If you have followed me over the years you will see I am a creative spirit. I don't feel like I have much natural artistic ability but I love to create things and I love learning new things. So this winter I bought a balloon stuffing machine. it allows me to put gift items and things inside of bigger clear balloons for a fun gift. I had been looking at it on Amazon for a couple of months and I was just not sure it was a very practical purchase it is not exactly cheap but I did pretty week over the winter at craft shows and so I decided even if it is not something I can sell I will have fun with it so I bought my stuffer. 

I had not idea that one purchase would change so many things so quickly. I learned to use the new stuffer and then I just got lost in all things balloons I found videos and tutorials and I have learned so much about the event balloon decor world. Balloons can be so elegant and fun and classic or modern. I am not sure I am ready to give up on craft shows because I do enjoy them but Balloons are taking over my life and I am loving it so I will have to decide by fall if I will leave the craft shows behind and focus more energy into balloon event decor. Pictured are the Easter Bunny Balloons I made we sold a lot of them. they included a stuffed bunny a handful of candy-filled plastic easter eggs, easter grass, and some additional small balloons. 

Reversable wood project.

 

have you been shopping for wood latley? well the prices of wood are crazy!! I love these wood characters so to save time and money I decided to use boths sides of my wood. I use pine wood I am lucky that there is a local person who often sells bundles of this pine on marketplace every so often. I believe it is leftover from the cuts he makes on a regular basis for his work. so... I started with some 3.5 inch by 17 inch peices of wood. I use wood glue to attach 3 of the together.  Then I use 2 more of the same size boards. with more wood glue I attach the remaining boards to creats a hat.

 

The rest is might mot need much explination as it can be done so many ways. I just paint or stain the wood to create a face and hat. for the faces I use stencils I cut with my silhoutte machiene to get the faces just right and then decorate and embelish by progject with a few dollar tree items like silk flowers and garland. 

 

 MESH AND RIBBON WREATH QUICK EASY INSTRUCTIONS

we made Valentine day wreaths for ladies' craft night at the Lovejoy Village art connection

a couple ladies could not make it and asked for instructions and a take home kit so I was happy to make this simple instructional video. the same set of instructions can be used to make any theme wreath that combines both mesh and ribbons. hope it helps.

 Easy DIY clothes hanger Snowflake

Have you seen these snowflakes. they are so cute. they are not expensive to make, they are very big so the make quite a statement and they are pretty easy to do. 

lets get started it is only a few steps.

first, you will need;

16 plastic hangers

zip ties

and what ever you wish to embellish your snowflake with

all supplies can be found at a dollar tree store.

first take 2 hangers and zip tie them together like this. you will need to do this 8 times.

make sure both hangers are facing the same direction!

lay them out to form your first layer. it will take 4 of the 8 sections we made in step 1. 

next you will add the remaining 4 on top joining the hook part to the middle part of your first layer.

using more zip ties connect your pieces where the hooks connect  and the more in the middle of your snowflake until it is sturdy enough to hold together.

Cut your zip ties down 

and embellish however you want!!

enjoy this large snowflake!!!

Here are DIY instructions for the mini wreath/ centerpiece project

 DIY Christmas ornament wreath instructions. 

I hope this helps anyone who wants to make this project!

Happy Crafting

 

                                                                

 

 

ORNAMENT WREATH INSTRUCTIONS

THESE ORNAMENT WREATHS ARE GORGEOUS AND THEY EASIER TO MAKE THEN YOU THINK!!

SUPPLIES YOU NEED:

1 WIRE HANGER

60 TO 70 ORNAMENTS IN YOUR CHOICE OF COLORS.

 THIN GARLAND

RIBBON OR A PRE-MADE BOW.

