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.

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!

DIY Dollar Store “Snow-Tex”

For Christmas this year I am making my own snowman head ornaments and I need a large amount of Snow-Tex, but the cost of it being $3.99 for a meager 4 oz jar is not happening!  I decided to try my own recipe for it fresh from the dollar store – well mostly anyway.  

This product is simple, easy, and will most certainly save you money!  It’s just two simple ingredients:

• White sand
• White acrylic paint

Mix sand and paint until you get a thick, spreadable paste and voila!  You won’t be able to see a difference – except in your wallet!

On the left DIY version and on the right $3.99 4 oz jar of Snow-Tex!

Snowman Ornament with a Knit Hat

You all know how much I love the dollar store and this year I saw a cute idea for making knit hats as ornaments, but I thought it would be even cuter if you combined it with a snowman head!  I was disappointed when I went this weekend and saw there was no more foam balls, but then I realized that I could actually get the ornaments in a larger quantity and do the same thing! – a total bonus! These are so cute and easy, they’ll have you running straight to the dollar store right away!

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Small plastic ornaments from the dollar store (or foam balls of equivalent size)
• Snow-Tex to make it look like real snow
• Diamond Dust for sparkle
• Yarn
• Toilet paper tubes
• Small bells
• Air drying clay
• Black acrylic paint
• Pink acrylic paint
• Orange acrylic paint
• Hot glue and gun
• Ornament hooks

1. Start off by covering a generous layer of Snow-Tex to cover the whole ornament.
2. Prop on toilet paper tube to dry.
3. Cut off the end of a toilet paper tube to the desired width for the rim of your knit cap.
4. Cut a lot of yarn at least 10 inches long.
5. Now we simply make a loop and we put it in our little circle, completing this all the way around.
6. After you have finished the ring, pull all the ends through the tube and tie it off with a bell on a piece of yarn.
7. Cut off the extra length to create the pom-pom on top.
8. Once the Snow-Tex is dry, sculpt a carrot by rolling out a cone shape from the air drying clay and rub onto the head. 
9. Use a clay too or side of a tooth pick to make indentions to make it look like a carrot.
10. Hot glue the hat to the head.
11. Once dried, paint the eyes and mouth with black paint.  Add the rosey cheek color in a pink circle and paint the carrot orange.
12. Add an ornament hook and done!

Super cute and easy! These are a great dollar store make over to wow your friends and family with a nice ornament for a Christmas present, you can even use it on the outside of present to compliment your wrapping job!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Candy Cane Wreaths

My sister saw a friend from works wreath that she created out of candy canes, so she got infected by the crafting bug and said let’s do it!  We took a quick trip to the dollar store and grabbed some supplies.  They’re super cute and easy, we each are going to make one and even crafted one for my parents anniversary on the 21st.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• Hot glue and gun
• Wire ribbon
• Regular ribbon
• Ornament of your choice
• Peppermints (optional)
• Assorted candy cane size

1. We started by creating hearts by hot gluing two candy canes facing inwards by the hook.
2. Hot glue two sets together by gluing the flat sides together until you form a circle all the way around.
3. Hot glue your ornament into the center.
4. Cut small 1-2 inch strips of ribbon to hot glue around 2 candy canes for added stability.
5. Create a bow at the top and a loop to hang the wreath on. 

In the second one we used unwrapped (must spray with an acrylic sealant if being used on your door or  it will melt from condensation!) smally canes to create smaller hearts and added the peppermints to the arches of the hearts because my mom really loves bling and this just took it to next level.

Nothing says Christmas like candy canes! Happy holidays and get crafting!

DIY Grinch Sculpted Ornament

I’ve been collecting ornaments for each year that my husband and I have been married for the last 13 years, but this year I decided to make one of my own.  I started out with Rudolph in my mind and then suddenly I turned it into the Grinch.  He looks much harder than he is to make.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• 3 small Styrofoam floral balls found in $ store variety pack
• Metal wire
• Air Drying Clay loo9
• Limerick green Acrylic Paint
• White Acrylic Paint
• Yellow Acrylic Paint
• Black Acrylic Paint
• Cricut weeding tool
• Hot glue gun and glue

1. Cover one Styrofoam ball adding slightly more on one end, slowly sculpting a pear/curled tear drop shape.
2. Using the Cricut weeding tool, work in rounded snout/muzzle section working back in layers the creases in his face for his smile.
3. Tear a small amount of clay and shape it like a tear drop and then use the weeding tool to sculpt his evil eyes using the curved side to shape the eyes.
4. With the weeding tool create an my shape to make his nose.
5. Cut a loop of wire and  secure through the head after adding spear shaped hair on the tip of his head.
6. Cover to more Styrofoam balls with clay connect then together creating the torso shape.
7. Shape arms and legs working the dough together until it is well connecting it.
8. Set aside the pieces and allow to dry overnight or use a blow dryer to speed up the drying process.
9. Hot glue head onto the torso once dried completely.
10. Mix lime green and white paint together to get your grinchy color and paint him.
11. Paint the eyes yellow.  Remember that if you mess up your lines you can always fix with more green paint.
12. Once the eyes are died, outline them with a thin layer of black and draw his lashes and eyelashes.  Contour his facial lines in black and while slightly wet go over the facial lines in green making them less severe.
13. Draw a stubby u in each eye for his pupils.
14. Finish with an acrylic spray.

I hope that you have fun making these too.  Merry Christmas!

Get me the Elf Dust, S.T.A.T.!!!

Today my son touched Tattle !  I had to tell my son that touching his elf made Santa sad because it put the elf to sleep forever unless we sprinkled elf dust to wake up Tattle .   At first he didn’t want to  until I told him that Santa would be so sad he may not come this year…

Poseable Elf on the Shelf, Why Not?

So of course we all want to pose them and make our elves holding, posing, ect. so why they heck aren’t they just manufactured that way???  I spent the last 45 minutes twisting floral wire from the dollar store so it would be strong enough to shove through each limb.  

This sounds simple, but you have to cut out the stitches from the seams on the arms and legs in order to shove it through as one piece!!  Elf makers stop the insanity and give us poseable elves!!  I would have paid extra for the convenience.  Okay end rant.  Happy posing my fellow parents and merry Christmas.