My Trip to the Netherlands!

I am so sorry for the lack of crafty posts over the last month; I am in the process of moving and ALL of my craft supplies are packed away and buried in my father-in-law’s basement! My Etsy store is also currently closed, but once we are settled I will re-open it, hopefully with the addition of some new vintage treasures. On top of all the moving chaos, we also just got home from a trip across seas to Holland! Greg and I  have some friends there who invited us over and gave us the most fantastic tour of this small, beautiful country! I thought I’d share some the pictures I took during our travels!

One of our first stops was the small village of Kinderdijk to see their historic windmills (19 to be exact); all of which were built in the mid-1700′s. They were just amazing to see against the crisp blue skies!

A small outbuilding which reminded me of a Van Gogh painting…

And then on to the Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden.

The gardens consisted mostly of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. They must have had every color and species of tulip imaginable!

Surrounding the gardens were fields full of tulips, ready to be cut and shipped around the world!

The smells were absolutely incredible!

We stayed at our friends’ daughters house, who lived one block from the school attended by Anne Frank. The building is still a functioning school, and is painted with a selection from her diary, along with her signature.

We visited the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, which has just re-opened after 10 years of renovations. It is home to many famous pieces including Rembrandt’s famous “Nightwatch.” The building itself is a stunning work of art!

As if the week wasn’t already perfect with the tulips in bloom, we were fortunate to be in Amsterdam for a truly special and once-in-a-generation event – Queen Beatrix stepped down from the throne to named her son, Willem Alexander, and his wife Maxima, the new King and Queen of the Netherlands. We watched the ceremony on jumbo screens, along with hundreds of thousands of people from across the world, as it took place less than a half mile from where we stood!

We spent the rest of the week on the other side of the country, in Enschede, where our friends live. We visited many beautiful landmarks including this beautiful estate built in the 1600′s.

And I couldn’t leave Holland without some wooden shoes…hand carved and painted!

The farmers still wear these today. Once I get used to them, maybe I will learn to do a wooden clog dance!

Of course one of the main reasons we went was for the DOGS! Greg trains and sells police dogs, and we spent a few days watching the KNPV Trials (Dutch police dog competition). Greg bought this dog, Laser, who has traveled home with us to be a police K-9 in the states!

I met a few cute puppies, like this little guy…none of which could come home with me. Bummer.

Hope you enjoyed my pics! Unfortunately I won’t be posting any crafty stuff for a while, until we are settled in the new house and I can unpack all my supplies and get to work. I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful Spring weather and getting in some good “junkin” now that garage sales and flea markets are picking up! I am getting that “pickin” itch, and will be scouting new treasures for my booth at the co-op soon!

The Redneck Wine Glass

I have been wanting to do this project forever! It’s the one and only “Redneck Wine Glass”! I’ve seen them everywhere from Etsy to Bass Pro Shops to our very own Finger Lakes Wineries, and they sell anywhere from $10-$20 a piece! This leaves a lot of room for profit if you decide to make them yourself! I have always thought they’d be a great item to sell at my co-op considering we are kinda out in the country. I love how they came out and am so excited to share them with you!!!

Start out with mason jars and clear candle sticks. I got all of these at The Dollar Tree, but I am sure you could get them even cheaper if you did some thrifting!

My glue of choice was E-6000, as many other tutorials had suggested. I have seen mixed feedback on using E-6000 for this particular project. Some people say that it does not hold. Others have never had a problem, even after multiple (hand) washings. My glasses seem quite sturdy and I could not pull them apart, even with great force. On the tags I made, I recommended hand washing to prevent breakage (many reports of them falling apart were only after they went through a dish washer!)

The E-6000 dries crystal clear. Use a good amount of glue to ensure a good seal!

I let mine sit like this, undisturbed for 4 days. Those who had problems with them falling apart mentioned they had only let them dry for 24 hours. I’d definitely recommend letting them dry for at least 48-36 hours or more before handling them!

Next, for the tags, I used this brown kraft paper I got at the craft store. It’s a thin card stock and was perfect for these tags!

