Some Easter Treats for Me

I am bummed because I dug into my Easter Egg Swap package with such abandon that the tags are all messed up and I can no longer give proper respects. The eggs were amazing and I quickly added them to my display shelf, coffee table and just about any other surface there was. Also pictured here are the darling chick salt and pepper shakers from my Christmas stocking. Thanks Santa!

I enjoyed a lovely (although cold) Easter. I went to both church services at HUMC and they both really rocked my socks. Our pastor can preach! The music was great! I also volunteered at the welcome table which was really fun. It was so great to meet new people and just feel the love that is HUMC.

The rest of the afternoon was quiet...until the earthquake and actually, that was pretty quiet too. Later in the evening we went to see Nellie McKay in Echo Park and she was fantastic.

And, the Easter goodness has continued on...

My mother-in-law sent me these adorable and delish chocolate tools. There was a wrench too, but that didn't even make the picture. Yum! They were from Andy's Candies which brings back tons of memories for me.


Then I got a big box from Amazon in the mail. It contained the Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. At first I missed the gift tag and thought that I had won Junie Moon's giveaway (I didn't because it's still going on. Go on over and enter- especially since I am out of the contest!) Nope, my mama sent this to me. She had signed up for some promotion with Amazon that gave free shipping for a month and wanted to order something big while the getting was good. Man! It's an awesome book! Martha really does know everything. In the back there is this CD with all the patterns to print out at home. Can't wait to dig in this weekend.  Thanks Mama!



Finally, I leave you with this Nellie McKay Dog Song.

Have a great day!

Craft Hope Bean Bags

Well, I finished my bean bags for Craft Hope's Liberian Orphan Education Project.


My pledge to not buy any craft supplies in April almost came to a quick end on April 1. I signed up to make the beanbags and thought I would use actual beans, but on further inspection, the directions call for plastic pellets or other non-food filler due to customs regulations. Makes perfect sense. And, since this is for a good cause I was going to bend the no buying stuff rule just a bit. Then I priced plastic filler online. It's not cheap, but I am.

Hmmmm... what to do? Ah ha! That squishy pillow I bought on a whim about six years ago when those squishy pillows were all the rage...adios amigo! I never did like that pillow much, but I have held on to it anyway, pack rat that I am.

I very eagerly cut into the pillow to stuff my bean bags. The squishy pillow is made of about a bajillion trillion teeny tiny Styrofoam bits. It was seriously like the attack of the styrofoam nonpareils! All over my hands, face, sewing machine, everywhere! I put it in a large paper bag and worked from there.

I used a funnel to fill the bean bags and just said a small prayer of gratitude for my excellent vacuum cleaner.

Although it was messy, these styrofoam nonpareils were awesome to work with. My sewing machine could sew over/around them and closing the bags was pretty easy. They did cling to everything, but they also vacuumed up easily. I had more than enough for 20 number bean bags, a set of shape bean bags and one large pillow for future crafting.

To make the shapes, I first printed out shapes from a basic Word document using "autoshapes."
 
Then I traced this onto freezer paper and cut them out. I ironed the freezer paper to the fabric and sewed right around the edge. Then I trimmed everything with my pinking shears.

It worked like a charm and my shape bean bags are all recognizable!

I used freezer paper stencils and craft paint with a fabric medium added to make the numbers and the dots.  I just labeled the shapes with a Sharpie marker. I am not sure if  English was the best way to go, but the samples from the teacher store all had them labeled.

It felt great to have used up some fabric, re-purposed a pillow and done a little good too. I am so thankful for the ladies at Craft Hope who give us fun and easy ways to help others!

I am linking this to the DIY Day at ASPTL.

Juice Glass Mini Cloche

I can't remember where I saw the first homemade cloche, but it went to the top of my "to do" list. I scoured thrift stores for a cheese plate I could use. Nothing. I looked at every bowl and vase for the right proportions. I wanted a rounded shape with a little bottom-to-be-top. Finally, about a year later, at the 99 Cents Only store,  I spotted an adorable rounded juice glass with a tiny bottom. A mini cloche it would be.


To give you an idea of the scale, the base is an old coaster.

