Fresh Recylcing for Christmas

Isn't is true that old saying? Everything old is new again. We have only to look at fashion trends to know it's so.

For Christmas, it is truer than one might think. Oh, I know from reading that 44% of children under the age of 10 have a iPad 2 at the top of their Christmas list, but did you also notice this past summer than when Toy Story 3 came out, the new reduxes of old toys flew off the shelves? Who can resist a slinky dog or a Mr. Potato Head? I have Mr. Potato Heads for different seasons.

Think about giving some of these 'old' things new life for gifts & stocking stuffers:

~I don't care how old you are, a new coloring book and a box of 64 crayons (with the sharpener in the back) instantly brings out the kid in all of us.

~Mood rings. Admit it, you see these in stores by the cash register and still check your 'mood'.

~Jacks. The real metal ones. Get down on the floor and see how you can still do 'sixies'.

~Sea Monkeys. Remember when you really believed you could train them to do tricks?

~Razzles. The candy that turns into a gum. The candy part tastes great. I can only last about a minute once it turns to gum, but getting there is the real fun. These have made a real resurgence in the past several years. I think you can get a big container of them at Sams Club, but they are also at Wegmans or places like Cracker Barrel.

~A Lifesavers Story Book. Admittedly, these are nowhere as cool as they used to be when I was a kid and you got 10 assorted packs of Lifesavers, but they still provide a cheap thrill to a stocking.

~Love's Baby Soft. Yes, it still exists. I even saw it at Urban Outfitters. It doesn't smell like funky socks either, so for a retro flashback gift for a girlfriend, this would be serious fun.

Support your local thrift stores. Found recently in thrift or secondhand shops are these nifty things that might make great gifts if I didn't hoard them for myself:

~Cashmere sweaters. That's right, the real deal. They may be missing a button, but I can do that if the sweater is less than $10.

~Vintage milk glass coffee mugs with retro advertising or logos on them. My faves: McDs and Christmas themed ones. Pair this with some great coffee, biscotti and/or chocolate (isn't any gift improved with chocolate?) for a very cool gift.

~Cute little handbags. For grown-up girls, tuck in a vintage hankie, pocket mirror and a great lipgloss or lipbalm (may I suggest Rosebud which is produced a couple of miles up the road from me? It's also Sephora's biggest seller:Rosebud Perfume Co. at Sephora) Even better, for a little girl, you can get candy jewelry, lipstick, etc at the dollar store. Tuck that in with a coin purse full of quarters for an AWESOME gift.

~Some of the best record albums ever made for less than $1. Baby, nowadays some of the covers qualify as bonafide art. If the record is good, you can still play it. If it's scratched, Google directions for making cool bowls with them or use the records as placemats for a fun party.

~Seriously great old books. Sometimes you'll stumble upon a first edition. Sometimes autographed copies. I'll admit, if the cover is pretty without the jacket, I buy it for decoration or to turn into an altered book. Sometimes an old book that is really tattered gets upcycled for gift wrapping, tags, shredded for filler, etc.

Don't forget to take time for yourself though. Doesn't matter how cool or amazing your plans are if you freak yourself right out of the Christmas spirit. You are hereby given permission for at least one guilty pleasure if not two guilty pleasures WITHOUT the guilt. Be it a Starbucks run, a new book (Christmas themed of course!) or a very chick-flick Christmas movie from Lifetime or the Hallmark Channel, go for it. ;-)

Kicking off Christmas

Ashley and Kirsten below totally freaking out over the hotel room view in NYC on Thanksgiving weekend. The Macy's Parade and Thanksgiving with my sisters was a huge part of our Christmas kick-off. Just spending a few moments to remind anyone who may venture here to take care of yourself this Christmas season. Generally if you're reading this, it's because you are a girly girl who likes to play with art supplies and skews towards vintage, eclectic style, but all are welcome!

But...if you are a girly girl, you may also be the one in charge of Christmas in your home. That may also mean you get what amounts to a third full time job for the month of December, sometimes stretching into January. So, take the time to care for yourself. You know the saying, if Mrs. Claus ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! (or something like that, but it's true)

If you do get some time to take a few moments to yourself to play with art supplies or make heartfelt gifts for your loved ones and friends, check these links out for great ideas, tutorials and more:

One Pretty Thing ~tons of links to tutorials for everything under the sun, you could get lost for hours here

Little Pink Studio ~if you're into vintage chic, Cerri will show you the way

The Graphics Fairy ~loads of vintage images to download for creating to your hearts content

If you're in the mood for guided Christmas creating, check out these workshops or tutorials:

Teresa McFayden ~offering her 5th annual Christmas e-course

I'm Just a girl ~Spark your Christmas workship with a big emphasis on transforming what you already own. You know I'm a green, tree-hugger, so this speaks to me.

christytomlinson: 12 Artsy Ornaments of Christmas.. a mini workshop ~12 different talented artists will guide you through not only ornaments, but also home decor and gifts as well.

