Jewelry Holder Tutorial

So here is the jewelry holder that I made when I was a teenager and still riding horses competitively. Follow these simple instructions to create self-standing jewelry holder custom to your needs from scraps of 1/4" and 1/2-3/4" wood and teacup hooks.
Woodworking tools are required here: Jig saw/ scroll saw, table saw, sandpaper, wood glue, pliers, drill gun
1. Trace your image onto the wood using a heavy pencil or marker.
2. Use jigsaw or scroll saw to cut out your design
3. Sand down all edges with sandpaper.
4. For the base, take a scrap of 1/2" wood that is as wide as your image. Using a table saw with the blade on a very low setting, run the wood through, creating a well the entire length of the board that is as wide as your image. Your image should sit perfectly in the well, with a little support of wood glue.
5. Paint any desired color.
6. Create a layout for your teacup hooks. I liked mine at varying heights to accomodate necklaces of all sizes and bracelets/anklets.
7. Once you've decided on placement, pre-drill your holes and then screw in the hooks by hand.
8. If the screw portion of your hooks are slightly protruding out the back as mine were, use some pliers to cut the screw to be level with the back of the board.
9. Stand back and admire! Decorate with your pearls!

I'm Back!

After an incredibly LONG break, in which I finished my degree and found a great job, I am finally ready to continue this blogging thing.

Here are some projects that I have completed:

Another wall hanging using my Cricut

Hand painted wall hanging for our bedroom, using artist canvases and a few pieces of inspiration online.

Homemade Decor

We rearranged our living room, and ended up with a completely blank wall that looked very empty. My cheap solution? Make my own wall art!






For about $20 I got the artists canvas and the paint to match our decor. After using a sponge roller (awesome!) to apply the base layer (x3), I used a Cool Whip container and a Ricotta Cheese container to dip in the beige paint to create perfect circles. Then I used a paint brush to fill in three of the circles -- odd numbers are appealing to the eye &hearts:

On either side are heart-shaped candle-holders ($5 for both at Ross) with vanilla-scented 3" candles from Wal-Mart. It fills the wall and I love it!

Let the Gift Ideas Start Rolling

I know we still have Thanksgiving to get through, but honestly, Thanksgiving doesn't require the hours upon hours of making, buying, and wrapping gifts to get through the holiday like Christmas requires. Therefore, I've already completed/started making some gifts for some of the loved ones on my list!





The first completed is for my mom's birthday (unfortunately my family has several birthdays coinciding with the holiday season) which I have to mail out next week.





In this gift box is:

• A covered composition notebook for scriptures, quotes, anything else she wants to save.
• A ribbon-beaded bookmark
• A small pocketbook to match her favorite colors and her favorite animal
• A beaded pen: to do this, I used double-sided tape to cover the pen, rolled it in seed/small beads, and then covered with decopage medium to seal the beads on.

These were simple to make and can be customized to every person on your list!

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Here's a wonderful tutorial for an amazingly 'green' Thanksgiving centerpiece!!! Haha.nu did an amazing job with the tutorial - it looks very easy! The tutorial can be found here.

Please share your past/present/future centerpieces with us!

Jazzy Jack O' Lanterns

To get you all in the Spooky Spirit for Halloween, here are our carved pumpkins. The one on the left is a witch, the next has WSU and a cow (my friend lives at the WSU Beef Center!), a pair of creepy eyes, a very dimly-lit skeleton, and last, my favorite, my Michael Myers silhoutte, from the Halloween movies!

There are more great ideas over on Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday" -- go check it out!!

Halloween Gift

Isn't it cute? I sent this out to relatives for Halloween. This is a covered chocolate bar, an idea taken from Crafts 'n Things Magazine, quite possibly the best craft magazine out there -- I highly recommend it to anyone!

To do this, just take the outside wrapper off (leave the foil cover on), wrap with burlap (found on the bolt for cheap at Walmart), print/stamp the "Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat" saying, and I added a tri-jack o'lantern stamp on top! Then simply back with scrapbook paper and attach using ribbon! Ta-da!