DIY Mug Design

I was out shopping one day and found some gold Sharpies at Walmart. I immediately thought of a pin I saw where someone drew on a mug with a Sharpie and then baked it in the oven. 

So of course I got the Sharpies, they were like $4. Then when I was at the dollar store I found a crappy brand of permanent markers in gold and silver and they were only a buck. So I'm putting them to the test to see if there is a difference.

I also got 2 mugs from Walmart for 3 bucks each. I could have gotten them for like a buck each but I was already at Walmart and they were right there. 

I don't drink coffee so I don't usually use mugs, but I got these really big ones (they are just over 4 1/2 inches across the top) so I could put snacks and maybe even ice cream (so my hands don't get cold) in. OHHH I could even put a ball of yarn in one so that it won't roll away.

For the first mug I put letter stickers as reverse stencils.

Then using the Sharpie marker I dotted around the letters, starting thick and lightening up the further out I went. (Left below) A few notes for using stickers:

1. Make sure they are straight! Use a ruler to measure or use a piece of tape along the bottom rim. Once you stick them on and take them off again they curl or rip and it makes it harder to put them back on.
2. Make sure they are really stuck on around the edges. For me I can see some spots where the Sharpie ink ran under the sticker and messed up my design. (if this does happen try using a q-tip with nail polish remover [with acetone], on the trouble spot.) 
3. Test the sticker on the bottom of the cup to make sure you will be able to get it off. This is a good project to use your not so good stickers.

Using the Studio metallic marker (from the dollar store) I did a large poka-dot pattern on the mug (right mug below). Before putting them in the oven I really like the Sharpie one, the color and design are way better. The other one is not a nice color, it's kind of a barf yellow color.

                                       

Sharpie:

• Finer tip - which was good for control and precision.
• Good color - It's gold and in the right light it's shinny!

Studio metallic:

• Not dark enough.
• Not gold.
• Really liquidy - works fine for paper but for mugs it wasn't to nice, I could see where I started drawing and where I lifted the pen. 

If/when I do this again I will only use Sharpies. I like the shine that the gold and most likely the silver give, so I would use those colors but you could use any Sharpie color and there are a lot out there.

After 20 minutes in an over at 400 degrees, they look the same. After letting them cool for 20 minutes, they still look the same. I tried scratching them both and the Sharpie cup wins again. I wasn't able to scratch the marker off but it was really easy to scratch the other mug. I don't have a dishwasher so I can't test if the Sharpie will hold up through that but I'm sure it would.

This is a great project for kids, just make sure they are wearing one of dad's old  shirts, (sometimes the marker just gets away from you.) They would make a great "one of a kind" gifts for mother's day or father's day. Or you could put someones initials on a mug and fill it with little goodies and give as gifts for any occasion. *don't forget to put the date on the bottom.

Enjoy!

Pinterest!

Today has been a day of pinning! I could talk about Pinterest for hours and hours. I love it!! There are so many people who have so many different and new ideas. Its an awesome place to find ideas for almost everything! I happen to have 44 boards, and over 3700 pins. I know that's a lot but if I see something and think someday I will need to know this, I just have to pin it. I explore the craft side on Pinterest along with fashion, quotes and food. It's a community full of great people and inspiration. It's simply to follow and easy to find what your looking for, while also losing track of time. Any way that's why I love Pinterest.
Try it out :www.pinterest.com
Also follow me: Chrissy Ulrich

Button OCD

My family always calls me crazy when I get a bag or box of buttons because I have a whole routine that I follow in order to organize my button properly. I am a visual person and I like things to symmetrical and in order. The process I follow is pretty ridiculous I know that but it works for me. The first thing I do is, make sure they don't smell. I've come to notice that some of them do. Usually the ones that are stored in plastic containers. If they do smell I rub them down with a dryer sheet and that usually works. Then I lie them out on a cookie sheet. Then I separate them into color groups.

Its hard to see but the four dark groups and different there is gray, brown, black, and misc. Once that is done I put each group into the corresponding jar. I have them sorted in 12 different jars.

They are separated into white (2 jars), yellow, pink and orange, red, purple, blue, green, brown, gray and silver, black, and misc.(buttons with more then one color or buttons I just can't decide on what color they are.) 