I made up some a little blurb for the tags: “The Official Redneck Wine Glass ~ Hey y’all – You don’t have to be a hillbilly to enjoy this one of a kind glass, but you do have to have a sense of humor! Fill ‘er up with your favorite wine, beer, or moonshine, kick up your heels, and GIT-R-DONE! Care instructions: Hand wash in warm soapy water & air dry.” This text is a combo of tags I found online with my own twist. Feel free to use this wording if you are thinking of making your own tags!

I used Microsoft Powerpoint to lay out the text, saved the file as a PDF, and kept making test prints to get the size right. I kept shrinking the font size til the blurb fit perfectly into my tag hole-punch! This tag punch is a large one – 3.5″ tall by 2″ wide.

To add some color, I traced the lids onto some scrapbook paper to make little lid covers. I used gingham and stars – but you could customize your glasses for any occasion by using different lid designs and themes!

And here they are! I tied a small strip of burlap on the stem of the glass (you could use raffia or torn homespun too) and then tied on my little tags with some twine.

Woohoo! I looooove them! I only made 6 for now but am totally making more! I’ll let ya know if they do well at the co-op! Hope everyone has a Happy St. Patty’s Day!

Etsy Coupon For My Blog Peeps!

Just wanted to let my crafty friends / readers know that I am selling off some of the country word blocks / shelf sitters I had stocked up on for my booth. They are now in my Etsy store at a wholesale price. I have created a special coupon for free shipping on orders over $20, especially for readers and friends of my blog. When you check out, enter craftypeeps (no space, all one word) in the coupon code section. The coupon will be active for probably a month or so and applies to anything in the shop, not just these word blocks. Anyone can use it. Spread the word!

Thanks so much for your continued support and I will be back soon with some fun craftiness!

 

Dollar Store Salt Shakers + Vintage Buttons = Button Flower Bouquets

It’s me again! I am on a crafting BINGE! I don’t know what’s gotten into me! Maybe because it’s been sunny and “Spring” feeling these last few days? I don’t know, but I’m going with it!

I have a fun “dollar store craft” for you! I made these cute little vintage button bouquets using Dollar Tree salt shakers (you can also find some at the thrift store for super cheap, like the ones here on the left) and some buttons and wire that I had on hand. So easy and a perfect Spring craft!

I also used twine for a bow accent, and shredded paper (also found at Dollar Tree) to stuff inside the shakers and help hold wire stems in place. I suggest using a pair of pliers that have a cutting edge on them, so you don’t jack up your scissors while cutting the wire.

To make the stems, you are going to twist the two sides of the wire together. Fold the wire piece over and cut it roughly the length you want the stem to be – keeping in mind it will be a tad shorter after twisting it together.

Layer your buttons to make fun, colorful little “flowers.” Slide the ends of the wire through your button flower and start twisting them together tightly, to create a sturdy stem. Cut off the excess wire.

Stuff a small amount of shredded paper down in the salt shaker to help hold the stems in place. You could use more buttons, beads, floral foam, or nothing at all…whatever you want!

Make as many flowers as you’d like! They are fun to make!

My first bouquet is a red and brown theme

And my second bouquet was a blue and black theme

I photographed them for Etsy but decided at the last-minute to bring them to the co-op. They are currently in my booth at The Carriage Place. I can’t wait to make more!

Last night I photographed a ton of new stuff I am putting in my Etsy store, and I wanted to let all my fellow crafters, that have booths or small shops, know that I am going to be selling these word blocks in groups of 6 at a wholesale price. I ordered way too many of them, so they’ll be in my shop this week at some point. They would be a great little item to resell, if you’re into country/prim decor like me!

  

I also wanted to share a few great thrift store finds from today! A great enamelware tin pan, an apothecary style jar (these sell like hot cakes in my booth!) some wooden plaques for future craft projects, vintage tin molds, and a small wooden platter with a glass cloche. I am going to paint the wooden base – probably black with a yellow prim star in the middle.

I was also sooooooooo excited to find some unique Scrabble tiles from a “Deluxe” edition of the game; 100 tiles for only $4! Best of all, they are maroon colored! I love that they are different from the regular Scrabble tiles, yet are a great color for country crafting!

And lastly, I had to share this find…..these brown kraft boxes were only $1 for a bag of 6!!! If you have an A.C. Moore’s, go grab some before they are discontinued!!! I was “that person” who depleted their inventory. Hehe. I am going to stamp them eventually. Love the variety of shapes!

