DID YOU KNOW......

1st Christmas Ornament!

 

I wanted to make Brandon a First Christmas Ornament 

like I did Izabelle.

Hers was just last year and I couldn't remember how I did it!

Thank goodness I took a photo of it! 

You can see that post here.

I gathered supplies and got busy.

I picked a wooden Snowflake from my stash 

and gave it 2 coats of Robin's Egg Blue by Glidden

Once dry I attached a Dollar Tree Snowflake

 I took a strip of blue crepe paper and folded it accordion style, 

then connected both ends to make a round ruffled circle. 

 I brushed glue around the edges 

and added blue glitter.

Gotta have sparkle!

I glued it to the top and let everything sit and dry thoroughly.

In the mean time I found a smaller Snowflake and covered it in silver glitter, setting it to the side for it to dry well also. 

When all was dry I added the small silver as the last Snowflake.

Found font I liked, sized it, and printed it out.

Cut "V" shapes in each end to resemble a banner 

and glued it to the top.

I embellished each "V" in the banner with a blue flat back stone.

I tied a bow with festive ribbon to add to the top.

Added the hook and c'est fini!

Izzy's from last year

Brandon's I did this year

Similar but not exactly the same,perfect!

Framed Button Christmas Tree

I love buttons ♥

I have fond memories of playing in my 

Mom's button cans and boxes while she sewed.

One of my most favorite things to do as a child.

Why were they so intriguing?

The shapes, colors?

Who knows.

But I still love them to this day.

And yes, I have Mom's Cans and Boxes 

that I still "play'' and go through to this very day.

They bring back gentler times and loving memories.

BUT 

they are off limits when it comes to crafting, 

unless it's something I'm keeping for myself ;)

This idea has been in the back of my head for a few years now but time always seems to slip away. It's not that it's a difficult project, in fact it's very simple, it's just things I want to do get put on the back burner.

Do you do that too?

Well, this year I made time.

I always have a stack of frames at the ready ~

whether from the Dollar Store, yard sales, or Thrifts.

I snatch any cheap frames I see. 

You can do sooo many thing with frames - 

no matter what they look like - 

makeovers are always an easy way to upcycle even the ugliest. 

This one happens to be from the Dollar Store. 

I wanted a glittery background and

 it happened to come to me in the mail!

My cousins beautiful Wedding Invitation

Just happened to have a silver glittery background sheet

So I dismantled it

(so sorry Chris and Amanda) 

I cut it to fit inside the frame which I painted all 

black to get rid of the gold-ish scrolling it had.

Then proceeded to play with some white buttons
 until I found a shape of a Christmas Tree I liked
and glued them on.

Once glued on, the buttons kind of blended 

with the background and didn't pop.

I thought of painting them, but didn't want to cover up the 

Mother of Pearl button's iridescence.

I grabbed a bottle of clear nail polish that had blue glitter in it.

Since most of the MOP buttons were at the bottom I started there with a light coat and worked my way up. The single coat provided just a smidge of glitter which was perfect for the MOP buttons. Plastic buttons were interspersed about midway

 so I applied another coat of polish.

Another coat for the next row and so on. 

Before I knew it I had a gradient blue button Christmas Tree!

I really like the way it turned out and am anxious to try with other colored buttons in different styles. Maybe next Christmas, I still have other me projects I would like to get to, fingers crossed.

My kinda of easy peasy project for a time crunched afternoon!

Other posts you may be interested in:

Homespun Christmas Candy Canes

Ribbon Flower Tutorial 

Quick and Easy Ornaments

Paint'em Pretty ~ Happy Thanksgiving

I'm so excited an how good these came out!

I've been wanting to try using feathers as 

embellishments for a while now.

With Thanksgiving coming up I also wanted to change up my colors to reflect the Season, so I thought lets try!

I have chicken feathers from my 

Sister's chickens that were molted naturally.

 I went through to find two similar patterned 

ones approximately the same size.

I love the rich chocolate brown 

Nirvana (949) by Sinful Colors that I used. 

One coat did the trick followed by a coat of Seche Vite.

For my accent nail I used Sand Tropez (668) by Esssie.

While still wet I placed the feather and

 lightly tapped it down in place.

Luckily they both cooperated, 

I was worried they would stick in a weird shape.

I roughly snipped the extra feather off at the end of my nail, 

then trimmed closer and more evenly.

Once dry I topped with a clear coat which was kind of tricky.

The feather was going the opposite direction you would normally brush. I didn't want to go against it and "ruffle" feathers.

