YAPPING CAT STUDIO

On a Roll

As the title says, we are on a roll.  On in a roll as the case may be!  Or using a roll.  LOL. 

Here's a quick little "tut" for turning an empty paper towel roller into a cool candy holder for a party favor.  Now, this is not my idea.    This is like the popular British "crackers" but without the pop. Makes a cute candy presentation for when you want something other than the usual candy-in-a-paper-bag favor.  (Click on pics to enlarge).

First gather your scrap and or vintage supply goodies, scissors, glue (I use The Ultimate) and a roll-on glue, ruler and a few empty toilet paper rolls. 

Like these.  Now, gather the goodies.

 

I managed to put in a ring, a sucker, a mini tablet and a gum into one roll.  So if will hold a decent amount of fun in each one.

Load em in tightly.  You could also add plastic trinkets or little notes, anything festive.

 

Lay the filled roll onto your paper of choice.  I have already scalloped the ends of this paper.  Measure about two inches on either side, so you will have enough room to tie off the ends. 

 

Apply the roll on glue to the paper.  I used The Ultimate on the edges, so it will hold good and tight.  Now, carefully roll the tube along the paper, rubbing down smooth as you go (and be sure to keep your goodies in the tube). 

 

Once rolled up, add glue along the edge and seal shut.  I pinched the ends shut with a cloths pin for just a few minutes.  (and I did change paper on ya here, this one I added some gathered crepe paper to the ends before putting the roll in.).

Once that is dry, slowly push down the paper onto the end of the tube, and then crimp in the center and tie off with a ribbon.  Now do the other side.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a pic here).

Now for the fun part.  Decorate the top as desired.   

For the top roll, I gave it a more vintage look.  And the bottom roll is all done with scrap paper and scrap stickers.  A little Ranger's Stickles gives it a bit of sparkle!  And viola!  Cute, festive favors that are more fun than scary!  

We are less than a week away!  Eek!  

Happy Monday!

when good crafts go bad

Or Halloween in one room and Christmas in another?  LOL.  That's what its like here lately.

Case in point.   Dining room table.  Not even the cats want to sit here.  Which is odd, cause usually if there is paper, there is a cat atop it.

These are all WIP's essentially.  And that's "works in progress" for those that don't know.  For the show, I thought I wold do the traditional red and green, but put a whimsy spin on it and do the apple green.  Though it would be cute to mix with vintage (hence the Santa mug in the pic).

The flower pots, I'm not sure If I'm just going to fill with little trees or what...the merry sign needs glitter and lots of it.  The church needs doo-dads added.  And the little guys on the left....well, they were almost a case of when good crafts go bad.

 

I picked em up naked.  OK, they were naked, not me.  Anyway.  They were in a bin at Michael's.  Thought they could be cute.  Oh brother.  After NUMEROUS re-do's.  They are almost there.  I'm still not totally happy, but not too bad.  I wanted them very whimsical, but they just don't hit the mark for me. 

And seriously, I'm not fishing for compliments here.  But you know how it is when you get it in your head that it should look a certain way...and it just never comes off.  Well, frustrating.  So...I'm glad I did not buy more. 

Maybe they need a bell?  LOL.  A tassel?  IDK.  I thought it would be an easy thing to do and toss out for cheap...but once again, the Pokey rears its ugly little head.  LOL. 

Hoping your Tuesday is not Pokey. 

M is for ....

Moneypenny?  Me?  Noooooo...Monogrammed. 

So when I get tired of working on books.  I switch.  To monogrammed Christmas ornaments. 
Believe me, these go waaaaaay faster than the books.

Lots!

These sage green ones are really pretty in person.

But these white with silver are my faves.  Very wedding-ie looking.  Would be great for that First Christmas together. 

Since I can do these so fast, if you are interested, you'll find em on my Etsy shop.

Happy its Wednesday!

One down, a million to go!

OK, not a million.  But, at least 20.  That's the goal anyway.  And since I work at a snail's pace, I've got to really hustle to get 20 books done in a little less than a month.  yikes.

But I was happy with the way this one turned out.  It's kinda different.

 

Here's a little detail of the cover.

I layered the pages...so when you look down upon the whole thing, you see this.

Inside cover.

 

Which is more or less a giant tag.  Photo can go on this side, journal on the other. 

As pages are opened, the layers change.

And again.

 

And again.

 

I wanted to put more tags and pop ups in, but not enough time.  And I'm trying to keep the prices at about $20.00 or under.

 

Last page. With tags.

That reveal a place for a photo.  Get it...Do Re "ME"....ha!  Course now that Jackson 5 song will be stuck in your head all day long.  Sorry bout that.

 

Tags for journaling.

Not allot of vintage on here, as I think most of the gals (that will be attending the show) are not into vintage.  But that's ok.  So...only about 19 or more to do.  LOL.  The rest are Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Wish me luck!

Ya Better Hurry!

If you want to snap up one of these cuties!  I just got mine!  Head over to see "the other Cindy", that would be Miz Gilstrap, over at cute little Junque Art.  Cause its her kit day.  Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen?  I thought so.  So I bought one. 

And you can check out more cute kits and fun here! 

Wasn't there a commercial that used to have the line, "good stuff Maynard" or something stupid like that.  Well, LOL, that's what I'm saying today.  For those that want inspiration or a great box of creativity to head there way...well, good stuff at both of these blogs.  Maynard. 

Feeling Fallish

I tend to lean towards the darker colors of life.  Browns, golds, sage greens...anything rich and with a vintage-ie feel.  So this time of year, is always my favorite, because it seems that everywhere I look, those are the colors that I see.

