DIY Honeycomb balls

The other day I went to an estate sale in a $2.2 million, 5000 sq. ft. house. Wowza! High-rent district of town, to be sure. I hadn't planned to go to that sale (I prefer the dinky little 1950s houses packed with JUNK) but we drove past so I decided to stop. As you can imagine, most of the sale was pretty pricey, but I did buy one thing for $1:

It makes me smile every time I look at it! I've always been a sucker for tissue paper honeycomb shapes and the rainbow colors make me happy.

As a coincidence, in the past week I've found two Pins that show how to make your own honeycomb balls. This how-to video by Mark Montano uses magazine pages

and this beautiful orb by Donna from Under the Red Roof uses coffee filters! She shares a very in-depth and nicely photographed tutorial to make this:

Please visit the original source to rePin! http://undertheredroof.typepad.com/under_the_red_roof/2012/06/coffee-filter-honeycomb-balls-tutorial.html

What a cool idea--I know I've seen instructions for dyeing white coffee filters, so you could conceivably make a ball in any color. Donna also says that you could use cupcake papers. That would probably be seriously fiddly because of the small size, but I'm intrigued nonetheless.

I won't have time to try either of these crafts for a little while, but if I do I'll be sure to report back and let you know if they work!

**PS--If you'd rather buy your tissue balls pre-made, today through June 18 you can get free shipping with no minimum order from Oriental Trading Company using code WCE3284 at checkout!**

Recovering a vintage chair with a tablecloth

There may be a few of you out there to whom this post may cause actual, physical pain--I will just go ahead and apologize in advance. :)

I found this old oak chair at Goodwill for $7 to replace the cute desk chair that I completely destroyed last summer.

It's nice and sturdy and the perfect size, but it had an ugly fabric seat. I knew that recovering it would be a quick fix, but I didn't want to purchase any fabric for the project. While rummaging through the VERY full dresser drawer where I keep my collection of vintage tablecloths, I happened upon this beauty:

A darling square cloth with a yellow border and a pattern of red tulips. It's charming but unfortunately is also very faded, so I didn't feel quite so guilty about cutting it up! Plus I thought it was fun with the curtains I have in the office:

A hot steam iron, a pair of shears, a staple gun and 15 minutes later I had this:

I know that to some of you, cutting up a perfectly good vintage tablecloth is tantamount to painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa! I won't lie--I had to take a deep breath before I made that first cut. I figure that this way, I can actually enjoy my pretty cloth on a daily basis instead of having it tucked away in the dresser in my guest room, rarely to see the light of day. I'm not saying that I'm going to get all scissor-happy with the rest of my beautiful collection, but I don't have any remorse for cutting this one at all!

How to make a Cookie & Gumdrop Flower Bouquet

Monday was Maren's teacher's birthday, and since I'm one of the room moms I volunteered to bring in a little something fun for her. I knew just what I wanted to make: a cookie and gumdrop flower bouquet. It turned out so cute that I wanted to share it with all of you in case you'd like to make one as well!

I remember my mom making these when I was little, so I can't take credit for the idea. The supplies you'll need:

• 12" wooden skewers
• a container
• a lump of floral foam or other Styrofoam
• shredded paper or Easter grass to hide the foam
• a package of cookies that have a hole in the middle
• a package of large gumdrops
• a package of spearmint leaves (optional)
• knife, cutting board, clean wet washcloth, wire cutters

 A note about the cookies used in this project: when my mom used to make these, she always used a brand of butter cookies that were shaped like a flower and had a hole in the middle. I don't think they're available anymore because I haven't been able to find them for years. I did see a sugar-free version at my commissary, but I was afraid they'd taste odd or contain artificial sweeteners. I used Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies, but you can use anything with a hole in the middle. You could even make your own,as long as they're firm enough to hold up on the skewers.

The first thing to do is to prepare your container: cut the floral foam or Styrofoam to fit in the bottom of the container. You can use just about anything you can get your hands on for a container--I used a little cardboard basket from Target's Easter clearance last year. You could use a clean flowerpot, or a vase, or a mug, or a bucket--anything! Target's $1 Spot always seems to have cute little containers for every season.

Assembling these flowers is so easy that your kids can help with most of the steps! First, cut a gumdrop horizontally across, making two parts.

It's important to use the large gumdrops for this project, because normal-sized candies are too small. I found my large gumdrops at Rite-Aid.

Next, slide the bottom half of the gumdrop down your skewer about an inch. The sticky cut side will face up. You're making a little ledge for your cookie to sit upon.

