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~ Like dew hanging from the tip of a leaf, a single bead or word adds sparkle where there was none. BE the bright!

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Category Archives: DIY

Christmas at Sea Tablescape

23 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, baking, Christmas, crafts, DIY, family, holiday, home, home decor, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Christmas table, home decor, lunch, tablescape, toy ship

I hosted a Christmas Lunch for two of my daughters-in-law. The tablescape was Christmas at Sea, which featured an old ship that belonged to my dear father-in-law. I love the Christmas song “I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing in on Christmas Day” and that was the original inspiration for the table. I would need smaller ships to fit three on the table though so one ship was big enough. One of my daughters-in-law used to work on a cruise ship so the theme was all the more fun.
1 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0474
The ship was placed on a piece of fluffy white batting in the center of the table. Small glass balls in white and wintery shades of gray were scattered like bubbles around the ship.
2 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0476
Small crocheted snowflakes were hung from the ship’s sails.
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I also hung several glass balls and glass icicles and chandelier prisms from the ship to add to the wintery icy effect.
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The napkins were made from Vintage Christmas Carol sheet music fabric from Spoonflower. I had the design printed on Linen Cotton Canvas and it made lovely napkins.
5 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0483
On each napkin I placed a sugar cookie snowflake. They turned out pretty but are so fragile that I broke the royal icing on several even before the lunch! But I adore snowflakes so I’ll probably make these again, even if they do break easily.
6 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0485
Several of the smaller snowflake cookies were placed around the ship.
7 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0486
To light the ship, I used three strands of tiny, battery operated lights. The battery boxes fit perfectly under the ship and were hidden under the white batting.
8 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0484
Lunch was Potato Bacon Chowder, Ham Barbecue Rolls, Spinach Salad, and Cranberry Cheesecake Pie for dessert. We were sad that one of the girls couldn’t make it due to a sore throat. But now I have a good excuse to host again. It was too fun to only do once. Instead of Christmas at Sea, it will be Winter at Sea!
9 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0480
I wish we had a fireplace mantel in the living room. I’d love to style ships like this on a mantel. If you do, please post in the comments and share. I’d love to see it!
10 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0489

 

 

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The Hot Air Balloon mobile has lights

30 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, crafts, DIY, home decor, lighting, projects

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crafts, home decor, hot air balloon, mobile

The Hot Air Balloon mobile I made for my granddaughter needed a couple more touches.
I added small paper flowers around the basket.

Paper flowers were glued around the hot air balloon basket.


I think another set of mini lights will be good but the softness with just one set of lights is so pretty!

The string of mini lights in this paper balloon add a lovely soft glow.


Hot Air Balloon mobile with lights.


Hot Air Balloon mobile made from a Japanese paper ball, lit with mini lights.


There wasn’t much contrast in the colors of this mobile. But once I added the lights, my baby granddaughter won’t stop looking at it. :)

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Succulent Garden

26 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by Julia Monroe in DIY, gardening, home decor, nature, On my Worktable, tutorial

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

DIY, gardening, home decor, indoor gardening, succulents

I made my first succulent garden! My mom gave me some of the succulents so long ago that they were starting to root into the paper towel on the plate. I got most of the others from Homewood Nursery.1-succulent-arrangement-materials

The platter is actually a big, heavy plant saucer, 14″ in diameter. Since it was so shallow, I decided to build a little stone wall in order to build up the soil. The stones used for the wall were all gathered from my back yard. Since the edge of the saucer was curved, I had to hot-glue the stones to keep them from sliding in to the center of the plate. It only took a small amount of glue to hold them together. I planned on using a cement filler between the stones but ended up not using it.2-succulent-arrangement-stone-wall

Since the saucer has no drainage, I covered the bottom with more stones.3-succulent-arrangement-stone-drainage

A layer of bonsai soil was spread over the stones. Not shown is a very thin scattering of charcoal to help with drainage.
4-succulent-arrangement-layer-of-bonsai-soil
A thicker layer of cactus/succulent soil was placed on top, with a little more bonsai soil mixed in. I also arranged and glued more rocks to make another wall on top of the soil, then built up more soil inside to give the arrangement height.5-succulent-arrangement-layer-of-cactus-succulent-soil

