VOTIVE CANDLE HOLDERS

So many times our hand made gifts naturally fall into the homey, shabby chic, vintage style.  While I personally love that style, it doesn't fit in everyone's decor or taste.  I made these for a Christmas gift with that thought in mind.  I got the original idea from the FiskarsCrafts.com site but the example used there incorporated candy filled jars.

I found the two sleek vases (about 7 inches tall), two urn shaped votive candle jars and a basket of shells at the dollar store.  I took a strip of three inch wide Magic Mesh and cut it in half lengthwise and wrapped the lengths around the vases, overlapping at the front.  Then I took some basic twine to wrap and make a bow over the mesh.  The ends of the twine have a few beads knotted on.  The beads were clear so I altered with a little Latte alcohol ink from Adirondak/Ranger.  Next came the simple assembly--arranging the shells in the vases and plopping on the votives.  An easy, inexpensive project and a cute gift for almost any occasion.

Thank you for stopping by Traveling Down A Crafty Road.  Hope your Sunday is grand!

LONG TIME, NO SEE--A 10 x 13 LAYOUT

Hi, I've so missed being here but I haven't had much crafty time!  We've had some immediate family illness and some extended family illness in the last month.  I took a road trip to Chattanooga to visit my aunt--she had a little accident that turned into a rather big deal.  It is an ongoing "deal" and there have been a few set backs but she is recovering.  Not a bad thing since she will be 91 years old in less than 3 months!  She is the sweetest aunt I could ever ask for and I love her.  A BIG get well soon, Aunt Ruth!  Best wishes on walking on your own!

My Aunt Margaret, here in town, celebrated her 90th birthday on Thanksgiving Day!   Seventy family and friends celebrated by suprising her with a party on the Sunday before.  All 6 of the "first" nieces and my sister in law got together 3 months or so ago to start the planning process.  Don't worry about the women doing it all--we had lots of help!  We had grand nieces and nephews creating a banner and a slide show of photos thru the years!  We had help from the hubby's with set up, cooking, photography and all the stuff that gets forgotten at home during a big party!  Thanks to my Gary for his patience while I made party sandwiches and cut tons of apple and pear slices! 

I made this framed layout for the gift table and also as a gift for my aunt.  Sorry I couldn't get a shot without the overhead lighting!

I used an old 10 x 13 frame that I picked up on sale at WalMart.  I think it was $1 but no more than $2.  The background patterned paper is from Heidi Grace (a pack of 20 or so sheets for $1 from Big Lots) and the photo mat is a white shimmery card stock from Wausau Papers.  I also used mini white flowers from Heidi Grace, Prima pink flowers and gemstone flourishes, Floradoodles blue flowers, Offray ribbon and Recollections self adhesive pearls and brads.  I dotted the dots on the polka dotted blue/white Floradoodle flowers with Stickles!  I love Stickles!  The larger white flowers are from a JoAnn's bush that I cut to pieces using my Fiskars Stem Cutter--it is such a cool tool!

The photo was taken at my Aunt's retirement party from the "telephone company"--think it was South Central Bell or maybe Bell South by that time.  We lost my Uncle Earl about 7 years ago, he was a Fire Chief and we all miss him.  Happy Birthday, Aunt Margaret! 

FYI, I don't want to let "life" keep me away from the blog in the future!  I usually have something creative going on whether paper, fabric, food, garden, goofy, etc. regardless of what life hands me!  I do like to share and will do so with your indulgence!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

Are you ready?  If you wait to the last minute, like I usually do, you have 92 days left!  "We" still have a bit of time to get crafty though.  Take a look at this little quickie gift card holder/bag I made.

Here's my template.

I cut and scored plain white cardstock then punched the top with the Fiskars Threading Water border punch.  Next, I stamped snowflakes (Making Memories acrylic stamps) with Colorbox silver pigment ink.  Once the ink was dry, I added Terrifically Tacky tape strips as indicated on the template and assembled.  For the ribbon handle, I punched holes with a hand punch and threaded Heidi Grace pink velvet ribbon through the holes.  I knotted the ends of the ribbon to hold the handle in place.

The tag is just a little rectangle of scrap white cardstock, folded in half, with a snowflake stamped on top.

I'm looking forward to using this silver ink on navy blue cardstock and gold ink on dark green and maroon cardstock.  The possibilities are only limited to your imagination!

Thank you for checking in and best wishes for all your holiday projects.  Until next time, my stamps are calling!

BIRTHDAYS = GIFTS!

Since it’s still my birthday week, I thought I would write a bit about gifts. I love giving and receiving hand made gift items. Don’t you?

Not long after I started scrapbooking, I saw a sweet photo cube gift idea in a 2008 issue of Scrapbooks, etc. magazine. I loved it and decided to “lift” it to suit a specific purpose. My purpose was a Mother’s Day gift for my wonderful mother in law, Arlene. Now keep in mind that during our 2007 Christmas visit, she casually mentioned that the only photos she had of us were from our wedding, GASP, 18 years before. I guess we had been too busy behind the camera to get caught in front! Well a star was born (my husband) and I think the cube turned out pretty well.

