Little joys | Ice cream dish switch-a-roo

Posted in Little joys by

Little Joy Ice Cream Dish

Little Joys are little bits of crafty happiness!

Every year the Easter bunny would visit our house and leave Easter baskets full of fun treats. It was highlight of Easter morning…next to my Mom’s Almond Bread. :) Now that we are older, we usually try and add a little treat at the dinner table for each person. Use these inexpensive ice cream dishes for holding chocolate or jelly beans, and then switch them out at the end of the night for serving individual ice cream scoops! Easy and super cute.

MATERIALS

  1. Ice cream dish
  2. Candy of your choice
  3. Green paper grass
  4. Ice cream & spoon (Not pictured)

Materials

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1:

Put a little green filler inside the ice cream dish.

Step 1

Step 2:

Put a few candies on top.

Step 2

Step 3:

Use as candy dishes around the house, or place at each person’s place setting for Easter dinner.

Ice Cream Dish

Step 4:

Switch-a-roo time…replace the candy (and paper grass) with ICE CREAM! How awesome is that?!

Ice Cream Dish

Hope you have a wonderful Easter with your friends and family!

Stitch Little Joys

Concrete casting class | Makerhaus

Posted in Classes & Workshops by

concrete planter

Recently I took a concrete casting class from Makerhaus in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. Makerhaus is this great studio of “maker” equipment such as laser cutters, 3D printers and a complete wood shop. They offer monthly memberships as well as classes. I decided that I wanted to try a class, so I signed up for Concrete Casting!

First you create your mold. Then you mix and pour the cement. Fast forward to a week later and the removal of the mold. I went for a more basic piece, however some of the people in the class got much more creative with their materials.

Here is a few photos of my experience.

Concrete planter

I enjoy my planter so much, I may bring it to work to sit on my desk. But for now they found a nice little home in my family room. :)

Concrete planter

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DIY |Spring grass table decor

Posted in Tables by

Spring grass table decoration

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love a cute bunny decoration…but if you aren’t a bunny person (gasp!) and you want a spring decoration this April, this DIY is quick and easy and will freshen up any table.

Note: I bought these mini mushrooms a few months back from Shop Sweet Lulu. It doesn’t look like they have them anymore but you can find them on The Piece by Piece on Etsy, and here on Terrain.

MATERIALS

  1. Container of wheat grass
  2. Mini mushrooms
  3. Plastic sandwich bag
  4. Berry basket
  5. Scissors

Materials

Step 1:
Cut your sandwich bag in half. Discard the top portion.
step_1

Step 2:
Remove your wheat grass from the container over a garbage can. Trim off about half of the bottom root portion off. This makes a mess so do it carefully over the garbage. You can also take this time to give your grass a little haircut!
Step 2

Step 3:
Now slip the trimmed grass bundle into the sandwich bag and place it into your berry basket.
Step 3

Step 4:
Straighten out the grass so it fills the container nicely.
Step 4

Step 5:
Now take 2 floral mushrooms and place them towards the front of the basket.
Step 5

You can stop there, or you can add extra spring accessories to your container like pinwheels!

Place them on each table setting, or in the center of your spring table! Enjoy!
Easter berry container

Stitch - Craft ta dah

DIY | Spice jar organization

Posted in Organization by

spice jar organizer

Awhile back I acquired a industrial rack from Haven Vintage on Etsy. I wanted to use the rack for hanging and displaying items on the wall in my studio. A few months later along came some extra Crate and Barrel mini oval spice jars from my coworker. Then the brilliant idea came to me…why not use these to hang from the rack! Insert pat on the back. :)

Plus it was a great excuse to use my awesome embossing Dymo. Every house had one of these growing up in the 70′s and 80′s! I wish I still had my Mom’s vintage one but this one I got at my neighborhood Ace Hardware. This DIY will take you all about 5 to 10 minutes….awesome!

