Terrarium Lamp

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I’ve been eyeing this old lamp at a local used furniture store for over a year now, and after it was still there the last visit I decided to make what I had planned for it. Also I got it for $1 and full of rocks!!! I already had the moss and driftwood. I bought fake succulents from Hobby Lobby; 1 because how would I water them and 2  even if I could um…I don’t want to electrocute myself. I spray painted a couple brass parts that had lost their shine with Rust-o-leum Metallic in gold.

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It was a little difficult to fill because it opens from the bottom and the bottom doesn’t detach completely since it’s attached to the wiring.  I had to fill and kind of shake and roll it around to get things where I wanted but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.  The lamp shade is from Target.  Show me what all you have made terrariums out of!

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Painted Shirt 

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I used my Portland vacation for my photos. 😉 I’ll post the rest next.

I had an idea for a graphic shirt without screen printing. (although I’ve been wanting to try screen printing)  I used a white tank top and used a plastic bag over cardboard to paint on.  I used watered down craft paint, but only water it down slightly because it will run.  This is also why you should keep your imagery simple.  I love the way it turned out and what says Summer better than watermelon!

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I should mention that I didn’t actually paint on the carpet, and I wouldn’t recommend it!

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Concrete Easter Eggs 

Hey everyone, it’s Wednesday, woohoo! We’re half way to the weekend and even though we just got about 4″ of snow here on Monday, (not cool Mother Nature) I’m excited for Spring and Easter.  My family never did a whole lot to celebrate Easter other than Easter egg hunts and and getting together to eat too much food, but its always been one of my favorite holidays to decorate for.  I think its because I love rabbits and animals in general along with anything Spring/Summer related.   DSC_0159  I found this diy on Pinterest by Camille Styles for making concrete eggs with real egg shells.  I’ve actually been working on this for a while because I needed to get enough egg shells to fill.  When I would use an egg to cook with I would just break out the bottom with a knife of my finger.  You want to take the bottom out so that you can fill it from there and then when the concrete is dry they can stand up.  Below are the supplies I used; the cup and knife were for the concrete mix and make sure to have paper towels handy. You can usually find concrete mix at any craft or hardware store, it’s pretty fun to work with!  If you’ve never mixed concrete, plaster, or anything similar, I use the mound method which is where you fill the cup up with about 1/3 water and slowly add the mix until there is a little mountain on top that doesn’t sink down immediately into the water.  Stir it up until there are  no clumps or bubbles.  it should be about the consistency of pancake mix.  I have to admit I got some of mine a little too thick and some didn’t quite turn out perfect but I like some imperfections in mine.

I got a little messy and broke one, whoops! ;)

I got a little messy and broke one, whoops! 😉

After your eggs are filled let them dry outside for at least 24 hours.  Use an exact-o knife to help peel the shell of and that’s all!  If you’d like you can paint or stamp you eggs or anything else you can think of.  I might do something with mine but I’m not sure what yet.  If I do change them I’ll give an update.

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My Easter table

My Easter Table

P.S.  the adorable basket and grass cloth are from my good friends at Glory Days Mercantile, check them out they have tons of cute Easter decor!

Valentine’s Day Garland

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Hola peeps!  I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging, not really on purpose but more because I was too busy to start/work on new projects and before I knew it January was half over!  I am totally scared by the way time works and wish things would slow down just a bit.  Now its that time of year that I just want to bypass to warmer days but I’m trying to enjoy the here and now and find the good, even in this frozen wasteland, because one day I’ll look back and miss these times!

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I’ve never really decorated too much for Valentines day but since I have a craft blog now I figured I’d see what I could come up with, and love the results.  I’m really starting to get in that heart everything spirit now and even though I don’t do frilly decorations (unless they’re vintage of course!) I made some simple nature inspired pieces.  The arrows are inspired by similar ones I found on Pinterest.  I used sticks for mine though and used paint and marker for the feathers.  the heart tips are cardstock.  I also made some of the feathers into earrings for my Etsy shop Peppermint Emporium.  The garland is straight from my noggin and is just sticks, coffee filters dyed with watered down craft paint and twine.  grab your glue gun and there ya go! Ben buys the unbleached coffee filters so I was a little disappointed that they weren’t white, but afterward I decided I liked the brown color better, it lends itself to the natural rustic vibe I was going for.

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Clay Pet Paw Ornaments

DSC_0023I made these ornaments of my cats’ paw prints for Christmas, and love how they turned out.  I used crayola model magic because I needed something that was light and easy to press into since cat paws are not very big, plus it air drys so there’s no baking!  For dogs you could also use polymer clay, or salt dough as well.  I might experiment with some more clays to see what I can use also.

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notice the claw marks Hehe!

Have an Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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My Weekend

Hello, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!  I know it’s been a while since I posted but it was because I’ve been getting ready for a jewelry show I did yesterday and trying to get my Christmas shopping and making done. I was at the Holiday Market for an elementary school in my area and it was a great fist show to do.  So hopefully now I can start doing more!  I have some fun Christmas DIY’s planned for the next few weeks so for now here’s a picture of my table at the market. Have a great weekend!

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P.S. I’m so thankful to Ben for helping me out, I have the best boyfriend!

DIY Running Belt

 

DSC_0385Happy Saturday!  I finally got my sewing machine working so I’ve been trying to finish a bunch of projects I attempted to start and haven’t been able to do.  The first one I finished was this running belt to hold phone, keys, music, etc.

They sell these handy little accessories at stores but they’re pretty pricy and for what it is, I figured I could make one for quite a bit less.  They just have an opening or two where you stick your stuff and them flip them over to hold everything in place.  Now I originally wanted to add a zipper and fold over elastic to the edges but after the issues with my sewing machine I decided to keep it simple and it still works great.  Feel free to make yours more jazzy though!

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First I bought 1/4 a yard of a nylon spandex mixed fabric from Joanne Fabric.  I folded it over and sewed it together leaving an opening for the pocket.  I then cut slits were the opening for the pocket were and folded them down and sewed.  I them flipped the belt right side out and with the pocket facing out I sewed the ends together.  When doing this step be sure to get it nice and tight.  The fabric stretches so I had to make mine quite a bit smaller than I thought I would need to.  Remember it’ll be bouncing around when you run so you don’t want it sliding or falling down.  The fabric was a little hard to sew because it is slippery so definitely pin it.  Then cut the extra, fill it up and flip it over so the opening is facing in.  Then you’re ready to run. 😉  I’ve been trying to get up to 5 miles and I’m half way there so this should help me get there.  Let me know how you use yours! 

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Ombre Dyed Curtains

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As I mentioned earlier I am all about dyeing so when I saw some thing similar to this on pinterest from a blog called http://www.vitaminihandmade.com/.  I thought I would give it a try to add some color to my boring white living room. I went with sunshine orange in the Rit dye and bought some inexpensive white curtains at IKEA. I didn’t want to spend a lot in case it didn’t work out.

I got the curtains wet in my double kitchen sink and filled one side up with hot water and the dye. I kept both curtains together at the top to make sure the dye pattern was the same on both. I wanted the top to have a little color so i dipped the whole curtains in for a few seconds and then removed all but about a foot, leaving the rest in the empty sink. I soaked it for about five minutes and gradually kept putting more and more in for about half way up.

 

After I had what looked to be good I rinsed the curtains in cold water and washed and dried them in my washer and dryer. They were a little lighter than I had hoped they would turn out so I bought one more box of Rit, just to do the bottoms. After this time I liked the way it looked. I guess it just depends on the look you are going for and the color, so you may or may not need two boxes of dye. I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out!

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