Finally!!

Well I finally finished moving my craft posts to this blog. So anyone looking at all the posts from yesterday just know I am not on a crafting rampage!! Well, I kind of am but not that excessive...yet.

I've been trying hard to finish some projects eating up space in my garage. Crafting time isn't always easy to come by. Raising two kids, babysitting a one year old and maintaining our home takes up a lot of time. I never want to rush a project either, I want to do the best job I can do so if that means it takes a week to do something someone can do in a day than so be it.

I hope you all enjoy the posts. Please feel free to follow me or to share my posts.

Comments, tips or questions are always welcome!

ORBS!!!

I’m about to tell you all about orbs!! Now I am not talking about the little ghost dots in pictures but a spin off of my garden gazing ball obsession. I just loved how much pizazz the gazing balls gave my flower bed so I came up with an idea to create them on a smaller and lighter scale. This way my very large tree can have pizazz too.
First thing you will need is a wiffleball or other light weight ball in a similar size. I found my wiffleballs at the dollar store 3/$1.

Now you will need something shiny to put on the ball. The glass gems I used for the gazing ball would work but it makes it a bit heavy. So I found these rhinestone like gems from Hobby Lobby. The container is 1 pound and contains various sizes.

I hot glued this little things to the wiffleball. There might be a faster way of adhering them to the ball; however, I really wanted them to stay in place. The Arizona weather can be very unforgiving.

I tied on some fishing line and hot glued gems right over the knot. Once it was finished I tied a paper clip to the other end. Secured with a little more hot glue and BAM! Hanging orb is finished.

Tinted Mason Jars

So like everyone else on pinterest I have discovered the potential of mason jars. I decided I was going to try tinting them. Since this was going to be an experiment I went to my local thrift shop and picked up 4 small jars.

I bought some glass paint at Michael’s. I bought two colors and mixed it together. The blue was a little darker than I wanted to I picked up a white with glitter to mix for added sparkle. Who doesn’t like sparkle right?

I followed the instructions on the paint. I painted two coats waiting at least an hour between coats. Then as per instructions wait 4 days for the paint to dry. Once the long wait was over, I put them into a cool oven, turned it to 275. Once it reached 275 they baked for 30 minutes, and then cooled in the oven.
They turned out pretty considering I had no idea what I was really doing. :)

I am going to find some pretty ribbon for the top of the jar then will put some candles in them.

Pikachu Beanie

My crochet adventures continue!! The past few nights I have been working on Pikachu beanies for the kids. It seems strange to be making beanies when it is 110 degrees outside but inspiration knows no temperature. I used the same beanie pattern as I did with the gumba. For the ears I used the magic circle and a 3.75mm hook. I started with four double crochet in the circle and increased until desired size. This gave his ears a nice point. The eyes and cheeks were all magic circle. Cheeks are 15 double crochet, eyes were 20 and the white in the eyes were five. I also stuffed his ears with filling from an old pillow (I washed the stuffing first).
Not to shabby.

Glitter Wine Glasses

What should I do with wine glasses found on clearance? Make them sparkle!! But where do I begin? Pinterest of course! I did a quick search and found a tutorial here.
So I set everything up, and got to work.

I followed the tutorial exactly. Glitter is so pretty but so messy.
Here is a picture of two completed glasses.

Dear Son's Hat Rack

My son has a lot of hats. Not ball caps, but fedoras and safari hats. I needed to find a way to properly display his hats so off to the thrift store I went. Luckily I found a hat rack for $1.

It was nothing fancy but a little spray paint and it would match his room perfectly.

I used the left over spray paint from his lego mini figure display case. Two quick coats and she was done.

I know he is going to love it. Not bad for a dollar.

Plastic Spoon Daisies

This is another project for my daughter’s room. We just had her room painted a plum color with a teal accent wall (she picked the colors herself). We also bought her a new bed and everything is coming together nicely. There is one wall in her room that had nothing on it. No real furniture, no pictures and maybe I am crazy but I can’t stand bare walls. So I saw a post on pinterest about plastic spoon mirrors here. I loved the concept but didn’t want the mirror part so I modified the middle and made it into a daisy. For  the center I used some cardboard coasters I acquired from a local pizza joint.

Turned out pretty darn cute!!

More lego Storage!

Good Morning Everyone! I wanted to share with you another project I completed inspired by pinterest. Lego Storage. We have Legos everywhere! We needed something specific to store those pesky little things in. So off to pinterest I went and found a fun tutorial. I followed it for the most part. I used a blow dryer to remove the label and thankfully it left no residue behind!! Instead of vinyl for the face, I painted it on. It isn’t perfect but my boy is thrilled with it.

garden gazing ball

Well it is almost 9:00 p.m. here and everyone is about to go to bed. Everyone except me that is. What am I doing at 9:00 p.m.? I am making a garden gazing ball. This is by far my favorite project to work on. I have made over a dozen of these over the past couple months. I have several in my back yard, a couple on my front porch and have given a few to family and friends. The best part about these gazing balls is they are fairly inexpensive to create. You just need a few things and you can whip one up in less than 2 hours.
First thing you are going to need? A bowling ball! Yup that is right a bowling ball. You can probably find one at your local thrift shop like I did and better yet I find them on half off day. This beauty set me back a whopping $2.50

Thanks Jean for donating your old bowling ball to the Goodwill!
Next thing you will need? Glass Gems. I recommend the glass gems with a flat back. You could totally use the perfectly round marble like gems but it will take longer…a lot longer. You can get glass gems at the dollar store or a craft store.

