Snowy Winter Terrarium

Who doesn't love picking through the bins at Goodwill?  Okay, so it's not for everyone, but I LOVE when I score a vintage treasure that only costs me 99 cents.  I've been using this little deer in my craft show display and for some Etsy listing flair, but I knew he needed a permanent holiday home.

Last week I bought a few magazines and in one of them (can't remember which... Better Homes and Gardens, maybe?)  I saw a little terrarium inside a fish bowl and thought "I can make that!"  My mind immediately went to glitter and something critter-related.

And so the deer now has a frosty winter abode.

Ahhh... nice and cozy.

I gathered these items together:

• A clean fishbowl
• A mini bottle brush wreath
• A couple mini bottle brush trees
• Some twigs from the craft store
• Fake glittery snow
• A little vintage spray of presents
• My precious little baby deer

The process couldn't be simpler.  Fill the fishbowl with a bit of fake snow.  Not too much, or the miniatures might be swallowed up!  I filled mine in such a way to create a slope - more snow towards the back, less in the front.

Then I gathered the presents, bottle brush trees and deer and "artfully arranged" with the help of my 5 year old (she has a great eye.) ;)  One useful tip might be to stick the deer's hooves into a tiny piece of styrofoam or glue them to a little scrap of cardboard so that he stands up a little straighter and doesn't go all wobbly.  It will save you many hissing breaths when your kids/cats/dogs/husbands bump the dresser the terrarium sits upon and the deer topples...

Lastly, I hung the wreath in the bare twig tree and placed it right near the deer.  Again, a bit of styrofoam might help things stand a little straighter in high traffic areas.

That's it!  We placed it inside a little twig basket in our Winter Woodland display for some extra woodsiness.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Some more ideas might be...
Make tiny branch "logs" out of twigs
Mushrooms
Birds in the twig tree (you can find teeny tiny little birds in the floral section of craft stores)
Find all kinds of mini critters on Etsy by searching in either the Vintage or Supplies sections
Put a little Putz style house inside
Add mini LED battery powered lights
Use a big mason jar instead of a fish bowl

Kids LOVE to help with this kind of stuff and it's a fun project they can rearrange over and over to create new scenes.  As long as you don't mind cleaning up wayward snow flurries from time to time.  ;)










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The holidays are here! And, last day of free shipping!

Hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend!  Mine was great, minus the raging cold I was left with!  But there's nothing better than spending time with friends and family in these chilly wet months of November and December.  What better way to warm our hearts than the laughter and company of loved ones?

Butterball "Frankenturkey" vs. "Lean Mean" Free Ranger (who actually turned out to be quite nice.)

I have so much to share with you over the next month!  Craft show season has ended and I can finally come up for air (and get my craft on.)  Thanks again to all the folks who came out to support local handmade small businesses at these fairs.  The news from Black Friday was very sad - the state of our country is troubled indeed when people are hurt as a result of blatant greed and anger.  If any lesson is to be taken away, it should a reality check of what's really important this holiday season, and that giving your money businesses that facilitate this kind of senseless violence (it's not the first time, unfortunately) will only further excuse their greed and corruption.  Thank goodness handmade is gaining popularity!  You get to know who makes your goods and hold them personally accountable (good or bad) for what they make.  Isn't that how it should be?

(There.  I'm off my soap box!)

Indoor Snow Terrarium

I will be sharing some fairly easy and inexpensive ideas on the blog in the coming days!  Decorations for the holidays (DIY projects/tutorials), tips on how to give vintage (meaningful gifts, recycling), easy projects to make (baking, sewing, etc.) and also some pictures of Linus the cat - I am making him a bow tie because what white fluffy cat doesn't need a bow tie for Christmas???

Lastly - today is the last day to enjoy free shipping in my Etsy shop!  I will have another deal next weekend too, but the fascinators are selling fast and I wouldn't want you to miss out on the perfect gift!  ;)  So use code TURKEYFREE at checkout and I will send it your items to you directly...

Have a super duper week!  XO

Big Top Love Mini Banner DIY Project

Those little chipboard flags had been sitting around in my craft drawer forever.  They would cry out to me every time I rooted around in there for something.  My kids have been home because of the teacher strike, and we had decided on craft time to keep busy for a couple hours.  They painted magical deer habitats and created 3-D drawings.  I made this.

Big Top Love Mini Banner

You'll Need:

4 Chipboard flags
2 coordinating shades of acrylic paint (I used a metallic pearl finish paint)
Black glossy acrylic paint
3 small foam paintbrushes
Brown stamp ink pad
Scrap of textured fabric (I used a scrap of courdory.  Flannel works good too!)
Hot glue
Yard of coordinating ribbon
Small letter stencils

Paint the flags with a few coats of paint - two green, two pink.  For a more finished look, paint the backs as well.  Acrylic craft paint dries pretty fast, thank goodness!  Let dry.

Bunch up your fabric scrap and press into the ink pad a few times.  Gently rub and blot ink around the flag.  Rub onto the edges and corners to give it an antiqued finish.  Let dry.

Use stencils to paint a letter from the word LOVE onto each flag (L&V one color, O&E another) by dabbing with black paint.  Be careful not to overload the brush or the letters will look muddled!  Blot before painting. 

Using the alternate color, carefully dab little bits of paint with the corner of the foam brush.  Again, be sure not to overload the brush - blot it before dabbing onto the flags.  The goal here is for it to look like flecks of paint, chips, scrapes.  Let dry.

