DIY Recipe Box

When I got married, I went from eating cold cereal for dinner to actually having to cook meals! I was at a loss for food ideas so I went on a search for easy family recipes. Oh how I wish someone had given me a set of recipes for a bridal shower gift!

So instead of buying the newlyweds something that they will never use, what about giving them a handmade recipe box filled with your family's favorite recipes?!

"Home" DIY Wooden Plaque

As most of y'all know, I am a Georgia girl, born and bred, so this little wooden plaque just speaks to my heart!

I made this adorable sign at the Pinners Conference here in Atlanta (if you haven't heard of it, you have to go check it out -- it's amazing). A company called Unfinished Wood Co. (based here in GA) had these wonderful wood pieces that we then finished using paints from Plaid Crafts (also based here in GA -- are you seeing a pattern here?).

The paints from Plaid are seriously fantastic. I mean, these people just know what they are doing when it comes to all sorts of finishes for crafting. For the background wood, I used FolkArt Home Decor Chalk Paint and then scraped the paint with a plastic spatula to remove some of the paint and give it a more distressed look. Then I painted the Georgia portion with more FolkArt Home Decor Chalk Paint and the new Folk Art Pickling Wash (love that stuff!), again using a scraper to remove some of the paint so that the wood grain could be seen. I distressed the edges with chalk paint and splattered the whole plaque to give it a more rustic look.

I wanted to give the sign a little more texture so I added embroidered letters from JOY, spelling out the word "home". I love the extra little bit of depth that the fabric letters give that I wouldn't have gotten from paint or vinyl.

I simply adore this little sign and I can't wait to hang it up and show everyone my state pride!

A big thanks to Unfinished Wood Co. and Plaid for this fun and adorable sign and awesome paint products!

CHA 2014 Recap -- New Mod Podge Products!

One of my favorite booths as CHA every year is the Plaid booth. They always have such fun products, especially in their Mod Podge line. Last year, they debuted their Mod Melts (which are AWESOME!), but this year, they really outdid themselves. 

The new milk glass Mod Melts

 This year, they introduced Mod Melts in a harder material with a milk glass finish (see photo above) and a Mod Melts melter (made especially for your Mod Melts -- no more using a glue gun). But by far, their hottest product was the new Collage Clay! This stuff is A-MAY-ZING! It comes in what looks like a cake decorating bag complete with a rosette-type tip. Just squeeze the bag and out comes this fun, puffy material that even looks like cake icing but it's a clay!

I covered the top of this little acrylic heart box with the Collage Clay in the pink color called "Strawberry".  I then added some bling and a cupcake Mod Melt that I painted with acrylic paint. It's so easy -- just lightly press your embellishments into the Collage Clay. 

Can you imagine the fun projects you can make with this? I would love to do a cell phone cover (which only takes about one-third of a bag of Collage Clay)!

The clay does take quite a while to cure so this is not a product that you can use when you need something finished right away. When it dries, it's not a completely hard; it still retains a slightly "squishy" feel to it, but it still holds tight to any embellishment you may have added to it.

I am fired up to see this product in stores! It will be a fun new item in my crafting arsenal!

Side Note: Thanks to watching my mom decorate cakes for 20 years, I actually did a really good job on the piping, but if you are new to using a piping bag and tip, you may have to practice the "kiss and release" method a few times to get rosettes like these.

Me with the super-talented DIY gurus Steve Piacenza and Cathie Filian!

And me with Glossy!

CHA New Product Debut: Mod Podge Mod Melts

The best thing about CHA is seeing all the new products. One of the coolest new products is from Plaid: Mod Melts!

They look like candy molds, but are even better.  The Mod Melts resin sticks go in your hot glue gun. Once heated, just fill the molds with the resin. In just 4 minutes, you've got these cute little embellishments! The resin is white, but you can color it with paint, ink, Copic markers, and more.

Cathie Fillian shows off some finished Mod Melts!

Oh, and I couldn't resist getting my picture made with Glossy!

I just wish they made jars of Mod Podge this big!