The Luck of the Irish: St. Patrick's Day Pins

Upon learning last year that there is apparently an ounce of Irish in me, I have taken to searching for fun St. Patrick's Day ideas.  I created these pins myself and plan on giving them to coworkers, my boss, and family just for fun.

I won't say they are exactly "easy" as you do have to be delicate with a glue gun and if you lack experience (heck, even if you are a veteran glue gunner) - plan on being burnt a couple times.  Towards the end of the 12 I made however, I was not burning myself at all!  This takes the "just a dab will do you" to a whole new level. Be careful!!

You will need:  bar pins, buttons that are at least a nickel size (smaller than this and it's too tricky), a decorative middle piece to hide your gluing.  I used both these mini flower decals, and I also used a smaller green button for some of the clovers.  And finally, ribbon.  Ironically the ribbon I used is not any of those shown here.  I found it easier to work with a skinnier ribbon.

To make the clover:  you will make repeated loops of the ribbon.  What I did is I got my first loop (shown to the right) and hot glued that down - just a dab!  Then once your first loop is secure, you can keep making loops to the right and left.  I apologize for lack of pictures of the looping process.  I take these photos on my own and hard to snap a photo whilst holding down a hot glued ribbon!  One day, I will get fancier and step up to the video aspect.

You can repeat dabs of hot glue for each loop, making your last dab of hot glue for the decoration in the middle.  Then once dry, turn over and hot glue your bar pin on!  Voila!

Fun with Decoupage - Make a Spiffy Flower Vase

In honor of approaching Spring (yes, I am anxious) I have a project in regular fashion of my other posts - easy, fun, and inexpensive.

I am a big fan of decoupage.  You really can't go wrong with decoupage because it's all about making a collage of your medium you are working with.  Overlapping is key!  I love to decoupage fabrics as well as papers of different strengths.  This vase is done with patterned tissue paper.

Supplies:  Tissue paper, scissors, decoupage adhesive, vase and paint brush.

I used a tissue paper I found a Target that I thought was fun - too fun to just use as wrapping decoration.  You will need decoupage glue - any kind should do. I am a fan of Royal Coat more than Modge Podge.  Although Modge Podge would work just fine.  You just want to make sure you have a decoupage that both glues and seals.   Make sure you have good scissors that cut finer papers well, a paint brush and a vase of your choice. I liked this one a lot that I found at Savers.  But keep in mind, the more curves you have on your vase, the harder it could be to properly decoupage papers on it with fewer bubbles.  I wound up using my thumb to smooth out bubbles, as well as the paint brush.

You will want to open the package of tissue paper and depending on your pattern, cut accordingly.  Something with no pattern - it doesn't matter how you cut, you will just want to cut small, stout pieces to fit curves better.  In my case, I cut length wise to have stripes going horizontally on my vase....vertically could work too!  It's up to you.

Bottom of vase.

 Start the vase upside down, beginning with the base.  For those who haven't used decoupage before, you want to cover the area you are working on first (small area to start), place the paper down, and then "seal" again with the decoupage.  It will dry clear and harden the paper you are working with.

Continue to apply paper as you wish, smoothing out bubbles as you go along.  The smaller the piece, the better you will be able to manipulate.   Have fun and fill it with some cheery flowers!

Crafting a Space That's Right for You

I took advantage of this weekend by converting the bedroom/office in our cute little bungalow into a bedroom/craft room for myself.

Literally everything for the set up was things we already had around the house.  Two things motivated me to do it this weekend:  1)  The white storage embellishment storage unit on the desk was given to me from a coworker who had one too many (?!!?)...SCORE.  And 2) While looking on my Pinterest Account for craft storage ideas I saw so many people have converted literal closets into craft rooms.  I have more than a closet to use, so I asked myself what the heck I was waiting for?!  I jumped right on this set up starting Friday night.

The fun note about this desk is it is my husband's from his childhood, built by his Dad.  The top shelf unit, as well as the 3 metal pull out drawers are all also made by my father in law.  But you can certainly find things similar or make them!

Coincidentally my husband and I are condensing items for a yard sale this Spring.  Plus, seeking out a new storage unit for our copious amounts of vinyl records.  That being said, we had a spare DVD shelf that my father in law had built for us years back when we lived in our apartment.  Works quite nicely as craft storage!!

The top shelf is all mason jars (have even more in the basement).  I love, love, love mason jars.  I don't know what it is about them, I find them to be useful and attractive.  I chose to not have the lids on mine because it just seems silly given how often I craft, I will be in and out of them often!














Again, I got this embellishment storage center for free but I have heard that you can either use a coupon or, they are very often on sale at 40% off.  You can find more information here.  You can mount it on the wall, or it sits very sturdy and quite well on a desk.  To be honest, this thing is fairly heavy and I wouldn't trust it on just any wall.  This was confirmed by my carpenter father in law this weekend when he laughed at the attachments they give you for it.  My wall in the bedroom just isn't one leaving me feeling confident, so I chose to rest my storage unit on the desk top.  Not to mention, if that thing ever fell off the wall, imagine all the exploded messes you would have!

