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!

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!

More Craft Show Display Ideas

The craft show preparations are in full swing! That means tying up lots of loose ends and coming up with some new, creative ways to display my stuff. I did a post a while back on craft show display ideas, but here are a few fun ideas I have decided to go with for this years show!

My favorite display utilizes this little red suitcase that I picked up off the side of the road…for free! It was in good condition except for the inside missing some fabric. An easy fix…

I hot glued on a square of red & green fabric and tucked the edges underneath the cute red ruffles. I will use a small crock to separate the mini candy canes!

How cute is this little suitcase?? A simple safety-pin holds up a string of twine that I will use to hang up more candy canes!

Next I needed a place to display my gazillions of magnets I made this year. I literally have probably 10 times the amount of magnets, between the snowman clips, the sparkly snowman faces, and the marble magnets. I decided to dedicate this board to hanging up enamel pans, which the magnets will stick to! I’m always picking up colored enamel pans when I am out and about, for this very reason!

I recently got ahold of this cool old coal bucket from my Grandma’s house. I am not going to sell it, but I will use it as a display for my primitive tree toppers. I find it so much more visually interesting than say a plain basket or plastic container. In my opinion, displays like this really work to create that primitive/country feel you want in your space!

Another idea I got was to use this old seed bag cart to hang up ornaments and pins. I tried selling this cart at the co-op forever, to no avail. It’s been sitting in my basement because I knew I would find a use for it eventually. All I did was hammer in a few nails and voila! It will add height and visual interest to my table!

I have been debating on how to display the melted snowman ornaments because of how fragile they are. I also don’t want them swinging around and burying the eyes and noses down into the snow. I think I am going to prop them up on mason jars of varying heights.  Think of how cute this would look as a line of colored, vintage bulbs along a mantle!

And lastly, I finished up a batch of country night lights and was going to hang them up. Instead, I went with them fanned out in a shallow basket.

I have had a busy few days and finished up a TON of projects! I am so proud of myself for gittin-r-done!!! Here are some pics of some of the finished projects! Starting with my #1 best seller and personal favorite…the homespun candy cane!

And this year, some MINI candy canes too! I was going to tie them together in small bunches, but I think I’ll sell ‘em individually instead.

My annual snowman magnets…changed up the faces this year. Some with eyebrows and no mouths!

I haven’t had good luck selling my rag balls individually, so I decided to bag them up. Maybe a new look will help them sell as an instant collection of bowl fillers.

And last but not least, some sets of marble magnets. All packaged and will hopefully scream “stocking stuffers!” I have tons of single magnets, so I thought some themed groups would be fun. Cupcakes, leaves, pirates, hieroglyphics, vintage machines…something for everyone!

Hope you all had a great day and until next time, happy craftin!

Another Holiday Dollar Store Craft: Snowman Clothespin Magnets

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I’m loving the cool, crisp, Fall weather!

I have been working on a project for my show in a few weeks and wanted to share it with you, because I love how it came out! You may remember the tiny little snowman clips from years past, but this is a new take on the same project. I was inspired by my fellow crafter & blogger Lisa to use the larger clothespins and make them into magnets for the fridge, to hold papers, pictures, or whatever. See Lisa’s take on this project here: http://www.booth555.com/2012/09/snowmen-clothes-pin-magnets.html

I started with cheap clothespins from Walmart – a 100 pack for around $3. Score! I know you can get these at any dollar store also, which is why I consider it a “dollar store craft”.

I spray painted them white with Rustoleum Heirloom White. Did one side, let it dry, and did the other side. The over-spray was enough to cover the sides.

I like to do each step in bulk, rather than do them one at a time. I always start with the noses first!

Then I used a Sharpie paint pen for the eyes and buttons. The paint pen was too thick for the little eyebrows so I used a fine tip Sharpie marker (just a regular permanent marker as opposed to a paint pen) for the fine eyebrows.

