Maya Road Design Team

3x Non-Christmassy Cards!

It's soon Christmas, and with that - time to wrap up those Christmas-cards!
Here's two not-too-Christmassy-cards for your inspiration...(at least I tried to make them not too Christmassy - did it work?).

I'll freely admit - I'm totally in love with the Crystal Star trinket pins...I seriously need at least two more boxes of these! It's especially perfect for cards & tags...I also love the Let It Snow Stamp Sheet & the vintage wood snowflakes..wish I found some of the Snowflake Transparencies - White - it'd be perfect here, tucked in between the doily & the tag and banner...ahwell!

Maya Road suppplies:
Trinket Pin - Crystal Star
Let It Snow Stamp Sheet
Vintage Wood Snowflakes
Wood Bingo Numbers - red

The chipboard snowflake seen here is actually from an older version - I recall ordering a whole bag of these for me and the kids to paint white, add glitter & ribbon/twine so we could use them as Christmas Tree decorations..nevertheless..the chipboard snowflakes are now available in a newer and updated design found here. But - nothing's better than using up all the older bits and pieces you have lying at home, no? Makes you feel more ok about getting newer stuff...=)

Maya Road Supplies:
(vintage =) ) Chipboard Snowflakes
Vintage Paper Posies
Love Banner Stamp Sheet (for the stamped letters & star)

Also - you've seen the Early Winter Release 2012, right? :)

Using the Scallop Frames Chipboard Set , white crackle paint and Popsicle Blue Maya Mist I made this funky looking frame...frames stuff pretty nicely, doesn't? And I love the new large Kraft Ticket Strips..such a handy size and a great addition to the regular, small ones..

Maya Road supplies:
Scallop Frames Chipboard set
Maya Mist - blue popsicle
Kraft Large Ticket Strips

Hope these cards gave you some inspiration! And as an added bonus, here's a little Christmas-gift dressed up ever so slightly!

What you'll need: Kraft paper as wrapping paper, a small doily, Kraft journaling tag, Let it snow stamp sheet, bakers twine, letterstickers, watermark-stamp & white embossing powder (get a fine detail one if you can).

1. Stamp snowflake-motif on the tag
2. Heat emboss so it stands out.
3. Attach letters (God jul means Merry Christmas in Norwegian ;) )
4. Attach the tag with 3d-foam upon the doilywrapped gift.

- have a nice, relaxed weekend! :)

-Ania

Spool Christmas Tree

When i saw these tiny spools i always knew i wanted to do a mini Christmas Tree.  The season is upon us and i finally got a chance to put my ideas into creation.  This cute little tree  measuring 5 inches tall could be a simple decor to place around the house or use it as a place setting for Christmas dinner.  I am going to give you step by step directions to create this adorable spool Christmas tree. 

Maya Road Supplies:

• 25 Skinny wooden SpoolsWood
• 1 Wood Mini Spool
• 1 vintage Wooden Spool
• 1 Crystal Star Trinket Pin
• approx. 12 inches of cream ruffled edge trim

Other: Book pages, Vintage Sheet Music, Baker's twine, Glitter Glue, Manilla Folder, Circle Punches, liquid glue, cream cardstock printed title.

1. Punch 5 Circles, one each of the following sizes. .5",  .75", 1", 1.25", 1.5" from the manilla folder.  I used this because it provided a stiff circle to hold the spools together and worked well to hold the trinket pin in place.

2. cut 26 .5 inch x 1.25 inches strips from book pages and one .75 inch x 2 inches strip from the music paper

3. Wrap all the mini wooden spools with your text paper.  *note i used a mini spool to top my tree to give it a bit more weight.  You could use a skinny spool too.  Wrap the Vintage wood spool with music paper. 

4. starting with the 1.25 punched manilla folder circle, glue 11 skinny mini spools to the outside edge using a strong liquid glue.  Glue 1 inch manilla folder circle to the top of the skinny spools.

5.  add next layer of 8 skinny wooden spools to the 1 inch circle.  Glue the .75 inch manilla circle on top the spools and add last layer of 6 skinny mini spools. 

