PRIMITIVE SNOWMEN JINGLE BELLS | Various Styles Over the Years

It's that time of year again! The time that I really start to begin painting more Christmas decorations for my Booth#555 at the Peddlers Mall. I got the Christmas spirit in September, lol.

And today I am starting on a new batch of Snowmen Jingle Bells. I got inspiration for these from the Oriental Trading Catalog. Theirs sale for $16.00 per dozen.

To buy them at $16.00 per dozen to resell wasn't really leaving me any room for profit in my craft booth. So I decided to find the plain jingle bells, same size and paint them. I found a package of 6 at the Dollar General Store for a $1.50. And then after the Christmas sale, I bought all the rest of them for half off! Totally amazing deal! So here's what I have started with:

I seriously buy every box of these I find, especially at the after Christmas sales! I will get around to using them, believe me!

I've came a long way through the years with these. I started making them back in November of 2010. You simply paint a base coat. I hang the hangers on a strip of wire and spray paint a bunch at once. And then just sit and paint on the snowmen in sections. Bodies, heads, arms, clothes, then snowflakes, etc. I do them in sections like that to not have to be changing my paint color much. And a hint is to lay them in egg carton tops, lined with paper towels, to help keep from rolling around. Here's what my first batch ever, looked like:

2010 Batch of Bells

$1.59 each

 

2011 Batch of Bells

Sold for $1.00 each to move faster, it seemed

 

2012 Batch of Bells 

Raised back to $1.59 each since I finished them in wax & began to package them.

These I experimented with dipping them in hot, butter colored wax, after painting. It made a great finish. 

Can't really see it in the pics, but looks pretty good. And the middle one is an old, black crow wearing a santa hat. 

 

Being as I did the extra wax dipping, is why I raised these back to $1.59 each.

2013 Batch of Bells

PHOTO COMING SOON!

Keep in mind, these are great crafts to make and sell. Especially if you find them in boxes of 6 marked down to half price to only $.75cents. That makes you only have like 12cents each in them. Sometimes even less if the sale is bigger. Then just your time to paint with paint you already have, probably. 

They are steady sellers for my craft booth. And with changing the theme a little each year, it makes a great item for people to look for. Sometimes I even put the date on the back of them. When I remember to, that is.

Hope this gives you some ideas to do with those plain ole' jingle bells!

Happy Crafting ya'll,

-Lisa

Primitive Wood Shelf | FAITH FAMILY FRIENDS

I made this simple little wall hanging shelf outta some leftover pieces of pine boards.

They were used earlier by me, to make a concrete cross.

So after I took the frame back out, I knew I could use them for something else as well.

I just started arranging them in no particular order, just trying to piece together something that would look cute. And then after a few here and there mis-licks, I came up with this cute little shelf looking thing. lol.

It looked kinda country, so I decided to just nail it together with some headless nails and add two saw-toothed hangers on the back.

You can see that at the bottom, one of my nails tried to breath through. Oh well, I just left it that way. It was easier than trying to take a headless nail back out. lol.

Then I added some black, crafting, apple barrel paint for the base color. And then used some flat, plastic wording stencils for the "FAITH FAMILY and FRIENDS" saying. I applied it with a makeup sponge.

And here it is, all finished and from scraps of wood:

I think it's okay for a fast project out of scrap wood, don't you?

OLD WINDOW MAKEOVER for Laundry Room

Since making my last Old Window Makeover post, I've been inspired to try something new. And this time it is a vintage window with the glass left intact. I am turning it into a decoration piece saying, "General Store," to hang in my laundry room.

Here's how it went.

I started out with a plain, old wooden window. I left the glass in it this time. The only "work" I done on the window frame itself, was to add a sawtooth hanger to the back.

Here it is before:

The other side had less peeling paint, so I made it the front.

After making up my mind that I wanted to put "General Store" on it, I printed out the words using Microsoft Word. I kept playing with it until I got the size right. I then taped the printed out papers underneath the window and outlined the words "General Store," with a black permanent marker. This helped me tremendously to get the wording kinda centered.

Then I just peeled off the tape, and colored the rest of the words in with the same black, permanent marker. So easy!

It was very simple. The permanent marker dried really quick. The only aggravating part was that you have to make small markings to fill in all the words really good.

But other than that, SUPER EASY!

Oh, and then I took a plastic, red and white checkered place mat and put it on the backside of the window with some clear packaging tape. Just a few pieces, one on each edge. This way it made the words really stand out. And since my kitchen area and laundry room are joined, the red and white checkered matches my kitchen!

And here it is again, all finished, from a little farther back.

That is all directly above my washer and dryer. I think it looks really cute. And I added the old crock and red handled rolling pin to try and tie it in with the kitchen decorations.

And there you have it, an old kitchen window makeover for my laundry room. Hope you find some old windows here or there to re-do. I got this window, along with 4 others, for only $2 each at a yardsale a while back.

To see what I done with the other 4 windows I had, click here.

PRIMITIVE Style WOODEN SPOONS

PRIMITIVE WOODEN SPOONS

I am in love with making primitive themed wooden spoons!

 And this here is about my fourth batch of them so far. I'm addicted! lol. They have been really steady sellers at my Booth #555 at the Morehead Peddlers Mall. 

I've been bundling them in groups of 3 and pricing them for only $2.95. 

I do have more detailed ones that I've turned into magnets for sale as well, for $1.99 each.

I start out with the plain ole' wooden ones you find at WalMart for a pack of 4 for $ .88.

