Christmas Ornament Exchange

My grandmother is having a ornament exchange at this year's Christmas get-together, and this is the ornament that I made for the event. It was really simple, and I love how it turned out.

Time: 10 minutes

Supplies:
1 clear ornament (mine came from Micheal's)
Fake snow or confetti (glitter would be cute too)
Natural berries and greenery
Block letters (I got a whole bag of these at Wal-Mart for $3 in the necklace/bracelet making section)
Ribbon
Glue
Tweezers

Steps:

1. Glue letters together making sure the word is small enough to fit inside the ornament
2. Fill ornament with snow, berries, and greenery
3. Place word inside using tweezers (I'm sure you could glue the stuff down, but I just left everything in free form with mine)

Upcycle Crayons into Unique Art

When I first saw this idea on Pinterest, I knew I had to try it. I'm a teacher, so worn-out crayons are plentiful in my life. :)

Time: 10-30 minutes

Supplies

Painted and dried canvas

old crayons

paint

hot glue gun

hair dryer

print-off of the image you want to use

Mod-Podge 

Steps:

1. Hot glue crayons onto the top of canvas 

2. Put your hair dryer on the hottest setting and hold close to crayons 

3. Continue melting until you get the look you want (I was so surprised by how fast they melted!) 

4. Cut out desired photo, paint it if necessary, and mod-podge it onto canvas (*note* it may be better to do this step before melting crayons) 

5. Let Dry then add whatever words you desire to the canvas 

Interchangeable Frames

My honey and I just got our engagement photos back, and we greatly needed a way to display them. Aaron mentioned that it would be cool if we had a way to change them easily since we have so many, so I got to work making these cute interchangeable photo frames.

Time: 10 minutes per frame

Supplies:
Old or cheap (Dollar Store!) frames
Spray Paint
Block letters (used for jewelry making and only $3 at Wal-Mart)
Hot glue gun
thick paper or fabric (I saw some really cute burlap ones on Pinterest)
Office Supply clips

Steps:

1. Spray paint frames and clips
2. Cut paper or fabric to size using the back of frame for a guide
3. Glue letters on paper or  fabric
3. Once the clips are dry, glue them onto the center of frame
3. Hang with ribbon

I made 8 of them to display down my hall, and I love them!

Upcycled Craft Night Bag

After 

This past Saturday, I went to a workshop by Stay Makes Cents. As parting gifts, she gave us these useful grocery bags:

Inspired by her talk on saving money, I decided not to purchase a much needed craft-bag to carry to my monthly Whichcrafters meeting (I've been hauling supplies in Wal-Mart bags for 6 months). Instead, I made my own out of our free grocery bag!

Time: 15 minutes

Supplies:

Recycled grocery bag 

Paint

Fabric scraps

buttons

hot glue gun (or sew) 

Steps:

1. Tape off the area that you want to cover

2. Paint area

3. While paint is drying, make a fabric flower (click here for the directions that I followed)

4. Glue flower on bag and decorate with buttons. 

5. Paint the words "Create" or "Make" or "Crafty" on the bag 

6. Let dry and then it's ready to go! 

Whichcrafters: Feather Hair Pieces

No, these aren't homemade fishing lures, but they will indeed attract some attention! These feathery beauties are 15 or so hair pieces that were made at last night's craft club!

As you can see, we each put our own personalities into them, but here are the basic steps to create your own. If you need some more inspiration, check out this fashion article from Redbook.

Time:
10 minutes each (you will make more than one, trust us.)

Supplies:

Feathers
Felt
Hot-glue gun
Quilting clip (aka hair clip or bobby pin)
Something decorative (pieces off of broken jewelry (Ashlyn's idea), buttons (Pinterest's idea), or pearls (April's idea)

Steps:
1. Cut a tiny piece of felt and hot-glue it to a hair clip (if you are using a bobby pin, skip this step)
2. Once dry, glue feathers on top of the felt
3. Once dry, glue something decorative on top of the feathers
4. If you are using bobby pins, cut two tiny slots in another piece of felt and slide bobby pin through

*Keep in mind to glue the feathers in the direction you want to insert your hair clip*

We had such a fun time making these, and we all wore ours to work today! :)

Check out our craft club page at: Whichcrafters 

Provocative Pumpkin

This sexy little pumpkin was so "easy" I missed the challenge ;)

Time: 10 minutes

Supplies:
An old pair of fishnet pantyhose
A white pumpkin

Steps:
1. Cut the pantyhose leaving only one leg portion
2. Stretch the leg over the pumpkin toe side up
3. Circle the toe part until it make a button on the top of the pumpkin
4. Hide the thigh excess under the pumpkin

Cans Into Aisle Markers

Time:  minutes

Supplies:
Recycled cans
Lace (thrift store find)
Glue
Ribbon

Steps:
1. Wash Cans
2. Drill holes into each side
3. Tie ribbon to each side

.  

4. Glue ribbon on 

5. Add flowers and hang on chairs

We Love Fall...and Noel

Time: 1 hour

Supplies:
Old fence piece
Old blocks of wood
Paint

Steps:
1. Make sure two wood pieces are nailed in place at the top and bottom
2. Paint all wood pieces

3. Let dry and then choose letters. Since we chose a 4 letter word ending in L we decided to make the sign interchangeable. The front says "We love Fall" the back side of the blocks turn into "We Love Noel" (will post pic after Thanksgiving)

Met. Married. Made.

Our friends, Emily and Garrett, are getting married in two weeks, and we wanted to make something really sweet for them. I saw this idea on Pinterest, and Aaron knew how to age our paper.

Time: 20 minutes

Supplies:
Google Maps
Printer
Old wood piece
Mod Podge
Coffee

Steps:
1. Do a map search of the place the couple met, will marry, and will live.
2. Paste maps on a Word document and print
3.

4. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 200 for about 7 minutes (keep a very close eye on it)
5. After baked, cut to size and burn edges
6.

7. Let dry and hang or display

Sparkler Holder

Time: 10 minutes
Supplies:
Recycled Oatmeal can
Scrap ribbon
Glue
Sparklers
Sharpie

Upcycled Window Chalkboard

Time: 10 Minutes

Supplies:
Recycled window
Chalkboard paint
Stickers
Touch up paint

Steps:

1. Clean the window and get stickers that you won't mind painting over  (these came with my snowboard)

2. Put stickers on the window (I did a bird and two "picture frames")

3. Spray paint over all of the window including stickers. Once dry, peel off the stickers.

4. Touch up frame if desired

5. Let dry then rub with chalk before trying to write on it. Tape pictures behind open areas

Spring Time Display

Time: 1 hour

Supplies:
Recycled Bottles
Recycled glass containers (I used empty pesto ones)
Paint
Mod Podge
Recycled books/magazines

Steps:

Modpodge the bottles and when dry modpodge the magazine pictures over the top

Cut a cork in half (or use some other decoration) and hotglue onto top (bottom) of glass jar (I used caps as a base)

Paint lid and glue to the top of the bottle

I think the finished product turned out really pretty :)

Peanut Butter Birds

Time: 20 minutes

Supplies:
Recycled Peanut Butter lids
Spray Paint
Fabric Scraps
Modpodge

Steps:
1. Spray paint the lids and let dry
2. Cut out fabric to fit
3. Modpodge the fabric onto the lids

4. Cute out the wings and beaks
5.Modpoge onto dried fabric

6. Paint a dot for the eye
7. Allow to dry then hang up!

I think they turned out really cute!