I have to say, I am more than a little obsessed with making my own Christmas tree ornaments.  And they are tending to all be white and light!  This project is no exception.  I had fun using some new Lifestyle Craftscutting dies, the were the perfect way to transform a normal ornament into a perfect snow globe!

From the new Knotty or Nice collection I used the “nice gift set” dies for this project.

Before I decided on plain white cardstock, I played with aluminum foil which made for a VERY cute snowflake as well!

{More projects to come!!!}

I used my dollar section alphabet stamp set to add the wording to the snowflake.

Once my snowflake was cut and stamped, I then rolled it slightly and stuck it in the top or the clear ornament.

 Disclosure:  I was not compensated to write this post, but I did receive dies to review.  All opinions are my own.

I am linking up to a few of my favorite parties this week, be sure to check them out for some amazing inspiration!

Find ways to Write Descriptions to Sell Your Craft Products and make more money.

I am excited to let you know that I am part of one of the cutest Trim the Tree Series around hosted by my friend Jenn at Clean and Scentsible and today is my day!  Be sure to go over and check out my ornament AND the other AMAZING ornaments that have already been shared!

AND, Happy Hour the Link Party is BACK this week after our Thanksgiving break, be sure to get all linked up tonight!  I can’t wait to see what you have been up to for the last TWO week!!!

It is official.  Christmas crafting is in full swing at my house, and so it is only appropriate that it is full swing here on my blog as well.  Lets start this holiday crafting season nice and simple.  How about a cute use for a canvas, ribbon and chipboard letters?!

Yep that is all it took to make my sweet and simple Candy Cane Canvas.

I can’t help but be happy when I look at it…. mmmm and maybe a little thirsty for a candy cane mocha coffee!

So all I did to make my canvas is cut ribbon and glue it to the back of a plain white canvas.  (I later covered the back of the canvas with a piece of paper to make it look more finished).  I Then grabbed some chipboard letters that I have had forever just waiting to be used in a project (do you even hold on to crafting materials like that–not knowing what you are going to use them for??) and added glue (from my Martha Stewart glue pen) and some flaky silver glitter to my letters.

No big deal, but kind of cute and fun right?!  Are you Christmas crafting yet??

Welcome back to day 3 of Tailgate Week!!!  I am here with yet another way to add a little personalization to your tailgating!!!

Check out the other posts below!

Day 1. Team Spirit Bunting DIY

Day 2. Personalized Utensil Holder

By adding team spirit right to the food platters!

I got lucky and found this bright Michigan maze colored plate on clearance at Target and decided to personalize with by using my Martha Stewart Glass paint by Plaid, the scraper tool and some cut vinyl.  I should mention that I cut all of my vinyl with my silhouette cutting machine.  I love it!

I simply put the vinyl on the clean platter and made sure the air bubbles were smoothed out.  Then place the paint around the area to be painted and drag the paint into the image area just like I did with this tutorial here.  Really the only other part that is important, is taking off the vinyl before the glass paint dries (otherwise the paint will stick to the vinyl and peel off)

And there you go, personalized and team spirited!  And I think it goes great with my team spirited bunting from day one of tailgate week and my DIY utensil holder found here.

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Happy Happy Tailgate Week!!!!  I am excited to show you my next team spirited project!!!  {In case you missed day one of tailgate week—check out my DIY bunting here}

 I had some fun up-cycling a utensil holder that I found this past weekend in the clearance section of Target, it was a big old $2.95!

 Here is what you will need:  a cut vinyl image, Martha Stewart Glass Paint by Plaid and a scraper tool (white tool pictured above)

 I used the same method that I used to decorate my store-bought candle that you can find here.  I used glass paint because it is very adhesive and you can wash it after the paint is fully dry and cured.  And with tailgating you would want to be able to clean up after!!

I think for a whopping $2.95 this was a good little up-cycle and adds team spirit to my overall look which can be seen here!

Want to learn how to take high quality photos that will sell your crafts?  Find out by reading my article!

I love LOVE love football.  And I love decorating and crafting…. sooooo it should not be surprising that I crafted up my own team spirited Maze and Blue (ohhh yayyyy I am a HUGE University of Michigan fan) tailgate that I will be sharing with you this week!

So, Day 1 of Tailgating the Crafty Way—-starts with DIY team spirited bunting!

I love what the great punch of team colors that bunting can add to a tailgating look!!!  I might just be making more and more version of this of bunting banners, I love the look!  I have to admit, I have never made bunting before mainly because of the sewing.  What in the world was I waiting on, it wasn’t bad at all!?!?  I know there are tutorials and “how to” posts over the blog world… but in true “Jaime” fashion I didn’t check out tutorials I just kind of came up with my own methods….

