Fall Napkin Placecards

Ooooh...isn't it getting beautiful outside?

The leaves are changing colors and the fall weather is finally starting to break through the heat.

When I think of fall...I think of food.

(Or maybe I just always think of food.)

And what is a good meal without some cute decor to spruce up the table? Today I wanted to share these cute napkin ties that double as placecards for a fall meal:

As I was walking through a craft store, those giant wooden buttons just screamed at me to make something with them, and I think they are the perfect way to tie up some cloth napkins (with the help of twine, of course).

On each of the punched tags, I added a name and some leafy branches with some of my stamps, then added just a touch of color with a colored pencil.

The Twinery's Solid Natural twine is so perfect for fall. (But there are lots of other great fall colors available, too!)

Happy fall, y'all!

Supplies: 
Twine: The Twinery (Solid Natural); 
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Rustic Cream); 
Stamps: Ink Blot Shop, LLC (Quirky Alphabet, Floral Frenzy); 
Ink: Ranger (Archival - Coffee);
Colored Pencils: Prismacolor (Dark Brown - PC946);
Tools: Fiskars (Tag Punch - XXL Lever Punch, Scissors);

Quick & Easy Garden Markers {The Twinery}

Hello! 

Today I wanted to share these quick & easy (& cute!) garden markers with you. 

I started by taking some craft sticks and snipping one end to a point with some heavy duty scissors. (Please don't try this with your standard pair - it will surely throw them out of whack.)

Once I had the points completed,  I got out my stamps and ink. I stamped each stick with a single large letter (for example: 'r' for rosemary), but you could easily stamp a whole word or just write it on with a marker. One thing you will want to keep in mind is to use a waterproof ink or marker, otherwise an "April shower" could make your label vanish.

After I had my markers marked, I took a little bit of solid twine (I used Caribbean, Strawberry, Marigold, Peapod, and Lilac) and wrapped it around the top of the garden markers to add a fun pop of color.

Quick & easy, and ready to stick in the dirt. 

Have a great day!

Supplies: 
Twine: The Twinery (Caribbean, Strawberry, Marigold, Peapod, Lilac);
Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps (Cold Coffee Alphabet); 
Ink: Ranger (Archival - Jet Black);
Other: (Jumbo Craft Sticks);
Tools: Tim Holtz (Scissors);

Lazy Girl String Art {The Twinery}

You may remember my "Lazy Girl's Cross Stitch" project from awhile back...and today this lazy girl is back with some "Lazy Girl String Art". 

(Well, I guess it's technically twine art.)

I love the fun string art that is popping up everywhere these days, but even though I am a carpenter's daughter, I am not really one to bust out the boards and nails for a small home decor project. 

But I did have some canvas boards and a heavy duty hole punch, so I decided to give it a whirl...

I started by drawing simple heart shapes onto the back of my canvas boards (I used some dies I had and traced them, but you could easily freehand them) and then used my heavy duty hole punch to punch some holes along the traced shapes.

I then threaded some of The Twinery's Solid Lilac and Solid Pink Sorbet twines through the holes and across the hearts. I finished off each heart by backstitching the outer edge, to make the heart shape easily visible.

Tip: If you are going to be doing a lot of threading on a project, invest a little bit of time into adding some tape to the end of the twine (like you would see on the end of a shoelace). It will make things go so much quicker and easier...and no fraying!

These are fun and easy to do, and make great decor pieces - just switch up the shapes and twine colors for a new look!

Have a great day!

Supplies: 
Twine: The Twinery (Solid Lilac, Solid Pink Sorbet, Limited Edition Rainbow Teal Shimmer - similar to Caribbean); 
Tools: We R Memory Keepers (Crop-A-Dile II Big Bite); Fiskars (Scissors);

Thankful Jars (& Free Printable!) {The Twinery}

Can you believe how quickly Thanksgiving is approaching?! I was totally caught off-guard recently as I realized that Thanksgiving is next. week. 

I wanted to come up with something cute to decorate with, and I wanted it to be something simple enough to share (and re-create) with my daughter's Girl Scout troop.
Enter the "thankful jar":

No, the idea of a thankful jar isn't new, but...well...it's another reason to decorate a mason jar! (And I sure love mason jars - don't you?)

I decorated two different jars - one feels a little more "Fall" and one feels a little more "Winter" - but I was just going for variety and fun colors.

It was a simple process: wrap jars with glittered burlap, add a pop of color by wrapping with The Twinery's twine, stick in a few paper leaves, and finish it off with a twine-tied button. 

I used The Twinery's Solid Caribbean and Solid Strawberry twines on these jars, but there are a lot more solid and striped options to choose from!

