Super Simple Candle Upcycle

I had tried to make a snow globe for my sister for Christmas but it was HORRIBLE and ended up in the trash.  Normally I wouldn't have worried, but I had bought my brother a little something and I didn't want to hurt my sister's feelings.  I was stumped and then I remembered a customer telling me about a You Tube video she saw using these flameless candles sold at the Dollar Tree.  I actually had purchased one already and I thought this was the perfect time to try this out.

All you need is the candle, tissue paper, and a heat gun.  The candle and tissue paper were bought at the Dollar Tree and I already had the heat gun.  

This is the actual type of candle I used; they come in cream or white, & I used a white one.  The candles have a wax coating on them, which, when you melt it, the tissue paper "melts" into the wax.  Another technique similar to this is stamping on white tissue paper, coloring it with pencils, and then melting that into the wax.  I will be trying other techniques since these candles are easy to get and inexpensive. 




Here is a picture of the candle I made, unlit: 

The tissue paper I used was out for the holiday season {I LOVE blue and white,

add some snowflakes and I am SO good!} but there are always pretty patterns and options all year round.  In fact, I bet you have some seasonal tissue paper stashed away right now. 

And here is the candle in action.  The light isn't yellow at all, but my camera

refuses to take pictures of light without making it yellow.  The candle battery will last about 120 hours and you can buy replacement batteries.

I hope you enjoyed my simple candle upcycle.  I love to browse at the Dollar Tree; and it is so much easier now that I'm working there.  I would love to hear about some of your Dollar Tree crafts so please feel free to detail them in the comments. Thank you so much. ~ Christi

PS: My sister loves this SO much she wants me to make her more of them!

I am entering my Candle in the following challenges:
a2z Scrapbooking -M, Jan, New To Me
Altered Eclectics - M, (runs until Feb)
Country View Crafts - M, Jan, Anything Goes
Let's Create Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes
Not Just Cards - Anything Goes
Rhedds Creative Spirit - running 'til end of Feb
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
The Crafty Addicts - #44, Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Something New
Emerald Creek Dare - M, Jan, Anything Goes

It's a Banner Year with Stinkin' Inkers!

Well, now that the holiday hubbub has calmed down {at least I hope it has for you!}, we can get back to creating just for fun.  This month Stinkin' Inkers is celebrating the New Year with the challenge of using a banner(s) and/or pennant(s) in your creation.  I hope you like my cards - yes, I made two of them again - it's SO easy when I make my watercolor Oxide Ink background to make enough for two!

I do want to focus on the Happy New Year card because, truthfully, the banner on the Celebrate card dried sort of wonky.  Ah well !

What I Used to Make my Card:
Watercolor Paper
White Card Base
Blue Card Base
Oxide Inks in Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Peacock Feathers & Iced Spruce
Banners made by Silhouette Cameo
Embossing Ink
Piccolo Embossing Enamel in Deep Blue Sky
Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kit, November 2017
Tim Holtz Crazy Talk, CMS236
Tim Holtz Mini Swirly Snowflakes, CMS320
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black

Making the background was the easiest part of these cards.  Once I was satisfied with the color combination I had made with the Oxide inks, I just

randomly stamped the snowflakes with the black ink.  I cut the paper in half, trimmed it down a bit, and now I had two backgrounds to work with.


I made the banners with my Silhouette CAMEO and then just added the words.  Both sentiments are embossed in Deep Blue Sky, which is SUCH a pretty blue; you have to see it in person to truly appreciate its beauty.  I then attached the background to the chosen card base, added on the banners, and I was done!  I have to admit, my recent obsession with making two cards stems from a challenge that a good friend of mine started the first of January.  The Happy New Year sentiment is from the My Monthly Hero Kit from November; this is the first time I've used the kit, so I am calling it new for all the challenges that are using the word "new." 

