photo detail : cd muckosky

i just wanted to remind everyone that our august gallery challenge ends this evening at midnight pst. make sure you check out or original post {here} for more details and get your images loaded into our flickr gallery {here}. you could be our august winner and receive a september add-on of your choice.

and even if you didn’t have the time or can’t upload a project make sure you check out the current kenner road gallery anyways, there is so much amazing work being uploaded this month. i have been adoring seeing it all.

happy weekend :)
xo

I wanted to share a really quick and easy idea for dressing up glass candle holders. Sonoma County has a few really good latin markets that sell these inexpensive candle holders, i purchased mine blank for about $1 each. Most times you see them with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe or another Saint printed on them, but our local market also has them in plain colors without any markings too. ;)

I always love getting a large assortment of these for outdoor parties as the candles burn forever and the long tapered glass enclosure helps to keep the candles from blowing out. Once I get them home I always dress them up in some fashion with little bits I have left over from kits, so I thought I’d show you two versions using bits and pieces from the Kenner Road July kits.

To create the Birch Beer candle I cut a 3″ x 7″ piece {i measured my candle circumference so I had an exact measurement for this} of JBS pattern paper {Scarborough Faire kit} and stitched along all four edges about 1/8″ in to create a border. Then I hand-cut the Birch Beer label {Blue Ribbon Kit} and layered it over a piece of cream cardstock. I cut the cardstock about 1/8″ larger than the label so there would be definition between the two pieces of patterned paper.

I then adhered the cream cardstock piece to the pattern paper. Then i adhered an embroidered ribbon {Sweetwater embellishment kit} to the cardstock and applied the Birch Beer label over the ribbon. Next, I punched holes in the corners of the Birch Beer label {there are four little circles in each corner which i punched right through} and then slipped the Tim Holtz brads and one metal leaf {Blue ribbon kit} for some visual interest.

After getting the label completely ready i adhered it to the candle with some heavy duty tacky tape making sure to center on the candle holder and match up the back seams.

Next I tied the ribbon up and trimmed the ends so they were a bit shorter than the candle and wouldn’t touch the surface it was sitting on. You of course could leave them long or tie a big beautiful bow.

Here you can see how the layers work and the metal foliage pieces really accent the label.

For the other candle holder I used the big gorgeous Basic Grey flower rub on in the june bug olio pack {Blue Ribbon kit}. This was a bit tricky as the glass was super smooth and the rubons didn’t want to release. My trick was to hold the rubon in the glass with my hand covering it so it heated up the rubon. then i began rubbing on one end and once it began to release i slowly started helping it by pulling up on the rubon film {the piece the rubon is adhered too}. Be slow and steady when doing this so you don’t break your rubon.

Once I had the rubon applied, I glued on some flower accents {Animal Crackers kit} and some more foliage metal pieces {Blue Ribbon kit}.

To finish off the candles i threaded the wicks with some buttons and a few mini metal flowers, just like all of those expensive candles you see in boutiques.

Now I have a few candles waiting for our next party or even as a hostess gift when we go to a friends house.

Also, we wanted to announce the winner of our July Blog Challenge “stamps”, Didee. I adore her cuddles in the garden layout and the stamped tag she used! Congratulations Diana you win a Blue Ribbon add-on kit!! Send me an email info [at] kenner road [dot] com and we’ll get it out to you asap.

Stay tuned for some sneaks and more as we get ready for our August reveal on Friday at 9pm pacific!

xoxo

hey there!

this month’s theme of summer reminded me that i have a few summer getaways coming up and every year i try to remember to either make or buy a little notebook to keep with me when i travel. next week we are heading to a wedding in florida, after i’ll be heading to cha, and then later in the summer is our annual trip to cape cod. i use little notebooks to keep track of everything from items i saw that i liked, grocery lists, books i want to read, phone numbers/emails of friends i met, to memory joggers for journaling on my pages later.

this year I decided to make a little vacation jotter using the july kit.

you’ll need:

• your july kit and add-ons
• chipboard (you can use cereal boxes for this)
• 3×5 index cards – you can purchase these blank and lined in either direction
• larger index cards to cut if you plan on making the bingo cover
• a cropodile or standard hole punch
• binder rings (you can get these at an office supply store)
• large eyelets
• gel medium (or other adhesive such as mod podge)
• the corner chomper or a standard corner rounder
• brayer or bone folder

