Project Crochet Brooches

I have been making homemade paper for the past couple of weekends and I have no idea what I am going to do with all of it, but here is a start. 

I'm back to doodling with my crochet, before I start my next pattern. 

I though it would be fun to embroidery on the homemade paper, so I have pulled out the books and I am starting to practice some stitches. 

In the meantime, I though I would be interesting to incorporate crochet, and the homemade paper and a little bit of embroidery and start a little project of making brooches for gifts this Christmas. 

I am really enjoying simplicity of the project and working with the different elements.

I just wanted to pop in and share this with you.

See you soon with a new crochet pattern that I am designing. 

Deb

Jewel Cases Made Into Cubes Recycle Craft

Here is a great tutorial on making photo cubes out of jewel cases.  I used some of my motifs that I am currently working on.  I'm still trying to decide which pictures to use.  I'm kinda liking the motifs though.

http://paperjewels.blogspot.com/2008/06/cd-photo-cube-tutorial.html

At the present time, I am heavily involved in making a daisy motif afghan, but I did want to share this tutorial I found.

I also have a new pattern I am designing, but I am sticking with one project at a time, next week I should be back on schedule

Thank you for visiting,

Debra

Room Scents All Natural

Fresh herbs always taste so much better then the dried herbs.  Only problem is, when I buy them, I can never get them used up in time, and then they become such an expensive commodity because I am throwing out more then I can use.

This year, I am planning on incorporating some herb plants in my flower beds. I like the idea of stepping right outside of my door and snipping what I need for my recipes.

I still have the issue of keeping the plants healthy and trimming them back and what not.

I came across this blog with natural room scents.  I thought to myself, what a wonderful idea.  When I go to prune my herb plants, I can make room scents.

Since Rosemary is going to one of the herbs that I want to plant, I thought I would give this a try.

Not only do I save money growing my own herbs but I also save money by making my own room scents.

What you will need:

1 glass jar that holds approximately 2 cups
2 lemons
3 sprigs of rosemary
1 teaspoon of vanilla

I'm recycling, so I used a glass spaghetti jar that I saved.  Just remove the label. In case you don't know, the glue they use to put the label on, remove it easily by rubbing just a little bit of cooking oil  on the glue and it takes the glue right off, like magic. Just be sure and soap it down afterwards, to remove the oil.

Cut the lemon up.  You can cut them in slices, chunks, remove the pulp and use just the rind, it's really up to you.  I just cut mine in slices. If you use fresh squeezed lemons in your recipes, rather than throwing the lemon pulp and rind away, just cut it up and use in your room scents.

Then add your water.  I use very hot water, because I use my scents as soon as I make it, and it start working pretty much immediately with the hot water.

Add a teaspoon of vanilla, put the lid on and shake a bit to get the vanilla distributed evenly.

I put my glass jars on a coffee mug warmer.

As the water goes down, just add more hot water to replenish.

When not in use, you can replenish the water, put the lid on and store in the refrigerator.

This recipe has such a wonderful light , fresh scent.

Head on over to the link below to get more recipes and different ways to scent a larger room.

Adapted from: http://www.theyummylife.com/Natural_Room_Scents

Enjoy,

Debra

Mushroom Salt Dough Ornaments and Winner of the thirty-one Owl Utility Tote

I am sure you are beginning to notice that I have a mushroom fetish.  I have collected them for years and each are unique in there own right.  

Today, I am making salt dough ornaments and trying to get the shape of a mushroom down.  What do you think?  

I will be sharing my gingerbread cookie recipe with you this year and I want to ice the top of the caps with different Christmas scenes.  

I think I have some practicing to do.  

If you want to try your hand at salt dough ornaments, just go to search this blog and type in salt dough ornaments.  My batches are small and make about a dozen at a time.  You can always double or triple  the ingredients if your want to make bunches.  

I leave mine pretty much natural with a little bit of epoxy spray, they go well with the brown paper bag wrapping and then I can add color with the bow and ribbon.  

