Glass Etched Cookie Jar - My Christmas Gift Ideas Have Officially Started

I am sorry for being away from Full of Great Ideas for so many months, but I have struggled to balance work, life and blog. Blog always fell to the bottom of my to do lists. After months away it stopped being added to the to do list all together. I have not stopped thinking about it or stopped crafting, I just didn't have the time to share what I have done.

As you know, I am a mom to two wonderful kids that are growing up too fast and I didn't want to miss anything.  I realized I was watching life through a camera. Don't you find that? You go to a special event or on a trip and you watch everything that is going on through the view finder! Yes I have some great photos, but the experience is not the same. I had to step back and  reevaluate.

Well I hope to be back to blogging on somewhat of a regular basis. My posts might not have as many photos or be as complicated. But I will try my best.

I thank everyone for their notes and comments wondering where I was and I am sorry for not responding. I really do appreciate them.

Well on to my first post now that I am back...my glass etched cookie jar.

My close friend had her birthday last week and I wanted to make her something small to celebrate it.   She is not one to bake and always appreciates when we drop by with homemade items, so my kids suggested cookies. I had been planning for our second annual Homemade Christmas (I know you all just gasped with the fact I am planning Christmas already, but that is me) and I had pinned an etched cookie jar. Sorry can't share the pin because I got smart this year and I hid my Christmas pin board. I found out the hard way last year that my family follows me on Pinterest and none of my ideas were surprises.

I knew I wanted to put their monogrammed initial on the cookie jar so it could be used for other items after the cookies were all gone. I designed three images and my children picked the easiest one, the EileenCaps font letter Z. I know most of you do not have a Cricut or Silhouette machine to cut your own letters, but this can be done with wall vinyl or stickers you can buy at the dollar store too.

It is pretty, isn't it?

I bought the cookie jar for $6 at Walmart. It was an Anchor brand I believe. To be honest with you I should have looked closer at it before I opened the packaging because it did not have the rubber ring around the lip to seal the jar nicely. It was reasonably priced and a perfect size, but I would have preferred to spend a few more dollars to have it seal.

I cut the 4 inch square design out of vinyl with my Cricut and stuck it on the cookie jar. Because the jar is straight up and down, I did not have any problems with the vinyl laying flat! This was the easiest placement of the vinyl I have ever had.

There are many options for everyone to do this craft even without an electronic cutter. You could spell out words like cookies, a name, funny saying etc with stickers from the Dollar store and there are people on Etsy who sell vinyl for a few dollars if you are interested in purchasing it.

Using a foam brush, I put a thick layer of the glass etching cream all over the area to be etched. I made sure to lift the cookie jar up to look at it from the back side through light to see if I missed any spots or corners. As you can see, I lay the cookie jar on a crumpled old towel to keep it from rolling.

Now here is the hardest and longest part of this project, walk away for 25 minutes. My bottle of etching cream has warning labels covering the instructions so I don't know what the bottle suggests, but over the past while I found this to be the best amount of time.

Here is an important tip...once the time is up, use the same foam brush, and carefully scoop up the etching cream and put it back in the bottle. Someone recommended it to me in my comments and I have done it ever since. This stuff is pretty expensive if you don't use a 40% off coupon so you might as well save as much of it as you can. I have been etching gifts for years and have barely used any of the jar because of this!

Once you get as much off as possible, run the entire thing under water. Work as quickly as possible because if the etching cream sits on another spot of glass it will create a shadow. Don't worry too much about this, just run it under a good stream of water and scrub it off.

So here is the etched cookie jar. It is hard to get a photo of it, but I think you can get an idea how amazing it turned out!

My kids and I baked a batch of the best chewy chocolate chips cookies in the world an filled the jar with them. We tied a bow around the lip of the jar and called it a birthday gift!

I think this is going to be my go-to gift for this year. Teachers, friends, coworkers will all be seeing cookie jars under their trees this year.

What do you think? How would you feel if you got this as a gift?

Stephanie at Full of Great Ideas.

My Oma is...Coasters from Grandkids

I know it is really early for Mother's Day gift ideas, but if I don't share this now I am going to be too busy and not get it posted in time. So at least this way you have plenty of time to use this idea for yourself.

I had these marble tiles laying around from the many other coasters I have made in the past. The first was the half-marathon bib coaster I made for my husband and the second set was the monogrammed coasters I made for a girl friend who was retiring. I purchased these tiles at Habitat for Humanity's ReStore but you can find them for really reasonable at HomeDepot or Lowes.

My mother is lovingly called Oma by her five adoring grandchildren. As with every family, each child has his or her own special relationship with their Oma. So, I thought what better way to express that unique relationship then to ask each of them to describe their Oma with one word and make a set of 6 coasters with those words.