HOT GLUE, OR OTHER GLUE

A PAIR OF PLIERS/ WIRE CUTTERS 

 

THE FIRST THING YOU WANT TO DO IS CHECK YOUR ORNAMENTS. IF THE ORNAMENT CAP WHERE THE STRING OR HANGER GOES IS A SEPARATE PIECE YOU WILL NEED TO GLUE IT TOGETHER.  THE FIRST TIME I MADE ONE I DID NOT DO THAT AND SOME OF THE ORNAMENTS FELL OFF EASILY.  I USED HOT GLUE BUT e6000, CLEAR GORILLA GLUE, OR SUPER GLUE WILL ALSO WORK. TAKE THE ORNAMENT CAP AND PULL ON IT IF IT COMES OFF GLUE IT BACK ON.  *AS YOU ARE GLUING IF YOU NOTICE AN EXCESS OF GLUE IN YOUR CAP, IT IS EASIER TO STICK A PIECE OF WIRE OR STRAW IN IT TO REMOVE THE EXTRA BEFORE IT DRIES*

WILE THE GLUE DRIES TAKE YOUR WIRE HANGER AND BEND IT INTO A CIRCLE SHAPE. USING WIRE CUTTERS SNIP A SECTION OF THE HANGER (THIS WILL BE DONE FOR YOU IF YOU HAVE A CRAFT KIT FROM THE ART CONNECTION).  DO NOT CUT THE PART THAT IS TWISTED GOING UP TO THE HOOK. CUT UNDER THE TWISTED PART OF THE HANGER LEAVING ENOUGH WIRE TO BEND INTO A SMALL LOOP.

STRING YOUR ORNAMENTS ONTO THE WIRE HANGER JUST LIKE YOU WOULD ANY BEAD PROJECT. YOU CAN STRING THEM IN A PATTERN EVERY OTHER COLOR, RED, GREEN, WHITE, ETC. OR JUST AT RANDOM.

 AS YOU PLACE YOUR ORNAMENTS YOU WILL SEE THEY NATURALLY LAY NICELY BUT YOU MAY NEED TO ADJUST YOUR PLACEMENT IF ALL OF ONE COLOR SEEMS TO BE FACING DOWN OR TOWARD THE BACK. JUST MOVE THINGS AROUND AS YOU GO SO YOU GET THE LOOK YOU WANT.

 

WHEN YOU GET CLOSE TO THE END OF THE WIRE YOU WILL NEED TO USE A PAIR OR PLIERS TO BEND YOUR WORKING WIRE INTO HOOK AS SHOWN. HOOK THE WIRE INTO YOUR ORIGINAL LOOP AND BEND WITH PLIERS TO CONNECT THE 2 PIECES BACK TOGETHER.  THIS STEP CAN BE TRICKY AS YOU ARE TRYING TO BEND WIRE WHILE NOT LOSING ANY OF THE ORNAMENTS YOU HAVE ON IT. 

YOU WILL MOST LIKELY NOTICE THERE IS A BARE SPOT IN YOUR WREATH NOW RIGHT AT THE POINT IT CONNECTS.  TAKE YOUR TIME AND MOVE SOME OF THE ORNAMENTS TOWARD THE EMPTY SPACE AND THEN FILL THAT SPOT IN WITH A COUPLE ORNAMENTS BY GLUING THEM TO THE NEAREST ORNAMENTS THAT ARE ATTACHED.

NOW TAKE YOUR GARLAND AND TUCK IT INTO THE SPOTS WHERE THERE IS EMPTY SPACE. I USE ONE CONTINUOUS STRING OF GARLAND AND WEAVE IT IN AND OUT OF THE ORNAMENTS.  IF YOU FIND ANY SPOTS LOOK LESS FULL JUST GLUE AND ORNAMENT IN PLACE.

ADD ANY OTHER EMBELLISHMENTS YOU CHOOSE THEN ADD A BOW. I LIKE TO ADD MY BOW TO THE TOP TO HIDE THE HANGER BUT YOU CAN PLACE THE BOW ANYWHERE AND BEND THE HANGER DOWN AND BACK BEHIND THE WREATH.

