Wax Paper Frosted Glass Twinkle Lantern

I named and renamed this post and finally settled on "Wax Paper Frosted Glass Twinkle Lantern," because nothing else was quite descriptive enough or told how easy this project turned out to be. Also, looks awesome!

Oooh aaaah!

I've seen lots of lights on Pinterest using garden lanterns and Christmas lights and they look deceptively simple. My first try was no good, with a snarl of wires and lights stuffed inside my Pier 1 lantern. I didn't like it. Looked messy.

I figured the light string needed some structure, so I wrapped it around a textured plastic water bottle and tried that. Twinkly, yes, but you can totally see the wires and lights and bottle. Me no like this, either!

I thought that crinkled plastic would diffuse the lights but that just looked dumb. Kind of like crinkled plastic stuffed inside a lantern. Nope.

Checking out my stash I found some pretty frosted sea glass and half marbles and my trusty E-6000 jewelry glue, but that would have taken too long to dry and the glue is smelly and the weather is too nasty to do it outside. No go.

Here's what I came up with. Good old Mod Podge and crinkled wax paper.

I did the first lantern pane and held it up to the window light. Score! A soft frosted glass look using stuff I already had in my stash. Plus, a little effort and time. Lickety split the whole lantern was done!

I added florist foam to fill up the bottom of the lantern then added a couple of handfuls of  half marbles and sea glass for weight. The water bottle wrapped with Christmas lights went in next. Now for the big unveiling......

'

I LOVE how this came out! A nice  twinkly glow that makes my Autumn baker's rack look pretty in the soft light. I added one of my primitive star garlands and just smiled and smiled. 

A quick, easy and CHEAP project that came in almost exactly like I'd envisioned it. That's a win win in my book! And the best part is that I have THREE more lanterns. So I'll be buying some of those cheap $1 strings of Christmas light strings at Wal mart and making more of these twinkly lanterns. I can use these all year long and if I invest in some outdoor Mod Podge, they can light up my front deck. Totally love that.

I'll be linking up to the parties in my side bar. Come visit and check out all the cleverness and creativity. See you there!

Crackle Paint Those Christmas Balls For Halloween!

Since I discovered the easy peasy way to make a crackle paint effect with Elmer's glue, I've used it on just about everything. Christmas balls redone for Halloween are no exception. There are lots of pics in this post, but it's a fun project so read on...

I buy Christmas balls all year long when they are cheaper than cheap cheap. I'll be watching for more in different colors but my favorites for this project are silver and gold.

Ooh aaah!

Here is how you do it.

Pop the top off the ball and insert a pen or dowel or paint brush handle so that you can hold the ball without touching it. Trust me, this makes everything easier.Go into your stash and grab the Elmer's glue. This technique works with both the school glue and glue all by Elmer's.

Brush a thick coat of glue all over the ball. Not thick enough to run and drip but still, get a good coat of glue on there. Prop it up and let it dry for 5 to 10 minutes until the glue is tacky but not wet. Do NOT let the glue dry completely, but IF you do, just apply a new layer of glue over the top and let that layer get tacky.

Using a soft paintbrush, apply acrylic craft paint in long smooth strokes in one direction. I used gloss black. After I painted all one direction I did a few soft random crosswise strokes just to see what it would look like. Do not go back and forth with your brush, you will drag the glue layer. Prop that ball up and let it dry. 

Five minutes layer my paint was starting to crackle. I LOVE this part! See the crosswise crackle? That is from the soft sideways stroke I tried. I like the interesting pattern it made.

Let the ball dry completely. Once it is dry (and gloss craft paint takes a long time to dry, so be patient if you use it) you can use your wonderful crackled ball as is or seal it with acrylic spray.

And here is what this effect looks like on colored balls!

Here are a few orange over gold balls on my Halloween tree.

And a few more in a vintage wire basket.

So now my brain is churning out ideas for Christmas decor. Wouldn't white crackle over silver balls be a beautiful shabby chic look? Gotta try it! Or red paint over silver. Or white over red. Man, I am going to be doing this again and again in the coming weeks just to see what different combos look like.

So try it, you'll like it! It's easy and cheap and oh so fun to do. You'll never have so much fun watching paint dry than with this project, I guarantee it!

Here's a link to my uber popular post on crackle paint with Elmer's glue with LOADS of painted examples on different surfaces....

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/crackle-finish-with-elmers-glue.html

I'll be joining the parties on my sidebar. Come visit and check out all the neat ideas!

Autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving Decor Spree

Does this sound familiar to any of you ladies? I started out doing one thing...in this case, staging some photos of my holiday garlands for my Etsy shop.

I took the mini framed photos off my family tree and strung a banner on it for pictures. Love it!

And then.....

I put it on the top shelf of my baker's rack and took some more photos. Then I started adding more STUFF, because evidently I am out of control that way, lol!

See all the orange pumpkins? I planned to paint them white. I still might after I get done tweaking this display. I added a rosette wreath and my silver button blingy decor ball and a tiny glitter pumpkin with a black crow on top under the glass bell cover....deep breath...and a lace pumpkin and a white pumpkin and some of my Halloween decor balls. 

I am having too much fun!

Throw on a few glittery faux silk leaves and more pumpkins on painted candlesticks. And a twig punkin in a black painted sundae glass, and a faceted crystal ball on a glass candlestick, and a white rosette decor ball...

Then I added a casual arrangement in a small gold chest, next to punkins on gloss black candlesticks, including one I made of bright orange satin. Gorgeous! Ahem.

I filled this fat hurricane glass with a collection of my Halloween decor balls, Dollar Store skulls, my painted JOL gourd, twig balls, gloss black painted ferns and even a black crackled decor ball. Whew! Time to pull back and see if I'm done.

Yup, I think I'm done! This was fun and it gave me a much needed break from dealing with the last of the boxes of stuff out of our storage unit that are still cluttering up my kitchen. Even after a 4 day yard sale and a full load of stuff to the thrift store, I've still got too much stuff.

But this makes me smile every time I walk by. And the Welding Man says it's pretty, which means he noticed, lol!

Okay, fun time is over. Back into the "too much stuff" breach, my friends and try to take a fun break for yourself today. It's worth it!

Crocheted Rocks.

Yup. I've been seeing crochet covered stones on Pinterest and just had to try it out. So this year on vacation I made three of them as a gift for our hosts.

I LOVE them!

I almost kept them for myself cuz they make me smile and smile. So, like any red blooded American creative sort, I went a little nuts taking photos. Enjoy!!

Note to self-plant more baby tears and irish moss in my garden.

Aren't the teeny tiny blue flowers just adorable? Okay, I'm being too sweet and gushy. But still, tiny blue flowers!!!!

The contrast here just grabs me. Love it!

And....underwater down by the river.

And in a crack in the bedrock with driftwood and greenery. Sigh.

I think I like this photo the best....along with the mossy photos. Wait, I like the underwater pics, too! Okay, definitely making myself some more of these!

Life! Aargh! But I'll take it.

Life has a way of taking you by the scruff of the neck and just shaking the heck out of you. While this year has been NOTHING like my year of surgery, chemo and radiation, it has still been a humdinger.

 Like a cute miniature dachshund with her favorite knotted rope, sometimes you are the adorable doxie and other times you are the bedraggled rope. I have NO pics of our family favorite thrashing her toy, so here she is contemplating a leap from her "mama's" arms.

Ahem.

Thanks to my faithful followers who keep checking back for new posts. I'll get back on track, I promise. I'm shoveling out from under!

Cancer checkups, done.

Eulogy for family funeral, check.

Yard and garden redo, continuing.

Our favorite family vacation house burned to the ground a few weeks after we visited and reserved it for next year? Unfortunately, yes.

Start a business cleaning foreclosed homes. Yup..

Increase inventory in my Etsy shop, ongoing.

Son in law and oldest daughter have cancer scares? So DONE. But they're okay!

Octogenarian parents moving closer to the family? We had several family work days to fix up their new place. Their move is in progress, as soon as they sell their house and private airstrip. Anyone interested?

Middle daughter starts successful photography business? Yeah, baby!

http://mothermack.wix.com/mothermacphotography#!home/mainPage

Redoing furniture for photo props? Tomorrow, in fact.

Emptying storage unit and bringing it all into our house? Holy cow, that's alot of stuff and it's all stacked here.

Kids went to Europe and back? Yes and yes!

These last few months have been busy and except for a few instances, a very very positive time. So busy that my blog has suffered.

But I have lots of projects in the works and posts stacking up to tell you about them...including some neat projects and DIYs. And the HOLIDAY season is coming, my favorite time of the year!

Don't worry, I'm still kicking and will soon be back up to snuff. Blog snuff, that is. :o)