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Friday, December 29, 2017

Night Light Jars

So I'm slightly, only SLIGHTLY, obsessed with glitter! I mean, the sparklier the better! So when my best crafting friend introduced me to Mason Jar LED lights, with a switch on the top of the jar for easy operation and NO CORDS we knew we had found GOLD! Now, they aren't cheap but when you glitter a mason jar and add vinyl to it, you have a STUNNING piece of decor.

 So what are the basics of creating a night light of your own? Well, first you need to find the inserts at your local JoAnn or Hobby Lobby store. Then you need a mason jar. The light comes with an insert to fit pint or quart sized jars. 

Next, you're going to want to glitter your jar. You can get a variety of looks depending on the glitter you choose. The jar above is chunky iridescent glitter and the jar below is ultra-fine silver glitter. You're going to coat the inside of your jar with clear Polycrylic by pouring a small amount into the jar and then swirling it all around to coat the entire inside. I usually set it upside down in a large disposable cup to let any excess drip out (and then you can pour it back into your container - no waste)/

After letting it drip for a minute or two, you pour in a generous amount of glitter and swirl that around too. If you have a second cup available, you can use that to help tap out any excess glitter. 

Then you are going to let your jar sit and dry for a while. You can then work on the decoration for your jar. I use my Cricut to cut the images out of vinyl and then apply to the jars once they are dry.

Here are the 4 above jars all together. The finer and darker the glitter the less light will come though, so take care in deciding which glitter color you use. When not next to the white jars the silver does have a nice glow to it though!

Friday, December 22, 2017

Fun Christmas Cards

I was so excited when my craft store job told us we were teaching a PAPER class again! We get them every so often and this one was a fun one. I of course had to add my own twist to the cards as well.


To letter this card, they provided a template to trace but you could easily hand letter this if you've got the time and patience and nice writing! But the template did make it easy. My suggestion if you want to create your own cards would be to type out the letters in a word processing program. Then you could transfer the words to the card in a favorite font.

For Fueled by Gratitude and Pie after using graphite paper to transfer the words and then tracing and coloring them in with Sharpie marker I decided to make a mat to surround it. The overall card is 7 x 5 so my mat is 6.5 x 4.5 and the front piece with the lettering is 6 x 4. Then I cut the pis and crust pieces out of orange a tan cardstock and inked the edges of each and layered them. I added foam adhesive to the back to raise it up and then hot glued a pom pom for whipped cream.


Warm Wishes is basically the same, the sheep was cut from cardstock and then I glued pom poms to the body. His head was cut separate and glued on to the pom poms and the Santa hat is a dimensional sticker that I added a little extra foam adhesive to stand it up a bit higher.

I think both cards are simple and beautiful and were a lot of fun to make!

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Winter Shadowboxes

Today I have a couple more 4x6 shadowboxes to share with you today! I had so much fun putting these together. I've been hoarding the "snow" that's inside them for about 3 years now... LOL!


Both of my shadowboxes were created with files from www.lovesvg.com and  are free for personal use. Their files are great quality and very easy to use, especially if you just want to make a quick project to decorate your home. For Joy to the World I used a holographic white background paper inside of the shadowbox and of course, some snow.


For Warm Winter Wishes I used a black matte vinyl for the words and silver holographic vinyl for the snowflakes around the words. The background paper also has white snowflakes printed on it and it's filled with snow! I love that either of these could be left out longer than just for Christmas!

Monday, December 18, 2017

Because Kids Wine Glass

This wineglass cracks me up because... well, I have kids! I thought this would make an awesome gift for any mom who loves wine (and her kids, of course)


I think I'm going to make these for myself in every color of vinyl... or at least a different color for each day of the week!

Saturday, December 16, 2017

A Few More Fun Wineglasses

So I have a couple more wineglasses to share, since Christmas is right around the corner. Either of these would make a fun gift for a mom...


 My Tween asked why I said "Toddlers" and not "Tweens"... I said, toddlers can't read yet!I think she secretly wants me to make one that says Tweens.....

