Wreath

Here is my newest wreath.  It's made from coffee filters and jute.  It was easy but took longer then expected to wrap the jute around.  The coffee filters ended up being in just a small area because it was taking a long time too.  But I like how it come out.
Here is a site's tutorial Little Brown House  but I shortened the filters by cutting them off at the bottom (to make it not full) and use hot glue instead of pins. 

This is my first post from my phone, so I'm going to keep it short and hope it comes out ok.

Dress like a spider Day!

Tomorrow, I will be the parent helper at my daughters preschool.  Which means I'm in charge of bringing the snack.  This may be no big deal for most mom's, but probably like most of you, I have to do something crafty.  Tomorrow's theme is "Dress Like a Spider Day".  I only had a few hours to put it together after buying the supplies, but this is what I came up with. I think it's pretty cute.

First, I made up spider peanut butter crackers.  I bought these supplies:

I opened each of the crackers and added extra peanut butter on both sides.

The took the pretzels, broke them in half and squished them into the peanut butter.  

Then I added the top cracker.  With two raisins dipped in peanut (to make them stick) to make eyes.

Then I pulled out my stash of Chinese take-out boxes, drew little black spider on them and then used white bubble fabric paint I had around to add little smiles. 

In the bottom of the take-out boxes I put some extra pretzels and raisins.  Then put two spiders in each of them.

I closed up the boxes, and for the final touch I found some black ribbon that I tied around the handle of the take-out box.

So if you like this craft, my only suggestion would be to make your spiders with 8 legs because after making them all my husband made a spider for my daughters head band out of pipe clearer and I saw 8 legs.  Then I thought, "yeah they do have 8, crap!"  Oh well.  The good news is I also made this, with the correct number of legs.

I think it turned out cute!

birch candles

I cleaned my garage this weekend.  It's a one car, plus that's the area we store the majority of our stuff.  While cleaning I re-found some birch bark. So I put it in my craft supply area.  Then yesterday, I ended up having a little bit of unexpected time alone so I pulled out the bark and grabbed a few candles that I posted about over a year ago, I love a great deal!. 17 candles for two dollars.  I've use a few here and there. But still have a number of them left so I thought this would be a good time to use them.

I pulled out the supplies I thought I would need.  I later discovered I also needed a razor blade knife, Mod Podge and an applicator brush.

I roughly cut a piece of bark that I thought would fit around the candle nicely, then hot glued it to the candle. But careful not to touch the gun to the candle, as you can image it melts quickly.  Then I trimmed up the bark with the razor blade.

Then because the bark was dry and flaky, I put a layer Mod Podge over the bark.  This helped to keep the bark from falling apart as much.

To make the larger cande I stacked two candles on top of each other, because I only had smaller size candles.

The pottery barn sells this sort of candle too.

                                                                                  Source: None via Tracy on Pinterest

I actually think it's a even better idea to use a glass cylinder shaped hurricane candle holder. That way it's reusable. I didn't want to spend and money, so mission accomplished!

Grab Bag Score!

Check out my recent score from Michael's.  Every now and then Michael's has grab bags for 

$2 and you can get some awesome deals.  Here's my most recent purchase, all in one, $2 dollar bag.

Six metal trays the prices on the tag says they were $8 each.  That's $48 total.  I'm planning on using them for our church's upcoming Art Show Coffee House.  Then probably re-purpose them for something else.

The other items were not as great, actually some are just really 

silly but there are some that I can find uses for.

 There are a few cute magnets in this bunch.  The other I probably will cute up and use them for magnets onto other things.

Then is a bunch of note cards and a few bookmarks.  I think I'll just let my 3 year old find some use for most of the note cards.  I do just want to point out the Judy Garland and Elvis note cards.  They made me laugh.  I'm not sure why anyone would buy them in any other way then in a grab bag!

Overall, it's a pretty good deal.

Trick or Treat Bag

I've been holding on to this bag for the last month or so because when I look at it, it said Halloween.  So finally I got out the scissors and got to work.  I cut the bag in half and then cut all the seems.  

I added on the ribbon and lace embellishments and sowed all the pieces back together.

Now Ella will have a cute, one of a kind, little candy bag to take with her to our churches trunk or treat!

E

I just noticed that I posted this on Pinterest but never on my blog.  So I made this able 2.5 moths ago.  My mother bought me a white painted, wooden E from Michael's.  I wanted to make it into something cute for my daughter's room.  So I pulled out of my random accessories and this is what I came up with.

It makes a cute addition to Ella's little shelf.  It was really easy to do. Just Mod Podge on scrapbook paper to the front of your letter, use the x-acto knife to trim it up.  Then I used Jute to wrap around a couple of times and added the jeweled feather, white painted bird and a big pink gem, glued on with E6000.

Give it a try!

kokeshi softie

My hubby got back from Japan about a month ago and brought me back some really nice fabrics.  They were small though.  Japan holds an extremely dear place in my heart, so I wanted to use the fabrics in something that would remind be of what they were from.  Plus, I've been wanting to try out one of these softies.

I think if I were to do another, I would do it differently but my daughter loves it.  She calls it her Japanese Princess.  It's not too bad for not being a good sewer and just sorta wingging if from a picture I quickly glanced at.

Check out my favorite post's for the week on my Pinterest:

I love this cute, quick craft idea from under the syramore.  This a craft idea that encourages family time!

Source: ashleyannphotography.com via Tracy on Pinterest

I think these decorative paper clips are adorable, created by little lovelies.

Source: u-createcrafts.com via Tracy on Pinterest

I'm not that into Halloween, I don't like the spooky, horror side of it, just the cutsie dress up part. So you won't see much on my blog about Halloween, but I just couldn't help myself with this.  SOOOO CUTE!

Source: eighteen25.blogspot.com via Tracy on Pinterest

Check out these and so many more great ideas on my Pinterest.

Local Thrift Store

I went to my local theft store and find a vase and candle stick so that I could work of finishing up my serving dishes. 

 I picked up the vase in the back of this picture, for .25cents

The wooden candle stick on the right, for .25cents

in addition to those I also got this HUGE spool of elastic for $2.75.  I mean this thing is HUGE.  I also picked up a little grab bag of ribbon for .35cents.  I love thrifting! 

The beauty of Autumn!

I love Autumn, it's my favorite time of year.  My favorite pictures of Ella are almost all from our many fall trips to the area's Pumpkin Farms.  

I'm definitely not a photographer (I wish though) but I love these photo's and it was all free fun! 

I'm looking forward to going again soon to get some more!

Where do you go to take great family photo's?