Hello world!

Christmas is near!!! Super near!!!! And the weather today, hot The weatherman said that we will get a huge thunderstorm… and so far it has been a big fat lie!!! I want rain rain rain!!!! Anyway, like what I said yesterday, I have an assignment to make more than 40 cupcakes with Christmas as the theme~ Made the cuppies yesterday and today, to decorate them~

Put so much effort this year, and I came up with four different patterns

Christmas Wreath

Christmas Mistletoe

Silver Snowflake

Christmas Tree

And this is what it looks like!!!!!! PRETTY!!!!!

Just be happy when you’re in a middle of decorating, cos it will shown on your work in the end~

Happy decorating guys~

XOXO,

Aby

Even if it doesn’t snow this winter you can still have snow with this cute snowflake project.  Made with a paper towel roll, this craft will add a touch of winter to any home.  The project can get pretty messy so wear old clothes or a smock!  This fun project idea comes to us from Sean Donovan in Massachusetts!  Thanks for the suggestion Sean!

Things you will need:

• Paper towels or newspaper to cover your work surface
• Glue
• Stapler
• Pencil
• Scissors
• White paint
• White glitter
• Paper towel roll or several toilet paper rolls
• Yarn or thread

Step 1: Cut your paper towel roll into 8 pieces.  Be sure to make them as even as possible.

Step 2: Paint each of your cardboard pieces with white paint.  Be sure to cover each piece completely.

Step 3: While the paint is still wet, or using a thin layer of glue, sprinkle glitter onto the outside of each piece.

Step 4: Let everything dry completely before putting it together.  Pinch each end as shown and lay out your pieces in the above pattern.  Glue or staple everything together and let it dry before tying a piece of thread on as a hanger.

Congratulations!  You have just made a glittery snowflake for your home!  Make a bunch and hang them from your windows for a wintery feel.  You can also use silver glitter for a different effect.  Did you do this project?  How did it turn out?  Please feel free to share your comments and pictures in the comments section!

Animals garland, snowflake and candy cane Christmas patterns for Orange, illustrated by me. Select a thumbnail to see full size image.

Ah, nothing like some snowflake science to get us into the Christmas mood.

Snowflakes grow different crystal patterns based on air temperature, and pollution. Wait, you ask, how is this related to art? Well, looking at these snow crystal patterns always makes me feel better that my paper snowflakes don’t look more “normal.” 

Plus, I just think snowflakes are pretty. The fact that nature creates such beautiful structures just as a matter of physics is pretty awesome!

Wired Science has details on the oddly shaped snowflakes:

Flurries of questions about mysterious triangle-shaped snowflakes may soon subside, thanks to new research on snowflake formation. Most snowflakes are hexagons because of the arrangement of hydrogen bonds in the water molecule. But the new study, appearing online at arxiv.org (http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.4267) and in an upcoming issue of The Microscope, suggests that after hexagonal flakes, oddball triangular flakes are the most prevalent.

Study coauthors Kenneth Libbrecht and Hannah Arnold of Caltech in Pasadena propose an aeronautical reason for the triangular geometry. The results help solve the very old puzzle of how the unexpected flakes form, Libbrecht says.

Snowflake enthusiasts — such as Libbrecht, who photographs snowflakes — have spotted triangular snowflakes in the wild. The snowflake scientific literature, which goes back almost two centuries, is thick with such sightings, Libbrecht adds, but no one has explained why. “People have noticed them for hundreds of years.”

To address the mystery, the researchers created snowflakes in the laboratory and recorded the shapes. In conditions that simulate natural snowfall, the vast majority of flakes were the standard hexagons, but more of them were triangular than a statistical model had predicted, the team found. Some of these flakes still have six sides but an overall triangular shape, created by three short edges and three long ones. The abundance of triangle-shaped flakes suggests that they may be more common in nature than chance alone would allow.

Tiny impurities, such as dust particles, can cause one edge of the falling snowflake to tilt up as it falls, Libbrecht says. The snowflake sides that are pointed down grow faster as the wind blows by, leading to a stable triangular pattern. Once a triangle shape gets started, the snowflake remains triangular despite any later bumps as it falls, the researchers propose.

