Bellsprout Ornament: Lightbulb Rehab

Now look, I may be 22 and whatnot, but Pokemon was THE thing I grew up with.  I fought through many gym leaders, spent hours trying to capture the legendaries, raised pokemon from infancy to level 99, and logged 40 straight hours one week on pokemon when I had my widsom teeth cut out and my braces put on.

Yes, yes I did have those both done in the same week.  4 teeth pulled, 2 cut out (they were deep wisdom, not surface breakers), two days to recover, and then braces.  That entire week I popped one legit pain pill, then spent the rest of it on motrin.  As a sidenote, I hate pain pills because they just make me groggy and sleep way too much.  My first response to pain is to always just suck it up, and my second response if that fails is motrin or advil.  Plus, if you aren't focusing on your pain because you have to games to become the all time greatest PokeMaster in...you feel just fine!

As I had said before, my best friend gave me a whole bag of incandescent bulbs.  It was pretty much like Christmas.  So by this point I have made a Grinch, a Santa, a Penguin... and I was debating on what my next move would be...

You need: A lightbulb, yellow paint, pink paint or red and white to make pink, black paint or a sharpie, a floral stem, wire, E6000, and maybe some tape (I had to use a bandaid, I apparently have no tape...)

I cut this section of a floral stem off, the flower part I had used for a different craft.  I used bronze wire folded over on itself in two branches to make a V shape of wire (for the feet).  I wired that to the stem and wired the leaves so that they would point toward the back.

Next, I put a a good glob of E6000 on the "top" (really the back in this case) of the bulb where the stamp details are.  I put the wired stem onto it and secured it with the bandaid.

My bandaid piece covered up the majority of the glue and E6000 dries quickly, so I gave it a few moments to dry and then painted the entire bulb yellow. 

I had to then put it on my elaborate closet organizer drying system, because nowhere was dry enough for me to hold it to do the rest of the painting.  I let it hang there overnight.

Today, I got this little cutie off of my drying wrack and proceeded to add the rest of the details.

I painted the metal part a pinkish color I mixed up with my metallic red and some white. 

My paint colors are a bit limited here, you see.

Next, I used my black leading to make the eyes.  You could do this with a marker I would imagine.  I just didn't really have any handy.

As a finishing touch I bent the stem to make the whole thing look more whimsical.  If any of you are pokemon fans, you know bellsprout was a very looseygoosey wobbly thing. 

He is back on my drying system and when he is done I will put a wire loop on him and hang him from my tree.

Happy crafting! Pin It Now!

Tiny Kitchen Survival

We learn a lot about subsidies in urban planning.  Basically you are making something doable for someone else: subsidizing housing costs, giving subsidies or similar to businesses to locate to your city, blah blah blah.  Well, I have had two tiny kitchens in a row.  And I am starting to understand subsidies.

I have found myself having to subsidize space in order to organize things.  In order to make organization even remotely possible, I have had to make concessions and get really creative in where things go.  Now, I will be the first to say that I am not an organizational guru by ANY means, and in fact usually I am more like a hurricane and just leave a wake of destruction and disarray wherever I am.  Case in point, my craft spaces.  But, I am tired of juggling things in what few cabinets I have, so I decided that it was high time to come up with some creative placement.

This picture is a score because it is two organizational feats in one shot.  The bar was actually already there when I got here.  I don't know if it has always been there or if the last people just did not feel like taking it with them, but I greatly appreciate it either way.  It was probably intended for towels, but it makes such a great place to put cleaners on the end. 

Now, they can't go all the way across because of that horrific insinkerator in there, but that is fine because a towel can go on this end.  I pretty much am over that stupid disposal system. 

My second under the sink feat has been using a cheap dish drainer to hold my pot lids, plastic storage containers, and a few of my smaller glass dishes that I use for storage.  I am pretty sure this dishdrainer cost me about $5, but it saves me a lot of annoyance in having all of my plastic containers everywhere under here.  Not only that, but my pot lids had YET to find a good home and were almost always on top of my stove before this point.  I cannot stress enough that there is a severe lack of cabinets in this apartment.

In fact, let me sum it up like this: my spices live on top my fridge with my paper towels, my bread is homeless and lives on top of my electric griddle (when it is not in use obviously), my cheese shredder, knife block, and utensil holder all live on top my microwave...which lives on a TV stand just around the corner from my actual kitchen in my dining area, and my "pantry" style cabinet is all of 1-1.5 feet wide if that.  I probably have the equivalent of 3 full size upper cabinets, 1 weird skinny tall pantry thing, and 3 lower cabinets.  And part of the uppers are above my fridge and it is nearly impossible to get things out of there, so those basically are rarely used.

