The Angry Pincushion

If you like cute, you'll love this post...

2011-06-01T21:33:00.009-05:00

Hey all! It's been awhile...again...yes I know I keep doing that. Didn't I warn you that I was a bad blogger?! Anywho, here's a little preview of what's been keeping me so busy.

Cute eh? Long story short: A stray female cat shows up in my backyard near starving and pregnant in Febuary, several months later she is doing well(she is going to be spayed asap), and all five of her babies are turning 8 weeks this coming Saturday.

I named them after characters from Star Trek Next Generation(huge fan here!)--Troi, Q, Worf, Hugh, and Barclay. Hoping to find loving homes for them soon! There is a DIY bit to this post...see down below the neato kitten mansion I made out of cardboard boxes.

Play box

Upcycled- clear lid to a fast food salad turned into a window in the play box.
Too bad duct tape is so darn ugly...

Easter Egg Leftovers

2011-04-15T20:03:00.005-05:00

Pearly Easter Eggs

I'll be the first to admit that I am a crappy blogger, I get ideas and then am either too busy to do anything about it, or just don't feel like putting all the effort into not only making the project but then photographing the process, which can be VERY tedious! Still, The Angry Pincushion and my blogging skills are a work in progress, and I am okay with that, I hope you are too! :)

With that being said, I have to admit that while I can normally come up with several crafty ideas for any given holiday, I have a really hard time with Easter, my mind kinda goes blank when it comes around. Eggs, bunnies, and chicks have been done a billion times and different ways, and it's sometimes hard to find inspiration or ideas for something new. However I did post an Easter egg project two years ago, and since I am having "crafter's block" with Easter right now I will post this craft left over and hope you get some inspiration from it.

-Pearly Easter Eggs- April 8th, 2009

Leftover Easter project anyone?....anyone?

Cuddly Rigor Mortis Auctions Original Painting for Japan

2011-03-29T18:33:00.008-05:00

I've blogged about Cuddly Rigor Mortis many times before, like for Valentine's Day, and remember when Perry imitated art? Well the lovely lady behind Cuddly Rigor Mortis, Kristin Tercek, is not only amazingly talented, but she has a big heart too! :) Kristin is using her incredible artistic talent to raise money to help benefit Japan by auctioning a beautiful original painting with a cherry blossom theme titled "Mono No Aware" on ebay. All proceeds from the sale of the painting will go to the Red Cross. It measures 6.5" x 9.25", acrylic paint on a beveled wood plaque. It's sealed with a high gloss finish, and it's signed with the title and year and has a small hanger on the back.

The bidding ends for this great painting in just two days, so you better put it on your ebay watch list asap!

Kristin captures the breathtaking beauty of the cherry blossom perfectly...

Face detail

I'm Baaaaack!

2011-03-27T16:16:00.012-05:00

I apologize for being MIA for almost the whole month of March, but I swear I haven't been laying around eating chocolates(does anyone REALLY do that?). My 90 year old Grandma fell in the beginning of March and broke her arm, so I have been taking care of her during the day, & that takes up alot of time and energy. Then the rest of my days are spent doing house chores like dishes, dusting, laundry, and it seems like I am forever vacuuming up cat hair, sounds like an exciting life eh? Not only have I been busy/tired, but the Winter of 2011 has decided to hang on for dear life into late March, and it's starting to look like it might even be around for April! Argh! It's been so dreary, cloudy, damp and icky here in NE, it even snowed this weekend :( Family stress and crappy weather aside I feel like I have some free time coming to me and I'm gearing up for some Spring and Summer DIYish things.

I don't have a craft, recipe or other helpful info to post today, I would however like to share something with you that I discovered about a week ago that I am in love with. I came across an Etsy store called Fable and Fury, and they make the neatest laser cut stainless steel necklaces and earrings, very artistic! My favorite are the little deer earrings posted below.

So cute!

This store has something for everyone, including silhouettes of the likes of David Bowie, Vincent Price, Johnny Cash, and H.P Lovecraft, and animals like owls, cats, and Jackalope-(yes, a Jackalope is an animal)-just to name a few designs. Love Edgar Allen Poe? How about wearing him around your neck? Nevermore wear a boring necklace....

The Octopus Girl below looks like something from a Victorian horror novel, so naturally I love it! :) Seriously, go check Fable and Fury out, you won't be disappointed with what you find.

Ahoy Mateys!

March Madness

2011-03-03T16:52:00.006-06:00

Pot'o'gold

I know St. Patrick's is still a few weeks away, but it's never too soon to start crafting and preparing. Here are the links to some past posts I did on Patty's Day crafts and even a recipe for regular and Vegan corned beef and cabbage.

Vegan Corned Beef

-At the End of the Rainbow, and Vegan Corned Beef

-A Fanciful Shamrock

A Fanciful Shamrock

Awesome Cross Stitchery

2011-02-20T13:44:00.007-06:00

Britta's cross stitch button masterpieces, from the top: Squirrel, Abstract design, Mushrooms, and Hedgehog.

Angry P's partner in craft Britta has quite a talent for creating awesomeness ( her felt advent calendar was so popular that I featured it 2x) and her new cross stitch designs are no exception. Britta said that she used a make your own cross stitch buttons kit to make the buttons in the above picture, and instead of using the already provided designs, she came up with her own using Cross Stitch Pro software. She said each button took about 5 hours to complete. Britta's favorite is the mushrooms, and it's mine too! :D

Since I am a fan of the Double Rainbow video(who isn't?) I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I saw that Britta had captured the essence of double rainbow in the uber cute cross stitch below. Love it!!

Double Rainbow! Oh my God! So intense!

Check out more of Britta's nifty projects, cross stitch and her nail art on her Cut Out+Keep profile, and her blog.

Perry the Love Bandit

2011-02-14T00:02:00.001-06:00

Perry and I wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!

Matchbox Valentine

2011-02-11T10:07:00.016-06:00

You set my heart ablaze Valentine! ;)

If you've been looking for a unique and punny-(that's pun and funny put together, as if you couldn't figure that out)-Valentine to make for your sweetheart look no further! I think this is pretty neato, but then again it was my idea, so call me biased. Not only is this matchbox Valentine fairly simple, but it's using something almost everyone has laying around in that "stuff" drawer, and if not a box of matches I'm sure is not that expensive at the drug store. Okay, I'll admit, the whole writing on the matches thing looks intimidating and it might not be for everyone, it does take a steady hand and a bit of patience. **Disclaimer**-this project is not for children, children and matches do not mix!

I would like to point out that while photographing this project I ran across some difficulty. Most of the steps needed two hands, but photographing with one hand and trying to perform the step with the other proved very hard indeed. I wondered for awhile how other craft bloggers have both hands in shot while photographing. Third hand? Camera gnomes? Then I realized that they are probably using a tripod, duh. Sorry, I don't have one of those yet, maybe next Christmas! :)

For this Valentine project you'll need:

A matchbox
Matches
Water
Clear nail-polish
Fine tip Sharpie markers or paint pens
Paper
Scissors
Glue or tape
A steady hand!

1. Begin by doing something very important, take as many matches as you think you might want to write a message on and soak them in water for at least 3 hours, I soaked mine overnight to be on the safe side. Then take them out of the water and let dry.
2. After each match is dry coat the tip with a little clear nail-polish to seal it and let it dry.

3. I know this picture is a little out of focus, but have you ever tried photographing a match? It's harder than one would think...anyway, this is the match after I penned a sweet message on it, using all four sides of the match to write the message out with a fine tip Sharpie in black and red. It's not as hard as it seems. The key is to hold the pen and the match very steady, and have good lighting. The message on this match is "You light my fire Valentine", corny yes, but you can write whatever you'd like. Have a whole match box full of important dates to you, or stick with corny and sweet match and fire jokes :D

4. After you have your clever messages, as many or as few as you'd like written on your matches, take a small sized match box, empty it of extra matches of course, and...
....lay it out on your blank piece of paper, you can mark the paper with pencil for the dimensions of the box, then cut out a strip of paper long enough to wrap around the match box, like a sleeve.
5. After you have your paper sleeve cut out you can draw whatever you want on it, match related or not, it's alllll up to you and how artsy you want to get. I thought a picture of a match along with the saying "I've met my match" would be perfect, and again very punny.

6. Using glue, I used a glue stick, you could also use tape, secure the sleeve tight around the box, making sure that the box can still slide in and out without trouble.

6. Put your message matches inside and close it up! Whoever you choose to give this to on Valentine's Day will definitely be surprised, just make sure they don't try and light the darn things! :)

Handmade Goodies For Valentine's

2011-02-03T19:20:00.011-06:00

I love Valentine's Day, I always have. When I was little I could hardly wait for my Mom to take my brother and I to the store to pick out those cheap boxed Valentines to give to my class mates, I'd embellish the envelopes with stickers and glitter, and when the teacher allowed us to I would even put conversation hearts in with the card. When I got older I enjoyed making Valentines for my boyfriends and family, and still do. Whoever you celebrate V-Day with, be it a significant other, family, friends, or even your pet, just remember that nothing says "I love you" like something handmade!

Here are a few fantastic handcrafted Valentine's goodies that anyone would love to receive on Feb. 14th :)

"L'amour Or Less" mounted giclee prints by Cuddly Rigor Mortis artist Kristin Tercek-

Ahhh, it's so cute!!!

Handmade warm fuzzies from Violet Pie's Etsy shop-

Valentine Deer

Valentine Bunny Matilda

'You Are My Sunshine' Necklace from Chocolate and Steel-This handcrafted fine silver necklace comes with a cubic zirconia stone, but can be customized with different birthstones, how cool is that?

Photoast

2011-01-29T12:27:00.002-06:00

For The Birds

2011-01-22T14:36:00.021-06:00

I am an avid bird feeder during the winter, I love my feathered friends and always try to provide them with a meal and a drink during this miserable time of year, can you tell I hate winter? :) There are a lot of projects floating around cyber-space right now for cutesy bird seed ornaments, bird houses made of bird seed, etc., and as awesome as all those projects are, I just wanted something simple I could throw together for the birds in less than half an hour. This project is so easy even kids can do it! So here it is-

You'll Need:

Bird seed(small seed works best)
Peanut Butter
Bread(stale works best for this)
Screwdriver, knife, awl- simply something to make a hole with.
Ribbon, twine, old shoelace

1. Using a screwdriver, or whatever you have on hand, poke a hole in a relatively stale piece of bread for the ribbon or twine. Don't have stale bread? Just let a piece sit out a few hours until it gets a little firm.2. After you have your hole punched, spread a layer of peanut butter on one side of the bread.
3. Take a handful of bird seed and sprinkle it on the layer of peanut butter.

4. Press the seed into the Peanut Butter to ensure it sticks.

5. Thread your ribbon or twine, through the hole you made earlier, use your hole making tool to help thread it through, if you need it.

