Homemade Christmas Ornaments

Fun Ornaments

just a little glue, glitter and foam decorations ....or craft paint

for those talented artists out there....and you have very

special ornaments...

Thank you to my niece for posting these pics...

Merry Christmas!!!!

Disappearing 9 Patch

Fundraiser Quilt

There is a young boy in our family 

who has been fighting testicular cancer.

They are having a fundraiser for him and his

family this month, for the medical bills.

I wanted to help out, so I decided to start yet

another quilt....but Praise God, this

one got finished pretty much on time.

The Benefit is on Nov. 17th if anyone in

my area is interested in knowing more, just

email me.

This is a disappearing nine patch done with 

all batiks....I love it!   

most of the fabric was purchased at

Joann's

I stitched in the ditch around all squares and rectangles and then stippled only 

in the purple squares

If there is someone who doesn't know what a disappearing nine patch is....I'd love to know...so I can show you how easy it is...

leave a comment below.  

Fall Bouquet

Beautiful Fall "Pumpkin" Bouquet

My niece Terri made this really cute bouquet for her child's

kindergarten teacher....

So....you take a pumpkin pie pumpkin and cut a hole a 

little bigger than the soup can you are going to put inside

 (like the vase..)

empty all the "stuffin" out of your pumpkin

and slide your can in....

put a little water and 

add your fresh fall flowers....beautiful!!

Thank you Terri!

Color Matching and Motor Skills

This is a great way to combine color matching 

and working on your little ones motor skills.
Probably for ages 2-6 

Get all your supplies ready...

paint swatches from your local hardware store (2 each),

a glue stick, clothes pins from the dollar store, and 

scissors

take one of the cards and on each section draw

the outline of your clothes pin top and bottom 

and cut them out and then glue the 

pieces to the top and bottom of the clothes pin

my little friend Phoebe had so much fun pinching the clothes pins

Nifty Mail Box

Ease the travel woes for someone you love

You know how when you come home from vacation and

there is a stack of mail the size of Mount Rushmore...

Well my niece just made this wonderful little 

solution for my sister and her husband.

All the mail was sorted by the person it was addressed to....

so they didn't have to do the sorting. 

Each bundle was tied with a pretty ribbon and there were

little treats in there to make going through the mail more enjoyable.

Heather, used an old shoe box that she covered with pretty material 

to make it special...

I love this idea and wish I was ....first ....going somewhere wonderfully warm and exotic

and second.....I wish someone would do this for me when I return...   ;-)

Garden Stepping Stones

My niece made these with her children and niece and nephew....

Heather used a Flour recipe:

1C - Flour

1C - Salt

1/2 C- Water

(which we don't know how it will hold up in the weather)

Shellac will definitely help with that a bit

these could also be used to paint and hang on the wall...just

push some paper clips in the back while wet and leave the loop hanging out to

use to attach string to, (to hang)...or one loop to hang on a nail

I have made these before, but used actual cement....

which is not as easy to write in....

We also used foil pie plates to put the cement in. 

and then decorated with different things...

(I will show pics of those later this week)

Also, Heather used cake decorating stamps that she found at 
Walmart to do the writing.... and then let the kids 
go to town painting

have fun...

Two More of Those Beauties

These are two of my favorites

Again...if this is your first time visiting my blog....all of these squares are made with 

Thangles  which are such a wonderful little invention,

they make half square triangles doable.  :-)

Makes me look like a pro....and I'm not  :-)

More Quilt Squares

Here are two more quilt squares for my block a month quilt

I was behind a little bit....so I had to do 4 of them in two days, 

so that I could go pick up the August square...haven't done it yet...

 I can't wait to see what they are going to look like when they have the borders 

around them and the whole quilt is done...

and if you are a quilter and you haven't worked with  Thanlges 

yet, you don't know what you are missing....it makes 

half square triangles sooooo much easier...

Water Color Painted Paper

I use water color paper to paint on and just start with the color I like most and add to it...using water to thin it out and make it lighter...blending the colors together.....

This is very therapeutic 

My inspiration for this was the movie "Miss Potter" about Beatrix Potter....and while the credits are rolling in the beginning she is painting different shades of the same color.  I loved the way it looked and it gave me the idea to paint whole sheets and once they were dry I could use them for whatever I needed them for.

I also love tearing paper....I really like the way it looks..

So I cut a piece to fit, tore the top...

Then I just stamped the thank you on ...and put a thin line of glue following the line of the painting and sprinkled on some of the same color glitter....I really enjoy a little bit of "sparkle"  :-)

Homemade Frozen Orange Juice Pops

I'm getting a hankering for some frozen orange juice on a stick.  I haven't made them in a long time, but with this heat it keeps running through my head that they would taste good....or what about frozen pudding.....

All I use to do was pour whatever it is into an ice cube tray and put in the freezer....before it gets totally hard...put a toothpick in or craft stick...and continue freezing.

Give it a whirl and let me know how it goes...  hee hee

I might put my kids to this task

Fourth of July Shirt

transforming your t-shirt to fringy fun

I put a t-shirt under it instead of a tank top

I think if I did this again....I would shorten the sleeves a little...but leave sleeves. :-)

Rainy day idea

Is it raining outside? 
(it has been here...for days and days)

Are your children telling you they are bored?  