 This might help explain it a little better...this is my kitchen.  Ignore the cluttered look of the counter, I had just gotten back when I took this and things had not yet been put up.

Essentially, I have turned my entire kitchen into a walk-in pantry.  I bought wire racks from Wal-Mart (for cheap) and put one above and below my menu board.  The lower one holds my noodles because I use them most days out of the week, and the upper one houses my wraps and similar because I rarely use them. 

If it looks really high, it is.  I am about 5'8" ish and have pretty long arms. 

The hook on the wall holds my potholders, because they were definitely homeless in all this.

I wanted to put the wire shelves in here so they would not be visible. 

However, I think my cabinets are made out of sawdust.  There was just no getting new screws in and every nail I had was too long, so I used screws that were already in there from previous stuff and put up these baskets. The placement of the nails did not work with my wire guys.

I booted my sponges out of a drawer and into this basket.  They make a lot more sense being here.

I have no idea really what I am going to put in the bottom on yet, but I am more than sure I will find something that needs a new home.  I might put towels down there, since I currently have them sitting in a bowl in this window thing that is in my kitchen...

 HAH! Here's a funny one I have been pulling since I first got here.  Allow me to shed some light on this:

I have a single tub sink.  It is porcelain, and I hate that.  I also hate that it only has one tub.  I much prefer divided sinks, and I very much prefer metal.  I had bought a dish drainer that I was going to keep in my sink, keep in mind I had bought most things BEFORE I really saw the apartment because that is just the reality of college.  I had been here enough to know that I would not have counter space, so an in-sink one is what I bought.

Which is all great and good except that just logistically is impossible to even use with as many dishes as I use and the size of my sink.  I had tried turning it front to back, putting it around the sink head, but that still did not work and stuff was constantly pouring off whatever I was washing into my clean dishes. 

And another sink issue, it does not have a tall sink head.  So clearance is next to non-existant with a dish drainer in there.  So I got crafty and put my dish drainer over a tub.  Is it beautiful? NO.  Does it drive me insane? A little bit.  Does it get the job done? Absolutely.  In all reality, considering I almost always use at least 2 pots/pans per meal and sometimes use my huge skillets, it is the only reasonable way to get anything done.  And let's face it, how am I going to wash that big TFal back there with this drainer in my tiny short sink?  I already wash out the bucket of my ice cream maker in my bath tub.  True story.  Again, the only way to make work.  Haha!

Now this little guy here I actally really like.  I consider this reasonable and actually really efficient.  I put my trash bags and my ziploc bags here, which some might find odd, but to me it is just indicative of the fact that my ziplocs had nowhere else to go unless I buy more shelves. 

Having your trash bags right above your trash can is pretty darn handy, I must say.

Other apartment organizational things that have really worked for me:
- A shower curtain with pockets.  I found a curtain with mesh pockets in it in all of the college stuff.  I got it at Wal-Mart, and it is a similar idea to this one on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Maytex-Pockets-Shower-Curtain-Clear/dp/B003ZHVDAG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354151989&sr=8-1&keywords=shower+curtain+mesh+pockets .  However, I think it is super goofy that people hang the pockets on the outside, so I turned mine around.  With my pockets on the inside, I have all my shampoo and stuff in there with me, my razor, shave gel, etc. and it all neatly tucks itself away with the shower curtain.  Mine is purple and not clear, so you really cannot see any of the bottles or anything else.  My shower always looks bare, except my yellow duckie treads on the bottom.
-Closet organizers have saved my sanity.  I don't like to hang up T-Shirts, I think it is a waste of hangers.  I also don't like to put my shoes in hanging shoe organizers because it is frustrating.  What I DO like to do is to put my Tshirts in a hanging shoe organizer, with shorts on the other side.  I did not bring a large dresser here, I only have a beautiful antique vanity dresser with tiny drawers.  I also brought nearly every article of clothing that I own here...see the issue? I also use one of those closet organizers that is a series of hanging cubes to put other foldables on like jackets and tank tops and similar.  Don't get me wrong, my bedroom closet here is gigantic.  But that still does not make me want it to be messy. 
-I have not done this yet, but I think I am going to measure the cabinet where my plates are and get another dish drainer for it.  If those plates were vertical, I could put both sets in there (I have a square and round set) instead of having them each on different shelves.  This would give me a whole extra shelf for something.  Maybe my homeless bread.  Or maybe my bowls could live in that cabinet again, since they had to be booted to a different cabinet. 

