Halloween Apothecary Jars

I started my Halloween decor.

Most of it is silly because I have small children,

and don't want to scare them.

Here is one that scared one and grossed the other two out...

LOVE IT!

There are my leftover gourds and pumpkins...

and yes, those are

FINGERS!!!!

I couldn't resist.

I bought them for $1 at the dollar tree,

and used an apothecary jar I already had.

The black netting is the bag the fingers came in,

cut to shreds and laid in the bottom as filler.

For our Halloween party, 

I plan on adding more jars and making a

"mad scientist" lab area.

The jars will be filled with things like:

gummy teeth, chocolate eyeballs

and more.

These three jars cost me about $2 to fill.

See? You can decorate and have fun for cheap.

Stay tuned for more...

Fall Harvest Wreath

This will probably be my last fall decor post.

(until it's time for Halloween decor)

Unless I come up with another frugal idea...

This one cost me about $8.

I KNOW...

Big Spender!

• Here's the rundown of my materials:
• rattan style cheapo wreath from Dollar Tree- $1
• spray painted with Krylon glittery brown spray paint left over from this project- had on hand
• fall silk leaves from Dollar Tree- $1
• larger plastic pumpkin from Dollar Tree- $1
• set of orange pumpkins and gourds from the dollar tree that I ended up not liking the color of with the other pumpkins and spray painted- $1
• Rustoleum Antique White- on hand
• 2 sets of cat tail and leaf sprigs for fifty cents each- $1
• Nicer and larger set of mini pumpkins at Walmart-$2.88.
• pinecones- free from my yard
• glue sticks and glue gun- on hand

(perhaps this is not the last fall decor post...I have more pumpkins)

Here are some during the process pictures-

Here is the 

wreath being

painted.

Here is the 

ugly pumpkin

and gourd

set being

painted.

After everything was nice and dry,

I warmed up my trusty glue gun

and arranged and glued until I liked the way it looked.

Do you like the way it looks?

(Look past that smidgen of pantry...

that IS organized!)

How about a close up of the goods?

Just one more-

in its new official home.

(Until it gets close to Christmas!)

Fall Coffee Table Centerpiece for $1

Here is another fall decor post.

This is one anyone can do.

Really, anyone.

I started with this

I actually liked the original color,

but with the nicks and scratches,

I can see why they would get rid of it.

When I saw it at a garage sale for ten cents, I snatched it up. 

Knowing I had the amazing power of spray paint at my fingertips,

I took it home figuring that at some point, 

I would have the inspiring moment of clarity

where I knew what I'd do with it.

That moment of inspiration came when considering fall decor.

I found a set of cute little white pumpkin candles 

at a rummage sale for fifty cents, 

and had some leftover leaves from this project.


Then I went about painting the (platter?).
I couldn't decide between brown and black.
I chose black thinking that I could reuse that more easily 
in other seasons decor than I could with brown.
Holly or garland and a candle at Christmas, 
a votive in a pile of red and silver kisses for Valentine's Day


Of course I forgot to take a picture of the painting process.
You are lucky to have gotten a before picture,
But here is an after...

All that loveliness for less than a dollar.




LOVES!!!

Beautiful and Frugal Fall Centerpiece

I got to shop at one of my favorite sales this week.

It is hosted four times a year by the senior citizens organization.

There are so many treasures to be had...

and VERY cheap.

I have been looking for a large bowl or wide vase

to fill and change out with the seasons 

to be used as a centerpiece at my kitchen table.

I found exactly what I was looking for.

And my silly self almost walked away 

because of the $3.50 price tag.

Now, that is one cheap lady.

I'm not proud.

But I did snag it after all.

For Halloween, I thought about filling it 

with plastic skulls and a string of lights...

But for now...

I filled it with pinecones from my yard

that I have had "curing" for a few months,

and some silk leaves from the dollar store.

Filled for fall for a grand total of $1.

ISN'T SHE GREAT?

Are you as overcome with the possibilities as I am?

