It is cold and snowy outside so my husband and I have stayed inside all day long (so fun!)! I’ve been working on projects most of the night (I’ll hopefully post about them next week) and here is my absolute favorite of the bunch. I probably should have waited for better lighting but I couldn’t wait another moment to share this.

I pretty much love anything with a monogram. I also am in a major red and black kick. So basically I am in love with this monogram. I plan on getting some dark red ribbon to hang it from. So excited!

I actually haven’t used this idea for neighbor gifts but I’ve used them primarily as housewarming gifts (but also as thank you and hostess gifts) and they would work just as well for neighbor gifts. These coasters are cute and you could put a Christmas spin on them with Christmas themed paper. Also, they are super easy (cut paper, lots of mod-podge, seal, glue on felt and you’re done) and cheap (the tiles are about .16 a piece at Home Depot). The tutorial can be found here.

Every year in September, my whole extended family drives out to my Grandparent’s house for my Grandma’s annual Birthday Party. Let me just tell you how much I love going to my Grandma’s house and visiting with my grandparent’s, aunts, uncles and cousins…it really turns out to be quite the party since there are around 53 of us…

This year, we decided to do something a little bit different and go to the park to shoot rockets! What a fun idea! Some of my cousins bought rockets…but we decided that we were going to make ours! Oh WHAT FUN!

A few weeks before the party we went over to my aunts house and her son taught us all how to make these awesome rockets:

They were so easy, I feel bad I didn’t take my camera so I could do a tutorial with pictures…but until I make another rocket I hope that written instructions will suffice…

You Will Need:

• Air Compressor & Launcher
• Paper
• Water Activated Gummed Sealing Tape
• White Elmer’s Glue and/or Mod Podge
• File Folder

1. Take your piece of plain white paper and cut it in half long ways. Wrap one piece of paper around your launcher so you know it will fit. The launcher we used was 1/2″ wide and 11″ tall. Glue the paper around it to make a paper tube.

2. Take your Water Activated tape and wrap it around your tube. You can use a wet sponge or washcloth to dampen the tape so it will stick. (Keep it wrapped around your launcher or a piece of pvc pipe that is cut to the same size) You will want to wrap it about 3 times. ***Make sure you let each layer dry before doing another layer…this applies throughout the entire project!

3. Then cut small pieces of tape about 1/4″ x 3″ long. Use these strips to cover up one end of your tube. Do this until it is air tight and you can blow into your tube without any air coming out the other end. You can then go around your tube with another layer of tape.

4. Cover your rocket with a few layers of glue or mod podge just to make sure it has a nice seal- especially at the top of your rocket.

5. Make a cone for the top of your rocket out of your water activated tape. Just cut it into a circle, cut a small wedge out of it, and wrap it around to the right size. Wet the tape and attach to your rocket with more tape and/or glue. (The cones of our rockets didn’t last too long. I think more layers of mod podge may have done the trick…but I wont know for sure until I make another one.)

6. Make your fins using an old file folder. (I just cut a large triangle out, folded it in half, cut a tiny slit at the top and then folded the sides so it would fit flush with my rocket)

7. Then you can decorate your rocket however you want and cover it with more and more layers of glue or mod podge. Cover everything, even the fins! I think we did about 5 or so layers…but it could have used more =)

8. Then all you gotta do is go fly ‘em!

And they do fly FAR:

HAVE FUN! Let me know if you have any questions…

Okay. So I finally finished this tutorial! I have been working on it for what seems like an eternity! So here goes…hope you enjoy my ABC Card Tutorial!!!

Materials Needed:

1. Chipboard (I bought a package of 6  8 1/2 x 11 sheets…I had 1 sheet left over)
2. Mod Podge
3. Acrylic Paint
4. Scrapbook Paper
5. Scrapbook Alphabet Letters
6. Scissors
7. Acrylic Sealer

Step 1: First off you need to find something to trace to make your cards. I actually cut out a rounded corner 3 1/2″ square using my cricut cutting machine and then traced it onto my chipboard—but you can of course use whatever you want as a template.  It would have been just as easy for me to draw out a 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ square onto a piece of paper and then use that as a pattern to cut the rest out. You will of course need 26 of these. (You may also want to use sandpaper to smooth out some of the edges)

***Having never used chipboard before I asked the lady at JoAnn’s how to cut it, and she said to use an X-acto knife-which I did, until I realized you can actually cut it with scissors and that was WAY faster! ✄—————

Step 2: Paint your chipboard. I only painted the parts that would show, so on the side where I was going to mod podge the scrapbook paper I only painted around the edges…

Step 3: Then you need to cut out your piece of background paper (I cut mine to be a 3″ square) and mod podge it to your chipboard. Just do a thin layer of mod podge or you might get bubbles under your paper, or worse make your paper wavy because it got too wet! (One side of my chipboard was white and the other was brown…so don’t let the pics confuse you—-the white part is just what I didn’t paint =)

***You could of course leave the background the color you painted it if you want to and skip this step entirely.

Step 4: Now you need your scrapbook letters. I cut 3″ letters out using my cricut machine, but you can find similar letters at craft stores, or you can check out our floralshowers etsy store . Then, just do another thin layer of mod podge and place the letter on.

Step 5: Now all you have to do is cover your whole project with a layer of mod podge. I covered the front and let it dry

and then I covered the backs

Then I did another coat…but I don’t think you would really have too. I just wanted too.

Step 6: Spray your project with an acrylic sealer. I got this tip over at modpodgerocks, and I’m glad I just happened across it. Apparently mod podge projects will stick together if they aren’t sealed…and since my cards will be stacked on each other this is a VITAL step if you don’t want to ruin your project!

Now just let your project dry and you are FINISHED!

Here are some close ups of my favorites:

Let me know if you make some…I would love to see your projects! Happy crafting everybody!

This post is linked to Creations by Kara “Look What I Made”