That's about the just of my day.  

I really came on here to announce the winner of the thirty-one owl utility bag.  

Congratulations Lynda!!!

.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Have a great day or evening, where ever you may be,

Debra

Felt Ornaments

I spent some time last week cleaning out my craft closet, again.  Please tell me that every one has this issue.  It never stays clean.  I collect and deposit and store, then clean and the process starts all over again.  I did find an ornament felt kit this time.   I had worked two of the ornaments out of the 50.  

This kit has been packed in a box since 1991. I pulled it out and decided I was going to work on these again.  I will admit though, I am not very good with the whip stitch.  It probably isn't all that bad, but it bugs me that I can't space each stitch perfectly.  

This led me to thinking about  the sharpie I bought, and why not use my sharpie and crochet rather than whip stitch the felt pieces together.  I am going to give it a try, and maybe, just maybe I will get this 22 year old project done.  

I am steadily working on the vintage lantern purse pattern.  Almost completed, but not quite ready to share. 

I did promise to be back today, and I am just not going to get the lantern purse done, so I thought I would share some of my projects that have sat in a box possibly longer than some of you have been alive.  

Now that scares me, where did the time go?  

See you tomorrow,

Debra

Cinnamon Dough Ornaments

I just love this time of year.  It is starting to cool down in the Desert and the Holidays are approaching.  I can't help but get into the spirit of it all.

3 major Holidays in 3 months.  Thanksgiving of course is my favorite.  All that food.  Cooking the night before and all through the next day.  Then we sit down and eat for 15 minutes. And then eat again and again.

I would have to say Christmas is the most stressful for me.  I don't like to get out into the crowds.  I do love the Holiday but I try and make sure that I have all my gifts bought or made by August and then I spend October and November focusing on how I am going to wrap gifts and picking up or making those last minute gifts. December is about the tree.  I spend a month just on the tree.

Last year I bought these tiny trees that I can sit on the bar area in my kitchen.  They look pathetic.  But for .50 cents, I can change that.  I bought them with the intentions of sitting them on the bar in the kitchen and putting cinnamon dough ornaments on them. Cinnamon always reminds me of Christmas. With that in mind, I need to make the ornaments now, so they ready by December 1.  I'll make a small batch here and there and make the house smell good and then they will be ready when I need them.

Here is my recipe for cinnamon dough ornaments:

I use a 2.37 oz of ground cinnamon
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of applesauce

I first put the cinnamon in a bowl and then add 1/4 cup of applesauce.  I mix this and then add 1 tablespoon of the applesauce.  I mix this with my hands.  We are trying to comes up with a consistency that isn't too dry or too sticky.  I needed to add another tablespoon of cinnamon and it made it a little sticky.  At that point I just sprinkled cinnamon lightly from the container and mix until the dough was not sticky and didn't have cracks in it.  Below is a picture of what we are trying to obtain.  

Once the dough is mixed you will want to lay it out on wax paper and put a piece of wax paper on top of the dough.  Then roll it out to about 1/4" thick. Then remove the top piece of wax paper.

I then use my cookie cutters and cut out my shapes.  Since I am going to be making these periodically, I focus one one design at a  time.  With this small heart, I was able to cut about 20 ornaments.  

Once you cut them out, poke a hole in them with a toothpick and lay on a foil covered pan.  Any left over dough, just form back into a ball and start the process over again.  

I use my toaster oven for this project.  Set it at 200 degrees.  Turn them every half  hour or so.  If I don't have enough room for all the ornaments, then I just set a piece of foil on the top of the toaster oven and put the excess ornaments on the foil to air dry.  I turn them as well. If your using your oven it is the same process with the exception they they will all fit in the oven.   

It only takes a couple of hours to bake.  I have to admit though that I stretch that out, just because I love the scent.

When they are done, place a ribbon or twine through the hole on the ornament and tie the two ends together and they are ready to hang on your tree, use as gift tags, or whatever your imagination comes up with.

