Repainted Dollar Store Butterflies

I just couldn't leave well enough alone...so I repainted these metal butterflies for my garden!

Before.......................................and after.

I found these metal butterfly stakes at the local Dollar Store and immediately made plans to repaint them for my garden.

I used two colors of spray paint to give me more of a turquoise color to complement our front deck.

Using a fine paint brush I followed the contours of the stamped metal. I added the tiny vein details to each wing then added some white dots. You can see the veins in this close up but not so much when it's outside in the yard. I also added a bit of glitter paint.

Wow! I love the pop of color against the bright green. Notice you can't really see the glitter when it's outside. But in my colorful colorful garden this blue butterfly really holds it own!

And here is the Monarch version of my Dollar Store butterflies. What a fun project this has turned out to be!

Vine Ball Rescue with Wire!

Back in 2014 I made this vine ball for cheap, because I didn't want to buy

 one this size for $24!

It looked perfect in this aged, chipped urn planter for several years.

I made a base framework with wooden embroidery hoops and a thrift store grapevine garland. I soaked it in hot water and gently took it apart to make this ball.

I LOVED how it looked!

But now, 6 years later the vines are breaking down and the ball is looking really sad.

 Even spray painting it blue last year didn't save it.

So this year I decided to revamp it with WIRE, not vines,

 and I couldn't be happier with the results!

Hardware stores and building supplies have this roll of wire and 

even at our small town hardware it was only $4. 

It is called "tie wire" and is used to hold rebar together for cement projects.

 It is super easy to work with and did I mention CHEAP?

Here is that sad vine ball with about 20 wraps of tie wire. 

I cut the wire into four foot lengths to make it manageable.

 It took less than an hour to return the sad orb to an awesome ball once again.

I decided to spray paint the ball with the colors I had on hand...both sort of turquoise blue.

Then I made two more balls and painted them, too!

Then I stacked them into this awesome tower trellis The Welding Man made.

Ooooh! I like this alot!

And then I took a few lengths of wire and made this 

little tennis  ball size orb and painted it blue....

It's just perfect with those hot pink cosmos!

This was a pleasant afternoon's work, sitting in the sunshine. 

I'm getting more tire wire and see what else I can come up with!!

Make Plastic Look Rusty This Easy Way

I like to use rusty accents for my primitive Santa dolls. The rusty look is perfect with the vintage quilts I use for their outfits. But it seems that anything rusty in the crafting world costs extra, so I came up with this easy, cheap and totally neat way to fake that old, rusty patina.

Here are some pastel plastic star buttons from The Dollar Store. Score! I knew I could work some rusty magic on these.

For this project I used spray paint in gloss brown and Dollar Store cinnamon. That's it!

We did this outside since the spray paint is stinky. I sprayed the buttons til the pastel colors were completely covered. While the paint was still tacky, my grandson and I sprinkled them  with cinnamon. Easy peasy! How wonderful authentic and rusty they look now! After the first few buttons we learned just how much cinnamon to dust on each one for this fabulous look. 

Next, I grabbed the favor star necklaces I'd found in the party section at Walmart. Four for ninety seven cents is a real deal! We hung them up and spray painted them brown, making sure we got all the  surfaces covered. Instead of sprinkling the cinnamon on each necklace, I put about two tablespoons of cinnamon in a plastic sandwich bag and dropped the sticky necklaces inside and shook them around thoroughly.

Then I took a bit of pumpkin orange craft paint and ran my paint brush down each string of stars, so the color hit the high spots. Ooh aah!

I also tried this with brown craft paint first and then the cinnamon, but it was too persnickety and slow for me. I love the convenience of the spray paint and it is much stickier for the cinnamon step. I call this a win win.

I spent $2 on the buttons and the cinnamon from the Dollar Store.

I already had the glossy brown spray paint in my stash.

And I am totally pleased with the way this come out! Now I'm considering a Christmas tree totally decked out in rusty, vintage style ornaments. How cool would a beaded garland look all rusted up like this? Gotta try it!

I'll be joining some link parties on my sidebar soon. Come visit and see where creativity reigns!

Wind Chime Rescue

When we moved from our mountain side to our new home a year ago, the Mountain Man saved a few of our many wind chimes and brought them with us. I thought I would buy new wind chimes for our new yard but the prices shocked me! 

