A quick way to add some cute to your party

I had this idea in November.  Bought the stuff to make everything.  And then...yeah.  Sometimes getting cute pictures taken really holds me back.  These would really be fun for any party, holiday, birthday, tea, etc. 
I love cake plates and when I saw these mini candlesticks at Hobby Lobby I thought they looked like a cake plate base.  I had a little trouble finding a ready made top, but you can see that I worked that out for one of them and made my own for the others.  Have a look!

This is the base with a few layered chipboard circles on top.  I cut them out and stuck them together with my Xyron Creatopia and adhesive.  They won't be coming apart any time soon and they're smooth and sturdy.  I used hot glue to attach the top, then painted the whole thing white.  Once they were dry I added the ribbon with hot glue as well.

Another simple one that I made the same way.  This one just has silver ribbon because you all know I love me some sparkle.

For this one I punched out some white paper with a Martha Stewart punch and added that with some hot glue.  This one really looks like an old fashioned cake plate and I love it.

 Speaking of sparkle, there's this :)  I bought these mirrors at Hobby Lobby as well.  The little teardrops are mini glitter ornaments from the same place.  For the glitter on the base I gave it a coat of Martha Stewart's glue (comes in a nice sized bottle with a brush built in to the lid and it's awesome) and then I sprinkled it with Vintage Glass Glitter from Art Glitter.  Definitely nice for a fancy dessert.

I hope you like these!  I had a lot of fun making them and once I decide which one I like best I'll be sure to make a bunch up for my next party.

Gift tags!

This is just a quick post to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about you :)
I do have some more projects that I'll be posting over the next few days, but I have to get them finished up first!
These tags are sooo easy.  I use them on layouts and projects all the time and you could make them into ornaments (like they suggested last month over at Scrapfreak) or make pretty little gift tags like I have here.

To make the main part, just score 2 pieces of paper that are 1-2 inches wide by 12 inches long.  I score about every half inch.  Accordion fold, cut the folds to points on one side and glue the ends together.  Shape into a circle and hot glue the shape and a loop of twine or ribbon to a scrap piece of paper to hold in place.  (I usually use a punched circle).  Glue a stamped die cut to the top. Easy peasy!  I hope everyone is enjoying the season!

More sparkly Christmas trees!

I told you I had a lot of glittery things drying in my craft room :)
These were made for Glue Arts with some amazing paper sent to us by Graphic 45.  They are a little bit time consuming, but the part that takes the longest is one of those things that you can do while you sit and watch TV.  You know I love projects that work like that!

Christmas Tree Set


Designer: Jessica Barnett



Supplies Needed:

Glue Arts hot glue gun

Graphic 45 Christmas Past paper pad

May Arts green faux suede leaves

Silver Pearl trim

Small ornaments

Paper trimmer

Scissors

Ruler

Postage stamp shaped punch

Glitter Mod Podge and brush

Liquid glue

Opaque white glitter

Paints that coordinate with chosen papers and brush

Glimmer mist

Paper Mache tree kit or foam trees, pots and dowels to make your own set  (my set was purchased a while back at Oriental Trading)





Instructions:

1. Choose your papers from the stack. You'll need at least one sheet for each tree. I was so excited that colors other than just the traditional red and green were included in this pad!

2. Use the paints and brush to paint the pieces of your tree kit. Paint each tree a color that will coordinate with the paper you're going to use on it. The paint will help hide the natural color of the trees in case you don't get full coverage from your paper pieces. Paint the bases the same color and don't forget to paint the dowels. Allow to dry.

3. Cut the pieces of paper into 1 by 12 inch strips. Cut these strips along the bottom to create a fringe, then cut the strips into smaller pieces, like shingles. The trees can't be covered with the strips when they're still in one piece because the cone shape of the tree doesn't allow them to lay flat. You can hold two of the strips and cut them at the same time if your scissors are sharp.

4. Start at the bottom of your tree and use the Glue Arts hot glue gun to attach the pieces of paper to the form. Curl the ends of the strips up as you go.

5. When your tree is covered, use the brush to give the strips a quick, thin coat of the glitter Mod Podge. Use the brush to fluff up the cut ends as you go so they don't dry flat against the form.


6. Use the bottle of liquid glue to add drops of "snow" to the branches of the trees. The opaque glitter is great for a wintry look.

7. Use a postage stamp shaped punch to make little postcards from one of the sheets of paper, and spray them with the glimmer mist.

8. Use the hot glue gun to attach the postcard shapes and mini ornaments to the tree.


9. Measure the top of each flower pot shaped base and cut a strip of paper to fit it. Attach each strip with the Glue Arts hot glue gun, and then attach a strip of pearl trim under the strip.

