Hanging Jewelry Organizer

I made this little hanging jewelry organizer months ago and filmed the tutorial for it but after I got done editing it was over 30 minutes long.  Waaaay too long.  So I decided I would eventually chop it up and just re-record the narration.  I finally got around to it because my hard-drive was getting full and the video files for this tutorial was taking up a ton of space so I forced myself to finish it this weekend. 

I've been using the organizer since way back then and I really like it.  I changed the little tin hanging from it because I kept bumping into it.  So now I have a smaller one that doesn't stick out as far to hold some bracelets and rings and stuff like that.  Anyway, it's similar to the ones I made for Christmas presents but after I made those I found all these other cool jewelry organizer ideas and just decided to do a jewelry organizer smash-up.  This is the end result.  I did mine with some canvas stretcher bars that I found in the painting section at the craft store.  But I think the next one I make will be with a pretty picture frame and it would take a lot less time too.  If you make one with a pretty frame you can skip to about 11:25 in the video.  Enjoy.

Vintage and Antique Haul

I went to the Montgomery Street Antique Mall in Fort Worth and spent a little cash.  Also got some goodies from Ebay and Etsy.  I have a few projects in mind to use some of the things I got so I'll do pictures or videos of those when I get around to it.  Anyway, enjoy. :)

Blue Boy Mobile

Here's another mobile I made.  This one was for my nephew.  My mother-in-law came across the round wire part of a wreath and thought I could make another mobile.  So this one is pretty simple.  I used a 2 inch circle punch to cut out some boy themed scrapbook paper and then used one of those glue tape dispenser thingies to apply glue to the back of one circle.  Then I laid down the end of a thin blue ribbon to the glue and sandwiched another circle on top.  I did this to both ends of a length of ribbon and then tied those to the wire circle.  Then I wrapped a wider blue ribbon around the wire circle to cover it up.  I also added 2 lengths of ribbon across the circle in an "X" to attach more paper circles and some more paper ball ornaments.  No lights on this one.

How to crochet

So I have been busting my rather considerable stash of yarn.  I like to crochet things that don't take a lot of time so I usually do scarves.  Long ones, short ones, skinny ones, wide ones.  Basically my stash of a particular yarn determines the size.  Since I've been doing a lot of crochet, I haven't done many outdoor crafts.  I'll have to wait until it cools off a bit.  110 degrees is no kind of fun.  So I thought I would do a little tutorial on some simple crochet stitches.  The basic chain stitch which is the foundation of a piece and single, double, and triple crochet.  By knowing how to do these simple stitches and having a few good illustrated books you can easily learn how to do the more elaborate and decorative stitches. 

Girlie Pink Mobile/Lamp/Nightlight

I didn't do a tutorial for this but it's pretty simple.  DH's mom had a huge wooden hoop and thought I might be able to make something out of it for my niece.  Can I make something out of a ginormous wood circle?  What's my name?  Yep.  Sho 'nuf I can make something out of that.  Got some LED christmas lights and wrapped them around the hoop.  Then wrapped some ribbon over that to cover the wires.  Added a few hangy-down decorations and wrapped 25 yards of tulle ribbon over the hoop and lights.  Taadaa.  You got yourself a super girlie pink mobile/lamp/nightlight.  Gotta use the LED lights though so it doesn't get hot, melt the tulle, and cause a fire.

Gotta have a bow on top.  Don't look at the tacky looking PVC pipe stand but I'm telling you it's sure handy to have in the craft room to build rigs to hold stuff while you are working on it.

 Made paper ball ornaments and then punched out some paper hearts, stacked three paper hearts, ran them thru my sewing maching and then folded the two outside hearts to make them 3-D.

 Close up of the paper balls and hearts.  The balls are fun to make.  I may do a tutorial on this later.

 With the LED lights plugged in and the flash on.

 No flash.

Close up of the ornaments with the lights on and flash.

 Close up with no flash.



Hypertufa Toad Houses

So I finally finished this video (I am practicing procrastination).  I posted it on YouTube a couple weekends ago but never got around to linking it here (professional procrastinator).  So here it is finally.  I made these about two months ago and let them cure for about a week under plastic and then about 3 weeks in the sun and rain after that to leach out the lime in the cement.  I think they turned out pretty well for my first time with hypertufa. 

On the road update...

So I am sitting in my hotel room in Austin. I filmed a little update video on the drive down. Here it is.

Concrete Mushrooms Part 2

So it took a little longer to get this video edited and uploaded.  Everytime I got almost done with the video, the software would crash.  Oh well.  Finally got it done.  I want to find some more bowls in different sizes that I like the shapes of and make some more of these.  But I think these turned out really cute.  They are quite hefty too. 

PVC Pipe Camera Rig/Stand

One of my viewers on YouTube asked about the PVC camera stand I used in the video where I made the beaded wrap bracelet so I made a video about it.  I have another stand that I made and use to film most of my videos so I added that to the video as well.  PVC pipe is super handy to have around the house. 

