Comrada-wreath

So a few weeks ago my friend Gretchen and I collaborated on a wreath she wanted to make.  She was talking about hot glueing it to a foam form, which definitely would work.  But I talked her in to trying it on a wire wreath form, and using ribbon to tie the ornaments on.

Why did I think this would better? Well, first, I was hoping I would save her from having to use hot glue.  She still ended up using it to keep the ornaments from flopping around while she was making it, but she did have to use a LOT less.  Which is always a plus.

Also a benefit to this wreath is that since it is tied on, if you don't have to glue it you could essentially take it apart if you ever wanted to change the colors.  Gretchen used a large thing of ornaments from Hobby Lobby and a 6 pack of white ones, and red ribbon.  She had about a third to a half of the big pack left.  I think the form was about an 8 inch, but it could have been a ten. 

She cut the ribbon long enough that she could curl the ends once she stuck them through to the front.  You could mix the sizes of ornaments if you wanted it to fill in easier or have those variations.  It took her about an hour or so, and it turned out to be incredibly cute! 

I really wanted to make one of my own, but Christmas is coming way too quickly and it just won't have the time to really hang there and be beautiful.  So perhaps next year!

The wire form was under $3 at HL for a wire one, so the whole wreath came in at well under 20 bucks.

Happy crafting! Pin It Now!

Scraplace: Jewelry Leftovers

 I really do not recall the last time I bought a necklace.  I used to buy cheap stuff at Body Central all the time, sometimes Rue 21, places like that.  I still have some of those, but as for recent purchases or really recalling buying anything from this year...I just can't put my finger on it.

As for necklaces I have made, I might have to employ my toes in order to count them all ;). 

Regardless, let's cut to the chase.  I had some charms left over from raiding clearance racks at Michaels.  I cut a shorter chain in half, then cut the loop of an eye pin.  I wrapped the pin around a washer to attach it to the chain.

The darn necklaces I bought at a huge festival have tiny chain links and I am out of smaller jump rings.

After that it was a simple thing of attaching the pieces.

I attached the charms to the washer with more cut eye pins, wire would also be just fine.  I attached some extra charms and chain to the washer as well to spiff it up.

I have also included my latest attempt at working on my Instagram skills.  I am still not quite sure what the hype is all about but it does make for some fun experimenting.

I have my only final of this semester early in the morning.  I have really enjoyed not having finals all week, and hopefully this one won't be too terrible.

Random note, if you don't watch Big Bang Theory you are missing out, I am cracking up as we speak.

Go make some scrap necklaces for your own enjoyment.


Pin It Now!

12 Ornaments: Merry Marathon

 So today is one of those days like we have had for the last 12 years where everyone gets all pumped because the numbers are all the same.  They conveniently forget the fact that they probably don't recall what happened on 11/11/11 or 05/05/05 or if it turned out good for them or not.  Yet still, here they are, positively elated and wishing on clocks or penguins or whatever people wish on these days. 

Yea, needless to say I don't buy into it.  But what I do buy into is taking some crazy fad and turning it in to something productive.  This idea was not entirely my own.  A very good friend of mine mentioned that he was going to post multiple posts on his creative writing blog (found at www.nathanhinote.com, which I don't think he will mind me sharing) today because everyone was all bananas over the date.  He said he wasn't going to do 12 things, which of course got my mind spinning on if I COULD do 12 things for this blog...

So needless to say since we are two of a kind, we are now both in the process of our 12 things.  Well, not entirely, because obviously if I am typing this I am done.  But I had a head start.  In under 6 hours I give to you this Christmas cheer.  It serves the double purpose of not making me back down from a challenge and for filling up my little tree.

This time, I am adding all of the individuals after all of this, and putting the explanation in captions below.  Hopefully this works this time, haha! Remember, most of these will take you well under 30 minutes to do, drying time aside.

To make this I cut about 3 feet of tulle and stuffed it inside the ornament.  I used a sharpie (high tech here) to put on the eyes and mouth, and white + copper puffy paint to put on a nose and scarf.  The biggest time is drying, it is super quick and easy!

