Olympics Charm Bracelet and oh I'm Baaaacccckkkkk.

I haven’t written a blog post in 3 weeks, so I hope I remember how! First, for those of you who’ve asked about my mom, she’s doing great and I’m now back home. I appreciate all your positive thoughts and energy!

So have you been watching the Olympics? We love to watch them and even when text alerts spoil the events we’ve yet to watch, it’s still as thrilling when we see the actual event.

While I was in AZ with the Mumster, I did have a chance to pop into Hobby Lobby as well as one of my fave places in Tempe, Beads Galore. I picked up the British flag charm at HL and the crown charm at BG. The red white and blue crystal beads I had back home in my stash.

For whatever reason, I had this notion that “stretchy cord” was more for kids projects. Then I was on the Nordstrom website and saw these:

which are, you guessed it, stretchy cord bracelets with nice beads and charms but they’re $58 each. Um no thank you. I actually whipped up a couple using some stone beads before I was gone but used the same idea for my Olympics bracelet.

Measure your stretchy cord longer than the size of your bracelet. I cut about 12 inches for a 7-8 inch bracelet. Sting your beads, charms etc.

When you are happy with the size, knot your cord. I knot, double knot add a dab of jewelry glue and then knot again. Trim close to the ends of the knot and then off you go to have a spot of tea.

With the British and American flag colors the same, this was perfect since I could honor both countries in one project!

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Mommy's Sweet Confessions

SORRY...No Party This Week

Hopefully things will be back to normal next week . Have a great weekend!

Workshop Wednesday: Dry Erase Christmas Countdown Printable

Welcome to the last Workshop Wednesday of July. It's been so much fun sharing ideas to get ready for the holidays with creative geniuses Michele from The Scrap Shoppe, Bev from Flamingo Toes, Kara from Mine for the Making, and Tracey from My CreativiT. We hope you've gotten some ideas an inspiration to get a head start on the holidays.

I'd planned an easy gift idea to share with you this week but life is what happens when you're busy making other plans and I've extended my time away from my little Santa's Workshop to be w/ my mom another week.

But I do have a fun ( I think) and easy thing to share today that's fitting since ahem, Christmas is exactly 5 MONTHS, 22 Weeks, and 153 Days from the date of this post people! I am one of those annoying people who will announce on the 25th of every month exactly how many months are left. (Although I will probably not start the week / day thing until a lot later)  I know I'm not the only one. Right??? For other compulsive counter-downers, you can print this puppy, slap it in a frame and then change the numbers accordingly as we count down.

I made this using PicMonkey which will definitely be a key part of my holiday planning because it's so easy and they keep adding functionality! 

Now, off to The Scrap Shoppe to see what Michele's cooked up this week!

Click on to bring to full resolution, then Right Click to Save As. Size to your frame of choice, print, frame, and done! Happy countdown! 

Pick Your Plum Giveaway Winner!

Hi all,
Thanks to everyone who entered my recent giveaway from Pick Your Plum. The lucky winner is: Shannon, entry #164 and Shannon has been notified!

Hope you all signed up for notifications from PYP so you don't miss out on their ongoing goodies! Thanks again!!

BFF Open House Link Party #63

Hi all, another straight and to the point party this week. Still with the Mumster while she recovers from part two of her no go horrible surgical adventure that could have been so much worse. Have fun and visit each other!

Welcome back to another Workshop Wednesday! I hope you’re getting lots of good ideas to get ahead of the holidays. If you’re following the hop, thanks for coming over from Mine For The Making!

This week’s project: Gift Tags.

You shop for, make , and wrap gifts. Then if you’re like me, you forget or run out of time for the tags. I have been known to be making a last minute tag on Christmas morning.  Not this year!

This week I’ll show you how to be ready AND bust some scrap stash. If you work with scrapbook paper for any reason, you’ve likely got scraps.

Or you’ll tell me you do so I feel better. My scraps have scraps. I went to my scrap stash and pulled a bunch of coordinating colors out. I also remembered to pick up some blank tags when they were 50% off at JoAnn’s. I spent less than $5 for both packages…40 tags.

Other options: tags from the office supply store , cut your own with a die cutter, or using a template.

You can use whatever kind of adhesive you have (tape runner, glue stick, double sided tape etc.). I  have um, several sizes of the Xyron adhesive machines. I used the 5 inch one to apply adhesive to my tags. In a stroke of pure genius luck the two sizes of tags I had fit side by side.

Peel your sticky tags off of the backing paper and then attch to the underside of your paper. Trim around your tags. Cover your entire tag and then grab some more scraps and tear, glue, trim ….whatever you feel like. A great way to use smaller pieces up.

I save my vinyl scraps too because I just know there’s something I can use them for. Too small for your electronic cutter. Go old school: PUNCHES! I used a snowflake punch and a Martha Stewart “JOY” border punch.

I may have a slight problem with self adhesive rhinestones, pearls etc. I know I never use all of any one package so I have a stash of partially used ones. Out they came for the tags! Washi tape too.

There’s no rhyme or reason to these, just kind of wing it. I had some self adhesive scrapbook borders from other projects. Threw some of those on too.

 

Got buttons? The stockings and lights on a couple of the tags are buttons from my button stash. Basically if it’s small enough to fit on a tag…

Went over the swirl pattern on this paper scrap with iridescent Stickles glitter glue and then stuck clear rhinesones on the ends. Tore off pieces of washi tape and stuck them.

Here’s one important thing to remember. I wait until I know I’m completely done adding papers, tape etc. to my tags to punch holes. That way you punch through all the layers you’ve used cleanly and only one time.

To finish, I used some ribbon yarn I had on hand. So if you’ve got paper, you’ve likely got scraps. If you’ve got scraps, you’ve got the makings for gift tags! Hope this gave you an idea you can put to use.

Next stop: Michele at The Scrap Shoppe!

Man Crafting With College Boy. Make Your Own "Dark Knight Rises" Shirt.

I’ve shared before that College Boy ( aka my son, for those who may be newer to the cast of characters around here) is a self professed comic geek. He proudly lets his geek flag fly!

The upcoming release of the movie “The Dark Knight Rises” is nothing short of an epic event. Christmas and Birthday rolled into one. The conclusion of the Christopher Nolan trilogy! OMG!  And one cannot go to an event of this import without the appropriate attire.

So college boy decided to make himself a shirt and told Craft-o-Mom here (politely) to back off! OK I was allowed to be on standby because there was bleach involved but he totally did this on his own. I was also allowed to use my 20% off total purchase Michaels coupon to procure the shirt.

He traced and cut the freezer paper stencil and ironed to the shirt. I offered to use CoCo, my Silhouette Cameo. “No thanks”.

He mixed the 50% bleach 50% water mixture, and then sprayed all around the ironed on stencil. This is a project designed for random drops and splatters. 

He put a garbage bag inside the shirt to prevent seepage. He dabbed off the excess bleach and water mixture:

He waited patiently (and read comics) while the bleach did its thing. And now he has an appropriately gritty, industrial looking, vintagey, cool shirt to wear to the movie!

Perfect project for a college student budget:

• Shirt: 2 for $5 @ Michaels ( less Mom’s 20% coupon!)
• Bleach: On hand
• Freezer paper: On Hand