6. Glue .5 inch circle to the top of the spools & add the single mini wooden spool.  Glue the entire piece to the vintage wooden spool. 

7. Add glitter glue to all the edges of the spools to give it a little sparkle.

8. Take the 1.5 inch punched circle and working from the outside in, glue the small ruffle trim in layers to create the tree skirt.  Three layers is all you need, leaving a small circle for the wooden spool. 

9.  Glue the wooden spool to the tree skirt. Wrap baker's twine around the vintage spool and tie it in a bow.

10.  Print out your holiday sentiment on cream cardstock.   Trim to a banner piece leaving a little excess off the left side of the printed title.  Add glitter glue to the banner & let dry. 

11.  Wrap the banner piece around the stick pin and glue the excess to the printed title. 
Add stick pin to the top of the three. 

Peace,

Ronda Palazzari

Bottle Cap Advent Calendar

Good Morning Roadies!  It's December and that means the holidays are not far away!!  I've had this idea in my head since last year and have finally gotten around to getting it done.  It is HUGE! I love how it came out. 

 I started by spray painting the 4" bottle caps a dark metallic color.  I then tied all the bottle caps together to create my base.  Because it is so larger I thought it would be best to use a dowel at the top to hang the calendar from.

For the inside of each bottle cap I created a pocket from card stock to hold the candy for that day.  I added some punched snowflakes layered with chipboard snowflakes.  I finished them off with bingo numbers for each day.  I ended up painting each number dark brown to match! 

Products Used:

Bottle Caps

Bingo Numbers

Candy Stripes Ribbon

Snowflake Chipboard

Thanks for looking!

Jen

 

Christmas Mitten Gift Sack

Hello everyone!  Now that Thanksgiving is officially behind us, it's really the time to start thinking Christmas!  I always love creating cute Christmas gifts for teachers, and I think that I've already come up with that special something!  I am beyond thrilled, let me tell you. :)

I first started dabbling with the Clear Acrylic Mitten Coaster Book and I thought I would do the traditional mini-album project.  Well, the creative juices started flowing (and that's a rarity so I have to take full advantage) and I pulled out some fabric to see what I could do.  Well, I didn't have any kind of holiday-themed fabric so I grabbed the next best thing....BURLAP!

Can you see where I am going here? :)  I simply took one of the pages from the acrylic album and cut two pieces from the burlap and quickly sewed them together...no special stitch, just a straight stitch all along the edges (minus the top!) 

I was so excited that it makes the PERFECT sized little mitten gift bag!   That is a full-sized candy cane tucked in there, and, of course, I used my favorite Maya Road products to embellish with!

One of the pieces of the Snowflake Chipboard Set fit perfectly atop my mitten for decoration. 

Also, the Ruffle Crochet Trim - Double was a perfect match for the cuff of the mitten.  I swear, it's little discoveries like these that make me just giddy!  I glued some Small Organza Roses Ribbon - Olive right along the middle of the trim

And finally I added a Vintage Alterable Trinket - Large, along with some of my favorite trinket pins, Hearts, Vintage Black Pearl, and Vintage Round Pearl.

Easy Peasy friends I promise!!!  I hope you got some great ideas from this.  I know I just love it when I can think outside the box.  :)

Melissa Sauls

Ribbon Wreath

It's never too early to start thinking about holiday plans so I decided to make a holiday planner clipboard complete with a ribbon wreath!

Supplies:

Cardboard

Maya Road Ribbons

1.  Cut a wreath shape out of cardboard.

2.  Tie an assortment of ribbons around wreath shape.

I attached my wreath to the back of an altered clipboard...

Front of clipboard...

Happy creating,

Andrea

Ho Ho Ho!

Hi Roadies! I have a little confession to make.  This banner actually started out as Santa Clause, hense the title. But midway through, the project took on a "life of it's own" and ended up as this snowman.  So I ended up changing the last "Ho" to Snow!!! :)

The banner itself is pretty straight forward. But there are just a few things I'd like to mention about the construction.

• To hang the banner I used some Zipper Trim that was looped and then sewn between two  Mitten Coasters.  The mittens were then glued behind the first and last chipboard pages of the banner.
• To keep the head of the snowman from flopping over  when hung, attach some  wire or string to the back to give it some extra support.