10. Use the Glue Arts hot glue gun to attach a small ornament to the top of each tree. A strip of pearl trim can be added to hide and other imperfections near the top of the tree.

11. Cut the May Arts leaves apart and attach to the base of each tree with the Glue Arts hot glue gun.


I hope you like them!  I'll be back soon to post another little idea I had that involves a little sparkle :D



Cookie time!

I did my holiday baking this weekend!  I hate it when I get so behind that I don't finish it, so it's a relief that I'm done with it now.  Lots of treats at my house!

 This is the finished product.  Trays are from the dollar store and I already had the ribbon and cellophane wrap from past food gifts :)

 There is fudge, lemon sandwich cookies, peppermint whoopie pies, chocolate covered brownies and spritz.

Here is the finished tray with the sugar cookies piled on top!

They turned out pretty cute and everything is yummy.  Hope you all are getting things done on your holiday to-do list as well!

Another project down!

This project was shared with me a little while ago and I knew that I wanted to make a set for my house.  The originals with instructions are over at Shanty 2 Chic and they are so cute!  Those are shabby chic, and I like that style a lot, but it doesn't really go with my Christmas decor.  I'm all about the glitter and sparkle!  My fake tree is silver if that helps you understand :D

Anyway, here are the trees that I made...

I bought one large and two smaller styrofoam tree forms.  The ribbon all came from Wal-Mart (believe it or not) and I don't have a ruffler foot, but my mom came over one day and gathered it all for me after I told her I was too lazy and impatient to do it myself.  The candlestick bases are from Hobby Lobby and so are the glass doorknob tree toppers.  All on sale, woohoo!  I added a little more cheapo wired ribbon around the toppers to help hide the top and wrapped it around a pencil to give it that ringlet shape.  The bases are attached with liquid nails.
Anyway, I hope you like them!  I know I do :)

DIY Shadowbox Ornament

This week Glue Arts paired up with Making Memories to bring you ornaments!  I decided to make this little shadowbox and had a lot of fun with it.  Now I just need to finish the ones for the other boys (they're jealous).  These are pretty quick and easy and they look awesome on the tree.  If there's a little something that's special to the person in the photo, you could include it in the box.  This one should probably have a little Hot Wheels car in it or something :)

Mini Shadowbox Ornament By Jessica Barnett


Supplies Needed:

Glue Arts Extreme Adhesive Squares

Glue Glider Pro with Perma Tac refill

Glue Arts 3-D Combo Pack

May Arts Shiny Green ribbon and Green Stocking shape ribbon

Making Memories Journaling Spots

Making Memories Noel papers and embellishments

Glitter Glue

White opaque glitter

Dries clear liquid adhesive

transparency

craft knife

scoring board and bone folder

scissors

chipboard

black paint and brush

black chalk ink

paper trimmer

scalloped scissors

pinking shears

heart shaped pin



Instructions:

To Make Shadow Box:

1. Cut 2 pieces of 6 by 6 inch chipboard for each box.

2. Score in one inch from each edge all around the squares.

3. Use scissors to cut along 4 of the 1" lines. Make sure you do the same lines at the top and bottom of the box.

4. Use the craft knife to cut out a window in what will be the box lid.

5. Use a bone folder to crease all folds to the same side of the box.

6. Attach the tabs to the inside of the box (for the lid) and the outside of the box (for the box back) using Glue Arts Extreme Adhesive Squares.

For the lid:

For the back:

7. Paint the box, inside and out, using the black paint and brush. Allow to dry.

To Embellish Box:

1. Use the Glue Glider Pro to attach a piece of transparancy to the inside of the lid to make a window.

2. Use dries clear adhesive and opaque white glitter to make a snowy effect on the window and allow to dry.

3. Trim the edges of 1 inch strips with scalloped scissors and attach to front of box to make a window after inking. Add to the paper detail with glitter glue.

4. Attach more one inch strips of paper around the outside edges of the lid after inking.

5. On the inside of the box, layer elements with Glue Arts 3-D adhesives to add dimension. Ink all papers and photos. Cut the picture out with pinking shears before inking. Add any special trinkets to the box using Glue Arts Extreme Adhesive squares.

6. Place the lid on the box and wrap the box in a piece of May Arts shiny green ribbon. Use the knot to hang a beaded ornament hanger from the top.

7. Attach a metal Making Memories embellishment to the front of the box.

Let's catch up!

How about we talk about why I've been so absent lately :)
We can start with Thanksgiving!  We stay home and cook our own meal (that way we get leftovers).  We were busy with that on Wednesday and Thursday of that week.  The meal came out great and I even made some of the little pilgrim hats that I shared on Facebook.  If you get the Fiskars newsletter you've seen them too.  The kids all loved them!

