Razzle Dazzle Crafting

Soap bar pincushion

2012-01-19T23:30:00.000-06:00

A page from Real Simple inspired my latest project...a soap bar pincushion.

In all my sewing, I still had my pins left in their original plastic pin box, which was annoying to say the least. I kept saying I wanted a super cute pincushion, and not just one of those strawberry/tomato things.

To start, I bought a bar of handmade soap from the artisan market in Paducah where I sell my fabric bowls. The artisan who makes them had a dozen scents, and this one, mountain berry, has been in the craft room for over a month, and it's totally fragranced the whole area. And I supported a local crafter! You can use a brand name bar of soap, but this one was square, and I wasn't sure I could find one like it anywhere else.

Then I picked out a fabric scrap I had in my stash.

I squared off the fabric and made sure I had enough to wrap the bar in, just like you would wrap a present. To get things started with a crisp line, I stapled the fabric to the bar first.

Then I wrapped the other side over, stapling it tight as well. I made sure to tuck the raw end of the fabric under. I also added a strip of hot glue to secure the seam.

Then I continued folding just like I did three weeks before for Christmas. I added a few staples here and there to ensure tightness, but glued everything down and tucked in all the raw edges.

Finished end. I did the same thing on the other one.

When I was done, I had a wrapped package, but it was a tad plain. I thought about razzle-dazzling it up with some rhinestones, but didn't want it to interfere with the pins. So I cut a length of white satin ribbon to cover up the seams and the few remaining exposed staples, hot glueing it down (tuck in the raw edge!).

And there you have the finished project!

I had picked out the purple fabric weeks ago, then for Christmas, my friend Jennifer MADE ME a wrist pincushion, which was next on my list of things to tackle. She made it completely from scratch, even hand-sewing where a machine would have made her life so easy! I love wrist pincushions to have a place to put my pins when I'm done sewing...my dear Desmond, brother, doesn't really like sewing over pins, so I have to take them out as I go.

10 minutes of organization

2012-01-15T21:22:00.001-06:00

This week, I went through all of my old scrapbook stuff and attempted to organize it in a way that is more crafty, less scrapbook-y. Which went well. (I'm not scrapbooking anymore...too time consuming, and plus, I'm in love with Shutterfly.) Anyway, in my rummaging, I found clear page protectors, which inspired me to put them to good use.

So a trip to Wal-Mart for binders led to this:

Yes, that's a Mudslide in the pic. :)

Which led to this:

I had recently gone through over a hundred Real Simple and Better Home and Garden magazines for the sake of recycling, and had ripped out several ideas/inspiration pages that were just stacked on a clipboard. And I realized I had several patterns for quilts and such, and why not keep them in one place? So I feel good about my future organized productivity plans.

Also sad to report that Wal-Mart binders were much cheaper than binders at Office Depot, which is one of my favorite stores, and was also open past 7 on a Sunday night. Damn Wal-mart yet again!

Quilt Crazy

2012-01-12T11:47:00.012-06:00

I mentioned in my last post that I made a quilt for my mother-in-law for Christmas in 2010, so I wanted to make sure I included pictures.

It all starts with a pattern. I knew I needed something with plenty of rotary cutting and straight lines, because even though I've made four quilts and two wall-hanging in high-school and college, it had been a while since I had done anything this complex. I chose "Basket Weave" a pattern by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes. The pattern was quite easy, for the most part, if you read directions. I, of course, have zero patience, so I spent a good deal of deadline time ripping stitches.

Next are the fabrics. I knew I wanted to do it in blues, but no Duke-blue. My in-laws are from North Carolina and they are decided UNC fans. I spent an entire hour picking out eight shades of blue with as little Duke-blue as possible!

Most quilters, especially the younger ones breaking into the craft, are experienced rotary cutters. I don't think I will ever make a quilt I can't cut entirely with a rotary. There are a few different rotary methods (my mom and I each do it differently). I like to iron my fabrics, fold them in half again, and line them up on my ruled mat. Then I slide my ruler away from the cuts, leaving the cut out in the open.

Of course, you need a helper:

And this was the finished quilt-top. Martha's Quilting in Ledbetter, Ky., did an excellent job quilting it, and included an embroidered gift label on the back.

The husband's cousin was also set to have a baby this fall, so I made this baby quilt in the nursery colors:

I made it from a pattern I received from my high school home-ec teacher, and it's super easy. It involves about three yards of fabric, and it is good for a baby quilt or a wall hanging.

I loved the way the borders turned out:

I wound up quilting this one on my machine, using the Warm and Natural cotton batting, and sadly I wasn't very happy with the end result. I didn't have a walking foot and my machine at the time couldn't drop its feed dogs, so it was a little puckered in places. But it was still quite vibrant and I hear the recipients loved it!

Hello World!

2012-01-12T11:06:00.011-06:00

I'm back! Yes, I've been gone too long, and it's embarrassing to get back to this blog after so long. But let me explain:

It all started when I decided to make a quilt for my mother-in-law for Christmas. Since it was a secret, and some of the family check out this blog once in a while, so I couldn't post anything about it. And it consumed all my crafting time for about three months.

