Reinvention Materials Packet

I was putting together the gifts for my son whose wife's family lives out of state ... and whose family was headed to her side for Christmas.  I needed one more gift for her, and since she is my crafty DIL, I put together a  reinvention materials packet for her.

 I used an old lacquered box and decoupaged the top with a paper I thought she would like.  It is shown at the top of the picture above.  I also used the same paper on a smaller, playing card size box that I filled with old floral pins.

Other items I added were, old bottle caps, buttons and game pieces in a tiny Altoids 'Smalls' box (just spray painted red), old dairy bottle tops and keys in glassine envelopes.  Bakers twine on old spools, washi tape, letter tiles from an old game, 3 factory machine bobbins and two small wood soldiers.

 

It was so fun to tuck them all in tightly, almost like doing a puzzle, and choosing bits that would fill a particular space.  Above it is shown before I add the envelopes of keys and dairy bottle caps.

If she likes it half as much as I liked putting it together it will be a hit!!  Just glad I have one family member who likes such goodies... and I am training up her 5 year old daughter to be an reinventer too.  

An Altered Art Project for a Harry Potter Fan

I am the first to admit that I procrastinate ... in this case it lead to what I hope is a happy young man on Christmas.  Did you know that there is not much Harry Potter stuff out there anymore?  I wanted to add something HP just as a nod to my 10 year old grandson who likes the books, and is almost done reading the entire series.  Trips to several stores were fruitless, other than seeing HP Legos, which were a bit spendy for this project's bottom line.

Several people have told me, late this week, that I should have gotten on Amazon or at least Ebay ... well I didn't and since my grandson is now headed out of town with his family its ever lastingly too late.  Then ... duh duh ta duh ... I saw my witch, above, sitting by the stack of small old books and thought 'Those look like her spell books.', and an idea was born.  I decided to make my grandson a spell book with some Harry Potter references.  The finished book is shown to the left.

I included several references to Hogwarts, the train, the teachers, the uniform, and other elements from the books, without using official licensed images.

I am actually, as always, indebted to Graphics Fairy for most of the images.  The captions and 'stars' are compliments of my 'type style letter stamp set'.

I loved the thought of Snape as a dunce ... a reference my ten year old grandson is bound to miss.

 

I glued images, and recipes for potions on every set of pages, and they filled about half the small book.  I then used the pointing hand, a favorite GF image and a notation to indicate that the rest of the book is for him to fill with his own 'spells'.

I asked my daughter Emily (the one who lives in our basement apartment with her husband and baby) if she thought he would like it.  She said it would definitely be either a huge hit or a miss ...  Well, I guess gifting is always a gamble.  Cross your fingers for me, will you?

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Books!

Today I was going to give you eye candy ... a new booth at the antique mall that I have been drooling over ... alas, instead, you get Mustard and Maple Encrusted Pork Loin ... sorry about that.

 I took some delightful pics of this great new booth, and somehow cyberspace has eaten them, or maybe I accidentally deleted them, who knows ... computers are still a bit of a mystery to me.  So instead I will recap my Book Club luncheon.  I was actually pretty happy with how the pork loin turned out ... I used a meat thermometer for the first time in life  (Did I mention I am a pretty basic type cook?) and I also discovered Panko Breadcrumbs ...

Above is my darling daughter Emily ... she is 5 months pregnant with her second baby and decided to serve me by getting my walks cleared so that my book club friends would dare come to the luncheon ....

 A couple of days ago I showed you the table all set, and now you can see it set with food and ready to go ...  Just one thing can make it perfect, and that is the loveliest group of woman I have ever know.  These lady are loving, warm, kind, friendly, fun and they all love books as much as I do!! It just doesn't get better than that.

The book we discussed was The Red Suit Diaries by Ed Butchart, which is about a man who plays Santa in December, but who spends his year serving the under privileged ... its not fiction, and is a nice feel good read.

 

Ann, shown in the center, came back from sharing a 4 month sabbatical with her college professor husband in Australia and New Zealand the day before the luncheon ... She regaled us with wonderful travel tales, and even shared her time in Alice Springs, the town mention in a book we all love A Town Called Alice.

 

Thanks to my book club friends they do to enrich my life. 

 

If any of you who would like to see what books we have shared and loved, and even some we have wished we never started, you can go to our blog.  Thanks for stopping by.