DIY Coasters

Month 4 of the Suburban Crafters Pinterest parties went very well! This month it was at my house, and despite my lack of space and the fact that we had more people than ever participate, the project turned out amazing! I chose (with the help of my mom) to make DIY coasters with bathroom tiles and mod podge.

To create these coasters you will need the following supplies:

• 4-8 tiles per set. I did 6 per set, and I found bathroom tiles at Home Depot for 13 cents each!
• Mod Podge, which you can find at any craft store
• Brushes, I like the foam ones shown in the photo
• Scrapbook paper, in the design of your choosing. Also to note, at our party someone used photographs on their coasters, and someone else used newspaper. Feel free to think outside the box!
• A paper cutter or scissors
• Felt, I picked black stiffened felt from the craft store that already had a sticky backing to on it.
• Clear acrylic spray (to make them waterproof!)

So, first step first! I cut all of my paper to the exact size of the tile. Actually, I cut it one centimeter less than the size of the tile. I used my paper cutter to do the measuring, but I suppose you could use a ruler and scissors!

Next, you want to apply Mod Podge to the tile. After you do that, immediately place the cut paper on top of the Mod Podge and align it. Don't worry if it isn't perfect at first, you can slide it around the first few seconds before it hardens.

After that dries for a few minutes, you will then apply another coat on top of the scrapbook paper. I like to do two coats on top of the paper, but let the first one dry for about 15 minutes before applying the second one. I also like to put mod podge on the sides of the tile.

Once the tile dries, you can apply your cut felt (I cut mine into squares a half an inch less than the size of the tile) to the bottom of the tile. I just pulled off the sticky thing and stuck mine on. If your felt isn't already sticky, any type of glue should work well for this.

Once the Mod Podge is completely dry (about 2 hours), you need to spray the top of your coasters with the clear acrylic spray. We layed ours all out in the garage and sprayed them with two coats of the acrylic spray.

I think all of the tiles turned out so great! Here are some closeups.

Here are the ones I made:

I also wanted to thank my friend Kelly for making me them most amazing chocolate bacon cake for my birthday and bringing it to the party!

Gender Reveal Cupcakes!

My co-worker and I thought it would be fun to announce the sex of her baby to our office by having a gender reveal party. Super trendy, I know. She told me what it was the night before, and as hard as it was I kept it a secret until the party. I went home that night and got to work on some gender reveal cupcakes!

First, I made white cake cupcakes in both blue and pink wrappers. I made a small hole in the cupcakes (you don't have to do this, but I wanted to make sure to have room for a lot of filling).

I filled the cupcakes with PINK! butter cream, and then topped them off with yellow (neutral) butter cream.

I decided these cupcakes would be much cuter with a little decoration, so I rolled out some green fondant, cut a circle with a cookie cutter, and stamped it with a Wilton Letter Press question mark.

The party was a lot of fun, coworkers gathered around and all broke into their cupcakes at once to reveal the gender!

Mom-to-be

Mom-to-be

Knit Baby Blanket

Since teaching myself to knit almost two years ago, I have made one scarf, one cable knit blanket (not quite done, will post when finished!) and one baby blanket. The baby blanket was created for my good friend who is due at the end of May. She opted not to find out the gender, so I went with white and yellow for the blanket.

The pattern I used, I found online. The pattern only showed one strand of yarn, although I decided to knit two stands together. The pattern also said to use size 6 circular needles. I cannot remember what I actually purchased, either size 6 or 8. They don't say the size on them either!

Here is the pattern:
Cast on 5 sts.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: K3, yo, K2- 6 sts.
Row 3: K3, yo, K3- 7sts
Row 4: K3, yo, K to end of row.
Repeat row 4 until you have the blanket size you want.
Next (decrease) row: K2, yo, K2tog, K to end of row.
Rep last row until 5 sts. remain. Bind off.
Weave in ends.