I ended up brushing the top coat on backwards

 just enough to cover the feathers.

Once that coat was dry I put on another top coat brushing the normal direction followed by Seche Vite.

 

Love it!

Wishing everyone a

Happy Thanksgiving!

T-shirt Rag Rug for My Bathroom

I've jumped on the bandwagon!!

The upcycle/recycle T-Shirt bandwagon that is.

My adult kids had just cleaned out their closets and 

I had a humongous box of T-Shirts -

ripped, stained, outgrown, etc. ready to be disposed of.

I've seen T-shirt projects everywhere,

using up your old T-Shirts that were 

on their way to the trash heap.

Heaven forbid!

'Use it up

Wear it out

Make it do

Or do without'

Just keep them out of the landfill! 

It just so happened I needed a new throw rug for my hall bath.

The current one was falling apart and, well, you could almost see through it :(

So I started planning. The bathroom is beach themed,

 so I dug and dug through the box for beach themed hues for the rug. Being I had limited colors to choose from, I chose:

tans representing beach sand,

blues representing the water in the ocean,

greens representing seaweed and algae,

whites representing the frothing of the waves.

I started out with my cutting mat, rotary cutting tool, and my chosen pile of old t-shirts.

For the ''base'' of the rug I cut the arms off a black shirt, cut down each side seam so I could open it up and lay it out flat. 

I then cut it into as much of a rectangle as possible.

But you can cut it into any shape you'd like.

Now the tedious part.

You need to cut slits in rows through the entire ''base'' of the rug.

I snipped slits one row at a time with scissors.

I tried to keep them as consistent as possible,

but in the end any inconsistencies won't be noticed. 

Next I cut up the "beach colored" shirts into strips 

approximately 5'' - 6'' long and 1 1/2'' - 2'' wide. 

I kept my strips in piles by color and grabbed 

a little of each as I went along so I wouldn't run out 

of any color too early.

Now to add the strips.

Basically feed one strip down through the first hole, 

up through the next,

and tie a knot.  Repeat until the base is covered.

The finished back 

Here is the finished product....

It works well and I have already 

washed it in the washer on delicate.

Now, what to do with all the leftover strips of T-shirts????

Other post you maybe interested in:
Kitchen Cabinet Makeover
Saving an Old Linen
Rebatching Old Candles

Paint'em Pretty ~ Playing

Busy, busy, busy

Not enough hours in the day to accomplish what needs to be done.

Gardening, Christmas shopping, baby shopping ~ yes my new little grandson has arrived! Trying to get everything under control, skipping the Thanksgiving decorations and going right into Christmas!

I know, I know, but if I start now they
 just maybe up by Christmas! LOL

But I did try to play with polishing my nails ~ just trying something different.

It unfortunately was a rush job.

But I felt accomplished at least afterwards.

Base coat was Lion Around by Essie.

 I gave my accent nail some abstract black striping 

with L.A. Colors Art Deco Thin Tip Brush.

I topped all off with Hallucinate by Wet n Wild 

from their Wild Shine line.

I love Hallucinate, it has the tiniest bits of glitter

and adds just a subtle eye catching sparkle.

So even when time is tight,

try to squeeze playing time in!

Summers End

Better late than never.

A tad late with this post :(

The end of Summer in the garden.

My lone wild Sunflower is going to seed and the birds are happy.

Hard to see but seeds are being devoured in the center of the photos.

My son and his girlfriend surprised me with 

an Aloe from Casa de Fruita

One of the Drs. we go to is about an hour away. 

For the last 15+ years I've always wanted to stop at a nursery that we pass each time.

Well, I finally did! 

Queen Anne's Garden Nursery in Atwater, CA.

It's a little Mom and Pop place that provide

commercial and public plants.

I picked up a purple Oxalis, Hens and Chicks, 

Tricolor Stonecrop, Creeping Wire Vine,

 Heuchera Marmalade Lime and Heuchera Obsidian

It was a fun place to wander, you never knew what was around the next corner. Hope to make time to stop in again. 

Most helpful owners.

Imagine my surprise when I found this in my garden!

I was ready to step on it!

Then I realized it was transparent.

Could it be a chrysalis? cocoon?

Something alien?  

After researching it is a chrysalis/cocoon.

First time I've ever seen one. Since finding that one, 3 more were found over the next few weeks. I think they were blown out of my neighbors Weeping Willow, maybe?

Most likely from a moth of some sort. 

Still very cool and exciting!