Ombré Necklace Tutorial

I really love the ombré color trend right now and I couldn't resist making an ombré necklace out of my favorite materials - VINTAGE BUTTONS!!!  My finished necklace took a whopping 95 buttons, but you could also make a beautiful necklace using fewer buttons as just a central detail, maybe using just one color and some neutral white and gray buttons.  You can find all the details and directions on my HubPages.  

Love it!

And if this wasn't enough jewelry excitement, my local library held a bead-stringing class this past weekend, where I made another beautiful necklace!  Gotta love your local library :)

Gardening for Dummies (and Journaling too)

photo after frost :(

Now that the weather is warming up, we're turning a bit of our attention to our backyard garden.  My husband and I don't really do much in this area - just stick some flowers in the ground and hope for the best (which, this year, was freezing temperatures and frost a few days after we planted).

But this year, I thought I would try to be a bit more responsible in our gardening.  So I've started a garden journal.  I read this interesting article about garden journals and thought it might be helpful to keep track of the types of plants we put in, how many plants we bought, when we planted them, and then the results.  Then we would know what worked and what didn't work for next year.  Smart, huh?

So I dug out this cheap but pretty spiral notebook that I bought at Big Lots for a $1 and the alphabet stamps my husband bought me for Christmas.  Using a larger mailing label, I started to make a decorative title block for my garden journal.  I soon realized that:

1.  The ink pad I had bought to use with the stamps is crap
2.  Stamping takes a bit of practice and preparation

You can see from the photo above that I need to work on getting the right pressure on the stamps and figure out how to get them to line up.  Instead of worrying about it, I decided to just go with it.

I continued to stamp my title is a jumblely kind of way, intentionally setting the letters unevenly and pressing the edge of the stamp down to create a block.  Then I took my color pencils and colored in the blocks and letters in different tones to match my notebook.

I actually quite pleased with the result.  And I was a good girl and immediately wrote down some notes about our plants and garden.  I think I might be getting the hang of this gardening thing ;)

Bright and Cheerful Welcome Wreath

I've been having some fun making handy home decorations from this rusty fence from our backyard.  And I simply couldn't resist making a door decoration with a piece of this fence and a little bird house.

This Spring wreath is surprisingly easy (you can get all the directions on my Hubpages), and can be adapted for any season, decor, or your personal taste.  I love this purple and yellow combination for Spring, but you could use different colors and flowers for autumn or winter.

Do you have any special ways to welcome Spring?

Garden Recycling - Old is New Again

I've been inspired by the warmer weather to make some new projects, like this jewelry display which uses some old wire garden fencing that we removed from our yard.  I love the rusted surface and the shape of this fence piece (I also LOVE this ikat fabric - so modern and pretty!!).  This charming and handy display can be used as a jewelry organizer or as a bulletin board.  The full directions can be found on my Hubpages where I show another way to use garden items like fencing or a trellis to make a display board.  Check it out!

I've enjoyed recycling this garden fencing and have another project to post soon!!!

Friday Favorites: Worry Dolls

I came across this great article by Phyllis Doyle about the history and tradition of Worry Dolls.  Phyllis's article also includes a wonderful tutorial on how to make your own Worry Dolls - a great learning experience for children and a fun activity to recycle some scrap paper and fabric.

Reading this article reminded me that I had a set of dolls which I had made into a brooch.  This was very simple - I just cut a small piece of cardboard, and glued the dolls to it in a line.  Once the glue was dry, I added a pin back.  Easy.

I haven't worn this pin in a while, but after rediscovering it in my jewelry box, I'm going to start wearing it again.  Go check out Phyllis's article and make your own set of Worry Dolls!