There was probably never a loony toon I liked more than Marvin the Martian.  Admittedly, I used to go around trying to imitate his voice, demanding my space modulator back...NOW.  Regardless, to make him I stuffed the ornament with black feathers, way faster than painting! I painted his eyes, hat, and a little strip of red at the bottom and he was good to go.

 

As you may or may not know my soon to be craft studio is full of damask print.  I probably should have been working on it today instead of making 12 ornmanents...oops!  Regardless, this is also stuffed with black feathers, the damask is freehand and I coated it in polyflake.

 

This is green crackle paint sponged on with a sponge brush.  Right after I had it on I put polyflake on it to let the glitter dry in the paint.  If you use crackle, be prepared to choke.

 

Another crackle painted ornament, only this time I used a knife to put it on.  For everything except the green ornament above, I used a plastic knife.  It was great for helping to control the texture.  The paint does crack later, so don't be alarmed if it takes a while for it to go into effect.  As always, I coated it with polyflake.  I have all of these ornaments drying on pieces of styrofoam cups that I cut apart to make stands.  I will have to finish the backs later.

 

Soooo...this was originally going to be a pine tree on here, but after I got to doing it I just coated the whole front.  I am really not sure why.  I do, however, love the texture, it reminds me of a pinecone, so I am ok with it.



Do me a favor, and say hi to RoboRaptor's leg! He helped me craft.  Anyway I used a sparkly ornmament, puffy paint, and a yellow jewel to make an "elf" on this ornament.  I really like Elves...if they are the blond Lord of the Rings variety (I'm lookin at you, Bloom).  But that would be weird to put on a Christmas tree, so holiday elf it is.



This thing is cracking me up.  I pulled up a picture of the Abominable Snowman on Google Images to get an idea of what to do.  The white is done in crackle paint! It dries incredibly quickly and lets you do all sorts of oddball textures.  If you are going to freehand something and use a sharpie, draw your lines twice as thick in case you paint over them a little.

I am not really a college sports fan, but I think this little bugger will find a home on my mom's tree.  I used another 3ft or so of tulle and this time wrapped red sheer ribbon around it as I went.  I stuffed it into the ornament, tied a festive bow on top, and used my favorite white puffy paint to do the symbol and name.  Everyone remember that puffy paint that I started with for that infamous ornament?? Yea, I just NOW finished that bottle.  Great stuff!

For you non sports fans, I wanted to include the shot of how cute it was even before anything was painted on it.

Here comes Santa Bulb, here comes Santa Bulb...round 2! I used crackle paint and multiple other colors to whip out a basic Santa face.  The more I look at it...the more I think it looks like it is from the Jetsons.

IT'S PSEUDO GARFIELD! I did not have yellow paint, so I will have to fix that later after I get near some.  Again, google image the picture and get to painting. 

As arguably the most truly me in all of the ornaments of today, I made a Coheed & Cambria based ornament. If you do not know who they are...get off my lawn.  TOTALLY KIDDING! But I really like them and have for years, and they may well go down as my favorite band overall. 


Please excuse my messing up of the table, I had to have all of my stuff within arms reach to make sure that if I was holding a wet ornament and got a great idea, it would not be hard to make it happen.  I already had all of the materials for this on hand, which made it that much better.  If you are getting ready to craft, take a look at what you have buried in your totes and organizers before you go buy more.  There are some very crazy things that make for quite the ornaments later.  To make all of these, I used less than 10ft of tulle, less than 4 ft of ribbon, a fraction of two different colored bottles of puffy paint, and barely made a dent in my other paint or polyflake.  The ornaments that are clear came from Michael's (who sells plastic ones individually thank you very much) and the green ones came from my friend Gretchen.

Consider also the many variations on some of these: using red or green tulle on the snowman to make a santa ornament or elf, using feathers in place of tulle, using a part of a boa, etc.  Don't just do what I did because I showed you can- make it better and show everyone! That is what I love about crafting and creative things, we have such a way of building upon what others do that everything is really just the base for something else.

GET TO CRAFTING!  And thanks for stopping by my blog :).

Pin It Now!

