Noel

Here's a little something I've been working on.

Unfortunately, I don't have a tutorial for this one since the center piece is a metal plate that I had to commision a sheet metal supplier to make for me.

However, I do have them posted over at my Etsy shoppe.

I'm saying Adieu to the Christmas crafts for at least a few weeks. But, no worries, I've been cooking up a bundle of new projects that will be making their way onto the blog shortly.

Creative Crate Giveaway

I'm so excited to announce that Stacie over at The Creative Crate is hosting a giveaway for me.  Hurry and head over to her blog for your chance to win an item from my Etsy shop.

Bon chance!

Let it Snow

Growing up in the south, one learns just how magical snow is.  We hoped and prayed for the elusive stuff every time a northern front moved our direction.  On the rare occasion flakes started falling, we'd scuttel outside as fast as we could to soak it up because you never knew how long those flakes would last.

Such was the inspiration for this craft.  The creation process was very similar to how I made the JOY blocks earlier in the month except I stained the blocks rather than painting them.

Just for an extra measure of whimsy, I sprinkled some glitter on one of the sets when the modge podge was still wet. 

Maybe putting these on the mantel will bring us a snow day next winter - one can only hope!

If you're interested, I am going to be selling a couple sets of these over at my Etsy Shop.

Check out the linky parties I've joined here.

Snow Balls

I stumbled upon this recipe last week and knew I had to try it out for my Christmas in July series. Not only are they the tastiest snowballs you'll ever come across, but they also work double time as a dessert for both the Christmas season and summer time.  Our dinner guests gave us rave reviews and I hope you'll enjoy them too.

Faux fried ice cream

1 cup sliced almonds

2 tablespoons butter

dash salt

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut

2 1/2 cups Rice Chex cereal, crushed

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 gallon vanilla bean ice cream

Saute almonds in butter over medium heat until lightly browned.  Salt them lightly and cool on paper towels.  Stir together cooled almonds, brown sugar, coconut, crushed Rice chex and melted butter.

Let ice cream soften slightly.  Form ice cream balls with a soop.  Roll each ball in almond/Chex mixture until well-coated and place on a baking wheet in your freezer.  When finished, cover tray with plastic wrap and keep frozen.  Ice cream balls can be prepared several hours in advance.  Serve with your favorite hot fudge or hot caramel toppings.

Ruffled Dishcloth

As my trusty followers know, I'm working on a little segment known as Christmas in July.  My kitchen can always use some festooning during the holidays so I wanted to try my hand at some festooned dish towels.  I'm usually not much of a fan of commercially sold holiday dish towels.  They're typically hum drum and sometimes even boarderline kooky.  I've definately seen some great ones, but didn't find their price tag really all that great.  But, here's a little solution that even a novice sewer can enjoy.  Seriously, this would be a fantastic project for a novice sewer.  First of all, no one has to WEAR it!  It's not going to hang on your windows for a decade.  It's just a dish towell.  Something you'll probably toss in a couple seasons.  Unless of course you decide to frame it. 

Here's the tutorial to prove just how simple they are.

Start with some absorbant fabric (white, colored, printed - whatever floats your boat)  Cottons are good.  Fold it on itself to cut an even rectangle.  The size isn't super important, use one of your old dish towels as a guide if you want. 

Then sew a 1/4" rolled hem on all four sides (fold in 1/4 " - iron - fold in 1/4" again - iron again - and sew.)

Next cut an approximately 2 inch wide strip of fabric for your ruffle.  It should be about twice as long as your dish towel is wide.  I had to stich together a couple of strips because my scrap of fabric wasn't long enough.  I just hid that seam inside one of my "ruffles"

Then go ahead and stich around all four edges of your ruffle piece about 1/4" inside the edge.  This allows it to fray some without completely unraveling and creating a stringy mess in your dryer.

Now comes the fun part.  When you sew on the "ruffle" simply free-form the gathers as you go. 

Next you can embellish more if desired with ribbon, buttons, ric rac, etc.

Here she is!

And just because I need a little more PINK in my life...

Now wasn't that easy!?

Check out the linky parties I've joined here.