I still have room to grow my collection; which I plan on doing. My favorite are the white buttons because they look vintage in there jars. I would like to start a project with them but I have no idea what that will be. In these jars are just my plain buttons my specialty buttons are in different jars. I got all of these jars from the salvation army store for I think it was $6.

Crochet Reminder

The last time I went through and cleaned up my stash I found my very first crochet attempt! I still remember sitting in my Oma's kitchen doing my own thing crocheting a rectangle.

Isn't it a beautiful rectangle. Clearly it didn't turn out as planned so I made it into a circle. I just recently decided to frame and hang it up in my room as a reminder. It reminds me that projects don't always go as planned (which I'm very familiar with) but you can always make it into something else. I picked up this shadow box frame at Dollarama for 2 bucks and attached the circle with homemade glue dotes made from Aleene's tack it over and over glue.

Garage Sale Haul

After the farmers market this weekend my mom and I hit some garage sales. We came out on top with stuff from four different sales. We went to about six or seven garage sale and one estate sale.
From one of the first sales I picked up two stamp sets.

I really like the Susan Branch set. It is so cute. It includes 18 sentiments and 4 accent designs. Some of the sentiments are so adorable like: "Out of the way women working", "With love from me to you", "Housework, when done correctly, can kill you, and my personal favorite: "What you eat standing up doesn't count!"

The second one is just a basic sentiments stamp set. You can never have to many sentiments so why not. Both  stamp sets are brand spanking new. They both came with an ink pad, the girlfriends set came with a purple one and the sentiments come with a black one that was as dry and hard as a rock so it went into the garbage but that was fine because each stamp set was like 2 bucks. 

Last weekend we didn't have a plan when we went out looking for yard sales but we ended up at an estate sale and I fell in love. It was awesome!This lady I assume she was moving to a retirement home or in with her kids or something. Anyways she had so many awesome things. I got this awesome metal box (i'm told they used it to file title cards in library's, way back when). I am currently in the middle of spray painting it so as soon as i'm done I will post a picture/tutorial or something, and my mom got a box of kitchen stuff so like cookie sheets, measuring bowls, and muffin tins. Back to my point, This weekend I had more of a plan. I found an estate sale on Kijiji. Disappointingly we didn't find anything at this one but on the way out we past a FREE box and I had to do a double take because I found an old embroidery hoop.

I know its old because it doesn't have that little thing to tighten the ring around the fabric once you get it on there. But i'm alright with it not having that. I'm planning on putting a piece of fabric in it and hanging it on my wall in my bedroom so that I can hang up my dangly hook earrings. I got the idea off of Pinterest of course.

At another yard sale(At a house we had been to the previous year and remembered that it was a good one with vintagey things.) I found an old grape crate, a vintage thimble, and some buttons.

I have no idea how old this crate is. It was in good condition and it has good colors so all in all it was a good buy. I know it's not really old but I liked it and thought it would be perfect for storing my button jars.

I got this container and a couple of small sandwich bags of buttons. The lady asked if i was a button collector. I answered with "yes, yes I am". She said that she was too and that it was slowly time for her to start purging her collection. We also talked about some of our rare and most interesting buttons. She was a super nice lady with a nice house and I will always look for sales at her house.

I don't do any sewing... at all. Especially hand sewing because well I'm straight up horrible at it but I found this to be simply adorable and in very good condition so i just couldn't leave it behind.

At the very last sale we went to the people were a little strange.... but they had a few good things. I found this awesome old lamp.

The lamp and shade are both in pretty much perfect condition and it was only $5. I did like the shade when I first got it but once I got it in place I decided it needs a new shade. I have no idea how to shop for a new lamp shade so that should be an interesting adventure. Also at that yard sale my mom got a cute little old card table. There will be many days in winter spent sitting around our new table playing games. Here is a picture:

We had never seen a table like this so we just had to get it and it was only 5 bucks so that was another reason we had to get it. Some times we get a little carried away when we go out to garage sales but we kept it in check this weekend. 

I hope to share some garage sale tips on an up coming post, so keep an eye out for that.

Yummy Yummy in my Tummy!

