Button, and Old Jewelry Ornaments.

Look what you can make with a hot glue gun, a gold wire, a bag of buttons and some broken jewelry. These ornaments look great on my tree!

Christmas Star

I like a challenge. When the music teacher from my child's school asked me if I could make a 3 foot star light enough to hang from the ceiling of the auditorium without tearing it down the ceiling, I was more than ecstatic to do it. The weird thing is that my kid wasn't even in the Christmas Pageant. Yes, I'm a sucker. 

While running all the possibilities through my head, I decided to call my mom because she always has the best ideas that are easy to execute. She told me

1) Get cardboard boxes then draw out 2 large stars with 4 points and 2 small stars with 4 points.

2) Cut the stars out and cut in half 1 large star and the 2 small stars at the tallest point.

3) Paint them gold.

4) Hot glue the large star pieces that are in half to the other large star that was not cut in half. Then in the corners where the large stars cross, glue in the smaller star halves.

 I think that glue guns were made for cardboard because it worked perfectly.

The edges didn't look really fantastic so I decided to 

5) hot glue gold tinsel garland from the dollar store on the edges of my cardboard star.

6) then i punched 2 holes in the top of the star with a screwdriver and fished through picture frame wire for easy hanging.

This was surprisingly SUPER easy.

Here she is!!!

Grade: A

Skill Level: Easy
Difficulty Level: Easy
Frustration Level: Low
Cost: Low 

Mixed Media Art Snowmen

I love the internet. Where else can you meet crafty people from all over the world and learn about different types of art projects? My friend Jennifer does some amazing mixed media art and she was kind enough to give me a few tips.

Mixed media art is where you use several different types of materials. I purchased a few fun things at a craft store sale and played around with it. 

This project was easy enough to include my 9 year old's "help." She did make an adorable paper girl all by herself. But of course, like everything, I get to clean up the mess!

Materials

Tsukineko Fireworks Spray Blue set of 3
Perfect Pearls mists
Faber-Castell Color Gelatos & clear stamp in pinks, greens and orange/yellow. 
White, black, yellow and brown acrylic paints.
Modgpodge
 Tulip metallics paint
 Glitter glue
 Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue 
 Regular white printer paper 
 Blue card stock paper
 Canvas



paint brushes
paint sponges
Stencil brushes

Fiskars snowflake punch
Paper Doily
Stampers 
Folk Art Painting Stencil - Curly Tree

Sheet Music, Baby Its Cold Outside, Frosty the Snowman 
The Poem, Night before Christmas. I printed out the sheet music on the blue card stock and poem on regular white paper.

Background
This was the first time I ever worked with Tsukineko Fireworks Spray and Perfect Pearls mists. Wow they are amazing. The fireworks give a really cool effect and are perfect for a background. I just spritzed it on the canvas and waited for it to dry. Once completely dry, I stamped on the curly tree stencil with brown acrylics and then filled in the snow on the branches with Tulip Metallics paint. I punched out some snowflakes on the white paper with the fiskars punch and then glued them on the canvas. I also used my stencils with white acrylic paint to give the back ground some additional texture. 


Snowmen
I used the perfect pearls mists on the blue sheet music for a fun shiny effect. Punching out the snowflakes left a stencil, so I used the paper to stencil on snowflakes in different places. I cut out the snowmen from the paper and added additional white acrylic to make it seem more like snow. I painted the edges black and let it dry.

Hats, scarfs and evergreen trees
I randomly rubbed the Gelatos on the white paper over the poem "The Night Before Christmas." Gelatos are fun because you can blend them in with your finger, or you can wet your paint brush and get a water color effect. After I colored in the paper completely, I laid my doily down over the Gelato colored poem and blotted on the white acrylic paint with the stencil sponge.  I cut out hats, scarfs and tree triangles then painted the edges with black.

Once everything was dry, I glued the snowman and triangle trees together on the paper and used the black ink to stamp in "Snow" or "Let It Snow". Once everything was dry, I painted it over with Modge Podge. I also decided to add a little embellishments like Christmas buttons and gems.

Grade: A
Skill Level: Moderate-High
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Frustration Level: Low
Cost: Pricey $$ 

Creating the perfect picture frames to hang your favorite art

Last year I was happy Hanging Kids Artwork with a bulldog clip. Now I've decided to get some inexpensive frames and hang the kids art on the wall. 