Anyway, this was so much fun this weekend.  I can't wait to do my first project at it.  Which will be, ironically, decoration for the embellishment center!  Try out organizing your current supplies.  I bet you will be blown away by what you already have without having to spend too much!

Think Spring: Front Door Monogram Twine Sign

Valentine's Day is upon us, St. Patty's is up next, but I want to interrupt the regular scheduled programming with quite possibly the cutest and easiest project I have done.

A monogram front door sign like this is super easy and won't cost you much of anything aside from a couple   hot glue gun burns.

You will need:  wooden letter of your choice.  These range from .50-$1.00 or more depending on how large you want.  Found this one at Michael's.  Some jewelry hemp, or twine.  You can get colored twine which would also look great!  And then your choice (if you choose) of a flower, or whatever decoration you want to add, if you do.  I was going to make a Velcro attachment so mine was interchangeable for the season, but I ran out of Velcro, and simply made a general flower one.  Then, your choice of fun ribbon, and that trusty hot glue gun.

    As you work the twine or hemp around the letter, you will mostly always want to glue to the back.  The only exceptions I made was the edge of the front, in which I very carefully and delicately added just a dab of hot glue to keep the twine in a straight line around the sides.  And, there you have it!  Your own monogrammed front door sign!  Happy Spring (sooner than later please)!

Spread hot glue out flat as you work on the back.

A Super Meal that Truly is Super

Key ingredients of the sweet and spicy chicken wings.

 OK so every year when the Super Bowl comes, no matter whether it involves the New England Patriots in it or not, I always have a "game meal".  Since this Super Bowl did involve the Patriots getting to the Super Bowl, I decided I wanted a new meal to try, from scratch and not as bad for you as other foods. I am crediting three sites for these recipes on here that were all winners.  No matter who wins this game, I certainly won in this meal!  Highly recommend all three, or one that you might give a try.  Note:  Normally I use items from the Asian market for recipes like this.  We had run out, so I settled for grocery store bought and it was still amazing!

 Sweet & Spicy Chicken Wings - hate to credit her, but I have to here.  Martha Stewart's recipe for this and the dipping sauce was perfection.  We loved the dipping sauce so much that we are going to use it for our homemade Chinese food night.  I marinaded these over night.  Martha Stewart's Spicy-Sweet Chicken Wings

Next, the Greek Nachos from Chaos in the Kitchen.  I actually used leftover Italian sausage for the meat! I added avacado as well.  Didn't matter - these were so packed!  Chaos' recipe is here:  Greek Nachos  Also, I did use the tzatziki listed on this page, I used this one:  Recommended Tzatziki Dip

Lastly, the simple yet ever-so-tasty Black Bean and Rice Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette.  This was SO easy that I will definitely make again, and soon.  I used a recipe (mostly just for the dressing) at Cooking Books' Black Bean and Rice Salad.

This was such a hit with my husband.  I do plan on making all items again at some point for company and other special nights!

Easy Valentine Scrapbook Paper Wreath

 Looking for an easy and festive Valentine project?  This is for you!  I just used some scrapbook paper, my handy glue dots, and hemp jewelry twine for hanging.

Some of my favorite print papers:  Hello Sunshine designs, and Lily Bee Design papers were the ones I went for this project.

I used Friskar's paper cutter...you don't need a fancy one for this.

Use glue dot to secure ribbon or twine for hanging.

 Cut 12 strips that are 2in X 11in.  You will want to fold this each in half.  Using 2 glue dots on the crease at the top of the heart, and one dot for the bottom.

Then you use a glue dot on the side of each heart to connect to consecutive hearts.  12 hearts should do it.  I cut (by accident) 2 smaller hearts, so I used them inside the middle of the wreath!

And like that, you have a fun, easy, inexpensive Valentine wreath.

Put A Cork In It - Make Your Own Wine Cork Trivet

 I started this at my former job as Activity Director for an Adult Day Program.  We collected corks from local restaurants and did many things with them.  This is just one of several things you can do.  This one, doesn't take as many corks and can be done in just a couple hours.  You can ask others to save corks for you, or just  err...treat yourself a little more often over the next couple months!

Pick out a frame you like and/or one you can repurpose.  If you don't already have one, go to one of my favorite places - the Dollar Tree or Goodwill - and pick one out!  This frame I had lying around, it was broken otherwise, but perfect for this project.

 To make life easier, you will want to organize your corks by size and shape.  You will understand this better once you start forming your trivet.  *Note - try to stick with the wooden corks.  The plastic coated and colored ones are not glue gun friendly...you would have to sand those to get them to stick to each other.  Learned that one the hard way!

Using a utility knife, you can cut corks to the size you need.

 When starting the layout, try to group similar sizes together.  You can have a row going horizontal, then a row vertical and so on.  This is where you let your imagination go and either display the labels the same direction of each cork, or put them off center, or whatever you want to do.  The layout can be anything you want!  Get the glue gun turned on and have fun!

I have had this cork trivet for awhile.  I have put coffee mugs on it, tea pitchers, even used it for a pot or two.  Works excellent!