It took me a while to decide what to put inside the cloche. Then I remembered the grape vine wreath napkin rings my mom sent me when she was de-cluttering her own stash. The knob is from my mom's friend who de-cluttered her house by sending me a bag of those knobs. (Ahh! I love being the recipient of all this cool stuff.) I spray painted and Gorilla glued the knob to the bottom of the juice glass. Easy peasy!

 Anyway, I added some shredded textbook, moss and a few clay eggs. The tag uses this terrific image from the Graphics Fairy. I couldn't believe how nice this image printed out even at a fraction of the original size.

I think it came out swell and I am jonesing to go back to the 99 Cents Only store and get a few more glasses! I won't - I promise! Nevertheless, I have more wreath napkin rings, knobs, paint, glue, moss and ribbon. And with friends and family like mine, it's gonna be a while before this stash is busted! May 1st- those juice glasses are mine!

I am linking this to Brag Monday at the Graphics Fairy.

and



 DIY Day.

Hope you are having a great week!

Happy Easter!

 
"The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake."
-- Basil C. Hume

Swap Eggs

Shara from Monkey Box held an Easter Egg Swap this year and I was very "eggcited" to participate.

This is a sampling of my swap eggs. You can click on any picture to see them larger.



I bought the string wrapped eggs at Giant Dollar. I loved the texture and knew they would be perfect for quilling!

Most of the designs came from Alli's book Paper Quilling for the First Time, but I did branch out and try my hand at some of my own designs.





On Monday I will share all the amazing eggs I recieved in the swap. Hope you have a wonderful Easter!

I am linking this post to Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap Up. There are always lots of great ideas over there!

I Get By WIth Help from the Web- Retirement Party Decor

I was very excited to be asked to provide decorations for one of my aide's retirement party. Mrs. C worked as an aide at our school for about 30 years. She is beloved, beloved, beloved. As much as we would have liked to throw her a party at the swankiest place in town, we knew that to really honor Mrs. C we needed to celebrate at school where everyone could be included.So I am in charge of making our school library look extra special for this wonderful lady.

After reading dozens of party blogs for years I have found that most focus goes to birthdays and showers. The retirement party is all but forgotten. I guess most people do not celebrate at home.

I had many ideas for pretty decor. I have wanted to make cake plates like these for years! They were made by Leanne at Organize and Decorate Everything. Still, I was scratching my head for some cohesive idea. Not a "theme" exactly, but a design focus.

Then, like magic the power of the blogging/web community has lead me to a perfect plan- and on a dime!

Fist I saw this amazing doily garland made by Laura Ingalls Gunn on Decor to Adore. Laura used food coloring to dye the doilies. Our library has floor to ceiling bookshelves. These would be easy to make and easy to hang! In fact, I think I can have the kids at Craft Club help make the garland. It would be nice for the kids to have a hand in the decorations anyway!

Later I saw a cake store that had eyelet style cake wrappers. They were gorgeous, but cost about $1 each and that would blow my budget in no time flat. I wasn't worried though because I just knew that someone out there in blogland had blown to cover off of high priced goodies with a tutorial! And, I was right! A quick search for "cupcake wrapper template" lead me right to this sweet picture!

This comes from Alamo Sweets via Cake Central. Not only do they have an awesome idea for doily cake wrappers, they make some gorgeous cakes! Check out this cute cupcake display idea. I may have to copy that too!

Now I have a theme design focus!  So, I cleverly rushed to the stores on the 31st to beat prepare for my April moratorium on purchasing craft supplies.

As luck would have it, I didn't find a single plate that I wanted at the thrift. No worries, I have a bunch of lids from the tins I used to make the PB Inspired Snack Tower.  What inspired me to use the tin lids? Little Brown House's Dollar Store Cake Stand made out of burner covers. That's what!

This post is starting to remind me of the book- If You Give a Mouse A Cookie. Or maybe the Song That Never Ends? If you give a blogger an idea...it just never ends! I am so thankful for all the creative geniuses out there who share so much! You really do bless me!

What's inspiring you lately? What are you up to? If you have any great links, please share them in the comments!

Craft Hope - Bean Bags

I'm busting stash for a good cause today. Maybe you'd like to join me? Check out Craft Hope's latest project here.