I prefer the little round magnets, which are also from the dollar store, because they are a lot stronger than the flat magnets. I ran out of them, so I used some of these flat magnets, cut into thin strips, and hot glued on. They work, but do not have as strong of a hold. If I have time, I may go back and replace them with the round ones, if my dollar store still has them in stock.

Here are some of the completed snowmen. Some have scarfs and some have little tin stars, just to mix it up a little!

I also did a batch with vintage buttons!

To display magnets, I normally would use a large tin star, the back of a cookie sheet, or the back of a large enamel pan. This time I had way too many and decided to use this old tin/metal table as a display! The magnets cling to it really well. Using some brown kraft paper from the dollar store (comes in rolls, and I use it for everything!) I just cut a piece long enough to drape over the length of the table, and voila! Thinking about stamping it with my logo stamp, or some fun Christmas stamps!

Here is how it will stand up. I left the drop leafs folded over, and it stands up perfectly. As you can see, I used these little tiny dollar store clamps (the small black ones along the top of the kraft paper) to hold the paper in place. You could easily just tape it on too. I am so excited about this idea, because it will be an easy display to transport, and will give a lot of height to my table!

Before I go, a quick update on the wooden snowman spoons! I thought they were too “blah” so I grubbied them up a bit by rubbing on some Deco Art gel stain, and then wiping off. I then sealed them with sparkle mod podge, which doesn’t show up that great in the picture because it’s a subtle shimmer. They have a little more pizzazz now, and a bit more of that “prim” feel!!!

Well, have a GREAT week and happy crafting!!!

How to Make Your Own Stamped Gift Tags & An Impromptu Ghost Hunt…

Happy Fall!!! We just got home from week in Orange County, NY, for a Police K-9 Seminar that Greg was sponsoring, and boy was the weather and scenery spectacular! Upon getting home I realized there is just one month to go before my craft show and sooooo many things left I want to do…crap! I wanted to share some stamped gift tags I made because I think they have potential to be really great craft show sellers! I will also share some pictures from a little creepy detour I took in an abandoned hospital, where some of the K-9 training took place. More on that in a bit…

For these cute lil gift tags, I used a heavy stock brown kraft paper, which I got out of the scrapbooking section of the craft store. It was like  $.20 a sheet or something ridiculously awesome like that.

I cut the card stock into strips and used a small tag punch to punch out tons of tags. I got this at one of the craft stores (Michael’s I think?) for about $12, after using a coupon. It was originally around $20, but TOTALLY worth it since you can make an unlimited amount of tags!

I used a tiny hole punch to make the holes and some black string for the ties.

I made a TON more than are shown here…they are so versatile! For gifts, price tags, decoration, craft show sellers, or general crafting! You could use different thin ribbons and different colored inks / papers…there’s soooo much potential!

I decided to leave some blank and stamp some, both for my craft show. I chose this cute little gnome stamp which sorta passes for an elf for the holidays…

And of course, Santa!

 I packaged ‘em up, 4 to a bag. I am thinking $1 per bag. It’s a descent profit for me, but a great deal for customers too. What do you think?

And now, for the ghost hunt you’ve anxiously been waiting to hear about! Forget this crafty crap, now THIS is COOL!!! I thought my fellow blogger Eva Halloween over at The Year of Halloween would particularly enjoy this, as she shares my affinity for the dark side! It all started when I heard we were going to an abandoned hospital for an afternoon of dog training…

And it didn’t take long for the stories and rumors to start, about how the place is haunted and all of the weird “encounters” the officers have had while training there. Naturally, I decided to take a detour down to the morgue and snap some photos in hopes of catching some otherworldly friends on camera. I didn’t capture anything in my photos, but I did HEAR something. A cart rolling down a hallway to be exact. With no one else on that floor. Hmm…

Let’s take the tour, shall we? Not to the basement, but down to the SUB-basement we go! For those of you who are less fond of the mortuary sciences, I apologize for the morbidity of the photos to come.