That’s all for today! Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!!

A Successful Pinterest Project! Cupcake Themed Baby Gift

Though this does not fall into my normal theme of country/primitive crafting, I was excited at the ridiculously cute results of this Pinterest project I made for a friend. This friend is my official cupcake-making buddy so this was a perfect gift ~ cupcake onesies! Here is the original link: http://www.diyandcraftideas.com/cupcake-baby-gift/ for this project!

I started with 4 little onesies for my “cupcakes” – I tried to get mostly plain colors so they weren’t too busy. The pink socks and pink mittens became the “cherries” on top!

I got a cute cupcake box and fancy wrappers at Joann Fabrics. I did not end up using the teal cupcake wrappers because the rolled-up onesies were a little too fat!

Start by folding the onesies, and rolling in the sock “cherry”!

I used clear scotch tape to hold it together.

Awww, aren’t they cute enough to eat?!

Put them in your cupcake box, and voila!

I don’t have a pic but I did add a small purple bow and a little tag! I just love how freakin’ cute they are!

I just had to share!!! I shall be back with our regularly scheduled crafting soon! Have a great day!

Scrabble Tile Wall Art

I am finally starting to get my crafting mojo back after a few months of the winter blahs, thanks to some of my fellow crafters and friends who have been sharing some great ideas and projects lately! My friend Sara made this awesome wall plaque using burlap and Scrabble tiles, which I would LOVE to recreate for my booth at The Carriage Place!

I just adore the burlap and scrabble tiles together, so I decided to make a shadow box for my friend with the names of her expanding family. She is due in a few months to add a little boy named Henry to the crew!

So here are the supplies I used! An 8″ x 10″ shadow box from Joann’s, some Scrabble tiles that I found at Goodwill (bought the whole game for $2 and now have 100 letters to work with! Great deal!), some burlap, rusty tin shapes to accent the final project, and my trusty glue gun!

I would recommend laying out your names/words ahead of time to make sure they fit properly in your frame or shadow box. As you can see from my drawing, the names fit nicely on an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper, but I couldn’t find a shadow box in that size. Now that I am done, I would have liked to get one a little bigger than 8″ x 10″, as it was cutting it a bit close to the edges. I think it would have been more visually appealing to have some space around the names – see the final product and let me know what you think!

I laid the names out on the cardboard insert to make sure they fit!

I then hot glued the pieces together, to make it easier to line them up on the background.

Cut the burlap to the size of the cardboard insert of the frame or shadow box. It was easy to cut it straight using the lines of the burlap as guides.

Warning: the burlap gets everywhere when you cut it! If you have an anal-retentive significant other like I do, I would suggest laying down some newspaper or else you’d be cleaning up all the little burlap fuzzies that cling to EVERYTHING! hehehe…

I used small dots of hot glue on the corners and around the edges to hold the burlap background in place.

Lay down the puzzle-pieces and glue the names together! Make sure they are straight!

I tried many different rusty tin accents, from little salt box houses, to hearts, to stars. I decided to go with one large star in the corner; I didn’t want it too “busy”.

Tip: Use a blow dryer on the hot setting to dissolve any hot glue string that may be on your project. After a few seconds they just disappear!

And here’s the final product! Again, I wish there was more space above the “M” in Melanie and below the “Y” in Henry. Because of my mild OCD tendencies, I may just have to go back and get a 12″ x 12″ shadow box and replace the 8″ x 10″. It’s really bugging me! lol.

UPDATE! I got a slightly larger shadow box (10″ x 10″) to create a little more space above and below the names. It was bothering me how scrunched they looked. This new shadow box is perfect! I also corrected Christine’s name…it was spelled wrong, in case anyone noticed!

I also thought I would share some updated photos of my booth at the co-op after a little re-organizing! I like to just move stuff around once in a while to keep it looking “fresh” and different. There are not a lot of crafts in there; more antiques and vintage items. I hope to get some more hand made stuff in there this Spring!

Thanks for stoppin’ by! Happy crafting!

