Kerry’s Paper Crafts

I am so sorry that I’ve been so quiet on the blogging front lately. I guess you could say it’s that busy time of year!

I am super busy at my regular job, we are actually moving office spaces next week (yes, the week between xmas & New Years!). So things have been pretty hectic for me while I get all of that organized. At home, I’ve been busy getting Christmas stuff wrapped up. (no pun intended, lol).

How about a little sharing though? First, some personal stuff….

Here is a photo of Pete & I at my company Christmas party. (notice all the yummy wine in the background…*drool*). I used this pic on our Christmas Card this year.

And here I am being a nerd with my camera, trying to get photos of the ornaments on the Christmas Tree. Hehehe.

OK, onto the crafty stuff…!!

I created some of these handmade decorative candles this weekend to give to a few members in my family. I used Hero Arts stamps on both of these, and I love how they turned out. They are nice handmade gifts that add just a little somethin’ - especially if you are planning on giving a gift card. I followed the instructions HERE on StampTV. Gina K is so sweet & her videos are amazing. StampTV is definitely one of my favorite YouTube Channels…!

In the video, Gina shows you how to use Tissue paper to emboss an image, and then heat set the tissue paper onto the candle. (so neat!) I decided that I wanted to add extra interest, so I dusted some glitter onto the candle afterwards, and quickly zapped it with my heat gun to set it into the wax. (warning: the glitter part is MESSY!)

To package these, I used some leftover cellophane bags that I had from something else (a Green alternative to buying new ones)…and I tied a ribbon around the base of the candle. I then added an embellishment at the top. I had these wooden die cut snowflakes in my drawer - no idea where I grabbed them from. I used Crystal Effects & added some red glitter to match the candle on this one:

On this snowflake, I embossed with the same Ultra Fine Gold Embossing Powder from Ranger that I used on the stamped image.

By the way, I purchased my candles at The Christmas Tree Shop. Gina actually recommends using cheapie candles to do this, the more expensive ones might melt too much. Also, I think she only recommends using white, as the stamped images show up better - I’m not 100% sure though. Lastly, I grabbed those candle dishes at Walmart for $2 each.

I hope this helps some of you who needed a last minute gift idea. I should be back this week to post a few more Christmas things..!

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