Easy Thanksgiving Day Placemats!

Hey Everyone! Happy "HUMP" Day!! I hope you all are having a great day! For today's post, I have a simple and easy placemat that you can do for your holiday table. I found the idea for these on Pinterest. I initially wanted to purchase some placemats but let's be honest they can get pricey. So when I found this burlap idea, I figured hey I can do that. Luckily I had some burlap left over from a previous project.  The best part is you can customize it to fit your holiday decor. For mine, I kept the embellishments to a minimum. I wanted these placemats to complement not compete with the other pieces. Here's the pic for your perusal:

They were very easy to make. I made mine 12 x 17" and used an existing placemat as a template. I cut the burlap along the pencil marks with a pair of scissors. For added interest, I frayed the edges 1/2" along all four sides. The sentiments are adhesive backed chipboard letters from a scrapbook kit. I added some Scotch Quick Dry adhesive to ensure that these letters would stay on till Thanksgiving. With a five year old who's curious about everything, I needed these to withstand her little fingers. And voila, there you have it! Four easy and simple placemats that took literally minutes to make. The best part is that burlap now comes in an array of colors, so you can mix and match to suit your tastes.

I hope you all enjoyed this quick project. They were fun to make. I think they will make a nice addition to our table. Enjoy the rest of your day and I just realized I still haven't figured out what to make for dinner. YIKES!! Stay tuned for more projects to come and Peace!! :)

 

Oh, one final thing, here's the link to the site that inspired these:
momtastic.com.

Thanksgiving Centerpiece!

Hey Everyone! Hope you all had a good weekend filled with lots of crafts! My weekend was good and for this post today I have a centerpiece I made for our holiday table. Now, I thought I was on a roll after my previous projects went together smoothly. I made placecards, a decorative frame and napkin holders. I figure I'll make a centerpiece and have it completed in a day. Little did I know that crafter's block would set in. This centerpiece took me the whole weekend to create with numerous changes to the design. The floral arrangment was changed 6 times. The filler for the vase went from raffia to burlap to what's pictured here. The sides of the box had leaves and ribbon before I changed it to this flourish element. And the list of changes goes on. I was finally at my wit's end and figured this centerpiece was never gonna get done. My hubby sugggested we take a trip to a local flea market. Let me tell you that was exactly what I needed to get those creative juices flowing. And the final result is one that I'm proud of.  Here's the pic:

I love it!

I was finally able to pull this centerpiece together. For me, the fall colors are what draws your eye in. A few additions of white in the candles and flowers brightens it up just enough. Here's a quick run down of what I did:

The base for this centerpiece is a 12 x 12 wooden box my hubby made for me. He gave it a wash of white paint and I added a 3" die cut flourish to the sides.  He also cut out a few square pieces of wood that I used to add height and dimension to the vase and candles.  I cut a piece of burlap to fit the interior of the box. I used brown rice (but sand could have been used if I had some) to camouflage the wooden squares and give a base to the other elements. The candles, flowers, pinecones, and gourds used in this centerpiece were purchased from my local Dollar General.  I arranged the candles on either side of the vase. A gold striped ribbon from WalMart tied around the candle base completes the look. I took the gourds, pinecones and flowers and arranged them along the bottom. For the vase, I used a combo of black eyed peas and corn kernels as filler. This combo gave me enough give to arrange the flowers in and hold them upright. To start off, I added the scarecrow to the inside of the vase but kept it towards the back. I then arranged my flowers to fill in the front. I used a gold shimmer mist on the flowers to add some sparkle. And ta-da, there you have it. A centerpiece to give that holiday turkey some competition.

Here are a few more pics for you to see:

I hope you all enjoyed this project. It was a challenge to create but the results speak for themselves. I will end this post here and stay tuned for more Thanksgiving themed projects to come. Peace!! :)

Thanksgiving Decor!!

Hey Everyone! Happy T.G.I.F !!!!! Oh Yeah!! I'm so glad that it's finally here! Man, since yesterday's post, I have been cranking out the Thanksgiving projects. I was able to complete two for today's post. I made a decorative frame and napkin holders to go along with my awesome placecards. Before I jump off the sofa to do my "Happy Friday Dance", here are the pics for your perusal:

                                                      I LOVE how these turned out!


