Angry Bird Koozie

What to do with all the left over red yarn I have from crocheting the Santa wine bottle covers?? Oh!  I know! Angry bird koozie!

So here's what you need:
a crochet hook, I used G
Some ready yarn
Orange, black and white felt
A needle and thread to affix the felt
A can of pop or cup for measurements

I started with the magic circle and double crocheted until my ring was the size of a pop can bottom. Then double crochet one row in the opposite loop so the koozie begins to turn upward. Continue to double crochet until you reach the top of your can. To make the feathers at the top of his head: on the last row, chain 5 and single crochet back continue on. I made 3 feathers, but I think he only has two. Oh well! Once you have the koozie crocheted, cut out your shapes for the face from the felt. I used sticky backed felt , but it doesn't stick so well so you will need to stitch it on. I'm not that artistic so my angry bird face isn't the best, but I still think it turned out ok.

Supplies you need

Cut out your shapes for the face

Etched Glass

I have been etching everything glass! Wine glasses we by far my favorite. I got a box of 12 from Walmart for $8 which is cheaper than $1 a wine glass at the dollar store. But those work too. I was just buying in bulk for Christmas gifts.

I also bought a large mason jar from Walmart and etched it with a mustache and the words my stache. This was for my brothers gingerbread cookies I make him every year. And he doesn't share too well! ;) I hand cut the mustache from contact paper and used my cousins cricut to make the words.

DIY candle holders. Plain glass from the dollar store can be etched into things of beauty! Fill them with DIY candles or store bought ones. Of course I didn't take pictures of the etched ones I filled with my DIY candles.

So go forth and get your glass items, go buy yourself some armour etch and some Plaid peel and stick reusable stencils then read this post about etching! It's super easy and makes some super cute gifts! 

Glass block holiday decor

Go to Hobby Lobby or Michael or even Home Depot and grab yourself a glass block and get your imagination out. These glass blocks already have hole cut in them with a plastic plug. Some are rectangular holes and some are round so pick the one that works best for your project.

 Lets start with the Jingle block.  I have a cousin with a vinyl cutter and she cut the "jingle all the way" out for me.  You could buy a phrase like this or cut your own if you have a cricut.   I already has some silver bells, but need some more.  I used assorted sizes found in a tube at Hobby Lobby for $1.99. Now here's the hard part for me.... putting the ribbon on and tying a bow.  I can't tie bows to save my life.  But my wonderful cousin was there and she tied them for me!


For the let it snow block I used my go to peel and stick reusable stencils and painted on the "let is snow" with glass paint.  The snow is made from kosher salt.  Hobby Lobby sells little bags of Christmas goodies to fill ornaments or use as confetti and that's where the snowflakes came from.  Had to use tweezers to get them in there and wiggled them a little into the salt. 


These are so simple and quick to make.  You can even back them with cute Christmas paper modge podge or spray glue. Fill with lights.  Use 3 fill with salt, and paint it up like a snow man.  Let your imagination run wild. 

Up next in the glass block department is to insert a photo in a frame and fill with rocks, sand? Not sure, but I will post on it when I make it. 

A DIY Christmas

 Now that Christmas is over, I can post all the things I made and handed out as gifts.  The coasters seemed to go over well as did the salt dough ornament tags.  I think my favorite was the Santa wine bottle covers and etched wine glasses.  I hope everyone liked their DIY gifts!

Most of all I had a really good time getting together with family for the pinterest parties and creating most of these crafts.   It was fun bonding, cooking, eating, crafting and trying new things.  I think I am in need of another pinterest party soon! 

Check out all the things we made

Soy Candles
Coasters
Wine Bottle Covers
Etched wine glasses
Corn Pads with drawstring case
Modpodge holiday decor
Glass Block holiday decor
Salt dough ornaments
Sharpie and dollar store dishes
Stay put dish towels
Crochet hook case

West side crackers

Most addictive crackers ever! My aunt has made these for years and I love them. So quick and easy and a big hit with everyone!  I've been seeing a similar recipe floating around on Pinterest, but here's ours.

2- 12oz Pkg Oyster Crackers
1 Cup Oil (canola oil is best)
1 Pkg Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing
1 1/2 TBS Dill Weed
1 TSP Lemon Pepper
Pinch of Garlic or Onion Salt

Mix all together and pour over crackers. Bake for 30 min or longer @ 250

Stamped Coasters.

I used the instructions from The Huckaby's Happily Ever After. Please be sure you use the StazOn ink otherwise it will not dry and smear and you end up trying to figure out how to salvage your coasters like I did. Since I was trying to be cheap and just used the ink I had on hand I ended up covering my coasters in polyurethane to seal them. :-/ Then I switched to the correct ink and made a ton!

