Candy Cups : An easy gift for the guys, or sweet tooth in your life!

This was the perfect gift for my Uncle Joe , who is terribly hard to buy for!

 Holidays may have come and gone , but gift ideas are needed YEAR ROUND!

I had seen many of these little candy bouquets in passing on pinterest and other blogs. They seem to have grown pretty popular!  

My uncles birthday falls on Christmas (Poor guy he always gets jipped on celebrating) So I try to give him a birthday present as well as a Christmas gift. 

 Since he turned 50 a few years ago I had always tried to do an "old fart" gift as kind of a joke, which I also did this year ( I will post later it was pretty cute ) but   anyways!  I spend maybe  $6 bucks on this awesome little gift. 

Things I used: 

 Larger Snickers and Mr. Good bars (because those are his favorite.) 
Mini Candies  ( Which I had enough of to make a candy bag for Benj when he came from Alabama with Kay)

Styrofoam Ball (From an old floral arrangement)
Coffee Mug (I used it for a base because I have a running joke of getting him one every year since I can remember)
Tissue paper (For decoration and to hide the ugly Styrofoam)
Shishcabob (< Is that how that is spelled lol?)  Sticks (could probably use any kind of rods or Popsicle sticks)

Hot glue gun  / SUPER tape

SOOO NOW......

Step one : All I did was Hot glue the candies to the shishcabob sticks , you could probably use SUPER strong tape if you are making this with children or are glue gun-less.

 Step Two : Pushed styrofoam into the coffee mug tightly so it wouldn't come loose

Step Three: Attempted to arrange candies nicely so that all could be seen , similar to a floaral arrangement 

Step Four: arranged tissue paper to cover any ugly glue or Styrofoam

And WAA-LA

That was Easy :)

Please exscuse my terrible photo, I DIDN'T take it . My loveley boyfriend insisted he take the photos of me handing out gifts to my family so it's a bit blurry. Oh, and don't let my uncle's startled face confuss you. He really LOVED it after he got it all out of the gift bag.  He loves anything sweet like me :P

 

 

Happy Crafting

Dishwasher Safe Ceramic Best Friend Mugs!

Dishwasher Safe Ceramic Best Friend Mugs!  So easy to MAKE yourself!

So my best friend moved from Maryland to Alabama a year or so ago. We still chat on the phone and plan visits for the holidays, so I of course had to come up with something clever to give her for Christmas. What better way to start out her day than with an I miss you bestie mug?

Alabama and Maryland Love <3

I made these for pretty cheap and they came out pretty decent for a first attempt. 

MATERIALS:Ceramic mugs
OIL BASED Paint pens
Pencil
Design or logo or saying which you want to put on mugs

 For the mugs I recommend a light color unless you have metallic Oil based paint pens.

The pens need to be oil based to cure properly to the mugs.

Here is what I did:

Step One: printed out map outlines of Alabama and Maryland
Step Two: Used pencil to darkly cover the back side of the design I needed
Step Three: trace outlines with pencil createing a graphic stencil on the mugs
Step Four: Use paint pens to go over graphite outline. 

On the back of each mug it says Miss you

Step Five : Place Mugs on a cookie sheet inside the oven.

DO THIS BEFORE YOU PRE-HEAT THE OVEN 

You want the mugs to heat up with the oven and cool down with the oven.
Step Six: Pre- heat the oven to 350 Degrees F.
Step Seven: Allow mugs to bake for twenty minutes.
Step Eight: Keep the mugs in the oven while it cools down to room temperature.





Once the oven is cooled down the mugs should be cool to the touch as well.

I added the Miss you to the back of each mug to remind her how much we miss her back home!

That is what I did with mine and I machine washed them once with no damage to the design. So hopefully they will stay that way.  :)

We grew up in Cumberland so I added  a little heart over her hometown too :)

Shes now in Tuscaloosa So I put a little heart where it would be on the map :)

This would be my bestie. Every Brunette needs a blonde best friend <3

To bad neither of us were smart enough to think to take a picture holding the mugs with our states like I just now thought of.... ahh maybe I can get her to bring them over before she leaves after the new year.  *Makes notes to do that*

This would be Cozmo her adorable little Fur baby that she brought from back home with her. He is such a cutie I had to share a picture of him :D

HAPPY CRAFTING!

Flower Power Hair Accessories!

Well anyone willing to read it is time for my first official tutorial at least for this blog :) This is a photo of one of my Shantastic Flower Power Headbands.... and what I would like to make with you since it is pretty simple.
Plus, many crafters have all the materials they need stashed somewhere!:)





Haha by the way.....Meet Prudence! She's my creepy little mannequin twin that I will dress up from time to time in attempts at getting some good photos I apologize if she creeps you out a bit.... she kinda bothered me at first to. 

Prudence!- Shantastic Official Creepy Mannaquin face hehe

Anyways, I decided to share an easy step by step for what would be - awesome- for craft parties or rainy day project with some little girls, however I used hot glue if little ones are doing it a different glue type is recommended because I burn myself frequently when using one and I should be a pro by now lol.

Materials:

Hair Accessories - ( New or recycled from old hair clips and ties)

Hot glue gun and glue sticks of course

Buttons or embellishments

 and Felt

(preferably die cut into flowers I used a Sizzex and cut about a million one day at my grams. Otherwise you can click here for a free stencils you could make from cardboard and cut the flowers if you have the patience.... sometimes this is good for little ones if you trust them with the scissors because it keeps them busy for a long time. Also, many craft stores have tubs of random felt shapes already cut out and sticky for childrens crafts. I haven't seen one recently ( of course now that I want them) but I distinctly remember a tub of very awesome colored felt flowers from A.C. Moore but now I can't find them but raandom felt scraps and remnants from other projects could work just as well! Or any fabric really the options are endless!

."Pound of Felt, Assorted Size/Shape Remnants, Multicolored"

 

Here is an example of a large flower.

 

I just simple took the multiple flowers and layered them on top of each other.... and hot glued them to give it some depth and texture. 

 

I then glued a button or ribbon to the center with a hot glue gun.... I have also made many by sewing the buttons through the layers, as well as used felt /fabric glue. Hot glue is still the best I've found despite the burning of  fingers through the process. Just please be careful! I am just clumsy

 

I then place a big dab of glue on the back of the dried flower stack and attach a hair accessorie of choice.

 Now I like to add a nice finish with a smaller flower on the back for support and to cover the glued parts so it's not so messy looking.

Let dry and try them on!!! Make a pair for every outfit...and if you don't want to that's fine stop on over to my ETSY SHOP- SHANTASTIC SALES-  and order one in any way you'd like.... or order a bunch :) I don't mind. I will be posting more sets and styles soon when I get some more glue sticks!

 I have so many colors of felt any color combo is possible :) Please feel free to contact me if you'd like me to make you a bunch for an event. I have a family who will soon be receiving 20 in matching colors for a reunion of the ladies :) I can't wait to get the photos I was promised with them all wearing them together :) I love the support and hope to see many of you sporting some Flower Power hair accessories of your own! Feel free to message me some photos of ideas you have come up with. :)

Oh and one more thing.....Here are some photos of the other hair CLIPS that I helped reconstruct... I had a friend from work get a few of the Shantastic Flower Power bands  for her little friend Emmers but she happens to dis like headbands like a lot of other little girls I know... so I got to play craft doctor and turn all her hair bands into hair clips :) Now she will be able to wear them comfortably and be as cuter than everr :)

It's so easy to reconstruct some hair pieces to more wearable all new designs. :) Have fun with it. Keep craftin'
-Shannon