Craftyminx

Crazy Christmas Card Process (with outtakes)

As I said last week, our Christmas cards have turned into quite the ordeal over the years. The first year was really thrown together at the last minute. Sheldon had this idea to take a picture of us dressed up fancy in front of a fireplace with the dogs, I had an idea of us in ugly Christmas sweaters. We couldn't decide which to take so we took both and I photoshopped the Christmas sweater pic over the mantle like it was the previous year's photo. We don't have a fireplace so we went to a friends house who has one and he took our photo. It was pretty frantic and all done in like 10 minutes.

The next year, we had a plan in place early on, then Bella passed away and we decided we didn't want to do our photo without her. But at the last minute, I got the bug and made our costumes for a blog party I was a part of and then turned our dining room into a winter wonderland in one afternoon when Sheldon was away. Could you imagine coming home to this?

We added Bella's embroidered portrait to the tree so she could be in the photo with us. I'm still sad that we didn't get to have her in the photo with her little antlers on. It would have been sooo cute! The only thing photoshopped into this picture is the text "happy holidays". We opted to print these as photos really cheaply through bonusprint who at the time was the cheapest for getting 125 5x7s printed. I backed these cards with card stock and a message from us and Dewey's paw print.

I thought I'd share our process for any of you that might want to do the same thing next year.

Brainstorm 

We usually think of ideas for our card all year long. Sheldon is really great at coming up with the idea for the card and I'm really good at all the visual details and technical issues (basically putting his idea to life). This year we had a really awesome idea (The Grinch) and then we got Dash and couldn't really figure out how to fit him into our plan so Sheldon decided it would be fun for the photo to be of us opening presents on Christmas morning with him being disheveled and bummed to open the box with Dewey and me being excited to open the box with the new puppy. 

Visual Inspiration

Every year I try to find some kind of visual for me to get my creative juices flowing. This image conveyed what we wanted the first year. Last year was of course elf. This year I came across this photo on pinterest and knew it would be the visual inspiration for our photo this year. 

Define needs

The next thing I do is combine Sheldon's idea with the visual inspiration and start making a list of what we will need to pull off our photo. This year was actually really easy. We have a huge roll of kraft paper that we wrap all of our presents with and we had a bunch of chalk left over from our wedding (backdrop finished). I had two sets of sock monkey pajamas that we could wear to be cute and matchy and we had boxes from previous craft show props we could put the dogs in. We also set up a time-line.

Make-it happen

We usually set one day to do all the set-up and photography. This year since the backdrop was so big, getting everything done in one day was a must because it covered the whole wall (door included) in our living room.We ended up having to do it all in an evening after work because our weekends were all crazy.  In one night, we (me and my friend Meg) drew the backdrop. Then it took the three of us to hang it up. 

It was probably 11 by the time all of that was finished. Then I set up the camera (with our remote) and lighting. This is when the fun happens. We had a lot of issues with the dogs this year and had to call in reinforcements (you can see the outtakes below). Levi came over and was able to keep the dog's attention enough for us to  get enough photos. He would make a sound to get them to look at him then take the photo using the remote. He really was a lifesaver this year. 

Edit, Design, and Print

I edited this photo pretty minimally. I smoothed out the background and lightened it up a bit. We usually just pop the photo into a pre-made photo card design. Last year we didn't but it was a lot of work making the backs for all of the cards. Picking a design is always hard for us. Sheldon doesn't like anything too girly and of course I always go for pink ;)  The photo is always the most important part though is it's often difficult to find a pre-made layout that works with the photo. This year, I just happened to come across a perfect one!  The colors matched and everything!! Next year, we're picking out the design we want before we take the photo so I can make sure the photo will fit the card. 

Like I said, it is a process, but it's worth it in the end. We always have fun and end up with a great photo in the end. And I didn't say this before but Sheldon hates being photographed unless we're doing something silly so this is pretty much my only way to get photos of us together ;)

Ok, Ok, Here are the outtakes from the last two years. I lost the photos from the first year when our laptop got stolen :( 

Filled ornaments

When I was growing up my mom used to go to ornament parties where everyone would bring ornaments and a dish (with recipe card) and at the end of the day you had like 20 ornaments and recipes to take home. I participated in a couple of these and have a really big stash of homemade ornaments. This year I decided I wanted to start the tradition of making my nieces an ornament every year. When my friend Amy shared this blog post with me I knew my nieces needed candy filled ornaments :) I found these really cute heart shaped glass ornaments at Michael's that were perfectly sized to go on the top of their Christmas Presents. 

However, when I tried to make them using varnish like Little Gray Fox suggested, my ornament turned into this:

Not pretty! I think I didn't wait long enough for it to get tacky enough to add the sprinkles or I used the wrong kind of varnish. Oh well.

