Year 2013 & Year 2014 2

Year 2013 & Year 2014 2

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

TheFunkie Junkie Boutique's Inspiration Ave #27... Favorite 2023 Tim Holtz Product... Ornaments for the Grandbabies!

 


  Merry CHRISTmas to all! The hustle and bustle of the Christmas season is mostly over, but not quite yet for us, since we still have one more weekend of celebrating yet to go down here. A couple of our Besties came down to spend Christmas Day with us and ended up leaving that day. Justin had come down sick and they decided it was best to just get back home to Indiana. We'd taken them all around to see all the decor up in Florala, Alabama, down to the beaches, and around Lake DeFuniak's Christmas Reflections of lights circling the lake and park. It got a bit rough for me when I saw the litup dogs and realized this was my first Christmas without my HunniPi pup. I miss her all the time. Our week went like one Bestie was hit by Covid and (the weekend before) had ended up in the hospital. At this time, he's still pretty weak and that was a nasty way to not only spend Christmas Day, but Christmas Eve, which was his 56th Birthday. Ugh. One by one (or is that 2 by 2, lol) the number of folks staying here for the holiday dwindled until we had only 3 couples left of the bunch. It was a fun meal, though, and the company we had was very good, indeed! We spent a good amount of time saving pics and videos off our phones of the Grandbabies' holiday happenings and managed to get to Facetime all the kids. Princess Pistachio was the only Grand to have a Christmas Program- she rocked it in both dress and performance!! She and Peanut were surprised to get a go-cart from Santa Clause and learned how to safely drive it without Daddy... helmets were also left by Santa for these particular lessons. Mommy and Daddy had it delivered to our house and there was a video of Daddy crunched up inside it- giving it a breaking in (much like this Memaw once did with his first motorbike while he was getting off the bus on his 15th Birthday, lol)! There were several funny videos that kept us in stitches! Little Man Pecan excitedly counted the "sleeps" until it was time to go to his Aunt and Uncle's house in Canada for Boxing Day on the 26th. He's far more excited to be with his Cousins to play than getting gifts any day! While he did get some neat gifts, too. He's pretty much mastered the camera he got for his Birthday in November, as well as the Mini Phone he got from us for Christmas, but it's always cool when his Mommy and Daddy send pics they find on their iPhones when he's stolen their phone just to use the camera...this time pics of his Princess Sissy. That child is SO FREAKING TALENTED with filters and poses!! He'll be needing a big Canon before he's 10! Princess Rose is growing bigger by the day- with the world's most beautiful baby hair that gets longer by the day! Our blessings just keep on raining down: one of several heart-tugs that got to me in these past days was Peanut getting a new favorite tractor book at school. He decided he was going to make a video of himself reading it- just like Memaw does every year now that we're down in Florida. I just about bawled my head off all the way through it. It takes a lot of guts to put yourself "out there" and perform in front of folks, but these kids are taking the stage all on their own- in every important sharing way! (I;ve included both videos of the stories we each read- feel free to share from YouTube!)


















Cole's reading of "An Otis Christmas" follows...


My Christmas Eve reading of "The Christmas Blessing" follows...


    I hope you've had a bit of down time on your own to have some fun in your craft space, or at least surf through all the latest postings of ideas everyone else has crafted! I'm starting off the last 2-week inspirational theme of 2023! Over at Inspiration Ave, we're choosing our favorite products from The Funkie Junkie Boutiqe's shelves from the entire year, and I'm taking my fave Tim Holtz Thinlits Die; Santa Greetings, to create some very special ornaments for some very special babies in my life! Join me for a tutorial showing you how I created these cute, personalized ornaments...




Now, this Seasonal Kraft-Core that you see here, is a very long time, now retired item.
It was gifted to me by a Bestie earlier in the year, so I've tried to make use of it.
I used 2 sheets of the Christmas in reds for the main bodies of my ornaments.
But if you're looking for something similar to it, nothing comes closer than Tim Holtz's 
Kraft-Stock paperie. It's very solid, won't tear, and holds its structure extremely well on its own.
 I've included all four packages in my list, since I did use these as well:





The first thing I did was open up my die package and make sure all the pieces were there.
Then I found the video Tim Holtz Santa Greetings Colorize and took 2 screen shots
to keep quick reference in my files. Taking screen shots helps me match colors of papers, too.


This is one of THE most detailed dies of the TH Colorized line that I've done yet.

I LOVE the stiffness of the Tim Holtz Kraft Stock paperie!
It's so easy to work with- especially die cutting small pieces.

Just follow the backsides of the die set: they're all numbered and color-coded.

To make a front side AND back side; remember to use both sides of the paper/stock.


If I were to turn those brown/tan die cuts over to their red sides...
Each would fit snugly right into the red top cuts to make a front and back match up perfectly.
I started out only needing 4 Santas, but added a 5th for a very special teen, another for the
Dixon Family exchange, and then 2 more just to do them differently.
Four soon doubled into 8!

Finishing the rest of the cuts...

...took me a loooooong time!

Sanding the 2 "keepers" made them a bit more vintage-looking.

I keep some aluminum wire in my stash, and used it by threading
3 strips together and twisting before clipping to the sizes I wanted.
I used pliers to curl the two ends before tucking them between the main 2 cuts.
TIP: I found it much easier to glue only the middle, head and legs of 
the two Santa sides together first.
Then it was easy to hold the wire end between the 2 sides of the arm/hand
and glue those together. Otherwise, the wire just kept slipping out while Santa flew apart.

I'm learning to put a gob of the Glossy Accents onto a baggie,
then dip my cuts into it, and tap off any excess glue.
This has been helping my "heavy handedness" with the Glossy Accents.


The hardest part of this Thinlits Set (INMO) would be the face; tiny pieces,
but the resulting look is well worth the effort!

You can see the difference it made to sand down the two "vintage looking" Santas.


Ready to add the names to each of these.
I chose 2 colors- purplish for girls and bluish for boys.

This die set is cool: I can think of tons of things Santa can hold across that string!

The last 2 get some vintage treatment with IdeaOlogy!
The Christmas Confections, new 2023 Holiday Bells and the 2023 Baseboards and Transparencies
were also my very faves of the year!
I aslo added some Distress in my always-favorite Vintage Photo Oxide.

Using a handheld hole puncher on the IdeaOlogy Christmas Confections- EASY PEASY!
They simply squish without tearing or breaking! Who knew?!?
With that hole made, it was simply threading some aged twine ribbon through on a large bore needle.
I added a tiny Candy Cane Charm that Linda sent as a FREEBIE with my last TFJB Happy Mail!

Presenting the Results:


All of the Ornaments together



The 2 for keeping with some Closeups following...



Backsides

These gifts fit easily into smaller manilla envelopes- with postcards- 
from our house in Florida to our Grandbabies in Indiana and Kylie in Alabama!

That's it for me for the 2023 year!
THANKS SO MUCH
for joining me on my crafting journeys throughout this past year,
and I look forward to bringing you more
as a Design Team Member for Linda Coughlin's
in 2024!

 Meanwhile, be sure to pop back in for the next two weeks as 
the rest of the Design Team posts their favorites for 2023!

Don't forget to head over to The Funkie Junkie Boutique for 
AWESOME CLEARANCE PRICES on all of these items!!!

Until next year, 2024...

Stay Safe &
HAPPY BLOGGING!!