Week 3:Tame it Tuesday, a summer series on taming the mess

week 1
week 2
Welcome to week 3 in my summer series on taming the mess. Where I am attempting to claim back some of the areas of our home that have been overrun with what I like to call "drop and run" sessions. The busier we seem to be the more unorganized and disarrayed our home seems to get. I say "attempting" because this will not be easy for me. I had 5 orders go out this last week!

So Saturday afternoon after another busy week, I was wondering what I can organize and clean for Tuesdays post? I was also wondering when I was going to find time to post my 4th of July DIY that I had been wanting to do (I even already had the supplies for it). So I decided to combine the post. I hope you don't mind, doing it this way saved me some sanity and I got to go to bed at a normal time. lol!
First up I needed to straighten the back porch. I forgot to take a picture of the before. It wasn't in horrible shape, I just needed to finally put away all the stuff that had accumulated there. You know things like the fall decor bins to the garage, some tools back in the garage, take the broken metal bed frame to the garbage. Dust and sweep up the remaining leaves, dirt and cobwebs, etc.
Now we can sit out here again in the cool of the evening and I can have morning devotions out here too.

 This is also where I wanted my DIY 4th of July decor to go. I have been wanting one of these ever since I saw on Pinterest. After a trip to the dollar store and getting a clearance box of lights from my friend Heather. I am ready to make it!
Here is what you need: a hula hoop, lights, garland, twist ties, cup hooks, ribbon and extension cord.

I want this to be able to change out with the seasons so I am attaching it with twist ties (I save these when they come in a box of bags).

I wrapped the lights first then followed up with festive garland and wire star garland attaching them all with the twist ties. To hang the light I put cup hooks in 3 different positions in the roof of the porch. Then tied a loop of ribbon at each spot on the hoop where it would hang from each hook.

This hangs just over the table and chairs. It is a small back porch so one is enough. Eventually I want to add some rope lights under the railing. But we love this! We are even doing bedtime stories out here! This was so easy to make the hardest part was getting the cup hooks in the wood.

Here is another super fast and easy DIY 4th of July decor from my friend Heather.
Supplies to make: some super adorable July flowers from Walmart, foam ball, ribbon, 1 straight pin and a glue gun. Take the flowers off of there stems, hot glue them into the foam ball (arranging them in a pattern). Then pin and glue the ribbon to the top of the ball. Then hang and enjoy!

Have a wonderful, safe and blessed 4th of July!
 

Antique Technique DIY

Wow has our summer not slowed down yet. With working outside the home, a slew of local and etsy store orders, a home school conference and VBS this week I just simply have had no time to write. I have a list of what I want to write about, but with a packed schedule something had to go. It is hard to believe it has been almost two weeks since my last post. But I am back and have lots to share with you this summer. So thank you for stopping by again!
In my last post I shared about my great deal on curtains. Today I will share how I coordinate the hardware in our dining room with a DIY on antique technique. As a kid and even young adult I spent a lot of time in my grandma Lois' ceramic shop. It started with little Christmas ornaments I would paint as 5 years old--I grew up with it. I even made all the bridal shower favors, wedding thank you gifts and candle centerpieces for my wedding from my grandma's shop. It was a fun way to spend time with her, be creative, and learn a great deal about technique. One of them is how to antique something. Which now carry's over into our home decorating.

DIY antique; it is easy. I promise! The first thing is to start with something that has a base coat. The curtain rod ends already were a finished wood. The ceiling medallion (I will show at the end) was white and I painted it brown.

The ones in the picture I started back when I first got my ruined curtains and never finished them. Probably because it was close to Thanksgiving and I ran out of time to finish. But on this project I have 3 colors to antique so I will be able to show you how with the next 2 coats. What you see is the original wood rod ends that have the first color (black) antiqued on them.

Once you have an established base coat you will then decide on your antique colors. For this project I have three because I want it to match the other hardware in our dining room.I used a simple acrilic paint that any craft store will have.You need a paint brush, rag, and small recycled dish or cup.

Take your paint and add a few squirts into the container. Then add a little water at a time and mix it together. This is called thinning your paint.

Then brush your thinned paint all over your piece.

 

Then immediately and gently wipe off the excess paint with your clean rag. If you wipe off too much just paint it again. If you need more to come off, then dampen your rag and keep working at it.Once you have finished, let it dry. I used a foam block so these could dry upright.

Now if you only have one coat then once it is dry, coat with clear coat spray paint and you are done.
But if you have a 2nd or 3rd coat, like this project then I will repeat the process again.
My third and final coat will be gold. Same steps as before. Thin down my paint with water. Brush gold over entire piece, and gently wipe away the excess (but leaving a bit more in the cracks and crevices). Then let it dry before spraying a little clear coat on it.

The picture doesn't do it justice. It looks really nice in real life.

Here is the project that I did that inspired me to the the curtain rods ends. Sorry that I don't have pictures of the process (this was before the blog). My husband found this white medallion at Home Depot. He then, knowing my painting abilities ask if I could make it match the light we were putting up. Challenge excepted! I painted the entire thing brown and then antiqued it black, gold and silver. Then sprayed some clear coat on it.

