Christmas Luminaras

About a week or so ago I decided I wanted to make some luminaras--you know, tea lights in paper bags.. But instead of using real tea lights I wanted battery operated ones (I was worried about the whole fire hazard thing, you know, safety first!). 

On Friday night, while I was at Joann's getting something else for a super secret thing, I decided to take a look around. Low and behold, what do I find, but some battery operated tea lights!! So then I started thinking about where I could get some paper bags, when I saw mason jars! And I thought, I have glitter at home, I could go to the dollar store for some glass drinking cups, and make some glass luminaras! Well, the dollar store had some mason jars, so that's what I used instead! 

Here they are:

And here's what you need to make them:

glitter (I just used silver)
tape
4 tea lights (come in packages of 2)
4 mason jars
modge podge
foam brush
sand (or, I use kitty litter! [Unused, of course] also from the dollar store)

I decided to make my jars "gradiate" with the glitter, so I used masking tape to mark how high up the glitter was going to go. Then I applied the modge podge with the foam brush, and poured the glitter on. Remove the tape and let dry! After they are dry (about 30 minutes of wait time), put a little bit of sand in the jar to nestle the tea lights in, turn on the lights and put them in the jar and set outside! So easy! And they are really cute out on our little "porch" area.

You could even use stickers to make fun shapes (just take them off like you do the tape before the modge podge dries). Just have fun with them!

A TARDIS ipod case!

Okay, I am so geeky. But I absolutely love Doctor Who. It's practically an obsession. :) Anyway, last week I was thinking about how I needed to make an iPod case to better take care of my poor ipod (now that it's three years old . . .). But something that was really important to me about the case was that I wanted it to have some sort of pocket or something for me to put my headphones in since I'm really hard on headphones (two pairs in the past year alone) and thought maybe if I had a pocket I wouldn't just wrap them around the 'Pod and hopefully that would make them last longer.

So, I went onto pinterest (which is so dangerous. It's like a blackhole. Which is the reason I don't have one) and looked around at iPod cases. It was so fun to see the things people come up with! I really liked this idea (I'd also seen it done with a teddy bear) with the cute little arms "holding" the headphones. And then I got to thinking about how I have so much blue felt left over from when I made this banner in May. Instantly I thought, "I should make a TARDIS case!" Which I then spoke out loud. And my mother (who is basically a genius) said, "You could make doors that open and close!"

I used this tutorial as a kind of starting place, and then I went off on my own! As you can see in the left corner, I was having some problems with the applique film, as I had never used it before. I also made the mistake of writing "Police Box" on with fabric paint before attaching it to the felt. This meant that when I ironed on the applique film, it kind of melted the paint a little bit. My cutting and sewing isn't perfect, but it just makes it look a bit more cartoony, which is totally fine! I hand sewed the panels on the doors and went around twice, making sure that the stitches were different the second time around. Then I just got out the sewing machine and attached the elastic and sewed up the sides!

I'm actually kind of proud of myself. Maybe I can be crafty . . .