Paint chip earrings for Valentine's!

Every time I pass the paint section in Walmart or the hardware stores I'm always picking up some of the sample paint chips! I just know some day I'll find something cool to do with them. And finally something cool has come up. After I randomly bought some Mod Podge Dimensional magic glue the other day, I decided to make some earrings! So with my new little heart punch I punched out some hearts from a paint chip (a total of 4 hearts punched out).

Here are all the supplies I used for this little project. 

I glued two hearts together so both sides would show the pink color, then I mod podged both sides of the hearts for some extra stuck-ness and firmness. After that was dried I took a little thumb tack and made a hole in each heart where the earring wires would go. Then out came the Dimensional Magic! I've never used this before so I pretty excited. I covered the top of the hearts real good with it and let it dry for a few hours (I left the tacks in the hearts while doing this part so the holes wouldn't be covered and closed up). Once dry I removed the tacks, flipped over the hearts and used the dimensional glue on the other sides. Let that dry for a few more hours (I didn't do anything else with them until the next day actually). 

They're so cute and bubbly! 

They feel like little hard pieces of plastic now!! 

Here they are all made up as earrings! 

Aren't they cute? I {heart} them!

Very easy little project and I know I'll be doing more of these sometime! -- in lots of different colors! Hmm.. I need more punches.. Variety!! :)

until next time...

happy valentine creativities!

I'm in love with this living room!

The Yellow Cape Cod shares about her striped curtains, and I have completely fallen in love with them and EVERYTHING ELSE in her living room! It all looks so beautiful!

My mom has curtains coming for me in the mail. There are white panels for our living room and I just might try this! We don't really have any sure colors going through our apartment yet, but I just might make these colors work! 

I'm so inspired!

Crochet News..

A few weeks ago I finally started my online crochet learning from youtube videos! The first night that I started I was able to get down the chain stitch pretty good! But I was also pretty frustrated with figuring out how to hold the yarn right in my other hand. So for a couple days I just mastered the chain stitch. I took my stuff with me while I babysat and did loooong lines of the chain stitch, took them out, and did them again, over and over! haha! Then a couple days later I attempted the next step.. I think it's called the single stitch? Not even sure, I just know it was the next row and that was SO SO frustrating! ... so I kind of gave up for a couple weeks. ... I was avoiding it!
But then last night I pulled everything out again and began practicing everything some more and watched the rest of the youtube video I was following (and a bunch of other videos!) I almost said, "that's it!" and quit everything... but I kept at it and.. it was almost like magic that my fingers started figuring all the right things out! I watched another youtube video for crochet beginners and learned a better way to hold the yarn for the tension. It worked! Things went smoother :)

And I was able to make all of this last night

(from the video it's supposed to be a little dish rag,
but I think I made it a little bigger and I'll use it as a pot holder maybe.. I don't know haha)

It's hard to keep track of the rows I make.. I can't tell what a row is when I look at this. Can anyone share with me a way to easily tell and count?

Well, there's my news! 
I'm now more excited to try some more! 

Munchies vs. Coasters Makeover. .

The evenings are quite uneventful for me. Hubs works all evenings and I'm .. well, left home alone.. this could be bad. Especially if I have the munchies! Boredom + got-the-munchies = b.a.d! So I try to find things to do to keep myself busy. Tonight I did a little makeover on our coasters that were given to us when we got married. Their appearance never did find my favor, but we've used them faithfully on our coffee table whenever we have a snack together while watching a show (currently we just started watching Who's the Boss- love it). 

Anyway, so here are the coasters, drab style

I picked up some pretty scrapbook paper

(the one on the left was the winner for me)

Traced the coasters onto the paper, cut, and 

Mod Podged the paper right to each coaster then a couple more layers of Mod Podge on top.

And wa-la!

Lovely new coasters that make me happy!

Mmmm.. hot chocolate? and mini marshmallows? 

..Uuummm, maaaybe I should find another craft to keep myself busy..!

but.... 

I just tasted a spoonful of my YUMMY Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream, and I could definitely go back for more! ... uh-oh . .

Don't wear your feelings on your sleeves, wear them on your EARS!!

X's and O's earrings for Valentine's!!

Aren't they just too cute!?! 

I'm so proud of myself for thinking something up on my own for once.. instead of copying someone else's brilliant idea!!

Originally I was going to make a necklace with our last name monogram, then this idea struck me! Uh! Just lovin' em!

Here's how I made them

Hubby drilled the tiny little holes in the scrabble pieces for me.

{The drill gun was our Christmas present from his parents and this is the first time we've used it!}

Drill size: 1/16

Perfect size!!

Then I just used my stash of earring-making stuff! 

{I've recently started getting into making earrings and will have to share about that in another post sometime}

Okay so my kissy faces are a little scary.. 

{and those nails need a new paint job..}

But I can't wait to wear these earrings out!!

happy heart month

and

happy creativities!!

