Vintage Aluminum "strainer" Clock

I am in love with older aluminum kitchen items! I found this strainer and immediately thought I'd like to try to make something like a clock out of it. Turns out, it was a super easy and cheap project. And it's one item that will stay in my kitchen for years.

It's easy. If you want to try it, all you need is an old clock (so u get the parts without having to buy any), an aluminum something that you want to turn into a clock, hammer and a nail.

I simply took the old clock part out of the clock, set it aside. Then used a hammer and nail to tap me a hole out in the middle of the aluminum strainer. Which was easy because aluminum is pretty soft. I used a kitchen knife to make the nail hole bigger for the hand. I just inserted it and turned it around and around until it was big enough. I then just put the clock right in the hole I made and screwed it together.

One thing you may notice is that I didn't put any numbers on it. I don't really want any because I think it looks best without any. And it's not the only clock in my kitchen anyways. It was a simple and cheap project.

Have you ever re-done an objebt into a clock before?

I Found a Little Kitty

Isn't this little kitty so cute? 

I found it out in our side yard, towards the end of our driveway. I was walking down to check the mail and kept hearing a faint "meow."  

I guess someone let it out or either it ran away from it's home. Either way, it was extremely weak from hunger and was dying of thirst.

I caught it finally, after bribing it with a slice of sandwich meat, as it seemed to be scared of people. I then  brought it in and fed it and after two days it is a normal happy kitty.

I posted it on my husbands Facebook on a couple of groups he belongs to and within minutes I had about 5 potential owners for it. But the one that demanded she got it first was my sister. lol. 

She wanted the cute little thing for her daughter whose birthday is today, she's 3, to have at her Mamaw's house.

So believe me, it went to a great home. 

It'll be the only kitty there also, so I'm sure it will get all the attention it wants.

Customized "Pink" Flower Vase Tutorial

Customized Pink Flower Vase in 6 Easy Steps

I spend on average about 8 hours or more each day in my "office," aka: craft room. lol. And today I thought, "it's missing something."
So then I started looking around the house. Kinda on a hunt for something bright to put in here. And boom it hit me, I want a Pink Flower Vase... that's what I decided I needed to add some color to my desk. It's drab and needs a punch of color. I had an empty glass vase from my previous Pinterest activity where you put soo many pounds of glass beads in it as u lose weight. So you can actually see it in pounds. And grabbed an empty roll from a paper towel and a left over piece of pink wrapping paper.

• 1. I first rolled and glued the pink paper around the paper towel cardboard piece. And inserted that into the empty vase. Then I realized I needed to cut the paper roll in half. (sorry forgot to take a pic of that.)

• 2. Then I took some glass bead things, I found at the Dollar Tree for $1.00 per bag and easily dropped them down around the bottom to create a cute base.

•  3. Next I cut me a piece of cardboard from a back of something I bought, maybe a glue package, not sure. Anyways, into a circle, the size that will fit down into the vase and sit atop the pink paper towel piece. To kinda make a base for the  next level. Like this:

• 4. Then, here is where I want "something" to hold a flower, be it living or fake, I'm not picky. But this time I decided to go with a barely living spider plant that's been sitting around being neglected. So I had to search the house for something that would hold it and fit inside the vase.... And wa~la. I found a canning jar the perfect size. Here is the poor neglected spider plant after I stuck it in the vase..

• 5. I'm not sure how long or if this plant will live like this, but it can't get any worse as it was on the verge of death from neglect in the dinning room. Anyways, next, I just slid the jar and plant down in, very easily as to not crack the vase or knock the circle cardboard piece over.

• 6. And finally, here's the final step. I just took some more glass beads and placed them easily around the canning jar to hide the dirt. And to make the top half of the vase match the base. Like this:

 I will be sure to be careful when watering so that the water only goes in the canning jar area. I hope now that this lil fellow is in my sight everyday and by a window, that it will live! And as always, remember, if you don't have to have the exact items to make your very own customized flower vase. You can adjust to what you have like say, if you don't have glass beads, simply use rocks from outside. Or any color paper would do to match your room. And remember, even fake flowers would be super cute and easier to care for! So have fun and if you try this, post us a link to yours please. We'd love to see how ya'lls come out.

Happy Crafting!


Update:
Here's mine now sitting by my window, and I'm now thinking I shoulda painted that little circle piece of cardboard pink... it's standing out being white, but it's still kinda so cute that I don't mind.

DIY Primitive Rolling Pin Holder

I've been making a few wood crafts lately. Well, trying to. And here's my latest one. 

It's a rolling pin holder. 

I had an idea for it when flipping through a magazine and saw a similar one. But that one had a heck of a price tag. And I immediately thought, "I wander if I could make that?"