After that, I got serious about a book I'm writing. It's a children's middle-reader novel, and as of yesterday, I've FINALLY finished the structure of it all. Now I have to edit. I have since learned that crafting and free-writing are nearly mutually exclusive, so I really wasn't crafty at all for several months.

In the spring, I attended the AQS Quilt Show and Contest in Paducah with my mother, and I was completely inspired and compelled to craft again. I bought patterns and more supplies, and by the summer, I was again in full crafting swing (I was also taking a lengthy break from book-writing at this point!).

I learned to make these, which I have since begun selling at a local market and have plans in the very near future to open an Etsy site. Stay tuned! In a six month span, I counted I've made over 40 of these fabric bowls for wedding presents, Christmas presents and custom orders. In the month of December, I was still making bowls on the eve of Christmas Eve. Whew!

In the process of making the bowls, I killed my first sewing machine (RIP Stanley the Singer) and wound up buying a nice Brother machine, which is named Desmond. (My husband and I had just finished watching all six seasons of LOST on Netflix, hence the name).

For my friend Jennifer's birthday in December, I made these pillows for her bedroom. Ask for throw pillows and someone might actually listen...

And notice the black stitch? Just one of the many functions of my new sewing machine - twin needle stitching! Love!

If you give a mouse a cookie....well, if you teach a girl to craft, she's going to nee a place to do it. My husband agreed to give up his dreams of a man cave in the spare bedroom to give me a craft space. It works out, because when I'm in the spare room, he gets the TV and the Playstation all to himself. :)

So it started like this before:

To this after:

And somewhere in the past couple months, we created a photo wall. If you haven't designed one of these, let me tell, you it is WORK. They look stunning in magazines and on Pinterest (my other new addiction!), but they are far from easy, and far from cheap. This one was done on a budget, using frames from Goodwill and on clearance at Michaels, many of which were spray-painted black. Then there was the trouble of picking out photos and getting them printed. And finding mats when needed. And having the right nails. In the end, this wall cost us about $100 with all the supplies.

We used a ton of painter's tape to mark and level, and still, everything isn't perfectly spaced. And word of advice: purchase a laser level . We actually use it all the time. It's wonderful.

Soooooo simple

2010-07-13T22:00:00.004-05:00

...Yet such a big bang.

I consider it a gigantic failure if I leave a yard sale and have nothing in my hands. Saturday, I didn't have to worry about that, choosing to go to just one garage sale of a friend before heading off to my other Saturday activities.

Among other things, I bought three clay pots for $3. They were a bit dirty, but for $3 it didn't really matter. Anyway, the process is pretty self explanatory. I bought a lovely can of red-high-heel red spray paint on clearance actually and went to work. I cleaned the pots first with water and a scrub pad, and even though the humidity might have been too high, I sprayed away!

Before:

After:

I thought I wanted a matte finish, but I love love love love the high gloss look. Plus they match the red bookcase that is outside. (And yes, that would be the husband's hand in the background!).

Put a clearance sticker on it, and I'll buy it

2010-07-13T21:49:00.005-05:00

I went to Michaels with a strict budget to buy crafty supplies for my sea shell endeavors. And then I came out with about $20 of wooden crafts to paint (I've got Christmas gifts for everyone in my spare room now!). These flower picture frames were less than a dollar each, and with paints on sale at Hobby Lobby, I spent about $5 on this project, not counting sealing spray (which is lovely, I might add).

Anyway, these are going to a cousin-in-law soon for her twin baby girls. They were a perfect afternoon project.

I wanted to add a little pizzaz to the frames without getting too gawdy, so I simply dipped the end of one of my brushes into paint and dabbed four or five times for consecutively smaller paint dots to add a little texture.

She sells sea shells by the...

2010-06-29T23:41:00.006-05:00

Being from the midwest, vacations, and certainly those to the beach, didn't really exist for my family. So never in my growing up time, did I ever get the opportunity to hunt for sea shells.

I made up for that fact about two weeks ago when the hubs and I took a much needed and deserved mini vacation to Wilmington and Carolina Beach. We got a fantastic deal on flights (download Southwest Airlines' clearance website Ding! to see what I'm talking about) and just took advantage of our vacation time coinciding with our 1-year anniversary.

Anyway, everywhere I looked, I found sea shells, parts of sea shells and more sea shells. And of course, all I could see was potential crafties and gifts coming out of the natural beauties (word to the wise: don't get knocked down by the waves, like I did, while pulling the really good ones out of the surf before hitting land).

I packed them up for the airplane ride home, and then let them soak in a 50-50 bleach-water solution, killing any germs or bacteria, and scrubbing them with a toothbrush. While I'm no where near done with my lovely little stock (sanding and polishing for jewelry is next), I did manage a couple of neat crafts this weekend while hanging out with my visiting parents. I didn't even use a table for any of these — strictly a floor project.

Taking advantage of a Michael's gift card and a 15%off coupon, I bought several frames, one of which was this barnwood primitive frame (sorry for the sideways photo):

Which turned into this (flash worked nicely to cover up our faces!):

Using my best and most unusual shells, I created this shadow box. Instead of using the black velour backing of the box, I bought a 59 cent piece of heavy scrapbooking cardstock which matched the colors of my living room. Then I hot glued. The hot glue gun is my best friend in most of my projects, including these. (sorry for the sideways photo)

Stay tuned for sea shell jewelry!

