Winkie Con Rosettes...Mission Accomplished!

The Wizard of Oz-themed rosettes are complete and just about ready for shipping, yay! I thought I was going to have to recruit some help, but I managed to get them done (about 170 of them) all by my lonesome.

Each one is in its own resealable cellophane bag just waiting for the little cards I'm going to include with them. This is where I cried uncle and asked Dawn to design something for me I can print on the laser printer and then cut to size. The card stock will identify the source and also provide some stability when they're put into the tote bags.

Popping up the center image was a great idea, it gives them depth. The magnets look tiny, but they're extra powerful. So powerful, in fact, I have to pair them up back-to-back or they jump around on their own! I didn't want them to be wimpy, useless magnets, I wanted them to be able to actually hold things in place, not slide down the surface of wherever they're going to be placed.

The set consists of "The Magic of Oz," Dorothy, The Great and Powerful Oz, Galinda the Good Witch, The Wicked Witch of The West, The Scarecrow, The Lion, and The Tin Man. Here's a couple of close-ups (click on images for even better view).

I'm very pleased with how they turned out and hope they make everyone who gets them happy.

A Gazillion Rosettes

The last of the Winkie con rosettes have been assembled and inked! They look like something from the sea, don't they?! I love all the subtle colors of grey, green and vintage-y brown.

The next step will be to attach the centers. I'm thinking of popping them up with pop dots to give them some dimension. The final steps will be to attach the magnets, which should arrive in about 3 weeks, bag them individually, then send them to the Land of Oz (well, sort of). This has been such a fun project!

Rosettes For Winkies

I’m donating over 150 rosettes (magnets) to a Wizard of Oz convention (held each year at Asilomar on the Monterey Peninsula, California), which will be included in the tote bags they give to the registrants. This gathering is more for L. Frank Baum book-lovers than the MGM movie version, so the vintage artwork reflects this.

I inked up the edges of each stamp to give them a more vintage feel and will put them at the center of each rosette. I cut over 160 strips of Oz card stock to run through my die cutter (2 pieces at a time) using my rosette dies, which will cut a scalloped edge and make the fold lines for the rosettes.

The strips have been cut from my rosette die, more than the 150 I need in case I mess up. I bundled them up in groups of 20 so I can keep track as I go. I made 40 of the rosettes as of this posting, only 110 to go!

I’m glad the convention isn’t until June.

Christmas Ornament Exchange

 

My daughters and I signed up for an ornament exchange and this is one of the ornaments we came up with. I'm having a lot of fun with the new Tim Holtz snowflake die!

 

I cut them all out, the girls folded them and attached the ends, and I pulled my hot glue gun out of its holster and went to work. Dawn made the finishing touches since these were actually her project. (She had another project half-way done and the epoxy didn't set right, so they were ruined. Que Plan B.)

  

Dawn also ordered wooden snowflakes and had them drill a hole at the top for ribbon.

 

She sprayed them with pearly and blue colored mist and attached them to the outside of her packaging.

 

Here's a shot of her bags tucked amongst some of the other fabulous ornaments that were brought. Mine are right in front of hers, the envelopes with the rosette and Washi tape.

 

Valerie's ornaments are in the green boxes with ribbon.

She made the most adorable yarn balls with knitting needles on them!

She started with a paper mache form that came with a gold hanger attached to it already, which was a great help. She painted on the glue a little at a time and wrapped the first layer of yarn over it in a circular pattern. The second layer was applied by putting glue directly on the strand of yarn and winding it around. This was very time-consuming, but well-worth the results.

The knitting needles were made with skewers cut in half. It took a bit of searching, but she found beads to fit the tips and glued them in place.

I already posted about my ornaments, but here are the stars I made in case you missed it.

I cut my stars from natural-colored card stock using a die and gave each star 3 layers of embossing powder and hit them with my heat gun. (I may have a few fingerprints left!) The center star was so tiny, though, I couldn't hold it to emboss it, so I cut it from some pretty sparkly paper, the same I used for the backing.

I wrapped each one with tissue paper and tucked them inside little gold office envelopes I had inked up to give it some age. I put Washi tape around it to make it look like a gift then added my handmade rosettes as a finished touch. I also put a strip of Washi tape on the back. At the party everyone was more interested in the tape than anything else because they had never heard of it...can you imagine? hahaha! It was neat to be able to be excited and tell them all about the wonders of this magical thing we are all hoarding nowadays.
Here's a photo of the other ornaments from the exchange (I stole it from my niece's Facebook!). So much talent!

Reindeer, two glass ornaments with curled paper, elf, snowman, little felt Russian doll (what a lot of work! I mean, they all were, but this was pretty intricate), ceramic critters, plastic form filled with snow, and then ours. It was a fabulous ornament exchange with some pretty fabulous women.

Salinas Has A Book Store!

