Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Twelve Days of Christmas


Ok, so I don't have any geese a laying or turtle doves to offer you this Christmas season, but  I have created a shopping guide of 12 of our most popular gifts to give! You can find all of these (and obviously much more) at Design Vertigo! You can also choose to shop our select items online too at the new Wilde Room







1. Gold cuff bracelet $9.99
2.Pearl drop earrings $7.99
3.Vintage inspired Stud earrings $14.99
 4. Bangle bracelets $5.99
5. Recycled magazine frame $28.00  
6.Watch necklace $16.00
7.Sacred Suds "Inner Peace' Soap $7.00
8. Sparrow Necklace $12.99
9. Cupcake pin cushion $11.99
10. Knit bow clip $5.99
11. Coffee cozy sets $12.00
12. Glitter Leaves $8.99 

Candy Cane Deserts!


My sweet friend Tiffany and fabulous intern Sara were so kind to help me do some backing for the Merry Little Shindig. Below you will find the recipes and tips to makes these festive treats at home.



Cookies for the Holidays
Christmas is the perfect time of year to pull out all those passed down recipes of delectable treats!
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making Christmas Cookies with my mom.  Even though I now live a state away every year I find time to go home and we spend a day or two sifting through recipes and choosing the winners! 
Here is a recipe we have made several times but over the years we have tweaked a bit. This is our version of Candy Cane Cookies that we have come to enjoy! I hope you and your family enjoy them as well

Here are a few tips to help you in the cookie making process:

1.I like to place the dough if the refrigerator prior to making the cookies; it helps to keep the dough from getting too soft   
2.If you want larger cookies you can use more dough per cookie; I suggest not rolling the rope as thin to keep the cookie stable
3.Ensuring that both ropes of dough are the same length is very important
4.Prior to twisting gently roll your two ropes together so they form one
5.Once the ropes are twisted gently together carefully pick them up and place them on the cookie sheet
6.Once the cookies are one the cookie sheet create the hook and bake








Monday, December 12, 2011

Art Evening Card Class!

Anne Schilling from Independent Paper Craft Consultant Zen and Now Crafting came to design vertigo to sell her goods a street vender during the summer friday night car shows. Her had-crafted greeting cards, journals and scraps were so wonderful, i just had to have teach a class at the store! 
Anne Schilling is a native to Northern Minnesota. She began scrapbooking at the age of 12 years old. As an Independent Paper Crafting consultant, Anne was a former crafter with Club Scrap®. Now on her own, Anne teaches paper crafting of all types in her home studio in Esko, MN. She has also taught card making classes for WITC (Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College) community education.
While Anne does paper crafting of all kinds such as scrapbooking, hand bound book making and crafts, her real passion is with card making. Anne has participated in crafter competitions, making over 300 cards in a 6 week time period. Her card making is unique in that no two cards are ever the same! Each one is a miniature work of art.

The art class was SO FUN! Anne was supper organized, providing all supplies. We learned how to emboss, stamp, ink, watercolor, spritz and tear paper and made SO MANY cards in a short amount of time. We enjoyed learning how to hand craft cards that are one-of-a-kind! We learned several techniques for making cards that will be cherished by those you send them too.

Contact Ann at 218-213-6954 or aszenandnow@msn.com

City Chic Country Mouse

The Featured Artist at Design Vertigo from November was the creative mother/daughter duo of City Chic Country Mouse. The "City Chic" is daughter Jamie and "Country Mouse" is mom Carmen. They set out on a venture combining a mom’s love of sewing with a daughter’s sense of style. "We enjoy creating items designed to make your household chores more cheerful, fun and lovely." From the sewing/craft studio to the laundry and kitchen they enjoy bringing style to these everyday tasks. Their hope is that these designs make some of your not-so-fun chores more enjoyable (like ironing!). Their ideology and products fit in just perfectly with Design Vertigo's Idea of making the Everyday ordinary into everyday extraordinary. You can still purchase these amazing products at their Etsy Store. And I can assure you that the highest level of quality and craftsmanship goes into each product.  
The City Chic Country Mouse Story:
Jamie has a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife and masters in Human Resources. While working her office job during the week, she has always spent time outside of her day-job keeping busy with home decorating projects – painting, rearranging furniture, and incorporating thrifty shopping finds. A few years ago while shopping with her mom she realized the endless possibilities of decorating by being able to sew.

Carmen has been sewing ever since she made her first Barbie dress when she was 5 years old. She has always loved being creative and trying new artsy endeavors, but has always come back to her first love; sewing.

After 25 years of sewing on her Singer, Carmen decided it was time to upgrade to a fancier sewing machine. She passed on her old Singer to Jamie, hoping she would one day share her passion for sewing. That day finally arrived when the pair went shopping for fabric for Jamie’s first home.

Jamie lives with her husband and two furbabies (Sadie – an English Pointer and Cricket - a mix of Sheltie, Corgi and ???) in St. Paul. She enjoys the city life and is therefore referred to as “City Chic” by her mom.

Carmen lives in Northern Minnesota with her husband and their 3 doggies and 1 barn kitty. In the summertime all of them (yes – all the furbabies plus their parents) can be found at their cabin on the lake in Grand Rapids Minnesota.