6.After threading the ribbon through let this sit somewhere dry overnight before hanging outside to give the peanut butter time to firm up so it holds the bird seed better.

7. Hang one or more in a tree or a bush by slipping the ribbon over a branch and tying a knot at the top. Watch the birds devour their treat! Squirrels will love it too :)

Is It Spring Yet?

2011-01-14T15:52:00.007-06:00

Day-dreaming of the first signs of Spring...

Coooold reality

As I type this my fingers are freezing, the high temps around here have been in the teens, yes you saw that right...the teens. I have to admit that between the icky snow covering the ground, and the frigid cold I have been suffering from the winter doldrums and a bit of cabin fever, does anyone know if there is a prescription I can take for either? Stuck in the house 24-7, still a little worn out from all the Christmas festivities and stress, and not feeling much inspiration to do any sort of creative anything. I seem to go through this every January, however, yesterday I did come up with a few winter project ideas that might boost my spirits! I will be posting a new, very winter inspired project this week that I think nature lovers like myself will especially love!

By the way, I often complain about my camera on here, saying I can't get very good pictures for tutorials because of my camera, etc. Well now I have no excuse for bad pictures, or lack of them either! My parents got me a spiffy new Pentax D-SLR for Christmas, I almost fainted when I opened the package! And it's an awesome shade of red too! Look at it below in all it's red glory! :D

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Blog!

2010-12-24T13:25:00.006-06:00

Happy Holidays!

First I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday, and secondly I'd love to announce the arrival of my new baby blog: Collected.

I have always been an avid photographer, and have often found my most interesting subjects to be random collections of things. I got the wild idea this Fall to start a blog and post a new collection every week, and so Collected was born! It's first post will be tomorrow, Christmas, with a Christmas themed collection of course shown above. If I have good feedback and people are enjoying the blog I might even offer prints of my collections to purchase :)

All the collections I photograph are things from my very own home, and are often vintage or antique things. I hope you take some time to check out my new blog, and keep coming back in 2011 to The Angry Pincushion for more new stuffs!

Last Minute Gift Tags

2010-12-23T16:50:00.005-06:00

If you have any last minute shopping to do for Christmas you better get right on it! And if you have any presents to wrap, you should probably get started on that too :) I saw these festive and super cute free tags from Hip Hop Candy yesterday on their Facebook fan page, I think they'd make an excellent addition to any package. Happy wrapping everyone!

Crafty Repeat: Gingerbread Man Pin

2010-12-15T19:54:00.004-06:00

Original Post: December 15th 2008

If you are like me and love the smell of gingerbread you'll love wearing this unique pin! These are easy to make and cost almost nothing, are a great project to do with kids and make excellent teachers presents. And look how cute he is! You can use this recipe to make ornaments as well. I have had mine for years and can still say that he smells as good as the day I made him.

You'll need:

-1 cup brown sugar, packed
-1 cup shortening
-1 cup white glue (Elmers)
-2 cups molasses
-1 tablespoon baking soda
-1 tablespoon ground ginger
-6 to 8 cups all purpose flour
-1 and 3/4 cups water
-cookie cutters
-pin backs
-hot glue gun

You can certainly cut this recipe down depending on how many pins or ornaments you want to make. Remember these are NON-edible!

Mix the brown sugar and shortening together, add molasses and glue, mix well, set aside. Combine baking soda and ginger with 6 cups of flour, add this to the glue/brown sugar/etc. mixture and add the 1 and 3/4 cups water while mixing. Add enough remaining flour to make the mixture into a stiff dough and knead it well. Roll to about a 1/4 inch thickness and start cutting out your gingerbread men, and other shapes if you wish. If making ornaments using a straw poke holes in the dough for a string to be tied through. Place on an un-greased baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for one hour or until color is golden. Repeat with any remaining dough. To thoroughly dry gingerbread men, place them in the oven on oven racks and bake an additional 3 hours at 100 degrees. Let cool completely.

After gingerbread men are cool, using a hot glue gun glue a pin back onto the gingerbread man, let cool and you have a yummy smelling, cute holiday pin!

Advent Calendar

2010-12-02T14:58:00.012-06:00

As I was changing all my calendars to December yesterday I found myself thinking about a advent calendar I had when I was young. It was made of fabric, it was from Avon I believe since my Mom was an Avon lady, and had a little mouse that you moved to a new pocket everyday. I remember waking up in the morning excited to move the little mouse another day closer to Christmas. As I thought of my adorable advent calendar from my childhood I remembered another advent calendar I had featured on The Angry Pincushion several years ago by a talented, crafty, British gal named Britta. So for old times sake, and because this advent calendar is absolutely lovely, here once again is Britta's cuddly, felt advent calender!

Original Post- Dec. 17th 2008

I belong to a craft community forum called Cut Out+ Keep, it's an amazing site where anyone is allowed to post their crafty creations and how to's. I encourage anyone who loves to craft to check it out and sign up! Cut Out+ Keep is where I found Britta Jarvis's lovely felt advent calendar. The first time I saw this advent calendar I thought it might be one of the cutest things I had seen, so I wrote Britta and asked if I could showcase her work on my blog, and thank goodness she said yes! So here it is, all the way from the UK, the how to for this most festive, and adorable felt advent calendar made by Britta for her boyfriend! Thank you Britta!

You'll need:

-tracing paper
-various colored pieces of felt
-a few colors of embroidery thread
-a length of dowel or bamboo cane
-scissors
-needle
-small drill or hand drill

1. For your advent calendar you're going to need 25 days. I did 5 rows of 5 pockets to hold a sweet for each day. I decided to make the 25th day larger than the rest so it could hold more booty, but this also meant the the other 4 on its row were made slightly smaller. You can choose to do as I did or to leave them all the same size. First, draw out the pieces you're going to cut. I planned mine on tracing paper and then cut
around them to make the rectangles. I also made some simple felt christmassy shapes and sewed them on to every other rectangle in a checker-board fashion to decorate it.
2. Here are the rectangles laid out in sequence. The designs I added are a bell, holly, Christmas pudding, snowflake, snowman, candle, star, stocking, Christmas tree, present, mistletoe, a robin and a candy cane.

3. The next step is to embroider on numbers from 1 to 25 for the days of December. I dotted the dates around so it could be fun searching for the right pocket every day. I used back-stitch but I'm no sewing expert, so if you know a better way then go for it :)
4. Get a piece of felt large enough to back all the pieces, minus about 5 cm horizontally but plus enough vertically to be able to roll the top around your dowel and write a message... call it 5cm again. The 5cm horizontally is so that you can bunch up each pocket a bit and make them more pockety and able to hold sweets :)
5. Decide what message you'd like to write on the top of your advent calendar. I chose 'Merry Christmas!' but you might like to add a name in there of the person you're making this for. Cut out the letters from different colored felt and sew it on just touching the top line of pockets, leaving the rest of the felt free at the top. next, get your dowel and cut it to the width of your calendar plus 2cm either side, then get your drill and make a hole through each end 1cm from the end. Roll this into the top of the felt and sew the felt closed around it. Get some of your thread (I used about 35 cm) and tie it through the holes in your dowel so that you can hang it up.

6. Add sweets! This is a very important stage and will be noticed if you forget it! I try to get several types of sweet so that every day you get something different than the last. Hang up your completed advent calendar with pride!

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Thanks again Britta for this great tutorial and pictures, and I'm sure all my readers enjoy your advent calendar as much as I do! Check out more of Britta's creative stuffs on her blog, and her Cut Out+Keep page!

Pumpkin Pincushion & Decorations

2010-11-21T23:02:00.006-06:00

I know it's getting to be a little last minute for Thanksgiving crafts, however this project is pretty simple and one that can easily be accomplished in a few hours with a few materials, one of which you can find in your own backyard! :) Plus, you know I can't resist the urge to create a pincushion.

You'll Need:

Orange Fabric, I used an orange lightweight fleece.
Sewing supplies-Needles, thread, scissors, etc.
Thick twigs or sticks
Glue
Rice

I know I don't have any pictures of this project in the making, but I tried and found it extremely hard to take pictures while I'm working on things, especially when they involve sewing, sorry :( Maybe I need an assistant, any takers? :P Also, my current camera leaves alot to be desired in the whole DIY pictures area, still hoping to have that new camera soon. If only good cameras grew on trees and didn't cost an appendage.

How to:

Using a template if you want, like a lid, or a circle cut out of newspaper, cut out a circle from your orange fabric.
After you have your fabric circle cut out, use a simple running stitch to gather the edges and start forming your pumpkin.
After gathering the top of your pumpkin, fill most of the way with rice before you start to close it up. I used rice instead of fiber fill to give it a less "plush" look, and so these guys would set nicely on their bottoms. Fill pumpkin to your desired amount, more rice=plumper pumpkin, just remember to leave room for your stick "stem".
Insert the twig in the center of your pumpkin, gathering the fabric around it. Then using a glue gun, or fabric glue, run some glue around the stick where the fabric will meet it, just to make sure it stays in place.
Finish by tightly gathering the fabric the rest of the way around the stem, pull tight, holding fabric to glue for a few minutes. Then cut the thread and tie your knot!
Use your pumpkin for a pincushion or decoration. Make more than one, in a few different sizes, as pictured below for Thanksgiving, or also cute for Halloween!

Thanksgiving Plushies

2010-11-17T21:37:00.009-06:00

I often say that I inherited all my creative talent from my Martha Stewart like Mother. She is a crafty, domestic goddess and taught me well. That being said, have a look at these Thanksgiving plushies my Mom made! I love them, and think they are sooo cute!

My Mom used green felt for the stem, a fake fall leaf, and green wrapped floral wire for accent.

Turkey with a ric-rac and lace tail!!

Zombie Leaves

2010-11-09T19:05:00.004-06:00

It's that time of year again, time to rake up all those dead leaves laying around in the yard. What you may not know is that sometimes a few of these dead leaves rise again to become... zombie leaves!! :)

Happy Halloween & Last Minute Costumes

2010-10-31T06:29:00.005-05:00

Happy Halloween!
Perry loves dressing up.

Looking for a quick, easy, last minute costume that won't break the bank? How about looking through old magazines, I found Rolling Stone is best for this, and cutting out head sized covers. Using a pair of scissors cut out the face, and the eyes...cause you'll want to see right? Then using some elastic or rubber bands punch two small holes in the sides of the "mask" and make it to fit your head before tying a knot in each end.

Look at Bruce and Mr. Penn having a great time!

My turn as Shawn Penn, and a chance to creep my brother out.

Another last minute idea is from the goddess of Halloween crafting, Martha Stewart. I saw this idea the other day on her show to create a simple ribcage t-shirt for a fast costume. Instructions and the template are on her website.

