Sweet Photos Shared!!

I love seeing our banners in photos that our customers send us!!
Here are a few that we have received recently.....

Etsy now lets you leave an appreciation photo in your feedback.
Thank you Etsy and thank you customers!!


This is the newest banner in the shop. It has been well received and is so much fun to create!!
I love the little lightening bugs on the mason jars and the checked paper that has the look of a picnic table cloth :)

Coming up next? New Fall banners!!

Show and Tell.....

I love it when my customers send me photos of their special days!  It means so much to me that they took time from their busy lives to share a moment that was special to them.

I wanted to share a few of them with you all!!

Photography credit to Ashdown Studios of Camas Washington

Isn't this photo just stunning? Beautiful does not even begin to describe how lovely this is!!

 LOVE!!

A wonderful way to block of the aisle before the ceremnoy begins.

This is one of my most favorite banners in the shop!

This was an appreciation photo left in my feedback for the shop. I absolutely love it!!!!!

I love cake banners! They convey the message loud and clear!!!!

Looking in on special days is sweet, thanks for sharing your precious memories with me!!!!               

Handcrafted Jars, A little tutorial for party favors and some Valentine Banners!!

Wow, I cannot believe it is already the 15th of January! I am still putting Christmas away. It took me forever to set it out and it takes forever to put it back up. We had a good Christmas and I was more than ready to turn the page on the calendar to a New Year. Last year brought lots of unexpected "surprises" and let's just say, my daily prayer is for better times and much sweeter surprises!!

We have been busy in the shop and busy coming up with new ideas for pretty things and for photographing those pretty items as well!!

I love scanning through special event ideas both on the web and in magazines. One of the trends that I really like are the "candy bars" "popcorn bars" and "sweets tables" that are so popular lately.

I wanted to create some of those pretty jars for photo props and this is what I came up with!

I bought jars and candlestick bases at tag sales and thrift stores. These are painted up in Valentine colors, but can be made up in any color scheme! They are inexpensive, quick and easy to craft and will look so pretty sitting on one of those "special treat" tables or on your mantle or table at home!!

Tutorial!!

I made up a tutorial in a smaller version with some jars, paint, glue and wood candlesticks I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I am sure you can find the candy there as well, I had already bought some when I went grocery shopping. The eating healthier thing I vowed on January 1st,  kind of went out the window around January 2nd :(

These little creations will make perfect Valentine gifts for co-workers, teachers, Sunday school instructors, the list goes on!
The weather in Texas has been mild and this was a perfect day for an outside project:)

Here is what you will need:

Small jars

Wooden candlesticks

E-6000 Glue

Spray paint

Candy Candy Candy

Any embellishments that you want to add, buttons, ribbons, rhinestones are a few ideas.

Wash and dry the jars and lids. These jars have a cardboard liner in the lid, so I damp sponged them clean. If you are not an impatient person, unlike myself, you can prime the wooden candlestick, or you can just spray the heck out of it till it is covered:)
You will need at least 2 coats of spray paint allowing thorough drying time in between coats.

I did have patience during the drying time, I spent it sampling candy......

After you are satisfied with the paint coverage and drying time, squeeze a bead of E-6000 glue around the top of the candlestick, turn your jar upside down....

turn the candlestick upside down and plop it onto the middle of the bottom side of the jar. If the glue seeps out, don't worry, you can use an exacto knife later to scrape it off, or cover it by gluing some pearls or ribbon around it! You will need to let this dry a good twenty four hours. Just a tip, after a few hours, I turned it right side up, the jar had more weight to push against the candlestick ensuring the glue would adhere the two pieces together.

After it is all good and stuck, you can embellish or go ahead and fill it with whatever candy has not been eaten!!

Wouldn't these be great as favors at bridal or baby showers as well as those cute little gifts I mentioned earlier? Candy is not the only thing you could fill them with, do cupcake in a jar, or go a completely different direction and fill them with bath salts, again the possibilities are endless!!

I added a little bow and did one in pink and one in purple as well. You can add rhinestones or glitter to the lids or candlesticks, or jar. You can also tie ribbons, add some cute little tags with names or sayings. The possibilities go on and on, so have fun with it!! That is what crafting is all about!!!!

Speaking of fun!!

We have some cute new banners in the shop, check them out when you have a moment!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/theartofhandmades

Till next time....I heart you all!!!!

Merry Mantle Piece.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of the warmth and love of family and friends! We had a fantastic day with lots of food and family. Those are the days that make it all worth while!

We have been in full swing crafting Christmas banners and getting the Christmas season started around here. Sometimes it gets difficult to just settle in and enjoy the magic of the season with so much to do. Every year I say I am gonna slow down and enjoy, I have yet to accomplish that task!

I have been working on a little project for myself though. My husband and I love to go on hunts for antiques and junk. Recently we came upon a fireplace mantle that had just about seen it's last days. It had been sitting out in the weather and just looked so lonely and sad. We picked it up for five bucks and this is what I did with it:)

I forgot to take a picture of the poor thing before I started the makeover. Jerry had to replace the top because it was too weathered to repair.  The whole thing was painted this blue color and it had "brick" wallpaper on the front of it, no seriously, it did..........

I based the entire thing in brown, still ugly but watch what happens next....so excited!!!!

