Two Tips Tuesday

TIP #1:  Chalkboard Pots

Hi friends!  I am back doing my own Two Tips for today.  I am excited too because I am doing kind of an entertaining theme which has been on my mind for weeks now.  Last Saturday was supposed to be an all girl's lunch with some of my sweetest, most wonderful friends but I had to cancel due to that wretched illness which had befallen us.  I had been planning this lunch for over a month and all of us were set to leave the kiddies at home and just enjoy being together.  The good thing is, we will reschedule.  But with us moving soon (nope, no new news yet) it is kind of up in the air.

So.  In light of that, I have been making and wanting to give little things  to spoil my girlfriends and make the lunch special.  I played around with a a gazillion ideas and here is one of them. 

I wanted to do favors and I thought little potted herbs or flowers would be great to give since it is the beginning  of spring.  So how cute do those pots look with chalkboard paint (I used the spray paint) with the label written on there in pink chalk?

 How much cuter would they make as place cards?  Fun, fun!  Full effect in next tip....

 TIP #2:  Unconventional Napkin Rings

OK.  Call me crazy but I really like the idea of making my own napkin rings on the cheap. I always have a ton of ideas but never implement them because I don't entertain as much as I would like to.  Even though I love it.  And this idea from (yes. again.) Tatertots and Jello was fabulous and I loved that she got her napkin rings from the dollar store.  Inspired by this, I made the above napkin rings with pink ribbon, a frayed flower made from a dishtowel I used on another project with a burlap rosette in the center. I had checked out my dollar tree for the generic napkin rings to cover with burlap but they did not have any.  But then I came across...

Yes.  Hair rollers.  Isn't that a hoot? :o)

Seriously, what a perfect thing to make into napkin rings.  They are light.  They are round.  They are cheap.  Ahhh.  Crafty bliss.  And I have been playing around with burlap lately wanting to do a gazillion crafts with it.  So here is a teeny and brief tute on how to make these:

Materials:

Burlap (or other fabric or material)

Hair rollers (the self stay ones)

Glue gun or fabric glue

Ribbon, buttons, or other optional accessories

I placed one roller in the middle of the fabric and kind of eye balled it to be sure about 1 inch of fabric extended to either side of the roller.  I then used pinking shears to cut since burlap unravels and frays easily.

Placing the roller in the center I placed a little glue under where my thumb is and began rolling it up.  I put glue on the inside of the roller and tucked in the excess in as I rolled.  The fun thing is that the roller keep the fabric in place to keep it from sliding. See?  Practical too.

I rolled the burlap around twice making sure the pink color could not be seen through the burlap. 

 As you roll it, glue the inside and work your way around tucking the burlap in on both sides.
Another option after completing this is to line the inside with felt or a pretty fabric.  I forgot to take a  picture of that.

I decided to keep a set of them plain in order to change up my color scheme with ribbon and other embellishments.  This one I just wrapped a color coordinating ribbon around it and tied it in a simple knot.

I just love how they turned out!

** Don's forget.  You can be a guest blogger on Two Tips Tuesday and share your tips too.  

Just contact me with your fabulous ideas!

Happy Tuesday Friends!