Joy, Joy, Joy!

These are the hand crafted gifts I made for friends and family this CHRISTmas.  I just LOVE! LOVE! LOVE my Big Shot, Spellbinders, and the Quickutz Mary Jane alphabet I got!  The cookie cutter alphabet is a little difficult to figure out the foam.  But then again if I had read the instructions better, it would have went much more smoothly I'm sure :)

 So this is the fist one I made.  The perfectlly square frames were bought at the dollar store in town, and yep they were a dollar lol!  The large snoflake is snowflake #2 from Sizzix in Tempting Turquois...where is that spell check anyway???!!! Ok, the J & Y are in Papertrey Ink's Raspberry Fizz while the Green Glore and Whisper White cs is from SU! along with a few of the ribbons and Dazzling Diamons (of course!).  I just cant say enough about Papertrey's BUTTONS!  You simply MUST check them out!  $5 for a large assortment of the cutest buttons ever! 

Now for another look at Joy!  I love this one too!  SU!'s Cold Play was retired a few years ago, and I like many got rid of my set!  I know!  I can't believe it either!  And of course I needed it for this so luckily my good friend E let me borrow hers!  Shes the best and this is actually who I made this for!

Again the dollar store frame.  Papertrey's buttons, SU!'s ribbons, and some DSP from Michael's.  This was so stinkin cute!  I guess I should have spelled SNOW, but my friend brings so much JOY to my life, I thought it would be more appropriate!

I have several trees in my house at CHRISTmas time...8 to be exact!  No, they all arent huge.  Some are smaller, taller, skinny, fat, on the kitchen counter, and even in the hall up stairs!  Each tree is "themed".  I have a bronze, copper, and brown in the entry.  A fun tinsil tree with hot pink in my daughters.  A formal red one in the family room down stairs.  and the list goes on. :)\

This next Joy, is missing the J & Y.  The font seemed too simple for this JOY frame.  The dollar store frames are white and in the bridal section.  I used camo paint found at Wally World for a few dollars a can to paint the plastic, it sticks better than regular spray paint and dosent run as easily.   Yes the crafter in me dosent discrimnate against anything in the manly home improvement stores!  (strange, bridal and camo in the same description!)

Ok, I used Spellbinders Fleur delis.  This is not a simple run thru the motions project here.  It takes time & patients for it to become what it is.  I also used Martha Stewarts glass beads...I'm a little disapointed in this.  If you have any suggestions on how to better adhear them, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Here is a detailed tutorial on the snowflake by Becca Feeken.  This gal is very good at giving step by step instructions on how to make this.  Her blog is filled with tons of information including COPICS markers.  I think you will truly enjoy Becca's talent!

These are just a few small gifts I made for gifts.  I hope you find inspiration in them and enjoy them as much as I.

Winks & Wishes!
Christie