Glass Pebble Charms

 With the holiday season quickly approaching, I thought I would share an easy and fun craft that is great for gift giving. I first saw one of these glass pebble charms at an adorable boutique in Llano, Texas. (I wish I could find the name of the shop but I have searched and cannot find it.)

I bought this one for myself and decided I would need to make more for some of my close friends and family. 

Here are the supplies that you will need:

• Glass pebbles (I found mine at Hobby Lobby but I've seen them at Walmart and other craft stores as well.)
• Mod Podge
• Jewelry bails (I got mine half off at Hobby Lobby. They have a good selection of various styles and sizes.)
• Super Glue
• Selected magazine cutout or scrapbook paper

When I made my list of gift recipients, I decided what design or letter I wanted to seek out for each person. Next I gathered some old magazines and looked for potential charms. I will say that the best typography I found was from bridal magazines. It helps to use the glass pebbles as you search and place it over the letters to make sure they are the right size - they have to be pretty small!

I traced the pebbles on the paper and cut out the desired designs. Next, I adhered them to the back side of the glass pebbles using Mod Podge. Make sure that you put your design face down so that it will show through the convex side. I added an additional coat of Mod Podge to the back of the cut out once it was adhered. 

After it dries, carefully use the superglue to position and attach the jewelry bail. And now, it is done! Easy peasy, huh? 

These are great for necklaces and charm bracelets but they might even make neat looking rings. I've even seen cute magnets made from glass pebbles. The possibilities are endless :) Have fun, be creative and make some thoughtful gifts before this holiday season gets too crazy. Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you!

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Key Art

I have been meaning to share this project with y'all for weeks but it has been crazy busy around here! We are finally starting to feel settled in the new house and, actually, we had an open house tonight with all our old and new church friends.

Pretty easy project but I'm really into "key" art or decor....whatever it is called! This was not an original idea by any means. Several years back I purchased it as an old stained wood drawer with brass keys glued  inside. As I mentally started to decorate the new house, I knew this piece was too dark and the keys were hardly visible on the dark backdrop of the wood drawer. Well that was nothing some leftover paint couldn't fix! I used a bright white latex paint that I always have on hand and then sprayed the keys with leftover Valspar spraypaint in "Mediterranean" (same color used on my lamp projects).

The keys really pop against the white drawer. I wanted to keep it looking shabby chic so I just distressed the corners with some sandpaper. Did you notice another display of hydrangeas? Love them! They are sporting an old can of beans (san beans)  spray painted in "Mediterranean." I must say that I have lots of crafts in mind for my old cans. I just cannot throw them away! Hopefully, I'll get to crafting with them soon because I'm running out of space for all my potential crafting items ;-)







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Another lamp makeover

Remember the rosette lamp makeover I did? Well I used the same spray paint on this one but no rosettes. It is a funny story actually. Well more like one of those stories that is definitely NOT funny at the time but comical after the fact. I had two of these lamps in our old living room and Chase stated that they were too outdated for the new house. So...I did what I always do when I have junk on my hands - I spray painted them! Unfortunately, in between the first and second coat, an acorn fell from a tree in the yard and broke part of the lamp base which was made of glass. I was pretty bummed about that but decided to make the most of the one lamp left. After attempting to tear apart one lampshade, I changed my mind and decided to decorate the leftover lampshade (from the broken lamp) only to discover it had been accidentally given away in our garage sale. So! Back to square one. I had seen wire lampshades covered in fabric at a local craft shop. It gave me the idea for this one in which I used strips of white fabric, lace trim and a strand of plastic pearls. I knotted them end to end, alternating fabric/lace/pearls and then wrapped them around the wire lampshade frame.

Here is the "before" picture of this lamp:

And the "after" shot:

What do you think?

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Bath time shapes

Happy November! It has been a whirlwind around here with all the Halloween and fall festivities but I wanted to share a fun idea with y'all before I forget. Ellie and I frequent story time at our local library and recently received these foam shapes for her to use in the bathtub. Ellie has really enjoyed playing with them in and out of the tub; plus, they are great for practicing shapes. These would be easy and inexpensive gifts for young ones since the foam can be bought at any craft store or even Walmart. The foam sticks really well to the side of tub and when she is done playing, they don't take up much space to store until next time. Sometimes it's the simple things :)

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Snow White, Cinderella and Belle - Oh my!

