Halloween Costume- Belle

I've been so behind it's already December and I haven't shown off my Halloween costume yet! Oh my! Well, I decided to go with Belle from Beauty and the Beast this year (my school/work calls it "Book Character Day") and I was feeling brave so I bought the fabric and made my own costume. I'm not sure what I was thinking, as I was on crutches wearing a huge dress, but it worked and I didn't fall. Yay!

Here is the skirt part...

And here is the final outcome! I can't believe this is the only picture I got. My classroom was cold so I wore a sweater. Anyway, it was cute! I'm holding up my "Classic Fairy Tales" book, although the beautiful yellow-dressed Belle was technically the movie version, not from a book. Oh well!

Charmed Necklaces

Several of you know that I was out of service for a couple months after having surgery on my foot (I've got a slight scar now with cute little stitch-dots around it) and couldn't go upstairs to my craft room. I'm glad to say that I'm off crutches now and working my way to getting back to normal. My dog, Elsie, has puppies back at the beginning of October, and they're finding their forever homes this week! There are four cute white snuggly creatures and one salt-and-pepper (which looks alarmingly a lot like her grandmother, my dear Sophie, that we lost last Christmas!) 

The last couple of posts have mentioned a few things I've been into lately, and this one is special because I'm making these cute little necklaces for my co-workers for Christmas! Other than the fact that my fingertips have been sticky for a couple days now, it's SO much fun! I've been going around the house trying to find things that will fit inside the pendant shapes I bought from Sun and Moon Crafts. They have a few sampler kits I've tried before (my sisters and I have a tradition of making crafty things on Christmas Eve while waiting for the rest of the family to get their act together to open presents) but check out the prices on the individual pieces! There was a girl down on the market in Roanoke selling these for $15-$20! That's CRAZY since each piece is less than 50 cents. I bought some long necklaces (36") and shorter ones (24" and 20") and lots of different size pendants. I bought the glass toppers for some of them, and the glaze to use with some glass tiles. Such fun!

I love this balloon!

This butterfly is glittery!

Three snowmen

My dining room work-table (Why didn't I use my craft room, you ask? Because it's still messy from the Wand Making I did last week.) 

And just for fun, here are a couple pictures of my Christmassy house!

Christmas Wreath

I saw the CUTEST homemade ornament wreaths on pinterest (no idea where or I'd give the link!) so I ran to Walmart during the Black Friday weekend and bought some non-shattering plastic ornaments.

First, take an old metal clothes-hanger (disclaimer... the cheap, easy to bend kind works better than the high-quality ones!) and untwist to make a general circle shape. Then slide on about 50 ornaments, adding a smaller one for every 2-4 big ones. The more unique the ornaments, then cooler effect you'll get! When you've filled up the hanger (I had two ornaments leftover from my set) just twist the two ends together. If you used the high-quality clothes-hangers you might need pliers to get the pieces just right.

Add a bow and POOF you're done! (I totally did not even realize my wreath was crooked when I hung it up to take a picture! I do realize that the hanger is glaringly red... I need to fix that!! :-/)

HP Wand-Making

*Here's to hoping my little sister doesn't happen upon this post before Christmas!*

My little (college-aged, not really little!) sister finally finished reading Harry Potter this year, so she and I finally have something in common! I ordered her all kinds of HP-themed things for Christmas this year (Griffindor scarf, muggle t-shirt, snitch necklace, etc.) but decided to make the wand myself. I looked up several tutorials on Pinterest (my go-to site for EVERYTHING these days) and figured out how to make one... or a bunch... using materials I had on hand.

I started out with several bamboo skewers and wrapped random items around the bottom few inches of each one. Then I covered the objects with hot glue. For some, I just played around with the glue (slowly watching it run as I twirled it around and added a few drops of gold Tim Holtz Adirondack alcohol ink mixative. 

It was a little messy!

I painted on the mixative after the glue was dry over the entire wand on this one.

Here is a button I wrapped in a bit of fabric and added a rubber band for dimension.

This one- an old clothespin glued to the end of a skewer- was my favorite! 

 You can see how I'm adding more glue and more gold coloring on each one. They all turn out differently.

I swirled glue around the entire skewer of them when the base was warm enough to handle. On some of them I made a spiral pattern, on others I pressed the glue gun tip onto the wood to smear the glue around. Both gave awesome effects.

I colored them with various shades of brown copic markers. I'm pretty sure I ruined a couple nibs, but the result was well worth it!

And here they are! Seven finished wands, each magically perfect in its own way!

I'm not sure what I'll do with the extras just yet... but I couldn't resist making several!

Two more wreaths

Here is a wreath I made by wrapping a styrofoam wreath with zebra print floral ribbon. Then, I glued on several pieces of various blue ribbon, along with a fuzzy bit on the side. I put a bit of black chalkboard paper into a small frame and glued it on front, where I will write the teacher's name it's going to. I added buttons and other sparkly things around it for some extra fun. She's going to love it!

 I made another school supply wreath by taking an old Christmas wreath and tearing the pine, holly, and poinsettias off (and storing them for another project, of course!) It had the brown vines sticking off, and I didn't want that, so I re-wrapped the wreath using floral wire.

I added school supplies and voila! Super cute!

Cute Lego Crayons

I've made crayons before but today I made some lego ones! Here is the tutorial. 

I lined them up as I popped them out so that I'll hopefully have enough good ones for each student in my class this year.

Here they are posing for the camera... my orange ones are still melting!

Oops... a little mess with yellow!

I used a double boiler to melt the crayons for the lego men, then poured them in the mold

My pampered chef food chopper came in handy to cut up the crayons into little chunks! Then I just had to put the pieces into the lego block molds.

Christmas Cards! And a bereavement note...

I guess after the halloween day I had a couple days ago, my mind was moving right along! Today I created 4 Christmas cards while waiting for some inspiration to hit for a card I needed to make for a family member. 

The inside I kept simple with "Peace on Earth" so I could write a little note to whoever I send it to.

The words say, "May the Lord bring good tidings of comfort and joy this Christmas to you and your family."

This card says, "May our God of hope fill you with joy and peace this Christmas and all year through."

This is the only non-Christian specific card I made, but I'll probably add a verse when I sign our names. I just love that little Santa!

And here is the card I made for a relative in honor of their relative who passed away. I wrote a note on the inside before I remembered to take a picture, but it was just matted floral paper with a different yellow pattern I wrote on. I think it's simple yet satisfying.

Halloween Cards

 I made four halloween cards this afternoon... even though it's still July! :-) Allergy season became my inspiration, since I had this cute monster tissue box sitting in my craft room. Halloween cards are always easy and fun to make, although I don't ever give them away, since it's not really a holiday we celebrate.