Halloween Shakers

2010-10-30T16:39:00.021-05:00

I know it's the day before Halloween, but I just had to post this finished project. I hope it gives you some inspiration to create for next Halloween...or this Halloween, if you're right fast at whipping up craft projects!

These shakers are made in the style of Victorian Halloween noisemakers, made from simple and very inexpensive round paper-mache boxes, uncooked rice(for inside the box), wooden dowels, some decorative trim, a hot glue gun, fabric, and acrylic paint. Painting the faces on these is really the time consuming part. Look for inspiration for these in old Victorian Halloween decor and pictures, and Halloween folk art.

They kind of look like candy, don't they! :)

Pom-pom trim slightly aged on all the pumpkins.

Decorative braided trim glued around the edge.

Black felt ears.

Strips of Halloweeny fabric tied in bows around the base of the dowel.

Cheshire Grin

Halloween Boo-quet

2010-10-17T19:14:00.020-05:00

Boo-quet

For Valentine's Day you put red Roses on the table, for Easter, Lilies, Christmas bouquets are almost always Poinsettias, but what kind of a bouquet can you display for Halloween? How about a spooky BOOO-quet of dead flowers, & creepy looking seed pods!

I usually collect unique looking seed pods and dried flowers or seed heads during the fall and preserve them using clear acrylic coat before bringing them in to display or craft with. For Halloween I thought dead small Black Eyed Susans, or the seed heads, and a sprig of some random dried orange colored weed from the yard were perfect for this boo-quet. It was pretty simple, using a hand-held garden clipper I snipped the amount of Black Eyed Susan and unknown orange weed I wanted in my vase and then stuck them in, arranging them as I went, no water needed because they're dead!! Muahahahaha!

The small version of the Black Eyed Susans in my yard.

Of course AFTER I had finished this and uploaded my pictures I decided to take some of that fairly inexpensive fake spider webbing, that you can find at almost any craft or drug store, and drape it around in this arrangement. Then I added a fake plastic spider and voila! a whole new and more festively spooky boo-quet was born! Just too bad I didn't think about it before I photographed and uploaded all my photos. :(

If you want to try this you'll need:

Some sort of vase, or vessel for your arrangement.
Dried foliage, seed heads or pods, and or live flowers.
Clear Acrylic coat for dried things.
Fake spider web and fake spiders (optional)
Florist's foam, if you want to get fancy.
Water of course, if you are using live flowers.

Below are a few pictures from my garden for ideas for another version of a dried foliage boo-quet.

Neato and a little spookyish weed seed pods.

Globe Thistle seed head

Dried Sea Oats.

Martha's version of a boo-quet

If you don't have a yard with any of these things in them, and you don't have any friends or family with any sort of dried fun stuff either in their yards, then try an arrangement with live flowers like the ones above from Martha Stewart. Mums are great for fall arrangements and so are dark colored sunflowers, or how about blood red roses in a black vase? I like it. Pictured below is a lovely and spidery looking purple plant on my deck, & for some reason I am having brain issues right now and can't for the life of me think of it's name... but it would also make a great addition to a live Halloween boo-quet!Purple spider plant that I can't think of name of right now... pretty good caption huh.

Halloween Acorns

2010-10-12T18:40:00.001-05:00

Halloween Acorns

Last week I was at my Grandma's house, in the back yard, walking around and picking up acorns off the ground that had fallen from her oak tree. I have always loved acorns, and I usually pick up a couple nice ones each fall, stick them up in a box full of naturey things that I'm never quite sure what to do with, and there they sit. Well, this year I was struck with a idea as I picked up these acorns, and so was born the Halloween acorn project! It's a pretty simple project with mostly basic craft supplies: acorns, a few bottles of acrylic paint, paintbrush, and some patience for painting tiny things :)

You'll Need:

A bottle of black acrylic paint, and a bottle of orange acrylic paint.
A small paint brush
Cup for water (I use old yogurt cups)
Acorns, how ever many you want to use & any size will work.
Acrylic clear coat spray, you can use either shiny or matte, I used matte.

First step is to clean the acorns, I made the mistake of starting to paint a couple and realizing that the fine dirt on them was keeping the paint from sticking.
Squeeze your paint out on a old plate or I usually use an old plastic lid from a butter tub or something similar. Get a cup of water, and start painting!After the first coat of Orange

3.Let the acorns dry completely overnight, then give them another coat of paint. After two coats of paint

4. Let the acorns dry completely again, and then outside in a garage, deck, some other well ventilated space, lay down newspaper and spray one coat of either shiny or matte clear coat on the acorns. I used matte this time, but think I will try shiny next time!

5. After the acorns are dry, you can throw them in a vase, a bowl, or where ever suits you! I got a little fancy with some of my orange acorns and using a black fine tip paint pen I drew tiny little jack-o-lantern faces on.Finished product!

Book Review- Witch Craft

2010-10-11T00:05:00.000-05:00

I recently received the new book Witch Craft, Complied by Margaret McGuire and Alicia Kachmar. Witch Craft is a Halloween DIY book with over 25 projects in it, and the cover reads "Wicked Accessories, Creepy-Cute Toys, Magical Treats, and More!" and it does deliver all that and more in it's 96 pages.

This sweet little hardcover book is chalk full of crochet patterns, recipes, plushies, jewelry, and accessories. There is a really nice section in the back of the book about all the "witch crafters" in this book, and even gives the artists blogs and etsy sites. There were even a couple projects in here from a personal favorite of mine, Em and Sprout creator Lindsay Gibson.

I did manage to pick two favorite projects in the book, and trust me, it was hard to chose! My two fav's were the beaded Spider Earrings, and the Fuzzy Bats(the adorable bat on the cover). I promise, if you love Halloween and crafty books as much as I do then this book is a must have.

In the Halloweeny Spirit!

2010-10-09T00:45:00.005-05:00

Yes, that's my eerily lit face behind those pumpkins and lanterns

Even though it's extremely unseasonably warm for October here in NE right now, yesterday it hit 91 degrees, I am starting to scheme for Halloween. I know I've probably mentioned before on here, lord knows I have everywhere else, that Halloween is my favorite holiday, which could be why I own enough Halloween themed craft books and magazines to put Amazon out of business.

I am currently working hard on some scary-cute projects for the up coming holiday, including one to enter in the big Craftzine Halloween crafts contest, so wish me luck! In the meantime though, why don't you check out two of my past spooky(and yummy) Halloween projects/treats! I do ahve to apologize for my older Halloween posts, I had just started blogging, wasn't quite sure how to go about writing down instructions yet, and the pics are from an old shoty 6 mega-pixel digi.

*Crispy Halloween Treats

*Halloween Lanterns

Pssst! Check back next week for some Halloween crafts and fun! :)

SnapDRAGONS!

2010-10-07T00:10:00.004-05:00

I decided to take some pictures in the garden the other day, before the frost kills all the little lovelies. After taking the pictures & upon reviewing them I thought "Hmmm there's something fishy about those snapdragons...but I just can't put my finger on it". :)

Perry Imitates Art

2010-10-05T00:06:00.002-05:00

'Cluster Headache' by Kristen Tercek

Perry Imitating Art

I have long admired the artwork of Kristen Tercek of Cuddly Rigormorits. Her cute yet slightly dark style has me constantly checking her site for her new work. And when Shana Logic sells her prints I squee with delight! One of the prints Shana Logic is currently selling called 'Cluster Headache'-(pictured above, and if you remember I posted about it a couple of weeks ago)- was an instant favorite of mine, for duh reasons. It reminded me so much of my own creation, and fellow tomato pincushion, Perry, that I had to pay homage to the genius of Kristen Tercek with my own interpretation of 'Cluster Headache'. Perry is imitating art in these photos, and he loved it. The photo shoot was done in an old dollhouse of mine, Perry's choice of course, and was a lot of fun!

Sauteed Veggies With Noodles

2010-10-02T00:06:00.002-05:00

Like My Dill Garnish? :P

Here is another one of my Mom's uber yummy vegetarian dinner recipes. I loooove to make this dish! It's very easy to make, so good, and healthy too.

You'll Need-

1 small Zucchini, sliced.
1 can of quartered Artichoke Hearts, drained and chopped.
1 carton of fresh Cremini or baby Portabella Mushrooms, sliced.
1/4 of an Onion
Around 2 cups of a pasta of your choice, I used Rotini.
Water
Salt
Pepper
Parmesan Cheese
1 tablespoon Butter
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Around 1 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
Parsley flakes (optional)

Start by chopping your zucchini, onion, and mushrooms on a cutting board, then put them into a pan and saute them with about 2 tablespoons of Olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Now that your mushys, onion, and zucchini's are sauteing, start boiling two cups of pasta, I used Rotini this time, but I have been known to use all sorts of noodles, including spaghetti.
While your pasta is boiling open the can of artichoke hearts and drain the excess juice from the can, set them aside.
Add about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar to the veggies, saute a little longer, and then add the artichoke hearts to the mix.
Add the tablespoon of butter to the veggies.
While the pasta is boiling add several spoons full of the pasta water to the sauteing vegetables to keep them nice and moist and create a little bit of sauce.
Add grated Parmesan cheese to the mix now.

Once your pasta is aldente drain and add pasta to veggies, mix together and serve. You can add some more Parmesan when you serve. Also try making this dish with red bell pepper, fresh asparagus, or black olives, which are my personal favorite to add. Enjoy!

Angry Pincushion Anniversary

2010-09-30T16:11:00.005-05:00

I can DIY?

On September 27 The Angry Pincushion turned two years old! I better look out for those terrible twos. It's hard for me to believe that two years ago, I sat down at my laptop and decided to start a crafty, DIYish, cute stuff, and recipes blog that for some reason is still around. When I started I thought it would be easy, I soon learned that "making it" in the internets world is very hard work, very time consuming, and not cheap, although I still manage to get by with photographing my subjects with a substandard digi camera, and an old Mac laptop(hoping to get a new one soon, fingers crossed!).

I hope you've enjoyed a little something on Angry Pincushion in these past two years, I know I have enjoyed creating all of it, especially Perry. I'm already looking forward to celebrating three years of Angry Pincushion :)

Perry...

Just as disgruntled as ever, and ready for more gruntle in the year to come!

Silica Gel Packets, Throw Away No More!

2010-09-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

Tonight I decided to clean out some of the drawers in my dresser, and my closet as well. While cleaning I came across several of those Silica Gel packets in old shoe boxes. As I went to throw them away I remembered a blog post I read awhile ago on Craftzine blog about genius ways to reuse Silica packets. Why bother reusing Silica Gel packs you ask? Well, number one, less things going into the landfill, and number two, some of the ways to reuse them are actually quite helpful! How helpful you ask ? How about helping to save your ipod after you accidentally drop it in your glass of water, or keeping important papers from getting all mildewy, ick! So next time you get a new pair of shoes and you find those familiar little packets, don't throw them out, reuse them!

