Chicken Scratch

December Daily - Finished!

Last night I finished up the rest of my December Daily 2011 album. Yay!

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15
(I was fairly certain I used a PageMaps sketch for this layout but I can't seem to find the link. My apologies if I'm crediting the wrong source.)

Day 16
(I lifted this layout from Pinterest.)

Day 17

Day 18
(I lifted this layout from Pinterest.)

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22
(I lifted this layout from Pinterest.)

Day 23

Day 24
(I lifted this layout on Pinterest.)

Day 25

Again I'm using Shabby Miss Jenn's *A Warm and Cozy Christmas* kit plus a few other odds and ends mixed in. The font is CK Invitation. If you missed it, you can see my cover and Days 1-12 here.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your 2012 has gotten off to a great start!

December Daily

So I ran into a road block with my December Daily layouts. I would start a new layout and get stuck. I tried buying a new kit to work with to see if that would help and nothing. Tried templates and nothing. Finally, I came back to my original kit and decided to use the same neutral paper as my background on each layout and that seemed to work. So the past few days I redid some of my layouts with the new background and started working on new layouts. I'm caught up for Days 1-12.

cover

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3
(I used a January 2011 PageMaps sketch.)

Day 4
(I lifted this layout from Pinterest.)

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9
(I lifted this layout from Pinterest.)

Day 10

Day 11
(I lifted this layout from Pinterest.)

Day 12

I'm using Shabby Miss Jenn's *A Warm and Cozy Christmas* kit plus a few other odds and ends mixed in. The font is CK Invitation.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pretzel Kisses

I found this recipe on Pinterest and knew right away I had to make it with candy cane Hershey Kisses (I love those Kisses... they are my Christmas crack!)

Anyways, I couldn't find the round pretzels like she used so I just bought the mini twists. After making these I wish I had used the round pretzels because they would have contained the melted chocolate better.

Nevertheless, these are still DELICOUSLY ADDICTING! Kaleigh and I made them for her class party tomorrow. They aren't the prettiest to look at but they are divine to eat. The perfect combo of salty and sweet! I decided to call them Pretzel Kisses; Kaleigh calls them Pretzelascrumptious. LOL

Thanks for stopping by!

Snowflake Garland

While browsing Pinterest one day, I came across these stars made from toilet paper tubes.

I got an idea to add one more *ring* to make a snowflake. So I made 5 of these, strung them up on twine, and hung them from an old screen on my fireplace mantle.

These didn't photograph that well (at night with a flash) but they capture the light with a pretty sparkle. I did use Diamond Dust (crushed glass) instead of glitter like she did because I wanted more of an ice look. I like how I can leave these up after Christmas for my winter decor.

I didn't follow her instructions but here's what I did (sorry no pics to show steps but I'm pretty sure it's self-explanatory)
1. I flattened the TP tubes and cut them into 1/2" sections.
2. I painted each individual section on the outside first with white acrylic paint and a foam brush. Once dry, I painted the insides.
3. Using the same method in step 2, I brushed on glue with a foam brush and dipped in the Diamond Dust (outsides first, let dry, and then the insides).
4. I glued mine together just like she did but I used hot glue.
5. I put a small dab of hot glue on the top *ring* and stuck the twine to it to hang.

I used toilet paper tubes last year to create a pumpkin garland for fall. You can see where I created that here. I think I'm on a mission now to make toilet paper tube garlands for each season/holiday. Valentine's will be next. Time to start brainstorming. :)

I'm in the middle of making stockings for our dogs so as soon as I'm done I'll show the whole mantle.

Thanks for stopping by!

Memorial Day

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
[John 15:13]

Mode: Manual
Aperture: 3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 400
Lens: 50mm
Flash: no

God bless our military and their families.

St. Patty's Day Decor

I've never really gone all out in my decor for St. Patrick's Day, but this year I wanted to make a few things for the buffet wall in our living room.

First, I made a framed subway art. I found the print (for free) here on the eighteen25 blog and framed it.

Next, I made this wooden frame with texture paste and paint. I found the idea here at Flea Market Trixie. I love the colors in hers, but for St. Patrick's I made mine 2 different shades of green. It turned out okay for my first time, but I want to try again (I think I made the layer of texture paste too thick). I then covered the insert with cream burlap and hot glued an old clover cookie cutter to the center.

Then, I made this banner to hang on a silver platter I bought at a thrift shop. (I'll share how I made it in a bit.)

I also put an Ace of Clubs card on a frog under a bell jar.

