Denim Hair Flowers for Spring.. And a Little History

Hello.

I hope that you feel beautiful today because you are!

  One of a kind with special talents and an inner-beauty that is

unique to you.

Your story is special. 

I'm just learning this myself and learning how

 to really love myself.

It's slowly changing my life!

Not comparing.

Not doubting.

But just moving forward in the hope, 

inspiration and beauty of it all!

I used to think it was a little late.

But it's never too late to learn who you are, 

listen to your heart and follow those whispers.

*******

I have a bouquet of hair flowers to show you today. 

I was inspired to make them from my pile of worn, denim jeans. 

I love the look of anything made with denim. 

Dress is up or dress it down~

All of those different shades... 

And I love how denim is timeless!

 It's one of those styles that

crosses over into every generation

and has for decades.

To read some history about denim you can go here.

I find it fascinating!

Some materials that I used..

denim

old shirts

glitter 

beads

lace

yo-yo flowers

rhinestone cabachons

acrylic paint

buttons

flower dies from sissix

hot glue

craft glue

As you can see, I just layered co-ordinating pieces.

I did some edgings with glitter and dabbed a bit

of matching acrylic paint on some of the petals.

 I don't have a photo of the finished back.

I'm sorry.. I am a quirky blogger and sometimes forget to be thorough in my photo process :/ 

I'll try to do better!

To keep in the hair, 

I attached the double pronged alligator clip. 

Click here to watch a tutorial on how to line your clip.

This isn't a necessary step, however, it gives your

finished bow or flower a clean, professional appearance.

 I made these to sell and so I had to make a way to display them.

I used a piece of wired, burlap ribbon that you can find in

most craft stores. I attached it to this plastic ring that I had.

I glued some white ribbon on the sides to decorate it a bit

and it was finished! It was perfect for attaching my flowers to.

 The photos also show some little felt

hair-flowers. They are SO easy to make! 

Don't they look like mums? I'm sorry I don't have a

photo how-to for these but they are so super easy 

that I can explain the process.

Decide what size you would like to make. These are 

about 2 1/2 inches wide. Cut a felt rectangle about

3 inches wide and 7-8 inches long. 

Fold this in half length-wise and then cut small strips about 3/4

inch through on the fold. This makes the petals. Take care 

not to cut all the way through.

Then just roll this slowly while gluing it as you go.

It makes a lovely mum!

These were all fun to make. Sometimes I just get inspired to make something from my pile of jeans. I've given some to my

grand daughters at times.

Do you have spring plans?

To take a trip or work on a project? 

Maybe it's time to garden or do your spring cleaning.

We're preparing for a trip. I'll share 

more about that later this week.

I hope that your Monday is wonderful. 

Thank you so much for stopping in! I always

appreciate your visits and your comments so much.

Blessings,

Tamara xo

I'm linking up at:

Share Your Cup

A Salvaged, Weathered Wood Sign Embellished With Rusty Goodness

Making signs is one of my favorite ways to be creative.

I believe that I've mentioned before that we "inherited"

  a lot of wood when we bought our place. Which is 

perfect because I can use it for my wood projects!

 This piece has so much character. 

I wish now that I would have gotten some

close-ups of some of the details. 

But I'm sure you get the idea. 

I just love the rough edges and 

you can kind of see the broken knothole

on the left. The grain of the wood is 

so visible from the years of weathering.

I just dry-brushed the lovely gray with some

Antique White acrylic craft paint.

After that dried, I lightly brushed on some

Lagoon acrylic to add a little color. 

I really like that with the 

rust, white and gray.

And I didn't notice at first, but it actually matched 

the patina coloring in one of the rusty pieces that

I chose from my junk stash.

And I just happened to grab a shot of that

because I thought it was so neat.

There are some criss-crossed rusty nails

in one corner. (I'm sorry I didn't get 

more detailed photos. I get so impatient sometimes

that I forget that.) The rest pretty

much speaks for itself.

~ GRATEFUL ~

It's been one of my favorite words for 

awhile now. I just keep having so many reasons for it.

My life is so blessed. 

And in December, my husband, of

almost thirty years, survived a terrible

accident in which he totaled his pick-up.

He sustained only a few minor injuries and

was treated and released that same morning.

And that is just ONE thing.

And so I have 

adopted GRATEFUL to be

my word for 2015.

Here is one of my gathered quotes..

 Gratitude unlocks the fulness of life.

It turns what we have into enough and more.

It turns denial to acceptance,

chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast,

a house into a home,

and a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past,

brings peace for today

and creates a vision (of hope)  parenthesis mine

for tomorrow. 

