Love letter pillows

It's pretty rare that anyone gets a handwritten love letter anymore.  Or maybe it's just because I've been with the same person for 13 years now that we mostly bond on the couch watching TV now  : )
One of the things that I love about looking through old letters and postcards is the handwritting ---- combine that with the rarity of an actual handwritten love letter today and enter the love letter pillow.

These are such a fantastic way to immortalize a love letter {either yours or someone else's} and the graphic script adds such a nice design element.


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If you want to create your own handwritten text, you can either have a photocopy of a your own handwritten letter and then transfer that on a pillow {flip the text first}, or there are several good fonts that are based on handwriting.  Sorry I didn't have time to put in pics of each {maybe later}, but here are the quick links to some of my favorites:

• Jenna Sue - a more casual, younger looking script handwriting {link}
• Otto - a more traditional, older looking script handwriting {link}
• Bernard - a traditional looking script {link}
• Brown Bag Lunch - a heavy looking print that looks like marker {link}

Glass tile magnets

I've tried making magnets out of the glass gems from the dollar store.  I've had limited success so far.  I've found several of the glass flat backed marbles have imperfections in the glass which can't be disguised when you create the magnet.  Their irregular sizes also create a lot of extra work trimming them up.  In addition, many of the collage sheets etsy sellers offer are set up for square 1" images.   Enter the 1" glass tile magnets!

I found this great tutorial on the Celtic Mommy blog and put this on my to-do list right away.  I'd love to compare how these turn out with my glass marble magnets.  Pop on over to the Celtic Mommy blog for her great tutorial and lots more pictures!

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How to make your own sea glass

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I'm a sucker for sea glass.  Last year we went to the beach in Delaware and I kept looking for those beautiful sea jewels...it gets so addictive.

I recently ran across a beautiful picture of sea glass on Pinterest.  I followed the link and in the comments someone mentioned you can make your own by shaking glass in a bottle with water and sand.  That was something I didn't know!

Okay, so I try it, and unless I want an epic shaking workout that lasts for hours, it's not happening --- FAIL.
Then I found a few neat tutorials on the Internet that I've been meaning to try.  One tutorial from Dave's Garden involves those little rock tumblers you had when you were a kid.

The instructions say to "fill the barrel with water so the level of water is just barely above your materials. Add three to four spoonfuls of common sand. Smooth a small amount of Vaseline on the outside of the barrel, then put the lid on securely and let 'er rip. If you simply want to knock the edges from the glass for handling, you don't have to run the machine for days on end. In fact, several hours will do a good job. You can take the tumblers off at any time and check for smoothness. The longer you leave the tumblers running, the smoother and rounder the pieces will become. Alter the time according to what you would like the finished product to look like. Remember, this will likely be a noisy process. If you have a garage or a covered area outdoors, it would be best to run your tumbler(s) where they may run continuously for days without causing anyone a headache."  The tutorial warns against overloading your tumbler {2/3 full is a best bet}.  {Click here for the full tutorial created by Karen Manasco on the Dave's Garden site}

Another tutorial involves a more industrial method is on YouTube.  I love this guy!  The tutorial is very good and provides instructions if you happen to have a cement mixer on hand --- not moi!  He created a bunch of sea glass for his garden beds and the result is just beautiful.  {Click here for that video}
The Evil Mad Scientist site also has a tutorial.  His glass {shown below} is also made with a cement mixer.

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Here's my assessment, in order to do this well, you need an investment in time and materials.  Simply shaking a bottle of sand, water, and glass isn't going to give you the best results.  However, the results are beautiful, when you take your time and use the more heavy duty supplies.