Saying Goodbye To 2021

The holidays are always rushed and I never seem to have time to do everything I want to do. This year was no different. I didn't have time to do as much decorating as I wanted to or as much baking (although the hubby and I don't need the extra calories) or as much holiday crafting. One thing that was not on my list this year was buying Christmas presents as we decided to opt for a family vacation the week of Thanksgiving in lieu of gifts (except for the grandkids). Because our kids spent their Thanksgiving with us, that meant they spent Christmas with their inlaws - which made for a quieter Christmas for the hubby and I, although my brother and family was home for the holidays.

To close out the year, I thought I'd share a few photos of some of my Christmas decorations.

This year I was very excited to get to use my new Fiesta Ware lightbulb dishes along with the "A Lightbulb Moment" placemats and table runner I designed last year.

This Santa pitcher was a new acquisition in 2021 and he looked so cute in my tablescape.

My Santa mug collection continues to grow. I just love them paired with my Fiesta Ware lightbulb plates.

Jars filled with vintage ornaments and vintage Christmas lightbulbs graced my tablescape.

A few of my vintage plastic Santas and a vintage candolier that I decorated with vintage plastic Christmas items. I love them mixed in with a few pieces of jadeite.

A jadeite dish filled with vintage ornaments. Press the red nose of Santa and it lights up and plays Christmas music.

More vintage Christmas ornaments in a jadeite bowl. Love this vintage Santa even if his nose is a little crinkled.

A few of my Santa mugs along with a few of my vintage milk glass Christmas figural lightbulbs, and of course, more vintage ornaments.

I found this string of Santa lights a few weeks ago at a thrift shop. They almost match my two plastic Santa head ornaments I found last year.

Since I had no presents for under the Christmas tree, I wrapped a couple of birthday presents that were in the closet. I didn't really miss the packages with all these cute blow mold Santas and Snowmen under the tree. My tree this year was filled with lightbulb shaped ornaments to go with my "A Lightbulb Moment" tree skirt, etc. I made last year.

This is my "A Lightbulb Moment" quilt that was published in the Best of Moda Bake Shop book last year. It's still available at Martingale Publishing if you're interested.

I even managed to get my sewing studio semi-cleaned so I put up a Christmas tree to celebrate.

I managed to get a couple of projects completed during the holidays. I bought four framed cross stitch seasonal scenes with the intention of making them into pillows. I got the winter scene made into a pillow, while the rest are on my to-do list.

The only crafting I managed to do was turning this cute little deer I picked up at a thrift shop for 25 cents and a vintage jello mold into an ornament.

Didn't he turn out cute? I had plans to make Christmas bells from some other jello molds I bought this fall but it didn't happen. Maybe I'll do it before I pack all my Christmas away so they'll be ready for next year.

As we welcome a new year, I wish for all of you a happy and health year filled with quilting, crafting and thrifting with friends!

Happy New Year!

~Sharla

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Getting My DIY On With Homemade Burn Gel

For Thanksgiving this year, I joined the charcuterie craze and made my first charcuterie for our evening meal following the big Thanksgiving dinner at lunch. Of course, I had to make my own charcuterie boards and they turned out so well that I had to make one for my women's gift for our Christmas gift exchange. And since we can't all be together at Christmas, we had our gift exchange during our family Thanksgiving vacation so I can share my DIY gift early!

I stumbled upon a video online that showed someone using a 'magic' gel that they painted a design on wood using a stencil then burned it into the wood using a heat gun. It looked like fun and oh-so-cool so, of course, I had to try it. I ended up spending more than $50 to make my $25-gift-exchange-limit gift but that was mostly for the heat gun that I didn't have.

I made my stencils using my Silhouette Cameo 4, placed them on my slab of wood, and painted a thin (emphasis on thin!) layer of burn gel over the openings of the stencil. Then I removed the stencil and using the heat gun, blew hot air over the burn gel until it scorched the wood. Easy Peasy!

I love how the 'k' blends in with the natural knots in the wood on this board!

So, without further ado, here is the 'magic' burn gel recipe:

DIY Wood Burning Gel

1 tablespoon Ammonium Chloride

8 teaspoons Thick It

1/2 cup warm water

2 drops yellow food coloring

Mix the ingredients in a glass jar. It will turn to a gel very quickly. The yellow food coloring is to help show where you have painted the gel. You can store the leftover gel in an airtight jar. 