Thank you so much for stopping by! Christi

I am entering my New Years Banner Card in the following challenges:
Always Fun Challenges - #39, Something New
Cards in Envy - Winter Chills
Crop Stop - M, January Challenge {they carry Oxide Inks}
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Something New
Paper Minutes - #519, Happy New Year
Stamp Ink Paper - #131, Emboss It
Papercraft Challenges - #2, Happy New Year

Technique Time ~ Noel

Hello all! I know the holiday season has passed us but the technique I used making this card is something you can do any time of the year.  So, one last little holiday card and then I promise to move on.

What I Used to Make My Card:
White Card Base
Gold Card
Strip of Matching Design Cardstock {whatever you have on your desk!}
IndigoBlu Dinkie Noel Stamp, IND0115
Spellbinders Opulent Ovals Dies, #S5-160 {discontinued, but available}
Watercolor Markers {In this case I used Clean Color Markers in 044, Deep Green & 022 Carmine Red}
Delicata Ink in Golden Glitz

Stamp #1

Basically what I did with this stamp is color the parts I wanted colored and just over-stamped again and again for each color.  This is MUCH easier now that we have tools like the MISTI - but we did manage to make it work in the old days.  I started this image with the leaves on the stamp which I colored green.  I stamped them quite a few times - it is easy to miss little spots, but it also creates different color depths which can be beautiful.  

As you can see from my photo of Stamp #1, I did OK with the left side of the stamp but was missing some color on the right side.  I just kept coloring the leaves, huffing on the stamp {supposedly moistens the ink - I don't know if it actually does anything, but I've been doing it forever, so why stop now?} and restamping the image, never moving it off my MISTI.  

Stamp #2

The photo on the left, Stamp #2, is almost my last time stamping

Using Delicata Ink on the Sentiment

the leaves.  This  stamp also has itty bitty berries in the ivy leaves; I didn't bother taking any pictures of stamping those as it only took me two or three impressions to complete them.  Once I had my leaves and berries stamped, I wiped off the stamp using a baby wipe and covered both sides of the leaves with sticky notes.  I then used the Delicata ink on the actual sentiment.  I used the sticky notes to stop any of the gold ink getting on the leaves and/or berries.  Since I only had to stamp the sentiment once, the sticky notes held just fine.

I completed the card buy cutting out the sentiment and a layer of gold card, using the Opulent Ovals dies, and layering that over a strip of cardstock I literally had lying on my desk.  I'm pleased with the results and I have decided

Just another look

to search for some more old techniques I can bring back to life.  I have enough old magazines hanging around {I just CAN'T throw them out! They are a wealth of beauty and knowledge! Hoarding craft magazines is definitely an "issue" of mine} that I will have techniques to resurrect for ages.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I'd love it if you'd follow me and if you decide to, please be sure to leave me a comment so I can follow you back! Have a wonderful day. ~ Christi

I am entering my NOEL card in the following challenges:
A Perfect Time to Craft - M, Jan, Anything Goes
Country View Crafts - M, Jan, Anything Goes
Love to Craft - #18, M, Jan, Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenge - #169, Christmas
A Gem of a Challenge - #209, Anything Goes Christmas
The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes Christmas, running 1/7/18
The Merry Christmas Challenge - #49, Anything Goes Christmas
Words 2 Craft By - Christmas in my Heart

Mom's Tree

Some of you may know my mom is completely blind in her left eye and has very limited sight in her right eye.  Since she no longer decorates for the holidays, I decided to make her a tree she could essentially keep up all year long.  And, since this tree is embossed, she can literally run her fingers over it.

