Tissue Paper Snowflake Windows + $100 Michael's Holiday Giveaway

I like looking at pictures of real snowflakes, and I am amazed at such tiny detail that makes up each section. These paper snowflakes are probably smaller than you're used to cutting out, but they're simple to construct with minimal supplies.

You could enter to win a $100 Michael's Gift Card at the end of this post, and if you win, you can use that money to get all your supplies. #Giveaway #Win #EnterToWin

(As usual I'm not being compensated to promote any particular product or store. Links are there for your shopping convenience. All opinions and photos are mine.)

Supplies Needed:

Multiple Colors of tissue paper (I got mine at Dollar Tree)

Card stock

Glue stick

Pencil w/eraser

Small fine-tipped scissors (mine are from Scrapbooking Made Simple)

Circle dies or circle cutter (4 1/4" and 3 3/8")

Optional: hole punch and twine for an ornament

Start by cutting two circle frames from the card stock. Use whatever die cut machine you have or a circle cutter. Then cut three colors of tissue paper with the bigger circle die. Use a light color, medium color and dark color for best results.

Fold a tissue paper circle in half.

Then fold it in half again, making the edges really straight.

Here is the tricky part... you need to fold it in thirds to make a wedge. Fold the 'two edges' side first. Check the inside to make sure you didn't put a crease where you don't want it. It all has to be even.

Fold the other colors too.

Using the inside edge of your circle frame, draw a line on your tissue paper wedge where the frame covers the outside edge. This part won't be seen, but will be used to glue to the frame.

Draw your main cut lines onto your colors; these will form the outside edge of the snowflake. I did the lines darker than I needed so it will show in the picture. The lightest color will have the smallest snowflake, the medium color snowflake will be bigger, and the dark color snowflake will be the biggest. Be careful to not cut into the frame guideline or overlap the cut lines. If you want each color to look like a 6 pointed snowflake, the snowflake point should be along the single folded side of the wedge, and the 'two edges' side should be shorter.

If you want, you can cut some intricate designs into the snowflake before you cut along the main cut line.

Make your cuts carefully with your tiny scissors. And gently erase your pencil lines. It's easier to erase them while the tissue paper is still folded. You don't want to rip the paper and ruin your work.

Unfold your snowflake frames and put them under a book to help press out the creases.

Save the snowflakes for a bonus project at the end.

Next you should glue the lightest color tissue paper to the frame in sections, putting glue on to about a quarter of the frame at a time. With each section, carefully line up the edge of the tissue paper to the edge of the frame. It should fit perfectly, but don't worry about tiny wrinkles in the edge, they won't show.

Use the same process on the medium colored tissue paper, and then the darker color. Make sure to line up the main snowflake points. If you have tissue paper curling up on the medium and dark layers, gently place some glue under it and tack it down. The glue will dry clear. Finish by gluing the other circle frame on top of the dark color.

You can punch a hole in the frame and run some twine through it to hang it on your tree or window. It looks best when fully lit in a bright window.

Here are some other designs and colors.

They look like stained glass on the tree.

Here's a bonus project you can make with all those miniature snowflakes that you cut out.

Glue a white tissue paper background to a larger frame, and put glue onto sections of the white tissue paper to glue down the snowflakes. Overlap them to create a snowflake collage.

What new colors can you make by overlapping different colors of tissue paper?

Holiday Giveaway

We are so excited that one lucky winner will receive a $100 Michael’s Gift Card - just in time for the holidays!
Brought to you by:

• Bloghetti
• Doodlecraft
• Juggling Act Mama
• New England Momma
• Paper Ponies
• Simply Designing
• The Kitchen Garten
• Trish Sutton

$100 Michael’s Gift Card Giveaway

Official Rules and Conditions: One winner will receive a $100 Michael’s Gift Card. Open to US residents 18+. One (1) winner will be chosen. Prize must be claimed within 48 hours of announcement or a new winner will be drawn. All entries will be verified. This giveaway is in no way associated with Michael’s, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Rafflecopter, or any other entity unless otherwise specified. Giveaway ends 12/23/2019. Enter using the widget below. The prize will be delivered electronically.
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Cub Scout Day Camp Jurassic Park Backpack

For me it's the last year as Cubmaster for Cub Scouts and last time for Day Camp as a scout. Hopefully the kids will still want to go to a day camp next year for their summer activities. This year we attended Camp Kiesel on the Causey Reservoir east of Ogden, Utah. The theme at camp was Jurassic Park. Several of the scouts were excited for this year's theme. I just wanted to go and not visit the first aid station with a scout this time.