P.S. I apologize for the random links in my post(s), that when you hover over them with your mouse, says “coupon drop down” or something like that. I am not making those links  -  it’s must be a virus or spam type action that’s automatically appearing here and there. Don’t click them. Sorry!

Some Thrift Store Finds and Makin’ Tags!

Hello crafty people! I thought this awesome ecard was perfect for this post, as I finally got my pickin’ “fix” this weekend after hitting up a few thrift stores! In the winter, garage sales and estate sales are scarce around here, so I tend to more thrifting in the winter months. I found some pretty cool stuff that I plan on putting in my booth over at the Carriage Place later this week when I do a complete overhaul.

I got this light green enamel pot, which is awesome because I found the exact same one a few months ago that is a darker shade of green! They’ll look great next to each other, especially with St. Patty’s Day coming up! I also found a few “apothecary” jars, and a green glass candy dish. I don’t usually do fancy glassware (aside from mason jars, vintage bottles, etc.) but this one was kinda neat looking and had some nice floral designs.

I scored 2 awesome Pyrex casserole dishes with fun patterns that also shout “SPRING!”

I got a bunch of vintage Anchor Hocking jars with lids, which I thought would be great on someone’s counter filled with flour, sugar, or other stuff!

Lastly I got this cute little “cottage chic” bird house and an enamel pitcher. The pitcher was a STEAL at $3 because I believe it’s real, and not a repro. It’s pretty heavy and appears to be old! Sweet!

In other crafty news, I decided to use up some of my tons of scrapbooking paper and make tags, using my trusty tag-shaped hole punch. I don’t even scrapbook – I just have an uncontrollable compulsion to buy cool scrapbooking paper when it’s on sale, “just in case.” Lol. This was the perfect use for it!

I punched some with designs on one side and plain white on the back, for use as gift tags. I went through each one and punched a small hole in the top for stringing them. I am going to sell them in my Etsy store in sets, with baker’s twine of a coordinating color, for hanging them.

Depending on the paper, some have designs on both front and back. I thought they’d still make nice gift tags, or for paper crafts and scrapbooking. The possibilities are really endless! I think these are a great idea for craft shows too, especially around the holidays! High profit margin, and something everyone can use!

That’s it for today. I have craft ADHD and haven’t finished painting the gnomes (from the last post) yet. I will soon. Hope everyone stays warm and has a fantastic week! BBS!

Experimenting With Crayola Air Dry Clay: Mini Gnomes & Hanging Crows

Hello my crafty friends!!! Is anyone else officially sick of winter? I have those winter “blahs” and have been less than motivated lately. I can’t wait for nicer weather so I can get outside and do some spray painting, sanding, and most of all, some  “pickin!” In the meantime, I finally got around to experimenting with some air-dry clay, which I am loving!!!

It’s Crayola Air-Dry Clay to be specific, which is wallet-friendly at a whopping $4 per tub! And if you are planning on doing small figurines, this tub will go a long way! You can get this stuff anywhere; I got mine at Target!

I have a long list of “creatures” I’d like to make, but decided to start with gnomes and birds due to their easy, basic shapes. I eventually would like to make little pumpkins, little snowmen, crows and stars, and maybe some other types of Christmas ornaments. We’ll see!

I had a small bowl of water on hand for when the clay starts drying out. Just a little water helps make the clay nice and soft again.

For the hangers, I cut small pieces of thin wire and folded them in half to make little loops. Then I pushed them straight down into the top of the clay birds. Now that they are dry, the wire loops seem to be pretty firm in place.

You can make whatever shapes you’d like, as this clay is very soft and easy to work with!

Here’s my gang of gnomes, drying on the counter. I let them dry for a good two days before painting them. Obviously the thicker they are, the longer they’ll need to dry completely.

Before painting these guys, I looked up gnomes online and just got some ideas. I didn’t want to paint anything too complex. I like to draw out ideas before I start projects to decide which direction I’d like to go. I also found that drawing gnomes is really fun and addicting. LOL!

I lightly drew some lines for the beard and hat. Don’t press too hard or you’ll make indents in your clay.

And start painting! I used acrylic paint for this project. Now that I am done, I would recommend using water-based acrylics rather than the thicker, higher-pigmented acrylics. The thicker acrylics did not adhere to the clay as well and “chipped” off in places. The only down side to the water-based paint is that it is significantly thinner, so multiple coats are needed to get complete coverage.