Perry Approves Of This Artwork

2010-08-25T19:10:00.011-05:00

Again, Shana Logic, totally awesome, yes, but take a look at this new art by Cuddly Rigor Mortis now up on the site. Perry loved this piece of art, and he says it's like looking in a mirror! Finally, he realizes that pincushions everywhere feel his pain! Perry is now asking me if I can sew green buttons on for his eyes...I told him I'll think about it. If you are interested in this limited edition piece of art Click here to buy!

Help Save The Manatees With Shana Logic

2010-08-13T16:30:00.005-05:00

On any ordinary day I love Shana Logic for it's sheer awesomeness, and for the whole month of August Shana Logic is donating all proceeds from the sales of the adorable Mantaee necklace or earrings pictured below, to savethemanatee.org, a great non-profit, which makes me love the site even more! Helping the manatee is especially important now after the horrible Gulf Oil disaster, which will no doubt be affecting these beautiful creatures for a long time to come, spoiling their food sources and ruining the water that they call home. So please, go check out Shana Logic and get a cute little manatee of your own!

P.S- Either of these would make great Christmas gifts, and no it's not too soon to start! :)The cutness is almost too much too handle! Manatee necklace.

Manatee earring

Creative Gardening: Ornamentation

2010-07-26T19:27:00.005-05:00

Lawn and Garden Gnomes are always a good idea!

An antique wooden ladder becomes the perfect trellis, courtesy of my Mom!

A pair of old ceramic salt and pepper shakers and a glass spire decorate a potted plant in my backyard.

As the last installment in the Creative Gardening series (sad, I know :P ) I would like to showcase some of my favorite ways to decorate your garden. A person can go to any big box store and buy all manner of plastic type things to put in their garden, but it's so much more creative to do something out of the ordinary, besides, some of that stuff is so gag inducing (however Perry does enjoy those kitschy lawn gnomes as seen above). Recycle a kitchen pot that's ready for the trash and plant flowers in it, make a mosaic piece out of an old bowling ball, re-purpose old mattress springs as an one of a kind trellis...the possibility's are endless!

My Mom always adds tons of interest to her garden and yard with unique yard ornaments. She's so creative with her outdoor decorating. Almost every Christmas, or for my Mom's b-day, I get her something for her garden. One of my all time favorite places to get her something special for the yard is Uncommon Goods. They have a great selection of fun and recycled yard art, outdoor lighting, and even unique gardening tools and seeds.

Rock yard snails from Uncommon Goods

I had to add this bit of yard art below I found online a while ago. It's a trellis made out of bike parts from Crafting a Green World. I love it!

Want another nifty and thrifty yard ornament idea? How about these ladybugs made from old bowling balls from Birds and Blooms. I think I might have a thing for bowling ball art.

Creative Gardening: Mosaics

2010-07-06T20:50:00.001-05:00

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials...according to the definition on Wikipedia. :) I have always been fond of mosaics, especially in the garden. The above and below pictured mosaic mushrooms were one of the first project tutorials I posted on here, and people loved them as much as I did. These mushrooms reside in my Mom's garden and she is quite fond of them as well!

After finding my Grandfather's old bowling ball a couple of years ago I started (but never finished :P) this tutorial on a mosaic bowling ball for the garden, pictured below. However, Marisa's lovely finished mosaic bowling ball is pictured below my un-finished version. If you have an old bowling ball I highly recommend this project, it's cheap, relatively easy, and looks great hiding amongst plants.

Marisa's finished piece!

My Mom made the unique mosaic birdbath pictured below with a terra cotta pot and saucer, strong hold glue, flat marbles, broken blue glass pieces, and grout.

Mosaic birdbath

Want to create your own mosaics for your garden, or even house ? You'll need a couple of things:

Grout
Broken glass, flat backed marbles, tiles, small round mirrors, buttons, plastic charms, etc!
A Sponge (for cleaning the grout off of the tiles, marbles, etc.)
Water

Mosaic is easy, very therapeutic, and a great way to use old broken plates or glasses if you have any!

Facebook Fan!

2010-06-26T13:44:00.002-05:00

I admit, I'm not that great at computery type stuff, this apparently includes trying to put a Facebook fan page icon on my blog. Oh well, for now while I figure this complicated matter out, here is the link to The Angry Pincushion's fan page!! :)

Creative Gardening: Herb Markers

2010-06-22T07:09:00.002-05:00

My Mom loves to grow herbs in great big Terra Cotta pots on her deck, and herbs like Mint, Lavender, and Oregano that tend to spread more in a patch of soil in front of the deck. These unique and rustic looking metal herb markers are from Spoon Sisters, they come in a set of nine and are so much nicer to mark herbs than the standard plastic tag that comes with when you purchase it. I bought these for my Mom for Christmas and she loves them. She sprayed them with a weather sealant for extra protection from the elements, which is always a good idea for anything you plan to put in your garden.

Creative Gardening: Unique Planters

2010-06-18T08:05:00.002-05:00

Remember my sink planter idea from last year? Here it is in full bloom now with shades of blue and white!

This second installment of creative gardening ideas is all about clever and unique planters. Pictured above is an old wash tub set filled with annuals next to my Mom's shed. The wash tubs already have drainage holes so they are perfect for planting. I love how she planted them to mirror each other! Wash tubs like these can be found at most antique markets, flea markets, or even garage sales. These wash tubs were from my Great Grandfather's house and have been sprayed with a coat of silver Rustoleum to prevent rusting and give them added shine. The legs have been set on old broken stepping stones so it has level footing.

The wash tubs before planting.

The old fashioned enameled metal baby bath below is perfect for planting, just make sure to drill several holes in the bottom with a power drill to ensure proper drainage. (Make sure to wear eye protection anytime you use power tools!) Then simply fill half way with soil and put your plants in. Old metal wash basins and baby baths can be found at antique stores, flea markets and garage sales as well. My Mom once again, was lucky enough to have saved these from her family.

The finished product with terra cotta added for interest :) Don't you love the cat planter in the background?

An old roasting pan and baby bath make a lovely place for shade loving Pansies.

Creative Gardening: Tool Caddy

2010-06-14T21:00:00.001-05:00

A lovely butterfly in my Mom's garden

I have been watching my Mother garden for years, and she is not only creative in the way she gardens but thrifty and earth friendly as well. So for the next couple of weeks I am going to be sharing some of her most creative gardening ideas. Here is the first-

Golf Bag tool caddy:

Several years ago after my Grandpa passed away my family and I were going through some of his belongings and we came across his old golf bag with cart(just means the golf bag has wheels), nobody knew what to do with it, except my Mom! After lugging shovels, spades, and rakes around the yard for years she had finally found a way to easily move her big gardening tools. To find a old golf bag of your own look at Garage Sales, and thrift stores for a cheap golf bag then simply fill with your tools and wheel or carry around with you while gardening.

Perry is glad it's Spring!

2010-05-25T18:04:00.001-05:00

Perry enjoying a lovely Spring day with his gnome friends.

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-22T00:02:00.011-05:00

The unofficial Earth Day flag

It's Earth Day again, and I have been pleased to see that this day seems to be getting more and more serious attention every year. Earth Day was founded by U.S Senator G aylord Nelson in 1970. Many communities also celebrate Earth Week, which is an entire week of environmental related activities.

To celebrate Earth Day do something good for our world, join a neighborhood clean-up, attend a festival at your local park, or just recycle some things you've been meaning to recycle for awhile. Here are some other things to get you motivated about helping our environment!

Use Reusable Bags When You shop-Plastic shopping bags take up to 1000 years to degrade in a landfill, and most become airborne and end up in the ocean. So buy yourself some reusable bags to take shopping with you. Most stores have bags that are relatively cheap, usually around a dollar, or you can go the cute route with these adorable bags from Shana Logic.

Buy a Tee, Plant a Tree!- All this week buy any tee from Threadless.com and they will donate a dollar to Plantabillion.org. Plus, all nature themed tees are all just $12 for Earth week!

Recycle the Cute Way-With these free, uber cute recycling labels thanks to Jinjerup.

Donate-Donate to reputable organizations like the W orld Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife, or the NRDC(Natural Resources Defense Council). All these are wonderful organizations who have done and with our help will continue to do do great things for this world!

Craft Green!- There are plenty of blogs and craft websites out there that have alot of tips for green crafting, like Craftzine.com, and Zakka Life. Here is one of my own past green crafts, a tiny terrarium made from a bottle cap, and the top from a gum-ball machine plastic prize ball.

You can make everyday Earth Day just by making smarter choices when it comes to how you clean your house, shop, travel, take care of your yard, etc. Always have the future of the planet in mind!

Perry Meets Another Pincushion With Attitude...

2010-03-23T10:01:00.002-05:00

Spring Fever!

2010-03-20T15:17:00.000-05:00

Crocus from last year's Spring

Pussy Willows in my back yard

After months of being stuck indoors due to copious amounts of snow, and of course the bitter cold, I am so ready for Spring! So in celebration of the turning of the season, (today is the first day of Spring!) I am posting some Spring crafts from the archives. I promise to start posting new projects ASAP. I am still recovering from my two and a half month sinus infection nightmare, and getting back into the swing of things is taking a while longer than I expected. Happy Spring everyone!

For those who are already planning their gardens, my favorite project to date, and one that I won an award with :) Mosaic Mushrooms for the garden.

An easy Spring Pencil Holder

And Easter is coming up, so here's a great Easter project!

An Angry Pincushion Success Story

2010-03-13T10:25:00.003-06:00

Several months ago I posted about starting a new project, turning my Grandpa's old bowling ball into yard art. A while later I received a very nice e-mail from a great gal named Marisa. She had been reading my blog, liked my idea, and had an old bowling ball that was her Grandfather's too! She wanted to know how to finish the project. I told her after giving her instructions on how to finish grouting etc., that if she sent me a picture when she was finished I'd post it on here. You did a fantastic job Marisa, it will look lovely in the garden no doubt!

Drum-roll Please.....

2010-02-16T15:40:00.000-06:00

First off I'd love to thank everyone who participated in finding our little pincushion friend a name. All of your suggestions were wonderful, so wonderful in fact that I had a really hard time picking a name. When it came down to choosing though it was all up to the pincushion, he had a hard time deciding as well, I mean this is his name we're talking about! So without further delay, The Angry Pincushion's new name is......(drum roll, drum roll, drum rolllllll)....

First Name: Perry
Middle Name: Boris ( I love Russian names)
Last Name: Pincushion

Thanks for being so patient while I work on trying to recover from being sick. Still not feeling great, but am on new antibiotics and am hoping this time they will work for me.