Directions

1. using your cutter or scissors cut two 3×5 inch chipboard pieces.
2. cut a piece of patterned paper to 3×5 inches. apply gel medium to the chipboard and adhere the paper. use a clean brayer or a bone folder to get rid of any wrinkles. do the same to the other piece of chipboard. let dry then cover the back sides of the chipboard as well. let dry overnight.
3. round all four corners of 30 index cards. i used my we r memory keepers corner chomper which allowed me to do a lot at once. you can use a standard corner rounder it will just take a little longer.
4. round all four corners of the two pieces of chipboard. if your standard corner rounder won’t cut through, trace the corners using one of your index cards as a template and use a craft knife or scissors to round the corner.
5. decide which piece of the covered chipboard will be the front and which side will face the back.
6. using your cropadile, punch one or two holes in the top edge of the chipboard pieces. the location of the holes will be determined by the lines on your index cards. (for one hole I’d punch the top left.) be sure to line up the holes on both pieces. i added large eyelets to mine so the ring would slide through easily.
7. using the cover as a template mark a small stack of index cards and punch through using the cropadile – continue until all of the index cards are punched.
8. add rings through the punched holes and add embellishments to the front cover as desired.

you can vary the size of these jotters, use fabric to cover them, use graph paper or other paper for the sheets, and really make them your own. if you make one of these, be sure to link me up!  have fun!

i know, i know. we’ve been partying all weekend with giveaways all over a ton of blogs but we’ve got six more giveaways to celebrate our 10th kit reveal. can you believe it? we’re on our 10th month… yahoo!!

this time just leave a comment and you’ll be entered to win one of SIX basic grey 6×6 lemonade paper packs + a pack of coordinating opalines. seriously… these are the cutest paper packs ever, the papers are just like the 12×12 but shrunk down to 6×6. love. love!!

contest closes at noon pacific on wednesday july 15th.

happy monday & see ya tomorrow night for the july reveal!

we’ve got a fun weekend planned as each member of the kenner road creative team is offering a kit giveaway on their blogs. all you have to do is visit each team member’s personal blog and leave them a comment to be eligible to win one of the amazing kits featured above, as well as a few more we haven’t shown here. the more ct blogs you visit, the more chances you have to win, and of course our international friends are always welcome to enter too!

everyone should have a giveaway posted soon so make sure you check back if theirs is not posted yet. :)

now check the side bar for all of the creative team links and go!

happy friday! xo

eta : and you might want to go here for another chance to win… just sayin’ ;)

lisa truesdell

every month i feel like i am completely overwhelmed by the work that our guest designer and the creative team turn in. every. single. month. and this month, with the fabulous lisa joining us i was giddy as the pictures started flooding in last week. absolutely giddy!

as always, here’s my personal favorites. make sure you check out each and every gallery as all of the work is phenomenal. and make sure you check the end of this post for our reveal night giveaway winners… there are 5 extremely lucky winners!!

debee

dina

gigi

jessi

katie

lisa

our 5 reveal night donna downey canvas kit winners are :

144. LouAnn Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 6:37 pm edit

164. AllyW Says:
June 15th, 2009 at 7:04 am edit

73. Cathy B Says:
June 13th, 2009 at 8:24 am edit

116. takako Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 4:55 am edit

68. tina Says:
June 13th, 2009 at 7:35 am edit

send me your contact information {info@kennerroad.com} and we’ll get these out to you asap!

happy tuesday!

Leave a comment in this post to enter to win one of five donna downey for prima fabric albums and fabric house embellishment kits. Contest ends monday, June 15th at midnight Pacific. International entries are always welcomed of course ;). Lucky winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 16th.

for those of you who missed out on our june newsletter make sure you check it out {{here}}. we’ve got some special news about our june gift with purchase {they’re fuzzy and oh so cute} as well as our new reveal night chat party beginning on sunday night, june 14th at 8pm pacific because, we may not have a live forum, but we still like to gab.

and please don’t miss lisa’s post below. she’s got the cutest friendship challenge for you that includes a mini embellishment stash giveaway that would make anyone swoon. ;)

yep. we love our customers ;)

xoxo

I like that this month our blog projects are based around a ‘friendship’ theme.  I think friends are a really important aspect of our lives, especially women’s lives.  We always have our tried and true friends but every day there are opportunities to meet new friends.  Sometimes though, you have to reach out.  Just a little bit and sometimes a whole lot…it’s worth it though as you never know what type of potential friend is just waiting for you to make the first move.

