Saturday, November 24, 2012

Peppermint Candy Wreath

 I'm on a candy wreath roll for 2012!  During a recent trip to a restaurant supply store (I don't own or work at a restaurant - I just LOVE finding great basic house supplies there), I came across a huge 5 pound, 650 piece bag of peppermint candies (Hospitality Mints at the restaurant supply store).  This entire bag cost $6.







The wreath form I used was Styrofoam.   Although the color was perfect, I dislike getting flakes of Styrofoam all over, so I covered the wreaths with white satin ribbon first.  Next I unwrapped 250 candies and went to town hot gluing them onto the form.  I love this type of project.  It's easy, fun and now my kitchen smells like peppermint!!! 


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Thanksgiving Place Cards

Thanksgiving in the US is a little less than two weeks away.  *insert slight panic here*  Our prep has begun:  we gathered and tested new recipes, made the annual card to send to family and friends, and placed the order from our favorite local, family owned butcher for our center of attention - Tom the Turkey.

This weekend I finished making the place cards for the table.  I enjoy having place cards for all of our large family meals, as I think it is just a small way for each guest to feel a little special and everyone knows exactly where they are sitting when they sit down for dinner.

Papertrey Ink came out with a really cute Shape Up Series in their die collection and this year they introduced the Pumpkin Die Collection.  I used this die collection to create my greeting card as well as matching place cards for the table.

Here's what I did.   First I cut an A2 card base and then aligned it with the dashed line on the die, and ran it through my Cuttlebug.  Next, I used the same die on non-folded card stock and cut the pumpkin followed by the stem.  This collection has a companion die called Pumpkin Sections Die.  I used patterned paper and cut each section in a different pattern.  I inked each of the edges of the sections with some brown ink to make them stand out.  I glued the pattern sections and stem to the solid pumpkin shape and adhered that to the A2 card base.  Finally, I cut brown felt letters from the Modern Alphabet Die set.  Although this pumpkin die collection is intended for a greeting card, I think it will work well for my place cards.