MATERIALS

  1. Dymo labeler (optional)
  2. Hanging spice jars
  3. Light duty s-hooks

Materials

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1:

Gather up the items you want to store in your spice jars. These will be small items like nails, screws, mini clothespins, stickies, paper clips, eyelets, needles, etc.

Step 2:

Use your Dymo to create your labels.

Step 1

Step 3:

Adhere them to your spice jars.

Step 3

Step 4

Step 4:

Hang them up using the S-hooks.

Spice jar organizer

Easy peasy!

Stitch - Craft ta dah

Little Joys | Le Parfait 3 Liter Jar

Posted in Organization by

Giant canning jar

Little Joys are little bits of happy craftiness!

I have accumulated more paper straws than I use in a year. They have been moved from room to room, cupboard to drawer. And as much as I love them, I don’t use them as often as I’d like. They needed a home, and preferably a covered one.

That is when I came across this Le Parfait 3 Liter jar from Crate and Barrel. It was tall enough to store the straws and keeps them away from the elements.

Now that they are out on my counter I suppose I will use them more often!

Stitch Little Joys

DIY | Jeweled cuff bracelet

Posted in Jewelry by

Cuff bracelet

I don’t shop at Forever 21. I know a few friends who do, and they always seem to find the perfect piece that doesn’t scream I’m having a mid-life crisis. I am not one of those people. My body has changed into a more “womanly” shape in my older years so I need to shop at other locales.

That being said, Forever 21 sometimes is a great place to find trendy jewelry that you don’t want to pay outrageous prices for. This latest trendy jewelry is the jeweled cuff bracelet. Now of course the one I fell in love with was over $200 and from Anthro. Not happening.

I went on a search for some vintage brooches or jeweled necklaces to see if I could re-create the look. I found some amazing ones on Etsy, and I couldn’t come to cut apart the vintage brooches from my Grandmother…so I turned to the jewelry section at Forever 21 for my material. I braved the throngs of young’ins and found the perfect necklace for this DIY.

MATERIALS:

  1. Inexpensive jeweled necklace (approx 2″ in height)
  2. 1.5″ wide raw brass cuff bracelet
  3. Wire cutters
  4. LePage Epoxy Steel (or equivalent)

Tip: I have used This To That (Glue Advice) website to help me figure out what glue works on what surfaces. So far three of my crafts have worked perfectly with their glue advice!

materials

TIME TO COMPLETE:

15-20 minutes assembly, plus 1 hour drying time.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Step 1:

Using the wire cutters, cut off the portion of the necklace that you want to use for your bracelet. This may be the center portion of the necklace or maybe parts of it. if you are using a brooch, cut off the pin portion on the backside.

step 1

Step 2:

Squeeze some of the epoxy in a separate container. This epoxy from Ace Hardware came with a plastic tray in the packaging.

Step 2

Step 3:

Mix the epoxy together with a small disposable stick.

Step 3

Step 4:

Apply the epoxy to the backside of the jeweled piece and on the cuff.

Step 4

Step 5:

Hold in place for a bit until the glue begins to set. Approximately 10 minutes. Set aside and let sit for a full hour before wearing it.

Step 5

Now you are ready to wear your new creation!

Cuff bracelet

Stitch - Craft ta dah

Craft Book | Craftydermy

Posted in Craft books by

wire bird

Sometimes you need a little break from creating your own crafts, and all you want is for someone else to give you the instructions! This is where craft books come to the rescue. They are chalk full of awesome crafts and DIYs to choose from. Plus, you might get inspiration for your own craft.

To supplement my latest obsession of faux taxidermy, I purchased Craftydermy by Tracey Benton. It has some awesome animal and taxidermy inspired DIYs. This is just the first one I started with so I’m sure you’ll see more posts on this book.

This DIY by Hayley Dix requires 1.2mm black annealed wire, wire cutters, pliers, glass bell jar, and a wood base.

craftydermy book

You will be seeing more crafts from this book in the near future. :) If you love faux taxidermy as much as I do, you’ll definitely want to pick up a copy of this book!

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