Turning the corner  heading towards the morgue was this lone, randomly placed chair. I so badly wanted there to see a figure sitting in it upon examining my photos. No luck.

The freezer where the deceased were stored until they could be put to rest.

And a lovely vintage incubator that looks more like a giant toaster oven to me. Same principle I guess?

And the much-anticipated morgue. All of my photos were devoid of any orbs or ghostly encounters like I had hoped. Still very interesting to see the table and tools so up close and personal.

A little foam neck holder to help position the body. Looks comfy, eh?

And what exactly were they slicing and dicing so hard that they left knife marks and scratches on the metal table? Guess we’ll never know…

The tools…just left there one day and never touched again.

Look at the size of that knife!

I never knew the liver weighed so much!

A nearby laundry room…

And some peculiar art work on the walls of a children’s operating room. I’m not sure a giant, blood-red octopus is really the most “calming” imagery they could have chosen…

And I will leave you with one last image of the deserted hospital memorial room. This place left me so intrigued and grateful for the opportunity to explore! Sweet dreams my friends!

The “Melted Snowman” Ornament

I have been quite the lazy blogger lately, and for that I am sorry…I have been doing all kinds of little projects and finally just getting around to documenting them all!

This weekend I finally did a Christmas craft project that has been on my to-do list for quite some time – the “melted snowman” ornament! I thought they might be fun for my upcoming holiday craft show. I would consider this a “dollar store craft” because these shatterproof clear plasic bulbs were $1 ea. at A.C. Moore, and most of the other materials could be found at the Dollar Tree, i.e. the salt and peppercorns.

I used salt for the “snow”, whole peppercorns for the “eyes / mouth”, and orange Fimo sculpting clay for the “noses.” The Fimo must be purchased at a craft store, but you could also make the noses out of Sculpey, salt dough, play dough, or even orange paper if you wanted to.

I rolled out little noses and chopped off the thicker ends with a knife to make it look like a real mini carrot. I made little crease marks on the noses to give ‘em texture. To harden the Fimo, bake at 230 degrees for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, I propped up the clear globes in small cups and used a small funnel to pour in approximately 1/4 cup of salt.

Next I added some peppercorns, to represent the eye & mouth coals that have dropped to the bottom after our little man “melted”!

Waiting for the noses to finish baking…tick, tock…

I used black embroidery thread to hang them up, but you could use twine, holiday ribbon, or torn strips of homespun fabric! Infact, I am thinking the black thread is kinda boring and might go back and use some homespun.

I think they’re so cute! I’ve seen some with the addition of small sticks as “arms” and/or a small piece of ribbon as a “scarf.” I like em’ simple, just like this!

I carefully packed them away for my craft show. I’ll let you know if they are good sellers or not. The noses and peppercorns generally stay on top of the “snow” and don’t get buried down in too easily, which I was happy about.

*Update!* Here is the melted snowman as created by my friend Sara! She added a little scarf and also used some homespun fabric to hang it up, which I really like! I might have to do something similar!

Here’s a version made by one of my readers, Alexis! She knits those tiny scarfs by hand! So jealous…I wish I could knit!

Less than 2 months til my big craft show…time to get my crafty @$$ in gear! I will keep you posted!

Dollar Store Christmas Craft: Wooden Snowman Spoons

Evening thinking about Christmas right now is slightly obnoxious, but this project just dawned on me and I felt the need to try it while the idea was fresh in my mind. I have used wooden spoons for other projects but realized their flat round spoons would make perfect little snowman faces! This set of 4 wooden spoons from Walmart wasn’t even $1…they were only $.88! Score! You can also usually find a set of 4 at any dollar store.

I spray painted them with Rustoleum Heirloom White. Any white spray paint would do, and because they are such light-colored wood, one coat worked fine.

