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Posted on November 26, 2012October 22, 2016 by Wanda — 5 Comments

Some fresh ornaments – Christmas crafts – and…. Do you know what your talents are?

My love/hate relationship with Pinterest has had me thinking. And thinking hard! Yeah, yeah. I hear the giggling and snickering out there. Once you get over the thought of me thinking hard, this is what I’m talking about.

One day with Pinterest, I’m all inspired. I want to make every crafty thing I see, I want to make my house pin worthy. And really believe I can. The next day I believe I only had pipe dreams. Foolish ideas. Who am I kidding? I’m not talented the way those people are. I can’t make things look that good. Then I get over that pity party and start to dream big again. Do you do this, too?

Here’s what prompted the latest pity party. Erin and I spent some time Friday crafting Christmas ornaments. She’s a natural. Most of the things she makes are cute. Most of the things I make cause much giggling or out and out guffawing. That’s when I start wondering just what my talents are and if I’ll ever find them.

Altered book and salt shaker angel[/caption]

Ok. So that’s not exactly terrible, but someone else with more talent than I could have taken the same idea and made everyone who saw it want to do one for themselves.

Now. Just what are my natural talents? After much thinking…..well….. I can play the piano and it came naturally to me. It was easy to learn. But there are definitely limitations. Short fingers for one. Odd inability to memorize for another. And it seemed like I got to a level and could never get any further. And that was a looooooooong way from a concert pianist. Enough to satisfy me and enjoy playing, though. But I rarely play any more. Can’t see and it hurts my wrists. So, what else?

Um…. I can sew… Read that not as “I can SEW!” but more like, “Welllll… I can sew….” I’m not what you’d call a talented seamstress like my friend Melanie. I know that she has to pick out seams along with everybody else, but I’ve never seen anything she made that didn’t look professionally done. I’m more of a “capable” seamstress. Still I think there’s a natural talent there. When I hear someone say they can’t sew, I wonder why not? Sewing’s easy! Nothing to it! So maybe I should start to sew more to sate my creative urges and have a satisfied feeling at completion.

Those are the only natural talents I can think of. Not much, huh? Oh, there is another. I sure can shop! LOL

I don’t think I’ll ever squelch the other crafting urges, though. Here are some other ornaments I made Friday.

The bottom left is just silver tinsel garland stuffed into a clear ball. The center right is Epsom Salt in a ball with glitter on the outside. But the other turned out to be a happy mistake:

I know you can’t tell too much about it, but it’s little plastic snowflakes from Hobby Lobby. Trouble was, they just laid there flat on top of each other. I put some Epsom Salt in there to see if that would help. Enh. Not much. Then for some really strange reason, I sprayed glue in there. I’m not sure what I thought it would do, but it made everything clump together. Horrors! So I started shaking. And it actually ended up OK! I kinda like it!

Just glitter on a little plastic trophy. Anybody should be able to spray something with glue and cover it in glitter, but oops. I see where I missed a few spots. See? I can’t even get something as simple as that right! LOL

And one more picture of the salt shaker angel Erin thought was so funny. Sigh. In retrospect, I think it would have been cuter in all silver. If I had a little ball for the head, I’d go ahead and do that, but I don’t. At least not today.

So what about you? Do you find it easy to create and do it well or are you like me, occasionally have an accidental happy? Have you found your natural talents? Do you stick with that or do you continually try to put a square peg in a round hole and try to do things you know are not your talent?

Posted on November 14, 2012October 22, 2016 by Wanda — 1 Comment

Gratitude – A Thanksgiving Silhouette Cameo Project

Gratitude. I haven’t been doing the whole “today I’m grateful for…” thing on Facebook or the blog, but that doesn’t mean I’m not. No, no, no! I could bore a preacher to tears with my list of “thankful fors”. There are the usual, noble things like health, family, friends, pet, home…. then it gets into clean water, clothes to wear, enough food to make me fat…. But it can also include things like getting to buy a Silhouette Cameo a few months ago and my new blade coming yesterday.

I love the Silhouette! I don’t use it as much as many, if not most, owners, but I’m so happy to have it.

This might be my first real project. I’ve done other things, enough to dull the blade, but nothing worth crowing about.

I downloaded the 99¢ design by Samantha Walker directly from the Silhouette store. Cut it from brown vinyl and stuck it to orange construction paper, of all things. I had this old, leaf, cross frame and they seemed destined to be together.

Did you notice I put it in the basket from last month?