Since the closing of Borders in Seaside as well as a few independent book stores, the closest book store we've had the last year or so was about a 45-minute drive to Gilroy. So you can understand why we're so excited to have discovered the Book Nook! It's an awesome used book store, very organized and the owner is wonderful. I haven't met the male half of the business yet, but the woman really knows her stuff. The best part? The prices are reasonable! She doesn't charge any more than Savers or Goodwill does, so she will be getting a lot of business from us and we will be donating to the store to help keep them going.

I love being able to support local businesses. Next time we go I'm bringing this magnetic rosette I made for them using their business card for the center. I am determined for them to be successful, so if you're in the area of 521 South Main Street here in Salinas, stop by and buy some books!

Tasty Rosette

I love cuppy-cakes and love this adorable paper! Before attaching the two pieces with a pop-dot, I distressed the edges with a pretty pale blue/grey ink. To the center, I added a tiny pink pearl and blue flower to the tops of the cupcakes and a bit of sparkle to the heart. Must...make...more.

Easter Goodies

I made these for hubby and (adult) daughters.

For the baskets I started with a cup cake/mini loaf liner, attached a sparkly handle made of card stock, and sliced up some craft paper and curled it. For the rosette thingies I used my Vagabond (of course), layered them up with contrasting paper and stamped the names with individual letter stamps. The tiny bow was made using my daughter’s new adorable punch. The chocolate chicks are from Costco.

 Because one is never too old for Easter goodies.

Paper Lace

We have rolls and rolls of this paper lace (don’t ask) and I was playing around with it the other day to see if it could be made into rosettes (my present obsession). The answer is yes, and they’re not only quite lovely, but they’re quick and easy to make.

I folded them back and forth where each circle meets, accordion-style, glued the ends together then hot glued the center to hold them in place. I haven’t attached anything yet, but as the photos show, I did play around with how they could be put together.

I experimented with the super wide purple paper lace, which made HUMONGOUS rosettes (about the size of your hand w/fingers spread wide), perfect to party-up a place. I could see these hanging on the wall or from the ceiling, patio-area or even trees.

They’re big suckers with a fine line between pretty and gaudy. (I’m always having to reel in the gaudy side of my taste, I get it from my mother.) These are on the delicate side, so they would be perfect for gift-wrapping, and with the paper lace used in place of ribbon, would make for a very girlie package

I know, I know, More Rosettes!

...but I can’t stop making them!

I have a new die that makes TWO rosettes at a time, so now I have three different sizes. This time I took some Tim Holtz Distress Ink to the edges and it really made them pop. Also, I put a magnet on the back of a couple of them and didn’t hoard them, I actually gave them away!

Rosettes

Rosettes For A Memorial

 

I crafted about 50 rosettes in the colors of the San Fransisco 49ers for my daughter's co-worker. (The colors aren't exact, but it was the only paper she could find. P.S. The photos make the red look pink.) Her father passed away so these will be used along with other table decorations for the gathering afterward.

Rather than making it all dreary and sad, I like that the family has chosen to celebrate this man's life incorporating the fun things he loved during his lifetime.

The rosettes were fun to make and went together easily. They did take some time, though, which is no biggie if you're only making a few, but when you're making them in bulk you need to be organized enough to know what it entails. If you've never used this die, I recommend watching Tim Holtz's demo video.  His videos are so informative and helpful, I keep them in my YouTube favorites folder for quick reference.

Another item I highly recommend having on hand is a reusable non-stick surface. Laying down dots of hot glue for the center of your rosettes will be challenging if you don't have one.

The only part I wasn't fond of was gluing the ends together to make the circle. The paper was thinner than the heavier scrapbooking paper I'm used to working with and the rosettes small, so my fingers seemed like boulders when it came to lining up the tiny ends. But after I began using a glue stick instead of the Glossy Accents (a liquid glue of sorts) Tim Holtz recommends for heavier paper (as I did with these), the ends came together a lot easier.

This particular die makes one rosette and one center at a time, which is great. In this instance, though, the paper wasn't long enough to cut the rosette and the center at the same time, so I used a circle punch for the centers. It worked out for the better because I had extras in case I screwed up, which, of course, is inevitable.

There are so many things one can do with a rosette (Google, you will be amazed). I picked up some super wide ribbon with a stiff texture the other day and it worked wonderfully! This opens up a whole new world of ideas. I am hooked and can't wait to make more!

My First Rosettes

Ta-da!

The rosettes I promised to post, all three of 'em. I used real buttons on the black and white ones, a sticker button on the white and pink one.

The backs are ugly, but who cares, they'll be stuck to something anyway. I think these would make pretty brooches as well as decorations for scrapbooks, cards, and the like. I attached the white one to the envelope of a birthday card, stuck it amongst a vase of flowers for the birthday girl and it was a hit. Oh, and I also tried out the border die and I'm happy to say I luff the results!

The gift of this Vagabond is going to be one of my all-time favorites, can you tell?