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!!

Tag Your It

Before I started my Forest ( yes- like 3 weeks ago) - I volunteered to be tagged by Debbie for a fun little trivia game.

So - here are the rules:
1-Link to your tagger (see above), and also post these rules on your blog. Done!

2-Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3-Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4- Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

So her goes 7 random or weird facts about me (this took a little thought)

1. I almost always have an untied shoe - my mom taught me how to tie my shoes backwards and I simply refuse to learn the correct way in fear that if I learn the correct way - I will no longer tie beautiful flat craft bows. Pathetic Huh!!

2. I went to Dartmouth to be a computer science major...but ended up majoring in Art.-as a landscape painter - my favorite medium is oil painting.  Kinda wishin' now that I had taken a few more computer classes- they might have come in handy now that I'm addicted to blogging.

3. When I eat a meal - I eat one item at a time...it drives my husband crazy!!

5. In the 80's I lived two semesters abroad - One in France and One in Italy- studying Art History.

4.You might have an item in your house that I actually painted or designed - In the 90's I designed and painted thousands of wooden miniatures for shadow boxes and sold them at Craft Fairs on the East Coast.  In the 00's I designed and painted thousands of glass snowman ornaments that were sold at College Bookstores throughout the U.S.

6.  When it comes to designing - I am a perfectionist..hence my blog name Polished to Perfection.(my nieces and sister picked out that name)!!  Everyone who plays with me knows that if you think your done designing...do 2 more steps!! ( Angela says she hears my voice in her head -like a coach - saying you can do a little more and a little more!!).  I am quickly finding out though ...that my husband is more of a design perfectionist that I ever dreamed of being!!

7. I have become a blogging stats junkie.. I have been known to get up in the middle of the night to see how many people have read my blog!! (Don't tell my husband!)

Today I am tagging 4 people...and looking for 3 volunteers to be tagged...you can volunteer by posting a comment on todays blog. Since Allison has already been tagged I am now looking for 4 volunteers!!

Allison -she amazes me everyday by reading thousands of blogs and telling everyone where to find - blog candy, challenges and Tutorials...she is an absolute must read every day. So Allison informs me that she has already been tagged...but I'll leave her info here...since you really need to visit her blog.

Monika - everyday -she also lists her - treasures of the day - ( her favorite posts of the day) - Seriously where do you girls find the time!!

Tracey- who is my sister...and hasn't blogged a ton yet...nudge, nudge...but is always my computer tech support.  She has the most beautiful blog header...a photo she took at sunrise from her house!!

Mary - who I met at NHStamping Memories and who is now on the Cornish Heritage Design team- congrats - Mary

Directions for Peppermint Pebbles Christmas Tree #8

Finally here are the directions for making the Peppermint Pebbles Christmas Tree!!

Supplies: 1 - 12 X12 Sheet of American Crafts Maids- A-Milking, 1 - 12 x12 Sheet of Christmas Twinkles- Pebblies Inc., 1 1/2 bags of clear glass accent gems, glue gun, styrofoam cone, smallest circle die cut from your Spellbinders Nestibilitie set, Designer dries clear adhesive from the Art Glitter Institute, an ornament (for top of tree-from Walmart) and a bunch of berries on wire (from the Dollar Tree Store).

Directions:

1. Wrap your Maids- a- milking paper around your cone and trim off the excess paper.  Use a glue gun to adhere the paper to the cone.
2. Using you smallest circle from your Spellbinder's Nestabilitie set - cut out 120 snowflakes from your Christmas Twinkle Paper (you should use about a 1/2 sheet). Using Designer Dries Clear Adhesive from the Art Glitter Institute adhere the snowflakes to the backside of your clear glass accents.  Set these aside to dry. (if you do not have the nestabilities circles yet- use a small circle punch -sized to match your pebbles)
3. Starting at the bottom of the tree adhere the snowflake pebbles with your glue gun, leaving room to add the red berries between your snowflake pebbles.  Since the berries are on wire - simply poke the berries into the cone.  Continue adding layers of Pebbles and Berries until you reach the top of the cone. 
4. Using your Circle Nestabilities find the circle size to match the top of your cone and cut out a circle from the Maids-a-Milking paper.
5. To adorn the top of your Tree - we went to Walmart and purchased this three dimensional topper.  Clip of the plastic hook and fill in the spot left from the hook with red stickles...the colors match perfectly.

