Glittery Xmas Letters

First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!! This year I decided to do some glittery letters for my moms entrance table. It's super easy to make and it looks awesome! Well that's what I think and best of all, my mom agrees with me ;)

Materials: Some wood letters, fine glitter of your choice (optional: you can also add sequins), mod podge, spray can (or you can substitute it with acrylic paint), some sort of wood glue and a foam brush.

    

Step 1: Spray paint (or use acrylic paint) the back and all sides of your letters. You do not need to paint the front since this is where the glitter will go.

Step 2: Use your foam brush and brush some mid podge onto the front of your letters (the non-painted side). Before the glue dries sprinkle glitter onto the letters. (Make sure you have a paper underneath so you can pick up the glitter that falls off). Continue until have finished all your letters. That should leave you with some very pretty, glittery letters.

Step 3: Since the wood letters I picked were pretty thin and any slight movement will knock them down, I decided to glue them to a base. I got the wood base below at Michaels. I used the same spray can as before and painted the base to match the silver accent of the letters.

Step 4: Use wood glue (for this project I used Loctite super glue) and poured it onto the bottom of the letters. Then carefully place the letter onto the base and put a little bit of pressure and let sit for a couple of minutes. Continue this step until you have glued all your letters onto the base.

And Ta-da! You have some beautiful, glittery letters. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!!!

Upcycle Bottle-Thanksgiving

If you have an old wine or liquor bottle lying around, now is the time to take it out and do something cool with it. You can reuse it and create a nice holiday decoration piece.

Materials: Liquor bottle, burlap, scissors, spray paint, sharpie, glue gun, wood letters, acrylic paint and a foam brush.

Step 1: Remove any labels from your bottle. Clean and dry it. Make sure once it's dried and that there are no water marks.

Step 2: Take your clean bottle outside, set up an area where you can spray paint. (WARNING: When painting make sure you pay special attention to the weather. Make sure there is no wind, even the slightest bit of wind is enough to make spray paint fumes go to places you do not want them to go, for example your car a couple of feet away. Oops).

Step 3: Follow the painting directions on the spray paint bottle. You will have to paint over the bottle several times to achieve the color you desire.

Step 4: Once your bottle is painted, pick the side you want to put the burlap on. (For this bottle, I picked the side that had the engraving on the glass. Once I glue the burlap on, you will not be able to see this).

Step 5: Put the bottle over the burlap and trace out the outline. (Warning: I traced my outline after I had painted it and I accidentally got some sharpie on the bottle so either trace it before you paint it or just be very careful when you trace the outline).

Step 6: Cut out the burlap outline.

Step 7: Grab your glue gun and start gluing the edges of the bottle and place the burlap on top. Glue a couple of inches at a time so you have the flexibility of moving the burlap around.

Step 8: Once your burlap is glued onto your bottle, grab your wood letters and paint them to your desired color.

Step 9: Once your wood letters are dried, start gluing them on top of the bottle.

Step 10: Let everything set and then decorate any room of the house with your beautiful bottle :) 

Happy Thanksgiving!!! 

Apple Chips

Alrighty so for Christmas I got an awesome gift from my mother-in-law, a dehydrator! I got the 5-Tray Excalibur w/Timer and let me tell you it is A-W-E-S-O-M-E! On occasion, I decide that I am going to eat healthy and I love making apple chips as a healthy snack to keep those hunger cravings away. Below are a couple of pictures of the dehydrator :)

WARNING!!! Before I get to the good stuff a little word of advice. DO NOT use your dehydrator on top of glass. To some it may be an obvious no-no, however, I was just so excited about using my dehydrator that I did not think about it and set it on the kitchen glass table dehydrating my fruits all night long for 14 hours. Somewhere between hour 10 and 13 the glass broke. Now when I mean break I don't mean a tiny crack, it completely split apart. So in the future avoid my mistakes and set your dehydrator somewhere heat resistant.

Alright so now to the good stuff :)

MATERIALS: Obviously a dehydrator, apples, a corer and a sharp knife.

STEP 1: Choose your apples wisely. Some apples are sweeter or more sour than others. In my experience, I like a mixture of apples so there is a variety of flavors and the chips are not overly sweet or sour. For my chips, the apples I used were: Kanzi, Fuji, Granny Smith, Gala, Jazz, HoneyCrisp and Golden Delicious.