Tim Holtz ~I think this is Tim's 5th year of his 12 Tags of Christmas. Free for you to enjoy, duplicate or use for inspiration. You'll learn lots of new tips here too!

Through December, if you like, keep checking back to the Granny Panty Chic blog for more Christmas ideas and (hopefully) inspiration. I'll admit, I get totally giddy over this month. It's just gotta spill somewhere and it's gonna be here I decided. ;-)

Sweetness for the Sweethearts

Sooooo, it's about time to pack up the Valentine goodies because I need to move on to some top secret projects for someone, but before I finish sealing these up in envelopes, here are a few more sweet, funny Valentines...You'll note the copious use of those little honeycomb heart cupcake decorations. And I found these bags of vintage buttons I had packaged up for a flea market that got rained out, so I decided their creamy patina was perfect to frame a heart. For a soft, simple Valentine decoration that wasn't blatantly red & pink, I cut out a heart old-school style; fold, cut and unfold. Pulled out cards of vintage (and not so vintage) laces & trims and hot glued them. A banner covered in antique German glass glitter with I Love You and a vintage earring finished it all off. I'm adding this heart decoration to the Opus Gluei challenge of creating a decoration for your home. Doesn't have to be a Valentine's decoration. You are free to get crazy. :) Be sure to check out their other entries!

The Season of Lurve

Have I asked you to hold me back from buying any more Valentine's Day papers because I already have more than I'll ever need? If I have, apologies. If I haven't, for the love of Pete, somebody stop me!

And half the time I make cards, layouts, canvases for different occasions using supplies that have nothing do to with the intended holiday. So why do this stuff continue to work its way into my supply? I'm pretty sure it's because we're all a bunch of happy enablers. Our 12 step program involves tips for finding the latest & greatest, new sources and coffee places in close proximity to our supply meccas.

Faced with all of these supplies, lovely and amazing though they are, I sat down to try and actually use some of them.

I made these cards with a mix of Teresa Collins, K & Co, Basic Grey and Heidi Swapp (super old stash, yikes). And you know what? I still have a LOT of Valentine's stuff from Teresa Collins, K & Co and Basic Grey. I love it all though. I mean, how could you not love a big pile of soft blush, pink and red with frilly stuff all around?

The next card has mostly stash; some Teresa Collins, Basic Grey, K & Co, Making Memories. But what isn't old stash is something I found in the cupcake supplies at the store. I saw these honeycomb heart cupcake toppers and said to myself "Self, those would make killer cute embellishments on a Valentine's card!"

You know what? They really do! Just snap the wooden toothpick off and you are all set. If you're mailing the card, don't open the honeycomb. Let the sender do that (send a little set of user instructions of course). The honeycome hearts are getting used elsewhere too. Hope to show that off eventually.

Until then, it's less than 2 weeks til Valentine's Day! If your honey doesn't do something special for you, do something special for yourself. You deserve it! :)

My Funny Valentine

After having an amazing time for Making Merry in December, Rosemary, Kim and I decided to get together for a day to celebrate Valentine's Day. This time Kim was hostess at her lovely home and she fed us incredible food. Nom, nom, nom. I'm still dreaming about that white lasagna...

Kim had us create 2 beautiful cards. I love that she didn't use a traditional Valentine's Day palette with the lavender card. For the other card, she had us beading which was soooooo fun! I could've kept making little beaded petals all day long. Rosemary used her wicked cool Cricut creativity to cut out matchboxes with acetate windows and brought an awesome stack of vintage images for us to fashion adorable Valentine's decorations. I hung them up right after I got home to show them off! I had bought a stack of chandelier ornaments after Christmas at Target (love Target!)for 50% off. I had a stash of honeycomb wedding bells because I always go to the party supply store for something like napkins and can't help but peruse the wedding & baby aisles for art supplies. Take some Paris slide images, vintage sheet music and a bit of glitter to alter those chandelier ornaments and they become gilded bell ornaments for Valentine's Day.
One of my favorite things to do (it seems), is to create holiday projects with supplies that aren't holiday themed. A few years ago, I bought a stack of Foofala papers from a friend who was having a scrapbook yard sale. 100 sheets of fun. None of them holiday themed, but some of them with a romantic, dusty palette that was ready to be fashioned into a Valentine.
I always sketch card designs or layout designs in my notebook. If you ever see my scribble-scrabble, you will look from sketch to finished project and wonder to yourself, "I don't see the resemblance." It helps me thing and work through the design process. For this card, I sketched (ha!) it out and started to measure, fold, play with different patterned papers, etc. I pulled in the grade school trick of folding paper in half to create a heart and used that as a template to cut a heart from a page torn from a vintage German book. I printed and distressed a love poem to use as the card sentiment. Added some bling, distress inks and vintage crepe paper and hope it fulfills the romance quota. But even more than the projects, it is the decision to take the time away for the purpose of creating, sharing and oh, the laughter that is food for the soul. We really did laugh over some funny Valentines. And I can't wait to come up with an excuse (perfectly good reason) to do it again!

