Christmas Plates Finished

I finally finished the four Christmas plates I started working on in December.  I decoupaged fabric on the back of clear plates purchased at the Dollar Store with dishwasher safe Mod Podge.  They turned out pretty well, but they were not easy to do.

I almost gave up after working on the first plate because after applying the first coat of Mod Podge on the fabric it dried with lots of bubbles on the edges which is not good because water will get under there and ruin the whole thing.

As I added another coat of Mod Podge to the plate I realized I could smooth the bubbles down and that made going forward easier and encouraged me to finish doing the other three plates.

I put three coats of dishwasher safe Mod Podge on each plate letting them dry for at least two hours or more in between coats.  I will let them cure for 28 days, then I can sand the edges to smooth away any excess fabric and they will be ready to use next Christmas.  Fun.

I'm still working on Christmas crafts.  Next up, transforming tinsel trees with fabric and string art.

Clear Cookie Plates With Holiday Fabric Decoupaged On Them

I wanted to make four of these for the holidays and I ran out of time.  They will be ready for next year.

I'm using the dishwasher safe Mod Podge and it needs at least 28 days to cure.   I'm also using the tutorial on youtube found here.  The person doing the youtube tutorial mentions that you can cure it by baking it in the oven for an hour, but I'm not 100% sold on that so I'll just let my plates cure for 28 days.

This is the first plate.   I'll share the others as I make them.

I Thought I Was Finished Making Fall/Halloween Decorations

I really disappointed in myself.  I am still not finished with all my Fall/Halloween decorations that I want to make.  I still have a Halloween table runner that is partially cut out.  It will be made in the next week, but not in time for Halloween.  Once I finish that table runner, I can get started on my Christmas projects.

This past weekend I made myself some hanging Halloween dish towels.  I love these.

And tonight I finished decoupaging cards and paper napkins onto painted 8" x 10" canvas panels that I got at JoAnn's a few weeks ago.  The panels came in a pack of three for about $7.99.  I think I had a coupon as well.  I already had the paint and the Mod Podge.  I bought the cards a few weeks ago and the paper napkin was a donation from dear daughter.  She likes to do decoupage projects as well.

This is the front a greeting card that I decoupaged.  I think I got this card from the Dollar Store.

This is the paper napkin.

This is my favorite.  I love this card (my daughter has a Cairn terrier) and I love the paint treatment I gave the panel.  So much fun.  This card was more expensive, it came from Target.

A Few Little Fall Decorations

I went into the Dollar Tree the other day to look for Halloween decorations.  Someone I know is going to make their own Harry Potter Wizard Wand using a Youtube tutorial.  The person doing the tutorial used some skeleton decorations that you can find at Dollar Tree and I had to get some of those exact skeletons.   Here is a link to the wand tutorial.  It's a really good tutorial and lots of fun to watch.

While I was in the Dollar Tree I took some time to look for Halloween and Fall greeting cards to frame.  I ended up picking up three cards,  the Home Sweet Home card and the Happy Thanksgiving card were inexpensive and look great in a frame.  These cards were $.50 each and the frames were cheap frames I found at Walmart.

This pumpkin is a free image I found on the internet.  I printed it on regular copy paper, cut it out and  placed some burlap looking scrap book paper (on sale at Hobby Lobby for $.29 a sheet) behind it.  I set it in a 8 x 10 clip frame.  I'm not crazy about the frame and I will probably re-frame this at some point, but I love this.

The one Halloween card that they had that I like is this one.  I painted a wood plaque with purple paint and decoupaged it onto the plaque.  I already had the paint and the Mod Podge, the card cost me $1.00 and the plaque cost me $1.99.  I love this.

I saw a few pumpkins in Hobby Lobby over the last few weeks that are a teal/turquoise color.  I love the idea of adding that color into my fall decor so I bought a small pumpkin at JoAnn's for about $2.50 (used a coupon) and some turquoise paint which cost me $1.99, I think.  I did prime the pumpkin with a coat of white paint (which I already had) before I painted it blue.  Love this.

I also found a beautiful Youtube tutorial on painted pumpkins.  She does such a good job layering paint and she tells you exactly how to do it.  Someday I want to try to make the silver leaf pumpkin.  Here is the link:  Simply Handmade Pumpkin Painting Tutorial

One more project that I will be taking care of is cleaning out my old hand sewing needles.  I have some hand sewing needles that have eyes that are too small for a wire threader to fit in.  At my age, I don't need needles with eyes that small.  I will be donating them to my dear daughter.

Decoupage Doilies

   I made these crazy doilies the other night.  I didn't use a pattern, I just crocheted the center and started chaining and joining the chains.  I wanted to do something decorative with them and decided to decoupage them onto a painted canvas.