arts..(and of course I love leaves).  I colored the sign with the following Copic Sketch Markers: YR07,R29,E97,Y35. Then I airbrushed around the edge with YR09 using the Chisel end of the marker..then for some added fun I also airbrushed the entire sign using the brush end of the same marker which gave me that great random splatter pattern.

To make the post for the sign - we stripped the ruffles off an hors d'oeuve's toothpick (since it is much taller than a traditional toothpick)

For the tail feathers we made cones - just like in Tree #2 and Tree #3 .  If you do not have an airbrush system, you may want to make your paper double sided since you will be able to see a lot of the inside of the cone.  I used 12- 4" squares of the American Traditional Designs PA0908- Nature Patchwork For the large tail feathers and 8 - 3" squares PA 0910 - Autumn Plaid also from TAD.

Use a 1/2 circle of chipboard to adhere the front side of your tail to. You will need 6 large cones and 3 small cones for the front.  Place the plaid cones between every other cone so the the patchwork print will be shown off when you look at the turkey from the front. 

Now adhere the backside of the tail to the other side of the chipboard.  You will need 6 large cones and 5 small cones as you will want the backside of the turkey to be extra full. Fill in the backside of the base of the turkey with additional 1/2" strips.  Before you assemble the tail airbrush the insides of the cones with E97 and Y35. Since Tom is a little heavy - My husband used a  2 1/2" drywall screw to hold the base of the heart to support the weight. (Place the screw, behind where you placed the original dowel)

To make the face I used movable eyes..I didn't have exactly the size I envisioned so I cut black circles from my smallest nestabilities circle die.  This made my eyes look large.  For the beak I cut out a elongated diamond shape.  For the waddle I took a scrap piece of lace doilies and airbrushed it deep red. Using a straight pin I attached the beak and the waddle.

From black cardstock construct a pilgrim hat.  My hat is 2 1/2" tall, The brim is 3 1/2" in diameter.  I used my circle nestabilities to cut the brim and to cut a 2" hole inside the brim for the hat to fit on my turkey's head.  I also cut a 2 1/2" circle for the top of the hat.  The buckle on the hat was a ribbon charm from Making Memories that I used a gold leafing pen to alter.

and finally Our Turkey is completed!!!

If you have any questions as you make your version of Our Turkey please do not hesitate to email us.

Thanks for your patience as we wrote these instructions today!!

And the winner is......

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Well -the voting was really close and came down to the wire on Saturday ...I had to count the votes 3 times!!  And the winner is Tree number 1 ...followed very closely by tree number 7.  For those of you who had a hard time choosing...my mom specifically came to my house to see all the trees and she still couldn't decide!! Tons of people voted for tree number 7 - because they thought it was SASSY!!

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog this week and thanks for commenting on my posts!! I would love to see the trees that everyone makes...if you would like to share your tree with me send your photos to kfortin@megalink.net.

A few designing tips:--both of the trees are so gorgeous in large part due to this fabulous double sided Christmas Paper from American Crafts - the prints I used were as follows:

Calling Birds 34409/ Red

Maids a Milking 34413/ Light green

Ladies Dancing 34414/dark green

And Rudolph(the red and white Polka Dot) from their 2006 Christmas Collection. 

The fifth paper is from Pebbles Inc. (and was not double sided).  You will also noticed that I always placed the Maids a Milking- design on the top!!  Since this is a traditional Christmas tree color.  I also alternated the dark and light paper designs so that your eye would look at the whole tree and not stop in one spot of the tree.

Now as for the winner of my Christmas Blog Candy....The winner is Joyce Gleason....Joyce is from Pittsburgh PA !!

For those you anxiously awaiting Turkey directions - they will be posted by early this evening...I am still working on them.

My Paper Pumpkin Patch

Here's my next pumpkin in my pumpkin patch, I used a 6" styrofoam ball and shaved a wedge off the bottom so that my pumpkin would sit flat.  I used 1/2" x 4" strips of this fun paper from A2Z Essentials Dulce Sunshine Collection - Sunshine Daisies S2.  I love its whimsical feel.  It took 2 1/2 sheets of 12 x 12 paper to make this large pumpkin which translates to approximately 180 strips. On the top two layers I trimmed my strips down to 3" strips. Do you have any idea how many boxes of pins I have used this week?? Here's a photo of the pumpkin patch so far:

I like things with texture and I love my cuttlebug...so I thought it would be nice to have a textured pumkin in my pumpkin patch. This pumpkin uses a 5" ball and stripes that are 4" by 1/2".  Cut all you strips first and them place sets of the strips inside your swirl A2 Embossing Folder. Place them in your cuttlebug machine ...your sandwich recipe is plate a, Plate b - embossing folder and then your 2nd plate B.  Crank the folder through the machine, unload you embossing folder and refill with more strips.  Repeat until all your strips are dry embossed. Now begin assembling your pumpkin, working from the bottom of the pumpkin up to the top of the pumpkin.

