Trade and Create Swap

Good evening!!! This past month, I had the pleasure of participating in a Trade and Create Swap group. 
I received some awesome crafting supplies from my swap partner Brandi (@the_happy_door) and was required to create one thing with all or some of the supplies. I loved the color combo SOOO much, I created a few things!!! LOL

Starting with this photo frame:

I painted it with the pink Acrylic paint. I was going to try and distress it, but I clearly need more practice! I added ric-rac and some fabric flowers. I used the patterned cardstock as a frame for one of my photos. 

I also covered some chunky clothes pins with the patterned cardstock and made a cute planner clip with one of the rosettes. 

In my Journaling Bible, I used some of the patterned paper at the top as Washi Tape and covered the dress on my Beloved Society girl to match. I used the pink Acrylic paint as the background. I finished it off with a cute rosette paperclip. 

This is in Isaiah 55:9

And here are the supplies she sent. I was stumped on how to use the cute patterned banner, but I'm sure I will find use for that very soon!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Be blessed!!

I'm a Blessed Mama Bear

Happy Friday!!! 

I'm so happy it's Friday, I am off and have lots to do today! But first I wanted to share with you how I have been keeping so busy!!!

A couple of months ago, I moved my booth into a local shop. I"m calling it Blessed Mama Bear. 

We live in a small town, not many places to shop, so this boutique is a wonderful place!!! She calls it OLIVE. 

I've always loved crafting and have a room full of crafting stuff!! I thought, "what better way to enjoy crafting and clear out my crafting room?!" (I'm not sure that will ever happen, but hey, I'm trying!) LOL!!

I found this desk at a near by thrift store for $40! I painted it and distressed it. The back wall belongs to the shop, she painted wood pallets with a dark brown paint. My daughter helped me add little white LED lights behind the pallet wall. My Mom contributed the ladder. I think it used to go to bunk beds, but it's painted cream and looks so cute! 

All of my display pieces have come from a thrift store or Goodwill. 

I've got a little bit of this and that. I guess that's what makes it fun when it comes to crafting. 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a blessed weekend!!

DIY: DOLLAR STORE CHRISTMAS GLOBE

Good Evening to you! Seems Christmas Globes are all the rage right now! I have seem them everywhere and have just been itching to make my own! I can't wait to shop for small cars and trucks to get crafty!!
But sadly, I haven't had much time to shop for treasures, but I DO have a few pieces laying around the house.

The only thing I bought today, was the $1 nativity set and $1 brush tip trees.

I had everything else on hand:

Like I said, I collected all this from around the house. The jar with handle was a purchase from Ross ($2.49), Fake snow was in an old ornament I had, Mini LED soft white strong lights were from Dollar General ($3? or $5?), Elmer's Craft dots from my stash, Nativity figure and Brush Tip trees were $1 each from Dollar General. 

And here's my $10 project!!

Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

I cannot wait to hunt for more treasures and create more Christmas Globes!

DIY: Fabric Pumpkins

Just in time for FALL weather! Well, atleast for some of you! I'm in south Texas so Fall won't really arrive til' maybe October!! But just looking at all the Fall decor puts me in the mood to craft and get ready for all the pretty fall colors!

The other day I was gifted an Orange Pancho Wrap, it was too big for me but was really nice. I looked at it a bit and thought...it would make some cute pumpkins!!! 

So, I got on Pinterest and started looking for a pattern, because I wasn't sure if my idea of putting a plate down on the fabric and tracing around it would work. 

I did find this one and it looked so fast and easy:
Fabric Pumpkins.

Here they are:

The only things I purchased was the Fiber Fill (stuffing) $3.74 and Green Burlap leaves $1.34 for 6, both from WalMart. 

The pancho was free, and I had the brown yarn, wine corks and twine. 

Then, since I was having such fun making these, I made some small ones:

Thanks for stopping by!!

Wishing you a wonderful Saturday!

