#Cre8time Wineglass holder with reclaimed wood

Good morning crafties,

If you follow my blog you will notice that I don't craft in one way or another.  I am all over the board.  I think outside, inside and next to the box.  My motto has always been "if it can be done, I will try it".  I am a pintrest freak.  I love looking at so many different ideas and then try to recreate them.  Sometimes I fail but sometimes I excel.  And for me, today's post is all about excelling.  I am so excited to share this with you.

My daughter's boyfriend owns a farm and he has a lot of old outbuildings that are falling apart.  He was very generous and gave me a huge stack of barnwood.  Yup, lucky me as this is all the rage right now.  I've been making signs and will have some posts this week and next week yet of all the fun signs I've been making.

Anyway, while we were cutting the board down to manageable sizes some of them break in half.  Remember, this is OLD barnwood.  In fact, this stack that I got is over 100 years old.  EVEN better.  Well I had some long skinny pieces and this is what I created:

I washed and cleaned the boards very well ...

then I stained and sealed them ...

and added nails for the wine glasses to hang from.

I added a bow, some grapes and even created a holder for the bottle stopper.

I am so in love with these.  I will be making some more of these and hopefully selling them this summer at a craft fair I will be at.  I think I'm gonna add some words, like "WINE TIME" to the next one I make.  Or even "it's 5 o'clock somewhere".  

If you would leave me a comment I'd love to hear what you think.

As always, have a great day and God Bless.

#Cre8time Wine coaster with Amazing Clear Cast Resin

Good day friends,

I want to show you a quick and easy peasy idea for creating your own special coasters.  I love wine and am always looking for ways to craft either using wine products or making wine decor.  I have the perfect job as I work in a wine store.  We carry only South Dakota made wines and also some local gift and food items.

One of my very good friends loves this wine made in Rapid City.  It's a Cabernet and made by Firehouse.  Well, we carry this wine in the store and we open various bottles for tasting.  When this bottle went empty I snatched it up and took the label off.  Now I've tried a gazillion different methods and this is the one I've found to be the best.  I put the bottle in the sink standing up and run water through my coffee maker.  Then I pour the hot water into the bottle and wait about 3 to 5 minutes.  I immediately make another pot of hot water. Then I slowly start peeling the label off.  If it's not easy yet, pour hot water in again.  Honestly, most of the time it works the first time.  It also depends on the actual labels.  Some come off easier than others.  Now you don't have to wait for the label to dry or risk the label tearing by other methods.

Once I had the label off nicely I applied a thin coat some ModPodge to the tile (just got at my local hardware store) itself.  Some labels will still be a bit sticky which works perfectly.  Just place your label on your tile how you like it.  Some labels you may need to trim or place wonky.  Totally up to you how you want it to look.  This label was rectangular instead of square so I placed it corner to corner and burnished down the sides.  I used the labels from both the front and the back of the bottle to make a "set" of coasters for her.  Now let this set up for a half hour or so at least.  Once that is dried completely I brushed another coat of ModPodge to the top to seal the label.  I also let that set up for another half hour.

Now this next step in not necessary, but I wanted my tile to have a nice finish.  ModPodge is ok, but I love the look of the Amazing Clear Cast Resin.  It gives a feel that the label is under glass.

So mix up your Amazing Clear Cast Resin like this HERE.  It's super easy and does not require a lot of experience.  After I've mixed up my resin I let it sit for about 5 minutes to get all the bubbles out from stirring.  Then slowly pour over your tile.  I actually pick my tile up and let it flow around.  Amazing Clear Cast Resin is self leveling so make sure when you have the resin all over your tile that you place it on a level surface.  Also, if you have some bubbles forming you can take a heat gun to it or if you don't have a heat gun, take a straw and blow the bubbles.  You can even take a lighter and go over the bubbles and they will magically disperse.  I found this item at my local thrift store while looking for things to upcycle.  I'm not sure what it is, but Oh Lordy, it's Amazing!  A perfect doming board for my bigger items.  The excess resin just drips into the bottom of the pan.  I'm assuming that someday I will have this filled up and then will need to throw it away.  That will be a sad, sad, day!  LOL

When I work with my resin I tend to overmix and then I need some of my 

molds made from the Amazing Mold Putty to fill up.

Nothing ever goes to waste.  I always have extra embellishments ready for crafting.

Now I placed a box over the tray and let that set up for 24 hours to make absolutely sure it was hardened.  I really wish you could see the thickness of the tile, but I just couldn't get a good picture.  You can see the awesome glare on the tile though.  It's a beautiful finish.  I actually like doming these tiles better because you don't get the streaks like when you use ModPodge and you also have to understand that the Amazing Clear Cast Resin is food safe.  So you could make some tiles for your cheese to eat while you are drinking your wine!

(The stains on the label is actually from the wine when we poured it.  

I was totally ok with that as it gives it authenticity.)

I added some cork to the bottom of the tiles so that they wouldn't scratch 

the surface when placed on the table.

I can't wait to give these to her.  I'm sure she will love them.

I hope you've enjoyed my quicky project and I'll be seeing you soon again.

I've got some fabulous projects in the works.

As always, have a great day and God Bless.

Toasting the New Year's Party with a Wine Themed set of Earrings and new design team!

                                

Good day friends and Happy New Year! I am so excited to tell you about a new design team I am on!  YEAH!