So, you know how I roll; I told him I was ready to take a look at repairing the old ones and he gave me this "wind chime stew" in an old canning kettle. (A wonderfully dented, chippy, rusty and blue enamel canning kettle which would look great holding a big bushy lavender plant and maybe some cascading petunias and alyssum....ahem, I digress. )

Whoa. What is in there? I see parts of four wind chimes! I sort of wondered if I'd really be able to salvage four complete sets out of this smorgasbord.

Here is my wind chime rescue kit...four and six pound clear fishing line, plastic beads, a yarn needle, split rings from 1/4" to 1", plastic rings, scissors, jewelry pliers, wire cutters and needle nose pliers. 

Just a note-Light fly fishing line is also excellent for wind chime repair and it is not expensive. It is very similar to the cord used in commercial wind chimes.One roll will give you enough to make/repair LOTS of wind chimes.

For these repairs, though,  I used clear fishing line and a 2" long yarn needle with a large eye. 

I set up on the front porch on a warm summer morning and got to work.

                                        

I had a gorgeous view of my 3 barrel fountain with ivy and flowers cascading around. It's just me and the hummingbirds and the butterflies out here. With a little Pandora on my Kindle and a big cup of coffee, it was a wonderful way to start the day.

So, DON'T do this first thing. Yeah, how pretty the shiny rings look against the porch boards! I couldn't believe I did this.  Moving on.....

I untangled a surprisingly intact wind chime that we'd made out of flattened and drilled kitchen ware and some light metal rods. I hung it inside this trellis tower and went to work. The top is a soup ladle that the Welding Man drilled to hold everything in a balanced design. He also drilled a hole in the middle to hang the "clapper," which is a spoon. I added more beading to each peace and triple tied the fishing line back and forth thru the mounting holes. One down!

Here is a light and airy metal wind chime that I am surprised is still around. I reattached all the pagoda pieces and the hanging chimes with fishing line. If you are repairing a wind chime, take a close look at how the chimes are attached. The lines for the chimes should not be rigid and should let the pieces swing freely. When in doubt, tap your hanging chime parts and listen for the best tone. You will soon hear the difference that long or short lines make to the sound of your chimes.

Since both of these wind chimes sounded good but  still looked beat up, I hit them each with a coat of silver metallic spray paint. 

 Ooh aah!

The silvery paint made all the metal look just shiny enough and the colored plastic beads are a perfect blue touch. The flatware by itself is not too "chimey" so the addition of the metal rods gave this a beautiful, tinkly tone. I like this so much I think I'll have to make another!

And here is the "pagoda" wind chime after a shot of that silvery metallic spray paint. Pretty and delicate and perfect for a gentle tone when the wind blows.

Here is the largest wind chime, the parts of which you can see scrambled up in that canning kettle. I put it back together with fishing line and the Welding Man made a new "sail" for the bottom out of a scrap of wood and an eye bolt. The metal and wood were grungy so I primed it with white spray paint followed by a good coat of that same silver metallic spray paint. Now this wind chime looks almost brand new!

Here's what's left after all the other chimes were put back together. The soup ladle is already drilled and we saved two pieces from an old wind chime. I gave the Welding Man three pieces of yard sale flatware to drill so I can get this chime repaired and hung up. Since I don't have any small metal rods left I am thinking of using some old keys and other metal hardware. I hope it comes out as neat as my mental image!

I'll post pics on my blog if it looks good. And if it doesn't it will just quietly go away, never to be mentioned again. :o)

I'll be joining the parties in my sidebar, come visit and link up. You never know what cool, creative and interesting ideas you will find!

Teal, Silver and White Wreath Redo

Here is the Christmas wreath for our front door. This is the third redo of this twig wreath and probably not the last.

I love the way it came out so close to the idea in my head. Don't you like it when a project works out like that?



Here's the wreath in it's first incarnation, painted gloss black and adorned with a glittery haunted house silhouette and lots of curly black streamers for Halloween. Dollar Store spider webs and spiders and a bevy of bats finished it up.

For its second life for November and Thanksgiving I reworked it with colorful fake autumn leaves and flowers, and mini pumpkins on skewers. I LOVED the contrast of the gloss black with the vibrant colors, especially on my blue door.

