Wedding Cake Table Decorations

A friend's daughter recently asked me to help recreate a photo she found on Pinterest of a lighted table for use at her wedding reception. After searching the internet for tips on how best to do this, and finding none, I decided to create a tutorial. You can read this tutorial over at the Andrea Howard Blog

The Crafty Caroline

In March, I posted here on the blog about the custom made camera strap covers I was having fun making for friends and family. It turns out that I am still receiving occasional orders. I am also still having fun designing and making these straps.

In the March post, I mentioned the possibility of creating an Etsy shop. So, I am here to announce that I have opened a small shop. It is known as The Crafty Caroline.

It not only showcases a few camera strap covers,

 but also pretty zipper pouches

and cute clipboards. 

The clipboards are crafted by my daughter. She and I are excited to be crafting alongside each other!

Please take a moment to hop on over to Etsy and see if there is anything in The Crafty Caroline that suits your fancy!

Handmade Camera Strap

Lately I've had a lot of fun with my sewing machine! I give all the credit to my sis-in-law, April! One day, in half jest, she asked. "I wonder if one of my sisters or sister-in-law who know how to sew would make me one of these." She showed me a picture of an adorable ruffled strap. The little bit of challenge in her question was all it took to get me to agree to do it!


I started surfing the web for ideas and after tuning up my sewing machine (literally....had to take the dusty thing in to a repair shop), got started. It took a couple of tries to get the strap just right, but I am pleased with the final result.

My sister-in-law was thrilled (thank goodness! I am always stressed about whether or not something I make for someone is pleasing to them). Since she lives in another state, I posted a picture on Facebook for her to see. Apparently a lot of my friends on Facebook are in need of a cute ruffled camera strap, because I was immediately asked to make more!

One friend, Nancy, asked if I would make one that could be removed from the camera without having to take the strap off the camera. She needed something more versatile for her photography job. Accepting her request as a challenge (can you tell that I kinda like a little challenge?), I started scheming and researching. The result is the B&W strap you see above. I have to admit that I love how it turned out! You can read what she thinks about the strap here.

One of the things that makes this sewing project fun is that there is much room for creativity. I love to browse the fabric store looking for matching fabrics and ribbons to make the next cute strap.

Nancy also encouraged me to open an Etsy shop. Even though that is a tad bit scary to me, I agreed to look into it. We will see what happens!

More Easter Goodies

Easter was a fun season for us! Not only did we make our traditional Resurrection Rolls and put extra emphasis on thinking about Christ's Resurrection, we did several crafts and decorations. The one that I enjoyed the most was these origami lilies.

Origami is an art that I have always thought too hard and tedious for me to do. But when I saw this tutorial with step by step photos, I decided to give it a try. After a trip to the craft store to get some pretty papers, I got busy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could do it!

To add even more fun, I followed this tutorial to make some cute, coordinating birds!

I liked making these so much, that I made another set for my entry-way table.

Easter Goodies Part Two

On my quest to decorate for Easter Sunday lunch on a shoestring budget, I came across this tutorial showing how to make a flower arrangement out of egg cartons and buttons. I was amazed at how beautiful the flowers were in her photo and was anxious to make some of our own.

(Christine's flowers)

Christine's tutorial calls for paper egg cartons, but at the time, all I could get my hands on were the foam kind. The foam flowers turned out cute, but not quite as pretty as the paper ones. I hope to do this project again someday with paper cartons (I'm already saving them).

Again, this was a fun project to do with my kiddos. We used the bouquet we made to decorate the food buffet.

Easter Goodies

Easter is long passed, but I want to be sure and post the goodies we made. I hosted a gathering of friends on Easter Sunday for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. While I wanted things to be pretty, I didn't want to be stressed or spend much money. So, I started looking around the house for things I already owned that could be used for decorations. I also perused the bookmarks on my computer where I had saved fun craft ideas.

