signature ( =

I finally made myself a signature for my blogpost. ( = Simple, I know... but I think it's cute.

Beautiful DIY cake plate and candy dish on a budget.

Craftsbyamanda.com DIY project.

Have you visited CraftsbyAmanda? She has a lovely blog chalked full of great projects. I was inspired by her beautifully thrift-ed milk glass cake plate project. I remember seeing the project months ago and thinking what a great idea it was, and I began hunting for milk glass. Though I never found any milk glass, the light bulb in my head went off last time I was in the dollar tree glass dish isle.
I found a cute clear candle stick holders that I used for the base, and I used a plate for to make the cake plate, and I found a cute patterned bowl that I used to make a candy dish. I didn't have any gorilla glue so on a whim I grabbed the closest glue-ish thing to me... diamond glaze. Which, believe it or not... has actually held up really well, even in dish water.  (=
I'm pleased with how they turned out:
                                                                       Candy Dish

                                                                          Cake Plate

And the best part is... I have 2 beautiful dishes for the holidays that ring up at only $2 each. Fill these babies with some homemade candies or a cake, for a dinner party and let the hostess keep the serving dish. It's a covered dish and a gift in one. Oh how I love the Dollar Tree!

I won! AriseShine Designs Jewelry

How in the world did I not remember to share this with you? 

Last month I won a giveaway! The first one EVER. I've never won anything. Not a scratch off, not a door prize, & never a giveaway. 

Meg from Bug Creator messaged me to tell me that I had won the Arise Shine Designs Jewelry giveaway on Twelve Crafts till Christmas. 

I chose the hope necklace.

It arrived a few weeks ago and I was so excited to open the package.

It was nicely packaged with a pretty bookmark and more information about Arise Shine Designs.

Finally winning a giveaway makes me want to enter them all ( now that I know I COULD actually win.) lol

Have you ever won a giveaway? 

A visit with Miss. Alice Andrea

Now that we are officially over our nasty colds... I finally got to spend some time with Kenessa's new baby Alice Andrea. Her poor mommy had to have an icky gallbladder surgery, so I was babysitter for the day. Alice is adorable! 

The weather here is so icky... the Dr has requested that she stay home until shes 12 weeks old.  Know what that means? No Santa photos. ) = That just won't do. My parents have a Santa suit and I'm hoping that we can find someone to dress up for in house photos. I want to make her a cute little tutu Christmas outfit for her photos. I'm sure it will turn out super cute. ( =

We had a little mini photo shoot during my visit. Isn't she adorable?

Lost overalls finally make it to Etsy land.

Remember this post about trimmed boutique overalls? After moving adventure, and 7 months of life... I finally found them packed away with some crafty stuff. That means that these overalls, and a few of their friends have made their way to my Etsy shop. These are ready to ship, but I also accept custom orders.

Linked at:

Cute gift idea! Matching bottle cap bow and necklace.

A client custom ordered these from me for a Christmas gift. I thought they turned out really cute! They would make cute birthday gifts too. These are available to Paperpixiecrafts' Facebook fans and blog readers only, for $15 per set. ( =
I can put any image you'd like on the caps, and you can choose your ribbon color too!

Clock making 101

I've got the Mr. into the Christmas crafting zone. He helped me make this cool LP record clock this week, for an Etsy client.
We ordered the clock kit from Brazzco via Etsy. They are great little kits that come in all sizes and are very easy to assemble. This was the first one we've ever made, and we were able to assemble it in about 5 minutes.
Here's how it turned out:

The clocks work with just about anything including CD's. How cute would be be to incorporate family photos in to your clock? Sounds like a cute gift to me! And.. In my experience, Brazzco shipped super fast- so if you order now, you can probably have it in time for Christmas. ( =

Anyone have any experience with clock making? What have you created lately?

Table cloth curtain challenge

I got a weird request the other day. My Dad's sister called me and wanted to challenge me to creating curtains for her country kitchen. What's the "Challenge" She wanted me to create 2 panels for 2 windows like the one in the photo, 2 panels for a floor to ceiling length window in the dining room, and one panel for a window on her back door. And she wanted me to make it all from one small round and one 5x3 rectangle table cloth. I thought it was impossible, but she reminded me that when she was younger, she used to sew, and that she new it could be done.
 I was uneasy during the sewing. I've never made anything that was important. Well, let me rephrase that... I've never made anything that I actually Needed. When I create... it's usually something that ... if it doesn't work out... I can trash it and start over without any concerns. That probably doesn't make much since to anyone but myself. (=
Anyway, I'm pleased to say that I DID finish the curtains within the fabric provided, and believe it or not... they aren't all that bad. I even made some tie backs for them. I wish I had taken more photos, but my phone died after the first photo. Oh well, you get the idea. I probably could have done a better job if I had enough fabric, but we had fun "making do" with the up-cycled materials. They are kind of funky... so don't make fun of me and my curtain making adventures.

Have you made anything useful from reclaimed materials lately? 

Challenge yourself! I'd love to see what you come up with. ( =

Snowbird Picts.

Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Photo from LaFayette Underground (My favorite news source)

That's right. We've got snow on the ground. And in LaFayette, that means everyone is freaking out buying out every loaf of bread and gallon of milk, and schools and businesses are closed down.  It's just enough snow to be pretty but the wind is piercing and the cold is unbearable for this Georgia gal. We didn't have enough snow in our yard to roll up a snow man or anything, but hopefully I'll get at least one little snowman this year. I'm happy when we get pretty white dustings but I'm thankful that we aren't in areas where it looks like this:

Snow at my Aunt's in Wisconsin. {above}

Midwest photo from our friend
Elizabeth at twelvecraftstillchristmas.

