January Crafts

I spent a lot of time crafting this month. I keep trying to convince Aaron to let me quit my job and craft all the time but he keeps telling me no. My dad is trying to make money off of me. He says if I make the craft, he will sell it for 40/60. I don't believe that is a good enough deal though. :P 

 I love seeing my crafts in our apartment and know that I made them, that I spent the hours making it perfect enough for us and didn't dish out the bucks at Hobby Lobby or wherever for some pre-made craft. When people exclaim how fantastic it looks I can jump for joy knowing I put in the hard work to make it. I thank God that I am crafty and can make amazing things to hang on my wall and also my father cause I'm pretty sure that's who I get it from. 

Aaron and I currently had a "Mr and Mrs" sign hanging above our bed, a craft leftover from our wedding but I've decided I wanted something more romantic. I did check out Hobby Lobby but wasn't finding anything really that impressive so I decided to make my own. My father helped a lot with this craft. He helped me dig out the slates of wood in one of our sheds and screwed them all together and added a wire to the back to hang it up. He is also supposed to come over to my apartment and hang it up because I want him to use a stud-finder so it doesn't come down on me in the middle of the night. (That would be the worst way to be woken up). So technically I just came up with the idea and painted the phrase. I first saw this phrase on Pinterest and instantly became attached. It's basically perfect. 

This jar was a pain in the butt. I found it on pinterest and decided to give it a go. I needed a pin cushion for my fantastic new sewing machine and I figured the bottom would be perfect to keep all those stupid extra buttons that come with everything you buy that were scattered throughout our apartment. Whatever you do, FOLLOW the directions because I didn't and that was not a good idea. I briefly read over the directions and just winged it and I ended up having to redo the top. I used too much fabric and couldn't get the medal lip to screw back on. Click on the link for the directions!

http://shopruche.blogspot.com/2012/03/project-diy-mason-jar-pin-cushion.html

(these aren't the original directions I followed but I thought they were easier!)

My name is Brittany and I am a wreath addict. Seriously. They are beyond easy to make and perfect to hang on your front door to add a personal touch and just plain stinking cute. I not only made one but two wreaths this month and I already have 2 other ideas of ones I want to make. The top one is more time consuming because you wrap yarn all the way around. The flowers on the bottom wreath were easy to make and of course the burlap is left over from our wedding. Here is the link to make the flowers.

http://twoyellowbirdsdecor.blogspot.com/2011/09/felt-flower-tutorials.html

I was seeing this pillows in store and on pinterest and I decided I just HAD to have them. However, I was not going to spend $30 a piece. Seriously?!? What is up with pillows being to expensive. I just don't understand, its just fabric with stuffing inside. So of course I just made my own . I bought the canvas fabric, stuffing and a fabric pen at Hobby Lobby and away I went. Measure out how big you would like them, add a couple inches to make up for sewing around them. Cut them out and I chose to iron the fabric before I wrote on them because it was wrinkled. I wrote on the fabric with a pencil then went back over with the fabric marker then turn the two pieces of fabric with the writing facing the inside then sewed it around and left about half of one side open, flipped it inside out stuffed it, pinned it and sewed it shut. Easy peesy people. However, I did goof on the second one and started sewing it with the writing on the outside and didn't realize it so I had to take the time to rip out the stitches and start all over. Whoops. Also to be brutally honest this is the first time our bed has been made since Aaron left. 

As adorable as this is I have to say I strongly dislike working with chalk paint with glass. This is the second project I have tried it with and it just doesn't work. The first time I tried was on wine bottles and I ended up painting about 4 or 5 layers and then the paint just cracks and looks messy. I'm sure there is a primer out there that you are supposed to use to make it easier but I haven't found it yet. I did the exact same thing here except with a ball jar. I also found that regular ol chalk does not work on this stuff, not for me anyways. I used a chalk pen to do the "xoxo", it seems to go on so much better. I love the look of this though. It's sweet and simple and I can wash off the x's and o's and use it year around. 

I used way too much hot glue sticks to make this baby. The frame I have had forever and I have used for many different things. It just just some old plastic frame that used to hold a poster in my bedroom with a cute fluffy bunny with the phrase, "some bunny loves you".

 I did actually take the time to document with photos though. The hearts are made out of paint chips from Wal-Mart. I literally walked out of that store with a big stack of them. I'm sure they think I'm crazy and want to ban me from the paint section. I hot glued the fishing wire to the frame and then glued the hearts on, burning my fingers numerous times. The result is a lovely and colorful Valentine's day frame to display!

That's it for January. Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Psalms 130:5- I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,

    and in his word I put my hope.

