DIY BOTTLE CAP PIE MAGNETS

Set of my finished Bottle Cap Pie Magnets in a cookie tin

I wish I could take credit for this cute idea but I can't.  I had never seen any or heard of them before winning an auction box lot full of miniatures last week.  And tucked away in the corner was this single, cute miniature little pie that inspired this DIY bottle cap pie post:

Here was the bottom after I tore off a $3 price tag of old scotch tape.

It wasn't a magnet, but I immediately thought it'd be cute as one. So I had to get to making up a batch and see how they will sell in my new booth.  Oh, here's a few pics of how it's coming along so far.

And now on to making these adorable bottle cap pie magnets.

YOU WILL NEED:
-Salt Dough (Recipe Link) or Polymer Clay (my first batch I'm trying the clay since I have a lot on hand)
-E-6000 Glue
-Round Magnets
-Craft Paint & Spray Paint (optional) but faster for me for larger batches
-Metal Bottle Caps

First off, gather up some metal pop lids.  Oddly, I'd saved these for a while, but I just never new what I'd need them for.

Then take them and lay them out on something, I used a styrofoam plate, and spray paint them the base color you want.  

 

I chose white just because it was what I had on hand.  

 I'd really have  preferred red. But anyways.  One coat was good enough, so I continued.

My next step is totally optional but I love the old enamel speck look it gives so I've gotta show it.

Take some other contrasting color, I choose red for one batch 

 

and blue for another, 

 

and flick specks on using an old toothbrush. 

Just dip the toothbrush in some paint, and run your finger up and down the bristles to let the specks fly. You can add a dab of water if you must, but not too much or it'll look too runny.

And after they dried good, I got out my clay.

Next time I'll use salt dough, but for right now I have plenty of the clay ready.

I went ahead right now and squirted a bit of E-6000 glue into the empty lids, preparing them for the clay. Here's the type I used that I purchased from ebay:

Just pinch you off a bit and shove it in a dry lid to make the pie.

 

Here is a bunch of the tops so you can see the various designs I did. 

Oh, I also went in while the clay was still wet and cut a slit out to make it look like a piece was gone.

Here's another pic to show how I used the tip of an ink pen lid to push in to make fake cherries or what have you:

And with the same pen, I rolled it on top of the clay to give it a woven texture.

Just look around and find items that you can use.  If you notice the edges of these, I took one of the metal bottle caps and rolled it around the edges to give it the crimped look. I really liked that.

Now let them sit to dry. Depending on what type of "pie filling" you used, it depends on the time.  But for my clay I let them sit for about 12 hours.  And then I did a bit of painting.

 As you see,  I just used some craft paint and try to dribble on some sort of pie toppings. And I loved the one that I painted white, like a cake, with red strawberry dots on it. I think that one is my favorite.

 A few of the others I just played around with. And the one with the chocolaty looking runny topping I was trying to go for a drippy look for the edges, but it didn't turn out so good.

And if you noticed, I've got them stashed in an old cookie tin that someone had given me as a gift last year.  I thought it'd be a cute way to transport them to my booth and to display them in.

Also, if you wanted to sell these in a lot of say a dozen or so, it'd be a cute packaging idea to leave them in the tin with the lid!  I may do that also.

But here's some pics of how I've gotten some displayed in my kitchen now:

And again, it'd be a very cute way to give a tin of  Christmas cookies, errrr pies, as a unique Christmas gift!

I'm still on the fence on how to price these. Maybe 2 magnets for a $1.00.

Or .99 cents each? I dunno yet.

 Or if I put around 12 in a tin can, as above, maybe $7.00 or so? What would you think on the pricing?

Hope ya' like this idea and give it a try!

Happy crafting ya'll,

~Lisa

NEW BATCH OF DIY NIGHTLIGHTS with SILICONE DIPPED BULBS

It's time for me to gear up and do another batch of the little night lights with silicone dipped bulbs! 

I'm trying to catch up on these little cuties to stock up the two new booths at the co-op in a neighboring town.  

Here's a link to some I made in a different, grungy, primitive style a while back.

And so here is how I'm doing this new batch.

First, start off by gathering your supplies. 

I get it all at the Dollar Mart except for the 100% silicone which is found at the Dollar General.

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-Night lights without the dimmer detection. Just the basic ones.

-Extra packs of bulbs to make replacement bulbs.

-A short cup, not too deep that you can't reach down to the bottom easily.

-Ground Cinnamon

-String and clothespins to hang bulbs to dry.

-100% tube of Silicone (I strongly recommend only getting the 100%!) & a caulking gun which squirts out the silicone.

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Okay, after all supplies are gathered, start by putting up your string and clothespins to have them ready. Thankfully I have a  year round clothesline just outside my kitchen. And I use that.

Then mix up your silicone mixture.  I use these little plastic disposable cups that come in large packs for a $1.  They are short enough and small enough to hold a good grip on.

 Squirt out about 3/4 of the cup full of the 100% silicone and stir in the other 1/4 with the ground cinnamon.

Then immediately stick in one bulb, straight down into the mixture, give it a twist as you are bringing it out and up and bam, that's it!

Don't worry if you can't get a cute tip on it, it does take a few good tries to get it down.

