My first link up!

I'm not one to do the whole link party thing, but I decided to give it a shot today.  I've linked up my Shadow Box Gift here: 



and here:



Go check out these great link parties!

Shadow Box

Well, it has been crafting chaos in my house lately.  I have been one busy little beaver, that's for sure.  One of my recent projects was a birthday gift for my best friend Cindi.  I wasn't quite sure what to make for her, but I knew she wanted some sort of decorative thing for her house.  I was inspired when I saw a shadow box at Hobby Lobby similar to this one:



I found a cute wooden "C" and my wheels started spinning.

I mod podged some super cute paper on the inside of the box, then mod podged a contrasting paper on top of the C.  After painting the outside of the box brown, distressing it a little with some sand paper, and adding some handmade paper flowers, my gift was complete.

I also made her some coasters, using my newly purchased Cricut, which I thought turned out really cute.

Can I just say that I love, love, LOVE, my Cricut???  Probably the best money I've spent in a long time.  Can't wait to experiment with different projects!

Thanks for looking...and Happy Birthday Cindi!!

Jennifer

For Sale!

Since I've posted my pendants, I have had several people ask if I was selling them.  Well....yes!  With the help of my wonderful husband, I've created an online "store" of sorts where you can browse the pendants I've made and purchase one if you like. 

Visit my store here: Stamped with Approval by Jen

I will be updating the "inventory" (sorry, I can't get used to all this shop keeper talk!) as often as I am able so check back often!

Also, due to the recent, horrific events in Japan, I've decided to donate a portion of each sale to the Red Cross's relief efforts over there.  The amount of devastation these people are experiencing breaks my heart.  If you haven't already, consider looking into supporting some of the many organizations who are providing aid to the Japanese people during these difficult times.

As always, thanks for reading!

Jennifer

More pendants

I have a confession to make....I went kind of "pendant crazy" since my last post.  They are so much fun to make!  I love sifting through all the stamps to find unique ones that I think would make cool jewelry.  Here are my latest creations:
(I haven't added the necklace bails just yet)

These particular stamps are from all over the world, Australia, Japan, India....the list goes on.  I wish I knew more about stamps so I could tell you the background for each one....but I don't.  I do know they look pretty cool though! I can't wait to create more!

Necklaces made from what?

Some of you know that I inherited a large stamp collection when my dad passed away several years ago.  Lately I've struggled with what I'm going to do with this collection.  After taking it to have it appraised and realizing that most of the stamps aren't worth hardly anything, I knew I had to come up with a plan.  After seeing several blog posts on how to make glass tile pendants, inspiration struck.  Why not make cool, vintage pendants with stamps?  That's just what I did.
Now, when I say my dad had a lot of stamps....he had a LOT of stamps....from a LOT of places.  It's really cool just to go through and look at all the stamps from all over the world, some which are several decades old.  Here are just a few that I've picked out so far to make some pendants with:

This is one I made for my friend Ashley, probably my favorite I've done yet.

I think these turned out so good, and were made using clear glass tiles and Mod Podge Dimensional Magic.  What a cool, vintage piece of jewelry to have!

Gift for Grandma

My mom's birthday was this week and instead of going to the store and buying a typical gift, I wanted to make something more personal for her. Ever since Bryson was born, I always try to incorporate him in the presents we give in some way whether it be photos, crafts, what have you.  For this gift I thought we'd try out a painting.
A while back, while reading an article online, I was inspired by a painting I saw in the background of a picture in the particular article.  It was a picture of a child's hand prints painted as flowers.  I thought this was such a cute idea and I knew I'd have to try it out.
I bought a wooden frame at Hobby Lobby and painted it green with white polka dots.  (Don't you just love polka dots?) After some begging, a tantrum (him not me), and a bribe with candy, Bryson was up for the task of helping me paint. We made a few hand prints and after a few additions from me we have a cute little garden painting.

For the paper I used textured white card stock, which I love because when in the frame, it gives the illusion of a framed canvas.  
I wish I would have done more colors for the flowers but with an impatient toddler, it was all I could do to get this.  I love how cute and personal this is though.  And Bryson loves to look at it and say "I made that!"  Success!

Thrifty fun

What can you do with some glass stones, scrap paper, mod podge, heavy duty glue and some spare magnets?

Create some cute magnets of course!
I'm sure everyone has seen this craft by now.  I was itching to do some sort of craft last night and I had a bag of "glass gems" ($1 at the Dollar Tree!) just waiting to be made into something.  I decided to make some cute magnets for myself....because who doesn't love a cute magnet?
This craft couldn't be easier or cheaper to do.  You simply Mod Podge paper onto the bottom of the stone and once dry, apply your magnet with some heavy duty glue.  I actually had a couple of spare magnets on the refrigerator that had broken off of something else so I didn't even have to buy magnets.
VOILA!

It never ceases to amaze me what you can make with things that are just lying around the house.
I'm going to try my hand at making some jewelry this week so I'm hoping that goes over well.  We shall see!