You can see in the picture below, the difference between the 2 types of acrylic paint. The one on the left is the water based paint which adhered much better. The one on the right tended to “chip” more. I will definitely be using the water-based paint from now on.

And here’s one of the completed gnomes! Isn’t he cute? After the paint dried, I seal it with 2 coats of glossy mod podge. It created that shiny glazed kiln look! Here’s a before and after…

And here is a completed birdie. I painted the tip of his beak yellow and did little gray dots for eyes. I haven’t sealed this one yet, but I will use the same glossy mod podge. I used some thin jute twine to hang him up!

I love the black birds, but I also plan on painting a some red and some americana blue. I only painted a few of my creatures last night because they are a bit time-consuming, and I was also itching to post something since it’s been a while! I’ll be sure to post the rest once they’re painted, but it might be a while. Hehe…

Let me know if you give the air-dry clay a whirl, and how it goes! I think it would be great for kids crafts, but there’s a whole world of possibilities for folk art or “prim” type crafts too! Happy crafting and have a super-duper week!

New Etsy Additions: Skeleton Keys, Cinnamon Sticks, Rose Hips and More!

So this post is a shameless plug for my Etsy store…sue me! I haven’t done much crafting since the Sculpey ornaments, but I have been busy trying to photograph and list some new items; mostly craft supplies. It seems my store has become more geared toward craft supplies and accessories, which I am happy to provide for those who may not have immediate access to them!

Here are a few pics, to give you an idea of what’s new over at Upstate Primitives!

Starting with jars of colored buttons! I have seen so many cute button projects on Pinterest lately, I thought these could come in handy!

TONS of skeleton keys of all shapes and sizes, and I have TONS more to come! Please feel free to email me there is a specific type of key you’re looking for!

I love these super tiny keys and thought they would make great charms for you jewelry-making peeps out there!

I also have some dried rose hips, anise stars, allspice, and cloves, for your crafting or “fixins” needs! In the near future I plan on making some scented fixins for my booth with some cinnamon-applesauce ornaments mixed in – maybe little stars or hearts – we’ll see!

I’ve had requests for the long cinnamon sticks, which can be hard to find. These are great for making giant stars (make star shape and tie together with jute or homespun strips) or “cinnamon stick santa’s” as seen on Pinterest!

Also some 6″ and 1″ cinnamon sticks!

Thanks for takin’ a look and I’ll try to be back with some crafty shananagans as soon as I get motivated! This time of year tends to be a little slower for me, but I have a few potential projects in mind. Have a great week everyone!

My First Attempt At Stamped Sculpey Clay Ornaments

Yay, the world didn’t end! That means we can keep crafting!

I’ve wanted to play with oven-bake clay for a while now so I picked up a package of Original Sculpey oven-bake clay at A.C. Moore’s the other day.  This stuff is great – it’s very easy to work with and only took me just a minute of kneading it for it to become very pliable. I can see why it’s good for kids crafts as well!

I decided to try stamping the clay. I broke out a bunch of random stamps including a set of small alphabet stamps. After some experimenting, I would recommend using stamps with heavy lines. The stamps with fine details didn’t work as well.

I see these small letter stamp sets in the $1 bins at all the craft stores! I’ve even seen them at Walmart. Scoop ‘em up when you see them, because they work AWESOME for this project! Helpful tip: write the letter / number on each side of the stamp so it’s easier to find the stamps you are looking for when they are strewn all over your craft area!

Since I do things the ghetto-fabulous way, I used different sized wine glasses / flutes as my ornament cutters. You could also use cookie cutters, which I did not think of until after the fact…duh!

(Disclaimer: I would not recommend doing using glasses that you plan to drink out of, because I don’t want to be responsible for getting you sick! Same with using knives and cookie sheets…technically you are supposed to keep your clay and food/cooking tools separate. Honestly, I just wash them really good and use them again like normal, and so far, I’ve lived!)

I rolled out the clay to approximately 1/4″, cut out the circles using my glasses, and then stamped them. There were many re-do’s and mistakes…I found some stamps worked well and some didn’t. You gotta just play around and see what looks best! I poked a small hole in the top of each pendant using a toothpick. I’ve seen others use a straw for a bigger hole.