Not all the succulents got used.6-succulent-arrangement-planting-finished
I’m so happy with how this turned out since it the first time I planted succulents.7-succulent-arrangement
8-succulent-arrangement

9-succulent-arrangement

10-succulent-arrangement

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13-succulent-arrangement

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15-succulent-arrangement

16-succulent-arrangementI got a container of “vase filler” from Target and sorted through to pull out all the black stones and light stones. The black stones were used on and near the elevated area in the center of the arrangement. The light stones were used everywhere else.17-succulent-arrangement

This dish is beautiful but I weighed it and it’s very heavy… 22 lbs! Wow! It’s definitely not a casual arrangement I will be moving often. But today, I’m really enjoying it on my dining room table.18-succulent-arrangement

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Sweet & Sparkling Specialty Sugars for tea and coffee and sprinkling

31 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, baking, cooking, crafts, DIY, food, recipe, sparkling, tea time, tutorial, Uncategorized

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Tags

allsparkledup, crafts, DIY, food

So happy she loved the gift I made for her! Specialty Sugars for her tea and coffee and sprinkling on toast, cereal or anything else that needs a little sweet sparkle.

Delicious and beautiful flavored sugars in jars.

Delicious and beautiful flavored sugars in jars.


I bought the decorative knobs and glass jars at Hobby Lobby. It was easy drilling a hole in the corks, using a hack saw to shorten the knob bolt and gluing them together with a few beads.
1-specialty-sugars-s-5648
~ Lavender Sugar ~
I ground up culinary lavender with a mortar and pestle, then put the lavender and sugar in a food processor. The lavender sugar was then layered with crystal sugar in the jar.
2-specialty-sugars-spice-sugar-and-lavender-sugar
~ Lemon Orange Sugar ~
Lemon and Orange zest were placed in a food processor with sugar and ground medium fine. I’ve been making this mixture for years for use in cheesecake because it makes a very fine textured cheesecake. To fill the jar, I spooned in a layer of Lemon Orange Sugar then used tongs to place white sugar cubes against the side of the jar. Then I spooned in more sugar and repeated the layers. Next time I’ll add more orange zest for a darker orange colored sugar.
3-specialty-sugars-lemon-orange-5636
3-specialty-sugars-lemon-orange-5638
3-specialty-sugars-lemon-orange
~ Vanilla Bean Sugar ~
I scraped the seeds from two vanilla beans and ground the seeds with sugar in a food processor. I used one half of each vanilla bean, split lengthwise, to place in the jar. I spooned in about 1″ of Vanilla Sugar in the bottom of the jar. Then I used tongs and a wood skewer to position each vanilla bean against the side of the jar before adding the rest of the Vanilla Sugar.
4-specialty-sugars-vanilla-bean-s-5669
~ Pumpkin Spice Sugar ~
This recipe is something one of my sons and I made up, based on the spice ratio I use in my Pumpkin Pies. We keep this sugar blend on hand to make Pumpkin Spice Lattes, which everyone knows don’t have any pumpkin in them anyway. haha. Still, the flavor is very close to my pumpkin pies, sans pumpkin. To fill this jar, I used a small spoon and a tiny funnel I made from two straws. I can’t explain how I did the design but if you look up “sand art in a bottle” on youtube, you’ll get the idea. The white layer is Vanilla Bean Sugar. The dark brown “spots” in the white layer are pieces of cinnamon stick. I wanted to position the cinnamon stick pieces to look like hearts but the white sugar kept filling in the spaces so it didn’t work out.
5-specialty-sugars-pumpkin-spice-s-5665

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” it is said. So true. I couldn’t access my precut wood pieces or run a saw so I ended up using the only wood on hand, a 30 year old piece of Sassafrass root from my parents property. It’s been in my tea collection for decades and still has a beautiful scent. I used a small craft saw to cut thin slices of the wood to make the tags. I wrote on them with permanent marker. Now I wonder if I had wood-burned the words in… could the slice of sassafrass be steeped in boiling water to flavor tea? What fun that would be! I’ll have to try it out.