Something that comes to mind for me is ‘new neighbors’….I tend to always be the new neighbor.  We are a military family and have graced more new neighborhoods then I have friends. :)  I have had neighborhoods where NOT a soul welcomed me.  No acknowledgement or greeting.  I have also had neighborhoods where neighbors have come out of their homes and welcomed us with open arms.  Some with brownies or lists of good places to go around the area.  Some of my best friends have been neighbors.

We’ve had many a beer tasting parties, chili cook offs, 4th of July, Cinco De Maya BBQs  etc have been had in those neighborhoods.  I miss those good days.

Well, we are about to be new to another neighborhood.  I’m nervous and hoping that this is a friendly neighborhood.  So here’s to lots of cookouts and mad games of Spades.

So, the thought of how to welcome a neighbor to the neighborhood became my focus for this blog post.  Not just the offering of help and time but a little crafty gift.  My first idea was to make a little “welcome to the neighborhood” sign, but then realized…”how long can they keep that up?” and instead decided to do something that could be used as a home decor piece for as long as they wanted to or worst case scenario, could be easily re-gifted.  I’m practical like that.

I used mostly the May kit on this project, I pulled in a couple of extras into it for added effect.  I made a little wall hanging, using the chubby little bird stamp that came in the May kit (exclusive to Kenner Road btw).  I added a quick note on the back to the recipient.

I used a leftover chipboard page from a mini album for my base and a wood cut out banner for the top.  I used a crackle glaze for the top of the sticker letters to add a little shine and personality. I also used lots of pop dots to add some depth to the piece.

Thanks for checking out my blog post!

Have a great week!

~Katie Watson

You may have noticed by now that there is definitely a theme that we {the creative team} are working through on the blog this month. When I began developing the Constant Companion kit for May I really kept thinking about friendship, and I love that Jessi’s post on monday was focused around being a good samaritan, something that I believe can really make a difference in the world.

One of the things that i love doing for my friends is giving gifts that are a reflection of who they are and what they love. What i don’t love about gift giving is the price of gift cards and gift wrap. I {like alot of you I am sure…} have really made a focus over the last few years to be as green as i am able and I really believe that giving gifts doesn’t have to incorporate alot of wrapping or cost, it just requires some ingenuity and some personal focus on who your giftee is, and your scraps are perfect for creating quick and beautiful gift tags.

One of our friends recently made a move into a new house and I think there is nothing better as a housewarming present as a fabulous bottle of wine. Once those boxes are unpacked, or during if you’re like me ;), it’s nice to know there is something to savor for all of that hardwork and schlepping of boxes.

This gift tag took all of two minutes to create. I just stacked some of the Sassafras Lass chipboard frames from the May sweet dreams add-on kit and then added some paper {the striped pattern is from the rub-ons packaging} and a “welcome home” rub-on. Then I cut a slit in the top and thread the ribbon through and tied it around the wine bottle. Simple and very quick.

Another friend is expecting a baby in a few months and i found this adorable vintage baby lap quilt at the thrift store last week. I wanted to give it to her wrapped pretty, but I definitely didn’t want to waste a lot of paper on gift wrap. So I folded it accordian style and along with some vintage seam binding I added a bright and cheerful vintage style tag.

To create the gift tag I used some paper scraps from a few of the May kits and added them to the bingo card in the Mister Mister add-on kit. Then I stacked one of the October Afternoon Wild Cards on top with pop dots and added another Sassafras Lass chipboard piece with the “handmade” stamps from the Sweet Dreams kit {again, I used pop dots}. I love that the tag is bright and cheerful but it definitely has a vintage vibe that goes perfect with the quilt.

Here’s to new beginnings on life and home and hopefully next time you need a little tag or card for a gift you’ll turn to your stash. I know the recipient will love that you took the extra effort to create something personable for them, I always do.

happy friday!

ps : sneak peeks are sunday … any guesses on what’s coming next? ;)

Leave a comment in this post to enter to win this breathtakingly beautiful porcelain kit from Basic Grey. Contest ends at midnight Friday, May 15th Pacific. International entries are welcomed of course ;). Lucky winner will be announced on Saturday, May 16th.

and don’t miss the post below. we’re giving away a mini vintage add-on kit with every add-on kit purchase during the may reveal.

yep. we love our customers ;)