Holiday Place Cards

POST OVERLOAD!! Two in one week! LOL -- my mom asked me to make some place cards for our big Christmas dinner... I've been wanting to make these pie-cards but haven't had the chance, so I started making them, then I read the instructions and they need to dry for 3-5 days... so that wouldn't work for Christmas! I had to come up with a plan B, and fast! And there weren't a lot of options since I didn't want to run out at 3pm on Christmas eve. Then I came across these little cuties - number 17! I found some adorable ribbon and some craft paper I had lying around, and whipped them up!

I did the names on the computer, my secret (since I'm on a mac and I don't have Adobe suite) is to use powerpoint, and just resize the slides to 8.5" x 11". It seems to work better than trying to work in Word or even Excel. I decided to do women, men, and children all in different colors (since I'm a little spiteful I had to sit at the children's table WELL into my twenties). I printed the names in big ovals... maybe 4" x 2" and cut them out. Hole-punched the ends, then threaded some cut ribbon through them. I lucked out because my mom had ribbon with wire in the edges, so it made it a LOT easier. I made sure they could stand, then cut the ends of the ribbon to look like candy, and VOILA! Done :)

These were legit SO easy, and could very simply be made for ANY occasion or even a non-occasion dinner party.

HAPPY HAPPY!
xoxo,
janie from scratch

Painted Wine Glasses

Lately I've been so into crafting! Ever since I decorated those wine glasses for Relay for Life, I wanted to make some more. Plus, my godmother asked me to make her a new glass. So, I did a little online research to find out how to "cure"the glasses to make the paint stay on longer. There's no definitive answers online that I found, so we'll see how the system I used works out. I went to Joanne's and wandered in the paint/marker aisle and just kind of went with what I felt. I got two Sharpie paint markers and bought some stemless wine glasses from Target. I'm having a few people over for Mother's Day, so I wanted to make each of us a glass.

First, I decorated each glass with the Sharpie paint marker:

Then, according to one online instruction I found, I put all 4 glasses on a cookie sheet lined with foil, and put into a cold oven:

I turned on the over to preheat to 350, then once it was at 350, I let it "cook" for 20 minutes. Then I turned the oven off and let the glasses sit in the oven until they were completely cold. Then I took them out and VOILA!

They turned out super cute! I'll let yall know if they stand up to washing after Sunday!

Happy Mother's Day!
xoxo,
Janie from Scratch

**UPDATE: So far, so good. I used my glass last night and hand-washed it and the paint seems to be staying put. I even tried scratching a little with my nail and nothing came off! Also, I made a real cocktail in my glass, so there was a lot of condensation on the outside and still the paint stayed.

Race T-shirt Redux!

Tomorrow night I'm doing the Relay for Life in Tampa with my godmother and I am SO psyched to be getting involved in the community finally! It's something I've really been wanting to do, but haven't had the time/opportunity/balls to do it by myself, so I kind of drunkenly agreed a few weeks ago, and I'm so glad I did! Earlier tonight, we spent some time baking and decorating items to sell - painted corks, wine glasses, candle holders. They are super cute, maybe I'll take some pics tomorrow at the event. I'm not SUPER crafty, but some of them turned out really adorable, hopefully someone will pick them up for $1!!

Tonight we also picked up our relay shirts, and I usually am not big on wearing the race shirt TO the race but apparently everyone does it for this one. It's gonna be HOT as blazes tomorrow, so I wanted to turn mine into a tank somehow. Our team captain, Sarah, is really into pinterest (just like me! check out her page!) and showed me this adorable and easy t-shirt redux (it's also a bonus this blogger is from New Zealand, I love it there!). I decided to whip it up tonight when I got home and my mom helped me, of course.

I didn't take pics along the way, the blog tutorial is pretty self-explanatory and easy as it is. I did tweak it a little. I serged the raw edges and then straight stitched them under to make the arm holes non-raggedy. The logos were a bit higher on my tshirt than on the blogger's so mine got a little cramped at the top :/ but it turned out super cute anyways!

Close up :) 

I love to make a crazy face!

This legit only took straight stitches, it was super easy!

I'm off this weekend to a transatlantic cruise then spending a few days in Europe!
xoxo,
Janie from Scratch

UPDATE!! I got so many compliments and "how did you do that"s at the relay! A very successful t-shirt redux :)

Homemade Road ID

Ever since I started running on a regular basis, I've always been SUPER concerned that something would happen to me, and since I don't run with a phone or ID or anything, no one would ever know who I was. It's a serious paranoia of mine (amongst many others). They have ones you can buy online but they are super boring and sterile looking. So I enlisted my mom to help make one for my friend Ryan and I. 