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7-specialty-sugars-lemon-orange-sugar-s-5668
For each of the flavored sugars, I used one cup of granulated sugar plus the flavoring agent. That was plenty to fill the jar, with a little left over.
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I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! We sure had a jolly time.

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The Snow and Crystal Tree and Tendril Snowflakes

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in allsparkledup, Christmas, crafts, DIY, home decor, projects, sparkling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Christmas, Christmas decorating, DIY, home decor, nature crafts, snowflakes, tree, tutorial

I put away all the Christmas decorations except for one – the Snow and Crystal Tree. The corner will be too empty if I put it away and I love the wintery look of it. The snowflakes remind me of scribbles. Scribble Snowflakes!

Snow and Crystal Tree, with vintage chandelier crystals and snowflakes made from dried vine tendrils.

Snow and Crystal Tree, with vintage chandelier crystals and snowflakes made from dried vine tendrils.

The tree is a dried branch cut from a tree in the woods behind our house. I stuck it firmly into Styrofoam in an urn and laid moss around the base.
The crystals are from the old chandelier that used to hang in my parents’ dining room when I was a child. I loved that chandelier so I’m thrilled to have some of the crystals from it.
The snowflakes are made of natural tendrils and curls that I collected from the vines in the backyard in the fall.  My granddaughter helped me look for the curly tendrils and we really enjoyed our time together outdoors.

Dried vine snowflakes, little 1" glass ball ornaments and vintage chandelier crystals.

Dried vine snowflakes, little 1″ glass ball ornaments and vintage chandelier crystals.

To make the snowflakes, I broke off the dry twigs and slid the curly tendrils off. Here is a photo I posted on instagram of the twig bits with the tendrils removed.

The tendrils were gently twisted and pulled off the broken twigs.

The tendrils were gently twisted and pulled off the broken twigs.

Each snowflake needed six similar pieces so I grouped the tendrils by size.
3 Snow Crystal Tree
Once I had six similar tendrils, I trimmed the ends so they were the same length.
4 Snow Crystal Tree
For each snowflake, I made a contoured mat out of foil for gluing. A small bead was glued temporarily on the back of the foil so it would create a small mound on the right side.
5 Snow Crystal Tree

The foil is gently pressed down around the bead to create a little mound.

The foil is gently pressed down around the bead to create a little mound.

On the right side of the foil, on top of the tiny mound, I glued a small bead for the center of the snowflake. All the tendrils will then be glued to this bead using hot glue.
7 Snow Crystal Tree
The tendrils were arranged around the center bead in a pleasing manner.
8 Snow Crystal Tree
The two straightest tendrils were glued on first, opposite each other, to create the line of symmetry.
9 Snow Crystal Tree
The other tendrils were glued on the sides and the hot glue was allowed to harden.
10 Snow Crystal Tree
To remove the delicate snowflake, the foil was folded and pinched together under the snowflake. Then the snowflake was gently popped off the foil. One of the snowflakes stuck too much so I used tweezers to pull the foil off and reglue the tendrils that had loosened.
11 Snow Crystal Tree
12 Snow Crystal Tree
The snowflakes were hung with thin hooks I made from jewelry wire.
13 Snow Crystal Tree
14 Snow Crystal Tree
15 Snow Crystal Tree
The vintage crystals look lovely on the tree.

Vintage hand-cut crystals adorn the tree.

Vintage hand-cut crystals adorn the tree.

17 Snow Crystal Tree
18 Snow Crystal Tree
At the base of the urn is a gilded tea cup filled with little glass ball ornaments.

The beautiful earthy and neutral color ornaments were from Terrain. The tea cup is from Anthropologie.

The beautiful earthy and neutral color ornaments were from Terrain. The tea cup is from Anthropologie.

Snow and Crystal Tree, with vintage chandelier crystals and snowflakes made from dried vine tendrils.

Snow and Crystal Tree, with vintage chandelier crystals, glass balls in neutral shades and snowflakes made from dried vine tendrils.

The little fox ornament I got several years ago finally found a home… at the base of the Snow and Crystal tree.

