Showing posts with label hymn pages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hymn pages. Show all posts

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Christmas Banner in A Mason Jar Gift

Recently I jumped at the chance to do a Mason Jar gift.

I am a long time admirer of Angie from The Country Chic Cottage  and she wanted to do a round up.

I have a passion for mason jars and pick them up every chance I get so I figured this would be easy.

But then I did the typical me thing....

I come up with half a dozen ideas for Mason jar gifts and could not decide on one.

So I am showing you one today and I plan to share one every Monday from now until Christmas in a feature I will call Mason Jar Monday.

Here is today's Jar gift.



A Christmas banner in a jar.

The jar is not the star of the show this time.

The banner is.


It is fast and easy to make.

The perfect gift to make in multiples.

Gather some supplies:


I used an old hymn book from a book sale


scissors

a stapler

scrap red paper

some green twine

buttons

and a Sharpie marker.

Remove pages from the hymn book and trim the edges.


I cut my pages into roughly fourths.


Then I clipped a triangle out of the bottom of each piece.


I did spend some time in the studio searching for a fast easy way to do letters.

Of course the search took longer than it would have to just get started.

So I decided to just use a marker and do them free hand.

That is more fun anyway.

I used a large flower punch to punch out a few red flowers.



I folded the top of each piece of paper over and stapled it onto some green jute twine.

I stapled the red flowers between the letters and glued a button over the staple.


I spelled Merry Christmas, but you could do any word or phrase you want.


To make the rosette, remove three more pages from the hymn book.

Use the Stampin' Up Simply Scored board to score the paper about every half inch.


Accordian fold the pages.


Fold the pages in half and glue three of them together.


Add another red punched flower to the front and top with a button.


Pile your banner pieces up and stack them so you can slide them in your mason jar.


I used a wide moth quart jar.

I also added two glittered clothespins to hang the banners.


Then I wrapped the lid with more twine.


Glue your rosette to the lid.


If you would like the recipient to be able to use the rosette as a decoration or ornament, do not glue it on.

Instead use sticky dots so it can be removed later.


It would be a special gift to make a family's name and the date they got married or moved into a new house.


You could make sweet first name banners for a child's room or a new baby.


But I made a Christmas banner for this one.


And because I did not have anyplace in my house ready for a christmas banner, I displayed it in the garden.


I love this little woodland vignette outside my shed.

The large piece of slate was from a school house.

It was given to me by a friend of my husband.


The concrete mushroom and planter I made several summers ago.

The tree mushrooms were cut by my husband when a tree blew down in the yard last summer.



Hope you enjoyed my little Mason Jar gift.

Thanks for stopping by...


Monday, June 30, 2014

Awesome Studio Storage From the Recycling Bin...

Redoing the studio gets a girl dreaming.

At least it gets this girl dreaming.

Every artist wants that Pinterest worthy, picture perfect, naturally lit dream studio.

See my Pinterest Board here:


Reality is a whole different story.

Remember....

My actual studio style is....

PILES.

and

STACKS.

And 

More Piles.

But a girl can dream, right?  

Sometimes she can even do a little something about it.

Not too long ago, while shopping at Sam's Club, I found this awesome 3 tired galvanized stand back on the clearance shelves.

I was in love.

Only one left.

$24.90

Not as cheap as I would like, but reasonable.

Suddenly I remembered I might have a gift card from Christmas.

I put the stand in my cart so no one else could scoop it up while I went digging.

In my wallet.

For a card...???

Maybe?

Yes!

A $25 gift card.



My mother-in-law would be so pleased to have gotten me such a fantastic gift that I am going to like so much!

So I brought it home. 

 My husband just sort of shook his head.

It will be perfect for my studio.

Or parties.

Or on the kitchen island.

Then it sat sadly on the floor in my garage while I dreamed of a clean studio for weeks.

Now that I am organizing, it has a new home.

On my little rolling cart.



On top of the pretty new blue cutting mat my daughter bought me for mother's day.


Right now it is filled with coffee filter flowers and burlap flowers and scraps....

But I wanted more tiered stands....

So I spied a silver lazy Susan cake stand that I got at the thrift store this winter.

Among the piles on the garage floor.

I headed to the recycling bin.

And back to the garage for a couple silver plates and platters.

I began stacking and re-stacking until it worked.

Here are the before materials:



Excuse the dew on everything.  

I washed them with a hose and then left them outside overnight.

Took the photos in the morning before the dew burned off.



Next came a couple light coats of white spray paint.

Now things look like this....



I wanted everything to have a white base coat.

The cans look OK.



But I LOVE the trays...

They look just so pretty.



I almost changed my mind about using them...

I decided I will enjoy them more if they are being used every day...




Next I assembled my decorating materials:

a burlap bag, lace, images from the Graphics Fairy I printed on muslin with my printer, my glue gun, old hymn pages, some buttons and twine, a cupcake wrapper for wings, a wee bit of glitter and a couple twisted fabric flowers.

Decorating was fun once I got the burlap the right size for each can.

I just wrapped the burlap around each can and glued it in place with the glue gun.  

Then I added and glued other goodies until I liked the look.

To assemble the whole thing, I did not want to make it permanent.

So....

I got out some magnets and pried them apart.

I put several on each can to secure it to the stand.

I planned to use earth magnets for the center ones to keep them in place securely.

That did not work out as planned so I did use the glue gun to secure the center cans.

Then I wrapped twine around the glue to hide it.

Then I added my goodies. 

Bakers twine in old sugar shakers.

Markers and pens.

Pencils and scissors.

TA-DA!



Carrying this outside, assembled, was a circus balancing act.

But I did it!

I want to show you bits in detail....

I love the baker's twine shelf....


The burlap flower was added because the sugar shakers were too wide to put all of them on one shelf.

I had to make the center can slightly off-center to 
accommodate the sugar shakers...

which did not leave very much room on the other side...

So I added the little spools and it needed something above....

A burlap rose.



The bottom shelf is my favorite....


Those cans were as much fun to make as they are to look at.

And for once, I have some of my better supplies at my fingertips instead of being hidden away in drawers and cupboards.


Now I might actually use them...


Who could resist such temptation?



Each can has its own personality...



I want to let you enjoy each up close....


 I love the mica glitter and the little resin clock face I made...


The simplicity of the burlap really only needs a couple buttons to completely dress it up.

This burlap bag was so thick and soft.

My daughter is a barista and she brings me the coffee sacks when they are empty.... 



I love images from the The Graphics Fairy.  

There is so much you can do with them...


This one only needed a bit of lace.


This one is actually printed on card stock and carefully trimmed.

I got the crocheted snowflake at a craft show.

A sweet lady made them and sold them for 25 cents each.

I wanted to make her day so I bought every one on the table.

Came back a few minutes later to see she loaded the table again...

She must have had a trunk full of them under the table...

Sigh!

I defied gravity and Fate a second time by carrying the organizer inside again.

We made it!

Here she is on the now clean work table.


That's my transformed candlestick next to her.

She looked a bit undressed, so I added a necklace I made.


Such a pretty stand. 

 Who would have known its humble beginnings...?

From the recycling bin.

Thanks for stopping by....

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