Patriotic Chocolate Nonpareils: Emily at The Benson Street

Hey, friends!  Today I'm excited to have a new bloggy friend of mine here to share a fun recipe with you that would be perfect for the 4th of July and any other patriotic parties you have planned this summer!  Here she is; you're going to love her...

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Hey One Artsy Mama Readers!! I'm Emily and I blog over at The Benson Street about recipes, crafts and printables (I love printables!!). I love Amy and her blog and can't wait to share an easy, yummy project with you today.

   

 Have you ever had chocolate nonpareils??? If you haven't they are the cutest looking chocolates. Chocolate Nonpareils are chocolates dressed up with sprinkles (nonpareils to be technical). These easy candies are sure to impress!

   

Tree of Love Canvas

Happy Valentine's Day, friends!!  Wishing you a day filled with love and joy.  In Artsy-Land, while we of course celebrate the love between my husband and myself, we also really focus on the love we have for each other as a family.  We try to make it a special day for Little Crafter {he's particularly excited about presents and spaghetti for dinner}, and we also like involving him in creating gifts for Mommy and Daddy.

Here's a peek at the gift we worked together to make for hubby this year.  I like how the tree kind of represents a family tree and that our love as a family is always growing.

Materials:

Canvas {mine is 12x16}

Adhesive vinyl

Silhouette Cameo and Silhouette Studio 

Transfer Tape

Little helper {optional}

STEP 1: Download the free image from the Silhouette Online Store.  It will only be free this week, so even if you think you may not use it until next year, go get it!

STEP 2: Cut the image.  I cut the tree from brown vinyl, the words from light blue, and I divided up the hearts, cutting 5 from dark pink, 5 from light pink, and 6 from red.

STEP 3: Use transfer tape to place the tree image onto your canvas.

First you peel off the backing and place the sticky side of the transfer tape on top of your cut vinyl.

When you peel it up, your cut image will should be stuck to it.  Like so:

Then, line it up on your canvas and rub.  When you pull the transfer tape up, the vinyl *should* be stuck to the canvas.  This proved a bit tricky, as it wanted to come back up with the tape sometimes.  I ended up helping it along with my fingernails a bit.  LC was my expert rubber...such a helper.

STEP 4: Repeat process for the words.

Can you do this without the transfer tape and just use them like stickers?  Of course.  Is it impossible to get everything straight and lined up that way?  Absolutely.

STEP 5: Stick hearts onto the branches wherever you {or your small helper} like!

 Ta-da!  Simple, quick, cheap, easy...all my favorite things in a craft project!  Little Crafter and I had fun making it together and except for the part where he loudly asked me after dinner, "Mommy can we tell Daddy about the tree?," it was an all-around success.

I'm thrilled with how it turned out!  I also got hubby something I know he wanted; a Tervis Tumbler {we're both addicted to them} that shows off our team pride!  Woot!

And he, of course, gave me my present early...my Torrey Smith SuperBowl jersey!!  Since I'm allergic to flowers, make my own jewelry, and don't eat candy {I save my calories for Starbucks and Edy's ice cream},  it was the perfect choice!

Little Crafter is getting Angry Birds gummy snacks, a Valentine Ring Pop, a stuffed elephant, and an Angry Birds watch.  Shhhhh!

Hope you have a very Happy Valentine's Day!  Love and hugs from the Artsy Family!

Valentine's Day Heart Coasters

Looking for a fun, inexpensive way to add a little Valentine decor to your house?  Try these super-simple heart coasters!  Little Crafter and I made them using the same technique we used on our Fall Leaf Coasters and our Valentine Heart Vase.  All you need are a few basic supplies, and you'll have coasters that make your whole family feel festive!

Materials:

- tissue paper

- white ceramic tiles

- scissors

- Mod Podge {we used Super Gloss and Sparkle}

- felt

- hot glue gun and glue sticks

STEP 1: Cut hearts in various sizes and colors from tissue paper.  I found that if I took the paper out of the package, left it all together, and cut half a heart shape along a fold, I got lots of symmetrical hearts all at once.

STEP 2: Brush a coat of glossy Mod Podge over the entire tile.

STEP 3: Arrange hearts on top as desired.  Let dry.  This was Little Crafter's favorite part!

STEP 4: Paint a coat of Sparkle Mod Podge over the entire surface of the coaster.  You really do want to let the first part dry before doing this coat because if the tissue paper gets too soggy, the hearts will rip.  Ask me how I know.

STEP 5: Cut felt squares and glue them on the bottom of each tile to protect your table from scratches.

That's all there is to it!  Yet another project that meets my favorite qualifications...cheap {16 cents per tile plus a little bit of felt and tissue paper}, easy, and quick!  Hooray!

Which ones do you like better, hearts or leaves?  I love them both, but I'm leaning toward the hearts just a little...

Hugs & Glitter,

Valentine Photo Prop

We love Valentine's Day in the Artsy House!  This year I wanted to take some extra special photos we could use to make Valentines for Little Crafter to give out to his friends.  So, I came up with a simple but adorable photo prop that's so easy to make...

