Snowman wreath...Easy & Cute

So simple, low in cost, and fun to make. This wreath I plan on leaving up all winter with the rest of my snowman decorations.

What you need:
Garland
Wood wreath
Woodland/snowman type ornaments (found at wal-mart)
Cinnamon pine cones
Hair clips (found in wal-mart jewlery making supplies)
Hot glue gun.

Wrap wreath with garland, make sure to leave a little of the wood showing to give it a little character.

Hot glue your clips to the cinnamon pine cones. They do have these already done at wal-mart for $1.49, but I like mine better at .20, and the pine ones already done do not smell like cinnamon, yum!

Put your wreath together and hang!
Very fast and simple! I saw a similar wreath online selling for $25, mine cost less than $10. Makes a girl very happy :)

BOO! Halloween Hanger

I had such a fun time making this wall hanging. I am also going to make one for Christmas that says Joy. The package of the chipboard wall hanging set came with 6 pieces, so it works out great.

Materials:
1 package of wall hanging chipboard pieces, or cut up 3 6x6 pieces of card board or heavy card stock.
6 different sheets of pattern paper, I used bo bunny.
Set of 6 split rings
Different ribbons, I used a set from Reminice
Stickers & dress up buttons
Printed out letters from Lettering Delights.

Beginner Knitted Coffee Cozy

When I was going through my Gooseberry patch Homemade Harvest cookbook I found a section of craft ideas. This easy and fast knitted cozy was one of them...

Very simple pattern, and this beginner knitter completed this cozy in less than an hour.


Besides finding this fun pattern that kept me busy last night, I also have a huge list of recipes I want to try. Tonight I made the slow cooker mac n cheese.

It was super good, and a big hit with my boys. Not to mention that it was nice to have dinner all ready and waiting in the crock pot.

So go to amazon.com and look for Gooseberry patch Homemade Harvest. It's worth the money!

Our Valentines

I should have posted this on Valentines Day, but I have been so down in the dumps I just don't want to do anything. I haven't even worked on my purse, all I want to do is sit and stare into space!

So, we did have a good Valentines day. The day before we went out to eat with friends, that was a lot of fun, and my son's now ex girlfriend (another long story) gave him this really cool candy bouquet.....

I think this would be a fun gift for a birthday, or really cute with all Easter candy for the older kids from the Easter Bunny.

I decided that this year I was going to make goodies for my 2 boys...

For my son I made gluten free devil's food cupcakes with strawberry frosting. I used the gluten free cake mix and frosting by betty crocker. This mix is so awesome, you can never tell they are gluten free! He was totally excited about that.

For the Hubby I made his favorite.....

Popcorn cake! This is actually a Christmas thing, and the recipe is from his step mom. I actually have changed it a little because He really likes it when it's gooey....

Popcorn Cake...

1 stick of butter (you can use margarine, but why eat something that is so close to plastic?, yuck!)
6 cups popcorn or so ( I use one of the microwaveable bowls so basically it's a full bowl, or if you use an air popper it would be a full bowl of that.
1 package of the big marshmallows. For vday I used the jet puff strawberry hearts they came out with, and Christmas I used the vanilla snowman, it gave it a different flavor for each holiday.
1 package of hoilday m&m's
about a cup, or more of gum drops. I used those gummy hearts for this one.
1 cup of peanuts if you want to, I didn't use them for this one, and the hubby actually liked it better.

Melt butter in big microwaveable bowl. add marshmallows and cook two minutes at a time until melted. Add rest of ingredients and spread in a greased 11x13 pan. Put in the fridge for about an hour to set up. Make sure you keep covered!


Since I am trying to watch my sugar intake and other things I eat, since I haven't been feeling up to par, My hubby got me this cute flower arrangement in a hersey's kiss candy dish...

I love it when you get things you can reuse!



So that's about it on Valentines day. Hopefully I will get more in the craft/crochet mode soon and will have a finished bag and other things to show you!

