Crafting with my sisters

Every so often I get together with my crafty sisters and we make a craft. After seeing a couple beaded chandeliers made with hanging plant baskets I had to give it a try. It didn't take too much convincing to have my sisters all decide that they wanted to make one. So a sister craft day to make chandeliers was born.

I went searching and found baskets at dollar stores and ordered four gross of mardi gras beads from Oriental Trading. (Note to self when the reviews say the beads are small, they are really small.) The beads were much smaller that I had pictured. Oh well, I still think they turned out great looking. I don't know where else I could get a chandelier for under $10. This was my first attempt.

Since I live in an apartment and never know what the weather will be like my sister Joanie graciously offered to have the event at her house. I'm so thankful for her and her wonderful husband. He rigged up a wreath making spot for us in his shed. It worked out great, we were able to hang up the baskets to work on them at just the right height.

My sister Joanie making her wreath with the beads from a door hanger that she bought a couple years ago. It never worked out for her original intention but it looks like it was meant for this one! I know a few of my sisters said they would be looking for similar door hangers at garage sales and thrift stores. I think I might be looking for one too, although I don't know where I would hang another chandelier. I'll worry about that after I find a beaded door hanger and actually make a new chandelier.....

My lovely daughter Kira working on a basket. She does not often make projects with me so I'm happy that she worked on this one.

My sister Jennifer had the wonderful idea of using all one color of beads instead of spray painting them..... I can't believe I didn't think of that first. We spray painted the basket first, beaded and then did some touch up spraying after it was completed.

Joanie helping out our niece Tory with the beading on the top of her chandelier.

Sister Sue making a green one to start, she was not sure what color she wanted it to be so worked with the green beads.

My sister Gail from Wisconsin taking a break from standing to do a bit of her beading on a rocking horse. Ok, it didn't last long and was really a joke that I gave her the horse to sit on when she asked if there was a chair in the garage.

I had picked up the wooden rocking horse for 50 cents that morning at a garage sale in out apartment complex. I knew I had to pick up this beauty for its potential to give to my sister Joanie. She is looking for unique items to use as planters to sell her plants in next spring. I know she was thinking metal items, baskets, tool boxes, wagons and that sort of thing but for the price I just had to get it for her.

I don't know what she really thought when she first saw it, I know her husband didn't even want to ask about it! I hope it works out for her and can't wait to see it if she uses is. I think it would look good painted, I picture it black and distressed. Maybe she can attach a basket or pot to the seat or cut a hole in it for a pot to sink in. I see the potential but if it ends up on the burning pile I'll understand.

I didn't finish one myself but I started a 3 tier one. I just could not decide if I wanted to string up beads on it or wait for something else. I remember seeing some strings of beads at Tuesday morning the last couple times I was in there so I think I'll head there someday this week and check out the colors and see if I think I'll like them added to this chandelier.

Did I mention that my daughter doesn't craft much??? Well that is her under the blanket. She had stayed up way too late the night before with her cousin and decided she wanted to go inside to lay down and maybe nap. I think we woke her up when we came in but she didn't want her picture taken. I have many pictures like this..... for some reason the camera and her are not always friendly.

My daughter was not the only one napping inside, this is my Mom. She was getting too cold outside watching us so she took a nap in the afternoon although she would not say she was napping if you ask her. :)

Note to my sister Jennifer..... better late than never! I know you expected a post yesterday by the time you got home but I was just not motivated yesterday!

Halloween frame

Ok, I know it is not really the right time to be making and posting about Halloween but I just had to show this frame I made today. It is from a acrylic frame that I picked up at a dollar store a while ago.

I actually made this for my partner in a altered dollar store swap over at Swap-Bot. If you like to swap, that is the place to go for all sorts of swaps. There are tons of new swaps every day. I thought I knew about most crafts but there are swaps for items that I had never heard of. Here the frame is looking right at home on a shelf I have in my bathroom. Too bad I can't keep it. :)

This is a real simple alternation. I inked the edges of a 5 x 7 sheet of patterned cardstock, inserted in frame and then added a couple vinyl stickers. The 'Eek' and spider came together in one package. I picked this one up long after Halloween last year for $1. It was normally $4.99. I don't think I would ever have paid that for it, but it was well worth $1.

The whole project was a steal at $2.25.
Dollar store frame - $1
Discount vinyl stickers - $1
Paper - $.25

I hope my partner likes this frame just as much as I did. I only wish there had been more than one of the vinyl stickers at $1.

Happy crafting

Rain, rain, go away

The rain seems here to stay for the day so no spray painting for me today. I was all set to do some painting today on the wood frames I got at garage sales last week. I guess I'll have to settle for working on that I'm going to put in the frames.
The rain seems here to stay for the day so no spray painting for me today. I was all set to do some painting today on the wood frames I got at garage sales last week. I guess I'll have to settle for working on that I'm going to put in the frames.

This is the rainwater on my patio so even after it stops raining it will be a while before water is gone. Usually not too long but long enough when I'm anxious to get painting outside on the patio. I guess it is one more reason to get a garage.

Dollar Store print revamp

I picked up two of these frames at a local discount store for 69 cents each. They had the tag from a dollar store. Originally $1, but well worth that for the frame alone.

