Finally Something Good Today!

Got my All Access pass for Jingle Ball! Cannot wait to photograph this concert! Its gonna be a blast & just picking up the pass alone has made my day!!

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12 Crafts of Christmas-Day 8

12 Crafts of Christmas-Day 8- Beer Glasses!
Okay okay, so this isn't my best work, but it gives you the idea of what you can do as a gift for a guy! The Dollar Tree has these awesome beer glasses and they have some beer mugs as well that when painted make a great gift ;) Give it to him with a 6 pack of his favorite beer and he won't even notice if the art on it isn't perfect. Bonus tip: If you want to give him an assortment of beer visit a tap house that sells by the bottle and get 6 different bottles to give with the glass!


Items you will need:
* White Folk Art Enamels Paint
* Black Folk Art Enamels Paint
* Q-tips
* A Beer Glass
* Assorted brushes
* A cookie sheet
* An oven
* Styrofoam Plate
* Rubbing Alcohol

Instructions:
1. Clean the exterior of the Beer Glass with rubbing alcohol.
2. Pour a little paint onto the Styrofoam Plate and paint any image you want onto the glass.  Don't paint the bottom. Let it sit to air dry 30 minutes.
3. Pour another color of paint onto the Styrofoam Plate. After letting the first layer dry paint additional colors on top of it. For example-in the above photo I painted the white layer for the cards first and let it dry before adding the details in black. Let is sit to air dry an hour
4. Place a cookie sheet into a COOL oven and place the air dried painted candle holder onto the cookie sheet.
5. Close the oven and set the oven to 350 degrees. Then set a timer for 40 minutes.
6. When the timer goes off turn off the oven immediately and leave the item in the oven until it is completely cooled down.
7. Once the oven is cooled down voila! you have a hand painted Beer Glass! Add beer and you're all set!

Other crafts for the 12 Crafts of Christmas:
Day 7 SnowGIRL ornament
Day 6 Red Ball Snowman Ornament
Day 5 Christmas Wreath
Day 4 Snowman Banner
Day 3 Candy Cane Ornament
Day 2 Polka Dot Votive Holder
Day 1 Snowman Votive Holder

12 Crafts of Christmas-Day 6

Day 6- Snowman Ornament. Okay okay...if you have not figured it out by now...I really like snowmen. Maybe it's because of my frustration over the fact that in Florida we can't build them?

Items Needed:
1. Red Ball Ornament (You could also use green or blue. Silver and Gold don't work as well with the paint)
2. Sponge brush
3. Assorted paintbrushes (Could just use Q-tips for a simple snowman)
4. White acrylic paint
5. Black acrylic paint
6. Orange acrylic paint
7. assorted acrylic paint colors for the hat
8. Red fabric ribbon (again could use a different color ribbon depending on your preference.)
9. Styrofoam plate

Instructions:
1. Pour a little white acrylic paint onto the Styrofoam plate. With the sponge brush sponge a circle onto the front surface of the red ball ornament. Let it dry for a few hours.
2. Pour a very small amount of black paint and orange paint onto the Styrofoam plate.
3. Then with either a q-tip or a brush paint on the nose with the orange paint and then eyes and mouth with black paint. If you don't want to "draw" or don't think you can create the details just use dots for the black eyes and mouth. Let it dry again for a few hours.
4. If you are happy with just eyes, nose and mouth and having a simple snowman, then feed the red fabric ribbon through the hook on the top of the ornament ball. Tie it into a bow so that you can hang it on the tree and you're done.
5. To add extra detail use additional colors to paint a hat onto the snowman, then dry again, add the ribbon and then hang it on the tree ;)


Other crafts for the 12 Crafts of Christmas:
Day 5 Christmas Wreath
Day 4 Snowman Banner
Day 3 Candy Cane Ornament
Day 2 Polka Dot Votive Holder
Day 1 Snowman Votive Holder

Peppermint Hot Chocolate at Felicitous!

I frikkin' love Felicitous Coffee House! I wish I had the ability to move closer to USF so that I could visit this place more often.

Trying to get in the holiday spirit? Stop by and order a Peppermint Hot Chocolate with whipped cream. Yum! The large cup with the peppermint syrup and whipped cream was $4.55 with tax and worth every penny. So tasty.

As for the cup it came in...zebra stripes and chocolate syrup in zebra pattern on top of the whipped cream...hmmm...coincidence? I think not!

More on Felicitous:
I did a business shout out on them in Creative Loafing when they first opened, a Cheap Eats write up a few months later on Tampa Bay's Metromix and have mentioned them as often as possible on facebook, on my blog and on About.com.

They have free wi-fi, great pastries and desserts and some of the best frozen frappes I've ever tried!

Felicitous is located at:

11706 North 51st Street
Tampa, FL 33617

(813) 988-2828

12 Crafts of Christmas-Day 5

Now before you all freak out on me and run away with your tail between your legs, you should know that making a wreath for Christmas is much easier than it looks. All you really need is to figure out the colors you want in it and that is the hardest part.

Items needed:
1. Green Wreath- Joann's sells these as cheap as $1.99 during its sales for the season!
2. A bow. You can either make it by hand or they sell lots of premade ones
3. Ornaments. There are lots of little trinkets that are perfect for wreaths in the floral section at Joann's that you can get as cheap as $1 each or less depending on the sales. The floral picks that have flowers and other adornments attached to a long piece of green wire have always worked best for me. The above wreath has about 12 floral picks in it along with one big bow
4. Green floral wire
5. Wire cutters or heavy duty scissors that can clip wire

Instructions:
1. Place everything on top of the wreath to see how it will look. Arrange it and rearrange it until you think it looks perfect. I often will take a picture once its perfect so that I remember how it looked as I'm securing everything to the wreath.
2. Insert the floral picks into the wreath one by one and twist the wire around the back to secure it.
3. Add the bow to the top, middle or side. Whereever you like it and secure to the back of the wreath with floral wire.
4. For added security I often go back with floral wire and wrap it around my picks and my bow just to make sure that while its hanging nothing falls off. Some folks I know will secure it with a hot glue gun. I personally don't because I prefer to change out the picks annually so that my wreaths are different each year.

