Candle Holder Cookie Tray

This project was something I've wanted to try for a while. I really wanted to do something like this as dessert trays for my wedding. The few times I went to the thrift store last spring I wasn't able to find the right plate or I couldn't find a candle holder that was heavy enough. By chance, a couple months ago, I found two silver candle holders with a nice base and some decent weight to them. Not too far away, on the same shelf, I found matching China with a pretty blue flower pattern.

I used my hot glue gun on high heat for this project. The truth is I had a "win" and a "fail". I was able to get one of the plates to stick to the candle holder and maintain a grip. The other one wouldn't no matter how many times I tried. (Good thing about hot glue is if it won't stick it's pretty easy to peel off.) 

I'm not really sure what the solution is... possibly gorilla glue? or super glue? If I ever find the time I'll try it again. If this project interests you there are lots of other "pins" on Pinterest that might be able to provide additional insight.

Corkboard Picture Frames

A couple of months ago Crafty Kid was with me at Michaels and we picked up a bunch of raw cork for a school project she was working on. It was marked down 60% and I figured I would eventually find a use for it. Flash forward to a couple weekends ago, my sister was in and we went to the Salvation Army. I found a bunch of picture frames between $.50 and $1 a piece. Score! I knew immediately that I could make some pretty cute framed corkboard memo/keepsake holders.

Supplies needed for this project:

• Raw Cork Pads (4x4 size used here)
• Picture Frames
• Cardboard 
• Crafting Knife (exacto)
• Hot Glue Gun

First thing I did was take out the glass in the picture frame. (Consider keeping it for future projects if you have the room to store it.) I then took a cardboard box and cut it to the size of the frame since this is what you are going to glue your raw cork on to. Make sure to put the unmarked side of the cardboard facing up because the color closely matches the raw cork. Close the back of the frame up. Now you can start to space out your raw cork.

I glued a solid 4x4 square of the raw cork in the top corner with hot glue. From there I started to measure out the pieces that would fill in the rest of the space on the cardboard. I have no tip or trick here. I just eyed it up and tried to be precise. The crafting knife cuts the raw cork nicely. I scored it and then gently cracked the raw cork in half. I then used the crafting knife to clean up the cut edge. I glued these pieces into place until all of the cardboard was covered.

As you can see above they turned out nice! Don't worry about small gaps in the cork puzzle pieces you've now connected. The cardboard underneath is such a close color you can barely tell. Also, if you are truly using these for their intended purpose they will soon be covered in memos, pictures, and keepsakes.

I think this could make a great gift as it can be utilized in both your home or at the office.

DIY Fake Blood - Tablecloth Decoration

I'm helping a few friends decorate for a Halloween party and I couldn't wait to share the results of this project!! Let's call it a "sneak preview" because we have plenty of other great things we made I will blog about shortly. I've personally never tried to make fake blood and wasn't sure how this would turn out. I will happily admit it worked better than expected (with a little trial and error) and that I had SO much fun unleashing my inner Dexter! ( lol )

Now I will admit that there are plenty of "fake blood recipes" out there if you just Google them, but I decided to wing it with what I already had in the house. If you are a by the book type of person you might want to do a little research to see what recipe works best for you.

I started off with 2 cups of water and added some corn starch for thickening. My lesson here is that it didn't really do much. (So honestly you can probably skip the corn starch.) Also, when I put about 40 drops of red food coloring it only really turned the water a dark pinkish color. I didn't want to use up all my food coloring so I started adding chocolate syrup and cocoa powder until I got the color I wanted. It wasn't really that much, maybe 2 tablespoons of each.

My BIG TIP here from trial and error is to start off with less water! That way you don't have to mix in as much of the other ingredients. I will say that having 2 cups was helpful to me though since i decided to decorate the tablecloth with my hand. More on that below...

I considered using gloves and realized it wouldn't get me the desired effect I wanted. I just had to see what my hand print was going to look like because I was dying of curiosity. I also knew that it would reveal to me if the mixture i created was dark enough in color to truly show on the material. As you can see above it worked out well. (Note: I call this a tablecloth because that is what I'm using it for to decorate. It is actually a long white window sheer curtain.)

Now my next technique idea was discovered because of the fact that when i pulled my hand off the material my finger tips dripped the excess onto the tablecloth. I immediately thought, wow that looks like pretty authentic blood spatter, and no that doesn't make me crazy it just proves I've watched every episode of Dexter (some twice)!

So then I decided to take a page right out of the Dexter book and flick my fingertips outward. (If you haven't seen the show, he often recreates the blood spatter of crime scenes by throwing fake blood to see the velocity and trajectory.) The result was really awesome and seriously fun! See for yourself below...

A few other things I decided to do was write "help me" and take my hand and drag it across the material to make a smeared pattern. I let it dry for 15 minutes and then threw it in the dryer for another 15 minutes. The material seems to be holding the color. I do wonder though if it wouldn't just wash right out if I sent it through on a soak cycle. However, I advise that whatever you decided to decorate with fake blood that it not be something important in case the staining is permanent.