A furry, little red fox ornament sits at the base of the Snow and Crystal Tree.

A furry, little red fox ornament sits at the base of the Snow and Crystal Tree.

I don’t know what to put in the corner when this tree comes down.. probably a lamp. But then again, perhaps I’ll make a Snowy Valentine tree…

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Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary

13 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in allsparkledup, Christmas, crafts, DIY, home decor, New Years, On my Worktable, projects, tutorial

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bottle brush tree, Christmas, Christmas decoration, crafts, home decor, pearls

I’ve made a decision!

Last year I was committed to posting timely topics on my blog. Well that didn’t happen! sigh. I don’t know how other bloggers do it all. They must decorate for Christmas months before December, the same way magazines work on their seasonal material many months before the issue hits the press.

Though I really tried last year, if I couldn’t finish a post during the season, I ended up never posting at all. That is going to change. This year, I am posting anything I want, any time I want. I have quite a bit of material to post! I know that breaks blogger rules, the rule that says readers won’t be interested in seeing Christmas crafts in August. But life is too short and much too busy so I hope you all forgive me for diving right in to this new year.

You will be getting more posts from me but it’s fairly certain they won’t be all calendar-tidy. Nope. Not at all. I can sorta-kinda-maybe get some posts matched with seasons but I won’t stress about missing. And I’ll do my best to not apologize when I post Christmas in May and Valentines in September. Because… it’s highly likely I will actually be working on Christmas projects in May and making Valentines in September!

So here’s a project I just finished yesterday, January 12, 2016. It’s a Christmas decoration. Happy New Year to you!

Pearl Bottle Brush Tree Topiary, made by cutting bristles out of a bottle brush tree and gluing on pearls.

Pearl Bottle Brush Tree Topiary, made by cutting bristles out of a bottle brush tree and gluing on pearls.

The photos are a bit off in tone because I started this Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary Tree before Thanksgiving 2015 and photographed the steps under various lighting conditions as I did them, weeks apart. That’s how I get so much done. Projects are broken down into phases, kept in bins and boxes like a kit, ready for me to work on here and there.

For the bottle brush topiary, I picked a nice bottle brush tree to work with. The brush had to be full and evenly distributed all the way around and the bristles had to be tight. I found these 9″ trees at Michaels.

The first step was establishing the spiral by sticking masking tape around the tree. I started at the base and wound it around the tree all the way to the top.

The masking tape is wound around the tree, starting at the bottom and spiraling around the tree to the top. The tape will mark all the places that the bristles will NOT be cut.

The masking tape is wound around the tree, starting at the bottom and spiraling around the tree to the top. The tape will mark all the places that the bristles will NOT be cut.

I first started cutting out the bristles right in the center of the taped areas as shown here. The first cutting was in the center between the tape, all the way from the base to the top of the tree.
3 Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary
Here you can see what the tree looks like after the first cutting.
4 Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary
To make the second cutting, I cut at an angle from the tape in to meet the deep first cut in the center of the tree.

Cutting at an angle from the tape to the center. The tree was turned upside down to make cuts under the spiral as you can see here.

Cutting at an angle from the tape to the center. The tree was turned upside down to make cuts under the spiral as you can see here.

After the second cutting.
6 Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary
I continued cutting away bristles until there was a nice, neat spiral shape, all between the tape-covered bristles.
7 Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary
The cutting is all finished here.
8 Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary
The masking tape is gently pulled away.

I was so happy with how easy it was to make the spiral shape!

I was so happy with how easy it was to make the spiral shape!


10 Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary
11 Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary
Here is the cut tree next to an identically-taped bottle brush tree. The tape makes it easy to cut an even spiral.
12 Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary
13 Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary
The last step was gluing on the pearly glass and plastic beads. I watched Downton Abbey while doing this and it was a pleasant task. Oh so elegant! I used Fast Grab Tacky Glue and tweezers to place each pearl. No other glue would have been as easy to use because I needed a glue that grabbed fast and didn’t drip. I used two kinds of large pearl beads and a couple different kinds of smaller pearls and pearly beads.

