Soda Can Picture Frame

I bought a cheapy cheap unfinished wood frame for $1 at Michaels and after seeing this mirror decided my picture frame could do the trick. And in the spirit of Tab-ing, I of course used a can of Tab.I just cut the top and bottom off of a soda can and the cut a slit up the side so that I had a rectangle of aluminum. Then I cut that into *roughly* 3/4 inch squares. I felt no need for perfection in this area of the project. Hot pink acrylic paint & a little (or a lot) of hot glue later and I had a masterpiece.

But it didn't seem right to give an empty picture frame to my cousin who just so happens to be a new dad. So after the suggestion by my little sister, we printed a picture of his son to go in it...

After we photoshopped him snuggling a can of Tab, of course!

Everyone loved it!

Thanks sister for the photo idea. Thanks husband for your awesome photoshop skills!

Half Apron - Tab Style :)

My SIL asked me recently if I wanted a bag full of old jeans. She had purchased the jeans at Goodwill, or wherever, with the intention of making a quilt but was no longer going to be doing that. I happily took the bag of jeans and knew that even if I didn't make a quilt I would come up with some good use for them. And I did! I made this half apron for my grandma for her birthday last month.

For my "stencil" I cut the "I" & the heart out of cardstock, laid it on the denim and painted with acrylic paint. I didn't do any fancy mixing with fabric medium or any of that (mostly because I'm cheap and this was a gag gift anyway). In my googling of the matter, the only downside to using straight acrylic paint on fabric is that it makes it stiff. Which it did, but not enough for me to do anything about it! For the "Tab" stencil I printed two pictures of the can of soda onto cardstock. From one I cut out where the pink went and painted that on then for the other I cut out where the silver (top & bottom of the can) & wording went. Add a Tab colored ruffle to the bottom and some ribbon to tie it and in the words of my almost 2 year old, DATAA!!! (she says tadaa backwords...it's pretty cute)

Please forgive the unedited, late at night, taken by the husband picture (yes, this was the better of the two).

Soda Can Bow Holder

For my aunt's birthday I made her some bows that she had asked me for. Given our tradition of Tab-ing people I decided at the last minute that I needed to some how *creatively* include a can of Tab in with her gift. So I turned a Tab into a bow holder! All I did was hot glue some ribbon around the outside of the soda can...

and clipped the bows to it. It doesn't hold very many bows, so it's not very practical, but I wasn't going for practicality. It made her laugh and that was the point!

Soda Can Clock

1 empty soda can + $2 clock from Goodwill = awesomeness

One lucky member of my family is going to be getting this for his/her birthday. hehehe

I took pictures along that way, so let me know if you're interested in a tutorial and I'll put one together.

Oh, and I hope you all like the soda can projects because there are going to be several throughout the year...and even if you don't, I'm still going to do them. :D

Diaper Cake

I wanted a creative way to give the bibs at that baby shower, so I decided to make a diaper cake (with diapers I had on hand that no longer fit my little one). I had never made one before but I think it turned out pretty cute. I was pleased with it. I saw on some blog (which I didn't bookmark and now for the life of me I can't find) where she made a diaper cake that didn't require rolling each diaper up and wrapping in a rubber band. I was totally on board since the one thing I hated about the diaper cake my sis-in-law gave me when I was pregnant was unwrapping and unrolling all those diapers! Sorry that I can't tell you whose idea I stole! I know it looks a little crooked in the picture, but it wasn't in real life (at least I don't think it was!).

And the best part? The instructions called for an empty toilet paper roll to put in the middle of the bottom tier, but since my family has a thing for gifting cans of Tab (more Tab creations here)...

Yep, I stuck a Tab in the middle of the bottom. It was awesome because the mommy-to-be totally didn't expect it!
Totally easy and super cute. I think I'll be making these in the future!

White Elephant Gifts

Last year at one of the white elephant exchanges we attended, we ended up with these ugly ties.

My older sister and I came up with an idea to make them even better! What did I do to them? Made them 3D!

Yep, those are golf tees and pompoms glued to the ties. :)

.

My family has an obsession with Tab soda. We (my family) often include cans of Tab in with gifts we give each other, as a gag gift. Recently, some members of the family have started making Tab creations. For example, my older sister made a pound cake that she covered with a Tab flavored glaze. Zach came up with this idea for our white elephant exchange this year.

 It is a Tab cooler (with original Tab soda can on top, to give you an idea of how large it is). He took sheets of styrofoam and cut them into circles (about 10" in diameter) and glued them together with a hole in the middle to store the Tab. I had the privilege of painting this giant styrofoam creation to look like a can of Tab. We were quite pleased with how it turned out and the family really seemed to enjoy it.