March was a long time ago...

2010-06-27T21:09:00.005-05:00

Wow. Was it really March the last time I posted? Goodness. I'm a terrible blogger.

In my defense. March wasn't a good month for me — in my line of work, March is my absolute busiest month. And this particular March, most of my job was out of town, making me actually miss the lovely wedding of my best friend Jennifer while I was in California, of all places.

Anyway, no excuse really for April, May and most of June. My husband and I celebrated our 1-year anniversary, took a beach vacation and I turned 25.

Well, and we have been busy with this:

Before

To this, After

And this

Yes, we caught the gardening bug. We planted our garden, rather, dug out our overgrown flowerbed behind our rental duplex, and planted some vegetables on Easter weekend. We've been busy with it every day since. We've fought broccoli worms, not knowing enough about the plants' growing seasons, and one gigantic, horendous no good dirty rotten tomato horned worm.

But, eating the fruits, er, vegetables of our labor has been so much fun. We've had cherry tomatoes for about three weeks now, and just picked our first red tomatoes, though they need to ripen another day before we slice into them.

Anyway, hope our patio helps inspire you all this summer. It's dramatically changed our lives. Before it got sweltering hot, we would plan how to maximize our time outside, grilling and just sitting. We bought two bird feeders and have now become avid birders. Which also means in addition to all our above worries, you can add squirrels to the list (although, the best deterrent I've found to be, while not perfect, is coating our shepherd's crooks with petroleum jelly — quite amusing to find Mr. Squirrel sliding down the pole like a fireman!).

DIY biodegradable Easter grass

2010-03-13T20:22:00.004-06:00

Easter grass is one of the marvels of our society. While it's a cheery holiday decoration, it's abhorrent that the plastic strips of "grass" do nothing but cushion candy and precious eggs.

I still remember growing up and finding strands sucked up and stuck to our vacuum roller and even poking out of pet vomit and dookie. I even have a friend who lists Easter grass as one of her worst fears.

Anyway, don't buy any more of it. Ever. Instead, create your own with your household paper shredder!

Use scraps of wrapping paper, card stock or other papers and send it through the shredder. If you don't care about looks, recycle your newspaper or store ads.

Can you imagine if pipe cleaners actually cleaned pipes?

2010-03-13T20:07:00.005-06:00

You really got to give Martha Stewart mad props — she is quite amazing.

I found these super cute pipe cleaner Easter baskets in last year's Easter issue of her Living magazine. The only cost is the $2 pastel pipe cleaner pack (100 pieces) I got at the crafts store.

To start, take four pieces of pipe cleaner and create eight spokes. You can use whole pieces for a larger basket, or halve the pieces for a smaller basket. Cut another piece to add a ninth spoke and attach by bending it into the others.

Starting from the middle, weave another pipe cleaner over and under the spokes. When you come to the end of the pipe cleaner, twist another one onto the end and keep weaving.

Once you get a sizeable base (think three or four pipe cleaner weavings), bend the spokes upward to form the sides of the basket.

When you've reached your preferred height of the sides, twist the end of the open pipe cleaner into the basket. Cut the tips of the spokes down to where about 1/4 inch remains, leaving two on opposite sides to help secure the handle. Fold the tips down, alternating on the inside and outside, to secure the top layer of basket.

Twist two more pipe cleaners together to make the handle, molding it into a handle-like curve. Using the two leftover spokes, twist the ends around the handle.

Variations: Use brown pipe cleaners to make a decorative spring nest for birds. While weaving the sides of the basket, add beads to give it some razzle dazzle.

Easy votive gift favors

2010-03-13T20:01:00.002-06:00

I'm not exactly sure where I saw this idea, but it's fairly basic in terms of crafting ability.

And looking at these now, these votives would have made perfect favors at any wedding (I went with sparklers and personalized matches at ours).

The supplies are super easy: glass votive jars, thin-width ribbon and cupcake liners.

I found these perfect red liners on clearance after Valentine's Day at Hobby Lobby. I paid about a quarter. The ribbon was also on sale for $1. The votives I believe were $1 each.

Before tying the liner on, mold it to the top of the votive, spreading out the preformed fold for the bottom to fit your slightly larger votive mouth.

The Strawberry Cake Fiasco

2010-03-07T23:01:00.009-06:00

As March begins, there still hasn't been much crafty time in my life. The crafty-est I've gotten lately is making a cake for our church's birthday dinner, where we set up 12 tables, one for each month of the year, decorated them according to month, and made everyone sit at the table of their birth.

Fun!

I decide my contribution is not crafty table decorations. Oh no, that would be too easy. I decide to make a cake. Which then turns into a disaster, one step at a time.

Upon planning, I realized I had never made a cake before. Not a real one anyway. I have made scads of cupcakes, a sheet cake once or twice and a Happy Birthday Husband Bundt cake (he thinks its funny to ask for a bundt cake when I ask what he might want for dinner). But I had never made a layer cake.

Yes, that would be a cake virgin.

To add insult to injury, I didn't even own cake pans. They had somehow escaped my wedding registry, so I bought two and a white cake mix and went to work.

My first goal was if it didn't taste good, at least it would look good. Which promptly went to hell (or heck to any church folks reading about my church contribution to my church function) when I brought out the perfectly baked cake from my unlevel oven.