{ Melody B. }

I hope you've enjoyed your visit and 

found it to be inspirational.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Blessings, 

Tamara

Joining the inspiration at:

Sundays At Home

Inexpensive Christmas Decor...Silver Tray Re-Purposed With Christmas Joy

*~JOY~*

It's the season for it...

(actually, it's always a good time for spreading a little JOY!)

Several months ago, I found this pretty, little

tray at a thrift store.

It was painted white 

around the edges and the center was

was painted very sloppily with

chalkboard paint.

The cost was 50 cents.

I painted it with white, homemade chalk paint

and glittered the flat surface. 

The red ruffle that you see is made from some

red burlap that I also found at a thrift store.

I bunched it up as I attached it with hot glue.

And I used some of the threads from the burlap to make

the sweet little bow on the pinecone pick.

The cute burlap canvas was a clearance item at
Wal-mart for 1 dollar! I'm not sure
why they were on clearance but there were
several and I thought they
were a real find and so I bought 6!

The little pinecone arrangement is a pick from
 from my Michael's crafting drawer.
I dry-brushed the canvas with a little white,
acrylic paint, stenciled the
"JOY"
on and added a few sequence.
And lastly, I attached some
 red grosgrain ribbon for the hanger.

I didn't "go out" and buy any of this for this
little project. I just see items at thrift stores
and I often check the clearance aisles
where crafting and art supplies are sold.
It really is surprising what a person can find.

You don't need a lot of money but you
do need a little space for
keeping things on hand.

I have collected most of what I have by browsing
for bargains and unique or interesting items.

I hope that your Christmas season

has been Merry and Bright and that

your heart and home are 

full of the warmth and special

 JOY

that this season brings!

Many blessings and wishes for a

beautiful, blessed Christmas.

Tamara xo

‘Fear not: for, behold, 

I bring you good tidings 

of great joy.'

Luke 2:10

Thrifted Red Toolbox With a Christmas Message

This is one of my favorite projects

so far this year. 

I found this old, red, rusty toolbox at

a thrift store. $2. It's been sitting in

my stash room waiting for a purpose.

The brilliant, festive red made it a perfect fit

for some kind of Christmas fun.

The greenery is from an old garland

that I had. I attached that and the moss

with hot glue. 

Burlap... rusty metal... pinecones.

And a little, lettered message.

Remembering why we celebrate

the season.

Rejoice!

 My Angel is made from an old

hammer handle partially covered with

old sheet music. 

Her wings are folded

coffee filters with little ruffles made from

an old paper tape measure.

I found the brass corner in my

basket of metal treasures.

I loved the star for Christmas 

and I used E600

to keep it in it's place.
********************

 I hope that your Christmas season

has been full of joy and memorable times

so far... with many more to come.

May the wonder and love of 

the season fill your heart.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Be blessed!

Tamara

I'm joining lovely bloggers at:

My Salvaged Treasures
Vintage Inspiration Party

( You'll have to search for it. 
I tried and tried to get the URL link to work! ! I'm sorry.)

Peat Pot Baskets for Easter

Hi Everyone..

I hope you're having a good week.

The weather has been

 beautiful here in the AZ. mountains.

I'm sure many of you are preparing heart and homes for

Resurrection Day.

 

Honestly, I haven't done too much.

 Our son and his family were visiting from Oklahoma and then we all

drove to Phoenix for a little re-union. It was the first time the cousins had been

together. All 8 of them. What a sweet time we had! I'm so grateful.

And my heart is full.

 

 

***********************************

Today, I wanted to share with you a little project that I

put together for my grand kids. I would have liked to sold some but

I ran out of time.

 

They are little Easter baskets made from peat pots.

I had more of a nature theme in mind for them but they were the

perfect size for little gifts.

I bought the pots at Wal-mart for $1.50. There were

14 in the package. They measure about 3 inches across.

 

 The first thing I did was brush them off.

And then I dry brushed them with a linen color acrylic paint.

After that was dry, I cut pieces of natural and off-white burlap

measuring 2 1/4 in by 2  1/2 in. I then dry

brushed the burlap with the colors I had chosen.

When the paint was dry, I glued them onto the pot using

Tacky glue.

 

I wanted to embellish them around the rims and you can

see that I used Ric- Rac and some deco trim for the girls. 



 

The buttons and butterflies worked perfectly for

the girl's crosses. I also used buttons on the

littlest guy's.



I had this idea and tried something new with the boys trim.

I painted some jute string and then just made the little scallop

design with it.

How do you like it? I thought

it turned out really nice and I'd like to try it

with other colors for other projects!

