Tammy's Ornament Exchange

Yup, another one from Tammy! She's so crafty!

We started this blog as a way to keep our friends and family faraway updated on what's going on here with Team Gabel, but one of the surprise benefits that I've found is the greater blogging community that I have come to also think of as friends in a way. One of my favorite blogs is Just Something I Made because she always has such great craft ideas and creates many graphics that she shares for free with her readers (like the "e-mail me" button I added to our site). I also discovered on her blog a Bloggers Ornament Exchange (you may have also noticed that button over on the right there), hosted by Pampering Beki. More than 200 bloggers signed up! I thought it sounded like fun (like having a pen pal in elementary school!) and I decided to sign up. I was paired with Linda of LindaOma's Olde Baggs n Stuft Shirts. It wasn't required to make the ornament, but I thought that would be more fun than buying one and I had a couple things I'd been wanting to try.

Soon after I signed up for the exchange I spotted a bunch of tiny pinecones outside the Journalism building at school so I gathered some up thinking they could be used somehow. I bought some clear glass ornaments at Target and, after breaking the stems on a few pinecones, finally managed to get this bunch in in one piece. I used craftwire to hold it in place, and added some red ribbon.

For the next ornament, I used some spray adhesive that I had from a past project and sprayed the inside of the ornament, and then poured in some gold glitter. The first one ended up in the garbage because there was basically a clump of glitter on the bottom, but the second time it seemed to coat the inside better. After pouring in the glitter (using a funnel fashioned from a magazine page) I twirled the ornament around to coat the inside, and then poured out the excess glitter.

I finished it by tying a bow with some ribbon I already had - the color match was perfect. (The bow seems to overwhelm the ornament in the picture, but I don't think it looks that way in person.

I packaged them each in a white box, which I decorated using scraps of scrapbook paper and images off of a Starbucks cup. (Upcycled! Reusable!)

I hope Linda enjoys the ornaments - I sure had fun making them!

Tammy's Green Giftwrap

Guest Blogger Tammy strikes again with a great idea!!!

So on Saturday I hosted a Green Giftwrap class at EcoReno. The bummer was that it snowed and snowed most of Friday and Saturday, which kept some people away. But four people showed up and that seemed like a good size class for the amount of space I had. In preparation, I wrapped up some "gifts" using upcycled materials ...

(1) sewing patterns as giftwrap; (2) newspaper end roll stamped; (3) brown paper bag; (4) sheet of Sierra Nevada bottle labels found at recycling center; (5) sewing patterns as tissue paper; (6) box lid wrapped with scrapbooking paper; (7) Starbucks sleeves as gift tags; (8) map; (9) newspaper; (10) scarf.

Here's a closer look at the box wrapped with a sewing pattern ... I made the top decoration just before the class - it was a little bigger than I wanted but I thought it turned out cute. I'll be making more of those.

Gift tags made with Na's tag punch and cards we received last year for Christmas.

More gift tags from cards, these ones I just cut out.

For the class, I talked about the different materials I used for giftwrap. Then we made embellishments (which could also be used as ornaments) using chipboard from cereal boxes, glitter and glue. Finally, we made bows out of magazine pages. Na is showing off her first bow above. I think the class went well, so hopefully I can do it again next year on a weekend when the weather is a little nicer!
P.S. Someone used the same pattern from How About Orange to make the bows from felt. Cute!

Tammy's Christmas Craft Project

Guest blog by Tammy. Also posted on her blog; you can find it HERE.

I had lots of Christmas projects I wanted to make for gifts, but there wasn't enough time in the week between finals and our trip to get to all of them. This is the one project I did manage to make - bottlecap magnets. I found instructions on this blog post, but did mine a little bit different. Instead of using images from an old calendar or magazine, I resized 24 pictures (each image to 1000 x 1000) and put them together to make a 4-by-6-inch photo (4000 x 6000 ... that way, each image was one square inch). Then, to make cutting out the holes easier, I bought a one-inch hole punch at Michael's. Other than that, I simply followed the instructions on the blog and the resin package. They were a big hit with the family! I forgot to take pictures during the making ... these are the ones we gave to Chris' parents.

Now that I've done it, I have lots more ideas to try using the same basic method. What kinds of crafts did you do for the holidays?

Marina's Meat Cake for Miguel

Marina was a guest blogger on Tammy's blog.

I love to bake. As you can tell by Tammy's posts, it's somewhat of a family trait. But the problem is Miguel has more of a savory tooth than a sweet tooth. So this year for his birthday I thought I would try to make something that he would enjoy eating as much as I would enjoy baking it. A friend of mine had the solution - a meat cake! It was perfect, I found a good recipe online, and got started.

6 lbs of meet, prepped and ready to bake

cooked and cooling, tops cut off

filled with gravy made from the drippings

(the recipe called for ketchup glaze but I thought gravy would look and taste better)

some boxed mashed potatoes and a little food coloring...

and ta-da - it's a cake!

Happy Birthday Miguel!

Guess what!? It's meat!

I knew it was a smashing success when Miguel tasted it and said, "this is the best cake I've ever eaten."