Other crafts for the 12 Crafts of Christmas:
Day 4 Snowman Banner
Day 3 Candy Cane Ornament
Day 2 Polka Dot Votive Holder
Day 1 Snowman Votive Holder

The Real Reason People Have Kids

Sometimes I wonder if the real reason people have kids is so they won't feel strange buying kids toys that they actually want to play with.

I'm walking through the kids toys at Target and seeing all kinds of fun stuff I want to play with. The problem is I don't have children and it would be awkward walking to the register and having the cashier say something like "Is this for your little boy for Christmas?" Then I would have to give the odd response of "No, I just want to play with legos! Leave me alone!!!"

If you have kids, have you ever bought something for your child so you could play with it? Or if you don't have kids but wanted a toy to play with would you buy it anyway?!?

12 Crafts of Christmas-Day 4

Wooden Snowman Banner:
Why make it difficult by finding all the supplies when you can just buy the Wooden Snowman Banner Craft Kit from Oriental Trading Company? Buy this awesome kit HERE and you can make 12 Wooden Snowman Banners. They can either be used as hanging decorations on the wall or ornaments on a bigger tree. Final products end up being about 6" in length. They are so cute and come with instructions for the best way to put them together.

12 Crafts of Christmas-Day 3

Day 3. Sorry I'm posting this a little late, but hey- it's still December 3 in California for a little while longer. Therefore-here is Day 3's Craft!

Candy Cane Ornament:

Items Needed:
*Pipe Cleaners
*Red Beads- the three pronged beads are preffered
*White Beads- again the three pronged beads are preffered

Instructions:
1. Cut a pipe cleaner in half and at one end place a red or white bead and wrap the pipe cleaner around it once to secure it.
2. String the beads onto the pipe cleaner. Red, then white, then red, then white until you get to the end of the pipe cleaner.
3. Secure the last bead on the pipe cleaner by wrapping it with the end of the pipe cleaner.
4. To form a "cane" simply bend the pipe cleaner into a J shape.

12 Crafts of Christmas-Day 2

 

Today's Christmas Craft is green and red polka dot candle holders.  See day 1 HERE

Polka Dot Candle Holders

Items you will need:
* Red Folk Art Enamels Paint
* Green Folk Art Enamels Paint
* Q-tips
* A Glass Votive Candle Holder
* A cookie sheet
* An oven
* Styrofoam Plate
* Rubbing Alcohol

Costs to expect: Enamels paint is about $2 each. You can get votive holders for $1 or less at Wal-Mart and the Dollar Tree.


How to:
Super simple!!!
1. Clean the exterior of the Glass Votive Candle Holder with rubbing alcohol.
2. Pour a little green paint onto a Styrofoam Plate. With a Q-tip paint dots onto the glass in whatever pattern you would like.
3. Pour a little red paint onto a Styrofoam Plate. Now take the Q-tip and make red dots on the exterior to foll in the spots where there is no green paint. Let is sit to air dry an hour.
4. Place a cookie sheet into a COOL oven and place the air dried painted candle holder onto the cookie sheet.
5. Close the oven and set the oven to 350 degrees. Then set a timer for 40 minutes.
6. When the timer goes off turn off the oven immediately and leave the item in the oven until it is completely cooled down.
7. Once the oven is cooled down voila! you have a hand painted Polka Dot Candle Holder! Add a tealight and you're all set! (Giving it as a gift? Place it in a little party bag and twist tie it shut-you can get 20 at Wal-Mart with twist ties for just $0.97- then either wrap it in a gift bag or give as is.)

12 Crafts of Christmas-Day 1

In an effort to prove that you don't have to be Martha Stewart to make gifts by hands for folks I took a page from the Dealicious Finds site to show the readers of The Famous Ashley Grant and Tampa Bay Freebies my 12 Crafts of Christmas!

So, without further adieu...today is Day #1!!! The Snowman Candle you see at the top of this post is easier than you can imagine to make!

Items you will need:
* White Folk Art Enamels Paint
* Black Folk Art Enamels Paint
* Q-tips
* A Glass Votive Candle Holder
* A Sponge brush
* A cookie sheet
* An oven
* Styrofoam Plate
* Rubbing Alcohol

Costs to expect: Enamels paint is about $2 each. You can get votive holders for $1 or less at Wal-Mart and the Dollar Tree.


How to:
Super simple!!!
1. Clean the exterior of the Glass Votive Candle Holder with rubbing alcohol.
2. Pour a little white paint onto a Styrofoam Plate. Sponge it onto the exterior of the Glass Votive Candle Holder. Don't paint the bottom. (For best results dab the sponge to coat the surface, don't stroke in lines.) Let it sit to air dry 30 minutes.
3. Pour a little black paint onto a Styrofoam Plate. Take the Q-tip and make black dots on the exterior to create a face. Let is sit to air dry an hour
4. Place a cookie sheet into a COOL oven and place the air dried painted candle holder onto the cookie sheet.
5. Close the oven and set the oven to 350 degrees. Then set a timer for 40 minutes.
6. When the timer goes off turn off the oven immediately and leave the item in the oven until it is completely cooled down.
7. Once the oven is cooled down voila! you have a hand painted Snowman Candle Holder! Add a tealight and you're all set!