{Post 1,385} One of My Weekend Projects

This is one little spray-paint project I wanted to finish this weekend.  The back piece and "P" are laser-cut wood I bought at Michael's.  Tip of the day:  NEVER to go Hobby Lobby or Michael's w/o a 40% off coupon.  The wooden pieces ended up costing <$2 total.  

This measures about 7-1/2" wide by 11-1/2" tall.  It may very well be my next wedding shower gift.  Fast, easy, cheap.  Brides love monogrammed gifts.

What appears to the inside is actually hot-glued to the flat piece of "background" wood.  I just took a piece of tablet cardboard and hot-glued on a piece of burlap, overlapping it to glue on the back.  Then I glued it to the front of the wood after I spray-painted it black.

I have a couple more posts coming with other weekend projects.

{Post 1,225} Enchanted Purse

If you haven't seen the Disney movie, "Enchanted", you should.  I love the scenes where Giselle has made dresses from the drapes, bedspread, etc.  Here is my "enchanted" purse from this old worn-out jumper:

Pattern here.  Mine is 17" wide and 19" tall.  I put a pocket in one side for my phone and two pens.  I just made a square and then stitched it down on 3 sides plus two lines both one inch from the vertical sides for the pens.  

{Post 1,089} Candle Holders Finished!

Here are my 4 completed candle holders.  Too bad we can't eat in the dark!  

{Post 1,087} Fall Candle Holders

Here's another Pinterest-inspired project that was more difficult than it should have been.  But now that I have some experience under my belt, I'm rolling along and nearly finished.

These are four fall candle holders.  The Mod Podge (MP) is wet in the picture.  They are quite pretty when dry.  I know this because they were dry before I put on this last coat of stuff.  Later I will post a picture of them with candles inside.  

This came about because someone asked me if I was "doing" Thanksgiving at my house.  We made the decision some years ago that we would always stay home for Thanksgiving (barring any very unusual circumstances).  We invite others who are not traveling to see their families and take in single college students that would otherwise be alone for the day.  It's usually a big ordeal.

Well, this same person asked me what I was using to decorate.  The question took me by surprise, so I answered, "Food."  I truly hadn't thought about it.  What is more beautiful than a bountiful buffet including a wide array of desserts?  I knew I'd be cooking all day Wednesday as well as Thursday morning right up to the 20-minute feast.  It did get me thinking, however.

I had pinned a picture of a clear glass jar that had fall leaves Mod Podged to it.  It was made by a CHILD!!  How easy could that be?  It was actually quite frustrating.  They had left out a few pertinent details.

The most important (but unmentioned) was that a large-mouthed jar was necessary.  At least something you can get your hand down into (for placing the candle!).  I tried a regular-sized canning jar.  No go.  I peeled off my leaves (which was easy because the stinkin' things didn't stick in the first place) and washed the jar.  

I eventually found out these important steps:

Gather a variety of leaves in both color and size.  You might have a tiny space that needs a little more color.  We have some great leaves around here.  Rachel was getting them for me as we came home from an errand.  We saw a magnificent red-leaved tree in someone's yard (fairly close to the house).  I told her to ring the bell and ask them first in case they looked out the window and saw her making off with their leaves.  When Rachel asked how many she could have, the lady said, "Take them all!"  Hahaha...that's someone who does NOT like to rake!

One must "press" the leaves to dry them and make them perfectly flat before using the MP to hold them to the jar.  I did this by layering them in an old phone book (the one I use for paper-piecing foundations, incidentally).  The first batch was pressed for 3 days because I was out of town.  I did a batch last night for just a few hours, and they were divine.  Place something heavy on the book or whatever to really PRESS them.

Make sure your leaves are not too thick.  I had some fabulous green leaves (I don't know which kind...not magnolia--I'm not that stupid!) that refused to bend around the jars curved surface.  See the little white string in the above picture in the lower right-hand corner (in the shadow of the MP bottle?)?  That's waxed dental floss.  I would not be outdone by a recalcitrant leaf, so after applying more MP to the outer surface of the leaf, I wrapped the dental floss around the jar to keep the stem and top of the leaf in place (ha!  take that you stupid leaf!).  Victory was mine.  Later I carefully unwrapped the string and put another coat of MP on.

At first I thought I'd just use canning jars I had here.  That idea quickly went south because I didn't have any wide-mouthed ones.  I didn't want to buy any jars either.  Ironically enough, as I was leaving yesterday to take my daughter to her piano lesson, I texted her teacher that if she was just about to throw away a large-mouthed clear jar, save it for me...I was on my way.  Ironically enough, she WAS about to pitch a salsa jar.  It was PERFECT!  I also repurposed two natural peanut butter jars.  Since we switched to a mostly whole foods diet over a year ago, we don't buy much stuff in jars.    Another sacrifice on my part (I'm such a martyr).  My fourth jar IS a wide-mouthed canning jar, but I only had the one.  I purposely used 4 different sized jars.  The perfectionist in me just had to let that detail go!