      I hope all you snow bird are keeping warm and safe! 

It's pretty here now, in the teens but only a flurry or so every few minutes, with none on the ground.

 It's a good day to stay inside, so I guess I'll use this snow day to start catching up on my blogging. This poor little fella has been neglected lately. 

Sit back and catch up on my happenings, while I bombard your Google readers with my nonsense. 

( =

Desktop Drama!

Christmas is pretty much my busiest time of year with Paperpixiecrafts, as well as with my personal life and family. It's a fun time of year, but it's also the WORST POSSIBLE TIME for my desktop to go on the fritz!

After trying a system restore, and then eventually just partitioning the hard drive and reformatting, Betsy is STILL not back on her game. I'm not a techie kinda gal, so I had no clue that when we reformatted that I would delete NIC card drivers that are not included on the OS disk. ) = The computer is running again but I can't access the internet. I tried to download the drivers from dell and then install them on the desktop, but the installation errors out and says that no hardware compatible with that software was found. It's been an event that's for sure. It looks like I'll be heading to the computer shop Wednesday.

CSN Stores review! ( = & A giveaway too!

I tend to me a bit of a blog hopper. You can often find me curled up with my laptop looking at all those creative crafty blogs out there. In my surfing journey, I have often seen bloggers who are reviewing CSN Stores, or hosting a gift certificate giveaway. I always wondered how they did it. Well guess what? 

Last week CSN Stores invited me to do a product review! YAY! 

I'm excited! Now... just what to choose? CSN Stores has 100s of shops online with everything from handbags and cookware, to sporting goods and baby gear. They even have a great selection of counter height stools that I'm convinced would be great in my hubby's guitar corner. One of these babies might just end up in Santa's sack this year. (=

 But back to the review. I'm looking in to crafty products to review. I plan on creating a project with the item that I review and sharing the tutorial with you lovely folks. If you decide to try the tutorial, you'll know exactly where to get your supplies, CSN Stores! ( = Along with a review and a tutorial, I'll also be giving away the project that I create to one of you lucky folks! That's right- tis' the season for giving, right? I guess you are wondering what the project will be now? I'll give you a "tiny" hint with each product. ( =

SO- What would you like to see me review.?

I'm considering these stamp sets. Which one do you like best?

This set is a basic font but is rather large and I think it would be perfect for *paint stamping monograms on burlap fabric.*

These wooden stamps are much smaller, but have upper and lower case letters, as well as their own multi color inking pad. Wouldn't these be nice for customizing *scrapbook pages and greeting cards?*

Or if this set comes in stock... I'm considering it too. How pretty would it be for addressing Christmas cards? They would even be great to jazz up some *pretty stationary or custom thank you cards*.

They have so many GREAT items, that the hard part will defiantly be deciding what to order! If you are excited about what you've seen here, be sure to check out CSN Stores, I promise you'll be hooked. Don't forget to weigh in and let me know what item you'd like to see me review/ what project you would like to win & see a project tutorial posted for. ( =

Thanks again CSN Stores for this opportunity to share your awesome products with my equally awesome readers! 

Hope you guys are having a great Holiday Season!

Check out these cool give aways!

There are several awesome give aways going on right now. I've entered. Have you?

Steels, Deals, and Heels is hosting:
- A charm necklace giveaway from  Elizabeth Lewis.
Enter here. 
*Ends Dec 6th at midnight eastern time.

Another great one from Steels, Deals, and Heels:
- A sequined purse and keychain giveaway from   Independent Reign.
Enter Here.
*Ends the 5th a midnight eastern.

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The Etsy Treasury Team is hosting a Christmas ornament giveaway. They will be giving away 2 sets of six ornaments from 9 different sellers! They are offering lots of ways to gain entries, so head on over and get your name in the mix!
Enter here ends 11:59 PST on the 5th.

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Town Christmas parade.

Dylan and I met mom and Katie in town to watch the Christmas parade yesterday. We bumped in to my little cousin Molly and her grandmother. She was so cute all bundled up. ( =

 The photos I took of the floats are all dark and I can't seem to find any that turned out from friends either.
After the parade the "Amazing Christmas" lights came on in the park. They are beautiful at night!

[image source]

Bookhouse tutorial.

Create Studio ©
This is Sarah's version that she makes in her tutorial.
Aren't they Beautiful?

Have you heard about Sarah at Create Studio? I stumbled across her blog a few weeks ago, and I've fell in love with her tutorials. She has a great blog full of awesome reviews, crafty projects, party and gift ideas, and more. If you haven't yet, you must check her out. I promise you'll be pleased. 

One of my favorite projects on her blog is her bookhouse tutorial. It's just adorable, and such a creative idea. I loved it so much that I decide to give her tutorial a whirl. 

Heres how my turned out:

Paperpixiecrafts©

*I changed a few thing  in my version, like making my own ribbon from fabric, I covered my book in polka dot fabric, and I added embellishments to the book cover and used a rhinestone for my bird eye .(= I themed this book house in New England Patriots for a Etsy client for Christmas. I think she will love it. ( =

I look forward to making another book house soon. I have so many empty books from where I make my book ruffle wreaths. This was the perfect project to help me clear out my book cover stash. 

If you decide to make your own book house, I'd love to see your photos! So... Head on over to Create Studio and check out this awesome tutorial.