Clothespins

Well, I did it.  I actually made the Christmas card wreath!  Well sort of.  I guess it's not a wreath at all.  So I guess I should say that I didn't make the wreath, but I did make something to hold my Christmas cards!  There was only a week left until Christmas, so I figured it was a little too late for the wreath.  Instead I decided to make something that would last year round.  It will mostly collect bills and coupons I want to save, but hey-that's alright!  Drum roll please...

And without the cards...

 It's basically some wire and clothespins.  Those are bottle caps with scrapbook paper filled with resin.  There's a big fat magnet glued to the back too.  I made those months ago, and I just rummaged around for other things to jazz up my bare wire. 

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So anyway, that's what became of my wreath.  But the real focus of all this are the clothespins.  I'm not about to take the credit, although I wish it were my idea.  But I got the idea from here.  Etsy.com is an awesome website.  I keep telling myself that maybe one day I will try to sell something.  Today is not that day.  None the less, while these are probably selling like hot cakes, naturally I made my own.  You can buy a bag of 100 clothespins at the Dollar General.  The paper I already had.  I didn't bother with mod podging them on there (although that probably would have been best).  I just used a glue stick and that's suits me just fine.  I love these!  I have them hanging from the ceiling of my kids' school room to display their art.  It'd also be easy to hot glue a magnet to the back and stick them on the fridge.  Fancy chip clips?  Clip a card to a gift bag?  Wear them in your hair?  ...well that may be pushing it.  My point is, how is it that just a plain ole clothespin could be so stinkin cute?  

Christmas Wreath

This year we have started a new tradition of letting the kids have their own tree.  They went with their papa and chopped it down.  It's a fat little tree just their size.  We've been making ornaments every day.  All of the decorations will be entirely homemade, by them.  Needless to say, they are loving it!  So far they've made the star (just glitter and cardstock), salt dough cookie cutter ornaments and pipe cleaner candy canes.  There must be a limit to this madness, so I think I'll narrow it down to a 12 days of Christmas type deal.  Anyway, so I was wondering what to do tomorrow and I came across this little wreath.  They like stringing beads, why not buttons?  

So as usual I got side tracked.  They get to have all the fun, how come I can't make anything?  So this entire post will just be Christmas wreaths.  I never considered myself a wreath person, but this year I may give it a whirl.

Now I liked this, except it seemed a little plain.  Needs a little jazzin' up.

Now isn't that snazzy.  Next...

 Well I think I just found my wreath.  Love this idea!  I'm using clothes pins in the kids' playroom to hang their artwork, so I'm very drawn to this, maybe it's just me.  I found another a little less complicated.  Oh Martha, you sure know how to simplify...

And last, but not least.  Pine cones.  Simple yet earthy.  I like it.  I'm not so in love with their lack of effort on the ribbon however.  That wouldn't be hard to fix.   

 Will update on the kid's tree and my wreath.  I will make time for this!

 

Place Mat Pillows

It's been a full week since we've been in the new house!  I'd say about half of the boxes are unpacked, the kid's rooms are about half way done and our room looks like an explosion of everything that hasn't found it's place.  I'm dying to get one room completed!  My first order of business:  Operation Living Room.  Problem:  Our living room is painted yellow.  I'm not talking butter yellow or even lemon yellow.  This is old school marigold mustardy yellow.  The more I stare at those blank yellow walls the more depressed I feel (which should be the opposite of what yellow should make you feel-cheery and happy).  These are the issues I'm having:  

1)  None of my stuff matches this yellow.  Wrong coffee tables, wrong frames, wrong art.
2)  Funky layout of the room.

Here are my solutions:
Repaint the walls!  Nah, that's not a solution.  We only plan on being here about 2 years so I don't want to sink my money into something that I can't take with me!

Solution 1)  Put my stuff on craigslist in hopes of making enough money to buy new stuff (or old things I can jazz up).  Make do with the yellow and work with it, not against.

Solution 2)  Customize special artwork to fit each wacky space.

So for my first order of business-  Pillows for the couch and work around that color scheme.  So, I went to one of my favorite stores, Target.  It was this pillow that caught my eye.

 

Rusty red, forest green and that yellow color.  I can work with this.  I sort of love this pillow too!  The price:  $24.99.  I'm gonna need two of these, the love seat needs a pillow too.  Well I didn't have to think about it twice.  There's no way I'm spending 1/4 of my budget on 2 pillows alone!  I'll have to think of something else.  So here's what I came up with.  It's no Jacobean 100% Feather pillow (which I have to admit, I have gone back and longingly looked at...twice) but I'm happy with my results.  It's easy too, so I couldn't pass up sharing it.  Enjoy!

 Step 1:  Find a cloth place mat with a front and a back

Step 2:  Take a seam ripper and make a hole about the width of your hand (you just need enough room to be able to stuff it).

Step 3:  Kiss your old dilapidated pillows goodbye and reuse the stuffing.

