Christmas Crafts-Coasters

I'm becoming a pro at coaster making.  I originally discovered this phenomenon on Pinterest and have taken it to the next level for holiday gift giving and decor.  Here is the set I made for my house.  I love this Martha Stewart (I think) paper I got with a coupon at Michaels.

These are so easy.  In case you need a reminder on what to do....  Buy tiles at Home Depot or Lowes.  Tiles are super cheap, less than 20 cents each.  Buy pretty craft paper at the craft store.  Cut paper into squares (a cheap paper cutter makes this much easier) and mod podge the paper to the tile.  I do a layer below the paper and over the top.  Let this dry.  Then spray a couple of coats of clear spray paint (also available at the craft store) and let dry for a couple days.  Then add felt to the bottom (I bought a sheet of the sticky felt).  Here's the original Pinterest link.

I also made some as an early Christmas gift for my in-laws and I'm considering giving them out to a few other people on my Christmas list.  I think these make a great co-worker gift, which is always hard for me to figure out.

Are you making any Christmas presents this year?

My Christmas Present to Myself...The Christmas Themed Apron (used to make Christmas themed movie/party snacks)

Sewing is hard.  Well it's hard for me.  I'm not super patient.  And sewing patterns are confusing.  When I can't figure out what something means (even after googling it) sometimes I get scary and yell or curse for no reason.  I'm sorry B and Hobie.  Thanks for trying to encourage me not to quit even if I was mean to you at the time, I do appreciate it.  I baked you some cookies yesterday to make up for it.

BUT NOW I CAN CROSS OFF #5 ON MY 30 FOR 30 LIST!!!!!!!!!!

After working on it most of the day on Saturday, I completed my Christmas-themed apron.  It has some major flaws and I cannot sew in a straight line to save my soul (although my sewing teacher did give me some tips-I probably need to sign up for that 2nd class).  I definitely should have used red thread instead of black so all my flaws didn't show as much, but oh well.  It still looks pretty good from far away and most people probably won't even notice the issues it has unless they are looking for them.

So I have decided that I will pull out this apron every year at Christmas and see how much my sewing skills have improved (hopefully).  Now I have to plan my outfit for the Holiday social I'm hosting on Wednesday around this apron.  (I've got to get as much use out of it as I can before Christmas is over.)

Making Stuff Is Hard-The Martha Stewart Edition

On Saturday I decided to have craft day with Beezus5.  So I looked up this wonderful snowflake etched glass video by Martha Stewart.  The video made it look so easy.  So I bought all the supplies and had Beezus5 watch the video also.  Then we basically did everything the video said but our glasses did not look like these......

pic from marthastewart.com


They look like this.  Basically they just looked like dirty glasses.

I think we may not have used right kind of stickers and maybe we were not putting enough etching cream on the glass.  We're not really sure.  We did end up making a few monogrammed glasses that looked decent but I'll show you those at a later time.  I was pretty sad about the snowflake glasses but I just have to remember that all (most?) my craft projects are not going to be a success.  Ahhhh, the joys of crafting.

Has anyone else ever used etching cream to etch glasses?
Are you doing any holiday crafting?