Once dried I prepared to paint snowman faces using a Sharpie paint pen for the eyes, a thin black marker for the eyebrows and my favorite rusty orange acrylic paint for the noses.

I played around with different faces…some with mouths and eyebrows…some without…do whatever you think is cute!

Tied on a strip of homespun fabric “scarf”…awwwwww….

They would be great sticking out of vases around the holidays! In decorative jars, a little snowman family grouped in a small crock or jug, tied onto gifts…you could stick em’ anywhere!

Looking at them, I realize there is SO much more you could do with these…

• Add rosy cheeks
• Different styles of mouths (like x’s or a long thin squiggly line)
• Seal with a coat of sparkly Mod Podge to make them shimmer
• Sand the edges and use brown craft paint or gel stain to “grubby” them up
• Glue spaced out buttons down the length of the stick
• Add a rusty tin star around the neck
• Tie a tall one and short one together
• Drill a tiny hole to make em into hanging ornaments
• OR…spray paint the spoons ORANGE and do PUMPKIN faces!!! OOOOooooh…those are going to happen for sure!!!

What other ways could you jazz them up? If you try these, send me pics so I can post them here!

Have a great night and happy crafting! BBS!

A K-9 Demo, A Haunted Barn & More Marble Magnets

Talk about a busy Memorial Day weekend! It was great and the weather was perfect. I helped Greg with a military and working K-9 demo on Sunday at the Ogden Historical Society & Museum and also got a chance to see this awesome property filled to the brim with old primitives and antiques from our area, along with a few cool ghost stories.

Here are a few pics of Greg and his helpers in action!

The house and barn were built in 1811 and have a rich history. The museum is still in the process of sorting out some of the antiques that have been stashed in this barn, along with many donated historical items from people in town.

The barn is supposedly haunted by an old man, who is very cranky and “dislikes women.” I was told that he has been heard on EVP’s calling out “bitch” and other profanities. He has also been known to throw walnuts at people in the barn. I egged him on and dared him to throw a walnut at me, but he did not oblige.

There were many great antique medical devices, which I find fascinating.

The museum conducts 2 paranormal investigations each year, with mush success seeing and hearing these entities. There is a small girl attached to an old sleigh in the downstairs portion of the barn, and also a few spirits inside the house. They are often seen peeking out the upstairs windows. I am going to attend the next investigation for sure, and will keep you posted on any activity!

Okay, and now on to the crafty portion of the post! More marble magnets! These are a bit different from previous marble magnets I have made. These are 1″ in size and also I used some pre-designed holiday graphics that I purchased off of Etsy. I love to support other artists. For $2 and $3 per page (each page containing multiple images), I will have these images forever, to use however I want. It’s a lot less work for me having to find and resize images in Photoshop.

Here are the basic tools for today’s project, some of which you’ve seen before. I got the 1″ cabochons here and the clear silicone at Lowe’s. I also got a 1″ hole punch from Michael’s. You could easily cut them out by hand, but I like to have little tools like this for use in many different projects!

Since my craft show is in early November, I decided to do some Thanksgiving themed magnets as well as the usually Christmas ones. Magnets sell like little hot cakes so I wanted to make a bunch! The art I used was purchased from:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Kellymedinastudios

http://www.etsy.com/shop/EphemerasGarden

Punched them all first…

And then started with the silicone. I put a pea-sized dab in the middle of the image (using a tooth pick or some other small tool)…

And then smushed it down, with even pressure. It’s oh so satisfying to watch the silicone even out and magnify the image!

Your work space will then start to look like this…

After drying for about 2 hours I glued on small magnets. I didn’t use a barrier; glued em’ right onto the back of the paper image. The silicone is pretty strong and they will not budge. Here are a few of the finished products!

I love how they came out and am definitely going to make a bunch more, for both my booth at The Carriage Place and also for my craft show. They would make great gifts and fun stocking stuffers!

Hope everyone has a great week! Happy crafting!

