Kendra's Wood Sled

 

A few years ago I gave my mom and Kendra both a plain wood sleigh.

Fast forward to a few years later

(this was 2019... and I am just now getting around to posting it)

and I finally got one of them painted.  

Kendra picked which colors and how she wanted it to look,

and I took it from there.

I think it turned out super cute and...

looks even cuter on the front porch of their brand new home!

Now I just need to get the other two done!

Happy December Everyone!!! 

"Old School" Dallas Cowboys Truck

 I'm guessing if you have followed my blog at all you know that I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan.

I so love when football season kicks off and this year was no different.

I have looked at the "old school" trucks at The Wood Connection and I have

loved them from day one.  They have a truck for every season but

football so I decided to create my own.

Above is the finished project... my son, Josh, loves the Cowboys even more than I do

and we both loved the Thanksgiving uniforms of the blue/white jerseys with the single

blue star on each shoulder and the white helmet with the solid blue star on the side and

2 solid blue "racing stripes" on the helmet ... just like the one here with Tony Romo.

This is a mailbox I did several years ago that was like our favorite helmet...

I painted the whole truck white including the "extra side piece" ... I kept doing back to the

picture and decided I would paint the "fenders" Cowboy blue to add some color to it.

I then decided that I wanted to add some texture since it was so "flat". I had some 

Silver Glitter Blast spray paint from several years ago... so I sprayed the side pieces with

the glitter spray... at first it started to come out "blobby" so I thought for sure I would

be sanding everything down and starting over again.  After it dried, I decided that

I really like the look... it's an "old school" truck so it's bound to have some blemishes.

I had some blue with silver stars washi tape that I have been holding on to for

the "perfect" project and this one was it... just to give it some personality

I had some blue stars I used as the hub cap center and

I added two silver sparkly enamel dots for headlights...

 and... 2 red sparkly enamel dots for the taillights.

Since there was a spot for a "license plate" I added

a "#4" to Josh's and my Uncle Darrell's and

did a "#82" for mine.

 I used my Cameo to cut the star and my Quickutz for the numbers!

It was a fun project ... hopefully this little truck with bring us some good luck!

Go COWBOYS!!!

and... Happy Crafting!

Father's Day Jewelry Boxes

For Father's Day this year I thought that I would make a Jewelry Box

for each of the "dad's in my life...  My husband... my son and my "bonus" dad

I found this one at Hobby Lobby ... it's just plain wood and I made sure to sand it all

down before I stained it with Minwax Provincial stain.

 I applied 2 coats of stain with a craft brush 

making sure to let each coat dry thoroughly... the wood was

pretty good at absorbing the stain so I didn't cover up the grommets...

but if stain did get on them... then I just wiped it right off with a rag.

After the stain was completely dry... I measured out some self adhesive felt

I had found at Michael's and cut it to fit in the bottom of each chest. 

Since my family are Cowboy's fans what better color than blue for the felt.

I sprayed 2 light coats of Plaid Clear Acrylic Sealer in Gloss

to help it have a little bit of a shine.

My husband loves his and it sits proudly on our dresser holding his

rings...tie tacks and watches.

It may not be a "fun" gift but this year it was very practical!

Happy Crafting!

BYU... Who???

We have 5 very special birthdays from June 27th - July 25th ... and we wanted to

celebrate them all!  I wanted to find a fun gift for each of them...and when Todd and I

went shopping at Wood Creations in West Haven...

 this one caught our eye.  I didn't have a lot of time to get the gifts ready so I

bought the vinyl that was already cut and ready to go.

This one is for my sister-in-law, Rayann.  She graduated from BYU and will always

defend her Alma Mater to the end.  This gift was perfect for her!

I painted the wood block with 3 coats of Ceramcoat white paint... then applied

the vinyl and used some black and blue cream chalking to the sides since

there was a lot of "white space" showing.  I had Todd drill a hole in the top

for the wood topper (I honestly don't remember what they are called)

used wood glue to hold it in place and added 4 different ribbons tied in a bow.

Happy Crafting ~ Vicki

Jaden's Grizzly Pretzels...

