Saturday, December 29, 2012

Snowflake Chandelier

I made some snowflakes out of coffee filters recently and then hung them from the chandelier in my kitchen... have a look:











I sprayed them with glimmer mist as well.. and it really made them pretty but it was hard to get the camera to pick up the shimmer.  

Here is a garland I made with them:




Basically, I just folded the coffee filter 4 times.... until it was a wedge and then cut around the wedge to form the shapes. Unfold it and viola!

For a more detailed tutorial see my Coffee Filter Snowflake Tutorial.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

DIY Cone Shaped Christmas Trees

 DIY Christmas Tree Cone Decorations


I just wanted to show some of the cone shaped Christmas trees I have been working on.  I didn't go out and buy cone forms.. I actually just made my own from poster board using the instructions over at The Creativity Exchange.  I love how her cones came out.. they look amazing!


Here are the ones I have finished so far:


The smaller one I just wrapped with jute that I got from the dollar store. The tall one I embellished with sequin dot material.  I just cut the material into strips and folded them in half forming a loop and glued them all around the tree row by row, starting from the bottom. I love how it turned out.  I actually still have a ton of this pretty sequin material in different colors so hopefully I'll be able to do a few more of these!



Here are the three silver ones I did. They were a bit more involved than the others. Two of them (medium and small one) were made using those little Styrofoam balls.. I put tacky glue all over the cones and dipped them into the balls and the balls covered the cones for the most part. I then painted the cones with silver metallic craft paint. I then mixed some very fine iridescent silver glitter with some diamond glaze and brushed it over the trees. Then I wanted to add some large pieces of holographic glitter but I didn't have any so what I ended up doing was cutting up some holographic curly ribbon that I had into small bits and sprinkled it all over the trees. I think it worked pretty good! You can not tell much in the photo but you can see it up a bit closer.

The way I did the tallest tree was I ended up gluing some chunky bath salt all over it. I was using quick dry tacky glue so I was hoping it would dry before melting the salt. Some of it did melt and some of it didn't... but overall, it was a very interesting texture and I'm glad I did it. After the bath salts, I took it outside and spray painted it metallic silver and I loved it! After that, I ended up brushing on some glaze with glitter and also sprinkled some little pieces of nail art glitter that I found at the Dollar Tree. I think it turned out very cute as well.



Last but no least, here is one that I made and covered with rhinestones. For this particular one I used a cone template that I printed online for free and then just glued rhinestones on row by row.  I love how sparkly and pretty it turned out!

If you are interested in making one of your own, please see my tutorial 

Thanks so much for dropping by! 


Thursday, November 15, 2012

Scented Pine Cone Tutorial



It's fall and time to start getting ready for the holidays. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!  This year I have developed a slight addiction to pine cones and decided I wanted to do some scented pine cones and they turned out fabulous.  I am loving the holiday scent.


I ended up putting them into baskets and a few on a large plate.  One of the baskets I put on the shelf right by the front door and the other is sitting on the kitchen table.   I LOVE the smell..  I used essential oils to give them the fragrance. I ended up purchasing a cinnamon-vanilla combo essential oil and another bottle of clove bud essential oil. They mixed very well.. and now I have this nostalgic aroma of the holidays lingering in the air. 



They are super simple to make....You first want to clean your pine cones by rinsing them with warm water and then putting then in a 200 degree oven for them to dry.  After they are all dry, take your essential oils in cinnamon and clove or whatever scent you like and drop some drops on each pine cone. I did about 10 drops on mine. Then put them in large zip lock baggies and let sit for 3 to 7 days. When they are ready, take them out and put them in a basket or pretty container or use them for crafts!




For more ideas and a more detailed tutorial on how to do your own scented pine cones, see my tutorial here.


Thank you for stopping by!   I hope you have lots of fun doing your own scented pine cones :)

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Super Easy & Cute Halloween Wreath Tutorial




I recently made this Halloween wreath and I am so, so happy with how it came out! What I love most about this wreath is it costs me TWO bucks to make and it was easy, easy, easy!  It was made using plastic strips and a wire hanger. All you do is take a wire hanger and bend it into a circle and tie plastic strips all around it.  If you are interested in the detailed tutorial plus more ideas, please click HERE.



