Thank You Card for Baby Shower DYI

Hello! I am back, after a long break to share a new handmade baby thank you card project with you. I apologize for not writing for such a long time my dear followers. My husband and I have recently welcomed a new member to our family, a sweet baby girl called Daphne Mina. She is almost two months old now. I have been enjoying my maternity leave while I watch her grow and get cuter every single day. I have lots and lots of new and original projects to share with you that is mostly mother oriented including Daphne's nursery. To begin with, here is the handmade thank you card I made for my baby shower. 

Thank you card for bay shower

The baby bump silhouette shaped card in pink tones is perfect for a baby girl shower but you can also modify with a blue background for a baby boy. I started with cutting the pregnant mom figure using a template I drew. You can use one large and one small circle sized objects to create a bump silhouette as shown in the picture above. Then, I cut pink rectangle shaped cardstock paper to fit into A4 size envelopes. I decorated the bump with a tiny crystal heart shaped sticker to symbolize the baby and red ribbon which I glued to the left side of the card. On the right top corner of the card, I used a "thanks so much" stamp to finish off this handmade baby shower card. I used a black ink.

I really believe that handmade cards makes saying thank you's so much more fun and special. I am glad I was able to send a special thank you note to all my friends who were able to shower with me. This handmade cards were also a great project to spend my time as I was anxiously waiting for the little one to born. Hope you like this idea and will use it in the future.

Custom Number Sting Art Tutorial

I try to learn new, different techniques once in a while and this is my recent project that I am so excited to share with you. If you search "sting art" on Pinterest (Click here) you will be amazed what people have created using this simple technique. It is impressive what one can do with nails and string.

I made this fun string art for my hubby for the Valentine's Day. It is the number 6. The number six is related to the research he does in his laboratory at University of Washington. So, it has a lot of meaning for him.  It will be a great addition to his office. You can also try to use number string art to make house numbers. It will certainly get lots of attention. Have fun and make sure to watch your fingers while putting those nails in!

Gold Birthstone Necklace

I have made this gold birthstone necklace for a customer in Canada and shipped it today. It is going to be a birthday gift for a special mother. The customized birthstones are sapphire blue, garnet red, and ruby red. I had to go to couple bead stores to find the perfect size and colored pearls but, I finally succeeded...The multicolored freshwater pearls sits beautifully inside the gold birds nest. It is a unique combination of colors I have not put together before so, I thought I would share this handmade beauty with you. Doesn't it look so elegant?

Gold birthstone necklace

To inquire about or set up a custom order please email acupofsparkle@gmail.com.

Handmade Race Bib and Medal Holder Tutorial

One of my new year resolutions is to exercise and get back to my running this year. In order to motivate myself and to get a bit organized, I made a handmade race bib and medal holder for myself. Today I would like to share with you how to make this simple holder.

Materials: A wooden plaque, acrylic paint color of your choice (I used violet and gold glitter), foam brush, sharpie, c-shaped hooks, pencil

Step 1: Paint the wood plaque (I got mine from Joann's) with your choice of paint. I repeated this step 3 times.

Step 2: Decide on what you would like to write on your plaque and print the words on a paper using the font you like. My plaque says "My Races". Some other sayings I thought about doing was Melike's Races, Run like a Girl, Finisher, Ready-Set-Go or just Races. Use your imagination!!!

Step 3: To transfer the printed words onto the board, I used the old pencil method. Just shade the back of the printed letters with a pencil, place the word down on the wood and trace around/inside the imprinted letters with my pencil. Then, fill in the word using a sharpie as shown below. I also painted the letters with the sparkle paint to make it shiny.

Step 4: Now it is time to place your c-shaped hooks. The bibs come in two different sizes usually so, I used 4 hooks to hang both the narrow and wide sized bibs. I simply placed the bibs on the wood board and screw them in following the holes instead of measuring it with a tape.
























Step 5: For the medals, I have used the same sized hooks. Although you can put the hooks directly to the wood, I used stars to make it more shiny and special. First I got some star shaped buttons from the store and painted them with the sparkle paint. Once the buttons are dried, I screwed in the hooks from one hole of the button to the wood. I didn't need to glue the stars onto the wood since the hooks kept them stable. I hided the second hole of the button by filling it in with the sparkle paint.

Step 6: Using a sharpie, paint a border around the wood board. This is optional. I did this step to put an extra dimension.

Step 7: VOILA!! Now, you can hand your race bibs and race bling. I have 11 bibs and 5 medals including my medal from the Vancouver Marathon hanging right now and cannot wait to add more to my collection in 2014...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you, my dear A Cup of Sparkle readers. I wish you a wonderful, a better year with lots of love and happiness....