Etsy Rocks!

I love to look at other artisans creations on etsy. I am always in awe of others creativity and talent ~ I could bop around etsy all day long...sippin' my coffee in my pj's, curled up with my computer ....wait- that thing called a "job" keeps getting in my way!

But anyhoo- in my free available time - you know at 4am in the morning when I get up before anyone else in the house - just so I can steal some alone time... I am usually surfing etsy. This morning I found these awesome Halloween decorations made by Linda Silverthorne.Check them out....

All of these items made by Linda are sculpted of paperclay over a styrofoam and wood armature, then painted and antiqued for a vintage look. The heads even bobble on a wire springs!

This is my kind of Halloween Decor!

Halloween Advent Calendars

Advent Calendars make me feel like a kid again. The whole counting down till the big holiday ~ all the anticipation and excitement that builds up....I love it.

I found these super cute Halloween Advent Calendars and just had to share!

This one is from ShambleRamble and it is so awesome!


I love working with felt, so when I saw this Advent Calendar, made by Nerd-Bucket I was head over heels!

Witchy Woman

I am in love....

I found this wonderful Witches Hat this morning on Etsy at Mermaiden Creations.

It is making me re-think my Halloween costume now!

The Elegant Side to Halloween

I love Halloween....however, I am not a fan of the creepy, gory, scary stuff. I like my Halloween decor whimsical and cheerful....pretty to look at. :o)

So, this morning I was so excited when I found this wonderful blog Imperfectly Beautiful. It has some super ideas for a more elegant look for Halloween!

I love the stacking of the pumpkins to make a "topiary" effect!

Halloween Party Favors - Candles

I don't do alot of candles at my house any more - 'cause of the kids... they are a little like Beavis and Butthead..."Fire, Fire".

However, I do love these Halloween candles made by Gretchen McElveen. They are sooo on my "To Do list". Smaller candles would make a great party favor for my Halloween dinner party!

Halloween Party Favors

I found these super cute Halloween Party favors (with free tutorials!! YIPPEEE!!!) at K.I. Memories ....great idea for kids parties....I think I will make them for my son's Halloween party at school! Party Crackers by: Dustin Nakamura

Martha, Martha, Martha... Halloween Goddess

I just love Martha... sure~ she may be a little OCD and kinda bitchy... but dang - the girl comes up with some cute crafts. Check out these cuties. These are on my Halloween "To Do" list....I love anything that involves mod podge and glitter.... These skulls are some of my very favorite Martha Halloween decorations... I made several last year for my Halloween Dinner Party. I made smaller skulls and cut a slit in the top of the skull to hold a place card for each plate setting. The guests got to take them home as a small gift.

Tis the Season....for Spooktacular Crafts and Goodies

I love Halloween. I think it is because I was Halloween deprived as a child. My mom wasn't really into Halloween... and it showed with the costumes she had my sisters and I wearing. Example... one year I was Wonder Woman - the next year I was R2D2 - I know...it sounds cool right?? - well, not so much. My mom had me wearing cable knit tights, a turtle neck, and ... get this...Wonder Woman / R2D2 Under-Roos as my costume. For those of you young-ens... Under-Roos were underwear and a tank top - that had a screen print of a then famous character's outfit on it ~ meant only to wear UNDER your clothes~ not on top. So of course you can imagine we were heckled - 'cause we had underwear on top of our clothes. ***Now before I go further -I ain't mom bashing here .... my Mom rocks - she is one of my best friends - but you must know her choices in Halloween costumes really sucked - and she knows - my sisters and I have confronted her about these things on several occasions!***

So, as Halloween starts creeping toward us...I am vowing to make this the best Halloween ever for my kids...Great crafts, goodies, and costumes... I better get started now!

Old School Lunch Box With a New Twist

When I was young everyone had metal lunch boxes, with a thermos.

They were cool and shiny, they held their shape (not like the lunchboxes these days -that are made of plastic/vinyl and crush the sandwiches and chips when you try to get them in your kid's backpack. Yeah, "old school" metal lunch boxes were the best... and if you were caught in a dark alleyway you could use it as a form of protection... a metal lunch box to the head really hurts... I know - I had two sisters :o)

Check out this awesome "old school"metal lunch box with a new twist by Ogg Studio!

You can put your own pic or artwork on it!!!I think I am going to have to make one for myself...maybe with a picture of me back in the day with my metal "Dukes of Hazard" lunch box. :o)

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle

I am constantly trying to incorporate recycled items into my crafts ~ I always feel good when I can make something wonderful and help the environment...it's a double whammy!

