Photobombing your Christmas tree with photo balls...

Ho ho ho!  Here we go go go!

I've been making some ornaments for my sisters using photos of their kids (they range from 5 to almost 9 years old).

I got the idea for these balls many years ago from a Martha Stewart magazine.  She was suggesting a small ball using recycled Christmas cards or heavy scrapbooking papers.  I had to try it immediately!  Of course, mine are not nearly as elegant as hers.

I made the following ornament featuring circles cut from various recycled cards containing Santas.  For many years my friends tore the front part of the cards off after the holidays and saved them for me.  There's a lot you can make from recycled greeting cards!

Also fun with foil cards.  I just cut those circles randomly.

I made a smaller-sized photo ball several years ago for my folks, featuring us seven kids and the then current crop of grandkids.  The smaller ball worked OK for greeting card Santa's, but I wished I had made the photo ball bigger at the time.

I didn't learn a darn thing...I then made a couple with my daughter Riley's pictures in the same small size.  

I start out with old photos, often rejects due to bad backgrounds, someone else's weird face, accidental photobombing, or just my inability to take good pictures.  I am a much better photographer when I can just cut an isolated circle out of a disaster of a photo.  

Now I print some of the photos my sisters send me by email or text (or I snatch them off their Facebook pages).

  

Using Riley as my guinea pig, I choose a circle size that I want, the larger the circle the larger the ornament.  A good paper punch is very handy, but this ornament can be made without one.

I then draft an equilateral triangle that fits inside of the circle.  Your final picture will be the size of the flat triangular surface, with the rest of the face/hair on the folded up tabs.  It is OK not to get the entire face, but try not to just get the nose, unless, of course, you want a nose gay ball.

See?  The picture below was tossed due to the horse having a bad hangover (red eyes).  Riley had no hangover, so the shot was acceptable.

I should have cut a circle of just the horse's nose and bristly hairs...that would be funny and Riley would laugh over that for the next 60-70 years.

Ahh, those special Christmas memories of a nutty mutter...

I use the triangle to audition and choose or refuse the photos.  Then I center the face in the middle of my circle punch and cut away.  You can trace around a plastic template with a long straight pin or awl and cut out with good, small paper scissors (just on the inside of the scratched line).  The scratched line is not as noticeable as a fine Sharpie marker if your paper cutting skills are like mine.  If you want to make a circle in a size not available in a paper punch, that is the way you will have to do it.

Before you mark and fold, figure out what part of the picture needs a 'pointy tip' of the triangle for a good fit.

Then I DO use my fine tip Sharpie to trace the plastic triangle on the back of each circle and make a sharp crease.  I just couldn't see a pencil mark; again, that darn slippery photo paper!

It is a trick of the camera flash that the close ups of the creased pictures look a little 'glittery.'  It doesn't look like that in real life.

Each ball has one larger middle 'band' and two 'caps.'  The caps requires five photo circles each and the middle band uses ten, so you need 20 photo circles for one ball.

The three folded, flanged edges on each circle will be the surfaces for the glue.  

Photos are a little trickier than just using circles cut from old Christmas cards.  Cardstock is more absorbent (and forgiving) than the slick backs of photos so you don't have to be as careful with the amount of glue.  

And they dry faster.  

With slick photo paper, there is no place for extra glue to go but out, like ketchup (or down on your blouse if you are eating a glue sandwich).  

So I have a little trick with clips.  (Ha, Martha!  It's a good thing.)

I use the Roxanne's Glue Baste for photos rather than school paste, old-fashioned Elmer's, or glue sticks.  Roxanne's is thicker and dries a little faster and harder.  The needle applicator delivers the right amount for me.  

Use just a few small dots applied on one folded back surface, smear with a finger or toothpick, and adhere to a DRY back surface on the next circle.  Don't use too much glue or it will squirt out the edge and be messy, but cover as well as possible.

After a couple of tries, you will get a feel for how much glue is the perfect amount.  You could just cut a few circles out of an index card or a really bad photo for practice if you like.

It's hard to tell from the above picture, but I laid out my pieces for each section ahead and made the faces go every which way, which is the style I like. 

Here's the outside...

...and the inside.

Now for my trick for photos.  Since the slick photo backing is not absorbent, I use the smallest office clips to gently hold the edges together for a bit.  You can also use the cool plastic Wonder Clips (which I didn't own yet when I made these) or wooden clothespins.  

I clip them on carefully so I don't mar the photo surface.  The optimal number of clips needed depends on how big the circle with which you started.

It can get confusing as to what surface to glue to what on the next photo.  