Picture by e

Searching the Internet for a new snowflake scene background for my Mac (gotta change it up every so often), I came across a link about how to make paper snowflakes. Sidetracked from my hunt for the perfect winter desktop, I clicked on the snowflake link and read the easy instructions. I always saw these snowflakes with their intricate patterns glittering around in holiday scenes,  but I never knew how to make them–until now!

Maybe it was the impending snow that inspired my new found desire to make paper crafts, but as soon as I got home from work, I sat on my floor with a roll of tape, a stapler, a print out of the instructions, and six pages from a “discarded” book. (Discarded books are outdated and no longer considered relevant–they end up in the dumpster, so why not turn them into some holiday treasures?)

However, you could also use magazines or scrap paper to make your snowflakes. But, I liked the texture and look of the book pages--it reminded me of being in the store Anthropolgie, because one theme in their stores and catalogs has been paper crafts.

Pictures from marthamoments.blogspot.com and anthropologie.com

The first snowflake took me about five minutes to get the hang of it, but I thought it came out cute! It’s a perfect way to make a holiday decoration without having to go to the store and buy one. If you make them smaller, you can use them as ornaments on the tree or as gift tags. Hang them from a hook in your house or simply place around your fireplace, a paper snowflake is sure to be an asset to the holiday season!

If you would like to make one yourself, visit this Wiki where I printed my instructions and learned how to create my own winter scene: “How to Make a 3D Paper Snowflake.”

There is still a lot of snow on the ground from yesterday’s winter storm so I decided to not waste this precious opportunity and take advantage of it . I decided to take Vixen (Carol) and Snowflake (Winter Purezza) back outside for more pictures, and I also decided to grab Joyette (Requiemart Custom) and Emma (Hello Kitty) outside for photos.

Enough talk unto the photos- Snowflake sneaking up on Vixen..

For those wondering about the snowman he is actually cookie jar I received as a gift for Christmas a few years back, while I didn’t really need anymore cookie jars (I have four others) this seemed like a good opportunity to actually get some use out of him.

My Winter Purezza, Snowflake is actually my favorite of the seasonal Purezzas. I am somewhat shocked at myself that I never brought her outside before this to play in the snow. She was actually one of the last two pullips I needed to complete my collection and I bought her along with my Vivien, Marilyn from Bobagirl, one of my quasi-pullip idols (she had previously collected all of the pullips) when she decided to downsize her collection.

I know Snowflake is kind of an odd name for her but at the time it seemed to be the only name to really suit her.

I bought my Carol- Vixen a while ago but never really took many pictures of her. Carol is so overlooked in the pullip world, I am not sure if it is because she always seems to look a bit melancholy or if it is because her stock is downright bizarre. The bright side of there not being a whole lot of Carol love is that I got Vixen here, with full stock for a steal.

If my Jouet was home I would have taken her out for photos unfortunately she is still at Requiemart’s house while she is finishing up Joel (Jouet Taeyang), since I couldn’t photograph Jouet herself I decided to photograph the next best thing Joyette (Custom Jouet Pullip).

She really looks like an ice princess all dressed in white.. She is wearing a rather odd mix of Vivien’s (coat) , Jouet’s (bear hood), Clarity’s (top), Ala’s (boots), Raphia’s (socks + skirt) stock pieces.

The final member of the pullip snow day league was my newest arrival Emma (Hello Kitty). Although a bit under-dressed for the weather (in blythe Friendly Freckles’ stock) she had great gusto when it came time to play in the snow.

I loved how the snow looked in her mohair wig, it just had this almost magical quality to it.

The holidays can be a magical time. Take a look at how Celebrations Design Group executed some magic of our own and transformed a plain cinderblock gymnasium into a winter wonderland. Even our tallest elf, Ennis, needed a little lift. Trees lit with hundreds of miniature white lights lined the room. Below, Elf bob starts the trimming. Snowflakes were hung from the ceiling with care and icicles were strung everywhere.

Cocktail tables sparkle in the candlelight reflected by the silver sequin linens. Lounge furniture, in winter white of course, was placed in clusters to make the large space feel cozier. Smaller conversation areas were also created with tables surrounded by ice chavari chairs. Snowflake gobos, lights and vignettes designed to create small snowscapes complete the winter feeling. The transformation was truly magical and a great time was had by all.

