This Christmas season I participated in two holiday exchanges. One exchange was between some of us Rhett and Link fans on the Kommunity Facebook page. The other exchange was one I found online for exchanging handmade Christmas ornaments at the Blu Penny by Cindy Ann blog.

That’s me showing off the awesome Rhett and Link patch and cute handmade t-shirt that I got from a fellow Mythical Beast, Robin.

These are the magnets that I made for the recipient, Rene, of my Rhett and Link exchange gifts. Rene is also a Green Bay Packers fan so I made him a Packers magnet along with the Rhett and Link Mythical Magnets. He made a video on Youtube showing my mangets that I sent to him.

I love handmade gifts and ornaments, so when I discovered the Handmade Holiday Ornament Gift Exchange at the Blu Penny blog, I was excited to sign up. The photo above shows the three ornaments that I received in the exchange.

These are the Gingerbread Boy ornaments that I sent out as my handmade ornament for the exchange. I packaged each of them in colorful circle pattern treat bags and then packed them into boxes to travel to their destinations.

I also gave Traci and Mary at the Scrapbook Cottage each a Gingerbread Boy ornament. When I stopped in to give them their ornaments, Mary gave me this adorable handmade treat bag filled with delicious Dove chocolates.

And I could not leave out one of the “handmade gift queens” that I have been blessed to know. She is my “Glitter Gal” kindred friend, Caroline. She sent me a second delightful package for Christmas which contained some of her delicious Gingerbread cookies along with the recipe, some spiced cider mix and a cute handmade Gingerbread boy pin/card. Yes, I did say “second” package, I will have to devote a separate blog post to her first package that she sent to me.

Since this blog post has a handmade and Gingerbread theme, I could not pass up sharing a photo of the cute handmade Gingerbread people that my nieces and nephew decorated this year. Can you guess which Gingerbread cookie was decorated by my 3 year old nephew?

One last item that I’d like to share is a photo of a handmade project that I made when I was in grade school. It’s made from burlap, felt and yarn and I’m glad my mom saved it and made it into a pillow. I only wish I knew what year I made it. I think I might have been in forth or fifth grade.

I hope you enjoyed my Handmade Holiday post which is the last post of the year 2011. Happy New Year!

I love sparkly things and crafts and sharing my love of crafting with my nieces and nephew. What better project to create together than these delightful sequined ornaments that I bought as a kit from a local craft store. Each year during Thanksgiving weekend, I like to do a craft project with my nieces and nephew. Once my other nephew is old enough to craft with us, he will be part of the Thanksgiving crafting time too.

They are so fun and easy to make. Also, a very addicting cozy weekend activity. Thank goodness the kit offered plenty of supplies to create a lot of ornaments. As I was putting together one ornament, I began to think of other color combinations and designs to create. It was also enjoyable to see what designs my nieces and nephew thought of.

The photo above shows our collection of ornaments that we all made during the weekend.

The photos above are the ornaments that my niece Katrina created. The last two photos show the front and back of the second ornament that she made. I like her patchwork of colors all over the ornament. She also added more than one bead to the pins to give it a different look. I also like her orange and green ornament. Lovely!

This is the ornament that my nephew Jordan designed. He was reluctant to make ornaments with us because they probably looked too “girly” with the sparkly sequins. After seeing us working on them, he decided to give it a shot. Since he is a Chicago Bears fan he made his ornament in the team colors of blue and orange. He did a terrific job on his striped ornament.

This is the three piece ornament that my niece Kristin created. Isn’t it pretty? Kristin loves sparkles and crafting just like me. We are crafting buddies!

The photos above show the front and the back of one of the ornaments that I made.

Ornaments on display at the kids’ table in the kitchen.

The stand that the ornaments are displayed on is a wire and bead stand that I made. It makes a nice stand for our ornaments. Love the sparkle!

I decided to glitter the snowflakes with some glitter from the Art Institute Glitter line. I love their glitter and their glitter glue named “Designer Dries Clear” adhesive.

I used a small, old paintbrush to brush the adhesive on in sections. Then I used a glittering spoon to sprinkle the respective glitter colors onto the snowflakes.

For the snowflake above I used the Indian Summer vintage glass glitter and the Shiney Si ultrafine opaque glitter (one of my all time favorite colors, it’s so sparkly!). I also used Shiney Si on the snowflake shown below and T-Bird ultrafine pearlescent color.

Next time you’re out shopping and you see some ugly ornaments hanging out in the clearance section, maybe you can give them their very own sparkle treatment and breathe some new life into them. Happy glittering! Hope you enjoyed the snowflake project!

This year I didn’t end up going shopping on Black Friday with my sisters. Later in the day most of the family visited Lakeside Park to see the Christmas lights and decorations. It wasn’t too cold out for a walk in the park. I brought along my Holiday Specs for us to look at the lights with. What are Holiday Specs? They are special glasses that look similar to 3D glasses and when you wear them all points of light turn into shapes like snowflakes, stars, reindeer, candy canes, etc.

My niece Kristin wearing the Holiday Specs and my sister Ann (her auntie) on the lighted bridge at the park.

