Monthly Archives: November 2011

One Hit Wonders

  By Karah | November 30, 2011 - 8:00 am | crafty, free, holiday
42 Comments

I do believe I am a minimalist.  We don’t have a lot of stuff, we don’t feel we need many things, I tend to not craft just to make something crafty and I need to hear quite a convincing argument to spend money on decor type items.  So, when I started on the little Crafty Christmas Tree Challenge I wasn’t exactly sure what would come of it. There is a budget of $20, but to me that just means “let’s see by how much I can come in below budget, shall we?”. So, here are a few ornaments I tried, that cost a total of ZERO dollars, but didn’t make it past the One Hit Wonder category for various reasons. One Hit Wonder #1 – Bead Snowflake I actually really like how this ornament turned out. We’ve had these beads for close to 10 years, they are left over from a pull chain project I made in Indy after we added a privacy fence around our back yard.  Of course, 10 year old random beads made the essentials list for the move here. Other items on said list were discussed here and here.  I had pinned this inspiration picture from Christmas-Projects.com. They give a basic tutorial on their site.  But, for some strange reason, I didn’t just happen to have a wire star or any soldering equipment on hand.  Weird, I know.  ;)  But, I did have some basic craft wire and a whole big bunch o’ determination. I cut the wire into 4 equal lengths, about 6 inches long.  I first thought I could use some needle nose pliers to just bend the wire around itself to form a solid center area.  I thought wrong.  It was quite gangley and had no structure integrity to speak of.  And, boy do … Continue reading →

Sea Urchin Snow women

  By Karah | November 28, 2011 - 8:00 am | crafty, holiday, nature, nearly free
29 Comments

As part of the Mega Crafty Christmas Tree challenge I have been gettin’ down right crafty up in here.  Well, that is a matter of opinion, I know, but check out this cutie. I know, right!?!  Adorable I think. Remember my little shopping trip a couple of weekends ago full of five finger discounts?  I had found a few of these, and combined with a few I already had, I made these cute little sea urchin snow women (I admitted to viewing the entire non-gendered world as feminine here).  They fit right in with what seems to be becoming my handmade coastal Christmas tree. The process took just a few minutes over the course of a few days. I first painted each urchin white just for a more uniform color, glued 3 together and let them sit overnight.   Then I glued on a little rope ribbon for scarf.  I actually like how it frays to really look like a real scarf. Then I used the handle end of a small paint brush and black paint to add eyes, a mouth and buttons.  I wanted to use a black marker but couldn’t find one, I’m sure that would work too.  I thought of adding a hat, or other features like an orange nose, but I worried it would get too crafted looking, which for me means I’d screw it up. So I decided they’re wicked cute as is.  :) And, the holes in each urchin is perfect to feed ribbon through for a hanger.  Just cut the ribbon longer than you think you’ll need and tie a knot in the end, then use a slim paint brush handle or something similar to coax it up through the 3 sea urchins. A close up of me actually putting the ribbon up the bottom … Continue reading →

Nesting

  By Karah | November 25, 2011 - 11:53 am | free, holiday, nature
5 Comments

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!  I sure do hope everyone had a phenomenal day and ample opportunity to relish in all that you are thankful.  I am thankful beyond words and extraordinarily humbled by all of my life’s blessings.  :) So, growing up I always remember having a bird’s nest in our Christmas tree.  Is that weird? I don’t know where my mom got it.  Or where she got the idea to put it in our Christmas tree.  But, it was real, and it was there every year.  Do regular people do this?  Oddly, I don’t ever recall seeing anyone else having a bird’s nest in their Christmas tree. Hmmmm… But, this weirdness has stuck with me.  When we were living in Maryland and a robin’s nest and broken egg found it’s way to our back yard after a storm I snatched it up and new exactly what I was going to do with it.  An appearance in our Christmas tree every year it did make.  And now it makes it’s home in storage.  Now, even that seems little weird to me. But, when I was on the patio the other day making more driftwood Christmas trees (more on those here) this literally blew up into my space.  And I immediately thought “bird’s nest”.  It actually kind of looks like it was on it’s way there, maybe the early works of something grand by some little island bird.  Sorry dude, it’s mine now.  ;) And, I immediately pictured it in my Christmas tree.  (Is that weird?)  So, there it went. Nestled in all snug like.  Then, a few days later when I was making some ornaments with these… I had this idea. Isn’t it adorable?  It’s a baby sea urchin nest.  How very coastal Christmas. Yes, I realize it looks a … Continue reading →

Procrasti-cleaning with a festive result

  By Karah | November 23, 2011 - 8:39 am | crafty, free, holiday, wedding
37 Comments

It really is more like procrasti-organizing in my case, but the chances I use a 7 syllable word correctly is slim so I needed to dumb it down for my own comfort.  :)  Lucky for me the end result this time was this. But, seriously, do you ever find yourself cleaning or organizing something when you really should be doing something else.  Should be working out?  Let me just make sure the kitchen is super duper clean, not sure I put everything in alpha order in the fridge last I checked.  Need groceries that I should have gotten 3 days ago?  I really NEED to just make sure the cabinet in that other room is all in order, and dusted, and labeled.  See what I’m sayin’? So it really is no shocker that when I was trying to come up with crafty little Christmas ornament ideas for the Mega Crafty Christmas Tree Challenge I got just a wee bit side tracked. I thought, in order for me to really be able to be inspired I need to procrasti re-organize this cabinet we have with random stuff in it.  It’s where I’ve been haphazardly stashing all my random crafty supplies and anything somewhat related to craftiness.  But, also in this cabinet is a bag o’ stuff.  You know the bag, the one where you throw random stuff you’re not quite sure what else to do with, or stuff you have an eventual plan for, just not a plan for executing the plan.   Yeah, that bag.  (Clearly this all went down at night.) I haven’t looked in my bag since we moved to this little island which means I’ve been accumulating stuff for over 2 years.  I really don’t know how it started, but next thing I knew I had a couch o’ … Continue reading →

Five Finger Discounts

  By Karah | November 22, 2011 - 8:34 am | crafty, free, holiday, home decor, nature
7 Comments

Oh, remember the days of large craft supply stores with after holiday deep discounts, add a coupon and you can buy the next 3 years worth of tissue paper, decor accessories and ribbon for $2.50? What, you still have that?  Right, it’s just me who has moved to a little island where the craft supplies stores are barely bigger than a bread box and if you see something you may just want someday down the road, be sure to buy it now.  Because there’s no such thing as a real sale and there are no guarantees it will be restocked when it’s gone.  Like ever again. Instead, I just go for the five finger discounts.  No, not at the store!  At the shore.  :) Where we are lacking the usual shopping conveniences that I once new when living in the states, I am overjoyed at the abundance I have of these. So, when I decided to take on this little challenge… I knew exactly where to start looking for supplies. A couple of hours on a drizzly Saturday morning with these characters… And here was our take. Now, what do I do with it all?  Is that a light bulb?  Will this all become Christmas decor? So, the Mega Crafty Challenge is to decorate a whole tree, at least 4 feet tall, with homemade ornaments for under $20 (cost of tree and lights not included).  The kicker for me is that I actually made my own tree out of driftwood, check out my process here. Yes, I do realize this picture makes it looks like the tree is just less than 4 feet.  But, it’s not, I swear!  It was the challenge of doing a one-arm-stretched-out-photo-while-holding-a-tape-measure-trying-to-get-all-relevant-info-into-in-the-picture.  It’s just the angle. Really! That’s why I took the close up too. And, … Continue reading →