Monday, July 29, 2013

Make Something Monday - Christmas In July

Yes, I am working on Christmas crafts already.  Is anyone really surprised by this?

I decided to start working on our family Christmas ornaments a little early.  We use Christmas ornaments every year to draw names for our family gift exchange, and I was so excited to make them again this year due to my new-found love affair with Mod Podge.

I purchased the wooden letters, papers, and ribbon from Hobby Lobby.



 I sanded down the edges of the letters and then cut out the shapes of each of the individual letters.  I found out this is easier to do before painting because I use a craft knife to trace out the shape of the letters and every once in a while I get too close to the wood and shave a little off.





Then, I punched a hole in the letters and traced the location onto the letters with a pencil.  Deputy D helped me to drill the holes in the letters.  This wood is really soft and I had trouble with splintering when I tried to do it myself.  Deputy D seems to be able to drill them cleanly.  I then used a Dremmel tool to clean up the edges of the holes.



I painted the letters with coordinating colors to the papers.  I tried a new brand of craft print from Michael's and it worked out pretty well.  On a side note, acrylic paint has a shelf life of something less than 12 years.  I purchased my stash of paints sometime in college, and ended up throwing them all away.  Now I have to go through the process of replacing all of my colors.




Once the paint had dried, I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the letters and let it dry for 15 minutes.  Then, I covered it up with a layer of Mod Podge and let it dry overnight.



I punched out snowflakes using a punch that I purchased from Michael's when they were on sale.


I decorated the the letters with the snowflakes and adhered them with Mod Podge.  While that was drying, I added initials and the year to the back of the letters.


I put layers of Mod Podge over everything, three layers total.

For the final touch, I added glittered ribbon that I purchased from Hobby Lobby to be used for hanging.








And the Christmas count-down has begun!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Tasty Thursday - Ice Ring for Punch Bowl

I know it's pretty simple, but I have never made an ice ring for a punch bowl before, and decided to give it a try.

For the ring, I used canned mandarin orange segments and pineapple rings.  I layered the oranges on the bottom and then the rings on top.  I added just enough water to cover the fruit and froze for about two hours.  Then I added another couple of inches of water and froze overnight.





To remove the ring, I just used the hose attachment on my sink and sprayed the bottom of the pan with hot water and it slid right out.  The ring lasted about three hours in the punch bowl.



For the small cubes, I added an orange segment to mini-muffin tins.  Again, I added just enough water to cover the fruit and then froze for about two hours.   I then filled each of the tins up and froze overnight.  To remove, I sprayed the bottom with hot water, and they popped right out.






The ice ring took up so  much room in the punch bowl that I added these to ice in my bowl to fill up cups.