Then simply slide on a cookie and the top part of the gumdrop! You can slide the two pieces of gumdrop together to hold the cookie firmly in place. You can even place the bottom slice of gumdrop on the skewer at an angle, so that the cookie flower will be slightly tilted. This adds some variation to the bouquet, like real flowers!

Now, my mom didn't use the spearmint leaves and I never have either, but they were hanging right next to the gumdrops in Rite-Aid so I grabbed a package to give them a try. I found it was best to poke a starter hole in them using an extra skewer. I slid it onto the skewer from the bottom before I added the cookie to the top. If the spearmint leaf leaves sticky green stuff on the skewer, you can use the clean washcloth to wipe it off. I only put a leaf on about half the flower skewers and tried to vary the height of each one.

As you complete each flower, stick it into the foam in your container. I tried to make them tall in the middle and shorter around the sides, turning the container frequently to make sure it was equal all around. You can use a pair of wire cutters to shorten the skewers for the flowers on the sides.

Once you have all of the flowers arranged, tuck the shredded paper or Easter grass down around the base of the skewers to hide the foam. I do this step last because sometimes it's hard to get the skewers in through the shredded paper.

Because this bouquet was for a birthday, I added a cute little "Celebrate" banner tag onto the end of an empty skewer.

The finished bouquet was so bright and happy (and delicious)! It attracted quite the crowd as I carried it into school on Monday morning, and Maren reported later that her teacher simply loved it. This is a great project for Teacher Appreciation day, a birthday, an anniversary (what about taking a bouquet of these flowers to your husband? He might appreciate them more than real flowers!) or any occasion where you need a cute, easy gift!

How to camouflage a poorly-placed outlet cover or light switch

I mentioned last week that I did some furniture rearranging in my front room (in my pjs, at 7:15 am--hey, when inspiration strikes, you have to jump on it!). Unfortunately, I was not able to move the blue dresser  so that it would cover up that darn ugly outlet.

Because I couldn't completely hide it, I did the next best thing to make it disappear: Camouflage!

I used the same technique that I employed on an ill-placed light switch plate in my living room last year.

For my red wall, I used a piece of cute scrapbook paper from Jenni Bowlin that is printed with old soda water labels and was the perfect shade of deep red.

This truly is a five-minute project. It takes longer for the Mod Podge to dry than it does to put the whole thing together, and that includes finding a tiny screwdriver to remove & reinstall the outlet cover, and digging the Mod Podge and a brush out of your craft closet.

The outlet cover is still visible, but now it's not quite so obvious, and I love the tiny bit of extra detail that the vintage-style paper provides. It's nice to add a bit of flair to something as utilitarian and ubiquitous as an outlet cover!

Doily painted and reverse-applique Valentine shirt

If you don't have young kids in your home, you probably don't get Family Fun magazine, so you probably will have not seen the darling doily-print t-shirts they had on the cover of the February issue. Let me catch you up:

So cute, right? I knew as soon as I saw that picture that I wanted to make a shirt for Maren. Back when I made her Christmas reverse applique shirt, I botched my first attempt and had to buy a new red t-shirt. This left me with an otherwise-perfectly-good red shirt with pen marks right in the center, and what better way to cover them than a cute stenciled doily heart?

If you don't get Family Fun magazine, you can find the instructions and another photo here. And a warning--the color red freaks out my camera so my photos are all a little bright.

Before I made the shirt, I spent a good while with an Xacto knife, making sure all of the little holes in the doily were clear of hanging chads. It took a while, but it was worth it because the final product had a nicer pattern.

To adhere the doily to the shirt while you paint, the instructions advise you to put a light coat of glue stick on the back of the doily. I suspected that this was a bad idea--the doily would act like a cheese grater and glue would come up through the holes. I was right--even though I applied the glue stick sparingly, I still had to use a toothpick to poke chunks of glue out of the holes before I could paint.

Once the doily was adhered, I used white fabric paint and a foam stencil brush to daub paint carefully over the doily. I found that the wet paint caused the thin paper doily to curl and move, so if I didn't get a good coating of paint the first time I wasn't able to really fix it. I also had to be careful not to use too much paint and have it blob through the holes and lose the delicate lacy pattern.

Here's how the shirt looked after I removed the paper doily. The puckery part in the middle is where the glue grabbed onto the fabric and pulled as I removed the paper.