And here is the top view of my textured pumpkin I also texturized the stem and curly vines:

And of course here is a photo of the entire Pumkin Patch....

So which pumpkin is you favorite??  Be sure to stop by tomorrow to see what the true centerpiece for my Thanksgiving Table is....of all of the paper projects we have made this last week...(yes it has been a whole week of paper strips, styrofoam and pins) - Saturday's Post is by far my absolute favorite ...so don't forget to come back and see the next post!!   You have until Saturday Night at midnight to vote for your favorite tree...for a chance to win my Christmas Blog Candy!!  Good luck and thanks for visiting!!

A2Z Essentials Paper Pumpkins for your Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Now in the midst of designing my Forest - It occurred to me that months ago I had started a Thanksgiving Table Setting...but I didn't really have a centerpiece...I have napkins and place cards and gift bags, but still no centerpiece and as many of you know once the creative juices start flowing it's very hard to turn them off so you can sleep at night...it is always better to finish designing before you try to sleep ( at least that's what I keep trying to explain to my husband when I am in the midst of the creative process at 1 a.m.).  To make this mini Pumpkin I used 1/2" x 2" Strips of A2Z Essentials paper - Carefree Collection - Sunny Circles and a 3" ball. I shaved just a hair off the bottom of the ball so that it would sit flat.  When I approached the top of the pumpkin I switched to strips that were only 1 1/2'" long so that it would lay correctly at the top.  I made the stem by cutting a 1/2" strip of paper and I twirled it up the pencil slightly overlapping the paper each time around the pencil. Remove it slowly from the pencil and form it into a stem. To make the curly vines I cut 1/4" strips of shamrock green cardstock and curled it around my pencil and as I pulled it off the pencil I made it into a long curl. When I completed my first pumpkin ( Yes--there is a whole patch of pumpkins coming), I decided that the paper I had selected was to pale and of course my husband thought so too!!  And his suggestion was perfect - of course - airbrush it!!! (why didn't I think of that).  Here is what my pumpkin looked like before it was airbrushed:

Wow!! What a difference a little airbrushing can do!!  I used my Copic Airbrush System and YR 09 .  For my second pumpkin I decided to use my peach glitter cards from Die Cuts with a View.  I airbrushed this pumpkin as well.

And if you have been reading my blog over the past few months you know I LOVE GLITTER PAPER!!

Here is a top view of the glitter pumpkin:

Aren't they cute??  Stop in tomorrow to see my Pumpkin Patch grow!! And don't miss checking in on Saturday - you just won't believe how cool Saturday's post is!! (Remember - no one has been sleeping at my house).  And don't forget that you have until Saturday at Midnight to vote for your favorite tree and for a chance to win my Christmas Blog Candy!!  Place your vote in the comment section of my October 31st Post.  Thanks to everyone who has voted... See you tomorrow!

Christmas Tree #7 - Vote today for your Favorite Tree- Blog Candy Revealed

Here it is the last tree in the forest.  For this tree I used the same size scraps of paper as for tree #1. The strips are 1/2" x 6" long.  Instead of folding these I curled them around a pencil and then placed them on my tree.  For each strip I used 2 pins - the first one was a flat head at the top of the strip and the second one was a pearlized head which I placed about one inch down the strip, so that I could ensure that you would be able to see the printed paper and not just the curls.  So now it is time to decide -

Working from left to  Right - Tree # 7-curls, Tree #4 White Doilies, Tree #6 Gold Doilies

Working from Left to right Tree# 1 -loops, Tree #4 Tonic Holly Punch, Tree #3 cones,   Tree #5 - Silver Doilies

Which tree is your favorite??? Ijust love all the trees.  Here is a shot of my entire mantel with all this weeks projects!!

You can vote by placing a comment on this post - everyone who votes on this post will be entered to win a chance to win today's blog candy.  You have until Saturday Night at midnight on November 3rd to place your vote- on the Oct 31st Post.  The random number generator will select the winner and I will contact the winner via email on Sunday November 4th, the winner will need to provide me with their address so that I can send you the following basket of Blog Candy:

Since most of the paper I used for my trees was from the American Crafts Christmas Collection - many of the goodies in the gift boxes are from the collection - the entire collections of American Crafts Christmas Ribbon, red & green brads in multiple sizes, American  Crafts Christmas Rub-ons and a Ornament I made using their paper scraps.  3 styrofoam cones for you to make your own trees.  Clear Christmas Stamps from Hero Arts- the perfect size for place cards for your Christmas Dinner Table. Red and Green Rhinestones from Kaiser Crafts. Holly and Berry Brads from making Memories,  Sam the Snowman from Silver Fox Stamps and 3 of my favorite colors of Spica Micro glass flake pens - silver, gold and clear.  Goodluck to everyone who votes!!

