Santa Ornament

Last year Mickey and I made these cute snowman ornaments (click here for that post) that are so simple and quick to make - if you're looking for a last minute gift or a gift topper check them out! Along the same line is this santa ornament - paint a black band around a clear ornament for his belt, then add a gold painted buckle topped with lots of gold glitter to make it pop. Remove the top of the ornament, cut strips of red and green paper about an inch wide (does not need to be exact, just strips of paper), curl them up and stick in the ornament opening, re-insert the ornament top.


These would also be a great craft if you have kids coming over for Christmas Eve or Day, set up a few supplies and turn them loose (I would definitely put an apron on them if they're all dressed pretty haha! Did you know that an old adult button up shirt works great to cover little kids clothes? Yup, just put it on them backwards and button up, roll up the sleeves).

tip:  find something to set the round ornament in
while you're working on it. putting it on this roll of
painters tape helps keep it from moving around.

Junkin' with Candy (aka: Updating Old Stuff)

Candy and I went to a couple little antique/junk stores the other day and I found this plain wood holder with 3 clear jars. Normally I wouldn't have looked twice at this but for some reason I zoomed right it on it and knew just what I wanted to do to it - and it only cost $4 so if it didn't work I wasn't out much.

I lightly sanded the tops of the jars and the wood holder and wiped them clean. Using a 1" foam paintbrush I painted the jar tops with 2 coats of black chalkboard paint, and the wood holder with acrylic craft paint. First for some reason I painted it light lilac, that wasn't right so I covered it in cape cod blue...and that wasn't right either; finally I mixed together bright blue with a bit of yellow and orange and came up with this pretty dark teal color - ahhhhh, just right. My thought is to put this in the bathroom for cotton balls, qtips, etc. and write on the lids with chalk - but who knows, it's so cute I have lots of places I might use it!

Painted Flag Mason Jars

Ever have a crafting day where nothing goes right? Well I certainly do and this project falls under that category... good grief I struggled! I'd seen this mason jar project numerous places and thought it was cute - and then my sister mentioned she saw it and was hoping I would make them for her. Sure thing sissy, I'm always happy to have a purpose for crafting haha.

It started out fine, if you count going down to the basement to get 3 pint jars from storage and knocking over an entire shelf of plastic containers fine. And that was just the beginning. I couldn't find navy paint at 2 different craft stores so figured I'd just make my own by adding black to some brighter blue. That actually worked, but still - why can't I just buy navy paint? So 2 jars get painted white and one navy; there was something wrong with my white craft paint and it ended up going on uneven and gooey. I tried to speed up the drying process by hitting it with the hair dryer but it just looked bad - fortunately I used regular old acrylic craft paint so it was easy to wash off the jars and start again with fresh white paint and the second time I painted them went better. I ended up painting all 3 jars with a second coat. After thoroughly dry I taped off the areas where I wanted to paint the red stripes using washi tape as recommended - I read that blue painters tape would pull the paint off the jar. Guess what, washi tape pulls the paint off too...ugh. 

I couldn't get the tape to stick tightly around the curved edge of the
top of ball jar, so I used a fat rubber band as a guide

this is what the jar looked like after removing the washi tape...a little messy!
I touched up the area where the red went into the white and where it peeled
the paint off with a small brush.

I used a tip I saw online to make the star stamp and hot glued a couple foam stars to the end of a wine cork, yes - that worked! Great idea I will def use again. Then dip the stamp in white paint and stamp over the navy, except the jar is round so I had to press the edges of the star onto the jar - you won't get nice crisp star edges doing that but I decided the rustic handmade look is what I was going for and not try to make them so perfect. 

glue foam stars to a wine cork to
make the stamp

One site I found with directions said when they were completely decorated and dry she lightly sanded them in places to make them look distressed, I know why she did that - cuz they don't look so good and you want to rough them up a bit to help with the illusion that you meant for them to look beat up!

after I lightly sanded them to give them a "distressed" look.
Actually I was distressed more than the jars!! 