                                    Here's a close up of the decorative frame I made. I used a white frame measuring 4 x 10" that I had to create this. For the inside, I cut a piece of white cardstock and inked the edges with a brown inkpad. I used paper piecing to create the pattern you see. The brown and orange decorative elements were cut from my holiday Cricut cartridge at 3". I love this pattern it reminds me of damask fabric. I glued them down to the white base and stamped a flourish in a brown ink. Originally, I wanted to use an orange cardstock for the base and stencil the pattern on top. But after an hour of trying to stencil the pattern on the cardstock, I wasn't happy with the way it looked. I abandoned that idea and went for the one you see pictured. It was easier to glue the pattern down and use bolder colors to contrast against the white background. The flourish was stamped to fill in the empty spaces between the patterns. I love the way it turned out in the end. It's elegant without being too fussy. Now to decorate the outside of the frame, I used gold chipboard stickers for the "Give Thanks" sentiment and a few leaf stickers I found. And there you have it, my decorative frame is complete.


For my other project, here's a close up of that:









Before




            

                                                           

                                                                  After




I have to say I definitely LOVE the after. My husband picked these up for me today from a flea market. As you can see, these napkin holders are square, made from metal and had strawberries painted on them. Eww! No offense to the person who decorated these but it doesn't fit the holiday theme. I have to give credit to my wonderful hubby for giving me the idea on how to redo them. He suggested I paint the top and bottom with brown acrylic paint and add a strip to go around it. Luckily for me, he bought me some fabric used for crossstitching that I used to cover up the previous pattern. I cut a piece of the fabric at 1 1/16 x 8", inked the edges, and glued it down using Aleene's Tacky Glue. I used three leaves I cut from my Cricut and attached it to the front for added interest. I also stamped the same flourish on the sides. I just forgot to take a pic of it to show you. But you have to agree the after is alot prettier than the before.

Here's another pic for you to check out:

Aren't they cute?! These are going to look awesome on our table this year.

I hope you enjoyed these projects. I had fun making these.  Enjoy the rest of your T.G.I.F and Peace!! :)

Thanksgiving Day Placecards!

Hey Everyone! Happy Thursday to all! Only 1 day left till my favorite day of the week! We all know what day that is. But enough about that, I have a fun project for you all. I was busy browsing the web today looking for Thanksgiving themed craft projects. I came across a tutorial on placecards. I figured I could make a few and see how it turns out. Well, I was pleased with the final result. Once I figured out how I wanted these to look, it took no time at all to put together. But I'll let you be the judge. Here's the pic for your perusal:

                       Aren't they cute?! I think these would make a lovely addition to our holiday table.
                                       Here's another pic for you to check out;

I really love how these turned out. It may look complicated but it's pretty simple.

I took a 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of rust colored cardstock and cut it in half along the 8 1/2" side. By doiing this, I was able to get two pieces that measure 4 1/4 x 11". I then cut it in half again at the 11" side to get 4 pieces measuring 4 1/4 x 5 1/2". I then folded the pieces in half and used my bone folder to give it a crisp edge. After all the cutting and folding, I wound up with a placecard that measures 4 1/4 x 2 1/2". Now, you can customize the size of your placecard depending on how you cut your cardstock. You can make it bigger or smaller to suit your needs. For an added touch, I used my Threading Water punch to punch this decorative edge. And that gives me the starting base for my placecard.

For the white layer, I cut a piece of cardstock at 1 3/4 x 4". I used my 1" circle punch to cut the corners, inked the edges with a brown inkpad and adhered it to the base. For the embellishments, I turned to my favorite faux cardstock "Paint Chips". I call it "faux cardstock" cause you can find these in an array of colors to suit your crafting needs, plus, they're FREE! That's a value I can live with. :) I used them to punch out this 1" brown circle and for this layered curly label. It gives the placecard a pop of color. The curly label I cut from a holiday Cricut cartridge that I own and used the negative to cut a smaller label to layer on top of.  It looks cool but it doesn't really line up the way it should. But since we're not going away for Thanksgiving, I don't think the family will care much. That's something to keep in mind for the next time I make these.

The layered curly labels and 1" circles were glued directly to the base. I made small pumpkins to go on top of the circles. To make these, I cut 6, 1" ovals from my George and Basic Shapes cartridge out of orange cardstock. ( I did this step for all four of the pumpkins). I then folded the 6 ovals in half and glued them together to form a pumpkin shape. The edges of these pumpkins were inked using the same brown inkpad as before. For the stems, I cut a piece of green cardstock at 1/4 " and added it to the base. To finish off the placecards, I added a gold embroidery floss tied in a knot towards the bottom. And for the inside, I used a gold striped ribbon for added contrast against the punched border.  A few brads on either corner of the white layer and all that's left is to add the names. And ta-da,  my Thanksgiving Day placecards are complete!