I am excited to find things to fill it with for each season.

Let's take another look at her.

Just one more...

Scrap Paper Roses

This project is super easy.

All you need is some scraps of paper and scissors.

Start by cutting out a round "cloud" shape.

Like these:

Then, cut a scalloped edged spiral all the way to the center of your paper...Like this:

Next, starting from the outside edge,

begin rolling the paper up very tightly.

I used a safety pin. The curves you've cut 

into your shape will contour nicely into a beautiful little rose.

Stop rolling when you get to the center of your shape.

The last little part from the center of your "cloud"

will flatten nicely into the outside of your flower.

If you like, now would be a good time to add a spot of glue.

When you stop rolling, your rose should stay together.

If you want your flower to open more, press lightly on the center.

NOTE: Make sure you cut your layers about the same size

or it will not stay together.

When you are done this is what they should look like:

I love them...so much I had to take more pictures...

Now...what should I do with these little beauties?

Escort Card Tree

Yes, you read that right.

An escort card TREE.

I got inspired by these pictures from pinterest.com

Aren't these ideas dee-licious?

So, using these as my inspiration...

I decided to make a "tree" to hang our escort cards on.

I, personally have never seen anything like it.

Here are the materials I used:

• ugly green plastic pot for a plant- .25 at a garage sale
• spray painted with a pretty brown spray paint with sparkles in it...paint 3.76@WM 
• 2 packs of escort cards- .50 at a garage sale
• 2 long branches- FREE from my yard
• a decor type bird's nest- .10 at, yes...a garage sale.
• 3 styles of vintage lace- FREE from a dear lady named Kelly :)
• 2 pks of stained mini clothespins = 3.98 at WM
• stained by me with FREE stain I found in our home when we moved in.... you can see that project here
• "lovebirds"- on sale for .99 at Hobby Lobby
• various pieces of florist foam- found at various places= $3
• bag of moss- Dollar Tree $1
• glue gun and glue sticks

Grand Total: $13.58

First, I spray painted the ugly garage sale planter.

Then, I cut up pieces of foam and wedged them into the pot.

*note- in hindsight, after knocking the finished product off of my dresser, I realized a little bit of weight was needed and added some rocks from my driveway

...and added more foam, making sure to hot glue it all together.

Then, I stuck my twigs into the foam like bunny ears.

Next, I began ripping up pieces of moss and gluing it down to cover the florist foam.

For the next step,

I took my little nest and 

nestled it into a little nook

within one of the branches.

I actually wove the sticks around the branch to keep it secure, then hot glued it into place and glued 

the birds onto the nest.

Next, I took three different styles of beautiful vintage lace and wove them back and forth between the two branches. I used the nooks and crannies of the twigs to my advantage and hot glued them in spots as needed. These will serve as a place to hang the escort cards. 

Lastly, I hung the tiny clothespins onto the lace trim.

Ready to see the finished product?

(well, without the cards...we will do that at the venue)

So stinkin cute.

An unconventional 'Something Blue'...

My friend is getting married.

I have known her seven years and LITERALLY have 

NEVER seen her wear anything but flip flops and sneakers.

She wears flip flops so late into the year, she is usually

 still wearing them at Christmas...not kidding.

So when she was trying to figure out what to wear with her dress,

my first suggestion was flip flops...

"Flip Flops?" she said...

"Yes, flip flops." I said. "We can make them pretty..."

Then I had the idea to make them her 'something blue'.

Here is what we started with.

Plain Old Navy flip flops...$1

Next, I dug into my large tote of vintage lace...

(given to me by a lovely lady named Kelly S...I love to show her what I make with the materials she gave me...gives me a sense of satisfaction that we saved these things and are giving them new life)

and warmed up my hot glue gun.

I chose a length of lace that had a silky ribbon running 

through the center, I thought the ribbon would be a good,

 solid surface to glue onto the shoe.

Here I am gluing the lace on.

When I got to the center toe thingy, I had to think a sec...

