Yardstick art

SCORE! I triumph once again at a garage sale.

I was having fun haggling with the gentleman running the garage sale when my little eyes spied a bundle of 2 dozen yard sticks leaning against the wall.  The guy told me that he was paying $150 a month to store his mother's estate goods and was finally putting it all up for sale.  Well, from that statement alone I knew he'd take anything offered for what he had on sale.  We'd already bickered for a number of other things and I was mostly getting things for 1/2 off his asking price.  I told him he could just throw the bundle in for free and he countered with a dollar.  How great was that?  So naturally I offered $.50 and he countered with $.75 saying he had to win just once.  I ponied up $.75 and went VERY HAPPILY on my way.

 My nephew Brad was more than willing to assist me in the studio stapling them unto a old white board my son had scribbled all over with permanent marker.  Time to repurpose.

Brad diligently planned the color scheme of the sticks.  We hung the star on a nail but figured we could replace it with other vintage holiday items throughout the year!

Score!  Total $.75  Would you have bought them?

Sacred Scroll Earrings

Robin Dudley Howes shared the directions for these sacred scroll earrings in a recent edition of Jewelry Affaire magazine.  I made a couple pairs and they were surprisingly easy.  Looks like real glass tubes, right?  The secret is that they are made with 1/8 or 1/4 plastic tubing from the hardware or pet store.  I put ink tinted dictionary text inside and simply wrapped with copper wire.  Light weight and really comfortable.

Surprise balls?

My sister bought me a surprise ball from Tops Malibu for my birthday and I fell in love with them.  Now I'm making them for every occasion - birthdays to baby showers.

 From Tops Malibu's website
Give as a birthday gift, a shared table favor, or take home gift! Unwind layers of multicolored crepe paper ribbon to discover - 10 birthday surprises and delights tucked into the festive surprise ball layers. Surprise ball prizes include vintage style toys, keepsakes, charms , gems, candy, bubbles, confetti poppers and fortunes.

They also have a terrific video tutorials on how to make one posted on YouTube.  Search for surprise ball and you'll find many other videos and great ideas of what to put in them!

I made this surprise ball below for an upcoming baby shower.  Cute huh?  Would you believe it actually has a grocery bag full (in excess of 22 items) of some fantastic baby items.  I started with a rattle and simply added items as I wrapped and wrapped crete paper round and round.  It's going to take the new mother a really long time to open this baby!

Halloween Potion Collection

Halloween is coming fast and it's my favorite time of the year here in Minnesota.  The leaves turn beautiful shades of fall and the air is crisp.  I love jeans and sweatshirt weather!

Last year I created an entire display of potions and wanted to share early enough in case you want to give it a try this year! 

I started with a trip to my mom's basement for miscellaneous bottles and jars (she's a pack rat).  

Goodwill and garage sales contributed a few bottles to the collection as well.

I dipped each container in soy wax that was slightly tinted yellow/orange.  I imagine paraffin would work as well but I didn't have any on hand and it may have been too opaque. 

Next, I spray painted any of the lids that looked too shiny and new.  Then I burned around the edges of my labels and glued them on.  Many of the labels I simply created on the computer using super cool fonts, but some came from a scan of web images.  Some people are generous enough to share some.  

I tossed in the little battery powered candle tea lights to make them glow from within.

They all looked awesome sitting together on a shelf all light up.  

My son delighted in turning all the tea lights on and off inside all of them.