The clips are helpful to just clip without glue until you get your bearings again.

Just look at the back and see how one triangle is 'fat side down' next to one that is 'fat side up,' etc.  They alternate.

It should look kind of like an unwieldly straight snake, consisting of ten photos.  One good thing about the slick photo paper...if you get confused and glue the wrong two flanged edges together, they are easily pulled apart and repositioned. 

Cardstock is not so forgiving unless you catch your mistake quickly.

I am making the middle band that takes ten pictures first.  Due to the even number (10), it will make a band like a donut swim float.  

When I get to the two caps (top and bottom), they take an odd number (5).  They will be closed like a shallow beanie hat.

I've never made an ornament leaving out the middle band and just sticking two caps together.  Might look cool and be a good exit point if you wish you had never started this project.

The metal clips do make it a little heavy, but also provides little legs!  I'm sure the Wonder Clips are much better for this.

Now I am up to nine.

Then I glue number one to number ten to make my band.

(from another angle)

To make the caps, all the pointy tops of the five triangles come together...a little less confusing, I think.

There's always a little hole when gluing the triangles together (or maybe not when Martha is making them).  As I am making a cap, I go ahead and insert a ribbon with a knotted end.  I glue, although maybe not necessary.

When I forget to insert, I use my tiny hole punch followed by a needle threaded with #8 spooled embroidery thread.  I forget a lot.

'Some people' like a little tassel sticking out the bottom, if you want to be fancy 'like them.'  You go girl, Martha!

Now the bottom cap.

Since this is slippery photo backing, I slip away for a while to work a quick crossword and enjoy a glass of wine...or I start another ball.  When dry, I remove the clips from each section.

Now it's just a matter of putting the three sections together, which seems much more straight forward.

Now repeat on the other end.

TA DA!  Asa, Eliza, and Mills...frozen in time.  If the white edges but you, very carefully, a Pigma or fine Sharpie pen could be used.  Trust me, no one will ever look at your edges as close as you are looking at mine.

I just thought of something!  Using the needle tip of the Roxanne's, you could put a tiny line or little controlled dots of glue on the edges and dredge through some glitter or glitter snow.

(Did you know that glitter is the 'Herpes of the craft universe?'  It never goes away...ever!)

But it would like elegant.

I want to make some of these balls with music cardstock for my music-themed Christmas tree.  Maybe I can secretly slip a couple of photos of Riley playing her French Horn or blue ukulele.

Back from outer space...

It seems like years since I've posted!  Thank you for the emails of concern about where I was...sorry I did not at least post to say I was OK and would be back soon.  

Truth is, every day I thought I would post the next day.  Next thing you know, it is three months later!

I hate posting without something almost interesting to say about quilting or crafting with actual pictures.  There has been little time to sew.  (But there are actual photos depicting evidence of actual sewing in this post!)

The holidays were CRAZY, hectic and exhausting, as I am sure they were for all of you as well, and the new year has brought joys and difficulties.

Family travel the day after Christmas to the Philadelphia area kept us busy until after New Years.  Riley helped me make cookies in preparation for our trip where we saw Steve's ailing Dad and sibs/families.

And then there were the annual "you've got more stuff in your stocking than I do" pictures from Christmas morning.

We've been finding more deer than usual, and in the weirdest places!

When in PA, we played a FANTASTIC game that I highly recommend!  It is called "Watch Yer Mouth."  You play by wearing plastic 'dental/mouth spreaders' (included) and then try to get your partner to understand the phrase you are attempting to read aloud from a drawn card.  We all looked hilarious, sounded even funnier, and were all sore after from all the laughing.  

After Christmas, I realized there were so many things I needed to get accomplished outside on the property WHILE THE SNAKES WERE STILL ASLEEP and temperatures not oppressive.  Winter is so short here, so it can be really a busy time.  

Blueberry bushes, grape arbors, Dogwood trees, flower borders, etc. were suffering from a few years of neglect and were overgrown with the wrong kind of vines (wild grape, honeysuckle and vines with WICKED thorns!  I may shoot myself if we get kudzu on the property...).   

Two long rows of grape arbor had not been cut back in almost 10 years!  I had to cut back to the nub!  No muscadines this year, but hopefully the arbor will be healthier and produce more in the next few years.

A couple hours of hacking didn't make much of a difference only about two feet.

I finally finished them...I had to cut them back to the minimum...no grapes this year, but they will be productive and pretty next year.

