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Sunday, October 31, 2010

And the Winners are …

And the winner of Dawn Inskip’s super cute Halloween kit is:

random1[1]

 

 

REBECCA!

 

 

 

 

And the winner of a Gift Certificate to my store is:

random2[1]

 

 

UYEN!

 

 

 

ApplauseCONGRATS ladies!!Applause

Please contact me so I can get your prizes out to you!

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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Birds On A Wire

PA305594[1]

What you’ll need:

- black jumbo paper clips

- 1 sheet of black card stock

- Mod Podge Gloss Finishor  Mod Podge ® Dimensional Magic.

- toothpick or bamboo skewer

- hot glue gun (optional) or glue

- black string
- 2 pins/thumb tags

- black spray paint

- floral foam

 

1. Find some images of bird silhouettes, size them so they are in good proportion with your paper clips. Then print or transfer it to your black card stock and cut with a craft knife or nail scissors (I use nail scissors a lot in crafting as you may find out lol)

Make sure you have at least two of every kind of bird shape, as we’ll be sandwiching the paper clip between two images.

I imported mine into my trusty Silhouette Craft Cutter and had it do all the cutting work for me! One of the huge advantages of this craft cutter – being able to import your own images!

Anyway, I digress!

PA285526[1]Now, if you are doing the cutting by hand, don’t worry about the small details that mine have. Make the shapes as simple as possible and just get the basic outline of the bird. You will be grateful not only while you are cutting but also during the following steps!

2. Now, for this step you can go one of two ways. Ideally, you would use the  Mod Podge ® Dimensional Magic.to do this. However, if you have Mod Podge Gloss Finish on hand it does work too. It won’t dry as hard, or as fast than the   Mod Podge ® Dimensional Magic and cleaning up the edges is a little more labor intensive, but it does work.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I am using the Mod Podge Gloss Finish, as I had run out of the dimensional magic!

If you are using the Dimensional Magic, just use the applicator and work your way from the outside of the bird shape in. Get a nice even coat. For the smaller and trickier areas, use a tooth pick to pull some of the coating onto the small details.

If you plan on using the paper clip with the bird facing in either direction, mod podge both images. If you are happy with the bird only going one way, you can only do one of the shapes for each bird, as the back doesn’t really need the dimension!

If you are using the Gloss finish Mod Podge, use a toothpick and/or bamboo skewer to pile on a thick even-ish coat – also working from the outside of the shape inwards and using a toothpick to pull some of the mod podge into the more detailed areas.

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If it appears a little “lumpy” don’t worry about it too much, it will even out some while it dries.

Leave it to dry. The Gloss finish Mod podge took 24 hrs to dry, the Dimensional magic dried over night.

Here they are after about 12 hrs:

PA285538[1]And here after 24 hrs:

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3. Once they have dried, turn each mod podged shape around and affix the paper clip somewhere around the middle of it.

I used a hot glue gun as it was handy, but unless you are really experienced with hot glue you may want to opt for regular glue. These shapes are small and fiddly and hot glue can get a little painful (ask me how I know lol) Some glue guns also don’t allow nearly as much precision as some of the shapes may need.

Let the paper clip dry, then put glue on the rest of the shape and apply the back shape, sandwiching the paperclip between the two.

4. Once everything dried, trim off any excess glue with a craft knife or nail scissors.

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5. Gently sand any rough edges with some very fine grit sand paper. This will work much better with the Dimensional Magic, as it dries much harder. The gloss finish will take a little more work.

Don’t worry about small imperfections too much though. They really add to the feel of  “feathers”.

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6. You may at this point decide that you are finished. Especially if you used the Dimensional Magic,  you will have a pretty bird with a glass like black depth to it. If you like the look of it – you are done.

If you want to carry on, the next step is to spray paint the lot black.

It doesn’t matter what spray paint you use really, as long as it’s black. I had some Rustoleum Flat enamel spray paint left, so that is what I used. I was going for the more wrought iron look Smile

Stick your paper clips into a piece of floral foam and spray the birds in even, sweeping strokes in a well ventilated area. If you mod podged both back and front, make sure you also spray paint both.