 

Snowman Fishbowl

Difficulty level:    low

 

Supplies needed:

2 glass fishbowls

Mop and glow floor wax or polyacrylic

Glitter

Paint markers for face or face cut from vinyl

Ribbon for scarf

Snowman hat

Hot glue or e6000 (see options for stacking )

 

 

First glitter the inside of your snowman:

Clean the glass with a small amount of rubbing alcohol. Let dry

Pour a small amount of mop and glow or polyacrylic into your fishbowl and swirl it around. Be sure you coat the entire inside of the bowl.  Pour put any excess. Leave the first one sit while you coat the second bowl. While your second fishbowl is settling add glitter to the first one. Coat the entire inside with glitter then do the same with the other bowl.

if your bowls are 2 sizes be sure the bigger one is on the bottom.

Choose a face design. If you want to create your own face use a paint marker or a paint that is good on glass, multi surface paint, or enamel. Regular acrylic paint is not recommended for glass.  You can also use vinyl stickers.

Add buttons, a scarf, hat and any other embellishments.

If you have 2 options for stacking them.

You can leave them loose which is a good option if you want to add battery operated tea lights to the inside for a glowing effect. This will give your snowman a fun glow and can be used as a nightlight

You can choose to attach the bottom and top together to do this simply add your hot glue or e6000 to the inside rim of the bottom bowl and place to top inside.

Door Tags

I love this idea I found for Door tags. Everyone makes wreaths so this new spin on the idea of wreaths. This project does require a tiny bit of carpentry or power tools. I purchased fencing boards at home depot and cut them to 17 inch lengths and then cut the corner's at an angle to make the "tag" shape and used a large drill bit to make a hole for the twine to hang them from. Next I painted the tags. I have made a few versions of my tags some were painted, and some stained. I  learned in other craft blogs that you can create a wood stain effect in any color. just mix some of your acrylic paint with a little bit of water and then it can be applied with a sponge brush and then wipe the excess off to get the stained look in any color.
once you have a base for your tags you can use a vinyl words, or paint to create the message you want on your tags. I enjoy crafting and I like to create new things for new seasons or holidays so I like to make seasonal things. I know some people who are not holiday decorators and they prefer to make things they can keep up all year. This project is perfect for both. Door tags can simple be "Welcome to our home" or "The Smith family" or they can be holiday themed like my Christmas tags.
Another thing I love about this project is they can be made double sided.  a double sided project give you options. I made tags that are fall themed on one side and winter on the other so they can be used for 2 seasons before they need to be changed out.
I also live in Buffalo NY and we are die hard fans of our sports teams although our teams struggle. so I made a set of tags that say "lets go Buffalo" on both sides one side is painted with the Buffalo Bills colors and the other side is the Buffalo Sabres colors. one side for hockey season one side for football season and when the seasons overlap we can display the time who is playing today or the team that is winning more games... either way showing Buffalo Spirit!
I use a regular twine to hang the tags but I have seen ribbon used with and without bows. once my tags are painted I use 2 screws to secure them together in the position I like them in. I have seen them connected t the bottom at the top or just overlapping along the side to hide the screw you can just paint our base color over it. I usually choose to add and a flower or something cute to hide it.
with any craft project just be creative and enjoy the process.

                                                 FALL SCARECROW POT HEADS

More pot heads.... I love fall and I love the new addition to my clay pot people collection. I know I have posted a lot of pot heads but he is so cute he needed to be added!! see previous posts to see how they are made.

POT HEAD COUPLE

I was asked to make 2 potheads that would be a gift for someone who loves to garden. Since they did not give me any specific guidelines on what they wanted as far as a color I decided I would be a couple. I usually make girls in pinks and purples and boys in green and reds but I thought this seaside blue couple work for both boys and girls and then just dress her up and give him some jeans and look how cute they are together.

LETS GET READY FOR FALL CANDY CORN

I know it is only July but I am working on some things for fall.
I saw this adorable candy corn version of the clay pot candy dishes and I had to make one. All you need is 1 clay pot, 1 glass fishbowl ( mine came from the dollar tree) a clay pot saucer for the lid and a small wood piece for the little handle on top, ribbon to make the little bow and I also used the dollar tree bling ribbon between the colors on my candy corn. to dress it up a little
I use clear non-foaming gorilla glue to attach the glass to the clay pot.
When crafting with clay pots I always paint the pot first with a white primer. That gives me a natural surface to work with that will take fewer coats of paint to cover. My measurement are not perfect at all I used the little holes in my regular school ruler to hold my pencil and turned the pot in a circle until I had a ring around my pot to use as a guide.

