Crafting in the Car


 
Well hello again one and all! For those of you out there who follow my blog let me start out by saying THANK YOU and sorry for not staying in touch. As most of you know, as life always seems to go, things always seem to get crazy this time of year! Kids get sick, mommies get sick (and then the house comes to a stand-still) holiday vacations get in the way and so on and so on.  Add to all this military travel, and lost Blogger passwords. Yes, makes for one frazzled blogger! But fear not, my crafting did not stop. Oh no, no! Quite the opposite actually! I don’t think my craft room has ever been busier.
The Mistletoe and More Craft Show in November was a huge success!!! After the first day, I sold so much of my merchandise I had to stay up late that night making more stuff to put into the show the following day! J I met some wonderful people and I am looking forward to continuing the Shop ‘till You Drop Craft Shows in Bossier City in the future.
The One Wreath the Turned into Twelve actually turned into twenty something. I lost count. They were selling like hotcakes!!! I had so much fun making them! Each one was different and unique in its own special way.  I always love projects that you truly and honestly have fun with. That’s what this week’s blog post is all about after all. Now, I had a blast creating this project, but I will put this disclosure out there first and foremost… crafting while you travel is not for everyone. Make sure you have a great travel buddy (honey, you’re the greatest) and most importantly I recommend using glitter free ribbon! J
The car is loaded up and the kids are in their car seats and we are ready to hit the road on our holiday trip to Arkansas and Hubby asks, “Did we forget anything?” and I say… “What can I make in the car in seven hours?” For a second my mind run wild! Luckily, I was able to make a quick decision. I have an amazing sister-in-law who asked me to make her a fun snowman wreath for Christmas. I believe “are you kidding me” was being grumbled from the garage but I was too busy grabbing supplies to hear exactly what was being said (like I said honey, you’re the greatest!). Here’s what I grabbed: Various coordinating colored wire ribbon, foam wreath form, T-pins, coordinating embellishments, scissors, and a hot glue gun (yep, that’s right, a hot glue gun. I have a power inverter in my car).
 
And away we went! Down the road and a crafting we did go!!! When I said earlier I recommend using glitter free ribbon, here is why. As you attach the ribbon to the wreath form, the ribbon will shed glitter if it has glitter on it.  I don’t think my car will ever be the same again.  A lady actually asked what happed to me at a gas station because I was covered in so much glitter. My response: “Nothing.” I said. “Just crafting in the car. ;)”


Now remember I have two small kiddos, and a dog. So snacks, diaper changes, potty breaks, bottles, crying and screaming goes in with all this crafting fun!!!



With all of the ribbon finally attached it was time to fire up the glue gun to attach the embellishments. Here’s where Hubby got real nervous! He was convinced I was going to either burn myself or the leather seats.
 

Neither of course happened and out came a fun, festive snowman wreath!
 
 
What do you think? Do you like how it turned out? I hope you all found a little bit of humor in this crafting adventure and might even tell your friends about my crazy crafting adventures too!  Have a very, very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!!!  Until the next adventure!
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One Wreath that Turned into Twelve


I'm sure many of you crafty folks out there are always looking for a new challenge. Me, I am no different. I kept seeing these beautiful college football wreaths on our neighbor’s doors, and decided that we needed to have one too. Not just for the fact that our neighborhood is a little LSU saturated and needed a some Razorback red to liven things up a bit, but because I needed a new challenge. So I gave it a try. Here is what I came with:

 
I shared a picture with my sister and she loved it! She asked if I could make other teams, like say…, Duke, her husband’s favorite team. I said Sure! Why not! Here’s how that one turned out:

 
After some encouragement, she convinced me to ask my Facebook friends what they thought about them, and if they would want one too. Twelve wreath orders later, needless to say they have been very popular!
 


I have teacher door wreaths, monogram wreaths, Christmas themed, and more sports wreaths on the way! So that’s what I have been working on this week! It was a supposed to be a quick challenge that turned into a BIG one. But I’m having fun filling these orders! And I’m learning all kinds of new techniques for wreath making! If you have any questions please let me know and as always thanks for stopping by!
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Antique Door Handle Clock


Happy Monday Everyone! I have been quite the busy lady in my craft room recently! I’m creating some great new things for the upcoming craft show next month.  It’s hard to tell what will sell well and what will not, so I am making a WIDE variety of things. This little beauty is one I am most proud of.

It is a fully functional pendulum clock made from an old door handle and barn wood my in-laws graciously allowed me take from the farm.  I am always coming across antique door handles and plates at flea markets and thought they might make for a unique wall hanging.  While I was at it, I thought to myself  “I bet I could make that into a clock somehow.”  Sure enough… a few broken drill bits later, (sorry again honey) it all came together! I tied it all together by swapping out the round pendulum for a skeleton key. So far I have made three, but this one in particular is my favorite.  I was planning on selling it, but I’m not so sure now…, it’s looking pretty cozy up there on my wall. :) I hope you like it! And as always, thanks for stopping by!

