Nativities for Jars

Man it has been busy this holiday season!  

These nativity jars are just one of the many, many custom orders that have dominated my time lately.

These guys turned out so cute I had to share!

It took a bit to get things just right for the mason jars.  These ones are pint sized.

That tapered curve at the bottom make things tricky, but I finally worked out the strip pieces to fit just right if they are raised up about 1/2".

Now I just need to find jars that are smooth on the back.  Like used mayo jars or something.  That will be the next thing I hunt for.

Anyway, I figure these would be the perfect centerpiece for our next Christmas dinner or for the girls at church to make at their next activity.  The jars are less than $.50 each, the vinyl from $.50-$2, candles between $.25 and $.50, these guys fit the budget!

You can message me here or on my Etsy if you need some vinyl stickers, otherwise show me jars you made!  I would LOVE to see them!

Now back to work!  Just another day or two and I get to close my shop for my OWN family happy holidays.  Merry Christmas!

Giant Fire

I got a special request for an extra large fire.  This guy was huge!  He was 20" wide and 30" tall.  My customer wanted it to stand flat against a wall, but inside of a fireplace surround.  After thinking a few days on what to do, this is what I came up with.

I used my normal Cub Scout firepit pattern, enlarged it to the specified size, then arranged it so the large fire could be attached to just 1/2 a log.  I figured then it would be flat against a wall.  I still wanted it to be 3-d, so I made the smaller flame, just half of it, and cut it so the flame would hang over the log from the first piece. 

It came apart into three pieces like these.  I was pretty excited when it all came together, and could still be taken apart for storage.  It was even more exciting to hear how happy my customer was with the project.  I just wish I could see how she had it displayed ;0}

It's My Boschday!

It might as well be my Birthday, cause Baby, I brought home a Bosch today!!!  

New Tool!  New Tool!!!  AHeM!  I have a New Tooooool!

I got a palm router with interchangeable plunge base.  Yep.  Honey, we can sell the kids.  I have moved on to entertainment I don't have to feed!

I have been selling these saw frames for....well....almost a decade, and have never had the router to inset the picture.  Well, Ladies and Gentlemen...I do now!  

I am E-X-C-I-T-E-D!

Here is my frame on Etsy...

Now I can sell something that is not only cute, but professional! WoWoo!

I can use the router for this frame too...

AAAAaaaandddd, I can make a billion other frames {in all of my spare time, yeah right!}.

A girl can dream though!

Let's just take a closer look at that groove around the photo frame....It is so sexy smooth!

Thanks Hubbs for my gift!  It has been nice knowing ya ;0}

I will be in the garage from here on out.

I think I need to shop for router bits.....

Embossing Gun Stand

I was doing a little light housekeeping of my photo file on the computer and came across these pictures!!!  Wohoo!  It is my lucky day.  Must be cause I cut this out finally, only minutes ago...

Anyway, I had a custom order for an Embossing Gun Stand just after Christmas, so I came up with the design, cut out two, painted up one and sent it off.  Well, the pictures I took just before shipping were accidentally deleted from my camera and I thought I didn't have any others.  Guess what?  I do!

It pays to clean out your computer files once in a while ;0}

Anyway, this stand is not painted, but when I ever get free time and energy all in the same minute, I will get a couple of these up for sale on my etsy.  Feel free to message or 

email me {vanessa.cam5 at Gmail dot com} if you want one now, 

painted or unpainted.

Otherwise, I will get back to looking for the other pictures I need ;0}

You Know You Wanted More!

Sick of Ornaments YET???  Never!  You know you wanted to see more.

These are a few of the attempts for a recent custom order.  My sweet customer was ordering these for her Sunday School class.  She wanted 15 unique ornaments the kids could choose from.

It was a lot harder than you would think to rifle through my pile of daubers and make 15 unique ornaments teens would love.  Hopefully we did OK.  These two on top are probably the biggest ;0}

I call them my Medusa line.  I actually really liked them...the next morning.  If you have ever crafted at my house, chances are you have heard me say, "Just go to bed.  It will look better in the Morning!"  It was true for these two Medusa ornaments.  The pack I make for my tree are going to look like these.

Mads helped me with a few.  She was about as excited as I was to sit down and do these, then she just sat and stared once she had glue gun in hand.  It was rather comical to me.  I had literally done the exact same thing 15 minutes earlier.  It was quite comforting to see my fearless teenager, wild with creativity, sit and get the same blank stare that plagued my face.  Anyway, she made these two cute ones.  I like the white fir replacing the green.  She said something about that and I had no clue what she was talking about until I saw this ornament.

One of my favorites!  I should tell you, I like to put the nativity low on the insert, so it just about touches the corners of the nativity to the edge of the insert.  I did that with this one, then cut the insert flat underneath.  That way, when I put the gold filler inside, there was open space at the bottom and it wasn't pinched off down there.  Beautiful.  This gold...what do they call it...

