TT&J Giveaway from

There's a giveaway going on! Heidi over at HoneyBear Lane has some drop-dead gorgeous quilts! You can enter to win one of them. This is my pick, called Diamonds:

Fall Wreath

You know that fall wreath I mentioned awhile back? The one that I just couldn't wait to start? The one that was tempting me every minute of every day to make? Yeah...apparently I have some awesome self-control because 10 days AFTER Halloween, and several snowfalls later, I finally decided to do it.

And you know what?

I still loved making it.

I started out with two 50 count packages of wood clothespins (I only ended up using about 75 or so), four various scrapbook papers in fall designs, Modge Podge, an embroidery hoop, cardboard (I ended up using a pizza box) ribbon and brown paint.

The first step was painting the hoop brown. You only need the inside circle (without the tightner). I just painted on top of my pizza box to lessen the mess.

I started out painting the clothespins brown. This is not a necessary step since the part of the clothespin shown will be covered in paper. But I like knowing that my whole clothespin is pretty. So I painted every part except the top surface. Obviously, you don't need to be neat in your painting technique...

While they dried, I started cutting out strips of paper. I just took one of the unpainted clothespins, measured it and and cut the width of them to the end of the scrapbook paper. I ended up getting three clothespins per strip of paper.

After the pins are completely dry, add some Modge Podge to the unpainted part of the pin. Then add the strip of scrapbook paper and apply another coat of Modge Podge. Set aside to dry.

After you think you've developed a severe case of arthritis...this is what you have...only halfway:
Now, take the pizza box, or whatever cardboard you're using, and trace around the outside of your embroidery hoop. Then trace another circle about two to three inches outside of that one. You should have something like this:

One small circle from the hoop and a larger circle (from a serving bowl if you're like me).

Cut that sucker out and you'll have this. It's up to you if you want to paint it. I took the lazy way out. When it's cut out, make sure your hoop fits snugly inside the cardboard ring. I had to do a bit of trimming. When I thought it fit nicely, I went back and hot glued it in, so it would be secure.

Now, pick your pattern and start clipping the clothespins on! If you feel the need, hot glue them on.

I didn't feel the need.

I apologize for that awfule glare. I really, really do.

After all the clips were in place I added some orange glitter glue to sparkle it up a bit. Yes, sparkle can be a verb.

I found some 3 inch wire ribbon at Michael's a few days after Halloween for a buck. Maybe procastinating is a good thing afterall. :)

ChelseaAnn

Earring Holder

Some of you might identify with this obsession I have....I am an earring-aholic. I LOVE earrings! I could be wearing 10 lbs of accessories but without earrings, I just feel naked.

It's sad to say, but I already have one large earring tree FILLED to the brim with earrings. Infact, it's spilling over into my other jewelry organizers. So I figured it's about time I got another one to control the chaos.

There are a million of these tutorials in blogworld but I take pictures of almost every craft I do, so I might as well share!

I went to the DI and picked up a frame for a buck fifty. For some reason the measurements are off, it's not quite 8.5x11. But I love it. It's special. It fits right in. Unfortunately, I did not take a before picture of this "special" frame. But picture a boring wood, not quite normal measurements, frame.

I put a few coats of black paint, let that dry and then spray painted it with some metallic silver. Then I took some sandpaper and gently sanded it, some places harder than others, so that the black and come through.

Then I cut a piece of lace in 10'x12'. And since my glue gun is permanantly attached to my right hand, I just pulled the lace relatively tight and glued it down on the back.

I thought I was done....nope. I put together a few silk flowers and attached them to the upper-left hand corner with some extra black lace. Then I took some 1/2 inch white ribbon and made a few small loops.


Ta-da! Er...nope, not quite done. The bottom-right corner needed a little something. So I took some small black oval beads and glued them in the little ridge.

Okay, now I'm done. I think.

ChelseaAnn

P.S. I'm linking up to the Weekend Wrap Up at Tatertots and Jello!

Quick, Simple & Cheap Halloween Project for the Kiddos

This is in no way, a clever project...but if you want to keep your kids entertained for a few moments, this a life saver. All you need is a sheet of paper (preferably cardstock or construction paper), some tissue paper and a Sharpie. Take your paper and draw an outline of a pumpkin, bat, ghost, spider or whatever spooky Halloween image you can think of. You'll want to cover the majority of the page and remember, it's just the outline. No details needed! You could probably google the image and print it off if you have little faith in your artistic abilities. I drew a spider for my kids. 2 simple circles and then bent lines for legs. I apologize for no photos, but this is a simple concept so hopefully they're not needed.

