Two jars, Six holidays, Twelve wraps!

We recently wrapped up a two-part workshop creating a total of 12 wraps for some glass canisters where the idea is that they can stay out all year long and all you have to do is interchange the wraps according to the time of year.  I know...brilliant! 

Everyone received 2 jars.  We used the Cricut to create a stencil out of vinyl for the jars and then used glass etching cream on them.  Each set of jars read "Sweets" and "Treats".  Then we designed 2 wraps each for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  After the first of the year, we got together for part 2, and created wraps for Valentines day, Easter, and 4th of July.

This was not my Mom's favorite project.  She reminds me of that quite often.  I, on the other hand love love loved it!

As always, it's super exciting to see how each person changes the projects to accommodate their tastes, and sometimes I find myself thinking "Darn...why didn't I think of that!"  I just love all the creative people I am surrounded with every month when we get together to create!

We needed 15" to reach around the canisters, so I just added a 3 1/4" section to the 12" length, and it worked perfectly.  After it was all put together, we used Velcro type fasteners to attach them in the back.  When using the ribbon, we found that the Velcro didn't adhere very well, so we ended up Stapling it to the ribbon and now those suckers stay on the jar until you take them off!!

The Halloween jar wraps used images from the CTMH Artbooking cartridge.  You cant see the spider hanging over the web very well in the picture, but I have it attached by a piece of clear acetate backing leftover from the bitty sparkles embellishments packaging (I know...brilliant...again!).   "Waste Nothing"...isn't that the crafters motto?  The spider sort of bounces and vibrates a little every time the jar is moved.  It's a little freaky.

We only needed 2 pieces of self adhesive Velcro for each jar.  Worked very well.  After the wrap was designed, the Velcro was the last thing to apply.  We applied half of the Velcro (the fuzzy side) first, and left the rough side attached.  Then we pulled the adhesive backing off the rough side, wrapped the wrap around the jar, and pressed the edge of the wrap on top of the exposed Velcro, making sure the wrap was aligned when the ends met. 

I only have one of the Fall/Thanksgiving wraps to show here...someone mistakenly walked off with my wrap and left me theirs which was all messed up.  (I HAVE to believe it was a mistake...'cause who would do that...right?)  The one that they left me was not meeting my attention to detail standards at all.  Oh wait...it was my son...That little sneak!  And he took it to his teacher, so that was the end of that! 

I had such fun creating the Christmas wraps.  I think they were the easiest to design and put together.  But then again...everything with Christmas is fun!

The Valentines wraps however were a different story.  I had such a hard time coming up with designs for that one.  I don't know why.  So let's move on...

Easter was such a hoot with the bunny head in the front, and the bunny "buns" in the back.  I think that one was everyone's favorite.

I can't wait for the 4th of July to wrap my wraps.  These turned out so well, I might just consider putting them on in June so I can look at them for a whole extra month!  With a house full of boys, I can kind of do what I want with the decorations.  I think the only reason they notice these jar wraps is because they are wrapped around jars FULL OF CANDY!  Hey...I know how to get their attention.

 
To decorate the top of the jars, I'm looking for that "just perfect" knob, or drawer pull to sit on top and finish it off.  I have one of those super powerful neodymium magnets under the lid, and it will hold the knob very tightly to the lid.   So that too can be interchanged with the holidays.  This gift just keeps on giving!

This project was so popular, we had people asking for extra kits and custom etching stencils to give  as Christmas gifts.  Some hid gift cards inside, some stuffed them with things individual to the recipient.   Again...surrounded by uber creative peeps and I love it!

Thanks for visiting!

We're Baaaaaaack!

Wow, has it really been that long? I could say the holidays kept us busy, but I don't think anyone will buy that.  So, the whole truth is this blog thing is a little scary.  I was hoping Mom would do it...she was hoping I would do it...and before we knew it, we were eating ham and hiding Easter eggs and somebody asked "How's your blog going?"  Mom and I had a stare-off.  She won.  I'm blogging.  Let’s just move on.

We've been having fun with the new Spring/Summer 2013 Idea Book from CTMH and creating all kinds of projects.  Half of them are unfinished due to what we like to call "crafters block", but we all know what that translates into: "this stupid project isn't working!".    Maybe someday we (Mom) will finish them and we will get them posted for you to look (laugh) at.  

Moving on.   
                                                                 
I don't even know where to start.  We've worked on projects ranging from Weddings to Movember. Yes, I said MOvember....we'll explain that later.

This week we've been playing around with making flowers.  More accurately, I've been sending pictures of flowers to Mom saying "Do you think we can make this out of paper?" and 20 minutes later she’d send a picture back saying “Look what I made!”  Makes you sick…doesn’t it?

easterLilys

CTMH materials used:

  White cardstock
  Sweet leaf cardstock
  Buttercup cardstock
  Olive ink
  Autumn Terracotta ink
  Art Philosophy cartridge

buttonflowers  This morning we called them "Flowers".  By 3:15 they became Button Flowers.  Pretty creative.  I know. 

A while ago I asked my son's teacher if I could help out in the classroom, she said "Would you like to read to the class or do a craft with them?".  Inside I was thinking "Did she really just ask me to choose between reading and crafting?"  

My son rolls his eyes and grunts a heavy sigh when I ask him to work on a craft with me at home, but for some reason he transforms into Crafty-Crafterson at school.  Forget Fridays at 5...Wednesdays at 2 pm just became my favorite time of the week! 

If a group of 4th graders can focus long enough to do this project then you can probably whip one up while your TV dinner is in the microwave.  What...doesn't everyone eat those?

I used 5 strips of 10" x 3/4" patterned paper, and 4 strips of 6" x 1/2" coordinating solid paper.  Each strip had 3 holes punched in them:  One in each end, and one in the center.   I then took some floral wire (at school we used pipe cleaners) and thread it through the button and twisted the 2 dangling ends to make one stiff stem.  

Next, just start threading on the pieces starting with the 6" pieces first.  Thread the stem through the middle hole, then thread the ends.  Once all pieces were threaded, I finished it off with a 1 3/4" scallop punch and glued it to hide all the ends.  We twisted the wire around a wooden skewer, stuck a leaf on and called it done!  (For the school project, we had the kids write a sentiment to their Mom on the leaf).



paperroses  Mom made these.  You can tell because they're perfect.  She said they are a work in progress...I think she's planning on inking the center bud still.  Whatever.  They're still perfect.  

I'm not sure how she assembled them, but I do know that she cut each petal out by hand.  I know this because that's all she did on a recent road trip we took as a family.  Trace trace snip snip.  Cant she just eat, sleep, and sing obnoxiously loud to the radio like the rest of us? 

papercake  Last year this was called the cake that she never put down 'cause she was never satisfied with it and kept adding flowers.  It's been here so long we now call it Gus.

It's one of those cakes where each piece is actually a box for "take-home" cake (funny...like there's ever any cake left), or party favors.  She put a lot of work into this last Easter and swore she would take us out if we ever messed with it.  So I think Gus is going to be around for a while.