This is magic potion otherwise known as crackle.....oh how I love to crackle stuff mmwahahahahahaha!!!!

So I applied the crackle and then painted over that with a coat of cream color flat paint, let dry and then applied a provincial stain and again I forgot to take a pic before I began the next step, but you can get an idea here......

I let it dry and then sanded some areas to give it even more of an old crackled chippy look.

And this is the finished fireplace mantle!!! I hung an old mirror above that I had applied the same crackle steps to. I am not sure what I want to put inside "the fireplace". We have an old gas heater that we may put in there or I may just change wall hangings with seasons, or I may paint a scenery, not sure yet. I do know it will be fun to decorate for the Christmas season!!


We have some new Christmas banners available in our shop!! They would look beautiful hanging  from a mantle!!! Check them out when you have time!!!!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/theartofhandmades

Breaking Dawn, Bella And Edward's Wedding Cake!!

Here are the pics of the reception celebration for "Breaking Dawn." The cake table had a magical forest feeling to it with twinkling lights and some outdoor elements! We used a large mirror and a tree stump under the cake, circled it with the twinkle lights, some moss and flowers. Jenna added a   

                            chess board with some decorating elements from the Twilight books.

We hung the banners and turned down the lights and it really was pretty!

 I had to take pics through the glass because we put the table in a place so everyone could see it. The Twihards began arriving about 5:30 for the midnight show, but entertained themselves until

the movie began. Like I said before, I had never really gotten into the series, but the movie was really good! I am even looking forward to part 2, now that Bella is a vampire herself! I think the best part of the whole experience was hanging out with my daughter!! She did a beautiful job on the cake!

Jenna working on the cake!

A Happily Ever after banner....

Edward and Bella banner.....

Jenna set up a chess board with some decor elements from the Twilight books

We used a lot of outdoor elements for decorating. This is the chessboard with the apple, tulips, red ribbon and chess piece, elements from the Twilight book jackets.

We put the cake on top of a tree stump and surrounded it with lights, moss, tulips and apples.

The cake topper! The dress I put on Bella was nothing like her dress in the movie. They kept it a secret so I had to guess. Edward has glowy eyes and he sparkles!

It was a lot of work, but so much fun! I met a lot of awesome people and made a few contacts for my new business! Jenna got some cake making experience under her belt for the bakery she wishes to open someday! Thanks to Mary at Hometown Cinema in Terrell Texas for letting us participate!!

Twilight, Oh The Drama.....

Last night was the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn, the latest in the Twilight saga. My daughter Jenna had made arrangements to create a wedding cake and invited me to participate in the "wedding reception" festivities at Hometown Cinema in Terrell, Texas.

I took an "Edward and Bella" banner, and a "Happily Ever After" banner cause apparently that only happens if you marry a vampire, LOL!! And of course a wedding cake topper which I had a total blast creating!!

I have never really gotten into the Twilight series, but have watched all the movies as they rotated across my TV in the last couple of weeks as homework for my creations.

 IMHO, Bella should have chosen Jacob, mostly because of his six-pack:), that and he is toasty warm. I have a take on that little scenario which I will post on Sunday, you gotta check back!!

Here are some pics of what I have been doing. Stay tuned for pics of what happened at the midnight showing!

   Finishing up the last of the Thanksgiving banners

Wedding cake in progress, my daughter Jenna's project

                       

The first stages of a wedding cake topper, Bella and Edward

                  

 Working on the "Happily Ever After" banner

                        
I wanted to post this entry yesterday, but as usual got extremely busy. So today is yesterday and tomorrow will be today and the day after that will be tomorrow.............:)
That my friends is what happens when you run with vampires....or wolves.....

Little white dogs and angel wings....

Thanks everyone for hanging in. I did the drawing last night, not the way I planned, but things rarely go as planned! I wanted our eight year old to do the drawing, but somehow he magically remembered homework on a Sunday night after having the whole weekend to do it. So, I did the drawing, cause I did not have homework :)

Here are some pics and the results. I will be having more give aways and fun stuff in the near future. Better planned out and better organized, I promise.

I wrote everyone's name on slips of paper..........

I folded them all up nice and pretty and placed them in a bowl.......

And then I mixed them all up and pulled out a winner!

And the winner of this give away is........

Congrats Candice. You can choose any banner in my Etsy shop, 16.95 or under!!

I apologize for not being around much......

We have had a bit of a rough patch at our house........

I have been MIA from facebook and my blog for the last week. In my "business" life I concentrated on my Etsy shop and just creating.

A week ago Saturday we had to give over our little white fluffy dog in an unimaginable way. I took him to the vet thinking he had gotten into something he shouldn't have, fully expecting to bring him back home. He acted like he had chewed on something, gotten grass burrs in his mouth or worse, eaten something that was not good. It was none of those. Our little 3 year old pup had a tumor under his tongue that was most likely cancer. Even if it wasn't cancer, because of the location, there was nothing they could do and we had to give him up.

We had a little backyard ceremony because this was the first loss for our 8 year old and I wanted him to grieve the right way and be grateful for the experience of having a little white ball of fluffy love.

P.T was his name, my daughter and son-in-law gifted him to us 3 years ago last month. He was mischevious, always happy, hopped like a bunny and some days drove me nuts. He never stopped being a puppy, enjoying every minute of life.

He was a little dog who leaves a big empty place in our hearts and home.