To Be Continued...Due To Illness

2010-02-04T10:15:00.002-06:00

No, the pincushion is not ill, he is resting comfortably on my dresser, I however am feeling quite sicky. Had a sinus infection, got some antibiotics, had a bad reaction to those, now I'm trying to recover from all of it! I will hopefully be able to stare at a computer screen without it giving me a massive headache, like it is now, within a few days...fingers crossed...then I can post the grand unveiling of the Angry Pincushion's new name.

What's In A Name ?

2010-01-15T10:01:00.004-06:00

Before I came up with the idea to start a blog, I already had the idea for the Angry Pincushion. He started as a doodle. I doodle a lot in my spare time. One day I decided to take my little drawing and make him a reality. And so, with a simple red tomato pincushion, some pins (of course), and a few more doodles, the Angry Pincushion was born! Cute little fellow isn't he! At the time I started my blog I wanted to make him not only the mascot but incorporate him in some of the posts, so far I have no stuck to that, but that is about to change. But first I feel it is time he receives a name.

Can you help me pick a good name for our little angry/cute friend? Feel free to leave a name idea of your own in the comments section, or send me a little message at sproutedwings@gmail.com if you are so inclined! I will be picking the name on January 31st.

Happy New Blog!...I mean Year!!

2010-01-03T15:26:00.003-06:00

Ice clings to the twigs, and lights in my front yard.

If your holiday season was anything like mine you're ready for a break, and a long nap. Hopefully though you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. I personally couldn't wait for the new year to start, 2009 had not been a good year. Most recently my beloved cat Isabelle, whom I had since the month after my 15th birthday, passed away in November from an aggressive cancer. She was eleven years old, and had the sweetest and most amazing personality. It was devastating for me, and not a day goes by that I don't miss her greatly.

On a more positive note, I have been working hard on new projects, layouts, etc. for The Angry Pincushion. I came to several realizations as well on my blogging hiatus. I came to the conclusion that instead of trying to create a blog that was uniquely mine I felt I was in a constant competition against other creative and craft blogs. I wasn't having fun doing my projects and posts, and that's really what it should be about: Fun! I was fretting over how many readers I had, mad I didn't have a fancy camera or photoshop, and always reading the popular craft blogs and comparing mine to their's. This will not be the case anymore. I will strive hard to stay true to myself, and my creative outlets, and hope to entertain or inspire a few people along the way!

Under Construction

2009-11-15T12:55:00.001-06:00

This site is under construction. Look for our grand unveiling 1-3-10!!

Have a joyous holiday season!

Garden Pictures

2009-09-17T17:18:00.006-05:00

While I am working on the new layout, ideas, etc. for Angry Pincushion, my cousin John has suggested I post some nature pictures. Great idea John! Photography is one of my favorite hobbies, and I love to share my photos with others. So here are some pictures taken in my very own backyard...and maybe some in the front yard.

The End...Or A New Beginning ?

2009-08-18T15:37:00.005-05:00

The Angry Pincushion craft blog as we..or I..know it is dead. Yes, dead. I have some ideas to rework this blog into something new but we'll see how it pans out. Why have I decided not to continue with the crafts blog ? Here a just a few reasons-

Too time consuming-I hadn't realized just how much time it takes to not only come up with an idea, then create it, write down instructions, photograph it, and then blog about it.
It costs too much!-Being unemployed at the moment I cannot afford to constantly be going to the craft store to get new supplies, plus even though I have a nice digi camera it doesn't photograph the craft projects as well as I would like. I noticed that most craft blogs that have a large following use expensive cameras and Photoshop, or a similar photo editor.
Very little or no feedback from readers (if I had any!)-I do know my brother, wonderful friend Kim and the awesome Alaskan Dave would occasionally read my blog and comment but other than that I received very little in the way of comments, or any other type of feedback. At one point in time I posted a poll to see how many responses I'd get, I thought maybe it would be a good way of gaging my readership, I think I got two votes...and one of them was me.

As much as I'd love to continue this blog it just isn't worth my time...like I stated above I have considered reworking this site into something a little different but we'll see. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me at sproutedwings@gmail.com.

Temporary Delay

2009-06-23T13:21:00.002-05:00

Due to daily severe weather and hail we've been having here my project has been somewhat ruined...but I am in the process of fixing it and will finish the post by Thursday! Thanks for your patience!

The Kitchen Sink Planter, Part 1

2009-06-20T21:12:00.008-05:00

Recession Proof Craft #1::Kitchen Sink Planter: Cost- Around ten dollars

I've had an old sink laying around for a few years now, I couldn't decide what to do with it. I didn't want to trash it, yet we couldn't use it in the house. A few months ago after finding an old faucet in the basement that didn't work either, I came up with a plan for both. Planting the basin with blue flowers to look like water and beading floral wire to insert into the broken faucet to imitate running water! I know it doesn't look like much in these pictures but this is just the first stage. Since this tutorial is pretty long I'm breaking it up into two installments.

Materials-

An old sink-FREE
A broken faucet-FREE
Floral Wire Stems or Floral Wire-1 $ (for a package of floral stems)
Beads in shades of blue, Teal, and Clear-Around 5 $
Wire Cutters
Dirt
Blue Flowers-About 5$

Assembly-

Find a spot in your yard for the sink. After finding a spot, place the sink either on some bricks or dig a hole to place it in so it is flush with the ground.
Clean the sink off if it needs it, a squirt with the hose will do
Pour potting soil or dirt from your yard into the basin of the sink.
Add flowers, I used Lobelia in shades of blue and white to resemble water.

Second Installment will be posted Monday.

Recession Proof Crafting

2009-06-19T13:09:00.004-05:00

If you are like most people in the country nowadays you are on a much tighter budget, I know I am! My new budget has left me with very little money to spend on hobbies, especially crafting. So I have been extra creative with my crafts lately, using things I already have around the house or using very inexpensive supplies. So with my second blogging wind (does that make sense ?) I am starting a series of "Recession Proof Crafts"...I'm sure someone has already done it but what the heck! Look for the first thrifty craft tomorrow! Happy Friday everyone! :)

By the way...
The Angry Pincushion is being featured today on Zakka Life for "Facebook Fan Friday's"!! YAY!

Blogging Hiatus

2009-06-14T01:22:00.002-05:00

Maybe you've noticed, (maybe you haven't) that I've taken a slight blogging hiatus. I've been struggling with the idea that I have to compete with other "fancier" craft blogs, something that came to my attention when I started this blog about nine months ago.

My life has also been quite hectic as of late and hasn't allowed me the time or more so the money to craft. I've decided to give blogging another shot in hopes that this time around I can attract more of an audience and can improve my blogging skills, I'm still learning!

Teeny Tiny Terrarium

2009-05-03T22:58:00.001-05:00

I have long been fascinated with terrariums, and as I've mentioned before, tiny things. Leading me to create this little gem. Technically it's not a "real" terrarium since the Peat Moss inside won't grow, but when I was finished with it it looked so much like a little terrarium to me! My crafty mission since Earth Day was to use only recycled bits and pieces for my craft projects, so everything in this project, except for the tiny doe is being upcycled! This project is not only cute and eco-friendly, but it is exceedingly simple too!

You'll need:

A bottle cap
The top from a gum-ball machine plastic prize ball
Peat Moss
Craft Glue
A small animal or trinket, I chose to use a HO Scale (Train Scale) deer.

1. Glue a very small amount of Peat Moss into the bottle cap. As seen below. Let that dry for a little while so it doesn't move around while you are gluing down your little deer.

2. Using your craft glue again put a good sized drop of glue on the moss (below) to glue your teeny deer down. Position your deer in the glue. Let dry for about an hour.

3. Put a bead of glue all around the bottom edge of the the top of plastic gum-ball machine capsule and a glue around the ridge of the bottle cap. Press the capsule onto the cap, make sure you use enough glue to hold the two together. Let it all dry overnight before placing into a plant or some other perfect place for displaying tiny things. OR! If you have a larger terrarium why not have a terrarium inside a terrarium ?

Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad

2009-04-30T15:49:00.004-05:00

This salad is so good it should be called yummy salad x 2. It's a variation of a salad my Mom used to make, I just added a few different ingredients and subtracted some ingredients I don't care for. I invite you to do the same, add and subtract to create your own yummy-ful masterpiece!

Ingredients:

1 bag Rotini pasta
1/2 a bottle to a whole bottle of Kraft Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette (depending on how much you like salad dressing ).
1 can black Olives, left whole or chopped.
1 small plastic carton of Cherry Tomatoes, left whole or chopped in half.
1/2 an Onion diced.
1 Cucumber diced.
Salt
Pepper

How to prepare:

Fill a large pot with water, salt the water. Bring the water to a boil and add pasta. Cook the pasta until Al Dente. Put a large Colander in the sink and dump pasta into it to drain the water. Run cold water over the pasta while it is still in the Colander. Make sure to drain all the water from the pasta then pour it into a large mixing bowl. Salt and pepper it to your liking and toss it to mix.
Wash all the vegetables and dice them. Drain the black Olives and chop them. Add vegetables and Olives to the pasta, toss together well.
Add the Sun-Dried Tomato dressing to the mixture and toss well again. Taste a noodle to make sure you put the right amount of salad dressing on. Start off putting very little in, after all you can always add more, but you can't take it back out!
Enjoy your salad, make sure to keep it refrigerated and it should stay good for about a week.

Domo-kun Marshmallows

2009-04-23T16:22:00.005-05:00

I just found this website recently called Anna The Red's Bento factory. If you don't know what Bento is I advise you go take a look at her blog, you'll be just as fascinated as I was when I first saw it! When I saw this tutorial for Domo-kun Marshmallows on her site I almost wet my pants with excitement...I mean who doens't love Domo-kun ?

I have been working on some Domo-kun cookies and hope to post the how-to for those someday soon. I seem to have a back up of projects, and even though it's been a couple of months I'm still getting the hang of this blogging thing...who knows, someday I might even have an audience! ;P

Happy Earth Day!

2009-04-22T00:08:00.001-05:00

Craft supplies

I can remember when I was in grade school and first found out about Earth Day, I was the only one I knew of who celebrated it. It is so refreshing now days to see so many people celebrating and participating in Earth Day festivities! I have decided to challenge myself over the next couple of weeks to use nothing but "junk" for my craft projects, as seen above! I hope you too challenge yourself to start thinking twice before you throw things out!

I also thought I'd share some great upcycling projects I've found on the web. I in the mean time am still working on upcycling my Grandpa's bowling ball. I've been so darn busy lately my crafting has fallen behind.

Light bulb Vase

This awesome upcycling project is from the Cut Out + Keep craft forum. Using an old light bulb and turning it into a cute little vase!

Very Stealthy Hide-a-Key

This creative project comes from Zakka Life, a great blog I check regularly for nifty ideas. This hide-a-key is a unique way to use all those old pill bottles or vitamin bottles instead of just throwing them into the land fills.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Fuzzy Cupcake!

