Roundin' Out the Christmas Gifts...

Just a few projects I worked on in December. Some were gifts and some were "just because" projects. I love this stationary sketch from Michelle Wooderson. She always has some nifty ideas and I especially love her vintage taste:) I've been having TONS of fun with my soldering kit and wanted to try some new sizes. The glass slides used here are 1x3 and perfect for the wee ballerina. I colored them with my copic markers and added some stickles. To place the letters in the names close enough together, I used my Karen Foster Snap stamps and my stamp-a-ma-jig to align them.
This design is sort of "out-of-the-box" for me. I wasn't sure if it all went together, but I'm happy with the end result. Its hard to tell in the photo, but the butterfly is loaded with a shimmer ink and stickles. I also used a shimmer ink for the blue cs when I was adding the stripes.
Lastly, a little something for the boys. Your eyes are not fooling you in the size of the tags here. I ran out of the smaller rectangles and my Wal-Mart no longer carries them:( I ventured over to Staples and they only carry the larger ones. I suppose their "ok" for now, although compared with the smaller ones, these are HUGE!

For the Girlfriends...

Some goodies for the friendships I've made along the way. Being a military spouse can be the hardest job there is at times, however when you find great company that empathizes with your experiences, you keep them close. My husband has been in nearly 14 years now(I have been present for 10!)and it seems to have flown by! I have made many wonderful friends and kept in touch with a few close gals and these sweet little gifts are for them....you know who you are:) I have used this pattern before so I will skip the details! And what about some cute matching key chains?? My soldering skills are improving...the bumps are getting few and far between...lol Add a little ribbon as well...its a great way to use up those scraps!

I have decided to "double-up"(several projects per post) on posts this week since Friday will be my last post of the 08' blog year. So there will be lots of goodies to share! I'm really needing some extra time to get my supplies organized and prioritize my work load for the New Year! I'm very excited to see what the New Year brings for myself and my family.

More Soldering Fun...

Practicing more with the new soldering tools I have. I tried a few different designs here, just to see what works best when soldering. When soldering, you need to be sure and choose your decorations wisely or else they will melt or show thru your patterned paper. You may not be able to see it in the photo, but I have a piece of double sided tape to hold the Hello Kitty in place on the paper and when I went to solder, the tape melted slightly and showed thru. This is why its good to use two pieces of paper(front and back) when "sandwiching" all your pieces together. For the Hello Kitty tag I had a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper and I just cut out the kitty and taped her on the patterned paper. I used my Karen Foster Snap Stamps for "Addison". I'm still working on the soldering the "jump rings" so its always a little clumpy in the middle...lol This one is a bit better since I added the jump ring from the back instead of the middle. You just have to play around with them.
I had some leftover colored images for this princess tag so I just placed my glass over the stamped image and trimmed the edges. Again, I used the snap stamps for the name as well.

If you're just starting out with soldering, this is a very easy template to use. I took some old SU! patterned paper here and stamped it with my Dew Drop(Jumbo Java) and used my PTI stamps. Be sure to let it dry completely before putting the two sheets of glass together or it will smudge.

All these tags were originally made to use at key chains, but my little girls prefer to use them on their backpacks.

There is a 1st time for everything....

ETA: I forgot to add a quick note about the solder I use...it is lead free:)


...and for me that means I've started YET ANOTHER HOBBY! I've been wanting to learn to solder for some time and have become especially inspired by Debbie Olson's designs. I really like how she attaches them to cards:) I'm not quite there just yet, as I wanted to start out with a few simple projects. If your're wanting to get started on a kit that offers all the supplies and then some, I'd recommend Simply Swank which I purchased thru Ellen Hutson. Also, if your a hands-on gal and you need live instruction you can purchase the instructional DVD to go along with it. I can say I'm officially hooked on soldering and can't wait to play some more. The whole process of learning and putting together my projects was fairly quick and simple. The part I struggled with most was soldering on the "jump rings". They are a little tricky, but with soldering its very forgiving and if you don't like it, you can just take your soldering gun and melt it off to start over. I made this princess ornament with an image that was already colored from a previous project. She is from the SU! Pretty Princess Set and I have used her ALOT! This project is done with the largest glass set that comes with the Simply Swank Set. There are 4 sets of glass to use for different size projects. I added a jump ring to the top and tied my ribbon thru it. I will add an ornament hook later...when its time to put on our tree. This is for my little girls this year:)

Annnnnnnnnd, since I rarely make projects for myself, I thought I'd try my spin at clip-art. The "queen" clip-art comes with your kit and I just added the monogrammed "d". There is actually 3 layers of cs on this project, just be careful you don't use super thick cardstock or it will be hard to sandwich the 2 pieces together when it comes time to add the foil tape!
I'll leave you with this fun post for the weekend! I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween:)