Bottle Vases

Today I'm posting a super simple craft. First of all, let me tell you that I love glass bottles/jars. When I was younger I would always save glass bottles and display them in my room. They were usually Stewart's soda bottles or Clearly Canadian sparkling flavored water (remember that stuff?) I would also save glass jars and store crayons, candy, and buttons for display purposes. Cory makes fun of me because I would buy almost anything if it were in a mason jar. Sometimes I have to turn my head at Cracker Barrel to avoid seeing all the beautiful mason jars filled with candy. Below is a picture of a jar from my great grandmother's house. I'm not sure how old it is but my mom gave it to me a while back. I also really like this coke bottle they sold a few Christmases ago. It was modeled after the first coke bottle.

Ok, so now you know my love of glass bottles. I don't save every bottle I see now, but I still appreciate their simple beauty. One bottle I really like the shape of holds one of my favorite drinks: Frappuccinos! I know this sounds silly but every time I threw a bottle away it would make me sad to see it go. I had to think of a way to keep a few bottles around and for them to be functional. Functionality is one of my main goals in making crafts.

I finally found a solution when I opened my Martha Stewart magazine (this was when I was still in college). She had a craft where she painted glass with enamel paint so that water wouldn't damage it. So this brings me to today's craft.....Here's what you need.

Yummy Frappuccino bottles. Or any glass bottle, really.

And enamel paint. I got this at Hobby Lobby for about $2.

First you'll need to empty the contents of the bottle and peel off any labels. If the label leaves a sticky residue then you can always use Goof Off to get it off. Make sure the inside of the bottle has been rinsed out too.

Now squeeze some paint into the bottle.

A little paint goes a long way. After a few squirts start turning the bottle around to coat the inside.

After you've coated the inside turn the bottle upside down and place on either a paper plate or aluminum foil. You'll be surprised how much paint will run out of it.

After it dries, you can use your bottle as a vase or just for a pretty decoration. The cool thing about painting the inside of the bottle is that it looks like the bottle was made that color. It really has a cool effect and still has a glass shine. If you have a tinted bottle to begin with (like my great grandmother's jar) you can just put white paint in it. It just makes the glass look opaque.

On a side note, another really pretty bottle to use as a vase to hold pink flowers is an Arizona Green Tea bottle. Isn't it lovely? I think it has a "shabby chic" look to it and would be pretty at a picnic or barbecue.

Cool Website

Here's a really cool website that can help you with choosing colors for a project or room. It's at http://bighugelabs.com/colors.php. You can upload any picture and it will create a color pallet for you. Below is an example of what it does. I thought this picture was really pretty so I uploaded it and it pulled out these colors.

I really enjoy looking a interior design websites/blogs to get ideas for whenever I have a house. I like to save the pictures to a "dream home" folder so I won't forget. In this folder I also put pretty pictures that I find online. When I found this site I uploaded a lot of pictures from that folder and found it fun that I'm drawn to the same colors almost everytime.
Oh well, not too much to write here. Just wanted to share this neat website. I hope you have a dandy day :)

Going Green

OK, this post is not actually about an eco friendly project. It's just the color I chose for it. About two weeks ago, Cory & I were driving around Tuscaloosa running errands. On our way back to our apartment we drove by a pile of junk somebody put on the side of the street to throw away (which seems to happen a lot around here). Now usually when we pass by these piles of junk Cory will ask, "Hey Karen, do you need a ______" (insert some nasty object that is laying on the street) and it usually grosses me out and I just give him an "are you serious?!" look. Well on this particular day and with this particular pile of junk sat an old yellow chair. As we passed it Cory said, "Hey Karen, do you need an old chair?". This time to Cory's (and even my) surprise, I said, "Yeah, that could be cool." After a while of convincing Cory I wasn't joking, we went to scope it out. It was dirty looking but seemed to be in fairly good condition so we decided to take it home. Fortunately we were borrowing Cory's dad's Tahoe (which is bigger than our cars) so we were able to pick it up.

As we got home we noticed that the chair had a pretty strong smell of smoke so we Febreezed it pretty good. It was getting late and I had to be up early the next morning so we just sat the chair in our kitchen and snapped a few "before" photos.

The next day at work seemed to take forever because I was ready to get home and start working on our new project. As soon as I opened our apartment door a smell of smoke hit me. The chair had made our apartment pretty smelly. Cory & I knew we had to begin the project right away. The first step of reupholstering furniture is to take the old covering off. The fabric is usually just stapled to the frame of the furniture so we got our staple removers and pliers out and started ripping off the fabric. It's also important to make notes/take pictures as you take off each piece of fabric because you have to put the new fabric back on in the reverse order. We started with the skirt of the chair. As the skirt came off we noticed that one of the legs was broken. It was probably the reason the chair got chucked. This made me feel better about getting the chair because I kept thinking that maybe these people threw the chair away because of a "Poppy" incident. If you watch Seinfeld, you'll understand. Anyway, Cory said he could fix the leg so we just kept taking the fabric off.

The new leg that Cory made is on the left.

We threw away a lot of the batting or cushy stuff in the chair so we could replace it with non-smoke filled stuffing. We wanted to throw the back and seat cushion out and replace it with new ones but soon realized that it would end up costing more than we wanted to put into it. We selvaged the cushions by making a cover for them, placing them in the sun for long periods of time, spraying them with Febreeze,and covering them with baking soda to get rid of the smoke smell. We bought some sheets of foam to cover the original cushions. The chair was finally ready for new fabric.

It was hard trying to find the perfect fabric. I was really drawn to this pattern which I found out is called "Moroccan" print.

