Twas a Crafty Crafty Saturday

Feb 10, 2010 | Hometastic Goodness

I mentioned getting crafty this past Saturday and promised pictures. Herewith, the promised fulfilled! As I’ve shared with you, I’ve been hoping to make our place feel more “homey” but we are living on a very tight budget, so I’ve been working on getting creative in making the place feel like home without spending anything. And the Lord blessed us with the wonderful photos of Asher to help! I’ve been inspired by a blogger called the Nester, and her trademark saying, It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

The week before last we drove to a few different wood cutting places to see if they might have any off-cuts we could play around with and perhaps use to decorate the place. We came home with a bunch of totally random stuff. Different shapes and sizes, and wood types … a bedraggled lot they were. (It’s a word, look it up!) We thought for a while about different ideas of things to do with our random wood pile. Mark made a picture frame for me, but I think I want to paint it and will share the pictures when it’s done. We also painted a wee piece of wood and gave it some hooks to hang my aprons on which I forgot to take a picture of, so I’ll have to share that later, too. Sowwy!

In the meantime, I wanted to share a wallspace-taker-upper we came up with that makes me smile every time I walk past. We’ve yet to come up with a name for it so let me know if you have an idea. And remember the theme is It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful before you start thinking it’s too rustic or college dorm-esque! We started with a pretty piece of (free!) wood which then received seven evenly placed nails by Hero Hubby. He drilled holes through it and we took a broken guitar string off my guitar (I have been lazy to change it because I haven’t been playing lately) to use as a wire hanger to attach my hanging ribbon to. Then I played around with photos, notecards, old birthday cards, ribbons and even Christmas ornaments to arrive at:

I Need a NameTell me you love it even if you don’t! haha I love it and am so pleased to have a bit more of the tons of white wall space covered around here at the awesome cost of $0 and an enjoyable Saturday afternoon doing something fun together! What was that? You’d like a closer look? I thought you’d never ask!

Closer Look

I am really pleased with my nice hangingwallthingthatneedsaname. I was given that birthday card ages ago and just couldn’t let it go (thanks, BB!) The notecard is Isaiah 26:3 if you’re straining to figure it out. And the bottom right photo of Asher on his car is one of the ones they gave me at the grocery store for next to nothing. I already had the other photos printed out from ages ago.

Here’s the Beautiful Breakdown:

Wood: Free
Nails: Free
Photos: Next to free
Raffia String Stuff for Tying: Counts as free because it was already in the craft bucket.
Christmas Ornaments, Birthday Cards, Ribbon, etc.: Same story
Having some wall space covered with stuff that makes me smile: Priceless.

There’s more to share from our Crafty Crafty Saturday, and it’s on the way. In the meantime, I’d love feedback. Especially before we have guests over and they think I’m a fruit loop for hanging this on my wall! Tell the truth! 🙂

Crafty Last Minute Budget Christmas Decor Or Gift Idea

Dec 21, 2009 | Hometastic Goodness

I just thought I’d see how many adjectives I could fit into that title. Should I have thrown in a few more for good measure? Anyway…I got crafty again yesterday. And I thought I’d tell you about it in case you felt like getting crafty, too! My mother-in-law was hoping to get a wreath or something festive to put on the door, and with the general budget-keeping and crafty nature I’ve found myself in lately I said, “Why don’t we make something!?!”

I suggested using some ribbon or bows and eventually found myself starting at a circle you can arrange flowers in (please tell me what to call it so I can update this post and not sound like a ninnymuggins), a bag of ribbons and bows, some tape, and no clue what I was going to do. Here are said items…

BowsoAll Your Base are Belong to Us

I stared at everything for a while and then decided, “Well, I’ll just get started and see what happens.” I started by taping a shiny piece of string to the base so that it would be easy to hang the wreath (pictured later). In the bow bag, I found one of those silvery wrapper things that a store-bought bouquet of flowers comes in. I started cutting it into strips, and then made the delightful discovery that I could cut the edges into a fringe and curl them with scissors the way you curl ribbon on a gift.  So this became the bottom layer. (I decided to flip the flower sticking thing oasis over since it was easier to tape stuff to the plastic side.)

Bottom Layer

Since Mark and I decorated the tree in a sort of bright-pastel theme, I decided to choose some bows in keeping with the colour scheme. I untied one of the bows (and stabbed my palm with scissors in the process — be careful!) and began layering it around the circle. I suppose it was around this point when I started to think this project had some potential and I started getting excited. 🙂

Layer Two

I chose a nice matching green for the next layer, and layered it in the spaces between the pink loops.

Layer Three

Next I found a ribbon that looked like it would go nicely in the middle. Since it was wire-tied, I poked some holes through the other ribbons into the oasis (Mark has now told me it’s called that) and pushed the bow’s wires through to the other side. I was excited because this bow was really shiny and I love polka-dots.

Layer Four

Finally, I decided a few old Christmas ornaments we didn’t put on the tree might add a bit of interest and colour, so I tied them in with one of the strands of the bow that I’d just added. I added a little bit of blue ribbon for a splash of different colour and because the ornaments were kind of rough around the edges. I arrived at this delightful sight…

Cheery On Top

I thought at this point we could add some greenery around the edges, but my mother-in-law liked it just the way it was, and we hung it on the door! I think this would potentially be an adorable (and wonderfully inexpensive) wee gift, that you could put in an interesting container, like a cake tin or a hat box. You might prefer to use some slightly more ‘Christmasy’ colours in your neck of the woods…which I think would be just fine! 🙂

So here’s the final product! If you give it a try yourself, PLEASE let me know!

On the Do