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Christmas JOY Blocks


This week’s post is a very exciting one for me! It may be it bit early for some to think about, but Christmas is right around the corner! WHAT?!? You ask? Halloween isn’t even over yet! I know, I know… but I’m so excited that I can’t even contain myself!!! I just reserved my spot at one of the biggest Holiday craft shows of the season here in Northwest Louisiana! It’s called “Mistletoe and More” and I am so, so, so excited to be a new vendor there this year! You can visit their site here. I will be selling several of my one of a kind furniture pieces, and many holiday home décor items. I have SO MUCH to do, and just couldn’t wait to get started! I started rummaging through my garage and craft room to see what I could create in few minutes (really, that’s all I had because my husband was ready to hit the road for our Fall Arkansas trip). I came up with this cute little Holiday Decoration.

 


You will need: Three scrap 2x4’s pieces. (2-six inch long pieces and 1-three inches long), red acrylic paint, sponge brush, sand paper, adhesive backed glitter paper, electronic cutter, ribbon and a Christmas tree bulb.
 

 
First, you will need to sand the rough edges of the 2x4’s if necessary. Using your sponge brush give the 2x4’s a good smooth coat or two of the acrylic paint. While the paint is drying, using your electronic cutter to cut out the letters j-o-y. I set my machine to cut the letters out at 4 inches, but you may have to adjust this depending on the font you choose. Don’t have an electronic cutter? Draw the letters on by hand, carefully paint with adhesive and add glitter! :)


I like the distressed look, so I gave my blocks a light sanding around the edges. If you like a more clean, sharp look, skip the sanding. Add the glitter letters, ribbon and Christmas bulb, and tada! A beautiful, easy (and super quick) holiday decoration! Thanks for stopping by!!!
 

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"Upcoming Creations" Dry Erase Board


Well hello again all! Sorry I missed you last week. I was enjoying some much needed family time while my parents were in town visiting from Montana. I shut the door to the craft room and enjoyed every minute I could with them. I don’t get to see them all that often, so it was absolutely wonderful to have them here with my boys for the whole week!  
Sadly, as it usually does, all good things must come to an end. But, I’m back to work in the craft room now!  And it was here that I realized that I needed something to help keep me focused and track. I don’t know how other crafters are, but this particular crafter has a hard time staying focused on just one project at a time. I get so excited about a project or have a great idea about something else and forget all about what I am currently working on. Can anyone else relate to this? I decided to create a dry erase board to help me organize my projects and project ideas.
If you want to create one for yourself here’s what you will need:
Large Frame with Glass, Spray Paint, Poster Board, Electronic Cutter, Hot Glue Gun and 4-5 Strings of Large Beads or Jewels
 
I used a frame that I found at Hobby Lobby in the clearance rack. It was a great price, but I ended up having to get the glass cut specially cut for it. LESSONS LEARNED: Make sure you have a skilled technician cutting your glass. Check and double check it before you leave the store. Mine came out uneven and crooked. I ended up having to shave a fair amount off one corner side of the inside portion of the frame to make the glass fit. It set me back a few hours on this project, but it’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way I guess. :(  Next, I primed it and spray painted it golden yellow (my accent color in my craft room) and gave it a little distressing love.
 
While the paint was drying, I used my Cricut to cut out the letters on vinyl that I adhered to poster board to put inside my frame.
 
 
In my mind, I thought this would be enough and that it would look fabulous at this point. Well… it didn’t. It was boring. It needed something else. I found some turquoise beads and added a little bling to the frame!
 
 
Much better! What do you think?
It hasn’t found a permanent home on the wall yet, (I can’t decide exactly where I want it) but for now it is perched happily on top of my sewing table.
 
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my lastest creation! There are many, many more to come!
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Decorative Fall Hay Bale


As I transformed my home this week into a fall scene of yellows, oranges and reds, I learned two things. One: Leave floral arrangements to the professionals, they now what they are doing. And two: I have absolutely no idea how to make a beautiful bow. You know, one of those big bushy ones that are so pretty on wreaths and bouquets? Well, whether it was a success or not, (I’ll let you decide) I attempted to give both a try! With the help of my overly helpful two-year old, I put together a decorative Fall Hay Bale for display outside my front door.

First, I gathered all the necessary supplies needed to complete the project.  One mini craft hay bale, a variety of fall colored silk flowers, some wire ribbon and a pumpkin. Choose whatever suits your fancy! I love sunflowers so I picked a couple of them and chose the rest of the silk flowers and colors to coordinate with the sunflowers.  I also picked up a few fall leaf stems as well to put into the mix. While you’re at it, make sure you have a good pair of wire clippers or floral clippers on hand because cutting through silk flowers can be quite difficult some times.
Then it was time to get to work! While you are working with these little craft bales, only cut off the top portion of plastic wrap where you will be placing the floral stems. They are extremely messy and shed like crazy!

Start by placing a few of the larger floral stems. Place in the pumpkin where you would like it and then fill in the spaces with your smaller stems.  Look at my little helper there isn’t he cute!

