Christmas Advent Calendars

I love Christmas and all the traditions it brings. My boys love counting down the days with the many Advent Calendars we have around the house. Several of them I've made over the years, but this one is definitely my favorite. Maybe its because everytime I look at it I think of the fun night I had chatting and sneaking treats with my two chicks Lori and Pauliene. There are no calories in chocolate when you eat it while giggling with girlfriends! LOL

We used some watchmaker tins and scrapbook papers and supplies to make these festive calendars. I had an old magnet board that I use to hang and display mine one. It was easy to just glue magnets on the back of the tins. The girls came up with a great idea of displaying the tins in a large tray on their coffee tables. Either way, all our kids love opening those tins everyday up to Christmas Eve!

2008 End-Of-Show Season CLEAR OUT

Updated March/09 - Ok, the sale is long over, but you can find many of my handpainted doors in my new Etsy shop. Hop on over to marnieperry.etsy.com



1. **SOLD**
Moments... 24" x 16"
Reg. $60




2. **SOLD**
Home is... 16.5" x 15"
Reg. $48


3. We Belong 15" x 15"
Reg. $48


4. Happily 15" x 15"
Reg. $48


5. **SOLD**
Home is... 24" x 13.5"
Reg. $60



6. Love and Laughter, Forever After
23" x 14" Reg. $60


7. Together 19.5" x 15"
Reg. $52


8. **SOLD**
Coffee 15" x 15"




9. Live Your Life 24" x 15"
Reg. $60.00



10. SOLD
Wished on a Star 15" x 15"



11. Fell in Love 13" x 15"
Reg. $38.00



12. **SOLD**
Wished on a Star 20" x 17"



13. **SOLD**
Blessing 19" x 18"
Reg. $55



14. Together 21" x 15"
Reg. $55


15. Moments 18" x 17"
Reg. $55


16. Home is... 24" x 18"
Reg. $60



17. Dance... 16.5" x 24"
Reg. $60



18. Together... 27" x 15"
Reg. $60



19. Home is... 24" x 15"
Reg. $60



20. Home is... 24" x 13.5"
Reg. $60



21. Love and Laughter Forever After 25" x 13"
Reg. $60


22. Together... 30" x 15"
Reg. $65



23. **SOLD**
With Family 30" x 12"
Reg. $65

Altered Tin Storage Buckets

Supplies needed:
Tin bucket (the buckets and hanging system shown here was purchased at IKEA)
plain white paper (you can tape several pieces together if needed for larger tins)
printed scrapbook paper
pencil
scissors
glue (a craft glue stick was used for this project. You could also use glue dots or white glue. Anything paper friendly)
optional: ribbon, tags, other embellishments



Step 1: lay your bucket on your paper close to one edge. Use your pencil to draw a line at the top and bottom of your bucket as you slowly roll it across the page. Be careful not to shift the bucket while drawing. Continue rolling and drawing until you've traced around the entire bucket with a little overlapping. You will end up with two arches.



Now draw a straight line from your top arch to your bottom arch on both ends and cut out. This is your template.



Fit it around your bucket to make sure it fits. You can make any minor adjustments to your template before you cut out your good printed paper.

If the fit is good, use the template to draw it on the back of your printed paper. I used a 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper and drew the template on a diagonal from corner to corner. Cut it out and glue to your bucket. I glued down the starting edge, wrapped the paper around, and then glued the end.



I embellished my buckets by adding some ribbon and some metal rimmed tags, but anything goes! Have fun creating your own unique storage!

Altered Address Book

Supplies:
spiral bound journal
Assorted scrapbook papers
Ribbon
glue (I used a glue stick for the papers and a glue pen for the ribbon)
embellisments
scissors



Lay open the front cover of your journal onto the back of your paper. Measure 1/2" larger and cut out. Do the same for the back cover.



For the front, tear into 3 strips (widths do not have to be even). We're going to leave out the middle part when attaching the paper so that another paper can peek out underneath it.





Cut a strip of coordinating paper wider than than what is needed to fill the open gap, and the same length as the cover paper.



Glue the bottom 'peek-a-boo' stip to the front cover, letting the edges overhang. Glue the two side stips overlapping the middle strip.



To fold over the edges to the inside of the cover, notch out the corner, fold down and glue.



Cut out a coordinating piece of paper the size of your inside cover and glue down. This will hide the edges of your front paper fold. Now complete the back cover the same way, except with only a solid paper on the outside instead of 3 strips.



Glue down ribbon along the paper edge both inside and on the front cover. Repeat on the back cover.





