He is finished!

I think for a spur-of-the-moment idea he looks pretty good! If I had it to do again, I would find a more accurate skin color paint for the face, but otherwise I think our Santa Gourd turned out quite nicely! Thanks to my dad for his help and my mom for her patience while a giant veggie dried on her kitchen table for two days.

The Great Anne

One thing I know I cannot do is paint. For some reason I have a huge issue with drip, and honestly, everything else that has to do with painting. When I saw this "Joy to the World" painting on pintrest (originally pinned from etsy.com), I knew just who to ask to duplicate it! My fried, Anne, gave me this today and I LOVE it! She is so very talented, and kind, and generous!

Gourd Stage 2...

He is ALMOST finished! All he needs are a few minor paint touch ups and a Santa hat, but I wanted to post an updated picture. Life has been crazy busy around here and I didn't get to update as quickly as I'd hoped. My dad and I used spray adhesive and cotton balls for the beard and eyebrows (so easy!) and electric tape for Santa's belt. After drawing them on, we decided buttons for the eyes and nose would be far cuter! I think we were right.

Coming Soon...

While decorating my parent's exterior for Christmas, we had to pitch the fall produce-turned decor. They had a 2 foot tall and very fat green gourd that I thought we should turn into Santa Claus. My dad generously carried it to the garage where we primed it and began to paint the bottom half red. Sadly, the first coat still hadn't dried and it is going to take a few days to get this guy done. I forgot to take a before picture but I did remember to snap one after our first couple of steps. Here is what it looks like now....

I can't wait to finish him!

Quite simple

While browsing pintrest, I came across a beautiful damask wreath with hot pink flowers from The Patriotic Peacock and my immediate thought was that I could do a Christmas version. Honestly, a smaller pattern 0n the fabric would have been easier to work with, but for a first attempt I am very happy with the results. I have made four of these for family and friends so far and they take roughly 30 minutes to assemble start to finish. I suggest this tutorial!

Wooden Plaque turned "frame"

I wanted to post a sort-of tutorial for my .99 wooden plaque turned wall art, but I don't have them all on my wall quite yet. I will post a picture of the whole collection once my wonderful husband drills and hangs them! For now, this is a brief tutorial...

I purchased several different shapes and sanded the rough edges before starting to paint. I had on hand little bottles of the acrylic brightly colored paints and decided I would start with aqua blue.

After two to three coats of paint I used my sand paper to distress the border of the plaque and applied a coat of Mod Podge

Next I trimmed my picture to fit the shape and applied it using mod podge.

I can't get my pictures to turn so please forgive my lack of blog-ability.

I am excited to get them all finished and up!

Craft Thursday!

I got together with a good friend of mine today and we attempted to get crafty. I say attempted because it was the two of us, two newly walking toddlers, a four year old, and a dog. We were a tad outnumbered and no one was sleeping. We managed to make a couple of things before naptime fell upon us and then I came home and made some cute "frames". Pictures and hopefully tutorial to follow tomorrow!

I've got gadgets and headbands a plenty

One of my first "pins" on pintrest was from Alisa Burke's blog. She had a very easy to follow tutorial for rolled ribbon flowers and I just happened to have fabric scraps from another decor project I had just finished. This is my first attempt and I have gotten better but I still think its cute!

Who doesn't love a little glitz?

Though I find hobby lobby to be very reasonable price-wise, when I saw ornaments that looked as if they were dipped in glitter priced at $3.99 each I thought "I love it, but I can do that". So, I did just that. I found sets of 8 ornaments at JoAnn fabrics for $3 each and bought my first jar of mod podge. I love the way these look!

Partial Success?

Inspired by The Penny Parlor, I decided to try and monogram a few chargers. My mom, who hates to do anything crafty, even wanted in on this idea so we started with hers. After finally agreeing on a letter size and font, we bought a set of stencils and a couple of chargers (only $1.50 ea). I think the "B" turned out quite nicely! I was excited at how easily and quickly we accomplished hers so when I set out to do mine today I, of course, wanted to try something new and maybe a bit more difficult. I decided to stencil my "Z" onto Christmas themed paper and then mod podge it onto my charger. I had never used m-p before and I learned a valuable (and quite obvious) lesson. When paper is coated with m-p it is wet and when paper is wet it tears. I tried my best to salvage it and I am still working on a solution because I think, in theory, this will look really great.

Fabric Scrap Garland

After seeing garland made of white lights and ribbon at Junk Garden Girl I knew I had to try this myself. I didn't have any ribbon scraps laying around as I am new to the crafting obsession, so I decided to use fabric. My 4 year old loved making this and asks at least five times a day if we can plug it in. I think this project was a success.

**** Please ignore the horrible photography!

Hi. My Name is Rachel...

and I am an addict. A pintrest addict that is. I never realized how "easy" crafting could be until I stumbled upon pintrest.com. I have created so many things that I would have never thought possible until I saw basic tutorials taken from amazingly creative bloggers and all put in one amazing place: pintrest.com. It has inspired me to try so many little projects that I am proud to say I was able to at least sort of duplicate. My plan is to put my successes and failures on this blog as I continue my attempt at creativity.