Follow the Sculpey directions on the box to baking times. I baked mine at 275 °F for 15 minutes, and they came out great. After letting them cool completely, they were quite hard and durable.

And now for painting! Again – experimenting here. Upon tons of Googling, I found you should use water based acrylic craft paints, unless you are going to seal them first, which I didn’t want to bother with. I used the acrylic craft paints below, which happen to be super cheap too. I think these pains were $.50 each from the craft store if I remember correctly!

I tried a couple of different techniques with varying results. Technique #1 was painting over the stamp indents to get paint down in the creases, and then wiping off the surface with a DAMP paper towel.

Here are they results (below). They come out good if the stamp is deep enough. Otherwise, the paint easily wipes right out of the indented areas. See the middle of the bird cage on the left? I didn’t evenly press down the stamp, so some areas show up better with the paint than others. The key one came out pretty good!

Technique #2, which I really like, is to paint the whole surface and then wipe off the paint with a DRY paper towel. This leaves some paint on the surface, almost like a “stain”, while also leaving paint down in the grooves of the stamped design.

Here’s the result. I like this better, because the color on the surface kind of covers up any imperfections and adds to the “vintage” look.

Another way to do this would be just paint the surface with the desired color and then wipe, faced down, on the dry paper towel like this:

That seemed to work well in keeping the paint down in the grooves but leaving a nice over-all color stain on the surface. I also found you can do this, let it dry, and do this technique over again to get bolder colors! Here is the result of doing it twice:

Technique #3 was doing the 1st method (paint then wipe off with a damp paper towel) and then letting it dry…then doing a light “wash”, if you will, with another color. I started with black lines:

And then diluted some green (with a bit of water) and painted over it. I then wiped it with a dry paper towel to leave some green staining on the surface.

The result is the one in the picture below, on the bottom left. The same technique was used for the other two in this pic, but different colors. This is my fave I think! Love the two-tone look!

After they dried, I sealed them with the hard coat Mod Podge. It dried with a very subtle matte finish, and you couldn’t even tell it was there. The sparkle Mod Podge would be cool too, especially for Christmas ornaments, but I didn’t end up using it for this project.

Here are some close-up’s. I used thin jute twine I had lying around to hang them up. I think for a first try, they came out pretty neat!

My mind is spinning with ideas…these would be great as custom Christmas ornaments, tags for gifts, wedding favors, or just little ornies to hang around the house! Small ones for jewelry pendants, wine glass charms, or big ones as coasters! If only I had more time!

I found some other craft blogs with some variations on this project:

Clean, simple, white ornaments from Little Lovelies:

Or these fun, colorful little doodads from Neat and Tangled:

And some more great personalized Christmas ornies from Then She Made:

Hope you were able to get some ideas from my day of fooling around Sculpey and the links I have posted above! There is so much potential here! I can’t wait to work on some more and maybe create some ornies to sell in my Etsy store! Also coming soon to my Etsy: tons of awesome real antique skeleton keys, bulk rose hips, cinnamon sticks, and more! Stay tuned!!!

Oh yeah, and Happy New Year!!!!!!! Cheers!

Pinterest Inspired Christmas Treat: Strawberry & Cool Whip Santas

Merry Christmas Eve! First off, I’d like to announce the winners of the stamp give-away! Congrats to Matt, Linda, and Carolyn! Thanks SO much to all who left such kind words about my blog! It’s so much fun to get feedback and I appreciate every single comment that was left! Thank you ALL for your support! I will definitely be doing more give-aways in the future, this was FUN!

So in honor of Christmas, I thought I’d share these little guys I whipped up for my office Christmas party. As you may know, I have a mild addiction to Pinterest…and I know most of you do too! You’ve probably seen these and have them pinned on your Christmas Treats board somewhere! They were just as easy as they look, and are SO incredibly yummy! I give this project 2 thumbs up!

I’ll share my process, although it’s pretty self-explanatory. I would highly recommend Cool Whip Frosting instead of regular Cool Whip or whipped cream. This new Cool Whip Frosting (cream cheese flavored….SCORE!) is a little more dense and will hold up the hats a better, where as the others seem to be too soft and more likely to run. I used chocolate sprinkles as the eyes.

