Tag: snowman

3D Christmas Cookies

On By Michel McDonaldIn ChristmasLeave a comment

3d-christmas-cookies 3d cookie cutter tree

Can you believe that it’s almost Christmas already?  I can’t because it seems like just yesterday I was sweating my Christmas ornaments off in the summer heat.

Even though I know I shouldn’t eat them because of how bad they are for you, I just love baking cookies.  I bought the 3D cookie cutters (left image) I want to say in 2005 or 2006 from Publishers Clearing House.  Yuk it up, I made 4 payments lol.  I wanted to make them with the cookie recipe the cookie cutters came with, but Darrin told me it was too much work and that I should just go ahead and buy a roll of sugar cookie dough already made from the grocery store, which I did and it was the biggest mistake because the dough rose too much and the pieces didn’t fit, so I had to shave it down where the pieces were supposed to slide together.  I also bought the powdered sugar and food coloring so I could decorate them in many different colors which was also a mistake because it looked like a pre-schooler decorated them.

This year I bought the 3D Tree cookie cutters (right image) from AVON.  I don’t know why but the set didn’t come with a cookie dough recipe, but I did buy Halloween cookie cutters which did, and I made them and they were very good so I will be using that for both sets this year.

Instead of decorating them with many colors, I will do them both just as they are in the image with white frosting made with the powdered sugar.  They have sprinkles in the holiday aisle at the grocery store with shapes which will add more color to the trees and the star and it will give eyes to the reindeer, angel and the snowman.

When I made the 3D cookie cutters, I gave them to family and I was very disappointed that they were still there a year later, and I believe the next year after that.  They said they didn’t eat them because they were too nice, but it’s insulting to give someone cookies that I worked hard on making just to see that they didn’t even eat them.  If you don’t want to eat it, then give it to a child, trust me, they will eat it lol.  If not, just throw it away.

But I digress…

I can’t wait to make these cookies again this year.  I was hoping to make the tree and decorate it with rainbow colors for the PFLAG Christmas potluck, but I wasn’t sure how I would do that.  Well, I think I might know how, instead of doing all the layers white, I could paint them in rainbow colors.  There are enough that I could paint 3 stars in red, 3 stars in orange… etc.  Who knows, I still have awhile, but whatever I do I will definitely post pictures when it happens.

So yay!  Christmas cookie time lol.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Friends and Family, HolidaysLeave a comment

This is the image from my webcam to show my progress so far. It’s very hard to really tell what it is at this point because of the angle of the image but it’s a Christmas stocking for one of my relatives. It’s a snowman holding a broom with a mouse in it. The snowman is wearing a top hat and a scarf and he has a squirrel on his shoulder.

There is a deer which you can clearly see then a rabbit next to him but I haven’t finished him so he’s hard to see.  Then to the bottom right of the stocking is a fox which I haven’t even started. Well, I started his feet but that’s it.

When I finish I will post the finished product so you can get a better image. Yesterday I worked on the white of the snowman stomach and I started his scarf which by the way is not an easy thing to do lol.

I have 9 more days to finish this. Do you think I can do it? I keep saying “Oh it’ll only take me a few days” well it’s been a week that I’ve been working on it but because of back problems I can only work on so much of it at a time before I have to stop. Yesterday I drank a red bull and got a lot more done but not as much as I would have liked.

I still have to finish the other stocking that I made for Jordan with the Santa on the front. Since that one didn’t come with the red felt for the back, I had to go buy some at Michael’s. I cut the piece out so all I have to do is sew it on. But I’ll wait to do that when I can sew this one up at the same time. Yes they have to be sewn by hand because if I use the sewing machine it will screw up the pattern because some of the pattern is right against the edge of where I have to sew.

You know speaking of sewing, I wish that I knew how to quilt because I think I could make some awesome Christmas stockings with that. That would be so awesome.

Anyway, I need to get back to work lol.

Boring Webcam Time

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, HolidaysLeave a comment

I don’t know why I feel the need to do this but I have my webcam turned on while I’m embroidering. I have to finish this Christmas stocking for Chips niece’s grandson so he can have it next month. I started working on it in May this year but stopped halfway through because it was my 3rd stocking in a row and I was burned out on embroidering.

I figured, I have 6 months to finish it and it probably won’t take more than a couple of days so I’ll do it in December. Well, it’s December and so now I shall work on it again.

I have set up my webcam in my old webcam page over at http://www.xanapus.com/cam but I don’t really know if anyone is watching because it doesn’t tell me so I’m just going to assume nobody is watching because it’s so stupid lol. I just figured, if you want to see my progress then check it out.

The stocking that I am working on is a snowman holding a broom upside down with a chipmunk on his shoulder and a Christmas tree behind him. There is a deer, rabbit and a fox sitting in front of him.

The only thing in this project that is finished is the deer. I’m not working on finishing any 1 particular character, I am more focused on specific colors. Yesterday I finished the shadow color which is a medium blue. I haven’t decided what color(s) I’m going to work on today, as if it really matters.

If you check in from time to time, thanks for coming. If you are sitting there watching me, you must be bored. If that is the case, let me know you’re watching with the chat mod at the top right of the screen in my blog.

New Blog Banner

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog, HolidaysLeave a comment

I am not a graphics designer but I do try to make all of my own graphics because I really can’t afford to pay a graphics designer to do it for me. I usually like to have a whole new banner image for the holidays and I think I’ve finally gotten my banner the way I want it.

I’m using GIMP as my Photoshop program and I’m using brushes for all of my other graphics like the Christmas decorations and snow from Obsidian Dawn.

I’m not very good at it yet but I think it’s fun working with brushes. The only issue I had with these particular brushes is that when you click the brush pattern onto the image, it’s very light. You can’t even see it unless you click it several times and even then it loses all of the details and texture in the image. What I have figured out is that if I make it white then click it on the image about 10 times, it gives me a base, that way I can use a color and click it down again and you can see it better.

Take the Snowman for example. I created a layer for the snowman then I used white and I created my base then I erased the arms.  I created another layer but moved that layer down under the white layer and I used a dark brown color then stamped the snowman back down about 10 times. That way you can see the arms but not the dark brown snowman because that was all hidden behind my white base. Then to give it texture I just stamped it down (still with the brown) on top of itself on the base layer. The only issue is that in the Obsidian Dawn website when they show the snowman in the image for all the brushes, he has a red scarf. I really don’t care about his scarf but it would be nice to be able to just stamp it once and have all the details like the red scarf.

I did the same thing with the Christmas tree (although it may be a little bit overkill), all the decorations, the presents and the Santa hat on my head in the picture of me when I was 16. Then I added the snowflakes and then the snow but I didn’t click many times, I only clicked once for the snowflakes and the snow because I didn’t want it to overpower the image.

You can go to the Obsidian Dawn website and download some brushes for your own graphics. They have tutorials for using these brushes in Photoshop and Gimp but they are mostly for Photoshop which is why I’m still clueless. Maybe they work better in Photoshop than they do in Gimp so you don’t have to go that extra mile that I have to go. Who knows. Actually tell me if you know so I can beat my head against the wall if I’m doing it the hard way lol.

I hope that some day I might get better at using GIMP because I really love creating my own graphics. Maybe some day I might be so good that I can start making desktop themes to add to my downloads page. Probably not so don’t hold your breath on that one.

3D Cookie Cutters

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I bought these 3D cookie cutters from Publishers Clearing House even though I knew I couldn’t bake cookies but now I can WOOHOO! So now I can make some cookies for Christmas. I might even make them as Christmas presents. There are several different shapes like snowman and a Christmas tree etc. I’ll have to get a picture for the crafts section when I make them.