Jaden is Kendra's (my daughter-in-law) youngest brother and he plays football for the Logan High Grizzlies!  We were making Halloween pretzels when I thought it would be fun to make some special ones just for Jaden.  We pulled out the red and gold as well as the black candy melts and Kendra decorated away. I made the tag with my Quickutz football die... then cut the letters for his name and #... put the pretzels in a plain cellophane bag, punched a hole in the tag and tied it with red ~ yellow and black ribbons... he loved it and we love him!

Stead Wedding Sign In Book...

Pretty purple lace with purple and green flowers with a brad in the center...

 Green velvet ribbon with antique brads...

 Metal embellishments for the black and white pages...

I used a metal frame to help the rings stand out in this one...

 We are Dallas Cowboy fans... so it's only appropriate that we have a Cowboy star...

 These are the pages all set up and ready for signing...

Wow... I'm learning that it does pay off to take a "straight" picture... I really need to get my tripod out when taking these... some of them look like I don't have the pictures or embellishments on very straight... I promise I do... they ended up getting distorted when I tried to crop off as much of the background as I could...

These "sign in" pages were for Josh and Kendra's wedding.  We laid them out on the table and people were able to come and sign them at some point during the luncheon. Since her colors were purple and green I did the pages on plain (not textured so it was easier to write on) black cardstock and used gel pens in purple ~ silver ~ white and green.  I love how you can write something special to the couple instead of just a line to sign your name. I did a few other pages (but I forgot to take pictures of them ~ what can I say it's been a crazy 10 months) for me and Kendra's parents to sign... I used the whole page and hopefully was able to express my feelings of love and happiness to both of them.  Hopefully the book will be something they treasure for many years to come!

 

Stead Wedding Sign...

The Steads ~ Joshua & Kendra

Let me introduce you to my handsome son, Josh and my new beautiful daughter-in-law! They were married on August 3, 2012 they also get to share that special day with my parents who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary! Kendra wanted the sign to be in neutral colors ~ so I painted the board black used my new Cameo to cut the letters... cream for the last name and white for their first names.

Wildman Wedding Sign...

 

Payden has been Josh's best friend and my "bonus" son forever... I don't remember a time that Payd hasn't been in our lives! They played sports (they played everything) together... worked at Fireworks West packing and setting up firework shows... served missions together... yes their farewell and welcome home as well as the day they entered the Mission Training Center (I refer to it as the MTC ~ Moms Torture Chamber... but that's a story for another day!) and the day they came home were just hours apart (how many friends can say that?) ~ they double dated ~ watched The Office ~ spent countless hours talking ~ texting and playing video games.  It was a hard day when Payd and Kat were married... not because I wasn't happy for them... but that's when it sunk in that Payden wouldn't just come to the house any random time and visit or raid the cookie jar. He has been accepted to the University at Buffalo in the dental program.  I'm so proud of him and wish he and Kat all the happiness ~ they both deserve it!

I thought it would be fun to make them a wedding sign to hang up in their new home in Buffalo... Kat loves turquoise and purple.  I painted the board purple and then used my new Cameo to cut the purple vinyl.  I decided that instead of their names in turquoise I would do the lettering in white to make it "pop".  I added a claw to the back for hanging... and voila!

They were so cute and even sent me a picture of it hanging up in their apartment!  I love you guys!

Chocolate Covered Christmas Pretzels

Bagged and ready for delivery...

Warming the chocolate...

Note the jar Josh is pulling the pretzels from

Getting their chocolate coating...

Some had sprinkles...

Some had more chocolate...

The production line...

They were stacked everywhere...

In keeping with the Johnson family tradition of chocolate covered pretzels... we bought 2 of the big containers from Sams Club that had cute stars, trees and bell shapes (see top picture) for about $8.00 each plus about 8 pounds of white chocolate and in a matter of about 90 minutes we had over 1,200 of those bad boys completed and ready for delivery!