So I just filled the suckers up and added hot glue to the top so no little ones would try to pry out the sprinkles and put the caps back on. The ornaments were small enough that they weren't too heavy. I think I'll try the varnish thing again sometime, I have a dream of covering my white tree with candy type ornaments one day.

I have a huge collection of sprinkles to choose from so I ended up with this assortment of ornaments for the girls.

I had a couple of ornaments left and this huge container of yarn ends from my granny a day project (not sure why I'm keeping  them, but I am) so I made a couple of yarn ornaments too. 

Super easy, fairly inexpensive handmade ornaments! Now my wheels are turning for next year's ornaments. 

Do you have a lot of handmade ornaments or do you tend to gravitate towards other types of ornaments. For me, the last two years have been all about the colored balls on a white tree, but next year I think I'll pull out the handmade ones again. 

Christmas Wrapping

Last year, I bought a HUGE roll of brown kraft paper. It sits in our living room (mainly because it is too heavy to move anywhere else haha. I have used this paper to wrap every gift we give all year and it seems as though I haven't used any of it. I see using kraft paper as a challenge to be as creative as I can with my wrapping. I always like a candy colored Christmas house so that was kind of my inspiration this year. I bought some bright colored tinsel ribbon, stamped my own paper, and made ornaments for gift toppers. I even got out my letter stamps to stamp "to" and "from" on the tags. This has been my big project every night this week. 

I always wrap each present for our nieces individually. It's always really interesting when something comes in an odd shapped box. 

The gift sacks were inspired by this photo. 

Our tree is really quite sad this year. I decorated just enough of it to do my photoshoot for Deluxe and that's how it has been all season because I have been too busy to think about it. 

I tried a few different techniques for stamping the paper and I ended up using my foam stamps. I have a huge collection of these from the dollar bins at Michaels. For applying paint, I found that a really easy way is to make your own stamp pad out of a sponge. 

Just dampen the sponge, spread on some paint and get to stamping. I'm not really sure how I came up with this, but I think I thought about it at 3 am when Dash woke me up one night. I must have been dreaming of sponges.

Want a Christmas Card?

Hi everyone! If you've read my blog for awhile you probably already know about our crazy Christmas cards every year. Here are the last two if you aren't in the know:

This year's card is pretty much the best one yet. I always show our card on Christmas Day here on the blog, but a lucky 10 of you can see it early!! I have 10 extra cards this year and I would love to send them to some of my readers. The first 10 people to leave a comment here (so everyone can see who has claimed one) and then e-mail me your address gets them. Send your mailing address to dana at craftyminx dot com. 

If you want to send us a Christmas card that would be great too!! Since I don't have a P.O. Box you'll have to e-mail me to ask for my address, but I'd love to get cards from you guys :) Maybe next year I'll get a P.O. Box for craftyminx handmade. I do love getting letters!

Christmas Happenings

While I'm not going to be doing 12 Days of Christmas this year I just wanted to let new readers know about the series so you can see all the Christmas DIYs and recipes I shared last year. You can see the full 12 Days of Christmas Round-up here.

I will be sharing a few DIYs and recipes this year as well, just not the big series like last year Deluxe took a lot out of me this year! 

Here are some Christmas Blog Happenings you should check out for great inspiration:

Danielle Thompson's 55 days of Vintage Christmas

Sunshine and Carousels' Making Christmas

Ez's Gifted Online Magazine

Waverly Home 12 Bloggers of Christmas

Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club is sharing daily homemade stocking stuffer ideas (these are really cute!)

Ninth and Bird's Deck the Blogs

Are you hosting a Christmas blog series or have your come across any other great Christmas blog series? Share the link in the comments. I really love getting to read through holiday inspiration posts. I always need a little extra inspiration this time of year. 

For those of you waiting for a Deluxe wrap-up post, it will be coming tomorrow. I have to take a photo of the stuff I bought this year :)

Friendsgiving 2011

My friends have a tradition of celebrating "friendsgiving" sometime during the weekend after Thanksgiving. We have a big feast (with plenty of wine) and celebrate our friendship. This has become one of my favorite traditions. Levi and I bond in the kitchen, we drink a whole lot of wine, and everyone has a lot of fun. This year we shared our funniest family thanksgiving moments, which was really quite funny.

I guess I should explain this last photo. We had a lot of whipped cream leftover and Staci made a joke about pulling a Mrs. Doubtfire. She went to but a little bit on her nose and Levi pushed the spoon into her face so she ended up with a big dollop on her face. We all laughed really hard and when Staci washed her face off she did notice that her skin was softer. New skin-care regimen?  

