Halloween Mummy Wreath

I don't know how many of you watch Craft Wars, but sometimes it can be incredibly inspiring.  There was an episode a handful of weeks back that had the participants make Christmas wreaths.  One of the ladies made a two layer wreath and that is where my idea for this one began.

I started with a styrofoam wreath, unfinished wood circle, unfinished wood letters, Modge Podge, craft paint, crepe paper streamers, scrapbook paper, and some decorative spiders (mine were actually brads from the scrapbook section.)

I took the scrapbook paper and modge podged it to the styrofoam wreath.  I painted my wood circle and my letters (B-O-O).  I used glow-in-the-dark paint mixed with white craft paint for my mummy eyes and flat black for my letters and the face of the mummy.  Then I coated the circle in Modge Podge and wrapped the crepe streamers around the circle to form my mummy head.  I hot glued the mummy head to the center of my wreath.  I used Modge Podge to attach my letters to the wreath, and then I hot glued some of the brads to the face of the mummy.  The other brads I stuck into the styrofoam around the wreath, and voila!  Easy Halloween wreath that is cute and not too spooky.... as my kids request.  :)

 

 

 

 

When Life Gives You Lemons

As some of you may have noticed I have recently added to my etsy shop.  I have been doing etched glass mirrors and such, and started doing some tree of life stuff for custom orders.  Well, I had several custom orders come in this week, and one of the mirrors was giving me a particularly large amount of trouble.  No matter what I did the thing just did not want to etch properly.  I was not very pleased with the way it turned out so I set it aside.  I somehow resisted the urge to chunk it in the garbage despite my extreme frustration at that point.  After completing another tree of life (which turned out beautifully I might add) and after letting the mirror sit for two days, I looked at it in a little different light.  Go ahead and cue the spot lights and the angel singing in the background, because I had an idea.  Shocking.  I decided rather than waste this I would just paint the frame with the off white paint I used for the Super Mario TV Stand.  Add a little scrapbook paper, and turn it into something completely different.

This is what the mirror frame looked like before...

Pretty enough in its own right, but why not capitolize on my own misfortunate.  In this case, when life gives you lemons..... make extremely early Christmas decorations. 



Some time later remind me to tell you about how God spoke to me through this incident and how I learned a little bit more about myself in the process.  In the meantime, though, I think it turned out pretty cute don't you?  What do you do when you have majorly frustrating craft disasters? 

Super Mario TV Stand Transformation

I don't know how many of you are Craigslist junkies, but it totally rocks.  I have sold many things on there myself, and I recently found this TV stand for the boys' room makeover for less than half what you would spend in a store.

Nothing incredibly fancy, but it is for a kid's room so in my opinion you don't really want anything too fancy.  It is particle board and wood veneer, but it was still in good condition with a few scratches here and there.  Black would look great in our living room, but it just did not fit in their room, so I decided just to paint it and turn it into something the boys would themselves love.  This is going to be a big space saver in the long run.

The first thing I did was take a picture from the web like so...

And used this for my inspiration.  See the little whitish color line across the top of the bricks... black grout, and reddish/orangish/brownish bricks?  Well, I made my own version and got this...

I basically just free handed the bricks with a foam paint brush.  I even like how the streaks from the brush are in the brick.  I think it has a cool effect.

Then in the open spaces to the side of the drawer I wanted something else to fill in, so I bought a couple plastic containers, ie. Rubbermade, or Sterilite type.  I got back on the web and google image searched for the Super Mario question mark box and saved it and sized the image to what I needed to fit the box.  Then I cut it out and decoupaged it to the end of the box like so...

At this point it still wasn't dry.... it isn't really as streaky as it looks there.  Super easy project for all those toy bins your kids have hiding everywhere... Yeah, don't try to pretend you don't have them.

I still don't have it in the boys' room yet, so it hasn't been filled with their books and Legos, etc., but here is the finished product.

I am thinking I might possibly buy new hardware, and change out the drawer pulls.  I saw some really cute ones on Etsy!  Did I say it was finished??  :)

Invincible Star Gamer Hooks!

We are in the middle of a little redecorating and decluttering of the boys' room.  After 4 years in this house they decided it was time for something new.  They want Super Mario which is fine with me being a child of the 80's and all.  The room is far from complete, but I do have a project I would like to share with you in the meantime.

We found these great wooden star hangers at Hobby Lobby which seemed perfect to me and the kids loved the idea of painting them themselves. 

What would make kids love this more?  Glow-in-the-dark paint of course!  This is what we used.  It can be used on fabric or mixed up to 25% with craft paint, so there are tons of fun options of things to make with this stuff!

This was a great opportunity for me to teach the kids how to paint, and not a single drop ended up on their clothes!

Now we have these great little star hooks to hang on their wall.  They have decided it would be a great place to hang their Nintendo DS game cases and that sounds like an awesome idea to me!!  Maybe I will spend less time having to help them track them down before we hit the road next time.

Birdhouse Wreath Alternative

Well, now that the 4th is behind us and I never got around to making my patriotic wreath or any of the great flags or candle holders or banners that I saw around bloggy world I figured it was time to at least bring some summer to my front porch.  I didn't want to make a wreath, though.  I wanted something different completely.  Looking for inspiration I went to the craft store and walked around until I found myself in the unfinished wood aisle.  30% off signs no less, too, so that was very encouraging.  This is what I came up with....

I bought the unfinished wood birdhouse and had my husband cut an opening in the top.  I then decoupaged it with scrapbook paper and painted the top to match.  I created my little floral arrangement from gerbera daisies.  They are some of my all-time favorite flowers, but I always end up killing them, because I forget to water them, so this solves that problem, too.  :)

Aren't they nice and cheery colors, too?  This says summer to me in a major way.  The problem came to how we would hang it because it is a little too top heavy for a normal door hanger, and having a metal door rather than wood we didn't want to go banging holes all into it, so I came up with the idea of heavy weight magnets.  They worked like a charm!!  We just superglued those things onto the back and voila!  The birdhouse does not move an inch when the door is opened or closed.  Awesome!  And no holes in the door!

The little bird was my son's idea, and it worked out perfect to cover the floral styrofoam block in the opening.  Smart kid I have there.  :)