Earring Frame

Making a pretty place to display my earrings was one of those things that had been on my never ending crafty to-do list FOREVER but I never got around to it.  Then I decided to make one for my sister for Christmas and finally got around to it. When I saw two of these lovely fox hunt pictures at Salvation Army for $1.99 each, (minus 50% for yellow tags that day) I snatched them.  

Another stop at Home Depot for silver spray paint and 36 in. x 84 in. Charcoal Fiberglass Screen and I was ready to go!  

I know it's probably hard to believe, but those dapper horsemen came out of the frames pretty easily.  A little sanding and 2 coats of silver spray paint covered the woodsman-ness and make them much more sleek.  

I had quite a lot of fun with the staple gun and the screen.  I was happy to have two frames to complete so I could perfect my skill with the second one.  My sister received the neater of the two, of course.

I already had picture hangers on hand so I attached those and was ready to hang up some earrings!

I love having my earrings out so I can see what I have and actually wear them!

Money breakdown:

- 2 Salvation Army Frames: $1.99

- Rusolium Silver Spray Paint: $4.24

- 36" x 86" Screening: $6.48/roll  (TONS left over)

- Picture hangers: already had

- Staple gun: already had

Final Price for 2 Earring holders: way cheaper and more meaningful than buying one.

Now to figure out what to do with the 70 + inches of screening I have left....

Play Kitchen

For Christmas this year, we wanted to give our little girl a big present and I really wanted it to be something we made.  She loves pulling stuff our of the one kitchen cabinet that is purposely not baby-locked, so why not give her her own little kitchen!

After a LOT of searching Pinterest for ideas, I was determined that I was going to find a night stand or end table of some sort at a thrift store or off Craig's list that we would then transform.  My husband was determined to convince me that we should pay way too much for any number of adorable play kitchens.

So I spent a Saturday afternoon going to THREE thrift stores (with little girl in tow) and found something I thought would work.  So $15 later I brought home an end table and a plan.  It took a little creative convincing to get my husband to see my vision. Once he realized he'd get to use several power tools, he was in.

Here's the process (minus a few steps) in pictures.

All of the painting, stove front making and details happened at night and I completely forgot to take pictures of everything between the above picture and the finished kitchen.

Ikea has the most adorable pots and pans set

And kitchen utensil set

Some cut up kitchen twine makes pretty awesome spaghetti - and let me tell you, she LOVES 'making' spaghetti!

Hubby went a little crazy with the Ikea fruit and veggie baskets too.

Cutting fruit is a bit hit too.

It took her a few minutes to realize this was sitting in our rather small living room (which was made even smaller with the Christmas tree) but she eventually warmed up to it and has played with it every day since.

Valentine's Day Cards

I haven't cared too much for Valentine's Day since I was probably in middle school, but I'm a little in love with the idea of my daughter "sending" valentines to our family.

So I collected so ideas:

Craft Snob turned me onto this lovely 

Download it here

And my mom got me this Martha Stewart punch for Christmas.  I would never have picked it out for myself but I LOVE it!  Aren't those the best gifts sometimes?

It's the Deep Edger Lattice Heart Punch.  

I printed up some Valentine's messages on pink card stock

 

cut to a size that would fit in my envelopes

let the little girl color
(Honestly this step took several days because all she wants to color is George - I had to sneak in a Valentine when she was agreeable to color on something other than her precious George pictures.)

punch a heart on the edge



and all ready to send off!

Easy Peasy Hair Clips

This was my first guest post that was featured over at RoCa and Company over the summer.  Thought it would be nice to share it here too!

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I have an easy peasy tutorial for you today on making hair clips for all the little girls in your life.  (These make great gifts if you don't have girls of your own!) I get a lot of inspiration from from lovely bloggers in blogland (like Carmen!) so you'll probably see some ideas that you've elsewhere spotted before.

Let's get started making some Easy Peasy Hair Clips!

Here are the supplies you'll need:

- alligator clips (mine are single prong and 1-3/4" long  *I bought a pack of 50 on eBay.)

- glue gun

- ribbon (grosgrain or something woven so it stays in the child's hair)

- candle

First we will cover the metal clip with ribbon.  If you are using alligator clips like mine, cut your ribbon a smidgen over 7 inches long.  You'll see why in a second.  If you have a different size clip, wrap some ribbon around the clip starting on the inside to see how much you need.  I have ribbon 1 cm wide and some 3/4 inch wide.  Both will work for this.

Next you need to do something to the ends so the ribbon doesn't fray (that would be a bummer after you spent all that time making adorable clips.)  You could use Fray Check or something similar or burn the edges like I did.  Since I'm making a bunch of clips, I'll burn the edges all at once to save some time.  If you've never done this before it's SOOO easy!  Hold the ribbon 2-3 inches above the flame until the edges seal.  This is why it's nice to have the ribbon a smidgen longer in case you burn a tad too much.

The ribbon on the left has not been burned and the one on the right has been burned.

Now let's get that glue gun out!  

* I think the key to getting the ribbon as even as possible is to glue a little at a time.  It might seem tedious but it's worth it to make the clip look really good and even.

We will start on the inside off the bottom tong.  Put glue on part of the ribbon and insert inside the clip. Put the burned edge up against the spring part.  Put a tad more glue on the outside of the clip you just put ribbon on and fold the ribbon over.  Squeeze the ribbon together to even out the glue and make sure the edges line up.

Now we will glue the bottom part where you squeeze.  Just a little dab of glue. Make sure it's where you want it.

Now for the inside of the squeeze part (yup I'm pretty sure that's the real name).  Glue the inside of the bottom part, press the ribbon in with your finger, then do the inside of the top part.  Don't put glue on the spring part!!  You want it to open easily :)

Now for the top. A little glue on the squeeze part  and even out the ribbon with your fingers.  Then put glue down the rest of the ribbon and fold over the top tong.

Use your fingers to even anything out and pull off any glue strings and you're done!!

Once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty fast and you can glue up a bunch in no time!

Now let me show you what it looks like with the ribbon that's wider than the clip.

Make sure to press the ribbon together around the clip at each step. You want the edges glued together so it's really secure.

It's definitely a lot more glue than they small ribbon, but be careful you don't put too much so it's all oozing out the sides. *If it does start to ooze, don't worry.  Just pinch it off before it hardens too much.  Of course wait a second so you don't burn your fingers on hot glue.  Ouch!

You could stop here and you're done!!  

If you have fun ribbon, you might not want anymore embellishments!  

I kind of like the wide ribbon ones as they are.

For the plainer ribbon, I like to add things....bows, flowers, etc.  You can really get imaginative here!

Here's some easy embellishments you can try:

Simple little bow.

Deconstruct some silk flowers then glue them back together.

Use up some scraps and make a fabric flower! 

(For this one I did dig out a needle and thread to keep it together.)

With so many fabric flower tutes out there in blogland, you can really go crazy!

Here are a few other's I've made for various occasions.  For some of these, I used up scraps to match clothes I had already made for my daughter.

Now if you're making clips as a present, here are some ideas for presenting them to make them a little extra special. 

All you need is some card stock and fun scissors.

You could do something this...

Or this....

Or this...

If you leave a little space you can write a message to the recipient!

So what do you think? Easy peasy right?!?!