Apparently, we are the first users of our oven at our rental duplex. Apparently, leveling your oven unit is crucial to baking. Apparently.

This doesn't quite sink in to me when I place the first layer on my cake dish and slather it with strawberry preserves — my choice filling. It does sink in once the second layer went on top and didn't quite make ends meet.

After consulting with the husband, whose grandmother is the cake-baking extraordinare and regularly ships either a sheet cake or three-layer chocolate cake eight hours with the hubs' parents on visits to us, I decide the massive gaps on the sides can just be filled with icing.

Keep in mind, none of my "cake baking" is truly from scratch. If the cake isn't from a box, I can't imagine why you would want to make it.... but anyway, my icing choice was a cream cheese frosting off the store shelf. Smart idea or not (I decide later on "not smart") I make the cake and ice it on Friday night, which is when I had the most free time since I work on Saturdays. I ice away.

Here is where the true catastrophes start in. Coming home Saturday, I find a gigantic Grand Canyon-sized crack in the top of my cake. I immediately blame the hubs, who swears he didn't even sniff at it. Apparently (great word) gravity sank onto my cake, pulling the heavy top layer down to rest on the uneven bottom layer, splitting the top. I have no pictures because I was too distraught at the time to chronicle my fate.

Another consultation with the hubs, and I decide to fill the canyon with icing.

At this point, my goal changes to if it won't look good, at least it will taste good. And this was quite an event at church...no cake meant a huge let-down. And I refused to buy a store-bought cake, more than anything fearing Wal-Mart simply wouldn't have one once I got there, and then where would I be?

Sunday morning, the day of the event, I get up early to really put the razzle dazzle into the cake using strawberry art. I sliced several strawberries into the thinnest pieces possible, separating the end pieces from the insides. Then I went to work.

Beautiful, right? At this moment, I'm obviously so proud of my maiden cake voyage that I actually carry it into the living room for an impromptu photo shoot in natural light.

By the time I get it to church, though, half the strawberries have fallen off the cake and are oozing all over the plate and the cake. My shepherding elder lady friends tell me to put it in the freezer to firm up during church.

I'd like to say that was the end of the tragedy. Almost. Everyone who ate the cake loved it and raved about it. Still, there was a little left over so I put it back into the cake transporter and went back home.

As I got it out of the car and juggled my other belongings, the contents of my arms, including the cake, fell to the ground. Cake smashed. Cake plate slightly cracked.

And no, I never got a single bite of my own first cake.

And that's my crafty February.

A Shutterfly Butterfly

2010-02-03T21:14:00.005-06:00

While I haven't been exceptionally "crafty" lately, I have been a pretty motivated Shutterfly-er.

With all of our wedding pictures, I wanted to create albums for myself, our moms and our grandmothers.

I opted to create hand-crafted scrapbooks with white satin covered 8X8 albums for the grandmothers, which I thought would be a lot of fun. Making five albums, 20 pages each of wedding and engagement photos was quite the job and less fun, let me tell you! But they turned out lovely, and the recipients seemed to love them.

For myself and our moms, I designed leather-bound albums on Shutterfly (we opted to purchase the jpeg images of all our photos rather than rely on purchasing prints from our photographer — see Missouri-based Avia Photography here, consisting of husband-wife team Mallory and Brian Taulbee [they're geniuses!]). Anyway, the albums were tremendously easy, and price-wise, were so frugal once you considered the cost of developing photos and other scrapbook details and doodads I could have spent actually scrapbooking.

For Christmas, I used nearly every one of Shutterfly's creative offerings. I made one set of grandparents a calendar using pictures of flowers I took in their garden during the summer. I made my mom a personalized pad of peacock stationary. I created a lovely photo book using our honeymoon photos.

One of my favorite perks about using Shutterfly are the ever-changing sales. Some weeks, photo books are buy one get one 50 percent off. Some weeks, they are 20 percent off. You can get free shipping on various purchase amounts about every week, and other items are constantly going on and off sale. Figuring out when to order my projects (which are saved indefinitely) based on which sales are going on is quite fun for me.

I'm always getting promotional e-mails, including one a month ago giving me an online code for 12 free stationary cards (I believe this is because I nearly spent a lifetime savings' worth at the company in December), so I used it towards my Valentine's cards:

Check out Shutterfly's awesome Web site (P.S., you get a free $20 gift card for Shutterfly when you register for your bridal things at Target).

I'm back!

2010-01-29T16:16:00.010-06:00

Hello!

Sorry to everyone for going AWOL for a bit. Like the rest of you, December was a busy month. My boss went on vacation, and my coworker was still out on sick leave during that time, in addition to traveling to two states for Christmas gatherings, December just flew by.

And January, well, I've just been enjoying laziness. I figured out how to use my DVR function on the cable box, therefore I have a dozen episodes of The Golden Girls awaiting me at all times. I get up, watch the Girls, and then go to work. But now, I think I've had enough of my laziness, so I'll get back around to be posting more on here.

Today is a snow day. My first since college and high school. Kentucky is expecting the Snowpocalypse 2010, so everything has been canceled and postponed and whatnot for today. (Last year, we had a catastrophic ice storm at the exact same time of the year, so everyone is in panic mode.)

