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!!!

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!

“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!

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!

Dollar Store Candles Turned Cute Country Decor

First of all, let me just say I am loving this crisp, cool, Fall weather and LOVE this time for year for many reasons, including:

Upstate New York is AMAZING this time of year…just sayin’. So anyway, on to the latest project – jazzing up some dollar store candles. I ordered this burlap jute webbing with many projects in mind, and I did put some of it up for sale in my Etsy store. I simply cut it to size and hot glued it in place. It is very thick, yet cuts easily. I experimented with candles and plain glass votive holders. I’m loving the tall candles – which can be found at any Dollar Tree.

Using a little bit of twine, I tied on some vintage-looking keys.

I kinda like the look of the burlap covering the entire glass holder. These would be cute for votives or even a small vase / plant / herb holder. I currently am using this one as my tooth-brush holder. Hehe.

Another variation on this project was using some torn homespun fabric. Again – just hot glued it.

Isn’t it cute? You could use any color fabric depending on the time of year of holiday you are decorating for!

There are so many ways you can take these projects and run. I’m thinking of doing a texture fierro coating on the outside, or a cinnamon / mod podge coating to get rid of the stark white of the tall Dollar Tree candles. Hmmm…so much to do, so little time!

If you make these, send me a pic! I’d love to show some variations of the project and see other peoples ideas. Hope everyone has a wonderful week and enjoys this awesome Fall weather!

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!

One Step Thrift Store Makeovers

Thank you so much for all of the great ideas and suggestions on how to “fix” my ruler table. I agree with those who believe it soaked up too much stain because of the light, balsa-wood material of the rulers. I ended up sanding the crap out of it and just spraying on a layer of poly. It is noticeably lighter now. I didn’t want to try to remove all the rulers because I know I used a LOT of glue and it wouldn’t be worth the time and effort. I figure I can use it as a “display” table for now and slap a price tag on it, and maybe someone will like that super-grungy look.

Next time I will either experiment with a LIGHT stain BEFORE gluing them down, or not use stain at all…just a clear coat! I actually kinda like it now, even though it still doesn’t look like the original “Pinterest” project. Lesson learned!

Some other projects that have been in the works are a few easy makeovers of some items found at thrift stores. The first one was this awesome, primitive set of pine drawers, missing one knob. I’ve been looking high and low for a matching knob but of course couldn’t find one.

Since I didn’t have 4 matching knobs, I decided to change them out for 4 white, mis-matched knobs! Took off all the knobs and drilled larger holes for the NEW knobs!

Here are the knobs I chose! It’s now a functional storage piece with a little sass! Even though the knobs are different, I feel like it “works”…what do you think?

I got this large “S” from the thrift store for super cheap. I scooped it up immediately because I know large letters, either spelling out a word or by themselves, are a very popular decorating trend right now. It had some scratches and was really dirty. After dusting it off a bit and a fresh coat of black satin spray paint…

It will wait for that special “S” name person to pick it up and hang it on their wall!

And lastly, my favorite makeover, this mason jar lamp turned chic button lamp! I got the mason jar lamp base at the salvo (I know, I couldn’t believe it either) and picked up the shade at Walmart for $8. I have been looking for a shade forever and this one was so awesome I had to splurge a bit!

I filled the mason jar with charcoal gray buttons that matched the shade perfectly. I put a toilet paper roll stuffed with brown craft paper down the middle so I only had to use half the buttons to fill it up. I use this trick to preserve “fillers” and therefore save $!!!

How adorable is this lamp?? “French-cottage-chic”, or something like that…

Hmmm…to keep or to sell…that is the question….

Hope you enjoyed my mini makeovers, that really required very little effort! I love EASY!!! Have a great weekend my crafty blog friends!

My Craft FAIL: Yard Stick Desk

I admit it, I have many craft FAILS that are conveniently left off my blog. I thought I’d share this one because I am super pissed about it and need to vent! It had such potential…*sigh*.

I was inspired by this photo found on Pinterest:

Awesome, right? I had this old school desk that I thought would work great. It was in good structural condition but the top was a mess, so covering it with rulers would be perfect!

I got these yard sticks at the dollar store, 2 for $1. I was SO excited to find these. They obviously aren’t vintage, but I liked the different colored writing and designs and thought the unfinished rulers would be perfect for staining.

I measured the length of the desk top and cut them down to size with my handy jig saw.

Using E6000, I glued down the yard sticks and clamped them down good and tight to dry.

At this point things are going great and this project looks like it’s going to turn out awesome! I scraped of the glue lumps that seeped through using a small blade and then gave the top a light sanding to smooth it out. I also sanded down the edges to make them all flush with each other. This is where I should have stopped because it looked pretty cool.

Next comes the staining. I thought this Minwax stain was a medium shade, as it appeared on the label. Turns out it was a little darker than I thought.

TA-DA! So yeah…it’s WAY darker than I thought and there were all these little areas where stain did not absorb. I think that’s because there was glue residue on the surface that wasn’t completely sanded off.  It looks gross. I am contemplating sanding it down and trying a different stain or a different technique all together.  Just polyurethane? Should I? Or should I bag it…

Here she is…my major craft FAIL!!!

Oh well, I guess this is part of crafting. You gotta learn what works and what doesn’t. I’ll take another jab at it eventually since I have a sh*t load of yard sticks left over from the dollar store. Feel free to share your craft fails…I’ll post them here along with this hot mess!!!

Beach Memory Jar

Thanks to Pinterest, everyone has a million mile long list of projects they want to try. One of my favorites that I was determined to do this summer is this fun beach memory jar. We just got home from vacation up in Sackets Harbor, a quaint little village on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. We have a family cottage right on the water with a small beach, where I was able to scoop up some treasures for the memory jar. Here is the one from Pinterest:

I started out with a glass terrarium jar from Michael’s craft store. With a coupon, this was about $10. I suppose you could use a large mason jar too, which would look pretty cool.

Here are some of my finds…shells, cool rocks, some sea glass, drift wood, and feathers.

For the tag, I used my quick “grubbying” technique of slathering on some gel stain (plain brown craft paint works just as well) onto an unfinished wooden tag, and then wiping off.

Then with a fine black sharpie, write whatever. “Knobby Knoll” is the name of the camp ground where our cottage is located. I tied it on with some jute.

And here she is, all finished…except I am going to eventually add a few pictures from the trip.

There were a few stunning sunsets that are a MUST for this memory jar:

In other news, I am slowly adding more items to my Etsy store, most of which are craft supplies. It seems that Texture Fierro is slowly disappearing from the shelves at craft stores, so I scooped up some for my fellow crafters that have had difficulty finding it. I also have some jute twine and cotton twine which come in handy for all kinds of projects!

I will also be adding these hang tags very soon, as I have had many inquiries about them. They are the ones I use for tea-staining. Great for scrapbooking, stamping, gift packaging, etc. I use them as backs for my pins and other small crafts that I sell at my craft show.

Some fun red and white baker’s twine…

Loads of vintage buttons (my fave)…

…And much more. Keep checking back to see what’s new!

Thanks to all you loyal followers and to those who have ordered from my new Etsy store – I appreciate it so very much! Hope everyone has a great weekend!