For table decorations, the kiddos and I made coffee filter flowers using this tutorial. We had a lot of fun painting and cutting to create a variety of flowers. I took the flowers and used floral tape to attach the flowers to silk stems. We were excited about the result:

I found some railroad nails and tied three of them together with white ribbon to signify the nails used to nail Jesus to the cross. As an added decoration, we placed one of the coffee filter flowers in the nails.

Did you notice the table runner? I will post more about that later.

My First Real Project With The Cricut!

A few weeks ago, I got on a crafty kick. Remember? I made this book-page canvas wall hanging.

It was fall-themed, so I eventually had to take it down leaving a blank space on my wall.

Earlier this week, I saw a DIY post at Blue Cricket Design showing how to make a beautiful book-page canvas with a silhouette of birds. I decided to make one for the blank space on my wall!

Since I recently gained access to a Cricut machine and have downloaded the Sure Cuts A Lot program, I wanted to use it to make the silhouette instead of drawing it as done in the tutorial. I did a search for free SVG files of bird and branches and found this one. I imported the branch to Sure Cuts a Lot and manipulated it and cut it out several times, combining them to make a branch to my liking. I also cut out the bird in two different sizes to give variety.

I stayed up late into the night to finish it, because I was so excited to see the final product! I love the world that the cricut has opened, and can't wait for future projects. This one fills the blank space on my wall nicely!

These Are Crafty Days!

My mother asked me to update my blog, so being the obedient daughter that I am....

Lately, I have been in a very crafty mood. I have had a lot of fun making decorative items for my home. Besides being able to say that I made them myself, the most fun part is being able to create these fun things for so little money. I have shopped a few thrift stores and yard sales to buy the necessary items, and have very little money invested in my hobby. :)

Project One:

These hurricane vases were once ordinary vases and candlesticks. I purchased the vases and candlesticks at local thrift stores and the Dollar Tree. Using M6000 glue from Michael's, I glued them together. The hardest thing about this project was waiting the 24 hours for the glue to dry! For now I am using them as part of my fall decorations, and I look forward to using them at Christmas and beyond. Here's a tutorial for those of you wanting to make your own.

Project Two:

To decorate this corner of my dining room in the spirit of fall, I bought an artists canvas and a paperback book at our hometown rescue mission store. After adding some Mod Podge and scrapbook paper, this is what I had. This book page canvas idea has so much potential for variation and I can see myself making more in the future!For tutorial and variations, visit this blog: jonesdesigncompany.com



Here's another one I made on a smaller scale to give to a friend:

Project Three:

After making the book page canvases, I still had a lot of pages from my thrift store book left. So, I made this wreathe:

I put it on my fireplace screen, but it would look great on any door as well.
(do you see the homemade hurricane vases on display?)

closer view:

For tutorial and variations on this craft, visit this link at jonesdesigncompany.

Project Four:

And here is one more craft just for good measure. I spray painted an old frame (again from a thrift store), added some sticks from the back yard and some ribbon and flowers I already owned to make this frame wreathe. I am glad there are creative people in the world who share their ideas with the rest of us! You can find this tutorial and variations at Be Different...Act Normal.


Happy crafting, y'all!

The Magic of Snowflakes

As you've probably heard me lament before, we don't have traditional winters way down here in the South. That means we rarely (and by rarely I mean 'once in a blue moon') see any snowflakes and if there are snowflakes, they never stick together and accumulate on the ground.

So why not make our own snowflakes?


Making paper snowflakes is a fun activity that all school children partake in at one time or another.


This home school teacher wanted to take it to the next level, however.


When I saw THIS VIDEO I knew its what we would be doing!


I thought it might be a little difficult for the kiddos and would require a lot of help on my part, but they surprised me and were able to do most of it on their own.


They were proud of their accomplishment, and I was proud of the pretty decoration it made!


(I found this idea through a link on one of my favorite blogs: The Holy Experience.)

Doodles!