What I Used Making my Project:
8" x 8" Panel
Watercolor Paper
Oxide Inks in Salty Ocean, Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet and Cracked Pistachio
Embossing Ink
Simon Says Stamp White Detail Embossing Powder
Indigo Blu Baroque Christmas Tree Stamp

Clear Embossing Powder

White Embossing Powder

I used an entire sheet of watercolor paper to make this.  The first step is to emboss your focal point using white embossing powder.  I did a test; I did one design in clear powder and one using white powder.  These pictures don't do it justice, but the white powder was bright and clear while the clear powder just sort of faded into the background.  The tree on the right was embossed with clear powder and the tree on the left with white embossing powder.  Now they do look sort of similar but, once the inks dry, that white powder POPS as you can see by the tree I made.  Of course, in the spirit of full disclosure I used a lot more of the Oxide inks on the "white" tree since I knew that one was going to be the one I was going to give Mom.  I guess the bottom line is use whichever you prefer to get the look you are trying to achieve.  

I inked and spritzed the tree a lot.  I wanted it to be vibrant enough so my Mom could see the colors if nothing else.  I was positive the ink would stain the embossing powder but it didn't.   Once I was pleased with the colors, I trimmed the piece of watercolor paper down and mounted it onto the panel.  I tried to frame it but the bulk of the panel made that difficult, so I just gave her the panel.  And she loved it, of course, but she's a bit biased. That's it! The project took me about 3 days, but I am sure it would have gone much faster if I hadn't fiddled around with the Oxide Inks so much. I really do love the white popping out of the colors. I only have a few more holiday posts that I want to get published; so I hope you haven't lost your holiday spirit! Thanks, Christi

I am entering my Mom's Tree in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Inkspirational Challenge - Just Stamping
Stamping Sensations - Winter Trees & Flowers 
Rhedd's Creative Spirit  (running til 1/31/18) Altered Art/Etc
The Rubber Buggy - #8, Christmas/Winter
Altered Eclectics - (running til 1/31/18) Altered Art/Etc
Eclectic Ellapu - (running til 1/31/18) Anything Goes Altered Art
Inspiration Destination - #140 (running til 1/2/18) Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin' - Anything NEW {first time I have used this stamp}

Christmas Has Gone to the Dogs

Settle in, dear readers, this is a slightly long story, but it is a story of miracles and things happening at just the right time.  As some of you may recall, my next door neighbor has an adorable dog named Lolly.  Well, Lolly now has a boyfriend, Bear.  Bear literally showed up next door, matted, hungry, & thirsty.  My neighbor was going out, so I took Bear into my fenced-in backyard.  I looked him up, found a rabies tag, and tried to find his owner.  The local animal shelters attempted to make contact with the information they had but, no one contacted me or the shelters.  It began to get dark and I couldn't have Bear come to my house, not knowing if he was ill and could possibly infect, or attack, the Fabulous Feline Four, so I called my good friend, Tom, to come and take Bear until his owner could be found.  Fast forward a week and no one was looking for Bear.  The Man and I even drove around the neighborhood where Bear used to live to see if there were lost dog signs.  Tom and Bear fell head over heels for each other and have been inseparable.  Tom was going through a very lonely time and Bear couldn't have showed up at a better time.  It's been about nine months and Bear is healthy, happy, and has a fabulous owner.  Bear and Lola are medium, mixed-breed dogs, but they appear to be mixes of the same breeds.  They are almost exactly the same size and they LOVE to play when Bear comes over.  They run around the yard like little race cars, yipping, following each other and sharing treats.  Both dogs have been introduced to the Fabulous Feline Four with only small squabbles, mostly due to Sylvester's temper. To celebrate how happy everyone is, for Christmas this year I made Helen, Lolly's mom, and Tom, Bear's dad the exact same cards with just a few differences.

What I Used to Make my Cards:
Blue Card Base
White Card
Vanilla Card
Gold Card
Tim Holtz Mini Cats & Dogs Stamps, CMS272
Tim Holtz Framelits Mini Cats & Dogs Dies, #661594
Newton's Nook Newton's Curious Christmas
Spellbinders Petite Labels One, #S3-205
Tim Holtz Scribbly Christmas Stamps, CMS249
Wendy Vecchi Ink in Potting Soil & Fern Green
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
Derwent Inktense Pencils
Word Bubbles made with Silhouette Cameo
Tim Holtz Boneyard, TH93596
Ranger Glossy Accents
Various Gel Pens
Gold Star Sequins
Tissue Paper {Dollar Tree}
Blue Ribbon
Dimensional Dots

Bear has a silver skull charm hanging from his collar; Lolly has a festive red acrylic bow.

