Holiday Banner

As I was preparing for this year's Pumpkin Pick, I was trying to think of an easy and clean craft project for the kids to do. The kids range in age from teenagers to little tots so finding a project that they can all enjoy is sometimes difficult. I'd seen a few renditions of paper pennant banners and that sort of thing so I tried to come up with my own version. In doing so, I realized how easy it was and thought it would be the perfect craft for the kids. I precut all of their materials and packaged them up with labels as to what each particular banner said. For example, Boo!, Spooky, Eek!, Halloween, Autumn, Pumpkins, and Give Thanks.

These banners are so easy and cute, you're sure to find several uses for them all through out the year. Let's get started!

I began by cutting the materials using my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities dies. LOVE these things, Ive used them for so many different projects! With the exception of the ribbon and a couple of tools, these are all of the supplies I used.
Notice the little bottle in the top right hand corner. Its called Card Scents and its a new product Ive just discovered that scents your cards for you. This particular scent is called Pumpkin Pie Spice. I'm looking forward to using my Icicles and Christmas Lane scents on my holiday cards this year! Its a light oil substance that you brush onto the edges of your card stock, just like nail polish.

I spelled out Give Thanks in a Word document and customized the font to the look I wanted to achieve. Each letter was then cut by hand (I didn't want them to be perfect in size) and inked around the edges. I then scented my patterned paper. The oil bled through just a little bit so I also inked the edges of the polka dot patterned paper to hide it, which worked out just fine (I'm still experimenting with Card Scents). Next, I attached the patterned paper to the scalloped card stock in an alternating pattern. Adhering the letters came next. Again, I wasn't too worried about perfect placement or size, I like the randomness. I then took my Fiskers ribbon hole punch and punched each corner of the scalloped card stock base, ensuring not to catch the corner of the patterned paper. I began with the last letter of the saying, threading the ribbon into the right hand side, behind the card stock, and back out the left hand side. I repeated the process until all of the letters were on threaded by the ribbon. I added a simple slip knot to both ends for hanging. Using some gems and flowers, I added a few embellishments. To finish it off, I added a few ties of extra ribbon to the center point as well as the ends. Viola, a holiday banner!

Dried Rose Topiary

Hello my friends and happy October! I lovey the month of October and cant wait to dive into some autumn inspired projects. But first, I must show you a project that I recently finished.

You may recall that back in August, I shared with you my first professional event planning experience. With that event, I took home a few dozen roses from the centerpieces with intentions to craft them into something. You probably thought I forgot huh? No, it just took me forever and a day to complete the project(s). I worked on a couple of things using the leftover flowers and today I'm going to share with you my progression in making a dried rose topiary.

I first started by separating the roses from the greenery, pitching what I either didn't want or what wasn't any good to use. I was left with a good selection of roses. I then began the drying process. This was a learning experience for me so I tried several different methods. I first started with silica gel, a fine powder substance that allows you to microwave-dry your flowers. This stuff works pretty well but for this project I noticed that it left my flowers a little extra-crispy and smelling a little funny. I guess I overcooked them; though they kept their shape, they were extremely brittle. Not what I was looking for. So, I just laid all of the flowers out to dry, which took several days. I simply took a cooling rack, placed it between two chairs so that it would allow the stems to dangle and keep the flowers upright, placed each flower in its respective slot, and waited. This worked well and gave the flowers a natural dried look. Except, it took a while. So I sped up the process by sticking them in the oven. Once my flowers were all dry, it was time to gather my supplies. I began by selecting a pot that suited my style. I picked up this ivory one for around $5-$10 thanks to a 40% off coupon. I have one styrofoam ball pictured here but actually used two. One for the actual topiary and one to place inside the pot to hold the topiary stick. These crazy little balls were the most expensive piece to the whole project, about $4 each. I happened to have some Spanish moss on hand so that's what I used to cover the base but there are several different types available to choose from. I also picked up some greening pins to hold the moss in place and wood picks to adhere the flowers to. All of these supplies can be found at your local craft or floral store, I happened to get all of the supplies shown at Michael's. Except for the stick, I found that for free in my back yard. Once you have all the supplies needed, here's how you can put together your very own topiary.

Start by shoving the stick up the...um, lets try that again. Gently insert the stick into the styrofoam ball. Cover with moss, ensuring that it is kept in place by the greening pins. Talk about a bad hair day! Once the base is generously covered, its time to prepare the roses. Shorten the rose stem so that it is just long enough to attach to the wood pick. Line the stem up with the pick and wrap the wire around until the flower is secure with the pick. Stick the flower into the base, being careful not to smoosh it. Repeat process until all of your flowers are used up or your base is adequately covered. Next, ask your trusty side-kick if it looks alright. Meow! Two paws up!

At the time, I was out of dried roses and the topiary was looking like something that belonged in the compost bin. So there it sat, on my dinning room table. For days. Which turned into weeks. I managed to kick it back into gear and finished placing the remaining dried roses into the topiary. It was finally turning into something presentable.

I completed the project by inserting a styrofoam ball into the pot, covered it with moss, and gently inserted the other end of the stick into the bottom base. An ivory satin bow completed the look. Pretty simple really, just took a bit of time and ample working space.

I have one other project that involves the use of these flowers but you'll have to stay tuned to find out the details. Until then...

Make a Difference

Hello! A few days ago I mentioned that I was working on a super easy and inexpensive project that anyone can do. When I was a kid, the term Reduce, Reuse, Recycle was popular. Now, its Go Green! No matter what you call it, we all need to do more of it and this project can help. I truly believe that if we all did our part, we can make a difference.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I go to Walmart and they put like, two items in a bag. I buy six things and go home with four different bags. Why do they do that? I know those bags are flimsy but surely they can hold more than a box of Q-tips and some shampoo. I constantly find myself taking things out of the bags and putting them in with others...while the clerk just looks at me. Or if I buy just one or two things, I tell them I'll carry it and save a bag. Every now and again I get a thank you for that.

This project is a small solution to those flippy little bags that clutter our landfills and drive me absolutely insane. Tote bags! That's right, by carrying a reusable tote bag you can eliminate or reduce the number of those little bags that you see flying around everywhere. Retail stores are starting to sell more of them but they cost anywhere from $15 on up to as much as you can imagine. Spending a gob of money on a tool to help save the earth doesn't make sense to me, so I decided to make my own. Most plain canvas tote bags I found were around $5 but with a coupon, you can get them much cheaper, as I did. The only downfall I found was that I was limited in size options. So if you're looking for a really large bag, you may need to invest a little more money. I plan on doing some research to find extra-large bags so that I can make a complete grocery shopping trip without using any store bags.

So I started with my washed canvas tote bag, iron-on transfers, and a design. For my design, I used a Doodlebat, dbtrees. I had been wanting to customize a tote bag for a while now so when I found this Doodlebat, I had an idea! Each letter of the alphabet is represented by a different tree. I started with all the letters then started omitting the trees I didn't particularly like. Once I had a good row of trees, I randomly changed their colors to add a little contrast. I found a saying that I thought was fitting and added that below the trees in the font CK Alis Writing. I think I downloaded this font (for free) from the Creating Keepsakes website a while back. So here's the design:I then printed the design on an iron-on transfer sheet. You can purchase these just about anywhere that sells office supplies. There is a difference though between regular iron-ons and dark iron-ons so watch for that. Be sure to print according to the directions, your image should be mirrored. I trimmed my design to get rid of the extra white space. Though it irons on clear, you can still see the transfer sheet on the material so I like to eliminate that as much as I can. Place the transfer face down on your fabric and begin ironing according to the manufacturer's directions.Once you've ironed on the transfer sheet and it's cooled, slowly peel it offViola!Except it looks a little plain to me: *waving magic wand* There, much better! A close up of the details: Now, wasn't that easy?! Head the the craft store today and buy your canvas bag so you can begin to make a difference.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go hug a tree.