STEP 2: Wash your apples and use a corer to remove the core of the apples. I suggest doing one at a time since the apples do oxidize. Place the corer directly over the stem and push all the way down. Pull the corer back up and the entire apple core should come along with it.

STEP 3: Use your shark knife and cut the apple into very thin slices. The thinner the slices, the crunchier your apple chips will be :)

STEP 4: Place all your slices in the dehydrator trays. Space them out so they are not touching each other or else they will get stuck to one another.

STEP 5: Using the drying guide you can see what temperature you need to set your fruit on. For fruit, it needs to be 135 degrees and select 14 hrs for the timer.

STEP 6: (14 hours later). Take out your trays. Your apples should look smaller and they might be a bit soft but that's because of the heat. Once they cool down they will get crunchier.

STEP 7: Take those bad boys out and enjoy!

DIY Photo Canvas

Ok, so I wanted to do a project that would be a suuuuper cheap Valentines Day gift. I looked around and priced how much it would cost to do a photo canvas. For a 16x20 photo canvas (the size photo canvas on top) the cheapest I found was at Costco for $37.99 and the most expensive was at Snapfish for $79.99. I found a way to make a cheaper one at a fraction of the price. Now it's not that I'm a cheapskate but this project was to show that you can give a gift that looks expensive and actually not spend so much money. I did two photo canvas, a 16x20 and an 8x10. 

I went to Michaels and bought a 8x10 canvas and used a coupon for 40% off. You can print out this coupon by going to Michaels.com and looking at the weekly ad. They have other types of coupons such as 20% off the entire purchase. I then selected the picture I wanted to use for my project and printed it out at Walgreens.com. I then found a coupon for Walgreens for 40% off any photo. You can always find coupons for Walgreens photos on the Walgreens website. In total I spent less than $10 for this project. For the 16x20 canvas I spent less than $20.

Materials: Canvas, photo, mod podge, 2 foam brushes, black craft paint, scissors or X-acto knife.

Step 1: Using a foam brush, paint the sides of the canvas with whatever color of your choosing. I chose black since I chose a black and white photo. I also painted a bit over the edge on the front so when I glue the picture the edges of the photo will blend onto the black canvas. Do one layer first and once it dries you may decide to do a second layer or leave as is.

Step 2: Take the picture you printed out and measure it against the canvas. Even though the size on both is 8x10, because of the edges of the canvas, the photo will not fit perfectly. Use either scissors or an X-acto knife to trim the edges a bit until you feel satisfied that it fits perfectly within the canvas.

Step 3: Using the second foam brush, dip it in mod podge and brush it onto the front of the canvas where your photo will go. Cover the entire front and then set the photo on top of the canvas and center it. Turn the canvas upside down, apply pressure on the edges for a couple of minutes to allow the front to dry.

Step 3: (Optional) Once the photo is dried you can brush on a layer of the mod podge on top to give the photo some texture and so it will have more of a matte look.

At an angle you can see the texture from the mod podge.

Step 4: Let your canvas dry and prop it up somewhere to show it off or give it to a special someone as a Valentines Day gift :)

Photo Luminary

Recycle an old candle jar by turning it into a photo luminary. This is a good way to recycle and make something pretty for your home. This is a one of the very cool ways to use vellum paper. 

Materials: Old candle jar, translucent vellum paper, printer, mod podge, foam brush, ruler and a candle.

This is how vellum looks against the light.

Step 1: Pick a picture and print it onto the translucent vellum paper. Make proper adjustments so it fits onto your candle jar. (Try using using candle jars that are cylinder or square in shape).

Step 2: Using the foam brush, brush on mod podge glue onto the candle jar.

Step 3: Quickly place the picture onto the glue and smooth it out. (It's important to smooth it out because bubbles will form and when your luminary is lighted the bubbles will be noticeable.)

SIDE NOTES:

1) You can either completely cover your candle jar with pictures or you can just use one. Your choice.

2) If you use more than one picture try not to overlap them because once your luminary is lighted the overlapping will be noticeable as well.