As you may know, I am a momma who likes to have an adult beverage from time to time....I have a special fondness for the Bebo ~ so when I ran across this funtastic blog called "Blah to Tada" ...with some OH SO COOL projects for your old cardboard Bebo holders... I was in heaven! Check out this...

She has some other great ideas for the cardboard Bebo holder... like the utensil caddy a must-have for summer parties! So ~ all my recycling buddies...check her blog out!

Nifti Notions ~ Gettin' Crafty & Goin' Crazy: Birthday Swap

Nifti Notions ~ Gettin' Crafty & Goin' Crazy: Birthday Swap

Birthday Swap

I found this quite entertaining blog the other day called Seriously Shawn, and let me tell ya, Shawn is a hoot. She blogs about her everyday ~ like how she is going to have her last birthday this year....no she is not dying...she just doesn't want to have any more birthdays - she wants to remain 39... so she won't get wrinkles, fart in public, etc... Read it...it will make you giggle.
Anyhoo, she is doing a "birthday swap" in honor of her birthday. It sounded like a lot of fun, so of course I had to sign up! All you have to do is go to her blog to sign up - then she picks who you will send a gift to, you find cool items to send to your swap mate according to their likes and dislikes, pack them all up, mail it and, then wait for your goodies to arrive. I love it! Who doesn't like to open a box of goodies!

Back to School

A friend of mine has a wall in her home that is just for showing off everything her kiddos do at school ~ they call it the "Wall of Fame". From the ceiling to the floor...it is covered with her kids artwork, school papers, and photos. It is so cool that my family had to start our own "Wall of Fame" at our house. The kids are always excited to see their new works of art go up on the wall and everyone loves to show off their hard work and photos.

So, as school is starting back up again, I am looking for new and exciting ways to show off my little ones art work and school photos ~So, as came across this great blog called My Plum Pudding ~I was so excited when I saw the absolutely fab idea she had with re-purposed alphabet blocks for showing off photos! Take a look...


She has a free tutorial for making these super cute photo holders ~ Check it out at ~ http://myplumpudding.blogspot.com/2009/07/alphabet-block-magnets.html

Mod Podge Snow White Magical Wand

I am currently in my mod podge craft phase.... look there's a squirrel.... next week I am sure I will be onto another craft obsession ~ but for right now ~ here is some of my decoupage craftiness.

At our house my children, ages 6 and almost 4, are now working on a rewards system. Each child earns a ticket if they are exceptionally good, have great manners, help with some kind of chore around the house, etc. After earning a ticket, they put the ticket in the ticket can. Once they have earned 10 tickets, they get to pick a small prize ~ a sucker, a balloon, a new jar of bubbles ~ nothing big ... but something that they wouldn't normally get everyday. As my daughter, 4, was about halfway to her prize ~ I asked her what she would like to get. She said a Snow White princess wand. Well, first of all, she already has 2 Cinderella wands (not really sure how that happened), so does she really need a third magic wand?.... but of course my daughter believes she does.

Well ~me being the cheapie mom that I am - I wasn't going to buy another princess wand for $5 at WallyWorld - then in a week come to find out Snow White isn't cool any more - Ariel is the her favorite. So, as I do with most things, I try to figure out how I can make one myself. This is what I came up with....

First, I started with a dowel rod, cut it down to approximate magic wand size, then I took my handy dandy Mr. Dremel and cut a notch in the top.Next I made the star for the top of the wand. I cut 6 stars out of poster board and then decoupaged them all together to make one big thick star (yes, you can go to your local craft store and buy a small wooden star and use that - but I was trying to only use items that a had laying around my house). Then I decoupaged the dowel rod and the star with yellow construction paper. Next I glued a small wooden circle to the star and added a Snow White sticker to the center. I also decoupaged some shiny blue ribbon to the dowel rod.Then it was time to add the bling...every princess needs some glitter, so I added blue glitter all around the sticker. Next I used my fancy scissors to cut out some triangles to accent the points on the star ~ then decoupaged them down.After that... more glitter!!! I added a large ring of yellow glitter all around the center - for extra bling - but also to hid the bottom of the triangles. The only thing left to do is attach the dowel rod to the star. I put a little of my heavy duty industrial glue to the inside of the notch in the dowel rod - just for some extra security...I would hate for my little princess to be casting a magic spell and the star fall off... My daughter loves her new magical wand...and I do too - I saved $5!!!

