Decorating for the Holidays!

Wow!  It is nearly December!  By now, many of us have started our decorating, because we know if we blink our eyes, it will soon be January!  I love Christmas and I want to enjoy every minute of the month of December, so my decorating starts now! 

I love to decorate with garlands, banners, wreaths, and lots of other things that need to be hung up!  I have a little box that I keep my decorated Crazy TACKz in.  This one in the picture is one that I created for one of our sales team.  Take a peek inside and you will see some of the fun ways to decorate your CraZy TACKz before you use them to "hook it up" for the Holidays!

CraZy TACKz are especially useful in drywall, but they also work nicely in cork board, foam, and soft wood.  If I am affixing them to a surface where they will be permanent, such as a piece of wall decor, I use glue to secure them to the surface I am working with.

 

 

Here is a little closer view of the decorated Tackz.  I have used themed stickers, die-cuts, paper punches, rhinestones, sequins, and acrylic paint to embellish them.  A 1/16" hole punch works very well to make the little hole to push the Tackz through. 

I hope you are anticipating the Holidays and find time for joy in all the hustle and bustle of shopping, decorating and chores!  Make it a great December and a Happy Holiday season!

Happy Holiday Crafting!

 

Marilyn

Design Consultant for

CraZy TACKz

www.crazytackz.com

 

 

 

 

 



Celebrate the Seasons
with Smoothfoam
 

It won't be long now and we will be putting up our Christmas decorations and presents under the tree!  The seasons pass very quickly and this year, I for one, want to be ready!

For this Smoothfoam  challenge, I have come up with a winter decoration that can be changed up for Spring.

The Snowman is made from foam balls and disks.  The base is a large disk, covered with ribbon and burlap.  I used Snow-Tex to paint the snowman and acrylic paint on the face and for the birds.

Once the Holidays are over, you can change up your decoration by removing the snowman, placing the little birdies on a birdhouse made from foam and place it on your table for everyday!

 

Paint a block of Smoothfoam for the main birdhouse.  I cut a rectangle in two, positioned, glued, and secured the top of the roof with toothpicks.  Toothpicks work great to hold the foam pieces together along with some glue to secure.

The birdhouse can be embellished as much as you like.  I kept it fairly simple by painting it with acrylic paint.  Decoupaging with a colorful tissue paper or memory papers would also add a nice touch.  Multi-media techniques are very popular and can be applied here with wonderful results.

The little birds are two small Smoothfoam balls painted with acrylic paint.  For Christmas, they can be painted red or other colors, covered with glitter and glued to a clip to make a great Christmas ornament. 

Last Spring, I went to Ohio to film a segment for a product I represent called CraZy TACKz.  My project was wall decor and I used the Smoothfoam 12" square wall mounts for the base of my project.  Following is a picture of the project.  The instructions can be found on the Scrapbook Soup website:
http://scrapbooksouptv.com/projects/SS_200/210/Scrapbook_Soup_210-2.htm .  The segment aired on PBS in September, 2012.

That is all I have to share for today.  Hope you are gearing up for a great Holiday season and are getting lots of inspiration here and from the other great designers on the Designer Craft Connection.  Remember to go to the blue DCC button and "hop" to the next blog!

 

Happy Crafting!

 

Marilyn

 

www.marilyngossett.com

www.crazytackz.com

 

 





How do you show your Thanks?

 There are so many ways to say "Thank You" to someone special.  As the Holidays approach, we will be attending dinners, hosting dinners, exchanging presents, just for starters.  Since our theme this month is based on Thank You gifts, I decided to come up with something that was affordable, easy and handmade, as I want it to be a gift from the heart.  The theme can be changed up to match the occasion for the token of appreciation. I chose an everyday theme for my thank you.

 

Most of us have paper supplies these days and personal cutting machines.
I gathered a few supplies and cut out a card that says thank you at the top.
Then I embellished it with some more die-cuts, handmade paper flowers, rhinestones and ribbon.  I wanted damask patterned paper and didn't have some on hand, so I created my own using white paper, black ink and a rubber stamp. 




Inside the card is where the real thank you gift is found.  I chose a coffee card from Starbucks, but any gift card would be a perfect fit for the little pocket envelope on the inside flap of the card.  The inside was embellished  and a square of contrasting paper was glued to the bottom flap.  This is where you can write a personal message.

 

 

This is the card right after it came out of the Cricut machine.   I used the Artiste cartridge from CloseToMyHeart.

 

 

Here is a close-up of the front of the card.  I love the aesthetic of France
and the black and white with a punch of color.

I hope you feel a little more inspired than when you first stopped by!  Have a Blessed Holiday Season and HAPPY CRAFTING!

 

Marilyn

 

www.marilyngossett.com

 



Paper Crafting for Halloween!

My project for this challenge is a box of cards that I designed for one of my Creative Hearts Workshops that I hold in my home studio.  After sending the cards, a little gift or candy can be tucked into the owl box and given to a friend!  I think he is really cute and hope you do too!

