Peanuts and Crows

One of our little grandgirls grew a peanut plant this summer.

 

She picked it out at the garden center, brought it home and planted it in a pot, watered it all summer, and last week she pulled it up and look what she grew!

 

 

 

Peanuts!!

 

 

Not usually a desert crop!

I saw these cute crows on Pinterest and thought I should make

a couple.  The undecorated crows are from the dollar store.

 

Then I just made them hats and necklaces and crowns and signs.

 

So fun!

 

Enamelware Display

 

I saw a cute little 3 tiered bowl thing at Everyday Treasures a few weeks ago and thought it looked like a fun fall accessory.   So, being the great copier that I am, I thought I should make one for myself.

 

I love enamelware and have a few pieces that I've collected over the years.

I found three bowls in graduated sizes and they worked perfectly for this project.

 

The posts in between the bowls are wooden candle sticks that I found at a garage sale but I've seen them at Hobby Lobby.

 

 

All of the pieces were glued together with epoxy.

 

I didn't use any screws but it would be easy enough to do if you wanted to make sure it held together.

 

 

Kinda chipped and a little rusty and I think perfect for a fall display.

 

 



Celebrating Spring

 

To celebrate the arrival of SPRING (yippee!!!) I decided

to do a little springish craft that I saw on Pinterest.

 

I used some old tea cups from the thrift store.

 

 

 

 

 I couldn't find nests that were small enough to fit in the cups,

so I had to make my own.

 

I bought some of this natural sisal at the dollar store and

formed it into a nest shape.

They looked a little pale so I dyed them in Pero and hot water.

 

 



 

 

Blurry picture!

 

Hot glued the nest in the cup, embellished it with some

dried hydrangea from last years garden, and added a

little wooden egg that I painted robins egg blue.

 

 

A bit of tea dyed seam binding on the handle for a hanger,

and you're done. 

 

 

Fun and easy craft to celebrate spring! (yippee!!)

Quick and Easy Ironing Table

When I was visiting my cousin in California last year I noticed

that she had made a handy little ironing table for her quilt projects.

 

I'm not much of a quilter but I thought it would be great

to have a place to press things right next to my sewing machine.

 

So I found an inexpensive wooden TV tray at a thrift store.

 

Padded it, wrapped it in cute fabric, and stapled the fabric to the bottom of the tray.

 

 

It sits right next to my sewing table.

 

I just swing to the right on my swivel chair.

 

I don't even have to get up.

 

Pretty lazy Mimi Sue.

 

why, yes I do have a lighted Christmas tree in my craft room all year long

 

 

 

I don't think it'll work very well for big projects, but

it's perfect for small things with short seams.

 

And when I'm not using it, it folds up nice and flat so it's easy to store.

 





Valentine Birds

So it's a week past Valentine's Day but I thought I'd show you a little Valentine  project

that I saw on line somewhere.

 

They're made out of Dollar Store Christmas doves, some red and cream shred,

scraps of scrapbook paper, scraps of ribbon, craft store nests, and a glass candle holder or a glass punch cup.

 

 

Oh, and a couple of puffy, glittered hearts.

 

Make a little cone for a hat, embellish it with a junk bow.

 



 

Just glue everything together with hot glue.

 

Oh, nice, I just noticed my vacuum photo bombing my picture.

 

I made two in less than an hour.

 

 

And that included gathering up the supplies.

 



Maybe I should make some St Patrick's Day birds too.

Valentine Art and Candy

 

I've been kind of enjoying looking at other people's altered art.  In fact I have a board on Pinterest where I'm collecting ideas and You Tube is full of tutorials and inspiration.  Some of it is pretty complicated (ink splatters, chalk dobbers!) and some of it isn't. 

 

So I thought I'd try to make some uncomplicated Valentine altered art.

 

It was fun!

 

 

I Mod podged book pages and scrapbook paper into a cute

little cottage on a thin canvas.

 

 

I made up a few small cellophane bags of mixed Valentine

candy topped with vintage paper doilies for some of my neighbors.

 

Candycorn is not only for Halloween anymore.

 

I found the pink candycorn at Walmart in a big tub.

 

 

 

Shall we talk about the Dove strawberry swirl chocolate hearts?

 

Yummy!

 

Valentine's Day comes at a time of the year when we all could use some bright colors and happy shapes in our gray and gloomy weather. 

 

Unless you live in Florida or Southern California!

