HOW TO HAUNT YOUR HOUSE BOOKS 1-3

HOW TO HAUNT YOUR HOUSE BOOKS 1

Check out my new post on http://salemdarkhallow.blogspot.com

Dark Hallow for Halloween books how to haunt your house and see what wonderful creepy things you can create on a budget. The project in these books will have you feeling like a Hollywood prop expert in no time!

Remember

Have Fun Doing What You Love

            and 

Love What You Are Doing!!

Free Wallet Pattern

my personal wallet front

flower hand made

back

closure 

open view outside

open view inside

Have you ever looked at wallets and just didn't like them? Wanted one that just screamed your name ?Just so you? Well now you can have one that expresses your personality as well as the pride in saying I made that.
They also would make great gifts and the number of styles are only limited by your imagination! I used a tut ,but changed the material combination a little.I bought this fabric  before Christmas ,I just loved it.And the pattern didn't call for a lot of material.I used scraps for the pink-orngish and green strips.i also cut my strip material on a slops that gave it a climbing effect leading up to my flower i sewed on the front flap. I just loved the flower and the colors went great with this pattern.I love the finished wallet .

So if you have some Favorite material some scraps and time  give this a try and make a wallet that just screams at you . 

Below is the links to the wallet and flower tutorial I used to create my wallet and thanks to the ladies that share all these wonderful talents  with us everyday

 http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c72ee53ef00e55219846f8833

 http://darnkat.wordpress.com/quilted-fabric-wallet-tutorial/

And as always 

Remember

Love What You Are Doing

and

Do What You Love

Homemade Caramel Recipe

caramel in a can

I have made caramel in the past.Stood over the stove and stirred for what seemed like hours.

It is a long ,hot,sticky mess  that taste heavenly. But rarely made because of the expense and long process, right?

Well imagine my excitement when I came upon this simple method on Pinterest.

I thought...no way is it that simple.

Yet it was. As I have been told this is not a new method,but I wanted to share this with you so if you never heard of it(like me") you can make some as well.

First this is a soft dipping caramel not hard.If you want hard there is only one way I know of to make it.....stand over the hot stove.but if you want to dip apples or anything else then this is the recipe for you.

First some things you will need

crock pot

any size can sweet condensed milk

water

Directions

place your sweet condense milk in the crock pot,fill it with water until it covers the can.Turn it on medium and place lid on top.

Now go sit down and relax.

8 hours later take the can out (careful it is very hot) and place it in the refridare 

can right from the fridg

Leave it in there until it is completely cold or overnight .

take it out and open it to see all that soft caramel .

Sweet caramel right in the can!

Place it in a container and that's it.

simple,sweet and no mess.

Remember all crock pots cook different so try to 

remember the time when you make 

it.Record how long it took on what setting  so you can 

get it  just the way you like it.

Also I like to leave mine in the container and place back

 in the fridge for about 2 

days.To me it seems to taste better and get

 smoother.Again this is to your taste.

Who knew a treat like this could be that simple.

Now go and make your family (or yourself) happy and 

make some caramel!

Remember

Have fun doing what you love

and

Love what you are doing!

Re-purposing all Kinds of paper

 Brian Dettmer

 Doing my usual searching  I came across some amazing art work using old books.I would never have thought that you could make something so simple as old books turn into something that was as awesome as this. His name is Brian Dettmer or the book surgeon.  I wanted to share his link with you so you can see his work.Just think of all the books that would have rotted ,filled up the land fills or been burnt( I discovered all books do not get recycled due to the large spine!Who knew?!!!)  I think he has created true masterpieces here. click the link below to go to his homepage and discover that you can do more with a book than read it

.http://briandettmer.com/

 Brian Dettmer

 Brian Dettmer

 Brian Dettmer

 All photo's belong to Brian Dettmer.

Remember
Love what you are doing
and
Do what you love!