I hope you all enjoyed this project. I really had a blast making these. I have a few other projects for the table planned and I hope to post those soon. I will end this post here and wish you all a good evening and Peace!! :)

"Give Thanks" Card

Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday! Hope your day is off to a great start. For this project today,  I made a Thanksgiving Day card for a challenge over at CardzTV.com. I think it turned out pretty good.  I used a variety of techniques and materials to create it. And I was able to put it together fairly quickly. Here's the pic for your perusal:

 

Not bad, right?! This is a standard A2 size card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2). I used a pale yellow cardstock for the base. The brown layer is two pieces of paint chip samples glued together. I used my Threading Water punch at the bottom, trimmed the layer to 4 x 5" and adhered it to the base. For the white layer, I cut a piece of cardstock at 3 3/4 x 4 3/4 and used my Ironworks embossing strip to emboss the side. It's kinda hard to see from the pic but it's there. I also inked the edges with a light brown inkpad and attached it.

 

Now for the table and food, I used a couple of different elements to create this. I cut the table at 1 3/4 x 2/ 3/4 out of a patterned paper that came from an Anna Griffin Scrapboook Kit. This paper is awesome! It has a velvety texture and I thought it would make a great tablecloth. I used my stylus to emboss a few lines down the bottom, which I then folded to create the look of draped fabric. Mini glue dots came in handy to attach just the ends of this faux tablecloth to the card. I wanted a 3D look to make it stand out. On top of the faux cloth I added a layer of lace. Okay it's really not lace, it's vellum. I cut the vellum at 1 x 2 3/4" and used my threading water punch for the bottom. I added some faux stiching and dots to the back of the vellum to give it the appearance of lace. I attached it to the tablecloth with mini glue dots and that's it. Our table is dressed for Thanksgiving dinner. Cool, right?!

 

For the food adorning our table, I used stickers and die cut pieces. The candelabra and vase were cut from the "Over the Hill" Cricut cartridge at 1" and 1 1/4". I used my Stardust gel pen to outline the shapes of both the candelabra and vase. I punched out different colors of leaves to add to the vase and upper left corner of the card. For the candelabra, I used candles that I stamped and cut. To finish it off, I glued them down at either end of the table, added my food stickers, popped up the turkey to give it dimension, and added a banner with the sentiment "Give Thanks". And voila, my Thanksgiving Day card is complete!

 

I hope you all enjoyed this project. It was a really fun card to make. I have a few other ideas I've been brainstorming for more Thanksgiving themed projects. I hope to bring you those soon, so stay tuned. I also have a layout I'll be working on today and possibly tomorrow. It's for a Make It Monday challenge over at thememorynest.com. The twist is you have to use a selfie pic for the layout. I'm not the most photogenic person by far and I hate having my pic taken. So this will be a challenge for me in more ways than one. So I'm hoping I can get over it and have it posted for you all tomorrow. I will end this post here, I have a few bathrooms that are screaming for my attention. Enjoy the rest of your day and Peace!! :)

 

 

Fifth Page.... Complete!!

Hey Everyone! Hope you all had an awesome weekend filled with love, laughter, and crafting, of course! My weekend was pretty low-key. We rented tons of movies, had a movie night on our driveway Friday, and did some shopping. I got a few new toys over the weekend and I went nuts trying them out.  I also organized my craft area and found a whole bunch of stuff I didn't even know I had. I felt like a pirate finding buried treasure. It was AWESOME! Plus, I was able to complete the fifth page in my paper bag album series. Man, I wish all weekends can be like this. One can only hope. Anyway, here's the pic:

 

I love it!  There's shades of pink, yellow, teal and blue running throughout the page. Keep in mind this is still that ColorBok stack that I've been using throughout this album. For this page, I started with a yellow polka dot paper for the background. I layered two pieces of pink patterned paper cut at 1 1/2" and used my new Threading Water Border Punch from Fiskars to punch the sides. This border punch I got cheap at my local store and I LOVE it!  Now for the ornaments at the top,  I just cut those from a wavy patterned paper from the stack. I inked the edges and wrapped the top of the ornaments with linen thread. I used flower embellishments at the ends for interest. I glued two of the ornaments directly to the page and for the middle one I used dimensionals. I really love the effect these ornaments give to the page.