This Saturday my mom and I went to a farmers market. We picked up a bunch of fresh fruit, veggies, bread, and one dang good cinnamon bun. We got amazingly delicious carrots not like the ones you buy in a store but like the ones that you pull out of your own garden and eat right after you wash it off with the garden hose. Yummy. We also got peas an onion and a purple pepper. Yes a purple one. We had never seen a purple pepper before so we just had to get one. We quickly found that we did not at all care for the taste of purple peppers but it was fun to look at. As for the fruit all we got was 2 boxes of strawberries.

There was a few people selling strawberries but we got these ones because of the cute baskets they came in. 

Today we decided to make strawberry jam! Its a pretty easy process just a few specific steps. We chose to make freezer jam and that makes the process shorter.You don't have to sterilize anything. Freezer jams still last a fair amount of time. They last 3 weeks in the fridge and 6 to 8 months in the freezer. Which is long enough for us.

We bought Original Certo Liquid Pectin to make our jam. I love this brand because it comes with all the instructions you will ever need to make jam.

It shows how to make no-cook jams, cooked jams, and cooked jellies. And it gives a recipe for almost every fruit and fruit combination. It also gives helpful tips and well written instructions. Here are the steps we followed for our strawberry jam:

First hull and thoroughly crush berries. (Crush berries with a potato masher not a food processor.)

For this part you may need an apron.

1. In large mixing bowl stir together 1 3/4 cups crushed strawberries and 4 cups granulated sugar. (I know it sounds like a lot but sugar helps jam and jellies to set, so you can't cut down on the amount.)
2. Let stand 10 minutes.
3. Add Certo (one package) and 2 Tbsp lemon juice. Stir for 3 minutes.
4. Put into clean containers filling up to 1/4 inch from rim. Cover with lids. Leave at room temp for 24 hours or till set.
   

(There were a few more containers but they are not as nice looking as these one.)

Tips:

• Do not double the recipes, as your jam or jelly may not set.
• Measure ingredients accurately.

Crochet Hexagon

       On a recent day on Pinterest I came across an awesome pin. It was a crocheted hexagon baby blanket. The lady didn't have a pattern but she linked to Attic24, and she had a pattern. Unfortunately the pattern wasn't for an afghan it was just for the hexagon so I have no idea how many hexagons to make for an afghan. So far I have about 57.

 

 









    I laid them all out and it is not even close to enough so I have a long way to go still. They are actually really fun to make them and they’re  not big so each one is quick to  make. It takes me about 13 minutes (while also watching TV) to make one. I’m using Red Heart’s Soft touch yarn to make my hexagons. This is an easy pattern. I used a 3mm hook, and my yarn is a medium weight. Here is the pattern:

Crochet Hexagon

Rnd 1: Ch 4, join with a sl st to make a ring. Ch 3, work 11 dc into ring. (12 st)

Rnd 2: Ch2, 1 dc in same st. Ch 1, work bobble st (two incomplete dc into same st, joining at the end by pulling the yarn through all loops.) Ch 1. Around. (12 bobbles) Join with a sl st into 2^nd ch.

Rnd 3: Ch 3, 2 dc into same space. Ch 1, 3 dc, ch 1 into ch space of previous row. Join with sl st into 3^rd ch.

Rnd 4: Ch 3, sl st between dc cluster, around. Join with a sl st into first ch.

Rnd 5: Working under the ch 3 space. Sl st under 1^st ch 3 space. Ch 3, 2 dc, ch 2 (corner), in same space 3 more dc. Into next ch 3 space, 3 dc. Next ch 3 loop. 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc, around. Join with a sl st, and fasten off.

New Beginnings.

I decided to start writing a blog because I love reading other people’s thoughts, and every time I’m working on a project I find myself working through the plan in my head the same why a blog is laid out. So I figure why not just make a blog and share my ideas. On my blog I’ll be posting how-to’s and project ideas along with recipes and tips.

I love crafting of all types. My main love is crocheting, but I also enjoy paper crafts and stamping. Pretty much anything I can do to create something beautiful and new with my own two hands. I get a lot of my ideas from the internet. Pinterest is a part of my daily routine. Another love of mine is GARAGE SALES! I find them SO inspiring. I love seeing other people’s junk and I love that it is an opportunity to rethink a piece into something totally new and different.