Coasters...

It's just a short post today. The family is getting ready to go away for a week, so everything here is very hectic to say the least. In my down time though I have finished several sets of coasters. And I have to say, I am pretty proud of them! Especially since they were the only thing that sold at the recent show... hahaha :) The mom that I work for even bought two sets to take up to Maine for the family. I thought that was very nice of her to support my crafting. Below are a few photos of some of the coasters. Have a fabulous day and always smile :)

~Jennifer :)

If I hadn't started making the coasters....

This past weekend I participated in a craft/vendor show that was supporting a Girl Scout Troop in Souderton, PA. My boyfriend did not come along with me this past weekend. I told him that he didn't have to since I was going to be leaving at 6am. And he completely agreed with me when he heard the time... hahaha. I did have some help though. Jonny, the little boy I nanny for, came with me to help and keep me company. We were on the road by 6am and stopped at McDonalds for breakfast, which Jonny loved! We arrived at the event just a little before 7am to start setting up. For such an early morning, Jonny was doing well and being a huge help in unloading the car and trying to come up with ways to set up the table and arrange the items. There was one thing he was disappointed about... the show was inside and not outside (which I was happy for). After everything was set up and in it's place I took one last look at the table... and noticed I couldn't find Jonny, that is until I looked behind the table again. I found him sleeping on the job! ;) I couldn't really blame him though, if I could have laid down for a nap at that moment I would have! :)
The show itself was kind of slow. I only sold one item, one of the coaster sets that I had just started to make. I met a lot of nice people and had a good time over all. Jonny kept me entertained and occupied, and for the most part he behaved as well as I could expect him to after waking up at 5:50am.

This week I will be working on coasters and trinket chests and also trying to come up with a design for a sign for my mom, oh, I'll also be working also... should be a fun week :)

New Project and Kids off for the Summer

I know I haven't been on here in over a week, I have just been super busy with my job (kids are out of school so I now have no free time) and I have also been working on a new project. I have started making coasters out of tiles with either using stamps on them or doing gel transfers.

Jonny's last day was this past Tuesday... He was done at noon. When I walked up to get him I was surrounded by Jonny and his friend Lachie. Jonny wanted Lachie to come over for the a playdate. And how could I say no to him on the last day of school. I took them to get pizza, then water ice to keep them happy. I had to go to the market after that and they were great helpers. I would tell them what I needed and they would go find it. It was like a treasure hunt for them! Then when we got home, they played outside, went swimming, designed and made a coaster set, went and played tennis, made cupcakes, and finally watched a little tv while having dinner. They spent 6 and a half hours together and got along the whole time. It was a good day for those two... hahaha. And apparently Lachie told his mom it was one of the best days ever... That's a pretty big standard I now have to live up to for a playdate... hahahahaha.


The coasters/tiles have been a challenge for me. First let's go with the stamping. I read a lot about stamping tiles and coloring them in. Everyone said that you needed to bake the tiles after stamping to heat set the ink. I did that. Then I went to color in the image with chalk. Well, apparently heat setting does not completely dry the ink, because it smeared on my first tile. Into the trash that one went. On my next try I colored the whole tile with chalk, then stamped over it and baked it. The ink was still a little wet to the touch so I sealed it with one coat of an acrylic sealer. The seemed to set the ink and still allowed for the tile to absorbed some of the moisture from anything set on top of it. So I think I have figured those out. I just need to figure out how to make the chalk darker when I am coloring in the stamps. Any suggestions?

The second type I have been trying is doing a gel transfer onto a tile. Over the weekend I tried it with a print from an inkjet printer and one from a laser printer. Everything I had read said that the laser printer would work best, and well it did. I have also read that using photo paper and an inkjet printer works well, so maybe I'll try that next week. Since I do not have a laser printer, I decided to try using some of my scrapbook paper to do a gel transfer, and what do you know, it worked out really well. After rubbing off all of the pulp until just the image was left I covered the tile with epoxy resin. They look really good and once I get the edges all smoothed down they will be ready for the show on Saturday.

Jonny is done entertaining himself so I am needed to come up with something for us to do... hopefully he doesn't say no to every suggestion I have ;-) I have included a couple of pictures I took this morning of the two tiles I used the gel transfer process on. They are still a work in progress :) I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday and have something fun planned for the weekend!

~Jennifer :)