So now off you go to buy these items:
Tumbled marble tiles from lowes or Home Depot. Less than $4 for a box of 9
Minwax finishing paste $10
StazOn ink. $7 Use coupons to save money
Felt or rubber pads for the bottom of the tiles
Stamps of your choice

I made a bunch of these for Christmas so it ended up justifying the cost of the finishing paste as I couldn't find a small container anywhere. They are so easy to do with the stamps I had on hand. Just stamp a letter in the corner and a cute design on the rest of the tile. Then coat with a thin layer of the finishing paste. I completely covered the underside of the tile with sticky backed felt. Tied up with garden twin and homemade salt dough ornaments. These were a big hit for Christmas!

Sharpie and Dollar store dishes

Hit the dollar store for some cheap plates, mugs, bowls, etc.  Grab a sharpie.  Yes, a Sharpie.  Use that Sharpie to design your own dishes.  Let your imagination run wild.  Use stencils as I did with the Tea Please mug above, or free hand it like I did with the Paul love's 48 plate.  (note Paul doesn't really love 48, but he gets so upset when we tease him about it)   Once you are done designing, put them in a cold oven.  Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.  Turn the oven off, but leave your dishes in the oven to cool down to room temp.

Now I know there are pinners out there saying this doesn't work and you need special markers made for ceramic.  Well you DON'T!  This works fines.  Just be aware that if you use colors some of them will fade when baked, and some will even wash off if you run them through the dishwasher.  The black, blue and red sharpie did not fade, or wash off in the dishwasher.  Yellow baked to a brown and maintained the brown color through the dishwasher.  We used some greens, teals, shades of pink, orange... and they faded or washed off in the dishwasher.  So I'd stick with black, blue or red otherwise go ahead and buy the ceramic pens! 

Salt Dough

Decorate Christmas Gifts

Things you need

Salt dough recipe: 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup warm water, 1 cup flour stir until dough forms. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick and cut the shapes with cookie cutters or a cup. I used a straw to poke the holes so that I could tie them up with string.  Now you can bake for approx 2 hours at 250 degrees until hard or you can let air dry.  I am a very impatient person and have a hard time waiting for things.  But i did it both ways.  I found that the baked ones dried flatter and were a little bit darker but way easier to stamp or paint.  The air dried ones were almost pure white but the edges kind of curled up and they were very uneven for stamping.  The acrylic paints took several coats to cover these. Once these were baked I went to town using my clear stamps and StazOn ink  to decorate the round ones up for Christmas gift tags. I just used a red sharpie on the back to write to and from.  I enlisted my husband to help me paint all the little shapes to add to bags and presents.  This would be a fun easy craft for the kiddos.  You could even make the hand print or foot print ornaments with the kids.  The possibilities are endless.  

Stamped with Christmas Stamps for Gift Tags

Paint them with acrylic paints

Paracord belt and rifle sling

With my husband dabbling in prepping and buying 300 feet of paracord and me with an idea for crocheting paracord...

Because I am lazy and did not want to take the time to learn all the fancy pants knots used to tie paracord lanyards and bracelets, I decided to crochet it. Also with crocheting it comes undone with a simple pull and no untying knots. So armed with a crochet hook and a vague memory of a paracord belt I once saw somewhere on line I started my little project.

First I needed to figure out a belt buckle. My husband has lots of these fabric belts that come on his cargo shorts so I thought he could spare one. I cut off the buckle, attached to the paracord and began.

I chained one row, measured it on the hubs and then double chained on the way back and finished off the end weaving it thru a few times and melting the ends with a lighter.

This belt is around 80 feet of paracord and a little too long because I lazily measured it on the hubs. But it works and if he ever needs 80ft of paracord he will have it in his Apocalypse stock pile.

While I was making the belt the hubs got a bright idea he wanted a sling. At this point my fingers were sore as paracord is a bit difficult to crochet so I said no. After a few days of healing I decided I would make that sling he wanted. After getting proper measurements from the hubs (32.5in) I crocheted in the same manner as the belt. This sling took about an hour and it's approximately 47 feet of paracord. We attached it with D rings.

So now he's set for survival if ever in need of paracord!

Crochet- Santa Wine Bottle Cover

Previously I posted that I intended to crochet these adorable (in my head) wine bottle covers, well folks, I have done just that!  I think they are adorable!  Don't you? 

Even though these took me about 3 weeks to complete, they really are simple and quick to make.  I just take breaks for days in between crafting.