The blueberry bushes (there are over 40 of them) were crazy overgrown and had not been pruned in several years.  Some had "woolly-booger" crowns of grape, honeysuckle, and thorn vines.  I cleaned them out, carefully pruning to preserve as many fruit buds as possible. 

Before:

After:

I am still trying to get the pruning piles hauled to the burn pile. There will be a handful of blueberries from each of those tiny flowers...yum.

The forest will overtake property if you let it.  Dad worked so hard to clear areas that were previously heavily covered with trees.  I will keep battling Mother Nature to preserve their efforts.

I've also been systematically trimming lower branches that whack me in the face when I mow. Thank God only about 30 out of 800 acres of our Treasure Forest are somewhat cleared and get mowed!

We got the chipper working so we can dispense with all the neat piles of branches when the saturated ground will support the heavy equipment without making ruts everywhere.

Now I can start another pile of limbs!

It was a weird Alabama winter.  Normally mild weather turned extremely cold too many times, with warmer spurts of super heavy rain between.  It is impossible to think that North Alabama could still be in a drought!  We even got a little snow a few times that hung around due to the low temps.

The ground is spongy, causing water to seep out everywhere when you walk.  Thank God we are at elevation!  A lot of people in Colbert County have been dealing with flooding.  It is hard for the farmers to prepare and plant their fields.

Our catfish pond is just an inch below capacity at the dam.  It freaks me out that the fullness may undermine the earthen structure.

The rain has also caused a new pond to develop in a low place on the way out to the fruit orchard.  I've never seen that happen in that location!

Riley was in a play at U of Alabama..."Vinegar Tom."  Of course we had to drive down to Tuscaloosa and see at least two of the seven performances.

Even with all that, I have managed to do a little quilting.  I got the outer borders on my "Little Treasures" quilt.  It is ready to baste and start the hand quilting.

(none of the pictures in this post are this dark or dull...not sure what is going on)

I was experiencing "design constipation" with the continuation of the diet/food quilt tops (one for me, one for my therapist).  Not only was I not seeing how to complete them, I was having trouble choosing fabrics for sashing, borders, etc.  I have one a little further than the other one.

I still don't have my two pieces of design wall mounted...very hard to take good pictures with them leaning and flopping.

Having finally decided upon some hopefully-clever-phrases to put on the next border, I prepped letters for the first quilt and have finished the hand stitching of them.  

I find there are a couple of empty spaces between the phrases.  I have been thinking of additional treats that I can "kill off" without repeating any of the methods already depicted.  It is a little more challenging, as the width of the border is only 4 inches.

You can tell from the following sketch that I have been WAAAAY too bummed out, worried and frustrated by the news and the state of things.  Here I am, killing off "Ronald McDonald," "Wendy," and the "Burger King" by hanging.  WAAAY to grim and evil for a quilt border...I will NOT be using this one!
  

I have a better, cuter idea without picking on these fast food icons.

Meanwhile, my "Contentment" quilt has been on vacation visiting two AQS Quilt Shows, Daytona Beach, Florida and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  I am not sure how I feel about my quilt getting to go to the beach and Amish country without taking me...sigh.  It won a third place ribbon in Florida and the Pennsylvania show starts next week.

I finally decided to finish my version of "Rabbits Prefer Chocolate" (Anne Sutton) and got the outer borders done and backing chosen and prepared.  It was hand appliqued years ago before I started my current method.  

Of course I changed the outer border...

There are very few smooth curves on those bunnies, chicks and eggs!

And, I am still slowly losing weight...a little over 50 pounds since Feb 2017.  I am also still trying to get situated on the right combination of "happy drugs."  I feel so much better and more energetic with the medications and I think I have been making up for the first two years here when I was too sad to do anything.  

There is nothing wrong with getting a little help, especially after the last four years.

Oh, and my computer hard drive died and decided to take all my files...documents, blog and Internet store stuff, and PHOTOS...with it!  

I nearly had a stroke.  Steve was finally able to recover my data off the old hard drive.  

I had to get a new computer with, of course, all new updated programs to learn.  Steve loaded my old stuff on the new machine and I am slowly finding stuff.  I was without a computer for a while...agony.

Whew!  There they are...all my excuses.  I really didn't think it had been so long since I had posted (until I saw email from some of you, asking about me - thank you!).  

I think being so isolated out here "on the mountain" I lose track of all time.  I should probably go to town more often.  I knew I wasn't sewing much, but I was so focused on outside tasks (I REALLY DO hate snakes...).  There were days I was even working outside in the lighter rain!

I am driving to Huntsville tonight for Quilt Guild, so I will see people...a 3-hour round trip.

Totally worth it!

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)