Pre-slice the tips of the berries, or the “hats”…

And fill a Ziplock bag full of your Cool Whip frosting. You can use a frosting bag tip like this if you want, or not! I prefer Ziplock’s to frosting bags because there is no cleaning involved…just toss ‘em when you’re done.

Pile on a little santa head…

Add the hat, and dab a little bit of frosting on the tip of the hat!

Add your eyes, and done! I put them in cupcake papers for easy grabbing and transport

Some are fat, some are small…but they are allllll delish!

I just love these! They may become a regular on the annual Christmas treat list!

I shall leave you with a one of my favorite holiday illustrations by the one and only macabre artist Mr. Edward Gorey! Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Easy Dollar Store Craft: Sharpie Decorated Christmas Ornaments

If you are on Pinterest, or frequently peruse craft blogs like I do, then I know you’ve seen some variation of this Sharpie project! Porcelain mugs, plates, bowls, and more…simply drawn on with Sharpies and baked for 30 minutes to make the designs permanent. Talk about easy and FUN! I love this idea – the possibilities are truly endless!

Though it’s not technically a dollar store, these porcelain ornaments were only $1.00 at A.C. Moore. I betcha you could find some similar at the Dollar Tree. If not, I know most dollar store have porcelain coffee mugs and plates that would work great too. You could also look around the thrift stores and score some cheap porcelain “canvases”!

I looked online at graphics and clip art and got some ideas on what I wanted to draw.  It’s hard to see in the picture below, but I did draw a rough outline of my design with a pencil before taking a Sharpie to it.

I love this little folk art snowman! I copied him from Chestnut Junction Graphics. I did purchase the graphic for use on other projects as well…he’s just too cute!

Helpful tip: While working on your designs, don’t fret if you make a mistake. A little rubbing alcohol will “erase” the Sharpie marker on the porcelain (before baking, that is). I used Q-tips as a way to touch up and re-do some areas.

Here are some of the designs I came up with for my ornaments! I free handed these but you could easily use a transfer method or a stamp as a base for your design if you’d like!

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes to make the Sharpie designs permanent. After baking, they look exactly the same. They do not brown or fade!

I cut off the tacky gold string and replaced it with some ribbon and twine. You could use jute twine, baker’s twine, homespun fabric, ribbon, or wire to hang your ornaments. Go with whatever compliments your designs!

Awwwwww, love my lil’ snowman hanging on my lil’ country Christmas tree! What a great, cost-effective idea for Christmas gifts or party favors!

And I hung up the crow themed ornie on my crow shelf. I love crows…can ya tell?!?

And now for something even MORE fun than crafts…FREE craft supplies! I realized that since I started my blog I have never done a give-away! Shame on me! I have so many loyal readers and crafty friends that I thought I’d give away some fun stamps to say THANKS for reading my blog! Leave a comment on this post with your name and you could win one of these 3 stamps!

A large “script” stamp, which would be great for tags or scrapbooking…

A Victorian looking skeleton key

Or a set of 4 vintage “Ladies In Hats” stamps, as you may have seen on my little grubby tags! I have my own set of these pretty ladies!

I will use a random number generator to pick 3 numbers and match those numbers up with the list of comments. For example, if you’re the 3rd person to leave a comment, and one of the randomly generated numbers is “3″, then you’ll win one of the stamps! I will draw 3 numbers a week from today, which will be on Christmas Eve! I’ll email the winners and mail them out just in time to start off 2013 with some fun new craft projects!!! GOOD LUCK!

If you give the Sharpie Ornies a whirl, I’d LOVE to see pics! I’ll even post them here! Thanks! Happy Craftin’!

“Puppies In Stockings” and New Craft Supplies In my Etsy Store!

So things have been pretty busy here lately – and not in a crafty way, unfortunately. BUT, it’s been a ton of fun because Greg’s police K-9 had a litter of 9 puppies which were 3 weeks old yesterday! I thought I’d share some pictures of these cute little chunky monkeys which are sure to make you go AWWWWWW!