Here is another one:

I wanted to share this wreath that my friend Sunny made.  It was made basically the same way but instead of tying each strip on individually, she tied a couple on at the same time and then separated the strips after she tied them on.  I think it turned out super cute.  I LOVE the Happy Halloween with the pumpkin in the middle and the black ribbon bow on top!

Thanks so much for dropping by.... Happy Halloween to you and yours :)

Jamie

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Halloween Printable Freebies- Cute Subway Art

I just got one of those Cannon printers that will print 12x12 scrapbook pages.. so I was excited to try it out and decided to make this 12x12 Halloween subway art. I thought it turned out cute so why not share it... a little later I decided to make one more that was 8.5 x 11 for those of you who would rather have that size.  For personal use only, please..... thank you :)   Click on the one you want and it will take you to the download page. Once you get there just click file, then download.



12x12



8.5x11

For more free Halloween printables click here!


I hope you enjoy these free Halloween subway art printables..Thank you for dropping by!

Jamie

Linked to :
Thirty Handmade Days

 These were created using free resources from webdesignhot.com and kevinandamanda.com

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Train Shaped Chalkboard for Little Boys Room






My little boy is crazy about trains...so I decided to make this cute train shaped chalkboard for his bedroom wall...he loves it.    All you need to make this cute train is some cardboard or foam board, chalkboard contact paper, a x-acto knife and some double sided sticky tape.  

I cut out the locomotive using a SVG file template from online and left the rest of the train cars plain rectangles to give him more room to write with the chalk.    If you are interested in a detailed tutorial plus a link to the template, click on the photo :)


Thanks for dropping by!

Jamie

Sunday, September 23, 2012

My New Fave Site: COLOURlovers

If you love patterns and are looking for some inspiration... go over and play a while at COLOURlovers!  This site is awesome... It lets you create your own patterns out of endless colors and designs. You get to save all your patterns on your profile for future reference and you can share patterns you create on Facebook, Pinterest, ETC and you can download your patterns to use for IPhone backgrounds and desktop Wallpaper and things like that.  Here are a few of my creations:


 


















So whataya think??    Another thing I love about this site is that it is so easy to use.. So what are you waiting for?? Go make some patterns!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

We Remember...

Remembering the victims and their families.  Please feel free to take this graphic and post it on your own website or blog.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Crepe Paper Rosettes Tutorial

Crepe paper rosettes embellished with carnations

So I finally dug out those packages of crepe paper streamers I had been saving and this is what I came up with... crepe paper rosettes.  Some of them I used a machine to put in the stitch but on most of them I did it by hand with needle and thread. You can embellish the middles with buttons, foam shapes, etc.. The ones in the top photo are embellished with crepe paper carnations.  If you are interested in making some of these rosettes, there is a link to the tutorial at the end of this post.  Here are some more photos:













Thank you for dropping by!
Jamie

Friday, August 17, 2012

Use Scrapbook Paper for DIY Home Decor

DIY Wall Art


The other day I ran across this gorgeous DIY wall art over at Jessica's Musings. It was made from a canvas and scrapbook paper! I think it's wonderful and I can't wait to make one of my own :)

I included this in a round-up I just finished.  If you are interested in more home decor projects using scrapbook or decorative paper go to:

20 DIY Home Decor Ideas using Decorative Paper


Thanks for stopping by!

Jamie B.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

DIY Home Decor - Make Rhinestone Covered Bottles


 I have been busy lately making pretty rhinestone covered bottles.  I am really happy with how they are turning out and it's SO EASY to do!   Have a look:




Top of the cap




So what do you think??  The two bottles that have round tops, I picked up at Goodwill a while back for like $2.  The shorter square bottle had oil and reed diffusers in it... I think I got it as a gift and the other multicolored bottle was an empty Fletcher's Children's laxative bottle.