My previous post featured some colored pencils that my kiddos have loved using! In this post, I want to show you what they are drawing in!


Just like the smencils, we discovered these great books when someone gave us one as a gift! These books are full of page after page of fun things to do with pencils and crayons!

This page from Beautiful Doodles lets the creative child on the other end of the smencil decorate cupcakes however she wants.


This page from Oodles of Doodles lets the boy in our house draw a really long piece of spaghetti (that's right up his creative alley).

And after you've had fun coloring and drawing on every page of these books, you can start on one of several other Doodles books like this one or this one!

For more information of Doodles books, click here.

How To Make a Bead Bracelet From Magazine Pages

The kiddos and I spent our Fourth of July doing crafts together. My daughter's choice was a bracelet comprised of homemade beads. The beads are made from magazine pages and helped to make a very cute and unique bracelet.

The idea come from a Family Fun magazine, and here is how we made it:

Supplies needed: cardboard or file folder, ruler, old catalogs and magazines, wooden skewers, glue or glue stick, Mod Podge Sparkle, paintbrush, 6 feet of clear elastic cord.


1. Cut a template from cardboard or a file folder of a triangle with a 1-inch base 6-inch height.

Use the template to cut 30 to 35 triangles from colorful magazine and catalog pages.

2. To make a bead, tightly roll one triangle (base to point) around a skewer, then glue down its tip. Leave the bead on the skewer and roll one beside it.


When the skewer is full and the beads are dry, slide them off of the stick. Brush on a thin layer of Mod Podge Sparkle and let the beads dry.




3. To assemble the bracelet, thread one bead onto the center of 6 feet of clear elastic cord. Add the next bead, threading one end of the elastic through each end of the bead. Pull the elastic tight. Continue adding beads in this way, tightening and straightening them as you go, until the bracelet is long enough to stretch around your child's wrist. Feed the remaining lengths of elastic back through the first bead, then knot them multiple times and trim.


The result is a cute, unique bracelet made from scratch!

Such Creativity

I am not a creative person. I usually don't come up with ideas on my own, but love to take other people's ideas and run with them. I guess you could say that I am a copycat!

A friend's daughter, Lindsey, recently had a very creative idea that I love!


She bought canvases, ribbon and paint from our local Michael's store and used them to make these decorative wall hangings for her bathroom.


It's such a great idea, I just might have to be a copycat!

Oh, and Lindsey, I may be asking you to help my daughter do a bedroom makeover this summer!

How To Make Polka Dot Christmas Ornaments

One of the many activities that my friend Jennifer and I did while she and her family were visiting last week was make Christmas ornaments. When we were out shopping the Black Friday sales, we saw some very cute ornaments for sale in a specialty shop. As we looked at them, we realized we could probably make them ourselves.

So, it was off to Michael's to purchase our supplies. We bought ivory (white or clear work great too) Christmas balls, paint pens in various colors and ribbon.

I found some tea cup and saucer display stands in my cabinet which we used to hang the balls while they were drying. This way, the paint would not get smudged by laying down the ball.

First we painted large polka dots (with a paint pen) on the Christmas ball in the color of our choice.


After the polka dots dried, we painted an initial. You can use any font you like. To get ideas, I type the initial into a document in Microsoft Publisher. I experiment with the different font choices in the program until I find one I like. Then I try to imitate it.

This is actually Jennifer working on one of the ornaments.

After the initial dried, we added tiny white polka dots all over it.


By changing the colors of the polka dots and initials as well as the font of the initial, we made ornaments for those of the masculine gender as well. The following picture shows a feminine and a masculine style hung side by side. We made these two for our neighbor children who are fraternal twins.

As a finishing touch, we used ribbon to put a little bow at the top of the ornament. We also added a ribbon loop for hanging on the tree.


These ornaments are so cute on the tree. Because of their cuteness and because they are handmade; they make great gifts for your kiddos' friends, teachers, etc.! Why don't you go out and make some today!?!