Valentines day decor

I have been having so much fun making things for valentines day. Here are some of the fun things I've made from ideas I've found online....

Here is my vday tree. I found a package of wood heart shapes at wal-mart for $1.97, had some valentines day paper and stickers that matched that I thought would make cute hearts. All I did was trace around the hearts, cut them out, adhered them to the wood hearts with mod podge, sanded the edges, and then mod podged the whole heart. They turned out really cute! And for the tree I used an old vase I had, some spanish moss, and some twigs that I had bought at the craft store. I was thinking about just going and cutting twigs in the woods, but really wanted them to last. My plan is to make a tree for every holiday or season using these branches and vase.

Here is a close up of the hearts. 

Here is another mod podge project. I bought this plain red mailbox in the dollar section at target. I used the same valentines day paper and stickers to decorate it. Now I wish that I would have bought some more.

This one was fun! I used my cricut to cut out the hearts and letters using my sure cuts a lot program and some lettering delights dingbats. I'm really loving sure cuts a lot and the cricut.

I'm loving this picture.. keep calm and love on. I put it next to a collage of pictures of my sweetie and I in Vegas for Sema this year. I think I will keep this picture out next to the collage all year long. All I did was search keep calm in the graphics section of google and found the print.

And here is the finished product, everything put together for a fun valentines day mantel.

Bulldog Valentine

I just got done making the cutest valentine for an etsy customer, and can't wait to make more. In fact I know I am going to make one for our son.

The customer wanted a bulldog valentine for someone. Being that her special person is a bulldog, just like my sons high school mascot. I had the cutest bulldog paper, and little paw ribbon, the heart buttons I also had, and thought they were so cute on the card.





I made the inside pale pink with a little piece of card stock, so you can write your own sweet message inside.
I printed out the message from one of the graphics I have on my computer, too cute subway art.

If you are interested in purchasing this card, I have them for sale in my easy shop. I only put one up to see how they did, but as the sell I will keep relisting them.

Thanks everyone for all of your kind words and support!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Repurposed Christmas Charger

When I went to bed, bath and beyond the other day, they had all of their Christmas decor 80% off. I decided to take a look around to see what I might find that I could use for something other than Christmas. Ta da, a red charger was sitting there marked .45 cents.
I was in a total craft mood today, forget the dishes and laundry *grin* so I worked on repurpose of different Christmas decor.

Here is what you need for this project:
One red charger
Valentines card stock
Mod podge
Sponge brush
Zots to attach ribbon
Medium wide ribbon
Wide ribbon.

I drew out a circle that was the same diameter of the center of the charger, using a bowl as my template.
Adhere mod podge to the center of the charger and place your circle of card stock the way you want it.
Paint mod podge all over the top of the card stock and up the sides of the charger, it will dry clear so make sure you really stick it on good.
Once dry, attach medium wide ribbon in a loop fashion around the inside of your charger, on top of the card stock with zots.
Take wide ribbon and make a pretty bow, attach it with zots to where the medium ribbon begins and ends... Ta da, you have a great valentines piece for your dining table, this is what I did with mine......




I will be posting the crocheted cupcake tomorrow.
I know this isn't really date night related, but is all about love!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Recycled Sweater Valentines Ornaments

I've noticed recently that one of my older posts on how to make recycled sweater ornaments has been very popular. Since it's almost time for Valentines day I decided to make up some heart ornaments to decorate the house with.


Materials:
Old sweaters, can be felted. Or scraps of material.
Pipe cleaners, any color works because they will be covered by the material.
Twine or ribbon, whatever you have on hand to keep the cost down
Buttons
Glue Gun
Heart shaped cookie cutters

What to do:

To make your heart you will need to wrap your pipe cleaner around the outside of your cookie cutter. When you get to the end where you started, fasten ends of your pipe cleaner together and slide your pipe cleaner shape off of your cookie cutter. You should have the shape of your cutter.