And here's the start of it's third look, several coats of gloss white spray paint, which I had on hand. It's been so cold here that it took several days to get this done. I knew I wanted to add blue ornaments but didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I kept my eyes open.....

..and found these vibrant blue balls in a bag of silver ornaments, plus a whole roll of teal blue foil twist ribbon at the local St. Vincent's store. Thirty cents for the ribbon and ninety nine cents for the bag of balls. Score!

I covered one silver ball with teal rosettes made from the foil twist, and wound strips of it around wire to make some nice curlicues for accents. I knew I'd never find anything like them in the stores and they are perfect for the look I wanted for this wreath.

Here it is, all done with lots of hot glue. I added a few silver snowflakes and a few blue berry twigs and hung it up outside. I LOVE the way it all came together! It looks great on our blue door.

Here's a few of the elements....blue and silver glass balls, silver snowflakes, a crackle painted blue ball and the rosette covered ball. I particularly like the blue curlicues, they came out great!

And another look...this just makes me smile. I always know when a project is finished when I end up with a big grin on my face!

I'll be posting about the rosette covered balls and the crackle painted balls soon. They are easy and clever ways to make something totally unique for your decor, and not just for Christmas.

I'm joining the parties on my sidebar, come on by and check them out. There are some great decor and gift ideas out there and yummy recipes too.

Recyled Halloween Wreath

Even as Halloween ended and the decorations came down, I knew I wanted a bit of color for the Thanksgiving season. I dove into my stash of autumn colored silks and took another look at the wreath I spray painted black for Halloween. I came up with this.....

I love how it looks on my blue door! The colors against the black really pop.

Here's how it looked for Halloween, properly dark and spooky and fun. Perfect for the season.

I took some real miniature pumpkins and put them on skewers, then hot glued them in place amongst the black roses. A few silk flowers and fall leaves later and voila, the finished wreath! I love the off center design with the "breathing room" on the rest of the unadorned wreath.

Not only do I love how it looks, it cost me nothing but a $1 for the 3 pumpkins and a few minutes' time. After Thanksgiving I'll switch it over to Christmas, still using the black wreath as a base. I've got some colorful ideas for THAT design and I'll post the finished wreath here.

And now I'm thinking....what could I do for Valentine's Day with that black wreath as a starting point? Easter? Mother's Day? Just what I love, a creative challenge. Check back to see this black wreath in all of it's disguises.

I'll be linking up to the parties on my sidebar. Come visit and be amazed at the creativity out there in blogland.

Fun Pincushions For My Craft Room

Here is the sad pincushion I've been using for years and years. I put it together in a hurry and it sure looks like it. But hey, it worked!


Now we've moved and I'm setting up a new studio and I decided that I need something fun and colorful and whimsical that would make me smile. Heck, why only have ONE pincushion? I decided to make several so there would be one at every work station.

I started with a collection of random wineglasses left over from my Parents' 60th Anniversary Dinner Dance. I spray painted them in the colors I've chosen for my creative space...turquoise, red, ivory and black. I cut out muslin circles and sewed various lace trims across them, stuffed them full with polyfill and hot glued them in place. Then I started embellishing. LOVE this rose trim, I've got loads of it.

One of my rosette necklaces draped over the top gave me the direction I wanted to go. So pretty! Great timing, too, as I have just sold this necklace in my Etsy shop.

I haven't hand sewn in a year so I wondered if I could still manage to make rosettes out of 1/4" ribbon. Turns out I can!

Here's how the turquoise pincushion came out; so pretty, frothy, romantic and colorful. LOVE IT!
And here's the red one. Along with the rosettes I added buttons and tulle poofs. Love the heart pins on top!

Gorgeous!

And the black one. I added silvery leaves recycled from a pair of heavy earrings. Perfect accent!



And the tall white one. This one is specifically for threaded needles so the thread can hang down the side and not get tangled with the pins. I added the bit of primitive star garland on a whim and really like it. The muslin rosettes are hot glued, not sewn, and they worked wonderfully.


Here they are all together. When I walk into my crafting space they draw my eye and make me smile. Isn't that how you are supposed to feel when you're feeling creative? Soon I'll have the whole room put together and I'll post a tour.

I'll be linking up to the parties in my sidebar. Come take a look, you will find some wonderful inspiration and projects.