Whew--if you've read all this, you are either a true friend, or someone with too much time on their hands.  Picture of the finished product later...and some quilting!

~Joan

{Post #880} New Sign

I mentioned that we took down our Christmas decorations a few days ago.  I left up a new Christmas sign that was in our living room.  I wanted the incentive to finish a new sign to put up in its place.  Here is the new sign from afar, closer up, then at the table where I had just finished painting it.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I have been painting monogram signs for wedding gifts.  This is another option for that idea.  I needed this to be a bit larger than one of my monogram signs that have just one initial.


One of the girls at my church saw me painting this:

She asked me to paint her one as she is getting married this summer.  Her "new" name is very long, so I thought about turning the sign to "landscape" setting.  I played around with it to make one for my family.  I think this works!!


Yes, Julie, that is my Emily in the picture above.  Don't even think about it.


~Joan

{Post #877} New Wall Art

I am not a good decorator.  If you have been to my house, you already know that.  But I do buy what I like.  I might not like it where it is, but I like it!  The bulletin board two pictures down is the result of several things.  Realizing I did not need a bulletin board in the kitchen where it was.  Wanting a way to display lots of pictures with the ease of changing them out at will w/o major headaches and time involved.  Wanting to hang a sign I bought sort of on impulse.  


I saw this sign and liked it better in that same spot...above Rachel's school desk in the corner of our kitchen.  I had seen similar signs for lots of money.  This one is about 16" x 22" and was $10.  Sold!!  I also love the way it stands out on our red walls.

I am not a huge Pinterest addict, but I have seen some things that I'd like to make for my house.  The inspiration for my board was an empty picture frame that had picture-hanging wire strung along the back and photos hung from tiny snap clothespins.  My very thoughtful daughter pointed out that if I wanted a pic of each person in my family, I'd either need a huge frame or very tiny pictures.  I do have eight children and now a son-in-law!!

She was SO right.  As usual.  :)  She knows who she is.

When I took down the bulletin board, I realized I could spray paint it to match another item in our bedroom and end up with THIS:

It was very difficult to get a picture without glare somewhere.  The paint is a puzzle to me.  It is milk chocolate brown and has tiny terra-cotta-colored sparkles in it.  How do the sparkles stay uncovered by paint enough to show up?  Here is a close-up of my favorite part, a picture of my dear husband and I, and a picture of our hands forming a heart.

My husband pushed flat-headed thumb tacks through the tops of the snap clothespins, and I painted them brown to match the frame.  Our walls are sort of a Wendy's Frosty brown color, so this looks great.  I plan to add little embellishments such as putting a piece of paper behind the pictures, buttons, etc.  This is just the basis for the rest.


~Joan

{Post #872} Ornament #2...Liking More!

I have a problem.  OK--I have LOTS of problems.  One recurring one is that I can barely endure just sitting.  I must be doing something all the time.  That leads to trouble sleeping because my brain will not shut off.  I keep scrolling through all the things I want to do the next day.  {Sigh}...it's tough.

Here is my second 2012 ornament.  I like it better than the first.  For those of you who have asked how they're made and are truly interested, I am including details on how this differs from the first.  For those who don't care for the details, look at the pictures and move on!

Here was my first:

The second:

Now for the changes.  After watching the video, I was shocked that the pieces were not pressed ahead of time.  So I decided to give that a try since I hate pressing.  I like the non-pressing method better.  I also used a pin on every point and one in each side of the center folded piece.  Much flatter and round-shaped.  I am going to undo my first one and repin.  I will have to discard a few of the outer pieces because they are mushed with hot glue. 

The layers on #1 are 1/2" apart each.  The second one has the red 1/2" from the center, then the next creams 1/4" out from there.  Since I used a 2-1/2" ball instead of a 3" ball, that worked fine for me.  The edges of the last cream later actually are perfectly flat next to each other, making it easier to wrap a strip of fabric around them (that will NOT be glued).

That brings me to the final change.  For #1, I put wrong sides together of a strip of cream and pressed it flat with the seam on the back side so it would not show after gluing.  The glue oozed out from under the strip, looking bad.  Once cool, it was impossible to remove w/o significant damage to the pieces it touched.  I am going to dissemble that one and use the outermost pieces for the innermost on other ornaments so the damage will be covered by subsequent layers.  For the strip for the new one, I'm just going to iron a strip in thirds, making sure the outermost raw edge is in far enough not to be seen.

I made the executive decision this AM to make red balls for the girls and green balls for the boys.  I will have 4 leftover balls since I started with 12, so I'll make a few others to give as gifts.  These will be a great project for our Sit & Knit group that meets on Tuesday nights.  All I'll have to do to prepare is cut 2-1/2" squares and tote a bazillion pins.

Big projects for today are learning how to make a 6-strand braided bread (and the bread machine just beeped, meaning it's show time), baking granola (it's in the oven), and a little project for under my kitchen sink.  That involves emptying, purging, cleaning, painting, tiling (with adhesive 12" floor tiles that I won't remove the paper from the backs of), then replacing the things we actually use under there.

Here I go.  I'm tired already...

~Joan