I've been on the design team over at Get Creative Challenge and am having a wonderful time coloring digi images.  Angie is also running the Simply Create Too blog and I am one of the newest members over there now also.  I'm really excited about designing with these fabulous ladies because I get to make whatever I want to as long as I follow the theme!  YEAH!

This month's theme is PARTY TIME challenge #100 and thus I created some wonderful earrings that I wore on New Year's Eve.  

As some of you know I work in a wine store and I get asked over and over if we have any jewelry with a Wine motif. My boss just isn't into stuff like that – so I decided I wanted a pair of earrings to wear for New Years Eve and I wanted them to have a wine motif.

So let's get started!

I started out by cutting a wine bottle and glass shape {welded with my Cricut} out of some cereal boxes! I love to upcycle. I cut the pieces 14 times because I wasn't sure how thick I wanted the glued together pieces to be.

Here are my Cricut cuts and I used 5 of them to get the desired thickness.

Then I mixed up a batch of the Amazing Mold Putty – you can view mixing preparations HERE. I sprayed some UMR Mold Release onto the mold putty before pressing the chipboard into it because I did not want the chipboard to stick to it.

The mold came out beautifully!

Next I brushed some Lt. Green Alumidust where the bottle would be and left an area open where I think the glasses would be. I then mixed up some Amazing Clear Cast Resin {and you can watch a video tutorial HERE} because I wanted the "glasses" to be see through.

So far so good... I then took a silver paint pen and highlighted around the bottle, put a stopper on the top and edged around the wine glass area.

I added some seed beads with E6000® and used

a red paint pen to add some color to the bottle.

Attached some jewelry findings with E6000® 

and I was ready for New Years Eve!

I absolutely love my new earrings created just in time for the Party!
If you are going to CHA you might even see my cuts being used!

Now I hope you've enjoyed my post and my first project for Simply Create Too!

Make sure you follow the theme and join in some fun over there.

Wine stoppers Throw back Mold Rubber Monday

Good day all! welcome to a Throw back Monday on Mold Rubber Monday to show you an AMAZING (picture heavy) tutorial.

If you know me, you know I am a wine connoisseur. I love going to wineries and taking tours especially the taste testing, LOL. I have collected a lot of wine corks to some day make something magnificent with – but until I figure out exactly what I want to do with them, I decided to use one to make multiple bottle stoppers. I kinda ran with this before really thinking it out so let's experiment together.

If you have ever tried to put a cork in an opened bottle you know it's somewhat difficult. That's why they make these super cute "winestoppers" that can also be pretty expensive. Therefore, why not make your own? I started with a cork and cut it to make sort of a chisel point.

Then using my Creative Paperclay® I wrapped it around the chiseled part and made it into a nice rounded point and let it dry. Paperclay takes about 24 hours to dry.

Once it was dry I sanded it smooth.

I added some Amazing Clear Cast Resin to it to make it smooth and non porous so that I could use my Amazing Mold Rubber to create a mold that I could use over and over and over again. You definitely need to have a non porous item...

Once the Amazing Clear Cast Resin set up (about 24 hours), I hot glued it to the bottom of a yogurt container. It was just the right size for my "winestopper" with a little bit of room at the top so that the Amazing Mold Rubber covered it completely.

I mixed and poured the Amazing Mold Rubber and let it set up overnight.

Please CLICK HERE to watch how to mix/prepare Amazing Mold Rubber.

I wanted to be positive it set up completely –

being a thick mold and also it's the middle of winter.

Now here is where the tricky part came. I could not get my "winestopper" out.

I wound up cutting my mold in half. 

This picture shows a well used mold, I've used it

about 20 times so far... looks like it, doesn't it?

Once I put the pieces together I wrap a bit of painters tape around the mold to keep any leakage from happening, but honestly the mold really stays well together.

Here is an example of the two pieces separated with a molded piece. 

I just used my Exacto knife to cut away the little bit of overflow. The top of the "winestopper" looks like a well used cork where the bottom is nice and smooth.

I wanted to somehow incorporate a way to add items to my "winestoppers" and remembered I had these cute little forks and thought they might do the trick. 

After you pour your Amazing Casting Resin let it set up a minute or until you see it start to turn white and insert your fork piece and hold it steady until it sets up all the way. Another couple of minutes and you can let go. Let that set up a little longer to make sure it is completely set up. (See the strip of tape around the mold?) That's just to make sure the mold doesn't leak through.

Here is another "fork" going into the mold using the Alumilite Dye

in Brown to give it more of that "cork" color.

And that is how I attach all my "molded" pieces to my "winestoppers".

You can use E6000®, which is my favorite glue for all of my resin pieces.

Topped with a Chalkboard Heart.

A Butterfly (which got sold at the Winter Bazaar I was at last week).

I even used wire and curled it and inserted it into the mold 

while it was setting up to make a table marker that holds a card.

I even made a"winestopper" with an elephant using Amazing Clear Cast Resin.

 

Ready for some football?

And of course, my all time favorite, my elephant.

All the pieces for my "winestoppers" are also made with Amazing Mold Putty, Amazing Casting Resin, Amazing Clear Cast Resin and various Alumilte Dyes, Alumilite Metallic Powders or painted. ALL the items are sealed with Amazing Clear Cast Resin. The possibilities are endless and I think I've made about 20 different "winestoppers" so far. 

So, when you want a variety of the same item, make it yourself!

What would you LOVE to mold over and over again?

Thanks for stopping by and as always have a great day and God Bless!