Now it's time to let you in on what I did, how I did it and what I used.   The original magazine project called for a Memory Makers brand photo cube but I couldn't find one in my local shops.  I improvised with an upside down chipboard box, top removed (now holding post it lables and notes on my desk).   Lightweight enough to ship but stable enough for tabletop display.  You could also use a 4 inch section of a 4 x 4 post with edges sanded and corners filed off, especially if your not concerned with shipping fees.  I had to ship and the only 4 x 4's at my house are supporting a deck!

The first step was painting the box with celery green acrylic from Americana paints by DecoArts.  I then cut rectangles and a square of Provo Craft patterend paper and inked the edges with gold pigment ink from Rubber Stampede.  I attached the rectangles and square to the box with Modge Podge and sealed with several additional coats.

The cute shaped frame was part of a set from Martha Stewart brand mats that I bought on clearance at Michael's.  I covered this one with patterned paper from a Paper Impressions paper pack.  All of the other mats were made from coordinating paper from the same pack.  The initials are naked chipboard from Making Memories painted with gold acrylic from Plaid.  I'm not sure who manufactured the butterlies or the ribbon but know that I picked each up at Hobby Lobby.  The silk flowers were a gift and I dyed them with a bit of tea before adding  the Spare Parts round metallic mini brads and adhering with Fiskars glue dots.

Hope you have enjoyed my little photo cube.  It could be "re-lifted" and adapted to any holdiay or other gift giving occasion.  You could also flip it upright, line the inside with archival paper and decorate the lid for a mini photo storage box.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I will post once more (late on 9/11 or early 9/12) before the big drawing for the Birthday goodies.

Don't forget!  I have a guestbook at the bottom of the page so please shout out your location!  Thanks again.

BRICKA, BRICKA FIRECRACKER SIS BOOM BAH - FOOTBALL, Part 2

Did you enjoy the mini cd album from my last post? I enjoyed making and posting it! One of the sweet benefits of scrapbooking is the opportunity to relive treasured memories again and again.

Remember this from my last post: “Everything is held together with a jump ring with pretty ribbon attached (more about that in Part 2, stay tuned!)”? I didn’t tell you how I got the jump ring in there, did I?

There are quite a few web tutorials on this type of mini album so I won’t bore you with all that. I learned two things from the web:
1. Save the unsolicited advertising and obsolete user guide type cd’s.
2. Save/rescue : ) a spindle from some new cd’s to use when drilling the hole for the jump ring. That’s right, folks, get out the power drill! Gather all the cd’s you will need for your album, stick them on a spindle and drill them all at once so the holes all match. Just hang the spindle a good third off your surface so you don’t drill through anything important like your kitchen counter or dining room table.
Something I encountered but never saw any warnings about anywhere was the Mylar coating usually on one side of the cd. Some of the Mylar coatings are very easy to remove. If they are, go ahead and do it. You may need to use a bit of sandpaper here and there. I encountered a problem with this and had to redo a page or two because of peeling Mylar. Go ahead and get rid of it if it's peels easily.

Now let’s move on down this road. I guess it’s Part 2 of Part 2? What should I put this little mini album in? I needed it to go in something structured since there were no page protectors and I didn’t want it beaten about. Besides I needed to ship it to Iowa!

I found a plain, round chipboard box at the craft store—not too expensive, a little wider than the cd’s and a good 3 inches taller. Perfect! It gave me the room to cushion the cd’s with extra tissue and bubble wrap for shipping and would give him room to add tickets and other ephemera afterwards.

This is what it looked like once it was completed:

I painted the entire box, inside and out, with red acrylic. The stadium photo and Alabama Crimson Tide (MS PowerPoint Word Art) are adhered and sealed with Modge Podge. That’s hounds tooth check ribbon around the rim of the top part--homage to Bear Bryant and his hat.

Thanks so much for coming along on this journey with me. Next post will be extra special, so do check back!

RAH, RAH! SIS BOOM BAH! aka FOOTBALL, Part 1

Football! Hard to believe but it is that time of year. Whether your team consists of peewees or professionals, I wish you a successful season!

Most of my extended family loves University of Alabama athletics, especially football. Last season one of our nephews and his friend came down from Iowa for a whirlwind weekend visit of football fun. Christopher is definitely a devoted, enthusiastic, and passionate Alabama football fan! And this was his first “live and in person” game.

To commemorate the weekend, I made a cd mini album for him.


I used Provo Craft patterned paper scraps and card stock as a base for the cd’s, adhered with a Xyron adhesive tape runner. Then I added photos, stickers and word strips created in MS PowerPoint. There is a pocket page for some nifty little tags. The tags are card stock and include the fight song, a map of where we parked (it was a long walk, LOL!), coach info, and other cute stuff. Everything is held together with a jump ring with pretty ribbon attached (more about that in Part 2, stay tuned!).

Having our nephew as a guest in our home was wonderful—it had been more than 5 years since he had been here! Sharing time before, during and after the game with him, seeing all of that through his fresh eyes, made it a special moment in time for us.

I hope you will drop by for Part 2 of this post topic. Thanks for taking a look today and why not sign my guest book! Just scroll to the bottom of the page. Please feel free to leave a comment—I read each and every one of them.