Here is a close up of the tree:

Have fun creating this beautiful tree...thanks again to Angela for bringing this tree from design concept in my head to a real finished project!!

Peppermint Pebbles Wreath and Christmas Tree #8

Angela and I had another great play date...we collaborate on design work often.  This week she came by with the beginnings of an idea for this cute wreath made from the Glass Accent Stones that you put in the base of a flower arrangement.  She had glued them onto this Christmas Twinkles Paper from Pebbles Inc which made them look like Christmas Peppermints.  Next she adhered them to a narrow chipboard ring and then she tied green and red ribbon between the pebbles to cover up the chipboard. I looked at it and immediately my brain went into over drive... It was very cool but a little skinny for a wreath.  So out came my set of scalloped circle nestabilities to make a green cardstock wreath, which looked a little flat until we used the swirls A2 embossing folder to dry emboss it.  The wreath would be great with a school photo in it, but since we were in the midst of design fever we decided to use a snow couple from Murdock Country Creations Peppermint Snowman Polished Stone Paper.  For the back we cut out a full scalloped circle and embossed it, then we decided to adorn it with Christmas verbiage in case it twirled on the tree.

So here is what the backside looks like:

I love this clear stamp set from Hampton Arts- it has a ton of circular sayings and because it is a clear set you can interchange all the verbiage.  This set also works great as a pail topper.  As you can also see we ran the image back through my cuttlebug to get a dry embossed edge which really dresses up the verbiage.

Now of course while we were making the wreath -I was thinking wouldn't these pebbles make a great tree. So Angela went home and has been working on this tree design for most of the week- I love it!!Great job Angela!!  It's always more fun to design projects with friends!! Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day to make all the things in my head!!

It's getting late tonight - so I will post complete directions on how to make this tree on tomorrow's post!!   Thanks for visiting!!

Stampendous Pail Toppers

Tonight I thought I share with you this fun pail -what a great way to deliver your christmas cookies ...or maybe your homemade peanut butter fudge...(my grandma made the best peanut butter fudge every year at Christmas).  Stampendous makes these great clear pails that you can decorate tons of ways.  For my Christmas Pail I used their Ornamnent Class a Peel stickers on the outside of the pail and then I filled in the ornaments with STICKLES!!  The ribbon is from Creative Imaginations and is double sided, I used one side on the top and the other side on the bottom.  Stampendous also makes stamps called pail toppers- they are the perfect size for stamping and decorating the lid of your pail for any season or occassion. Here's the top view of my pail:

I stamped and embossed the image with green foil embossing powder on water color paper and then colored in my topper using Tombow Markers. See you tomorrow!!

Outlines Rubber Stamp's Cut Away Ornament Toppers

Since everyone loved last night's post, I thought I would share another Ornament Topper with you.

To make this ornament I used Murdock Country Creations Antique Green (my flash washed out the green), Outlines Rubber Stamp's Ornament Cut AwayTopper.  To make this ornament I stamped the topper twice.  The bottom topper is the full stamp design. The top topper is the same stamped image, but I cut the petals off and focused on the interior lines.  I used Moss embossing powder to stamp the image onto the Antique Green Polished Stone.  Then I decorated the 2 toppers with Lime Green and Pink Stickles. If you haven't ever been to Outlines Rubber Stamp Company website , I highly recommend visiting it as they have a beautiful gallery as well as an instructional section- where you will find instructions for 4 more ornament topper ornaments.

