Framed Doodle

I wish I had taken photos of what the old frame

looked like before painting it solid white.

It was pretty icky, the flat blue paint was

scuffed and dirty. It has screen printed words 

and polka dots on it, too.

It was sanded and painted with spray can paint.

The image is a portion of a 12 x 12 sheet 

I was recently gifted.

I cut out then hand colored it with inks from

ink pads and an aqua painter. 

I added polka dot grosgrain ribbon to holes

at the top of the frame for hanging. 

Thanks for looking, have a good day =) 

Card Display

I was accepted to be the card maker for a local boutique!
After much thought, I decided to go ahead and try it.
I know it will NOT be a money maker and
WILL be a lot of work these next six months.
What was I thinking?!?

Since finding out about this potential new endeavor
a couple of weeks ago, I've spent some time working on display ideas. 

The first is my price sign made from a small shadowbox frame.
I created word art in Photoshop Elements and added a die cut 5.
A piece of striped grosgrain ribbon is hot glued to the back for hanging.

I made this card display piece from an old frame that had broken.
It used to have hooks on it and three openings.
It is actually upside down down now,
the bulkier bottom was the top when it was a hanging piece.
I flipped it to give it a heavier, wider base to stand on.
There is also a scrap of wood screwed into the back for support.

I made some home made chalk paint and put on three coats to 
hide the imperfections of the old white frame.

I "stained" white fabric with acrylic craft paint then
stretched it over foam core I cut to fit.

A piece of twine was strung across the opening to
hang two horizontal cards on.

The side piece is a digital "word art" I created in 
Photoshop Elements then printed onto card stock.
The words were taken from an image of a t shirt I came
across somewhere online some time ago. I saved the image
so I could type up that saying for a decor piece in my 
craft room. Instead, it is perfect for my card display!

I painted a 5x7 frame black and stapled some thin pieces
of metal on the base so it could slide under the card frame.
I was going to use heavy duty glue to adhere it to the 
card frame, then decided against it in case I wanted to 
change out the saying at some point. 

This sits on top of the display with two
baskets for cards on a shelf underneath. 
I made dividers for the types of cards
(wedding, baby, birthday, etc) from chipboard.

Click here to see what the white frame looked like
years ago when I redid it for a contest entry. 

I've also been busy making cards to add to my "inventory", 
so those are set up to be posted this month.
I don't plan on making much of anything new for the 
next couple of weeks. I want to see how things go at the 
boutique before investing more time and supplies into creating
additional inventory right away. I have 125 cards there now 
plus a few other things. I really want to get those 642 photos
put into albums!

Thanks for looking =)

Merry Framed Vintage Christmas Lightbulbs

Today I am happy to share with you

my final creation as a design team member

for Love To Craft Challenge.
I've been with them since the beginning
and will miss creating projects for them,
but it's been a tough year,
I need to concentrate on personal things.
I have a never ending list,
always lengthening, of things I want to make
so I'll still craft and share as time allows :)

Anyway, we are a month long anything crafty goes challenge.
We ask that you keep your projects family friendly, please.

We'd love to see what you've created this
final month of 2019!





This months project was made with some items
that I found at a church rummage sale I
attended with my Mom this past Spring:
a bag of vintage glass Christmas light bulbs
and a slightly worn wooden multi opening frame.

I disassembled the frame then chalk painted
and lightly sanded it.

I hand painted letters on each light bulb.

I tied on stitched grosgrain ribbon bows.

The bulbs are attached with little screw eyes and wire.



Now to come up with something else to make
with all of those extra vintage light bulbs.....

Thanks for looking, have a great day !

Maple Syrup Jar Photo Holder

Today I am happy to share with you

my most recent creation as a design team member

for Love To Craft Challenge.

We are a month long anything crafty goes challenge.

We'd love to see what you've made!

My project is a photo holder made from a leaf shaped jar

that once held maple syrup. My daughter brought it back

from a trip she took to Canada.

I poured metallic acrylic craft paint inside and swirled 

it around to coat it. It took such a long time to dry.

I cut a photo clip from an old photo holder

that my daughter no longer wanted.

I dabbed some alcohol ink onto it
so that it would'n't be as shiny silver.

I then stuck it through a piece of cork

 that fit perfectly in the mouth of the jar.

The tag was made with rubber stamps,

a digital image by Kimeric Kreations,

inks and paint.

Brown satin ribbon and gold metallic cord

are tied into a bow then hot glued on.

Thanks for looking, have a great day =)

Oui Book Page Bouquet - tutorial

Can you believe it is August,

which means it is back to school time for many.

With that in mind,

I was inspired to create this old book page bouquet

for the current anything crafty goes challenge at

Love To Craft .