 

 

Doggy Silhouette for the Nursery

This was my contribution to daughter #3's new baby nursery. 

She wanted a silhouette of a black lab.  I googled dog silhouette free images and a boatload of dog silhouettes magically appeared. 

I printed the one I liked, took it to the UPS store, where the nice kid at the counter blew it up for me.  I took it home, cut it out, traced it on a canvas and filled it in with black acrylic paint. 

Not exactly Pottery Barn quality put pretty darn close.  And the price was a lot better too.

Scrap Wood Trees and Stars Projects

 

 

 

I saw some little scrap wood trees at our local

garden center a couple of months ago and thought

they were pretty cute.  They had a pretty hefty price tag on them

so I thought I'd try to make some on my own.

 

And this is the result.

 

 

 

Made from old flooring, 2 X 4's, quarter round, sashing, and mdf.

 

All things found in the garage stash.

 



 



Embellished by

glittering, stamping, mod podgeing, and painting.

 

 

I saw these stars on Pinterest made from all kinds of materials.

 

 

The mister sliced up a 2 X 4 in 1/8 inch pieces and then

glued and stapled them in a star shape.

 





 

I painted them a nice Christmasy red and stuck one in each of the

window boxes.



Both projects were almost free.

 

And that's kind of nice at this time of year.

 



Thanksgiving Cornucopia

 

We're having Thanksgiving at our house this year.

 

So I thought I'd share with you what I made for our dinner table.

 

A waffle cone cornucopia!

 

I found the idea last year on the House of Whimsy blog.

 

 

Put the cone in a steamer pan for about 30 seconds.

 

When it gets soft and flattens, quickly pick it up with tongs

 

and mold it in the shape you want with your fingers.

Hold it for a few seconds and it hardens up again pretty quickly

 

leaving a cornucopia shape.  If you squint.

 



 

I had to go to three stores looking for waffle cones.  Apparently it

is a seasonal item here in northern Utah.

These cones are from Keebler and there were a few broken ones in the box that we couldn't use.  And I broke a couple when I was

trying to shape them.

 



But we have enough since there will only be nine of us for dinner.

 



I'm pretty sure the grandkids will love them.

 



Fall Wood Letter Blocks

 

Some of you know that I haven't had an original idea since 1986.

The year my 4th and last child was born.

 

I'm really good at copying other people's original ideas

though.  My house is full of other people's wonderful ideas that are so plentiful on the internet.   So thank you Pinterest and all of you clever bloggers out there. 

 

Here is a fun idea from this cute blog.

 

Thank you Thistlewood Farms!

 

She used leftover molding and I used leftover flooring.

 

I bought chipboard letters at Hobby Lobby.

 



              I dry brushed the wood and letters with acrylic craft paint.

 

You could use any color you'd like, and use any words you'd like, and use any size blocks you'd like. 

 



                    Then I glued on the letters with hot glue.

 

 



 And that was pretty much it.  A quick and easy project.

 

I think they turned out pretty cute. 

 

 

 



Wood and Fabric Pumpkin Crafting

I've been in the crafting mood lately so I've

been checking out blogs and Pinterest for some fun ideas.

 

One of the fun (and easy) projects I decided to make are

these wood and fabric pumpkins.

 

There's a nice tutorial here. http://www.the36thavenue.com/2013/10/diy-pumpkin-tutorial.html

 

They were lots of fun to make.

 

 

I already had the wood from our bookcase project.

 

And some of the fabric.  But I did buy a couple of fat quarters.  I love to buy fat quarters.  Well, I love to buy fabric. 

 

The leaves came from

an old arrangement from way back when that had seen better days.

 

(Recycle!!)

 

And the stems came from my backyard.

 

 

I think they turned out pretty cute. 

Fairy Garden

 

 

I've been wanting to plant a fairy garden for several years.

 

This year there were no plans to plant lawns, build patio covers or install fences

so I decided that this would be the year!

 

 

I found a cute little chair that was just the right size for a garden fairy.

 

I already had a polka dot mushroom.

 

 

In my shed I found a picnic basket that had seen better days that wasn't being used for anything.  I lined it with cocofiber

that I got from the nursery.

 

A  half a cup of fish tank gravel made a great little path.

 

Baby tears, an impatien, maidenhair fern, and a little polka dot plant surrounds the fairy chair.

 

And a tiny little white bunny to keep the fairy company when she comes to visit.