New Projects

Thanksgiving weekend was a total cricut crafting event. I spent my entire four days off doing cricut projects. It was so much fun. Two of the days I had friends over to craft. I made Star Wars bookmarks for the kids. I stenciled glass jars for hours. I made a demo of a monogram I am working on for the fireplace. I definitely filled up on cricuting. We did some furniture rearrangement so now my sewing machine is in the guest room aka craft room aka sewing room. I finally have my own room. I got a new chair and am going to decorate the room. I plan to get a project board to put above my sewing table and I want to install a new shelving unit in the closet. It is so much fun to have my own space. A space I can shut others out of when need be.

I ordered some iron on vinyl from Leslie at A place to be happy! I wanted to try it out before I invested too much in vinyl. The boys love their new Star Wars T-shirts and it was so easy to make. I can't wait to make something for myself.

I decided my next quilt project will be for me. I have two more sets of charms packs that I had earmarked for myself. I finally found a project at Moda Bake Shop that I decided to make. It is called a Stacked Coins Baby Quilt. I thought the cutting would be hard but I finished it in no time and my hands don't hurt. I think the Yoga I have started doing is really helping. Tonight I hope to begin the sewing. Then I have to find a project to make for the Twins Mother's Day Brunch. I plan to donate my first quilt to this event for the raffle. I might also donate the weekend tote I made. I am still deciding. It might make someone a cute diaper bag.

Stencil Candles with Recycled Jars

I finally got to work on a project I have wanted to do for a long time. Awhile back I saw a picture of a beautifully decorated night time table that used recycled jars with votive candles. I immediately started saving any glass jar I had; spaghetti jars, relish jars, pickle jars, anything that was glass. Then I heard about the glass etching using the Cricut. I watched a ton of videos on youtube and researched the craft on blogs and websites. First I cleaned all the jars and took off all the paper labels. I used a liquid product that takes off glue adhesive. I then cut out all my words using Cricut vinyl and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. I then applied the vinyl to the glass. I didn't need to use the painters tape. I just used a tweezers to add all the little parts of the e and a, and any other letter that had a little piece.

You then add the stencil cream. I got mine at Michael's craft store. I bought the smallest bottle which should last a long time (I barely had to use any). You let it dry for about 5 minutes, then wash off the cream with water and towel dry.

Peel off the vinyl and remove all the little pieces and you have a great stencil.

This was hard to capture in the picture. It is not as strong as a stencil that you get from a professional place but it still looks really nice.

Here is the whole set of jars with votive candles.

This is what it looked like when I lit them all. The words actually show up a lot brighter.

I was really happy with how this turned out. It was very easy and came out better then I expected. I definitely plan to do this again. I want to stencil all my husbands beer glasses with his favorite sports team. I also think these jars would make a great hostess gift. There are so many possibilities.