Handmade Holidays Blog Hop 2011 {Day One}

Welcome to the Handmade Holidays Blog Hop!!!

The Introduction:
If you are hopping along with us today: You should have come here from The Twinery's blog. If you did, you are in the right place! Welcome!
If you aren't already a follower, we'd love to have you follow the blog!

If you are one of our regular readers: Thanks for coming back! We love having you! Please join along in the hop - you can start at the Clearsnap blog.

Calling all crafters! We’ve gathered designers from some of our favorite manufacturers to show you ways to create something from the heart this holiday season. This 3 day Hop includes over 60 stops with inspiration brimming from every corner. Explore all thoughtful and frugal handmade gifts you could make for the holidays, all in one place on this Hop!

Each day we will be sharing a brand new list of blogs with brand new projects for you to explore, be inspired by, and create from!

The Hop List:

Clearsnap
Spellbinders
Hampton Art
Zutter
Graphic45
Donna Salazar Designs
The Twinery
Authentique Paper <-- You are here!
Glue Arts
Sherry Cheever – Graphic45
Claire Towle – Hampton Art
Emily Leiphart – The Twinery
Andrea Budjack – Glue Arts
Lesley Langdon – Spellbinders
Daniela Dobson – Clearsnap
Natasha Naranjo Aguirre – Donna Salazar Designs
Lisa Day – Glue Arts
Lynne Forsythe – Zutter
Jennifer Priest – Clearsnap
Tifany DeGough – Authentique Paper
Holly Simoni – Spellbinders
Fleur Smith – Zutter
Stephanie Johnson – The Twinery
Robyn Weatherspoon – Clearsnap

The Details:
To sweeten to Hop, we’re offering a gift for one of you!


How does one of the 6x6 Bundles from EACH of our current 7 collections sound?
We'll even throw in a few other Authentique Paper goodies as well!
{Note: Due to low stock because of the popularity of some of our collections, we may need to substitute one or more of the 6x6 bundles shown above with a 6x6 Nest from the Free Bird Series at the time of shipment.}

Leave a comment on each blog along the hop to be be entered to win a prize pack from one of the participating manufacturer sponsors (including this great prize pack shown above)! The winners will be chosen randomly from all comments on the manufacturer blogs AND the designer blogs.
{Authentique Paper winner must have a US/Canada address.}

Blog comments close on Nov 7, 2011 at 11:59 PM {PST}.

The Project:

As you may recall, I created a magnetic bulletin board last week. Well, I thought I'd do another post to show you how I made the magnets and push pins from that project! If you need a refresher, here is the finished bulletin board:

Fun, right? For a tutorial on how I made this, you can go back to the original post here. For this tutorial, I am going to show you how I created the magnets and push pins.


Here are the supplies I used to make the magnets:

- craft glue
- magnets
- patterned paper cut into 1 inch circles
- bottle caps (I used the fancy flowery-looking ones for this project)
- clear, plastic cabochon tops

I started by placing some glue on the inside of the bottle cap, then putting the patterned paper circles on top. Push down well to make sure the paper is secure.


Next, I used the craft glue to adhere the magnet to the bottom of the bottle cap.

Flip over the magnet and place some craft glue (this step it NEEDS to be clear glue) on top of the patterned paper inside the bottle cap. Place the clear cabochon top on top of the glue and press down firmly to make sure all of the bubbles are pushed out.

This is what the magnets look like when they're done:

They turned out so pretty! Now it's time to make the push pins. Here are the supplies I used to create them:

I used my glue gun to place a small dot of glue onto one of the pins. Then I placed one of the cute little cabochon flowers on top.

And that's IT!! I can't believe how easy it was to make these! They are such a SIMPLE and CUTE way to dress up even the most plain bulletin board.


I hope this inspires you in some way to create gifts from the heart this holiday season! Cheers!

~ Cristine


The Next Stop:
Glue Arts

Supplies:

Authentique:
Patterned Paper: Blissful - Pleasant (back), Happiness (front)
Die Cuts: Blissful - Excerpts and Tabloids

Other:
Bottle Caps set
Buttons
Cabochon flowers
Cork board
Dragonfly brad
E-6000 adhesive
Felt
Flat-head bulletin board pins
Glue gun
MDF board
Metal sheets
Rubber Cement
Twine - The Twinery (in Lemondrop and Pink Sorbet)