Butterfly Theme Baby Diaper Cake

My 26 yr. old daughter has finally taken an interest in crafting and today I am sharing a photo of a diaper cake (the second one she has ever made) with all of you. She made this butterfly theme'd diaper cake for my nieces baby shower last weekend. I think it is totally cute!

She did an excellent job making it and as a crafty mommy myself...I am very proud of her! She found these sparkly butterfly wings from a child's costume shop and put them on the backside of the cake...totally cool!

Scrapbooking | Hubby's 50th Birthday Party Frugal Scrapbook Layout Idea

A few weeks ago I made a very simple and frugal scrapbooking layout featuring 2 photos I took of some of the guests at my hubby's 50th Birthday party back in October of 2011. I wanted to make a scrapbook page that cost me less than $1.50 to make and I accomplished that with ease by using mainly scraps that I had leftover from other projects.

This layout is in the 12x12 format and was done on a solid black piece of cardstock. I used 1/2 a sheet of printed paper (martini glasses print) and then some cardstock borders from red cardstock that I got out of my scrap box. I mounted each photo onto black cardstock (left 1/8" border) and then onto red cardstock (left 3/16" border) and then put them onto the page with glue dots.

I had some scraps of olive green cardstock so I used my Cricut to cut out the letters to spell "THE GUESTS" and used my glue pen to put them onto the page as my title. I had 2 birthday themed glitter stickers leftover from another layout so I layered them onto black & red cardstock and trimmed around them leaving an 1/8" border. I used adhesive foam dots to put them onto my page so that they were 3-dimensional and added texture to the layout. I did some journaling in my own handwriting under each photo and more journaling on the bottom red cardstock border.

This was a great way to start using up some of those scraps that are accumulating in my scrapbox and I stayed under my $1.50 limit by using those scraps!

Candle Making Tips | A Variety Of Candle Making Wax

A Variety Of Candle Making Wax
By Lance Mardian

The need for candle making wax, today, is not limited to just the candle manufacturers. It is now in demand even more as a lot of people have now learned and a lot more are learning the craft of making candles at home. It is really an art in itself, the way to make candles, and is widely being learned by people of like decorating their homes and this helps them adding an extra bit to their decor. The only problem with buying decorative candles is that most don't get the desired candles and this makes them decorate it further after buying the candles. The advantage of buying wax to make candles at home is that it is not only a fun process but, more importantly, people can make their own shapes, sizes and designs of candles and make decorations of their own choices which would otherwise be limited.

Making candles is increasingly becoming a famous craft work for the common people especially amongst craft lovers and homemakers. It is considered to be a hobby by many. Previously the variety of wax and the ease of availability was a matter of concern for a lot but due to such growing popularity of candle making, the availability of good quality candle making wax has eased up and there is a variety from which one can choose from. It is no more a fuss to find materials for candle making in today's times. There is a list of the types of waxes that are used for candle making but the most common type is paraffin wax which is made from petroleum. It is basically refined from the fuel and then used for the purpose of making candles. There are other waxes as well, amongst which some are made or refined from plants, vegetables or peels, and are therefore referred as natural waxes. Bayberry, palm and soy are included in the natural candle making wax category.

Soy candles are obtained by hydrogenating soya beans. It is considered eco-friendly as it is renewable and that is why the use of soy wax is greatly encouraged when it comes to candle making. The use of soy wax is widespread in America as soya beans are produced there as well as because soy waxes are of very good quality and make good candles. Palm wax is also popular for the purpose of candle making. The major contribution that was initially made due to use of palm wax is that it helped in the clearing of major poor plantations to grow palm trees for producing palm candle making wax but later an alarm was raised on the amount of danger it caused to the habitat of some local species and certain endangered species. Hence the use of palm wax is only encouraged when it is being produced from a source that is not jeopardizing the flora and fauna of habitat concerned.

The use of gel wax is gaining popularity since the recent past. The reason being it is transparent or translucent nature and the fact that it looks extravagant when a candle is being used in a jar. The decorations done with gel wax can add a little more to the visuals and thus the gel candle making wax is being widely used as well. Gel wax is of a rubbery nature although it is no different from normal wax when it burns and can be considered as competent as traditional wax when it comes to serving the real purpose of candle wax. It is available in different types of densities, three types of densities, and also in different fragrances that makes its use so popular.

Lance is a candle making expert. For more great information on candle making wax, visit http://www.candlemakingtips.com/.

FINE YARNS

Guest post from: Constance Rodgers

I’m glad that we upgraded our internet service and decided to go with wireless internet providers shawnee. I have been using the internet a ton lately to help me pursue my hobby. I recently learned how to knit. My sister taught me over the holidays. I have been much better at it than I expected and have enjoyed it much more than I every thought that I would. Now, I have been knitting hats, scarves, and baby blankets. I have been staying really busy. I have also found a lot of free patterns on the internet. The other thing that I have enjoyed is being able to get access to some fine yarns and wools on the internet. We don’t have a very unique shop here. On the internet there are hundreds of websites that specialize in fine yarns and wools for knitting. I know that the more I knit the better than I am going to get. It is going to be so much fun and all of my friends are going to be very happy with their birthday gifts this year!

