Little Things

I facilitated a women's Bible study at my church this fall. Every Tuesday morning I would meet up with a wonderful group of ladies to study God's word under the leadership of author and speaker Beth Moore.

One of my love languages is gift giving and I loved creating little things 

for the women in my Bible Study. 

On our first day I passed out little note cards with mini "embellished" binder clips

 The notecards were to encourage scripture memorization.

The next week I brought a little square of chocolate 

(Russell Stover & Ghirardelli) made by folding a two-sided 6x6 square of paper.

Chocolate is a great way to start your day!

In order to keep your place in your book, I made bookmarks from ribbons & charms. Believe it or not, most of the supplies for these crafts I found in my basement. I know, you want to come to my basement and go shopping!

 These are really simple to make. Cut your ribbon double the length of your book. Thread the charm so it reaches the middle of your ribbon. Tie a knot and then tie another knot at the top. 

It was easy to put together a sweet treat of candy corn, peanuts and M&M's in a little candy baggie tied with a festive fall ribbon.
Just a little reminder of how Sweet He is to us!

In order to have your memory first posted to the front of your fridge,
I made magnetic memo clips from clothes pins. 

Tutorial here.

 For this next gift I tied twine around a candle and hot glued two acorns to paper hand made acorns along with the verse of the week. For instructions on the hand made acorns, go here.

The dollar store has become my new favorite place when buying "multiples"

I always wanted to try Truffles... so while watching the TODAY show Katie Brown was on demonstrating how easy it was to make truffles. So I did!  Go here for her recipe. 

 Finally, on our last day of class we had a Christmas brunch... 

so I crafted up my last gift of the year,  Christmas Shopping List's.

 In a variety of festive papers and ribbons.

 I love the idea of keeping this in my purse to jot down
ideas that I have for people, grocery lists and things to get at Hobby Lobby!

I have different little embellishments on each of the covers.

I'll have to get the cutting dimensions for you (basically just make a folder). But the main thing you'll need is to get small legal pads cut in half (they can do this for you at your office supply store

-I got mine at Office Depot).

I use a little bit of scrap paper for the top of the legal pad 

and then glue dots to keep the whole thing in place. 

Tie it all up with a ribbon, again using glue dots. 

How cute is that? 

They'd be great for keeping tallies during card games or little gifts for teachers anytime of the year.

I hope the ladies in my Bible study don't have high expectations...

there are some 20+ women in my class this year!

Dress-Up Girlies

For Christmas is was time to expand our woodworking horizons to our nieces who like to dress-up. My sister-in-law was hoping to find something to house all the tutu's & boa's and I offered to make something for them for Christmas. I was unable to find actual building plans, but my amazing husband figured out, based on a picture, how we could do it. 

After a couple of sleepless nights thinking about all the things I had to craft up BEFORE Christmas, Ben offered to go and get the wood and then just starting putting it together! Isn't it amazing?!

I just added the finishing touches.  I bought wood cutouts at Hobby Lobby and painted them with chalkboard paint, drilled two holes in the top and added twine to attach them to the baskets.

While driving home one day I came up with the perfect finishing touch, a great verse that all little (and big) girls need to know:

Three round mirrors on the opposite side.

Christmas morning:

 Happy dress-up days girlies! Love your Aunt Chessa & Uncle Ben

Playing with Letters

There are a few simple words that can sum up the wonder of Christmas...   

To make this I grabbed a couple wooden letters from 

Hobby Lobby and painted them red. 

Then outlined each letter with the glue.

And then sprinkled the glue with my red Martha Stewart Giltter...

I waited for it to dry and then arranged the letters close together. 

To ensure a seamless look, 

I painted one side of my popsicle sticks (that I cut in half) 

and then glued the popsicle stick to the back side of my letters.

My final product displayed next to my nativity scene on top of my entertainment center.

I also played with a large thinner wooden letters for this look.

 Again, I found them at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 (and they were probably 40% off the day I bought them-cause that's the way I roll!)

 I used some left over gold paint for a four letters.

And put the letters together the same 

way I did for "JOY" with popsicle sticks.

 My final product. Maybe I should I add a little glitter?

Anything they can make, I can make for less.

My mom has been known to go into a store, see something she likes and then go home and re-create it. Sometimes she has a picture. Sometimes a video. And sometimes she has just examined the details and has it all stored up in her head. I think I'm becoming like my mom...

In the December issue of Better Homes and Gardens I saw these adorable decorative balls made by wrapping yarn around a styrofoam ball. I decided I needed to try making my own.

Especially after I found the ornament at JoAnn's for $7.99!
I knew I could make it for less than that!

I started with a couple different sizes of 

smoothfoam balls from Hobby Lobby. 

I used two different type of thickness of white yarn. One with a thin silver tread woven through it. 

The layers don't need to be very thick, just cover most of the ball. 

I decided not to use them as ornaments or on a wreath but as a decorative accessory on my mantle. I'm loving the look!

Here's a close up of the two different types of yarn I used.

I hope this inspires you to get creative and try some of the things you see as you're out doing your Christmas shopping. Happy crafting!

Glitter

How about adding a little bling to your Christmas packages this year?  I decided to personalized my gift tags this year by jazzing up some chip board letters with glitter! Here's my pictorial tutorial on the how:

I did them in a couple different sizes too:

Countdown to Christmas

It's that time of year again... and I can't help myself. I LOVE to create! Along with making Christmas gifts I was inspired once again by my go-to-girls at Eighteen25 to craft-up a
Countdown to Christmas Clipboard.
Here's my version:

All the number for the Countdown are located on the back on the clipboard so it's easy for the kids to change the numbers each day.

Numbers 2-25 are black on white cardstock with a worn brown edge. I put the last day's number on yellow and outlined the number with a glitter pen.

I'd love to make one for you! 

FREE and practically FREE

I love to paint things! Furniture mostly. But I've recently discovered spray painting lamps and light fixtures. You can take anything that is blah and make it look "Ah-ha!"

I recently purchased 5 lamps at a thrift store, for $.99 each!

Lamp #1 started out looking like this:

Using Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic spraypaint in the Oil Rubbed Bronze finish 

(I also recommend Rust-Oleum Universal Hammered in Brown

I've used it for the builders grade light fixture over my kitchen table). 

And old lamp shade I found in my basement and some beaded trim, 
turned my lamp into something new and contemporary.

I got a little happy with my new found love for spraypaint. I painted the Brass & Nickel light fixtures in 2 bathrooms with the same Oil Rubbed Bronze finish. And found an old Brass lamp in my basement, (it  looked nice in my traditional living room back in 1997) but it needed an updated look. 

 Complete with a new lamp shade I found on clearance at Target. 

Here is my new floor lamp:

1 can (about $8.00) did 3 light fixtures and 2 lamps. 

Here's a closer look at the paint finish.

Onto Lamp #2

For a pop of color in my living room, I add a little of this:

and end up with this:

And now for the FREE stuff. 

I was out of town for a couple days and my husband picked up some things on the side of the road. Literally, the side of the road. FREE! He knows me too well. These are just two of the four things he brought home. 

I got a little too excited about this first table, I forgot to take a picture of the before. But trust me, it wasn't pretty. It had a couple tiny gold flower pins that were easy to pull off. So I did.

 I love love love this little table.

This tired table needed a face lift from me and some paint found in my basement.

I didn't really like this fan medallion on the front

So  I popped  it off and added a couple new more contemporary ones. 

After sanding and painting it black, here's my finished sofa table:

I think my family room is complete... until I find something else I can "re-do."