Candy Jar pictures

Just realized I didn't finish the post on the candy jars.

After painting them, we glued mason jars to the tops of the sticks. We used gorilla glue then put them on the table with a few heavy books balenced on top so they could dry. The gorilla glue turned out to be not such a good idea at first. We used the kind that expanded, and of course, it expanded over the lip of the candle stick and showed.

Turned out to be a good thing though, since I had to figure out what I could do to cover it up and ended up liking the finished product better than I would have if I had left it plain. I ended up using sheer ribbon at the bottom of the jars, tied in a bow. It is actually the ribbon my sister used on her wedding invitations, so it worked out very well and tied everything together. Hind sight, I am really glad that the glue messed up and I had to find something else to add to them. I really love the way it turned out.

After everything was dry and I had wiped out the jars to make them clean and sanitary (I did was them first but wanted to make sure they were still clean since I was putting something edible in them), I filled them with three different types of candy. There are several different options for what to fill them with, both edible and non-edible, but I went with lemon heads (well, lemon heads and lemon head friends), fire balls and gummy cola bottles. The first two are my sister's favorite candies and the third is one liked by brother in law.

So there. That is the rest of the post. Below I have posted the picture of the finished product on my sister's table after she opened them. For the record, she loved them! :)

More Paint Chip Projects

Here are more paint chip projects!

The first one goes along with the last entry, where I showed you the bookmarks. These are valentines cards that I will be giving my students. I haven't made the envelopes yet, so I'll have to show you those in another post.

But first, here is how I made the cards.

First, I used small paint chips for this one. They are single color ones, but I am sure you could use ones that have multiple colors on them.
Putting two of the same color together, which a white one in between them, I punched a hole in the upper left hand corner. I did have to cut the white paint chip down b/c there weren't any in the smaller size (you can see that below).
Next, I took a brad that I had cut the end off (see picture below for a picture of before and after) and put it through the holes.


I then cut several different size and types of hearts using my Cricut Expression. I chose one that fit the size of the chips I chose and glued it to the white chip. I then decorated it and wrote a message on it.
Finally, I (will) put it in an envelope that I cut using the Cricut and write the students name on it. Done!



My next paint chip project was card creating. I used my Cricut Expression to cut a heart, a flower and two "love"s from paint chips. I did use a bigger chip for this project because I wanted to have several colors on it. Even using a high level of pressure, it was still difficult to cut all the way through the thick paint chip. I then glued the pieces down so that "love" was the flower stem and the balloon string. That is it!





My last project (as of right now), I made a notebook using paint chips. You want to get pretty good size chips for this one to make it usable. Behr from Home Depot has the best. They also have the rings (pictured below) that you can get for FREE! They are also in the paint section and are supposed to be used to keep all your paint chips together. I haven't seen these anywhere else besides Home Depot (and trust me, I check out the paint section in any store I am in that carries paint), so I would just make a trip there.
To make the notebook, I cut three holes into two paint chips that matched. I ended up using a three hold punch for the top and bottom ones then measured with a ruler and used a single hole punch to make the middle one. I am a tad anal, so I wanted to make sure they were equal distances from each other and the ends.
To make the paper for the inside, I played around with notebook paper until I had the size I wanted. I made the inside sheets smaller than the paint chips so they wouldn't stick out. I then used one of the paint chips as a guide and punched three holes in the notebook paper. For the size I used, I was able to get about four squares out of one sheet of paper.
I then put it all together, put the rings through the holes, and voila! I have a notebook. :) I use it as a food journal, but you could do anything you want with it. I do plan on using my Cricut to cut something to decorate the cover. But for now, I'm busy making 30 of those Valentines cards for Wednesday!