After sanding I sprayed them with clear shiny sealer so they will hopefully last forever and I don't have to remake them for her! I'm not saying this isn't a cute or worthwhile project - once completed I actually really like them, but let's just say that after having everything go wrong I'm not going to be making another set!

once dry, I took them outside and sprayed with a clear sealer

2021 update: my sis still brings this out every year, she put silverware in them a couple weeks ago for Memorial day and they still look great. It's making me rethink making another set - enough time has gone by that I'm willing to try again LOL!! 

Pets, Paint, and the Inspiration Station

Candy and I took a class last night at our local "Painting with a Twist".  I've never been but I know that usually everyone in class paints the same picture and there is wine if you want it - but this was different ... it was "pet edition"; so we had to send in a photo of our pet for them to sketch out for us and then everyone painted their own different canvas. Let's be clear here - I am not a painter. I would love to be. It's pretty much the one crafty/artistic thing that I would love to be able to do (insert mental image here of woman standing at an easel, paint pallet in hand, gazing out at the sea or whatever - I so want to be that woman...) but just don't have it. Enter Candy telling me about this fun spin on traditional Painting with a Twist (and the promise of wine while painting) and I'm in. All day long I'm in. 

Here's the photo of Sarge that I submitted for them to sketch on the canvas I was going to paint - our neighbor Kim in CA took it and it's one of my favorites. So hard to get a detailed picture of an all black dog with dark brown eyes!

I honestly went into this thinking there is no way I'm going to be able to paint a picture that actually looks like Sarge. Or even looks like a dog for that matter. So I wasn't worried at all - whatever happens happens. 

this is just for the background! oh no...

But then I got there and started hearing the instructions and had an immediate stressful "oh no what was I thinking" moment... no way this is going to turn out good. The very first thing was choosing and painting a background. Candy wisely chose solid black and was given one color - black - on her paper plate...I picked a turqoise-y color and was told I'd have to mix it, for real they gave me 5 colors to blend together until I got the background color I wanted. Uhhhh....

it's like paint by numbers...without the numbers...

I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was concentrating and so overwhelmed - here is the pencil sketch I started with, which is very similar to a paint-by-number except no one tells you what color to paint. I got a different paper plate full of the colors I would need: white, black, blue, brown, cinnamon. I wish I would have taken a picture of the plate by the time I was done - it was a solid mass of blended together colors, a total mess (as were my hands, paint was everywhere!).

nope, she's not worried at all...!

Candy, as usual, had this project completely under control and wasn't stressed out in the least. I'm gonna need to learn some things from her about not being such a control freak and just having fun. She kept trying to be encouraging - "oh you are doing really good" - but I told her to "shut up, stop trying to make me feel better". I don't think she'll ever let me forget I told her to just shut up already :)

well at least it looks like a Scottie...whew! 

3 hours later. If you told me I could actually finish this project in 3 hours I wouldn't have believed you - but look! It almost, sorta, kinda, looks like Sarge. Or at least looks like a dog anyway...

Sarge and Buddy

Final thought: their beverage/wine counter is called the 'inspiration station'. We have a "beverage center" at home (ha, we have a tiny fridge with drinks in it and a cabinet full of glasses around it that has the very grand title of "beverage center") that is now forever going to be known as the Inspiration Station. It's perfect and makes me laugh!

Squash Ghosts

I love when a project ends up being super easy and cute! Sometimes when I attempt what seems to be an easy project it ends up harder than I think haha, but this one is a winner. You could do with any kind of gourd or squash you want that has a good ghostly shape...I used butternut squash (making sure they are flat enough on the bottom to stand up). Paint them with 2 coats of white acrylic craft paint (I used a 1" foam brush); when dry paint on eyes and mouths (just free hand it, it looks good not perfectly symmetrical I think!) with black acrylic craft paint using a small rounded brush. Done.