The Easiest, Coolest Project Ever: Stamped Paper Mache Gift / Trinket Boxes

Sorry for the blogging hiatus! There’s been so much going on and I have been not been in the crafting mood lately. Now that the sun is starting to shine more and Spring is here, I am getting that itch again. Barn sale season is upon us! In the mean time, here is an easy little project that I was experimenting with, and REALLY like the results!

You may remember these little snowman boxes that I did for my winter craft show:

Well, I decided to play around with stamping some of the brown paper mache boxes that were found in the same area as the white ones above.

I got all my supplies ready to go…

And I quickly found out that larger stamps work better for this project, and I’ll show you why!!!

I tried stamping on the tops like you normally would, pressing the stamp down on top of the surface. The paper mache boxes aren’t perfectly flat on the top – they are warped, have raised edges, etc. Every time I stamped them, parts of the image would be missing, like this:

So, I found out that it worked much better to lay the stamps down on their backs, and press the paper mache surface onto the stamp. That way you can press down all the way around and ensure an evenly stamped image. Hence, the larger stamps work better!

Here are some of my favorites:

I think they would be a good Christmas craft show seller, maybe $1 a piece, to use as small gift boxes.  I’m gonna make more because they were just plain easy and fun to make. I’ll let you know how they do!

I categorized these as a “dollar store craft” because the paper mache boxes, at $2.50 per 6 pack amount to around $.41 cents a piece. That’s not including the half off coupons that you can always find online for the major craft stores. Also, I have had a lot of luck finding really cool stamps for $1.00, like these ones from Michaels:

So have at it! Send me a pic if you give them a try! In other news, I HAD to share with you the “find” of a lifetime…this  35 drawer catalog/apothecary unit…for FREE…on the side of the road!!! That just doesn’t happen! I about died!!!

Every drawer was there, with this AMAZING original hardware…

I was all gung-ho to sell it in my booth but upon cleaning it up, I decided to keep it. After a little soap and water, voila! Isn’t she a beaut? The bottom right have drawer is there, it’s just darker than the rest. It gives it character.

Well, hopefully I can get my butt up and moving with some craft projects and find some inspiration in this beautiful sunny, Spring weather. Hope everyone had a great weekend! BBS!

A Successful Craft Show!

Phew! What a whirlwind it’s been this month with all the crafty stuff going on mixed in with the usual holiday hustle and bustle! My big craft show was last weekend and I thought I’d share some pictures! It went GREAT…sold out of a ton of stuff! I have learned it’s the knick-knacks and little ornaments that people love!!!

The homespun candy canes were a HUGE hit! Sold every last one of them!

My friend and author Barbara was unable to make the show this year so we had a small table to sell her wonderful books, Snarly Sally and The Reindeer Keeper.  She writes the most magical stories!

And there’s my associate and best friend Christine making a sale…don’t know how I’d do it without her!!!

Our helper and mascot Miss Melanie, reading the bags like book…lol

I want to say thanks for all the encouraging words and support from everyone while getting ready for the show. Things went great and I can’t wait for next year!

I also wanted to share a few pictures of some of the cute holiday crafts made by some fellow crafters. I am happy to have provided a bit of inspiration and/or tips for some of these fun projects! It’s always neat to see someone else’s interpretation of a similar project!

A fellow crafter, Melba, made some homespun candy canes using real candy canes! She also used glue dots and tape, rather than hot glue – so they can be unwrapped and eaten later!

Amy from sittingatourkitchentable.blogspot.com made some adorable mini snowman clothespins, along with some normal sized ones, and clipped them on her tree! So stinkin’ cute!!! I like the ribbon scarfs as an alternative to little homespun fabric strips!

Well, I hope everyone has a relaxing Sunday and great week leading up the Christmas. I can’t wait to go home and see my mom for a few days and enjoy some quality family time. I am going to be taking a bit of a break from crafting so I will likely be back after the new year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

A Few Last-Minute Projects!

