Ornament Exchange

This morning I have a mom's brunch and ornament exchange to attend. I'm looking forward to some adult conversation, some yummy food... and some ornaments!

I wasn't sure what to make for my ornament. Of course, I wasn't going to go and buy one since I have so many things on hand to make one. I decided to go with a miniature version of my tshirt tree. These little tree ornaments have a jingle bell inside them, they are just a cone shape. I've glued colorful buttons for ornaments (yes, normally I don't feel that fabric and glue should be used together, but I made an exception here).

I'm really not sure what to expect for this exchange since it isn't with my normal crowd of crafty people. I wonder how many will be handmade and how many store bought.

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I'm in Heaven

Thanks to my friend Cindy, I am now the proud owner of 4 boxes of buttons (shoe box size - boot box size). Cindy forwarded the Craig's List ad to me... there were originally 7 boxes, but someone beat me to three of them. I was a little disappointed (yes, I know I have a problem).

But when my husband brought the boxes to me - I felt much better. The boxes are better than I could have ever imagined! The pictures aren't showing the same box over and over... each one of those boxes is unique. LOVE!

Not only that - it looks to me like most of them, if not all of them, are vintage. I'm not one to discriminate - I love all buttons equally... but there is a certain beauty about many of the vintage buttons.

So what am I going to do with all these buttons? We'', I've already decided that these buttons will not be for the kids to play with like they do with my other three tubs. I hope to sort these and wash them and love them :) Some of them might become tacks, some of them will be used for hair clips, some will be little hoot eyes... and eventually some of them will end up in the supply shop I plan on opening on Etsy (I have definitely hoarded too much) and at the Black Door Studios.

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Miniature Flower Vase Tutorial

Spring is here! And even though the weather may not be cooperating - we are celebrating with flowers! flowers! flowers! Today I have my daughter without my son and so I though it was a perfect time to do a project just for her.

We picked up some little vase shaped beads at Creation Station and I had the idea of making flower vases for her dollhouse. She loves anything for her dollhouse so she was very excited! This was a great project for her as she was able to work along side me and she felt like she was fully involved. Also, aside from the beads... I used things that I had around the house (in fact, the flowers were going to be going to a swap tomorrow).

Materials:

• Beads (for the vases - you could used the large macrame ones if you don't have the type we used)
• Tiny flowers
• Small Buttons
• Wire
• Scissors
• Air Dry Clay
• Super Glue

Step 1: Stuff the bead hole with clay (this was the perfect project for my daughter).

Step 2: Trim flower steps short enough to fit in vase. Push the stem of the flower into the clay (I had my daughter push the flowers in)

** For button flowers, I stacked two buttons and threaded the wire through two holes. Then I twisted them and trimmed the wire to make the stem.

Step 3: Allow the clay to dry at least 24 hours. For extra sturdiness, you could dip each stem into super glue before pushing them into the clay. I put a drop of super glue at the base of each stem as I had found that my daughter swirled them in the clay a few times before they dried which made them a little less secure.

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I-Spy - Welcome Spring with a little Green!

Okay, here's the second I-Spy. We are ready for green and flowers! This I-Spy is primarily green with a little bit of white. Robbie is having a great time doing these. Of course, the kids have lost their button privileges for a few days as they scattered them around the room. Oops!

Can you find these things? How many white flowers do you see? How about aliens - do you see any aliens?


As we continue to do these pictures - they would be fun to print up and make flash cards for the kids. A little something to keep them busy while traveling in the car.

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I-Spy - White

My kids are obsessed with I-Spy books. My son is always wanting to make his own. He will draw I-Spy pictures, he will set up I-spy scenes with his toys, we play I-spy when we are out and about. It's all about I-spy.

So, I thought it would be fun to take the much talked about bin of buttons and have him make an I-spy picture. He immediately decided that he would turn it into a book... but I'm thinking that we can just post a picture or two each week and maybe other kids can enjoy his love of I-Spy and their many buttons.

Today's theme is white (perhaps the snow won't come back if we focus on it a bit).

Here are a few things that can be found in the above picture. Hopefully clicking on the picture will enlarge it (provided Blogger is cooperating today).

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