LOTS OF POT HEADS

 we are getting ready for our first vendor show. I am excited to see how this goes and if people like our products. we will have items available as well and some "make your own" kits. I am hoping people will like the idea of creating their own items and be inspired to create. I host a craft night at my house about once a month with my girlfriends we usually have between 6 and 8 girls. I gather the supplies and everyone pays for their share of supplies and we drink wine, share some finger foods, and create. we have such a good time. I think It would be fun to provide kits to other groups of people who want to get together and have fun like we do. Here are some pictures of the pot heads we will have available for sale.

Clay Pot Lighthouse

The ladies and I made adorable lighthouses for our last ladies wine and craft night.

They were so much fun and they all came out so cute. I think everyone was surprised how easy they were to make and how awesome they are going to look in our gardens this summer.

The hardest part was finding the right size clay pots that stacked nicely. For our craft nights, I gather all the supplies and everyone pays for their "craft kit" that keeps costs down for everyone since one spool of rope is needed not 6 and we needed 2 bags of seashells for 6 people so we split the cost. I ended up going to both AcMoore and Joann to mix and match clay pots until I got the sizes right to stack nicely. We painted the pots with White wall paint primer before everyone arrived. primer is always a good idea when painting clay pots because your basic acrylic paint will take too many coats and no one wants to sit and watch paint dry on craft night waiting to start the next coat of paint. when primed by the time you paint all the pots you can start over with coat 2 and that should be enough. I found the cute fencing at a thrift store and painted it to match my lighthouse but you can also get it at the craft store. The little solar lights on top came from the Dollar Tree. and the windows were made with vinyl cut on a Cricut machine. 

All together this project cost each person 20.00 for supplies and as always we had a blast crafting sipping wine and chatting with friends. 

Reversible Wood Block Craft. Hoppy Easter and Welcome spring

have you seen these reversible blocks on Pinterest? They are so much fun. I would say this project is easy but it does take some time. I am always amazed at how we can give the same set of supplies to a few girls and we get very different results. These Blocks are the perfect example of that because there are so many different things you can do with them. We had 3 girls who made this project and as you will see below they were all different styles. I tend to go with a more clean simple look. One of our girls likes more variety and mixes up more patterns, And My daughter doesn't plan much she just starts crafting and it is fun to see what she comes up with in the end.

I and going to show a step by step guide here. You do start with 2 by 4 wood cut to size. If you would like to do this project but do not have a wood shop you can go to my ebay store and purchase the pre-cut blocks you can choose just the blocks or a full kit with the letters pre-cut and the patterned papers. find the kits here:https://www.ebay.com/itm/123712736860

so you would start with your wood blocks which are 2 by 4 wood peices cut to size. you will need 2- 7 inch pieces 2- 5 inch 2- 4 inch and then a 7 inch block cut to about 2 inches the long way.

You can either paint or stain your blocks. for this project I chose to go with light colors so I panted my block a nice pale yellow.

Most of the block is actually being covered by scrapbooking paper or card stock so it would be ok if you choose not to pain the whole block you could do just the sides and about an inch wide frame on the block but I find it easiest to just pain the whole thing. 

While you wait for the paint to dry choose your papers. I used a paper cutter to cut strips of paper about 3 1/4 inch ( 2 by 4 wood is actually not 4 inches wide it is closer to 3 1/2 inches) which leaves just a little yellow showing on the edge. to cut the right length I use the block to measure I just line up the strip of paper up to the top of the block and draw a line at the bottom of the block. I then cut just a little inside my drawn line and it usually ends up perfect. another idea is to trace your whole block on the back of the paper if you don't have a paper cutter or if your blocks are a little off on measurements. 