Pearls are glued to the tips of bristles on this Bottle Brush Topiary Tree.

Pearls are glued to the tips of bristles on this Bottle Brush Topiary Tree.

I’m looking forward to displaying this pretty tree next Christmas, tucked amongst the plants in the corner of the dining room.

Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary Tree

Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary Tree

By the way, did you see the beautiful red Poinsettia peeking over in the first photo? When I lifted the poinsettia plant out of the van in early December, three branches broke off. So I stuck them in a glass of water. They are still beautiful, over a month later. =)

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Pencil Rolls and Coloring Pages

04 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, art, Christmas, color, crafts, DIY, fabric, On my Worktable, photography, projects, Spoonflower, tutorial

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colored pencils, coloring, coloring books, DIY, fabric, pencil roll, photography, sewing, Spoonflower, tutorial

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s. We did!

I made the girls Pencil Rolls and custom coloring pages for Christmas. They loved the sets.

Colored Pencil Roll

Colored Pencil Roll

Pencil roll with special coloring pages

Pencil roll with special coloring pages

I used Julie 1971 fabric from Spoonflower.

Julie 1971, a fabric featuring houses made of felt, is available on Spoonflower.

Julie 1971, a fabric featuring houses made of felt, is available on Spoonflower.

The inspiration for Julie 1971 is a piece of artwork I made when I was 12 years old, in 1971. I made the little felt houses from bits of felt and glued them to the back of a piece of laundry detergent box cardboard.
6 Felt Houses Inspiration
The pencil roll was very easy to make. The lining, pocket and flap are linen, the decorative cover wrap is cotton canvas.
7 Felt Houses

Felt Houses

Felt Houses

Even after all these years, the cardboard is still in great shape.

The back of the Felt Houses artwork, clued to a piece of cardboard from a box of All laundry detergent.

The back of the Felt Houses artwork is cardboard cut from a box of All laundry detergent.

My father cut the picture frame from a single piece of wood. The Felt Houses art hangs in our guest room.
5 Felt Houses and fabric
The original artwork is still vibrant and prints beautifully on canvas and linen fabrics from Spoonflower. Here you can see the original art next to canvas, which I have aged a little by machine washing it in warm water.

The pencil roll open, with flap folded over to protect pencil tips and keep the pencils from spilling out during transport.

The pencil roll open, with flap folded over to protect pencil tips and keep the pencils from spilling out during transport.

Outer cover – made of a piece of decorative Julie 1971 fabric 17″ x 8.5″, sewed to a piece of linen 17″ x 4.5″ for the flap, to make a rectangle 17″ x 12.5″.

The outside of the pencil roll, with the flap open.

The outside of the finished pencil roll, with the flap open.

Lining – made of linen cut to 17″ x 12.5″.
Pencil pocket – two pieces of linen 17″ x 4″.

The cover piece with flap was sewn to the lining piece, right sides together, with a small opening for turning at the bottom. This cover piece was turned right side out and pressed flat.

The pencil pocket was made by stitching the two 17″ x 4″ pieces of linen together with a small opening for turning at the bottom. This piece was turned right side out and pressed flat.

The pocket piece was sewn to the bottom of the cover piece. Here you can see how simple the pocket is attached to the cover piece.

The pocket piece was stitched inside the cover piece at the sides and along the bottom.

The pocket piece was stitched inside the cover piece at the sides and along the bottom.

To figure out where to stitch for the pencil pockets, I simply stuck pieces of masking tape vertically, all across the pocket piece, with a little margin between each piece of tape, and stitched between the pieces of masking tape. Several of the pockets weren’t exactly the same size but that was fine. That method of marking for the pockets was super easy and didn’t need any measuring or marking the fabric at all.

To keep the roll shut, I used what I had on hand – stretchy beading elastic tied in a loop.

For each girl, I made a custom set of pictures to color. I used Photoshop to alter photographs and printed the coloring pages on cardstock.

Some of the coloring pages I gave to the girls.

Some of the coloring pages I gave to the girls.

Boxes for pencils are nice, but there is another layer of artsy satisfaction when you unfurl a roll of creamy pencils tucked in soft linen.

