More Zipper Bracelets!

This year 2 of my very good friends graduated from high school. "J" works with me at the library, and is kind of a punky style girl, she loves a lot of the same types of books as me and is generally pretty cool. For her, I decided on a one of a kind zipper bracelet:




"J"s bracelet is 2 zippers. I started with the grey one, sewing on the hooks and loops by hand. The loops hold the ball chain in place and it is a little longer than the bracelet, so it hangs free in one spot. The hooks hold the ribbon in place (I pinched them closed with pliers after sewing them on and getting the ribbon in place.) I decided it would be fun to add a second zipper and I left this one closed, sewing it to the grey zipper so they would have even ends. I then finished the bracelet off with snaps - I love the snap setter I got at Goodwill!

"M"s mom works with me at the library and "M" is a super-cool artistic photographer. She is spunky, fun and sweet. I wasn't sure what to do for her, I knew her favorite colors were purple and teal, but I didn't have any materials in those colors that inspired me. I toyed with a rainbow bracelet idea for awhile, but nothing seemed right. Then it occurred to me that I had zippers in my collection that had come from "M"s grandmother - "M"s mom shared left over craft supplies with me when they distributed her mother's belongings. So I decided to make "M" a bracelet with zippers that belonged to her grandma. I hope she likes the sentimentality of it. Her bracelet was inspired by The DIY Collection.

I took 3 long zippers, they weren't exactly the same length, and then separated each of them into 2 pieces. I popped the red and white zipper pulls off but the black one wouldn't come off easily, so I left it. I layered half of the red with half of the white, pinned them together and sewed them by hand. This could have been done with a machine - I just decided to create this bracelet by hand like I did "J"s. After I finished the red and white, I sewed the black to the white. The next step was to find a can in the pantry that would work as a size-guide. I wanted one that would create a bracelet big enough to easily slip over my hand, I tried 3 or 4 before I got the size I wanted. The zippers were then wound around the can in repeating layers and pinned. I could then slip it off the can and sew it together. The most hidden stitches I could find for this part of the sewing was to use red thread and add a stitch between each tooth on the red zipper. Very secure but hard to see.

Now how to finish it off? I decided to make some zipper flowers like the ones on Ucreate. But hot glue is messy and that didn't work for me (this time, I will triumph eventually!) So instead I went with a swirl like this:





And the finishing touches? Rhinestones from vintage jewelry. I think she'll love it!

Have you ever heard this rant:

The garage is the only place in this house that I can really call mine!

Yeah, my husband has told the girls and I this particular fact more than once. So after the last time he got mad about the garage being left in disarray, my 7 (almost 8) year old said, "Let's make the garage really special for him!" So we started hatching plans. We figured we needed wall hangings, his favorite mascots and maybe some furniture.

Our first idea was a big sign proclaiming the garage to be Dad's. Here's the graphic I came up with:


I removed the "established date" from this picture in case someone wanted to use it. You can use this image or email me if you would like a higher resolution copy.

I started out with the idea of using an overhead projector to put the sign on the wall and painting it like a traditional mural. There were 2 problems though:
1. The garage needed a second coat of paint and I had no idea when that would happen
2. My 7 year old needed to help with the mural for a GS badge and I didn't figure she needed to be on a ladder.
So, how to create the sign inexpensively? I found white foam core at our local dollar store - 20x30 sheets. So I bought 3. Then I had to figure out how to get the design big enough and transferred over to the foam core. I used the website BlockPosters to enlarge my image to poster size. Then a friend suggested rubbing the back of the taped together poster with a dark colored chalk. Place the chalk-side down on the foam core and trace the design with a ballpoint pen, being careful not to puncture the paper/foam core.

[Now here is where I want to give you a hint. If you are using foam core, it probably has a paper coating that you'll actually be doing the painting on. In a garage, it may be exposed to moisture. It would be smart to paint a base coat of white paint (or whatever background color you choose) on the foam core BEFORE you transfer and paint the design. I learned this the hard way.]