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I’ve decided I’ve got to blitz the booth and Etsy for the rest of this month and next. Should have already done this. I still have so much stored that needs to be out for sale. It’s not doing anybody any good packed away like it is. Most of my time will be doing this. I’ll still try to get around to read your blogs, but know that it’s a slow go and only when I get the chance to sit at the computer without working.

Posted on October 15, 2012January 10, 2015 by Wanda — 3 Comments

Fall Yarn Wrapped Wreath

Have you been seeing all the yarn wrapped wreaths on the blogs and through Pinterest? There are some really pretty ones out there and I was inspired to try my hand at one. I didn’t want to invest much in the yarn and Wal-Mart was the closest seller of yarns for me, so choices were limited. There weren’t many good fall color choices, but I did the best I could. Cream, brown and cream, burgundy and a brown mix.

(Ha! I’m such the photog. Not. See the camera, my hand, part of my arm and the top of my head in the mirror? Oops.)

I don’t know how people divide it so the colors are evenly spaced. I thought I was smart in using the measuring tape and it still came out uneven. But that’s OK with me.

The flowers? They came out of this basket of knitted flowers I found at an estate sale recently.

We’re vacay-ing in south Florida at the moment. My mission today was to visit Boca Bargoons and…. mission accomplished. I’m still hyperventilating from being in Fabric Heaven! Too bad there’s not one close to home. I took some samples, but I doubt I’ll ever follow through with buying any of it.

I also went to local yard sales Saturday and have been going to the thrifts. There are MILLIONS of thrift stores around here!! Mostly, the merchandise looks very similar to the thrifts back home, but my daughter-in-law said she found a pair of Prada shoes for $6 at one, so I’m determined to hit as many stores as possible.

The last couple of weeks were spent cleaning house because of friends doing house watching and cat care. Heaven forbid they should see it the way it always looks when they come over. LOL

Posted on September 24, 2012August 3, 2016 by Wanda — 3 Comments

How To Make A Wire Strainer Shoo Fly Cloche

Shoo Fly Cloche Made From A Kitchen Straine

Wanna talk about being on a roll? That’s me! Another project completed!

I’ve seen these little cloches or shoo flies made from wire strainers for a year or two now and it was on my list of things to do. I found an old strainer at an estate sale for a dollar.

Normally, $1 would be more than I’d want to pay, but the wire in this one had such character. It was finer than most and more delicate, and yet, more primitive. It just seemed like the perfect shoo fly. So it came home to live with me for at least a year before it was transformed. You see, I’d look at it and wonder how in the world I was going to get the heavy wire around it off. You know. The hooks and the part that fits into the handle. I was afraid to open the tin “track” around it, afraid the mesh would come out and I’d have to throw it all away. That is, until I did a search on how to make a wire strainer shoo fly cloche and ran across Our Pioneer Homestead’s tutorial. (***Update*** Sadly, this blog is no longer in existence.) She showed us how to take the heavy wire out from the track with a butter knife. Ha! Yeah. Right. A butter knife wouldn’t budge the track around mine. I had to use a screwdriver. Hers also came out in three pieces so that she only had to loosen small areas to get the heavy wire out. Naturally, mine was much harder. This is how mine came out:

I had to pry up the tin track allllll the way around. Took for-eh-vah. But it was finally done.

I then went back and clamped the track back down, pinching myself with the pliers a couple of times. Ouch! Still have a tender spot on my finger.

Next step was dabbing paint on the wire so it wouldn’t be so silver. I think I used Folk Art’s Butter Pecan, but might have used Apple Barrel’s English Lace. Whichever it was, I couldn’t really tell any difference, so didn’t take a picture of this step. The best way to put the paint on is to use a stiff bristle brush, I used my old stencil brush, and with a cloth or paper towel (or I used toilet tissue because the bathroom is just a few steps away) under and touching the mesh, dab the the paint on. If it’s too thick, it’ll fill the holes. Too thin and it’ll just run through. I found having the tp underneath helped to keep it out of the holes.

Then I thought I’d get creative and add some black distressing. Oops. Uh, black was definitely not the most attractive choice.

At best it looked like it had been used in a mechanic’s shop. At worst, it looked like it had black measles and in one spot, black ring worm. I tried not to panic and proceeded to paint over it again with Butter Pecan.

Whew! That worked just fine. Gave it a nice copper look. I then found an appropriate knob in my stash and here’s the finished product.

See how wonky the mesh is? And I didn’t get the knob exactly in the center top, but I’m saying that adds to the authenticity.

I’m joining the following parties:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Tuesday’s Treasures at My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia.

Take A Look Tuesdays at Sugarbee Crafts

One Project At A Time at A Bowl Full Of Lemons

Time To Shine at A Diamond In the Stuff