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.

Anni and Andi Spool Doll Decor

July 1st.

The year is half over already, wow. 

It's also time for our new

 monthly anything goes craft challenge at

Love To Craft.

Won't you share what family friendly craft 

you've made this month with us ? 

This month I am sharing a set of "dolls" I made with

a long ago purchased wooden kit.

I bought several kits and the coordinating patterns,

but never got around to making them. Shame on me. 

The kits are just the wooden pieces to create the dolls body

then the maker adds their own fabrics, etc.

I actually made the dolls in late winter (notice the bare trees),

trying to get all of my design team projects 

done well ahead of time, not knowing what the year would bring.

Good thing I did since we have been dealing with major flooding,

on top of too many other bad things, since March ! 

Also, I have been quite sick since about mid June. 

Living with a basement full of river water (treated with pool chemicals)

and stinky, moldy air/items all around outside is not good for the lungs :(

 I am not crafting anything at all.

No room to work, no time, no energy, just no desire 

right now to make anything.

I just want to get the house (and yard, road, etc) back to normal. 

It's going to take time..............

Currently the water is stagnant, not falling at all.

A very stinky pond out front still, blech,

and waiting for the main road to open again.

I shouldn't complain, we are lucky compared 

to many other people who lost everything. 

Moving on to a few details about my project:

The little wooden parts from the kit,

all wired together to form the bodies. 

The kits call for Rag Mop Ringlets Cotton Hair,

of course none of which is to be found now since the

kits are sooooo old. At first I tore and knotted lots of tiny

bows from red cotton fabric. While I was making those,

I was thinking about maybe sewing strips of red felt

into loops somehow then I remembered I had red fleece 

leftover from snowman crafts. I thought I'd cut thins strips of that,

then loop it and low temp hot glue it in place on the heads. 

A happy accident as I was

cutting the fleece into strips, I noticed it was kind of twisting

in parts of the strips (I'd guess about 1/4" wide, definitely no wider)

Hmmmmm....... a little tug and it indeed twisted on itself, curling ! 

No, I don't know if there is a particular type of fleece this will 

only work with or what direction exactly to cut it.

My fleece was actually a cheap $5 red fleece blanket.

The little strips of fleece I curled then glued on top

of the heads didn't turn out too badly !

Yes, those are teeny pieces of fabric cut and 

fused to the wooden shapes that I painted!

I was following the kit instructions ;)

It was tricky working with such wee pieces

and probably more time consuming than had 

I simply painted the shapes. 

It looks better with the matching fabric pieces.

The faces were preprinted black.

I painted the heart shapes red

and added blush to their cheeks,

but it doesn't show in the photos.

The clothes are made with torn pieces of cotton fabrics.

Thanks for looking =) 

Happy Fourth of July ! 

NOTE:
This will be the final post for a while
since I'm still dealing with the historic flood
and aftermath our area saw. 
My craft rooms are a wreck,
filled with stored items.
I have a long way to go to get 
the house clean and back in order.
Then there is the garage and yard and.....
I honestly don't have any desire 
or energy to make anything now :(

Bright Brushos and Die Cut Rose Card

NOTE: This is a project completed earlier in the year, but I waited until now to share.
We're still dealing with major flooding and the massive cleanup to come. 
I have no craft room for the time being since it is filled with stored items.
On top of it all, we are quite sick due to all of the mold in the air. 
We can't leave the house: we have pumps to man, a flood wall to maintain
and looters to keep an eye out for. 


I played with the new to me Brusho "paints" to make this simple card.
It also uses a new to me die cut, both bought from Stampin' Up! when I signed up to become a demonstrator earlier this year. Then the floods hit.............

I painted the background first then glued the die cut to the dry card stock.

The sentiment is an oldie from Stampin' Up ! I've had for years. It was heat embossed black onto vellum paper and hand cut into a banner.

Thanks for looking , have a great day !









The current view out of my window this morning is below. There is still too much water
to drive out, at minimum 2 feet of water over the road where the driveway (still under water, too) meets it. It gets deeper in parts so a boat is required. The main road I would normally use to drive to town on is under more water and will require massive cleanup after it finally recedes. I don't know how long it will be before I can drive on it again.......... more rain in the forecast for the next 7 days, but they don't think it will cause a rise in the river levels, only slow the fall.

All of the now exposed ground and driveway were under 3+ feet of water 

Historic Flooding

We've been dealing with flooding since March here.

This is by far the worst we have ever seen.

The ongoing flood coupled with the head on collision my daughter had

due to a drunk person driving a black car in the dark 

with no headlights on a divided highway,

 I've not had much time to craft or relax. 

We've been trying to elevate possessions as much as possible in the house and garage.
We are an island now, the only way in or out is by boat.

The forecast does not look good:
     

View from my front porch, there is currently one foot of water along the flood wall with two more feet expected. The basement is flooded. The steel outbuilding in the photo has 3 1/2 feet of water in it now. 

There will be no posts from me for a while

and I have to step down from design team duties.

I did have projects made and blog posts set up for

the Love To Craft Challenge for the remainder of the year,

so you will see those the first of every month.

I just won't be commenting and voting for some time.

I will have no time or energy to devote to creating,

not to mention my craft room is in disarray

packed full of items from the lower level of the house.