I also repurposed a Oui yogurt jar,

thus the play on the word "wee" in my post title ;)

This is a fairly small arrangement,

just about 6" in height overall.

The roses themselves are about 1" in diameter.

We'd love to see what crafts you've made this month.

Anything goes, so long as it is family friendly.

Post a link to your project at Love To Craft

If you'd like to know more about my project, read on!

The roses are made with pages from an old dictionary.

I should have used thicker book pages

and not so old. They were getting quite brittle.

I managed to make several dozen roses successfully

to create this piece, but it was tricky. 

Using a spiral flower die makes the process

go faster, but you can hand cut simple spirals

with scissors. Simply roll them up then glue them

to a small circle - or cut a circle into the end of your spiral.

You can find oodles of ideas on how to do this online.

To create the faux mercury glass,

you need Looking Glass paint.

It must be sprayed on the inside of the glass container.

Once again, look online for how-to's.

You can simply layer the thin paint and

spritz it with vinegar water solution.

I've done projects this way, but I've also 

added a bit more worn effects details using paint.

I dabbed teeny bits of black glossy paint

as well as a clear varnish inside the jar using

a piece of sea sponge. I then spray painted

light layers of the Looking Glass paint over it.

I didn't have any large head corsage pins 

and there is no place local to buy them.

Rather than ordering some online,

 I decided to try to paint the heads of plastic

straight pins used for sewing. It worked well!

I simply dipped the heads into gold acrylic craft paint

then poked the pins into styrofoam to stay upright while drying.

I stitched a long running stitch along the edge of 

a scrap piece of lace then gathered it to create the ruffle.

It was hot glued into place on the top edge of the jar.

The styrofoam ball is hot glued in place on top of that.

I say hot glue, but I was actually using a low temp melt glue.

Pin or glue the flowers in place on the styrofoam ball.

I used pins only so they could be re-positioned if needed.

The finished size is approximately 6"tall

A closeup of the faux mercury glass jar

Wee book page roses with painted pin head centers.

I also added small squares of tulle pinned in place

scattered among the flowers. 

The rose on the left is made with one die cut spiral.

The rose on the right is made with two spirals.

I used just the single spiral size rose on this project.

That's about all there is to share regarding how I made this project.

It really isn't difficult, just time consuming. 

Aren't most crafts labors of love and time, though ? 

Thanks for looking =)

Have a great day !

NOTE:

This project and post were written much earlier in the year,

well before our area experienced historic flooding.

 We are recovering, slowly but surely getting back to normal.

Although it was a tough go for us trying to save 

what we could of our home and property,

we know we are lucky. Grateful to everyone that helped

and thankful that the flood wall held so damage 

and losses were far less than they could have been. 

We didn't lose everything like so many people did.

I still am not crafting anything, no time or desire.

This will be the last post from me again for a while.

Families Are Quilts Frame

I'm sharing this project with you today

as my design team project for 

Love To Craft.

We are a month long anything goes craft challenge

(so long as it is family friendly)

We'd love to see what craft(s) you made this month!

I came across the plastic collage frame (above)

for $2 at the local thrift store.

The glass pieces were missing,

there were a few tiny scuffs on the

black plastic and the back cover was well worn,

but I thought it was worth it.

It had potential.

I started by base coating the frame with a light gray

chalk paint. Once that was dry, I brushed on white

acrylic craft paint. I wasn't going for total coverage
or keeping it nice and neat.

In even did a bit of sanding on some of the raised areas.

I wanted it to look worn, old.

I made my own digital word art to fit the round frame.

I added a small silver paper punched and crimped heart

in the space below the printed words.

A small piece of quilted fabrics was put in another opening.

The fabric was mounted over chipboard with batting in between

                                      Photographs will be added to the remaining three frames.

Thanks for looking, have a great day!

I'm entering my frame in the May Anything Goes challenge at Crafting By Designs
https://craftingbydesigns.blogspot.com/2019/05/may-anything-goes.html

Fabric Scrappy Brooch

I had fun wasting time, playing around with some scraps and pieces 

leftover from another project to create a fabric brooch the other day.

You won't be able to see that project until later in the year though ;) 

I also used a fancy stitch on my sewing machine

for the very first time on the felt background piece! 

Will I actually wear it ? 

Probably not, I am not a jewelry wearer.

This is what happens when I don't close a box of fabric right away.....

the cat makes herself a new bed for catnapping. 

I'll probably not be posting as much on the blog for a while.

I've worked months ahead on my design team projects

 for Love To Craft  (always posted on the first of the month)

and have a decent enough stash of greeting cards made (I think!). 

It's time (passed!) to start concentrating on my photo albums

and scrapbooks. I've so much to get completed still!

