Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star...Do You Know How Loved You Are?

Sorry for my absence in blogging. My dear hubby and I just went away on a 1-year anniversary vacation so I spent some time guest blogging and getting ready for the launch of small group, our trip, and doing some writing. Below are 2 Tutorials I hope you enjoy!

My dear friends, Randy and Emily, were married in the Spring of 2007, and I had the privilege of being the person who prayed for them {officially as I know others were praying, too} at their wedding. I just love it when God pens a great love story and theirs was/is one that was/is sweet to witness from their meet and greet to their nuptials through today. Emily is expecting their first baby this December. Noah is an answer to many prayers and I cannot wait to personally meet this sweet one. In the meantime, a celebration is in order so two friends and I are co-hosting a shower for Emily and Baby Noah. No particular theme in mind (no, we aren't going with the ark theme ~ lest it taunt him down the road:). I do know the comforter is from Pottery Barn Kids and has blue and white gingham and that got me thinking...

I have 6 cylinder vases left from my wedding so with those in mind, my brain started spinning. I still have to go get blue gingham scrapbook paper, which I will cut into (4) 3 inch sections to wrap around the vases and I took cute nametags and altered them with Baby Noah's name on one and monogram on the remaining 6. These will stick to the gingham wraps. I have a taller cylinder vase that I will use for his name as that one will probably be the center. I'm assuming we'll have a 6 or 8 foot table to display food to place these on {decorate first, plan later:)} Unfortunately, the full finished product won't be viewed until the shower since I don't have the gingham paper just yet. The idea came from a wrap I made for a couple of wine bottles that hold taper candles using leftover scraps and the monogram I designed from our wedding. Below is the process on these cylinder vase wraps. I'm putting sea glass in the bottom and some lovely greenery ~ fern leaves and other leaves will go inside each cylinder.

This is the project that got me thinking about cylinder vase wraps. The white specks at the bottom of the wine bottle are pieces of the candle that is placed in the bottle opening.


I took some scrapbooking letters from Rusty Pickle that I had and painted them light blue with acrylic paint since they are black. This font fit on the nametag stickers I purchased unopened at Goodwill for $1.





I then used Mod Podge after the paint dried and laid out 6 monograms and the letters for Noah's name on one tag. I coated with one coat of Mod Podge, hence the rough edges. The edges will be clean when I peel the stickers off to place on the blue gingham cylinder vase wraps.



They will be sooo cute! How's that for a humble opinion?

From there, I began sorting through all my scrapbook supplies and papers. I found a cute design and some circle coasters I had purchased last year at Michael's $1 spot with the idea to alter them. For this next project, I needed 14 of the 20 coasters. Why 14? I counted out the letters in "Baby Boy". Yes, I can add. ;) I want these "lollipops" to be double-sided. Mod Podge? Check. Scrapbook Paper (12 x 12 ~ 2 sheets of same design)? Check. 14 Coasters? Check. I had a package of Bamboo Skewers so those will be the "sticks". You can make this same type thing for a wedding shower, baby shower, graduation, birthday, etc. You can place them in individual vases with flowers or cover a styrofoam block with a coordinating paper and place as decor on the gift table. Be creative ~ there is no wrong or right. Even though I envision an event with decor in mind beforehand, I have been known to change as I decorate along the way. Blessed are the flexible...



By the way, these coasters are the very thin paper ones and not the thicker ones I've seen in the craft stores.



For the cute paper, I chose (2) sheets of a 12x12 size, make sure it is a thicker paper that will stand up to glue or mod podge. Use whatever you have on hand, if you can.



I scored this pack of Bamboo Skewers at Kroger for $1 over the 4th of July holiday as I had an idea for them but ran out of time and steam.






I painted chipboard letters with the blue acrylic paint I purchased and it matched the paper (sigh of relief!). While you don't see two sets of the word "Baby", I did make two.

Pictured below are the first set of coasters Mod Podged onto the back side of the paper.





Here are 2 coasters that I cut out with my cuttle bug detail scissors. Once you Mod Podge the coasters to the back side of the paper, I flip it over where I'm looking at the pretty side (aka: face up or right side up). I used a bakery rolling pin that you'd roll out dough with that I use to keep papers glued down nice and tight. Hence, edges are glued down and no air bubbles. Once dry, I cut out each circle perfectly with my cuttle bug scissors. I then used an emery board and sanded down the rough edges. Next came a coat of Mod Podge over each coaster face, the appropriate letter on each one, another coat of Mod Podge and dry time. I dried these overnight.



I don't have pictures of these next steps and my sincerest apologies for that (camera batteries died). I lined up the letters fronts and backs as for "BABY BOY" I should have 2 sets of each. I took out my e6000 glue and ran a ring around the back side of one corresponding coaster for each letter, ran a bead on the tip of the bamboo skewer and placed the coasters back-to-back with the skewer inside. I clipped each double-sided letter with skewer inside with clothes pins until dry. Once dry, I took out the blue acrylic paint and carefully painted around the edge of each coaster now "lollipop" as the raw cardboard and paper edges showed. You could also glue a cute coordinating corded ribbon around each. I wanted to keep it simple. Below are pics of the finished products. I just showed the word "baby" in the photos. I won't lie, this one took time, but I think they will enjoy them at the shower. I had fun making them.







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Keep it simple, keep it crafty, keep it lovely, and keep it fun!