Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Epsom Salt and Glitter Crushed Peppermint Ornament

I love all the things you can do with clear ornaments but my favorite ones are the flat ones. I’m sure there’s a name for them but they’re the round ones that look like you took a ball an flattened it.
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I needed something I could make multiples of without breaking the bank so thank you Michaels for having these 50% off. Picked up a few packs of these (4 for $2.50) along with some of these glittered snowflake ornaments  by Darice ( $1.99 for a package of 12).
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Glued a snowflake on one side and cut out white vinyl snowflakes using my Cricut Expression (Damask Décor cart) and stuck one on the other side.
Recolletions Glitter
Got out some tinsel glitter and Epsom salt, and spooned a little Epsom salt, silver, and red glitter into my ornament. Finished with a bow from red with silver polka dot ribbon.
Peppermint Snowflake Ornament (2)

I think it looks like crushed peppermint.

Snowflake Ornament

Snowflake Ornaments

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Monday, November 28, 2011

Easiest Advent Calendar Ever!

I’m terrible at Advent calendars, so I figured what could be easier than circling the date ? I can actually remember that ( I think!) . And what’s easier than using a dry erase marker? A trip to Goodwill, a major score, a printable and :
Christmas Countdown Printable (2)
Since I usually go to GW with the intent of finding something to paint or alter, I am still feeling weird about not doing anything to this frame. But why would you when you find POTTERY BARN frames at GW for $.99!

Of course you buy more than one.
PB Frame
That and a printable and you can’t really get any lazier than that.

Sharing the printable here in case there are any other Advent Calendar challenged people out there!
Click to bring to full size; right click to Save As and then re-size as needed.
Christmas Countdown

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

A Furniture Leg And A Finial Walk Into A Craft Room And Turn Into The North Pole

Hope everyone survived Black Friday. I got a few things at JoAnn and Michaels and I’m going to be a hermit today hopefully busting out a chunk of my Christmas cards!  Didn’t know what to title this post because it was one of those things I made that I had no idea what it was going to be until I did it.
Christmas Pole
There’s an architectural salvage place in Seattle called Earthwise. I love wandering around there and finding who knows what to play with. They have a whole section of just furniture legs!
Peppermint Post
I also had a finial in my stash from a trip to Lowes. Ignore the snowflake thingy…didn’t end up using it.
I glued the finial to the leg and then painted with Martha Stewart “Wedding Cake” craft paint, followed by a coat of ivory pearl.
PB213609
While that was drying, I made a polka dot paper medallion and cut out the numbers 25 from red glitter card stock.
Martha Stewart Scoring Board (2)
I love my Martha Score Board which I use for my cards all the time but it’s great for making accordion folds for things like medallions.
Christmas Medallion
One 12x12 paper cut in half then score each 6x12 piece at one inch intervals. Fold in half to make a fan shape, and hot glue together. Repeat then glue the two halves together. Cut a circle from plain cardstock and adhere numbers.
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I added a little Epsom Salt frost to the top of my final.
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Went around the top and bottom with some patterned tissue paper.
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Added a glittered reindeer ornament from a pack of them I got at Dollar Tree.
Christmas Pole (2)

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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Giving Thanks

I'm sure everyone is busy cooking baking, packing, or traveling ....maybe all of the above. I've been up since before the sun came up and the cranberry sauce is done, the pumpkin pie and chocolate pecan tart baked, the turkey brining, and the bread dough rising. But before I sit down to peel apples and the day gets any further away from me, I wanted to pause and say thanks.

I  love this time of year which reminds us to stop and think about all the things for which we really have to be grateful. Included in the many many things for which I will give thanks tomorrow, I include you all. Truly, the talented, supportive, creative, funny, and smart people I've met through blogging are among my blessings. I read every comment left, recognizing that someone took time out of their day to share a thought with me. I appreciate that you all put up with ( and get!) my cheesy puns and sense of humor. I am so very thankful to have a creative community that constantly inspires me. My husband's grateful that I have people who get as excited as I do about how many things you can Mod Podge and glitter, and who understand why it's not redundant to need more than one die cutting machine.

I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving, filled with great food shared with those you love. Thanks for enriching my life!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Plain Frame to Snowflake Tray Transformation with Martha Stewart and Plaid !

I recently had the opportunity to play with some of the Martha Stewart Craft paints and stencils from Plaid. I’m still swooning over the amazing selection of goodies Plaid sent me to work with. Work? No. PLAY!!!
Frame Tray
I have a surplus of frames and love using them for things other than well, framing things! I decided I needed a holiday tray.
PB163498
I started off with a plain frame:
Frame to Tray Transformation
Took out the glass and set it aside and then painted the inner portion of the frame with Sterling Glitter from Martha’s paint line. These paints are great because they are multi-surface and they go on everything. I love the glitter paints and you can get different effects depending on how you use them.
PB103469
For the inner portion of the frame  I used the Sterling on its own. For the red around the edges, I used a coat of the Satin finish (Habanero) and went over that with Garnet Glitter. This makes for a great opaque but sparkly combo!
Martha Stewart Pearl Paint
I cleaned the glass  frame and got out a snowflake stencil and used the Pearl finish for this. Right on the glass. No primer or additive. And I love the end result because it looks like etching. I covered the whole surface with snowflakes.
Stenciled Snowflake Tray (2)
After checking to make sure I was liking my progress by laying the glass on the frame, I forgot to take pictures as I finished up the red edging but you get the idea!
Snowflake Tray Corner
I think the silver glitter looks like frost which goes perfect with the snowflakes! For the legs of my tray, I used old thread spools painted with the Habanero / Garnet Glitter paints.

I  had so much fun with this that I had to do some other things . So I made a snowflake plate to go with my snowflake tray. Just a plain glass plate from Dollar Tree. I painted on the underside of the plate, again using the snowflake stencils.
Snowflake Plate Closeup
I used  the Pearl again, and a Satin paint called Wedding Cake for the snowflakes. The Wedding Cake shows up better in the pics but the Pearl has that etched look and we know no two snowflakes are alike right?

Stenciled these on the underside of the plate then when dry, went over them with the Sterling Glitter and around the rim of the plate with a couple coats of the Sterling Metallic. Went over the Sterling Glitter with Metallic Yellow Gold.
Snowflake Tray and Martha Paints
And I still couldn’t stop so I had to play with a mug I picked up at Dollar Tree because now I have a treat  plate on a tray and of course I’m going to need something to drink!
PB163495PB163497
The “25” is for December 25 ( hubs didn’t get it so just in case) . I made my own stencil from contact paper because I wanted it big and then used the Habanero Satin and Garnet Glitter paints for the numbers and on the handle.

I kinda boo boo’d so I outlined the numbers with gold paint pen and then freehand added some dots. And did I mention that you can bake these in your oven if you don’t want to wait 21 days for the paint to cure and then the paint is dishwasher safe?

While the wonderful folks at Plaid provided the amazing Martha Stewart supplies used, the opinions are 100% my own and these are products  I will definitely be buying more of!
Martha Stewart Paints

PB163513

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