Jar bliss

Yay for jars, glass bottles, and candles. I love this craft and think if I could everything in my house would look like this. This little bit of craftiness is great for a hour or afternoon of doing-it-yourself. It could be easily done for a party, wedding, or as a gift. Feel free to change it up as you like it and bedazzle it as you wish. It is all yours to love on and enjoy. I will be using a few glass jars and a candle today and have collected some lace, ribbons, buttons, and pendents.

Each one I have decided to do a bit different. Some will have ribbon and the others lace. Measure how much ribbon you would need to go around the jar you will be using, make a nice clean cut, a nice sharp scissors works wonders with ribbon and lace. You can use some hot glue or double-sided tape, which I used works just as well. Making sure it is on there nicely you can decide what you would like to add or just keep it  plain, it's all up to the look you going for. To one of them I placed some buttons on, I used some sticky dots which I found at a craft store or some hot glue will do the trick. Another jar I placed some lace on and wrapped some twine around as well to another lace and a pendent. 

Even just ribbon can change it up and add some color. These jars add so much to any desk or room, most things can be placed in them and its a great way to easily find things or just use them as a decor piece. It's great to play around and see what you can make or come up with and the great thing is they can easily be changed as you wish. You can change the ribbon when the seasons change, place some lace around some tall candles and use them as a centerpieces or for a dinner party, the uses are endless.

Happy Crafting.

Framing More

There is so much you can do with pictures. We all love to frame our most memorable pics and place them around the house, but there is only so many pictures you can add to one frame. This craft is great because it can be changed and added to at any time. You can use it for pictures, cards, favorite recipes, love notes, favorite quotes, or reminders. Using the idea of a memo board but changing it up a bit.

You will need a decent sized frame. The one I will be using is 16x20 inches. (the size is up to you)
A canvas board (optional)
A piece of fabric, any kind.
String or Ribbon.
Mini cloth pegs.
And a staple gun or hot glue gun.

The frame I am using I found at a craft store on sale because it had no back, you can find well priced ones at second hand stores or most craft stores. Just keep a look out for sales or deals. If you are using a canvas, make sure it is the right size for the frame so that it fits well. Now that we have all that lets get started.

Taking our piece of fabric, we are going to measure it to the size of the frame and cut it accordingly. If you are using a canvas, staple your fabric around your canvas nice and tight. If you are not using a canvas hold onto that piece of fabric and we'll get back to it in just a minute.

Measure your string or ribbon according to the width of your frame and depending on what you are wanting in your frame, how many pieces you will need. I am using string for mine, I have cut it and knotted it on both ends and have stabled it into the back of my canvas where I wanted it. You can then either nail your canvas to your frame or hot glue it to it, whatever works best for you. If you are not using a canvas, you can hot glue your string straight onto your frame and once you have glued all your pieces you can then hot glue your fabric onto your frame as well, sealing it nice and tight.

We are almost done, all we need to do now is add to it our little items that we have chosen to display and enjoy. Using the mini pegs you can peg on your photos that you would like, your favorite recipes that can hang in your kitchen, or your little reminders in your bedroom.

The limit is yours to what you want to display. It can be a great addition to a child's room with their favorite photos, or a grocery list and reminders for that week. It is all up to you. Fill it up, add to it, and change it up. Enjoy crafting.

Making Memories

Photo albums are fun and a great to show off our special occasions, embarrassing childhood moments, and all the family. I recently got married and have now received all my beautiful pictures of the wedding. But instead of buying an album that I couldn't really make personal, I decided to make my wedding album, it was quite the task but I have to say it is very rewarding once completed. Now with the freedom to design what you like you can create it just the way you want it. Birthday, Wedding, Anniversary, Baby Shower or a Special Occasion, there is no limit to what memories you want to display. What I love about this craft is everything I used I either got on sale or used a coupon, it makes it even more rewarding when you know you got a good deal on something. A great tip is to always keep a look out for good deals and sales that are happening, it might take a few weeks to accumulate all that you need for your craft, but it is worth it at the end of the day.

You will need to start off with a blank album, card-stock that you like, and whatever else you would like to place on the front of the album or on the inside.

For my album I used  8x8 green photo album, yellow card-stock, and white letters. I also found this gorgeous button which I wanted to place on the front. So I used some brown organza, sewed the button to that then hot glued the organza to my album. I also hot glued my card-stock to my album and placed photo corners to add to the look on the front.

With the front complete lets move on to the inside. I choose the color of card I would like to have as my pages and cut them to the right size.

Using photo corners to hold my pictures in place I placed my pictures in the order and style as I want and stuck them onto the card-stock. Photo corners come in different colors or if you not a fan of them there are little stickies that you can buy and place on the back of your photo that will hold them there just as good. 

Slide in your pages and enjoy your hand-made personal Photo Album. 

There is no limit to what you can create and place in your album. Words, tokens, letters, or photos. Have fun and enjoy.

Favorite Banana Loaf

We all have that one recipe that you know you cannot mess up, it always comes out perfect, and we never want to try another recipe. Well this banana loaf recipe is that type of recipe. I absolutely adore this recipe and it is so easy and quick to make. It's great for afternoon tea, when you have guests over, or a new neighbor. So enjoy the smell of warm banana loaf coming from your kitchen.

Delectable Ingredients

1/2      c soft butter
2/3      c sugar
2         eggs
1 3/4   c cake flour
2         t baking powder
1/4      t bicarbonate of soda
1/2      t salt
1         c banana pulp (approx 4 ripe bananas)
1         t vanilla essence


~ Cream the butter and sugar together and beat in the eggs one at a time.

~ Sift the dry ingredients together and stir alternately with the banana pulp in the creamed mixture. Stir in the vanilla.

~ Bake in a greased pan in a moderate oven (375 F) for 1 hour.

Enjoy a delicious piece of banana loaf. Serve warm, either by itself or with some butter.
Happy baking.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Happy to all you love birds. Hope it is a gorgeous day for all. Great time to love on family, friends, and loved ones.

Sending Love

Sharing the Love

Valentine's Day is almost upon us and I just had to share some of these great finds. There are just such cute ideas to craft and make, how do you pick. Thanks to good ol Martha Stewart she has given me some great ideas to make my own. Some lovely Chocolate Cookies made into hearts, you can also use normal sugar cookie mix and decorate how you please, fun for the kids or a treat for a loved one.

I fell in love with these Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, this is something I am definitely going to whip up for Valentine's Day.

How could you not want to try one of those. Yummy.

I just thought this was some gorgeous wrapping for any gift on Valentine's Day. DIY Project: 3D Valentines. Absolutely beautiful and unique and looks like so much fun to create. Great inspiration for birthday gifts as well.

Enjoy sharing the Love on Valentine's Day. 

Crafting some Love

Valentine's Day. This one day creates a month of love, how exciting. What a great time to make something personal for our loved ones. It can be home made, baked or bought, but adding a little personal touch can add that extra special feeling to the gift. And who doesn't love giving that special gift or receiving one in that case.

For Valentine's this year I decided to make something for my loved ones. An envelope of Love. 

I am using a mini petal envelope template, you can use any color card or paper when creating this envelope. You need to decide what you would like to put in there for them, to determine the size of your envelope. I will be giving Herbal tea, so my envelope is  4" x 4" which then makes my petals 2" each. Make sure your sides are half the size of your envelope, it allows them to reach the center perfectly and close easily. 

I decided to use a cream card and double it as a card, so my love note will be on the inside of my envelope. 

Placing what you want inside, fold it up and there you go, your home made gift and love note for your loved one.  You can seal it with a sticker or cute ribbon. 

 

Enjoy crafting.