Anyway, my plan was to finally get around to upholstering one of those white chairs I wrote about earlier. But, I chickened out. I bought everything I need, including wood stain for the wooden legs. When I read the directions, it said to keep away from open flame, and we have the pilot light going on our fireplace, so I'd rather not risk it. Plus, I remembered the hubs is pretty sensitive in his sinuses to the scent of finish and such, so I may wait until spring now. But here's a look at my supplies:

I bought some fake-suede at Hobby Lobby on sale to go on the back of the chair and the print I showed earlier for the seat.

While I'm blogging, I'll share a picture frame I put together before Christmas as a kids craft. I bought the wooden frame for $1 at Michaels, then glued (with Elmer's Glue!) buttons on the front. Super easy and super cute!

Glitter pine cone ornaments

2009-12-01T22:07:00.012-06:00

Probably the most simple, tried and true kids craft, glitter pine cone ornaments are timeless, if done correctly.

Somehow, God granted me the privilege of living in front of a grove of towering, whispering pines, which had a nice crop of pine cones on the floor for me to collect - free of charge of course.

After I cleaned all the resin and needles out of them, I went to work.

The first step in making a successful pine cone ornament, or at the very least a decorative pine cone, is fastening a tie to the stem of the cone. This way, you can hang it as an ornament, or after hanging it to dry, you can remove the ribbon.

While holding the ornament by the tie and using regular school glue, cover the tips lightly with glue. I made the mistake of using too much glue the first time, and it dripped while drying.

Then, using fine glitter, lightly dust the tips. As with first-grade Glitter 101, make sure you keep your glitterings over a paper plate or newsprint, and save the excess to use again. My choice of glitter this time was the Martha Stewart collection of reds I bought on sale at Wal-Mart for $5. The package said it's for stamping crafts, but is way more valuable to me for other things and giving a little razzle dazzle to ordinary projects.

To go with the glitter cones, I tried spray-painting several other cones a bronze color with leftover paint from my earlier lamp project. They didn't turn out quite like I wanted them to (I think I went too heavy on the paint), and in the painting process, had the paint leak from my crafting cloth onto my patio table.

I liked the cones better as a center piece, so I grouped them all in a crystal bowl I had my grandma dig out of her basement when I visited for Thanksgiving.

Cost of project: $0.50. I probably used less than a quarter's worth of glitter and about a quarter's worth of spray paint. What an awesome way to make a cheap decoration!

And the Gum Drop goes to...

2009-12-01T00:18:00.003-06:00

Grandma Bebe.

Yes, her name is Bebe. And she is every bit as exciting as a Bebe could be. Bebe is crafty. Rather, she is artistic. She paints in oils (hundreds of paintings in many family members' homes). She also puts together gigantic dollhouses, making teeny, tiny flower arrangements out of paper scraps and wire, or making lamps out of mini perfume bottles and lids from toothpaste caps. Ingenious.

Anyway, her birthday was two days before Thanksgiving, so Bebe got my prototype gum drop wreath. Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Right now, I'm swamped at work, so crafty time has been limited. But, I do have some stuff I've created for kids Christmas crafts I'll post on here within the week. And by the end of this weekend, hopefully, we'll be done decorating for Christmas. I'll post pics then, too.

Happy December!

Gum Drop Goodness

2009-11-21T15:04:00.005-06:00

This idea actually came from a Martha Stewart craft book, and of course, like all things Martha, just looked decadent in the book (hers was made entirely in cream-colored gum drops). In reality, mine doesn't look like hers, but I'm satisfied with it.

First, I bought two bags of "spice drops" as they're called at Wal-Mart for a $1 a bag. Before you start, take some wire and make a loop for hanging, so your gum drops can circle around it. Martha said to take toothpicks and break them in half, then stick the pointy ends into the wreath. Then you stick on the gum drop. Easy enough. Start your inside row first, but don't go all the way around. Instead, work in pieces and strips all over the wreath, so it has a uniform pattern.

In theory, the toothpick idea is super. In practice, I'm not sold. Half way through the wreath (and this is a smallish 8-inch wreath form, which cost about $4), my thumb and pointer finger were burning from the pushing the wooden sticks through the foam resistance. My thought is to hot glue the drops on, although I have yet to do it. I'd like to buy some foam cones and cover them with drops, so maybe I will try it then.

All in all, I'm pleased, and for the cost, it wasn't terrible. The multi-color drops aren't too Christmasy, which I was going for. I imagine you could buy a solid set of gum drops at a candy store, but I know those types of candies can run about $5 a pound, so that becomes cost ineffective for me right now.

Folding Trees

2009-11-19T20:51:00.004-06:00

Thanks to Folding Trees to giving Razzle Dazzle Crafting some publicity today!!! Seeing my wreath on someone else's Web site was super cool!

Check it out here:

Stay tuned: Gum drop wreath instructions and pictures coming soon!

Crafty Christmas Wreath

2009-11-11T22:34:00.006-06:00

After spending many, many blog posts and much, much of my time on decorations and design for the house, I got back to being a bit more crafty tonight.

I saw something similar in a magazine and went to work today. It was actually pretty easy, but very tedious. I used a matching scrapbook paper kit from Big Lots (yay for cheap prices!), and cut the paper into 1X5 inch strips with my cutting slider. Then I stapled the ends together before hot gluing them in strips around the 12-inch wreath form.

