DIY | YOU'RE A GEM! CARDS

One of my most favorite things is to receive letters in the mail. But even more than that, I love to send mail. 

Birthday card making is one of my favorite things because it's a good excuse to send someone I love something more than a facebook post or text message. Last year I even made birthday books for some of my best friends that I didn't get to celebrate with at home. I haven't made cards in a while, but Joyce inspired me to get back into it!

"You're a gem!" is a new popular saying that I love. Who wouldn't want to be called a gem? I made these thank you cards for my friends and family who gave me gifts for my baptism. I was so overwhelmed by the sweet words they wrote to me- words of love, and encouragement, and joy! I hope these cards help express some of my love to them.

Supplies:

• blank note cards
• alphabet stamps
• newspaper
• pen
• white Elmer's glue
• gold glitter
• gold stamp pad
• gold sharpie

Sketch your gem on a piece of paper. Place a piece of newspaper (with a huge picture facing down) between your gem and the front of the card. Using a pen, trace over the gem.

The newspaper should act like a carbon copy paper and transfer the gem outline onto the front of your card. It's important to push down fairly hard when tracing to get a better line. Also, when you trace the next cards, make sure to move the newspaper a little so the ink from the new placement will transfer. It doesn't matter too much if the lines aren't complete - this is just a guide for your glue.

Using regular Elmer's glue, trace the gem starting with the outline and then the inner lines. Use the orange tip on the glue bottle to smooth the glue into thicker, flatter lines.

Sprinkle glitter over the glue gem and shake the excess off onto a shoebox lid or newspaper to help with clean up. 

I used alphabet stamps to stamp the phrase "you're a gem!" I debated whether or not to stamp the word "gem" because I wasn't sure if people would get it...but I think it looks cuter this way.

I stamped Matt 5:16 on the back:

In the same way, let your light shine before others, 

that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

(NIV)

I'm so thankful for these gems in my life, that shine bright!

*I drew the apostrophe and colon in with a gold sharpie because my stamp kit didn't come with those symbols and it was a simple fix. 

xoxo, allison

DIY | GLITTERED HAIR BOWS

 The other day when Traci came over and told me that she wanted to make ribbon hair bows I was so excited because I had bought black ribbon a while ago that I had been meaning to make bows with, but I never got around to it. It was fate. This was the time to make hair bows. Traci worked on cutting out the ribbon strips, I glued the middle of the bow, and she glued the bow to the barrette.

 For these fabric bows, I hand-stamped white fabric and then followed this tutorial from Elsie. I painted the edges of the bows with gold glitter mixed with mod podge.

 For these double looped bows, we followed this tutorial but used a wider ribbon for the middle.

 For the black ribbon bows, it's similar to making the fabric ones without all the folding. Cut a length of fabric double the desired width of your bow. Glue glue the edges together. Wrap your middle ribbon around the center of the bow hiding the seam in the middle and glue to secure.

Supplies:

• Ribbon
• Hair barrettes (similar to these)
• Glue gun
• Gold glitter
• Glossy Mod podge

Hair bows are the perfect accessory and it's so easy to customize size and color to match your style. We made matching ones for Joyce!  Hope you try this simple DIY out! Tell me how it goes.

xoxo, allison

p.s. If you're looking for other gold glitter + Mod Podge projects, take a look at our chevron laptop cover, suitcases, and bow tie.

DIY | GLITTERED BOW TIE & SUSPENDERS

Now that it's finally December, holiday parties are right around the corner. I've always been a huge fan of bows, so it's no surprise that I love a good bow tie. My little (I guess younger is more appropriate) brother needed something to wear to a gold and black themed party so I whipped up this bow tie and a pair of suspenders. Super simple!

For the bow tie: I started out with two rectangular pieces (one 4x9 inches, one 4x2 inches) of white fabric which I painted with Mod Podge mixed with gold glitter. After they dried, I folded them using this tutorial from Elsie. I sewed a piece of thin white elastic to the back of the bow so my brother could slip it over his head and under the collar. You can also find bow tie clips at a craft store or online.

For the suspenders: I followed Kinsey's tutorial but painted the ends of the elastic with clear fingernail polish so they wouldn't fray.

I love the way the bow tie turned out. These two pieces are the perfect addition to your guy's holiday party dress code. You can even make a matching bow for yourself to wear in your hair :) As you know we love gold glitter + Mod Podge, remember our chevron laptop cover and suitcases?

xoxo, allison

DIY | GLITTERED CHEVRON LAPTOP COVER

Hello. I'm Allison, the other blind mouse. Well, technically I'm the less blind mouse (actually quiet blessed to be not a bit blind at all, but we'll get to that story another time.) Today, I'm here to share our latest DIY.  Let me first tell you that I love coupons, especially when Michael's or Joann's has 50% off coupons (because you can use both coupons at both stores!) Luckily there is an app so I don't actually have to get the newspaper and dig through the ads. Anyways, rewind about 4 weeks. Mouse and I head to Michael's to find something to buy with with our coupons, and we happened to pick up a bottle of gold glitter. (I convinced mouse to buy the bigger bottle because I L-O-V-E glitter!) Immediately we thought glitter+mod podge! We have been going crazy with the glitter and the mod podge, but here is my (our) favorite so far!

First, tape off the first row of chevron pattern using painter's tape. We used 3 1/2 inch pieces of tape and taped a piece of scratch paper to the laptop cover to make sure that our pattern was straight.

Second, tape off the second row of chevron pattern. The negative space between these two rows is where the glitter will go. We measured the width of our chevrons after taping and it ended up being 2 cm. You can adjust this depending on if you want thicker or thinner chevrons.

After taping all of your chevron rows (we did four rows of tape because we wanted three painted rows), it is time to mix your glitter and mod podge together. We didn't actually measure how much but it was close to a 50/50 mixture.

Next, I painted the first layer of glitter + glue, mouse added another layer of glitter to fill in the spots and then I went over the chevrons again with the glitter + glue. Don't forget the edges!

Next, mouse (carefully!) removed all of the painter's tape. It is important to do this while the glue is still wet of you will have mod-podged (glued) the tape to your laptop cover!

Then we let it dry over night. and wallah!

Off to eat brick toast and do some Rx prep (and think of new things to mod podge)! Happy Daylight Savings. XO Allison.