They hold crayons.  I gave the kids each one with a new pack of crayons inside and some cardstock to draw on.  They liked getting to color while they ate dinner.
I also made some pies to take to our friends' house after dinner.  I don't like pie, but I think they turned out okay because they were eaten!

Pioneer Woman's Scrumptious Apple Pie

Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Cream Pie

So we wrapped up Thanksgiving and had to haul some booty to get the house ready for Christmas and Hanukkah.  I had to take down the fall decorations and get out my Christmas stuff and all that takes time.  We didn't really have time because this year Hanukkah started on December 1st.  I host Hanukkah dinner every year for my husband's family and some of our friends.  I make a ton of stuff from scratch and have to clean this whole monster of a house and it takes a while!  We were scrambling to get done, and I had to change and eliminate some things from the menu so that we'd get done in time for everyone to be here Saturday night.  Some friends came early and helped us to do all the last minute things that seem to slow us down at the last second and we were actually ready to go by the time everyone else got here!

Star of David shaped butters.  Because I'm OCD.

Challah!  I made a TON this year.

Placecard/Favor boxes

Remember those tissue paper balls I showed a couple of weeks ago?  Here they are!

Anyway, that whole bunch of busy time is done, but I have plenty more coming up.  Celebrating both Hanukkah and Christmas makes for a busy December, but then you add in my birthday, a holiday party and holiday baking and things get lost in the shuffle.
I'll be back this week with a holiday ornament and I'll get to posting the holiday crafts I've been working on.  Have a great week!

Potato Soup!!

I LOVE potato soup.  I worked at Bennigan's for years and would eat a little every morning for breakfast before we opened.  It was a go-to food for me when I was pregnant and nauseous.  I had really been missing that good stuff when all the Bennigans' around here closed down.  I tried other soups at grocery stores and restaurants, but they weren't as good.  (I worked at Black Angus for years too and their potato soup is just watery and gross.  I never understood why so many people came in for it).  I really missed that soup when I was pregnant with my youngest son.

Recently a girl on one of the forums I belong to shared this recipe with everyone.  I decided to try it, but didn't have high hopes because I'm a freak and I like my soup to be really creamy without any dried out/rock hard bacon bits and without any leathery potato skin in it and that's all I seemed to be able to find out there.

Well...THIS STUFF IS DELICIOUS.  Holy cow.  If you like potato soup (and would appreciate a really easy recipe that even uses pre-cut potatoes to save you time), this is the stuff for you.

Cream Cheese Potato Soup

6 Cups water
7 teaspoons chicken bouillon
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, cubed
1 package frozen hash brown potatoes
1/2 Cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dill weed
Combine water and bouillon, add cream cheese. Cook and stir until cream cheese is melted. Stir in remaining ingredients. Simmer uncovered 20 minutes or until veggies are soft.

I actually like to start it earlier in the day and just leave it on low and let it thicken up before dinner time.  It's so easy and everyone that I've made it for seems to like it too!  I serve it with chives, cheese, oyster crackers and bacon bits on the side so everyone can add what they want to their bowl.

Enjoy it now while it's nice and cold outside :)

Busy!

I can't show everything I've been working on, but here's a pic of something that's been keeping me busy this week. :)

I'll be sure to share pics of the whole to-do once it's all done, but for now here's a peek.

Also, this has been keeping me busy today...

Gotta love pretty presents!  I think I'll be putting the tree up this week so I can have the house decorated in time to host dinner on Dec. 4th.  Then I'll have somewhere to put these!

Is it just me...

or is the holiday craziness catching up to everyone else too?  I know that it's early, but I'm trying to be caught up on as much as I can be early this year.  I'm trying to buy gifts and work on decorations now so that when the holiday parties and dinners hit I'm not completely overwhelmed.  Except that I'm overwhelming myself now :)  Oh well.  It still feels great to be getting things done around the house and I know I'll be very happy with how things turn out in the end.
Today I'm going to share the Glue Arts project I made this week.  In keeping with my trying to stay ahead of the game, I decided to use these Crate papers to make the gifts for the teachers at the twins' school.