I love how each description was a representation of each child and my mom knew immediately which coaster was from which grandchild. 

Materials

• Marble tiles (unsealed)
• StazOn permanent ink stamp - This permanent stamp can be purchased at Michael's for around $7 (I believe) and if you use a coupon you can get it for 40% less.
• Vinyl or stickers to use as template
• Sponge brush

Method

There are many ways you can do this craft. I designed and cut the templates out of vinyl with my Cricut, but you can use stickers from the dollar store or even stamps to make them.

I started off by cleaning the tiles with a damp cloth. When I purchased them, they seem to have a powder all over them.

Once dry, I stuck the vinyl directly to the tile. I placed the vinyl in different locations and directions on the tiles so they were more whimsical.

Using StazOn permanent stamping ink in black, I brushed the stamping ink over the vinyl with a sponge brush.

I found it worked best to wipe the brush across the template as opposed to dab it. I waited a minute and did a second coat to get a really dark black.

Here is the one tile I dabbed the sponge on; you can see how the ink bled under the vinyl and didn't give a crisp line. It did not look horrible but not as nice as the others.

Here is one where I brushed the ink across the vinyl like I was painting it on. See much crisper.

Once all the tiles are stamped and all the vinyl/stickers have been removed, you need to bake the tiles to make the stamp permanent and fade resistant.

Don't judge the how dirty my toaster over is...I use it for everything!

I baked my tiles in my toaster oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Once the time was up, I turned off the toaster oven and let them cool in there. They retain the heat for a long time so please be careful.

Also, don't venture too far away when they are baking just in case your tiles do not like to be heated. Just be careful and aware!

I did not put a sealant over the tiles they they can absorb the sweat from cold drinks.

After they were cooled, I put rubber stoppers from the dollar store on the back. I have used the soft felt ones before but found they slid off tables really easily. So these work much better!

I had each of the kids write their names and date on the back of the tiles with permanent markers.

My mom loves them and the kids love to use their own coasters when they visit. The kids have even noticed when Oma was using their coaster, so she now has to pay attention to not use one all the time. Share the coaster love amongst all the grand kids :)

So that is it. Simple, easy, cheap but most importantly personal gift idea!

What do you think..do you see the possibilities with this? Mother's day gift, father's day gift, teacher gifts...really you could give these for so many different occasions.

Stephanie

A Dad is...DIY Wood Quote/Magnetic Photo Holder

As I previously mentioned, I set a goal of making most of my Christmas gifts from scratch this past Christmas; however, I really struggled with the gifts for my husband and my brothers.

I had Pinned something similar to this ages ago (here) that I liked but I didn't know how to create the exact look I wanted.

I was talking with my sister and we came up with the idea of using a piece of old barn board flooring from her barn (built over 120 years ago) to make this. My sister found a piece of wood that was approximately 12 inches wide and lightly planed it to get a smoother surface.

If you, like me, don't have access to old wood, you can buy freshly cut 12 inch wide planks from a local hardware store and distress it to get a similar look. Take a hammer to it, scratch it up, sand it a bit here and there. It is quite easy to do.

We cut 12 inch squares and lightly sanded the rough edges. We loved the imperfections, so we did not sand the top and once we were happy with the look, we sealed it using the same sealant I had laying around and used for the tree stump coasters.

Isn't the color gorgeous!? That is without staining it!

I designed and cut the saying out of black vinyl on my Cricut.  The metal circle was something I had laying around from the Dollar Store (it was used to hold 5 magnets that I purchased). It was originally bright silver, so I spray painted it Oil Rubbed Bronze. Once it was dry, I hot glued it to the wood.

I found pictures I liked of my husband with each of our children. He didn't like how I picked photos of him with his glasses on but we can always change them!

I put metal hangers on the back of the wood so we could hang it, but I prefer standing behind my couch on the table using a plate stand. Either way I display it, I love it!

Since we found all the materials for this project around the house, we were able to make these for nothing. If I didn't have all the materials, I think I could do this for around $10 each (if making a few).

What do you think? I know need to find something equally great for Father's Day!

Stephanie

Free Printable - Pregnancy Belly Stickers

Have you seen those adorable belly stickers that people have been using while photographing their pregnancies?

If you haven't seen them, they are 4 inch circle stickers that identify the week of the pregnancy. You stick on your belly or (if you are more modest like me) your shirt and photograph your growing belly. The idea is really cute and I wish I had thought of it when I was pregnant. I don't know where the original idea came from but you can find them on Etsy, private sites, specialty stores, etc. and they run between $10-15.

Well now that my sister-in-law's pregnancy has been officially announced, I thought I would share this small gift I made for her for Christmas. I made two different sets of the stickers since I didn't know which she would like the best. One with flowers and the other black and white damask style.

