Fiskars Craft

New Year’s Eve: Kid Style

• Designer: Mindy Miller

• Difficulty Rating: Beginner

One of my favorite childhood memories is staying up late to ring in the new year.

It seemed so grown up and exciting!

This year you can help the new generation make those memories even more special by hosting a family friendly party. With simple and colorful decorations, dressed-up games, and fun accessories, you can’t go wrong.
 
First, set the stage with bright colors and a little sparkle. Tulle pom poms are easy to make and cost-effective. They can be either hanging or table-top decorations.

To make the pom poms, start with two yards of tulle (add more tulle for larger or fuller pom poms). Using Fiskars scissors, cut down the fold of the fabric. After doing so, there will be two pieces of tulle the same size – one on top of the other.

With the layers of fabric together, fold the fabric back and forth – accordion style. For larger pom poms, made the folds wider.

Once folded, keeps the folds on the top and bottom edges. Gather the fabric (open edges) from each side and tie tightly in the center.

Cut the folded edges apart with Fiskars scissors. Then pull all the layers apart to create a full pom pom. Add self-adhesive jewels to the tulle for a bit of sparkle.

A party wouldn’t be a party without costumes, right? Buy glittery top hats at a party supply store and add handcrafted accents.

Cut a 12 inch long strip of paper (width can vary) with the Fiskars SureCut Deluxe Craft Trimmer (12"). Using the paper trimmer or Fiskars scissors, make even vertical cuts the length of the paper (do not cut the strip all the way through; leave approximately a quarter of an inch uncut along the top of the paper). Roll the paper up from one side to the other. Open the cut ends and then tuck the paper roll behind the ribbon band added to the party hat.

Keep the party going with a dressed-up game. Try Bingo with punched shape markers. Simply punch stars and moons from pre-glittered paper using the Starry Night Lever Punch and Medium Twinkle Twinkle Squeeze Punch.

And before you ring in the new year, don’t forget to commemorate the past year in a time capsule. Buy a clear jar and add a band of patterned paper inside the jar. Embellish the paper with Diamond Edge Border Punch and back it another band of contrasting paper before placing it inside. Then let the party goers each add pictures, notes, and other items that represent the year.

Tools used:

Razor-edge Softgrip® Scissors (8")

• Quickview

Micro-Tip® Scissors (No. 5)

• Quickview

Diamond Edge Border Punch

• Quickview

SureCut™ Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer (12")

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This is just another one of the fabulous projects that can be found over at Fiskars.com

Wine Glass Charms

• Designer: Katrina Simeck

• Difficulty Rating: Beginner

Holiday parties are abundant in the winter – from Christmas celebrations to New Year’s extravaganzas – with lots of other get-togethers in the mix.

With people mingling and mixing, I like to have a few wine glass charms on hand to make it easier for guests to keep track of their beverage. Want to make a few charms of your own?

Wine charms are simple to make with Fiskars punches. Start by gathering a collection of cardstock & patterned paper. For an extra special touch, coordinate your charm colors with the holiday, or with your party theme.

1. To begin, punch the bases of your charms with Fiskars XXXX-Large Circle Lever Punch.

2. Use the Fiskars Everywhere punch to create an open center. You’ll then make a small slit in one side to allow you to slide the charm onto your wine glass.

3. For this charm, trim a strip of patterned paper, and then punch with the Jenni Bowlin Jester Border Punch. Fold in an accordian pattern, and adhere to the base.

4. Create decorative rings with 2 sizes of Round n Round punches. Embellish with brads.

5. For a fun star border, punch a strip of cardstock with the new Stars Aligned Interchangeable Border Punch.

6. Create a “ruffle” by folding pleats into the punched border and sandwiching between two layers of cardstock.

7. Embellish with punched stars and adhesive rhinestones.  

8. Create a rustic flower charm by punching patterned paper with the Fiskars Round ‘n Round punch. Lightly spritz with water, and crumple gently.

9. Layer with another crumpled circle, and form a flower.

10. Insert a large brad for the flower’s center

For an extra festive touch, save the stars from the Stars Aligned Border Punch to use as confetti!

Tools used:

Circle Lever Punch (XXX-Large)

• Quickview

Everywhere Punch™ Window System - Burst Punch Design

• Quickview

Round 'n Round Squeeze Punch (Large)

• Quickview

Jenni Bowlin Jester Border Punch

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This project was found over at http://www2.fiskars.com/Crafting/Projects/Holiday/New-Years/Wine-Glass-Charms#.UNw0cO935Hk ......why not pop on over there to check out more fun crafty projects these holidays..............there is sooooooooooo much inspiration over there by the FISKARS DESIGN TEAM!

