December 24, 2014
by Dawn Marie Leave a comment

The Christmas Card of 2014

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

I actually got our fist batch of Christmas cards out this week. When I order cards, I just order extra, but when I make them I always make less at first. I don’t want extra hand-made Christmas cars lying around, because they have the kids pictures on them, I can’t use them for next year.

My sister had always sent out Christmas cards with a picture of her kids. For Ian’s first Christmas we decided that we would have one picture done with all three kids. That way we can send one card to all our joint family and friends. Almost every years since (except last year, because I didn’t do cards last year) we have sent out a joint card. Typically I just order them, but not this year.

This year I decided to go back to making my own cards, because I can just use my Silhouette Cameo. It will be easy peasy. Unless you are like me and decide you need to make a Christmas card with like a hundred pieces. Needless to say they took a little longer than I thought they would.

We went to a local mall where a few times a day they release bubble snow in the atrium. I took a picture of the kids in the falling snow and thought it would be a great idea to make a shaker card like a snow globe. I used this snow globe file from Bird’s Cards, which is a great resource for free card files.

Back to the pictures, I didn’t like the mall and all the strangers in my background so I went a head and used Photoshop to ‘fix’ it.

Doesn’t that snowy tree scene look so much better? (Which was a free desktop background file)

While the three older kids did a great job taking a group picture, Sid didn’t cooperate all that much. I had many wonderful pictures with the other three, but no Sid.

For the picture of the boys I used this picture in front of the silver tree they had up. There wasn’t a good picture of those two with the snow.

So, you wanna see how the card turned out?

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

p.s. family and friends, there is another batch going out, so don’t worry if you haven’t gotten yours yet.

December 19, 2014
by Dawn Marie 1 Comment

Mason Jar Christmas Scenes

My sister has one of those Christmas villages, with all the houses and the snow and stuff. This year my nieces wanted to make her a little village in a giant Mason Jar. Luckily my mom has hundreds of Mason Jars in various sizes. Remember how we made all those Cookie-in-a-Jar guest gifts for my cousins baby shower? Yep, she still has tons.

She took the kids to the craft store, got all the little things to go in the jars and turned the kids loose.

Ian made one for me and my mom put together a stand for it. I am pretty sure this was a gallon mayonnaise jar, it’s huge.

My mom made some cream-colored playdoh so the items would stay upright in the jar. She also bought some of that Kinetic Sand in cream.

Ian placed all the items himself. I absolutely love it.

His gift gave me an idea for a Christmas gift for Ian’s teacher. Luckily my mom had all sorts of stuff left over so Ian could make another jar.

Before we started decorating I used the hot glue gun and glued six blobs on the bottom of the jar for stability.

I tried to use the playdoh, but didn’t like how the stuff wouldn’t really stay up right, unless you used a hold bunch of playdoh. I didn’t really like how the playdoh looked from the outside.

So after he placed all the stuff in the jar, I took it all out along with the playdoh. Then I put it all back in how he had it, and with his instructions, but I used hot glue to secure his decorations.

He was sad that we didn’t have any more reindeer, but at least we had Santa.

This jar wasn’t as large so he couldn’t fill it quite so full. After all was secure I dumped in the plastic snow that mom got at the craft store.

I really wish I had sprayed the inside bottom of the jar with that window snow paint. I think it would have looked great, but I thought of it after, and I don’t have any….but you can use that idea, it’s all good.

Since this is a teacher gift and made in a Mason Jar I thought these tags would be perfect!

I designed the tag in Silhouette Studio software. For the jar I used the print ‘n cut method, and cut the lid out in two layers.

Love the tag? I know, it’s super cute. And you are in luck, cause you can download here. For free.

This PDF file is the above printable tag for Christmas.

This PDF file is plain for any time of year.

This SVG file is for those of you who would like to use it in your cutting machine. I did have to change the font for the SVG file because it was a little too thin for cutting.

Please note this design is for PERSONAL USE only please. Please do not forward, share, sell or distribute the files for any commercial purposes or claim as your own design. Thanks a bunch!

