Featured On Kind Over Matter Blog: Giveaway Thurday

The sun is shining and I've been featured on Kind Over Matter's blog here. What a great day! 

The Kind Over Matter blog focuses on the handmade community and is dedicated to kind acts,

inspirational stories, art and projects.  

So head on over and comment on the blog for a chance to win one of my bracelets

with YOUR word of the year! 

Share a Craft! Ball Canning Jar Frosted Glass Candle Holders

I saw this idea somewhere before the holidays and I thought it looked like a fun idea to try. Our family always has "Thanksmas" where the entire family gathers together between Thanksgiving and Christmas to celebrate so we can all be home on the actual holidays. My sister and I wanted to find some inexpensive and easy ideas for table centerpieces. So, I came up with this idea of using Frosted Glass spray paint, ball canning jars and adhesive vinyl letter shapes to make candle holders. Don't limit yourself to the holidays....I made a few that can be used all year long.

The best tips are to clean the jars thoroughly before affixing the vinyl letters. I ran mine through the dishwasher and allowed them to dry thoroughly. I carefully placed one 2 inch vinyl letter on each jar. Then I placed all of the Ball jars upside down on freezer/wax paper (glossy side up) on my patio table outside for good ventilation. If you used newspaper, I think the paint would stick and you'd have to spend time removing it from the jars. I followed the instructions on the can of paint and probably sprayed each one 3 times to get a good frosty look to them. This paint dried very quickly and I peeled the vinyl letters off after a few hours.

I made 3 sets of jars....Thanksmas, Family and Love. I can use the family and love all year round and reuse the Thanksmas jars every year. The Love jars would look great for Valentine's Day too! Shown below is the Family set that I made.

Family Candle Jars

I wanted to decorate the tops somehow but ended up not having time...story of my life!  I thought they would look nice with jute or hemp twine wrapped around and glued to the top ring of the jar. I had a very pretty roll of red wired ribbon that never made it onto the jars.  They could also be tied with raffia, ribbon or lace...anything that goes with your decor. This was a very economical project too. I think the Rust-oleum Specialty Frosted Glass spray was 4.99 and the canning jars were $7 for a big box full from a local thrift store at half price. The 2 inch Helvetica font vinyl letters were bought at Michaels craft store and I believe they were $5 or so and I still have a lot left for other projects. I still have paint left as well and lots of extra jars so I could do this all over again! You could also use stencils to paint a design without covering the entire jar. The design possibilities are endless!

I would suggest using tea lights or votive candles that can be placed inside the jar. If you just put a candle inside.....I'm not sure how these will hold up to washing out the spilled wax.  If you do wash them I would suggest gentle hand washing only.

If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will try to help!

I have had a busy week in my latest shop AlwaysAMemory on etsy. I have been in several more treasuries, completed several custom orders, had many inquiries about my bracelets and got offered a great consignment deal with a store in my home town! Very excited about all that is going on and that my hard work is paying off!

Have a great weekend! See you soon! Kitty

New Etsy Shop, New Designs

Aluminum Key Chain

Aluminum Best Friends "Bestie"  Bracelet Set

Hope, Dream, Love and Trust Custom Necklace

Bee Happy Copper Necklace

Personalized Sterling and Fresh Water Pearl Necklace

Mother Bird in Nest with Fresh Water Pearl "Eggs" Necklace

A lot has happened since my last post which was far too long ago. I've been meaning to post more often!

You know what they say about good intentions......

I started a new ETSY shop Always A Memory  and have been diligently working on new jewelry designs over the past few months....making sample pieces and photographing them which seems to take more time and effort than making the jewelry!

But the payoff has been that these designs have been well received! 

I've been in several etsy treasuries over the last week or so and that's a record for me!

I use sterling silver, copper, brass and aluminum in my work. Sterling Silver is so expensive right now that I've been looking at alternative metals. I just started making hand stamped bracelets from aluminum and they've turned out very well and are an affordable alternative to silver for now!

Hand stamped jewelry making is my new addiction! It's quite an investment in tools and materials but I have had so much fun making things. I have many design stamps and hand tools now.

And I want so many more! I think it's going to be a never ending wish list for me...

Next on my wish list is some fancier font stamps!

I'm still working my other job part time since last May. I think I will be full time again soon.

Not sure how I feel about that yet but we'll see how it goes. 

Hoping I can balance my creative needs with my practical-need-a-paycheck life without going crazy! 

 My family is well. I spend as much time as I can with my 3 grand kids (who are growing like weeds and never fail to make me laugh or smile). My 3 kids are all doing fine and moving on in their own lives! My husband and I celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary on January 26th.

Winter is getting me down (I've had enough rain and gray days) but I'm looking forward to Spring.

I know it will be here soon enough!

I'm looking forward to a beach trip soon and another trip to Portland to visit one of my daughters.

More soon!

I've been away far too long!

It's been so long since I've posted! We've passed two seasons, Spring and Summer and are quickly approaching Fall which is my favorite time of year. Fall has a cozy feel to me. It's a time that I want my home to look it's best and reflect the season. I want to bake more. I want to enjoy the crisp fall days.

I went back to work in May....mostly out of necessity! I want to pay off our debt and there is no other way to do it. My husband was laid off several times over last winter and that had a snowball effect that we are still dealing with but things are getting better! I have enjoyed being back with my co-workers at work. I missed some of them a lot while I was off.

It seems that I was not as motivated as I should have been with all the time I had off of work. Suffice it to say it was a nice vacation. I thought I would spend more time on my etsy shops and get so much done but I didn't. I'm trying to jump on the social networking bandwagon so please like my Facebook Fan page. The link is on the top right of this page. Thanks in advance! I will post sales and deals there. I hope to make the content interesting enough that someone will actually want to read it...lol.

From the top of Cape Perpetua, Oregon

I spent most of my summer at home due to the money issues we've had but I did get a chance to see the California Redwoods, go to the beach and visit the beautiful city of Portland several times. It was a relaxing summer spent with family and friends. I will try to keep up on this blog from now on. I do enjoy writing here!

Oregon Beach Photos

I had a great weekend at the Oregon Beach! It was warm, sunny with not much wind! Uncommonly good weather for this time of year. It was beautiful so I took lots of photos between Lincoln City and Newport. Lots of surfers were out at the Otter Rock/Devil's Punchbowl beach.....

Hope you had a great weekend as well! I'm off to list some new things in my etsy shops! Have a good day! Kitty