 
 
When you have the arrangement the way you like, unwrap the remainder of the plastic wrap (make sure you have a dustpan close by!) and wrap it with your ribbon and attach a bow. Now, like I said, I CAN NOT tie a bow to save my life! So I just did a real simple bow for the front. This is a great link to a tutorial I am still practicing with. If you have any other tutorials you would like to share, please share the link in my comment section! I would love to give them a try!!!
 

What do you think?
Ahh…, Fall, I just love this time of year! What is your favorite thing about fall?  
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A Matching Work Table


Well I couldn’t very well have a beautiful sewing table sitting there all alone in my craft room without a worktable to match now could I? In one of my recent Saturday Morning Adventures, I came across this solid oak table at a flea market for a STEAL! Completely boring, but a good, solid, sturdy piece of furniture none the less.
 
 
That’s always something you want to look for if you want to give furniture restorations a try yourself.  A piece may have the ugliest shade of orange, or may even be covered in a ton of stickers (one of my upcoming projects :) If you can look past the ugly and see potential, you got yourself a project!

I chose Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White for the base color for the table. So easy to use, no prep, no sanding, no fuss! AWESOME! Love it!!! I gave it two good even coats, because of the rich color of wood.
 
Kinda look like bowling pins huh? :)
 
Then I taped off the areas I was going to paint as the accents. These areas I painted with some left over Behr Paint and Primer in Gem Turquoise I used on the sewing table. Looking back, I really didn’t need to tape off the areas. I had to go back and do so many touch- ups it wasn’t worth the time it took me to tape it off.  If you have a steady hand, you shouldn’t have a problem doing it on your own.  Skip the painters tape.

It needed something else… So I applied a wall decal I found in a clearance bin at a local craft store to the top of the table.

I gave it a coat of Annie Sloan Clear wax and distressed it up a bit and finished it up with another coat of wax.
 
 
 

There it is all finish up! It's not it my craft room yet, I want to give the wax a few more days to cure before I put anything on top of it, but I am dying to get it in there! What do you think?  I'd love to hear your comments! Thanks for stopping by!
 
Linking up to these great parties! Come check them out!
 
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My Very First Blog Post



Let the adventure begin! I am so very excited to FINALLY get this blog up and running! But I’m even more excited that I will be able to start sharing my projects with everyone out there who is curious to see what goes on in that craft room of mine (believe it or not, it was actually a deciding factor in our recent home purchase! More to come on that later…). First, let me back up a little and introduce myself. My name is Dawn and I am a proud military wife and stay at home mother of two wonderful little boys.  The oldest is two and half and the youngest is six months. They are my full time job! Where do I find time to craft you ask? Naptime! It is the most glorious time of the day.
Let’s see, I started crafting probably around the same time we all did, back in kindergarten when we turned milk boxes and macaroni noodles into beautiful new creations. Twenty some years later, I’m still doing it. I love just about anything to do with crafting. I scrapbook, I sew, I cross-stich, I repurpose, I up-cycle and I’m pretty sure I’m addicted to Pinterest. Learning new craft techniques and pushing my crafting abilities to it's full potential is quite possibly my new favorite pastime.

So that’s enough jabber for one day. On to the project that inspired me to start the "Raising Kids and Crafting Too" blog. A friend of mine (and amazing seamstress I might add) had gotten me stared on few sewing projects and I decided that standing at my kitchen counter with my sewing machine was no longer working for me. I had seen a beautiful sewing cabinet transformation done over at Hooked on Decorating, and wanted to give it a try myself.  I began looking for an old sewing table, and came across this pretty little thing for quite a bargain.

 
I knew it had potential, but it needed a lot of love first. I took the entire desk apart and quickly learned that it had been through a fire and had a tremendous amount of smoke damage, among many other visual flaws. This meant it would be more work, but I was already in love with it and wasn’t about to give up. I gave it a good cleaning, a really, really, really, (did I say really) good sanding, stripped the varnish from the appliques and primed it up for a pretty new paint job. I chose a paint and primer in one for this project in a turquoise color, and gave it three coats, sanding in between.  And then….., we moved the Louisiana, and project had to be put on hold for a few months.
 Before and after sanding the table top, and after chemically stripping one of the drawers.
Before and after of cleaning and sanding the iron frame.
Back in the workshop, (now in hot, humid Louisiana) the sewing table didn’t make the move as well as we had hoped. The movers put a large scratch on the table top, and along the sides. I went with it though, and ended up distressing the piece a little more than I had originally planned. One of the drawers lost a knob, so I found one of a similar color that helped add a little bling and character to the piece. The stool I found for the table came from a tea shoppe in central California. It was hiding behind an old piano, dusty and scratched, but it was for sale! It was made in 1867, needed very little work, but definitely an upholstery upgrade! 


Finally, drum roll please…..Here it is! All finished! What do y’all think?





 
Before I go, I have to give a great big shout-out and thank you to my blog role model and friend Courtney over at A Diamond in the Stuff. She has been a wonderful supporter of mine and a terrific sounding board. Not to mention she is a creative genius and you should totally go check out her stuff! 

I hope you have enjoyed my first blog post and will return to see my many, many upcoming projects. I have some amazing things in my craft room just waiting to get on the blog! Thanks for stopping by!

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