The point of the thankful jar is to add in little notes of what you are thankful for, so I created this printable to coordinate with my jars:

{Click here to get the FREE printable - for personal use only}

Do you do a thankful jar (or some other "thankful" tradition) for Thanksgiving? I'd love to hear about it - just leave a comment!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: 
Twine: The Twinery (Solid Caribbean, Solid Strawberry); 
Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye;
Tools: Fiskars (Squeexe Punches, Scissors); Tim Holtz (Tiny Attacher);

Handmade Holidays - Stamped Monogram Napkins

With four kids, let's face it...I don't have a lot of time to get my craft on. Quick and easy handmade gifts are right up my alley, and recently I have really enjoyed giving hand stamped cloth napkins. These are perfect for hostess gifts, neighbor gifts, gift exchanges, gifts for your child's teacher...

The process is fairly simple - start with plain cloth napkins. (I prefer cotton napkins.)

You will want to make sure that you are using a permanent, fabric safe ink - you don't want your work to wash away with the crumbs! Then just ink up your stamp(s) and stamp straight onto the napkins and heat set.

For this set I went with a monogram, but any stamp will do. 

Once you've got your ink heat set, it's time to get it "wrapped". I prefer to keep my hand stamped napkins the star of the show, so I simply tie up a bundle of stamped napkins with some of The Twinery's twine. (I used Solid Charcoal for this set.)

Since I already had my stamps on my block, I went ahead and created a quick coordinating tag - this gives you a small space for a quick note to the recipient.

Easy, peasy, and ready to go!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: 
Twine: The Twinery (Solid Charcoal); 
Stamps: Unity Stamp Company (Liz Hicks Alpha, Blossoming Thoughts & Wishes - March 2015 Sentiment Kit);
Ink: Ranger (Archival - Jet Black);

Stash Your Stash...& a GIVEAWAY! {Blog Hop}

The Introduction:

If you are hopping along with us today: You should have come here from The Twinery blog. If you did, you are in the right place! Welcome!

If you aren't already a follower, I'd love to have you follow my blog!

If you are on Facebook, please "like" Ink Blots by TRD.

If you are one of my regular readers: Thanks for coming back! I love having you! Please feel free to join along in the hop - you can start at the The Twinery blog.

The Hop Order:

The Twinery blog

Tifany DeGough <--- You are here

Anita Mulcahey
Jennifer Cuthbertson
Jeanne Jachna
Amy Crockett

DoBea Alberts

Denise Hahn
Tobi Crawford

The Giveaway:

The Twinery is allowing each participating designer on the hop to give away a fabulous Striped Twine Sampler! That means there are EIGHT of these beauties being given away:

To enter, just leave a comment on each post along the hop. (And since each designer is giving away a Striped Twine Sampler, each post is another chance to win!)

Comments will close at midnight (EST) on Tuesday, November 3rd.
Winners will be posted on The Twinery blog on Thursday, November 5th.

The Storage:

My craft supplies are stored in every crafter's best friend (an Expedit bookcase from IKEA - no longer available, but the new version is called Kallax). Within that, I store my twine in two wire baskets. (Mine came from a company that is now out of business, but you can find cute wire baskets in a variety of places. My baskets are approximately 11" x 13" x 4 1/2". Here is something similar I found online, but slightly smaller dimensions and slightly taller sides - approximately 10" x 11 1/8" x 5 1/4". Still, it looks like a great size for twine storage.) 

I love pulling my twine out and seeing all those beautiful rolls to choose from when I am creating! I also love how it looks on the shelf - cute and contained.

Because I don't have a dedicated craft room (or even craft table), all of my craft supplies need to be easy to get out and easy to put back - so storing them in easily accessible (& portable) containers on my bookcase works well for me. 

Because my craft bookcase is in easy view (and not in a dedicated craft room), I wanted to make it both functional and pretty. I have a variety of baskets, boxes, bins, tins, totes, jars...you get the idea...along with a few small decorative items placed throughout the cubbies of my bookshelf.

I have my twine baskets separated into twine types. One basket holds solid and shimmer twines:

 And the other basket holds striped and tri-color twines:

I stack them in one cubby in my bookcase. Nothing fancy, but it works for me!

How do you store your twine? I'd love to see!

Want to add to your twine stash?

The Twinery is offering a special discount just for this hop!

Use code: STASH25 to get 25% off any order through 11/6/2015.
Shop here: http://shop.thetwinery.com/

Thanks for stopping by today!

The Next Stop:

Anita Mulcahey

Twine Bombed Twig Tree Display {The Twinery :: Blog Hop}

{Looking for my current giveaway? Look HERE.}

The Introduction:

If you are hopping along with us today: You should have come here from The Twinery blog. If you did, you are in the right place! Welcome!

If you aren't already a follower, I'd love to have you follow my blog!

If you are on Facebook, please "like" Ink Blots by TRD.

If you are one of my regular readers: Thanks for coming back! I love having you! Please feel free to join along in the hop - you can start at the The Twinery blog.

