Ladies Night Out

Last night the women of our church met for our monthly get together. We had so much fun! I took all my supplies (Stazon inks, clear stamps and tiles, ModPodge, etc) and we made coasters for gifts. It is an inexpensive gift (under $5 for 4) if you already have the supplies. I didn't make any last night though-I got to hold a new baby all night so his mom could make coasters with her friend. I loved every little squeak, slobber and coo that baby made last night! I am working on a new project of my own for the tiles. This is a little preview. I need more paper and then I plan on putting it together. I will post the finished results soon. It will also make an under $5 gift. I did use Momento olive for distressing ink around the edges of the paper. You can see a little difference in the pics, but it does look better in person. The distressing just adds a lot to the project. (Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of yourself distressing the edges of something??-HaHa) I have been working on sewing with my daughter and a few other girls in 4H this week. I will post some pictures of her jacket soon. Leaving soon to hopefully finish today.

A few more flowers and trial dried flower coaster

I spent an hour or so outside raking mud and old hay off the area in front of our shed today. My kiddos helped -Yay! We are getting it ready for new seed. This is only the THIRD time we have tried to plant grass there. After all that work, I came in and decided to try another organza flower with some beautiful neutral tones. They remind me of J Crew or Ralph Lauren clothing for some reason. I made another cut petal one and then a simple circle one. I used some of Nanny's vintage buttons for the centers. I like them both. I also ModPodged some dried pressed flowers over the poppy coaster I made earlier today. I hate to waste the coasters and I really didn't like it anyway. So far I have 2 layers of ModPodge on it and no sealant.

Coaster trial run

At our next women's gathering for church we are making natural stone coaster sets. I found 9 packs of 4X4 tiles at Home Depot for 3.97 I think. I am sure Lowes probably has them too. I have done some reading on these and I think everybody agrees that if you are going to stamp designs on them use StazOn ink pads. This is a permanent quick drying, waterproof ink. The colors are very vivid. I only have a blue and green so far. They are really dark. You can use other inks (I used Memento dewdrops)if you are going to seal these coasters with a clear coat. If you spray them with clear coat, they lose their natural absorbent quality. I also have some Black India Ink that is waterproof and permanent that I used to outline several items and write a few words. I don't think I like any of these! I am definitely glad I am practicing at home first. I want to give sets of four to relatives at Christmas. It really isn't that expensive to do, so I want to find 4 designs that go together and look nice enough to present as gifts. I guess all these bad ones will hang out at my house for personal use. I also bought some clearance pressed flowers at Michaels that I think I might try to decoupage on some and then seal with clear coat. It is fun trying, but I wish I had better results!!!!