REINDEER

Wow.  Is that the most creative post title, or what???  Man, I’m good.  I should write a book or something (not)…anyhoo, my sister bought this reindeer years ago

and when I got my scroll saw, she thought I  should make one for the craft show…(really, does she think I’m Bob Ross or something??).  This thing scared me.  Not really the cutting of the wood, or the spray painting or the assembling of the cute little reindeer, but REALLY the painting of his face.  I AM NOT A PAINTER!!!  Trying to paint details scares me.  So he sat in my craft room for about 6 months (I’m a chicken).  Finally, I took him out, made a pattern and went to work.  This is what I came up with:

I think he turned out pretty cute. I really tried to cut out those small Christmas light bulbs, but just couldn’t get them to look good, so I added jingle bells instead…much easier and less stress…and still pretty cute, I think.  I made just two of these for the Craft Show this weekend, and if they are popular, I think I’ll make a lot more for next year.  I guess I should thank my sister, because I got over my fear of painting…I found that taking  it one small detail at a time is not so overwhelming!  By no means am I a ‘painter’, but I am so proud of how this little guy turned out!

I hope you’ll be encouraged to try a craft you never thought you could do (it’s amazing what we can do when we just try!). And, really, when it comes down to it, if we fail, it’s not the end of the world.  We just try again, or move on to a different project!  I’m learning to let go of some of my perfectionist expectations (of myself) and accept what is. 

Thanks for stopping by.   I’d love to see what crafts you’re doing!    Leave me a comment and I’ll visit you back!

Santa Ornaments

I saw these ornaments on Pinterest, and thought they were so cute, I just had to make some. (I altered mine a little bit by changing the way I made his belt, and adding a hat).  I bought plastic ornaments at Michaels (around 80 cents each), black grosgrain ribbon and gold fabric puff paint. ( I already had the felt and white pom poms for the hats and paper for his belly).  This is truly a simple and very quick craft that even the kids will love to do (be sure to help them with the hot glue!).

This is what you need: (Diet Coke not required, but very helpful!)

First, remove the hanger from the ornament, set aside.  Take red paper (I used cardstock that I already had) and cut into strips.  I varied my strips between 1/8” and 1/4” in width and 8” long (I didn’t measure them, just eyeballed it!).  Then I wrapped each strip tightly around a pencil, slid it off and tucked it into the ornament opening. 

Repeat until his belly is full. Replace hanger.  For the belt, I just hot glued the black ribbon around the center.  For the hat, I cut a triangle out of red felt, glued a pom pom on the tip, folded the hat over about midway and glued it there (if you don’t have pom poms and ribbon that will work to embellish the hat, you could always use white puff paint on both of these parts, and it would be really cute.  Just add a fat line of paint on the bottom of the hat and a big glob on the tip!).  The white trim on the bottom of the hat is simply a strip I cut off of another ribbon from my stash, and glued on.

Then I hot glued the hat onto the top of the ornament.  The final step was to use the puff paint to create his gold belt buckle.

this is the wet paint..

The hardest part of this craft was leaving it alone once the puff paint was on, so it could dry (about an hour).  I love the way it turned out, and hope you will try it too!

Thank you for stopping by!  Please leave a comment and let me know you were here!

Linking up at:
 Take-a-Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts

House of Hepworths

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful day with your families, enjoying the many blessings in your life.  I had a fantastic day, relaxing and cooking and of course, eating!  I am so thankful to be feeling better, to have a healthy family and wonderful friends.  And, I’m thankful for my blog readers, and all the amazing blogs that inspire me to create and express myself.  You are all such a blessing to me!  Have a great night!

MICKEY MOUSE NECKLACE AND ACCESSORIES!

Hi…do you remember me??  I’m sorry it has been so long!  I won’t give you all the boring details, I’ll just apologize…again.  I’m sorry!

 

This is one of the crafts I  have had done for a  few months, but haven’t gotten posted…until now!

Several months ago I saw this idea on A CREATIVE PRINCESS,and she gives you a fantastic play by play on how to make them (so I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here, go check her blog out…it’s awesome!).

Since we were planning a trip to Disneyland (which, sadly has to be postponed), I thought I’d make these for my girls’ birthdays. 

They are so totally cute and very simple to do!  I used the ‘bottle cap’ style, because it’s so cute and popular, and to be honest, I didn’t completely trust that the gel wouldn’t just run all over the place .  Well, I’m happy to report that I was wrong.  I tried it on the bobby pins, and it totally worked!  I just kept waiting for the goo mess, but it never happened (Yay!).   Unfortunately, I couldn’t find MOD PODGE Dimensional Magic anywhere, so I just used what they had at Hobby Lobby (sorry, I couldn’t find the bottle to get a picture, but if I find it, I’ll add it to the post!).  For the Mickeys, I did just what she did, and used a paint chip from Home Depot.  I also made the matching earrings and bobby pins.  I think they turned out so  cute!  (and, yes, when we go to Disneyland, I am totally making a set for me too!!!).   I also bought bracelets with a  little bezel area at Hobby Lobby, (they were having a huge clearance on jewelry findings at the time), but I haven’t finished that one yet…it’s heart shaped, and I haven’t found the right size heart punch yet…but I’m working on it.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you try this craft…it really is so simple and very quick.  It’d be great for birthday party favors, too. 

I’m linking up to a fun (and always inspiring) party at HOH: