Friday, November 13, 2009

Santa's Cookie Tray

Santa Cookie Tray

The other day I found an old frame I had purchased at a thrift store with the intention of making it into some sort of serving tray. With Christmas fast approaching, I thought the perfect idea would be a fun tray to leave Santa's cookies and milk on. (I apologize for the glare on some of these. Rotten time of day to get a good picture.) Supplies needed: 1 thrifted frame (with the glass still in) big enough to hold a small plate of cookies and glass of milk Paint-acrylic or spray Scrap paper in Christmas colors/themes Letter stickers, die cuts, or computer to make title Adhesive Trim, stamps, embellishments as desired First rough up your frame for easier painting. I lucked out that the gold trim on this one was just painted gold. :) Next paint your desired color. I used Ebony from Americana paints (which you can find at Hobby Lobby, Roberts Arts and Crafts, etc.) While that's drying, take the cardboard backing and start piecing together your paper. It was easier for me to think of this part as making one giant Christmas card. When you're doing this, remember to leave yourself a slight margin all the way around to prevent your work from being covered up by the frame. I used only supplies I had on hand and got to revisit a favorite technique-embossing. I didn't have any sparkly ribbon so I found a snowflake stamp in my collection. First stamp the image with Versa Mark ink (a clear pigment ink) then sprinkle with silver embossing powder. Gently tap the board over a scrap paper to remove excess powder and melt the powder with a heat gun. Repeat the process for the stars on top of the Christmas trees. When you're satisfied with the way it looks, pop it into your dried frame. When I was finished, I discovered a pleasant surprise. Not only will this make a darling tray to hold Santa's goodies, but will be a fun decoration to use the other 24 days of December! (I bet you could come up with something fun for a cute Thanksgiving tray, too!)

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Happy Anniversary to Us

It seems impossible to believe, but...
It's been an entire year since we started Twiddle-Thumbs. What a fun adventure it has been for us! We often joke that the blog helps us finish so many cute things for our homes and children than we never would have without it.
Thanks again for reading Twiddle-Thumbs and making fun crafts with us. We hope to keep you around and hope to hear from you more (COMMENTS PLEASE!!!).

Craft Workshop in St. George, UT

I am adding a craft class in St. George for the christmas crafts.

Date: Tuesday, Nov. 24th

Time: 6-9 p.m.

Place: My mom's house

(it's actually in Santa Clara, but I will give you the details when you contact me)

Click here for the classes offered and prices.

-Anisa
anisascholes@gmail.com

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Texturize your Fabric

In continuing with our Countdown to Crafts, I would like to talk about local Quilt Shops/Fabric Stores... not your national chains. I tend to like the fun designer stuff. For instance, this Thanksgiving Table Runner is made from the Pumpkins Gone Wild line by Moda. I can not find this fabric at any of my chain stores. I purchased this fabric last year at Pine Needles in Gardner Village. The local Quilt Stores don't have a 40% off coupon like many of the chains. However, what I have discovered is that many of them having mailing or emailing lists. Get on Those!!! That is where they will advertise their sales and often times email out coupons. Now, let's talk about texturizing your fabric. Fabric is fun... especially all of the bright cotton prints, but they don't have a lot of texture to them. I bought this fabric to make a table runner. I didn't want to quilt it because it was going to be on my table, but I wanted to give it a little texture and make it a little more fun. So, the first thing I did was to put it together using ric rac as the trim. Then I did a little hand stitching with embroidery floss down the pumpkins that had a stripe pattern. On the pumpkins with dots and flowers, I sewed buttons. Then on one of the leaves, I cut out a piece of felt to put over the leaf that was printed on the fabric and machine sewed on that. It was really fun to add texture to the fabric this way. You could do this with almost any print... what doesn't have dots, flowers or stripes?

If you would like to purchase a table runner like this, check out my etsy shop here.

-Anisa