Total time to complete the project was about three straight hours of work. And I mean straight. And every time I thought I had cut enough strips, I had to cut more.

About the time it became difficult to put more layers on, I added the ribbon to tie it off, wrapping it around the open section several times and securing with hot glue.

Yes, friends and family, you may get one of these for Christmas. :)

Cost: Wreath form - $4.50
Ribbon (leftover)- $0.50
Paper - $2.00

I have another wreath idea I'll be putting into life in the next week or so, so stayed tuned! Super easy and super cheap!

My first Dumpster Dive

2009-11-10T20:52:00.003-06:00

Yup. I drove past a neighbor's trash can, thought about the contents, then turned back around and loaded up.

I found these three pieces from a room divider just sticking out of the trash. I've been looking for a tall picture frame or piece of art work to go in our hallway, and I think I can work these into something. The openings are 8X10, so I can either get prints of more wedding pics and such for it, or put together paintings or mixed media pieces for the frames. They're very nice quality.

And if I can't, well, they do collect the trash every Tuesday. :)

Repurposed Pillows — With some razzledazzle

2009-11-05T14:19:00.006-06:00

I wanted to add some colorful pillows to our living room, but they've been a little out of budget for me to buy them, plus, they're so easy buying a pillow takes the fun out of making a pillow. I found these pillows at a Salvation Army for $1 each. Yesterday, I cut off the ugly coverings to expose pristine stuffing.

I had found a lovely curtain panel at my favorite discount store for $10, but knew I couldn't use it in the living room, so I saved it for pillow fabric. I cut it up to cover the two pillows, and I still have some left over for another project.

The pillows would have been fine to stand alone, but they needed a little sparkle, so for $8 I bought 12 jeweled buttons.

When sewing, try using gray thread instead of white or black if you don't have a plethora of thread at your disposal. The gray is more neutral than either black or white and winds up blending pretty well into your fabrics and doesn't stand out as much.

Total cost of the project: $24 for two pillows. Not bad.

Bluegirl Designs - Check it out!

2009-11-03T20:51:00.006-06:00

One of our most unique and special wedding gifts was this hand-embroidered art. Though it's in a frame, there is enough fabric that I can make it into a pillow if I wish.

Happily, instead of having to plan a wedding, get married and all the while befriending the lovely Brandi Bradley, creator of such fine embroidery, you can purchase items of similar crafty brilliance (but still befriend the lovely Brandi).

Check Brandi out at her Etsy store or follow her on her blog.

Trophy time

2009-10-28T13:01:00.003-05:00

Here is a cool way to repurpose those participation trophies that your kids get at every recital or those old bowling trophies of your grandpa's.

For our Halloween party this weekend, I was recruited to come up with trophies for costume prizes. With a $3 kit of pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes and pom-pom balls and a hot glue gun, I was able to redesign six trophies for the contest.

The top photo shows two trophies, only their bases were the same before - a ballerina. Pretty sneaky for a spider, eh?

Slowly but surely...

2009-10-20T13:10:00.003-05:00

A few posts back, I shared the white wingback chairs I bought at a flea market that I intend to recover. Well, I haven't done it yet. But I'm working on it. I've cut away the skirts from the white upholstery, because in the meantime, we're using them around the house. But when my mom came in this weekend, we got to go to Hancock's of Paducah, and I found this upholstery end for just $11 versus the $30-$60 price range if might have come in. It's just a yard, but this will likely be the seat on the chair that stays in our living room as an accent chair. It has the same colors as our rug (blue, green and brown), and will help add some texture since the rug is made of rectangles. Slowly, but surely, I'll get going on this project.

It's also hampered by the budget. Since moving, we've incurred many start up fees and such, so once our bank accounts aren't stretched to the limit, I'll be able to buy more materials and really get to moving.

Happy Crafting!

Farm-friendly invite

2009-10-20T12:59:00.008-05:00

When I was home about a month ago, I attended a birthday party for my friend's son. And it was one of the cutest parties ever! He was turning 1, and had a farm theme. Amber made his cake, a Farmall red tractor, then made animals out of balloons, simply by blowing up round balloons and drawing faces on them with a Sharpie (the pink balloon, for instance, had a snout and pointy ears and a tail; the baby chicks were blown-up yellow water balloons. So cute!). Anyway, the best part of her party was her invitation, I thought.

She created these completely by scratch, as in using markers and drawing her own barns (notice the No. 1 for the silo?!). She even printed out her little boy's picture on her computer and put it in the invite. Even the language was fun!

Martha and Michael's

2009-09-25T00:05:00.002-05:00

Don't know if this is an isolated sale, or nationwide, but Michael's has a good portion of Martha Stewart's craft goodies on super sale. Like 70 percent off sale. I bought three sets of note cards for $7 when they were originally about that much each.

Go getcha some!

Wall art courtesy a quilt

2009-09-23T21:37:00.004-05:00

If you're like me and you are from the country, you've got some experience with quilts.

If you're like me and you're from the country, you've been given at least one quilt from a family member, or even have made your own. Some of these quilts are perfect to go straight on the bed. Some are perfect for fall football games or picnics. Some are good for pet bedding. And some are so beautiful, ornamental, meaningful that simple ordinary use isn't good enough for them.

