crafts – A Smith of All Trades

I welcome today with open arms after yesterday’s tragedy in Connecticut. I was in a real funk after hearing about the shooting (rightfully so) and couldn’t quite snap out of it all day. Even though we had our holiday party at work and I got to come home to my hubby and my puppy, I couldn’t shake the terrible sadness I was feeling. I can’t even imagine what that town is going through right now and my thoughts are with them in this unthinkably difficult time. I am so thankful to get to see my little brother today and my sister and my parents… they are all getting extra big hugs from me for sure. Today is a new day and will most certainly be a better day, so with that said, onto a few happier things.

Today is my best friend’s birthday! Dana and I have been friends forever. Seriously. We were next-door neighbors when we were born and have been friends ever since. Sure, we were forced to be friends. But years of our parents making us play nice turned into a fantastic friendship that I know I’ll have as long as I live.

Me and Dana

Weren’t we cute? I’m on the left and Dana is on the right. And that’s my momma 🙂 She’s so pretty.

Dana and Me

And here we are today… Dana is on the left this time and has a lot more hair, but we are more or less the same.

Love you, Dana! Happy birthday.

And now onto the craft!

I’ve already shown you how to make wine charms, but did you ever think to make holiday-themed wine charms as inexpensive Christmas gifts? I hadn’t until this year, but as I was wandering the aisles of Michaels I Stumbled across holiday buttons and picked up a pack of holiday lights and cookie cutter buttons. Holy cuteness.

In case you forget how or simply missed the post on how to make wine charms, it is super easy. All you need are different charms or beads, pre-made hoop wire, and pliers. Add your beads and charms onto the hoop wire, then bend the end of the wire into a right angle so nothing can fall off. Put this bent end into the eyelet on the end of the hoop wire, and your charm is finished! Just make sure there is something obviously different about each charm so when they are used people will be able to remember which is theirs (although I never remember… oops.)

The first set I made were a Secret Santa gift for my coworker Julie. I made her a set of three wine cork ornaments and these wine charms to go with a nice bottle of wine. I used the Christmas light buttons and a few silver beads as accents to make this adorable set of wine charms. She really liked them and said she didn’t have any wine charms at all before! Sweet.

Then I made this set of cookie cutter charms. The colors are all very similar, but each charm is very different: Heart, tree, gingerbread man, star. I have two sets of these and will be giving them out as Christmas gifts. Gah, they are so cute.

All in all, these probably cost about $2 per set. So if you need an inexpensive gift, these are a great idea.

I hope you all have a great weekend! Hug your loved ones and make wine charms 🙂

My girlfriends and I got together this weekend for another day of crafting. We planned to do decoupage crafts and decided to try a Martha Stewart-inspired project: Decorative clip boards.

Carrie saw this online and had been wanting to try it for a while now. She had two matching clip boards already, and we picked up two more at the thrift store.

To start, we created templates for the clip board. To make this easier, Carrie and Amy tied their clips open with twisty ties. My clip board didn’t need that because the clip style was different.

Once the templates were created, we cut out the paper of our choosing to cover the board.

Now Amy and Carrie did theirs the right way. In fact, Carrie diligently research how to use Mod Podge before tackling her board. Me… well I just went for it.

I’ve used Mod Podge before with no problems, so I covered my board in a layer of the stuff and slapped my paper on top. WRONG! The paper I chose was really delicate and thin, so it was ridiculously impossible to smooth out any of the bubbles in the paper. So my tray looked like crapola.

I ended up ripping my paper off and opting to cover my board in fabric.

Carrie and Amy stuck with their original plans. Carrie found a tip online suggesting you coat both the surface of your project and the back of the paper with Mod Podge. That seemed to work a little better for this project. I personally think it depends on the thickness of the paper.

Anyway, I got to covering mine with fabric. It was the first time I’d used Mod Podge with fabric and I loved it. With fabric, it is soooo easy to get rid of any imperfections because you can pull the fabric any which way without worry of it ripping. So after I put on a coat of the Podge onto the board, I slapped my fabric on top and got to smoothing. I also folded my fabric around the edges of the board for a nice clean look. Once it was all smooth, I cut away a piece for my clip and put a thin layer of Mod Podge on top.

I had some scraps left over, so I created mini rosettes to embellish my clip board. I’ll do a whole post on those later, but all in all, they were pretty easy to make.

Once my rosettes were dry, I hot glued them to my board. So cute!

If you think my board is cute, then check out Amy’s and Carrie’s boards!

I love their paper choices (courtesy of Paper Source… love that place). Carrie said she will probably hang hers (center and right board) in her kitchen. Amy said she will probably bring hers to work.

Crafts aside, my weekend was so much fun. The hubby and I got to meet our friends’ new baby, Declan.

What a sweet little guy.

Declan and I are pretty much best buds now. And the hubby? Well, he and Jax are best buds.

It was a great weekend with great friends.

Happy Monday!

Tag: crafts

Decoupaged clip boards

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