New Year's Eve planning

Well I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas.....I sure have.....I'm now working most days at The Blue Lotus Watergarden so have only had a little time to surf the net tonight...and found this fabulous article over at http://www2.fiskars.com/Crafting/Projects/Holiday/New-Years/New-Years-Eve-Party#.UNwv3e935Hk by Lead Fiskateer Tania Willis.....and thought I'd share with you all here......it's such a fun idea if you are planning something fun for New Year's Eve. I'm not sure what we are doing yet. Do you have any plans?

 

xoxo

Lyn

Here's what Tania had to say..............

Ringing in the New Year for my family is generally a small, casual affair and doesn’t usually get a whole lot of attention when it comes to party décor. Although, this year, our celebration will have a little more fancy added to it thanks to some inspiration during my last shopping trip.

Last time I was out at the Dollar Tree I spotted these cute little individual serving-sized bottled of Sparkling Red Grape Juice that resembled a fancy wine bottle and thought it would be perfect to dress them up a bit to make our celebration at home feel a little more special for my kids.

I’ve put together some other quick and easy ideas for your holiday celebrating! These ideas work for a New Year’s Eve celebration, but they are also suitable for any celebration whether it be a birthday, anniversary or wedding. Of course, each of these ideas uses some of my favorite Fiskars tools in very simple ways – simple because I want you to spend all your time celebrating this holiday, not slaving over your decorations.

It’s quite traditional to wish everyone to be healthy, wealthy and wise in the coming year and I wanted to put my own spin on wishing my family well by gifting them with words of motivation and affirmation inside of a paper fortune cookie party favor.

They are quite simple to make and only need a few supplies.

First decide upon your ‘fortunes’ and print them in your word processing program. You’ll want your phrases to stretch no longer than 4.5” long and no more than a few typed lines tall. You can google ‘fortune cookie sayings’ if you need help with wording your fortune.

Then, you’ll gather patterned papers and cut a 4.5” circle for each fortune using the Ultra ShapeXpress along with the smallest circle from the Super-Sized Circle Set.

Gently fold circle in half, creasing ONLY 1” in the middle. Open circle and add a glue dot approximately ¼” away from the crease on both sides of the crease. Then pinch the circle in half in the opposite direction of the crease, but DO NOT crease.

Instead, grab the opposing points with your thumb and middle finger, while pushing inward on the crease with your pointer finger. Once the crease starts caving move your pointer finger and tuck the thumb and pointer finger in between the paper to pinch the glue dots together. Slide fortune into cookie. Once you get the hang of this process you can tuck the fortune in the cookie before collapsing the paper to form the cookie shape.

There are many other small ways in which you can put a little fun and sparkle into the occasion. For this next idea, I’ve just customized a standard bag of plain white confetti by adding small pops of color and sparkle to the mix. This is done with just a little hand exercise squeezing the ¼” hand-held circle punch! The punch collects all the little confetti dots as you punch controlling the mess as you go. You’ll be surprise at what a small amount you’ll need to punch to breathe life into the plain white confetti. (Pssst…if you can’t find plain confetti at your discount store, then raid the 2-hole and 3-hole punches at the office. They work beautifully!)

Then, to ‘ring in the new year’, I added jingle bells as a functional embellishment just tied around the top of the tube.

To decorate the ‘fancy’ kid-friendly wine bottles, I simply covered the labels by layering patterned paper, with cardstock and sparkle paper, then finished it off with some ribbons. To add a little more dimension and visual interest, I ran the turquoise cardstock through the paper crimper first. The only thing you’ll have to remember when doing this is to use a stronger adhesive when adhering the crimped paper.

A party wouldn’t be a party without and invitation, now would it!? These invitations were made super simple by using the Ultra ShapeXpress along with the Uppercase Letter ShapeTemplate Set. Cutting the letters with a template ensures that each one is exactly the same and saves tons of time if you are duplicating the design over and over.

Lastly, since it’s a party celebrating the arrival of a new year, you’ll want to play off the ‘2012’ in your décor as much as possible. A ’12 sticker placed on cardstock, then punched using a squeeze punch makes the perfect little embellishment to hang from the neck of a wine bottle, the stem of your wine glass or even as a topper on your tube of confetti.

However it is that you decide to celebrate the New Year, just know that the Fiskars family wishes you a very safe, happy and memorable New Year.

