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.

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!

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!

Crafting Space Make Over

I recently decided to make over my son’s old nursery turned guest room into my crafting room.  I love feature walls and enjoy decorating as much as I love to make crafts.  

I decided that despite the amount of time and hard work a design like this would take, I chose to do it anyway because it’s going to look great once completed.
Once all of the taping is complete I am going to paint it a beautiful Tiffany blue color with red accents. I’m only halfway complete and it’s already taken me 10 hours or more to get this far.

I’ll post more pictures once the painting is complete!

Customized Hand Painted Wine Glasses and DIY Salt Dough Ornament for Wine Bottle Adornment Keepsake

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Wine glass 
• Acrylic Paint for Multi Surfaces in Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Lite Green 
• Clear Acrylic Spray Finish 
• Fine Tip Artist Brushes
• Flour
• Table Salt
• FloraCraft Diamond Dust
• Stars Shaped Cookie Cutter
• Wallet Sized Photo
• Bottle of Wine 
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks 
• Red and white striped string 
• 

1. Mix equal parts flour and salt, then add half of the amount of water.  (1 cup flour, salt and 1/2 cup water).
2. Roll out dough into a 1/4″ thickness and then use a star shaped cookie cutter to cut a star shape.
3. Use a tooth pick to create a hole in one of the tips of the star to hang the ornament.
4. Once you have cut out the desired amount bake in the oven at 210 degrees for three hours. 
5. While baking, paint a wine glass in a up and down pattern of Christmas lights alternating colors. 
6. Once dried,  paint in the blank areas “let’s lite it up!” in alternating colors. 
7. Once the ornaments have come out of the oven and cooled, spare with clear acrylic spray and then sprinkle the diamond dust on top and scary a second coat to help secure the diamond dust.
8. Scary a even layer of clear acrylic spray onto the wine glass.
9. Cut out the head from a wallet sized photo and hot glue into place. 
10. Cut a small piece of string to secure the ornament onto the wine bottle.

I think the best gifts are the ones hand crafted with love.  They just really seem to show the recipient how much you care about them to put in the time and effort to create a special gift for them.  Merry Christmas!  Five more days to go wild, happy crafting!

Personalized Cookie/Carrot Plate for Santa and Rudolph on Christmas Eve

 

We had our first snow day of the season, which is rather early for Western Washington which gave me time for a little crafting.  I thought about using my Cricut, but I really love to paint – it’s really relaxing.

Tick Tock the Piñata Build: Part 4

So after much contemplation I have shifted the direction of my dear friend Tick Tock and have gone with this head.  I jumped down the Pinterest rabbit hole one more time to see how others sculpted more difficult paper mache sculptures and the answer is this – or so I think. 

His body should be much simpler than this head, but we’ll see…I am still completely nervous about this project.  However,  if it turns out great then this will surely lend help to someone else’s creative process since Pinterest shows many amazing piñatas without tutorials for the more difficult or extravagant ones.

I’m off to work on my dear friend some more, so please continue to stop by and check out my progress!