Spring has arrived and my Pinterest Fail!

Oh MY gosh!!! Where has the time gone!? It has been forever since I have updated this blog. Life just seems to get in the way of my "ME" time. I honestly haven't had much time for crafting, this includes my bible journaling. I miss all of this so much and promise to be back in the swing of things soon.  I am SOOO excited to be getting my own craft room!!! I still need to decorate it and do some organizing, but when it's done, I will surely share it with you! 

I love Spring! It's like a rebirth for earth. What once was gray and brown, is now green and filled with bright colors from all the flowers! The birds are chirping, bees are buzzing and flowers are blooming!

I hope you had a wonderful Easter, these crafts aren't anything spectacular, but I wanted to make my kiddos a little Easter treat. So here it is:

 My 3 are all in their 20's, I also included my son's fiance. Boxes are from WalMart, they are filled w/ candy and for the girls I added some of the Target $1 sticky notes. Jars are recycled, and these little bunnies barely fit. I added some Foiled wrapped chocolate eggs,  but they would only fit in the back. 

This was a Pinterest Fail! LOL 

I also wanted to share some cute critters from around our place, just for fun!

Meet Otis, my neighbor's miniature donkey:

This is Mocha! My 2 yr. old Chocolate Lab.

And her brother Cocoa!

                              These cute little kittens don't have names, as we are hoping to find them a good home soon!

Have a wonderful Monday!!

Blessings, 

audrey

DIY Banner Tutorial

Good Sunday evening to all of you!!! I didn't get much crafting done this weekend. It was a little busy this past week. 
But I do have lots of projects in mind for the near future. 

This evening I'm sharing a Banner Tutorial with you, requested by a young cousin of mine. Sofia is attending college and wants to decorate her dorm with a cute banner. I am flattered that she asked ME to show her how to make her own banner! 
So here you go Sofia, this one is for YOU!!! 

This is the Faith Banner I made and have hanging in my office. I made this a few months ago, so looking around in my mess for the exact supplies I used was nearly impossible. But I can show you some items I used or have used to make some quick, easy, and inexpensive banners.

For the banner above I used the plain Kraft banner pieces by AM (American Crafts), I found these at Joann Fabrics, but you can also find them at WalMart (red chevron one is from Walmart) and Target $1 spot has a cute variety too! These are great because they are reversible! So if I don't use the Red Chevron print, I can flip it over and use the plain Kraft side. I found the triangular shaped banner with white heart doilies and red twine for $1!! 

Targets $ spot is the way to go!!

Then I looked around my old scrapbooking stash and found some letters. You can use stickers, Poster Letter Pads (WalMart) or again....Target's $ spot has some cute fabric letter stickers for $3!!!

To decorate your banner you can use anything...for this banner I used white and black vintage seam binding. I found this whole roll at the thrift store for .50 cents! For the banner above I used these stickers, some I cut apart to stick on each banner flag. 

But you can use anything to decorate your banner, stickers, buttons, lace, ribbon, beads, rhinestones, etc!!!

The circles were cut with a Cricut machine and stencil, But you can cut circles by hand if you wish. You can also find some large stickers at WalMart if you don't want to cut scrapbooking paper. Think of using some Circle Chalk Stickers found at (WalMart).

I used glue dots and glue tape to adhere my pieces. You can also use a glue stick or double sided tape. 

I've had this cricut since my cardmaking/scrapbooking days. Bought it with a 40% off coupon at Michael's Craft Store. 

And pictured below are some goodies I found at Goodwill this past weekend! I am thinking of upcycling them into some cute projects!!!

Check back for the transformation!!!

Have a blessed week! And Happy Crafting!!!

Be Creative Everyday! a DIY Tutorial

This has been my theme for this 3 day weekend. Every day since Saturday, I have tried to make something. Whether it was a big project or a small one, I was creating something everyday. 

Today's project was made by using things in my stash. I have been meaning to purge my craft room and what better way to purge, then by crafting while I'm purging!!! It's alot more fun this way!

Today I created this wreath out of book pages!! And I cannot take credit for the idea. I actually saw something like this on Pinterest, she used a grapevine wreath, but I used what I had.

I started out with these items: a Styrofoam wreath, some ribbon, 3 old books I purchased at a yard sale a year ago! (I only used a fraction of these book pages, so I have plenty left for more future projects) and a stick of lip gloss. Lip gloss you ask?? Yes! And believe me, it wasn't so I could look pretty while crafting! LOL 

I started out by using a paper trimmer to trim my pages so they were in the shape of a square. No measuring, I just "eye-balled" it. 

Here's where the lip gloss comes into play!  I wrapped a page around my lip gloss and sorta squeezed it on there.

I applied some hot glue to my wreath:

And stuck the page on using my lip gloss to hold it down a few seconds. No burned fingers here!!!

I did this all the way around the top, worked along the edges and along the center. 

And yes, I did this on my kitchen counter!!! I was multi-tasking. I made lunch while I was crafting!

I continued to glue on book pages until it was completely full and pleasing to my eyes!

I used some of the left over scraps to cover the back of my wreath. 

I ended up using a flower I found later on in the day. I purchased this at Hobby Lobby about a year ago. Yep, I was hoarding it!

The burlap wired ribbon was a piece left over from another project. You see, I don't throw much away! And that pretty lace was actually part of the wrapping on a Christmas gift this past year. 

So this whole project just really cost me some time. If I had to put a price on it, I'd say less than $5!

Have a wonderful week!!! I'm gonna go scour my craft room and see what I can create next!

DIY Planner Dividers

Good Sunday night to you.......

I know this post is a bit late in the day, but it's my only free time right now. 
As I mentioned on my Instagram post, I am trying to do something creative everyday. Big or small, a creative project helps me to "de-stress" and makes me feel productive. Plus...it's super fun!!!

Right now I'm using my Personal Size Filofax Malden and just love it. It's soft, buttery leather keeps me coming back to it!

I have been wanting to update my dividers so I stopped by Hobby Lobby last week and found this cute paper by The Paper Studio. 

I used a current divider as a pattern and traced it onto the back side of my paper. I folded my patterned paper in half so the print would be on both sides and be thicker. 

For the tabs I punched some of the same paper w/ this punch, also by The Paper Studio. I folded the punch piece in half length wise, and adhered it between the 2 layers of paper.

I then laminated them w/ my Scotch laminator. This can be found at Walmart for about $20. My Mom got me this a couple of Christmas' ago and I love it!!! I use the heck out of it!! 

I added a stack of sticky Post-Its from Targets $1 spot. It's hard to see, but these Kraft post-its have pink lines on them. Super cute, and match so well. Pink is my favorite color!!!

I typed up my divider subjects in Word and used coordinating colors. I then adhered them to the tabs and covered w/ clear scotch tape. I do it this way just in case I ever want to switch out my divider subjects. 

And here you go...........

I'm loving this. 

Have a great night! Thank goodness I am off tomorrow because my "crafting wheels" are spinning! 

Stay tuned.........

No Cards Today...but I did Craft!

After being inspired by many blogs I had been reading lately, I was in the mood today to do some crafting!!
First of all I made some "Garden Hand Scrub", I called in "Gentle Hand Scrub", I got the tutorial from here:
The Gaines Gang. Kate used the pink Dawn soap, my small town WalMart didn't have it, so I used the Lavender Silk Dawn...plus I had a coupon for $1 off!!! Bonus!!!

Then I made these 3 Children's "Fun on the Go" bags. I made them with 2 prints so they are

reversible. I filled them with fun things like a coloring book and colors, a Magic Writer, a tablet, a Mini Chalkboard, Chalk and Felt, etc. 

Well, time to start dinner. Thanks for stopping by today!

Have a wonderful afternoon!