Dec 12, 2013

Santa Craft Stick Ormament

I'm having so much fun designing and making these stick ornaments. I'm trying to keep them simple, but with details.  

We will be spending Christmas in Cabo, this year.  With that in mind, we will not be having a traditional Christmas Tree, because with that comes all the trimmings, the expense, then what to do with all you have acquired........ Well at least we'll have 3 ornaments.








Santa Craft Stick Ornament
Supplies you need:
 Craft Stick (shown is a pre-colored stick)
Paint - red, black, facial, light pink, white, gold
Foam - red, white, black
Twist tie - striped for wire (glasses)
Brown paper from bag
Ribbon - 1 white pom pom
Glue, scissors, paint brush, toothpick


Instructions
1 If stick is not pre-colored red, Paint stick red, dry
2 Cut shoes, shoe band, beard, hat, hatband, arms, mittens.
3 Paint face, with facial color, dry paint again, dry.
4 Paint on face, pink cheeks, spot of red for lips, two black dots for eyes (with toothpick), white eyebrows above the eyes, paint black strip for belt, dry. Measure how far down the beard would be, and paint two gold dots for buttons, and with toothpick paint gold buckle on black belt, dry.
5 Strip paper off twist tie to expose wire inside. Using small stick (I used end of paint brush), leave small length of wire and wrap once, leave very small amount of wire and wrap around stick, again, making small pair of glasses.  Using a toothpick, glue wire where it doubles in the wrap to ensure strength.  Set aside.
6 Glue hatband on hat, fold over and glue, then glue pom pom to tip of hat.
7  Glue on hat, beard, make sure the mouth hole goes over the red spot on face, glue on shoes. Using a scissors, scrap a line down the middle of shoes to make it look like two shoes.  Paint black line for legs.
8 Adjust glasses on face, glue on sides of stick, dry, then secure on back of stick by gluing  both wire ends to stick.
9 Crumple brown paper to make a bag, tie with ribbon at top of bag.  Glue mittens to arms, then glue arms onto stick.
10 Glue paper bag to back of stick, pull right arm around to the back of stick to hold top of bag, and left arm around to hold bag in the front of stick. Glue arms in place.
11 Cut and tie small ribbon, glue to back of stick.






FYI:  I went to trouble to make a pdf file, if anyone would like one for the craft collection, please email me at cgammeter@yahoo.com and I will be happy to email.
Thanks for Stopping by,
Happy Crafting!

Dec 5, 2013

Cabo Sunsets

The sunsets here are so beautiful.  It's hard to truly capture an entire sunset with just one photo.  I discovered a button on my pse (Photoshop Element), Photomerge panorama.  I love this element. It is so cool to load your photos, watch the program take your photos, match up where each one left off, for one extremely large photo.  Of course I had to resize this for the post, but it's 53 inches long, that would make an awesome poster.


This photo is actually 9 photos put together by the Photomerge.  I stood on the porch of our condo and just moved a little bit in each photo.




The sky was so beautiful on this side of the building that I ran quickly down to the deck above the pool, on the west side and took 4 photos for this beautiful Photomerge panorama.



Simply Gorgeous!
Fyi:  I DID NOT enhance any of the photos.

Linked to: Monday Create With Joy

Nov 27, 2013

Elf Craft Stick Ornament

I love Christmas time... the lights, the trees, the decorations, the music.....the food...I can not wait to see how they celebrate Christmas in Cabo.  We stay in downtown Cabo; we do not have a vehicle so we walk everywhere.  I discovered a craft store about ten blocks away, they have the cheapest crafts supplies I ever seen.  For all the supplies I bought, the foam (8 sheets), the paint's (7 small jars), the paint brushes (2), the ribbon (3 yards), the Christmas decorative pieces (2), the pack pom poms, a pack of jingle bells, the sharpie marker, the glue;  I spent under $10 usd.  I manage to find everything I needed to make my craft stick ornaments...except felt, as it turns out the color foam works better for me.
Trying to take picture of my Elf hanging from a tree is a trick, downtown Cabo is mostly dust and concrete, with very tall palm trees. I found a little park three blocks down, two blocks up, with trees.  Yes, the people watching me take pictures of this little guy think I am crazy....  My Elf is little more detailed then my Christmas Bear Craft Stick Ornament, but he is fun to make.

Elf Craft Stick Ornament
What you need:
Craft stick (if pre-colored green, no need to repaint)
Paint - green, flesh color, red and white, black
Foam - green red, brown, flesh color
Decorative object: ie, small package, garland, small golden balls 
in center of flower 
Ribbon
Glue, Scissors, Paint brush, toothpick 



1 Paint stick green,
2 Draw line on bottom center.  Cut and glue on shoes, draw line down center of shoes.
3 Paint face and neck.
4 Cut out ears, hat, hat band, collar, hair, arms and mittens.  Glue hat band to hat. Glue mittens to arms.
5 Glue on ears, paint red checks and red neck line. Paint white checks.
6 Cut small gold balls off decorative objects glue onto tips shoes and tip of hat.
7 With toothpick, dot eyes and draw smile.
8 Glue on collar.
9 Glue hair, hat, and arms onto stick.
10 Small package came off of decorative object. Glue package below collar.
11 Pull arms around small package and glue.
12 Cut and tie small ribbon, glue to back of stick.

I've made three so far.... I was thinking an entire tree with just Elves would be so adorable....just not sure we will be able to have a Christmas Tree here in Cabo..... this year.





FYI:  I went to trouble to make a pdf file, if anyone would like one for the craft collection, please email me at cgammeter@yahoo.com and I will be happy to email.


















Other Variations of Elf



Happy Crafting
And Happy Holidays!

Nov 23, 2013

Christmas Bear Craft Stick Ornament

I love spending Christmas with my daughter and the grandchildren. Every year before my trip I would spend endless hours searching websites and blogs for fun Christmas crafts to share with the kids.  After doing crafts with the kids and they are in bed, My Daughter and I get busy with some craft of our own.
Time for Cocktails and Crafts!  Our favorite late evening crafting is making these craft stick ornaments.

Credits:
The Snowman and the North Pole sign from Squidoo
The Penguin from Better Homes and Gardens, The Reindeer from Craft Ideas.
The Christmas Bear is Mine.
To add to the collection, I been working on the 
Christmas Bear Craft Stick Ornament 
He's so easy to make:
Here's what you need:
Craft Stick
Brown paint
Brown foam, red foam, white foam
Black paint or marker
Pom Pom
Red ribbon
Scissors, glue, toothpick, paint brush.

         

1  Paint stick brown
2  Cut diamond shape for face, glue on stick about an inch down.
3  With black paint, dot eyes and draw nose
4  Cut shapes for hat, ears, and arms
5  Glue ears, wait for it to dry.
6  Glue hat band, fold hat down and glue, then glue to top of stick. Glue Pom Pom to tip of hat.
Tie red ribbon around neck.
7  Glue arms, wait to dry,glue garland on stick, fold arms to center and glue.  Glue ribbon to back of stick to hang.

 


He really is so darn cute.  People here in Cabo think I'm nuts running around looking for trees to hang him from for a photo. 


FYI:  I went to trouble to make a pdf file, if anyone would like one for the craft collection, please email me at cgammeter@yahoo.com and I will be happy to email.