I had already colored and die cut the two dogs; Bear is a darker grey, with one white leg, whereas Lolly is all grey and white.  Each of their noses got a dot of Glossy Accents and they were set aside.  The cats were also pre-colored and I chose the two I did due to the similarity to my cats.

Bear's Card

I designed and cut out the word bubbles using my Silhouette Cameo and stamped the sentiments in the bubbles.    I then used the Labels die to cut out the "Dear Santa, define good" sentiment and the gold paper. I glued them together and set them aside.

To begin my scene, I stamped the tree, which I inked with the Wendy Vecchi inks, slightly off the edge of the card.  I wanted to ensure I had enough room, plus I wanted the dogs to be the focal point. I colored in the baubles with various gel pens and attached a gold sequin star to each tree.  I "wrapped" each bone with tissue paper and ripped the sides to make it seem like the dog had done it.  I used dimensional dots to pop out the dogs, adding little pieces of the tissue paper to each dog; Bear has it in his mouth while Lolly got some on her head during her ravaging of the bone.  I made sure there was enough space

Lolly's Card

between the dog and the tree so I had room to add some more tissue paper scraps.  

I attached the gold and white card sentiments above each dog's head, while using the word bubble sentiment off to the right side of the card so it appeared that someone out of the scene was telling the dog not to peek.  That little warning came a bit too late.  Now, neither dog lives with any cats, but, knowing how curious cats are, I decided to add a cat to the side of the card, with a wide eyed look.  I wanted it to seem like the cats were both amazed and appalled at what the dog was doing, and quite possibly, might tattle. 

I had a great time figuring out how I was going to get my message across; and everyone loved the cards.  You can bet you will be seeing these two rascals in more of my creations. Thank you so much for reading this post; I know it was long :) Hugs!! Christi

I am entering my Christmas has Gone to the Dogs cards in the following challenges:
Fussy & Fancy - #202, Christmas Challenge
Stamplorations - December Challenge, Stamps & Gold
Stamplorations Anything Goes - Ongoing
Kraftin' Kimmie - Anything Goes or Sketch
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - #100, N is for Naughty Christmas
Sweet Stampin' Christmas - Anything Goes Christmas
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
The Merry Christmas Challenge - #49, Anything Goes & Christmas

Serene Winter Scene

For those celebrating Christmas, tonight is the BIG night.  You only have about 6 hours until the children wake up & you had better have put everything together! My parents used to hold a HUGE open house on Christmas Eve - upwards of 200 people in, out, and around the house.  I woke up many a Christmas Day with strange people sleeping on the living room couch - it might sound weird but it was fun.  My family always collected strays - be it people or animals.  My mother tells of the time I woke up at 6 am to get my gifts and she had literally laid her head down 15 minutes prior - hehehehehehe! Enough nostalgia; but that is what this card brings out in me.  A feeling of times before the insanity of social media, the craziness of Black Friday and before everything became a contest to keep up with the Jones'.  I hope you & yours have a splendid holiday season! So, on to my card:

 

What I Used to Make This Card:
White Card Base
Stitched Circle Trees, Memory Box, #99843 {or, Stitched Circle Cabin}
Stitched Village, Memory Box, #99891 {or Stitched Cabin, Stitched Tree}
Nesting Circle, Darice, #2014-74 {Tutti has plenty of Nesting Circles}
"Cloudy" Vellum
White Glitter Card
Pale Blue Card

The card is very easy to make, not so easy to photograph, but carry on.  The first thing I did was cut the Stitched Circle Tree out of white glitter card.  I then cut it out again using the Nested circles, so I had an actual circle instead of just a die cut on paper.  After putting the cut on my card blank, I really felt it needed just a smidge more something.  I think the cloudy vellum adds a softness to the card; of course, you can use anything you choose - I just didn't want the background to compete in any way with the trees.  The vellum was cut with the same circle I used to cut the stitched die out of the glitter white card.