Happy Halloween!!!

For the weekend, I took a couple of days off working on crochet school and let Halloween happen. It IS my favorite holiday after all. We made a very simple jack 'o lantern

He is our only decoration this year. Levi borrowed all of our decorations to make his house awesome for his Halloween party. 

I made pumpkin pancakes with honey butter syrup. 

I painted faces at my niece's Halloween party. They all wanted to be butterflies. 

We managed to get ourselves covered in gray makeup and made it to the parade on time. Everyone could tell that Sheldon was Charlie Chaplin except three guys who yelled Hitler at him. Of course no one knew who I was. Louise Brooks people! :)  There was also a 15 year-old girl who told us she liked our costumes and when her friend asked her who we were we heard her say, "I don't know... white people?" Hilarious.

Funny story; the grayish hose I bought to wear were way too small so I managed to find a pair of gray tights that were also small but not tight, just short. I put them on and didn't think about putting underpants over the top of them so they wouldn't work themselves off. Well, when we got to the parade of course we had to walk forever to get from our car to the parade. And then we found out our friends were standing a half mile down the street so we walked to meet them. My tights were seriously down around my thighs by the time we made it down the street. And of course everyone was looking at us and taking pictures of us because we kind of stood out in the crowd. I finally found a dark alley to go "adjust" in haha. 

I'm sad this is pretty much the best picture I got of us that night. I didn't want to touch my good camera with my gray hands so we just have iphone pics and Sheldon's mustache is crooked in this one. Oh well. Our make-up did really well though and I'll try to share my experience with it. In case I am not able to get to it, we used gray Kryolan Aquacolor mixed with a little white Aquacolor to lighten it up on me. The trick is to do a lot of contouring with gray and white shadows which you can't see very well here because I had to use the flash. Pretend you're a drag queen with the shading and contouring. I would like to do a video on how I did the make-up but my camera doesn't allow me to film for very long without getting overheated and this look takes FOR-EV-ER.

Here's another photo of me with a friend:

Again with the flash washing me out, but look how awesome it looks next to someone in color!

Sunday I got my pumpkin spice white mocha from Starbucks, did a lot of work on crochet school, and painted my nails for Halloween :)

I've been excited to do this manicure for months!

Today I decided to wear my costume again. This time without the gray because I didn't have time for the hasstle and with some tights that fit haha. 

I made the coat I'm wearing! It will get a proper post later. I've had two people ask if I cut my hair over the weekend, which tells me that this is a good look for me I think I might go dark brown and shorter for the holidays.  

Tonight we're going to ignore trick-or-treaters and finally watch American Horror Story and Grimm. 

I Love Halloween!!

Halloween behind the scenes

Halloween has kind of been on the back burner this year, which is sad because it is our favorite holiday. Thankfully, we switch off which holiday we have our big party on and this year we are all about Christmas. We went all out for last year's Halloween party.  I haven't had a lot of time to think about Halloween because of Crochet School but this week I am being thrown into everything Halloween. Tonight, we have our annual pumpkin carving party with Sheldon's side of the family (2010, 2009) which I'm really excited about. It is always fun to have traditions and I started this tradition with everyone so that makes it even more special. 

I've been frantically pulling together all the little pieces for my halloween costume. Here are a few peeks:

Can you guess what I'm going to be? 

Sheldon and I started dressing up in couples costumes from the beginning of our relationship (2010, 2009). We seriously talk about costume ideas all year long. We kicked around quite a few ideas this year but we finally decided we are going as silent movie stars Louise Brooks and Charlie Chaplin gray-scale make-up and all. This is my reference photo for Louise:

I have had to do so much research on make-up to make this work out for us because typical halloween make-up will not do -- I've tried it, it looks good for all of 10 minutes then cracks and looks awful. I might do a how-to after I actually do all of the make-up. It will be involved. I've only practiced little sections but it's crazy how weird it looks to have gray skin.  I haven't even tested the make-up on Sheldon. If it doesn't work with his dark skin-tone we may just have to cut some eye-holes out of a sheet so he can be a ghost!

We have a family Halloween party on Saturday, then the downtown Halloween parade (my favorite part of Halloween!) and Saturday night Levi is having a big Halloween party. It will be interesting to see how long our make-up lasts. We'll probably do it before the parade and do some touching up before we go to Levi's.

What kinds of fun things are you doing for Halloween? I want details! I need to live vicariously through all of you that decorated, picked the perfect candy for trick-or-treaters, and have a kick-ass costume planned out. 

FYI crochet school students. The lesson on crocheting in the round will go up tonight :) with other lessons following along. So much for my schedule eh? haha