To make this ornament I started with a clear ornament and placed Poinsettia Outline stickers - from Best Creations strategically on the ornament. Then I used Candy Cane Stickles to fill in the poinsettia outline and Holly Stickles to fill in the leaves. I strongly recommend using an ornament stand to hold your ornament while it dries.  If you do not have a stand, you will need to decorate one side and let it dry, and then decorate the second side.  Stickles takes a while to dry. To give the ornament extra dimension I added gold, light green and red rhinestones from KaiserKrafts.

Now I really liked my ornament but my husband thought it needed something white inside the ball to make the poinsettias stand out more..he suggested rolling up white paper. I agreed that something white inside the ornament would work, but I thought that paper rolled up would take away from the decorations. Then the light bulb went off and I remembered that I had a ton of Buffalo Snow leftover from the Ornament from scraps project.  So here is the newly improved ornament:

Doesn't it look great!! 

I used a funnel and a fondue fork to get the Buffalo Snow into the ornament. Twirl the fondue fork like it is a beater (also my husband's idea)...what would I do without him!!

As I was reading this weeks SCS newsletter this week..I noticed the forum on Stickles clogging, so I thought I would share with you my husband's solution. Last year I asked him for a rack that would store my stickles upside down, so that we wouldn't spend so much time in my classes shaking bottles trying to get them started.  Several hours later, I visited him in his workshop where he had designed an inversion storage tote...not just for my stickles, but also for my Scotch Tacky Adhesive and my Snow Writer.  The rack also works for storing my paint daubbers upside down as well.   Now you can see how truly spoiled I am.

 

I love it...It makes it so easy to move my stickles around during class and saves a ton of valuable class time since the stickles work on the first squeeze.

If anyone would like to order one of these racks, please contact him via my email.  My husband sells these racks unfinished for $29.95 plus shipping.  The rack is double sided and holds 34 stickles bottles or paint daubbers and has 2 additional larger holes for Tacky Adhesive, Snow Writer or Designer Dries Clear Adhesive. Please note that he does not have any employees and would be making these upon request.

Outlines Rubber Stamp Toppers

As many of you know from reading my blog - I love glitter and bling and these Ornament Topper stamps from Outlines Rubberstamp are a blast.  They have 4 sets of different ornament toppers which all make beautiful ornaments for your Christmas Tree...add some polished stone, embossing powder, stickles, dot sparklers and Outline stickers (both from Stampendous) and you are ready for a funfilled afternoon. Here is the list of supplies I used to create this ornament.

Murdock Country Creations: DeepSea Polished Stone, Seafoam Polished Stone, Ocean Mist Polished Stone, Cobalt Blue Christmas Ornament. Outlines Rubber Stamp: H-632 Circle Topper Stamp, F- 629 Plain Topper Stamp. Stampendous: Dot Sparklers Blue & Red, Snowflake Sparklers Blue,Snowflakes Blue Pearl  Ranger: Silver Stickles,Eucalyptus Stickles,Turquoise Stickles,Blue Foil Embossing Powder, Green Foil Embossing Powder

Directions:

1. Begin your ornament by embossing the plain topper stamp onto the Deep Sea Polished Stone with Green Foil Embossing powder.Next, emboss the circle topper stamp once on the Seafoam and once on the Ocean Mist Polished Stone.
2. Cut the three embossed toppers out. Cut a hole in the center of each topper slightly larger than the smallest circle, this should allow the toppers to fit on the top of your ornament.
3. Using the blue Dot Sparklers, embellish the Deep Sea topper, using three dot sparklers of three different sizes for each petal. Now use the Silver Stickles around the outside of the Deep Sea topper. Using the Eucalyptus and Turquoise Stickles, fill in the circles on the two larger toppers. Set these aside to dry.
4. To decorate the glass ball use various Dot Sparklers, and Snowflake Sparkers Blue and Blue Pearl Snowflakes. When your toppers are dry, put them onto the top of your ornament arrange them so that you can see each layer and replace the crown.

If you haven't yet use the dot sparklers from Stampendous - you don't know what your missing they come in tons of colors and each sheet has tons of dot sparklers in various sizes per sheet.