The frames are just under 8" square so I knew I had lots of choices in scrapbooking paper that would work to recover it. The original artwork seemed to be a light weight glossy paper on top of a fabric backing. At first I thought I would be able to pull off the paper so recovering it would be easier. Well, the paper didn't come off too well so I quickly gave that up and sanded it a bit to rough up the surface so the Mod Podge would have something to stick to.

A thick layer of Mod Podge and an 8" piece of scrapbook paper give me a good base to work with. After painting the sides of the frame I added some paint over the paper as well, then topped it off with some silver ink as well.

A few rub on letters and some chipboard letters that I inked up and I have a new sign for my apartment door. The chipboard letters were originally a royal blue and silver color. I loved the size when I saw them so I had to get them. I was able to pull off the blue and silver portion and was left with raw chipboard just waiting to be inked. I bit of ink and I have letters to match my project. The best part of this project is that I have another frame left to make over.

Friday Garage sale finds

I feel so lucky, I had a great morning of garage sale shopping. I picked up all of this for under $15. Plus I picked up some cardstock that is not pictured.

I can't wait to start working on the frames. I got a total of 9 frames plus the two mirror wall sconces. I think the large frame will become a jewelery holder, the suede jacket will become flowers, the scabble tiles will be displayed and the Aeropostal sweatshirt is for my daughter. She can't say I didn't get anything for her now....

Well off to pick up Kira and 2 friends from the last day of school. We have a birthday party supper and sleepover planned for tonight so I don't think I'll get to create with any of my finds as I'm sure that is the last thing my daughter will want her friends to see.

Have a great weekend!

I'm linking this to Today's Thrifty Treasure @ Southern Hospitality

Ribbon jars

I have been wanting to do something new with my fibers and ribbons in an attempt to use them more often. I so have some spools of ribbons on a holder on my craft desk but the rest were in 4 baskets on a shelf. Let's just say the ribbons were in the baskets but needed a lot of help to really be organized. I had them roughly organized into reds, neutrals, greens and blues but as you can see they were over flowing and in need of help.

I had a ladder type shelf that I decided to use to display the ribbons. Here is what I had on the shelf before. It needed an update as I'm tired of the games and more child inspired decorations.

I decided the shelf was just wide enough for some jars that I have had for a year or more just waiting for inspiration. I started out with 24 of the hex jars but due to an unfortunate incident I'm now down to 21. Let's just say if anyone has a sure proof way to get glass out of carpet to let me know!

I arranged by colors and included some non-fibers on the wall as well to give the colores a bit more balance.

I'm hoping seeing the jars will inspire me to use them a bit more often, as you can see I have quite a collections of fiber and ribbon. I did still have one basket of ribbons not on the wall, it was mainly miscellaneous colors that I would not have been able to fill up a jar with. That is if I would not have broken a few jars in the process.

I do still have spools of ribbon on a holder on my craft desk. Next I'll have to tackle getting my desk a bit more organized so I can take a picture of the holder on my desk. It was custom made for me by one of my brother-in-laws and I love it. I am able to store spools of ribbon, plastic containers filled with eyelets and brads and pretty much all of my smaller embellishments.

Right now I count 21 rolls or ribbon, 2jars of Bazzill blossoms, 4 containers of Making Memories embellishments, 2 packs of colored staples, 2 packs of loopy brads and 55 other containers. Most of the containers are the small plastic containers that electrical tape comes in. No, I don't use that much electrical tape but I've been able to get the plastic containders and they are perfect for storeing smaller items.

Dollar store wreath

I've seen lots of book page wreaths and have been wanting to try one. I knew I wanted a wreath to hang outside on my patio and knew the book page ones would not hold up as I would like. Yesterday I had one of those moments and thought I could get a similar look with plastic bags. I know I had lots of them around and most of them are white. So I decided to give it a try.

I started with a plain wreath from the dollar store and a stack of plastic Target bags. I did use all Target bags as I figured they would all be the same size. I found out there was some differences in the bag sizes but were all pretty much the same.

I didn't take pictures of cutting up the bags but I cut off the bottom of the bag and the handles to make them a rectangle shape. I decided I wanted only a white wreath so I cut the bag into two parts, one with the bulls eye logo and the white part that I was going to use instead of book pages. You can see the stack of bulls eye logos and a stack of the cut up white part. I cut them to approximately 5 x 5, but some were more rectangle, about 3 x 6. I would try to get them a bit more even next time as if you look closely at my wreath you can see that some parts of the wreath are thicker than others. That is due to the size of the white pieces I used.

I decided I wanted to cover the base to make a bit more of an even base to hot glue the sheets to so I used the bulls eye logo part of the bags. I just sort of wrapped them around and hot glued them onto the wreath.

Here is the wreath covered with the logo part of the bags.

Then I just started gluing on the white sheets over the wreath. Here it is part complete. I think it took me just over an hour to completely cover the wreath. I did it in front of the TV, I suggest you do the same.

Completed wreath, finally done.

I hung the wreath outside on my patio on a wreath hanger I already had. I did spray a little bit of a shimmery gold spray paint on it to give it a bit more shine but I don't think anyone but me would notice that.

Project cost $1.00 plus some basic supplies I had on hand.
Time - 2-3 hours including time cutting up bags

Supplies used
Wreath $1.00
25 Target bags cut up
Low temp glue gun
glue sticks - I used two

Hope you enjoy this and try it yourself.

Happy Crafting - June