gigi

Wordless Wednesday: out the front window

   

Puppy Chow

Here in Utah, neighbors leave gifts by your front door at Christmas-time. This never happened in Denver or San Diego, so I'm thinking it's (another!) Utah thing :)

This is something I like to make and give out to our neighbors. I put the finished product in a cello bag and tie it with ribbon, to which a printed card with the following poem and recipe is attached:

Merry Christmas from the Thorsen Family!

This Puppy Chos is so yummy;
You might want to have more!
Here is your shopping list...
But beware -- you'll be making galore!

1 12-ounce box Crispix
1 can honey-roasted peanuts
1 bag pretzel sticks
1 package almond bark (one to 1.25 pounds)

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, melt almond bark in medium bowl in the microwave. Pour melted almond bark over dry ingredients and mix. Spread out on wax paper to dry (about 3' of wax paper should suffice).

Enjoy!

~gigi

Wordless Wednesday; a spin thereon.

Guess what/where this is... if perchance more than one person has the correct answer, I'll choose one lucky winner to choose a coffee cozy or $7 worth of goodies from my etsy shop! Will wait until Sunday.

NYC from my camera lens

My two daughters and I took a three-day trip to New York City! Wow, what a great place -- I highly recommend a visit there, for one day or however many you can do.

Here're a few pictures from our adventure, more to come:

    

Grand Central Station food court

Rockettes Christmas Spectacular 

 

View from our hotel window

 

The promised land view from Ellis Island

For NieNie

For the first time in quite a while I have a listing on eBay, and it's in support of Nie:

NieRecovery Coffee Cozies on eBay

And here's the link to all the other goodies offered for donation:

NieRecovery Launch

Your generosity is appreciated!

~gigi

Bottlecaps, a tutorial: part three

This is the final installment on making your own bottlecaps and turning them into pendants!

Here's a quick before/after with the degas trick (see previous post):

 

With bubbles above; after you've blown warm air on it like you're trying to fog up a window, below:

  

Here's a before/after of a sealed cap:

 

The left one is unsealed; the right one is sealed. Nice, eh?

And on to the final steps! Get that punch I mentioned in the first installment. Place it at the edge of your bottlecap, and punch a hole:

 

Should now look like this:

Use OVAL jump rings (or regular split rings) to turn the cap into a pendant. I love oval jump rings -- they are simple to open, attach, and shut. Neither the bottle cap nor the necklace rests at the opening and therefore neither will detach from the other!

To open any jump ring, pull one end toward you (sideways) so it splits like in the picture below.

 

Slip it through the hole in the cap and VOILA! you have a pendant!

 

  

I have lots of bottle cap pendants on ball chains listed in my dizzlePOP! etsy shop; here's one of my favs:

 

I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial! Feel free to link to it!

~gigi

Nie Nie Recovery Launch

I haven't participated in an ebay "launch" in quite some time; this story has compelled me to do so and help out this sweet family struck by misfortune. The launch is November 1-15.

If you are so inclined and want to help as well, please send an email request to vintagechic@comcast.net; Chelsea will hook you up! Or, you can go straight to the ebay group and request to join from there.

Bottlecaps, a tutorial: part two

Next step for bottlecaps: sealing!

Tape a sheet of wax paper to your counter top. Tape because you don't need it sliding around with liquid resin ready to attach itself to you, your clothes, the counter, the floor, etc.

Mix the resin according to the package instructions. Basically, it's 50/50. Do not guess, just give up any tendency to wing it for this particular step. If you don't get the correct formulation, your resin will not harden. There will be bubbles, and it's ok. Mix for at least one minute with something you can throw away or be willing to clean with rubbing alcohol.

Have said rubbing alcohol on-hand. You will get this stuff on your fingers and a quick rinse will take care of it!

   

Get a dollop on the end of your dripping utensil (anything will do -- this stick did just fine and sometimes I use a plastic spoon) and drip onto your cap, like so:

   

Just let enough drip on so you can see it begin to spread out. I like it to go over the edge just a bit, but not necessarily all the way around all the way to the wax paper. (There's just more to clean up at the end.)

    

OK, the picture above right is the final result of the dripping. See how it hit the wax paper a couple of places? That's perfectly fine.

And of course you see the bubbles. They are easily removed by degasing, a fancy way to say: blow warm air close to the top of the cap with your mouth as if you're trying to make a mirror fog up. Seriously! The bubbles vanish! You might have to do this more than once; just keep an eye on them for the first 30-60 minutes or so. You don't hit the point of no return for maybe two hours.

That's it for part two! Stay tuned!

Bottlecaps, a tutorial: part one

  Here we go on the quest for gorgeous bottlecaps -- use them in jewelry or on bows, or as fridge magnets!

You will need some supplies, of course:

• Envirotex Lite (high gloss seal) -- see picture below
• 1/16" punch -- see picture below -- by Fiskars, available at Joann
  
• wax paper (for underneath your caps)
• rubbing alcohol to clean up (wish I'd known this a long time ago!)
• bottlecaps
• 1" round images, or stickers
• oval jump rings or round split rings if you're making necklaces

The punch:

   

The seal:

 

Blank bottlecaps can be found at your local scrapbook supply shop, or of course online.

I often use a 1" round sticker (again from the scrapbook shop/department) such as the ones pictured here, and then attach it centered onto the cap.

 
 

     

More tomorrow -- or maybe later today! I have a large wholesale order of cozies to finish sewing and ship today!

~gigi 

A few new cozies

Shifting to some new fabrics for coffee cozies! Chocolate, cake, letters, and fireman!