Sew Easy....Apron Dress Tutorial

I love Matilda Jane clothes. I have bought several items ~ even had my own show. But now as our family is having to tighten the spending belt more than ever before...I have decided to try to make my own Matilda Jane-ish clothing for my little Tan-bug.

I found this great blog http://www.bridgetbaxter.blogspot.com/ (Everyday Chaos) with a free - yes ma'am - I did say FREE - tutorial for an apron dress. I wasn't sure how it was all going to turn out - I can sew ~ but I am not a "sewer"....so I used material that I already had in my craft room - just in case I couldn't pull this off. BOOYAH! It was soooo rockin' easy, this might have been one of the best items I have ever sewn. I can't say thank you enough to Bridget for posting this tutorial ~ you must check out her blog!

Mod Podge....

A while back I went through a decoupage phase in my life... I was decoupaging everything that didn't move. I literally had a friend of mine tell me that I was going a little overboard with the decoupage (yeah- like that could happen!) - so between that and my short craft attention span...look there's a squirrel....a few weeks later I was onto a new favorite type of craft.

However, yesterday I found a great blog called Mod Podge Rocks ~ check it out! http://www.modpodgerocks.blogspot.com The ideas on there truly rock!... I am in love with the decoupaged pink rabbit! I think today I am going to break out the paper and the Mod Podge... I'll post some pics of my craftiness later...

How to Make Recycled Paper Beads

I love making craft projects out of materials that I would normally just throw away....makes me feel warm and fuzzy ~ my little contribution to saving the world.

Lately my focus has been on jewelery. I have been making lots of recycled paper beads to add to my handmade necklaces and bracelets. It is simple and cheap...my two favorite things! You can use any type of paper you have lying at home ~ I like to use junk mail, scraps of construction paper from my kiddos crafts, used wrapping paper, and newspaper.



When you start your recycled bead project you will want to tear up your paper into small pieces. I have used scraps of construction paper here. Your bead color is dependant on what color of paper you choose...so keep that in mind as you are finding scraps. You may want to tear and sort into piles so that the colors are consistent. I have added several colors to mine, although the predominant paper color is red ~ so my beads will turn out to be a reddish color with some hints of other colors mixed through out.

Next you will want to soak your paper in hot water. I like to put my paper into a microwave-safe container with some water and microwave it until it comes to a boil. Then I stir the mixture up a bit and put it in my blender. (If you don't want to use your good blender...'cause you need it for your Mommy Margarita Nights...go to your local Goodwill store ~ you can usually find one there for a couple of bucks) I like to puree it for about 20 seconds. You have now successfully turned your paper scraps into a paper pulp mixture!

(And yes, just in case you are wondering...that is my kitchen...I prefer to cook at that one...I tend burn less in that oven.)

Now you will want to pour your paper pulp mixture into a mesh strainer. Take your fingers and push the paper pulp against the strainer to get all the water completely out.

Now put your paper pulp into a clean bowl and add some glue. I use cheap white school glue. Use your hands and mash the pulp and the glue together... reminds me of making meatloaf :o) The amount of glue you will need is dependant on the amount of paper pulp you have. You will need to experiment with this. You want glue throughout the paper pulp mixture, so it all feels a little sticky ~ it should not be soupy!!!

After your paper pulp has been thoroughly mixed with glue, you are ready to make your beads. All you need to do is get a small amount of the mixture and roll it into a ball ~ you can make small or large beads depending on how much you roll.

I prefer large chunky beads!!! If it ain't chunky ~ it ain't funky! :o)

After you have all your beads rolled out you will want to let them dry on some wax paper. Depending on the size of the beads you made the drying process could take anywhere from a couple days to a week.

After the beads are completely dried you can drill a hole in them. After the hole has been drilled all the way through you are ready to put your beads on some string!!!

Hope you have fun making your recycled paper beads!!!

Good luck!!!!

I don't think I am a complete idiot...

I don't think of myself as the smartest person in the world...however I don't think that I am a complete idiot either. SO ~ why is it I can't figure out this whole blog thing. I have been trying to figure out how to make changes to my background, text, banner, ect. ~ even found a great little website that has free blog backgrounds ~ CUTEST BLOG ON THE BLOCK ~ followed the directions ~ and yes I did save the changes (again - I am not a complete idiot) but for some unknown reason everything keeps reverting back to the original format... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Perhaps it is time for me to call in the experts....my 3 and 6 year old seem to be pretty computer savvy....maybe they can fix it for me....