Chalk Board

Cleaning out your craft supplies inspires lots of need ideas. Here is a chalk board I made yesterday without buying any new supplies. Now I have a place to make a list of current projects since I've got about a million different things in process right now.

Etching - All the cool kids are doing it.

Mom was inspired by an article she saw on etching, so naturally we had to try it. I had done etching before using a sandblasting machine in high school, but as we didn't have one of those laying around, we tried an etching cream called Armour Etch. It is pretty expensive, but the larger bottle will last for a lot of projects. Rather than using a pre-made stencil, we made our own by putting painter's tape directly on the glass surface and cutting out a patten with an exacto-knife. The bottle recommends letting a thick layer sit for 5 minutes before washing it away. After some experimentation, we decided to let it sit for 10 minutes, reapplying some extra cream after 5 minutes because it was hard to get the cream on thickly until it had some time to sit.

Mom etched grapes on a cool half-bowl to put utensils in for her grape kitchen. I'll have to bug her for a picture. It turned out so well! I etched "catnip" on one side of a bottle and paw prints on another for as a Christmas gift for Adam and Kait's cat. (Yes, the cat gets presents.) It is a bit hard to see after I put the catnip in the jar, but if they don't notice it right away, it will get slowly revealed as they use it. Considering what will be in the glass container is an important tip I will remember for the next project.

Mosaic Stepping Stones

Mama and I went to a small craft fair in Mill Creek a few weeks ago and saw some very cute paw print Mosaic stepping stones. These would be easy to make and a great gift for animals lovers.

This is the closest picture I found online to our original inspiration.

Completed Projects

I finally finished the other set of napkin rings and napkins I was working on. I think Anna's vase idea works well for the presentation.

Here is a picture my painting from the class Tamara and I took, which will be Charlotte's Christmas present.

St. Brendan's Craft Fair (Bothell)

Here are some of the cool ideas I saw:

• Teacups, cut in half, and turned into the cover on a night light.
• Necklaces made out of the tip of the handle of old utensils.
• Ready to go alcohol infusions. Think similar to those jars of ready to go cookie mixes, with the pretty layers of ingredients. They were in pretty bottles with large grain sugar on the bottom and dried fruit or spices layered on top. They had instructions to add your favorite wine/rum/vodka (depending on the mixture and your taste), let sit for two weeks, shaking each day. Examples were blueberry mango or ginger cranberry. Tamara got one for Will. I'll have to ask her to take a picture for the blog.
• Another food one was feta cheese marinated with olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, and other spices in a pretty jar.
• For the pet lover, catnip or dog treats in pretty bottles.
• Mirrors framed with glass Mosaic.
• Purses made out of old sweaters.
• Those are the things that stood out to me, but there were lots of cool things that you traditionally see at craft fairs that we could make: potholders, aprons, cards with photography, table runners, beaded jewelry, etc.

Napkin Rings 3

This was my attempt at napkin rings. I found some napkin rings at Cost Plus, and just painted over the design. I think I'm going to coat them either with a clear acrylic or some sort of other sealer because I don't want them to get scratched. I made napkins from the red fabric.

Napkin Rings Part 2

I ended up making some napkin rings for my brother-in-law's girlfriend. They turned out really cute. I had quite a time picking out beads and such from Michaels. I plan to make napkins from the fabric in the background and am working on decorating a case for the whole thing. I will post a picture of the finished project when done. I was just so excited about how the napkin rings turned out, I needed to post a interim-project update. :)