I had so much fun, that I grabbed an old shirt of my own and a handful of doilies and went to down. I went a little bit overboard, but I think the effect is cool and I like how they look like snowflakes on the gray shirt.

Remember how Maren's shirt had inkstains in the middle that I needed to cover? Well, some of them still showed in the unpainted middle of the heart, so I had to do something else. Reverse applique to the rescue! It took me about 15 minutes to fix while we watched the Grammy awards on Sunday night. I used a scrap of pale pink fabric and white embroidery thread and just followed the inside of the heart with my stitches. I love how it turned out and with the addition of a fancy hairdo

she looked perfectly sweet for Valentine's Day!

Tutorial: Christmas Reverse Applique shirt

One of the great classes that I got to take at SPARK 3 was learning how to make reverse applique shirts from Amy Tangerine. The technique was so fun and so easy that I knew I wanted to use it to make a Christmas shirt for Maren. I purchased a red shirt from Target, and the fabric is scraps leftover from a vintage tablecloth that I cut apart a few years ago for another project.

For the shape, I knew that I wanted to trace a Christmas tree-shaped cookie cutter that we have. For reverse applique, basic bold shapes are easiest to work with. I also used a disappearing ink pen and some matching green embroidery floss.

The first step is to find the center of your shirt and mark it with a few straight pins. I actually ruined my first shirt when I 1) tried to just eyeball the center and 2) used a ballpoint pen instead of a disappearing ink pen. Let's just say that I'll be making for Maren a reverse applique Valentine's Day shirt with a BIG pink heart shape in the middle! So trust me, take the one minute needed and mark the center--you don't even need to use a ruler, simply fold the shirt in half, armpit to armpit.

Next, you'll trace your shape. In Amy Tangerine's class we used ballpoint pens, which will generally wash out if you spray them with a bit of hairspray or rubbing alcohol. I don't know what happened with the pen I used on that first red shirt, but it would NOT come out even though I treated it multiple times with hairspray, alcohol, stain pre-treater and even Carbona wipes. Head to JoAnn's with your 40% off coupon and buy a disappearing ink pen made for sewing.

Next, you'll need to flip your shirt inside out. You want your fabric scrap to be larger than your design, because it's hard to get it pinned precisely into place if it's too small. Secure the fabric scrap to the shirt using straight pins, taking care to only pin it to one layer.

 Now you'll turn the shirt back right side out and begin to sew. In Amy's class we used embroidery floss (all 6 strands), but for her shirts that she sells, she actually uses pearl cotton. I have lots of colors of floss so it's easier for me to just use that. Thread your needle with no more than a yard of thread and tie a knot in the end. Start coming up from the bottom so that your knot will be hidden on the back. Here is the CRITICAL part: you are NOT sewing on the lines you drew. Let me repeat that--you are NOT sewing on the lines you drew! You are actually making your stitches about 1/4" OUTSIDE of your pen line. Your pen line will later become your cut line. Continue sewing around the entire design. How long your stitches and how far apart they are is up to you. Once you come back to the starting place, make another knot and cut your thread.

Turn the shirt inside out again. Now you're going to trim your fabric about 1/2" outside your stitches.

Turn the shirt right side out again. You'll be able to see your stitches and your drawn shape. Now is the fun part--you're going to reveal the fabric!

Very carefully pinch ONLY the top layer of t-shirt fabric and snip it with your scissors, then follow your drawn line and cut all the way around. Sometimes, my stitches weren't exactly 1/4" inch from my drawn line, so I just take care to make my cuts evenly spaced from the stitches. Remember, any ink lines that show will disappear when you wash the shirt.

And...ta-da! Admire your cute reverse applique shirt! Maren wore this yesterday to her class Christmas party and program. When I dug through my cookie cutters to find the tree, I found a few others that would make really cute reverse applique designs:

I definitely think Maren will be sporting a bunny shirt for Easter, and Porter needs a shirt with that cool airplane shape! The best part about this craft is that you only need a tiny bit of fabric, so you can be creative. You don't even have to do a shirt--you can do a bag, apron, hat, or anything made out of fabric. This is definitely a craft I'll be doing again and again!

Red and white striped straw wreath

When I flew to Arizona last month for The Mister's Ironman race, the woman sitting behind me on the airplane was looking at the December Women's Day magazine with this cover, which caught my eye:

And then what I realized that the darling wreath was made of red and white striped straws, I practically snatched it out of her hands to get a closer look! Then I spent the rest of our vacation searching for a copy of the magazine of my own, but didn't find one until we were at the airport for our return flight to Colorado!