Concrete Garden Mushrooms Part 1

So now that the weather has warmed up (and the months of high winds has started), I decided to do some outdoor projects.  I'm starting with some cute garden mushrooms made out of concrete.  In this first part I am making the concrete form of the mushroom.  I made them on Saturday.  I checked on them today (Sunday) and they are drying nicely.  So by Friday I should be able to take them out of the molds and start decorating them.  You'll just have to wait a week to see that. 

Anyway, I'm making two at a time because it takes so long for them to dry properly.  I used about half of an 80 pound bag of concrete to make two mushrooms so I should have enough to make two more or maybe make a stepping stone later.  The ones I am making are quite large.  I'd say the stems of the mushrooms are about the size of a quart jar and the caps are a little larger than half a basketball. 

Of course you can make them smaller.  Just make sure that your stems are in proportion with your cap and that it can properly support the cap without breaking.  I plan to make them in different sizes later on but I haven't found any bowls in smaller sizes that I like the shape of and that are cheap enough.  I was kinda thinking about making a "mushroom family" with different sizes representing the mommy and daddy and kiddos or, in our case, fur babies.

So enjoy the video and come back next week for the decorating part.  :-D

Button Monogram Letters

I loved this project.  I made one for us, my parents, and my in-laws.  They turned out so cute.  I bought vintage white buttons on Etsy and used some navy blue damask (is that what it's called-I don't know) print fabric from my stash and then bought a white frame from Target.  I love the vintage buttons because some of them have started to turn yellow with age and I thought they just looked really cool.  I ordered from 3 different sellers because I didn't know how much I was going to need.  So I got a really lot of buttons for less than $20 and that's with the shipping included.  I have a whole bunch left over too.  Christmas presents?  I think so.  It was so much fun and way easy - took forever though.  Just put on a movie and start sewing.  It was an excuse to clear out the DVR.  :-)

My New Itty Bitty Aquaponics Garden

Hey.  Here's something a little different.  So I decided I wanted to try my hand at aquaponics.  So to make sure I didn't waste a lot of time and money, I decided to try one with "training wheels".  Basically, very small and I already had half the stuff I needed.  I'll keep updating as I go along to show the progress or possible lack thereof.  :)

Quick Chain Earrings

It's been a little while since my last video.  So I needed a new pair of earrings to match a necklace I bought at a craft show last year.  Solution - quick chain earrings and a new video.  Easy.  :)

Fabric Bow Ring

So I had a hard time finding cute colors of suede for the leather bow ring so I decided to try fabric.  It turned out really well.  And there are tons more options with fabric.  I made this the day after I made the leather ring but it just took me forever to get around to uploading the video.  Enjoy.

Cute Leather Bow Ring



You know you want to make one.  It's too cute and way easy to make.  I bought the leather at Hobby Lobby but I'm sure it can be found at most craft stores.  I am going to order some more from this link (http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/suede-trim-pieces-444661/).  It doesn't give an option to pick what color I want to order so we will see what happens.

Screen Printed Scarf

Here's a tutorial for a screen printed jersey scarf.  Lots of crafty fun.  I had originally planned to do a more traditional screening method (minus the the emulsion printed screen) where you pour a large amount of ink on the screen and drag it across with a squigee.  I don't think the ink I had is intended for larger print areas so I had to use paint brush to apply the ink.  I still think it turned out awesome and I like the way the ink density isn't uniform.  I need to get ahold of some of the ink meant to flood a screen and try some stencil screening that way.  Anyway, I foresee a lot of screen printing in my future. 

Paper Onion Ornament

For Christmas I had intended to make this for one of my nieces but I ran out of time.  I finished a couple of weekends ago and gave it to her.  I have a small paper onion hanging under a large paper onion and then suspended them from alternating heights from a brass ring with a ribbon hanger. 



Beaded Wrap Bracelet



So while I was cruising around on the internet looking for ideas, I ran across some bracelets by Chan Luu.  They are beautiful but way out of my price range.  Several people have posted articles on how to make them so I kinda pulled from those and altered a couple of things to make it easier for me to make.  Enjoy...

Part 1

Part 2

Leather Cuff Tutorial

Even though I almost never wear makeup, for some reason I love to watch makeup gurus on YouTube.  One of my favorites is Kandee Johnson.  She wears a leather cuff bracelet that I love so I tried to duplicate it.  I think it will look better as it ages and gets the scratches and wrinkles from wear.  We’ll see…  Sorry about the video quality and the choppy cuts.  Video editing is not in my current skill set.  I also had to go back and recut the video to make the time limit set by YouTube.  Anyway, it gets the idea across.

New Blog

So I decided to start a blog of the random things I do - mostly crafts.  But maybe stuff about school, work, rants, whatever I want.  It's my blog and I'll cry if I want to.  Anyway, I'm sure it won't be updated regularly.  Maybe it will but I'm just being realistic.  Mostly I'm starting it to put videos and pics on it that don't really fit on my Facebook page.  I'm sure not everyone (mostly the guys) I'm friends with want to see an update of some girly project I'm working on posted prominently on their News Feeds.  So we'll see how this goes...