We haven’t had any much snow this season, before today the most we had was about 3-4 inches of snow. We finally had some serious snow, it started snowing last night and snowed through into the morning leaving an impressive 14 inches of snow behind. Being from New England and all, I am kind of used to having lots of snow during the winter I much prefer the snow to just the blistering cold we have had the last few days. It’s finally starting to look like Christmas is going to be here soon.. I attended a Christmas party last week and they had a raffle, all of the stuff was Christmas themed and there wasn’t particularly anything I wanted then I spotted a basket that had a sleigh in it that would surely fit pullip. I put all my raffle tickets in the box for the gift basket with the sleigh just to lose, fortunately the person who won the basket came with me and they only wanted the other stuff in the basket so they surrendered the sleigh to me mwahahaha….. I have been waiting for it to snow ever since.

The sleigh is just about the perfect size for two pullips, next year by the time Christmas rolls around I am hoping to assemble a small army of mini-pullip Rudolphs to pull the sleigh. I chose my Carol- Vixen and my Winter Purezza- Snowflake as my two sleigh-riders as they seemed the most suited to the occasion.

Here’s a little way to add a personal touch to giving a gift card…. make your own holder!

Start by cutting a 2 3/4″ x 9″ piece of cardstock. (I would recommend using a cardstock that is not a white core, as the color tends to crack and the white shows when the paper is creased and folded.)

Measure from the left and mark your cardstock at 3 3/4″ and at 7 5/8″. Score and fold. (My paper cutter has a scoring blade, but if you don’t have one of those, a pizza cutter works really well, or the dull side of a butter knife. Use a ruler as a guide.)

Next, with your folded parts sticking up, measure in 1/2″ from each crease and mark.

Cut two 6 1/4″ lengths of ribbon. Line up the edge of the ribbon to the marks as shown in the pic below.

Put a dot of glue on each edge of the holder where the ribbon is going to go. Make sure to leave enough space in between your glue points for the gift card to fit. Gluing at the edges will help give a tighter fit to hold the card.

Flip the cardstock over, and secure the edge of the ribbon with another dot of glue. Keep in mind that you are going to cover the glued portion of the ribbon with an embellishment so if you want it centered, glue the ribbon in the center of the card. If you want your embellishment off center, then glue accordingly.

Repeat with the second ribbon as shown below.

Now it’s time to decorate! I chose snowflakes (can you tell I have a thing for snowflakes?). Choose a larger embellishment to place on the small folded part, this is going to be your closure. Glue it halfway off the edge of the cardstock as shown, so it will overlap when the holder is closed. (I know, obvious note, but make sure you glue it to the correct side of the paper…. the folded parts should be facing down!)

Use a little Zot to close the holder, and your all done!

]]> http://legitbabenames.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/patil/ Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:11:31 +0000 Sebastiane http://legitbabenames.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/patil/

Gender: Feminine
Origin: Armenian
Meaning: “snowflake.”

The name comes from the Armenian meaning “snowflake.”

You are going to love this hand-pieced Winter layout! Capture those special winter moments, and display them on these great pages. You can get complete details and purchase the set at http://www.scrap-of-time.com/item1046.htm.

I’m making handmade mini cards for all my work colleagues this year, so I headed up to the workshop this afternoon and made these… they are really easy to make, you just have to wait for a bit until the stickles glitter glue dries..

Supplies used :-

• Pink Cardstock from Stampin Up
• Pink Mirror board from the Paper Mill Shop
• Nestabilities – Labels 1 set
• Technique Tuesday small snowflake stamp
• Memories Chalk Ink Dusky Rose
• Metal Snowflake and brad
• Stix2 3D Glue Dots
• Stickles Crystal Glitter Glue

Supplies used :-

• Blue Cardstock from Stampin Up
• Silver Mirror board from the Paper Mill Shop
• Stampin Up Scalloped Edge Circle Punch
• Technique Tuesday small snowflake stamp
• Memories Chalk Ink Blue
• Metal Snowflake and brad
• Stix2 3D Glue Dots
• Stickles Crystal Glitter Glue

Since winter is officially a few days away, I figured I would celebrate with a snowflake themed ‘nad!

Nubar Baby Blue with CND Crimson Sparkle with Konad m70 and China Glaze Millennium

Thanks for looking!

