We are so excited to have Danielle Flanders joins us as our July gust designer.

 

 

Danielle Flanders: Hi! I’m Danielle, but you can call me Dani for short if you’d like! I’m a former K-8th grade elementary teacher turned stay-at-home-mom to two girls, ages 14 and 9. I also have a BS in Speech Pathology and Audiology. But, I would say my TRUE passion is sharing my love of art and creativity with others! I’ve been making things ever since I was little and have always been “into” art of all sorts: drawing, quilting, painting and woodworking, etc.

 

When my first daughter was born, I began scrapbooking to make a baby book for her, and that is when my love of paper crafting began. 14 years ago. Since then, I think I’ve really found the style I’m drawn to the most. All things vintage and pretty capture my heart. (With three of us girls, we love everything girly in our house, oh my poor husband!) However, I also love to add a modern twist with lighter colors and a happy feel to update the vintage look.  Does that make any sense? I’m passionate for color and pattern, love to layer and try new techniques, and always feel driven to be creative with new products! My only hope is to inspire others to let their creativity blossom!!

www.danielleflanders.com

 

Countdown to Christmas Frame by Danielle Flanders:

I’ve had this idea to create a countdown calendar stand using a frame and a few other wooden pieces from the craft store for quite some time now, but never found the right opportunity to execute – until now!

 

The Evergreen line of papers, Snippets, Brads, and Die Cut Cardstock & Transparencies worked perfectly for this countdown calendar! To create the frame, I found a 4×6” wooden frame at the craft store very inexpensively, along with a 3” candlestick, a 4” round flat wooden piece for the base and a decorative wooden flourish at the craft store.

 

 

I painted them all with white acrylic paint. When dry, the pieces were hot glued together, and a piece of Evergreen patterned paper was added into the back of the frame for the background. You can change the patterned paper out whenever you’d like!

 

I also added a clothespin to the center of the flourish with hot glue and painted it white like the rest of the pieces. This is what we’ll hang our countdown tags from.

 

Let’s get started with a few tag ideas. I wanted each tag to hold a number that will represent the number of days left until Christmas! I have 5 tag ideas in this post, but of course, you’ll want to make more to countdown the number of days during the month of December. On all of the tags today, I used the Evergreen Snippets as the bases, but you could also die cut shapes from the beautiful patterned papers as well for the tag base. There are so many different ways you can add the countdown numbers to your tags… add number stickers, die cut numbers, stamp numbers, or even write them in chalk, as I did on some of these. Mix it up and have fun!

 

 

15 Tag: Add brad to die cut circle. Paint red sticker numbers with white paint, attach. Adhere chalkboard banner, letters to spell JOY, die cut flowers and leaves. Wrap twine around tag. Cut a red cardstock banner to adhere behind tag. (I ended up changing the background to a different patterned paper in the frame.)

 

 

14 Tag: On the Merry & Bright tag, I used a chalkboard bird and wrote the number with chalk. Die cuts and a felt snowflake are added to the center. A poinsettia die cut was added under the bottom of the tag.

13 Tag: Start off with an Evergreen Snippet. Add strip of Evergreen patterned paper to the top. Attach “oh holy night” die cut piece. Adhere chalkboard circle in center. Stamp 13 and create banners, adhere under circle. Add holly and berry ephemera. Cut off back prongs of Evergreen brad, adhere with a glue dot.

 

 

12 Tag: Attach the Season’s Greetings die cut sideways behind the Oh Christmas Tree tag. Attach a chalkboard ornament and ornament die cut. Wrap twine. Add half flower die cuts and enamel dots.

 

 

11 Tag: The “Deck the Halls” card is one of my favorites! I kept it simple with a transparent banner shape, number 11 die cuts, chalkboard star, brad and berries.

 

 

This little frame can be used all throughout the year too! Hang photos or little tags for each holiday. Hope you enjoyed this idea!

 

Danielle before you go, we’ve got a quick Baker’s Dozen for you to answer:

 

BAKER’S DOZEN:

Favorite color: Red

Buttons or brads: Brads! I love the patterns on them!

Dr. Phil or Dr. Oz: Both?

Dots or stripes: Dots

Mac or PC: PC but I’m converting to a Mac as we speak

Ribbon or twine: Twine

Ninjas or pirates: Pirates

Google or Yahoo: Google

Sweet or salty: Sweet

Chipboard or wood veneer: Wood veneer

Mountains or beach: I love them both!

Dog or cat: Dog

Cake or pie: Cake

 

We hope you enjoyed Danielle’s frame and tags as much as we have!