Finally, I put this clover pick ($1 from Hobby Lobby) in a little clay pot I got at an antique store for $1. I put it under another bell jar that I placed on a stand I made from a ceramic plate and wooden candle holder.

Tada!!!

Now how I made the banner...

Supplies:
canvas fabric
lace trim
LUCKY chipboard letters
green acrylic paint
craft glue
green glitter 

Tools:
sewing machine
polkadot stencil
pinking shears
hot glue gun

1. (Forgot to take photos of this step but it's easy.) Paint your chipboard letters with green paint and let dry. Then coat with a layer of glue and sprinkle on glitter. After they dry, shake off the excess glitter.

2. Cut 10 triangles from the canvas fabric. Leave 5 triangles plain and using the stencil and paint, stencil polkadots onto the other 5 triangles.

3. Place 1 painted triangle on top of 1 plain one and machine-stitch around the edges. I went around twice and made my lines a bit crooked for a shabby look. Do this for the remaining triangles.

4. Trim the 2 sides of your stitched triangles with pinking shears.

5. Line up your 5 stitched triangles along the top border and hot glue on your trim, making sure to leave 2-3 inches of excess trim on each end of the banner to hang.

6. Using the same trim, tie two bows and hot glue one on each end of the banner.

7. Take your glittered chipboard letters and hot glue 1 letter to each triangle.

8. Now hang your banner on a tray and tape the ends around the backside of the tray. Fancy schmancy, huh?

9. Admire your lovely St. Patty's Day banner. :)


I still need to make a wreath for our front door. It's getting down to the wire at this point but if I get it done by this weekend I can still enjoy it a few days and I'll be all set for next year. ;)

Did you decorate for St. Patty's Day? Be sure to share!

Happy Valentine's Day!

(drawn by Kaleigh)

And yay, I found my camera cord to transfer my pics to my computer. I have a bunch to get caught up on blogging. Stay tuned! :)

Old Mattress Springs

I went to one of my favorite thrift shops over the weekend and they had a box of old mattress springs for $1.99/each plus 20% off. I grabbed three not knowing exactly what I'd do with them at first but thought they were too cool to pass up. I left and as I was driving in my car I was brainstorming what to do with them when it hit me... I'd put ornaments or pine cones on top. So earlier this week Kaleigh and I went outside looking for pine cones. We picked out 3 good ones, brought them home, and put them on the springs. I love how they turned out. The wheels are spinning for what to do with them after Christmas. :)

Christmas Ornament Wreath

I've been wanting to make a Christmas ornament wreath for a few years now and finally sat down and made one. I bought a bunch of ornaments on clearance last year after Christmas, but I still had to buy some more this year as it took alot more than I thought. Plus you need a wide variety of sizes. And I wanted all glass because I can't stand the seams on plastic ones but, well, as you can see below I had to mix in some plastic. ;) Seems you can find a wider variety of styles and sizes in them these days than you can glass. I started with a white styrofoam wreath and just started hot-gluing ornaments on all over. I even made a few yarn balls to mix in (just wrap some yarn around a styrofoam ball until it's covered). Now I will say I wish I had painted or covered my wreath first with red. I can see tiny patches of white peeking through the balls on my wreath and it's driving this anal-retentive perfectionist nuts. ;) LOL

All that said, here is my wreath. I really do love it even if my post so far sounds cranky. LOL

On a side note, I cannot wait until we replace our front door. I want a black wooden one with windows so bad. The one we have now they painted an ugly shade of brown when we bought our house and it's metal and has dings all over. Drives me crazy! My wreath would look so much prettier, too. ;)

Anyways, thanks for looking!

Christmas Mantle

I put the finishing touches on our Christmas mantle last night. I bought some simple pre-lit garland at Walmart yesterday and added some pinecone and berry garland I already had. I made the red berry wreath from garland a few years ago. It normally hangs year-round in my entry but I moved it to the mantle for Christmas. I had the apothecary jars already and added faux snow I bought at Hobby Lobby and some vintage ball ornaments (some I bought at an antique store last year; the others are from my Freecycle finds last week). Then I hung our stockings with 3M hooks (love those things!) from the mantle top, hidden by the garland. Our stockings are special and all handmade by my mother-in-law... hubby's is his from his childhood and she made mine when hubby and I married and then made Kaleigh's when she was born.

I took this photo last night. It looks prettier in real life when it's only lit by the glow of the lamps in our living room. My flash really brightened it up.

Thanks for looking!