I was a blindfold, never complained.

fish tacos for dinner tonight – YAYYYYYYYYYYY!  (hard to get good ones on the east coast, even in manhattan, so always a treat!)

on top of the taco: three red carrot flowers.  also in the box:  black beans in a food cup topped by a two-cheese-and nori layered star (the cheeses are pepper jack and cheddar), bordered by some snow peas, and yellow rice (aka “mexican rice”) topped with three grape tomatoes.  for dessert, just two apple-flavored gummies.

simple on the food, heavy on the props… trying new things!

The first snowflakes of the year usher in Hat Season in New Hampshire.

Wishing you & yours all the warmth of the season… happy holidays!

I want more snow. The fluffy kind.

I think I’d be perfectly happy taking pictures of trees everyday for the rest of my life.  Spirit up.

Is it still common to give Christmas gifts to teachers? I remember doing that during my childhood, but so much has changed since then. However, we decided to give Monkey’s teacher a Christmas gift. She’s a wonderful teacher – it’s her first year teaching, but he’s having so much fun in kindergarten and learning so much. I’m so thankful that he had a great teacher starting out – it’s so important to have a good start since he will be in the education system for quite a long time.

Anyway, I asked Monkey if he wanted me to stitch an ornament. He said yes, and agreed on a snowflake (so quick to stitch, very important since his last day of school before break is Friday!). He picked the colors, and wanted a star for the middle. I’m very happy with the results, so happy in fact that I probably have not stitched my last snowflake…

I spent many “White Christmases” in my years living at a more northern latitude. I especially enjoyed being outside during a snowfall. The eerie quiet that fell along with the snow always made me especially aware of every little nuance of the scene. I used to try to catch the flakes on something dark–like the sleeve of my jacket–so that I could inspect individual snowflakes. Their regular hexagonal patterns with seemingly infinite variation amazed me. It was magical.

Now researchers at Caltech have ruined it for me. They have discovered–and can elaborately explain–how *some* snowflakes are triangular. (Did I hear somebody say, “Briangular?) It has something to do with the way a regular hex-shaped flake gets bent back by the air as it falls. Huh?

I’ll never be able to enjoy a snowfall the same way again…

This card was a combo for the sketch challenge from CdnScrapSwapChat and a color combo from Wendy’s challenge on the Scrapshotz blog.  I used some holiday paper from KI Memories Holiday collection from last year in Pindot and Plaid.  The chipboard snowman and snowflakes were from a set I picked up at the dollar store.  I added some white stickles and some bling and a little bit of ribbon.  Wendy’s challenge was to make the card red and blue primarily and have some bling.  This was the sketch from CdnScrapSwapChat..

and here is the finished product.  I must say, I really like how this turned out.  I tried working on it last nite and it just wasn’t coming to me.  Today though…worked pretty good. 

I’ve only prepared one gift thus far. I needed to get a gift to my physical therapist early, before we both take holiday breaks. I personally hate gift wrap. I like the process of wrapping, but I always feel so guilty with so much trash on Christmas morning. I used left over material from the shirt I cut up to make pants for Ben’s Halloween costume and made a little bag to fit the Wii game I needed to wrap. I used a cookie cutter for the pattern to make the snowflake and hand stitched it on with white yarn. I also used white yarn to make a double chain for the drawstring. Mike liked the game of course and I can’t wait to see what he thinks of it, but what really made me feel all warm and fuzzy was his appreciation for the awesome little bag.

I’m preparing more for my graduation party than Christmas at this point. Graduation is the 18th and very rapidly approaching. I’m having a Donnie Darko themed graduation party. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, it’s basically going to be an 80’s Halloween party. That means we have an excuse for COSTUMES! My brother wasn’t sure of what to go as, but he LOVES South Park. He asked me to make him a Stan Marsh hat so that he could be Stan. I had left over blue fleece from making Ben’s costume and some scraps of red. The fleece was fantastic. It really looks like a cartoon!

Not bad at all for a quick thing to whip out of scraps in the closet! Dexter is really happy about it. Apparently, now I have to make the rest of the gang so we can all dress up and go places. I get to be Kyle (green is my favorite color), and Scott will be Cartman (the size fits). I’m sure after the hats I’ll be making little red gloves and a collar for a brown shirt.

Piercing this orange with

one clove after another

until designs appear.