The previous year was fun and a little crowded, and the boys spent a lot of money at the Trading Post. A pocket knife fell out of a pocket and was lost, gifts for their family were misplaced all over camp, and I got tired of keeping track of their gear. This year, out of purely selfish reasons, I wanted to make sure each scout had their own bag to carry their own things.

I prefer to carry my few things in a cinch style backpack.  It's perfect for a day long activity.  TotebagFactory.com is a great site to get all sorts of bags and backpacks at wholesale prices. There are no minimums and open to the public. I chose the Natural Economical Sport Cotton Drawstring Bag, and ordered enough for all the scouts at camp and the ones who couldn't go.

My sis-in-law gifted me her old Cricut Explore Air 2 and the Iron On Easy Press, plus a whole bunch of gear and tools to go with it. Best Christmas present ever! My hubby really liked it too, because he likes to design his own T-shirts. It was time to try out my new machine and crank out a bunch of iron-on designs for these bags.

Supplies needed:

Drawstring Backpacks

Cricut Die Cut Machine--with cutting mats

Easy Press 2 9x9

Cricut Everyday Iron-on Vinyl --I chose Cornflower and Yellow

Cricut weeding tools

Pressing Mat

Teflon or Silicone pressing sheet

Scissors

Optional but really helpful:

Cricut Bright Pad

I wanted a simple design that didn't include the actual Jurassic Park name on it, and found this image.

Only use it for your own personal purposes, please.
In Cricut Design space I welded a rectangle at the bottom of the picture so I could add our pack name to it. The scouts picked Beastmasters as their name a few years ago, and it stuck. I used the Jurassic Park font found here. I ended up moving the letters closer together because they looked funny father apart. Save your project as two layers, one for the logo and one for the text.

Time to start creating. My final image was about 9 inches square, so I used a lot of blue vinyl. Two of the logo should fit on the 12x24 inch single color roll of iron-on vinyl.

Cut out all your images. Don't forget to set up the mirroring feature when cutting! You'll be upset with yourself for wasting vinyl if you don't. I could keep the machine constantly going because I used two cutting mats. While one was cutting, I was trimming and carefully placing my next vinyl piece on the next mat.

Start weeding your images. While some say that the Cricut Bright pad isn't that helpful in seeing the lines through the vinyl, I thought it was most helpful weeding out the small pieces. I could place my pick in the middle of the shape I didn't want and gently wiggle it on the carrier sheet to expose the cut edge. Once the light came through, I could more easily get my pick under that edge. It's really hard to see the cut lines on a white backed vinyl. The Bright Pad helped me tremendously with the letters and the middle part of the font.

It's easier to weed your vinyl if you peel off the outside excess first and then you can see the smaller pieces. You don't want to peel off a piece you need!

Now that you have all your images ready, time to iron them on to your bags. Cricut suggests that for a cotton canvas and everyday iron-on vinyl, set your Easy Press to 340 degrees and set the timer for 30 seconds.

I have the medium sized Easy Press, but my sis-in-law uses the large Easy Press most often. It would have made my project go a little faster if I had the larger one, but I made do with this one.
Start off by warming up your bag on the pressing mat. Basically, just iron out the wrinkles and get it warm to accept the vinyl.

Center and place your first layer of your picture where you want it on the bag. I put mine a little closer to the bottom so that the picture wouldn't be squished when the bag was cinched up. 