Step 4:  Stuff your new pillow and sew it back up like no body's business.  *I hand stitched mine, the machine would have been a pain*  You can hardly tell the difference.

Step 5:  Sit back and admire your new pillow.  Cost:  $3.99  Congratulations!  You just saved yourself $21.00!  Not to mention no one will ever know that it was a place mat (unless you want to brag about it of course!)

I will update on the completed yellow living room, plus any other make-do/cheap ideas I come up with.

Birdseed Pumpkins

I had to pull together a little awards ceremony at church, and I thought I'd share the crafty things I had done.  Quick and Easy, that's my name, don't wear it out!

Cupcake wrapper garland

These are just Wal-Mart gift/party bags I filled with bird seed.  Tie at the top with a cute ribbon and raffia.  Vola!  Cutest pumpkin table decor ever!  The candle holder is a baby jar.  Just a little hot glue,a few ribbons and a bow topped off with a button.  You can find those battery operated tea lights at Wal-Mart as well.

 

 

These were on the food table.  Those baby jars also doubled as toothpick holders.  There is a cinnamon stick thrown in there for scent.  If you've paid attention you may notice that the garland, bags and toothpicks are all from the same collection.  I think it was $1.75 for the cupcake/toothpick combo and around $2.00 for the bags.  Cheap, yes!  A little bit can go a long way.  I was able to make 10 jars and 10 pumpkins!  Of course it does help that I have a baby who supplies me with 3 empty jars a day!

These are just acorns painted orange.  The rest is left to a Sharpie and your imagination!

Place Settings

This afternoon the kids made those pine cone and peanut butter bird feeders, so I decided to search 'pine cones' to see what else we could do with them.  I came across this place setting and I my interests shifted from pine cones to place settings. 

Place settings are one of those 'better in theory' type things.  They look nice and you like the idea of the place setting, but when it really boils down to it, people just want to eat...they don't want to have to be picking leaves and apples off of their plates.  None the less, I got lost in the pointless, yet enticing, spin offs of the typical place settings.  Now all I need to do is find a reason to have a fancy dinner...Thanksgiving's not for another two months!

Brace yourself.  This might get complicated...not just anybody can do these.  Once you figure out how to do just one, you may too exhausted to do any more!  Do you think you can handle this?

Are you kidding me?  This is like the easiest thing ever and I have to say, I kind of love it!

Oh, wait...maybe this is the easiest thing ever, and it's free.  I hate these.  Ever step on them barefoot?  It hurts.  I have to say, I never would have thought to do this.

 
These may all be a little hard to see, but the thing I wanted to point out is that the names are literally written on the leaves and the stick.  Who comes up with this stuff?

It's ridiculous how cute this is.  I think I'll have a Preschool Graduation just so I can do this!

So for those of you that are now sucked into the 'pointless, but give me a reason' place setting vortex, this may come in handy:

Go ahead, knock yourself out!

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

I've been finding random buttons around the house lately, so I decided to see what's out there as far as buttons go...here's what I found.

OK, well this is a little much and who has this many buttons? 

I guess if you do, use a muffin pan as a sorter!

Here's some stuff that uses a lot less buttons and a hot glue gun...

Napkin Rings

Hair Clips

Magnets

Snazzy Cards...

I love the bird idea on this one!  Cover up one hole with a felt wing and add the legs and beak...it's so simple!   

Love this!

This is a Martha Stewart creation...http://www.marthastewart.com/article/button-crafts

Now, I know I don't have these kind of fancy fun buttons just lying around, but you can buy bags of assorted buttons at craft stores, antique stores, etc.  They're pretty cheap.

No Carve Pumpkin Ideas

I can't help but be excited about this fall weather that is slowly, but surely approaching.  I'm not one for all this heat.  It's also the time of year when I can start breaking out some new decor for the house...new table cloth and crafty stuff for the kids.  I am also a sucker for all that simple 'less is more' type stuff people do with gourds and candles.  

Anyway, so I stumbled across some no carve pumpkin ideas that will hopefully get those wheels turnin'.  I mean really, like I have time to carve pumpkins right now, ha!  

Oh. Come. On!  You're telling me that all I have to do is find a couple of round pumpkins and hot glue a ribbon around it?  Done.  Next...

White pumpkin meets vinyl stickers, or a sharpie and a stencil for that matter!  This is too easy...

How about pumpkin meets doily?

Love this!

It's not too late to press leaves and Mod Podge them to a pumpkin!  I guess you can pretty much Mod Podge anything to a pumpkin...old photos, newspaper, scrapbook paper...your kids.  Oh wait, scratch that last one.   

OK, so this may have a little bit of carving going on, but I still like the idea of the painted squares.  Very retro. 

I have to say though, I am still a fan of the traditional scary pumpkin face...

You're on your own with this one, I have no clue how this was done.  But I just couldn't resist.  It's like he's looking straight at me!  If that's not scary I don't know what is. 

Happy Pre-Fall Pumpkin Crafting!