Christmas craft supply round up

Hello friends, and welcome. I decided I wanted to write a roundup of some of my favorite Christmas craft suppliers on Etsy while there is still some time left before Christmas. This year has flew by, and I'm behind a bit. I decided this year I would make my family and friends handmade gifts, but I have been so busy with my New paper bead product line, I am seriously slacking.LOL. So while I was looking at supplies for my Christmas gifts I was really inspired to get my butt in gear and make some of the ideas I have for gifts a reality. The following Christmas Craft suppliers are some of the best, on Etsy,in my opinion, so grab some hot Cocoa and check these amazing shops out! GypsyEchoGifts is my shop on Etsy, and of course I have to add a few of my on Craft supplies. These are my favorite Paper beads, They so remind me of candy canes.

Candy Cane Paper Beads

Here is My Christmas mix paper beads That are new this year in My shop.

Christmas mix paper beads

I found these very nice large Christmas Bells with a really cool snowflake pattern, Check these beauties out!

Snowflake Christmas Bells

I came across this cute Ribbon that would make a great girls hair bow to go along with a pretty Christmas dress. 

Christmas craft Ribbon

I found these very pretty Wings that would be great for making angel ornaments

                                                                     Angel wings

I found this stencil that is perfect for decorating my own wrapping paper this year.

Ornament Stencil

These super cute mini hats are perfect for making frosty the snowman, which is a craft I want to do with my kids.

Little snowman hats

Well my Darlings, that's it for this roundup. Hope you have a wonderful day!

Have you ever been trapped in a parking garage?

I Did Today. It's funny now, but at the time I was freaking out!

  

  So I hate going downtown, where it''s full of one way streets, traffic, and parking garages, but I had to go to something important so I didn't have a choice.

                                               I Found the perfect spot on the fourth floor of the parking garage, then me and the kids walked and got done what I needed to do. We got back in the car after about a hour and a half. I got the kids seat belts on and off we go to one of the two exits. We get to the exit and I see the sign and exit for credit card, well I don't have the hubby's card on me so that's a no go. I see where you can go out if you pay for monthly parking, and again I'm like okay no. 

   Well I thought, maybe the other exit has someone I can pay to exit. So off we go again around and around to the other exit, Where again it has a box for credit cards, and one for monthly payment. So I'm like okay maybe there's another exit. So around and around again to a dead end. UGGGGG. The dead end was where Enterprise rent a car washes their cars, so if you ever get stuck at least you get a free car wash right. LOL.

   So parking garages are strange places you go around what feels like 100 times to never really get anywhere! So around and around back the way I came, I thought "Maybe I missed the other exit with the teller". hmmm Okay around, and around, getting dizzy, around, and again. all the way to the seventh floor, and guess what, Yep no teller. Okay I decide not to go all the way up to the tenth floor, and turned around very, extremely frustrated! So I go back down around and again, and find the first exit. I pulled up to the box to see if I could see a place to put money. Nope, and the same with the monthly parking box.

  " Okay Jennifer, Breathe Just relax, your not really stuck in a never ending spiral with no exit."So around and around to the other exit, I pull up to one of the box's and lo and behold a box for money. so I followed the directions inserted my little parking card, and started digging in my purse. That's when I realized I had no cash on me. "Oh Geez, What next" I think, Okay well I'll just pay with change, so I count out $3.00 in change, when I realize I was in there for a extra 30 minutes so it was six dollars. Grrr okay look for more change. Wait a second, I see a credit card slot, a dollar bill slot, Oh crap where Do I put change! So I did see a button with help on it, and if anyone needed help it was me with four whining kids in the car complaining about the heat and how someone hit someone else and the other one is thirsty.......

 

  I pressed the button and explained to the security person the problem. He kindly opened the gate for me and I had to pull up to the curb so He could come down and get the change from me. All in All, I have tosay I kept My cool, I got frustrated, but not mad. Score one for Gypsy Jenn! 

   The Moral of the story..... If your going to take four kids downtown and park in a garage, make sure first you didn't give all your money to the ice cream truck the day before!
 

 I hope you enjoyed this true story, Enjoy the pictures I took from the garage before I knew I was trapped in it. LOL!

So I just bought the corner cutter from the project life series. I wanted to share some pros and cons of this cutter

I started cutting thin scrapbook paper but the blade kept getting stuck. It was very frustrating. I decided to cut more than one piece to see if it would still stick. To my relief I found 3-5 pieces of thin paper don't get stuck. It also cuts cardstock really well even more than one piece at a time. Overall it was a good investment..

So for the most part I like this corner punch. It has a pretty cool design. The bottom opens to remove all the scrap corner pieces and there is also a rectangle you can push in if the blade gets stuck. 

So that;s all for now. Leave your question or comments below.

 

So for the most part I like this corner punch. It has a pretty cool design. The bottom opens to remove all the scrap corner pieces and there is also a rectangle you can push in if the blade gets stuck. 

 

Art Journal update

Here is a page I created I really like how it turned out. What do you think.

I used acrylic paint for the background using a credit card to spread the paint. Then I sponged acrylic paint through stencils . I tried out my new gelatos and they were like spreading butter on the page.

I then drew the birds, added some words and traced some elements with a nice black ink pen. The last step was adding oil pastels in light pink and black to make certain elements pop.

The poem is my own I was thinking how with all my kids I barely get to leave my house, and never by myself so to be like a bird would be great sometimes. I know all you other stay at home moms can relate, LOL.

In my next post I will be reviewing the book Journal spilling! See you soon!

Mixed Media Postcards

Hi everyone. Hope everyone is having a terrific day! I wanted to share some new art with you all. I have been making mixed media postcards . Happy mail. Just wanted to give everyone some inspiration, And a free download of the back of the postcard for you to use. It's raining her in Knoxville blah! Anyway here they are!

 

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My new Art Zine is here!

I'm so excited! I just published my first art Zine. I'm also working on a gratitude Journal. Just waiting for it to be published on Amazon. Yah! I have put the digital copies in my shop if anyone wants to take a look here are the links.

Gratitude Journal, A personal journal for all the things you are grateful for(click Here for link)

 Thanks for stopping by and check back soon or subscribe to feed for new entries and content!

Painted magazine pages with paint resist

Hi there for my first tutorial I wanted to share one of my favorite techniques for making collage papers. I do a lot of collage and these are fast and easy, and a plus they are from recycled

1. First gather your materials, you will need;

           brushes, sponges, or your fingers

           magazine pages(dark colored works best)

           white acrylic paint or gesso

           your favorite color acrylic paint

           stencils, mark making tools, or stamps  

           your imagination!

 2. Using your white paint/Gesso make marks on your magazine page. I used stencils with a sponge on mine. I have used stamps and found mark making tools before as well.Let the paint dry before you move on to the next step

3. After the white paint has dried mix a couple drops of water with your acrylic paints. Use a sponge, or paintbrush to go over the top of the white paint. Completly cover the page with color. If the white is not showing through as much as you would like you can wipe the color back a little with a paper towel(save your paint stained towels for other projects).

You can see from the pictures below that darker colored magazine pages make the white show up better.

4. Let the paint dry and there you have it! Super easy right! Here are some of the other papers Imade using this technique.

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