I'm not sure how much longer I will stay at home. 

I may need to relocate at some point.

Definitely a long process to get back to normal

once the river recedes for good. 

Until then, I doubt I make much of anything.

Not being able to be crafty is going to drive me nuts,

on top of everything else !

Oh, the stress and uncertainty - and STENCH ! 

Thanks for all of your nice comments 

and for following my crafty adventures.

Take care.

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UPDATE 6/10/2019

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=142622780244685&set=a.104164264090537&type=3&theater

Photo is a still shot from a 360 drone video shared publicly on facebook. 
I hope the link above to it works, it is jaw dropping.  

The river crested here two days ago,

shattering the all time record for 2nd highest flood.

We've been in flood since March actually,

with the last crest in early May tying for 

the old second place record!

This crest was 3 feet less than the Great Flood of 1993.

It has fallen just 4".

It'll be a long, slow process and more rain is on the way

again this week, prolonging it.

We managed to keep the main level of the house dry, hooray!

Levees broke, causing the crest to fall by a foot.

This was good news to us (of course not to all

of those behind the levees that lost so much)

because we knew our flood wall should keep the water

back at that depth. It did spring leaks here and there.

We have three pumps running nonstop to keep the water

from filling in behind the wall too much. 

The photo below shows my cat helping me check on them.

We have to do this day and night to make sure the

pumps stay ahead of the leaking water. 

The photo is a bit deceiving as there is easily two+ feet of water

against the outside of the flood barrier.

If it gives way, the water will cause significant damage

to the house.

Here is a photo of the basement full of water -

stinky! We did put some pool chemicals in it

to try to help with the smell. Blech!!!

There is a pump in here to help keep it at this level.

We don't want it to get deeper if possible

so that it gets into the electric box,

vents and such. 

It has to stay flooded otherwise the 

walls could cave in from the pressure.

We are getting sick from all of the must,

mold, stink, etc but can not leave because

we have to maintain the pumps

so the water doesn't get onto the main floor.

 

Trying not to think about what may be swimming in it....

thankfully I've not seen any snakes around the house.

If any of those came into the flooded basement,

my bag would be packed, moving out,

letting the river win. Nope, won't stay there 

if snakes move in!!!

Sitting in the middle of the road here,

there is 6 feet of water under the boat.

It gets as deep as 9 feet in places.

You can see the top to a metal car port

just to the right in the photo. 

Going to get basic supplies by boat

out to where a car is parked on high ground

is quite an adventure :)   It's a tiny boat. 

What's really scary (and I try not to dwell on it)

is that there is no way to get emergency services 

here in a timely manner. Everything has to be boated in or out.

There are also no working telephones.

Cell service is hit and miss and if we do get

a signal, it is always dropped. 

Forget mail, trash, etc - nothing like that gets in, obviously.

No hot water for bathing.

No laundry can be done.

No air conditioning. 

I heat water in the microwave to be able to 

hand wash dishes. We boat out every few

days to my moms to shower and get laundry done.

We have a generator for basic power needs 

if the main goes out.

 Right now, the water level

is being maintained just below the box so we still have service.

The bugs are awful, the smell is worse!

It is kind of like camping in a way. 

An experience for sure.

On top of all of that, I am incredibly sick

from breathing all of the mold, etc. 

That is what it has been like here

and will continue for some time.

5 out of the next 7 days are to be rainy,

so that isn't going to help much. 

Then there is the cleanup to follow. 

As bad as it is, 

I know that it can be much worse

and am so thankful that we haven't lost everything

like so many  people have.

This will be my final post for a while.
I thank you once again for following my crafty adventures,

hoping I may have inspired you a bit along the way :)

Tool Box Gift Box - tutorial

Time for the new anything crafty goes challenge at

Love To Craft!

We are a month long just for fun challenge site.

Won't you share what craft project you've made with us ?

This month I am sharing a "gift box" I made from scratch.

I knew the recipient likes chocolate oranges,

so I wanted to make something fun to present them in.

I also added a gift card.

Basic how to's:

Use your math skills to create the size of box

and ends you will need to hold your treats.

I used chipboard to build my box with.

A heavy duty double sided adhesive tape was used

to hold it together. 

This photo shows the pattern for the end 

I made from scrap paper, ready to be traced

onto the chipboard then cut out with scissors.

The ends of the box cut out with holes punched

at the tops to push a dowel rod through to

create the toolbox handle.

Assemble with your favorite heavy duty adhesive.

I painted my chipboard pieces with glossy

acrylic craft paint after it was assembled. 

Once again, put those math skills to use 

to create a tray to fit in the top of the toolbox.

I used red card stock for the tray.

The tools were created with a die set from Stampin' Up!

Silver metallic card stock for the metal parts

and Crumb Cake stamped/sponged with ink

for the wooden parts.

I added a small envelope on the underside

to hold the gift card.

Ignore the Merry Christmas sentiment ;)

It just so happens that is what the project

was actually made for,

but I wanted to wait to share it with you now.

I thought it would make a fun design team

project for the month of June, Father's Day. 

I ran a piece of dowel rod through two holes

punched at the top of the ends.

It is removable to get the treats out.

So much work - but fun making it ! 

Thanks for looking, have a great day :)