• After covering a Snowflake Coaster  page with patterned paper, adhere half of a felt pom pom to the center. Cover six Mini Spools with patterned paper and use Vintage Pearl Trinket Pins to hold them in place in the felt ball. (A little glue was also applied to each pin and spool before inserting into the felt).
• To add some dimension to the coaster, cut six triangles, fold them in half and adhered them inbetween the spools on the coaster.

Here are a few close ups before I go.

Have a great week, Roadies!

Jennifer

Maya Road Supplies:
Mixed Half Circle CB Banner Album
Let It Snow - Stamp Set
Vintage Snowflakes
Alterable Buttons
Bingo Numbers (brown)
Winter Roses (Aquamarine)
Vintage Round Pearl Pins
Leaf Trinket Pins
Zipper Trim (Ruby Red and Lilac Pink)
Mini Scallop Set
Mini Spools
Christmas Shapes Keychain (gingerbread man)
Christmas Tree Coaster (nose)
Snowflake Coaster
Mitten Coaster
Iridescent Glitter
Vintage Pearl Pins
New York Uppercase CB Alphabet
Page from Half Circle Binder (for snowman's head)

2012 Bottle Cap Calendar

Good Friday Roadies!  Are you getting excited seeing all the cool new stuff coming out this week for CHA?  I have a fun project featuring the new 2012 kraft calendars.  It's never too early right?

I used the 4inch bottle caps for this project.  I marked and punched holes in the bottle cap, then using ribbon I tired them together.  I matched each bottle cap to that month using bright paper and mini chipboard pieces to coordinate.  

Supplies Used:

Super Mega Bottle Caps

2012 kraft calendars

Chicago Chipboard Numbers 

Snowflake Chipboard Set (Jan & Dec)

Love words Mini Set (Feb)

Green Thumb (Mar & May)

Hows the Weather (April & Jun)

What's Cookin (Jul)

Birds with Cages (Aug)

Leaves Chipboard (Sep & Oct)

Mini Trees (Nov)

Mists:   Pomegranate Pink, Antique Silver, Lemon Metallic, Lime Metallic, Cream Metallic, Sunflower Yellow, Antique Patina, Antique Bronze Metallic, Salmon Metallic, Latte Metallic, Snow White, Black

Other Supplies:  Glossy Accents, Pattern Paper, Buttons, Twine & Ribbon.  U-Cut foam & Extreme Tac adhesives. 

 

 

 

 

Christmas in July?!

I know it seems a bit early to share a cute little project for Christmas but since it's been SO hot here in the Midwest I thought we could use even the thought of cooler weather! And like so many of my canvas projects this is a "no sew" project that is quick and easy and can be used again and again!

I love Advent calendars and here is how you can make your own!

What you will need:

Maya Roach Canvas Square

Maya Road Metal Bottle Caps

Maya Road Chipboard Letters

Kraft paper and patterned paper

Fabric

Adhesive

...........................................................................................................................................................

First cut some fabric about 1/2 inch larger that the canvas square. Fold fabric 1/2 to backside of fabric and adhere with fabric glue. Now glue this "pocket" to the front and back of your canvas squares. (You will use 6 squares giving you a total of 12 calendar pockets)

Now that your pockets are created let's make something to go in there! First I cut 12 pieces of kraft paper a little bit smaller than my pockets. Onto this square I adhered a colored piece of paper (alternating green and red) onto the kraft paper. I chose to machine sew around the colored paper perimeter. Next I painted and glittered a Maya Road chipboard letter and placed on the paper. For this project I chose to spell "CHRISTMAS JOY". It has  12 letters so each letter fits into a pocket. Also, I envisioned removing a letter a day and  hanging each letter on a garland so that at the end of the 12 days of Christmas you would have a banner that read "Christmas Joy"! On the back of each letter I printed a good deed that could be done on that day to make the 12 days of Christmas about doing something for others. Some examples were: writing a letter to a loved one, visit an elderly person, donate something to the food bank, etc. I love it when projects have more than one function!