 Hot glue worked perfectly for gluing

on all of the trim.



It was fun picking out the metal pieces to make

the crosses. My husband offered his collection

to choose from. Thanks, Honey!

He always teases me by saying,

"What a gal. She doesn't want fancy cars.

Just give her rusty junk!" 

It's true, but the last time he said that,

I told him that the car would come later. Just kidding.

What I'd really like to have is an old pick-up!

 

Anyway, I think the boys will really like that stuff.

I used E600 to glue the metal on.

Hot glue nor the Tacky seem to hold. 



For the boys handles, I used some rusty wire that I had on hand.

I'm pretty sure it's about 12 gauge. And for the girls, I used

a 16 gauge, silver jewelry wire.  The measured pieces were

from 8-10 inches. I tried to fit the length of the

 handle to the child.

I bent the ends with a pair of pliers and

then poked through the inside

of the pots on either side.

I wanted to put some special little touch that

identified each one as their own. 

Kids really like that. I thought that the

bottle caps with their initials would be fun.

I used a medium-sized nail to punch a hole through the bottle caps

and then put a 1/4 in jump ring on them.

I stamped each initial on a circle that I had cut out and glued

it inside the bottle cap. Then I just tied each one

to a handle with a strand of burlap string.

The filling is just made from a thrifted book that

I colored with the co-ordinating color of ink. I

colored the pages, cut them in thin strips and then

holding several strips at

a time, I accordion folded them.



 

I ran out of time but I thought that adding torn strips with a mix

of co-ordinating fabrics to the handle would have

added a soft touch to the girls' baskets.

Next time!

 

What a fun project.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

 And have a very happy Resurrection Day!

 

Blessings,

Tamara

 

I'm joining these parties this week!

 

Wow Us Wednesdays!

 

I Gotta Create!

 

Imparting Grace

 

Common Ground

 

Shabby Art Boutique 

 

 

Shabby, Burlap Covered Planter and My First Retail Sale! / { family sentiments}

This was a really fun project. There are lots of little things to look at.  I Just couldn't stop! The ideas for details kept coming so I kept adding them on. Sometimes I go too far. What do you think?

Is it too busy?

 

I started out with a white metal planter that had a gold embossed scrolling on it. I found it at a thrift store several years ago and had used it for storage but then decided I didn't need it anymore.

I thought it might make a nice little gift for someone or that maybe I could sell it.

I just covered it with burlap and then added the burlap ruffles which are really simple to make. But I found something out about burlap. Some weave is tighter than others. So, if you're purchasing for the purpose of ruffling, you will most like want to get the more tightly woven.

 After I decided the width f ruffle, I hand measured my strip about two and half times the length of the ruffle. And then I just found a string at the end of the ruffle that I could pull. And then I pulled to the desired bunchy look that I wanted. Hot glue works great to attach the ruffle to the planter.

 

 

 

 

There are really no rules to a project like this. It's just whatever you have on hand and the desired finished  look that you want to have.

 

 

I took this to my favorite Antique/Shabby Chic shop. The White Chair. She purchased it to sell in her shop. Thank you, Moli!  I was so excited! I have had my offerings on consignment for a few years but this was my first retail sale. I am so thankful and humbled to think that she would consider my work for her lovely shop. 
**********************************************************************************

I am travelling right now. We have bought a small place to spend time visiting family and friends in Ohio. This was my second time there and was able to get together with my brother, sisters and many nephews, nieces and greats, too. It was the first gathering in 11 years. The last was when my dad was still with us. It was worth the whole trip. I can't tell you what it meant to me to have us all together again.  I am so thankful for the time.

Family. Family is priceless even though we come together with our hurts and offences, we still make it work. And I know that if my dad could see us, he was smiling as he looked down. Happy that we were all together again. Family. My heart yearns for more. Close times. It's so far away though and it will have to wait until next spring at the earliest. All those months. I will wait with great expectations and anticipation. Remembering the smiles. The laughter. And even those sitting quietly by themselves waiting for others to come and draw them in. My thoughts will return often to them. Like a tune that plays itself over and over again in my mind. Family.

And am now in Oklahoma visiting my newest grand baby.  Although Ohio is still my home, I miss my other home. I've been away for a month and I'm ready to get back. It has been beautiful and special. And I travel the miles and miles back to my other home I look very forward to seeing those who wait for me there. Family.

Well, I hope you were somewhat inspired by my little project and may you be blessed with special family time that pulls at your heart and forever plants sweet thoughts in the garden of your mind.

Blessings to you all.

Tamara