My December Crafts

My Christmas Wreath:

  Ever since Aaron and I moved in together I have been ecstatic to have a front door to decorate. Even tho no one ever sees it unless they come visit us it's still fun to make the wreaths and display them on our front door.
  This wreath cost me a whole maybe $15 to make. It helped that I already had some of the materials needed to make it. I bought the wreath itself at Hobby Lobby for half price and the little jingle bells in the center as well. The pine cones I actually found at Dollar General! They were only $4! They however must have been soaked in a cinnamon oil because boy did they stink! Halfway through making it I had to seal it in a trash bag and open our whole 1 window in our apartment cause I had such a bad headache from the smell. The ornaments I also purchased at Dollar General. It's my new favorite place to shop currently. They have a lot of decent stuff for super cheap. All the pine cones and ornaments are attached on the wreath with fishing line along with the wooden letter B that I also found at Hobby Lobby. I just painted over the fishing line so you don't really notice it unless you get close and I sprinkled the gold glitter on right after I painted. It took me a whole 2 days to make this wreath and I'm pretty impressed with how it looks considering how much it cost me.

  My next project were the Christmas ornaments I made for the girls in my wedding. They ALL left their flowers at the reception so I decided to dry out all the flowers to give to them later. Well I figured I would get a little crafty with the flowers cause I figured none of the girls would really want a bunch of dead dried flowers around their place and bought clear ornaments at Hobby Lobby and used some left over stickers from the Bridesmaids gift and put their initials on the ornaments and grabbed some of the leftover ribbon from the wedding as well and ta da! A special ornament for them to hang on their tree to remind them of that special day.

  My next project in December I actually found on Pinterest. I absolutely adore this site and all her DIY projects. Even though she is an event planner (I wish she was located closer, I would have used her for my wedding!) I loved looking through her whole site cause it is so girly and pretty and pink! Haha!  Here's the link for the project: http://www.heygorg.com/2011/10/diy-tissue-covered-luminaries.html

Her's look a lot better than mine. The only color I could find was white. I really wanted the grey tissue paper though and might make this again down the road with grey for spring. I made this to have some decorations to help with the transition from Christmas to spring. I decided to add gold glitter to mine to add a little something to it. The containers I found at Hobby Lobby. They did have silver lids that screwed on but I figured I would hang out to the lids and come up with a different project for them later. The containers were only $6 and were half off as well. The paper cutter that I bought was the most expensive part. I believe it was over $10 but I of course used the 40% off coupon on their site for it. My goal is to NEVER pay full price for anything at Hobby Lobby and it usually isn't too hard to do. These were pretty simple to make and the only difficult part was cutting the tissue paper. I had one heck of a time. I don't know if I didn't fold it correctly for the right layering or my cutter was dull but hopefully the next time I try this it goes a little smoother. Also be careful on how thick you put on the glue/water mix on the container. I was using a little too much and it doesn't take much for the tissue to tear. I also mixed the gold glitter right in with the water/glue mixture. I figured this would be a less messy way to add the glitter.

  The little house in this picture was a Christmas gift from my Mother-In-Law that I absolutely adore! It has a switch on the bottom that lights it up and the roof of the house has stars cut into it so it makes a fantastic night light and adds stars to your ceiling!

  This craft was not done in December but I wanted to share it. I have seen this type of jewelry holder all over Pinterst and I had to give it a go! It was ridiculously easy to make. I needed to make something bigger to hang all my necklaces on cause I was outgrowing my old one. I found the old frame out at Aaron's parents shed. It was just laying around collecting dirt and dust. I scrubbed it clean and got lucky cause it was already this gorgeous green color so I didn't have to paint it which saved a lot of time. The hooks I bought in various sizes at Wal Mart for a couple dollars and the wood was soft enough that all I had to do was screw in the hooks and add some hanging hooks on the back and it was ready to go. I did end up with some sore knuckles with this project. My knuckles would scrap against the screen while I was screwing in the hooks and made them raw for a few days. Nothing I couldn't live with though. The screen is very handy to hang earrings on to display my more prettier ones. (P.S. I have too many necklaces)

  My last project of December were this lovely glittery clothes pins. I told you I have been obsessed with pink and gold glitter lately so this was a perfect way to end my December crafts. I saw a picture on Pinterest and knew i just had to make them. I had purchased clothes pins when Aaron and I moved in to our apartment and they are always handy to have around the house and I use them for everything but what they are intentionally for. I use them instead of potato chip clips and to seal various other foods in our kitchen and of course plenty of craft projects. I mixed red and white to get the perfect pink I wanted and just shook on all the gold glitter I could! I then sprayed on a sealant so the glitter wouldn't fall off too horribly. I was using it to display how many days I had left before Aaron came home but that kind of went out the window. (Sorry for the blurry photo, I am still currently using my iPhone because my lens crapped out on my camera and I need to buy a new one)

Isaiah 41:10: So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.