Another piece to this project is making the 12 bottle cap numbers. Here I just punched a circle from the same patterned/colored paper used in the letter cards and just added a number to the center of it. Before I place the circle punched piece of paper I punched a hole directly into the center of the bottle cap and attached it to the fabric pocket with a brad. Now cover this with your paper!

To attach this project and make it a hanging and reversible I used items I had extra of. I used these clips with hooks on the end to hang one canvas square to the next. The eyelets on the canvas provide that ability too. Use ribbon, thread,  binder rings, whatever you have "hanging" around to attach your pieces together and create this hanging Advent calendar!

Happy creating with Maya Road!! Shelley

Silver Tray Advent Calendar

We love advent calendars at our house.  We have one on a cookie sheet that the kids use every December to count down the days to Christmas.  Well, when I made this silver tray chalkboard last month, I thought…..gosh, I wonder if a magnet sticks to it.  Sure enough, it did.

And so, I started working on a new advent calendar for our family a while ago but then Dad went into the hospital and I put it aside until the other day.

I used lots of Maya Road chipboard snowflakes, buttons, stars, hearts ( from angel wing set), crowns, Bingo Markers, houses, scallop microchip pieces, birds and other misc. pieces.

I also used  Helmar 450 for my adhesive, silver pipe cleaners, mica flakes and Martha Stewart Microbeads and OA's Very Merry Line line.

I have made many advents over the years and the one thing that I have noticed is it is hard to get the magnet to stay stuck.

If you have ever worked with clay (maybe back in grade school) they taught you that a slick surface will not hold onto a slick surface for long.  This is true.  Every year when we get out the Halloween or Christmas advent calendar we end up having to re-glue a few magnets back on.  It’s not a big deal but my brain has been churning forever trying to come up with a solution.  Well, I think I did.

So, you take a bit of muslin or whatever left over thin fabric scraps you have laying around and make a little cover for the magnet.  This will give you a textured surface to glue down to a slick surface and then you have the fabric overlap which glues to the back of the chipboard, which holds the magnet on.  Does this make sense? Think of it as a permanent bra for your magnet.

This will also help to eliminate the magnet from scratching the painted chalkboard surface or if you are using black magnets, help to prevent scuffs.  The fabric is thin enough that there is no problem with the magnet working right through the fabric.

I’m actually quite proud of myself for thinking this up.  It took me about 4 years.  

I used some BG magnets - they are super strong and work awesome for advent calendars!

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you my Silver Tray Advent Calendar.

 

 

I hope you have a blessed Holiday.

Love,

Katie

 

Quick Ribbon Tree Tutorial

I wanted to share with you all this tutorial which I put together yesterday - I have seen lots of people using ribbons to make some cool things and was inspired to make one out of our Trinket Ribbon.

Check out this ribbon tree made with a few simple Maya Road products:

I had originally intended to make this a hair barrette for Ms Olivia but alas there were a couple of issues  - like she barely has any hair and the tree is about an eighth the size of her head:

So I decided we could use it on our Advent Calendar instead:

But I was thinking this would be a fabulous accent for a shirt or even as an ornament or next year's Christmas card.

There are only a couple of things you need to complete this :

* Maya Road Trinket Ribbon in Forest

*Maya Road Star Pins

*Maya Road Crushed Velvet in Brown

*Adhesive

*Felt

*Scissors

*Hair Clip (if making into a hair clip)

*Wire Cutters

*Lighter (if you want to seal the frayed ends of the ribbon but do it carefully!)

 

Cut four pieces of ribbon about 5" long.

Cut three pieces of ribbon about 4" long.

Cute 3 pieces of ribbon about 3" long.

Treat edges if desired.

Cut a piece of  felt about 1" x 2.5" - see shape below.

Now use the photo as a guide, fold ribbons in half and glue on felt. Start with the largest layer and work up.

 Now take a Star Pin and remove the pin part - take the star and glue to the top of the tree.

Next cover the hair clip with the crushed velvet ribbon and glue to the back of the tree.

You are done! How easy was that? Remember that there are small parts making this tree so be careful if you use it around little ones!