Photo Light box tutorial from Luthien

image is the property of Luthien

 I have often wondered how Luthien took great images of her art.They are very professional looking and inspiring.I love her work very much.So when I saw this tut she had on devantart i was so excited!She shows you how to make a light box like the one she  uses. Above is the image of   Luthien s   finished box and as you can see it looks very simple to  make. I am in the process of finishing my box .Mine is different than hers as I used the materials I had on hand.It was modeled after hers and so far it works great here is a image i took with my simple camera.(remember I have not finished mine yet.)

As you can see I still have some things to 

solve on mine but they took better pictures than I get with just my camera and house light . If you want to make one head on over to http://luthien27.deviantart.com/#/d4j6hu8

no flash

and follow the tutorial 
And if you do make one give her a thanks on her comments .
You can also visit her on her blog at http://www.alteredalchemy.com/ and view the great art she makes !  She sells  on esty as well.If you are interested here is that link http://www.etsy.com/shop/alteredalchemy

with flash

Now go build your light box and take some great pictures!!






Remember 
Have fun doing what you love
and 
Love what you are doing!

Cotton plant Christmas ornament tutorial .

SNOW BURST

   As   promised here is the tut on making a Christmas ornament out of a cotton plant.This is a easy craft to do but it is very pretty when the lights from the tree hit the glitter.Oh how they sparkle! I live in the south and cotton plants are not hard to find here,but I do not know if you can purchase cotton online .

cotton in the field

Materials
cotton plant ( I got mine from local farmer)

 hot glue gun and glue sticks

glitter ( your choice but I like the fine iridescent glitter)
white craft paint (again your choice)
paintbrushes (not big ones ,use what you need to paint the snow burst)
ribbon(I like all kind but like anything else its what you like)
bowl (to catch the glitter for reuse.just pour back in glitter battle )

image 1

First you need to cut the cotton bulb off the stem. What you want is the husk or open bulb see image 1 . Then you need to remove the cotton from the bulb.This is easy to do just gently pull cotton out. See image 2 and 3.

image 2

image 3

Now take the husk apart by gently moving them back and forth while holding one side

hull broken apart 

drop of glue on torn end

Now using your glue gun place a drop of glue on the end of the hull.This is the end your broke from the other hulls not the pointy tip.Now add another hull to the one with glue on it. Hold a few seconds so it will cool and stay on. You want to alternation the hull position meaning the wider side and the sides with the indention should not always face each other.Neither should they always be facing away from  each other.see the image 4.

put another hull on the tip of the glued one 

hull position  image 4




Now take another hull and place it at the top and one at the bottom,. Making a star figure.see image 5 

image 5

this is the shape you want  for the bass

Now place a hull in center of star ( image 6) and another hull on the other side in the middle  of the star 

image 6

 Now keep adding hulls in between  to form a star burst like shape
See the images below .There is no wrong way to add the hulls .Keep adding
till you get the look that you want.

keep adding hulls

add hulls till you get the shape you want

finishes snow burst

 These are my finished snow burst.Remember each will be different.

Add caption

 Now take your white pant and cover the snow burst completely.This will need to be painted 2 times because the cotton hull soaks up the paint.Make sure to get in all the corners and hiding places .

paint snow burst

While the paint is still wet take your glitter and hold your snow burst over a bowl(to catch the excess glitter.you can reuse this ) Sprinkle glitter all over the snow burst making sure to get all sides and the insides.

 Now after it has completely dried take your ribbon and glue it in one of the hulls in the center of the burst. You can take a small bristle paint brush and paint the glue white if you wish ,being careful not to paint the ribbon where it shows

Ribbon added to dry snow burst 

 That's it! Now you can create an heirloom that you can hand down to your children and so forth.It's using nature to create and repurposed at its best. i enjoyed making these and my best friend already wants to make some for next year christmas gift! Below are some images of them on my tree.See how they sparkle? my camera could not do them justice.I hope you enjoyed this tut and if you have any questions please ask away!

 Remember 
Have fun doing what you love
and 
Love what you are doing!