Crochet bound

Should I learn to crochet? 

I've been wanting to learn to knit or crochet for awhile now, .. make my own cute scarves or whatever.. So I finally decided on crocheting. 

I found some yarn and a needle at the thrift store today. 

A buck for two things of yarn! 

and a buck for the needle.

I like how the two yarn colors will go nice together..

I think for 3 bucks I can learn to crochet!... I think. 

{gulp} .. is it hard? 

 will I scream?

will yarn and needle go flying out my balcony window? 

Hopefully it's not too difficult to learn from some online videos.. 

think that'll work out fine? 

{if you know of any great online videos that easy to follow for a first time crochet-er, please let me know!)

Well, here goes!

Keep Calm...

For every holiday and special occasion, I see those "Keep Calm" posters being made. I've been wondering how everyone's making them. My efforts on a word document didn't exactly turn out fantastic. So I did a google search to see if I could by chance come across someone's instructions on how they made one, and instead I found this online poster generator site made just for the "Keep Calm" thing where you can create your own! There are tons of these posters people come up with.. a few not-so-lovely ones as well.. 

But anyway, so I made my own for Valentine's day! 

... wish i had a colored printer

I've never created anything like this to share on my blog, so I don't have a clue how to go about making sure it's the right "whatevers" for printing.. but I was able to save my image from that site after making it (just by right clicking and "save this image") and then opened that image in a word document. It's almost as big as an 8x10 I think.. 

Anyway, here's the link right to the one I created on that site.

 I think it can just be printed off from right there! 

Again.. I'm sad about not having a colored printer, but if anyone prints it out and adds it to their Valentine decor, I'd love to know and see it!! 

Enjoy!

Valentine Subway Art printable

Aah! I love free printables! 

 

And look, it's a free Valentine Subway art! 

 

 

I got mine from While He was Napping and already printed it and framed it! ... maybe a little teeny bit early for Valentine's decorating, but... oh well! 

 

Go get your free Valentine Subway Art!

DIY cake stand

With a .50 cent plate from the thrift store

and a .25 cent candlestick

I made this super cute little cake stand! 

{or candy stand!}

 I used Gorilla glue to attach the two pieces, and left them overnight to dry. 

{like my huge candle?? My Hubby gave me that for Christmas! ... and I'm pretty sure that candle has ended up in quite a few photos of my recent projects!!)

And there you have it, 

my .75 cent cake stand!

quick and easy peasy

Cheap picture frame to sweet message board

$1.50 empty picture frame just laying around

+

pretty scrapbook paper already on hand

 +

a sweet little message from the heart

= 

 A lovely dry erase 

message board! 

This literally took 5 minutes .. or less! 

The part that took the longest was picking out which piece of scrapbook paper to use.

{so I'm not the most decisive person...} 

The "I love you" is a cricut cut out my friend made for me awhile back. I just glued that to the scrapbook paper.

There's really not much else to say about this little project! But I was really needing something to do.. and that was almost too quick! .. what else can I do?! 

Cheese Dome Makeover

Finally I've found my very own cheese dome, and for only $3 at my local thrift shop! I've been wanting one of these little cuties since seeing so many cute makeovers of them on blog land.

Ugh, some people might like the look of this, but I really don't. I'm not all about the wine and such. ... And that little leafy knob?? Oh boy.. that's so being replaced! The lid is made of plastic.. wish it was glass, but I still like it!

The bottom round base is like a heavy ceramic or stone material and the artwork is like etched or engraved into it then painted.

There's a glass bottom that fits down on top of the engraved/etched artwork

(there was also a clear plastic protective piece sitting on top of the glass, but I just threw that away)

I also picked up this .50 cent glass candle holder at the thrift to use as a stand for my dome

SO I decided to spray paint the bottom of the cheese dome black. I used Krylon spray paint that bonds to plastic, glass, metal, ceramic.. etc. It's kind of neat how the artwork looks after painted

At first I thought I would mod podge some scrapbook paper or fabric to the bottom, but after painting it I just decided to not do anything permanent to the bottom. So I just cut a piece of fabric to fit the bottom and put the glass back on top. That way I can change the bottom out whenever I want, or leave it just like the above picture. 

I also went to the hardware store to find a new knob!

.. painted the knob black

Then out came the Gorilla glue.

I glued the candle holder to the cheese dome base and stacked some heavy things on top to make sure the glue would secure well.

After letting the glue sit over night like this, the cheese dome makeover is finally done! 

I like it how it turned out! 

These are the colors I want for our bedroom eventually.. so, hmm.. it might sometime find its way in our room! Not sure still what to do with it yet!.. or what to put in it! haha! For now it will hold my one apple :) 

One more before photo.. 

the NEW look is much better!

 Man, have I really been in the "makeover" mood lately. I'm wanting to redo all sorts of furniture pieces we have in our place, but not able to start just yet.. so this little cheese dome project was an alright fix for my crazy mood.