This is what it got me:

Silk Marvelous Mornings

I won another House Party! I seriously love that Web site! This time, I won the Silk marvelous mornings  party,. Silk is promoting their new Silk Fruit & Protein drink. Here is what I received in my party pack:

• 4 coupons for a fee quart or half gallon of any Silk
• 1 juice glass
• 1 tumbler
• 1 $5 Visa gift card
• 43 coupons for $1 off any quart or larger Silk Fruit & Protein
• 42 Silk tasting cups
• 14 crazy straws
• 14 Silk bowls, plates and napkins
• 14 Silk magnets
• 14 coupons for $15 off a Ninja kitchen appliance

I haven't used the free coupons yet, but I plan on tasting the new drink this week! Thanks House Party!

Chalkboard Paint

The suburban crafters met in March for our third Pinterest party. This month, we decided to try our hand at chalkboard paint! We all brought in different items to paint, and I have to say everyone's projects turned out really well. I won't put instructions on how to do this. It is simple: buy chalkboard paint and brushes, and paint a few coats on whatever you want!

I decided to paint the following items:

Photo Frame: Painted glass to
use as a message board.

Cardboard Gift Tags

Containers for sugar, flour etc.

I think the projects all turned out well. After 1 day (I couldn't' wait the recommended 3), I tried out the chalk:

Here are some of the items the other girls decided to paint:

Napkin Rings

Planters

Wine Glasses

And as always, our group photo:

 Next month the party is at my house! Stay tuned for which project we choose next time!

Confessions of a Former Scrapbooker

It's no secret I love crafts. In fact, I used to be a big time scrapbooker but since I discovered online scrapbooking, my supplies have been collecting dust! A few years ago I didn't think online scrapbooking could ever come close to the real thing, until I discovered Mixbook. After making a book on their site, I concluded that online is better for the following reasons:

1. Save money. Anyone who has made a scrapbook knows that the cost of the book, paper, stickers, printed photos, etc. really adds up. It could cost over $100 to make one book if you like to have a lot of pages like me! Not to mention all the extras you need like a paper cutter and stamps (sure, they are reusable, but they are costly in the beginning).
2. More options. The internet is a huge place- bigger than any craft store. If you are making a scrapbook about your trip to Paris, and you want to include a sticker of the Eiffel tower, or make the background paper Paris themed, you would go to your local scrapbook store and browse their stock. They might have 1-2 sheets of 12x12 paper that have something to do with Paris, and maybe a few sticker sheets that have the Eiffel tower on them. If you like extreme customization like me, Mixbook allow you to upload any image as a photo, sticker or background - and you don't need to drive to the store. You can use the gorgeous photo you took of the Eiffel tower at night as your background, or upload one it from Google images to use as a sticker. The options are endless and, Mixbook thousands of stickers and backgrounds and they are constantly adding more!
3. Convenience. You can start with a blank book, import your photos into a finished book, or anything in between! Most of the time, I like to start with a partially finished book and edit/customize as I go along.
4. Professionalism. Lets be honest, as cute as handmade scrapbooks look, they are not professional looking. Stickers start to peel off, the photos start to discolor and glue gets in places it shouldn't. I LOVE the smooth pages and hard cover of the online photo books. I'm sure some people would argue that they like to put their plane tickets or other similar items into their scrapbook Check out some of my books below, and you will notice that I have all that in there. Simply take a picture of it and then remove the background. Upload your image as a sticker and there you go!
5. Space. When you are a hardcore scrapbooker, you most likely have bins and bins of supplies. When you want to work on your scrapbook, you have to drag them all out and organize everything to see what you have (unless of course you are lucky enough to have a designated scrapbook area in your home but most of us don't have that much room). To work on your online photobook, simply sit down in front of your computer log in and get started!

Check out my photo books by clicking the caption under the photo.

Jamaica, 2009

Australia, 2010

Our Life, 2010

Our Life, 2011

Month 12 (2011) - Pork Chops

So...I FINALLY finished my 2011 new years resolution to try a new food each month!!! For the final pick, my husband choose pork chops.

We followed a recipe for Italian Breaded Pork Chops that we found online. It had a lot of good reviews and seemed easy. Overall, they tasted good (not much different from chicken) and I would definitely eat these again.