Wow! Only 3 days until my craft show up in the North Country! I have been working my @$$ off getting things ready and finishing up some last-minute projects, including using up some of the excess supplies I have had lying around. Remember those “vintage” style keys I found at Michael’s? I decided to make more decorative tags with them, since they have been selling well at the co-op. Whatever doesn’t sell at the craft show goes right back to the booth!

I also found some smaller keys with words on them in the scrapbooking section and thought they’d be super cute on the tags.

Another fun little project are these “Santa’s Key” signs. I had all these square red pieces of wood, that were left overs from “The Stockings Were Hung” signs. I didn’t want to throw them out, so I glued on some left over knobs (using E6000) and wrote Santa’s Key with a silver paint pen! I’ve seen this idea using hang tags with a key attached, but I thought a little wooden sign might be fun hanging next to the door!

You may have seen my little snowman clothespins, but I decided to change it up a little and try some gingerbread men. These have been sitting in a pile on my craft table for months because I didn’t like the way they were coming out. I finally figured out a simple face and I think they ended up being sort cute. I still like the snowmen better.

A last-minute trip to the thrift store turned up some cool folk-artish Santa’s! The one on the left had green and blue crayon marks all over it which were easily cleaned off with a scrubby. The one on the right had a little chip out of the center (the little white spot in the middle of the red robe) which was quite noticeable in person. I mixed up some paint to match the red robe and touched it up. Good as new!

I also found a few little vintage kitties, a cute little choir boy, another fun Santa, and this little wooden box. Just a few fun knick-knacks.

My favorite find was this wooden type set tray. Not sure if it’s a real old one or not but it’s still cool! I’ve always wanted one of these!

Guess that’s it for now…and I probably won’t be back til after the show. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Wish me luck!

“The Stockings Were Hung” Signs

So…my basement is an absolute disaster getting ready for my craft show next weekend! Every where you turn, it kinda looks like this…Christmas CHAOS!

And it continues to be a homespun candy cane sweat shop…

Anyway, this year I attempted some signs that were at the request of my friend Christine. I think they a are great idea for those of us who don’t have mantles to hang our stockings on! They came out very cute, but it was a total experiment. There are some things I’ll probably do different if I make them again next year.

So I started by purchasing these pieces of wood at Lowes. You could use any scrap wood you have lying around too. I spray painted them red and brown, but in the future I’d like to do a hunter green or a light green I think. I lightly sanded the surface and the edges. I used foam stamps for the letters. I find it’s easier and way faster to stamp them in bulk. Stamp the first letter on all your boards, then the second letter on all the boards, and so on.

After the stamping was done, I (Greg) trimmed the excess edge off. He drilled some holes for me, slightly larger than the width of the knob screws I was going to use.

Before doing the knobs, I wanted to do a few things while the board was still flat! I used a gel stain (Deco Art) to give it a bit of an aged look. It’s a subtle difference in the picture but is more noticeable in person.

Next I used these “push in” picture hangers (Lowes) because they’re easy to work with.

I used this metal punch to make sure the edges were all the down way in. Line it up with the edges and hammer them flat!

My favorite part…the KNOBS! I LOVE these knobs from Hobby Lobby! I always wait til they are 50% off (which is often) and buy them in bulk for projects. I had fun picking out the color combos for these signs! Anyway, I lined them up with the width of the board to see where to trim them, so that the sign will lay flush against the wall. I used a white paint pen to mark where they needed to be cut.

I had to buy a bolt cutter for this project ($14 at Lowes) but it’s a GREAT tool and I know that I’ll use it again. Totally worth investing in it.

It cut the knob screws with virtually NO effort! SO AWESOME! Forget hours of sawing with a hack saw!!!

I covered the knob screws with E-6000 (super-duper strong glue) and pushed them down into the pre-drilled holes.