Using my mom's embroidery machine I was able to create this super cute design, and then my mom sewed the button holes for the shoe laces. 

Jane B's machine stitching away

Then I laced it on and voila! Now I'll never be lost if something ever happens to me while I'm running :)

I can't wait to try it out at the Gate River Run in Jacksonville this weekend!


Side note: Ryan and I did our first 10k this weekend!! It was a great race. It was FREEZING and rained the first 1-2 miles, but after that, we both settled in and had a great run. It was funny because she was a little ahead of me but when we compared notes, we struggled and found it easy at the same spots. Mile 4 was great for both of us and mile 5 was terrible for both of us. And we even matched:

Twinsies!

So get outside and have fun! It's so nice out lately:)
xoxo,
Janie from Scratch

For Your Mistle Toes - Holiday Gift

Of course, awhile ago I saw on pinterest what I wanted to make/give the girls at the office. Just a little something to brighten their holidays. So I found super cute nail files at Sally and bought some small nail polishes in Christmas colors and whipped up some homemade sugar scrub.

Sugar/Salt Scrub
1 cup coconut oil (I found some at Whole Foods)
1/2 cup sea salt
1/2 cup raw sugar
essential oils (I used eucalyptus & lavender)

Mix everything together. I ended up adding more salt & sugar because I wanted the consistency to be a little thicker. But just make yours as thick or thin as you like.

I found these super cute jars at Michael's (but actually they turned out to leak), but you can also use canning jars (my fave!).

 I made a few batches!

 Then, I made these super cute inserts for the baggies I was putting together.

 And I wrapped up the bigger ones individually.

And the smaller ones went with the nail polish and see the SUPER CUTE ADORABLE nail file? I chose ones that matched whoever the gift went to.

These were a big hit!!

Hope you have a WONDERFUL Christmas :) And Happy New Year!

xoxox,
Janie from Scratch

AFTER THE FACT: So, the little plastic jars leaked :( Next time I think I'll use mason jars instead!

Crafts: Bachelorette Basket of Booze

So, I apologize in advance: this post isn't going to be about food. Sometimes I like to be a bit crafty. Since this is MY blog, I guess I can write about anything I want, right? I feel like everybody is always looking for inexpensive and cute gift ideas, and here's one I made!

A few weekends ago I traveled to Tampa to celebrate my friend Becky's Bachelorette weekend. I had no idea what to get her, so I did some searching on pinterest. I found this adorable 21st Birthday basket, and decided to recreate it Bachelorette-style. It turned out AMAZING, and she (and the other gals) loved it!

You need:
a basket/bucket
foam to fit the basket
spray paint
wooden dowels or lollipop sticks (I used these)
ribbon (I used 2 spools)
super glue
easter filling for covering the foam
shooter-sized bottles of your Bachelorette's favorite booze
anything else fun (I got a thong and some Bachelorette cards)

Start by cutting your foam down to fit your basket. I cut mine so it was an inch or two shorter than the top of the basket. I recommend doing this outdoors. I did it in my kitchen and there were little white pieces of foam EVERYWHERE! Then, spray paint the foam to match your basket (mine was dark brown so I spray painted it black; I just didn't want it to be glaring white through the slats in the basket). I also spray painted my lollipop sticks black as well. This was harder than it seemed... I ended up having to stick them in the excess foam to be able to get all the sides, and even then, I ended up with spray paint everywhere! (Another outdoors portion of this project.) I then cut ribbon about 18" long for each stick and superglued it to the ends. Tie your shooter bottles to the sticks with the ribbon. I made a cute bow on each one too. Then stick each one in the foam. (There were a few that were a little too heavy to tie, so I just placed them in there.) Add your easter grass and voila!

Here's an overhead picture:

The most expensive part of this project was DEFINITELY the booze. I didn't really pay attention to what I was picking (I got 20 bottles) and the bill was a shocker at the end. But, I bet you could find those $1 shooters and then this would be a lot cheaper. Other than the booze, I spent maybe $20 on all the other materials (use those Michael's coupons to your advantage.. you can even print them off the website!). An adorable, thoughtful and inexpensive gift!

Get creative.. even when you aren't in the kitchen!! :)