We are getting better with the "production" each and every time we make them. This time we decided to melt the chocolate (we bought 2 pound blocks instead of the chips) in the microwave first and then put the melted chocolate into the frying pan (it was on low) we found that this makes the chocolate stay warmer and the pretzel don't end up "swimming" in the chocolate because most of it will drip off and back into the pan... and we didn't have to keep re-heating the chocolate on the stove in the double boiler.  After they were dipped we put them on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet and moved over to the "decorating" section of the kitchen.

Our next big ah-ha moment was with the decorating bags. I had previously bought bottles (they looked like smaller ketchup bottles you use at a ballgame). Kendra would put several Wilton Candy Melts into the bottle and would microwave them until melted... stirring them constantly and sometimes they would burn a little because it was taking forever to get them to melt completely. This time I bought the Wilton Decorating Bags (I think there were 10 of them for $4.00)... these worked like a charm.  Kendra put several Candy Melts in the bag... zapped them for the time called for and then would "massage" the bag until all of the Melts were melted completely... then she snipped a very small piece off of the bottom and voila... the perfect decorating tool! (it's better to take just a little snip off ~ you can always snip off more if you want later).

Josh thought it was taking to long to just decorate each individual pretzel and decided they should just sweep across the whole tray with several passes back and forth with each of the colors. With this new idea they were much faster decorating than we were dipping and honestly... they looked just as good as when each one was done on its own!  Some of the pans Josh and Kendra used just the sugar sprinkles and others they did just the Candy Melts and on some they did both... they all looked so festive and tasted so good!

The pretzels would have set up a lot faster had my mom not cranked up the temperature to 86* in my house. Apparently when my mom and dad first arrived (Kendra and I were both running late at work and Josh was in the shower) my mom decided that it was a little "chilly" so she proceeded to crank up the heat to 86*... She claims she didn't hear the furnace kick on... so she just keep pressing the "up" button.  Josh was the one who noticed how hot it was getting and discovered that it was 86*. He first accused me of cranking it up and then my mom started laughing... she knew she was busted! Needless to say it gave us all a great laugh for the evening!

I hope that you and your family have at least one "fun" thing to do in the kitchen that everyone can do together... oh and don't forget to have your favorite Christmas carols playing in the background... you will be making memories for years to come!

Merry Christmas!

 

Dallas Cowboy Clothes Pins...

The front of the holders...

The back of the holders...

Dallas Cowboy chocolate covered pretzels...

My dad and his brothers have been Dallas Cowboy fans since their very first game. My cousins and I all have the strong Cowboys ties as well. At our Johnson Reunion this summer I asked my dad and uncles, Darrell and Ace, to bring their Cowboy jerseys for a "photo shoot". I thought it would be cool ~ and being the awesome uncles they are... they humored me! You can see the complete photo shoot here.  I wanted to make them something fun to display the pictures... and this is what I came up with. 

I painted the cloths pin two coats of silver... I traced the special Cowboy star paper and used Mod Podge to adhere it to the wood. The white paper was added to the top (I'll never admit this... but you can have too many stars) and the white was the perfect pop he needed.  I wished the picture showed the sparkles on the papers better... then I added a blue jute-like material for the final touch. I attached two pictures of them together ~ a front and a back... just like they are posed (top and middle picture ~ right pin). You can soo tell they are brothers! I have different pictures in mine (top and middle picture ~ left pin). Since we had the Sunday night game... I thought it would be fun to give them each a bag of Cowboy pretzels to enjoy for treat time during the game.

 

Cowboy and Halloween Pretzels...

 The cute bag filled with treats...

 Halloween Pretzels...

 Dallas Cowboy Pretzels...

My dad and the cool Cowboy Pretzels...

In keeping with holiday tradition we made our super tasty pretzels. One of the girls at work found these cute football pretzels and thought that I should have them. Mom and I dipped with dad and Kendra were the decorators... Josh even joined in on the fun after he got home from work.  We put the pretzels in these cute bags and I made a cute pumpkin tag by cutting two of the pumpkins and sticking them together (the eyes and mouth would have fallen out... by putting tape over the back of the eyes and mouth and putting the two together you couldn't see the tape... OCD I know... but it looked cuter!) a little chalking to add some depth and they were ready to go.