Magical Pencils & Holder

I thought I'd have a little fun - Harry Potter style.  A while back I bought this fun craft book called The Unofficial Guide to Crafting the World of Harry Potter by Jamie Harrington.  There are 30 different fun crafts including Butterbeer Lip Balm (which I'll be making for Christmas gifts), Dementor Soap (which I've played with - be on the look out for that post at a later date), Lumos/Nox light switch cover (you've seen my take on these), Pencil Wands and so much more.

 

Today I'm sharing my pencil wands.   Not only have I made a few of these but I thought it would also be fun to make a holder for them.  I have a couple of  small apothecary style jars that have been sitting on my shelf for weeks just begging for me to do something with them.  Finally it hit me that they were the perfect size for a pencil holder.

 

Using a file from one of my FB groups I created my decal for the jar.  After applying the decal I sprayed the jar with some Rustoleum brand Frosted Glass spray and viola.  I have some fun pencils and a pencil holder to give as a gift to a special Harry Potter fan.

Have Yourself....

 

I decided to sit down with my new embroidery machine and try my hand at towel embroidery.  So starting small I decided to use a blank bar mop style towel and stitch out a fun Christmas design.

 

This design is from the Applique Corner and is called Have Yourself a Merry Christmas Embroidery Design.  For a short time it's on sale with a lot of other great designs.

 

I went with the 6 x 10 design which is over 21,000 stitches.  After attending a stabilizer class with Debbie Homer-Hofhines I learned what stabilizers to use with different fabrics.  I also learned that the number of stitches determines the number of layers of stabilizers needed to support the project.  With that being said, I hooped some Perfect Stick stabilizer and then placed my towel center on the hoop.  I then added a layer of Heat n Gone topping on the top of my towel and floated a piece of tear away stabilizer underneath. 

 

Of course I still have a lot to learn but for now I love the way this stitched out and I can't wait to play with some others.  After all, practice makes perfect.  Lol

Today's Menu

How about another fun, quirky, witty, sarcastic cutting board today?

 

I was scrolling through Etsy when I came across this fun Take It or Leave it Chef file from My Casual Whimsy.  Of course it didn't take long before I purchased the file and got started on cutting the design.

 

I love the way this turned out and if I was brave enough to give it a try I'd try putting this design to canvas or one of the wood signs that are so popular right now.  For now though I'm pretty pleased with how this looks on my cutting board. 

 

And the great thing about this is that it is perfect for so many things so it's great for making projects to give as gifts or for sale at craft fairs.  As for me, I'll probably do a little bit of both.

Holiday Hello

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Now that it's November you're once again going to be seeing quite a few Christmas projects.  Christmas is my favorite holiday and I absolutely love crafting for it.  Not just Christmas themed projects but projects that are perfect for gift giving and whatnot.

 

With that in mind I do have a Christmas card to share with you today.  This is another card in the shaped card series from Marjorie Ann Designs and is called Santa Bear.  I absolutely love her shaped cards and this one was no exception.

 

The sentiment that I used on my card is from the Merry Everything stamp set from Cardz Tv Stamps.

 

Now I'm off to enter my card into the following challenge:

 

Hiding in My Craft Room - Freestyle Challenge - Ends November 5th

Superhero Night Lights

Now that November is here it's time to get cracking on all those Christmas gifts we need to get made.  Some of my boys are die hard comic fans and so when I saw this awesome Superhero file at Apex Cuttables I knew I had to have it.  There are seven heroes included in the file and these are just three of them.

 

The way that these designs are done they'd be perfect for use on glass blocks, jars, car decal, t-shirts (which I hope to be able to do next month) and night lights like I've done.  Why you could even use these to decorate stockings for Christmas.

 

 

These are night lights from the Dollar Tree.  They call them fashion night lights because initially the round cover has a printed graphic.  But with a minimal amount of swirling the cover around in some acetone nail polish and light rubbing with a paper towel or cotton ball, the graphic is easily removed.  After removing the graphic I wash my covers with dish soap and allow to dry.  (IMPORTANT:  Do NOT allow the cover to sit still in the acetone as it will cause the plastic cover to "melt")

 

 

While the covers dry I find the design I want and cut from vinyl.  (I use the permanent Oracal 651 from Vinyl Spectrum) 

 

 

And now I have a fun, made from the heart stocking stuffer item for my boy's this Christmas.  It doesn't get much easier than this.

Lumos Nox Switchplates

Today's project is a quick and easy one.  I've always enjoyed Harry Potter, but the more I visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter the more enchanted I become with it myself.  I've started reading the books and diving into various crafting groups even.  That's where I came across the idea for the switchplates - in one of my FB groups.

 

If you have friends or family members that love Harry Potter this is such an easy and inexpensive gift giving idea.  All you need is an unbreakable nylon switchplate from Home Depot (or any other hardware store). 

 

For the verbiage I used the Harry P font from dafont.com.  Then you can use any wand or stars for the images. 

 

Put it all together and you have an easy but oh so fun gift any Harry Potter fan will love.

Hello Friend Treat Bag

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to another Anything Goes Challenge with the Cardz TV design team.

 

For this week's challenge I created the last of the treat bags I needed for everyone who's playing in our secret pal exchange at work.  In case you missed the other ones that I've created you can find them here, here, and here.

 

To create this week's treat bag I used a cute little ghost from the Boo file by Marjorie Ann Designs.  I then used one of my Martha Stewart punches to punch out the scalloped circle on which I stamped the sentiment Hello Friend from the recently released Favorite Phrases stamp set from Cardz TV Stamps.  The purse form is from Jaded Blossom.

 

Now that you've seen my Anything Goes project be sure to check out the other wonderful projects our design team created for you this week.  Then after you've been amply inspired, create your own project, link up and play along with us for your chance to win a free stamp set.  You have until November 10th.

 

I can't wait to see what you create.