Coloring with pencils

Coloring with pencils

Here are two free coloring pages for you keep and print out.

Free coloring page - Do what is Beautiful and Never Give Up

Free coloring page – Do what is Beautiful and Never Give Up

Girl with Flowers in her Hair - a free coloring page for you!

Girl with Flowers in her Hair – a free coloring page for you.

Enjoy!

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Latte Magnets for the Water Counter

24 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, crafts, DIY, On my Worktable, projects, tutorial

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crafts, DIY, health, magnets, refrigerator art, tutorial, water

“Did you drink anything today?”
“Yes… I think I did… I had a cup of coffee… maybe two…”
“Any water?”
One of my sons is keen on proper water consumption and I really appreciate his healthy diligence.

I keep a Water Counter on the refrigerator. You can check out the tutorial here.

To help curb my coffee intake, I made two Latte Magnets. From now on, it’s two cups of coffee a day max. Coffee is no substitute for water. In fact, caffeine actually dehydrates you and flushes fluid. So for each cup of coffee you drink, drink one or more cups of water to stay hydrated.

The magnets were first coated with gold acrylic paint.

The magnets are painted with gold acrylic paint.

The magnets are painted with gold acrylic paint.

Here you can see the finished magnets, as well as my test painting right on the tray.

For the test, I made a puddle of gold acrylic paint on the paint tray. Immediately after that, while the paint was wet, I used the tip of a toothpick to lightly dab on blobs of white gesso. The gesso was carefully dabbed on top of the wet gold paint, not mixed in. Then I used a toothpick to draw through the gesso and gold paint to make the design. The test worked great so I did the same thing on the magnets and let them dry overnight.

To make the design, I dabbed on two small blobs of white right next to each other for the heart and long thin “smilies” under, for the leaves. It only took one sweep of the toothpick down through the center to make the design.

White gesso is dabbed on a puddle of gold acrylic paint. A toothpick dragged down through the center of the wet paint creates the cute Latte design.

White gesso is dabbed on a puddle of gold acrylic paint. A toothpick dragged down through the center of the wet paint creates the cute Latte design.

Little Latte Magnets.

Little Latte Magnets.

Now when the water counter on the refrigerator just has two cups of coffee in it… that means drink more water!

Plastic wine glass Water Counter on my refrigerator with water, juice/wine and Latte Magnets. Today it's one glass of juice, one cup of coffee and two glasses of water... need more water

Plastic wine glass Water Counter on my refrigerator with water, juice/wine and Latte Magnets. Today it’s one glass of juice, one cup of coffee and two glasses of water… need more water.

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Drink more water!

09 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in allsparkledup, crafts, DIY, tutorial

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

All Sparkled Up, crafts, fridge, magnets, water

That’s what I’m trying to remember these hot summer days. I rarely get thirsty so drinking water is something I have to do intentionally. I’ll get to the end of a day and realize I didn’t drink enough of anything, especially H2O!

To help remember, I made a little drink counter for on my fridge.

Water Counter on my fridge - made from a plastic wine glass cut in half with marble water counters.

Water Counter on my fridge – made from a plastic wine glass cut in half with marble water counters.

I cut one of these plastic wine glasses in half.

I used a craft saw to carefully cut the cup top and base in half.

I used a craft saw to carefully cut the cup top and base in half.

Actually, I wanted a little less than half on my fridge so I cut just a smidge off center. It was easier than I thought using a craft saw. I didn’t rush the process and cut the top of the cup first, then the base to match.
3 Water Counter
Once the top and base were glued together, I used E6000 jewelry glue to attach a strong magnet to the back of the base.

The drink counters are half-marbles from the floral department at Michaels. I recycled old magnets from my fridge by painting them white, including painting over rickrack that was glued around each magnet. The half-marbles were glued on with E6000 jewelry glue.

Half a wine glass on my fridge!  It looks really cute with the marble counters in it.

Half a wine glass on my fridge! It looks really cute with the marble counters in it.

This is the first water counter I’ve ever made that actually works. It’s easy to see that I haven’t been drinking enough throughout the day. And the cup looks cute filling up with marbles.

