New Years Traditions

With the New Year comes new traditions. Now that Lady A is a bit older and able to participate a little more in family activities we have had a lot of fun coming up with our own family traditions, especially since we live away from the rest of our family and won't always be able to make it out for the big events and holidays.

I'm not much of one for New Years Eve events, trying to keep my toddler up until midnight does not sound fun right now. She would be so tired and fussy by the time midnight came and the following day we would all still be paying for it.

But it is still a good reason to celebrate so for now we will celebrate on New Years Day!

We are new to Kentucky, we got here the weekend before the college semester started in August. While the winter has been pretty mild compared to what we are used to {we are from Utah and spent the last three years in Connecticut for Grad School} but we are told that the cold comes mostly in January. Here is my mug and saying for the year.

We all can use a little pep talk every once in a while.

Lady A joined in and created her own as well!

We need to encourage those little creative minds

The back detail

Paul helped her a little bit.

She wanted to use the mug I had done a little trial on. The gold dots were "oh, pretty!"

SUPPLIES

Paint Pens / Sharpie Markers
Cheap White Mug {I got mine from Wal-mart}

Vinyl {optional}
Silhouette Portrait {optional}
Saying, Quote, Shapes etc. {optional}

INSTRUCTIONS

I do not care for my handwriting on the mugs, it just never turns out the way I want. Instead I busted out my Silhouette Portrait and quickly cut out a little saying. 

Clean the surface you are going to be placing your design. I used a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol and went over the area once to wipe away any dirt and oils on the mugs.

Place your stickers, shapes, or vinyl where you want it. Now so to town with your paint pens and markers to create your one and only mug.

I used CraftSmart paint pens. I had more colors on hand with the markers so Lady A decided to use them.

Bake the dish int eh oven by placing it on a cookie tray. With your mug in the oven set it to 425 degrees, once the temperature is reached bake it for 30 minutes. Prop the door open, turn the oven off and let it your oven cool with your mug still in it.

A close up of the back detail.

I love how they turned out. Lady A is pretty pleased with herself too! Now that she is getting older and wants to join me in my creative activities I am so excited to see her creative personality emerge.

TIPS: 

I took two days to do mine because Lady A wanted me to wait so that she could finish her master piece before we placed them in the oven. When using a paint pen to fill in or around a letters and shapes, I would recommend taking them vinyl off before the paint has time to dry too much. Taking it off in the morning after the paint had time to dry and get tacky pulled up some of the paint from my letters so they don't look as smooth as I would like.

On the dishes I have made so far I have found that the Paint Pen stays great to wash in the dishwasher on the top shelf. Sharpie marker is best washed by hand. Do Not scrub! Use a soft washcloth and mild soap

Here is another Sharpie marker project with different tips and tricks.

Easter Plate

I would love to hear from you and see your projects. Leave a comment or #AlwaysCreate on your photos. Find me on Instagram {@AlwaysCreate} and follow along for behind the scenes and fun little extras.

Tulip Stitch Baby Afghan

It has almost been a year since I posted about Lady A's Star Burst Crochet Stitch Blankie and it is time to share my latest one with you.

I am so excited. Lady #2 will be joining us in April so I got it done just in time. The yarn I like to use for the little ones is Caron Simply Soft Yarn because it is just that, nice and soft for their soft skin.

Like the Star Burst afghan I pulled a stitch from my go to book and turned it into an afghan again.

Since I only used three colors I was able to leave the different skeins attached instead of constantly cutting and re-attaching the next color with every row. For example, as I finished up the row of purple and would need to move onto white, I simple grabbed both yarn strands to create my chain. Then let go of the purple and carried on with the row of white.

When placing the grey binding around the sides where the two yarns were used to create the chain,  it was covered up nicely. So it was a win win!!

Does that make sense? I hope so. If not please leave me a comment and I'll try to re-explain it.

Items needed for this project:
'Handbook of Crochet Stitches' by Betty Barnden
Hook I/9-5.50MM 
Scissors
Colors used for this blanket.
White
Sunshine
Orchid
Grey Heather
{I used about 8 oz of the first three colors, so 1 1/3 skeins of each and just enough Grey Heather to go around for a binding} 

Good luck on your next project. Be sure to share with me if you decide to make one. I would love to see it.

Re-used Cans

Have I ever mentioned before that I love when packaging is re-usable?!?! So now I get two for one out of my purchase. With how often we have been moving around I love reusing what I can because when it is time to move again there is no feeling guilty about tossing out these things instead of packing them, and I don't feel like I am throwing away money.

I have my creative corner in the living room so it needs to be tidy and everything needs a place. This will help with keeping it tidy along with having a place for everything to go so that my daughters sticky little fingers don't get into everything.

Today I am sharing with you how I reused same cans from the kitchen to help get me organized.

Supplies Needed:

Any number of cans, any size {I used four various ones from the kitchen}

Cardstock

Mod Podge

Cutting Mat

Ruler

X-acto

Ruler

Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

Embellishments {ribbon, buttons, twine, stamps, ink}

Measure the heigth of the can between the top and bottom rim, then around the canister to figure out the width, this will give you the size you need to cut the piece of cardstock to. For the two shorter ones my width was 12 5/8" {inches}, after cutting a 12" strip I cut another 1 1/2" strip to the same height.

*For things like stamping I suggest doing that before placing the cardstock around the can.

Take the wraps off the cans that will come off. Two of mine had the wraps printed right on the can so I couldn't remove them.

*This is why cardstock is a great option, with the thick cardstock, the label underneath it won't show through.

To start gluing the cardstock to the cans I placed them without any mod podge to make sure I had them lined up correctly. Then let one side up and apply mod podge to the back of the cardstock and place down. Now go along the rest of the cardstock, I did it in about 3" sections, applying mod podge then pressing it around the can.

I used some simple ribbon, twine and buttons to add a little bit of character to my cans.

The bow is pretty simple too. The ribbon I used is slightly thicker than 1/4". Cut a piece 5 1/2" long and another piece that was about 3x's as long as the width of the ribbon. Fold the two ends of the larger piece back into the center and use the hot glue to keep in place. Place the other piece, centered in the front, fold the top and bottom pieces around to the back and glue down. TaDa! a Bow!!

Most of the ribbon I used was left overs from other projects or even ribbons from gifts {specifically that wonderful green ribbon with flowers}.
*If you have ribbon that has been crunched simply use a flattening iron or curling iron to straighten it back out. Be careful to not clamp down too hard.
*For the yellow can with the green ribbon I applied mod podge to the back of the ribbon. This helped to make sure the flowers laid down flat and wouldn't lift up.
*I used the glue gun to hold the ends of the ribbons down securely.

Here are some of the items I used for this project:

 

Can You Guess....

We moved on New Years Eve. I know, not the best time to do it but that is really all that was available to us. My husband just finished his two Bachelor Degrees and so we moved back to be with family. Can I tell you I have loved being around family. We have time to visit everyone, when we used to come down on weekends we already had tons to do and we always felt bad about those that we didn't get to see.

I have a couple of projects to finish up and wanted to share what I have going on.

Can you tell from this picture what we will be making. They are so cute but why buy them when you can make your own and make them exactly how you want them!!! It might take some time but trust me, well worth it.

Not everything is where it should be since we have moved and I can not find my wire cutters. The gold beads have wire stems and I'll need to trim them down. So for now you will just have to wait in anticipation. Trust me, it will be worth it.