A Few DIY Crafts for the Home

Beaded Cocktail Stirrers

I saw this on Scout and new I had to make these immediately.  I love making anything with beads and cocktails.  Hopefully we can have some people over for some cocktails soon, our bar keeps growing.

 Book Holder – Anthropologie  Inspired

I saw this DIY on Pinterest and knew this was the project for me. Wholly Kao did an amazing tutorial for this book holder. I love cook books, you could call it an…. addiction really, so I decided to make one for a few favourite cook books to keep close to the kitchen.  I also love Anthropologie but it can sometime be pretty pricey.  I had almost all of the tools/supplies needed for this project so I gave it a go.  However I don’t seem to have much patience for taking proper measurements or cutting in a straight line, as you can see my book holder is not very even at the bottom.  I’m also not that thrilled with the stain I used, but it was what I had.  I will definitely try to make another one of these soon.

 

Constellation Coasters

 

 

Another great tutorial from Almost Makes Perfect – who doesn’t need coasters?  Anything to do with constellations I’m game.

ABC Embroidery Sampler

I finally have some free time to share my ABC embroidery sampler that I completed a few weeks ago.  This amazing pattern is from Alicia Paulson.  This was my first time attempting embroidery and it was a ton of fun.  Alicia provides all the details you need for each stitch, and if I wasn’t sure it was easy enough to find a you tube video of the stitch in question.  I definitely did not follow the color scheme and enjoyed picking my own colors.  However I’m sure I will stitch this pattern again (I plan to make one for Owen and Elliot) and I will try the colors that Alicia recommends. They do go well together. I picked a cheaper frame as well, I couldn’t really decided what color of frame would go well with the white background.  I made this for my nephew Carson’s nursery, hopefully he likes it one day!

I saw this pattern on One Sheepish Girl’s blog.  Meredith did an amazing job and I can only hope my next one looks as good.

DIY Library Table – From An Old Spool

This fantastic idea is from Country Living, and you can read their tutorial here.  I made mine a bit different, which I will explain here.  I worked on it over a weekend and am so happy with the results.  I absolutely adore this!!

First you need to get your hands on an old wooden spool.  Now you may see nicer ones around construction sites or work yards, but I learned that someone has put an expensive deposit on these.  $180.00 so they can be re-used when you take them back for more wire.  Yikes!  Luckily you can probably find older ones that are not in perfect shape that people are willing to get rid of.  When I told my friend Chris about my project he remembered that in the yard where we used to work up until a few months ago, there was a whole bunch in the back that had been sitting there for years.  So we took a drive over and I snagged 2.  THANKS CHRIS!

A few tools that I found helpful

• Electric sander with sand paper
• Cordless drill with longer screws (2 ½″)
• Saw
• Hammer

What you need

• 12 Dowels from Home Depot or somewhere similar.  Or less if you like, it’s really up to you.  I used 4 larger dowels, 1.5″ and 8 smaller dowels,¾″.
• 3-4 rotating castor wheels.  Also from Home Depot or somewhere like Ikea.  I used 4 because my spool is quite large
• Paint. 1 quart. I used white.  You want a paint that you can wipe down.  A stain might be nice too.
• Paint Brush
• Rust Protective Spray (optional)

1. First I sanded down my spool to get out any rough spots, dirt, and to make it nice and smooth for painting.  I did this outside.
2. Next I used a white protective spray on any staples, screws or hardware to prevent them from rusting in the future.
3. Now you want to add in your dowels.  I measured the distance between the top and the bottom, inside to inside.  16″.  The dowels are sold 48″ long, so for my larger ones I had them cut them at home depot, a tad bit longer than 16″ though.  2 of them ended up being perfect, and the third piece was a bit short due to the fact that I wentlonger than 16.  I used a saw at home to cut the smaller dowel to 16 and ¼″, with a few left over.  I then arranged them around the spool as desired, I just eye balled it, no tape measure used.  I tried to space them out evenly. Since the dowels were longer than distance in between, I used a hammer to move them around and they were snug between the top and bottom.  I used the hammer to move them around if necessary.  I had some that were a little short or loose, and obviously would not stay.  That is when I used my cordless drill and screws to secure them more, drilling into the top and bottom and into the dowel. Worked out great.  Does that make sense?
4. Flipped the table over and screwed on 4 castors.
5. Now time to paint. I definitely recommend 2 coats, leaving the first to dry over night.

Our new button maker

We had the idea to make little buttons for our wedding as another little token of our special day, so we decided to just buy a button maker.  We both love pins so it seemed like a good idea, and it was.  It is amazing.  So fun and easy !  Right now we are coming up with ideas for the wedding buttons, but have made a few ones for fun right now.

Less than three months

Our wedding is creeping up so quickly with lot’s to do still.  However things have been pretty productive lately!  I think I’m more excited for our honeymoon which is booked and paid for.  Maui here we come !!  Here’s a few pictures of what I’ve been working on for decorations and bridesmaids stuff.

Easter egg fun!

Another Sunday spent with Aimee, and of course always a good time.  Unfortunately none of the others girls could make it out today to decorate eggs, you guys were all missed!  We tried a few different techniques, including: crayons, rubber bands, glitter, lace and paint splattering.  We even tried ‘blowing out’ the eggs.  That is when you make a small hole in the top, and a slightly larger hole on the bottom of the egg and blow out the egg whites and yolk.  A lot of laughing went on.

Easter egg crafts

I discovered a new app for the iphone from Martha Stewart called “Egg Dyeing 101”.  It was $1.00 and is pretty neat with a lot of creative ideas.  Hey Aimee, want to have a craft day next weekend and make eggs again ?

Another fun Easter craft found over on Poppytalk. Decorate a egg to crack open with a special note inside.  Like a fortune cookie, but you don’t get to eat it.  Full instructions on their website.

Twinkle lights in a bottle

Tonight I made three of these twinkle light bottles and I thought they turned out good.  It was pretty easy, it only took me five minutes to drill the hole for the Christmas lights to enter the bottle.  I used two Pellegrino bottles and the large one was from a garage sale awhile back.  This would have been a neat night light as a child.  I found this on wit and whistle.

Winter crafts from the web

I made a bunch of these tree pins and gave them to my girlfriends as little Christmas gifts.  So cute!  I bought all of the felt from Michaels.

Here is the step by step guide to making them, found on Purl Bee

Gingerbread house for your mug !  Haven’t made these yet but definitely hope to in the new year.

This one was found on Not Martha

Christmas decorations

Cutest ornaments for your tree, found here.