Grungy Candles

I finished my wall sconces last night. And being the impatient person that I am, I had to have candles to put in them! Instead of paying the $10 or so it would have cost me for grungy candles, of course I had to make my own. I'd like to fib a little and say I used candles I already had on hand, but I must tell the truth. I had to go out and buy some candles. (Horrible, I know! Esp since I have tons of them packed away in a tote somewhere. I just didnt feel like digging them out) 

So I bought these for the outrageous price of 75cents apiece. I mean really, what happened to them being 25cents like I remember? 

They were a little longer than I wanted, so I hacked off about 2 inches from the top of them.

I started up my parrafin warmer. (This makes an AMAZING wax burner for all my wax projects. I bought if for my Mom as a gift, and she couldnt use it, so I took it for myself!) After only a day or two, my wax tarts I use in my burners lose their scent. So I add them into my wax bath.

I also look for any candles at garage sales, thrift store, etc. You can get bags of them for next to nothing. 

Or you can have wonderful people who give them to you, I just recently had a huge box of candles given to me! It was like Christmas. :)

Of course, I threw in the tops of the candles I had just cut.

 

 I then held my candle over the pot and used my spoon to pour wax over the candles. After I did this about 10 times, I used my syringe to squeeze wax onto the candles. This gives it a more chunky look. I did that about 3 times. 

Every now and then my syringe got clogged. I used a toothpick to unclog it and let it sit in the hot wax for just a moment, unclogged easily.

 I then painted over them with some maroon and brown paint. No neatness required, I just kinda slopped it on. I then sealed it with another coat of wax. I didnt even have to let the paint dry.

 Here they are finished. I think a little darker would have looked nicer, but I was in a hurry tonight.

 Here they are finished and hung up! 

Wooden Jar Lids and Wall Sconces

 Taking ugly jars and making them "New" 

If your like me, then you see these kind of jars just about everywhere, 

thrift stores, Goodwills, garage sales, etc.. And usually for cheap, I got mine for $1.00 a piece.

BEFORE

The finished product. I am using them on my bakers rack to store my rice. 

AFTER

 Simple as can be, but I figured I'd share anyways. (I mentioned before, I have a brand new camera! A Canon Rebel T3. And I'm enjoying playing around with the setting's and flash.)

I painted the top of the lid with my tan paint. Does not have to be perfect, just a base coat and it's the color the star will be. 

After it dried, which only takes minutes with this Behr paint. (I picked ALL of my paint up on the reduced rack at Home Depot, I got them for 50 cents a can!) I placed down my star cutout. I used vinyl, which I have on hand for my cricut. I was to lazy to pull out my cricut just to cut 2 stars, so I just free handed them.

 I imagine Any sticker would work.

 I then painted the entire thing black, 2 coats. I let it dry and then peeled off the sticker. I then used my sanding pad to scuff it up a little bit. And called it finished! :)

My paints and sanding block used for today's projects. :)

Remember those ugly looking wall sconce's I posted about before?

Here's a refresher....

Here they are mostly done. 

I painted them, 2 coats. Then used my sanding block to scuff them up a little. 

I added some pipberries and stars, and called them done

Now I just have to get some candle's to grunge up, and they will be on my wall.

Salt Dough Creations

Salt Dough Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup of fine salt

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup of water (may add more)

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine the salt and the flour

Add the water

Knead until smooth and shape into a ball

When not in use, wrap in plastic or store in an airtight container

HINT: To get a softer dough you can add more flour. Adding more salt will lend a more grain like affect.

You can paint your creations with acrylic paints and seal with varnish or polyurethane spray.

You can let your salt dough creations air dry, however salt dough can also be dried in the oven. Bake at 200 F until your creation is dry. The amount of time needed to bake your creations depends on size and thickness; thin flat ornaments may only take 45-60 minutes, thicker creations can take 2-3 hours or more. You can increase your oven temperature to 350 F, your dough will dry faster but it may also brown, which won't matter if you are painting your entire creation.

There are a few options to color your salt dough: 1. Add powdered tempera paint to your flour, 2. add food coloring or paint to the water before you mix it with the salt/flour, or 3. add natural coloring like instant coffee, cocoa, or cinnamon. 

The possibilities are almost endless for what you can make with your salt dough. Here are a few of the ones I have made so far. ..

My cookies. 

Painted them with paint when dry, sealed with Mod Podge. (I LOVE Mod Podge!)

Cookie and cinnamon rolls. 

I used Mod Podge and white paint for the "icing." 

My Pie. Not perfect, but I'm happy with it. Very easy to make.

I just rolled my salt dough out, and used my pizza cutter to cut it in strips!

(I also made the watermelons on the top of it.)

Redo of a camera case

 

A well known fact about myself, I HATE FELT or any other itchy material. 

I mean I HATE it!

I can't touch it, and if for some reason I have to, it takes my breath away, literally and in a bad way!

That is the reason for this project.