Cricut says when layering vinyl, to only press the first layers about 5-6 seconds until they will stay stuck to the fabric. Since my image was slightly larger than my iron, I had to move the iron around in a few places to make sure all the edges were tacked down. Then, when the project is still warm, but not hot to the touch, carefully peel up the carrier sheet. If everything is not pressed down, put the carrier sheet back down and press for a few more seconds.

Then get your next color layer ready and line it up on your image.

You'll need to cover your entire image with the Teflon or silicone sheet so you don't ruin your picture. The sheet I have actually is used for dehydrator trays to help peel off sticky food. Make sure your Teflon sheet is clean. I had to clean mine a couple times after ironing, because sometimes the edge of the vinyl would get the adhesive stuck to the sheet. I didn't want previous adhesive ironed on the front of my next picture.

This is the time to use the Easy Press to the full 30 seconds. After you put your last vinyl layer down, then turn on the timer and gently hold down the iron over the whole image. You can move the iron around to reach all the edges if you need to. The last press will really make sure the vinyl is stuck to all the front fibers of your bag. Turn the whole thing over with the Teflon sheet under the bag and press the back of the fabric for another 10 seconds to set it.

You have a finished project!

I made about a dozen of these bags, and the kitchen got a little warm with the iron on the whole time. But, if you're only making one, it won't seem as bad..or tedious. 

The scouts really enjoyed their bags at camp, and I didn't have to carry anything extra all day!

*All content is my own personal opinion. I'm not getting compensated for promoting anything.

Silk Flower Unicorn Wreath

My sis-in-law gave me this great FloraCraft styrofoam unicorn horn that she picked up at a trade show recently. Suggested projects were a bunch of unicorn horn headbands for kids and pets. I've seen plenty of those and didn't want to make another existing project. Then I thought, what if I attach it to an actual horse head? I scoured the Internet for a wire horse head form and found this stylized one that I liked.

Craft Outlet 24" Horse Head Tinsel Work Form

I spent a good chunk of time taking off the pipe cleaner tinsel and the metal bands holding it on to get it down to just the wire form. Sore hands and blisters are optional.

The rest of the supplies include:

FloraCraft Styrofoam Blocks and the unicorn horn (available at Hobby Lobby in July)

A big mess of silk flowers and picks that you like for your project.

Crafting wire to attach the blocks to your frame.

16 gauge floral stem wire for your unicorn horn

Peacock Feather picks for the eyelashes

Martha Stewart Pearl Craft Paint (I used the Gold Mother of Pearl Color)

Mod Podge Extreme Glitter

Wire Cutters

hot glue gun

Ribbon to hang it up.

I used a long serrated knife to trim down my styrofoam block to fit in between the wires on my form to have a place to attach my flowers and stems. Then, I wrapped the craft wire around them and the frame to keep them in place.

I took apart about 4 large picks of white hydrangeas to start hot gluing them all over the front and the sides of the styrofoam and the the frame, leaving the side of the mane open for later. Watch out for hot glue burns!

You want to make sure that you can't see the styrofoam or the frame through the flowers. Choose a small flower as the nostril if you prefer. Next get the picks you chose for your mane and start stabbing them in the foam down the side. These long picks of colored foam balls are perfect as a mane. I pushed the parts of the pick closer together up the stem to make a fuller bunch and layered them in a rainbow color. Hot glue them to the foam so they stay where you want them.

I added a row of big roses to cover the back of the mane, or if you have enough mane picks add more to the side.

I pushed the horn on the floral stem wire and added a few coats of pearl paint and a final top coat of the Mod Podge Extreme Glitter. It's glittery and pearlized.

Trim the wire down and insert the horn in its proper place with more hot glue. Add some more flowers around the base to cover seams and give your unicorn a flower crown. Cut a piece of peacock feather off the tip and sparingly hot glue it in the correct spot as the eyelashes. On mine, you're actually looking at the back of the feather, which is black.

Thread some ribbon through the wires on the back and hang it up on your door wreath hook.

She looks so pretty!

#FloraCraft #ModPodge #Plaidcrafts #PaperPoniesCrafts