For the dividers, I glued down some precut chipboard tabs I had to the lined pages inside. You can cut these out of cardstock too.



Embellish! Embellish! Embellish!

Fabric Pin Cushions

Supplies needed:
wide unfinished wood candle base (I got this one at the $$ store)
black paint and paint brush
scrap of fabric...at least 3 inches wider that the area you're going to attach the cushion to.
needle and thread
button
hot glue gun
quilt batting
scissors
small piece of sturdy cardboard (don't use poster board, it must be thicker than that)

Step 1: paint your candle base in black. A couple coats may be needed. Let dry. You can also use some sandpaper and distress the paint after it has dried. Leave the area that the cushion will be glued unpainted.



Step 2: while that's drying, trace the top of the candle stick onto your piece of cardboard. Cut it out 1/8" INSIDE your line so it just a bit smaller than the actual size of your candle base.



Step 3: place your cardboard circle on top of layered quilt batting and cut out a total of 8 circles of batting. (I usually cut 4 layers at a time).



Step 4: lay your cardboard circle on the wrong side of your fabric and draw 1.5"-2" bigger than your cardboard. Just eyeballing this is fine. Cut it out.



Step 5: use your needle and thread to hand stitch around your fabric circle about 1/4from the edge. Make sure you've knotted off the end so it doesn't slip through. Cut the thread leaving a long tail.



Step 6: time to sandwich all your pieces together! Lay your fabric right side down, place the batting in the center and the cardboard circle on the top. Push down with one hand and use your other hand to pull the thread tight. Be sure that the fabric comes over the edge all the way around. Knot off your thread.





Step 7: hand sew a button into the center of your cushion. You'll go through all layers, including the cardboard.



Step 8: hot glue around the edge of the backside of the cushion and in the center to secure the thread. Attach to your candle base.



You can use these steps to make cushions for paper mache boxes, jar lids and anything else with a flat top!

Tin Punching Basics

Supplies you need:
sheet of tin or sheet metal or aluminum flashing
tin snips
black permanent marker
ruler or template design
a scrap piece of wood
a large nail and a hammer.

Begin by using the black marker and your ruler or template to draw the design on the back of the tin sheet. Either side of the tin can be used so I usually just pick whichever side is more scratched up to be the back. Remember that you have to draw your design in reverse.

In this case I drew out a square with a heart in the center.



CAREFULLY cut out your shape with the tin snips. Tin and metal are very sharp, you may wish to wear work gloves.



Let's start punching! Place your piece of tin on your scrap piece of wood. Place your nail on any point of your marker line to start, and hit the hammer on the nail once. Don't hit too hard that you go through the metal, just hard enough that you create a divot. Continue moving the nail and punching it around the whole design, spacing the punches about 1/4" apart. Also punch the perimeter of your piece of tin to create a finished border.

New Beginnings

Are you surprised to find yourself here? Were you by chance looking for my Primware House or SASSphisticated websites?

Well, here's the scoop.

If you've been to either of my sites in the last two weeks, then you know I announced that after a wonderful 4 years on the web, I was shutting down my sites. Why? It may seem like a silly reason, but to be honest, I grew too big. I'm just one little ol' person and since I LOVE to create and design, I couldn't keep up with the business end of things. So I've decided to SIMPLIFY life a little bit. Oh don't worry, I'm still CREATING and DESIGNING and selling my original works...that's who I am. I can't deny myself that. You know where to find me if you need me (wink, wink). Is this temporary? I don't know. I do know I'm very happy with this decision. That tells me the time is right.

I'm having such a good time setting up this new blog of mine and its a wonderful sense of freedom. As I get things set up, I'll add some more great crafting tutorials for you all (be sure to peek at the ones I have already added), and showcase some new paintings I'm working on. I am continuing to do local exhibits (can you believe I've been doing them for 14 years?!) so I'll keep this blog up to date as to where you can find me.

Hmmm....what else? Oh we'll talk about lots of craft stuff of course. New trends, my fav crafters on the web, how to's, and why everyone should have a ribbon addiction like I do!!! LOL

We'll talk about family, life, gel nails, weight (I could talk about my struggles with that nonstop), polka dots and all things 'bling'.

So please stick around. We'll have lots of fun and you'll still get your fix of primitive, shabby and antique goodies from me, I promise. Best of all now you can leave your comments for me to read!!! Are you ready to take this new journey with me? I sure hope so. I've gotten this far because of you. I can't imagine continuing on my own.

xoxo
Marnie