Kisses Chalkboard Photo Prop

We actually made this chalkboard last winter, along with a green one that I use in the kitchen as a Menu sign.  Here's how we did it:

Materials: 

wooden sign 

chalkboard paint

acrylic paint

paintbrushes

chalk

STEP 1: Paint edges of sign with acrylic paint in your choice of color.

Little Crafter chose purple for the Ravens!  Look how much smaller he was just a year ago!

STEP 2: Paint one coat of chalkboard paint across the top using horizontal strokes.  Let dry for one hour.

STEP 3: Paint a second coat using vertical strokes.  Let dry for 24 hours.  I also gave the edges a second coat.

STEP 4: Condition by lightly rubbing chalk over entire surface.  Wipe clean with dry eraser or damp towel.

STEP 5: Have child write "Kisses 5 cents" with chalk.  Little Crafter had a lot of fun with that part!

The great thing is that since it's basically just a chalkboard, it can be reused for all kinds of occasions and purposes.  

To get the photos, I put his stool in front of a blank wall, close to a light.  We chose a button down shirt that coordinated with the sign, and since he had some craaaaazy bed head going on, I spiked his hair.  Of course, I forgot to wet it first, which he immediately pointed out and said, "Mommy, that's going to make my hair look awful."   Which, of course, it didn't!  Just look at these cute pics we got...

Is he a heart-stealer or what?!  The best part, though, is that for awhile yet, Mommy gets to be his only Valentine.

Be sure to check out how adorable the cards turned out!

Hugs & Glitter!

Photo Valentines {that make me melt}

Oh. my. goodness.  Friends, I am SO excited about today's post...I've been bursting at the seams to show it to you ever since I first took these photos and created the Valentines because they're so adorable they absolutely melt my heart!!  But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last year, we ordered some cute Valentines day photo cards from Tiny Prints where we put a picture of Little Crafter's face in a little choo-choo train.  We gave them out to our family and friends...and the ladies at Starbucks and the library and the post office who all like to say he's their boyfriend.  This year, we wanted to get some more, so I started browsing around the site.  I considered a few different designs, based on LC's interests:

You're a Kick

A-maze-ing

{LC is obsessed with doing mazes right now.}

 

and my personal favorite, which has nothing to do with LC's interests whatsoever, and no photo, so we didn't go with it but I think it's so cute...

Mustache Marvel

But once I took the photos themselves, I knew we needed to go with one of the options where the picture was the total star of the show.  I plugged my favorite photo into several designs, then saw this one and instantly knew it was "the one."  What do you think?

 And, if anything could be better than that, this card design actually folds and has a spot for an inside photo too...which, of course, I took advantage of.  Here it is:

Aaaah!  I melt.  How crazy-adorable and sweet is this little man of mine?  I cannot wait to give these Valentine's day photo cards out and watch LC's "girlfriends" melt too!  They arrived on Thursday, and now we're making our list.  Just as cute in person!

Stay tuned for a tutorial on how we made the cute little chalkboard photo prop; it'll be on the blog tomorrow!

Hugs & Glitter,

Easy Valentine Heart Vase

Friends, I warned you...we're in full-out Valentine crafting mode here in the Artsy Family!  Our latest project involved two of our favorite things, tissue paper and Sparkle Mod Podge.  Oh, yes.  It's another quick, easy, cheap-o project you're going to want to do, either by yourself or with a Little Crafter or two to help you out.

Before I show you how to make your own, I have to give a shout out to the fabulous idea that inspired us, these adorable Valentines Day Votive Holders from Homemade Serenity.  Little Crafter saw them on Pinterest and pinned them onto his own board.  Originally we were going to replicate them exactly {we even have an old pickle jar}, but then I was in WalMart's seasonal section and saw some really cute glass vases for $2.97.  I thought, why not transform this fun idea into a vase I can use for the flowers I'm getting on Valentine's Day? ...at least I hope I'm getting flowers...

Materials:

- vase or jar, any shape or size will do! 

- red, white, and pink tissue paper

- scissors

- Mod Podge: any formula works but we used Gloss and Sparkle

The Process:

I found that cutting on the fold gives you a lot of hearts that are nice and symmetrical all at once.

I cut the white paper into squares and used a sponge brush to apply glossy Mod Podge directly onto the vase.  My helper put each piece in place, then I went over it with the sponge brush to make sure all the edges were down.

Little Crafter loved this part best.  He decided we need to make more...which I'm sure we will.

Why?  Well, because glitter makes everything better, of course!!  We made sure it had plenty of sparkle, then let it dry.  Ta-da!

I'm totally loving it!  For now, I put some silk flowers in it that I had laying around in my craft room.  They'll do until Valentine's Day when I get some real ones!

I think Sparkle Mod Podge is definitely one of my top 5 favorite crafting suppies of all time...what about you?

Hugs & Glitter,