So I just looked at the pic, which is actually quite different, but has the basic same "bone structure." Then I drew out a sketch directly onto the wood for the first side, (that holds the pins.) Then I cut it out with my band saw thing. 

Make sure to lay the pin in the grooves to get a good deep sitting that will fit before you finish!

 Then it was easy to just lay that piece directly on top of the other side and trace it, so that they would be the exact same. Then I just played with different sizes of wood for the top until I got it looking how I wanted it.

I used finishing type nails to construct it, so that they weren't be that visible. Then I painted it a basic black and added a cute stenciled saying, "Primitives, Blessings from our past."

I priced this for $24.99 in my Peddlers Mall booth, but then I brought it back home the following day. I didn't want to part with it. lol. I now am using it to hold my "Vintage" styled rolling pins. 

CLICK here to view them!

Happy Crafting Ya'll!
See ya next time,

~Lisa

Easy HALLOWEEN Candles

Want to make some cute, Halloween themed candles?
These would be very cute just sitting around to spruce the spooky feel!

All you need to start with is some plain white votives.  I got mine by the case at Big Lots.
I bought a pack of 24 votive sized candles at the local Big Lots for around $6.00.
This is what they looked like before.

These orange themed ones stemmed from my previous post, Ghost Candles. 

 

Once I got started making ghost faces on the white ones, I just had so many other ideas for them. Pumpkin faces, cat silhouettes, ghosts in a moon, the list goes on and on so I had to make more.

Then I painted some of them a base color of orange. 

I chose cinnamon color but it came out way more bright than I thought, which was okay. Left some white also, for the ghosts faces. 

Next I google'd "pumpkin faces" and choose images, so I'd have an idea of what some looked like to draw. Painted them on with basic black craft paint.

And then, here's where I got a little different with them. 

Instead of simply sealing them with a paint on sealer, I thought it'd be cool to set the faces in wax. 

Well, I keep a candle melted on my candle warmer at all times. I use it almost daily. It happens to be a yellowish-brown color, flavored butter-rum. (For the white ghosts at top, I used a plain white melted candle to dip them in.)

So I dipped each candle down in it, kinda quick, so that the paint wouldn't melt away from the hot wax. 

Then set them on a sheet of wax paper to dry. And that's it.

Oh, if you have noticed the grubby candle with the eyes, I simply grubbied it up a bit with some melted wax and cinnamon. Dipped that in the wax to set. Then continued on with painting the face and re-dipping him.

And then after they all dried, which they kinda quickly do, here is how I package them up.

I put them down in a small plastic bag and add a piece of cut brown paper. (Sometimes I cut up the brown wrapping paper or brown bags for this.)  And then use those printable re-turn address labels for a price tag.

And here is a little box crate of them all ready to go into my booth for sale.

Don't forget to check out my Ghost Candles for more pics!
And if you're interested, I made some Halloween Themed Wooden Spoons to display in Mason Jars also found here!


See ya'll next time!
~Lisa

Halloween Magnets from Old Christmas Bulbs

I was going through the phase this weekend  of making snowmen magnets 

and Christmas bulbs

 , 

when it hit me. 

I had an idea to use some of the white and orange Christmas tree bulbs I had sitting in a jar. Left the base color alone, even though it has imperfections, I like it. Painted on a simple face with some Folk Art craft paint, added some homespun and on a few, added an orange button. 

Then lastly, I glued on a heavy crafting magnet on the back of each. Don't want these falling and breaking if holding too many papers!  And here they are:

 Which one do you like best? The ghost or the pumpkins?

Happy Crafting,

See ya'll next time,

~Lisa

Snowman Magnets

I recently ran across a blog called Eyeballs by Day, Crafts by Night and am in love with almost everything that this girl makes. It seems that we have alot of common interest in many crafts and I think she has some wonderful ideas. So over the weekend I tried out one of her ideas which was Snoman Magnets! And here's my go at it.

First, I painted some little wooden discs I found at Michaels craft store.

Then painted on the faces by looking at hers. Let that all dry, then came back with a home-made mixture of mod podge and with glitter and painted that on. It kinda give it that snowy effect without me having to purchase the glitter mod podge. And surprisingly, it worked. Lastly, I used some E-6000 glue (from Walmart) and attached some good strong, round magnets to the back.

And here they are all finished and ready in my craft booth:

Look real close and you can see the glittery snow affect.

 

I too, will also be selling these in my craft booth, so I went with the display method she used also. That is by sticking them on a metal star. I chose a red one I painted, and edged with a eggnog yellow.

I put sticky price tags on the back of each one.
I priced them for $  .99 cents each

I absolutely loved this craft!

Oh and I bought my round magnets at Walmart in the craft section.

See ya'll next time,

~Lisa