DIY Christmas Ornaments

Hi everyone ~  and a happy lovely Holiday season to you all. I'm afraid I may have been a tad bit over zealous in believing that I would have enough time to DIY my Holiday all while trying to get this house packed up and ready to move. What a total bummer to be moving during Christmas again. However, I have made a few gifts for the kids, reupholstered a favorite thrift store chair, and I made a new tutorial for the Gossamer Blue blog.  (Things are getting done, just at a much slower rate than I had originally anticipated!) 

We're keeping the Christmas decor really simple this year with 1 tree and minimal decorations throughout the rest of the house. I went with a silver and gold theme again this year and decided to make embellished ornaments as part of a tutorial. They are super simple to make but sparkly and pretty ` the perfect combination for any project! 

To start with, you’ll need a small collection of glass bulb ornaments, word stickers, craft glue, glitter, spray paint, and a paint brush.

I decided to spray paint my stickers first with a gold paint to match the the glitter. It only takes a minute to dry and if you end up with a little too much paint on the sheet, simply wipe away the excess with a paper towel.

Next, working with one sticker title at a time,  use the craft glue and dab a few small amounts of glue onto the sticker. Use a paintbrush to spread the glue along and be sure to cover the entire area of the sticker. Once your sticker is covered with glue, sprinkle the glitter, enough to cover the entire sticker. Let the glitter set into the glue and dry before peeling it off of the sheet.

Once the stickers are dry you’ll be able to peel them right off and add them to the glass ornaments. Be sure to gently position and press the sticker on the glass bulb.

I ended up leaving a couple of the stickers plain without the glitter. Since the stickers are textured I found that the gold paint really added dimension to them even without the added glitter. 

Hopefully your week is off to a wonderful start! Have a lovely day~ Tara

DIY Holiday: Embroidered Makeup Bag

Hi everyone! So this year instead of buying a bunch of gifts - I'm planning on making them! At least some of them! I've been jotting down different ideas this past month and gathering up supplies to make the kids and friends more personalized gifts that I think they will like. This way, I use up things in my craft room that have just been sitting for way too long and hopefully gift-giving will be a little more meaningful.  

Today I'm making a few Embroidered makeup bags, or clutches - they can be used for almost anything! In the Gossamer Blues Bits & Pieces kit   you'll find the Amy Tangerine accent Embroidery Stencil Kit and that's what I'll be using along with the gold and silver zippered bags - found at the Dollar Tree store for only.... $1 each! (I love that store, you can always find little things to DIY!) 

Here's what you'll need for this project! 

 a bag or clutch and the Embroidery Stencil Kit 

The Stencil kit itself comes with everything you'll need to embroidery; the needle, stencil, rubber mat, piercing tool and even 3 types of string! I wrote down the directions on the photos themselves, if you've never given embroidery work a try, now is the time! It's one of those fun projects to grab, sit down in a cozy chair and just stitch. Simple as that! 

After I was done stitching the outside pattern, I knotted my string and thread a new piece of string onto my needle. I like to work with a shorter amount of string at a time. I find that it doesn't tend to tangle or knot as easily this way. Once your finished stitching the inside pattern, knot the string and trim and you're all done! I added a few handmade tassels to mine bags as well, just a little something to add some more color!  

Here is one more idea that kind of goes along with this DIY gift! I always seem to have a few left-over brads, buttons, little embellishments etc. from the kits I work with, and instead of just tossing them into my 'loose junk bin' I decided I was going to give them a new purpose. I used a package of bobby pin forms (purchased for $1.30 for 6) and a dab of craft glue and just added a little embellishment to each bobby pin. I think Alaina will these, they are dainty and perfect for a little girl who loves adding pretty things to her hair! 

Hope you enjoyed my first project! I have a whole bunch of DIY gift ideas to share this month as I make them. 

Have a wonderful crafty day! ~ Tara

December Projects!

It's that time again! Time for a few photos and new projects from Gossamer Blue but first, I wanted to add in a question that I received here on the blog last week. 

so inspiring ... u can make anything look pretty ... can u pl tell us which camera you use ?? - whitelink 

So, my trusty camera right now is a Nikon D3100. I use a couple of kit lenses and sometimes the Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens. I live in AZ which pretty much guarantees me sunny skies year round which are optimal for good lighting in photos, especially if you're like me and love the way natural light looks. In the rare event that it's cloudy I have some light umbrellas that can assist in adding light but they tend to cast a weird blueish light. So, stick to natural light, pull a small table in front of a window and try to photograph during mid afternoon time. Hope that helps! 

Thanks for all of the other sweet comments I get here as well! I appreciate them all!  

Project time! 

Fall is definitely the time to cook and bake! I pulled out some of my Grandmother's recipe cards with the intentions of testing out her recipes and writing down the ones we like. I made this little recipe index card book to help keep our recipes together this season. 

Part of Gossamer Blues Life Pages themed add-on kit include tags and cardstock embellishments from Pink Paislee. I combined both to create these embellished gift tags. We are going with a silver and gold color theme again this year! 

This one is such a simple idea, but we're trying to move and lists right now are saving my sanity! So many things to try and remember to write down and keep track of that I thought having a few magnetic notepads around would help to keep my thoughts in order. :) 

There are are a few more projects to share from Gossamer Blue this month but I have to run - have a quick workshop on Winslow Homer before it's my turn to teach. Tomorrow I have a super fun tutorial planned for the blog - part of my DIY ideas for December! 

Thanks for popping in today! ~ Tara