Mine are

Well here is something that will keep them busy 

for a little while

years ago my mother had heard that if you go to your local newspaper they will give you the end of the roll of paper....that thing has lasted me 10 years.....

So we start with a big sheet of that paper and have your 

child lay down on the paper and trace them with a pencil and then re-outline with a sharpie....

next it is all up to them....they need to color themselves in....

I'll have to ask my little friend's mom for an updated pic.

I know some of my bigger kids and even I got in on the act and helped her color...it was fun!!  

Can't post anything new yet

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a while....but we've had a little glitch....my camera's memory card got accidentally wiped out.....well maybe not accidentally... but my instructions weren't completely understood and hence there are now no pictures on my memory card.  :-(   

Hope to post soon....having a friend recover photos for me.... keep your fingers and toes crossed.

Decorated Flip Flops

So...right now Joann Fabrics they have a lot of their

summer craft stuff on sale....the flip flops were 70% off 

and the stickers

were 50% off...

I told the girls to wipe the flip flop straps with Windex 

to get the oils off,

so the stickers would have a better chance of sticking.

A little bit of a tricky business...getting them straight

Cute!!!

And easy!!!

Cute Fringy T-Shirt

get a t-shirt that is a little bit bigger....

Cut off the collar

Cut the sleeves off 

or leave them on and cut the hem off and

stretch them and make fringe there too...

Mark where you want your fringe to start

(do this by trying on the shirt and marking it

with a pencil)

Start cutting and pulling the strips to stretch them....

they kind of curl up....so cute...

This can be done with thrift store shirts or garage sale shirts...

Lamp Shade

I've had many lamp shade ideas over the past year but got a new inspiration from my niece.

We were visiting this past week during my visit to my hometown and we were talking craft stuff and she said

"Aunt Val, what would you do with these?"

as she plopped down a shoe storage container full of sets of earrings.... it didn't take me long to figure it out.

We had just discussed a new lamp shade and then I saw these earrings which were all about the same length and all I could think of was "fringe".....beaded fringe.

so this is what we came up with...

List of supplies

 fabric

 scissors

(I love dollar tree scissors....they are cheap and cut 

great for quite a long time)

 clothes pins

 spray adhesive or fabric glue

trim or other decorations

craft paper or wrapping paper for pattern

pencil

ruler

first start by laying your lamp shade on the craft paper....seam down and start rolling slowly and drawing your edges with a pencil to trace the shape of the shade.

cut out your pattern

next lay your pattern on your fabric and pin it down.

cut out your fabric giving an extra half inch or more on all edges.

spray your starting edge with spray adhesive and line up the fabric on your shade.  If you think you have it lined up correctly....go ahead and start spraying your fabric and start smoothing it onto the shade.
(as you can see...we had some issues with our spray adhesive...we were tipping it down and it was dripping...so you definitely need to hold it up and spray it...and if you can take it outside, that would be a good idea or you will have a sticky floor....
we ended up doing a double layer of fabric to cover the drips...)

Next we measured 3/4 of an inch between and marked with a pencil, then we used an awl to pierce holes in the shade ..... 
WATCH YOUR FINGERS!

Then came the fun part.....first Heather had to figure out the colors she wanted and come up with a pattern and then it was time to put the earrings on the shade.

We then used some ribbon to hot glue over the earring wires at the bottom and at the top....I put pleats in every 2 inches or so to make going around the curves easier.

then....tuck in all your edges and glue them down...

And you have a new shade....
I thought I'd enclose a picture of what the shade looked like before we covered it....we didn't get a pic of the pleated part that we pulled off....but then we found out how brittle the shade was .....as we kept saying "oops!" and hole after hole appeared....  :-)  so we covered it with duct tape to hold it together... hee hee

we did cover all the gaps so that they wouldn't
show through the fabric when the lamp was on....

Wedding Shadow Box

Wanted to share this wonderful idea by a friend of mine....

Wedding Shadow Box

What a great way to remember your

special day

(I love that she even put her earrings in there...)

Thank you Jill, for sharing your creativity!!!

:-)

Creative gardening craft

My sister and her husband came up with this creative idea for

a window box made with left over gutters.

Very Nice!!! 

thank you for letting me share your idea

Spring Butterflies

So our little friend Tabby inspired us to make butterflies today from construction paper, pipe cleaners and craft sticks....oh and a glue stick  :-)

They drew wings freehand and glued the sticks onto the wings

then they made decorations for the wings

Pretty little decorations for spring

crafty thoughts

I have to get back on the crafty "stick"....I've been slacking off....

My friend Mary has been busy though.....her husband had a fiftieth birthday party for her and she dressed like Cindy Lauper....

she made her outfit which was a skirt from goodwill that she decorated with shower scrubbers....you know the foofy girly kind that come in all kinds of colors....

well apparently when you pull them apart they are one continuous piece of netting.....she hooked those in multiple colors around the top of the skirt and then tied them onto the straps of her shirt....it looked really good.... :-)  she is so creative...

this is Mary and her sister Trina...so fun!

March Quilt Block

Quilting Anyone?

finally got my March quilt square picked up and done....now onto April's square....

Can't wait to get the whole thing finished.... :-)