Joy Block Christmas Gift & Decoration

Each year Hubs and I put a lot of thought into what to make for our friend and coworker gifts for Christmas.  We love, love, love making things and try really hard to come up with a product that is well done and that everyone will love as much as we do.

Last year we made these Joy blocks:

We used 2x6 blocks, Mod Podged scrapbook paper on, then added the 3x3 thin wood squares for the center.  We purchased the cute vinyl "Joy" pattern from the Silhouette website.  To finish them off, we couldn't find any pre-made toppers that we loved, so we just made our own using burlap, berries, pine cones, tree garland and leaves:

They were a hit, everyone seemed to really like them!  Mine looks darling in my hutch:

This is my Christmas Hutch for 2014:

I just adore this time of year!!!

Reversible Santa & Snowman Sign

Hello!  I hope you had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as I did!  I can't believe how quickly 2014 has gone by.  I definitely haven't blogged nearly as much as I had planned, but it's okay because as I've looked back at my pictures from the last 11 months, I can honestly say that this year has been fantastic.  My arm issues and surgery were not at all fun and although it prevented me from crafting and blogging, I was still able to make some incredible memories with my family and see some beautiful parts of our country.  Soooo, hopefully 2015 can be about balance and blogging more!

Anyhow,  I've done a little bit of crafting and needed something "Christmasy" for my porch. This is what I came up with:

It stands about 4 feet tall.  The best part about it is that I made it reversible, so when Christmas is over, I can just turn it around, add a hat and scarf and I will have this for my winter porch:

He is covered in a an adorable coat of glitter paint, which my camera never shows very well, but he truly is darling and sparkly!

Thanksgiving Sharpie Craft

I've had three small white plates that I've been debating on what to do with forever.  I found them at
Walmart for a dollar or so each.  They are about 5x5 in size. I decided to doodle on them with Sharpie's.  This is what I came up with:

The nice thing about Sharpie art on ceramic, is that if you make a mistake, you can just wipe it off with rubbing alcohol!  I drew the outlines of my designs with a fine black sharpie first, then colored them and then re-outlined them with the sharpie again.  Once I had everything done, I put them in an unheated oven and then set the temperature to 350 degrees and baked them for 40 minutes.

My Pilgrims:

 My Turkey:

And, my Native American's:

Super easy and fun!

Fluster's Creative Muster Linky Party

I am so excited to be joining the fabulous Robin from Fluster Buster as a co-host to this week's Fluster's Creative Muster Linky Party!  After being out of my crafting zone for the last few months, I was so honored when Robin informed me that my Halloween Trio is this week's feature.  Thanks so much for such a wonderful welcome back, I truly appreciate it.  Head on over and share your latest projects, crafts, recipe's, etc. I can't wait to see everyone's link ups!




 

Fluster's Creative Muster Linky Party #92

Halloween Drink: Bloody Eyeball Juice

I think it is fun to add a little "holiday" into our meals.  I always do a Halloween themed dinner for the actual holiday, but it's also fun to do it throughout the entire month.  I make lots of yummy stuff out of pumpkin, but drinks are another easy way to add some of that holiday fun into dinnertime.

Yesterday I made two big pots of stroganoff, one with beef for my family of carnivores, and one vegetarian friendly mushroom for me.  I also made the family's favorite pumpkin cake for dessert but thought it would be fun to add a fun drink to the menu. I decided on "Bloody Eyeball Juice":
The ingredients:

 I had found these awesome eyeballs at the Dollar Tree:

To make, just add ice, an eyeball (make sure to wash them first!), Sprite and as much grenadine as you want to make it "bloody":

Super easy, tastes great, and the kiddo's think it is so much fun!

Halloween Trio: Cat, Ghost & Pumpkin

I'm back!  I'm so happy!!!  I've been dealing with some pretty nasty nerve damage in my dominant arm since last Spring.  By about June, it got so bad that it took everything I had just to get through the day, so I had to stop doing pretty much anything that wasn't absolutely necessary.  I had surgery in August and the recovery has been less than fun.  I'm still not operating at 100%, but I'm tired of not being able to do the things that I love.  I didn't realize how big of a part of my life crafting and being able to express my creativity in that way is.  It truly makes me happy, and when I can't do it, I get depressed.  I hope that  I never have to go through another "craft-less" time in my life again!

Sooo anyhoodle, my first project back on the "job" was this Halloween trio for my porch.  My fabulous hubby cut me this wood:

This is what I did with it:

The ghost stands 2 feet.  The cat 18" and the pumpkin is 12":

It looks so adorable on my porch!  I'm so glad to be back to being able to craft again and look forward to getting back to 100%.

Linked to:
one-project-at-a-time
take-look-tuesday
flusters-creative-muster-party
whatever-goes-wednesday
wow-me-wednesday

Fabric Flower and Burlap Wreath...

I made this wreath a few months ago for Spring/Summer and hadn't shared it yet:

I handmade the fabric flowers using material, ribbons and buttons.  I love how they turned out:

It works for both Spring or Summer:

I hope ya'll are enjoying your summer as much as I am!

2x4 Summer Bug Crafts

By now, everyone knows that one of my favorite things to do is make fun crafts out of 2x4's.  I try and do it for every season/holiday.  Here are a few "bugs" that I came up with to decorate my hutch for summer:

2x4 Bumblebee:

2x4 Butterfly:

2x4 Lady Bugs:

And finally,  A 2x4 Flower pot because all bugs like flowers right?!:

I just love my little bug collection!

