Baby Spice

Don't ask me about the title... it just came out.

So I've got a baby and HATE throwing anything away, so I was wondering what to do with these baby food jars. Enter Pinterest, yes folks, the amazing space I can get lost in for days. The result is that now all my spices are in baby food jars, attached to magnets, attached to my fridge, which in turn resulted in more space in my tiny kitchen.  I have a family of six, I'll take any space I can get!

Coffee Stirrer Art

A few weeks ago, when browsing through all the awesome and creative ideas on Pinterest, I came across a pin that showed how to make cool art pieces with coffee stirrers. Some crafts you put on your internal to-do list, and others you simply HAVE to create at that exact moment.  This particular one was the latter of the two. So, I went to Walmart and got my supplies. I altered the directions and supplies a bit to meet my needs.  For instance, I bought two 11x13 wooden frames, cheap ones. I also bought some skinny craft sticks (not rounded edges) that look like coffee stirrers and some cheap paint in the colors I envisioned for my art pieces.

This art project is very simple, but a bit time-consuming.  First, I painted the frames black, let them dry, and used one of those green scrubby dish things (what are they called?) to distress them.

I simply painted the sticks and glued them in different lengths directly onto the glass of the frames. I used wire cutters to easily cut the sticks. I also tended to make a few of the sticks a bit "messy" because I wanted a distressed look.  I dabbed or smeared other colors onto a few of the sticks.  You could have a cleaner look by not doing this.

You may wish to paint the glass black or another color before gluing the sticks on since tiny spots of the glass may show a bit when you are finished.  We have noticed that when light shines on the art, it tends to reflect off of the glass in some spots.  It looks like a mirror is behind the sticks.  I don't mind it since it doesn't happen often, but perhaps if I retraced my steps I would paint the glass black so it wouldn't show at all.

The picture above is of the very first one I completed.  I quickly realized I wanted more than one and that I wanted the next one to be very similar, but a tad different in some way.  I decided to use all of the same colors for the sticks except for the green. I chose a different accent color for the second piece - blue. The picture at the top of this post shows both of them, but I'm not done yet.  I am working on another, this time with a reddish accent color. We'll see how three of them look together above our fireplace, but I'm thinking I may end up with four of them.

**Note: The pictures here are not nearly large enough and you really can't see the detail.  Sorry, getting used to Blogger and having some issues!**

Updated 11/17 - just hung the reddish one

Dressing Up Candles

Before

                                                                                  
As I'm writing and stuff in my dining room, I often look at these
boring candles on really cool, gothic-looking candlesticks.  Today I had an idea.  I merely bought some pretty black ribbon and glued it around each candle with craft glue (I LOVE Amazing Goop).  Made a big difference, didn't it?  I love it!

After

After

                                                                          

Fun With Buttons

I've been meaning to share these pictures for some time now.  I got both these ideas from Pinterest.

My daughter, Sierra, and her friend Mary made decorated a plain white lampshade with buttons to create a super cute lamp for Ian's room.

I am quite proud of how these letters to the right turned out! I bought plain letters at Hobby Lobby and glued buttons on with craft glue. Cute, huh? 

Tea Cup Candles

For Mother's Day gifts, I decided I'd use a great "green" idea I saw in a Martha Stewart "


Green Crafts" link. The idea was to use old tea cups and fill them with candles. I started by sifting through old teacups at Goodwill and other thrift stores and ended up with these cups and one adorable teapot.





Then I melted old wax from unused or partially used candles lying around the house, and I also used some new votives that I bought and took the wick out of before melting. I melted the wax within a smaller pan that was submerged in hot water. The directions said to use a wax or candy thermometer but I did not to this, and we will consider that decision in a bit. So, I melted the wax completely and, meanwhile, I set up my teacups. I cut wicking and put them through the small metal wick stabilizers.... all available at any craft store. I used plyers to close the metal hole of the stabilizers onto the wicks. Then I used bamboo skewers to tie the wick onto so that the wick would stay centered within the cup.














Then, just pour the wax in! You'll want to leave a little space at the top so you'll have a wick. Don't fill it all the way to the top. I made sure the wick was centered before leaving it to dry. Most of the candles dried very well, but the ones in the white teacups dried strangely, very bumpy, and I'm wondering if this is because I did not have the wax at the correct temperature. I just figured melted wax is melted wax, ya know?


Here is a finished pic of some of them, for some reason I can't find the pics of the other ones completed. These green ones dried great, but the other ones dried bumpy and I think you can catch a glimpse of that on the above pics.



Needless to say, Grandma, Mom, and Mother-in-Law loved their Mother's Day gifts!