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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

Santa Cam

A friend of mine asked me if I could make her a "Santa Cam" for her house, she needed back up for her poor Elf on the Shelf with 3 kids running around. I bought a set of dummy security cameras off of Amazon, that have a blinking LED light in them and what appears to be a camera lens.

 Then I used my Cricut to cut out vinyl letters to label my "Santa Cam" and "Naughty or Nice?" at the base. I decided it still needed a little something extra so....

I decided to add this image of Santa and his reindeer flying over the top of the camera. This one was crazy hard to weed and apply but it turned out so cute it was worth it in the end!!!

Winter Wreath

Making wreaths is something I've been having a lot of fun with these past few months. This one was created for a class sample (as you might tell by the tag). I kept it very simple because I wanted something a bit understated that could last for more than just Christmas.

I started with a Frosted Grapevine Wreath base, a leaf and berry pick and a gold sparkly stem. I cut the pick in half and glued it into the grapevine with hot glue. Then I separated the individual stems from the sparkly stem and glued them in place as well. Finally I made the bow from wired ribbon and added that as a focal point.

Girl Scout Ornaments

Every year our Girl Scout Service Unit (Manhattan Girl Scouts) participates in the Community Tree Trim at Brookfield Zoo! This year our theme was Dr. Seuss so each troop made ornaments to represent a different Dr. Seuss favorite. For my Cadette troop we thought outside the box and decided to do the story Wocket in my Pocket. Each girl designed their own imaginary Wocket for their pocket. We had a variety of supplies available for the girls to choose from and they had a blast creating their Wockets! 

I simply purchased jeans from our local thrift store on Dollar Green Tag Day! I got 5 pairs of jeans and we cut the pockets off of them. Then the leftover jean parts were put in a fabric recycling bin at a local school. I printed small copies of the book covers as a tag for the ornament and each girl added their name and troop number to the back. I laminated the tags so protect it from the elements.

Here's a photo of the tree with all of the different ornaments, there were a bunch of stories represented! Everything from Cat in the Hat and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas to Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish! All of the girls did a great job! 

Coach Shirt

I do love making shirts, and occasionally a friend will ask me to make them a shirt too. This is a recent shirt that I did for a friend's kid's coach!

Pretty sure this put a smile on the coach's face! I just used a Varsity style font and black HTV on this one. I may have to make one for my daughter's coach next!

Sarcastic Exercize Shirts

So I've recently joined a gym and have started a pretty vigorous exercise routine when I work out almost every day. Well, exercise is NOT my favorite thing so I need to be able to have a bit of fun with my work out attire. I am almost always hot, so I had to decorate a couple of my work out tank tops to match my attitude about my work outs...

I used purple HTV and of course some silver glitter HTV to make this first shirt. I think there should be more glitter and sparkle in my gym... so I'll bling myself!

This shirt cracks me up every time I put it on! Plus the fact that the text is sort of heart shaped is hilarious to me! This is just silver metallic HTV so it's got a nice shimmer.

These are only the first of I'm sure, MANY more snark-tastic exercise shirts for me!

Operation Christmas Child Girl Scout Packing Party!

Today I wanted to share another one (or two) of my passions with you, Operation Christmas Child and Girl Scouts! Both of my daughters are Girl Scouts and I am a leader for both of their troops. I was a Girl Scout as a child, and went all the way through to bridge to Adults, earning my Silver and Gold Awards along the way. So early in October we had the opportunity to hear a speaker who had received a Shoebox from Operation Christmas Child as a kid in an orphanage in South America, and she was adopted by an American family and now travels around speaking about her experiences.

Happily, I do a lot of work with my good friend, Betsy AKA The Crazy Shoebox Lady so she was able to bring this opportunity to my Girl Scouts! In conjunction with hearing the wonderful speaker, we also packed 100 Shoeboxes to send to kids in need all over the world.

Because of the age of most of the girls who attended, we specifically packed boxes for 5-9 year old girls.  Above is a photo of my two girls, carefully selecting all of the items that will go into their box!

 We got to take a few photos after we finished packing so here is a photo of my girls with the speaker. It was really cool to pack boxes with her! 

And here's what 100 Shoeboxes looks like packed into the Crazy Shoebox Lady's car! Many of the items we packed were collected by the Girl Scouts who attend our local Day Camp in the summer.

Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into some of my other passions!

Maveryk Onesie

When my friend told me she was naming her baby Maveryk I knew I would have to create him some epic onesies! This one is one of the ones that I've made so far!

I found a few images that I liked and created the aviator glasses hanging on the front of the onesie. Then I used the Top Gun logo for inspiration to create the "danger zone" on the bottom of the back and I had to personalize it with his name too! No off the rack clothes for this little guy when Aunt Mandie is here with her Cricut and HTV!

Yarn Pumpkins

Just a quick post today to share these ADORABLE yarn pumpkins! I love how each one is just a bit different from the other, but they all look cute together!

The pumpkin on the right was made from a heavier weight yarn and I made a pom pom for the base, just wrapping the yarn around two of my fingers spread slightly apart (so you can slide the yarn off at the end) about 25 times. Then I carefully slid the yarn off of my fingers and tied a piece of yarn, about 6" long, around the whole bundle in the center. Then I cut all of the loops and then snipped and shaped until I was happy with my pom pom. Then I twirled each end of a folded in half pipe cleaner around a pencil to make the tendrils. Finally I hot glued the tendril and a cork to the pom pom and I've got a cute little pumpkin!

For the other 2 pumpkins I simply created a yarn ball out of 2 different orange yarns. The one in the middle is the same yarn as the pom pom and the one on the left was a finer yarn. I just wrapped the yarn in a ball shape until I had a good size. Then I used a length of yarn to sew up from the bottom, loop around the pipe cleaner tendril and then back down though the ball. I pulled tight to get a more pumpkin shape to it. Finally I hot glued on the cork and I was done! I also added a dab of glue to the knot and the tail of the ball, which I tucked in next to the knot.

You could easily create a whole pumpkin patch of these adorable little pumpkins!

I'm Back with Fall Floral Projects

So I took a bit of time off from blogging. I had 2 kids, started getting involved with Girl Scouts, PTO, MOPS our local Woman's Club plus working for a craft store as an instructor... so I really didn't have time to craft AND blog about it! But now I should have a little more time, not because I'm doing less, I've decided I need to take back ME. And a huge part of ME is my love of all things crafty. So I've decided, all the fun Girl Scout crafts, stuff I make for myself and for gifts and just... whatever, I'm gonna spend a few minutes each week sharing! I'm also a bit Disney Obsessed so don't be surprised when I start sharing some of the pages from my Disney album!

Today I've decided a couple of pieces that I created while at work!

This is a Fall Wreath that I created for our Wreath Making Class. I just loved the little glass bead corn cobs so much I had to work them into this wreath.

I think this Pumpkin was my favorite project this fall! It's just a small dark teal colored foam pumpkin. The secret to this beauty is, I found a bouquet of flowers that I really liked in the floral bushes and cut it apart and glued it into my pumpkin. It's a quick easy way to create a well thought out design without a ton of time and effort!

Finally this pumpkin was created to look like the one in the class brochure. It's a really pretty combination of stems. This was quite a large piece, this pumpkin was one of the 14" Princess Pumpkins and makes quite a statement piece for a dining table because it sits low enough to talk to each other over!

I look forward to blogging more over the coming months!