Tips, Tricks and Other Info:

• I bought my wood slabs at Hobby Lobby. I wanted the hubby to help me cut some dead trees down and make my own live edge wood slabs but that didn't happen so I used the live edge slabs at HL. They are made of basswood and are a soft wood - probably not the best type of wood to make charcuterie boards. 

• I used a stencil vinyl to make my design. I had some difficulty getting the stencil vinyl to stick to the wood to begin with. When I started laying a sheet of paper over the vinyl and rubbing the stencil down using a vinyl scraper tool, I had great contact.

• Apply a very thin layer of the burn gel on the wood to get sharp edges on your design. I put a thicker layer on my first attempt and the gel soaked into the wood and I had blobby edges after I burned the gel. Luckily, all I had to do was sand the wood back down and was ready to start over. 

• Keep your heat gun moving so that you don't scorch the area around the design and darken it. It takes a little while for the gel to heat up and begin to burn, so be patient. The longer you heat the gel, the darker it will get.

• After burning and cooling the wood, I applied a food grade mineral oil all over the board to help seal the wood from food contaminants.

• I bought my supplies on Amazon. (I'm not an affiliate and don't get any revenue from any of the links I'm sharing.) This is what I used:
• Seekone Heat Gun 1800 watt Heavy Duty Hot Air Gun
• Fritz Pro Ammonium Chloride
• Thick It Original
• Cutting Board Food Grade Mineral Oil
• Frisco Craft Stencil Vinyl
• Basswood Country Plank from Hobby Lobby

I used a variety of sizes of boards. On two of them, I bought cabinet drawer handles and attached them to the ends of the board for handles. On the board I gifted, I glued wooden balls for feet to the bottom over the screw holes to hide the screws. I thought it really added some flair to the board. 

Here's a couple of photos of my Thanksgiving charcuterie boards. I finally gave up on making my turkey designed board because my grandsons were hungry and kept stealing food off my board faster than I could put them on, so my turkey needs some help! Lol! But the charcuterie was a big hit and a nice change from the heavy Thanksgiving lunch. 

 

I hope I've shared enough info to answer any questions you may have. I watched several You Tube videos before I started, so you can check them out for additional information. 

Happy Crafting!

~Sharla

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Hello Sweet Cheeks!

Just popping on to share my latest crafting quicky. I made this bathroom sign today to hang in the downstairs bathroom that I am updating. So far I've chalk painted (gray) and waxed the vanity and hung a couple of floating shelves above the toilet. This sign will hang with the shelves. The new fixtures will be chrome, the walls a light gray, the vanity a darker gray. I'm currently waiting on the gray and white quartz countertop and then I am going to install white shiplap on the ceiling and on the wall above the vanity. To warm the space up, I am adding touches of stained wood and a few faux succulents. I forgot to take any before photos (and not sure I really want to share what it looked like before - 80s yuck!) but I'll be sure to share some after photos.

This sign is made from a live edge raw wood plaque that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I taped off stripes to paint and stain. I then cut the lettering from vinyl using my Silhouette Cameo 4. It was easy peasy.

What quick craft project have you made lately?

Happy Crafting!

~Sharla

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Welcoming Fall

Whoa!!! Where did summer go?! I have no idea but I know I am ready for fall! How about you?

I've really neglected my blog this summer and I promise to do better as my attention turns indoors. Hoping that means I'll be spending more time in my sanctuary - aka, my sewing room. When that happens, I hope to have more quilting and crafting inspiration to share here, but until then I'll share some of my summer in photos.....

Not much sewing has been happening for me this summer. In June, my mom and I enjoyed a two week, nine state excursion that included some quilt and antique shops. I found 13 vintage dresden blocks on deteriorated backgrounds that I am in the process of rescuing. Here's one block that I've machine appliqued to a new background.

This folded star mini quilt is the only other sewing I have done this summer. I made the folded star top at our Dine 'n Dash quilters group a couple of weeks ago. It's really suppose to be a pot holder but I decided it was much to pretty to get dirty and hung it on my mini quilt wall instead.

When I get the itch for a quick creative project, I like to create festive tablescapes. This was my summer table view.

This is my fall table setting. I am loving the unconventional blue and green colors.

The little gold 'pumpkin' with the white 'stem' is made from a small jello mold and a drawer pull. Cute, easy and fun!