Christmas Card Upgrade

The last time you saw this card it was just an ornament on a white card with a little Merry Christmas at the bottom.  Well, that was before I decided it didn't have enough pizzazz.

Naturally I opted to draw a tree in the background and spice up the colors on the ornament.  I think it has a bit of a Seussical quality to it, which makes me happy because I LOVE the Grinch. 

You know, when the little ornament rolls across the floor and whatnot? This little guy could completely be that little ornament.

Anyway, maybe this technically doesn't count as a new craft but it does, because it is my blog and what I say goes, but my goal here is to encourage you to brave the world of mixing your stamps with your drawing.

And your amazing Prismacolor pencils.  Which you are borderline obsessed with.

I have had quite a fun time with Christmas cards this season.  I terrorized someone who has become a very good friend very quickly with a glitterbomb disguised as a Christmas Card.

A real pink nightmare of a card, if you follow.  Ruffles and pink and tons of things that made me want to gag (I hate pink).  Also a nightmare in the fact that I put multiple shakes of super tiny super sneaky POLYFLAKE in the card.  That's right, I used the good stuff.

Thank God he has such a good sense of humor.  He is actually quite a hoot overall.  Which I will later deny that I said even though it is here in writing.  My blog, my rules ;).

Regardless, maybe the overall goal of this holiday for me is to remember to have fun with it.  Christmas cards don't have rules, they don't have to be stuffy, and the holiday season can be one never ending parade of shenanigans if you let it.  We get so caught up with the need to buy things and overspend, hung up on the inconsequential details, and just forget to remember the importance of family and fun for the whole time!

So don't just send a card, send a glitterbomb.  Send a funny picture. Make the whole card a funny picture.  DO IT!

Happy crafting. Pin It Now!

Clearance Necklace

I really like things at a good price.  I was raiding Michael's for some paint to make yesterday's steampunk hot air balloon ornament (which is now on my little tree).  After finding all the paint I needed I stood up and had a moment.

This is going to sound really odd, but there are just times when a craft idea comes to mind that is so incredibly well developed that I can almost literally see it right in front of me instead of whatever I was looking at.  Which probably makes you think I am crazy.  Which I really don't care.

Regardless, I then had to promptly march to the jewelry section, where lo and behold I found all sorts of things I "needed" on clearance.  I found charms and chains and necklaces and beads.

Which leads me to this post.  I found these wire orb bead things and I was intrigued.  I quite frankly love things that are a mishmash mess if you look closely but that when you zoom out look perfectly put together.  So of course, I liked these beads.  I also wanted them because they were inspirational on making my own beads out of wire, which I plan on trying at some point.

Regardless, what I did not know was how in the world I would turn them into a necklace or any other sort of jewelry.  I ended up putting them and two clear beads on eye pins, attaching them together, and then putting them on chain to make a longer necklace.  

A longer necklace that I have a terrible notion it will be one I keep instead of my plan on giving much of what I make this month as Christmas gifts...

I did, however, make some others that actually will be Christmas gifts, so at least I am partially where I should be. 

Is it an astonishingly beautiful necklace? Well, perhaps not.  But I like it, and I imagine that it will give you your own ideas on how you could use these quirky beads or other clearance things to your benefit. 

Mostly, I just hope it inspires you to reach outside of your usual go-to's in jewelry or crafting and take a look at something you might never have purchased before.  There is potential in everything.

Happy crafting! Pin It Now!

Steampunk Ornament, Round 2.

After not being impressed with a past steampunk ornament I did, I opted to give it another try.  This is most likely due to the fact that I have recently found a new really good friend that I seem to have a lot in common with, and he is also a fan of steampunk style things. 

I am once again not very sure that I am qualified to do steampunk anything, I don't know a whole lot about it but I do know that I really like it.  I relate to it for whatever reason. 

I can also relate to hot air balloons, which is what this is, because I completely LOVE the movie UP! (I am adding this random note here so I can punctuate after because that movie title messed me up...) haha.

Probably because my friends are convinced I am a robot.  Or maybe that I like gadgets.  Or perhaps because I like gadgets. 