Cut 1/2" strips of your sweater or material and start at the top or bottom of heart. Put a drop of hot glue on the beginning of the strip and start wrapping, adding a little bit of glue every few wraps. Finish off at the end with the last bit of hot glue.

Tie twine or ribbon at the top of your heart for hanging and glue on button or buttons.

Here is an idea of what I did with my heart....

The perfect addition to a pic of my hubby and mom in law.

Please show me what you make, I'd love to see them. And make sure you become of fan of the cozy at home facebook page, I will be making a link on the side today.

A couple cards

I was hoping to bring you something more exciting than just a couple cards today. But I ended up going and doing shopping today since we are suppose to get this huge storm tomorrow.
I did find some ideas at michaels and bed bath and beyond today, so you will see something exciting soon. I also had my cricut blade housing totally come apart, so have been trying to fix that.
I am working on a valentines cupcake ornament, just have the bottom left to make and will be posting it soon.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Let it snow garland

I had so much fun yesterday playing with my cricut. I used the winter woodland cartridge to make the snowflakes and the "Let it snow" saying. The snowflakes I actually made in different sizes and then layered to give them a little more. The paper I used is by bo bunny, very neat snowflake paper.

Here is a full picture of the garland......

Hope you find this inspiring for your to make your own winter garland.

SPOOKY! Garland made with my cricut.

This was so much fun! I got the idea from Dittle Dattle. I made the letters from the Winter Woodland Cricut cartridge. I used BoBunny paper, purple velvet ribbon, and attached the letter blocks to a black iridescent ribbon with mini safety pins. I used used the doodlecharms cartridge for the spiders.

Here is a close up of the spiders. I took purple glitter glue and highlighted their eyes and legs. I also used black glitter glue around each letter square.

Let me know what you think, I love your comments!

Paper Pumpkin from Martha Stewart

I was watching Martha Stewart today and saw the show where Martha made this cool pumpkin.
For some reason I had mommy brain fade out and only used one sheet of 12 x 12 paper instead of two. I might make another one tomorrow with 2 sheets to see what I think.
I also used the cricut and the stamping cartridge to make the leaves, and I used a scrap piece of bamboo felt to make the stem.
So if you would like to make one of these totally cool pumpkins go HERE and get all the specifics, I would love to see your pumpkins when you get done.

Check back tomorrow, I was working on another fun Halloween garland this afternoon, but didn't quite get finished. I will be posting this project tomorrow, kinda cute and I used the cricut again.

Vintage Halloween Garland

This project was so much fun to create! And making it also inspired me to clean the house and decorate for Autumn, and my 2nd favorite holiday, Halloween.

Since it's such a rainy day here in North Idaho, and I have a yummy chuck roast cooking in the crock pot, I'm going to make some more of these fun garland, and some other vintage things.

Recycled sweater ornaments

Hey Everyone,
Not very much longer
until Christmas huh? This is a great, and very fast ornament or last minute gift topper you can make for all your friends. I made Stockings, Gloves, Stars & Hearts. I also have Gingerbread Men and Trees ready to make tomorrow.

I have been racking my brain on what kind of ornament to make for an exchange my MIL is having next week. It's also a cookie/candy exchange, but that was the easy part for me.

So today I started searching around the internet and found the coolest idea from DOLLAR STORE CRAFTS.
I decided to make her 10 second ornament project, and the great part about it? I had everything I needed here at home, wooo hooo, no extra money was spent! CLICK HERE to get her instructions on how to make these ornaments.
She has you use lots of different materials to wrap your ornaments with, but I have tons of felted sweaters on hand, I decided to use them instead. I think they really turned out good. Let me know what you think. The more the pattern on the sweater, the neater they turned out.