I ended up finding this cute maze colored chevron fabric at Hobby Lobby and couldn’t find a blue fabric that I was crazy about…. so, I grabbed my husbands old dress shirt that no longer fits him {I wouldn’t just steal a good dress shirt for crafting…. well maybeeee I would… hehe}.  Did I mention I like to reused everything and everything?!

I just cut up strips of the blue fabric and two triangles joined in the middle.

And I sewed one straight line right on the top to hold each triangle section in place. And that is it, nice and simple and festive all at the same time!

Need to know how to make craft products that stand out from the crowd?

Hi guys.

I am SOOOO so SOOOO so SOOOO into decorating right now it isn’t even funny.

I want to try all of the things I have held off on until now… because of the renting verse owning copout, the student versus working woman reality and well the motivation to fix up an old house and make it pretty.

And so, my latest adventure was with stencil and  a wall.

 not a big wall….

but a wall that may have otherwise been ignored…

and since I was just telling you in this last post {here} that I don’t have many walls now that we renovated and took most of them down, I feel like I have to seriously LOVE the ones that I have!

 And I suppose the best part about having an open floor plan now and great room is that when I spiff up a little wall you can enjoy it from all over the room!

{did you see all of the lights in my space???}

so how do you feel about stencils?!  I was so scared to add pattern to my house since I worked SO hard to take down all of the patterned wall paper just a few short months ago!

But thankfully stenciling a wall with paint takes MUCH less commitment!  It is easily removed…. and simple to put up—-win win if you ask me!

I just love that pattern.

simple beach-y chic????

That was my goal anyways!

what do you think????

Do you want to know how I did the stenciling?!

and would you like to WIN your own stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils?!?!

Check back NEXT WEEK!!!!

Well, we have made some HUGE progress with our new house and our renovations.  HUGE.  And I am THRILLED to say that we are finally to the point that we are moved in and enjoying the space!  AND I can finally start showing you some great before and after photos!!!  Starting with the changes we made to our wood burner fireplace that is now a chic brick accent wall in our home!

When we moved in we had not one but TWO wood burning stoves that are great for heating a space BUT not great on the eyes.  Naturally my husband feel in love with them.  He loved the idea of their function and did not notice their lack of design.  So we compromised (for now) and we took one out and left one.  We have a long term plan for our kitchen, so “for now” being the words we use often, we decided to keep the brick behind the wood-burner—and my goal was to make take them from rustic to chic.

Here is where we started:

ohhhhh YUCK right?!

But I am happy that I now have a unique brick wall as part of my space… sooo in the end I AM thankful for the brick behind the old wood burner!

Now it took me awhile to decide what it was about the brick and ultimately I realized that it was the dark grout and brick colors so I  got out my handy Pure White Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and watered it down and white washed the bricks and the grout to achieve a much more subdued chic look.

Next we had to fill in the hole where the wood burner vented to the chimney.  We used a saw and then used calk to fully seal the space, because it is important that if you are using the existing chimney for other things that there is no back-flow into the room.

Then I had my husband use a concrete drill bit and concrete anchor screw to secure a place for my frames!

isn’t he just too cute?!

AND he is helping me decorate!!!  EVEN better!

Much better right?!

And now that it is official and we are moved in and decorating… there will be A TON of posts about our house and the FINAL looks for each of the spaces!!!  Yayyyyy!!!!

Check out my article about Starting a Craft Business: Partner Up Or Go It Alone?

Hello bloggin friends!

It is SUCH an exciting day!

I FINALLY have the first {of many} official room reveals here at my new house!

Just in case you are new here or need a recap—I posted the Awful before photos {here} and talked about my official HATE of wallpaper…. {removal at least}.

But here is the second part of this room renovation story…

the part where thing get better and there is a bit of a happy ending…

a happy ending where I can have people come and stay at my little lake house….

and rest comfortably.

not surrounded by horrific wood walls and wallpaper galore…

no, my new space is a place where rustic, and shabby and chic come together…

and create an inviting space…

{albeit a space without a door…. but HEY I am working on that}

but I like to think that my space is officially a perfectly imperfect space full of chippy furniture, chic lamps…

and lake inspired decor.

along with a zebra rug,

that all make you want to come and stay over at my place.

but please don’t be fooled by my ONE finished space… we are STILL hard at work…

and getting closer and closer to an end product everyday….

but with ONE finished room…. I feel hopeful.

that the rest of my newly renovated spaces will come together equally as well and make me just as happy.

Oh and….