The owl is made from a pillow box pattern cut out on my die-cut machine.  I used the die-cut machine, paper punches and coordinating embellishments to decorate the greeting cards.  I have provided a little tutorial in photos to give you a better idea of how the box was put together.

Start with Fall papers, cutting tools and punches.....

Punch, cut and assemble all of the parts.....

Shade the edges a little with some distressing ink....

 Assemble all the little parts....voila'!  Hoote'nanny time!

 All of these 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" note cards will fit in the box for safe keeping!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN CRAFTING!

Marilyn

Cozy up with a Preview to Fall!

Hello Friends!

Here we are at the end of our summer and with our kids back in school and shorter days, our thoughts are starting to turn to FALL.  I haven't been in my local craft store for a couple of weeks, but I am willing to bet that shelves are beginning to fill up with the colors of Fall and spooky little critters.  Did you know that "Halloween" is the second most celebrated and decorated holiday after Christmas?  It comes and goes faster it seems, but that doesn't stop people from stocking up on decorations and candy!  Remember as kids, dressing up and parading through the classrooms in your costumes?  Creating special decorations for mom to hang up on the fridge? The childhood memories are what make it a magical time of year for me.

I want to show you a solution to hanging up your Fall decor using an inexpensive, dual purpose tack with a hook called CraZy TACKz! They are the perfect solution to apply a die-cut decoration to the wall and hang up a garland or lights.  CraZy TACKz are the perfect solution for dual purpose jobs.  Check out the photos below:

Secure the die-cut to the wall with the clear, round tackz.

The die-cuts were cut out with a Cricut machine.  You choose the size.

Hang the garland on the hooks.  Add balloons, lights, letters, or other ornaments.  

There are various colors of CraZy TACKz, but I prefer the clear stopper for projects like this one.

Hang lightweight decorations from the ceiling with CraZy TACKz and filament line.  Glue the tackz to the decoration and attach a second tackz to the ceiling.  Voila'!

Look for CraZy TACKz at your local retailer.  If they don't have them yet, ask them "why not"?

They are available on the website, www.crazytackz.com.  Check out the project sheets and ideas that we offer there.  It won't be long now until we bring out the decorations to celebrate the glories of Fall and the favorite party day for little kids and big kids alike!  Hope I have sparked a little creativity and excitement with these ideas.  Enjoy the final days of summer because Fall will be here soon enough!

Happy Crafting!

Marilyn

Designer/Consultant

for

CraZy TACKz

www.crazytackz.com

A little Vintage..............

Hello friends,

I am giving a new meaning to "recycle" with the vintage design idea that I am posting for our Designer Connection Blog Hop.  I remembered this assignment, last minute before running out the door for a short vacation!  I didn't want to miss out!

This idea is one from a book I designed  in the late nineties.  With Vintage being a hot design concept, I like the idea of using little treasures to decorate inexpensive bottles or even recycled bottles and jars.

I hope you draw a little inspiration from the designs shown here.

I would like to offer a few more inspiration photos, but time won't allow for that today.  Hope everyone is enjoying the final days of summer.  I know I am!

Happy Crafting!

Marilyn

Designer/Consultant 

for CraZy TACKz

www.crazytackz.com

Scrapbook Soup Video has arrived!

Hello Friends!

The long-awaited Scrapbook Soup video has arrived!  We filmed a segment in Cleveland that will air on PBS (#210 from the series) sometime in September.  This of course depends on whether you get the show on your local PBS station, but we have the CraZy TACKz segment as seen on Scrapbook Soup to show you RIGHT HERE!

It was a hustle-bustle trip to Cleveland, Ohio to the studio.  All of my supplies arrived ahead of me and it was my job when I got there to unpack everything in the green room and get it ready for the show.  I created a quad of wall art pieces that would showcase CraZy TACKz, and some of the possibilities for using them in a decorative and useful way.

When it came my turn, we took everything from the green room to the studio (the set is very fun and colorful) and quickly went over the elements and presentation steps.  Kathy Stull owns the production company that produces this and other PBS shows, and she was great at condensing the steps that best showcased our product.  Julie McGuffee is a friend and longtime host of the show, (formerly known as Making Memories) and she is skilled at fitting everything into our time constraints.  We only had minutes to film our segment...so I didn't want to make too many mistakes!

My plane ride to Cleveland was an all day trip..with layovers and a few hours (not in my favor) time difference.  I am glad that we have the memory to last a long time.  It made the long trip well worth it!

So, here is the CraZy TACKz segment from Scrapbook Soup!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCTDcKmRSw8&feature=youtu.be

Hope you enjoy the show!

Instructions for the project can be found on the website at Scrapbook Soup once the show airs.  This is the link!  Print them out and enjoy!

http://scrapbooksouptv.com/projects/SS_200/210/Scrapbook_Soup_210-2.html


Hope you are enjoying what is left of our Summer!  We are already thinking about Fall and Christmas!

Happy Crafting!

Marilyn

Designer/Consultant 

for CraZy TACKz

www.crazytackz.com

www.marilyngossett.com