November 4, 2014
by Dawn Marie Leave a comment

Thank You Gift ~ Mini Canvas Picture

This summer I ran a half-marathon located in another city. The location wasn’t that far, maybe an hour or an hour and a half from home. But when you need to be there at six in the morning that is very far!

So my cousin and I decided to stay the night before the race. The race was in the wine country and there are not a lot of hotels around there. But there are a lot of bed and breakfast places. The other thing the surrounding city had was rooms for rent located in people’s houses. You could rent the room, like a bed and breakfast, but there wouldn’t be other guests.

As it turned out my cousin had a friend who grew up down there and that friend’s parents still live there. And they had a room that they rent out to guests and they were gracious enough to let us stay the night there. Because of their generosity, I want to make them a thank you card and a little gift.

I first used some crayons from my son’s art kit and made a little rainbowish pattern on a mini canvas. The min canvases and easels can be found at Michel’s Craft Store and are about 3″x3″.

Using my Silhouette Cameo I cut out the dandelion, floating seeds and words out of different colored vinyl. Because of the waxy nature of the crayons and the texture of the vinyl I went ahead and sealed it all with some Mod Podge, then added the adhesive rhinestones.

I thought the words ‘relax’ and ‘breathe’ fit well with the room they let us use. It was a very calming house and atmosphere, which was just the thing we needed prior to our race.

I also designed and cut out this thank you card using my Silhouette Cameo.

UPDATE:

My dutiful sister has informed me that the canvas says ‘breath’ when I intended it to say ‘breathe’

*sigh* such is my life. it is always after I post it that she finds the errors…

October 22, 2014
by Dawn Marie Leave a comment

Etched Glass Hydrangea Vase

We are now at the point in our lives where we aren’t attending weddings every weekend of the summer.

It seems that you have two waves of wedding times. For the first few years out of high school it seems like your summer weekends are only weddings. Then there is a time when you don’t really attend any weddings, maybe one or two. Then about your early 30’s you start getting all the invitations to the rest of your friends weddings. After that, you may get one or two a year, and usually they are family members kids or for the wedding of someone younger than yourselves.

This year we only have two weddings. One of which we are traveling across the country for and one that happened in the summer.

The one we attended this summer was a wedding of one of my husbands friends. He is an artist, a very wonderful painter, and for his invitations he drew and painted a hydrangea bouquet. I thought the perfect gift would be a large glass vase with the same picture etched on it.

Turns out, his style of painting and my starting on the project late, made for the inability to trace the image and create a stencil.

So I did the next best thing. Found another picture of a hydrangea that I could trace, and made a stencil out of it.

I like the glass vases that have the word “flower” etched on it in some foreign language, usually in French. The groom is Irish and so I decided to use the Gaelic word for flowers which is bláthanna. Singular for flower would be bláth.

So I found a fancy font with swirls but it was a little thin, so I had to create an offset to make it a little easier to cut.

To keep with the floral, nature theme I made a card with a Cherry Blossom tree. I found this card base at Bird’s Cards, it’s a free download. I decided to make it a shaker card adding more cherry blossom flower and glitter.

Big glass vases that are already decorated can come at a larger price tag. By decorating it myself, not only could I make it more personal without breaking the bank, and on short notice.

I Tri and Craft

thoughts from a mother of boys, a marathoner, a triathlete, a crafter, a wife, and a scientist

Category Archives: Card Making

The Christmas Card of 2014

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

p.s. family and friends, there is another batch going out, so don’t worry if you haven’t gotten yours yet.

Mason Jar Christmas Scenes

Please note this design is for PERSONAL USE only please. Please do not forward, share, sell or distribute the files for any commercial purposes or claim as your own design. Thanks a bunch!

Thank You Gift ~ Mini Canvas Picture

UPDATE:

Etched Glass Hydrangea Vase

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

p.s. family and friends, there is another batch going out, so don’t worry if you haven’t gotten yours yet.

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Please note this design is for PERSONAL USE only please. Please do not forward, share, sell or distribute the files for any commercial purposes or claim as your own design. Thanks a bunch!

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UPDATE:

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