Wine Glass Refrigerator Water Counter - to remind me to drink more water!

Wine Glass Refrigerator Water Counter – to remind me to drink more water!

What??? There is only one water drop in that cup? And I took all the photos and posted to my blog? Time to drink more water!

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Angel Curtain Treatment

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, Christmas, DIY, holiday, home decor, lighting, sunlight, tutorial, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

angel, Angel Window Treatment, Christmas, Christmas window, curtain treatment, curtains, DIY, home decor, tutorial, window treatment

All I wanted was a little more light in the dining room so I gathered up the curtain in one hand and pulled it up and discovered … an Angel Curtain Treatment!

Angel Curtain Treatment

Angel Curtain Treatment

[Please excuse my unwashed window. We’ve pared back on a lot of things since my surgery. ;) ]

Normally, the sheer curtain just hangs over a tension rod stuck in the window frame. I don’t hang the curtain full length as normal, using the rod through the curtain sleeve, but rather just drape the floor-length panel over the tension rod so the pretty embroidered bottom edge hangs about halfway up the window as seen in this fall photo.
I also like the double thickness of the sheer when I hang the curtain like that.
1 b Fall arrangement 2014

To make the angel curtain treatment, all you need are two S hooks with lengths of ribbon tied on and whatever decoration you want to use for the top of the “angel head.” That’s it! One end of the ribbon is shorter than the other when tied, as you can see here.
2 Angel Curtain Treatment

I made two S hooks from an old hanger, making sure they would fit over the tension curtain rod. I like using the inner stiffening layer from men’s ties as ribbon. (You can see what else I used the tie pieces for here.) In this tutorial, I will call the wool tie interlining pieces “ribbons” for clarity.
3 Angel Curtain Treatment

The curtain is very light and airy and you can see how long it is here. I’m not sure this treatment would work as easily with a heavier curtain. Also, the top of the curtain will actually be the bottom of the angel’s dress. So the back of the curtain’s hemmed sleeve must look good.
4 Angel Curtain Treatment

To begin making the angel, the S hooks with ribbons were hung near the center of the rod.
5 Angel Curtain Treatment

The two shorter ends of the ribbons were tied loosely across the middle, wrapped several times to make the ends hang at the sides of the “angel head.” I didn’t have to tie any knots because the rough tie fabric held position easily when wrapped around several times. But if your ribbon is slick, like satin, you will have to pin it together to make it stay.
6 Angel Curtain Treatment

Here I’m lightly gathering the curtain in one hand, a little above the embroidered edge. I adjusted the curtain length over the rod and made sure the embroidered edge was arranged with pretty folds as I gathered it together.
8 Angel Curtain Treatment

Once the curtain was gathered together in my hand, I raised it up.
9 Angel Curtain Treatment

Again, I adjusted the folds to adjust the bottom of the curtain.
10 Angel Curtain Treatment

Once the curtain was held up, I looped the long left ribbon under and around the bundle of gathered curtain.
11 Angel Curtain Treatment
12 Angel Curtain Treatment

The two long long lengths of ribbon tie were tied together under the gathered bundle.
13 Angel Curtain Treatment

I fine tuned the embroidered curtain edge, pulling it down a bit to make it longer.
14 Angel Curtain Treatment

Here you can see the curtain sleeve from the top of the curtain now hanging at the bottom of the angel’s dress.
15 Angel Curtain Treatment

To finish the angel, I simply tucked a small halo of gold star holiday wire and a Christmas package decoration on top of the ribbon tie.
16 Angel Curtain Treatment
17 Angel Curtain Treatment

The finished Angel Curtain Treatment

18 Angel Curtain Treatment

An angel spreads her wings of sheer batiste. She disappears at night when I let the curtain down and the window sill lights shimmer through like stars.

To make this window treatment took less than 5 minutes. Seriously, it took longer to rummage through my old ribbon box to find the package decoration! To take it down, simply untie the ribbon from behind the curtain and remove the S hooks. Super simple.

And Thank You, Brenda, for your husband’s ties. This project finished up the linings I had from the first batch of ties. Your bag of ties will be plenty for new projects!

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