I feel like this will be a continuing saga of organizing the tiny kitchen.  I only am going to be here for another 18 months, so I need to move fast!

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You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch Bulb.

If you google lightbulb ornaments this is EASILY one of the best ideas I have seen out there.

And what do I do with best ideas? Test them out!  Now, as a little precursor, I dearly love How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  NOT that Jim Carrey mumbo jumbo.  That Grinch just looked awkward the whole movie, and too naked.  But the cartoon Grinch and all the Dr. Seussicalness of the holly jolly episode put me in a rather Christmas-y mood.

Which is good, because I pretty much hate every other Christmas movie.  I do like Charlie Brown, because you really just can't deny that it is awesome.  I do not like the claymation Rudolph mumbojumo, no Frosty the Snowman for me, and I cannot count the number of reasons why I do not like "A Christmas Story".  And I CANNOT STAND the movie Elf...or really anything Will Ferrel has ever done.

Now that I think about it, I do like White Christmas also.  So maybe I am not a total Scrooge.  I love Christmas plays, for what it is worth.  I saw A Christmas Carol in Derby Dinner Playhouse when I was a kid and I could have seen that a million times and been just fine. 

I think I really only like musical style things because nothing else really does it for me in the holly jolly department.  Christmas is so jingly, it just requires lots of singing along-ing.  Hence, musicals.  And the Seuss Grinch, because "You're a Mean One" is just completely a classic. 

I mean really, a 39 and a half foot pole? Where do you even find one of those?

Oh right, you are here for the ornament...

YOU NEED:
A lightbulb, green paint, yellow paint, red paint, black puffy paint or leading, white puffy paint.

No, I probably will not be able to make any ornaments without puffy paint...

 To start, I painted the bulb with a thin coat of garish green paint.

I bought the cheapest paint I could find at Hobby Lobby in the craft section.  It was on sale, and cost me about 60 cents or so.

Next, I found a picture online to look off of, and used my black liquid leading to draw out the face.  If you do not want to have to wait for this to dry before adding color, mark where you want to paint with a pencil, and use a Q-Tip to paint on the yellow and red in the eyes.  Then go back and outline them in black. Also feel free to use a pencil to save you from having to freehand if you are not the type to just go rogue with a bottle of puffy paint like I do.

I had not considered that I could not paint with the leading being wet, of course, so I had to let it dry.  I also went ahead and made my Santa hat base.

I really don't believe in buying extra things like Santa hats, so that is why I opted to paint mine on.

I painted in the eyes and painted the tail of the hat.

Then I sat it on a salt dough gear to dry...yes, I know, I still have a whole table of salt dough I have not done anything with...

I am working on it! This junk called homework keeps getting in my way.

Regardless, when I got this guy done I made a second one because I learned that my best friend's hubby LOVES the Grinch nearly as much as I do, so his buddy will be living on their tree.  It is wildly appropriate, because she is the one that gave me the bulbs in the first place!

Get creative, and get crafting! Pin It Now!

Decorative Scrap Ornament

I like to use everything that I can.  I am one of those people who has tons of little scraps of scrapbook paper around JUST IN CASE I find something that I can use them for, like bottlecap necklaces.

After I made the wreath, I had white sprigly pieces and red metallic berries leftover from $2.00 worth of Christmas Decorations purchased from Wal-Mart.  I am not saying they are the most beautiful things ever, but for 94 cents a piece you just about can't beat them for the amount of stuff you get in them. The white bits were leftover from the wreath I did yesterday.

 On Black Friday I bought these ornaments from Michael's.  They are the plastic ones, and you can buy them individually.  I prefer the plastic ones because I am notorious for dropping things that are highly breakable.

I used wire cutters to trim the white puffs off the sprigs so that I could fit them into the bulb.  I cut various sizes, pretty haphazardly.

I did the same with the berries, I would suggest not getting the metallic ones OR looking for a bunch that has a lot stuck together in 2's instead of clumps of 6 berries.  They don't come apart well and you need them to fit in the ornament top.  Keep that in mind.

Once I had another layer of white puffies put in over the berries, I pulled off some of the silver leaves and attached them to the top of the ornament with wire.  I laced the wire through the center and around the leaves.

I actually attached all of my ornaments on my 4 ft and miniature trees with wire, because I plan on transporting them when I go home for break.

Now do you see why I prefer plastic?

I see no point in leaving my trees here and only getting to enjoy them for half of the Christmas season.  My plan is to wrap them up in my sheets.  Using wire as hanging material will only make it easier to keep them on.

