J-O-Y Mason Jars!!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house! If you're anything like me, you are either scrambling or sacked out on the couch! Well, this evening, I am sacked out...but my craft room shows evidence of my last few days of activity. I saw these on Pintrest and had some large widemouthed Mason jars so decided to make these candle/tea light holders for our daughter for her first Christmas with her husband.

 These Mason Jars were featured on Suzanne Dean's blog,"Bitz of Me,"  here. She has excellent instructions on her blog with lots of pictures showing the process. The only changes I made were using felt and snowflake dies rather than stickers, and adding the Tim Holtz tinsel and pom pom trim along the mouths.  The jars were painted with Martha Stewart's craft paint in "Cloud." I painted one coat using up and down strokes, let them dry for a couple of hours, then applied a second coat. The jars were left alone overnight.A quick sanding using a sanding block and an emery board on the letters and they were ready for embellishing! I used felt from Papertrey Ink and my snowflake dies from Spellbinders to make the snowflakes. The flakes were layered in cream and blues with a hot glue gun. The chipboard letters were purchased in white glitter which saved time. I found the fun "snowball" fringe at Joanne's fabrics. The pretty vintage silver tinsel is Tim Holtz. The tinsel and ribbon trim were added with a hot glue gun.

The center jar with the letter "O" looked a little sparse, so added the snowball trim and tinsel. Each  jar rim received a thin coat of mod podge then dipped in Sparklets glitter. The glitter is actually made from glass crystals, so I tried to go easy with it...but it does add some pretty vintage sparkle!
I am including the battery operated tealight candles.
Thank you for dropping in...my beverage of choice this month has been Celestial Seasonings peppermint tea! It tastes good, helps with congestion, relaxing, and festive without the calories! Wish you could join me!

Ah-Choo! Tissue?

I've been a little crafty elf...making a tissue box cover! These are from a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers. Beulah, my dog, "found" the one I made from last year and chewed the lid...so I made another one. The papers are from last year's paper pad and no stamping...just sponged over the top of the embossing and sides  in white craft. I added a little glitter using dimond stickles to the snowflakes and flower centers. I wish the colors were a little more true...the overall look is very soft and dreamy; just like a walk in a winter wonderland!

Here's a little view from the top 

Thanks for your visit...wishing you sneeze-free days ahead!

Making a List and Flourishes Challenge

Hope you are having a blessed Sunday! I decided to share with you part of my planned small gifts to my ladies I am a "mentor Mom" to in our church. These are list makers, labeled "Holiday planners." The first is done in traditional red and golds with the candy cane striped twine on the buttons, and the second with non-traditional lavenders and aquas. The red and gold is stamped with sentiments from the Papertrey Ink set made just for these notebooks.
The mitten stamp is Flourishes, "Winter Wishes" colored in copics, then white shimmery ric rac is added along with aqua buttons topped with a snowflake and some bling. The doilies are Martha Stewart and are the perfect size to fit these Papertrey Ink notebooks. I used a template to cut the notebooks out and scor tape to glue the inserts of lined paper. They take a bit of time, but are so cute when finished!
Thank you for stopping by, I am still in the process of making Christmas cards and projects. They are my favorite to make, so mailing will still be awhile.
I am not in a hurry to get it all done, I would much rather take my time and enjoy the process. Life is hurried enough this time of year, don't you think??

Serigraph!! Seriously?

Lately life seems to be one pit stop after another...the inbetweens are the little respites between big events. I would like to say that I handle all the changes in life with ease, that I glide through one transition after another...but that isn't the case. So in my effort to blog about the past two weeks, I have a little coaster I made using stazon inks, tissue paper, and modge podge. I still need to apply a coat of sealer to this, and it is not perfect, but if I wait for perfection, this blog will soon be a thing of the past! But I love the vibrancy of the colors and think is a project I want to try again using this technique!

The second is a card I made late last night...that should explain a lot!! I wanted to give this technique a whirl as I had seen it on my friend, Charlene's, blog (Where m&m's Gather here... and loved the look! So pulling out my inks and embossing powders, I went to town...thinking this would be quick and easy! Not so, but it was something different for me, and I think I might use this as a manly card. I used two different stamp sets and several distress inks for this. A simple sheer ribbon and the "HB" was stamped separately, punched and added last. I kind of like it...what do you think?
It is fun to take a break from your usual style and try something new...hope this inspires you as well!!
My word of caution: don't attempt this after midnight~!

