Holiday Iced Branches

First, gather your supplies. You will need:

Tacky glue

cheap foam brush

paper plate

bare branches

Colorfill Diamond Vase Filler (I used a 1lb bag and had leftovers)

Newspaper to cover your work area

The paper plate and glue I had on hand, the branches I got on sale at Hobby Lobby, the foam brush I had but it came from the Dollar Store and the Crystals I bought online. The crystals were the most expensive, not because they cost that much but because I had to have them shipped and they weigh a lb, literally. So, if you can find some locally it might be a better deal. Still, total project cost was between $15-$20.

Step one: Pour out your crystals on the newspaper

Step two: "Paint" the glue onto your branches. This glue is really thick and kind of hard to spread but do your best to spread it evenly over the branches - no big clumpies! 

Step 3: Lay the glue covered branches onto the crystals and roll and press them to stick. I found that, sometimes, it helped if I held a handful and pressed them to the branch if it was a particularly "bendy" area that was hard to cover.

Allow to dry on the newspaper for at least 45 minutes.

Here is a close up of what the branches looked like when they were all dry.

And this is the final product displayed! I picked up the ball ornaments at the Dollar Store ($1 for 7) to use as a base to balance the branches in my apothycary jar. I am really pleased with how they turned out and think they add some winter elegance to my decor! I love how the light reflects off of them and am thinking about getting some of the little battery powered tea lights to hide down in the jar to light it from underneath. I can't decide if having to digg to turn them on would be worth it or not!

Anyway, hope you like my Wintery craft!

Wee little dresses

So, this weekend I went down to visit my family with the purpose of getting some sewing instruction from my momma so I could make dresses for our impending arrival. I am pretty proud of myself, 3 dresses in 3 days, and on my first attempt at making anything with a pattern. Here are my finished items!

This is the first one I made. My Momma hovered around and told me what to do and how to do it. But I made it all myself. Except the button holes, my machine went all wonky when we tried to do them so Momma just made them on hers.

This was the second one I made all by myself while momma was at work. Since our nursery is done in "Classic Pooh" I wanted her to have a some "Pooh Bear bees!" Again, the buttonholes were made by my momma and cut by me.

Last one, and this one is a medium instead of newborn size. I wanted her to be able to wear it on our family beach trip this summer so I tried to estimate where she might be at around 6 months. I had a tiny bit more help with this one. In addition to the buttonholes, momma sewed on the rickrack. It was so small and I was so tired and not feeling very confidant in my ability to stay on such a tiny line.

All in all I am VERY happy with how each dress turned out. Not bad for my very first time I thought. And, I now feel like I could easily make one at my own house without the emergency back up available! Maybe there will be more sewing in my future....

Spooktacular!

So, I meant to post this the week of Halloween, but life got in the way. I am going to post it anyway and maybe you can use it for next year!

Supplies Needed:
length of cheesecloth
latex balloon
wax paper
Styrofoam cup
a bottle of "Stiff-n- Stuff" or other fabric stiffener
large bowl you don't normally use for food
tiny bit of Vaseline
black felt cut into 2 medium sized ovals

Steps:
Blow up balloon, not too big

Poke hole in bottom of cup, turn upside down and thread balloon knot through

Rub Vaseline all over top of balloon

Place balloon/cup on sheet of wax paper

Empty fabric stiffener into container ( you will not need the whole bottle for just one project) and dredge cheesecloth in it. Be sure to thoroughly soak/saturate the material

Remove the cheesecloth and squeeze to get rid of excess solution

Unfold and drape over the balloon allowing the excess to puddle onto the wax paper. You can arrange the excess any way you like.

Dip the felt ovals into the solution and use you fingers to press out any excess

Stick the ovals onto the cheesecloth
this is what it will look like:

Allow to dry thoroughly

Pop balloon (don't worry I have never had one explode on me, just get a slow leak) and remove wax paper, cup and balloon from your masterpiece.

What have you got? An adorable ghostie who can stand up on his own!

I have made this project with about 7 different classes of preschoolers and it's a hit every time!

Festively Fall

Wow! Thanks, everyone, for the warm welcome! I even got a follower on my first day! Look -->
Hi, Jaime!

As promised, here is last night's crafting project.



I'm pretty happy with how it turned out AND it cost me less then $10! The grapevine wreath and leaf garland came from the dollar store. The beaded pumpkins, berry stems and ribbon for the bow came from Hobby Lobby, at a 40% discount! I tried to post closeups of the pumpkins and berry stems and of the bow but Blogger keeps reorienting my photos so they are sideways. If anyone knows how to remedy this or why it's happening let me know. If I can fix it I'll post the other photos.
Tomorrow I will move on to another of my 3 "C"s - Cooking! So, be ready for a yummy new recipe to try out this weekend!

Wow, I'm blogging!

So, my sister-in-law, Kacey, is OBSESSED with blogging (you know you are!) and has somehow pulled me over to the dark side. Well, at least the blogging side.... I wanted my blog to be ABOUT something 'cause, goodness knows, my little life isn't interesting enough to write about! I decided to let this be a place to express my creative juices, a place to put what I create out there and hear what the world thinks of it. At least, if it thinks positive things! Like any normal human being I adore positive feedback and I would love to have the opportuinity to hear what someone other that my sweetheart thinks. Not that his opinion isn't valuable, but.....
So, without further ado, here is my first post and my first project.
I "borrowed" my project idea from Joy's Under Five Bucks & Under Five Minutes! at "Joys of Home" (love her stuff btw) and modified it a little . Mine actually cost me between $10-$15 and took a little longer.
Here is my finished project:





The extra cost came from my idea to make it a hanging plaque for the back of our front door. I bought a magnetic hook and a knob that I liked from the local "home improvement store" and had my hubby drill out the hook. That also made the hole big enough for the knob to fit into. The casing around the magnet was painted the same color (Burnt Sienna) as the back part of the plaque. Who knew it would match so well?!

Finally, here is a closeup of the letter plaque itself. The flash has made the color appear "off". In real life, the 'R' is a wine color that matches the accent wall of my living room (and the ribbon the letter hangs from) not barn red! I also used the Burnt Sienna as a wash over both the letter as well as the paper under it to help antique it a little.

I am really happy with how it turned out. I always feel like the backs of doors are so naked. We spend a lot of time looking at them and I just wanted my front door to feel pretty on the "inside"! The only thing I am unsure about are the "tails" of ribbon. I though that they added a little extra flair but now I am not sure. What do you think?

PS. I was crafting away tonight during Project Runway when I wasn't texting Kacey (can you BELIEVE Kenley? You do NOT sass the Tim Gunn!) so I should have another fun Fall project to post tomorrow!