Since I have a lot of tan and baby blue objects in my home, I went with a green fabric with this print. Cory was a HUGE help with this project. We had a few roadblocks with re stapling, having to return a broken electric staple gun, the power going out THREE times, but we finally finished. So here is our chair after some new fabric, new foam, new piping, handmade buttons, and freshly painted legs. The best part is it's very comfortable.

I Scream for Ice Cream

I was misinformed today. I was told that it was National Cupcake Day. I did some Googling and found out that it is actually on December 15th. During my research I also found out that today is National Soft Ice Cream Day. Who knew that these days even existed? I know it's not observed in places that serve ice cream because I went to such a place tonight...no celebration, except for me who was really excited to be getting a frozen treat. It just makes me so happy.
I think ice cream in general makes everyone happy! We could solve everything with ice cream! “What??? You don’t like me?” ”Have some ice cream!"...just kidding.
Anyway, I've decided to cut back on my ice cream intake because it's a lot of calories. Especially my favorite Coldstone Creation, Birthday Cake Re-mix. I'm not even going to say how many calories are in it. I have found a way to get a similar taste to fulfill my craving though. Frozen cake batter yogurt with sprinkles. It's pretty yummy.

Sorry, this is not a crafty post at all. I haven't posted a blog in a while and needed to share this "National" holiday. ;)

Fruity Transformation

First of all, let me explain my love of white ceramic objects. I think they look so clean and lovely.

Here are some of my favorite white ceramic pieces in my home.

This rhino is on my wish list right now. It's at Z Gallerie, along with some other cute ceramic items. You should check them out www.zgallerie.com .

Now I have been pining over this little guy since I first saw him in the spring. I don't really have a place to put him though right now because my living room is covered in bird figurines and a rhino might seem a little out of place...I realize a rhino may seem a little out of place anywhere in a home. Anyway, I really needed a white ceramic item to indulge my craving so I decided to paint a ceramic piece that I already had.

I got this lemon figure at my grandfather's antique store about 5 years ago. Every time I would go to visit the store it just stood out for some reason. It's a little funky but I really liked it. I know it looks like a blast from the 60's or 70's but I dig that vintage look ;)

Although I liked the look, I thought it might look pretty charming as a white piece. So today while Cory & I were at Hobby Lobby I picked up some white lacquer.

And I sprayed away. (Cory did too)

Tada! The picture doesn't do it as much justice. It's very glossy and the result I was going for.

Things That Make You Go Yum

So the C+C Music Factory song, "Things That Make You Go Hmmm" has been going on in my head all day. As I was cooking this treat I substituted the "hmm" for "yum"...I know, I'm corny. :)
Last night I was looking through my recipes and found one that I had torn out of a magazine a while back. (I think it was from Woman's Day) It was for some cream filled cupcakes that I had yet to try and bake. I thought I would make them for the weekend.
Here's what you need for the cake.

Box of yellow cake mix & ingredients to prepare it. I used butter golden recipe. Also you'll need cupcake liners.
Prepare the cake mix according to package. While the cupcakes are baking you can make the filling. The filling calls for:

1 (8 oz) tub of cool whip, thawed

3 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

With an electric mixer mix the the cream cheese & cool whip until blended. Add the sugar. Chill in the fridge for a while.

After your cupcakes have cooled all the way, get the filling out of the fridge and put it in a pastry bag and inject each cupcake with about a tablespoon of cream.

Now for the frosting. You'll need:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow cream

2 3/4 cups powder sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons milk

In a medium bowl, combine butter and marshmallow cream. Beat at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat in vanilla and milk until spreadable consistency is reached.

Now spread the frosting over the top of the cupcakes. Store covered in the refrigerator.

And because sprinkles make things look better...

The cupcakes are pretty darn tasty. The frosting is rich so the cream filling kind of "neutralizes" it and is kind of like having a glass of milk with it...I'm not sure if that makes sense, so you'll have to try them to understand what I mean.

Also the sprinkles, although very pretty & colorful, make the cupcakes even sweeter, so I had to make some "naked". Enjoy!

How precious is this???

I was browsing the web and found this funny little picture. He's so little and too cute not to share. :)

Silhouettes

For some reason or another I really like cameo jewelry and silhouette pictures.

Here are some silhouette photos I found on the Internet a long time ago. They intrigued me.

After looking at these pictures (along with some more I had saved) I decided to make silhouette pictures of Cory and me. It's really simple.

All you need is some pretty scrapbook paper (or plain paper if ya want), a profile picture of the person you want to use, and black paint*, & a paintbrush*.
*Instead of paint you can use black construction paper.

For my profile picture I just took a picture with my digital camera and uploaded it to my computer. After playing around with the size that I wanted I printed it out on some copy paper.

After you have your profile picture then you need to trace it onto the scrapbook paper. (* or black construction paper if you're using it instead of paint. Then you would just cut it out)

After you trace your photo paint inside the lines.

Then you are done! Here are our silhouettes.

Here's the whole wall to get the full effect :)

Cutesy Envelopes

Here's a little craft that's not too profound, but is a nice little touch to a letter or card. It's pretty simple. Here's what you need:
-Pretty paper (like scrapbook paper-the bigger size is better)
-tacky glue
-scissors
-pencil or pen
-an old envelope

First open the old envelope to use as a template.

Next trace the old envelope's shape onto the back of your scrapbook paper.

Then cut the shape out.

Now fold the paper like the original envelope was folded. Glue the bottom and sides together.




Now you are finished!






To seal the envelope you can use double-sided tape or seal it with a cute sticker.

Also if the paper is too dark or "busy" you can use a label to address the letter.