I love stamps that are versatile...so why not use these same stamps to create a great year-round gift bag: 

For this bag design I added an additional stamp fomr Outlines Rubber Stamps B-622 Ornament bottom and the Congratulations Class a Peel stickers from Stampendous as well as the floral swirls.  Thnaks for stopping in!!

Directions for American Crafts Christmas Exploding Box

Making an exploding box - is tons of fun and a great gift idea as we approach Christmas...I can't think of a better gift for a husband, grandparent or friend...a box full of memories.

To make a exploding box you will need 3 sheets of coordinating double sided papers - papers should be at least 100lb weight for the box to have substance or 6 sheets of coordinating paper/cardstock.

Next decide the order in which you want your designs to be placed.  I suggest picking your favorite print for the outside of the box.  We made a 3 layered box.

1. Outside layer  12 x 12 Sheet– using a scor-it bord -score a line 4” from the left side and then 4" from the right side of your 12" piece of paper. ( each time you score a piece of paper with the scor-it board you lose a 1/16th of an inch). Now score in 4" from the top and 4" from the bottom.  Your paper should now look like a tic - tac- toe board. Cut off the 4" squares from all the corners.  Save these for your exploding box bow or for your paper embellishments on the outside of the box.
2. Middle layer –Trim your paper to 10 1/2" x 10 1/2".  Using a scor-it bord- score lines 3 ½” in from all 4 sides as in the outside layer. Cut out all 4 corners.
3. Inside layer – Trim your paper to 9" x 9". Using a scor-it bord- score lines 3 " from all 4 sides as in the outside layer. Cut out all 4 corners.
4. To assemble the bottom of the box-Apply adhesive to bottom of middle layer.  Center middle layer on top of outside layer.  Apply adhesive to bottom of inside layer.  Center inside layer on top of middle layer.

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1. Box lid – You will need a 6" x 6" piece of coordinating paper for your box top. Score at 1” all  4 edges. Snip at score line to score line on each corner. Fold score lines of the lid and tuck the tabs and adhere.
2. Embellishments-Use your scalloped circle nestabilities to cut out embellishments for the side of your box. I used leftover scraps of red glitter paper from Die Cuts with a View and leftover scraps from this project.
3. In the center of my scalloped circles I added snowflake buttons.  For additional decoration I added green and white snowflake ribbon - also from American Crafts to each side of the outside layer.
4. I also used a 1/4" strip of the Ladies Milking paper to trim the Rudolph Lid.
5. Now use your leftover scraps to create the box topper.

Thanks for visiting!! 

Directions for Exploding Box Topper/ornament

I'd like to thank everyone who has been patiently waiting for my design fever to slow down long enough for me to finally get a chance to post directions for the Exploding Box Topper/Ornament.  This design works great for an ornament as well as a box topper. The topper can be made from the leftover pieces of your exploding box.

Directions for Exploding Box Topper/Ornament:

1.      Cut out 12 squares of paper (2” x 2”).  Turn the 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.

2.      Cut out 8 squares of paper ( 1 ½ x 1 ½ ).  Make cones as described above.

3.      Using your Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles cut out a 2 ¼ inch circle from a piece of scrap paper.  Find and mark the center of the circle.  Now take the first 12 cones and adhere them to the circle making sure that the cone points are touching the center mark. For this project you want inside of the cones to be showing as in the photo.

4.      Apply Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to the inside of the 2 x 2 cones and sprinkle the inside of the cone with Glitter from the Art Institute ( I love this glitter). Glitter can also be added to the smaller cones if desired.

5.      Next take the 8- 1 ½ “squares and adhere them on top of the 12 squares making sure that the cone points are touching the center mark.

6.      Cut pieces of ½” wide ribbon to place in between the smaller cones.

7.      Add small flower and brad to center.

8.      Use dimensional paint to add small red dots to tips of cones. Use stickles to decorate the seam of the smaller cones.

These look great with only one layer of cones as well.  I will post directions for the exploding box tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting!!

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!!