Fashion Cookies

As another holiday project this year, I invited the Exec Board of our college Fashion Club for dinner. Of course, there was another project... the students cut out and decorated Sugar Cookies. I had made the cookie cutters out of 'Flashing' (found at Home Depot. The images were fashion clothing and accessories. Basically, I took drawings of clothing, etc, and scaled them to the size I wanted. Then I bent the flashing around the outer shape and used duct tape to hold everything in place, and to cover the top sharp edge.

Here are the cookies prior to decorating..


Now... the decorating.. and the results.. and the cast of characters.

From Vogue Magazine to Bows

Every holiday season, I host a creative party for the "Ladies from the Hood", (my friends from two neighborhoods ago). And.. we always do a craft. These year, we made bows from fashion magazines.

The steps are as follows:




1. Choose pages from magazines for their color, and cut strips 3/4 inch wide. The instructions called for three strips at 11 inches, three strips at 9 inches and three strips at 7 inches. Plus, one small strip at 3 inches. (Note: After making the first bow, I decided to use 1 inch strips and five of each size).

2. Then, twist and fold the strips as below, and secure with two-way sticky tape. The instructions called for creating three layers each with three parts. In the end, you roll the last short strip of three inches into a tube and place in the center.

Here are some of the bows.. and the process and the 'girls'.

Non-Traditional Christmas Tree

I can't believe the month of December has flown by without an entry here, but it is a crazy month with final exams at the college, holiday prep and family and friend celebrations.

So... for the past six years, I have been challenging myself by creating a non-traditional Christmas tree. This is yet another creative challenge I give myself.


This year... I draped my tree using window screening. Basically, I start with a Victorian frame (that I use most years). Then, I cut three rectangles of silver window screening, and ran basting threads of fish line along each long end of the rectangles. After that, I pulled the basting threads to gather the rectangles around the stand in tiers. I placed evergreen cuttings on top of each tier, and chili lights (what else for the southwest area I live in?).
Here is the tree in process...

To top the tree, I used a tumbleweed that a friend retrieved for me in Utah. (yes, friends know of my crazy ways).


Here are some close-up shots so you can see the screening



I'm already thinking about next year.. what shall I do?