And then waited oh so impatiently while they dried…

I am wondering if I should put a “…” after the work hung, like I have seen on some other similar signs online? Either way, I love them!!!

Some things I’d do differently are add more knobs and space the knobs farther apart. I’d also not do the brown, but maybe a light olive green or a dark hunter green. I was originally thinking that I wanted to do something neutral incase red didn’t fit someones color scheme, but I guess it doesn’t really matter around Christmas…cause everything is red and green! Maybe a blue & white one? Oh the decisions!!!

I am SOOOOOO excited for my craft show, mainly because I get to spend a weekend with my best friend. It’s always so much fun! Have a great weekend all you crafty super stars!

Inspired by “Pinterest”: Giant Snowman Clothespins and Sparkly Bulbs

For those of you who don’t use Pinterest…you should! It’s a very cool online pin board to “pin” your favorite pictures and store your ideas. I have found so many cool crafting ideas and actually worked on a few over the weekend!

First I made the snowman clothespin photo holders. I started out with a pile of giant clothespins from AC Moore’s, for $1 a piece!

Spray painted them “heirloom white” (Rustoleum American Accents brand)

Once dried I sanded the edges a bit to smooth ‘em down, and then free-handed the noses. As you can see, there were lots of snowman crafts going on this weekend!

I sealed them with one coat of sparkle mod podge, tied on a scarf, and hot glued a lil rusty star. I thought about using buttons, but the star was cuter.

You can use them for pictures, recipes, to-do lists…or whatever!

The other project inspired by photos seen on Pinterest are turning old Christmas bulbs into fun sparkly decorations or jar/bowl fillers. I got a huge box of these old bulbs at a garage sale, to use “as is” jar fillers, but I like the idea of sparkly ones better. If you have to buy them, replacement bulbs are available at Walmart or Target. If you’re lucky, you can find them at the $ store.

The key is using super fine glitter. I used Martha Stewart fine glitter. LOVE the variety of colors!

Paint the bulbs with a thin coat of white glue or mod podge and, while holding the bulbs above a paper plate, gently pour the glitter on the bulb as you turn it. I tried rolling the bulbs in a pile of glitter and all it did was make a mess and glob up. I found dumping the glitter on them made for an even coat all the way around. The paper plate is nice because you can easily pour your excess glitter back in its container.

Lay them on a paper plate to dry (or hang them to avoid this next step). Once dry, I took them off the paper plate and touched up the areas that stuck to the plate. Oops. Next time I’ll probably hang them to dry.

I suppose you could hang them individually as ornaments…but I like the color combinations together so I went with clear jars!

They were a bit time-consuming but I love the results. In other news, Paco is officially ready for Christmas!

With this long weekend, the crafting has been out of control, but very productive. I made more cinnamon gingerbread men, more snowman trinket boxes, all of the the above, and am half way through some “the stockings were hung” signs. Whew! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Be back soon!

Cinnamon Applesauce “Bowl Fillers”

My craft show is sneaking up on me, and I am in super-mega-crafting-mode! Over the weekend I finished a giant batch of cinnamon applesauce ornaments, which are always a hit at the craft show. Instead of hanging them up as actual ornaments, I just package them up as “bowl fillers” that can be sprinkled in with potpourri, fixins, or wherever! I decided to scrap the stars and go with all gingerbread men this year! They almost look good enough to eat!!!

These are an easy, CHEAP craft and would be great to do with kids, as party favors, stocking stuffers, or just for fun. They are made of pure cinnamon so the scent is strong and long-lasting. Google “cinnamon applesauce ornaments” for the basic recipe, and I’ll tell you how I tweaked mine.

The recipe calls for a bit of white glue, which I was out of, so I used some mod podge. The cinnamon was 2 for $1 at Walmart (or at the $ Tree). It also calls for equal parts applesauce to cinnamon, which I find makes the dough too wet. I use about 2/3 cup applesauce to every cup of cinnamon, and just go from there until it feels right.