(The material bothers me so bad, I had to wear gloves while doing this project LOL)

I received a free camera bag when I bought my camera. Only thing is, the inside was horribly itchy. I had to fix that. 

Fact #2 about myself, I am impatient. Once I get an idea in my head, I have to do something about it. 

I had no good material on hand. But while digging in my stash, I came across this yoyo kit I had recently purchased for $2. Didn't know what I was going to do with it, but had to have it for that bargain price.

So I figured why not use this!

I cut out the yoyos. 

And found it was much faster to fold the material in half and that saved me half the cutting time!

Here is the inside of my camera bag BEFORE. ALL itchy and not so pretty. 

Here is a before and after of the camera bag inserts.

I simply took the round material pieces, and hot glued them in place. I overlapped and glued. 

It is not perfect, I should have waited and got fabric glue to do this. But my impatience won out.

AFTER 

***UPDATE***

I have yet again given my camera bag a makeover.

This time, I used some scrap material. And made a pattern the best I could.

Once I got my pattern all cut and fitted, I traced it out on my good material, and added 1/4 inch for seam allowance. I wanted it to have a "finished" appearance to it.

 

I folded all the edges of my fabric with a 1/4" fold. Ironed, and then sewed around all.

 

I then used fabric glue, and glued it into place in my camera bag,  Using clamps to hold it tight overnight.

Halloween Jars

Yes, I know it's June. But for me, it's always time for any kind of crafting, Halloween or Christmas! 

I was so in love with my jars that I finally found, I could not wait to start/finish them.

(Just got a brand new camera, a Canon T3 Rebel. So ya, expect a lot of stupid pics!

Practice, Practice, Practice!) 

Some of the labels I used.
FREE! I have seen labels that werent as nice as these for sale for $3.99!
I LOVE free!
Thanks to the awesome sites that offered them up...

You can find the labels for FREE at 

Cocoa And Bella
and
Halloween Forum
*UPDATE These labels can no longer be found.
The 1st link denies access completely.
But a google search of Free Halloween Jar Labels brings ups tons and tons now.
Like these goodies...
IttsyBittsyFun Halloween Labels

 I also used the following products...

I used the spray glue to attach the labels. 

Then applied a light coat of Mod Podge over top the label. 

I did one light coat, one stroke in each direction. Some of the ink tends to run/smear if

you put to much Mod Podge on.

Here are the jars BEFORE

$5.00 for ALL 8 of them

What a BARGAIN. Usually the jars I have searched for, run almost $2. a piece.

 And here are the finished jars. I love how they turned out. I cant wait until Halloween time so I can fill them up with various "goodies." 

New projects to Work On

Some new projects to work on...

Here are the before pictures. I will update as I work on them.

 

I found this spindle for 25cents! YES 25 cents.

Not exactly sure what to do with it, but I have no fear that I will find a use.

 Got these jars for $1. a piece. 

I plan on painting the lids black, sanding it up and making it look old, maybe painting a star on top. 

 Have been wanting jars to decorate with at Halloween time. I got all of these for $5.00.

Normally, I wouldn't spend that much, but I have been looking for years. And these are glass, nice 

and old fashioned measuring jars. (looks like they were maybe used for pharmacy purpose)

But 8 glass jars for $5.

Not to bad.

I'm going to print some labels for them, add some colored water.
For Halloween time of course.

 

 

 Got these for $1. a piece. 

Going to paint them all black, sand em up.

Add some grunged candles. Not 100% certain yet.

But I needed something to add to one of my walls, and I think these will be perfect.

I guess I should quit blogging. and get to crafting...painting, grunging and sanding. 

Time To Blog

I miss working on webpage's. Since piczo changed years ago, I haven't really messed around with any of it. Now I figured, it's time to start blogging.

I figured I'd make this blog about my life now, and that mainly consists of crafting and saving money. I like to call myself thrifty, not cheap, thrifty! I love to save a dollar, I love finding something ugly and making it beautiful, or at least trying to make it beautiful. But I know there are a lot of things that you just have to spend good money on. (make-up, hair product, food, etc) But for me, the dollar can be stretched greatly on knick-knacks and home furnishings. 

Thrift stores, garage sales, any sale/clearance aisle in any store are my weakness. Not so much GoodWill, laugh all you will at this next comment, but GoodWill over prices many of their items! (I'll go into that rant in another post, I know, holding your breath, aren't you?! LOL)

I plan to share in this blog, even if its just for my own self to look back on, all of my findings and recreations of those findings. My style for my home is mostly country/prim. I'm trying every day to switch it over a little bit more to all primitive. (Which WOW, have you seen the prices of some primitive stores?!) I have, and my sisters have, and that led me to the name of this blog...I Can Make That! My sister's favorite comment for years, change I to We. And by God, she was right! We haven't made tons of items, but we are really getting the hang of some of them. And saving a bundle in the process. 

So here are my trial and errors, the good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly.