In His Grip

Craft Faux Pas'

Over a month ago Jeff and I entered into the world of "smart phones" when we picked up our new Garminfones.  Although it took some getting used to for me, I now love my new phone. However, the only cover I have been able to find for it is a black rubber skin.  I now can say that I hate the rubber skin.  Not only does it make the phone thicker it is sticky and I cannot get it out of the pocket of my purse or my jeans.  Besides it collects stuff, lint, threads, and other junk.  I began my search for a snap on type phone cover.  This is the type of phone cover I have always had. I like that they make my phone look more like me, and protects it from a little spill now and then.

 
I found one snap-on cover on the internet.  Seriously, I wanted something fun and cute and pink.  But for $2.99 how could I go wrong at least it would not be sticky anymore.  When it came in the mail I tried in on my phone and it fit great, however, there is no cut out on the back to allow it to fit onto my car mount so that I can use the GPS feature.

 
Using my handy, dandy dremel tool Jeff made the cuts to accomidate the mount in the car.  I tried the cover back on my phone and it fit great and now could also be mounted in my car.  Yeah, problem solved right?  Wrong, I was not satisfied with a clear cover I want fun, cute, and pink.  So my creative brain took over and I designed what I though would be a great solution.

 
I used my Cricket machine and cut some vinyl stickers and put them on the inside of the cover.   

 
The sticker not being enough, I wanted some glitter so I got out some glittery pink paint and put a coat or two.  Now mind you, Jeff is in the background saying, "That is not going to work, the cover is not going fit."  Yeah right, whatever. Like he has said that before and was right about the sofa not fitting down the stairs. When that paint dried I put a final coat of bright pink paint so that none of the black phone could be seen through.

 
I love how it turned out all fun, cute, and not only pink but sparkly as well.  Only, Jeff was right.  After putting the stickers on and adding several coats of paint the darn thing will not snap together.  Are you kidding me, after all of that trouble and it turning out so great, the freakin' thing will not snap shut.  So this is one craft that turned out great, but is unusable, sure glad that it only cost $2.99.  I guess I will have to go back to the black sticky thing.  Dang!

I am participating in the following link ups:  Its So Very Creative, The Girl Creative, Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff, Keeping It Simple, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Blue Cricket Design, Nikki's Nifty Knacks, The Thrifty Home, Life As Lori, Paisley Passions, Tales from Blogaritville

Pink Jack-O-Lantern

Last Halloween, my sister, Lori, told me about how she took the traditional jack-o-lantern buckets and covered them with dictionary pages.  As I have just recently come into a huge box of old sheet music at an estate sale, I thought it would make a great cover for my jack-o-lantern.  And of course, I wanted to bring a little pink into my halloween decorations and what better way than to add a little bit of pink glitter to the mix while I'm at it? 

 

 

 
I started with two typical jack-o-lantern buckets from K-mart for $1.49 each.

 

I spray painted them both white so that they would be easier to cover with the white music pages.

 
There is no real reason to post this picture, other than to prove that I was doing crafts outside in the sun by the lake in Northern Minnesota in mid-October.  The weather was beautiful that day. There was absolutely no wind as proved by the fact that my strips of music are not blowing all over. 

 
Using Mod Podge I covered the jack-o-lantern with the strips of sheet music, being sure to overlap and pressing out the wrinkles. 

 
Once the Mod Podge was completely dry, I used glue to paint the face and then sprinkled with pink glitter. 

 
I used pink wire to make and curly handle and topped it off with a pink bow.  Now I am ready to fill this puppy with candy, and ready for the trick-or-treaters.

 
On the other jack-o-lantern I used a black sharpie to fill in the face and then add glue and black glitter (sorry no picture).  I kind of like him too!

Pumpkins From Up North

With the days as beautiful as they were when we were up north, I was inspired to do some crafts that required things from the good old outdoors.  There are lots of birch trees around in the woods and beings as it is Autumn how about some birch pumpkins?  Now this was something that I had thought up in my head and really wasn't sure how it was going to work out.  So the first course of action was to peel some birch bark from the trees around my Mom's property. 

 
Birch bark peels easily right off the trees and it is a light orange on the inside and an ashy white on the outside.  It will peel off in strips that can range from the thickness of tissue paper to hearvy cardboard.

 
I soaked the bark in hot water to help make it pliable and bend the way I wanted it to bend.  I found that this also loosened up the layers of the bark and I was able to make the pieces that were too thick much thinner by stripping away some of the layers.

 

Using handy dandy hot glue, I just started covering the artificial pumpkin with the strips of bark, overlapping as I went to make sure I had good coverage. 

 
Once the pumpkin was covered all of the pieces came together on the bottom and did not look very good so I cut a round piece of bark and glued it down.

 
Next, I drilled a hole in the top and glued in a birch branch.  Taking some thin bark, I cut some leaves and made some curls for vines and glued them next to the the stem.  

 
These turned out way better than I ever expected.  I love them.  Now my mind is going crazy as to what I can cover with birch bark next time I am in the north woods.

 

 I am participating in the following link ups: Its So Very Creative, The DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, The Halloween Scene, The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Life as Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Paisley Passions, Tales from Bloggeritaville, Its a Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest

Felted Acorns

I found some great felted acorns on a blog a couple weeks ago and thought "I can do that".  I began a search for some acorns so that I could use the little caps, I put a post out on Facebook for anyone with acorns in their yard and I would come by a pick them up.  My friend Nancy responded that she had recently found a giant acorn while on a walk and brought it by to me.  This nice big acorn was awesome, now just any acorns would not do, I needed the BIG ones.  While at K-State for family weekend, we were visiting Anna at the Pi Phi house and what did I see but giant acorns all over their front yard.  Score!  I had all the BIG acorns I wanted.

I began by taking the nuts out of the caps and cleaning them up a bit.  Some still had their leaves attached so I decided to just keep them and see how they will fair over time.

Because I am just a sparkly kind of gal, I decided to spray paint the caps with a metallic gold spray paint.  What nature makes, can always be made a little more sparkly with some gold paint,right?

I chose to use wool roving to make the felted nuts, thinking the roving would be easier than Kristi used over at The Speckled Dog.  Using roving would also give me the ability to make my acorns mutli colored by mixing the colors together.  To add a little more colors I found some 100% wool yarn that I added in as well.

 

Taking a wooden bead and a hunk of roving large enough to covering the bead, you dunk the whole thing into the hottest water that your hands can stand, working the roving into a ball around the bead.

 

Then you add a drop of liquid soap and continue to work the ball of wool.  I am not sure why you need soap, but just trust me you do. Lightly roll the ball around in your hands dunking it down into the water again and again, putting it a side for awhile and starting another will allow the water and soap to soak in and help the felting process.  This takes a lot longer that I anticipated, but as you work it into ball it will continue to get smaller and smaller and will dry even smaller than that.  This being said, be sure to start with a little bit bigger ball of wool than you think you are going to need. 

 Once the felted balls are dry, just hot glue them into the caps and you have some fun acorns for your enjoyment.  I am not sure what it is about acorns but I love the way they look.  Maybe, its because they are the only nuts around that come with their own accessory, hats.  Love it!

I am participating in the these link ups: Its So Very Creative, The Halloween Scene, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Showoff, Skip to my Lou, Coastal Charm, A Silly Little Sparrow, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket, Paisley Passions, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Frieflies and Jellybeans, Finding Fabulous, Its A Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, Life as Lori, The Shabby Nest, Vintage Suitcase, Tidy Mom

IKEA Magazine Organizer Fix Up

It is no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I like things to look pretty.  It does matter if the item is functional or not, if I have anything to say about it, my choice is always make it look good.  So when it came to organizing some of my magazines, or "books", Where Women Create, after all, they cost $15.00 each, I wanted something functional, that looks nice, and works in the decor of my studio. This left me with no other choice then to redo something that would be perfect for my use and let me be a little creative at the same time.

This is an IKEA cardboard magazine organizer for cheap, cheap, cheap.  If I remember right they come in a package of four for like $5.  You can't beat that, but they are a bit flimsy, so why not use some Mod Podge and tissue paper to give them a little bit more substance?

 
I found the wonderful toile tissue paper at Hobby Lobby that matches my studio perfectly.  After tearing the tissue into smaller pieces, I use a large brush and Mod Podge and cover the whole organizer.  Wrapping the tissue over the edges not only to give the piece a finished look, but this helps with stability as well.

The finished organizers helps keep my "books" from getting bent and they look great on the shelf of my studio as well.  Making something cheap look good always gives me a sense of accomplishment.  You just can't beat satisfaction!

Participating in the following link ups:  Between Naps on the Porch, Its So Very Creative, The DIY Showoff, Keeping It Simple, Skip to my Lou, Sew Can Do, A Silly Little Sparrow, Today's Creative Blog, New Nostalgia, Blue Cricket Desgin, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Finding Fabulous, Its a Blog Party, Its Fun to Craft, Vintage Suitcase, The Shabby Nest, Trash to Treasure

A Sparkly Start to Fall Decorating

When I began my Fall decorating this year, I realized that there was no sparkle in my fall decor.  I knew that I needed to change that because who wants anything without a little sparkle to make it that much better.  Searching through my craft supplies I found an large jar of gold glitter and my creative, sparkly, ideas started flowing.

Here is a bowl of some artificial pumpkins and gourds that I found in my fall decoration tubs.

Using some Elmer's glue that I watered down a little, I painted the top of the pumpkins and gourds allowing some of the glue to run down the sides.

This is the part that I love, sprinkling the glitter over the glue. I put a plastic container under where I am working to catch the excess glitter so that I can collect it and use it again.

 
Then I found some large leaves that had started to look bad, as they were tearing and probably 15 years old, but I figured a little glitter couldn't hurt them.

There were also a couple of these sad pumpkins, also very old and starting to crack.  See the  large dent in the side. I figured they could use a makeover as well.

Because this pumpkin was so bad, I decided to cover the entire thing with glitter and wow, it turned out smashing.

As you can see, I also had some grapevine pumpkins that I added a little sparkle to as well.  I found some other old, very sad looking things, like some ears of corn, and other gourds that were not worth keeping until I totally covered them in gold glitter and now they too can proudly take their place amongst the other fall decor in my home.  I will post more of my finished fall decorations later this week.

I am participating in these link up parties:  The DIY Show Off, Its So Very Cheri, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to My Lou, Today's Creative Blog, Fireflies and Jellybeans , Finding Fabulous, Its a Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, It's Fun to Craft,  The Shabby Nest, Thrifty Tickle

Featured Friday

Once again, In His Grip is being featured on another blog.  Go on over and check it out at Five Sixteenths.  I love it when people show my stuff off on their blog.  I have to say it kind of gives me a little boost and I think in my head, "Wow, people out there in blog land like the things that I do!"  Okay, now that is not only in my head I have said it out loud on the world wide web.  It makes me wonder if there is something more I can do with this little blog that I started there years ago.  Hmmmmm......

$3 Pink Hall Table

With the girls moving out and the fact that this empty nest is need of some sprucing up, I have been haunting garage sales and estate sales.  I spent one weekend just sweeping out all of the "feathers" left behind by our little chicks.  But now I am motivated to make this new space somewhere that our kids want to come "home" to.  Here is my first project for the empty nest sprucing.  

I purchased this little table at an estate sale near our home for $3.  I thought that it would look great at the top of the stairs between Lindsey and Anna's rooms.  With both rooms having pink in the color schemes I wanted to bring something out into the hallway that would bring the rooms together.

 
Picking up my handy dandy pink spray paint, I covered the table paying more attention to the grooves and details so the the paint would settle into them.

Taking my electric sander, I worked on taking off most of the paint leaving the paint in the details behind.

 
To have this worn pink table at the top of the stairs between the girls' rooms will be just the right touch to bring the pink and brown from Lindsey's room together with the pink, silver and black of the room that is Anna's.  Now I cannot wait to start on the new rooms.

Link up parties I am participating in: Between Naps On the Porch, Its So Very Creative Very Creative, DIY Showoff, Mad Skills Monday, The Girl Creative, Keeping It Simple, Skip to my Lou, Making the World Cutier, Coastal Charm, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket, Nikki's Nifty, Knacks, The Thrifty Home, Its a Hodpodge Life, Its a Blog Party, Finding Fabulous, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest, Paisley Passions, Alchemy Living Fine 

Vintage Hankie Scarf

I have a collection of vintage hankies that have been folded up neatly in a cupboard for years.    Every so often I would take them out and admire them and think of the stylish ladies that once carried these in their pocketbook. Some of these old hankies I remember both of my Grandmas carrying.  I love the floral patterns and scalloped edges and have never understood how someone could blow their nose into something so fancy. Not only that, but then nicely folding it back up again and putting back into a purse or pocket, yewh.  I prefer to use a tissue that I can immediately dispose of.  Anyway, I decided to make a scarf out of them after being inspired by the latest copy of "Where Women Create". 

I arranged the hankies end to end moving from pinks on one end to blues on the other end.  The final measurement should be around 72" to 74".  This will vary as the hankies are not all the same size.

Overlapping the edges, I topstiched the hankies together. Because the sizes vary, I centered the hankies so that both edges would be similar.

The finished project is this fun, lightweight scarf that can be worn with all kinds of things and match most any color.  I get to wear this great accessory and be reminded of my Grandmas all at the same time, how fun is that?

I am participating in these link ups:  Its So Very Cheri, Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff, Keeping It Simple, Mad Skills Monday, The Girl Creative, Making The World Cutier, Skip to My Lou, The Graphics Fairy, Coastal Charm, A Silly Little Sparrow, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Nikki's Nifty Knacks, Tales from Bloggeritaville

Lamp Rescue

I have been looking for a new lamp for our family room.  Not just any lamp will do, I wanted something that I could not only re-purpose but be fun and creative as well.  One night when Jeff and I were on our way home from working on Lindsey's house, I saw a heap of garbage at the top of someone's driveway and laying on top was an old brass lamp, and some other treasures I knew I wanted.  So after begging Jeff to stop, this trash diving embarrasses him in a BIG way, I loaded up the back seat and was thrilled with my new finds.  After checking the lamp to see if it worked, I knew that this would be my new lamp. Yeah!

This is the lamp before it transformation.

I used this Rust-Oleum antique hammered finish spray paint.  I have used it on several things in the past and knew that it would work great on this project.

I love the way the hammered finish gives a slight texture to the surface.  

Next came the lamp shade, this is where the creative fun begins.  I took this old lamp shade apart that my mother-in-law gave Lindsey.  Lindsey decided she wasn't using it right now so she let me have it.  I am thinking she is going to want it back after she sees what it looks like now.

I started to Mod Podge pages for an old dictionary to the frame of the shade. 

You have to be careful with the pages once they are wet with the Mod Podge, they become very fragile and tear easily.  Go slowly, draping the pages over the frame.  As the pages start to dry you can work out the wrinkles and repair any tears that may have occurred.

When the Mod Podge was dry, I glued gimp along both the top and bottom edges to not only add interest but to help finish the edge.

Using my Cricket machine, I cut out flower shapes to make the flower embellishment for the shade.  I cut three flowers in graduating sizes.  I started with a 2 1/2", 3", 3 1/2", and 4", so in the end I had 12 cut shaped.

I group the flower shapes together and sewed some buttons through all the layers and then using a pencil I curled the edges of the petals.

This is what the paper flower ended up looking like when it was done.  I really like the way this turned out and think I just might figure more things I can use these paper flowers on.

Considering I had everything on hand to do this project, it looks like this one is free.  You can't beat that!

 
Here is what the shade looks like with the light on.  I am really liking the way the light shows where the pages overlap.  Gosh! I can't tell you how much I love, love, love making something out of nothing.

I am participating these link ups: Between Naps on the Porch, Its So Very Creative, Keeping It Simple, Mad Skills Monday, The Girl Creative, The DIY Showoff, Skip To My Lou, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Me and My Bucket,Nikk's Nifty Knacks,The Thrifthy Home, Blue Cricket Design, Creations By Kara, Fine Craft Guild, It's a Blog Party, Trendy Treehouse, Fireflies and Jellybeans,Tales from Bloggeritaville, It's a Blog Party, It's a Hodgepodge Life, Thrifty Tickle 

Featured On Blue Cricket Desgin

Becca at Blue Cricket Design 
has featured Lindsey's Goodwill sofa.  How fun is that?  This is so exciting to get this kind of exposure not only for the great sofa transformation, but for "In His Grip" as well. Blue Cricket Design is a great place for inspiration and DIY projects of all kinds.  I go to this sight often to see what is out there in the world of DIY and just for plain fun.  I mean look at her blog banner, who would not want to spend some time at this web sight?  Go on over and see what Becca has going on beside this great sofa!

Wall From the Thrift Store

This is another installment of how Lindsey's house is really coming together.  This wall is literally from a thrift store.  She purchased most of the items from one thrift store earlier this summer for less than $10.  Then came out the spray paint and she made all of these things come to life in a new way.  The pink owl was a weird brown color and was picked out of the free box they always have right outside the front door of the store.  I love her style and the fact that she is using things that have been cast off and making them totally work in her favor.

Here is the wall before anything was on it.

 
 
We arranged it on the floor in front of the wall first and then the fun part begins.  I love hanging things and watching the transformation take place.  It is amazing what a trip to the thrift store and some spray paint can do for a room.

Participating in the following link ups:Its So Very Creative, DYI Showoff, Keeping It Simple: Motivate Me Monday, It's A Blog Party, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Mad Skills Monday, Coastal Charm, Mad Skills Party, Blue Cricket Design,Fine Craft Guild, Life as Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Tidy Mom, It's a Blog Party, Finding Fabulous, It's a Hodgepodge Life, Just A Girl, The Shabby Nest, Thrifty Tickle,

 

Goodwill Sofa Made Fabulous!

With our daughter Lindsey moving out into her own home, the last couple of months we have been on a quest to find furniture on a bargain budget.  Just because we had little money to spend did not mean that we had to leave fun design at the door.  Lindsey found the pink flower fabric on sale and knew that this was the fabric she wanted for her sofa.  As a single gal, she knows that if she is going to ever have a pink sofa the time is now before other opinions have to be considered.  But she did not even have a sofa to cover yet.  Off to garage sales and thrift stores she went.  She found the jackpot one evening at the Goodwill.

This is what we found that night at the Goodwill for, get this, $19.99.  Yes, score!  The cushions are not shown in this picture but they were in good shape other than the fact that this white canvas was filthy.  The piece was sturdy and had a good shape so we knew that it would make a great pink flowered sofa.

First I took off the white canvas cover and found this other upholstery fabric underneath which was like new.  So the transformation began.

 

 

 Lindsey made the cushion covers in my Stitches by Sturman studio.

 
The finished project was all that we expected and Lindsey is over the moon with how great it looks in her new great room.
 

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