How to make Simple Garden Mushrooms DIY Toadstools 08/08/14

 

This is SO EASY it hardly needs explaining! 

While at a Church rummage sale last week I found these...

...sitting right next to these! And bought it all for a dollar.

I did this...

...with this.

And painted a few white spots on the bowls with plain old craft paint. We had a storm the other night and it rained all day the following day. The paint is still holding fast, not a smear in sight! 

How to make your own Dog Lift Sling DIY 05/20/14

In July my old golden retriever, "Puppy", will be 14 years old...and that's in "People" years.

 Puppy was the runt of the litter. She had a broken tail, a sprained elbow and tiny back legs when she was born. 

We found homes for all 8 pups but Puppy's new owners said, "Our vet said to 'put her down' so we brought her back like you asked." We had anticipated that. We knew Puppy had problems but nursed her as best as we could.

She grew up very healthy and was able to get around fine in spite of the fact that x-rays showed she had NO HIP Sockets! Her tiny back legs were basically free-swinging when she walked!

I know the name "Puppy" is so lame. Well, we called her that because we weren't sure how long we'd have her and we didn't want to get too attached by giving her a "real" name. So it was "Puppy" from the get-go.

Well, 14 years later... she can hardly get up from a lying position. :( and I needed a little help when lifting her rear up the one step from the garage. I looked on line to buy a doggie-lift harness but some are upwards of $100. 

Here is how I spent .50 cents and made my own. 

Puppy weighs 66 lbs so I got a nice sturdy tote from the thrift store. It's not your cheepo Walmart tote. It's a strong canvas tote with a vinyl coating inside. It has extra strong handles.

I simply cut off the sides.

This is a photo of the sling laid out.

She's really good about letting me slip in under her. 

Then you simply lift as she is pulling herself up. 

You can slide the sling up under her chest or back under her hips to 

which ever area needs help. Drop the handles and she can walk right out of it.

Puppy is an amazing dog and has outlived 6 of her 7 siblings. She is a blessing to our family and we want to keep her happy and healthy as long as we can! I hope this post will help other owners of Senior Dogs!

How to make a diorama ornament DIY 01/06/14

  

Last month I saw a cute idea that someone had posted to their vlog on making personalized diorama Christmas ornaments. 

 I wanted to try it but none of our craft stores had the right type of "open" glass ornaments.

So I hit the thrift stores and found this:

And at 1/2 price it was even better.

I started by taking out the base and removing the figures from it. 

(

 Then I found some pictures on my computer of the family I wanted to gift this to.

I printed tiny copies that would fit inside the globe. I also printed a flipped image to glue the images back to back so they'd be two-sided.

I dug around in my Christmas stash and found some mini stuff. I cut out the tiny images, glued them back to back and embellished the house with glitter-glue (for lights), pipe-cleaner (for wreath) and cotton (for snowman.)

But before I glued the house together I sandwiched a bent paperclip in the middle. This is how I attached the house to the base.

This is the back of the house. I did not embellish it.

This is the front. I also covered the edges of the roofline, the grass and the edges of the car with white craft paint to look like snow. I sprinkled glitter on it while the paint was still wet.

I found a scrap of syrofoam and cut it to size with a steak knife.

I glued it to the base with tacky glue and smeared some glue on top for the glitter to stick to.

While I was digging around in my Christmas stash I found some nice embossed dresden foil. I decided to use this as the back side of the ornament.

I put the dresden inside and tried to glue the edges of it to the globe but it was impossible! And it made a mess of glue on the glass. :(  I couldn't think of any other way to secure it, so I just left it kinda loose and inserted the house (back side toward it) up against it as best as I could. You can see the paperclip ends sticking out. 

I pressed the trees and family into the styrofoam where I wanted them and then removed them, put a dab of glue in each hole and replaced the trees and family. Let it dry a bit.

I then carefully squeezed the base back into the globe. I removed the gold hanger loop and used a tweezers through the hole on top to press the "legs" of the paperclip into the styrofoam. This is harder than it looks!

I put the hanger back on and it was ready to hang on the tree! (actually I wrapped it in tissue and put it back in the box for my sister-in-law.)

It was a really fun project but it took about 4 hrs! 

Christmas Explosion! 12/09/10

When my sister-in-law walked into the house she said, "It looks like Christmas EXPLODED on your dining table!" It had.



But out of the chaos came shimmering order!



I've been working on using up all my vintage planters, ornaments and Christmas figurines from Lefton, Relpo, Enesco, etc. Above is a cute little woodland brownie.




Here are "baby" and Santa.



Baby's First Christmas, all tangled in mercury bead garland!

This is the sweetest flowergirl! Kinda like a pink Eliza Doolittle.

I bought her at a rummage sale then proceeded to drop her on the floor as soon as I got her home! :( Fortunately I was able to glue her backside together and use her in this cute Christmas tree collage. Some of her flowers got chipped so I just gave her a whole new bunch of vintage millinery posies.

Here is a cute "Spaghetti" Santa!

Here are some tags I made from vintage Christmas wrap. I just cut out the designs, glued them to cardstock with gluestick, scalloped the edges with scissors and sprinkled with glitter. A hole-punch makes for easy tie-ons.

How to make no-sew fortune cookies

Don't these look good enough to eat???

BUT FIRST...



...I have to show you these incredible flowers that my sweet friend Glennette gave me. She came into my shop and told me she had all these "puff balls" in her yard, did I know what kind of flower they were. Then she used the word "snow ball" and I knew what she had! Next day I went over to her house to GET SOME! Aren't they beautiful? I took them to work today and everyone had to touch them and ask "Are these REAL?"

On to the How-To:



I found some skirts at the thrift store that had some nice colors and patterns. I cut them into manageable pieces.




Paired them up into contrasting colors and sandwiched a piece of fusible webbing between them (right-sides out). Ironed it.




I cut 3 1/4" circles from freezer paper and ironed them to the fabric.




The circle pattern facilitates cutting out the fabric.

I peeled off the paper, cut a smidge of fusible webbing to tack the edges together at one side.




I ironed it closed.

Here are my various fabric circles. (Please note these cookies have patterned fabric on both sides. The photo at the top of this post shows cookies with only the inside of the cookie having patterned fabric.)



I folded them into the fortune cookie shape and painted it with glue. I used toothpicks wrapped with a rubberband to hold them together while they dried.



I let them dry over night.



Hubs and kids brainstormed for these original fortunes. I printed them out on the computer and cut them into strips. (click photo for bigger view...)

When the cookies were dry, I stuffed the folded fortunes inside. I can't wait to hand them out to my sisters!



One last thing...Here are the invites I made for my upcoming "Sister's Party" that I am planning during my vacation next week. I am heading out to the beach to visit my family in San Diego. But I will have plenty to blog about when I return in 2 weeks! See you later!
Rosie