And of course every Mom should have her own Sippy Cup to finish her evening with. I may have made this in multiple colors.... Drink up, mamas!

Thursday, December 14, 2017

In this Home Shadowbox

This is an 8x10 Shadowbox I created with a file from www.lovesvg.com where they have awesome FREE files posted (for personal use). I'm not affiliated with the site, I just love when creative people share, especially when I want to make something and not spend hours finding just the right font...


The background paper in this shadowbox is from Recollections in a paper pack and I love the vintage feel. I used a matte black vinyl for the words because I like the finish with the vintage look. Then I added some gold, red and green jingle bells to complete it!

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Snowman Slime with Recipe

So one of my Girl Scout's favorite things to make is.... SLIME. Pretty sure they would make it at every meeting if they could. So between Girl Scouts and my Craft Store job I have pretty much become a slime expert.


So the basic for the slime I love to use is:
9 oz bottle of Clear Elmer's Glue
1 tbsp baking sode
1 - 2 tbsp saline solution

You mix the glue and baking soda together first until the baking soda dissolves. Then you will add in the saline solution. I start with one full tbsp and stir that in well. Most of the time I add more, a squirt at a time until it's not sticky anymore. You have to go slow, and knead well in between squirts so that it doesn't get crazy hard.

To make this slime into snowman slime we added some iridescent flakes and mini foam balls to the slime and mixed them in. Then we just made two blobs on our parchment paper and decorated with pom poms and a hat we cut from foam! Fun and easy... and so much fun to play with too!

Monday, December 11, 2017

Let it Snow Shadowbox

This adorable shadowbox is one of my favorites! It's a 4x6 frame and I just searched my computer for just the right font and decided to do the "O" in Snow as a snowflake in silver mirror vinyl.


The background in the shadowbox is a fine silver glitter paper with a transparent blue opal paper over it. I love the glitter and the shine together! Then I added "snow" pellets and it's done. I think this one is one of my favorites so far!

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Elf on the Shelf Wineglass

Just wanted to share another fun wineglass today! Tis the season for Elf on the Shelf.... and inevitably there will be more than one night where I lay in bed almost asleep and then remember the elf hasn't moved herself yet.... 


So I figured that some of my friends may have the same issues too.... so I had to create this fun wineglass to give myself another excuse to have a glass of wine. LOL!

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Jingle all the Way Shadowbox

I love creating fun decor for my home and as gifts for friends! This shadowbox is a fun remix of one I made a few years ago.



The one I originally made was 12 x 12 and hangs on the wall. This one is a 5x7 shadowbox and is a table top frame. I love not having to find somewhere to hang one more thing! I filled it with red and green bells that match the stripped paper behind it.

Monday, December 4, 2017

Leggings and Wine Glass

Another fun gift I like to make are wineglasses. The possibilities are endless for design ideas. A friend of mine sells LulaRoe (which I'm obsessed with) and she wanted a fun gift for one of her special customers so we came up with this idea!



I used purple vinyl cut by my trusty Cricut to do the lettering and her hashtag. I love the idea of using wineglasses to advertise your business.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Merry Christmas Plaque

I love easy projects and for the most part, this one was pretty easy... although, I'll tell you a little story about how I tried to make this harder.... I bought this already distressed plain white plaque at Michaels, in fact a bought a couple. I decided that I would stencil on the words "Merry Christmas" by making a mask with Contact Paper... no big deal.


So, I apply the contact paper, do a thin coat of Mod Podge, let that dry and do two thin layers of red paint... and then I removed my stencil before the paint dried.... and well, 90% of my painted on words came up with the stencil! So, the lesson here is, make sure your surface isn't TOO smooth when you start... so after a few choice words, I decided to go the MUCH easier way and just cut the words from dark red permanent vinyl. Then I hot glued on this pretty pick I also found at Michaels, and I ended up with a very pretty project... and a good lesson too!