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Here’s one in mid-spray!

PA295575[1] Then let the birds dry.

7. Cut a length of black string, make a knot on both ends.

Then make 2 little bows on either end and use the pins to pin it to your desired location.

Add photos to your bird clips and then slide the bird clips with the photos onto your string. And you’re done!

Here’s a close up :

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And the finished product again:

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I hope you’ll have fun making some of these birds on a wire!

 

I will be linking this project to the parties listed on this page.

Please visit for a LOT of awesome tutorials and crafting ideas!

 UndertheTableandDreaming

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Friday, October 29, 2010

The evolution of our backyard

This was the listing photo of the backyard when we decided to take a look. Not great, but not horrendous either.

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The reality was a little worse though. It was a dirt and concrete patch! The grass was burnt away from 3 months of no watering. The Phoenix summer heat will do that.

But still, we faced several other problems with this backyard. For some reason I only have photos showing the one side of the yard, not the other, so that’s what we’ll focus on, even though there was more that we had to tear out.

PA202149[1] {These are the kiddos on the morning of their 3rd birthday with the new slide! It was 6 am lol}

Anyway, here were our main problems:

1.) A tree that was taking over. And not only that, the tree had pretty long sharp thorns. And we had two just 3-year-olds … it just doesn’t mix!

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2.) A huge, pretty useless concrete patch taking up a good third of the yard.

3.) Burnt grass.

4.) Support beams that had started to bow and crack.

5.) Something that might have been a “raised” bed at some point that was in the end however just an accumulation of large rocks that got completely overgrown with crabgrass. It was however impossible to mow because of the rocks and the wall’s situation.

6.) What’s not visible is the other side of the wall that had a rickety structure built that was housing the even more rickety old sandbox my FIL had constructed out of an old industrial sink. There was also a surround that was maybe also the attempt of a raised bed, but it was made from bricks that weren’t secured.

 

This house was “blessed” with many a terrible DIY project by the previous owners, but that might be a whole different post by itself!

Anyway, long story short.

First this happened:

P1243641[1]

Yep, the tree got hit by lightening one stormy night and it split it right down the middle.

You can even see the charring where it must have smoldered a bit! Thanks goodness for the monsoon rainfall that was happening at the same time!

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So, the tree issue pretty much resolved itself with that and we had to have it taken out. The tree would not have survived that much of an injury and it was too dangerous to have around the children with that much risk of falling apart.

So, my husband got his chance of a citrus tree, which he had wanted for quite a while!

Then nothing much happened for quite some time, as we were gearing up for construction to the front of the house.

Then, while the construction was going on and we had people with power tools and huge dumpsters etc, we had them take the concrete patch and the rickety wall construction … and eventually the terribly heavy and not at all safe sand “tub”.

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We also had the beams removed, replaced the concrete footing of the support beams and replaced them with new ones. While we were at it we also raised the patio roof by about 1.5 inches, so my husband and I no longer have to duck to walk under it!

When construction was finished and we had our entrance and side yard concrete path poured, we also had them pour the foundation for our “proper” raised bed.

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My vision was to have a raised bed running along about 2/3 of that rather depressing wall and have it planted with lots of climbing plants, in the hopes, that soon the wall would dissappear behind a lushious "carpet” of greenery and blooms!

After a lot of work, mostly on my husband’s part … we do have the beginnings of just that!

PA175197[1]

This time next  year, I am sure we will see MUCH less of that wall!

PA285548[1]PA285549[1]{We’ve since mulched over the soil and watering system Smile

And even now, about 3 weeks after planting, look at all the gorgeousness that blooms in our yard already!

PA285544[1]PA285547[1] PA285555[1] PA285556[1]

We even have our first homegrown lime! Seems the tree did well with the transition from the pot we had it in for a year to it’s final spot in the corner of the yard!

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And we got the kiddos a new sand box too! And where the rickety construction was (to the right of the sandbox,) we now have beautiful pieces of slate and gravel fill which echoes the landscaping of the front yard!