For a wedding present, my mom had a quilt top she had made for me specially machine-quilted to look like it was hand-quilted. Mom embroidered the white blocks with pastel thread, then set them together with the rainbow plaid rows. The quilter then bound it with pink material, and even gave it rounded edges (very chic). It was a complete surprise, and I cried quite hardily at the church where the shower was held.

For me, the quilt is positively too pretty to sit back on a shelf in a closet, and too precious to have my idiot cat scratch it up when on the bed. So, it has become a backdrop for my craft station in the spare bedroom:

To hang it, I used some left over green satin ribbon from the wedding photo project below, and machine-sewed them into small loops. I then hand-basted them with double thread to the back of the quilt. You could also use the curtain clips that are popular now, but I was living on pennies when I did this earlier this week and also didn't want the clamp marks. If I ever want to take the quilt down, I can simply rip out the stitches without damaging the integrity of the quilt.

I'm so excited. It makes my heart swell with happiness when I go into our spare bedroom, which isn't a typical response people get with most spare rooms. But I do love the quilt so much and my mom, for making such a special memory for me. Thanks, Mom!

Kids craft

2009-09-21T21:24:00.003-05:00

From this:

To this:

I put this together for a kids craft in the newspaper. It's just a spin on the boring tin can pencil cup. I called it an organization station. The only thing was, I thought it would be cool to connect them all using Velcro dots so you could take it all apart and transport it for different activities or whatnot. Which in theory, is a good idea. But my idea was to put the dots on top of scrapbook paper outsides. But when you separated the cans, the dots pulled off the paper. So not a good idea. If you do it, go ahead and hot glue it all together and keep it together.

Vinyl lettering

2009-09-19T16:12:00.006-05:00

I've been on bedroom duty, trying to finalize all the details in our place of sleep. After spending the past 24 years of my life with a multipurpose bedroom (office, homework station, social gathering), I was determined to create a dedicated space for relaxing, sleep and romance now that we have an extra bedroom and an actual home.

Our wedding photos came in, which allowed me to complete the wall decor. I purchased this vinyl art from Hobby Lobby, although I've seen Kohl's advertise them for much cheaper. I wanted to make it pop, so I added a pertinent wedding photo. This hangs over our bed.

I then developed five 5X7 wedding photos that told a story for a collage on the large blank wall. For $3 each, I bought plain black frames at Wal-Mart. I toyed with the idea of buying $1 frames from Michael's and spray-painting them, but I went for the non-work option!

To add a little razzle dazzle, I found a beautiful roll of satin green ribbon on sale at Hobby Lobby (it's very high quality, actually, I recommend). With some measurements, I tied nots in the top and strung them from the nail holes of the frames. My laser level helped line everything up.

Let there be light

2009-09-19T16:01:00.005-05:00

For the past month, I've been obsessed with finding "matching lamps" for our bedroom. The only problem is, lamps, and their shades, are expensive.

After perusing several thrift stores, auctions and garage sales, I found a pair of these wooden lamps at a yard sale across the street. I paid $10 for the pair.

When I got them home, the hubs scoffed at them, and couldn't imagine how anything so out-of-style was going to fit in with our bedroom.

He later apologized when he saw the transformation:

I bought a $2 can of metallic spray paint at Wal-Mart, then lucked into the shades at the catalogue outlet store in town. Our comforter is white with green leaf accents, so they match perfectly. They were also $10 each, which is about $4 less than what Wal-Mart wanted to charge for very plain shades.

If you wanted to duplicate the silhouette effect, you can cut out shapes and paste them onto the inside of a plain shade, or even paint them.

The lamps cost a total of $32, and for their size and detail, would have cost more than $50 each at a design store. Other than the searching for a base lamp, the process took me 10 minutes to do with an hour of dry time.

Singing about my Singer!

2009-08-22T22:08:00.002-05:00

This little guy, whom shall be called Stanley henceforth, is the No. 1 reason why we had to move to a bigger place.

OK, I exaggerate only slightly.

But, Stanley here had been relegated to his cramped cardboard box since the day I got him, a Sunday in early May at my wedding shower. He was a present from my sister, and even after the wedding, I couldn't use him because we didn't have a place for him to live, permanently or even temporarily (our kitchen/dining table is bar height - couldn't reach the pedal). Anyway, we finally settled in enough for me to set it up Thursday night. And he's glorious!!!

Bargain, bargain, bargain!!!

2009-08-22T22:00:00.003-05:00

Look at this gorgeous piece of potential!

I bought two of these accent chairs at my favorite flea market, The Shed, in Paducah. Cost? $8 for the pair. They are white upholstered and very dirty, but they don't smell bad. So my plan is to reupholster and refurbish the chairs, turning one into my desk chair and who knows what with the other.

Check back in with me as this becomes a long-term project. Cheer me on!

Craft time brought to you by the letter "H" for husband...

2009-08-18T22:54:00.004-05:00

So the hubs thought he was getting all crafty and creative this weekend decorating his side of the spare bedroom. We both thought it was sharable.

Again, only slightly out of the box here.