Heat up a glue gun and glue letters to a length of ribbon leaving about 2 inches between letters.  Make a line of glue on the front of the letters and press the back of the ribbon into the glue - it's hot and bonds quickly, so make sure you're careful!

If you like, you can antique the ribbon with the stamp ink using the same method as for the flags.  Trim to desired length and hang!

Use whatever colors/words you like.  Hang with twine instead of ribbon!  Add glitter if you're feeling nutty.  Have fun!

Grown Up DIY Yarn Wreath Project

Yarn wreaths are one of those vintage gems that when I come across in the thrift store, I'm immediately transported back to the days of bubble lights and tinsel covered trees.  Typically covered in a cheap sheen of red, green and white, to this day there's something about the look and feel of acrylic yarn that reminds me of childhood Christmases and happy times.

One of the things I love about this "nostalgia movement" amongst crafters is that folks are taking the old and sentimental, giving it a swift kick in the pants, and creating handmade items that are relevant to today's style with nicer materials, cool colors and often times and unexpected artistic flair.

So when I started seeing yarn wreaths all over Etsy, Pinterest, magazines, blogs, etc.  I wasn't surprised, I was excited!  What a great nod to my childhood.  And not just for holidays!  I thought "this, THIS I CAN DO!"  And now you can too.  I'll show you how easy it is.*

*This project does takes a couple/few hours so be ready with a pot of tea and some Desperate Housewives reruns queued up...  :)

Grown Up DIY Yarn Wreath

You'll need:
Foam wreath blank in size of choice
2-3 skeins of yarn in weight of choice (I used acrylic/wool blend in worsted weight)
yarn pom poms
3 foot length of coordinating yarn for stripes
lace scraps
vintage buttons
ribbon scraps
Coordinating rick rack (I used large width)
Hot glue gun & glue

Fire up the glue gun and glue the end of your chosen yarn to the top back of the wreath (you choose where the top should be.)  Wait for the glue to dry a bit so the yarn with hold steady while you wrap.  Begin wrapping by holding the ball of yarn firmly and circling around the wreath tube 5 or 6 times, keeping the yarn somewhat taught while you wrap.  Maintain tension while you slide the loops toward the center, keeping them from overlapping, but pressed close together.

(Here is where you want to get comfortable and press play on Netflix.)

Keep wrapping and wrapping and wrapping and sliding the loops together in this same manner.  If you need to take a break, use a straight pin to hold the yarn in place and maintain tension.  make sure your loops don't overlap - smooth them out as you go, making sure they stay tight together.

If/when you reach the end of a skein, hot glue the end on the BACK side of the wreath.  Make sure all your loops look uniform (smooth out any overlaps, slide loops closer together if needed) before you glue!  Start another skein by gluing the new yarn end right where you left off.

If you come across any knots in the yarn, trim the yarn before the knot so that you can glue the end to the back of the wreath.  Cut away the knot, glue the fresh end and start wrapping again.

When you have wrapped to cover the entire wreath, glue end to the back next to where you started.  Be sure to pat yourself on the back!  That took forever...

Take the length of coordinating yarn (I used a gray wool yarn scrap) and glue to the top back again.  When dried a bit, wrap around in a large diagonal loop keeping even space between loops.  These can be as far apart or as close together as you like!  Glue end to secure at the top back when finished wrapping.  You can wrap around again if you like to create an X effect, just go the opposite direction!

Now onto the pom poms.  I happened to have three fuzzy poms on hand left over from a project last year.  Google "yarn pom poms" if you need a pattern, they are fairly easy to make, or you can find pom pom makers at the craft store in the yarn section.  Glue the pom poms to the front with the glue gun, tight together in a group of three.

Lace scraps can be bunched into a flower shape, or you can sew a running stitch on one side and pull to create a flower.  I made a bunchy flower with a cotton lace doily simply by gluing it into a flower shape (careful here - the glue is hot!!!) right onto the wreath and glued the sewn lace flower right below it.  Vintage buttons were glued to their centers, and a few scraps of rick rack and ribbon were glued behind the flowers to hang down a bit as an accent.

Rick rack was used as a wreath hanger by looping both end through the top of the wreath and trimming to desired length.  I made a little bow with the leftovers and glued it to the top of the loop on the wreath.

Ideas:

Use different shades of yarn to "color block" a wreath!
Use two strands together (advanced maneuver!) to create more texture
Use felt balls, felt flowers, knitted/crocheted flowers, leaves, twigs, birds nests, etc. instead of pom poms!  I bet you could think up some amazing seasonal themes...

Have fun!

New DIY Project Preview

I've been busy!  The house is covered in glitter now thanks to this week's DIY project spree.  And no, glittering the house was not my DIY.  (But there's a thought...)

Here are three projects you'll see here on the blog over the next few weeks.  Each will have step by step instructions and suggestions for how you might make changes/improvements to your liking.  Be sure to check back!

Big Top Love Chipboard Mini Banner

Crafty Yarn Wrapped Wreath

Glittered and Upgraded Figurine

Our school district is dealing with a strike right now (sigh.  Keep fingers crossed they sort it out soon!) My kids are home with me, which means I work at about a 50% capacity.  But I will do my best to get at least one of these suckers edited and posted for your crafty enjoyment before week's end!  Do you have a preference???