On the ride into town, my niece Kristin and I were in the back seat wearing the holiday glasses and looking at the car lights on the highway. We saw red tail lights turn into snowflakes, candy canes and stars. We drove by a police car with it’s flashing lights on and we saw dancing blue and red shapes through the lenses of our holiday specs. What fun! Then as we approached town, the stop lights were transformed into holiday shapes.

I took the photo above with a lens of the holiday specs in front of my camera lens. It’s hard to decipher the shapes from this photo, but you can see how the glasses work a little bit.

My niece Kristin wearing a pair of the holiday specs in the park.

Train Christmas light display at Lakeside Park.

The Christmas Carolers in the gazebo at the park.

There were also Christmas lights set to music in one spot at the park. We stopped to watch the light show and then headed back home. It was a fun night visiting the park during the holiday season!

This is the photo you need to “like” at the Aves Studio Facebook page. Thanks for your help!

****** Update (12-28-11) I won the contest at Aves Studio! Yay!!!! ******

At the first event in November, I made a cute snowman card and a penguin card. It is so fun to see how creative people are with paper crafting products. Traci and Mary, the co-owners of The Scrapbook Cottage, always have wonderful ideas for creating fun paper craft pieces. They do an excellent job thinking of ideas for make n’ take projects. While attending a make n’ take, I enjoy learning new paper crafting techniques and learning about new products on the market. It is also inspiring participating in a make n’ take.

The gift tags that my nieces made.

The second make n’ take was on Black Friday. Since I opted out  on shopping with my sisters on Black Friday, my two nieces and I ventured out to The Scrapbook Cottage to attend the make n’ take. My nieces made two different gift tags and I made one. I like to introduce my nieces to the world of crafts and creativity as much as possible. I think they enjoyed making the gift tags and they will probably use them on gifts they give this year. We had a good time and we didn’t have to deal with the crowds of Black Friday shoppers.

The gift tag that I made at The Scrapbook Cottage

I have created Playful Penguin sculptures as custom gifts for friends and co-workers in the past. One of my friends married someone from Quebec, Canada; so for their wedding gift I made a bride penguin holding an American flag and a groom penguin holding a Quebecian flag. I entered a contest posted on Etsy one year and I submitted a photo of the American and Quebecer wedding penguins for the contest. The penguin wedding couple was selected as one of the winners for the contest. The winning entries would be sent to the Craft and Hobby Association’s Winter 2009 convention to be on display. My dilemma was that I had already given the penguins as their wedding gift, which meant I needed to create a second “international” wedding couple. I made a second set and those were on display at the CHA convention.

I’ve also created “Bagel Babe” Penguins for my bagel loving friends where the penguins were each holding a little brown bag with a bagel image on it. They also were holding little purses. These penguins were created before I was introduced to Apoxie Sculpt, so they look different than the ones I currently make. After working with Apoxie Sculpt I was able to adapt my penguin designs into the penguins you see in Art Doll Quarterly and in my Etsy store, Lilly Bug Boutique.

First set of bride and groom penguins that I ever made and my Bagel Babe penguin sculptures.

Another time I created a mad scientist penguin for a co-worker who was leaving work to teach Chemistry. When I created the first “pre-Apoxie Sculpt” versions of my penguins, I’d cover the surface of the light bulb with gesso and then paint with acrylics over the gesso. Now I cover the entire surface of the bulb with Apoxie Sculpt, which allows me greater creativity and options to have my penguins do a variety of things.

The penguin shown in the next photo was purchased by a customer who bought it for a retirement gift for someone at their workplace. It was bittersweet to see that penguin get sold. I might have to make another one of those.

You can find the Playful Penguin sculptures shown below at my Etsy store along with a variety of other sculptures I’ve created. If you’re interested in having a custom penguin made for a special occasion, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I have a listing set up to order a pair of custom made wedding penguins at my Etsy store, but I welcome custom requests for any occasion, such as birthdays, bon voyage, new baby, etc.

Aside from working on magazine projects, I’ve also been busy working on making Christmas gifts for my two sisters. I’m also working on a special order for a giraffe sculpture. Hopefully I will get a chance to blog about some of my current projects in the next month or two.

Thanks for stopping by!

My snowflakes finally begin to get some color added to them.

A snowflake character donning ear muffs and a scarf. Who knew that snowflakes ever got chilly?

The photo above shows a up close look at the knitted hat for my snowflake character.

It’s my little watercolor corner of the world. My watercolor workspace! There’s my palette and watercolor board with watercolor paper taped to the boards. My little “test” sheet of paper to see how strong the watercolor looks before applying it to my actual image. I guess that’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed looking into my studio at the current artwork I’ve been creating. Talk to you later!

Here are my snowflakes with a first layer of watercolors for the background area.

The photo above shows my watercolor workspace in my bedroom.

Here I am removing the masking fluid from the piece with my polka-dotted eraser and my finger tips. Wow! That masking fluid is stubborn stuff, my finger tips were getting red from rubbing off the masking material. I also tried using a kneaded eraser to remove it. I just wanted to be careful not to damage the surface of the paper as I removed the masking fluid with the erasers.

Here’s a close-up look at one of my snowflake characters with some of the masking fluid already removed. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Stay tuned for an update showing my snowflakes further along in the process.