Another quick creative project. My sister-in-law picked up this Droste Cocoa tin at an auction and gifted to me (my maiden name is Droste) and I decided to make a fall arrangement in it.

And one more quick craft project. Yesterday I added this vinyl 'hello' to my back screen door. Since everyone uses our back door as the main entrance, I thought a little greeting would be fun. I wonder if the FedEx driver noticed it today?

Much of my summer seemed to be spent in the yard watering plants and picking produce. This is the first time in more than 30 years I decided to do some canning. I canned a batch of corn and cherry tomato salsa and pickled banana peppers.

I also made peach jelly from a box of Colorado peaches. I also froze some for peach cobbler.

Thanks to a neighboring farmer, I also froze about 6 dozen ears of sweet corn.

I decided last month to tackle our spare bathroom and remodel it. I painted the standard honey oak 90s cabinets with a gray chalk paint and then waxed them. I'm now awaiting a new quartz countertop and sink before installing painted shiplap on the vanity wall and ceiling. 

And this happened at the end of August - I turned 60! Had a great time in Kansas City with my mom, kids and hubby celebrating. Although you can't see much of it, I designed this "Cheers to 60 Years" SVG to put on a shirt.

Hope y'all had a great summer too! I look forward to keeping in better touch with everyone for some quilting and crafting fun this fall and winter!

Happy Quilting!

~Sharla

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Exploding Valentine Boxes

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I spent the last couple of days making Valentines for my grandsons. Not just any ol' valentine will do for my grands so I thought I'd try my hand at making exploding Valentine boxes. 

No they don't really explode, rather when the lid is removed the sides of the boxes fall out to reveal another box inside. Removing the next box lid will result in the same 'explosion' revealing yet another box. The third box in my exploding boxes do not 'explode' but rather holds a little gift.

To make an exploding box, you need a set of boxes that graduate in size and will fit inside each other. I found my set of boxes at Hobby Lobby. Next, you cut the sides of the boxes apart at the corners so that the entire box lays flat. I cut the two largest boxes leaving the smallest one in tact.

Next, decorate the outside and inside of each panel of the box. I used scrapbook paper, some printed valentine jokes and emoji laughing faces, candy, and hearts cut on my Silhouette Cameo 4. I used stick glue, hot glue and adhesive foam dots to attach the different items to the boxes.

Place your gift in the smallest box and place the lid on top. The smallest box is then hot glued to the inside center of the medium size box. Holding the sides of the medium box up, place the lid on top and then the medium size box is glued to the inside center of the largest box. Lastly, hold the sides of the largest box together and place the lid on top. 

TA DA! Your exploding box is ready to gift. You can make exploding boxes for any occasion and in any size. Wouldn't it be a fun way to wrap presents at Christmas?!

I found several ideas for these decorative boxes on Pinterest, just search for exploding boxes. You can get really creative if you have the time. Mine are pretty simply decorated but it still took me two whole afternoons to make them.

Can't wait to see the creative exploding boxes ya'll make. Tag me on Instagram if you make one!

Happy Crafting!

~Sharla

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Cheers to 80 Years

Yesterday we celebrated my mom's 80th birthday. Not how we had hoped to celebrate, but we marked the occasion in a low-key Covid-era way. Typically, my mom hosts a quilting retreat for her sisters and me over her birthday weekend. Over the years, the number of days has increased and its always a fun time. Because of Covid, she didn't feel comfortable having her sisters travel and stay with her so just mom and I spent the weekend sewing. We had fun and we both made lots of progress on our 2020 stash buster quilts.

To celebrate her day, I designed an SVG file to cut a vinyl decal to make her a shirt to wear. I made some sketches, and even drew my own wording, that I scanned into Adobe Illustrator and traced. Then I began arranging the motifs into a design. When I was happy with the design, I saved it as an SVG which is the type of file my Silhouette Cameo 4 uses to cut. 

This was the first time I tried to design my own SVG file and was really pleased with how it turned out. It was a little time consuming weeding out the pieces of vinyl from the cut design because of the intricacy, but other than that, it worked great. 

Mom gave me a hard time for making her a shirt advertising her age but when I explained that I was making a 60 one for me (I turn 60 in August) and one for my daughter (she turns 40 in October) for our "40-60-80" trip this summer, she agreed to wear it. LOL!

Have any of you designed your own SVG files? What types of designs have you made? I'd love to hear about them!

Happy Crafting!

~Sharla

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