So here's what I used to make these:

Red Yarn
Crochet Hook (size of your choice)
Feather Boa
Black Ribbon
Spray Glue
Needle & Thread
Card Stock
Silver Sharpie
Scissors


I don't have a pattern, I just used the wine bottle to gauge the size.  I also worked from the top down as that seems to be easier for me than making the magic circle and getting the bottom to be the right size for the bottle. Just did a little decreasing for the bottom to close it up. If you have the smallest crochet skills you can do this too! But if you need a pattern for some reference then you might want to check this out from crochet spot.

Once I finished crocheting the cover itself, it was time for the pretties! I hand sewed the feather boa to the top and the bottom making sure the stitching was not visible from the inside of the cover.  The next step was the black ribbon for the belt.  I just used spray glue to attach the ribbon.   For the belt buckle, I cut it out of card stock and used a silver sharpie to color it.   I also attached it with spray glue. So that's it and I think I love these. 

Here's How I gift wrapped them

DIY Corn heating pad with a drawstring bag.

One more homemade Christmas Present off the list, corn heating pad with a drawstring bag. Inspired by The Green Wife tutorial. I don't use patterns so I just winged it. It's homemade and the thought that counts right? So quick and easy to make and I already had all the materials on hand.

Materials Needed:
18x21 fat quarter
Approx 4 cups of corn (or you can use rice)
Ribbon for the drawstring
safety pin
sewing machine and scissors

First I cut out for my corn pad cutting and 18x10 rectangle. Right sides together hemmed all the edges leaving an opening for the corn on a short end. Turned right side poking out the corners. Eyeballed chalk lines to make 4 pockets for the corn. (I recommended doing some measurements!) Filled with corn to about an inch below my first chalk line. Pinned the corn back leaving just enough room to sew my line. Continued on in this manner until I reached the end.

Then on to my drawstring bag. Using the remainder of my fat quarter, I folded over about a half inch on the long side and sewed it down for my drawstring top. Then folded the whole thing in half right sides together and sewed up the other 3 sides. Turned it right side. Hooked the safety pin to the end of my ribbon and threaded it through the drawstring hem, tied the ends together and whew! I was done. Only took me about an hour. Now I just need to make a gift tag with directions!

Microwave for approximately 1 minute.  Be careful not to over heat and burn yourself! 

Stay put dish towels.

Pretty proud of myself after my latest crafting project! When my mom said she wanted dish towels for Christmas (because she is so practical) I thought OK. I got this. I've previously made these "fancy pants kitchen towels" for myself and thought mom would like these. So while browsing at Wal-Mart I found these so ugly they are cute dish towels and had an epiphany to make some retro style stay put dish towels.  I created one and was quite pleased with myself, but then I got a new sewing/embroidery machine had the bright idea to embroider her name on them!

Dreams of Crocheting Grandeur

So I'll be the first to admit I am not great at crocheting seeing as I taught myself with a starter kit and have very little practice or skill.  SO many unfinished projects just sitting in a basket all sad that they were never completed.  I am determined to crochet a blanket someday!   But I decided to have a go at some DIY wine bottle covers that I think will go perfectly with my etched wine glasses. Yet another pinterest project to finish.  Pinterest being the Devil it is has inspired me to combine several ideas into my own version of a Santa inspired wine bottle cover.   I have seen so many made by crocheting, but I think lack a certain pizazz.  Some made with felt and stitch witchery, sleeves of sweaters,  even socks.  EWE.  So I set out with a ball of red yarn, a crochet hook, an empty bottle of wine and an idea!  We shall see how they turn out!

**update:  find out what they look like here

I have gone crafting mad!

Upon discovering etching cream and all the ideas on Pinterest I have turned into a mad woman. I have learned the contact paper makes an excellent stencil!  I also don't have one of those fancy cricut things, so I had to figure out a new way to get cute stencils without buying 100 different packets for one design.  So here's my latest "let it snow" plate.

Supplies:
Armour etch (Michaeals or Hobby Lobby)
Glass plate (dollar store)
Contact paper
Snowflake Paper punch (Hobby Lobby)
Reusable adhesive stencils (Walmart)
Paint Brush (I use a Q-tip) 

Punch snowflakes out of the contact paper and adhere your stencil to the back side of the plate. Place your text stencils on the front side of the plate.

Doing one side of the plate at a time. I started with the back side that has the contact paper stencils. Cover each stencil with a generous amount of armour etch. I let mine sit on for about 15 minutes.

Now wash off the etching cream with water. Dry the plate and do the other side!

Remove all stencils and you have a pretty plate perfect for decoration or holiday cookies. Go forth and go mad etching things! This is so simple and quick! 

Pinterest Party

After months of pinning crafts and food on Pinterest, it was time I made some of these projects so I hosted a Pinterest party. We ate Pinterest food, made Pinterest crafts, ate Pinterest desserts and had a great time.

Cast Iron Skillet Brownie