Wine and {the big} cheese

Well, it seems that I have failed miserably at my attempt to keep a regular blog. Only three posts in and already it's been over a month since my last post...yikes! I will have to try and do a better job!

So, in an effort to make up for the lack of posts over the past few weeks, I'm going to share 2 projects today. In honor of my wedding anniversary earlier this month (17 years!!!), I'm sharing a Wine Lovers Gift Set, which would make a perfect anniversary gift...or just a great gift for any wine lover out there.

I painted a wooden tray and some wooden discs for the coasters. I used a metallic copper paint which gave it kind of a nice rich-but-rustic look. I then covered the tray and coasters with patterned paper. I used papers from the Wrath of Grapes collection by Reminisce, which were just perfect for this project. You can see the entire Wrath of Grapes collection here.

I found a copper bucket to use with this gift set, which was ideal for holding the wine bottle. I simply tied an olive green ribbon around it, added a tag that I made, and filled it with paper shreds.

I even ventured outside the papercrafting realm to dabble a bit with wire and beads on this project...which is how I made the wine charms.

They were actually pretty easy to make! I started with a small metal-rimmed circle tag, sanding and painting the edges with the copper metallic paint. When dry, I added a circle cut from patterned paper to each side of the tag. I used a small hole punch to make the hole in the top and attached a jump ring. Next, I made a circle shape with copper wire, threaded on the beads and tag, then formed 2 small loops at each end of the wire for connecting it around a wine glass stem. Voila! Custom made wine glass charms! These make great little gifts and are such a fun, easy project to do. Plus, you can customize them to suit any style or occasion by changing the colors and theme.

The next project I have to share is a layout...it's an "oldie" but a goodie. It features my daughter at age 2 (she's now 7!) snuggling with a stuffed version of "the big cheese" himself - Mickey Mouse.

Although I have been known to create layouts in a variety of different styles, this one is more clean and simple than I usually do. It's really very graphic looking, except for the hand-stitched border across the bottom of the layout which gives it a bit of a homespun touch.

Something I think is interesting: This layout was created a VERY LOOOOONG time ago, yet the hand-stitching trend became popular again recently. Now, there are all kinds of templates you can buy to help you put hand-stitched designs on your page. Since I made this layout before those were available, though, I did it the old fashioned way. I drew my design freehand (attempting to replicate the design on my daughter's sleeve in the photo) with a pencil, then pierced evenly spaced holes along the lines of the design. After stitching the design with embroidery floss in a straight stitch, I erased any visible pencil marks. I also added some tiny punched hearts to the design for a finishing touch. I like to think I was ahead of the curve on the hand-stitched embellishing, but I'm sure someone else beat me to the punch (no pun intended!) even back then.

I really do think it's interesting how trends come back in style again...whether it's clothing fashions or scrapbooking. When I was younger, I remember looking at old pictures of my mom and her sisters and thinking how silly those bell-bottom pants looked...I swore I would never wear anything like that! And guess what is hanging in my closet now? A variety of jeans and slacks with bell-bottoms...although now they're called "flared" or "boot-cut" styles. Same thing with my scrapbooking tools. Awhile back I thought about getting rid of my punches and decorative scissors. Now, I find myself reaching for my punches and deco scissors more and more. And my most recent scrapbooking tool purchases? Border punches...the modern generation of decorative cutting tools. In other words, the new-and-improved "deco scissors."

I think it's great to be finding a use for my old tools again. The only bad thing is, with all these trends cycling back around, I don't know how in the world I'm going to convince myself to ever get rid of anything! Paperkins, anyone? (You never know, they just might make a comeback!)