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.