stepping stone

I've been wanting to make stepping stones FOREVER! I bought a kit at Michaels which comes with cement mix, mosaic pieces, and the stone template. I made this one for out front garden. I am in the process of making a whole bunch of them with Mike's, Coco's and my name on them for a path in out new and improved garden in the back of our house. I'll be sure to post the pics when they are all done!!

spectacle holders

Heres a new item I made for my Etsy shop, Eye Glass Holders.

I made a similar pair for my Mom for her birthday and she wears them all the time! Be sure to check them out!!

ribbon roses

I was playing around with some ribbon the other day, and I thought to make these ribbon roses. REALLY easy to make! They would be cute on all different things!

fast update

I did this fast and easy update to these two small dishes I had up on my wall. I bought a roll of pink and brown polka dot ribbon from Michaels, which was only $1. Tied a strip to the plate hanger and hot glued a bow I made to the top. I think it makes it a lot more interesting looking than the plain white dishes before.

day by day calendar

I got a cute day by day calendar by Mary Engelbreit. I thought the drawings were too cute to throw out, so I came up with some ideas to reuse them.

One idea is to make little greeting cards. I used a pack of plain cards I bought at Michaels and used some scrap book paper as a mat for the picture. Some of the days have quotes on them too, why not just add that to the card as well! I also bought my husband Family Feud's day by day calendar for Christmas. Those would make cute cards as well. Since he didn't see this one yet, I am going to leave a message inside the card and leave it on his desk.

The other idea I had is to use them for scrapbooking. Them make cute little additions to your pages.

my art

Here's my first piece I painted at Mud About You. I think it turned out really good considering it was my first piece! The only thing I would change would be the green, it's a little too dark for the color scheme I had going on.

But it looks oh so cute on my hutch holding candy canes for visitors coming by the house!!

mud about pottery

For awhile now I've been driving by this new plaza in Penfield on my way home from work, always wondering what the heck is "Mud About You"? My husband was on rocwiki.com, and what do you know..... there was a write up about this little shop. To my surprise it was a place where you can pick out a piece of unfinished pottery and paint it any way you want it.

So I told a couple of my friends about it and decided that we must go! On Wednesday night they had a free wine tasting while painting your pottery! My friend Becky and I went and had a GREAT time! We will be definitely going back to paint some more pieces!

glitter cones

I just got these cute little ornaments and I thought they could use a little "something". So I decided to glitter the whole darn thing!

The bottom one I used a PINK glitter, and the other one I used a clear glitter so you can still the original gold on the ornament. Next I'm going to change the ribbon on them both to a sheer gold. I guess they didn't turn out too bad!

christmas crafting 101

Here's another light up arrangement I made. It's easy to make: take a medium sized vase, have a string of lights, and in this one I used diamond like items that really sparkle when you have lights around them. Wrap ribbon around it on all 4 sides and you get a fast and cute little arrangement that would be great for a side table or a present to give!

staining

I've heard about tea staining tags for some time now. And a couple of years ago I bought a couple of paper tags that were stained with this yummy color and scent to it. So I decided to try it out. In one bowl I used tea, cinnamon, and other spices. In the other bowl I decided to use coffee. I thought maybe that it would give the tags a darker look. Well... I was pretty disappointed with the results. There was no big transformation with the "tea staining".

Does anyone else have a better recipe to stain tags? I would really like to try it again!

organizing

I took some time to organize my studio...my rubber stamps, cards, buttons, and some other important essentials. I keep working on it to make it easier to find things and to make things faster!

I got these cute boxes, from where else?? Michaels! They are photo boxes, but they are great for storage! Used cute little Martha labels on the front of the box.

i heart glitter

I have always loved glitter, and since Martha's craft line came out with MANY colors of glitter, I went a little crazy with them. My collection is getting bigger and bigger, and I am using glitter on just about every craft project I'm working on lately. You would think with coming home from work with pretty much glitter all over my face and clothes I would be sick of this shiny stuff.... ahh noo. I don't think that will be any time soon, hopefully with the amount I have at home!

This rack my Mom found at a sale for 50 cents, it was originally painted black, she thought it would be perfect painted cream, and to hold all my bottles.

basket of fall

After I went to the farm market the other day, I had some extra gourds and things I wanted to make little gift basket for my Mom. Sorry about the picture on the left, but on the basket there is little pumpkins so I thought this basket would work perfectly for my little project. I put in a warty gourd, a mini white pumpkin, a couple of apples, 2 autumn smelling votives, and bright red reading glasses!

ornaments, tulle and lace

Today I went to a sale to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. Last year they brought in somewhere around $100,000! It was in the former Dick's store, so I was hoping for the place filled with good finds.

I was quite happy with what I found there. Bags of old Christmas ornaments for a $1 each! A bag filled with pink tulle and lace for a $1 and some nice fabric to make some pillows. The one on the left I am going to make fall pillows out of for the living room. That was 4 yards for $7, very vintage look to it. To make it even better everything was an extra 20%! Can't wait to next year to find more great things!

snow balls in october

I've been working on Christmas and holiday wreaths since the beginning of October. I'm hoping that I won't get sick of it anytime soon, I got a LONG way to go before the season even gets here!

I made this one out of styrofoam balls, small dowels, tacky glue, and sprayed it with the fake snow. It's nice that I pretty much have free range when it comes to designing at work, so I get to try things out that I might not make for myself. But I was pretty happy with the results and hearing comments from customers.

I am still getting great reviews from the pumpkin topiary. Just today a customer is making a bigger version with her own urns she bought! I'm glad I'm inspiring people! :)

wreath

My Mom shared a project with me that she finished the other day. She wanted a fall looking wreath to hang on her front door. Instead of using silk flowers, she went into her gardens and used all natural items for her creation. I LOVE it!!

She was on a roll with the wreath that she decided to make a swag for her shed door! Even cuter!

Great job Mom!!

paper crafting

I did some paper crafting with my Mom on Friday. I got my blue IKEA bag out and filled it with my scrapbooking materials. We worked on making some tags for Halloween and Christmas (yes I know Christmas already! I have been making Christmas wreaths all week at work!). I also made some paper frames to use for my scrapbooking. We have been coming up with ideas for future projects and endeavors, so stay tuned soon for those!!

dirty birdy

My friend Nicky and her friend Sondra are setting up their shop at a local craft and art show. If your around check it out!!! Before leaving for Buffalo and PA I'm gonna try to stop by to see the Dirty Birdies!!

pumpkin topiary

I made this last week at work and thought I would share it with you guys. I have been getting a lot of comments from customers that they like it! It was kinda of a struggle putting it together with almost super gluing my fingers!

Maybe I might have to buy it for my house!

board of inspiration

Our recent visit to Canada we went to IKEA, and found some good buys. One thing I was pretty excited about was a glass board to hang on the wall. When reading some of my favorite blogs, I've seen their take on a 'inspiration board", and I've been wanting to make my own. The glass board was PERFECT for it! It will always be a work in progress, but here's my start on my own inspiration board.

Some items on my board:

Dorothy, Toto and the Ruby Slippers

Queen of Glitter article

Pink glitter letters

Coco

Lace dollies

PINK peonies

Hot pink satin ribbon