Personalized Dinner Plates

Hello, all! Recently, I've been shopping around online, looking for some things that are monogrammed with a 'C' on them. I've only been married for three months, so I'm still slightly obsessed with my new last name. Actually, I've yet to legally change my name, but I'm going to! And then, I'll be slightly obsessed with it some more! I had been looking for some dishes for everyday use in our house as of late. I have a very nice set of Fiesta plates, bowls, and mugs, but I don't want to us them so much when its just Josh and I eating dinner. We're both a little accident prone, and I'd like to keep nice dinnerware for later use. I wanted some cute dishes that wouldn't be expensive, and would coordinate well with my Fiesta stuff, which happens to be quite bright.

Anyway, I did a little researching, and found these plates on http://www.zazzle.com/.

I really liked the idea of monogrammed plates, but I didn't really like diamond design. I really didn't like the $29.95 price per plate, either. We're on a budget in this household! I wanted at least four plates, and I could definitely use the $120 that they would cost for something much  more worthwhile. So, my crafty brain started scheming, and I said, "I bet that I could monogram some plates myself!" So, I broke out the etching cream and paint brush, and this is what I came up with!

Please excuse the pictures. And the incredible mess on my kitchen table. It was board game night when I etched this plate, so there are pizza boxes and, well, board games everywhere. Anyway, I love my new plates! They're so cute, and I only paid $1.50 a piece for them, since I already had the etching cream. You can do this too! It was super easy, and ended up being just what I wanted. Without further ado, here is a tutorial!

Personalized Dinner Plates

You need:

Rubber gloves

Glass plates (or anything glass that you'd like to etch)

A paint brush

A stencil of what you'd like to etch (It needs to be sticky on one side. Vinyl, or contact paper works well)

Etching cream

Craft knife (Exacto knives work the best for this)

Directions:

1. The very first thing you need to do is remove all stickers from the back of your plates. Make sure that they are clean, and dry.

2. Time to cut out your pattern! I used my cricut to cut out my stencil for me. It worked out well for me, because a 'C' doesn't need to be flipped like other letters do. Keep in mind that you will be etching on the bottom of your plate. You don't want your letter to be backwards after etching. If your letter needs to be flipped, or if you don't have a machine to cut your stencil out for you, first print off your letter, making sure to reverse it before printing. Then, place your printed letter on top of the vinyl or contact paper (on the paper-backed side). Using the exacto knife, cut out your stencil.

3. Transfer your stencil to the back of your plate. You can either do this by hand, which can be a little difficult, or with the aid of transfer tape, or another piece of contact paper. I usually just use the contact paper, since transfer tape is rather expensive. Simply peel and stick a piece of contact paper over the non-sticky side of the stencil, then peel the backing of the stencil, and transfer it to your plate. Make sure that you push down all of the edges very well. You don't want etching cream to leak under the stencil, and etch places you didn't want etched!



I used clear contact paper to transfer my stencil to the plate. You can barely see it in this picture.





Here, I placed the stencil onto the plate, then carefully peeled away the contact paper.







Here is what the stencil looks like from the other side of the plate.

4. Its time to put on your rubber gloves! Seriously, do NOT touch etching cream with your bare hands. I use Armour etch, which can be found in lots of craft stores, including Hobby Lobby, which is where I got mine. Etching cream can be a little expensive. The bottle that I got was about $7, but after I get done using it, I just scrape the excess back into the bottle and use it again. I've etched a bowl, a jar, and four plates, and I've still got at least two-thirds of a bottle left. Here's a picture, so you know what to look for!

5. Apply a generous amount of etching cream over your stencil. When I say generous, I mean it. The first time I tried to etch something, I didn't use enough etching cream. Needless to say, I threw that cookie jar away. 

6. The directions on the etching cream bottle say to leave the cream on for five minutes or so. I always leave mine on for ten, just to be sure that all areas etch evenly. After your ten minutes are up, scrape the excess cream back into the bottle, and rinse of the remaining. Make sure to read all of the directions on the back of the etching cream bottle, because etching cream can harm some types of material, and you don't want to mess up your sink!). After rinsing, peel off your stencil, and wash your plate off. There you are! Some pretty, monogrammed dishes for much less than $29.95 per plate!

Seriously, the pictures do NOT do them justice! They're adorable! If you come and eat dinner at my house, most likely you'll be served a meal on one of these plates, simply because I love them so much and want to show them off. I hope that you get to make some cute monogrammed dishes too! Hopefully I'll be back later this week with some more crafty things for you to try! Until then, happy crafting!







Taco Casserole

Happy belated Valentine's day, all! Hope that you Valentine's Day was as good as mine! I got to spend the day with Josh, which is always wonderful. This was our first Valentine's Day as a married couple, but our ninth since the two of us got together. I decided to cook dinner for the two of us, and we knew right away that we wanted something Mexican-ish. I'm sick of tacos, and so is Josh. I love a good taco and all, but I can only eat them so many times. So, I brought out the faithful First Baptist Church Cookbook, and started browsing. This was the recipe that I came across, and decided to try. We both loved it, and it will definitely be making another appearance at our dinner table. Its a very yummy alternative to tacos when you're craving some yummy Mexican food.

Taco Casserole

You need:

1 lb of ground beef
1 envelope of taco seasoning
1/2 cup of onions
1 can (16 oz.) of refried beans
1/2 of a 12 oz. jar of picante hot sauce
1 can (8 oz.) of tomato sauce
1-2 cans of crescent rolls
1/3 cup of corn meal
1 bag of cheese (I used mexican blend, but any type of cheddar would probably be good)
lettuce
tomatoes
green onions
sour cream

Directions:

1. Preheat the over to 375 degrees.

2. Brown the hamburger meat and onions together. Drain.

3. Add taco seasoning (do not add water), refried beans, tomato sauce, and picante sauce. Mix well.

4. Use the crescent rolls to make a crust on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. I only used one can, but feel free to use two if you like a thicker crust.