These goodies also go perfectly with the latest Opus Gluei challenge. If you haven't checked them out before, head on over. Low pressure, high-octane creative fun! Come as you are and be embraced by the Poobahs. :)

Making Merry Revisited

During this time of year when, in general, women all over the world are busy doing, going and buying for others (and quite happily too), I invited Rosemary and Kim over to put the breaks on the Christmas crazy and spend an entire day Making Merry. What better way to recharge and refuel in the midst of the Christmas season than to indulge in a bit of top notch retail therapy and ultra creative play?

We went to one of my favorite places to get decorating inspiration, Chartreuse and Company and then we stopped in at a new store down the street from my home, Wild Rose and Co. that also does an amazing job of merchandising the goods.

Then it was back to the house where we said hi to the City Chicks and then got down to the business of creative play...

Rosemary had brought the motherload of Christmas stashes (I want to go shopping in her studio!) as we embellished wine boxes. We were so proud of our accomplishments that they all got an impromptu photo shoot (mine is on the far left).

I decided to give mine away to my mom (She never reads my blog, so I'm safe. Did I tell you about the time Mom went skinny dipping with my Dad when I was a little kid? hehehe) and put some very delicate, breakable Christmas ornaments in it. Voila, perfect vehicle for a fragile gift.

Then we stopped for snacks, nom, nom, nom. There shall be no art without serious carbo loading.

After that, we started on my very long, very messy project. Let's just say that cotton batting, cotton balls, glue and mica make incredibly gorgeous finished clouds and snow scenes, but the process is like you gave a kid a roll of duct tape and a bottle of paste then told them to go to town with it. The final result was a snow laden cloud with a vintage Christmas light to lead the way through the dark night with a vintage goodie laden tin in tow (or that's what I hope it looks like).

The inspiration were some vintage cotton batting ornaments, some 'travel' related ornaments my children have the involve zeppelins, or cotton batting sail boats and another project where someone used a vintage tin as a balloon basket. (I've come to the conclusion that a truly original idea, if it should ever suddenly hit me, will probably happen long after I've gone gray and senile) After all that creating, we were wiped out, so it was dinner time! Tim, otherwise knowns as Pizza Boy, took our orders and made us homemade pizzas which was followed by more carb loading because being covered in glue and mica burns serious, um, brain cells?


For our final creative endeavor, Kim taught Rosemary and I how to make flowers from ribbon. Both Rosemary and I kind of shivered with intimidation until Kim guided us through beautiful petals, leaves and more. Seriously we had no idea how cool it could be and all of the amazing projects that can be done with ribbon flowers!


Of course, I don't have a photo of mine because we didn't finish. Our spirit was willing, but our bodies were weak. I've had my pieces in a basket by the sofa so I can slowly put it all together, but I think Kim enabled us to explore yet another new creative outlet!


(And I think we ate some more as we packed away all of our projects. Who are we to waste perfectly good carbs?) As we hugged each other goodbye, cries were heard of Making Merry to all and to all a Good Night!

The Circle o'Vintage

My old house has something that often foils my attempts to hang things on walls: loads of windows and plaster. I am determined that this beauty IS going up this year rather than languishing in obscurity. I may be scaling back, but I still love the shiny (oooh, shiny). Sweet angel on her cloud...Love this bell! Full of vintage love. It will go up. I may crack some plaster, but it's one of my projects for the day. And I carved out some time to play with Opus Gluei for their current "Getting Frosted" challenge. It was like carved out while watching Jimmy Fallon late at night carved out, but I was having too much fun for sleep.

When I make stuff purely from old stash I start to feel bad about shopping for new goodies.

I mean, really, really guilty bad.