Here's where the kids come in! Give them a sheet of the tissue paper in the appropriate color (ex. orange for pumpkin...duh) and have them rip it into tiny pieces about the size of a quarter or so. Then give them some glue and glue those suckers on! And by that I mean, fill in the outline by gluing the tissue paper down. Have the kids fill the picture in completely so that no spots are showing. And that's that!

And because this post is severely lacking in pictures...ChelseaAnn

Waiting For Fall...

With the nip in the air this morning (I had to pull out my four inch-thick sweater!) I'm already thinking ahead to the holidays. Which is completely weird since I absolutely love Halloween and could never skip it! But ideas for fall wreaths are running (sporadically) throgh my head and I'm getting the itch. You know, the crafting itch? That irrepressible urge to craft no matter the time of day, lack of materials or how many responsibilites already lie on your plate. But I'm controlling myself...sorta.

In the meantime, I had to do something. I noticed that my front door display still needed a little extra somethin-somethin. And I knew just what to do!

I was at a friend's house the other day who gave me a few extra decorations she no longer needed. Incuding these:

I immediately knew what I wanted to do with the cute pot. I went outside and found some "creepy" twisted looking sticks and spray painted them a metallic silver...it was all I had on hand but I think it worked!

I had some floral foam and stuck it in the bottom of the pot and put some rocks around it to weigh it down. After the sticks were dry I stuck them in the foam. I had a package of spider web stuff I picked up at Wal Mart ealier. I put some at the base of the sticks to cover the foam and rocks. Then I loosely hung some around the sticks.

I thought it needed a little extra so I hung some paper bats from a few of the sticks.

For the bats I just printed out an outline and cut them out of black cardstock.

I have a little planter stand that had been sitting {somewhere} in storage for awhile. After sucking it up, I dug through the storage and finally found it.

I laid some more spider webs on the top part and set the pot on top. I used the cute ghost house to fill in the bottom layer and nestled some more spider web around that. And since I only paid for the spider web ($2) I had an awesome Halloween display for practically nothing!

Happy Halloween!!

ChelseaAnn

Halloween Cupcake Liner Wreath

Halloween is absolutely my favorite holiday of the year! In order to showcase my um...obession, I made a super cute and easy wreath from cupcake liners. You'll need to grab some various colored cupcake liners. There area whole bunch of cute Halloween ones out now! You'll also need a styrofoam wreath, black netting or touelle and some decorative accents of your choosing. The liners I bought also cme with some cute cupcake toppers.

Before I get started, I have to apologize for my not-so-great pictures...it was late and I was in a rush.

First things first, in order to get your liners to flatten out you'll have to fold your liners in half.

Then, to create your starburst pattern, cut slits every so often. Measurement is up to you completely. Fewer slits means bigger "rays" and more slits are smaller and more "rays."

When you are done simply apply with a glue gun! I used several different liners as you can see and in some areas I left some folded and glued to the sides. I also have bits of black netting in places although it didn't really show up in the pictures!

If you try it out, send in you own picture! I wanna see!

ChelseaAnn

Easy Wall Art

For awhile I've been wanting to do something with the small space above my closet since my bed faces in that direction. I'd been planning on doing some sort of vinyl saying like "Live life to it's fullest" or something with that feel. Then one day I was roaming around Kmart and found some simple black frames for a quarter each. Then something sparked in my head so I raced back home, pulled out some colorful scrapbook paper.

I have to apologize for the lack of pictures in this one. I was in such a hurry to make the picture in my head a reality that I didn't think to grab my camera until it was all said and done. So, you'll have to deal with my boring dialogue.

I picked out four shades of paper in cheery colors with a simple design. I ended up with a teal, spring green, bubble gum pink and orange. I took out the glass from the picture frames and measured and cut the paper. Then I placed the paper inside, along with the glass, just like a regular picture.

Next, I made a quick trip to Michael's to get some wood letters. I decided to go with "LIVE." Instead of having a long quote or phrase, I wanted LIVE, simply LIVE. I painted these letters black and hot glued one on each frame. After I was done, they still needed a little something. After wondering what to do I decided to tie two ribbons on the L and embellish the V frame with some silk flowers.

And this is the finished product.