next using Modge Podge or other clear drying sealer  ( make your own with Elmer's glue recipe 2 parts glue to 1 part water. eg. 4 ounce glue 2 ounces of water). When you glue the paper sometimes likes to bubble or wrinkle. to minimize this I found you should do 2few things. First glue the back of the paper and not the wood block. Make sure the glue is no so thick that the glue does not pool in any spot so a light coat of your sealer is best. I also found if you spread your Modge Podge thin and wait just about 30 seconds so it is starting to get tackier then wet you will get a smoother finish. Line up your paper and place it on your block and lightly rub around the edges of your paper to be sure they don't curl up. Set another block on top of the one you just glued for a minute or two. If you still get any bubbles it is ok most of the time they are not easily noticeable and you can always add a little embellishment over it to hid it if you need to ( a cute flower or bow works great)

Next, add your letters using the same Modge Podge process, and any embellishments.Tip: if adding any 3d embellishments wait until both sides of the blocks are done first or it will not lay flat while you are working on the opposite side.  you can then seal it with another light coat of Modge Podge right over the top of everything, but that is not necessary unless your project will be displayed outside or in the bathroom. 

repeat the same process on the other side.

I took Pictures of my work along the way to post here. My Friend Sue made this one

And The Summer/ Fourth Of July was made by my 11-year-old Daughter Brooke

Hanging With My Peeps wood craft, Pallet wood craft wood sign

Hanging with my peeps craft project was a lot of fun.  I was able to get a few free wood pallets or skids. I disassembled them and used the wood to make this fun little sign. I found some ideas on Pinterest of signs people made with the "hanging with my peeps" but I was surprised that I did not find any with the peeps hanging. I cut my wood down to an 18-inch board for the topper and then cut two 5 inch and two 6 inch pieces. I used the Cricut machine to make a simple peep stencil and used inexpensive letter stickers from Ac Moore to add the names of the family members under each peep.  A simple rope was attached to the back of the sign with a staple gun. I used eyelet screws and a couple of chain links to hang the peeps from the sign and then a cute little pastel bow to dress it up a little. this was a quick fun little craft night project. 

Reversible fall pumpkin and winter snowman wood craft

This was one of our first craft night projects. we were able to find wood slabs at the Ac Moore. they were a little pricey so I stopped at a local house that always has fun natural wood craft items for sale on their front lawn and I asked If I could buy a fee wood slices from them.
This was so much fun to make and It was able to be displayed in October on the pumpkin side then after thanksgiving I just turned it around and left the snowman on the from porch, for valentines day i added a rose in his arm and gave him a red scarf. I had to put it away in march when the Easter decorations started to come out but this one project was displayed for a few months
we drilled small holes in the wood so we could place a dowel into them to hold them together and drilled holes to stick the sticks into for snowman arms. I hot glued a pine cone to the top which was cute for the pumpkin side of the project and then became the hat holder for the snowman.

Clay Pot Bubble Gum Candy Dishes

There are so many great ideas on Pinterest. I have been hosting a lady’s wine and craft night about once a month. We have a small group on Facebook that we use to share ideas and project requests and plan our next craft night. We started with just 2 friends crafting in the basement and turned it into lady’s night!! Who doesn't need more time with the girls right?  So last month we made these adorable bubble gum candy dishes. I love how the same set of supplies can turn into so many different things. 

 For this project I was able to shop at Joann fabrics they have a sale 40% off the clay pots and I also had a coupon on my Joann app for 20% off my total purchase so I got a great deal on supplies. 

for this project we needed:

5-inch clay pots

clay pot saucers 

glass fish bowls

wooden round knobs 

acrylic paint.

setting up for craft night I pre-painted the clay pots and saucers with a white primer ( the kind you use for painting walls). I primed them ahead of time because it would take too many coats of acrylic paint without it,  and on craft night I did not want to take too much time priming and waiting for paint to dry. 

I had some pre-made bows in the craft room that made very cute embellishments to out projects. 

This was a great girls night craft project the cost was not high the supplies were not complicated and I was able to shop sales. no one needed to have amazing artistic skills for their project to turn out awesome and we had a great time. Who is ready To host their own Craft night.?