First, here is the very cool x-ray that was done a couple of weeks before she gave birth. I love all the little skeletons!

Here they are the day they were born. You may notice there are 10 here. She had 11 pups total, and we did lose 2. Unfortunately it is to be expected with a large litter.

Their eyes and ears do not open for at least a week or so.

A tired mama rests while babies eat…

Fast forward to this week…Christmas stocking photo shoot! Their eyes are open and they are squeaking and rolling around all over the place as they attempt to walk. After some initial chaos, I got them to cooperate and got some pretty darn cute results…

And the one going in our Christmas card this year:

I have a problem…I like to dress them up like little people. Is that so wrong? LOL!

Anyway, I wanted to share some new items, mostly craft supplies, that I have added to my Etsy store Upstate Primitives. Per some of my fellow crafters’ request, I have added some tin stars and hearts, like the ones I have used in a lot of my posts. I also added knobs, buttons, keys, and many other items you have already seen being used in some of my projects. I know there are lots of people in rural areas that don’t have access to the plethora of craft stores as I do, so I wanted to add them to my store.

Hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday season and enjoying all the small moments that make this time of year so great. Christmas lights, family and friends, holiday cookies and treats, and all that good stuff. I know I am! Have a great day and thanks so much for stoppin’ by!

Easy Thanksgiving Favors: Rolo Pretzel Turtles

I have to apologize for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks. I kinda had a craft-overload leading up to my show at the beginning of the month and needed a break! You know, let the tips of my fingers heal from all the hot glue burns….hehe!

So, in honor of Turkey Day, I made up some yummy little favors to bring to my Mom’s for dinner. I admit, I really just wanted an excuse to make these treats cause they are SO stinkin’ good! The salty crunch of pretzels with chocolate, caramel, and pecans? A-MAZING!

You’ll need: treat bags, twine, some homespun fabric torn into thin strips, and some little “Happy Thanksgiving” tags of some sort. I found this vintage “Thanksgiving Greetings” graphic online and printed it out on some heavy stock paper. You could personalize some homemade tags or print out virtually anything to decorate your favors!

Here’s the free graphic, downloaded from littlebirdieblessings.blogspot.com, if you’d like to use it

For the Rolo Pretzel Turtles, you’ll seen small pretzels (these square ones work best), some shelled pecans and a bag of Rolo’s! Chocolate wafers (melting chocolate for candy making) also work great if you want to nix the caramel.

Place the Rolo’s on top of the pretzels and put them in the oven for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees. The Rolo’s should be softened and warmed though, but not melted. Immediately place a pecan half on each one, pressing it down into the softened Rolo! Yuuuuum!

Tip: A foil lined baking tray makes for very easy clean up.

Put some in a treat bag and tie with a little strip of homespun fabric. You could also add some raffia for a nice Fall look!

Use a hole punch to punch small holes in the corners of the tags…

And tie on your tag with some twine. Cute, quick, easy, and super yummy favors that everyone will LOVE, guaranteed!

Before I go, I thought I’d share some photos of my newly re-arranged booth at The Carriage Place! I made the decision to condense back down to one booth, because I felt that one full booth was better than two sparse booths. It was getting hard to keep up with both spaces between working full time and all the other projects I have going on. I am back in my corner booth and it’s looking fresh and over-flowing with all kinds of vintage and primitive goodies!

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving, and a great long weekend with family and friends! Thank you again for all the very sweet comments, tips, and feedback you all have left for me – I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. When it comes to being thankful, I am most certainly thankful for all the support and love from all my fellow crafters out there!

Pictures From “The Big Show” ~ Clarkson Craft, Food, & Wine Show 2012

Well, another show has come and gone. The show was a huge success and a lot of projects I’ve shared here sold out, including the melted snowmen ornaments, both the big and little homespun candy canes, the large spray painted jingle bells, the pins, and the night lights with silicone bulbs! It was a ton of fun and I thought I’d share some pics!

I also wanted to stop say thank you to all of my new followers who have commented and “pinned” some of my ideas here. It’s such an honor to have so many people who enjoy reading my posts. It all started as a little crafty area to document my projects, but it has blossomed into something bigger than I could have imagined. Thank you!!!

Have and awesome weekend and Happy Crafting!