{Tutorial} How to Make Decorative Birds with Clay

I've been having a lot of fun making these clay birds from Sculpey and some items from around the house.  You can find the full tutorial on my Hubpages.

My favorite part is creating the designs on the wings.  I used various items I had hanging around, like vintage buttons and beads.  I made these birds to sit on a natural branch, but you can also use them to decorate a mantle, a flower pot or planter, a wreath, or as a Christmas ornament.

You can also add more decoration and color to these birds after they've hardened with colored pencils or paint.  You can find this easy step-by-step tutorial on my Hubpages!

Trying My Hand at Basketmaking

I've posted before about my love with handmade baskets, so I was thrilled to take my first basketmaking class this past weekend.

We made a woven market basket with a wooden handle.  The basket measures about 12 inches long and 8 inches wide.  The design included darker reed detailing and we got to choose our contrasting color.  I chose a wine color for this detail, which is hard to see in these photos.

Basket making isn't really easy, but the process is pretty straight forward.  It took us about 5 hours to make our baskets.  And it was a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.

I really love my finished basket.  It isn't perfect, but I'm very pleased with my first attempt.  I'm already scheduled to take another class and learn to make a different style of basket.

A New Necklace Made with Recycled Charms

I just finished this new beaded necklace, featuring some handmade charms made from recycled pet id tags.

I had made a few of these charms with images of birds on them, to make up a bracelet.  The tutorial for making these charms from various recycled materials is on my Hubpages.  Unfortunately, I'm not much  of a bracelet wearer, so my charm bracelet got very little use.

So instead, I chose a few of my favorite charms and strung them with some beads to make a new necklace.  It may not be everyone's style, but I really love how it came out.  I used a mix of my random beads, and tied them together by repeating black beads throughout the pattern.  I think the colors look great with my charms.

{Quick & Easy Craft Project}: Peacock Covered Notebook or Journal

So this project isn't groundbreaking, but I'm pretty pleased with it.  My husband brought home this notebook from work, about 6" by 8".  It had a dark blue cover with his company's name and logo on it.  He asked me if I wanted it.  It wasn't pretty, but I can always use more notebooks.  And I thought I could make something out of it, like this woven paper journal cover I made.

I had seen other projects where people covered things with these decorative paper towels/napkins.  I bought this package months ago at the Christmas Tree Shop for crafting.  I think I paid $1 for the package.  I wish I had bought more of them because they had a bunch in so many great designs.

I think my mother would call these "paper guest towels".  They're larger than napkins, unfolded they're about 11 inches by 15 inches.  The towel is made up of a couple layers of paper.  There's an inner layer of thicker paper, then the decorative layer is actually made of two very thin layers of tissue paper, one plain and one with the image on it.

These towels are great for découpaging.  This is such a quick and easy way to transform a lot of items.  I didn't take any photos pf the process because I didn't plan on sharing this project.  But the end result is so pretty, I just had to post it. 

Generally, you remove all the layers and just work with the thin outer decorative layer of paper and modge podge or glue.  But since my notebook had a dark cover with lettering, I first used the inner white thick paper to glue down a base layer over my cover.  Once that was dry, I brushed on more glue and laid down my thin decorative paper.  When that dried, I trimmed my paper down to the edge of the notebook.  Done!

You should put your glue on kind of thick and make sure you spread it all the way to your edges.  Your paper is going to wrinkle when you put it down in the glue, so just accept it as part of your design.  But you should press down on your paper to get out any bubbles.

The back of my notebook was easier to cover, because it was white with just a logo.  I just used the thin outer decorative layer of my towel to cover the back, but you can see where the company logo shows through my paper.  It's ok though, happily it kind of works with the peacock design.

I can take no credit for this project.  The end result is really pretty, but that's because of the towel design.  I'm not really a peacock person, but this image is really stunning (even prettier in person).  I've made a few other things with these decorative towels and plan to make more.

{DIY Tutorial}: Long Distance Valentine Heart

My latest project is a Valentine for my husband, who'll be away and traveling on Valentine's Day.  It features a ruffled heart made of map pieces and the sweet sentiment:  "together forever, never apart."  Although I made this Valentine as a piece of framed art, you could use this same technique to make a larger heart wreath or a smaller heart for a Valentine's Day card. 

The full tutorial is on my Hubpages.

How to Make a Skeleton Key Necklace Tutorial

My new favorite necklace, featuring an antique skeleton key, some jewelry charms, and multi-colored beads.  Love how this came out!  I have more photos and the full directions on my Hubpages.  Check it out!

Update: Rustic Metal Star Christmas Decoration

Before the holidays, I posted a tutorial on adding handmade touches to store-bought Christmas ornaments.  In my post, I mentioned that I thought I should find another frame for my rustic metal star decoration.

Well, over the holidays, I had to buy a cheap frame to use to replace the glass in picture frame which had broken.  Since I was buying this frame simply for the glass, I chose a simple wooden frame that I knew I could transform to work with my rustic star.

I painted my cheap wooden frame with acrylic paint in a blue/green teal color.  But while my paint was drying, I dipped my brush in some clean water and gently brushed it over the surface of my frame in long strokes.  This thinned my paint in places and let the original brown surface come through a little, giving my frame a slightly worn or aged surface.  It was exactly what I wanted.

Then I attached my rustic star to the frame and stuck my cardboard backing back in place.

We've been having rainy weather, so the colors are a bit off in my photos.  But I love how this rustic metal star looks on my holiday mantle.  Hope you had a wonderful holiday season!  Best wishes for a bright new year!