For about a minute.

And then I'm over it. :)

But, I do quite love pulling together a project from old stash and creating something new.

This wintery, frosty card uses old Heidi Swapp, Ranger, Martha Stewart, Making Memories, Basic Grey, vintage flowers and I used vintage tinsel to make a nest. If you figure out how to removed my camera covered face from the reflection, let me know. I'm not fluent in Photoshop, so it'll stay there for now. ;)

We Need A Little (Smaller) Christmas

right this very minute...

My poor husband. After years of careful training on my part, he has finally learned to fully embrace that Clark Griswald Christmas spirit while his wife is beginning to recite 'edit, edit, edit' in her head.

What does this mean? While Tim is wandering around the attic and trying to hand me every single Christmas thing we own (and it's a lot), I'm yelling up "Not this year." Hence the grumbling and muttering from up above as he tells the rejected items they are going to the cast-off corner.

I'm not getting rid of anything, but I have been trying to pull back, refocus and refresh our decorations for the season...without buying anything new unless it's living like wreaths or swags. My BFFs might faint dead away when they read this that has been typed by my own two hands: There can be too much of a good thing. (Thud heard in MA, I know)

Instead of putting out every single snowman I own, just a few came out to play this year. Instead of spreading out our Christmas trees into several areas, I grouped them in a miniature forest.

I like it. It's not the heavenly displays from Anthropologie or Kate's Paperie, but it seems...new...even though it's all old stuff.

I did give in to dressing up the chandeliers a bit.

And Sozo kitty was overjoyed to see her annual December napping spot return again. The minute that tree skirt went down, I swear she was sprawled out on it in less than a minute.

Tim will thank me for all that editing later when he's not carrying all that stuff back up to the attic. ;)

Opus Gluei Challenge

Yeah, I managed to squeak in another Opus Gluei challenge this weekend! I probably went off the color palette a bit by throwing a blue in there, but when it feels so right, how can it be wrong? :) I pulled from MME, Heidi Swapp, 7 Gypsies, Ranger, Basic Grey and Target $ Spot for this one. It's not too complicated, but it is cute (I hope).

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Wonderful I hope! Now on to....

Christmas Crazy!

Ok, if you've been here before you know I get totally geeked out over Christmas. I'm insufferable really. To that end, I have put the Christmas playlist back up on the bottom of the blog. If you don't like it, mute it. If you do, turn up the dial and sing along!

And, I'm losing sleep in the name of merriment. As in Making Merry! A couple of friends and I are getting together for a little holiday experiment. If it works out, we may expand it to other holidays as well. As it is, I'm can't wait to share my project with them; a little vintage chic with a bit of a nod towards Steampunk style (Loved that Steampunk storyline on Castle a couple of months ago!)

Time to get back to decking some halls...

Merry Inspiration

I think it's fairly evident by now that Christmas is upon the horizon. I knew it was here the moment I polished off my first bag of Candy Cane Hershey's Kisses (drat you Hershey!). When the Cadbury Mini Balls showed up at Target, I nearly had a happy seizure (Did you know in Canada, they have these all year round? Dude, no fair!)

Just a few links to get you in a merry mood...

Inspired Ideas, The Christmas Issue OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS, this online issue is full of Christmas love. I know at least one idea that I'm tweaking from this and about 10 more ideas that are on my 'must-do' list!

Holiday...with Matthew Mead Seriously, I danced a jig when I opened my mailbox to find this gift in it this evening. A flippin' full on jig, I tell ya! (while holding eggs in one hand too) I haven't even gotten past the first few pages and I'm already salivating at the joy contained in the pages of this lush magazine. Only 'magazine' isn't the right word for it. It's a revelation of Christmas pleasures supported online by links to patterns, recipes and more. You can only get it by ordering online or from a store that specially ordered a box of this goodness.

I have followed Matthew Mead's creative trail for years and he's assembled a fabulous team that has put together "Holiday" so thoughtfully that you won't regret getting a copy of your own.

Joli Paquet Back for another Christmas with free tutorials (and these are GOOD tutorials too) and teasers about their famous kit sales from a group of talented artists, make sure you don't forget to check Joli Paquet often.

One Pretty Thing Here you will find ideas, inspiration and free downloads on a daily basis. If you can't get excited about something on this site, the Whos from Whoville need to grow your Grinchy heart a size or two.

Happy Lurve Day!

