Slow Growing Candles

Alicia sent me my latest project when I still lived in America.  Which would mean we're talking about March.  Which would mean I'm a crap craft blog partner.  But, on to the new news.

Al sent me some adorable teacups, a ceramic watering can, microwaveable soy wax, wicks, french vanilla scent and a link to design*sponge's teacup candle tutorial.  I had been eyeing this very project myself, and was stoked to have all the materials at hand and get started!

I hotglued the wicks to the candleholders. 



I need a new glue gun.  Mine is cute and pink but it's a little ridiculous to require a transformer to power a three inch long glue melter.

I melted the soy wax in the microwave, then allowed it to cool down to 140° to add the fragrance in.





I probably could have filled the watering can a little more, but I wasn't entirely confident the laws of physics would stay on my side and the hot wax wouldn't come bubbling out of the pouring spout.

All in all, this was a fun and very easy project and I'm thrilled with my three new candles! I almost always have a candle going in the kitchen and often one in the living room, as well. I'm looking forward to coming up with new vessels and scents and burning the midnight oil. Heh heh.





Look forward to a new Team Awesome Photo tomorrow!

Slow Growing Candles

New Feature!

Team Awesome is adding a new sporadic feature to the mix.  Team Awesome Photos!  We've been talking about doing this for a while, but waited for Jen to move across the ocean and get settled and become happily unemployed before we started up.  The idea is we'll come up with a word - a theme or adjective- and each put up a photo based on that word.  The word I picked to kick it off is PURPLE.


Jen is spending a weekend in France with her family, so she sent me her picture to edit and put together.  The idea is that which ever one of us comes up with the word will also create the diptych and post it.


So here's the first one!

Jen's photo of French jam is on the left, My photo of purple flowers from my yard is on the right.
(click thru to Flickr for a larger photo)

New Feature!

Butterflies and Birds in Golden Cages!

Jen sent me this fun little craft a few weeks back.  I got a box full of paper, pastel brads, a hole punch and paper lids along with the directions and some other goodies.  The directions were printed from the Brides Cafe's post on DIY Bird Cage Lanterns.  I knew I'd need to pick up some string, so it sat for a few days before I tried it out.

When I went to Michael's to pick up string, I found some cute and inexpensive birds and butterflies and went ahead and picked them up to put in the cages.  I intend to hang these from the ceiling in my daughter's room around some paper globe lanterns that are already hanging.  So I did another tweak from the directions, which was to cover the entire bottom of the cage with paper also, since we'd be able to see the bottom. (I'm not sure why this wasn't done in the original anyway, since the directions call for ice cream pint lids?)

The first day I sat down to do this craft I realized the double sided tape was not working for me and I really needed to use some plain white glue, which I didn't have, and I still worked on it and just ended up frustrating myself.  I finally put it away and went back to this craft after I bought regular glue, and it was so much easier.  My dad used to say, "Any job is easy with the right tools" and I am pretty sure he's right.

So here's how the birdcages (and butterfly cages) came out:

I think they're just adorable!  So here are the tweaks that I made:
-I didn't use paper bird cutouts and went with cheap bird and butterflies from the craft store instead.
-I covered the entire bottom of the cages with paper so they would look pretty from underneath.
-I used the hole punch and punched holes in the lids and connected the "bars" of the cage with brads, too.  I think it looks cuter that way, and it feels way sturdier.  (I only figured that out on the last two.) It's also important to punch holes in the lid before you cover it with paper.  Then as you cover the lid, mark the holes on the outside before you fold the paper in.  Once you fold the paper in, you can push the brads through.  Trying to punch through the extra paper and the lid was super difficult.
-I used glue (and brads) instead of double-sided tape.

My daughter really thought these were cool. And I liked this craft a whole lot, too.


After these crafts were done a few days, the cages held together with double sided tape started to fall, but the cages with the brads are still sitting up tall just like they should.

Butterflies and Birds in Golden Cages!

Four Crafts Down and I Made A Wordle!

Check out Wordle.com to make one for your blog:

Four Crafts Down and I Made A Wordle!

Ribbons and bows and sparklies, oh my!

We live.  Just busy.  But, I have a feeling the floodgates are about to open up!

Alicia sent me the cutest craft and I had SO much fun with it.  Even better, my daughter scored. It all started off with these instructions (which I thought were pretty spanking awesome):

I set up all the goodies Al sent me:

I knocked out approximately three hairbows and then my glue gun crapped out.  Which sounds like a setback, but actually I was totally stoked at the chance to run down to Michaels and pick up the super cute pink glue gun I wanted anyway.

I got back, fired up the cuteness and had SO much fun.  My daughter got involved, picking out the ribbons she wanted and the "flair" she wanted added to each pin.  Then, she refused to leave my side, intent on averting any accidental mixup of the 12839387423293 hairbows she had picked out for herself with the 5 or so hairbows she had assigned to various friends.

Here's the finished haul:

One of them apparently tipped over and somehow I didn't notice that despite shooting about a dillion pictures of the lot.

Some of them came out really well:

Others of them didn't quite work out the way I had hoped:

I had a blast and my daughter cleaned. up.  All around WIN!

I sent Al's next craft off to her last week, so look for that next...

Ribbons and bows and sparklies, oh my!

It’s been a looooooong time coming…

You may remember that Alicia sent me two crafts in her first dispatch. I’ve been working on craft #2 for, uh…let’s not go there. Between training my replacement at work, prepping the house for sale and general extracurriculars and sports/household stuff/kids gotta eat/etc…, I’ve had a tough time squeezing in the fun stuff like this adorable stuffed owl kit.

Alicia suggested I let Cheeseball (my four year old little girl) help sew up the smaller owl, which was a fantastic idea! Unfortch, trying to squeeze that in to daytime hours just didn’t happen and I finally gave up and completed it myself. She’ll be the beneficiary of the two little owls, though, and that completely makes her sparkly little day.

This kit was a lot of fun and so, so easy. Alicia is one smart cookie and knows that a craft kit that includes all the materials and is designed for the skillset of a smallish child is right in my craft sweetspot.

I think I actually managed to execute just as well as a smallish child if you pretend not to notice the fact that these poor little owls are woefully understuffed. Even without the giant leftover blob of fluff, I can tell these needed more belly. Which leads into my very few tips for the project:

Sew up to the recommended opening on both owls before stuffing either.

Stuff, sew the recommended opening mostly closed, then stuff some more.

Yep, that’s it. Seriously – so, so easy, you guys!

It’s been a looooooong time coming…

Vintage Brooch Magnets

Jen sent me a great little craft. I would have finished earlier, but I had to go buy a new glue gun. I know I had one. I think it's been reappointed to garage duty. I bought a pink one this time. I bet I'll always be able to find it.

Here are the supplies she sent: a package of magnets, a package of small blocks, and four future magnets.

I threatened to keep the pink brooch to wear. But I didn't. I made it into a magnet and it is now up on my fridge.

This is a brooch, complete with pin on back. You can see a glimpse of my pink glue gun in the upper right corner, and a glimpse of my pink needle nose pliers on the right edge. I always know where they are. They don't get taken to the garage.

Using the needle nose pliers and a slight twisting motion, as though I was dialing each piece, I broke off the pin on each side. I opened the pin first so I could do each side separately and wouldn't get a flying pin in the eye. I's a jeenus.

This is one of the magnets right after I've glued it all together. I went back and added a small bead of glue all the way around to add some strength and clean up the look a bit.

Ta-Da! Four pretty new magnets on my fridge!

Jen already has her second project, and I think she's finished it. I am patching some jeans for her and then I'll be able to send out project number three with it, also.

Vintage Brooch Magnets