Marilyn Gossett Designs: CraZy for Christmas!

Countdown to Christmas!

CraZy TACKz Advent Calendar

I know.....it isn't even Fall yet, and here we are looking at Christmas! Well, we in the craft industry know that we need to stay ahead of the game and work months out to prepare for upcoming holidays, publications and the such! In the last Blog, I shared some shots from the CraZy TACKz commercials that are being worked on. Christmas was one of the featured Holidays and of course the CraZy TACKz Kid had to make an appearance and help with the decorations.

This is a screen shot, taken after the "CraZy TACKz kid" helped to

"Hook Up" the decorations with CraZy TACKz. A little inside secret....the commercials were being shot in Austin, Texas....in August, during the longest heatwave on record! You would think the Christmas decorations would be difficult to come by this time of year. Hobby Lobby to the rescue! They had Christmas decorations galore and we were able to get the mantle decorated for Christmas in August!

Here is a close-up of the Countdown to Christmas Calendar. There is a decorated CraZy TACKz holding a special treasure of chocolate for each day of the month. After all of the chocolate treasures are removed, the calendar can be packed away and used again every year. For this project I used my die-cut machine for each cut-out. I also purchased a 12" square wooden frame that I painted Black. This particular frame had a 12" square space for an insert. I placed 1/4" foam and a 12" square of foamcore board behind the decorated memory paper to absorb the TACKz. This project probably took the better part of a day to complete all of the steps. An alternative to cutting 25 two inch die-cut shapes would be to purchase some decorative die-cuts or stickers that are the right size and use those. I love my die-cut machine and had fun picking out the shapes I wanted to use. After the shapes were cut, I used a lap tray and glued the pieces together while watching a favorite TV program. I enjoy being able to accomplish something at the same time I am relaxing and watching "the tube". (Do televisions even have a "tube" in them anymore?) Food for thought. Here is another close-up.

And...one more.....

I decorated the CraZy TACKz with glitter, and I told about how to do that in yesterday's Blog. I also like to paint the CraZy TACKz...as I will show in the following picture.

See the little ladybugs? Aren't they fun? This design is a little more

fitting to this time of year! Things are still growing and the leaves are still on the trees. In fact, it is going to be about 100 degrees here today and it is almost the middle of September! I bet our kids are sweating it out at school wearing all of their new Fall finery. It isn't supposed to be this warm after school starts!

So, I hope you are having a great month wherever you live, and, of course let's not forget our heroes of 9/11. I cannot think of that day without feeling a huge surge of emotion for our fallen heroes, their families and our great Country! God Bless America, and all of us!

HAPPY CRAFTING,

Marilyn

Design Consultant

for CraZy TACKz

www.marilyngossett.com

marilyn@crazytackz.com

www.crazytackz.com