5. Coat the crust in oil, then sprinkle the cornmeal on top of it.

6. Spread the meat mixture on top of the crust.

7. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. After baking, remove from oven, and cover with grated cheese. Return to the oven until cheese is fully melted.

8. After cheese is melted, remove from oven. Cover with taco toppings like lettuce, green onions, tomatoes, and sour cream. Enjoy (You can clearly see that Josh enjoyed it; some of it was missing before I could get my camera to take a picture)!

Hope you enjoy! I think we'll be seeing a lot of taco casserole in this house. I'll be back later this week with some more great stuff for you to try! Until then, happy baking!



Easy Slow-Cooker Chili

Every year since I was in middle school, I have spent Super Bowl Sunday at the home of a church-family member, and often we ate chili while we watched the game (or mostly the commercials, in my case). Because of that, my mind equates the Super Bowl with chili. Since Super Bowl Sunday is upon us, I figured I would share my favorite chili recipe with you guys. If you haven't decided what to make for your own Super Bowl party, this chili would be perfect! Its so yummy!

Easy Slow-Cooker Chili

You need:

2 (16 oz.) cans of red kidney beans

3 (8 oz.) cans of tomato sauce (I usually just use two larger cans of tomato sauce, because I like soupy chili)

2 lb. of ground beef, browned and drained

2 teaspoons of garlic salt

2-3 Tablespoons of chili powder

1 teaspoon of pepper

1 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 of a yellow onion

A slow cooker (mine is a 7 qt., but the recipe could be altered to fit any size)

Directions:

1. Open and drain the kidney beans. Add them to the crock pot.

2. Add the tomato sauce to the crock pot.

3. Brown hamburger meat and chopped onion. Drain, and add to the crock pot.

4. Add the garlic salt, pepper, chili powder, and cumin. Stir well.

5. Cook on  high heat for 3-5 hours, covered, stirring well every now and then.

6. Enjoy with some shredded cheese and sour cream! Go on, you know you want to!

I love this chili. We keep the leftovers in the fridge for a few days, and then freeze it. It tastes just as good! We're thinking about trying this same recipe with chicken, or ground turkey. If we do, I'll be sure to post the results! Tomorrow, I'm going to try my hand at furniture-making. We'll see how that goes. It could be a disaster. If everything turns out well, I'll have a new coffee table, and you guys will have a new tutorial. We'll see! Until then, happy cooking!



Re-purposing an old grapevine wreath

I've had this grapevine wreath sitting in the corner of our spare bedroom since I moved in (which, admittedly, was not that long ago, but still). My mom gave it to me when I first began to decorate our home. She had bought it a number of years ago. She seemed quite glad to get rid of it, and I don't really blame her. It was ugly. The greenery on it was old and faded, and just loved to collect dust. Whilst cleaning the spare bedroom one day, I decided that I was going to re- purpose said grapevine wreath, and make something bright and feminine to hang on our door when springtime rolls around. I raided my craft supplies, and came out with some felt, a hot glue gun, and some gray spray paint. I like the end result a lot, and figured I would share it with you guys, along with a tutorial on how to make some easy (but cute) felt flowers.

Re-purposing an old grapevine wreath

You need:
An old grapevine wreath, stripped of all decoration
A can of spray paint (color of your choice)
A hot glue gun and glue sticks
Several sheets of felt (in the color of your choice. It usually takes one sheet per flower)
A pair of rubber gloves (to wear whilst spray painting)

Here is a picture of the grapevine wreath that I decided to re-purpose. It isn't very attractive.

The very first step in this process was removing all of the raffia and greenery from the wreath. This wasn't so easy for me, because most of the greenery had been hot glued on. After thirty minutes of scraping and picking at it, I finally got it to come off. After your wreath is clean, and decoration free, take it outside and prepare to spray paint.

 

Start spraying! And make sure to get the edges covered! The only thing that makes this tricky is getting all of the little in-between-spaces filled in. It looks better already, doesn't it?

Leave the wreath outside to dry for a while, and move on to making flowers for your newly painted wreath. Firstly, trace six circles onto a piece of felt. I used candle lid to trace my flowers, but you could use the bottom of a mug, or a soda can the same way. Also, free hand a smaller circle onto the same piece of felt. After, cut these circles out. As you can see, they don't have to be perfect.

Next, plug in your hot glue gun, and let it get nice and hot. Then, fold one of the large circles in half.

Fold it in half again.

Place a dab of hot glue near the bottom of the folded circle, then press onto the smaller circle. This step will be repeated three more times, so make sure you save room for the other 'petals'.

Here is what your circle should look like with two of the 'petals' glued down.

Here is what it should look like with four 'petals' glued down.

After gluing four 'petals' down, you will have two big circles left over. Fold these like the previous circles, and snip a little off of the bottom of the triangle. This will make it easier to glue down. Place a dab of hot glue onto the bottom of the triangle, where you just snipped, and place it in the middle of the other petals that you have already glued down, sticking straight up. Repeat this step with the remaining circle. Now, you have a finished flower!

After finishing all of your flowers, arrange them on the wreath however you like. Once you're satisfied, glue them down! Voila! A beautiful wreath from an old, ugly one!

I love it! I can't wait for springtime to roll around so that I can actually use it! Hope that you have good luck re-purposing your old wreath! Happy crafting!