The "Christmas Shop"

  A peek into my "Christmas shop":

 

 

Tissue paper flowers,

 

 

A dragonfly magnet that also clips onto a flowerpot.

 

 

                                                              Isn't he cute?

 

 

A checkerboard for American Girl dolls,

 

 

 King me!

 

 

A dollhouse made out of a clementine box and painted wood furniture,

 

 

 This is the kitchen.  (It's not finished yet.  Two more rooms to go!)

 

 

The outside of the dollhouse is made from cardstock and duct tape.

 

 

A cutout  with a paint chip background,

 

 

This is a back scratcher.

 

 

The following are handmade wrapping paper made from potato stamps:  Hearts

 

 

hand and feet prints,

 

 

 and random prints.

 

                                            I'm adding to pile all the time :)

                                  Merry present making!

Painting With Crayons

         Yes, you can paint with crayons.  You wanna know how?  OK.  I'll show you how to paint with crayons and make the card.  Bonus! 

                                                            You will need:
     Crayons, cupcake liners, muffin tin, scissors, paintbrush, card stock, marker, packing tape, and paper towels.

 
       Start by putting at least two cupcake liners in the muffin tin.  Otherwise, the crayon will bleed out onto the tin.  Yes, I learned this the hard way.  But more about that later... 
       Peel some crayons and put them in the cupcake liners.  Not too full, because they settle when they melt.  Put them in the oven until they melt.  I don't have an exact time, just keep checking on them every now and then.

 

 

  Now you're ready to paint!  Take a paint brush (make sure it's not your favorite, most beloved paintbrush.  You might have to throw it away after this) and, holding a paper towel under it, quickly move it to your paper and start painting!  This paint dries extremely fast, so use quick brush strokes.  Paint spots of color to cut out.  The picture above is an up-close picture of the texture of crayon paint.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

                Cut your card stock card out.   Cut out about 10 oval shapes for the balloons, and whatever shape you want for the balloon weight. Arrange the balloons how you like them on the paper, and draw some marker lines coming from them to the weight.

          Cut enough packing tape strips to cover the card. ( I used 3.)  Carefully lay the packing tape over the balloons and cut off the extra edges.  You're done!  Just a few more tips:  If you're like me, you had lots of paint left over.  Just stack the cupcake liners on top of each other and store in a Ziploc bag.  When you're ready to use them again, just heat them up in the oven!  If the crayon happened to leak out of the liners,  use your hairdryer to melt the bits, and wipe them up with a paper towel, then wash with soap and water.