Personalized Wooden Picture Frames

Each year I get pictures of my son and give them to family in a picture frame.  This year I found wooden unfinished frames for $4.00 and decided to paint and personize them for each recipient.  I also made a moasiac wooden frame that hang the pictures from wires that I converted from dollar store “canvas” signs.

This was a great way to add a personal touch using colors and themes enjoyed by each individual for little cost.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Wooden Frame
• Dollar store “canvas” signs
• Acrylic paint – in desired colors
• Crafting jewels and scrapbooking adornments as desired
• Staple gun and staples
• Hot glue gun and glue
• Paperclips or small clothes pins
• Crafting wire
• Needle nose pliers
• Wire cutters

Since you don’t really need a step by step tutorial on painting the frames I will just provide instructions for building your moasiac wooden frame that holds pictures from wires.

1. Tear “canvas” paper off of the frames.
2. These were approximately 9 x 6 inches tall, so I measured 1.5 inches on each side to mount together with space in the center for a smaller picture.
3. Hot glue together and then add a couple of staples for added support.
4. Paint the frame as desired.
5. Staple each side where you want to secure the wire to hang your pictures cut wires and sucure wire using needle nose pliers to make a knot around the staples.
6. Use paperclips or mini clothes pins to hang pictures.

I love DIY because it allows for a personalized touch, but also if you think outside of the box you can do it for little cost too!  Happy Crafting and merry Christmas everyone!

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Pallet Porch Signs

I’ve admired all of the porch signs that I see everyone placing on their front porch made out of repurposed old pallets and was dying to make one for myself but since Christmas is a time for giving it wouldn’t have been right.  

My parents wedding anniversary is December 21st and I thought it would be a nice surprise gift for them to make one that commemorated their special day. Recently one of my coworkers called me about some pallets and had one that was the perfect size for my project!

This was just red spray paint, white acrylic paint and clear spray varnish in a matte finish. My parents really loved it and have it prominently displayed in their living room until spring.

Dave Matthews Band Fire Dancer Decorative Ornament

My sister is probably the biggest Dave Matthews Band fan to walk the face of this planet.  She’s been to so many of his concerts I think that she’s even lost counts, following him all the way to the east coast and back!  

With that in mind I decided to sculpt a Fire Dancer ornament to give her as a Christmas gift this year and I think it came out pretty amazing considering it was made from aluminum foil, sculpey and acrylic paint.

I separately sculpted the legs, torso and arms and pieced them together by smoothing out the clay together the same way I did in my Bumble sculpting (Mini Sculpting: The Bumble).  I screwed a small eye bolt into the head area to hand it before baking it.

After baking it and allowing it to cool off, I painted it red and yellow allowing the paint to bleed into each other to make an appearance of flames.

Roasted Garlic Bacon Ranch Snowman Cheese Ball

Here at my house I’ve been gearing up for festivities with my side of the family at my house on Christmas Eve.  It’s been a long couple of days making salted chocolate fudge, peanut butter chocolate fudge, orange creamsickle fudge, red velvet and sugar cookie candy cane kiss thumb print cookies, and creme brulee.  

I just finished my Roasted Garlic Bacon Ranch snowman cheese ball and I am about to get cracking on my chocolate glazed canoili pie.  It’s going to be a delicious dinner tomorrow night!

Ingredients:

• Whole garlic bulb
• Cooking oil (I used avacado oil because it can stand high tempature cooking)
• Extra Sharp White Cheddar Cheese 1/2 block of 2 lbs cheese block
• Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning packet to taste
• 7 pieces of bacon
• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce 
• 8 Oz cream cheese
• Whole peppercorns
• Baby carrot

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Peel off the papery outer layers of a whole clove of garlic bulb and cut off the tips.  
3. Rub cooking oil over the exposed tips and wrap in foil.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until tender.
4. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and bake 7 pieces of bacon for 11 – 15 minutes or until desired doneness is achieved.
5. Grate half of the 2 pound block of white cheddar and preserve 1/3 of it for later.  Mix thoroughly cheese with package of cream cheese, add worcestershire sauce, chopped cooked bacon, and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic (or more if desired).
6. Form two balls and roll each one with preserved grated cheddar.
7. Use a potato peeler to peel baby carrot to a point.
8. Stack balls on top of each other, add carrot and peppercorns to the head and body to make it look like a snowman.

