Deer before and after…

I got this out of a free box last summer.

Before:

And after:

I have it hanging here…by these two mirrors I’m still working on. This is such a dark little hallway in my house I’m hoping the mirrors and white paint will brighten things up. I’ll add a pop of color when I figure out what that will be. lol!

Can you believe I started spray painting this last summer…almost a year ago! But while spray painting I noticed the antlers were loose and almost falling off. So I brought it into the house to get fixed…and there it sat… until I got out my E6000 glue and a stick pin and dabbed glue into the crack. Phew! I can’t believe it didn’t get broken before I could get to it…

Happy Crafting!

PS: And when I say “get to it” I mean remember that it isn’t done…sometimes I have projects that sit around so long I don’t see them anymore! Anyone else have that problem?

A fresh start…

I have decided to move my blog! My new blog is called Kim’s Craft Diary, and I think it’s finally ready. I’m moving because I really have mucked this blog up enough…I hope you find my new blog cleaner and easier to navigate. Check it out! www.kimscraftdiary.blogspot.com – I wish I could import my followers…but I can’t so please come over and join me…I’ve also figured out how to blog from my phone, which means more “in progress” posting on crafts. It’s so easy now!

Happy Crafting!

Paper Birthday Banner…

I had a surprise birthday party for my hubbie this weekend…we had a blast! In the end there were about ten of us who stayed up and danced…in our garage (where the birthday party was held) all night long. We did the two-step, the three-step, the swing, the electric slide…and good old fashioned rock-n-roll dancing. Fun, fun, FUN! I forgot to take any pictures of the garage…and the after pictures aren’t anything special…but here is an idea of my decorating…

Black, white, and green balloons blown up and hung in clusters of about five on the ceiling and from corners of shelves…

I covered the shelves with drop cloths…I pounded grommets into the top of the drop cloths and tied them to the tops of the shelves. Then used this bead garland to hang my banner…

This darn banner took me five hours to make…FIVE HOURS! I cut everything out by hand. After the first hour I thought “Boy, this is taking a while.” After the third hour I thought “I have too much time invested in this and I’m not gonna stop now” After the fifth hour I thought “I’m never going to do this again!” . (But I probably will…it really looked neat.)

Now, I’m going to clean, clean, clean…spring is almost here…we are going to have some nice weather this week (not freezing anyways)! Have you started your spring cleaning yet?

Happy Crafting!!

Fits and starts on my bowl…and St. Patrick’s Day crafts…

I got my camera batteries charged up and can show you more bowl pictures…

Look! This bowl has little feet and sits so cute…notice the awful orange shellac….

I just had to see what was underneath and so I sanded and sanded and sanded…and finally some lovely wood grain has started to show through!!!

Then I decided I wanted to incorporate a dragonfly…which turned into a butterfly…which got sanded off when it just looked wrong…

And this is where the bowl is headed now. Funny how projects start getting away from a person…I start with a vision (usually) and then end up heading in a different direction (usually)…

I got to babysit again this week and we crafted at the kitchen table. While my little girl painted and cut, I drew and cut out all these shamrocks…then decided they needed a little glitter…then decided they needed contrast with the dark brown circles. I printed the saying out, slapped it all in the frame, and boom! Done!

I also printed out this subway art from Eighteen 25 and framed it…

Gathered up a few green bottles from my bottle collection…

Badda bing badda boom…we’re ready for St. Patrick’s Day! (Which also happens to be my hubbie’s birthday…more on that next week!)

In other news I am still struggling with stamping into metal. Grrrrr….. This craft will not defeat me!!! (I hope) Luckily I have plenty of pieces like this to practice on…like around a hundred…I picked up some belts at a local thrift store and this is one of the links on the belt…I’ve gotta be able to get at least one good impression before they are all gone!

Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!

More dots and some link love…

Well, my camera batteries are dead so I can’t show you the “before” pictures…and since this project isn’t done I can’t show you the “after” pictures…but I can show you the “in progress” pictures…

I’m working on another bowl. I just can’t decide if I love this or not. I’m going to keep playing with it but if the “after” pictures look like a completely different bowl don’t be surprised! And, yes, that is a crack in the bowl…I have grand plans for that crack! :)

Since I don’t have much in the way of crafts, I thought I’d share some of my favorite sites for inspiration with you. Enjoy!

If It’s Hip It’s Here! Often strange but always interesting!

Craftgawker Always tons of inspiration, and I loooooove how this site is layed out. Very simple…if you want more info just click the picture. Not many words to wade through…just lovely pictures.

All Things Paper Ann always culls the greatest paper art. I am constantly amazed and inspired by what I see here.