On Wednesday, even though the decorations weren't out, I still have loads of gifts to buy and the tree is laying in pieces in the front room, I decided I was making that darn wreath! I already had the straws, purchased by the gross from Orson Gygi this summer. I bought them in-store, but they are definitely the most economical source from whom to buy the straws that I've seen yet. They also carry blue and gray striped straws.

If you don't have the December Women's Day magazine, you can find the instructions for this wreath and 5 other cute wreaths here. I was able to find the 6" flat floral and craft ring at Michael's in the aisle with the other wreath forms and floral wires. I simply used a piece of white computer paper glued it onto the form with a glue stick. From there, I proceeded following the instructions as written.

When I got to the final ring, I very carefully applied just a small amount of glue to each straw before sticking it down. I wanted to make sure that no excess hot glue would squeeze out and show since it was the top layer, but for the previous two rings, I just put the glue down and then placed the straw on top of it.

It really was easy, and I love how cheery it turned out! It took me almost two hours to mark and cut all the straws, then glue them one at a time, but the time went quickly since I was catching up on the final two installments of "Downton Abbey."

And now I have a bowl of leftover straw bits to repurpose--you had better believe I'm not just throwing those away! I have some red beads and white yarn and I think I'll have Maren make a garland with those and the straw pieces.

This was such a fun project! I know those striped paper straws come in all sorts of colors, and you could make a wreath out of any of them--black and orange and gray for Halloween would be neat, pink for a baby or bridal shower, or rainbow colors would be really fun as well! And if you can't find the striped straws, check out this clever paper 'pixie stick' sunburst wreath at Sassy Style Redesign.

Halloween platters 2011

I mentioned in Monday's Junk Finds post that I did something fun and Halloweeny with the Fire King peach lustre bowl that I bought at the thrift store.

Fire King peach lustre spider bowl

And here it is! I knew when I saw it that the orange color would be perfect for Halloween crafting. I spookified it with a big black spider. Although I'm always on the lookout for Fire King dishes, I've never collected peach lustre because it didn't fit in with my color scheme. Now I see how perfect it is for Halloween decorating, so I might just give it a second look!

Trick or Treat antique plate

The mark on this amazing ironstone plate gives it a manufacture date from sometime between 1867 and 1878! It has some really great crazing and staining that definitely adds to the distressed, spooky look.

Yellow moon with bats platter

When I found this vintage yellow platter, I realized it looked just like a big golden full moon, so of course I had to add some bats flying across. I love how it turned out!

Happy Halloween large oval Coronet platter

I think this is my favorite of this year's Halloween plates. This gorgeous platter is from the Coronet line by Homer Laughlin, which was produced in the mid-1930s. The Coronet line had all of the same forms, but there were dozens and dozens of different versions based on the way the design was painted. This platter is unpainted, and it was the absolute perfect size for the Happy Halloween image! It's huge and heavy and a great statement piece. I absolutely love it.

Orange crow or raven platter

This platter is not necessarily vintage, but the terra cotta orange color made it perfect for Halloween, and the big crow was just the right size for it! I added a red jewel for his eye, just for fun.

These three plates are from my 2010 collection and are still available:

Spider silhouette plate

Spooky spider plate

Pair of spiders square plate

All of these are available right now in my Etsy shop!

Repurposing beaded earrings

While we were in Washington D.C. I stopped into a big Forever 21 store, which was conveniently located across the street from the Crumbs cupcake shop we visited FOUR times in THREE days. Most of the time I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of STUFF in that store and have to just get out of there FAST, but this time I stopped to look at the earrings. I found this 4" long dangly pair made up of pretty purple fire-polished iridescent glass beads. I showed them to the Mister, who probably internally raised his eyebrows at their length, but bless his heart, he didn't say a word. I told him that I wasn't going to wear them--I had other plans for them!

As soon as I got home, I got to work with my needle-nose pliers and some ring blanks I had purchased a while ago. The ring blanks have a series of little loops on the top to which you attach beads on headpins.

Which is precisely what these earrings were made of! It was incredibly easy to remove the beads from the large jump rings on the earrings and thread them through the loops on the ring blank. Somebody had already done all the hard work of threading the beads on the headpins, cutting and looping them.

After just a few minute I was left with two stripped earrings (with jump rings and french wires that I'll repurpose another time) and four cute, sparkly beaded rings, all for $6 and about 20 minutes of my time. I'm feeling rather clever!