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And look … our grass is slowly coming in too. And what was once a concrete patch is now a luscious patch of grass too! We opted against sod and just tried to revive the burnt grass and seeded in between. We also just seeded the patch that was concrete and in a little while we’ll be seeding more summer grass on that patch and more winter grass on the rest of the yard and we should have a year round lawn!

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I still have to do a fair bit more to the patio itself.

I started by sewing some seat covers and cushions from Sunbrella fabric, that I got on sale at Jo-Anns!

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I have many plans for making this patio an extension of our inside living space, even with all it’s limitations. However, right now I’m still waiting for the heat to finally go away, and for the “let’s go outside and stay outside” season to start around here!

Next year, I also want to plant some herbs in the fronts of the raised bed, and some hanging tomatoes on the other side of the wall!

But for now I’m loving our transformed backyard! It might be tiny and it might be a city yard, but give us a year or two and it will be unrecognizable – in a good way!

 

I will be linking this post to a variety of places on this page as well as:

http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/2010/10/sns-54-brings-you-signs.html

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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Halloween Favor Bags and a Giveaway!

Last night I was busy making 20 favor bags for Max’s pre-school Halloween Party.

Since I still had plenty of lunch bags left over from my last “Inexpensive Favor Bags” project, I thought I’d use them up!

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But before I show you how I made them, let me talk a little about Dawn Inskip, one of the newest addition to the Scrapbookgraphics Group of designers. If you are not familiar with her designs yet, let me introduce you!

She just has the cuuuutest things in her store!

But my favorite has to be the Softly Spooky kit that I used to make the Halloween bag toppers!

dinsk_sspooky_ep_prev-1[1]Adorable, right?

It was just perfect for the “I don’t want it to be too scary” kind of Halloween my kids are into!

And it was so easy too. The entire digital kit is just full of cute little characters that work for so much more than just digital scrapbooking pages!

So,  back to favor bags. But stay tuned as there will be a little contest at the end of this post Smile

First I put together this bag topper in my photo editing software. You can design yours any way you want, but in this instance I basically just pulled a few of the darling characters onto my canvas, typed my message with the Billy Bear’s Crayon Font.

My lunch bags were 5” wide, so I made my toppers that wide.

topper[1]

Then I printed them two to a sheet of printer paper, cut them out with the trusty guillotine and folded them ready to go on the bags once they are filled.

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I also cut the tops off the lunch bags, to make them a little shorter, but that’s entirely optional!

Then I drew the faces on the lunch bags with a sharpie pen.

If you’re not too confident about free handing it, you can cut a little template and outline all your faces that way.

PA275478[1] PA275480[1]

That’s how I would usually do it, as my free-hand drawing skills leave a LOT to be desired, but I was able to do the Jack-o-lanterns!

It’s a bit faster if you can just draw it on without template!

PA275482[1] 

Then you fill them with lots of goodies, fold the tops down and staple the topper in place. I put a staple to the left and right side of the bag, as it wasn’t getting in the way of the writing.

And here’s the finished bag again – from the front:

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And from the back:

PA275497[1]

Pretty easy to do, inexpensive and so cute! Can’t beat that!

Now, onto the giveaway!

ONE lucky winner will get Dawn’s Softly Spooky digital scrapbook page kit!

dinsk_sspooky_ep_prev-1[3]

dinsk_sspooky_pp_prev-1[1]{Please note that this is a digital download!}

 

And, a SECOND lucky winner will get a $6 to my store!

birgit[1]

Here's how to enter:

1st:  Become a follower of my blog and leave a comment that you did so.

2nd:  Become a follower of Dawn’s blog and leave a separate comment here.

3rd:  For an extra entry...head on over to my store and let me know what you would get if you win the $6 gift certificate!

Make sure to leave a SEPARATE comment for EACH entry, for the BEST chance to win!

 

The contest ends Saturday, October 30th at noon EST.

 

Good luck ladies!

Linking to:

fallfest[2] 

and many of these!

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