Ready?

Aside from decorating for Chinese New Year, I'm also pulling out some Valentine decorations for my kitchen counter and craft room.

Are you ready for Valentine's...because I’m ready to do another give-away with a few vintage and hand-made goodies thrown in.

Just leave a comment by Monday January 24 by 8pm (EST) and become a follower. I hope you are having a crafty weekend!

XOXO

Chinese New Year Lantern Ideas

I have to give a shout-out to my adoptive blogging friend Cindy who did a fantastic job making Chinese New Year Lanterns out of red envelopes.

You can find detailed instructions here on her blog.

You can find red envelopes at Party City and Pier 1 right now. Construction paper lanterns can be found here on my blog. Josie has even been able to help me with this craft the last two years.

Simple instructions for making paper lanterns out of Styrofoam cups found here on Family Corner.

My favorite lantern is this glass lantern made of recycled glass jars, red tissue paper, stickers and other embellishments.

This craft was featured several years ago on my blog here and I decided it was time to add another one to our collection with Miss Josie's help.

Supplies needed for this craft include:

Empty glass jars (with the labels soaked off)
red tissue paper
scissors
glue
brushes
(glitter, ribbon..etc) for embellishments

Step 1. Gather up some empty glass jars (here's a good excuse to clean out the refrigerator) and let them soak in hot water to remove their labels.

Step 2. Make a simple solution of white glue and water, using equal parts of each. I poured our glue solution in a plastic bowl for Josie.

Step 3. Cut up a bowl full of one-inch squares of red tissue paper (the size isn't that important). You could even tear up your tissue pieces for a more custom look. Set aside your tissue paper.

Step 4. Using a brush, paint the sides of the jar with the glue solution.

Step 5. Paste one layer of red tissue onto the jar.


Step 6. We then covered the tissue with another coat of glue and set the jar aside to dry. We put Josie's jar in front of a fan to speed up the process. It took less than 30 minutes to dry.

Step 7. Decorate your jar with glitter, stickers, gold wire, ribbon or whatever you can find. Josie used LOTS and LOTS of CNY stickers that I picked up from Party City.

I then covered the jar with one more layer of glue to adhere the stickers to the tissue paper and we set the jar back in front of the fan for more dry time.

Happy Crafting!

Happy soon-to-be Chinese New Year!

Felt Cupcakes

I'm really excited about my latest project.

Aren't these felt cupcakes cute?

The idea behind this craft project is very similar to the fabric toadstools that I made at Christmas. (Mom, aren't you proud of me? I'm using a needle and thread again!!)

Supplies:
Felt
Small bowl for tracing
Needle & thread
Ric Rak for trim (optional)
Beads for embellishment (option)
Hot glue
cupcake liners & paper cups

1. Using a small bowl, trace a four inch circle on your felt square.

2. Cut out circle and sew a gathering stitch around the edge of your circle.

3. Pull your gathering stitch to create the cupcake top. Pack the top with poly-fill or cotton balls. Pull gathering stitch tight, close and knot.

4. To keep my cupcake paper liners from crushing from the weight of the felt top, I cut down a paper cup to fit inside the cupcake liner. I then glued the liner to the cup and then glued the felt cupcake top to the top of the paper liner.

5. Embellish your cupcakes with beads or ric rack. This part is optional.

Aside from tea parties, these cupcakes would be really cute party favors at a child's birthday. By the way, Target is selling cupcake themed items in their dollar bins right now.

Happy Crafting!

Cupcakes & tea anyone?
XOXO

Blowing the Budget...

Emma had a day off from school on Monday. We could have stayed home, but without the four-year-old to slow us down, we ventured out for a trip to the beauty salon, hit all our favorite stores, enjoyed a bite to eat at Olga's Kitchen, and then came home in time for Emma to model a few new outfits before Dad and Josie arrived to see all the "new" purchases.

I even convinced Emma that we needed to squeeze in a trip to my favorite antique store for some inspiration.

All in all, a splendid day... but the budget was definitely blown.
Maybe it's a good thing that my work/University is far away from the malls.
This could be a dangerous habit.

PS. Stock up on some felt and cupcake liners.

Tea parties and felt cupcakes are on the agenda next.

Chinese New Year Dessert Ideas!

Grab your rabbit cookie cutter and make some sugar cookies in honor of the Year of the Rabbit!

We used licorice for whiskers and chocolate chips for eyes.
While we were at it, we also made a few Valentine cookies too.

Chocolate covered fortune cookies were a big hit at preschool last year for Chinese New Year.

See this post for more pics and instructions for making these yummy treats.
Family Corner has instructions here to make these Good Fortune cupcakes.

Have a wonderful Monday.
I'm home with Emma who has a day off from school.
We'll be hitting several stores for some mother-daughter bonding.