I store mine in airtight containers until ready to use.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Other/Cinnamon-Ornaments

Enjoy,

Debra

Cookie Cutters

How cute are these?  I will be making alphabet salt dough ornaments tonight.

I went on a search today for a particular fiber to test my patterns and it appears I am going to have to special order.

I am not one to compromise when I have my mind set.  I have touched enough material today, to make my fingers raw and I am just not going to give up.

How stubborn is that?

Patterns are written, but I want to make sure that everyone can find this fiber.  I can see that you can order it on line, but I am insistent about testing it to make sure the quality is comparable and the results are the same. I used a vintage material and it isn't the color I'm concerned about, but the feel of the fiber.  Real important to me, because these will be considered heirloom pieces.

Here is a sneak peak of one in process.  Can you guess what it is?  If you can, in one try, I will give you the pattern for free, but that is only if you guess in one try and within forty eight hours after this post was entered.

In the meantime, I am looking desperately for some speciality shops in Phoenix, and special ordering as well.

I'm a real simple down to earth type of person, and I don't ask for a lot but when I do want something, I want it, and I just won't give up. This very rarely happens, so I like to kind of enjoy the determination when it does.

Tonight I am making chicken cordon bleu.

Ready for a new recipe?

See you tomorrow,

Debra

Breakfast at the Pints

Back from a mini break in Laughlin, NV.

Who can eat all of this in one sitting?  They serve this breakfast special at the Pints in the Colorado Bell Hotel,  Laughlin, NV.  What a deal for $5.99.  Two people could share this special.  I love food, but no matter how hard I try, I can't eat all of this in one sitting.

Back to making salt dough ornaments and looking for my breakfast burrito recipe to share with you. Perfect for using up any left over ham you may have. 

Debra

Salt Dough Snowflake Ornaments

This day consisted of making salt dough ornaments.  Here is a small sample of what I did.  I bought this large rubber stamp with different snowflakes all over it and thought it would be cute to have snowflakes stamped on a snowflake.

Love the stamp.  Now to sand down and cover with a protective clear gloss.

I need to learn how to stamp on both sides without ruining the shape of the ornament.

I'm ready for winter,

Debra

Salt Dough

I have always enjoyed crafting.  During the past few years, a change has taken place with how I craft.  It is not about going to the craft store and buying a pattern and sitting down and making something that someone else designed. I have become the designer, the creator of my crafts.  As I create, I create with products that could possibly end up in our landfills.  It gives me a sense that I am protecting what God created and not a part of the destruction that is taking place with our planet.  I am showing respect to my Creator.

To take something and transform it into something new brings me a great deal of pleasure.  I feel like I am on the playground that God plays on.  Granted I didn't create the product, but the transformation of that product rather then it ending up in heaps of trash is much more attractive, don't you think?

I bought a huge bag of flour several years back and I used some of it.  Today, that bag sits on the kitchen floor. It is old, but I can't just throw it away.  The guilt, knowing that I have wasted something that was to be consumed, is to much to bear.   So it sits there year after year.  I know it has purpose, other than thrown away.

Today, I will be making salt dough ornaments with this old flour.  It will give me the opportunity to use my new cookie cutters and rubber stamps.  Of course, I will incorporate a blue ornament.

This is a great craft for kids and adults.  So the next time you haven't used your flour, consider using it as dough for ornament or even paper mache.

I will be back later this evening with a tutorial.

I am back.  I may not finish this tonight because of the time it takes to bake these, but I will finish up tomorrow with it.

I am sure there are lots of mixtures out there for salt dough.  I keep it really simple.  One part of each  of the ingredients and you are set to go.

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
1/2 cup of water

Mix all of these together really well.  You know the routine, if it is too sticky add more flour.  If it crumbles add more water.  Knead it until it is well mixed like bread dough.

I am not up with technology on all the great new products out there.  I still like to stir with a spoon, mix with my hands, and use what is ever available to get the result.  I just feel more connected the more elbow grease I put into it.