This is super cute, festive, and incredibly delicious! It will have your family begging you for the recipe! Merry Christmas everyone!

Jack Skellington and Sally Christmas Ornaments – Simply Meant to Be

OMy sister in-law is as crazed about the Nightmare Before Christmas as I am and loves Jack and Sally, So this year I made her a couple of ornaments for her tree.  These were particularly fun to make and I think really turned out cute.  I’m hoping they can brighten her spirits this year since she recently experienced the loss of her mother and is having a hard time year.
MATERIAL NEEDED:

• Blue and champagne colored glitter
• Black, white, and red acrylic paint
• Red yarn
• Clear jewelery making plastic string
• Sculpey
• Sculpey Bake and Bond
• Hot glue gun and glue
• Sculpting tools 
• Plastic ornament bulbs

Follow the instructions from my article for the Grinch Glitter Ornament.

Sally:

1. Paint almond shaped eyes horizontally using the white paint. Painting 2-3 coats until you can no longer see the blue coming through.
2. Trace the eyes in black paint and draw a small arch over each eye making her eye lids, then carefully add her eyelashes and under eye circles.
3. Add the black pupils to her eyes and once dry add a few white dots of paint for a sparkle in the eyes.
4. Add a round up turned half circle for her nose in black paint.
5. Draw her small heart shaped lips mixing a little red and black together for her lips.
6. Draw aine going over her left eye and the add horizontal lines running through it to make her stitches. 
7. Run a second line underneath that same eye running towards the back of the ornament adding stitch lines horizontally.
8. Add a line through her mouth running through the one under her eye and add the horizontal stitch marks.
9. Cut yarn to desired length and hot glue to the top of the ornament using a low temperature glue gun.
10. Put the ornament cap back on and hang up to enjoy!

Jack:

1. Paint his face in your desired look using black paint.
2. Using sculpey modeling clay, smooth out the shape of his bow tie on a flat surface adding each branch and smoothing it out. Add a small hole with the needle tool to the top of the head to run the string through.
3. Shape a small pointy heart for the bat head and using a ball tip tool press into the head to create eye sockets secure to the tie with sculpey Bake and bond and bake at 275 degrees for 15 minutes.
4. While baking, use your needle tip sculpting tool to poke a hole in the bottom of the ornament to run the string through.
5. Paint the bow tie black front to back and then add white lines.
6. Once dry, tie an end of the plastic string through the tie and knot it 2-3 times cutting off the extra end.  Run other end through the hole pushing it as far up as desired and then add a bit of hot glue to keep it in place.

These are fun and easy to make and are sure to be enjoyed by any Nightmare Before Christmas fan! I hope they’ve inspired you to make your very own!  Happy crafting and merry Christmas!

Commemorative Fingerprint Snowman Ornaments

A tradition in my family has been to collect an ornament each year, but ever since I discovered my love of crafting I have been making my own.  This year my son and I did a special collaboration with him lending me his finger tips to make my snowmen.

This is a really simple and cute craft that commemorates tiny fingers for future years.  

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Red glitter
• Mop and Glow
• Clear plastic or glass ornament
• Acrylic paint – white, black, blue, and orange
• Red wire ribbon

1. Pour Mop and Glow into the ornament and swish around the the inside plugging the end with your finger tip; empty the excess.
2. Pour red glitter into the bulb and plug the end with your finger tip and shake until glitter coats the entire inside; add more if needed continuing to shake.
3. Dip finger tip into white paint and make three dots on top of each other in the shape of a snowman.
4. Use a fine tip paint brush and dot the front with snowflakes. 
5. Draw a black line across the top of his head for the brim of the top hat and draw an hour glass shape filling it in black for the remainder of the hat.
6. Dot the eyes and add the buttons.
7. Using the blue paint, draw a line across the neck of the head and then two more going downward for the tails.
8. Draw the tree branche arms using black paint.
9. Paint the bottom white for snow on the ground.

