APEX time again! APEX is something my upline, Meg Loven, has offered to us for the last several years and I try to NEVER miss it. She offers it every quarter to anyone who has $1200 in sales and/or a new recruit. It stands for A Positive Example and it's what we call an over the top swap or wow swap. If you participate in person it's a shoebox swap but if you live far away or are busy like I am this month you can participate by mail.
I had fun putting these little angels together for the other participants. I had seen something somewhat similar at convention and had snapped a photo and had it in my "ideas" folder on my computer. So when I was trying to decide what to do I pulled up that folder and saw this little cutie and thought it was time to create her.
She's a pretty nice size angel. I started with a 12 x 12 sheet of textured vanilla cardstock and one of my dinner plates. Yes, I needed a larger circle so I did the old trace around the dinner plate trick. I traced with my embosser from the new simply scoring tool and cut out by hand. Then I found my center and went from there with my folds. I would love to give you exact measurements but truthfully I am not sure how to tell you my markings on a circle. If you want to duplicate her I would suggest making a pattern from newspaper or brown packing paper from your Stampin' Up! order you can place with me online ;-) (you don't throw that stuff away do you?!!) Then use it as a template. I had fun embossing then decorating her wings with dazzling details and her dress with glass glitter. She is just heavenly. I went with the very vanilla because I thought it just made her a little softer than the true Whisper White. Although that would be just as ethereal.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my choir of angels. I think they would be adorable made with their choir books in hand. It would mimic the angel I put on my tree. It's an angel my mom bought at the five n dime when my oldest sister was little so I would think that would make it an antique now (ha ha sorry sis!) and my mom never thought much of it. She said it was just temporary, one of those things you get just to get by when you don't have money until you can get something better. Her skirt is made of straws and glitter and cheap foil adorns her head as a halo and her head it a wooden ball her foil choir book it held on with cording. Growing up it was tradition to me and even though mom would buy new angels to put on her tree, as long as I lived at home I never let her. I can't remember if she gave it to me before she died or I got it after now but it's been a part of my tree since my kids were little or even before. Mom's been gone now for almost 20 years and every year I place her on top it gives me a special moment to dream of my mom. I think my kids feel about our angel the way I did as a child. Funny how that works. It makes me smile thinking of our "silly" little traditions.
Share your favorite Christmas traditions. I'd love to hear how you make Christmas special at your house. Leave me a comment.
If you want to order supplies to make this cute little angel or any other stamping project click on my signature or on the Online Order icon at the top of my blog.
*Edited 10/23/2011- Download Elegant Angel tutorial here