I will have some digi projects to share

for my creative team work with JMC Designs, though.

In fact, there are will be three kits released this month

that I have digi projects to share for. 

Thanks for looking, have a great day =) 

Bed Spring Hanging Bouquet Holder

This months design team project 

that I made for the anything goes challenge at

Love To Craft

is a simple floral piece.

I used an old bed spring as a sort of  hanging "vase"

or "tussie-mussie" !

We are a monthly anything crafty goes challenge

(so long as it is family friendly).

We'd love to see what you made this month !

The florals are actually a spray that my daughter

carried as a bridesmaid in a wedding.

She removed the succulent to use in 
one of my empty Oui yogurt jars,
but didn't want to do anything with the rest
of the spray.  I kept it for a future project , some day.

When I went down to the basement to peruse

my floral supplies, I saw the box of old bed springs

and immediately thought to do this.

I'ts a bit more fun than simply tying a bow

onto the spray as I thought I might do.
My original idea was to cut it apart and
decorate an old horse shoe as a base.

After looking closer at it,  it is made of heavy duty wires and floral tape.
It was not going to be easy to tear apart.
So I kept it intact.

I stuffed "moss" into the bed spring, 

shoved the spray in and attached a 

bow I made from a strip I cut from burlap.
Simple! 

I suggest that if you do something like this,

you seal the bed spring (rust)

and hot glue some felt to the back of it

so the metal spring won't damage your door.

Also, it has a mind of it's own when it comes to

hanging nicely. I had to wire it in place around
a metal over the door wreath hanger

and even then, it still moves too much 

for an often used door.
This will be a temporary decoration for March.

Thanks for looking, have a great day  =) 

I had some visitors in the yard last evening

Repurposed CD Tin

Remember the days of receiving compact discs in the mail from

 internet providers trying to get you to sign up for their service ?

Sometimes they came in metal tins.

I saved those tins!

This is the most recent reuse of two of them.

I painted the edges with gloss acrylic craft paint,

covered the tops and bottoms with

gift wrap paper then added die cuts to the top.

Fun way to reuse "trash" and to give cash.

 I was having fun finding more uses for the
roll of plaid gift wrap I bought this year.
I still have a lot of it left,
I'll probably be using it for years to come!

Thanks for looking ;)

Repurposed Mini Boxes

My son has been ordering car parts left and right .

A recent order contained these two small boxes.

As I was going to crush them to recycle, 

I had the thought to recover them with 

wrapping paper to use a containers for

Christmas gifts for the nephews.
Sure, it would have been easier just to wrap
the boxes as a small gift box,
but I have a tendency to make more work
for myself. I try to create something that
I hope is a bit more special to the recipient.

I opened up the boxes, laid them out on the gift wrap,

traced them, cut out the paper then glued it to the boxes.

Die cut felt deer were added to the tops. 

They were then filled with candy - and cash!

Thanks for looking =) 

Merry Orange and Cinnamon Stick Ornament

Merry Christmas Eve ! 

Today's share is a simple dried orange and cinnamon stick ornament.

Yes, another old time-y project ! 

I die cut the word "merry" and glued it on top of the

orange slice. I wrapped a fabric scrap around the cinnamon stick

and tied it into a simple bow, hot gluing it to the orange slice.

Twine is hot glued to the back for a hanger.

The most difficult part was drying the orange slice myself:

it didn't work very well for me in a toaster over.

I actually sliced an entire orange and tried to dry 

all of the slices. Unfortunately, all but this one burned,

and even this one is too brown in places. 

I suppose even on the lowest setting it was

still too hot in that tiny oven. I did dry them

directly on the wire racks, too,

checking on them throughout the day

and moving them around as needed. 

It was the first time I've tried to dry orange slices.

Probably my last ;) 

It looks like parts of the country are going

to see a White Christmas this year.

We will not. 

In fact, thunderstorms and 

Spring like temperatures are on the way!

Thanks for looking .

Wishing you a wonderful holiday 

filled with memories to last a lifetime.

Wood and Fabric Ornaments

Four old fabric scrap and woodsies ornament kits

that I finally, after all these years, made !

I really don't know why I never made them before.

I suppose because I moved away from general crafts to

all things paper crafting years ago.

 Plus, at the time I had two little kids.

that kept me busy, not as much time to craft.

I still have quite a little stash of Christmas crafts to make one day.....

The bases of these ornaments are nothing more than

a wood bead, a wood spool and a popsicle stick. 

I didn't think to take a photo of that part

before assembling them. 

Various scraps of fabric, and other embellishments

finish them off.

Thanks for looking =)

I'm entering my ornaments (angel) in the Anything Goes challenge at Crafting By Designs
and
Christmas Crafts All Year Round