What do you think? Want to try it? It really is easy!

Mason Jar Bug Catcher

Sunshine loves bugs. Unless it happens to be a spider that is on her or a wasp anywhere in the area. Those 2 happen to terrify her. But harmless boxelder bugs she loves! And it wasn't long after I took the photos of her enjoying her bugs that she stared calling them buddies. I think as a 2 year old she was trying to say buggies. However, she is creative and cleaver, so she very well may have meant to name them buddies. Lol! Boxelders happen to live in the elm trees on and next to our property.

                                                                 
 image source

So every spring and summer since then she has had just about every sort of contraption to carry her buddies around with her. This week I thought of this idea for her bugs.

 A mason jar with some pink tulle we had in our scrap ribbon bucket and a canning ring to hold it on. I like this much better than trying to poke holes into a lid.

Happy "buddie" catching!

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Pinterest Party Part 3, The Crafts

Thanks for stopping by! Today I am sharing the last post on the Pinterest Birthday party I helped to design. For the rest of the story check out part one: the theme and part two: the food as well as Heather's post on her blog.
This was a crafters dream party! It was fun to pin something and then make it for the party. It as also so fun to just let the creativity flow in some projects such as these flowers.

Heather has a bunch on packing paper left over from her move a few years ago.

We used it just like you would tissue paper. Only it this is much thicker to work with. As I was "fluffing" the paper out I just happen to mess with the center to get it to form. The more I messed with it the more it started looking like the center of a flower. Which gave us the inspiration to spray paint them. We had several different looks by the time we were done. And all of it wasn't planned.

That is the best part... just start messing with something and see what comes of it! If nothing else you will bust out laughing at what you made and try again!  My favorite is the blue with yellow center.
My next flower I got the inspiration from here. I used a scallop circle shape from my paper cutting system to get these.

I used 5 layers of tissue paper, traced, cut the shape, and stapled the center. Then I adhered the flower to the same shape and color of cardstock. Then fluffed. A few of them I did double sided. These are my favorite and I am making some for samples in my store.

The "double bloom" as I call it was by accident as well. I used a short layer of tissues on top of a longer layer and this is what it made.

For your next party just experiment with your paper to see what you get. And if you mess up, just staple, glue, wire and spray paint to get the look you like! Like this one:

 We loved it, but it took a hot glue gun to get what we were wanting.

Heather wanted a game at the party. I happen to see this one. So I made my own. I used my computer screen as a light box, placed a piece of copy paper up onto the screen and lightly traced the pattern. Then used it as a guide to draw a larger one for us. Next, I just filled him in with color.

Ain't I cute?!

For his tails I used the Pinterest image I found here and glued yarn in between the P circle and another piece of cardstock on the back side.

The last thing I want to share is that Heather, has wanted to get friends together to make Pinterest items. She used her birthday as a way to get it scheduled. Originally she was wanting to just get everyone together and charge a fee to cover her supplies. But since she was now tying it in with her birthday, she wondered if she should just cover the cost herself. I told her if she did that then it would be like giving party favors. She loved the idea and calls them her "big girl party favors".

First she shared with everyone how she makes her own laundry soap.

She had them dump each of the boxes: Borax, Super Washing Soda, Purex Crystals (optional-for scent), Pure Baking Soda and 1/2 the Sun Oxy powder into a very large bowl. She then had everyone take a turn grating (so all would see how easy it is to grate) the 4 bars of Fels Naptha into the bowl. It was then all mixed together. To go with the theme we used recycled red capped creamer bottles to send everyone home with soap. They each decorated their own bottles.

The last thing I have to share it these cute chalk board crates. She has a post here She used hers for lonely socks. I used mine for my wash clothes. Others used them for bills, toys, and hair bows.

This party was a total blast. My goal in sharing all these ideas, is to encourage you to get some friends and family together, enjoy the fellowship and create together!

Mother's Day gift made with everyday items around the house

I am taking a break from New Meal Monday's to share with you a fun easy craft your kiddos will love to give to moms, grandma's, even their cousins and friends. At our last 4H meeting one of our leaders shared with us how to make these cute necklaces out of simple items. Sunshine and I thought it would be fun to make some more and share with all of you!

At the meeting she brought clothes pins, chain, various beads and wire cutters. I am all for using what we already have on hand so we have colored cord to use instead of the chain.

First the most fun part of this whole project...

...pulling the clothes pins apart! Instructed them to gently pull apart though. Otherwise you will need to use your wire cutters to get them back into shape.

Once you have your clothes pins separated, bag the wooden parts and save for another project we will do for Father's Day (future post).
Ok, lets stop for a moment and just enjoy what is before us. Who comes to the table to craft looking like they are ready for tea? Why Sunshine of course! (Sorry, had to share, she's too cute!)

Ok, so once you have your beads picked out, you will most likely need to trim down each side of the opening. (opposite end from the spring)

Then once you put the bead in, both sides of the bead will fit evenly through.. If your bead has a big enough opening you will not need to trim.

Then use what you have on hand (chain, cord, or ribbon) and thread it through the spiral spring part.

There you have it!
Happy Mother's Day!