 

So when I popped into my LSS (local scrap store) yesterday, I seemed to gravitate towards all things in this shade range.

LOVED these Webster's Pages.  This is Natures Storybook.  I plan to recover frames with these.

 

7 Gypsies I've been such a huge fan of their's forever.  And these really inspired me.  Loved this paper, mock book covers and tags.  The book cover and tags are called Victoria.  The ribbon is most likely May Arts.  I think this will make a cute wall hanging. 

Donna Downey Printed Canvas, this one was with grey text.  Love this.  Lots of possibilities here.

So, all that is needed is time in the old Studio.  Hopefully next week. 

Happy Friday.

Birds of a Feather...

...look cuter embellished!  Especially for Halloween.

This time, rather than bling, I went with Glitter! 

Or Stickles to be more exact!  I made the BOO!  sign nice and sparkly.  And used a different color on the eyes, nose and mouth on another pumpkin bucket. 

But my faves, are the little crows.  Surely these little, feathered friends are from a forest where magical things happen every day. 

"Enchanting" sits amongst a few gnarled tree limbs and shows of his sporty crown and star.

"Magic" sparkles aplenty as he guards his favorite colored leaf and acorn.  He also wears a crown and sports a bow to match his leaf.

And wee little "star".  The plainest of the three, is adorned simply with vintage seam binding and a glittery little star.  She's plain and pretty. 

I wanted to go into a different direction with monocles and dapper effects, but I kept thinking of that forest from the movie, "The Brother's Grimm" (love that movie) and I wanted to make these little guys look like they might come from such a place. 

I promise, tomorrow, I'll do something different!  LOL. 

Gimme something good to Eat!

Its been busy-busy out of of the Studio, with a "wedding and a baby" and so forth.  My niece Jenn,  got married Saturday and my other niece, Tay,  (who had gotten married last December) had her baby on Monday. 

But finally today, it is quiet.  And with a nice overcast day and temperatures in the 60's it FINALLY feels like Fall.  Yay!

So, I kept playing with the little bucket.  And I really felt like he needed something.  So I added some ribbon, velvet leaves and for "bling", a big honkin brooch. 

So then, what the heck, I made another candle.  And added an old piece of jewelry to the first candle.  And even the little crow needed some bling. 

Kinda fun.  The brooch is old and had some jewels missing.  But still adds an elegant flair.  Or a little "bling to my 'ween!" 

Hee.

He gets a velvet, paper crown.

And the second candle that I made utilized our same, skinny friend.  But this time, he gets a star wand (on a hat pin, piercing the paper) and he carries his Halloween bucket.  And the words around say the old Halloween rhyme, "Trick or Treat, smell my feet, gimme something good to eat". 

Here is his "bucket".  And because I have a fear of that paper (around the candle) over heating and bursting into flames, (boy, would'nt that liven up the ol party), I'm using a battery operated light rather than lighting the original candle.  Yep, I'm a safety girl.

Uh-oh!  What's Halloween without a cat?  And this little nosy-rosy, decides to see what I'm fussing with.  (And she knows that being on the counter is a No-No, but I guess she decided to take her chances).

Hmmm, what's in here?

Chocolates?  Yeah, gimme something good to eat!

Goofy Pumpkin Redo

BEFORE: 

These two goofy pumpkins were sitting in the garage forever.  I had picked them up at a garage sale for a quarter each.  They reminded me of my childhood Halloweens.  Actually, we carried paper grocery bags, lol, but I know there were kids that carried these. 

 

Last Fall (after being inspired by Country Living Mag) I sprayed em gold.  Well...they never really worked as I had hoped. 

This year, I thought, they needed just a little sparkle.

AFTER

 

Stickles to the rescue!  I LOVE Stickles!  And its so much more than for paper.  Ranger, feel free to use that line.  LOL.  A shot of Cinnamon gave this goofy little guy just the twinkle that he needed.

 

I put a battery operated "candle" inside.  Found those two in a package for a buck-you-know-where.  Kinda reminds me of Voldermort in HP..."he-that-shall-not-be-named".  Dollar Tree, forever more known as, "for a buck you know where".

 

See?  Safety first.  And I Stickled the word "Boo" on the side.  A secret "boo".

 

Now, he has a soft, glittery, sparkle about him. I still might ad a couple of big fall velvet leaves to his head.  And I think he will be cute next to a big bowl of chocolates!  Perfect. 

Awash in Lavender and Apple Green

That is the status of the Studio today.  I'm feeling 100% better and knee deep in decorations for the "bride", as the shower is this Saturday.  Yikes! 

 

Her colors were originally lavender and mint.  But I personally like the apple green a lot better.  She ended up switching to that once she realized there were not a lot of color choices in goods with the mint green.  

I personally like the brighter colors that weddings have become.  We went to one a few weeks ago that was done in turquoise and apple green.  They almost clash, but then there is something about them together that is kinda happy.  Her theme was nests and played off with branches.  She had huge metal branch candelabra's that were just gorgeous.  It was all very lovely.  I hope to be able to pull of the same for my sweet niece.

This is the beginnings of a banner (using those MS eyelets).  I'll show you more when I get it finished.  I was not really happy with the rub on after I did it, but oh well.  I hope the rest will turn out better. 

But much to do.  I'm also using a nest theme.  I'll have to see what I can come up with.

Thanks again for all your sweet wishes.  Apparently, the fourth day of antibiotics is the charm.  LOL.  And its so very good to be me again.  Amazing how I often take my health for granted.