Gift for Our Daughter

Not too long ago I received the most beautiful stamp set from Innovative Stamp Creations. After participating in the Crazy4Challenges (see sidebar) I was alerted by a friend that I had won!! This set, Silhouettes 1, is one I'd seen many times in galleries and always loved it!

So I was so excited to be able to choose this set which comes with a few other lovely silhouette images and sentiment sets. Thank you Innovative Stamp Creations , I love it!

This week our youngest daughter celebrated her birthday, and I decided to make a 3 part frame using this set and the sentiment from SU in the center as her gift from me. The outside matting is rolled with a new large SU wheel from the new mini catalogue. Then the images on the card and the frame were colored in with markers before stamping. The card's border punch is EK Success and the ribbon and hardware are from SU.

Remember you can click on the photograph for a larger image to pop up...the frame is a bit hard to see...but looks really pretty in real life.

I enjoyed making a frame and hope it gives you an idea to use some of your own stamps to frame up!

Thanks for stopping by today. I so appreciate you taking the time and comments are always fun to read!!

Have a great day!

My Favorite Flourishes

One more post today, please don't miss the last one, how often do I get two done in one day, anyways?

This week the Flourishes Design Team is issuing challenges in honor of their anniversary! This one I am participating in is using one of your favorite Flourishes stamps...

I have only a few Flourishes and I have to say I have more than one favorite...but this one I probably use most often, I love the feminine quality and the different looks you get if you use solid background, the black magic like my last one made with this set, or marker technique.

I also made a recipe of bath salts and used these little jars I use to hold buttons and primas from Hobby Lobby to hold these salts. Tied a lavendar polka dot ribbon around the rim and there it is!

I doubled this original recipe from Flourishes blog:

Bath Salts

1 cup coarse Sea Salt

1/2 Cup Epsom salts

1/2 tsp glycerine (found at pharmacies)

2-3 drops fragrance oil of your choice (I found at health food stores)

optional: 2-3 drops of food coloring

I doubled this and it made enough for 4 small jars and one larger one. I used the jasmine frangrance oil and added at least 6 drops then a bit more...it has a heavenly fragrance. I already used this for a bath, and it was truly wonderful...about 1/2 of this jar is what I would use for a large soaking tub...appx 1/4 cup.

Enjoy the recipe and my thanks to Teresa Momber and this link here to see hers:

http://flourishesnewsletter.blogspot.com/2009/07/limelight-week-4-with-theresa-momber.html

Magnolia Mini Accordian File

Good morning! I wanted to share a project with you today that I found while cruising Becca's Blog at Amazing Paper Grace. (view sidebar for link) This is a Mini-Accordian File!! I am excited about this project partly because I love the idea for sending a little gift...think of the possibilities here: little tea bags or apple cider packets, tiny prima embellishments, or even as a way to send images to a friend and make them a gift!! Secondly, this project's tutorial by Valerie Strangle seen here: Valerie's Blog that I just couldn't mess up! The only thing I changed about this project was I used my Martha Stewart lacy flower punch on the top of each envelope before assembling. That's right, this project uses business sized envelopes cut in half so a portion of the cutting/measuring is already done for you! That brought the height of the pocket down a little bit, but it added a lot in design interest!

This is a challenge from Magnolia-licious to make one of these projects by September 29, and upload it to their blog. There are a lot of very cute inspiring projects found on the

Magnolia Hi-Lights blog also: The prize for the drawing was a 25.00 gift certificate for Magnolia stamps!!

My Tilda was watercolored using reinkers and Tim Holtz distress ink. The papers were a mix of different companies that I just loved together. The bright gold primas and top of the file were embellished with chocolate pearls...yumm!!

Thanks for looking, and hope this project inspires you to stretch yourself and try something new!!

Live Life with Passion

My, how fast they grow...

I can't believe my firstborn daughter will be 22 years old on Tuesday!!

She has these colors in her bedroom, so I framed this piece, rather than making just a card for her birthday gift. This stamp works well for larger frames...and after much fiddling, this is the end product. It could have been simple, but my brain wasn't working...I tried embossing, masking, reverse masking, and then just decided to stamp!! But I did decide to stamp and then spritz, and really like the texture it gave~ when doing this, a plant mister works better than a spray bottle. The sentiment was used with the oval nestablities and little dew drops were added to accent. I think she will like it, and it is easier to keep than a card!

Thanks for looking today!