Christmas Decorating Tip

For this tip, I had 2 things going for me:
1) I like all of my Christmas decor to match, including the presents under the tree.
2) I don't actually have a lot of people to buy presents for, therefore it's usually pretty bare under the tree.

I found that wrapping my Christmas decoration boxes solved both problems!  I get beautiful gold and blue presents to match the rest of the decorations, and I get enough presents under the tree to make it look like I actually care about people have a lot of people to buy for.

start with this

end up with these!

A couple years ago, I found this great glitter wrapping paper at Walmart.  I haven't seen it there again since, but I'm sure someone makes it or something similar.  I keep all my ornaments in their original boxes, so I know I have a safe place to store them the 11 months of the year that they aren't up.  I slathered those boxes up in elmer's glue and covered them in the glitter paper.  To maintain some sense of order, I did wrap boxes containing blue ornaments or lights in blue paper, and gold ornaments or lights in gold paper. 

A beautiful, perfectly coordinated Christmas Tree!

tl;dr Wrap your ornament boxes in coordinating paper to maximize aesthetics of your Christmas decor!

Modified Tissue Box Cover

Updated 01Feb15

I get a fair amount of traffic to my tissue box cover listings, but sales are not matching up.  And I think part of the reason is the shipping costs.  I agree that they are high for what they are, but that is the lowest price I can find for a 3 dimensional product of this size.  So I'm looking into a new design that will allow me to ship the covers flat, and they will fold open to their cover positions.

I came up with an idea that I think will work, and I'm now entering the testing phase.  I cut out all my pieces and I'm starting to apply the sequins (this will be a solid gold, full length tissue box cover, as those 2 seem to be my most popular combination of items).

Fingers crossed that it works!

Update: Photos of the finished product.  This tissue box cover is listed in my Etsy Store, if anyone is interested in buying it.  I personally am not 100% satisfied with the final result, so i left the shipping as is, with the intent that if anyone wishes to purchase this I will either ship it to them as is with a lower cost shipping option and refund the difference, OR I will finish the edges for free and shipping will be as listed.

Completed cover from the long side

Completed cover from the short side.  Note the seam along the center.  This allows the cover to fold flat for shipping.

Flattened cover for shipping purposes.

Inside view.  Note that the short edges are not attached the the top piece.  This gap is my main problem with this design.

Closeup of the sequins.

Ugly Christmas Sweater

This year, we're having an Ugly Christmas Sweater contest at work (with prizes), and I want to win!  I decided to go all out.  I bought a green sweater at Goodwill, some packages of glitter snowflakes and a garland from Walmart, and a battery operated multi-colored light strand from Amazon.

I started out by sewing the garland around the waist hem.  Easy peasy.  Then I put the lights on.  It took a few tries of pinning/re-pinning to use the full strand without having a big clump somewhere.  I sewed those in place by just tying a knot around the cord between each bulb.  Lastly was the snowflakes.  These were tough because my thread kept getting caught around all the little snowflake arms.  I eventually figured out only to cut enough thread to do one snowflake at a time, and to minimize the attachment points on the snowflakes.

Finally, done!  I'm a little nervous that my sweater will be too awesome to win an ugly contest!  We'll find out tomorrow!

Edit:  I WON!  Yay me!  And my cube-mate got 2nd place...a sales team sweep!

Lights off!

Lights on!

Purple & Tan Fade Tissue Box Cover

As an idea of the different types of designs I can do, I thought I'd post some pictures of the very first tissue box cover I ever made.  This one is for my own, personal bathroom.  I learned a lot about making the covers with this one.

 

First, I used uncommon sequin colors.  This ended up being an expensive lesson.  I wanted the tissue box to match my bathroom, which had purple walls and a tan, tiled bathtub enclosure.  The purple sequins weren't the major issue, as they are a pretty common color.  But tan sequins are not common.  So now I'm focusing on using common colors, which are easier to find and less expensive.





Second, I used flat sequins.  While it was extremely easy to make this tissue box with flat sequins, the completed product just doesn't have
the shimmering quality that I had intended when I started out.  So now I'm using faceted sequins.  They are more difficult to work with, but the end product is so much better.

Third, I built the tissue box cover out of mesh before I started sewing on the sequins.  This made it very difficult to get into the corners.  Plus it was a hassle just due to the 3-dimensional shape.  Now I'm sewing each face of the tissue box cover individually, and then sewing them all together at the end.





Lastly, I learned some smaller lessons. How to tie my knots securely, what order to sew the sequins on, etc.

I am extremely happy with how it looks in the end, but I could have saved a lot of time and money if I had known these lessons beforehand!

My Workspace(s)

Updated 01Feb15

My current workspace situation is not ideal.  I have a spare bedroom that I'd like to set up as a craft studio, but for reasons which I state below, I have not.  I'm currently planted in the living room in front of the tv for all my crafting, with all my dogs fighting for lap space.

Workspace 1: Spare Bedroom

I recently purchased bins to organize!

Pros

• separate, dedicated space
• plenty of room and storage space
• lots of potential
• room for the dogs to be in the room with me without being on top of me or each other
• currently used as my supply storage and my photo studio

Cons

• no desk
• no chair
• no tv or radio
• poor lighting

Workspace 2: Living Room on the Couch

Add caption

Pros

• comfy
• room to bond with my dogs while I craft
• good lighting
• tv and radio for entertainment

Cons

• room for my dogs to be all up in my business
• no storage, I have to move all my supplies to a safe place every time I leave (even for a few minutes) for fear of the dogs running off with them

Workspace 3: Living Room on the Rocking Chair

My assistant, Rochester, modeling this space.

Pros

• good lighting
• tv and radio for entertainment
• no room for dogs to harass me
• separate table area that the dogs can't reach to steal my supplies

Cons

• not comfortable
• dogs still want to sit on me, and constantly whine
• no storage
  

Available Materials

Updated 16Nov14

Metallic Faceted Sequins

Black

White

Red

Lime

Emerald

Turquoise

Royal Blue

Purple

Gold

Silver

Other common colors are available with relatively short turn-around times.  
Custom colors may be available with varying price and schedule impacts.

Tulle

Antique Gold

Black 

Brown 

White 

Red

Melon

Maize

Lime

Jade 

Sage

Emerald

Cotillion

Wisteria

Fuchsia

Rosette

 Other common colors are available with relatively short turn-around times.

Please note: different computer monitors may make colors appear differently.

If you would like a custom project with any of these colors, please send me a message and we will get right to work!