The problem with cheap frames is the flimsy hardware attached. So you'll have to purchase a frame kit that comes with an assortment of hardware including, sawtooth hangers, hanging wire, strap hangers and associated nails.You will also need a tape measure, Philips's head screw driver, pliers and hammer. 

Remove any staples from your frame with pliers. Also, remove any hardware that doesn't look sturdy. Usually cheap frames come with a strap hanger that can be bent with little effort with your bare hand. I personally don't like strap hangers on picture frames smaller than 2 feet wide, I find the saw tooth easier to work with.

Whats great about putting on your own hardware is that you can attach it in the exact same place on every picture frame to make hanging the pictures easier for you. 

I mostly use sawtooth hangers. Use the tape measure to find the center of your picture frame. You can put the sawtooth hanger 1/8 inch to a 1/2 inch below the TOP of your frame, with the saw pointing down. Once you found the correct location, then nail it in. The problem with the nails is that they are teeny tiny and you may have to try to push them in with your thumb a little before you use the hammer because they are a sucker to to hold. You can also try using a tweezers to hold the tiny nail, but I never had good luck with that.

I use the strap hangers on large frames for a sturdy hold. Once they are screwed in on either side of the picture, fish through the picture wire and then twist it around itself. When you put on the wire, make sure to test how high the wire will go once the picture is hung, you want to make sure that taught wire is the same distance from the top of the frame as where you put your sawtooth hanger on the other pictures.

My favorite art is from my kids! I took a photo of all my art on the walls and it looks like i'm using a fish-eye lens. I don't know what is up with my camera, those pictures are STRAIGHT. You'll just have to trust me.

Spooky Eyes

My 7 year old nephew has a paper towel cardboard tube collection.  Every time my sister finishes a roll of paper towels he insists that the cardboard tube MUST be saved for his collection. Luckily my nephew's quirks are my gain. He is generous enough to share his collection with me so that I can come up with some fun crafts. Awesome kid!


I came up with an idea to make spooky light up eyes with these materials:
    paper towel tubes
    white paper 
    markers
    black paint
   Christmas/Halloween lights or glow sticks.

 This is a simple craft for kids.

1) Cut the paper towel tubes in half and cut the eyes out of tube. This part should probably be performed by an adult or a child with solid cutting skills.

2) Paint the tube with black paint and let it try.

3) Cut the white paper into 8 strips and slide these strips of paper into the dry tubes.

4) Create Eyeballs with marker

5) Slide lights through the rolls and you have spooky glow in the dark eyes!

Grade: B
Skill Level: Low
Difficulty Level: Low
Frustration Level: Low

Spookie Pictures

Sometimes you are bored at work, do something extremely silly and come up with an incredible idea for home. This happened to my friend Natalie. She started messing around with the copier at work and started copying her face. Turns out it this makes a very spooky Halloween decoration. You can give it a try at your local library, but you may want to have your kids do it so you don't look like you've lost your mind.

      

The next time Natalie is bored, I'm sure I'll be getting some pictures of her tush. My friends are funny!

Indie Films

This blog isn't just about crafts. Its about attempting new things. You just have children, your life isn't over! There is no better time than now to experience life and attempt the things you want to do. I want to make sure I try new things that I would personally find fun, so you are not going to find me jumping out of any planes. I find that terrifying. Noooooo thank you.

Sometimes its hard to get motivated and that's when you need support from your friends. Encourage each other. One of my best friends, Natalie, keeps me going and trying new adventures. 

The other day I didn't want to go out "My house is a mess, I need to clean it." 

Natalie yelled at me, "Now, do you really think that would be interesting on your tomb stone? - Had the cleanest house in town? Or would you rather be remembered as an adventurer?"

I picked adventurer.

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to have a part in a movie? I did. Last summer, I went for it and got a part in an Indie Film with the help of my friend Natalie. No. I didn't get paid, that is not the point. I have no experience as an actor, but I did have experience as a mom and that was all I needed to play the part of Ben's mom. I'd like to thank Jason Heffner, the director, for giving me the opportunity to cross this off my bucket list.

Here is trailer:

If you want to see the entire short click here :Short Film


Now I have an IMDB credit. I'm checking that off my bucket list!!! Next I'm trying stand up comedy!!!! In the mean while, I'll still continue to do crafts because I just can't stop!

Here I am on the red carpet!