Fabric Tree from Hangers

I was cleaning out my closets, and had a stack of  metal hangers I planned to throw out.

While staring at the pile of hangers, I kept thinking "I can make something out of those!" 

(I get hangers by the dozen, thanks to my husband. Every week his work pants come on a new set of hangers. So every week, I end up with 12 metal hangers, which totals almost 50 a month)

So I thought of making a giant tree out of them.

Now, a few people have mentioned that a tomato cage would  work for this, 

but I don't have 50 tomato cages just laying around like I do hangers. LOL

I used a hanger and bent it into a round, circle shape. I attached it to itself. 

(I didn't get very good pictures, I will take better ones on my next attempt)

I then took about 6-8 hangers, and straightened them out completely.

(I used needle nose pliers to help me with this part.)

Now came the hard part for me. My husband was of great assistance.

I took the straightened hangers, and attached them to my circle hanger.

Even with my pliers, I just couldn't get them tight enough, that's where my husband came into play. 

*Yay for muscles and strong, loving husbands.

I attached 6 of the hangers all around my circle. 

*It would have been better using about 10-12 hangers, but I got lazy. 

And be careful, once we attached a few of the hangers, they liked to jump around as we were attaching the rest. Almost took my eye out. :)

After all the hangers were attached, I pulled them all up, and using a piece of fabric cut in a long strip, secured them all into the tree shape. (It doesn't matter how it looks, you will be covering it up with different material anyways)

Horrible Pic, but it gives you a bit of an idea of how I attached the hangers.

I then used a BUNCH, and I mean a BUNCH of scrap fabric I had.

I cut all the fabric into strips 3 inches long by 1 inch wide.

*Just enough to tie each piece into a knot

I then used the cut strips and started tying them onto my hangers. 

I then placed some lights inside of the "tree", and called it done. 

Here is my finished tree.

And I am very happy with it.

This project took me a couple hours to finish. But it was something to do while I watched TV.

 

Mason Jar Storage

 I have far too much stuff in my craft room. (Which is a good thing!)

I saw an idea on pinterest for mason jar storage.

I LOVE mason jars. LOL

So many things you can do with them, so, so many things.

I actually can't take credit for this project, my wonderful husband, Craig, made it for me. 

He picked up some clamp rings from Home Depot. 

Cut my pallet board for me.
Attached the clamps to the wood, screwed in the jars.

And then hung on my wall for me.

I had to buy the jars at Walmart, which cost a little over $10.00 for 12 of them. But I haven't been able to find any good deals on them anywhere. 

 

But I love it, it really freed up space in my drawers and on my desk.

My inspiration came from

Here


*UPDATE
I have had 2 of my jars break.
I heard a loud noise one night and came in my craft room to find all my paintbrushes on the floor.
The entire bottom of my mason jar severed perfectly off!
I assume it was from taking out and replacing my brushes over and over in the jar.
It also happened with my pen jar.
So please be careful.

Wood Blocks

 

My wonderful husband bought me this saw for Christmas.

 No having to go outside to cut, YAY!

I bought these wood slats awhile ago at Home Depot. (Very cheap, I'm thinking like $2 a piece or under)

I used my awesome new saw to cut them into blocks. All by myself! LOL 

I used my cricut with my sure cuts a lot program and cut out some words and pictures on sticky vinyl. 

*You can no longer use Sure Cuts A Lot program with the cricut. The older version SCAL1 & SCAL2 will continue to work with the cricut if you 

1. Already own the SCAL.

2. Do NOT update SCAL to SCAL3 (Which is free if you already own it)

3. Do NOT update your firmware for cricut.

I also used my very favorite Antique Top Coat along with paints and my sanding block.

(Bought this antique top coat with country burgundy paint a LOOONG time ago for $2 from Marcs. Wish I had bought ALL they had. LOVE this stuff.)
But a regular stain of any color works just as nice.

Not finished yet, but almost. Have to sand the heart and apply the antique top coat. But I love making these and how they look. 

 

Pallet Sign

I didn't take my time with this project, and it shows!

I can't wait for a redo on this one. 

My problem was that I didn't have my sure cuts a lot program, and 

I was impatient, so I just used my cricut. So none of my letters turned out to be 

the size they should be. When I do my redo, I plan on making the words

almost the entire width of the boards.

I was trying to decide on paint colors.

I really wanted to use the yellow and tan, but the tan got much lighter on my lighter boards, and it barely showed.  And the yellow with black looked to much like Steelers colors. LOL 

So I went with red and black, and I don't like it much at all.

I cut out the letters with my cricut, and used the background as my stencil. 

I used the red to paint the letters 'Be The Good" to give it double meaning. 

I lightly sanded over the letters,

Attached some pip berries and a star up top and called it done.

 

 All hung up, until I replace it with a better one!

Don't think it's that bad?

Wait til you see the inspiration for this pic...then you will see why I don't care much for mine.
I need to do much fatter lettering. 

Blooming Homestead

Old Crib into Christmas Decoration

Driving down the road the other day, I noticed two old cribs sitting on the curb.

Not sure if they were for sale or what, I just passed them by. 

They were still there when I drove by that night.

And again the next day, with a FREE sign on them. 

Already  having an old crib sitting out back of my shed, (That I have NO idea what to do with)

I wasn't sure if I should grab these up, so I passed em by yet again.

 

Couldn't help myself when late that night, I saw they were still sitting there. So I loaded them up in the van and brought them home, certain I could come up with something to do with them. 

And I am happy with the one project I made with the headboard of the crib.

I painted the entire center of the board with a burgundy paint. No sanding, no priming, which made me happy.  I did two coats.

I cut words with my cricut. I intended to use them as a stencil, and peel them off. But I love the way they looked just at they were, so I left them on as stickers. 

And the best part, since I was originally using them as stencils, I used $2.00 shelf liner instead of vinyl.

I sealed it with 2 coats of Mod Podge, and I intend to do 2 more thin coats.

 

I used black paint on the edges,
I just used a rag to wipe it on, leaving some spots thicker and some spots lighter.

I love how it turned out. :) 

Chalk Board Pumpkin

I know it's not even close to being Halloween yet, 

But I needed a project to do. 

I just happened to have this pumpkin laying around. (Ok, I lie, I had to dig it out of my box of  Halloween stuff, buried deep in the garage, but I knew it was in there!)

Bought this awhile ago. 

Paid $9.99 for it, which I didn't think was a bad price. 

I barely used any of it for this entire pumpkin.

Here's my pumpkin!

I have to wait 3 days to condition it with chalk. And then it is finished and ready for Halloween.

Elmo Camera Buddy

I have been seeing some really cute camera buddies, and I figured I would try my hand at making my own! 

Just a quick one, it took me less than 10 minutes from start to finish.

I started out cutting out two circles. I used 2 inch.

(I used my circle cutter to cut them. LOVE this product!)

I intended to use this glue. But WOW, this glue sucks! It would NOT dry. 

So I ended up using hot glue. Gotta LOVE hot glue. Not sure what I will ever end up using this glue for, but I'm sure I will find something one of these days.

 I used two buttons for the eyes. And a red scrunchie for the body. :)

I cut out a nose and of course, hot glued it on. (After I colored it orange. I haven't used a crayon in years!) A piece of felt would have looked much, much better.

 Here it is...not the cutest, but it will do for now. 

Hoping it does not scare my newest niece. LOL

Ava Rae, my newest niece.

Have not been doing too much crafting lately, been to busy awaiting for the arrival of my newest niece.

Ava Rae, born on July 24.

 

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.)