Friday, October 3, 2025

DIY Crystal Ball

Halloween Decor

As part of my Halloween decor I have what I call my "communication center", you know, a Ouija board, magic mirror and so forth.  But what good is a communication center without a crystal ball?!  Nothing, I tell you, nothing!  So I decided to remedy the problem by making my own, check it out:

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Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links.  If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission.  You can read more about affiliate links here


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Halloween Decor
Halloween Decor

I started with this dollar store glass bowl and a couple bottles of acrylic paint in a shimmery gold and sparkly glitter.



Halloween Decor
Halloween Decor

Starting with the glitter, I poured in a heavy amount and dabbed it around with a sponge brush.  I wanted the glitter to be on the outside so that the crystal ball would look sparkly.  You can see that it worked for the iridescent sparkle, but was still pretty see through.  I wanted the globe to be transparent enough to allow light through, but not so clear that the light box that I was going to add would be visible.



Halloween Decor

To make the ball a bit more cloudy, I came in with the metallic paint and dabbed it on top of the glitter.



Halloween Decor
Halloween Decor

At that point I felt that the ball needed more color.  A bit of glitter in blue, purple and gold tossed in with the wet paint did the trick!



Halloween Decor
Halloween Decor

For the last detail I added foam star stickers.  Once all of the paint is dry, simply stick them to the inside of the globe.  My foam stars were yellow on both sides, so the side that showed through the globe was yellow.  If you run into a set where the sticky side is a color that you don't like, just add a tiny bit of glue to the side with the color that you like and put them in.



Halloween Decor

Here is how the bowl looked at that point, really pretty but a crystal ball needs lighting!



Halloween Decor
Halloween Decor

To solve my lighting problem I picked up a set of LED Halloween skeleton lights and pulled off the heads.  That left me with a small strand of white lights that could fit into my bowl.



Halloween Decor
Halloween Decor

I would the lights around their box, placed them on top of a small plate and then topped it off with the decorated bowl.



Halloween Decor
Halloween Decor

And there you have it, a proper crystal ball that lights up!

Here are links to more of my Halloween projects:



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Do you like the convenience of crafting or organizing with instantly available digital downloads?
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Cricut Crafting Home Organization


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Are you thinking of starting a blog or a seasoned author who wants to get organized?  This 115 page printable bundle is for you!  I created these pages for my own use and found them so helpful I thought I should make them available for other bloggers as well.  Click the link below the image to read the full item description.


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Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Wednesdays in the Studio - Link Party 37

 Weekly Link Party

Welcome to Wednesdays in the Studio, a weekly link party focusing on designing everyday life.
Thank you to everyone who joined last week!  This week's features include:


Weekly Link Party


Autumn decor from Debbie Dabble
Slow cooker roasted potatoes from Scratch Made Food
How to turn a blanket into a pumpkin from Fresh Vintage by Lisa S.
Tea Breaks and Kitchen Moments from Thrifting Wonderland


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Weekly Link Party

Were you featured?  Grab this photo and add it to your blog!

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Want to join this week?  Here are the rules for participation:

*Add up to 3 posts related to designing everyday life.  Examples include crafting, sewing, cooking, baking, home decor, holidays, party planning, blogging, thrifting, gardening, DIY projects, organization and so on.

*Please link to a specific post and not your homepage.
*Link only your own posts, not someone else's.
*Etsy shops, giveaways and other link parties are ok as long as they are design related.
*Party runs from Wednesday until Monday each week, Central Standard Time.
*A link back to this party isn't required but is appreciated!
*Linking up gives you the opportunity to be featured in next week's party.

*By Linking up you give Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams permission to use your posts and photos in social media and as features.  If used, a link back to your material will be given.

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If you don't already, please consider following me on:

*  Facebook  *  Pinterest  *  Instagram  *  Etsy  *

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Now let's party:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
-Jennifer

© Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams 2025


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Do you like the convenience of crafting or organizing with instantly available digital downloads?
Check out this week's features from my Etsy shop:

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Fall Autumn Fake Bake Tiered Tray Decor Kitchen Pantry Dining Room


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Fall Autumn Cricut Crafting


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Are you thinking of starting a blog or a seasoned author who wants to get organized?  This 115 page printable bundle is for you!  I created these pages for my own use and found them so helpful I thought I should make them available for other bloggers as well.  Click the link below the image to read the full item description.


Friday, September 26, 2025

Framing Instant Download Printables

Printable Art

When displaying my collections of fake bake foods, I like to add in food related art prints that fit the theme.  I design these myself and then print at home, before framing.  Here is how I put them together:


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Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links.  If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission.  You can read more about affiliate links here


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Printable Art

The print collection that I was working with in this post was a pie theme that I wanted to incorporate into my pie and pudding cabinet.  I ended up deleting this particular collection from my shop because I wasn't happy with the resolution, but I do have this pie collection, this pie menu collection and this fall pie themed set.
My print collections are designed as JPG and PNG files (with a bonus PDF when possible) that can be printed from any photo service you upload them to, but you can print from home as well.  

I'm currently working with an obsolete printer that doesn't let me choose proper photo settings and instead requires me to 'scale'.  The values that I chose were 100, 75 and 50 as I was trying to hit the proper 8x10, 5x7 and 3x5 frame sizes.  Also, I was using the PDF file here instead of the JPG or PNG, so that made my sizing a little trickier too.



Printable Art
Printable Art

No matter what file or printer type you use, you still might have to trim your print to fit your particular frame.  The easiest way to do this is to lie the glass insert over your image and then lightly trace around before trimming.



Printable Art
Printable Art

After tracing I cut it out and pop it in the frame.



Printable Art
Printable Art

  Here is another example using the apple pie print.  Here, even though the image printed in the proper dimensions, the image was still cut off a bit.  

Sometimes the way that photo frames are constructed you end up losing some of your image because the glass area is smaller than the size that the frame is noted as.  If this is a problem for you image, simply go up to a larger sized frame and use a pretty piece of paper as a background if needed to fill any gaps.  I find that this happens more often with older, thrifted frames than newer made ones available for purchase today.



Printable Art

And here is how the collection turned out.  I think the varying of sizes makes the set look more interesting once displayed.


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And that's how I frame my printables from home.

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams 2025




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Do you like the convenience of crafting or organizing with instantly available digital downloads?
Check out this week's features from my Etsy shop:

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Fall Autumn Halloween Cricut Crafting

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Are you thinking of starting a blog or a seasoned author who wants to get organized?  This 115 page printable bundle is for you!  I created these pages for my own use and found them so helpful I thought I should make them available for other bloggers as well.  Click the link below the image to read the full item description.


Blog Organization

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This post was featured at:


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Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Wednesdays in the Studio - Link Party 36

 Weekly Link Party

Welcome to Wednesdays in the Studio, a weekly link party focusing on designing everyday life.
Thank you to everyone who joined last week!  This week's features include:

Weekly Link Party

An autumn hutch from Jeanne Selep
Knitted and crocheted fruits from Stitch Whisper Designs
Chocolate chip pumpkin cake from Two Chicks and a Mom
How to decoupage with no wrinkles from The Apple Street Cottage


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Weekly Link Party

Were you featured?  Grab this photo and add it to your blog!

**********

Want to join this week?  Here are the rules for participation:

*Add up to 3 posts related to designing everyday life.  Examples include crafting, sewing, cooking, baking, home decor, holidays, party planning, blogging, thrifting, gardening, DIY projects, organization and so on.

*Please link to a specific post and not your homepage.
*Link only your own posts, not someone else's.
*Etsy shops, giveaways and other link parties are ok as long as they are design related.
*Party runs from Wednesday until Monday each week, Central Standard Time.
*A link back to this party isn't required but is appreciated!
*Linking up gives you the opportunity to be featured in next week's party.

*By Linking up you give Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams permission to use your posts and photos in social media and as features.  If used, a link back to your material will be given.