And here are the ornaments I made with the leftover 1/2" x 6" strips from my trees:

Hope everyone has as much fun making your forest as I did!!  Tell your friends to visit my blog for their chance to win my Christmas Blog Candy.  Thanks for visting!!

Christmas Trees #5 and #6 from foil doilies plus a Blog Candy Alert!!

To make this tree I used 4" diameter silver foil doiles from Wilton.  These are more expensive than white doilies and only come 12 in a package, but I loved the way they folded as they were a little easier to work with than the paper doilies.  The assembly of the tree is identical to the assembly of the white doilies tree.  For the tree topper I found a set of star wands in the party favor section of Dollar tree. I cut down the wand and inserted it in the top of the tree.  Next I used my red and green pearlized pins to add ornaments to the tree, just by simple placing them gently in the lace work of the doilie and pushing them slightly into the styrofoam cone.  For the tree skirt I airbrushed a gold doilie with a G07 Copic Marker.

Now as we reviewed the growing forest on our mantel, we decided that there was still something we liked a little more about the first Christmas Tree.  I decided that It might be that the base of the first christmas tree is a little wider and perhaps this was why I liked it better....so of course I was now off to make tree # 5.

For this version I used 2 sizes of gold doilies as I wanted the base to be wider.  I used 8" gold doilies on the first two levels.  I cut these in fourths since they were so large. The 3rd thru 5th layers of the tree were made from 6" gold doilies which I cut in 1/2 for layer 3 and 4, to make the 5th layer narrower I trimmed a pie wedge (1/4th slice) from the 6" dolie.  I think this gives the tree a better proportion, but I think I like the silver foil doilies better since the contast between the inside of the doilies and the outside of the doilies is less noticeable.  I airbushed a gold doilie with G07 to make the tree skirt.  I altered the silver star with a gold leafing pen, and then used my  R29 Copic sketch marker to color inside the holes of the star so that it would looke like rubies in the star.  Make sure you gold leafing is entirely dry before you alter the star with the red copic marker.  I added additional pearlized red and green pins for ornaments.  And we still can not decide which tree we like best.  Can you??  Since I can't have an even number of trees on my mantel...I'm off to design a 7th tree which I will post tomorrow with a picture of all 7 trees. . ..So come back tomorrow to post your vote in the comment section of Christmas Tree # 7 and get a chance to win  blog candy as everyone decides which tree they like best.

Christmas Tree # 4 - White Doilies

I must say - we aren't getting much sleep at our house these days...as every tree we design - leads to yet another light bulb moment and one more tree for our forest. What I once thought would be our centerpiece for our Christmas table has now become our fireplace mantel display already ( yikes it's not even November yet).  We are still trying to decide which tree we like best, so the fireplace mantel seemed like a fitting place to line them up to look at as we mull over why we might prefer one over another one. Now if you be reading my blog daily, you will remember that after I finished Tree #2, my husband insisted that my trees needed tree skirts.  So of course as I was driving to town to find doilies- I realized that if the Tonic Holly punch tree was cool...you got it...so would a lacy tree made from Doilies.  It would be a beautiful wedding centerpiece for a Christmas wedding. 

To make this tree I used 4" diameter Doilies from Wilton. These come packed 30 doilies to a package- I cut each doilie in half and one package made a whole tree.  Aftter cutting the doilies in half I rolled them into a cone and glued them.  My recommendation is to glue all your pieces together first and then assemble your tree.  I found these little red bows in the mini christmas tree section of my local craft store, I used green Pearlized long pins to place them on my tree.  For a stronger contrast for my tree skirt - I airbrushed a Gold Foil Doilie with G07.  I also airbrushed my Silver Snowflake with Copic G07.  I love my airbrush system, and I can't tell you how many more trips to town I would make in a week to finish one of my blog projects, if I didn't have the ability to so easily alter the color of almost anything.  When I went to airbrush the snowflakes for both tree #3 and Tree #4, the snowflakes still shimmered even after airbrushing as the alcohol ink from the markers is translucent.  I certainly would not have gotten this effect if I had painted my snowflake green.  And yes, you will need to visit tomorrow - when I reveal tree #5 and tree #6....I told you I was building a forest!!! 

Here is a slightly different view of Tree #4:

Here you can see how beautiful the cutwork of the doiles.