I designed the images on Publisher and saved them as JPEG images. I then printed them on full page label stickers and cut the circles with my Cricut. If you don't have a Cricut or Silhouette that will cut a perfect circle for you, you can use a paper punch or old school it with a pair of scissors.

I was going to give you a step by step tutorial on how I made these, then thought I would save everyone some time and just give you the printables for free.

What you will need to create these are access to a laser or inkjet color printer and full page sticker labels. Be sure to buy the labels that are right for your type of printer as some are designed specifically for laser and others for ink jet. The labels can be found at Walmart or Staples and cost less than $0.40 per sheet. It will cost you about $10 to buy a package but you can make 5-6 sets of these stickers with one package.

I created one extra sheet with 4 extra stickers that I thought would be cute that aren't weeks of the pregnancy. I added Over due (since no on in my family ever seems to go into labor naturally),  In labor, It's a Boy and It's a Girl.

To download these images to print:

• Leave me a comment and tell me which version you like the best or just that you are downloading it ...please :)
• Right click on the image you want and select open in a new window or tab
• On the full size image, right click again and select 'save as'
• Save it to a place on your computer where you can easily find it
• You will need to do this for each of the images.
• Print them on a color laser or inkjet printer.
• Tip: When I first printed on labels, I had to print a few test pages before I managed to get it to print properly. The oddest thing happened every time I printed the sheets, the ink would smudge. I was stumped. How can a laser print smudge? Then I realized there is an option in your printer setup for paper type of LABELS. This somehow prints differently and they came out perfectly! So look for the paper type option and see if label is in there before you waste a few sheets of labels.
• Please only use these for personal use!
• Enjoy!! 

Here is the flowery version:

Here is the black and white damask set: 

 

 

 

What do you think? Do you know anyone you could use these for? Which is your favorite?

We are snowed in today, so I hope to get a few more posts done!

Let me know what you think,
Stephanie

Fall Pumpkin 4x4s - Decorating on a Dime

My husband went away a few weeks ago for a guys fishing weekend and while he was away I decided to spend the weekend doing crafts. Initially it was to be all Christmas crafts but I decided to throw some Fall items in too.  You know the adage, when the cats away, the mice will play....well in this house it is when Daddy's away, mommy will craft!

You might have seen in previous posts, I have a corner sink in my kitchen. I absolutely love the 4 windows that surround it but I have always had some difficulty deciding what to do on the large triangle shaped ledge behind it. How do I decorate the little nook? I have thought it might be nice to make that my seasonal decoration spot. In the summer I had herbs there, at Christmas I put my ornament tree and at Halloween I tend to put gourds.

I had a left over 4x4s from another craft, so I decided I would cut 1.5 inch  slices off the end of the 4x4 on my husband's miter saw. I have only used this a few times since he bought it so I had to work up a little nerve. So I put on the gorgeous safety glasses he left out for me (why can't they make some that actually fit my small head), plugged in the mighty machine and cut 4 slices of the 4x4. I was grinning from ear to ear after I was done. I ran inside and said to the kids "Look what Mommy just did!" They weren't nearly as excited as I was.

I lightly sanded the rough edges and I painted each piece with a mix of pumpkin orange and burnt umber acrylic paint.

I wanted a deep but not bright orange so this mixture worked well.

I had some large branches left over from the other craft involving the 4x4, so I cut them in 2-3 inch sections. I liked the ones cut on an angle the best.

I hammered in a long finishing nail (I think that is what they are called - the ones with no real head on them) appropriately half way.

 I then pulled the nail out of the 4x4.

I flipped the nail over and hammered the head of the nail into the hole I just made. I honestly don't know if this damages the head of the hammer, but I assumed it was ok. My husband hasn't said anything about it yet, so all is good.

I hammer the nail approximately halfway into the pilot hole.

I took the twig and lined the middle up with the nail.

Hammer the top of the twig until the other half of the nail goes into the twig.

Here are the 4 done. Aren't they cute? I like the ones with the knobs on the twig and the one on the angle. I roughly sanded along the edges with a low grit sandpaper to give it a worn weathered look.

I then cut out of vinyl the words Fall and Boo! on my Cricut. So on one side of the pumpkin it says Fall in white and the other side has Boo! in black. I like the idea I can put these somewhere you can see both sides.

I tied some raffia around the stems and made some curly ques with left over paper covered wire from making the wire pumpkins.

I am very please with how they turned out. The wood has started to dry and it has cracked on a couple of the edges making it look a little more rustic, I like that.

So since I had all the materials on hand, this project cost me nothing.

What do you think? Do you do seasonal decorating?

Stephanie