Then go hang them to dry.  Thankfully the silicone dries fast.  But I usually leave them hanging for about 4 or 5 hours to make sure it's cured, in the sun.

And later on that night I start painting the bases of the night lights in different colors. I usually prefer black, white or soft colors like buttercup yellow.  

I just think those are more of a prim color theme.

After painting them, I tie on a bit of homespun fabric 

and sometimes glue on accent pieces like metal stars.

I use E-6000 glue from Walmart. It's a strong, forever hold.

And that's it.  Stick the hand dipped silicone bulb in to finish them off and here we go.

A cute little primitive nightlight with hand dipped silicone bulbs.

And here is a night shot of it all lit up.
The cinnamon gives it a warm, soft glow.

$3.00 each

I'm not going to put these in baggies to sell.  I'm just going to tie a cute tag to them and sit them in a bowl, probably.

I'm still pricing these for $3.00 each and the packs of replacement bulbs are priced for  2 for $3.00.

These make for great craft fair and booth items to sell since they are so cute and affordable.  I hope ya'll give them a try!

Happy Crafting,
until next time!
~Lisa

AND If interested,
HERE IS THE LITTLE BATTERY OPERATED CANDLE BULBS I previously made:

Always make sure you use the correct wattage bulb for each of your night lights and candles when changing out bulbs! 

These nightlight bulbs are 4 WATS.

DIY BAG TOPPERS for CRAFTS

This is just a simple, quick post for today.  I just wanted to show how I package up some of my metal, rusty stars, magnets and such for sale using Bag Toppers.

As you see I use those little zip top baggies and place 5 in each.  And I also insert a piece of construction paper inside, behind the stars. This makes them pop just a bit.  

For the topper, I go to Avery print online and design it for free. I love that site because they actually have a bag topper section so it's pretty easy to deal with. 

 And after that, all that is left to do is just print them off, trim up , and staple them to my bags.

(HINT: Don't print in color if you can help it, to save ink, just print black on whatever color paper you want. I go with the light brown most of the time)

Here's what they look like before I staple them on:

(They have a crease at the top for bending down the back.)

 It really does make a difference, I think, in having little cute bag toppers on about any little item.

Again, here's the front:

 And here is a pic of how I type out the back.  Which Avery easily lets you do because there's no real guess work when using their layout.

 You can customize it with anything you wish. I used my ebay link for the back and my website name for here.

I just usually stick with the same topper design for a lot of items so that they all kind of coordinate for a while.  And then  a few months later I will mix it up a bit. 

And that's about all there is to it.  It does take a little bit extra time, but it really is worth it in the end.  I love how it makes something seem much more like a cute little gift already, without the gift wrap. 

Happy crafting ya'll,

~Lisa

-PS. I am in the process of setting up with a new co-op in a neighboring town.  I've rented 2 more booths and so I cannot wait to get the set up and snap some pics!  Coming soon!

This blog may be Moooooving

I am having horrible trouble updating my payment info to renew my registration subscription to Google Apps for this blog, www.booth555.com  which I currently own and purchased via Blogger.   

I am having horrible experiences trying to follow the help process in which you can now not use Google Wallet to pay for this as we use to. 

In case I don't figure it out, I am thinking of redirecting this blog to wordpress (if i can figure that out!) Or I may have to end up just having to type in:

www.booth555.wordpress.com

to find new posts.

I am at my wits end when Wordpress tells me to map my DNS from Blogger to them with this:

ns1.wordpress.com

ns2.wordpress.com

ns3.wordpress.com

because I can find nowhere at all on blogger to input these changes.

If you have also had any dealings with this, please let me know how you did it.

So just giving a heads up in case my subscription ends and I have not figured out how to simply update a "RENEW A SUBSCRIPTION" with Blogger. I have however, found the Update your payment options and have done that. But an email from Blogger says I must checkmark the auto renew also, which is hidden somewhere to me, lol.

Thanks, Lisa

LITTLE FARM SIGN

Here is a cute little farm sign that I recently made.

I just made it for fun to hang up around the chickens and the cows.

I saw a similar one on Pinterest and I just kind of went with it.

I first painted the wood cutting board red and then I freehanded the words in pencil.
that way I could erase and try again if something was way off.

But overall I like how it turned out.

Happy crafting ya'll,
-Lisa

FIVE ON FRIDAY from the lil' FARM

Linking up today with FIVE on FRIDAY to share a few random pics of my lil' ole' farm life.

Here's to the farm life ya'll.

I welcome 6 new baby Bantam (we call Baneys) chicks on May 30, 2016!  

I watched ole' Large (I named 3 of them Small, Medium and Large) play "kick the can" with a plastic bucket for about 15 minutes or so before tiring of it.

I was elated when a roll of hay that got away from me ended up FINALLY stopping on a section of barbed wire fencing.  Otherwise it would've went all the way down in the creek. Shew~

I watched as a single deer checked on the progress of the grapevines as I done the morning dishes.

And most off all, throughout the week, I stayed happy despite having to put up with a lot of.....

I hope you enjoyed my week all wrapped up in pics! And thanks much to Amy over at FIVE on FRIDAY for hosting the linkup!

See ya'll next time,

~Lisa