Tools used:

Letter 1 Shape Template (8 1/2" x 11")

• Quickview

Ultra ShapeXpress™ Shape Cutter

• Quickview

1/4" Circle Hand Punch

• Quickview

Round ’n Round Squeeze Punch (Medium)

• Quickview

SureCut™ Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer (12")

 

Last Minute Gift card.

OMG! i got up this morning...at 5am i might add.....kids! and realized i had not made a gift card holder for my brothers pressie!

So i grabbed a pic i had coloured in the other day, a few fiskars border punches and my trimmer and set to work while the kids were sorting them selves out before opening pressies.

 I used Fiskars Upper crest and kaleidoscope border punch on the side and used my fiskars trimmer to cut the cardstock. and it was finished! the card took me only a few mins to make!

I hope everyone has a very merry christmas!!! and santa is kind to you all!!

Tara :)

* & from us 2 - Merry Fiskmas !

ooops .....we're here too

just a lil' late as per usual ;)

We would all like to wish you all a very
happy Christmas and all the very best for the coming year.
Looking forward to more adventures here on the blog if we are allowed ;)

D1 & D2
and
Robyn & Debbie 

Some snowman fun

We have a few gift cards on our Christmas list this year and I thought I would add a little giggle to their gift with one of these ...

They are quick and easy to make too.  There are LOTS of fun tic tac projects out there in cyberland, here is the link to the one that I used.  I modified the images so that you can print them on 6x4 paper (cut down cardstock to size) - here is the snowman (image is the perfect size for the medium Round 'n Round 1" circle squeeze punch) and the poem.  I used the standard Tic Tac pack and cut my cover to be 4 5/8" x 3", with the spine scored at 2" and 2 5/8".
 
Start by cutting and embossing the cover.  I have used my Fiskars ScrapBoss (Winter Wonderland stencil), Fiskars Mini ShapeBoss (Noel stencil) and Fiskars Texture Plate (Snowflakes) with my Fiskars Texture Tool and Fiskars Embossing Stylus.

Print off and colour the images, punch out the snowman using your small Fiskars Round 'n Round squeeze punch then mat - I used the large Fiskars Seal of Approval squeeze punch - this scalloped circle is the perfect fit!!!  Cut out the poem and mat.

I adhered the ribbon (18") to the centre line of the cover using double-sided tape then foam dotted the snowman on top for a bit of added dimension.

Here is a close up of one of the covers, where I have sanded the embossing to reveal the white snowflakes

Here is a close up of the inside, so that you can see the fun poem.  The Tic Tac pack is adhered in place with a dob of Helmar 450 Quick Dry but you could use a glue dot instead.


WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Tracy :)

Need some last minute tags?

Luckily you can rely on your Fiskars Mini ShapeBoss to help!!!

The great thing about hand embossing with your Mini ShapeBoss is that you can pick and choose the images you want to emboss and put them exactly where you want them to be on your project.



For my Christmas tags I hand embossed some Core'dinations Black Magic cardstock and sanded the embossed edges to expose the green core underneath, then added some red ribbon, red rhinestones and Stardust Stickles to bling them up a bit.  Two completely different tags made using the same Happy Holidays stencil.

Have fun with your last minute Crafty Christmas Preparations,
Tracy :)

PS - if you are looking for this fun embossing system, I know my local Spotlight store has both the Mini Scrapboss and the ShapeBoss and it is sure to be available at your local scrapbook / craft store too.

Another quick christmas card.....

hello everyone! only a few days to go till xmas now......has everyone done all their shopping?? i FINALLY have!

but i still need to get a few christmas cards made to put gifts in, so i have made one to share with you today.

I used my Fiskars Trimmer to cut the card to an 6x6 inch card then with my Fiskars Bubbles border punch i created a patterned square border.

I stamped my image on some white card, then coloured it in. then with my Fiskars trimmer i mat and layered several different patterned papers and punched another border with the Fiskars bubbles border punch along the bottom. Added some ribbon then adhered the layered image onto my card.

This card took me approx 10 min to make. so a quick card just before xmas!

Tara :)

*** Merry FISKMAS from us all ***

             

We'd like to thank you all for dropping by this year and leaving comments or having a go at the Challenges each Month.....we love that you guys interact with us all  sharing ideas and providing feedback.

         We'll be back in 2013 with more fun and games and lots of crafty inspiration!

                              Merry Christmas EVERYONE!

                                             

gift box with card notelets and tags.... tutorial

Hi all, here is a tutorial on how to make this....

Very quick and non expensive.

here is the video for you...
 

Thanks so much for watching. All the best for this Christmas.

Fiskars tools used in this post...

happy crafting!

Debbie B
Artycrafty.wordpress.com