If you click this pic, you can see the
dimension and the sparkle

I attached the vellum to the cut and,  while it certainly looked serene {the look I was going for - after all, it is Christmas Eve!},  I still felt it was too blah.  I love white on white cards and I just don't seem to able to mix whites effectively.  My cards never look like their cards do! Ah, maybe someday - I'll keep at it! Back to my card.  To add just a weeny little something, I cut out the three houses from the Stitched Village die; first I used white card, too dull, then Kraft card, too obvious, then this very pale blue I found.  Perfect! The little house nestled perfectly where I wanted it.  I truly adore this little CAS card, I hope you like it as well.

Another Look

Here is another look - just click on the image and it should pop open to full size {please let me know if it doesn't!} 

I hope you and yours are having a WONDERFUL Holiday Season and all of us here wish you continued health & happiness ~ 

Fondly, Christi

Don't forget to join in on all the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog.  

There's  a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month

 and one lucky  randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to 

the Dies R Us Store.  For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us 

links are provided below.

click below for:

STORE
CHALLENGE BLOG
FACEBOOK
INSPIRATION BLOG

                          FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

I am entering my Serene Winter Scene card in the following challenges:
Double D Challenges - Baby, it's Cold Outside! {Winter} - mood board below
Scrappy Land - #80, Anything Goes {second entry}
CAS-ual Fridays - CFC #189, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas
Die Cuttin' Divas - #348, Christmas
Die Cut Diva's - Winter Time {second entry}
CropStop - #35

Double D Mood Board

~*~*~* HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE *~*~*~

Copper, Gold and Sparkle!

This card is the twin of my Clean and Simple card - but I used different colors.  Honestly, I like this card better; the sparkle is amazing!  Very simple to make, which is good since time is FLYING by - only four more days! Let's get to it!

You can't really see the sparkle in this picture; the one below shows the sparkle better.  

What I Used to Make my Card:
White Card Base
Gold Layering Paper
Delicata Ink in Golden Glitz
Delicata Ink in Celestial Copper
So Suzy Stamps, Ornament Star Dangle, #A00509
So Suzy Stamps, Ornament Dangle, #A00508
Tim Holtz Gilded Holidays Remnant Rubs, Gold, #TH93636
Gold Gel Pen
Gold Sequins
MISTI

Click to see the sparkle!

I wanted the ornaments to be spaced evenly so I used my MISTI to stamp them, beginning with the Celestial Copper, then the Golden Glitz, alternating the ornaments and the ink colors. These are my first Delicata ink pads and I am in LOVE!  They truly are the most vibrant and sparkly inks I have ever used; and trust me, I've used a lot of metallic inks!  I definitely have decided I need more colors, specifically the white and the black - I think they'd be very cool!  Now, back to the card, I then trimmed the white panel and attached it to the gold panel (I used a thin gold cardstock), and lastly, attached that to the card base.  I added the sentiment using the Gilded Holiday Remnant Rubs (I've had these for a year and just found them again!) and then I hand drew a square using a gold gel pen around the sentiment. I purposely made the square wonky; it's easier than trying to be perfect!  Finally, I added a few sequins and the card is done!  Quick and easy! You could use all sorts of elements in this style, make your own string and hang some hearts, make your own ornaments with some small circles, let your imagination go wild!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm trying to get my holiday cards done; I typically have a few left after the holiday to blog about.  Makes the festivities last longer, right?  I hope you & yours are enjoying your holiday! Christi

I am entering my Copper & Gold card in the following challenges:
CAS on Friday - #123, Christmas
Addicted to CAS - #126, Sparkle
AAA Cards - #105, Sparkle
CAS-ual Fridays - #189, Dreaming of a White Christmas