I didn't want the lace to be tight around the toes,

I wanted it to lay relatively flat and not be in the way.

What I did was glue it all the way to the center, then backed it up a little and glued over itself...I did this a couple times, creating a semi circle around the toe thing...it worked, just hard to explain.

Other than that, I'd rate this project an 

E for easy peasy.

Ready to see what that crazy girl is 

walking down the aisle in?

How cute are they?

LOVE them.

Super Simple Headband

This project is idiot proof.

You just cannot mess this one up,

it only takes as long as it takes to warm up your glue gun.

I started by buying a pre-made ribbon wrapped headband for .97,

and a sequined leaf already attached to a piece of felt for 1.97.

I figured out where I wanted the leaf,
and hot glued it into place.

Then, I tried it on my favorite model...

Super Cute, Stella!

Wedding Pennants

I am making decor for my friend's wedding.

While cruising pinterest, I came across this picture-

(Sorry it's small, when I blew it up, 

it got very pixelated)

Anyway, I knew I wanted to recreate it in her colors.

I started by cutting out triangle shapes out of pizza boxes 

to use as a template for all the other triangles.

Can you tell I do most of my crafting in the middle of the night?

Then, I started cutting out the triangles.
I had made two sizes of templates so that I could
layer a smaller triangle over the top of a larger one
that I will be cutting out of scrapbook paper.

Yes, that is a ten cent sticker on the chalk ink pad...Yes, I am a rockstar when it comes to garage sale-ing.

I had a 2" alphabet stencil out to use, but it turned out to be too big.

Everything else I had on hand was too small.

FAST FORWARD TO TWO WEEKS LATER AFTER A VISIT TO JO-ANN's AND HOBBY LOBBY...

I had a hard time finding 1.5" stencils...

in fact, I had a hard time finding any stencils.

Jo-Ann Fabrics doesn't even carry them anymore.

I bought 1'' stencils and a chalk ink pad,

I got them home and dang-it if they weren't too small.

*Sigh*

FAST FORWARD TO A WEEK LATER AFTER 

I'D BEEN GARAGE SALE-ING AND FOUND SOME 

FOAM LETTER STAMPS...

OK, I was going to make it work this time.

I stamped my message onto the triangles.

After I stamped my message, I laid out the pennant the 

way I wanted it and punched holes in the corners.

Then I took the distressed ribbons I made here,

and started lacing and tying my pennant together...

OK, so here we are...

almost a month after I started,

and countless issues later, 

I FINALLY

have a finished product.

Ready to see it?

I am certainly ready to show it off...

Ta-Da!!! Whatcha think?

Just a Little Tease...

Yes, those are miniature clothespins...

and Yes, I am staining them here...

Just another wedding project...

I am only teasing you.

I don't plan on telling you yet.

You will have to come back to see...

Mua, ha, ha, ha...(evil laugh)

Homemade Wedding Signs

For my friend's wedding that I am decorating,

we needed a way to tell people what we wanted them to do

as they entered the venue, so I decided to make some sort of signs.

I had found a pair of pretty, ornate frames in a white washed, 

goldish color that I thought would work perfectly...

except they did not come with glass in them...thats OK,

I can work around that....especially since I paid a buck each.

I decided that I wanted one to say "sign the book"

and the other to say "find your seat".

I picked out some ivory cardstock and used the paper 

backing from the frame as a template to cut it to size.

Then I stenciled my words onto the paper...

but it was a little crooked, so I tried AGAIN,

and AGAIN, and AGAIN. They were all coming out crooked!

Enter the hubby...

My husband said, 

"Why don't you draw a faint pencil line where you want 

each word to be so you can line up your stencil on it...

then you can just erase it when you are done."

He's smart,I knew I married him for a reason...

And of course, the words were straight the last time...

or close enough that I'm not making them over...

except that I had left a couple smudges 

on the paper from my stencil...ugh.

Another mistake...sigh.

all the mistakes I make have me feeling like a crafting hack.

Then I had an idea, why not distress the paper to make it look antiqued, and those smudges will just look like age!