Twinkle trim!  Yep.  Bought it at Hobby Lobby.  It looks like really fancy straw in there with the nativity.

I need to buy more of that stuff.

Awe.  Love Candy canes.

Meet the original Medusa ornament.  I tried to glue just a couple sprigs of beaded branch to the front.  It looked terrible.  Added some floating snowflakes.  Worse.  Pine cones.  Now it looks like a nest...and falls on it's face.  Might as well make it go all the way around.  Tadah!  Wait.  It really looks like a nest.  Madison..."Mom, you need a bird on that!"  Mom...laughing.."Wait!  I have one!"

Reminds me of the giant bird on bugs life.

See the resemblance???

Other than the bird needing to go on a diet or get a lap band or something...I LovE it!  

Dear customer, 

It is OK.  Giant bird in the Medusa nest is not in your box.

He lives on my tree.  

And I bought smaller birds at Hobby Lobby so I can make a whole family of baby bird Medusa nest ornaments to cherish and haunt my family for generations.

Madison.  You are welcome.

Couched For The Season

 

You are looking at my every breathing moment from the last 45 days.

Now you are looking at my 12 toed cat how had a great time with all of the packing materials and empty ornament boxes that were lying around.  

I have been Couched For The Season.

Couched making ornaments.  Did I ever imagine I would one day spend the whole month of November sitting on the couch making ornaments, the very same ornament I don't actually own for myself??? 

Nope.

But it pays the bills, so keep 'em coming!

Every once in a while I took a break to stretch my legs, grabbed a pop and drove to Hobby Lobby to buy more ornament supplies, like ribbon for bows.

Do you know how exciting it is to sit and tie 2000 bows in a day.  Nope.  No one does.  That is because it is not exciting.  But, the whole first season of Downton Abby I watched whilst tying and snipping was very exciting.  I had to switch to Downton Abby 'cause I finished Call the Midwife!  Netflix, I MUST HAVE MORE!  You can't just leave me hanging like that!?!  Season three!  Season ThreE!

Couched, but not rested.  No sleep.  Please forgive my lack of sanity.

The rest are just glimpses of my last 45 days.  Custom ornament orders, custom vinyl orders, in the middle of the night orders.

Not all vinyl likes to be picked.  Nope.  Not all.  Some makes me want to throw things at joggers going by my front window.  The window I can peer through while chained to my couch...

19 dozen.  Yup.  Big order.

I need to make a bout a thousand more of these to get to the point I don't squeal with delight when I see his smiling face.  I love happy things!

Discovered Walmart sells plastic ornaments that work great with my inserts!!!

Good to know!

22 dozen.  Not fun to ship.  Nope.  It is not.

I sent out over 50 orders the day before.  This was a stifling image for my eyes to behold.  My bank account loved it, just like all my family that was simply counting dollar signs.  That was when I sat them all down, handed them a cutting board and an exacto knife complete with nativity vinyl to pick.  There is no way I am doing all the work ;0}  Now my kids talk price of things from the store in terms of sheets of vinyl.  "I want this pair of sunglasses, but do you know how many sheets of vinyl they cost???"  

My response, "Yes.  Yes I do."

This was a really interesting custom order for me.  This fabulous customer asked for a stencil so she could airbrush some Christmas cookies for a party.

Stencil?

Airbrush???  Cookies???

It took a bit of work, but I got it!  A one piece stencil to make a nativity design on cookies.  You could probably dust with powdered sugar or sanding sugars if you don't have an airbrush setup ;0}

Burlap ribbon bows.  I like them!

20 dozen

Had to go buy some Michaels ornaments to test for insert size.  I sell the inserts in any size, but Michaels apparently does not bother to put the size on the box???

I am going to have to call them.

These two are 2.75 and 2 inches.  Not the same as the rest of the stores.  It's OK.  I can still make them.

<3 p="">

Love this design.  Not super fun for 2 5/8" or smaller ornaments, not even always possible, but these were for 3 1/4" ornaments.  They worked great.

Did you know the takeout boxes work fabulously as a gift box for ornaments???  They also sell cupcake boxes that work great for the 2 5/8" and smaller.  These are at Micheals.

I worked literally around the clock the week of Thanksgiving, just taking a 2 hour nap here or there.  We even filled an entire bin at the post office just with the orders.  All the hundred envelopes are at the bottom.  

Anyway, I better get back to work.  More orders to finish up for today, but luckily we are back to sleeping at night.  Phew!  Time to make myself a set ;0}

p.s. Still have about 10 dozen ornaments, some with snow, some without sitting here ready to ship once bows are glued on.  Stop by TheBubbleBox to grab a box for yourself ;0}

Closing the shop in one week, so get your nativities while you still can!!!