Patriotic Fireworks for the Home

This post was inspired by the Pike Fam blog that I found via Pinterest. I really loved the dynamite decorations in that blog post that I found, so I decided to create them and put my own twist on them for one of my craft swap crafts!

Here's what I used:

--Plywood

--Hacksaw

--Sandpaper

--Measuring tape

--Pen (not shown)

--Plastic sheeting

--Wood stain

--Red, white, and blue paints

--Red, white, and blue paint pens

--Paintbrushes

--Paper cup (not shown)

--Water (not shown)

--Glue

--White, red, and yellow tissue paper (only white is shown)

--Scissors (not shown)

Start by measuring the lengths you want for your fireworks. I was working with 24 inches so I made mine 6", 8", and 10". I measured out the lengths and marked them with a pen (both at the top and bottom of the wood so I could cut a straight line). Then I sawed them. I did not take a picture of this process because my sawing skills are pathetic. :) But I finally got it done! And then sand down all your rough edges. 

I wanted my fireworks to have a vintage look, so I used some stain that I had on hand to give the wood a darker color that would show through the paint. I was doing this inside so of course laying down plastic sheeting was a must, but it's generally a good idea anytime you paint--inside or out! :) 

Once the stain dried, it was on to COLOR! In order to get that vintage/distressed look, I added some water to the paint so it would go on thinner over the stain. So  for each color, I squeezed some paint into a paper cup, poured in some water, and mixed it with my brush. I basically went with 2 parts paint to a little less than 1 part water. You can play with the ratio depending on how thin you want the color. 

Yay painting! See how it goes on thinner and has that distressed look without the sanding? Love it!

The type of wood that I used is also quite absorbent so the colors dried even a bit lighter than they did when I first painted them. Now it's time to add the words! I decided that I'm going to put something on each side...one would say "Snap, Crackle, Pop" like my inspiration and the other side would say 'USA." So I set to work with my paint pens and just tried to freehand it the best I could! 

Now for the fuse. I grabbed some fairly small strips of white tissue paper and then layered some red and yellow on top.

Then I rolled the strips up, but not too tightly.

Then I twisted my rolls of paper until that had a more twined look. 

Then I took my glue and glued around the edge of the roll in hopes that it would keep the roll closed as well as in its twisted shape. I also glued one side of the roll to the top of the wood. Then I proceeded to do this for the other 2.

Last step! Once my glue was all dry, I did a little bit of snipping right at the top of my tissue paper "fuse." I fanned the shreds out and trimmed down some of the white pieces so it looked like there was a flame at the top of each firecrackers.

All done! One side for Snap, Crackle, Pop; and one for USA! I'm really pleased with how these turned out! I hope my craft swap person enjoys them as much as I do! And now I just have to figure out where to put my set. Hmm...

Until next time, love y'all!

-Kittye

Patriotic Bracelet

So as I mentioned in my last post, I'm working on my crafts for a Patriotic-themed craft swap! Last time I basically did the same thing for both people but I used different colors. This time I wanted to make distinctly different crafts! So for one of my girls I'm making accessories, and I finished the first one last night! It's pretty simple, but I think it's cute!

 So here's what I used:

-- Jewelry Pliers

--Jewelry Eyepins

--Jewelry toggle

--Medium glass beads

--Paintbrush (not pictured--this was what I had close by for shaping the bracelet, but a pen or pencil or anything like that would work equally well)

If you don't have jewelry pliers, any needle-nosed pliers should work. If you can't find the eyepins (which are basically just wires that already have loops on one side) you can create your own with wire. I just already had some on hand so I figured I'd use them! If you don't like the toggles, a claw clasp or any other jewelry closure will work. 

So I started with one eyepin, and I opened the eye and added the "rod" part of the toggle to that and closed it. I then added beads so that the bottom part looks something like this:

Once you finish adding beads to your eyepin, you just slip the eye of another pin over your remaining wire and then close that extra wire up with your pliers:

It should look something like this:

NOTE: This is too many beads to do any sculpting/bending. If you want to leave them fairly straight or just have minimal curve, you can fill the eyepins all the way up. For my bracelet, I had to leave about 1 bead's worth of just wire showing. The more twisting and curving you want to do, the fewer beads you should use!

So once you finish adding beads and connecting your eyepins (I did 9--3 of each color), add the "loop" portion of the toggle. At this point you'll have something that looks much more like a bracelet than a necklace!

This is where my paintbrush came in. As I said, I just had it on hand (working on another craft) so that's what I used. I just held one end of the bracelet in place and slowly wound each piece around until it created a spiral shape. This may take some time to get it just right...it's certainly not an exact science. But it also leaves you with a chance to individualize your bracelet a bit! 

In the end, I was very pleased with the outcome! In fact, I'm thinking I might have to make one for myself as well!

Keep checking back. I have at least 2 more patriotic crafts and 2 more around-the-house crafts already in the works, and I can't wait to post them!

Love you all!!

-Kittye

Oxford Aprons

Warning--this has the potential to be a TLDR post! I didn't take pictures along the way so there's a lot of text. I'm sorry! I'm still new at craft blogging. :( 

So anyway, with being a newlywed and trying to get settled into our apartment, I haven't had much time to do a whole lot of crafting. We're also on a pretty tight budget so my ability to purchase supplies is limited. However, I've started participating in craft swaps via Facebook. SO MUCH FUN! :) It just occurred to me that those are totally blog-worthy projects! And I am now kicking myself for not taking pictures through the process of my first swap project. The theme was "Spring," and I decided to work with an idea I saw on Pinterest to make an old Oxford shirt into an apron!

Here is the post that gave my my inspiration. The blog is called In My Apron Pocket. Love it! And since I don't have any pictures of the process, you can get a better idea from her post. :)

I started by getting the shirts...I had to make two for the swap, so I waited until a Monday when our local Goodwill stores have a 50% off clothes sale. I grabbed 1 for $4 and the other for $3.50. 

I followed her instructions pretty closely...cutting up and across the back, removing the sleeves, pinning the strip with the buttons and button holes (I really recommend pinning...I tried just leaving it buttoned and it wouldn't lie flat...rookie mistake!), and tracing the basic pattern from another apron I already had. 

She did a lot more than I did with binding, trim, and ruffles. I had a pretty tight deadline on this since my wedding happened in the middle of the swap and my life was crazy, so I kept mine pretty simple. I picked two fabrics (I already had some fat quarters on hand from another project...but you can get them for a couple of dollars at any fabric store, and probably any Wal-mart) for each apron and created a small pocket with a border, and then I made a little removable flower pin. The pocket was just a simple rectangle that I stitched onto the right side with a zig-zag stitch. I made the flower by cutting a circle of fabric and cutting it into a spiral then gathering one edge all the way around (starting from the inside of the circle) until it looked flower-like. I then stitched them onto hair clips that I had gotten a couple of years ago when I was really into making my own hair bows. You can get them on Amazon. I clipped the flowers onto the chest pockets. I then just used some ribbons I had on hand and stitched them on as apron strings. 

So in short, I spent less than $8 out of pocket. However, if you want to copy these exactly and have to purchase everything new, you're still not probably not going to spend more than $20-25. And it's a unique, cute apron!

Luckily, one of the swap requirements is that recipients have to take pictures of the crafts they get. Here are the aprons I made:

I was extremely happy with how they turned out, and I'm already brainstorming on my next swap project and a couple of home projects so hopefully I'll have a couple more posts soon (and with more pictures)!

Love you all!

-Kittye