The rhinestones are actually resin but they look like REAL crystal ones to me! I got them super cheap on Ebay and I used a the GOOP brand glue (E6000, CRAFT and Goop) to glue the rhinestones on.  I had a little sample pack of the glues in smaller tubes.. they worked perfectly for this.  I used the tip of a skewer with some sticky on it to pick up the rhinestones and place them into the glue.  If you are interested in a more detailed tutorial go to:

DIY Rhinestone Covered Bottles


Thanks for dropping by!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Invisible Disc Plate Hangers Tutorial - Great for Hanging Plates




Have you heard of the Invisible Adhesive Disc Plate Hanger? I have also seen them called Disc Plate Hangers, Invisible Plate Hanger, etc...   They are a made to stick on the back of plate for hanging on the wall.  Plate groupings on walls are very popular lately, I've been seeing them everywhere!    Here is what the Invisible plate hanger or adhesive disc hanger looks like:

Invisible Adhesive Disc Plate Hanger

What is so great about these hangers is they hang the plate without showing hardware like the metal old school plate hangers. The only thing I didn't like about them was the price so that's why I came up with my own version of adhesive disk hangers with some things I had around the house.   

Invisible Plate Hanger Tutorial

What You Need - 
 E6000 glue, a sturdy piece of fabric cut in a triangle, wire, sandpaper or a tool that sands and rubbing alcohol



I first made the metal loop by taking a piece of wire and looping it twice around a pen and then twisted the ends together.

I then determined on the back of the plate where I wanted the loop and right below that I sanded a rough area... with the stone plates, I used a grinding bit on a Dremel.  

I then wiped the roughened area with some rubbing alcohol. 

Then I put about a nickel sized glob of E6000 on the sanded area and stuck the metal loop ends into the glue while laying the loop on the plate in the position I wanted it.

Then I stuck the fabric triangle, right below the loop covering the glue and the bottom half of the wire.  I then gently pressed the triangle down and tried to smooth the glue out evenly under it. 

I sat it aside and let it dry for 24 hours.... and it worked like a charm!

For a more detailed tutorial with photos showing an alternate way to make these using jute go to:



Thank you so much for dropping by! I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial and will find it useful :)

For ideas and inspiration about hanging plates on your walls go to:  Decorating with Plates:Using Dinner Plates to Decorate your Walls






Thursday, July 5, 2012

3-D Stars Made from Frozen Pizza Boxes

These are easy and cheap DIY Cardboard Star Decorations!!

I finally made some 3D stars out of some frozen pizza boxes that I had been saving and I think they really turned out great! Of course, I didn't come up with this myself, I actually saw it HERE first, but the star there was made from a cereal box.  Cereal box, frozen pizza box.. it's really all the same!  I was so inspired, I just had to give it a try.   I love how they turned out and I'm happy to report they were actually SUPER EASY to make!!!  Don't tell yourself you can't make one of these.. because you can.

I did three of them that were approx. 12 x 12", another one that was about 6 by 6" and then a smaller one that was about 3" and the all turned out fabulous.  Have a look:













So what do you think??  I think that if I didn't know any better, they look pretty much like the expensive metal ones. If you like the look of them, I urge you to give this craft a try.  They are super easy to make and you can make them practically for free if you save your cardboard food packaging. I definitely look forward to making more of these for use around the holidays. 

For more cardboard projects like this one, go to: Cute and Clever Cereal Box Crafts Round-Up


Thank you for dropping by!



Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Easy Inexpensive 4th of July Decor - DIY Jeweled Firecrackers!

DIY Jeweled Firecracker Decorations!!



If you are looking for easy and cheap decoration ideas for the 4th of July, you have come to the right place! Display these beautiful jeweled firecrackers to in your home OR use them as decorations for your 4th of July party!  They are very easy to make and the results are stunning.   








So gather your supplies!  You will need empty toilet paper tubes, paint, beans or rice, rhinestones and a good glue and some jute and see my Jeweled Firecracker Tutorial.