Now I just need to do some snooping and find out what the teachers' favorite candies are so I can fill the jars with them! 
The jars were purchased at Hobby Lobby (they had a half off sale on all their glassware so they were pretty affordable).  One of the teachers is more girly than the other, so she's getting the one with the flowers on it.  I had fun making these and I think they'll be happy with them.  Much happier than they would have been if I would have waited and then let it get to be too late to make anything for sure :)

Holiday OCD

Those of you that know me well are aware of my craziness when it comes to party planning.  I work on menus, guest lists and favors months ahead of time.  I make lists, scour magazines and the internet for recipes and tear ideas out of the paper.  When one of the girls at ScrapFreak posted a holiday journal project I knew it would be the best thing for me to make!  This was so quick and easy to put together and I've been filling it with lists since I finished gluing everything down :)

I bought a little album at Hobby Lobby on clearance for a little over $2.  I took the binding rings out so I could cover it completely with the paper (which is gorgeous doily paper by Hambly).  I used my Xyron to attach the paper to the covers because I know that no matter how much this thing gets used and taken in and out of my purse, the paper won't be going anywhere.  The tabs that I added to the pages were just little circle die cuts that I made with my Spellbinders scalloped circle dies.  I ran them through my Xyron, and folded them in half over certain pages to make the tabs.
Some embellishments, ribbon and silver mist spray finished it off.

May Arts altered chalkboard

I was with the kids one day at the dollar store and saw these little chalkboards and knew they'd be fun to play with.  I bought them thinking that I'd make one for each of the boys, but then I got all this pink ribbon from May Arts and Glue Arts and it looked like I was going to have to make one for myself :)

Supplies:

Glue Arts hot glue gun

Glue Arts Ribbon Adhesive

Glue Arts Extreme Adhesive squares (small)

May Arts striped grosgrain ribbon (2 styles)

May Arts velvet ricrak trim

Small, wooden framed chalkboard

Needle and white embroidery floss

Scissors

Flower stamps (I used the Hero Arts Bold Blossoms)

Black ink

Small green buttons

Scraps of patterned paper in pink and green

Acrylic block



Instructions:

1. To make the large flowers, cut a length of the grosgrain ribbon that is 12-18 inches long. A longer piece will make a more ruffled flower. Make a running stitch along one side of the ribbon with the needle and thread, leaving a tail at the end.

Once you've sewn along the edge of the ribbon, pull the string to gather it tight, still leaving tails at both ends.

Tie the ends into a knot and trim the thread to make the flower.

To make the smaller flowers, just fold the ribbon in half before running the stitch along the open edge.

2. Add the velvet trim to the chalk board buy first running Glue Arts Ribbon adhesive around the frame, then attaching the trim to it.


3. Stamp the flower centers using black ink on patterned paper. The leaves should be stamped the same way, but on green paper. Cut out all images with the scissors.


4. Add the flower centers to the ribbon flowers, then add the flowers and leaves to the board using The Glue Arts hot glue gun.

5. Tie knots in the buttons with the embroidery floss and needle and use a small Glue Arts extreme adhesive square to attach them to the center of each stamped flower.


You can also add some of the ribbon to the back of the board and use it for hanging.  I think I know some boys and girls that will  be very excited to get these for Christmas. 

Ditch those plastic veggies bags...

This week Glue Arts and May Arts have teamed up.  I had so much fun playing with their beautiful ribbons!  The first project I made were these muslin veggie bags.  I hate to use the ones at the store and just throw them away and I've been meaning to make some for a while now.  Once I had the ribbon I knew that it would be fun to embellish them a little.  There are so many colors and types of ribbon that you could use a different one for each kind of veggie so you'd know what was in the bag before you opened it :)

Supplies:

Glue Arts Glue Glider pro with Fabri-Tac refill
May Arts ribbon of choice
May Arts cream colored rope
2 muslin squares that are 10" by 15" for each bag
Sewing machine and thread
Scissors
Iron
Fray stopping liquid
Instructions:

1. To make the bag, press in 1/4", then 1" on the top of each muslin piece. This will be the channel that the rope runs though. Sew along the channel bottom, leaving the ends open for the rope to pass through.

2. Sew along the sides and bottom of the bag, avoiding the channel. Turn bag right side out and press.

3. Run a 36" length of rope through the channel and the the ends together in a knot. Add fray stopper to ends of rope. The finished bag will look like this:

4. Wrap a piece of ribbon around the bag to measure the length that needs to be cut to wrap around it. The ribbon should be long enough that there is at least 3-4 inches that overlaps. Attach the ribbon to the bag with the Glue Glider Pro and Fabri-Tac refill, leaving the overlap alone.


5. Take the overlap at fold it into a loop. Attach the loop to the bag with more Fabri-Tac adhesive.

6. Cut a 2-3" piece of matching ribbon and use the Fabri-Tac to attach it to the bag, looped around the seam where the ribbon meets itself on the bag.

7. Heat set the adhesive following package directions.


I'll post the other May Arts/Glue Arts project tomorrow.