One of the best tips I've read is the rule of posters and wall art. Don't be afraid to cut, chop or enlarge to make an aggregate singular piece of art. As per our rules of spare bedroom newlywed negotiation, we divided the room in half. Adam gets to decorate half, and I get to decorate half and we get to do as wish on our halves.

His taste in decorating included a punk poster of monkeys and a (in my mind, tacky) Jack Daniels poster. Anyway, we were conflicted in how to display both horizontally skewed posters above his desk when he came up with the idea to divide. Below is poster before and space after.

Trust me, it looks better in person. And now the hubs can say he's crafty, too. ;)

Croptacular

2009-08-16T23:27:00.005-05:00

This is one of those think-outside-the-box type of posts. This isn't earth-shattering creativity here, though.

My grandma is a self-taught artist, starting in the 1960s painting oils on canvasses my grandfather built her by hand. She has hundreds of paintings downstairs in her basement, just waiting for someone to love on them and hang 'em up.

I pilfer the basement frequently, and long ago, came up with this white-on-black velour 15X16 painting. I had it hanging in my apartment during college, and my first home here in Paducah. Once we moved to the new place, it needed some severe TLC.

The velour paper has not held up very well, and some of the paint is woefully starting to flake off. First attempts at getting the painting custom-framed were thwarted when Michael's was ready to charge me $100, and that was bare bones and with 50 percent off (it would have looked amazing, but I wouldn't have been able to afford to eat dinner for weeks).

So, I compromised and bought a $30 frame (with coupons, of course). The only problem is the frame is 12X16.

I fretted for a while, debating the merits and faults of cropping my grandma's original art. Then I remembered where I found the painting in the first place: the basement. A straight-edge and an X-acto knife later, and I had a much improved piece of art.

Amateur Abstract

2009-08-16T22:49:00.010-05:00

Since my last post, Razzle Dazzle Crafting and its creator have moved into a new home — a rented duplex. This gives my husband and I a much better quality of life, seeing as we don't have to literally step on each other when we're in the kitchen at the same time.

The new digs also gives me a better opportunity for art and crafty time. I'll be posting some of our projects, which aren't necessarily crafty, or razzle-dazzle, but maybe just original and creative.

Creating a piece of art for a large bare living room wall was my first big project. At Hobby Lobby, I took advantage of the store's 40 percent off coupon that comes in the paper every other week. I bought a 2 foot X 4 foot blank canvass (for about $12), $8 worth of acrylic paint, cheap brushes, and a glass of Paducah Blue, a local wine from Lone Oak's Purple Toad Winery (delish!).

Anyway, I'm not a painter, but I think it turned out OK. I had a lot of fun doing it, and that's what counts. Plus, the hubs thinks it's pretty cool.

Here is the bare corner before decorating. And here is the finished corner. I bought the smoked teal glassware also at Hobby Lobby and on sale...the two large pieces cost me maybe $6 together. The lamp we got as a wedding present, and liked it so much, we bought another one to match.

Triumphant Tile Table

2009-07-23T00:13:00.000-05:00

I loved the reflective mosaic tables at Pier 1 last fall, and even though their prices dipped, I felt like I still couldn't afford to spend $30 on an accent table. So I made my own version, nothing at all like the Pier 1 version, and put it together for about $90. Total bargain. It will go on our patio.

End table from thrift store: $10
Backless frame from Hobby Lobby: $16
Black grout: $6
Decorative glitter tiles: $12
12 handpainted tiles (including studio time): $50
Total: $94

First assemble materials. Introducing Baxter. He was my ever-present helper on the endeavor. I found this table two years ago and it was just hiding in a corner. After browsing all of my tile options, I decided I wanted something eclectic so my husband and I had a date night at the local pottery paint shop, and paired the handpainted tiles with two packs of glitter tiles from Hobby Lobby. Subdued tiles were available at Lowe's and Home Depot.

I found a backless picture frame (which I could have gotten at a yard sale) to frame the tile and grout and glued and nailed it to the top of the table. I also glued the tiles on the table top with Aleene's Tacky glue. When it dried, the glue seemed to have done its job.

Grouting was a HUGE mess. I thankfully had the good sense to do it outside, otherwise I would have voided the security deposit on our apartment. I used powdered black grout mixed with water to give the table an edgy look, and spread it on with rubber gloves as the bottle suggested. Worked great. In the end, I threw away a wooden cooking spoon, a plastic mixing bowl, a pair of gloves and several towels used in the cleaning process. So if we add the cost of all that to the total, we're looking at over a hundred dollars for an end table. What a bargain.

And the finished product, complete with citronella candle (coincidentally from Pier 1, my original source of inspiration):

About this:

2009-07-17T16:29:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Razzle Dazzle Crafting!!! My goal for this blog is to give visitors ideas for DIY crafts and decorating, along with many, many how-tos. Some will be original ideas, some will be inspired projects with original spin. (If the idea came from Martha, I'll be sure to let you know.)

Also, I'll try to give materials costs with all projects. While I am a huge bargainista, sometimes being crafty just isn't that cheap. Especially if you have to buy start-up equipment. But I love a cheap deal, so this could be a bragbook, too.

As for razzle dazzle, I love color and glitter and am attracted to sparkles. Most of my projects have pizazz. Hence the name.

Check back soon for more postings. I've just completed a summer project, so I'll post that soon!

Happy crafting!