I ended up using my wreath I made yesterday as a decoration around my mini tree.  It has made such a cute centerpiece on my dining table!

That's right, a tree on my dining table!

Quite frankly, I think it is an incredibly cute way to decorate, and my table is not a very big one.

So imagine how much more cute this would be on your full sized dining table?

It might even live on one of our tables when I go back home. 


Happy crafting, use those scraps! Waste not, want not! Pin It Now!

The Rogue Wreath: Cheap Wreath, No Form!

I am not going to say I am cheap...but I do like to save money where I can.  I also like to buck the norm in some instances.  If things have always been done a certain way, I like to see if there is an alternative path. This time, I decided to tackle wreaths.  I really don't like the idea of buying forms, and I have seen a couple of great ideas using foam pipe stuff and pool noodles, etc.

So I was at Michael's today, and I noticed that Christmas Picks were on sale at 50% off.  Now, I usually call these decorative sparkly bits, so it was nice to know they really have a name...haha! I was messing with one and noticed that they are wired on the inside so you can form them.  One thing led to another, and I opted to find out if they could be attached to each other to form a wreath.

You will need to buy some Christmas Picks, I bought 6 longer ones, 4 smaller ones for the base of the wreath, and then picked up a 94 cent bundle of white snowy looking things from Wal-Mart.  You will also need red wire and wire cutters.

Now, you will notice that I originally put these two together base to base.  That did not work nearly as easily, and I ended up putting them together base to top.  That worked much better.

I cut 2 inch or so strips of wire (I happened to have red on hand) and wrapped it tightly around the two picks to put them together. 




I did this with the 6 larger picks I purchased.  After that, I attached the white puffy pieces, bending them through some of the berries.

After that, I attached the smaller sprigs between the white ones.

To secure it better, I flipped the wreath over and put E6000 everywhere that sprigs came together and everywhere I had wired.  Hot glue is also a perfectly acceptable answer. 

Believe it or not, I have never used hot glue.

Once it is dry you can rearrange some leaves and the bulbs or whatever else is in your arrangement in order to get it just like you like it.  This wreath ended up being around 8 inches wide I would say, maybe as large as 10.  I was looking for a small wreath to hang in my apartment.  You can essentially make it any size you want, it will just take some thought and planning while you are in the store.

The 6 large picks cost me about $3.87, the four smaller added $2, and the white was another $.94, bringing the wreath material to a total of $6.81 or so.  For a wreath...that is pretty darn cheap!

There are all sorts of picks you can get, you could make a wreath completely out of acorns, one that is sparkly, the possibilities are endless. Shop various stores, and you will be surprised just what you can come up with!
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Completed Salt Dough Necklace

Well there was a craft show today, which went decently well.  We are in the process of getting one off of the ground, this is the second year it has been going.

Regardless, I had to put some necklaces together last night because, as usual, I was slightly behind where I wanted to be.  But it was for good reason, I mean did you SEE those Turkey Cake Pops? So cute.

Regardless, this necklace utilized one of my very favorite Salt Dough Necklace pendants. I used aqua wire to create a bail, used eyepins (or headpins with eye hooks? I don't know what they are really called...) to put the blue and green beads on, and used a combination of larger blue clear beads and shiny blue Czech beads that really added a lot of glitz.  I really love it.

I had decided that anything I did not sell today I will use for my booth at a craft show next fall, if I do not do anything before then...but yet I sort of want to wear this guy....

I have this issue with jewelry.  You have to make cute things to sell, right? But yet I like to WEAR cute things. 

It really is just a never ending process.

For anyone who has not seen the other blogs, I made and formed salt dough pendants, let them dry, painted them with watercolors, and coated them with resin.

I like to make things to last. Pin It Now!

Chandel-Ideas

From the phone again, you know the drill. No pictures. I am gearing up for a craft festival tomorrow, so please forgive me!

Anyway, how many of you are looking to redo a chandelier, or have redone one and just think it needs a little more pizzazzle? I can help!

Run, don't walk, to Hobby Lobby. When there, go to the Christmas ornaments that are sold individually and are usually stylistically coordinated. Look in the black and white and clear areas.

What you will find here are perfect danglies for a chandelier. I got 5 black fleur de lis ornaments that have clear jewels hanging from them, and a larger red sparkly ornament to hang from the center. The best part is? They LOOK like they were made specifically for a chandelier. They even have some that look exactly like a chandelier shape.

Next best part? 50% off sale.

You all can thank my sister for this absolutely amazing idea, because we raided stores for Black Friday this morning!

Hope your Thanksgiving was great! Pin It Now!