Some of my creations....

I've decided to start posting some crafts that I've done in the recent past to help give me a blogging boost. I'm hoping this'll get me motivated to get my current projects done. Right now I'm working on a tea-dyed purse that I created my own pattern for, a "spring has sprung" decoration to encourage the coming season, a handful of fat quarters just waiting for me to make some pincushions out of, and some newly bought, plain old mirrors with a nice big fatty wooden border around them just screaming to be gussied up. I'm glad to say, that as of about 5 minutes ago, I finished a gorgeous beaded watch band (a new hobby to add to the list) and I can still smell the glue drying that seals the knot. I also finished a different kind of beaded watch band last week---using safety pins, elastic, and those little teeny tiny glass beads that when you breathe they roll all over the place to be forever lost in the carpet. Slowly, but surely, things are coming along!



This was a fun project! All you need for this is a nice piece of wood, 2 colors of paint, vinyl lettering, and the damask design in vinyl. First I painted the wood tan, and let it dry really well. Once it was dry, I put my damask vinyl design on. Then I painted the soft black OVER the entire vinyl design. I did a couple of coats so the paint looked real sharp. Then I PEELED the vinyl damask design off, revealing the tan underneath! I found in my many experiments that you HAFTA get the good tole paints--like Delta Ceramcoat or Americana. I tried the off brand paints with a project like this one, where you peel the vinyl off, and all it did was peel the paint off with it. It was a disaster. So stick with the good stuff! Next I put my vinyl lettering on over my design, and voila! Just get a cute little stand to display it on and you've got a really fancy decoration!

Since Easter is coming up, I just have to show you all this card I made! The broken buttons took some muscle--as well as a sock and some pliers! I used the sock (clean :-) )as a shield so I wouldn't scratch the buttons with the pliers as I broke them. My husband says I could put this card in a shadowbox type frame and make it into a holiday decoration if I wanted to. Great idea, Honey!

Alright, the next two fall under my furniture refinishing hobby!


Before---this is what we call our "hobby chair"--I'm not really sure how this name came about, I think it might be because at one point I had a lot of my craftin' things piled high on it.



I wanted to fix this one up so it matched our tan sectional (you can kinda see it in the background there). So I went to Home Fabrics and bought some tan microsuede fabric that was a dead on match to our couch. I have NEVER reupholstered anything in my life, but I wanted to give it a try. So I ripped those green covers off and took them apart. I wanted to use those as a pattern for the new covers. Of course that didn't quite work out like I had hoped. So I had to figure it out as I went, and it actually turned out REALLY nice! I was super excited with the results. I also refinished the body of the chair and painted it a nice soft black to match our couch.


Here's the AFTER.....