The next step is to roll it out on a floured surface. I use a floured glass as my rolling pin.

Pull out those cookie cutters next.  I am still in Christmas mode, so I am making ornaments for next year. Then I will head on to make some hearts for valentines.  Stamp your cookie cutter into some flour as needed and start cutting.  

Look, I keep my cookie cutters in a vintage coffee peculator and it has blue in it!!!!!

Now, I have to admit, I do spend money on my bake ware.  I love the stoneware and I will pay good money to have it.  The more you use it the more seasoned it becomes and the food turns out heavenly.  Oh, I need to get back on track here......Since this is old flour, I don't want to put it directly on my stoneware, so I lay a piece of foil down, which by the way can be used over and over again.  Take a plastic straw, and insert it where you want the hole to be for your ribbon, yarn, or whatever you are going to use to hang your ornament.  I twist it and kinda wiggle it a little bit so that the flour draws up into the hole of the straw.  

It is now ready for the oven.  Set your oven as low as it will go.  Around 100 degrees if possible.  Mine will only go down to 175, so I watch them every thirty minutes.  It takes quite a few hours to bake, usually around 3 hours or so. I pull mine out sooner and let them air dry because I don't want them to crack.  

I probably won't be back until tomorrow with the painting and sealer process, but this gets you started.   

I have some other projects and I also want to try stamping some flour salt dough.  I will spend my evening working with different cookie cutters and stamps for the evening.  

See you tomorrow to finish up the tutorial.....

Once the ornaments is baked you are ready to paint.  I use acrylic paints.  This one I just did a simple white.

You can do a a few coats, up to you,  I just did one.  Now for the embellishments.  Since I am trying to recycle, I cut small snowflakes from my junk mail.  Martha Stewart has a great tutorial on making snowflakes from paper.  I went with the blue of course.  I used decoupage to glue my snowflake on.  I love the idea of a paper snowflake, because no two are alike.....

I spray a sealer.  Probably not necessary, the decoupage is a pretty good sealer, but I like the shine.  Then I sprinkled glitter on the top and let dry.  Add some ribbon or scraps of material to hang.  I think a whole tree filled with these would be awesome.   

Potholder Loom

This year I am focusing on socks as crafts.  I had bought this potholder loom at Walmart for $5.00 and have made 2 potholders.  Now to start cutting those socks that I only have one of.  How one mysteriously disappear, I will never figure out.  I have several followers. doing the same thing.  These are so easy to make yet so functional.

The looms are plastic now, growing up I remember them being metal.  Eventually, I would like to try yarn and plarn to make scrubbies with them, but for now I am just having some fun......

My potholders:

Cousin Makayla

Great Niece Rylee

Gift Card Holder

I didn't realize I had been gone for so long. I got so involved with crafting, I forgot to blog about them. I need to work on getting caught up with my postings. I have always dabbled in decoupage, but nothing serious. I always used a white glue and water for my mixture. Then I came upon a site that is in my favorite links that shows work with Mod Podge. I thought to myself, what can possibly be the difference. Well, I bought a bottle and I will never go back. This stuff is fantastic. I am working with toliet paper rolls and designing ways to recycle them. So here is what I came up with. I took a toliet paper roll and a used dryer sheet. I used the Mod Podge and decoupaged the dryer sheet to the roll. I let it dry and then used dried flowers to decoupaged these to the dryer sheet. Hole punch on the side and some plastic bag plarn for ties, and I believe I have the perfect gift card holder. I think what encouraged me to do this was the price of gift card holders. I really love it..... I will get back to posting on a regular basis and bring everyone up to date. On occassion, I become a recluse and just need my space.

Buttons

One thing I am not is a clothes shopper. I dress with the classic styles. My clothes last me forever. On occasion, I may not buy the classic, but very rare. When I wear out a piece of clothing, it almost breaks my heart. Because, I have had the piece for so long, it holds a lot of history. With the fact that I can't wear the item anymore, I have a difficult time getting rid of it. I have so many memories of, "Oh, I wore this when".