I lay them out on some chicken wire (best ever thing to spray paint on!) with the sides bent just enough to keep the spoons off the ground. Spray them a base color of whatever I have on hand. I like black, dark red and yellow as base colors.

Then after spraying both sides, I let them dry a few good hours. Then I bring them all in and do another color with craft paint. Whichever color you want. 

As you see from my finished pics, I make a wide variety of primitive colors. And the reason I spray paint a first, base coat, is so that when I do my finish sanding, the base color kind of seeps through and makes them appear a bit older. Kind of rugged looking or aged.

And another thing. To give it a sealed, finished look, I always like to take some Satin Varnish from the craft paint section and give each spoon a quick coat.

And here's some more I've just finished up today. 

These say various kitchen words like, coffee, sugar, flour ect.

And some black and off white ones with the theme of eggs, checkerboard and stars:

And some reddish brown colored ones that say Old Crow and have the star and checkerboard on them.

And some more various colored ones in cinnamon, yellow and colonial green:

Those old crow hang tags are some I also made by using a simple stencil purchased from eBay.

I hope I've given you a crafting bug for those plain old wooden spoons you probably have already laying around! I have to go get some more done, because I am restocking my shelves tomorrow at the Morehead Peddlers Mall. And also putting some in my eBay shop at

CraftBooth555.

And if you'd like to see more, here's the link to my other Primitive "Kitchen" Themed Wooden Spoons

And here's my holiday themed wooden spoons in Snowmen

 

and Ghosts:

 

Happy Crafting Ya'll!

And see ya next time!

~Lisa

Primitive Button Jars

I buy clear glass salt and pepper jars all throughout the year. And well, any jar about that size with a lid. I even buy some larger jars from time to time to just hold my lose buttons until I need them. Like the large canning, glass jar in the back, right side of the pic below.

Sometime around fall, I start making my button jars to sale in my Booth #555 at the Peddlers Mall. I'm not sure why I wait till then, but it just seems to happen each year. Or maybe because it's right after yard sale season around here, and I've had time to collect a bunch.

And sometimes I even find them super cheap, marked down to fifty cents per set. And I'll grab a  few. But they usually have the bright shiny stainless looking caps. And for that I add some Delta Stencil Paint with a sponge. It sets up good after a few days and doesn't tend to rub off. Looks like this after it's on, (but not dry yet.)

These are not great money makers, but they are steady sellers. And they offer an inexpensive item for your booth that anyone walking by would be able to afford. Most of these, unless they are older more hard to find jars, I try to keep them priced at only a $1.99 each. And when I've rounded up the salt and pepper shakers from yard sales all summer, usually along with tons of buttons from auctions and estate sales, I only have a few pennies and time in each.

Here's some more I had just painted:

And here's one of my favorite old rusty topped ones. The top was originally rusty, so I just had to add a pale yellow star and some homespun, along with the buttons.

As you see, there's nothing hard at all about making these cute empty jars into button holders. They are a great item to just "tuck" into that spot where nothing else seems to look right. And they'd look awesome sitting beside an old sewing machine with items such as bobbins and pin holders and maybe a hand sewn doll!

Happy Crafting Ya'll!

Americana Primitive Kerosene Heater

I first started with a very old & rusty kerosene heater. It's pretty rough and needed a major makeover before I wanted to display it in my Booth #555 at the Peddlers Mall. Here it is on the day I bought it at a yard sale for only $10.00.

But if I was gonna keep it for myself, a quick clean up and some lights would be all it would need, lol. So to get it ready for sale, here's what I done.


I first tried to make it a more primitive themed by adding some reds,whites and blues. But I got sidetracked and forgot to paint the top part white...... UGH! But I'll get back to that.....

And then, Still not realizing I hadn't painted the white part, I went on to add some stenciled stars......

And it was finally then, when I stood back and looked at it, I realized I had somehow skipped painting the white part..... WEW! That is way too much BLUE! And so I set back off to do so, painting over the blue.... ugh! Sometimes, I think I've smelled too much craft paint. lol.

And so here's a pic after the first coat of off white (FINALLY) to the top. lol. A long time coming...

Okay, I was happy that it's finally starting to come together.... And that I got some white on there. Oh, I really mixed some off white with some brown I had to kind of make an antiquey older white. I just tend to say white when I'm writing. Same goes with the blues and reds. They are really a navy and a colonial red.

And now for the more detailed painting with the smaller brush and stencils. I thought since it's a red white and blue theme with stars, that adding 1776 to it would kind of add a cute touch. So here's what I came up with.

I decided to add a weeping willow tree to the front. And if you look close, you can see some sheep grazing under it. I just free handed these, but if you don't feel comfortable doing so, I'm sure there are plenty of stencils available on eBay.

And here's another shot of it all lit up. Oh, let me tell you how I made it electric... SUPER EASY! I just looked out in my garage for a holiday prop, like the plastic pumpkins or plastic santas, until I found a pumpkin that had the plug in type. It was just a basic light bulb on the end of a cord. And it had little clips on it. It slid right out of the pumpkin with a pinch! And I just inserted it into this heater by opening up the top. That's it. The cord comes out the side like this:

And here it is all lite up:

To get the better looking finish, I applied one coat of all purpose sealer, found in the craft section of paints. One coat was plenty for me. And it gave it the better, medium gloss finish. I like it way better than the flat. And that's it.

Here's the before and after pics one more time:

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