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For the term "christmas".

Glitter Paper Snowflake Ornament

Create a quick glitter paper snowflake ornament made using Photoshop glitter and Silhouette Studio's Print and Cut feature | suzerspace
Start crafting now to have a Christmas tree full of handmade ornaments in December | suzerspace

EASY TO MAKE PAPER STRIP ORNAMENT

This is one in a series of twelve paper ornaments I’m making this year, one a month so that when December rolls around, I won’t be surprised to discover I’ve done nothing about my wish to have a fully paper crafted Christmas Tree.

I’ve mentioned before that I really like the look of glitter  but I don’t like the aftermath (craftermath?). No matter how careful you are, glitter spreads throughout the house, appearing in unlikely places like the ice cube tray and your significant other’s toothbrush.  Side note – he never appreciates it.

In the past, I’ve taken to using digital glitter backgrounds provided by some very generous designers.

But the other day, it occurred to me that I probably could make my own, especially if someone gave me the digital recipe, like the tutorial I found that time for gingerbread letters.

Sure enough, I found a really easy and straightforward tutorial. And now I can have glittery images, any color I want, just by choosing it in my Photoshop color picker.

Once I had the technique down, I knew instantly what I needed it for. Glittery Snowflake Ornaments for my tree!

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Paper Strip Ornament

Start crafting now to have a Christmas tree full of handmade ornaments in December | suzerspace

For a couple of years now, I’ve had the vision of setting up a second Christmas Tree that would feature all hand made ornaments.

Every year it sounds super great idea. And every holiday season passes and I’ve done nothing about it.

Sound familiar?

This year I’ve decided to tackle this as a solid project. I’m going to make one different type of ornament a month for 12 months. Since most will be made out of paper, it will be easy to make multiples to fill a small tree.

For the record, I’m saying this all out loud, right here, for accountability.

And I’m inviting you to play along. This will be fun, or weird, especially in August when we’re working on ornaments and complaining about the lack of air condtioning.

First up is this super simple ornament.

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Winter White Felt Garland

Create a ruffled holiday felt garland with three simple steps | SuzerSpace.com

There’s a neat phenomenon called frequency illusion that tries to explain how something you suddenly became interested in seems to be appearing all around you.

These days, it’s harder to tell if that’s really at work, or if it’s a website’s algorithm or the cookies on your computer that’s causing the same items to keep appearing around you.

Case in point – for quite some time  I’ve had felt projects on my brain. I made a phone holder, but that wasn’t enough. And then Julie at Sum of their Stories whipped up this cute upcycled felt garland (which technically was inspired by this good one at Pillar Box Blue).

After reading those, of course, my Pinterest feed flooded, mostly with pins pointing back to this Anthropologie garland.

I really liked this tutorial. But then I decided to shelve the entire idea, because I didn’t have any felt, and I really hate to go to the craft store and have fabric cut during the holidays. The ladies behind the counter try to keep up, but the entire experience can be major holiday buzz kill. I try and plan ahead, or just do without.

But a couple of weekends ago, while setting up the holiday decorations, I realized the white material I like to put under my holiday train set is felt. And the new location I wanted to put them on is at least half the size of the old. Which means – ding ding – I have extra felt to craft with!

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Easy Chalkboard Lettering

Easy Chalkboard Lettering! Use a custom cut stencil to transfer just about any message to a chalkboard - an easy way to get the hand-lettered look | suzerspace.com

If you celebrate, then Merry Christmas!

If you don’t, well, then Happy Monday!

Fun fact: I am super smitten by chalkboard art.

I have a Pinterest board of it, my Instagram feed is full of it, my iPhone wallpaper is created to look like it, and I have recently decided that I want to be able to do it.

I’m doing it my way, though of course.  Baby Steps. I’m not ever expecting to become this guy.

To create this project, you need a chalkboard and chalk. And a stencil, which I cut with my beloved Silhouette Cameo.

Keep reading to see how I made this lettering easy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! A script banner cut with a Silhouette Came | suzerspace.com

This week, most people are taking a short week at work, wrapping up on Wednesday for the holiday. So at SuzerSpace, I’m doing the same thing, posting my normal Friday post on Wednesday. That will give me more time to enjoy the holiday, and I wanted to squeeze these two crafts in that are Thanksgiving themed.

Script Thanksgiving Banner

Creating a banner of separate letters with holes for stringing isn’t too hard once you get a system down. I’ve done it for New Year’s, and for no reason at all, and then I’ve done some heart and bicycle shapes that used the same treatment.

So of course it was time to try something new. I wanted a “Happy Thanksgiving” banner that was in joined script letters. I knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as just setting the type in script and welding it together and putting the circles at the top and stringing it. Unless your string is exactly level, doing it that way would make the two words dive down in the middle at awkward angles.

But I wasn’t sure how I was going to figure out how to gracefully space the letters so they’d hang evenly.  There’s science to how things hang on strings. It’s gravity, and -gulp- Calculus.

I’m very crafty. But not really mathy. But Adobe Illustrator is, in disguise. (Other software will do this too – I just have years of Illustrator experience so it’s always my go-to).

I measured off my window, and measured the low point of the garland that was hanging there at the time. I then created an Artboard in Illustrator the same dimensions as my window, and added a guideline at that low point. I then drew a oval that had the bottom part of the curve meet that low point dimension.

happy thanksgiving banner

Then I set my type use the Type on a Path tool, and used the Type on a Path options window to set the baseline to Center. I fiddled with the spacing and then converted the type to outlines and ungrouped it so I could move the letters higher or lower on that path so that I’d have good spots to put the holes for the string.

happy thanksgiving banner with holes

Because of that pesky gravity thing, you need to keep watch that more of the heavy part of the garland is below the line, otherwise it will flip over when it is hung. I learned this the hard way last Christmas, when I created a garland of reindeer that unfortunately hung upside down because of where I placed the loop holes.

Finally I used the Pathfinder tool to weld the letters together. I exported this file as a DXF since the basic version of Silhouette Studio won’t work with an AI or EPS file.

After merging in my DXF file, I moved the words around to get the best fit on my sheet (don’t always lock yourself into cutting things in reading order – diagonal often words best since it lets you cut more than the width or the length).

thanksgiving banner

“Thanksgiving” was too large for my paper any way I spun it, so I did it in two parts, and then glued the overlap of the “s” and the “g” together.

happy thanksgiving banner cut letters

I then threaded twine through my holes, and put the garland up, adjusting it to where the string reasonably looked like the curve I had set up in Illustrator. And it worked. Just like I planned it!

Thanksgiving Turkey Placeholder

My second Thanksgiving craft is based on this one. I didn’t do mine exactly the same way (I have a great stash of googly eyes), and because I used cover stock for my accordion fold it so it isn’t exactly level, but I love it anyway. If you make one, consider using lighter weight stock for that fan so it sits better. This could also be a great kids craft while they wait for dinner on Turkey Day.

happy thanksgiving placeholder

Since the original post has a great tutorial, I’ll just share my photo of my finished version, and then let you enjoy your holiday!