Really, that is enough for now. If you just go to these three sites I promise you’ll be inspired to try something new!

Happy Crafting!!!!

Quilled Lamp, Painted Bowl & a dotty story…

I tried quilling a little lamp the other day. It is difficult!! Mine turned out a little wonky and I will have to try and try again. This project caused a few swear words to run though my head…if you coil too tightly you won’t be able to pull the coils into the shapes…yet if you coil too loosely you run the risk of having everything fall apart…I wouldn’t exactly call this a relaxing craft!

 

(Picture of bowl taken in a box awaiting spray sealer, I spray then hurry up and close the box, less noxious fumes this way) I was so inspired by the bowls being sold at The Bocket Store on Etsy that I had to give this a try. I loooove the bowls they are offering and knew I had a couple wooden bowls in my hoard stash. I would love to purchase one of their bowls but I’m too thrifty cheap…

Which leads us to the dotty story…I’ve been crafting for years and years. About eight years ago I tried decorative painting. What I painted was a little wooden tray and I covered it with dots. I proudly showed it to a friend of mine who was a pretty neat painter and here is what she said “Cute, I started out with dots too.” Now this was said in a condescending voice. To my shame I let her influence me! Shame on me!!! I thought the tray was cute (sadly no pictures were taken, this was waaaay back before digital cameras and blogs were in my life) but forever after when I would look at that tray I would be a bit embarrassed because it was such a “beginner” project. Well friend look at what they are doing with dots now! And since I’m a bit on the defensive I have a little something to say to those of you who might look at this bowl and think “She has way too much time on her hands…” This project has been taking up a little corner of my kitchen table for the past few days. I’ve worked on it here and there. When I’ve worked on it the most is while I’ve been cooking dinner, last night I made a double batch of homemade bagel brats…there are three minute intervals while they are boiling. And I work on crafts like this when my house has been invaded by teenagers. (EIGHT in my living room yesterday afternoon.) Crafting at the kitchen table is the perfect thing to do when you want to keep an eye on things but “look” busy. I’ve also found that when I have a craft such as this going on, at the kitchen table, my kids are more apt to sit with me and chat. I love that. (Just DON’T wiggle the table!) So no, I don’t spend my days on my hiney making crafts. I’ll usually have something like this craft always on the back burner to do in bits here and there and then I join my hubbie in the living room in the evenings and do a handcraft. (Like needle felting, or embroidery, or even quilling…but that does take up more space than just my lap…) Moral of the story, don’t let others influence you in a negative way. If you like it great! If you love it keep going with it and see what can develop! I sure wish that I had done that…

Happy Crafting!!!

Needle felted moose, Girl Scout Garage Sale…

I think this is the only craft I’ve completed in a while! We had a Girl Scout garage sale this weekend and if you’ve ever had a garage sale you know that the house comes completely undone!! Here are just some of the things I brought…

 

Mind you, this is in two different areas of my house…and just the tip of the iceberg…the truck was packed!! The good news is that the garage sale forced me to go through a lot of stuff and purge. The bad news is that I had to bring most of it back home again. We just didn’t get very many shoppers. The good news is that I packed everything back up and will have a garage sale this summer. sigh. I want to thank Shanna, Julie, Molly and my mom especially for all their donations!!! I think that what you gave me to sell was what actually sold. We are raising money to go to Houston for the National Convention. It will cost $2,000.00 for Abby and I to go. That is a lot of money!!! We have several fundraisers planned and I hope they will offset the cost A LOT! I’ll keep you updated.

The girls got together and we made a bunch of little notebooks to sell. I used this stamp for the message on the back cover. I just thought I’d give you a quick tip if you’ve never used one of these before. It’s tricky because you have to put the letters in backwards! So I write my message on a piece of paper that is on top of a piece of carbon paper. Carbon side up.(Top picture) Then when you look at the back side of your paper you get the proper lay-out of your letters. (Bottom picture)

 

My hubbie and I also went to the Turkey Hunter’s banquet on Friday evening and came home with lots of prizes! We won two of the above end tables. The top is glass so whatever you put in the drawer will show. I think I’ll put my agates in one and let Grant have at the other.

We also won this!!! Wowza! I do think we need some more chairs for it though. I would like to find some adjustable bar stools so the kiddies have a place to join us. The checker/chess board lifts off in the middle and there is storage for game pieces. Also if you flip the board over it is felt for dice games. We loooove Yahtzee! There is more to this story that I will have to tell you later. I have some serious rearranging to do in the living room to make room for all this loot.

Happy Crafting!!!