2009-04-16T20:29:00.002-05:00

Cupcake and kitties

I came up with the idea for this cute little fuzzy cupcake one day while rummaging through my large collection of pom-poms. For some reason I have a strange fascination with cute little furry things...this of course includes craft pom-poms, so I've acquired quite a few. Another thing I have a slight obsession with is cupcakes, so naturally bringing the two loves together you get a tiny, fuzzy cupcake!

Oh, and excuse my wrinkly sheet for the backdrop. Since I don't have the most sophisticated photography equipment I've been trying new things to enhance my pictures and I've found that a white background definitely helps...you should just make sure you IRON that white background first! :)

The"Ingredients"

You'll Need-

A large pom-pom, for the cupcake
A small red pom-pom, for the cherry
A mini-cupcake baking cup (found with the regular baking cups at most stores)
Craft glue (I use Aleene's)'

Steps:

1. Put a dollop of glue at the bottom of the mini-cupcake baking cup.

2. Put the large pom-pom ( I picked a pink one) into the baking cup pressing it down into the glue. Let dry for a few minutes.

3. Using the craft glue again, glue the little red pom-pom (the cherry!) onto the top of the cupcake pom-pom, you might want to press it down for a few seconds until it holds on it's own. Let dry overnight.

4. Display your little cupcake or make a few to give away to friends or for party favors.

Pearly Easter Eggs

2009-04-08T22:05:00.011-05:00

A Basket of Pretty!

These simple to make yet elegant Easter egg decorations are my Mom's crafty genius. She was flattered to be featured on my blog, apparently she doesn't know much about my blog or the fact that it's sadly lacking an audience...Anyway! I'm not really sure if I will ever reach my Mom's level of creative ingenuity but I'm working on it.

You'll Need-

Styrofoam eggs
Small plastic pearls by the yard (spool) in different colors
Craft glue (I used Aleene's )
Scissors
Patience!

Steps:
As you can probably tell in the pictures the process is pretty easy, but patience is key with this project!

1. Using your finger (or a sponge) spread a generous amount of craft glue on the top half of the Styrofoam
egg.

2. With the plastic pearls still on their spool unwind just enough to start the top half. Keeping the pearls on the spool makes it easier to wind the pearls around the egg. Starting at the very tip top of the egg begin coiling the pearls around and holding them to the egg to ensure they stick to the glue.

3. After you have the top half done cut the pearl strand and glue the end down to the egg. I recommend letting that half dry for a while before staring the bottom half. Then grab your other color of pearls and begin applying glue and pearls as in the last two steps. When you get to the bottom of the egg cut the strand from the spool and glue the end down.

4. Let these eggs dry at least overnight before displaying

Happy Easter everyone!

Upcycling a Bowling Ball, Day 1

2009-03-30T16:25:00.007-05:00

Recently I found my Grandfather's old bowling ball in my basement. I love, love, love going bowling and was somewhat excited at the idea of having my own bowling ball, until I tried to lift it...it's a 13 pounder, a little bit too heavy for my scrawny arms. I didn't want to give it away since it was my Grandpa's but yet I knew I couldn't really use it, so I came up with the idea of making into a yard ornament! Think very heavy gazing ball covered in small tiles and grout. Plus with the weight of the thing there's no way it's going to blow away! Here are a few pictures to wet your appetite for the full tutorial coming soon.

At the End of the Rainbow, and Vegan Corned Beef

2009-03-16T13:13:00.012-05:00

Tomorrow is, as you probably know, St. Patrick's Day! But it's not too late to whip up some last minute St. Paddy's Day treats!
This little treasure at the end of the rainbow is from Make and Takes, and the complete tutorial on their site for this little pot'o'gold is simple to follow. It's so simple and so fast you could still do a couple of these tonight for your little leprechaun's, or your co-workers...or your leprechaun co-workers.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Vegan Corned Beef and Cabbage!Thinking about having some Corned Beef and Cabbage tomorrow but don't have a good recipe ? Check out this recipe from All Recipes.com. It's tradition in my family to have Corned Beef and Cabbage on St. Patrick's day. We also have some Vegetarian's in our family though. I tend not to eat red meat so much either since my family has eaten mostly Vegetarian meals for years now. So for all you Vegan's, Vegetarian's, and those who just want to try something new, here is a recipe for Vegan Corned Beef and Cabbage! Doesn't it look yummy? I think so!

It's Your Lucky Day, If You Can Crochet!

2009-03-10T10:21:00.005-05:00

A cute pattern for a four leaf clover buddy that you can crochet! I found this pattern at Cut Out + Keep, by Alicia K.

A Fanciful Shamrock

2009-03-04T13:14:00.008-06:00

It is shamrock season once again! Of course you know I speak of March, and Saint Patrick's Day. I can't help but love St. Paddy's Day, being half Irish and all. Although I'm not too keen on the whole getting drunk and passing out parts of St. Paddy's, I'm more for the traditional parts. Such as the wearing of the Green--( did you know that BLUE used to be the designated St. Paddy's color! It was! Google it!!)--the corn beef and cabbage, the Irish music, and of course the shamrocks. Not four leaf clovers people, Shamrocks!

So it bein' in good Irish tradition and all I'd like to share a few shamrocks with you that you can make to wear on March the 17th. So for the next week and a half be checkin' back my friends for I'll be posting new shamrocks. Hopefully one of them will catch your eye! Here's the first-

The full how-to and PDF download for this lovely, sparkly, shamrock is at A Fanciful Twist. A magical, whimsical, blog with beautiful photography. I plan on making a couple of these, they're so pretty and easy to make. I hope you check this one out, her tutorial is easy to follow and the pictures are great!

You'll Need-

white cardstock
a printer
scissors
glue
a safety pin
a small paintbrush
fine glitter in several colors
Optional: a jewel or other embellishments

My Craft Loving Cats!

2009-03-02T13:00:00.000-06:00

Atticus

Being the proud owner(mother) of two 10 year old kitties, I feel I must introduce them to you, since they are such a big part of my crafting life. They love to knock over glue, glitter and pretty much anything else that might spill. They sit on my lap while I blog, sometimes they step on the keyboard, trying to put their two cents worth into the post I suppose. They chew on my pencils and pens, and occasionally they will even lay down on top of a project I am working on. Maybe they were crafters or artists in a previous life. Their names are Isabelle (Izzy for short) and Atticus, sister and brother. They were both adopted from a wonderful local no-kill cat shelter called the Cat House. Unfortunately, Isabelle had to have one of her back legs amputated last May due to cancer. Thankfully she hasn't had any signs of cancer since then, and is getting around just fine! If any of you have your own crafty cats, dogs, or any kind of pet, feel free to share. I'd love to hear your stories!

Izzy

My Favorite Things for the Last Week of February

2009-02-28T22:00:00.003-06:00

Jar photo frames. Most creative way I've seen in a while to display your photos. From Photojojo.

Giant stuffed Microbe, Mono. I had Mono in high school it was definitely not this cute.

Panda Poo Journal from Uncommon Goods. Both unique and eco friendly! Yay!

A pencil holder that brings the outdoors in...

2009-02-25T22:07:00.004-06:00

If you are like me you can barely wait for Spring, maybe that's why I came up with this outdoors themed pencil/stuff holder, this is a great kids craft! Thanks to my Mom for help on this one, she's such a creative lady!

You'll need-

-One tin can (washed, and with the label and any sharp edges removed)
-A package of plain wooden Popsicle sticks
-Acrylic paint in your choice of color, I chose purple.
-Paint brush
- Foil glue and green foil sheets (found at most craft stores, or online.)
-Craft glue
-Bugs and Butterflies of your choice. Pictured below are feather butterfly found at Micheal's craft store, and vintage tin bug pins from SilverCrow Creations.com )

I took an ordinary sized soup can, removed the label, washed it out thoroughly and made sure there were no sharp edges left. Then using a good slathering of craft glue on the can I began placing the unpainted Popsicle sticks on the can, as close as I could get them to each other. I then let it dry overnight. I chose to paint my sticks with Acrylic paint in a light shade of purple, you of course can chose to paint yours whatever color tickles your fancy. After painting I let it dry overnight again. I thought about just using green paint and painting some grass on the bottom but my Mom came up with the idea of using green foil sheets and foil glue, I was curious how it would turn out so I gave it a shot. You can't really tell in these pictures, because my camera is not the best, but the grass is very iridescent.
Next, using a special glue just for foiling, I put the glue over the Popsicle sticks in very organic lines, to resemble grass. Then after letting the glue dry for a little while I followed the directions on the package of green foil sheets. I placed a sheet over the glue, and using a Popsicle stick I began pressing the foil onto the glue to adhere it. It's pretty simple, all the directions are on the package. I loved the results!

Last but certainly not least, I glued a few lovely tin bug pins onto the Popsicle sticks with some craft glue, I had to hold them on for a little while until the glue was tacky enough to hold them by itself. These tin bugs are little pins, but you can easily cut the pin backing off if you find them easier to work with that way. I also considered gluing a feather butterfly on as well, it seemed more girly, but I'm a girl who likes her bugs! Next time I do one I'll do a butterfly. If you make this project with your kids, I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did!

Simple and cute child's bracelet

2009-02-20T12:47:00.001-06:00

I was looking through my beads the other day and found a few packages of star paddle beads. As a kid I always loved paddle beads, still kinda do, but alas I feel that I have out grown plastic beads. But! I did think that they would make a pretty cute, simple and sparkly, bracelet for a little girl. All you need is some elastic thread, and two small packages of star paddle beads, in two different complimentary colors. I used a few smaller beads in mine just because I had them in the corresponding color, but you don't have to use my exact pattern, of course. This is a great project to do with kids because it's so easy, and the shape of the paddle beads makes them easy to pick up and thread for little fingers.

-Cut a length of elastic thread, make sure it's long enough that you can tie some knots in it and it will still fit on your child's wrist. start threading the paddle beads on, alternating colors, and fitting them together (interlocking them). When I had about an inch in thread left on both ends I stopped putting beads on and tied a knot, I'm not very good at knots so I tied a couple, just so it wouldn't come undone. Then I trimmed off the little bit of excess thread that was left close to the last knot. Simple, cute, and something fun to do with your kids!

Got Crafty Kids ?

2009-02-19T20:02:00.000-06:00

My next two crafty projects are for kids!...and young at heart adults too, of course...

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T03:04:00.000-06:00

Valentine's Day Crafts

2009-02-10T18:30:00.001-06:00

I recently found some really great Valentine's Day crafts on a new favorite blogger blog, Zakka Life. This cuter than cute snail Valentine for one......and a how-to for this amazingly adorable pom-pom heart.
I have become a big fan of this blog, and encourage you, if you haven't already, to check it out.