COZY AT HOME NEWS!!!!!!
I was playing around on Flickr today, and decided to make a cozy at home group for projects that I have featured on my blog. If any of you have made any of the crochet patterns, or other crafts I have had on my blog, please join this group and add pictures. I am so excited to see what you all have been doing. Please follow this link if your interested.... http://www.flickr.com/groups/1285623@N20/

Reusable Lunch Containers

What an awesome idea for reusing milk jugs & juice cartons. I will have to make some of these for us, and I was just thinking, you could also use these for storage of office supplies, craft supplies, you name it!
Go to Family Fun to get the pattern for these great resuable containers!

Great gifts for girlfriends

I love getting up early on the weekend. The teenager and hubby are still asleep, and I get to enjoy my coffee and read some really awesome blogs.
This morning I was reading "A Journey to a Simple Happy Life" and came across her post on "Great gifts for girlfriends."
So I was thinking, and decided to make up my favorites that I love to get and give....

1. A crocheted coffee cup cozy with a starbucks gift card inside. My Mom gave me this idea, she knitted some really pretty cozies, and then felted them. She said that she thought it would be great to stick a gift card inside. I love to personalize the cozy in my friends favorite colors too, and crochet relaxes me.

2. Fingerless gloves. It gets pretty cold here in North Idaho, and a lot of my friends are walkers. So I started making fingerless gloves for them to use when they are walking, so far they have been a big hit.

3. Hat and scarf set in our High School colors. Almost all of my friends have kids the same age as I do, and they are all going into high school this year. So I have started making hat and scarf sets, for the ones that wear them that is, in our school colors of red & white.

4. Books. I love books, and if I find one that I truly love, I always end up buying it for my closest friends. It's hard to give books to everyone, but I have 3 close friends that read and enjoy the same books I do. This year I am going to add a crocheted bookmark to their books.

5. I love to scrapbook, so I also love making 6 x 6 albums to give to my friends. Sometimes I will put pictures in them of all of us together, and sometimes I just leave them blank for them to add their own pictures. If they have recently went on a vacation, or their kids play sports, I usually do a themed album for them. This is a pretty cheap gift if you use a paper bag album, then all you maybe need is $5 to $10 in supplies to finish it. I have so many supplies I could start my own store, so I usually only make these if I have everything I need.

So there you have it, my top five favorite gifts to give my girlfriends. If you have any ideas, or you have a favorite not on the list, please share it with me!

A Reuse for an old metal t.v. tray!

I found this really cool idea in country living magazine this month. They used an old, metal, t.v. tray as a message center. I happened to have one lying around, but it had a very crazy print on it, like the old 70's prints that were so popular, in the 70's! :)
So, I found a can of navy blue spray paint, and some red and white acrylic paints, and TA DA! My very own, original americana message center that goes with my livingroom decor. I also used an old stamp set I had from Stampin' Up to make the design on it. I tried a stencil first, but it just didn't look good. Here is a picture of the "Message center" before I have things on it and up on the wall....

Wish I would have thought about taking some pics before I started, but I was so excited about this project that I started it without thinking about before pictures!

Valenties, Yeah I'm paper crafting again!

I haven't been stamping in so long, or even scrapbooking for that matter! So when my best friend invited me out to scrapbook last week I jumped at it. The problem? I have gotten so out of it that I had a total creativity block, so I decided to take some card making things out instead. WOW, did I have fun! It's been so long since I have done any type of paper crafting I didn't even miss it, I think I will start missing it now!

Reuse of a jar

I have been saving jars all year, knowing that I would want to make some gift mixes for this Christmas. Needless to say, it didn't happen! So I decided to make a candy jar for us instead. I used pattern scrapbook paper, and ribbon to make it, very simple! I am so proud of myself for making something from reusable materials! 

I am in the process of making up a "Christmas" Journal to put all of my gift ideas in, and then will put when I want to make them on the calendar. I want to start earlier then this year!!!! 

Wool Felt Dove Ornament

This is the newest project that I made out of the new Living Crafts magazine. This sweet dove was made with Holland 100% wool felt from www.achildsdream.com, in soft white, Ecru & Brown embroidery thread. Go to www.livingcrafts.com for other neat craft ideas.