The Hop Order:

The Twinery blog

Tifany DeGough <--- You are here

Amy Crockett

Jeanne Jachna

DoBea Alberts

Anita Mulcahey

Jennifer Cuthbertson

Tobi Crawford

Stacey Schafer

Denise Hahn

Melyssa Connolly

The Project:

I was inspired by a display I saw at a library and the popular art of yarn bombing to do this "twine bombing" (twine wrapped) twig display for my daughter's room. I used the Twinery's Solid Caribbean twine for this, but any of The Twinery's solid or striped twines would work just as well.

My daughter LOVES color and can never have enough. For her, being in a rather neutral colored house is a tragedy. I've got a few projects in mind to add some color to her room (stay tuned to see more!), and this Caribbean twine tree was a fairly quick and easy way to add some color to the top of her bookcase. 

I started by gathering a few twigs from our backyard. I coated them with Mod Podge for a little extra stability and to seal them, but I am not sure this step was necessary. From here on out, all I needed was twine and a strong adhesive. (I added in some washi tape, too.)

Once I had my supplies together, I just needed to start wrapping the tree branches. I used some washi tape to cover the ends, then adhered the end of my twine down about an inch from the tip. I brought the twine back up to the tip from there and started wrapping (just so that the end was not exposed). Then I wrapped, wrapped, and wrapped some more. Where there was a fork in the branch, it took a a little extra patience to get it covered, but was still rather easy.

I combined a few twine wrapped branches and a few washi tape wrapped branches in a mason jar, tied a Caribbean twine bow around the neck of the jar, and my project was complete! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

The Next Stop:

Amy Crockett

Supplies: 
Twine: The Twinery (Solid Caribbean); 
Other: (washi tape);
Adhesive: Ranger (Glossy Accents); Plaid (Mod Podge);
Tools: Fiskars (Scissors);

The Beginner's Bible - Party Ideas & a GIVEAWAY

Today, my love of crafting and my love of books (and book reviews) comes together - with another fun addition...a giveaway!

Zondervan has always been very generous with my blog readers, and this is no exception. Zondervan/Zonderkidz is allowing me to give away a HUGE package of The Beginner's Bible books to celebrate 25 years! The prize package is valued at over $90!

To celebrate this great giveaway, I wanted to share with you a couple quick and easy ideas for a party using The Beginner's Bible Super-Duper, Mighty, Jumbo Activity Book. 

Just to be clear - I did check to make sure my projects would not violate the copyright of The Beginner's Bible Super-Duper, Mighty, Jumbo Activity Book...and I even double checked with the publisher, just to be safe.  

I made a bookmark and mini coloring book for the "goodie bags" and a banner for decoration: 

My six year old donated his coloring skills for the colored bookmark shown above. :o)

The bookmarks and mini coloring book were made in a similar fashion. I simply copied a coloring page from The Beginner's Bible Super-Duper, Mighty, Jumbo Activity Book and scaled it down to fit 4 on a sheet. I copied the scaled down version onto cardstock (which I cut up into bookmarks) and onto regular copy paper (which I cut to create the mini coloring book). The mini coloring book was completed with the addition of a cardstock cover. 

For the banner, I used full-size copies of a few of the coloring pages from The Beginner's Bible Super-Duper, Mighty, Jumbo Activity Book, which I copied onto cardstock and trimmed to size. I then punched holes in the top corners of each banner piece and threaded it with twine to hang.

Because I kept the banner pieces in simple black and white, I wanted to add pops of color with the twine.  I used strands of four different colors of twine to get the duo-tone bows.

The bookmarks, mini coloring books, and banner would be great for any party...just add crayons!

Now - about that amazing giveaway...

To enter the giveaway:

• Leave a comment on this blog post. That's it!

If you would like additional chances to win you can do so in one (or all) of the following ways:

• Follow this blog. {Please let me know you are a follower by leaving an additional comment.} 
• "Like" InkBlotsbyTRD on Facebook. {Please let me know you are a follower by leaving an additional comment.}
• Comment on any of my giveaway posts (associated with this particular giveaway) on Facebook. 
• Share about this giveaway on your own blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, or anywhere else. {Please let me know where you've shared by leaving one additional comment.}

Blog comments for the giveaway will close Friday, July 31st @ 11:59pm (Eastern) and the winner will be announced Tuesday, August 4th here on my blog.

Please remember to check back to see if you've won.

Note: Zondervan will ship the giveaway book(s) directly to the winner. Winner(s) can expect to receive their prize within 10 to 14 business days from when they submit their address information to me.

Zonderkidz/Zondervan's rules for giveaways:

Winner must be a US resident.

Winner must be able to provide a street mailing address (no PO Box, please) for UPS delivery.

Zondervan does not store, use, or sell the winners’ contact information or address(es).

Good luck!

Disclaimer: This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

FTC Declaration: The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy. This does not change the fact that I will give my honest opinion in my reviews.

Supplies:
Twine: The Twinery (Solid Maraschino, Solid Marigold, Solid Peapod, Solid Denim); 
Other: The Beginner's Bible (Super-Duper, Mighty, Jumbo Activity Book);
Tools: Fiskars (Trimmer, Scissors);