 

Moving on, I used some more of those paint chip samples to punch out small circles. I used coordinating colors and randomly adhered them to the page. I cut a photo mat to fit the page (3 7/8 x3 7/8") and punched out 1" circles cut in half to add to the top. I used more dimensionals to pop up the pink semi circles and used metal letters for the sentiment. For the awesome photo corners, I was inspired to make these from an Anna Griffin Scrapbook Kit I purchased this weekend. I cut a 1 1/2 x 6" strip of blue patterned paper, inked the edges and used my border punch. You score the strip at 1/4" and use mountain valley folds like you would for a rosette. Once folded, I cut the strip in half and attached it to a 1" circle. The addition of  ribbon and a stamped bird and my little fan photo corners are complete. Aren't they cute?! I LOVE these!

 

To finish the page, I added a paint chip banner layered with patterned paper that I used for the ornaments. I used glittery letters for the sentiment "Moments". And ta-da, the fifth page is complete!!

 

Here's a coordinating double sided tag I made to go along with this page:

 

 

 

I really love how these turned out! All that's left now is to add it to the album.

 

I hope you enjoyed this project. It was fun putting it together, using new tools and making out of the box embellishments, but the results are stunning. I will end this post here and wish you all a great day and Peace!!:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Everyone! Happy T.G.I.F!!! I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! I would do my Happy Friday Dance but I'm feeling very sluggish this morning. Coming off of a sugar high will do that. Phew! Thank goodness it's only once a year! Our trick or treating was almost canceled due to some bad weather that blew through Louisiana. Luckily, it stopped just in time and the candy hunt was on. To finish off our night, we ate candy, watched "Night of the Living Dead" and topped it off by watching Michael Jackson's "Thriller". I say that Halloween 2013 was a rousing success! Well enough about my night, my niece is having a birthday tomorrow ( she'll be turning 6) and I made her a stair step card. This was my first time making this style of card and it took a couple of tries for me to get it just right. I hope she likes it. Here's the pic for your perusal:

This is what the card looks like when its displayed. I like the 3D effect you get, it looks as though you can walk up the hills to reach the castle at the top. Here's another pic but from the side:

 

And here's a pic of the card when its folded up:

 

 

This card can fit a standard A2 size envelope. To finish it off, I'll add a small envelope to the back to place a gift card inside. Let me give you all the details on how I created this.

 

First you need a sheet of 8 1/2x 11 piece of white cardstock and trim it down to 4 1/4x 9 1/2. Next you score at 2 1/4, 4 1/2, 6 ,7 1/2 and 8 1/2. Fold along the score lines using mountain valley folds. And that gives you your card base. You can really decorate it anyway you want and use it for any occasion. I choose to do a princess castle.

 

Now for the castle, I freehanded a basic castle shape complete with towers and turrets. You can find this shape just about anywhere but I chose to draw mine. The castle is actually two pieces layered together. They are both cut at 4 3/4 x 3 3/4. I used a patterned paper that resembled stonework for the base, inked the edges and randomly embossed it. Embossing gives the castle that added dimension and the appearance of real stone. The towers and the turrets I cut them at 1" and adhered the stone tops and windows before attaching to the castle base. I also cut two banners out of pink cardstock and glued it to gold wire.  Cut a door shape, emboss it, add a gold brad for a knob and voila my castle is finis!

 

For the graasy layers leading up to the castle, I free handed those, inked them and glued them to the card base. I added some cut flowers and an embossed "stone" path. I used my white gel pen to trace around the paths and give it some realism. I stamped the sentiment "Birthday Wishes" on white cardstock and layered it on pink. I cut it into a banner shape, added rhinestones, and used dimensionals to pop it up. And that's it! Princess Castle stair step card complete! (phew! that's a mouthful).

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this project. It was a challenge to make but it was fun. Looking at the pics now, there are a few things I would like to change. Trim the castle to the right so it lines up with the rest of the card and center the door so it matches up with the paths. But other than that, I think it turned out pretty nice. Before I end this post,  I have begun work on the fifth page to my paper bag album series. I'm hoping I can have the pics up on this blog by Monday. So stay tuned for that. I hope you all enjoy your TGIF! and Peace!! :)