**********

If you don't already, please consider following me on:

*  Facebook  *  Pinterest  *  Instagram  *  Etsy  *

**********

Now let's party:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
-Jennifer

© Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams 2025


**********

Do you like the convenience of crafting or organizing with instantly available digital downloads?
Check out this week's features from my Etsy shop:

**********

Fake Bake Tiered Tray Kitchen Dining Room Pantry Home Decor


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Cricut Kitchen Crafting

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Are you thinking of starting a blog or a seasoned author who wants to get organized?  This 115 page printable bundle is for you!  I created these pages for my own use and found them so helpful I thought I should make them available for other bloggers as well.  Click the link below the image to read the full item description.


Friday, September 19, 2025

My Collection of Vintage Food Toys

Toy Collector

Last week I shared an eBay haul post featuring a lot of vintage food toys that I won at auction.  While sharing the photos, I mentioned here and there if I already had an item belonging to a set.  This week I thought it might be fun to show you what I've already got in my collection, check it out:

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Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links.  If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission.  You can read more about affiliate links here


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Toy Collector

So first things first, what do I do with all of these collected toys?  Some of them I keep in my "bakery" (the storage closet where I house my off season fake bakes), some of them go into my playhouse shed (I'll give a tour in the future), and if they are very realistic looking, then I might tuck them in with my fake bake displays.

This photo shows my bakery storage closet with the set of drawers that holds food toys.



Toy Collector

For the photo tour I pulled everything out into the front hall so I could organize between what would stay in the bakery and what would go out into the playhouse shed.  If it's in a bin then I haven't shared it yet and you will see the photos here.  If it's in the stacked drawers, then it's from the eBay haul and going out into the playhouse shed.  You can see everything from that haul post here

Here is what's in those bins:


Toy Collector
Toy Collector
Camping

Most of this came from Amazon, the little worms from this fishing playset, the big fish here and the campfire and s'mores I can't find in my Amazon history - they might be a Walmart find, I'm not sure.  I loved the size and shape of the toy s'mores and used them to make silicone molds from.  I then used those molds to make some s'more fake bakes.


Toy Collector
Lunch & Dinner

My favorite here is the MTC lunchmeat sandwich.  I can still remember Christmas when I was in first grade and I received this set along with a bean butt Cabbage Patch preemie doll.  I was so happy!



Toy Collector
Fast Food

Some of this is Fisher Price and some miscellaneous.  I want to collect more of the Fisher Price McDonalds.


Toy Collector
Sushi & Chinese

I hate the idea of sushi in real life, but these are too cute not to keep!


Toy Collector
Breakfast

The waffle maker is still available at Dollar tree, the milk, eggs and blueberry muffin mix are fisher price.  The mini pancakes are from a game.  I don't know what the point of the game was, I just saw it at a garage sale and bought it for the pancakes and butter toys 😄


Toy Collector
Produce

These are always so bright and cheerful!


Toy Collector
Trays

The larger trays are from Dollar Tree toy sets, the smaller one is I think Step 2.



Toy Collector
Toy Collector
Box of Chocolates


I love this set because it looks like a Valentine box of chocolates, but it's actually a preschool matching game for shapes and colors!



Toy Collector
Sweet Treats

Some Fisher Price, MTC, Dollar Tree and miscellaneous here.



Toy Collector
Cakes

The Fisher Price Fun With Food cakes in chocolate and vanilla.



Toy Collector
Ice Cream

So many ice creams!  When I was in elementary school, one of my friends had the Fisher Price ice cream container and scoops.  I wanted that set soooo badly...achievement unlocked 😎



Toy Collector
Dishes

An entire drawer of dishes, utensils and other accessories.  My favorite here is the cookie cutter set with the fake dough that you can 'cut' shapes out of.  That was a Dollar Tree find.


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And that's my collection of vintage food toys so far...😉

I hope you enjoyed this toy collection post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams 2025


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This post was added to the following link parties:



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Do you like the convenience of crafting or organizing with instantly available digital downloads?
Check out this week's features from my Etsy shop:

**********


Kitchen Baking Cricut Crafting


**********

Are you thinking of starting a blog or a seasoned author who wants to get organized?  This 115 page printable bundle is for you!  I created these pages for my own use and found them so helpful I thought I should make them available for other bloggers as well.  Click the link below the image to read the full item description.


Blog Organization