Once again that day of the year again that is sure to inspire thoughts of love or sure to bring sad & lonely disappointment is here: Valentine's Day. My hubby is out of town all weekend, will be home for only one night (a late one at that) then leave to go to LA for the rest of the week (poor baby, his team has a rented beach house, lol), so I won't have much Cupid-like activity. I do have my 3 children home for Valentine's Day though, a rare treat since 2 of them are halfway out of the nest already. As usual, in the morning, they'll find a few surprises waiting for them.

I made this lollie (above)after being inspired by a tutorial on the House of 3 Inspiration blog done by Rhonna Farrer. She also did a great tutorial on making blossoms with coffee filters, so when hubby gets home, he will need to run out and buy more. Whoopsie! Hey, I got carried away! To make our Valentine's weekend more festive for the kids, I hung a few banners and paper lanterns. All of the pink even catches the light and reflects a soft, romantic light around the rooms; an unexpected bonus.

Friday night, I took my daughter, her boyfriend and I went out to see the new movie, Valentine's Day. It was frothy and cute. No big, deep life lessons, but I got to hang with my girl, get to know her young man better and laugh at the crazy parking jobs in the snow around the theater. The government had declared a state of emergency, schools were out and our mail never arrived, but by golly, that theater was packed to the last seat. Cabin fever had everyone aching to get out!

Look what was outside of our 'cabin'...a supersized and scary couple of icicles. We have very tall windows, so these would be lethal should you be under one the moment they decide to break loose from their perch. Had a bit of a "Psycho" shower fright when I opened the curtain to see those! Maybe, just maybe, at this rate the icicles and snow may melt in time for summer break. I hear we're supposed to get more snow on Monday. Noooooooooooooooooooo!

The Big Clean

Once every several months, the urge to superclean the studio hits me. The recent flooding episode added to that urge. Fortunately, the mess hasn't been that horrible to get under control since my past supercleaning challenges have kept supplies to a manageable amount.

I will be donating many supplies to two places. One is the school of my friend's daughter where they host a Jingle Bell Fair for the students every December. The other is Hope Alive Ministries for their children's ministry. This is a wonderful ministry that does more than provide a bed for women & children. It creates a home atmosphere, provides love & security as well as dealing with the issues that led to homelessness and working towards moving these families into independence.

I'm also sending out a few items to Jennifer for her Etsy website which raises money towards fighting cancer. These cards were made with an old SEI line that is so happy to work with. Normally, I'm not an orange or peachy color lover, but with the frigid temps we've been having, these were a sunny getaway to play with.Other supplies used were Heidi Swapp flowers, bling, Ranger Distress ink, American Crafts rubons and Bazzill cardstock.

I also played around making some tags from this massive bunch of tags I bought at an art supply yard sale (where I was selling and had no business buying anything). These will be going to Jennifer too. On these, I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Tattered Angels masks, Basic Grey rubons, decorative packing tape, Making Memories tickets, bling and vintage lace. (the ones on the right are what are headed Jennifer's way) Lastly, being the holiday freak that I am, my eyes are already turned to Valentine's Day. :) Fortunately, thus far, it's only in the artsy, creative department and not the local grocery holiday candy department (where someone told me that Cadbury Mini Eggs are ALREADY in stores. is there no diet justice?!?). To keep my paws off the candy, I may be making a lot of these little collages. This one is already hanging from the Hoosier cabinet. This is truly a hodge podge of different supplies. I've already asked someone to bar the doors should I attempt to enter with any more Valentine's supplies (vintage ones excepted of course!). The silver key is actually a Christmas ornament. Being so focused on Christmas, I'm not sure how my brain disengaged from Silver Bells long enough to think "Key To My Heart" valentine, but it did and I kind of like it. It's a jumble.

All of these meet the challenge from Opus Gluei for the week of use what you got too, so check them out if you want to play along!

Happy New Year Creating!

Though the tiny studio is not quite put back together, I was able to squeeze in there for some much needed creative therapy yesterday.

Using this set from House of 3 (which by the way, all their Christmas stuff is 50% off til Friday!), Mini-Postcard 2010 Calendar Printable Kit, I made this:

I used the same concept to bind the calendar pages as I did in this post: Kickin' It Old School

The sparkly, dangly thingamajig is a vintage clip on earring. I can just picture it on a formally dressed middle aged 1950's housewife! The lace trim is from an old collar and that last bit I have of that. The rest is seriously old stash that is every bit as beautiful to work with as it was when I first came upon it. That label with 2010 on it? Very old Recollections. ~sigh~ I miss Recollections. The printed paper is old Autumn Leaves Foofala. ~another sigh~ I miss Foofala. At least I have this to remember them by. ;)

Have a Happy New Year! See you on the flipside!