Springtime yet?

I know that it is only January, but once the tree comes down, my heart and mind are already thinking Spring.  And here in Missouri, we have seen quite a bit of Spring-like weather.  I am working on stocking my Etsy shop with Spring decor, so check it out!

One of my tried and true items that are always a big seller for me are my garlands.  They are lighted and can be made for whatever decor and season you would like.  You can make them yourself easily or can surely purchase one of mine.  So here is what you need       

1. A string of lights
2. Fabric scraps

Thats it!  Easy Peasy!

So here is what I do.  I save my scraps of fabrics after projects.  You know how I have throwing away things....(please don't judge me!)  I cut the scraps into approximately 1" x 7" strips and I stick them in baggies.  I group reds, whites, blues, etc, together.  When I have enough full bags of three or more colors, I grab me a strand of lights and tie them on.  This is a great thing to do when you are sitting around watching television.  I always tell people it keeps my hands out of the Cheeto bag. 

The lights I use, I buy up during the holidays and store.  Dollar Tree carries strands of 20 and so do other retailers like Walmart and Target.  If you are lucky to find them during a half price sale, it's even better.  This particular light set, fits great across my guest room window and goes well with the pastel colors in the room.

 Hanging them on the fireplace is great too.

This is such a fun project.  Here are a few tips if you want to try it yourself:

• Choose fabrics that are different textures.  Combine cottons and rayons or even throw in some wired ribbon or burlap.
• You only need to tie once.  A double know takes up way too much space on the wire.
• Unless you have unlimited fabric, tie blue at each section, then tie white at each section, then yellow and so on.  That way you don't use all of your same colors up on half of it.  
• You can tear the fabric into strips or cut it.  I vote for cutting.  There is always some ravelling anyway and it becomes really stringy if all is torn.  
• Change it up a bit.  Like on this one, I used pastels, whites, blues, pinks, yellows, and lavender.  Then, gotcha, I threw in just a bit of hot pink.  Sassy!
• Oh, yeah.  Plug them in before you spend all that time tying on the fabric.

Well my friends, on to other things this morning.  This garland will be posted in my Etsy shop today and there is a listing for special order garlands as well.  I also have a few other items posted:

Thanks for stopping by!

What 'cha Workin' on Wednesday?????

Good morning, my bloggie peeps!  Finally getting the hang of 2015, and trying to decide what to make for my booth at a Borgata, our local artisan shop.  I made some really cute bookmarks from graphics that I purchased from Sunflowerfriends.com.  I have a laminator, so I printed, laminated, and put ribbons in a couple of dozen of them.  Visit the site and see all of the cute things for really good prices!  I also put some of my Granddaughter's hand made cards in the booth.  I'll get some pictures next visit.

I wanted to show you some of the cute little bunny clothespins that I made.  I made a bunch of clothespin snowmen the last couple of years and sold out.  They are great for package tie-ons, ornies, or card holders.  So I thought, "Could I do something for Spring?"  Enter, tah dah:  Bunnies

If you want your own bowlful of bunnies, they are so easy, peezy, lemon squeezy!  Simply paint your clothespins white.  I actually painted these with acrylic craft paint, but you could use white spray paint.  I usually spray the pins, but the weather has been so yucky, that I wanted to stay indoors.  I used markers for the rest.  Just draw on the faces.  You can probably make them cuter than mine.  I hot glued a bow on for a little texture and pizzazz.  So sweet!  These will be great in a basket, or to attach an Easter note to your co-workers' desk.  Maybe put them on a pack of bunny poop......I will post these at a later date......or maybe a peep in a plastic bag.

Just a word about the pins.  You can get them at Dollar Tree, but some are a bit rough to paint on.  Look for them in Walmart or the hardware store.  For once, it may be worth the extra expense for the quality.

I'm off to conjure up love items today.  Working on a few Valentines Day projects!  I'll keep you posted!

Angels, Ornies,

I love Fridays!  Friday is my day to run errands, and lately it is my day to spend with my granddaughter, Skylar.  Skylar is 12 going on 30 and is so very talented in arts, music, and writing.  So, we love to play in the studio. 

I had been working on these new ornies that I saw on Pinterest.  Mine turned out different than the example but I like them just the same.

Okay, now here is the secret.....they are made out of paint sticks.  You know, the ones that you get at Home Depot for free!   So here is what I did:  I gathered my sticks (I have an entire box that I got years ago and didn't know what to do with them)  and I clamped about 5 or 6 together. 

I used a miter saw but you can use any kind that you want.

I cut them into 4 inch pieces.  You will get two out of each stick (this size is for the one gallon size) plus you will get a third piece that has the little indent at the top.  (Save that for a later project)

Once the sticks are cut, sand off any rough edges and drill two tiny holes in each.  I put several together and drilled through all of them.  After you drill your holes, paint them front, back and sides.  I used a dark brown paint but you can use any color that you want.  While they dry, print off the words that you want on your ornaments.  I found a template on TodaysFabulousFinds.com but you can also make your own.  In fact, the ones that I found were a little too big so I had to shrink them down.  I printed them out on white cardstock and then copied them onto a tannish paper.  You could use any kind of scrapbook paper that you want to as well. Skylar and I dry-brushed the edges to make them look aged.

Once the paint is dry and your words are printed, put a thin layer of ModPodge on the painted stick(front side only).  If your print on the stick shines through your paint, use that for your front side.  While the MP is still wet, put your paper words on top and use your fingers to press out any bubbles.  When dry, put another coat or two.  When dry, add your wire hanger, threading the wire back to front.  I used a needle nosed pliers to make little circles on the front side of the hanger.  Then embellish however you want.  Add bells, stars, raffia, glitter, etc.  I have a spiced glitter that I purchased from Sew Many Prims that is glitter that is lightly spiced and is a brownish color.  (smells divine, too!)  I put just a little MP around the edges and gave it just a bit of sparkle.

I also finished up a few of these angels too.  I was in Michael's last week and saw these sweet little wooden angels for a buck ea.  So I had to dress them up a bit and I think they are really sweet.

Simply, paint the body and wings the color of your choice.  I used a light buttermilk color.  Then cover the body with eyelet.  I used a narrow eyelet on the bottom so I could glue it just under the wings.  I used a wider eyelet on top.  I glued some moss on the heads, drew eyes with a marker, and glued on little stars.  For the halos, I painted some silver rings with a brown primer and glued on.  You can make a project like this your own, just use your imagination and get going!