Oh right.  You are here for the how-to.  Get some metallic gold paint, heavy on the dusty vintage, some copper/red puffy paint, jewels, watch gears, and a lightbulb.

I painted it with the gold and let it dry for a bit.  What is it setting in, you ask? A styrofoam cup with slits in the bottom. It makes for a perfect lightbulb holder.

I ate a delicious dinner and then used the puffy paint to do the linework.  After I was done I used the E6000 to put on the jewels and gears and glued the gears on and let them rest on the cup.  Remember that the less dry your paint is the harder it is going to be for your stuff to stick on and stay in place. 

And as always, keep in mind that everything has a backside, so some flaws can be hidden by the grace of quality arrangement later.

I don't feel like steampunk needs to be perfect, personally.

This once again did not turn out as awesome as I had hoped.  Isn't that always the case when you are fluffing around trying to be all cool?  Yes, yes it is.  Foiled again.  I will get that cool card back someday, mark my words.

On a random note, there is a nice spring storm going on outside...in the middle of December.  It is mind boggling.  Quite frankly, this is why I adore Indiana. The weather is completely unpredictable and I love it.  She just does what she wants.  Cold one day, hot the next.  70's in December, snowing on Derby.

I just can't help but smile.

Happy crafting! Pin It Now!

Peacock Christmas Tree

 Well this is actually my sister's tree, but she was nice enough to let me use it for my blog today.  We were all out for about 12 hours shopping, and she and I conspired on some of the ornament ideas when this tree was just a concept.

The tree is completely done in blues, purples, and golds.  There are purple round LED lights, found at Target.  I frantically texted her one day from the Target in Muncie because the lady in front of me was buying these awesome purple lights.

Thanks lady in front of me!

There area  lot of different ornaments on there like keys, bulbs, feathers, fun shapes, peacocks.  The main stores for finding all of these were Hobby Lobby, Target, and Wal-Mart. I must hand it to Wal-Mart this year on some of their loose ornaments.  They were actually really on trend.

Hobby Lobby had the coolest tree toppers.  I am all for traditional things, but I would be lying if I said I was not completely in love with this peacock tree.

I like mishmash trees too.  As I am a very random soul.

Regardless, Hobby Lobby had this crown topper.  WHO WOULDN'T WANT A CROWN ON TOP THEIR TREE?!?! I love it.  So my sister bought these peacock ornaments to go on it and some feathers and wired them on. 

Small gauge gold wire, good call on my part.  People can love their hot glue all they want, but wire definitely has its merits.

Hobby Lobby also had an excellent array of ornaments like keys, which speaks to my side that has been so interested in steampunk.

How cool would a steampunk tree be.  Legit.

Anyway, so she bought sparkly keys at HL along with numerous other ornaments. 

The ornate purple ornament pictured in this post is from Wal-Mart, who also had VERY cute little peacocks and feathers that clip on.

Not pictured in this because I forgot to snap a shot of them are cute peacock ornmaments from Target.

Other glittery bits were found at Old Time Pottery.

And we were covered in glitter for days.

I am very much a last minute Christmas shopper, so I was not able to check off many gifts today.  But I did start to develop some ideas about what I might get people, so it really was beneficial.

And between my sisters and tweeting with my friend, I was in stitches nearly all day from laughing.  Which is good because it is supposed to burn calories and I ate:

Breakfast (most important meal), red velvet donut, raspberry m&ms (a ton), pesto sun dried tomato yumminess of pizza heaven, cake batter froyo with white chocolate chips almonds sprinkles waffle cone pieces, and french fries.

Not all at once mind you.

If you don't let loose now and then with your food, I think you are simply missing out.  Five meal days can make for the most entertaining stories later. 

Meals are also so incredibly intertwined with loved ones and good times.  You really just can't argue with the power of good food and good company.

And a GREAT nap while your sisters brave the holiday version of Old Navy.  That is a moment in life when a 42 inch span from the top of your hip bone to the end of your toes is really not beneficial at all...

But the point is, go make yourself a fun and festive tree, and don't limit yourself to a basic topper you can buy when you can dress it up with a ZILLION other things.

Happy crafting!


Pin It Now!