Ellie and I were VERY excited to go see Disney Live! performing three of Ellie's favorite princess fairy tales this past weekend. We were invited by one of her really good friends so I decided to make some goody bags for them to enjoy on this special day.

I've been eyeing tulle pom-pom tutorials all over Pinterest so I decided to give them a chance. I used this tutorial and I thought they turned out okay. There are more complicated tutorials that I might try next time but for a toddler fairy wand these were fine. 

I picked three thin ribbons to tie the center of my pom-poms and left the ends long - part of the "look" I wanted for these. 

Next I painted two unsharpened pencils with leftover paint from this project. 

I previously mentioned that I like Valspar brand spray paint better because it goes on thicker and more evenly. However, it does take a little longer to dry. I let the pencils dry overnight and then hot glued the pom-poms to them the next day.

I bought a few other goodies for the girls and put them all together for the trip. We had tiaras, glow sticks, and candy. Needless to say, we had a blast! The girls held their wands the. entire. time. 

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Fall Garland

Laaaate last night I shared a sneak peek of this post on my facebook page. I found these fall-themed paper doilies at the Dollar Tree. Love them! They had a few other colors and patterns but I liked these three the best.

I had been eyeing this garland for awhile on Pinterest and still plan to create it for Valentine's day but I really like the different colored doilies I found at the Dollar Tree against the white lights:

I had the hubby pick me up a strand of 50 white lights and that was the perfect length for the three packs of doilies. I put two of the same pattern on each bulb so that the colorful side is showing even if the garland shifts. The holes in the doilies were just the right size for poking the light bulbs through them. However if your Dollar Tree doesn't have the same fall paper doilies, I'm sure there are leaf printables and templates floating around Pinterest that you could print or trace on colored paper. Then you could just use a paper hole punch for placing the lights. Just an idea ;-)

 You may notice that the window is bare in the new kitchen. Umm yeah...I have more important things to focus on like...making paper doily garland than making decisions on window treatments ;-)

And did you notice my centerpiece? I had some leftover supplies from the fall wreath I made so I basically just dumped the tulle, pumpkins and leaves into my trifle bowl. I think my trifle bowl was just glad to be used for once. Maybe I'll make this Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle from Taste of Home. It looks sooo good!

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Painted Bottles

I have seen different types of painted bottles all over Pinterest and this was my favorite. I bought blue, green and white acrylic paint for mine - half the fun was experimenting with different ratios of the color combinations. All you do is pour the paint into the bottles, swirl it around and then pour out the excess. Quick and easy = my favorite craft! The only downside is acrylic paint is not water proof so you can't use the painted bottles as vases for fresh flowers. However, I l-o-v-e dried hydrangeas (I'm sure none of you knew that. They weren't in this post, or this one and definitely not this one. They just like appearing in my blog photos. They're sneaky like that.) and they are perfect for these vases.

 Here they are in my kitchen window over the sink. I think they are enjoying their upgrade. They are pictured in this post in the old kitchen window prior to the paint makeover.

And here are some more above the...ahem...commode.

This was super easy and cheap. I think they would be a lot of fun for different events and gift giving. I hope you feel inspired to craft :)

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Rosette Lamp

 I have been seeing rosette tutorials all over Pinterest and when I realized how easy they are to make, I knew it was exactly what I needed for my lamp makeover. Why oh why do I never remember to get a "before" picture? Well, Chase didn't think my flea market find was worth keeping during the move. I had been on the fence about giving it a makeover so when he suggested it was outdated, I knew that was my cue. By the way, have all my spray paint happy friends discovered the Valspar brand? I just discovered Valspar brand spray paint at Lowe's and I love it. It goes on much more evenly and requires less coats than I typically use with Krylon for the same price. The color I used is called "Mediterranean." It is bold but I think it works well since most of the house is white and very light colors. I'm using this same color on some other projects that I will need to share with you soon. I just love the pop of color it gives.

Next I made my rosettes using this tutorial. Who knew rosettes were so easy to make?!

I hot glued mine directly to the lamp and only blistered one finger ;-)

I used an old fabric remnant from my stash but, unfortunately, ran short! I decided to just add some lace to the bare spots and I like the way it turned out.

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