I got out my distressing ink and a pouncer sponge brush,

and brushed over the whole surface, concentrating 

on the imperfections and around the edges.

I stood back and admired them...I think they turned out beautiful, 

but I wanted to take advantage of the fact that they had 

no glass and make them three dimensional.

I found a tutorial on how to turn basic dollar store crepe 

paper into beautiful little flower rosettes.You can find it here.

I made up some rosettes according to the instructions, 

then glued them into the corners of my frames.

Sorry that I forgot to take pictures along the way...

{Sometimes when I don't know how something will turn out, I totally forget to take pictures.}

But, I do have a really nice "after" picture,

What do you think?

Wedding Guest Book Makeover

I have been helping to plan one of my best friend's weddings.

I am doing all the decor and little details.

I found our guest book at a garage sale in a box of other

wedding stuff for ten bucks. There was also a cake topper,

plastic disposable champagne glasses, and more...

I figured all in all I paid about three dollars for this brand new Martha Stewart guest book still in the original plastic.

Yes, its nice, but that grey ribbon is NOT.

Her colors are pale pink and dark brown, 

so the grey was not going to work.

I figured it wouldn't be too hard to replace the ribbon.

well...

I couldn't find 1" grosgrain ribbon anywhere. Thanks, Martha.

I bet she sells it, but her stuff is overly expensive in my opinion.

So I went home hoping the 3/4" pink satin ribbon 

I already had would somehow work.

I started by cutting the ribbon with my Xacto knife 

where it goes under the protective sheet. 

Then I began to gently pull it off, being careful not to rip the book.

Yeah, right...

I tried not to tear the book.

Martha apparently uses some really good glue.

That poor guest book ripped to shreds...

LOOK!

It was at this point that I crossed my fingers 

and hoped for the best.

Time to try out the never ending roll of ribbon.

*crossing fingers*

This ribbon has also been used here and here.

I laid it out across the giant rip, and....

THANK GOODNESS, it worked.

It just barely covered the rip.

I used fabric glue and a paint brush to smear it onto the rip.

That worked fine until I saw a brown brush bristle under the ribbon.

NOT OK, I switched to Q-tips. Then I smoothed down the ribbon and wrapped it around the edges of the book.

I sure hope that glue dries clear...*more crossing of fingers*

Well, that darn glue DID NOT dry clear.

Well...I will deal with that later.

I need time to figure out what to do.

I attempted to distract myself by making 

something for the picture frame...

I found a perfect piece of brown scrapbook paper

and used pink chalk ink to stencil the monogram.

M is for her name, J is for his,

and the O is for their last name.

Then I cut it out using the piece of paper that had been 

in the frame as a template.

Then, I faced yet another issue...

The photo corners...ugh.

I got out my Xacto knife and used it like a seam ripper.

Then I put my monogrammed paper in...

and got this.

GREAT!

I have ribbon threads showing up on my brown paper!

NOT PRETTY!

Now what?

I tried to use my Xacto knife to get them out,

but that did not work.

Then I had a brilliant idea...

I glued a thin strip of pink ribbon around the inside 

of the frame to hide the threads.

Next, I needed to adress the pink ribbon that 

had the glue showing through...you could still see it.

I thought about making a few ribbon and lace

rosettes  to put along the top third of the ribbon...

but as you will see later, I used rosettes elsewhere 

and didn't want to over-do it.

Then I thought I should add another "floating" ribbon.

Meaning, I would just tack it down on the inside of the book 

and let it "float" on top of the other, wider ribbon.

I found a perfect, sheer pink ribbon and layered it on top.

That worked, but I can still see the glue 

through the ribbon a little bit.

Now I am wondering if I should add a bow like the original one.

Then my husband comes in and says he can't even read the monogram...Seriously? Now?

So, I took his advice and hand painted with pink paint right

over top of the chalk...

Are you ready to see the before and after?

Before:

and....wait for it,

wait for it...

AFTER:

I am pretty pleased with the results too!