Scrapbooking | Using Broken Vintage Jewelry to Accent Your Scrapbook Layouts

A few months ago I went to the Flea Market and came across a huge ziploc baggie full of vintage jewelry that the seller only wanted $2.00 for. This was a gallon sized plastic bag that was totally full. Some of the jewelry pieces are broken, some of it was heavily used or missing rhinestones or whatever...but at least 1/2 of that bag was in perfectly fine condition. (NOTE: Click on photos in this post to enlarge them to see the details).

I purchased the bag full of jewelry because I knew I could tear the pieces a part and use them on some of my scrapbooking layouts or in various other types of crafting projects. I love adding "bling" to my layouts and its an inexpensive embellishment when you buy them by the bag full at a yard sale or flea market.
A few months ago I made this scrapbooking layout which features Christmas photos of my precious grand daughter opening up her holiday gifts. I did the layout in blue & white since she was wearing a Cinderella princess dress in the photos which happened to be baby blue in color. Trying to find Holiday embellishments in a pretty blue was near impossible so I made my own!

I used a broken rhinestone earring to accent the holiday stocking (on the cuff) and another broken rhinestone earring to accent the package (bottom right corner). I simply used wire cutters to remove the earring backings.I then had 2 clear rhinestone vintage pins (brooches) which I removed their backings and attached one on the top left corner of the left photograph and one on the top right corner of the right photograph using a liquid glue pen.

I think these broken vintage jewelry pieces look fabulous on this scrapbook page as I wanted to add some "bling" to the page to go along with our Christmas Cinderella Princess Theme. I kept the rest of my embellishments minimal as I wanted the photos and the "bling" to be the center of attention.

Scrapbooking | Hubby's 50th Birthday Party Free Scrapbook Layout Idea

Today's featured layout is done in the 12x12 format size and features photo's from my husband's 50th Birthday Party that we held at the Olive Garden back in October 2011. We had a fabulous time so if your local Olive Garden has a private room that you can reserve for parties, we highly recommend it!

I wanted the layout to be manly looking but wanted to use green, mustard and purple colors as my color scheme and I think I accomplished that with my choice of papers. My background is a sheet of striped scrapbooking paper and I made my own top and bottom borders from purple and green colored paper scraps. (these are all muted colors, not brights). I had 4 photos I wanted to use so I cropped down 3 of them which I matted onto light green and muted purple cardstock, leaving 3/16" around each mat. I them placed them onto my background using glue dots. The 4th photo was a picture of my granddaughter and nephew playing there so I used tiny scissors and cut it out and trashed the background. I then used glue dots to put it onto the page in the bottom left corner. I had 2 balloon stickers and put one into each of their hands. I think it's cute!

The title of my page is "Celebrate" and that is placed onto the page above the top left photo. I then matted a small "Happy Birthday" and a small "Memories" stickers onto muted purple paper and used foam dots to place the Happy Birthday one to the right of the top left photo and the Memories one to the right of the top right photo. I had candle stickers which I laid end-to-end and ran them across the top to make my own border. I then handwrote on each one wording that relates to the party.

This layout took me about 45-50 minutes to make and I think it came out well...especially because it only cost me about $1.30 to make and I love inexpensive layouts! Enjoy!

clipix - Will help you organize online photos and ideas!

Today I would like to introduce you to the online web site called clipix. Have you ever stumbled upon something online like a recipe, craft project, home decorating idea, fashionable outfit, etc. that you absolutely loved but a few weeks later you forgot about it? If so, clipix can solve that problem for you!

When you open up your FREE online clipix account you will immediately see how cool this tool is. You will want to read the brief instructions and then add clipix to your toolbar favorites. You will then create a few personal clipboards and name them. I have a recipe one, home decorating one, a crafts one and a Shelly's closet one.

Now when you find something that you want to save online you will simply click the icon in your tool bar and clipix will add it to one of your personal clipboards. Here is a screen shot of one of my personal scrapbooking clipboards where I saved a few photos of scrapbooking layouts that I found online and liked, hopefully I can use those scrapbooking ideas with my next scrapbook I plan on starting later next week.

You can access your online clipboards from anywhere in the world and at any time. You can even set up PUBLIC clipboards where your friends and family can view your clipboards and you can share information back and forth. I think this is a great option as you can ask your friends & family members for opinions on the things that you clipped to your clipboard!

You can check out this really cool YouTube Video to found out even more about clipix and how easy this tool is to use. Plus...it's totally FREE!

I can see this free tool being used to clip recipes, craft projects, home decorating ideas, wedding ideas for new brides, build a virtual wardrobe of current and in-style clothing trends, travel destinations that you someday want to visit and so much more! How do you think you would use clipix? There is even an iPhone App for clipix that you can use so that you can use/view your clipboards via your smart phone too!

I would like to invite you to visit clipix today and open up a FREE account and get busy clipping your favorite things! Once you do, come back here and tell us what you clipped and how you plan on using clipix for your own personal needs! I am just loving this free Clipix tool and I am looking forward to making a few more clipboards next week!

Promoted Post