Painting the sign was pretty standard. I started by outlining all the black areas so that my daughter could do the fill work, and theoretically not go outside the lines. I need to work with her on the concept of pulling the paint along instead of pushing it. So after she did the fill work, I went back and cleaned up the edges (sometimes more than once.) We then discovered that the checkered flag was too difficult to differentiate from the wrench, so I went back and painted the flag with gold paint. Here's the finished sign:


The next idea was to give my husband a little bit of functional furniture for the space. The garage really is a garage though. It has his tool bench, cupboards for storage, bike/toy storage and 2 cars in it. We weren't going to be able to find a couch for him. But he does have an old t.v. out there and on nice evenings we like to sit in the cross-breeze from the back and front yards while the kids play outside. So we thought we could give him a cool fold up table for beverages. I checked my local garage sale website and found someone with wooden t.v. tray tables. She gave me one for $3 because it had marker on it. We brought it home and painted the top black. Then we started arranging our bottle cap collection on it. We didn't have quite enough (a lot of the caps were used to make GS Christmas ornaments) so we added cool vintage Budweiser coasters and started gluing. As you can see, we are still a few caps short, but we are taking donations from friends and we'll have it full in no time. Then we will see what my husband wants to use to finish it, but I'm leaning towards self-leveling epoxy to make a nice hard finish.


The final step was adding his mascots. I had 6 metal trays that I thought would make cool wall hangings, all I had to do was come up with stencils for them. Without thought I was able to come up with the Chicago Bears, Jeff Gordon and the Nebraska Huskers. I found acceptable images and printed them off as big as I could get on a 8.5x11 sheet of paper. I could go into how to cut a stencil, but really, here's a great tutorial that will probably explain it better: Stencil Tutorial
My husband was okay with the first 3 signs but then he said, "what about the Oakland A's, the Atlanta Hawks and the Pittsburgh Penguins?" Okay, it was my fault for not thinking of the A's, but in the 12 years I've known this man, I've never heard him mention the Hawks or the Penguins. Oh well, whatever makes him happy. They turned out okay but the Huskers one is a second generation - I overcut the first and then gluing it down to paint with was nearly impossible - and the Penguins almost went flying across the room about 30 times before I got it done.








So that's the garage makeover. He likes it and we're pretty proud of ourselves.

S'mores Gift Bask or S'mores Party Idea

Our FABULOUS daycare provider just moved into a new house, and instead of giving her a gift card for a house-warming present, my daughters and I decided to make her a gift basket. Our daycare provider has a fire pit so we thought it would be fun to give her a S'mores Gift Basket.




The gift basket (actually a bright red mixing bowl) included the following items:
Graham Crackers
Hershey's Bars (the big pack)
Marshmallows
1 Hershey's Cookies 'n Cream Bar
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Werther's Original Chewy Caramels
1 Hershey's Dark Chocolate Bar
Roasting forks

Some of the items listed above may seem a bit odd, but I included the following recipes:
Toasted Wacky Taffies
6 wrapped caramels
12 Ritz crackers

Unwrap caramels and insert one onto the end of roasting fork. Hold fork about 12" to 15" over coals. Toast caramel over campfire until just softened, being careful not to melt the caramel completely. Place 1 caramel between 2 Ritz crackers.

Sailor S'mores
Marshmallows
Creamy Peanut Butter
Saltine Crackers
Chocolate Bar

Toast marshmallow to desired doneness. Spread peanut butter on 1 side of each saltine, then place piece of chocolate on 1 cracker. Add marshmallow and make sandwich.

S'more Burritos Please!
1 8" flour tortilla
2 to 3 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter
3 Tbsp miniature chocolate chips

Cut 1 piece of foil about 12" long. Set the tortilla in the center of the foil. Spread the peanut butter over the tortilla, almost to the edges. Sprinkle marshmallows and chocolate chips over 1/2 of the tortilla. Fold in sides and then roll like a burrito, beginning with the chocolate chip side. Wrap foil around burrito in a flat pack. Bake in 375 degree oven for 8 to 12 minutes OR double wrap and place on warm embers for 5 to 15 minutes OR grill over medium-low heat for 5 to 10 minutes.

S'more ideas
1. Cookies 'n Creme S'mores: use cookies 'n creme candy and chocolate graham crackers to make s'more.
2. Peanut Butter S'mores: use Reese's peanut butter cups instead of milk chocolate.
3. Dark S'mores: use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate
4. Chewy Chocolate Caramel: toast caramels and sandwich with chocolate on graham crackers.

My sister and her husband were super lucky and their oldest son built them a brick fire pit for Father's Day. She thought it would be fun to have a S'mores party, and I agree. I think the lists and recipes above would be a great help to setting up her buffet table of s'mores fixin's.