Thanks for visiting.

Christmas tree #3 using Tonic Holly Punch

Now as we were assembling Christmas Tree # 2, the next light bulb went off that we could also make a beautiful tree using the Tonic Holly Corner Punch and Shamrock Green Cardstock from Worldwin.  The corner punch would round off the square and create a beautiful diecut as well.  To make Christmas Tree # 3, you will need a 2 7/8" x 7 7/8" styrofoam cone and 59 - 2" x 2" squares of Shamrock green cardstock.  Next punch one corner of each square with the Tonic Holly Punch.  Turn your square 45 degrees and place the punched corner at the top (north) now gently roll in the eastern corner and the western corner, do not crease, glue these together to make a cone shape. Note: these cones are slightly harder to make into cones without creasing them.  Follow the directions from Christmas Tree #2 to assemble your tree. For a finishing touch I added a red rhinestone from Kaiser Crafts to the tip of each bough branch for a little bling. SInce my tree was primarily red and green, I used my Copic Airbrush system and R29 to airbrush my snowflake red. What I loves most is that the snowflake still shimmered even after I airbrushed it.

         

Check in tomorrow to see the next tree in the forest!! For this tree I added a gold doilie for a tree skirt.  I am still trying to decide which tree I like best. Which tree do you like best?

Christmas Tree #2 from American Crafts Christmas Scraps

 

Well, I'm now working on creating a small forest...I just can't stop the wheels from turning.  Remember that when I was creating the first tree, Angela was teaching an exploding box class.  Every time we teach this class we come up with a new twist.  Last week Angela came to my studio with this really cute flower/bow/ornament and I saw it and told her it would great on the top of the exploding box she was teaching that day. We agreed since it could be made from the scraps leftover from the exploding box. The box topper was a huge hit.  So we decided to make a Christmas exploding box with the great topper and the great addition of embellishments using my circle nestabilities dies. Tons of directions for these boxes have been on other blogs, so today I won't write directions today...since I have a ton of stuff to cover.  If you would like for me to post directions for the exploding box, just leave me a comment at the end of the post.  If you have not left a comment before on a post but would like to-simple click on the comment button at the end of this article and add a comment. Here is the box:

 

I love using the nestabilities on the side of the box for an embellishment. The snowflake in the center is a button. Since some of you may not know what an exploding box is - here is a photo of what happens when you take the lid off the box: You can put a ton of photos in this box - It's a great gift for dad's desk!!

Here is the box when you add the bow:

Doesn't it look great!!  Thanks Angela for letting me share it!!  Here is just the bow - which actually is also a great ornament too!!

I will post directions on how to make this bow/ornament later this week because after all this is a blog about Christmas Tree #2 ( The beginning of the forest).  Angela was finishing her bow - when the light bulbs went off and I could see how the parts to her bow would be just perfect for the next tree if I used them upside down.  To make Christmas tree #2 - You will need 2" x 2" scraps of Christmas Paper.  We used American Crafts and Pebbles Inc paper for this tree too!! Turn your square 45 degrees so the corners are facing North/South/East/West.  Now take the eastern corner and roll it toward the center of the square without creasing the outside.  Now bring the western corner in to meet it and adhere these together to make your cone.  I recommend making all your cones first and then assembling the tree.

Starting at the bottom of your cone add the first layer of cones using 1 1/2" straight pins about 1/2" from the top to the point of the cone. I used  2 7/8" x 7 7/8" cone to make your tree. Which took a total of 59 cones.

1. Layer 1- is 12 cones-tips should be even with the base of the styrofoam cone.
2. Layer 2 is 12 cones- place the following rows about 1 1/4" above the previous row.
3. layer 3 is 10 cones
4. layer 4 is 10 cones
5. Layer 5 is 9 cones
6. layer 6 is 6 cones

I bought red pearlized pins for the layer 6 of the tree since these pins will show.  When you get to the last layer of your tree place the tip of your paper cone 3/4" above the top of the styrofoam cone (if yours is flat at the top like mine was).  This layer should complete the point of the tree.  The pin tops will look like ornaments. The 3-d Snowflake was a piece of an ornament from the Dollar Tree store- it came with a large 3-d Snowflake and 2 small 3-d snowflakes - the topper is the smaller 3-d snowflake. For added decoration I used a Snow writer from Deco Art to decorate the boughs of the tree, while it was wet I added crystal glitter from the Art Institute.  For embellishments I added self adhesive rhinestones from KaiserCrafts and snowflake buttons. And my husband insisted that the tree needed a tree skirt.  So I have added a doilie which I backed with red cardstock so that you could see the lace work. Check back in tomorrow for Christmas Tree # 3.  Thanks for visting!!