Reversible Spring/Summer Wood Blocks

Dual purpose crafts are the best!  Awhile back I decided to make a Spring block set with a chick on it and as I was looking at it, I decided to make the best use of the wood and add a Summer theme on the back of the blocks.  The Spring side:

Flip it all over and this is the Summer side:

It sure makes swapping decorations from Spring to Summer easy!

Linked to:
anti-procrastination-tuesday
nifty-thrifty-tuesday
take-look-tuesday
too-cute-tuesday
whatever-goes-wednesday
wow-me-wednesday
flusters-creativemuster

DIY Planter Boxes

I was so excited about our Mother's Day gifts this year!  I ask hubs to cut wood for and assemble four wooden planter boxes.  As always he did a fabulous job!  Once they were all assembled, we painted, sanded, and antiqued them and then added drawer handles.  For a final touch, we cut each person's last name out in vinyl on the Silhouette and put them on the front of each box.  Finally, we put flowers in and filled them with Spanish moss.  I love, love, love the way they turned out!

Everyone seemed to love them!

Linked to:
whatever-goes-wednesday
wow-me-wednesday
flusters-creativemuster
under-100-link-party
Put A Bird On It
made-by-you-monday
spring-crafts-Monday Funday
masterpiece-monday
craftastic-monday

Paper Strip Bunny Art with DIY Wood Shim Frame

I'm loving wood shims right now.  They make darling mini pallets, so I got to thinking that they could also make a pretty cute and easy DIY frame.  I had the perfect project that needed to be framed anyways!  I had made this Bunny Art using paper strips and the negative of a bunny that I had cut out on my Silhouette Cameo:

I painted the wood shims white and then Mod Podged matching strips of paper to the front.  I glued them all together and attached the bunny art:

So very easy!!!

Old Board Welcome Spring Sign

Who doesn't love old wood?  Old wooden signs are definitely big right now.  I have some old pallets that had some really nice weathered wood so I broke them down and decided to make a sign for my Spring porch.  Here is what I came up with:

I cut the boards at two different lengths and then attached them so that they were uneven on one edge.  I cut the flowers and lettering off using my Silhouette Cameo and then used them as stencils.  I love the pink and orange!

It was so easy and looks so cute on my porch!

Linking to:
made-by-you-monday
spring-craft-2
bunny-carrot-projects-block-party
masterpiece-monday
craftastic-monday
anti-procrastination-tuesday
nifty-thrifty-tuesday
take-look-tuesday
handmade-projects
too-cute-tuesday

Easter Bunny Door Hanger for Spring (Tutorial)

I look forward to Spring every year because it means flowers, green grass, sunshine and Easter!  One of my New Year's resolutions is to make a wreath/door hanger for every month/holiday (so far, I've kept up!) so I was cruising around Hobby Lobby the other day trying to decide what to do for my Easter Wreath.  I already have my cute plastic Easter Egg wreath found HERE but I really have wanted something with a bunny theme.  So here are the supplies that I bought:

And this is what I made.  Seriously one of the easiest wreaths ever:

Supplies Needed:

2 foam wreaths, one larger than the other

Bow tie (or material to make your own)

Yarn

Ribbon (I used 1 1/2 Spools of white satin)

Bunny ears head band

Thick craft wire

Hot glue/hot glue gun or straight pins

To Make:

Wrap your ribbon around each wreath.  You can either secure the ends with hot glue, or a pin.  

To attach the body wreath to the head wreath, I cut about a 2 inch piece of thick craft wire and stuck half of it in the bigger wreath, hot glued the top of the wreath and then stuck the rest of the wire in the smaller wreath and held until the glue dried (I stuck the wire in between the ribbon so that I didn't have to put a hold in it.)

Make your pom poms from the yarn (a good tutorial can be found HERE by Creature Comforts Blog) and tie them at varies lengths from the bunnies "neck", then attach the bow tie around it.

Finally, I put the bunny headband around the bunnies "head" and attached it with straight pins underneath the headband so that they couldn't be seen (You could do this with hot glue.).

That's it!  Your done!  How cute is he on my door?

I love him :)

Linking to:

craft-o-maniac-monday 

nifty-thrifty-tuesday 

one-project-at-a-time 

take-look-tuesday 

whatever-goes-wednesday

wow-me-wednesday 

flusters-creativemuster 

under-100-link-party 

3 Easy & Super Cute St. Patrick's Day Decorations

I can't believe that it's already St. Patrick's Day!  I feel like I didn't get to make all of the cute decorations that I had planned on!  I guess there is always next year right?  Here are a few quick and easy ones that I did make this year:

1- Lucky Sign with Horseshoe "U":

 This was so easy to make.  I used an old board, cut my LCKY stencil out using my Silhouette Cameo, painted it, nailed the horse shoe "U" in with real horse shoe nails and added the hanger:

2- Shamrock and Burlap Door Hanger:

I actually bought the wood for this at the Wood Connections store in SLC a couple of months ago, so it was super easy to just paint, sand, nail together and attach the bow and little shamrocks.

3- Easy Leprechaun Clay Pot Hat:

 This idea has been around for awhile, I just hadn't ever gotten around to making one.  It seriously took 15 minutes.  So easy!

4- Hand stitched Clover Trio:

Anyone that knows me, knows that sewing is not my strong point, nor is it something that I have ever loved to do, so if I can make this anyone can!  I just cut the clovers out of material using a cardboard template and then stitched them to a thick canvas type material with embroidery floss and then framed it.

I also have to add a picture of 2014's March Hutch all decked out in greens:

Happy St. Patty's Day, I hope you have a wonderful one :)

Linked to:
too-cute-tuesday