Last Paper Craft

2009-02-10T09:05:00.000-06:00

I know, I know...you're saying "How on earth can this be the last paper craft!?" (all two of my readers, including my brother!) It's okay though, I've given you the general idea and now you can go off on your own and try to find your own way through paper craft world. This last one is a good one, or at least I think so, but then I happen to be quite fond of Domo Kun. This paper craft is unique in that it requires no glue or tape, kinda neat! I found this Domo Kun at deviantArt.com by Pikmin789.

Heart Shaped Box...

2009-02-06T07:09:00.000-06:00

...Just happens to be one of my favorite Nirvana songs and an adorable free download (yes, yet another paper craft) from BlackPio. Great for any small Valentine's gifts you may be giving to your someone special on V-day.

Beetle paper crafts from Yamaha

2009-02-05T09:46:00.000-06:00

Who would have thought that Yamaha would have such a great site for paper crafts! I sure didn't. But none the less that's where I found these two, an Atlas and Stag beetle. I do have quite the affinity for bugs, especially beetles, so naturally I picked these guys up as soon as I saw them. Not such a fan of bugs ? Don't worry, the Yamaha site offers plenty of cute critters, realistic looking motorcycles, and many other things to chose from.

Paper, Printer, Scissors, Glue...

2009-02-03T19:55:00.000-06:00

No it's not a new version of Rock, Paper, Scissors, it's the rise of Paper craft! Although it's not a new phenomenon, paper crafting has seen on and off popularity since the beginning of the 20th century. I believe the current resurgence of this craft is due partly to it's afford ability in these tough economic times, and the fact that almost every home now days has an ink jet printer. Do a Google search for paper craft and you will come up with numerous blogs and websites that offer free patterns for you to download. In the past few months I have come to really love paper crafting, so for the next week I will be sharing my favorite sites and patterns for this most papery of crafts. I hope you enjoy! Click on the link below the picture to be taken to Canon's site, where I picked up this awesome download for clown fish and mini aquarium.

http://cp.c-ij.com/en/

The Day the Music Died

2009-02-02T18:44:00.000-06:00

Buddy Holly

1936~1959

I just wanted to pay tribute to an amazing musician who's life on the earth was far too short.

The day has come....finally!

2009-01-19T22:45:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow, January 20th 2009, Barack Obama will be inaugurated, and become the next president of the U.S.A. He will make history, and I am so proud to say that I was, and will be a part of it. It feels like I've been waiting for this day forever!! Imagine, it's been almost a decade of G.W Bush's idiocy, I shudder to think of it. Sooo long Bushy, don't let the door to the Oval Office hit your ridiculous looking face on your way out!!

Easy cat toy

2009-01-15T18:18:00.001-06:00

This is an idea for a simple yet very effective cat toy. How do I know it's effective ? Because I have tried it out on my very own kitties Isabelle and Atticus, and trust me they love it, and they didn't care one bit that it was cheap and easy to make.

You'll Need:
-a sock
-loose cat nip (it comes in small and large containers at any pet supply store)
-a spoon
-a bell (optional)

Find an old sock, maybe one that has lost it's mate in the laundry room, (make sure it doesn't have holes in it though, otherwise this could get very messy), using a tablespoon spoon a about two or three tablespoons of cat nip into the sock. You can put in a jingle bell as well if your cat likes bells ( I know mine do). Then just simply tie a knot at the top of the sock, secure enough that it won't open up with a bit of playing. You can stitch it shut if you wish but I leave mine knotted so that I can add some fresh cat nip about once every couple of months!

Something to help you start the year right!

2009-01-07T18:36:00.000-06:00

Still in need of a desk calender ? Maybe something to brighten up your desk at your blah, grey, cubicle world, workplace ? If so then this is just the calender for you, and it's a free download! Thanks to Blackpio.com. The sweetness and creativity of the illustrations will make you smile every time you look at it! By the way check out the blog at Blackpio for some awesome illustrations of two of my favorite Star Trek characters, Data and Picard...too cool!

Blogger is acting up...yet again...

2009-01-07T15:49:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to post for the past couple of days and blogger either won't let me sign in or post any pictures...GRRR! Anywho, if blogger behaves it's self I will be posting again very soon. I would post a cute picture to tide you over but alas blogger won't allow me add pictures to my posts :(

Happy New Year.. Chameleon ?

2008-12-31T14:50:00.000-06:00

It is of course New Year's Eve day here, so Happy New Year to all!! I hope everyone remembers to be safe tonight...and that means if you are partaking in the New Year's spirits you get a designated driver or find a place to sleep so you don't have to drive and potentially kill someone or yourself! ...Sorry I get a bit irritated by drunk drivers. In the spirit of the New Year I am posting a cute and simple how to on how to make a pipe cleaner chameleon, by Martha Stewart! Enjoy! By the way...whoever donated money to my ASPCA cause, you are an angel, and a wonderful person, and I shower you with thanks!!! :)

Chameleon
This lizard began his life as a few skinny pipe cleaners. With help from the kid who shaped him, he grew into a lovable pet.

Tips and Tools:
Each animal starts with a looped pipe cleaner for a head and a coiled one for a body. You'll also need short pieces for limbs; a marker; felt; glue; and small scissors to cut pipe cleaners and felt, and to trim fur-to make a pointy nose, for instance.

Basic Head How-To:
Make a loop in the middle of a pipe cleaner. The size and shape of the loop determine the size and shape of the head. Wrap head from neck to nose.

Basic Body How-To:
Coil pipe cleaner around a marker (the thicker the marker, the fatter the animal) and slide off.

Chameleon How-To
1. Leave his tail extra long for curling.

2. Slip legs between coils, and twist.

3. Bend knees and feet.
4. Cut a skinny pipe cleaner for tongue.
5. Cut felt eyes. Glue on.
6. Draw pupils with a permanent marker. Slide tongue into the face, and curl end.

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-24T13:21:00.000-06:00

Are you as excited for Santa as this little ball of adorable is? I know I am! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!!

Advent Calendar by Guest Crafter: Britta Jarvis

2008-12-17T07:55:00.001-06:00

I belong to a craft community forum called Cut Out+ Keep, it's an amazing site where anyone is allowed to post their crafty creations and how to's. I encourage anyone who loves to craft to check it out and sign up! Cut Out+ Keep is where I found Britta Jarvis's lovely felt advent calendar. The first time I saw this advent calendar I thought it might be one of the cutest things I had seen, so I wrote Britta and asked if I could showcase her work on my blog, and thank goodness she said yes! So here it is, all the way from the UK, the how to for this most festive, and adorable felt advent calendar made by Britta for her boyfriend! Thank you Britta!

You'll need:
-tracing paper
-various colored pieces of felt
-a few colors of embroidery thread
-a length of dowel or bamboo cane
-scissors
-needle
-small drill or hand drill

1. For your advent calendar you're going to need 25 days. I did 5 rows of 5 pockets to hold a sweet for each day. I decided to make the 25th day larger than the rest so it could hold more booty, but this also meant the the other 4 on its row were made slightly smaller. You can choose to do as I did or to leave them all the same size. First, draw out the pieces you're going to cut. I planned mine on tracing paper and then cut
around them to make the rectangles. I also made some simple felt christmassy shapes and sewed them on to every other rectangle in a checker-board fashion to decorate it.

2. Here are the rectangles laid out in sequence. The designs I added are a bell, holly, Christmas pudding, snowflake, snowman, candle, star, stocking, Christmas tree, present, mistletoe, a robin and a candy cane.

3. The next step is to embroider on numbers from 1 to 25 for the days of December. I dotted the dates around so it could be fun searching for the right pocket every day. I used backstitch but I'm no sewing expert, so if you know a better way then go for it :)

4. Get a piece of felt large enough to back all the pieces, minus about 5 cm horizontally but plus enough vertically to be able to roll the top around your dowel and write a message... call it 5cm again. The 5cm horizontally is so that you can bunch up each pocket a bit and make them more pockety and able to hold sweets :)

5. Decide what message you'd like to write on the top of your advent calendar. I chose 'Merry Christmas!' but you might like to add a name in there of the person you're making this for. Cut out the letters from different colored felt and sew it on just touching the top line of pockets, leaving the rest of the felt free at the top. next, get your dowel and cut it to the width of your calendar plus 2cm either side, then get your drill and make a hole through each end 1cm from the end. Roll this into the top of the felt and sew the felt closed around it. Get some of your thread (I used about 35 cm) and tie it through the holes in your dowel so that you can hang it up.

6. Add sweets! This is a very important stage and will be noticed if you forget it! I try to get several types of sweet so that every day you get something different than the last. Hang up your completed advent calendar with pride!

Thanks again Britta for this great tutorial and pictures, and I'm sure all my readers enjoy your advent calendar as much as I do!

Gingerbread Man pin

2008-12-15T19:06:00.000-06:00

If you are like me and love the smell of gingerbread you'll love wearing this unique pin! These are easy to make and cost almost nothing, are a great project to do with kids and make excellent teachers presents. And look how cute he is! You can use this recipe to make ornaments as well. I have had mine for years and can still say that he smells as good as the day I made him.

You'll need:
-1 cup brown sugar, packed
-1 cup shortening
-1 cup white glue (Elmers)
-2 cups molasses
-1 tablespoon baking soda
-1 tablespoon ground ginger
-6 to 8 cups all purpose flour
-1 and 3/4 cups water
-cookie cutters
-pin backs
-hot glue gun

You can certainly cut this recipe down depending on how many pins or ornaments you want to make. Remember these are NON-edible!

Mix the brown sugar and shortening together, add molasses and glue, mix well, set aside. Combine baking soda and ginger with 6 cups of flour, add this to the glue/brown sugar/etc. mixture and add the 1 and 3/4 cups water while mixing. Add enough remaining flour to make the mixture into a stiff dough and knead it well. Roll to about a 1/4 inch thickness and start cutting out your gingerbread men, and other shapes if you wish. If making ornaments using a straw poke holes in the dough for a string to be tied through. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for one hour or until color is golden. Repeat with any remaining dough. To throughly dry gingerbread men, place them in the oven on oven racks and bake an additional 3 hours at 100 degrees. Let cool completely.

After gingerbread men are cool, using a hot glue gun glue a pin back onto the gingerbread man, let cool and you have a yummy smelling, cute holiday pin!

Star lanterns

2008-12-13T14:47:00.000-06:00

The word festive comes to mind when I look at this star votive holder. Pretty simple and inexpensive to make, whip up several and use them on your table for a Christmas or New Year's party. I have a deep affinity for stars but you can change this pattern and use whatever shape you want. Stick a small votive candle or battery operated tea light in, turn down the lights and watch these lanterns glow!