I am learning to let go of the pieces but still trigger the memories. I am not a quilter. I have tried, but it is not something I have the patience for. So instead of making quilts with my clothing that is no longer serviceable for wear, I cover buttons with a piece of the fabric to hold the memories.

I love this idea, because I have the memory without my closets being over crowded.

Temari

I make yarn, or as they call it plarn, from my plastic bags. It is a great way to recycle and reuse. The only part of the bag that is not used when making plarn is the bottom of the bag and the handles. I have placed those pieces in an old sock, knowing that I need to come up with some way to use that part of the bag. In the process of placing those in the sock, I realized that I was creating a new form of stuffing.

We all have them and don't tell me you don't. Socks that get get old, socks your dogs chew up, socks that you wash and for some reason one mysteriously disappears.

They are perfect for making Temari balls. Use your plastic bags as stuffing, and if you don't crochet, well here is your opportunity to use yarn in a different way. Wrap, wrap and wrap that stuffed sock with yarn.

By stuffing the excess yarn in an old sock, I came up with the idea to make Temari Balls. I cut the socks down to a more manageable size and stuff with the excess plastic and then wrap the sock with yarn to form a tennis ball size Temari.

I have made many of these yarn balls as I call them. When creating, I don't always follow tradition or text book instructions. I come up with ideas and thoughts that give me the opportunity to express who I am or options that are different and new. Bring something new to the table. Is that not what it is all about?

My thing is, I don't want to do the traditional stitching that is used in the Temari ball. I want to embroidery on the yarn ball. I like to incorporate the old with the new. I never discount vintage, it has held the test of time and it is the base. So with that in mind, I am going to spend this evening, designing a way to place some vintage stitching techniques and colors onto the Temari ball.

Quarter End

It's quarter end where I work and that becomes life itself. This weekend, I am going to take a break and work on paper, paper, paper. Transforming all that junk mail, envelopes, magazines into a new creations, it gives me the opportunity to transform myself as well.

I am just now noticing that the art of communication has changed and I need to change. What was acceptable and not acceptable years ago, is not the case today. I need to transform the why I communicate.

So this weekend will be about changing all that junk paper into a piece of art and researching to change my old communication style into a new communication style. I think by doing this, not only will I eliminate a lot of paper in my life, I will accomplish and establish a new communication style that will be more acceptable for the times.

Of course, just as a new creation, a new communication style does not happen over night.

Developing in this area is my biggest challenge this year and I don't think I am going accomplish a complete change this year, but I can at least establish a foundation and work towards transformation.

On that note, as I outline my objectives and set new communications standards, I will also be creating and changing all that junk paper into something more useful.

Homemade paper, seed paper, beads, paper seed bombs, gift tags and hopefully a new items will arise.

Hopefully, with this process, I can start to eliminate the amount of paper that flows through this house and get a new development on communicating and how to organize paperless.

Sentimental Heart

I have a very sentimental heart. I have saved all those things that have brought me joy over the years. The only issue with this, is I have so much, it becomes clutter at times. This particular project is one that I have worked for about a year now, and I have only just begun. Any glass jars I buy or gifts that come in a glass jar, I save. When browsing the thrift stores or garage sales, I pick up candlesticks, stemmed glassware or sundae cups. With the jars I have saved and the candlestick I have bought, I make apothecary jars.

Have you noticed that a lot of the kitchen cabinets do not go all the way up to the ceiling as they they did in the past. I love the fact that they do not. Now I have a place to place my apothecary jars and enjoy those memories each and everyday, and that puts a smile on my face.

I, of course, have a long way to go with this process. As I decide what to put in each jar and which candle stick goes best with all the jars I have saved. The really nice thing is, these are sealed, so I do not have to worry about dust and dirt to wipe away, to what I consider precious items.