A normal person would roll out the dough with a rolling pin, but since I am a redneck and apparently do have the most basic of baking tools, I used this empty beer bottle sitting on the counter. It worked great! Git-r-done!

I keep one bottle of cinnamon to dust the wax paper with, so the dough doesn’t stick. Use it like you would flour when baking. Sprinkling it on top of the dough also keeps the beer bottle, or rolling pin, from sticking!

I did all gingerbread men, but stars or hearts could be made all year ’round!

They are taking over! Gingerbread men everywhere!!!

I made them about a 1/4 inch thick. Too thin and they’ll snap easily.

They take a good 2-3 days to dry all the way through. The thicker they are, the longer they take to dry. You can toss them in a little bowl…

…or sprinkle them in with your country fixins to add some holiday flair!!!

For packaging, I am using these little clear “treat bags” that you can get at any craft store in the baking section – these bags come is all sizes & quantities!

And now that they are all packaged up, I wanna make more! Maybe this weekend! Sorry Greg. Hehe.

Have a wonderful Turkey Day!!! Enjoy the long weekend, the great food, and time with family and friends!!!

 

P.S. I updated the previous “Homespun Candy Cane” tutorial with some new pics of exactly how to wrap/glue them. It’s super easy but I thought a few additional photos might come in handy. Happy crafting!

A New Twist on the Homespun Candy Cane!

You may remember the homespun candy cane tutorial I did last year…they were such a hit! I’ve spent the last week making MASSES of them since I sold out so quickly last year at my craft show. This year I did some a little different!

I was at the Dollar Tree getting more of my usual candy canes when I spotted some MINI candy canes! Yay for miniature stuff!!! I knew they’d be easy to pop off their cheesy garland. Another dollar store SCORE!!! There are two Dollar Trees near me…one had them and one didn’t. Moral of the story: be sure to check all your local $ stores, so you don’t miss anything!

So after easily popping them off the plastic garland, I wrapped them up the same way as the bigger ones…how freakin adorable are these??

I thought they were a bit tiny to sell individually (although you could…) so I wrapped them in bundles of 5 and tied them with a piece of twine. I also added a little rusty bell.

Meanwhile, I have piles and piles of the regular sized ones ready to go!

Here’s a little refresher on the how-to. All I did was tear strips of fabric and used a hot glue gun to attach the fabric to one end, and start WRAPPIN’!

Keep it pulled tight as you wrap. At the end, seal off with a little more hot glue.

Trim off the excess fabric at the end…

…and using a dab of hot glue, fold down the end fabric. Be careful! I usually burn my fingers doing this part! DONE!

I figured since I’m doing small and medium candy canes…why not do a few LARGE ones too! How about EXTRA LARGE! $6 at the Amvet for 12 ginormous candy canes…

I also did these a little differently this year. I didn’t bother with wrapping with white muslin to create “stripes”…I liked them as is! Added a sprig of faux pines and two little rusty bells. I only have these 3 done so far, but I think I’ll do a variety of just green and red homespun fabrics.

Some other weekend projects consisted of cleaning this old mailbox and getting ready to bring it over to the co-op. It took a lot of scrubbing…but now she is a primitive BEAUTY! I kinda want to keep it but it’s a little TOO prim for Greg…

Love that old wood showing through! Wish I had the time and patience to strip this thing…

…And had to fit in some spray painting while the weather is still nice!!!

I finally got around to painting some of these thrift store wooden bowls. I have so many fun “bowl fillers” to sell…why not some bowls too?!

I sanded the edges but that’s about it. I can never get it to look quite right when trying to sand a curved surface…they just end up looking messy.

We also got our Christmas lights up. So what if we are the only ones in the county with Christmas lights? LOL…

Fun with slow shutter speeds…hehehe…

Well I guess that’s about it. It was a beautiful weekend and I was glad I could get outside and putter around before the snow flies. Have a great week and Happy Crafting!