These are gems from Hobby Lobby. They are $3 for 2 pounds and it took 2 bags to cover the ball. Now, not all gems are created equal. Size plays a factor. Some gems will be smaller and require more bags.
Now here is the fun part. Sticking those pretty little gems on the bowling ball. I have tried two different methods and both work well. Your first option is silicone caulking. I started off making gazing balls with caulking but after a few completed projects the smell started to bother me. It has a vinegar like smell so I had to do these projects outside. Not a big deal until the temps here reach 110+ degrees. So your second option?

Hot Glue Baby!!! Now you can tell by the look of my glue gun it is well loved. I use it on every project I can. There is of course the burn factor. I use a high temp glue gun so my kids know when Mommy is gluing to keep their little fingers at a safe distance.
I find it best to glue the back of the gem and then place it on the ball. Once you get going it is hard to stop. Even more so if you are like me and watching TV while gluing. :)

This is what the gazing ball looks like halfway through. If you are going for a specific color scheme you could always paint the bowling ball first. I haven’t tried this yet. I have been lucky enough to find bowling balls with amazing colors. So I find gems that will accent their beauty.
All Finished

For $8.50 plus the cost of glue ( I didn’t count how many glue sticks I used sorry) you have yourself a beauty of gazing ball!!

Gumba Crochet Beanie

My son and daughter both love nintendo characters. While I was going through my yarn stash ( I could open up a yarn store) I started thinking about what I could make the kids and use up some of my yarn. I was looking at my staple colors; black, brown and white when it hit me…Gumba!! I love to crochet, but honestly I am forever a student. There are so many stitches and patterns out there it is overwhelming. So I decided to go with something basic. I used a double crochet beanie pattern I found. I love this pattern, it is easy to follow and works up really fast. So after I found the pattern I got to work. The brown I had on hand may have been a little dark but I wanted to use what was readily available. For the eyes, I used the magic circle technique and double crochet. I used 4 double crochet in the magic circle and two double crochet in each stitch in the second round. For the black in the eyes, it was five double crochet in the magic circle. The brow and the mouth was just a single crochet line. The teeth were basic triangles (although I  haven’t mastered triangles yet).
So here is a picture of my gumba. Not the greatest but not the worst.

Plastic drawer makeover

My daughter’s room is getting a makeover. So we are doing things a little at a time. Today I decided her boring plastic drawers she uses for her dress up stuff could use a little color.
Here is the before picture ( I have the top drawer, just forgot to take the pictures before I took it out.)

Since this is hidden in her closet I didn’t want to invest too much time and effort into it. So I busted into my duct tape stash.

I love it when I can find supplies on clearance!! ( Target is my mother ship!)
Tape Tape Tape and before you know it, you are done.

There are a few wrinkles in the front but hey it stays in the closet so I’m won’t lose much sleep over it.

Metal Trunk Makeover

Hello Everyone!!

Tonight I am going to share with you the project that has plagued my for the past week.

I kept seeing this cool pictures on pinterest where people have made over old metal trunks into coffee tables. It looked easy enough, but I couldn't find a tutorial. So when I came across a metal trunk at my local thrift shop I thought what the heck I will give it a shot.

I think I got a little overly excited about this project and I didn't think it all the way through. First thing I did was sand down the surface. Then I taped off the hardware. This was mistake number one!

So then I went spray paint happy. I used a spray paint plus primer...mistake number 2. I should have used an actual primer because the metal was so dark.

After the paint was all dried I found myself stuck trying to figure out how to paint the hardware. So without having any way to properly tape off the rest of the trunk I caved and painted it by hand. What I should have done was spray painted the hardware first and then sanded off the over spray on the trunk.

You live you learn right?

Next was trying to figure out how to attach the legs without having screws sticking through the bottom of the trunk. I didn't want to add any extra wood to the bottom or the inside so I used short screws and attached the plates upside down, then simply screwed the legs on.

I still need to reline the inside of the trunk but for now I have to move on to the bigger projects eating up space in my garage.

Project on hold due to epic rain and floods

Yesterday I started the makeover process of a White Clad ice box end table. It took a lot of sanding to get 20+ years of love out of it but when it was all bare it was smooth. This was probably the best sanding job I have done yet. I am still new at this so I don't have much to compare it to. The plan is to do the ice box gray with a white chevron on the top.

Being a mommy of two, I can't always start a project and see it through to the finished product in one shot. I ended yesterday with the top painted white.

Today I was going to finish the project while the kids were at school. Well Mother Nature had other plans. Today we received record breaking rains. Now, I live in the suburbs of Phoenix and rain is few and far between. Today we received 5.75" of rain at my house in about 6 hours. The Phoenix metro area was flooded, schools were cancelled, homes evacuated and people were trapped on the freeways.

Today will probably be the wettest day I will see in my lifetime. I read that the odds of us getting that much rain in one day is .0002% a year. Crazy.

So until some of the humidity clears out I had to put the ice box on hold.