Salsa Bar

Salsa anyone?

Today I'm linking to Suzanne at Meridian Road 



I made this cute salsa bar to display the delicious salsas my family and friends bring to family get-togethers in the summertime.



This was a fun project that took about 6 hours to complete. First, I purchased plywood from Lowe's. I cut the wood using a jigsaw. The front panel measures 4 feet wide by 3 feet high. Since the side panels slide in for easy storage, they each had to be half the size of the front panel, measuring at 2 feet wide by 3 feet high each. This is a side view:

The sides are held together with hinges. Each side panel has a hinge on top and one towards the bottom. The tricky part here is you really need to be careful when you screw in the hinge. You will need to leave room to account for the width of the side panel so that when you open it, it will be flush with the front panel, there won't be a gap.

To finish it off, I used wood trim on the top and bottom and adhered it with wood glue. I didn't use nails, the glue is pretty strong.

There is a trick to the trim, though. You need to leave extra trim (see panel below, the trim is a little longer than the panel it's attached to, in this case, the right side panel). This extra trim is needed so that when it's closed, it will meet up with the trim on the front panel. Here's a picture of the extra trim on the side panel :


And, here's a picture of the side panel completely open with the trim meeting together.



This picture show how I close it to store away. The side panels fold onto the front panel. It can then lean against a wall for easy storage.

This next picture is the top view that shows the holes where the bowls go and the center hole where the tiki umbrella is inserted (sorry, I don't have a pic of the umbrella). To make the holes, first draw your circles the size of the smaller part of the bowl. They have to be the kind of bowl that starts small at the bottom and has a wider opening so that it won't fall through. I found mine at the 99cents store. Once the circles are drawn, use a drill bit to poke a small hole then use the jigsaw to cut the circles out.
The yellow paint was paint I had left over from my kids bedroom. Water based flat paint. For the flowers, butterflies and dragonflies, I used stencyls. I freehanded the chili peppers. I used acrylic paints for all the drawings.


I purchased the wood letters at Michael's and painted them with acrylic paint. I attached them to the plywood with wood glue.




The next thing to tackle is a karaoke stage, I'm thinking purple velvet and disco ball, I shall succeed! stay tuned.

Valentine's Day Card

Valentine's day is almost here!!!check out this cutie card I made for my hubby for Valentine's day. I actually got the idea from a blog I ran into but I don't remember which one.

This is the front with some hershey's kisses:

And this is the back:

Cute, isn't it?

First cut out two hearts, one out of white paper and a second out of decorative paper. You will then end up with two hearts that are the same exact size. Take the white heart and trim off the pointy edge. This will be the base of your card.

Take the second heart, the one you made with decorative paper, and trim off about half way on the decorative paper to make the bra. In my example the decorative paper is the black one with white doodles. I made the doodles with a rubber stamp using white ink.

On the front, decorate it like a bra with straps and a bow. You can even add some lace or ribbon. The back side is easier. Cut a shape that will look like a triangle and trim off the tips on the sides (the top of the panties).

I rubberstamped a rose on the back to look like a tattoo. I would then add "to hubby from wife on the front" and "happy V-day". My card measures about 4.5" on the widest part and 2.5" down the middle. I used the sizzix heart die cut but you can cut your own hearts. To get an even shaped heart, just fold the paper in half and cut out half of the heart. When you unfold the paper, you will have an even heart.

Note Pad

Woke up to a beautiful Sunday morning with the sun shining through my window and the birds chirping outside. However, I could not stop from laughing to be able to enjoy it. My poor hubby thought I'd finally lost it because I was laughing like a mad woman and could not stop. I finally pulled myself together to explain to him why I was laughing so hard. I had this very vivid dream. The setting was an outdoor Christmas party with Christmas music playing in the background.

I got to the party alone but there were a lot of people there. At a distance, I saw an old friend that I had not seen in a while and I joyfully pranced over to greet her. Unfortunately, to my dismay, she walked past me without acknowledging me! I was pretty P.O'd so I stared at her for a long time as she mingled with other guests. I stared so intently at her, like a pointing dog. Yeah you! I thought to myself, you know you know me. How could she not remember me? her old pal? I wanted to enjoy the party so I made myself believe that she joined some weird religion that does not let her associate with smart, nice, friendly people like moi.

I then walked around to see who else was there and to my surprise I see a second old buddy of mine, who, yes, she also shined me off!!! what the heck? really people, what is going on??? I figured it must have been my hairdo. Heck, with the funky hairdo I was sporting, I wouldn't talk to me either. The music was good though, and since no one was dancing, I took the liberty to rule the floor.....to Christmas music!......yep.....that was me.......doing the macarena to deck the halls!



Thank Goodness I don't take myself too seriously, even in my dreams.



This weekend I thought I'd make a purse pad. It's the perfect gift for any friend (who at least pretends to remember you). You don't need much for this project, just a few things.



From right to left:

glue, bone folder (or a spoon will work if you don't have a bone folder), a pen, scissors, ribbon, needle and thread, whole punch, velcro, ruler, 12X12 scrapbook paper, and a sticky note pad.





First, make a template using the ruler and the sticky note pad on a blank scrap piece of paper. You can use a brown paper grocery bag for this part because you are only creating a template to use over and over.



Make sure you end up with two fold lines for each side of the pad to account for the thickness of the pad so each side will be folded twice.



You then use the template to trace it on the back of your chosen scrapbook paper and cut out the shape. Fold all sides pressing down hard with a bone folder or a spoon so that the folds are nice and sharp.





Next, attach the sticky note pad to the center using glue and let dry.



It's time to add the sticky back velcro.



First, apply the velcro to the top flap of the purse. Once the first piece is attached, attach the second piece to it. Close the flap down and by doing so you would have attached the second piece at the exact location on the bottom flap so that they match up when you close it.





I added a pretty little flower I found in my sewing supplies, you can add anything you have around, a button would be cute too.





Punch holes on the top to pull the ribbon through. On the inside of the purse, you want to sew the two ends together so the ribbon doesn't slip off.