This may be ane of my absolute favorites this year!  Happy crafting and merry Christmas!

Mad Tea Party Christmas Ornaments

Clean cup, clean cup, move down! 

I’m not crazy, my reality is just different from yours.

Off with her head!

I saw a version of these on Etsy a really long time ago and always wanted to have them because I always loved this movie as a little girl.  Now that I am a glitter ornament making diva I thought no time like the present – speaking of presents I’ll be giving them away for Christmas too.  

Maybe I will just have to make them for myself later on, but for now it’s the time of year to give and honestly it makes me feel really wonderful to give my crafts away.  I love the home made stuff, to me it shows how much you care about someone by giving them your time – anyone can make a quick meaningless purchase but home made involves customization and thoughtfulness.

These were really simple, you only need the following items:

• Clear plastic or glass ornaments
• Glitter – red, light blue, light green, and purple (most can be purchased at the dollar store!)
• Mop and Glow
• Acrylic paint – black, yellow and white
• Fine tip artists brushes
• Ribbon – black, green, purple, and light blue

Since they’re silhouettes they’re actually really easy and if you mess up just use a qtip to erase the mistake and try again!  You’ll be amazed at how simple they are to make, especially since the price tag on Etsy was fairly high for the amount of effort and cost of materials.  

For instructions on the glitter filling follow this link: DIY Glitter Ornaments.

Happy crafting and merry Christmas!

DIY Glitter Ornaments: The Grinch and Believe

Have you ever wondered if making those ornaments using glitter and Mop and Glow really work?  Well thanks to finding glitter in various colors I decided to give it a try and to my surprise in really does!

I purchased some clear plastic bulbs from Michael’s in a big pack with DIY in mind and once I found the green glitter at the dollar store it was decided how I was going to use them!  It really is easy and once you fill them you can decorate them in various ways!

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Clear bulb ornament
• Glitter green and red
• Mop and Glow
• Acrylic paint – black and yellow
• Elmer’s glue
• Fine tip art
• Optional* silver plastic glue on jewel
• Wire red and green ribbon

GRINCH:

1. Fill ornament with Mop and Glow and swirl around the inside, pouring out excess.
2. Fill with glitter and plug the end with your finger tip and shake until glitter covers the inside completely.  Add more if needed.
3. Paint oval shaped yellow eyes.
4. Once dried trace the eyes in black adding lashes and under eye bags.
5. Add half open circles for his pupils.
6. Draw his mouth, nose and wrinkles.
7. Tie a bow with the green ribbon around the ornament caps loop.

BELIEVE:

1. Complete steps 1 and 2 from the Grinch ornament using red glitter.
2. Using Elmer’s glue write the word believe on the ornament and cover with glitter.
3. Glue optional star as the dot over the i.
4. Tie a bow with red ribbon around the ornament caps.

These are so cute and easy! I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial! Happy crafting and merry Christmas!

Christmas Baking

What would Christmas be without delicious home baked cookies and these festive Grinch’s Heart Grew 3 Sizes rice krispy treats?!?

I made sugar cookies and because I really don’t have the patience for royal icing I took the easy route by dusting them with colored sugar. It added color and additional taste.  I’m going to give the blue snowflakes to my sister and call them her “Let it Go Emergency Work Cookies” just eat one when your coworkers are driving you crazy! 😉 Follow the link below to make these easy, deliciously buttery sugar cookies.

The recipe for these easy and delicious rice krispy treats follow this link below just add neon green and regular green to the mix and add a Wilton candy heart:

Rice Krispy Treats

Sugar Cookies

These will be perfect added gifts for my family and my son’s teachers at school, Merry Christmas! 

Football Fan Couple’s with Opposing Teams: Patriots and Seahawks

My brother and his girlfriend are adorable on game day.  They faithfully watch their teams while still respecting each other’s.  You visit them on game day and they’ll be hanging out on their couch watching football in their opposing jerseys, sharing playful banter about who’s team is the dominant one.

My brother is diehard Patriots fan and his girlfriend a Seahawks fan.  For Christmas this year I made them a sports sign for their front porch combining their teams.