You can also enjoy their fun blog where they share their adventures and inspirations with you!









Design Vertigo also had the pleaser learning from these creative gals at an art evening where we learned and created gift wrap! It was such a fun night and all the customers who attended had a blast! The gals brought supplies to create three different gift packages that customers could use for your future gifting needs.  They showed us tricks and tips for using fun supplies like Japanese washi tapes, fabric, paper, ribbon, baker’s twine, and tissue. 





Sunday, December 4, 2011

Deck the Halls With lots of Garland

Looking for a creative new idea to decorate your house around the holidays. Try any of these festive garland techniques. They can be used to decorate your tree, to hang in windows, or even suspended along the mantle. Lots of lovely ways to use them!

Garland 1

 This specific garland chain is a spin-off of the traditional one you made when you were little. You can use different colors of paper depending on your theme or time of year, but specifically I chose to go with a blue and red theme.






Supplies are easy, most of them you'll probably already have around the house. 

You'll need:
  • Paper - your choice of colors and patterns. The amount you need depends on the size of each circle and the length of the overall chain. I recommend starting with about 6-8 pieces of paper and see how much you have left and go from there.
  • Hot glue gun and hot glue (holds stronger and sets faster than a glue stick)
  • Paper cutter

1.2.

3.4.

  • Start by cutting your paper into different size strips as shown above (small strips: 2"x3/8" and large strips: 3"x 3/8" ). It is fun to mix and match different patterned paper with plain, solid colors to achieve a textured look.
  • Once all of the strips are cut out, just plug in the hot glue gun and start attaching the circles! The specific pattern that I chose for this garland began with gluing together about 4 small circles, then on the fourth circle I attached a large circle along the outside of the small one. Then continued right along with a few more small circles alternating the blue and red pieces in just a random pattern.
  • Once the desired length is reached, Voila! You have a fun, festive decoration for your house around the holidays.
Garland 2

This second garland strand is another fun and easy decoration to hang around the house. But what I like to do is use this garland as a ribbon to dress up my christmas gifts.

Supplies are easy, most of them you'll probably already have around the house. 

You'll need:
  • Paper - your choice of colors and patterns. The amount you need again depends on the size of the whole punch you use and the length of the overall chain. I recommend starting with about 8-10 pieces of paper and see how much you have left and go from there.
  • Hole punch - any shape and size ( I chose a one-inch basic circle, but you could change it up and use a star, snowflake, or even a heart hole punch).
  • Sewing maching ( This could be sewn by hand but I think it's much faster if you use a sewing maching)
  • Thread ( match the thread color from the paper )


1.2.

3.4.

  • Start by selecting your pieces of paper, and go ahead and begin hole-punching. I find it easier to punch out all of the pieces before you go to the next step.
  • Next I recommend laying out your selected pattern on the floor or table to make it easier to run the papers through the sewing maching.
                TIP: If you choose to use scapbook paper for the garland and don't want the white backing to show, I would suggest combining two circles back-to-back of the same pattern.
  • Then when your pattern is laid out, thread your sewing machine and start sewing the circles end to end with a straight line down the center, it's as simple as that.
You can make the garland as short as one foot in length to fit around one small box, or as long as ten feet to wrap around your tree.
 

Garland 3


 This third garland strand is by far my favorite. The idea sparked from the traditional cranberry garland that is strung together around the holidays. Instead of buying several bags of cranberries I found a cheaper alternative by using small marshmellows and painting them red.


Supplies you will need:
  • One bag of small marshmellows ( If you can buy the off-brand bag to save some money).
  • One can of red spray paint
  • A needle with a spool of thread ( I chose red thread to blend in with the marshmellows at the end)
  • Newpaper to lay underneith the strands while painting
  • Colored paper for the garland embellishment
  • Circle hole-punch
  • Scissors

1.2.

 The first step in creating this garland is to thread the needle using a piece of thread about two feet in length. The shorter the strand the easier it will be to thread the marshmellows. Then begin threading the marshmellows together leaving about three inches of string at the end of the strand.

TIP: Place the bag of marshmellows in the freezer about 30 minutes before you begin. By doing this the marshmellows stiffen and become much easier to string together without the stickiness.


3.4.

 Once you have several strands strung together, lay down some newspaper and begin spraying the marshmellows remembering to rotate each strand so that all sides get covered with the paint. Then separate the strands to dry competely.
   

5.6.

The next step which is always optional is to create the colorful embellishment placed through the garland. Start by punching out several colored circles in a color of your choice. Then take the scissors and cut about ten small slits all the way around the circle with one of the slits cutting all the way to the center of the circle.

7.8.

Now you can begin assembling the garland. Start by tying together the first two strands, then about every 18" insert the colored circles by sliding each one in through the longest slit in the circle. Alternate circle, marshmellow, circle, marshmellow, circle.

9.10.

Once all of the marshmellow strands are tied together and all of the embellishments are added into the strand, you can then fluff the paper by pulling apart the tabs all the way around each of the circles.

Then you're finished and ready to hang your garland!!