Etched Glass Trifle

A cute couple I know is getting married on the 7th, so I had to get my gift together finally today. I have had it in my mind for weeks. The bride and groom have a thing for baseball and all their engagement pics go a little something like this...

Beautiful photography courtesy of Sutherland Farm Hills Photography 

So what else could I do but an etched glass trifle with a baseball on it???  Everyone has monogrammed houseware, but this is unique and personal, and I have been dying to try my hand at glass etching since it is an absolute favorite of mine!  This is what I ended up with.  I hope she loves it as much as I do!

And here it is filled.  I thought an ice cream scoop and dish cloths would pair nicely and the dish cloths were in such wonderfully summery colors to match the bride's bright and bubbly personality.

Now I just need to make a card!

Seascape Photo Shadowbox

Finally I have a new project to post.  This idea started brewing while we were on our Orange Beach vacation.  One thing my family loves to do is travel together and we love our annual beach trip.  We like to try out new beaches, too.  The only thing about vacations is they are NEVER long enough, so this year I wanted to bring the beach back with me.  Thus the Seascape Photo Shadowbox is born....

I did them in two varieties because I wanted to do them in a set, but not have them identical, so we have surf and sand.

What I used:

• 2 premade shadow boxes (50% off from Hobby Lobby)
• Modge Podge in matte
• 2 - 8 x 10 vacation photos
• Sand (I used the real stuff from the beach trip, but you can buy it at your local craft store, also.)
• Shells - same as above
• Acrylic craft water
• Foam brush

The first thing I did was paint my shadow boxes, because unfortunately they were out of the white, and I wanted this to feel beachy.  You can definitely skip this step if you are fortunate enough to find the color you want.  I don't particularly love painting.

Next, I took the Modge Podge or other decoupaging medium of your choice and coated down the back interior portion of the shadow box with a foam brush.

Then I layed the photos down onto the shadow box back and rubbed them down so that there were no bubbles underneath.

Once you have let the glue dry you can start coating down the front of your photos.  Don't worry it is supposed to look funny.  It will dry clear.

Do NOT touch them while they are drying!  I let mine dry over night and cure so that when I started the next step foreign objects would not stick to the surface of my pictures.  My photos were not tacky at all when I started putting the shadow box together.  For both types of shadow box you will put your back onto the shadow box and take tape, duct, packing, or whatever sticky variety you have and tape across the bottom outside portion of the back so that your sand or craft water do not leak out.  If you do not do this you will have a mess.  Since this is on the back of my shadow box and I will be hanging mine anyway I just used clear packing tape.

Then I just pulled the top portion of the backing open just a smidge so that I could pour some sand down into the shadow box.  When I got the amount I wanted into the shadow box I put in a few of the shells we collected and closed up the back securing the latches.  The sand will move around so you will want to keep it sitting upright.

For the surf variety I started the same way by taping across the bottom back portion.  I then prepared the Craft Water as directed on the packaging.  I pulled the top back open slightly I put in a small amount of sand and shells in the very bottom.  Then using oven mitts I poured in a little of the Craft Water and closed the back, securing the latches.  Be careful not to tilt your box or you will have waves and splashes in your shadow box, which can also be a neat effect if that is what you want.  Then just let it sit and cure.  Every variety of craft water is different but the one I used started to turn to gel within 15 minutes.

Now go make your own. :)

Back to the Real World

We trucked it on home today.  I hated to say goodbye to good old Orange Beach.  It was very kind to us and the weather held out fantastically for the entire week.  Unfortunately this week isn't looking as good for the poor folks just heading down with the tropical storm forming in the gulf.  Vacations are just never long enough so it always stinks when the weather is bad.

The kids had a blast from net fishing in the ocean, to fishing off the dock in the harbor, to visiting the pier, and the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo -- The Little Zoo That Could, and Battleship Alabama.  They were already begging to come back next year two days into the week-long trip.  We are beat from the trip home, so I am going to make this short, but I wanted to leave you with a few more pics from the trip.  Look for the next how-to coming up later in the week!  Hint - We will be using vacation pictures as our inspiration!

This is our little friend, Oscar.  If you look closely you will see he has fishing line stuck in his wing.  He likes to beg the fisherman for their rejects.

Just in case you were thinking about breaking into the zoo... HAHA

Checking out the fish they caught!

What is this stuff!!

Gulf State Park

Harbor at sunset!  So beautiful.

These little piggies went to the beach.... Unfortunately these little piggies had to go wee wee wee all the way home. :(

Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket - Pattern Review

After a very long and painful wait trying to adopt, my cousin finally got word she was going to get a baby girl.  I had already had my eye on a few patterns for a baby blanket for her when the time came, so I pulled up all my bookmarked patterns and looked through the yarn I had trying to decide which was right for her.  I am a member of www.ravelry.com and I got the Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket pattern by Celeste Young from Ravelry as a free download.  If you crochet or knit and you are not a member of that site, go join now.  :) 

I found the pattern to be very easy to follow.  It was well written and all the stitch counts came out correctly.  I changed up the color combinations and the number of rows per color to fit my own color palette, and that was not difficult to do either.  I used cotton yarn which made it very soft.  I got a lot of compliments on this afghan and my cousin has used the afghan in several of this sweet baby's portraits since her birth 5 months ago.

Don't you just want to squeeze her!!

Toes in the Water, Toes in the Sand

Hello from sunny Orange Beach!  Thought today since I am on vacation and have nothing crafty to share with you that I would send a little Instagram Post Card to all my virtual buddies out there.

Just in case you were wondering the nail polish underneath all that sand is "Flashy Fuschia." 

Lots of wind today, so the surf was up, and lots of seaweed left from all the storms in the gulf last week.  The kids had a blast, though, because it made the fishing easier apparently.

Having boys is very educational sometimes.  I now know what a Gulf Pipe Fish is for example.  Look those up.  They are rather interesting... like a straightened out seahorse.

Check out the size of the crab they caught with just those little nets!  Very cool little fella. 

More to come.....