For this project you will need:
-a glass ivy bowl (relatively cheap at craft stores)
-contact paper
-pen or pencil
-acrylic paint in white
-scissors
-small sponge ( I used a small natural sea sponge)
-q-tips

Using your contact paper trace a few shapes, I used stars, you can do gingerbread men or whatever suits your mood. Cut out your stars with a scissor and peel the backing off the contact paper, then adhere them to your ivy bowls. Wet the sponge but make sure to squeeze out any excess water, you want it damp not wet or drippy. Now using your sponge dip into the white acrylic paint and begin dabbing the paint on your bowl until the entire surface is covered in a nice layer of paint. Peel the contact paper off and using a damp q-tip clean up the edges of the stars where the paint might have smudged under the contact paper a little. Let the bowl dry overnight, add a votive candle, and you have an excellent accent to any room or gathering!

Banana Bread Muffins

2008-12-09T11:25:00.001-06:00

These muffins are really perfect for any morning, but they would make an especially great breakfast for Christmas morning!

This recipe calls for:
-1 and 1/2 cups flour
-1/2 cup of sugar
-2 eggs
-1 and 1/2 cup of mashed ripe bananas
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 cup oil
-1/4 cup water
-1 and 1/2 cups Post Banana Nut Crunch cereal

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a good sized bowl. Mash your bananas on a plate, I found cutting the bananas into slices and then using a large fork to mash works best. Add mashed bananas, eggs, oil and water to mixture. Stir until moistened, then stir in cereal. Pour into a greased muffin pan, or pans depending on the size. Bake 55 to 65 minutes, or until you can stick a toothpick in the centers and it comes out clean.

You can make a batch now and freeze them and on Christmas Eve take them out of the freezer to thaw and in the morning warm them in the oven or microwave, or make them fresh Christmas Eve. Either way they're sure to be a hit!

Spotlight on: ::soop::

2008-12-09T02:52:00.000-06:00

Soop rings on Etsy are truly one of a kind! When I first saw these little guys I wondered where they had been all my life, and I promptly ordered a deer and trees ring. I still wasn't sure of my purchase until it arrived in my mail box, (from London I might add) a short while later with a hand penned Thank You no less. I carefully opened my package to find I definitely would not be disappointed with my purchase! These rings are little works of wearable art, I fell in love as soon as I put my little deer ring on, and when I layered the trees ring with it, it was like wearing a tiny diorama on my hand. These adorably awesome rings are not only amazing but they are uber affordable and would make a great present for the person who has everything, or the wildlife lover. I strongly recommend you take a look at these little critters asap!
My links aren't working...Blogger is testing my patience tonight so here is the link to the shop below...

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5394858

Technical difficulties..

2008-12-06T15:17:00.000-06:00

You 'll have to excuse my lack of posts since Thanksgiving, but I am having some technical difficulties with my digital camera...which really stinks since all my craft pictures to upload are on that very camera. I hope to resolve this issue this weekend! Stick around for tons of Christmas crafts and present ideas! Here is an adorable picture to tide you over :) ...Anyone for a cup of cute!!

Pilgrim House

2008-11-26T15:55:00.001-06:00

Here is an easy Thanksgiving project that would make cute table settings, or to keep the kids busy while you prepare the Turkey!

You'll need-
- a small cardboard milk carton, or half and half carton
-cardboard
- a brown paper bag
-scissors
-a pencil or pen
-glue, I used plain white craft glue
-ruler

Start by cleaning the inside of your small milk carton. Then measure the sides of your carton with a ruler and using your measurements trace the outline for four sides of your carton onto the cardboard, making sure two of the sides have peaks.Then trace a piece for the
roof (make sure it's long enough to fold and fit nicely on the top of your house), and the chimney (which is just a strip of the cardboard that has been rolled up into a cylinder shape, and glued. You can use corrugated cardboard, but I just used an old box and tore off the top layer of the cardboard and exposed the corrugated part. Glue the sides, roof and chimney onto the carton and let dry for about fifteen minutes. Meanwhile using a plain brown paper bag, trace and cut out window shapes for the sides of the house and a door, I even cut out some door details and a door knob. Glue your paper bag windows and door onto your house and let dry, and you have yourself a cute little pilgrim house!

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving everyone!!

Spotlight on: Shana Logic

2008-11-25T17:10:00.000-06:00

I am proud to announce that I am already 99% done with my Christmas shopping! After years of last minute shopping and stress, I decided to get a head start this year and started shopping in September, crazy early, I know. If you haven't already started your shopping I suggest starting soon, very soon...so come Christmas time you can kick back and relax, bake cookies, and bask in the glow of a stress free holiday!

If you are looking for unique, indie crafted gifts, and like me prefer shopping online, then Shana Logic is right up your alley! Shana Logic specializes in cute handmade jewelry, clothing, scarves, and other accessories, they have awesome housewares, and even have a new line of makeup called Lime Crime. Shana Logic isn't just cutesy stuff, they have plenty of neato stuff for guys and pets too! Checking out Shana Logic this holiday season is a must!

Best of ?

2008-11-22T17:14:00.001-06:00

Is it too early to do a best of Angry Pincushion blog post ? I think not! Take a gander at these, my favorite projects since I started this journey of bloggery!..by the way, I know bloggery isn't a word, to all you spelling/grammar Nazi's out there. :)

-Spanish Coffee Cake...mmmm yummy!!

-Spinach Artichoke Dip...super yummy treat for any holiday get together!

-Mosaic Mushrooms..a great homemade Christmas present for the garden that won't break the bank.

-Birthday Girl Barrettes..too cute to pass up

Cuteness for the week...

2008-11-18T13:10:00.000-06:00

Here is some cute for you to look at while I do some site reconstruction, and work on some new projects for you, my two readers! :)

Preserving Fall Foliage

2008-11-16T08:54:00.001-06:00

Here is a great quick tip for anyone who wants to preserve those beautiful fall leaves before they all disappear into the howling November winds and our compost piles.

You'll need-
-Leaves ( of course!)
-wax paper
-an iron
-parchment paper

First go outside and pick out some really pretty leaves, then go inside and get two sheets of wax paper. Now, you should be able to get several leaves on one sheet, depending on the size of the leaf of course. Sandwich the leaves in between the wax paper and cover with parchment paper, this is to protect your ironing board, table, or where ever you may be ironing, and your iron from getting all coated in melted wax.

Set your iron on a low setting and press down gently on the paper. Go over the paper several times, don't press too hard or you might tear the leaves. By ironing the leaves in between wax paper you are sealing the wax from the wax paper onto the leaves and therefore preserving them. You can use them for decoration around the house, tape them in the windows, I'm sure you can think of all sorts of festive fall and Thanksgiving decor you could create!

Crikey! It's Steve Irwin Day!

2008-11-15T01:00:00.000-06:00

It is now officially November 15th and therefore Steve Irwin Day!! As someone who grew up watching Steve Irwin on T.V and being enthralled by every second of it, today is a special day. I was devastated when he was killed by a stingray in a tragic freak accident in 2006. Steve's life was devoted to educating people about wildlife and conservation, he was an everyday bloke who made a huge difference in the world and touched the hearts of millions of people all over the world. If you want to check out, or make a donation to Steve's cause, Wildlife Warriors go here- http://www.wildlifewarriors.com.au/ . Happy Steve Irwin day everyone! I would love to write more, as there is much to say about Steve, but it is late and I am tired... so goodnight.

Birthday Girl barrettes!

2008-11-09T02:58:00.001-06:00

I thought it was time that I did a children's craft project. So here is the how-to for super cute birthday balloon barrettes that would be so sweet to give to a little girl on her birthday!..or a big girl :) This project really is quite simple and very hard to mess up. I know it's not the best picture in the world but you get the idea, I hope!

You'll need:
- latex balloons in whatever colors you want
-ribbon in your choice of color
- thin gage floral wire
-plain hair clips or barrettes
-craft scissor or wire cutters

Instructions are pretty simple. Using the floral wire, secure the ribbon and balloons to the barrette, making sure that the clip part of the barrette still opens and closes without any obstruction. Make sure as well that all the ends of the wire are tucked into the top part so they don't poke people in the head. You can also put some no fray on the end of the ribbons if you want.

Hopefully my first foray into children's crafts was not too bad! I'd like to thank my lovely Mom for this cute idea.

Red Velvet cake

2008-11-07T04:05:00.000-06:00

When I made this cake it might have been the most amazing cake I have ever made. I had never attempted to make a cake and frosting entirely from scratch but was getting so tired of making boxed cakes and having them taste icky, plus you can't find frosting these days that doesn't have all sorts of creepy chemicals and trans fat in it. Besides homemade ALWAYS tastes sooo much better! So here is the recipe for red velvet cake, and chocolate butter-cream frosting!

For the cake you need:
-2 eggs
-1 1/2 cups of sugar
-1 cup butter
-1 tsp. vanilla
-2 oz (or one bottle) red food coloring
-2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
-2 1/2 cups cake flour
-1 cup buttermilk
-1 tsp. vinegar
-1 tsp. baking soda

For the chocolate butter-cream frosting you need:
-1 stick butter, softened
-1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
-Three tablespoons milk
-1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

For the cake-
Cream the butter and sugar together, and then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg. Add the vanilla and red food coloring. Mix in flour, cocoa, and buttermilk, alternating cocoa/flour, and buttermilk when mixing. Mix the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl and add to cake mixture. Bake in three 8 or 9 inch round layer pans at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, OR I baked them in two round layer pans, a seven inch and a five inch. Let cool and then frost. I didn't layer my cake, I made two separate cakes, one for my boyfriend and one for My Mom and brother, but you certainly can layer them if you wish.

For the frosting-
Beat butter in a small bowl with an electric mixer, until light and fluffy... I usually do it by hand but I enjoy torture I suppose. Beat in sifted powdered sugar -(yes you will need a mesh strainer to sift with)- and milk, in two batches. Then slowly add the cocoa powder to the mixture, I say slowly because cocoa powder has a tendency to billow into the air in great clouds of chocolate...sounds yummy...actually very messy. After all the ingredients are well mixed and there are no lumps you are ready to frost your cake.

A new era begins...

2008-11-06T09:17:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to President elect Barack Obama!! I'm proud to say I voted for him!!

On a much different note, now that the election is over (where I had been focusing most of my energy lately) I am back to blogging with some new projects and recipes!

Tiny Things!

2008-11-05T09:56:00.000-06:00

My goodness did this woman read my mind ?! Is there really someone out there that loves tiny things as much as I do ?! If you are a fellow tiny thing lover, or you just love cute things, I recommend that you definitely check out this website-- http://www.tinythingsarecute.com/

Need I remind you again...to VOTE!

2008-11-04T09:07:00.000-06:00

I just voted! I got to my polling location when it opened at eight, and stood in line for almost an hour to vote, I have to say that it was well worth it! By tomorrow we will know who the next president of the United States will be (hopefully NOT McCain)...of course unless we have another corrupt, 2000 election, Florida situation on our hands, I shudder at the thought! Either way get out and VOTE today!!

VOTE!!..or I'll hate you forever...and ever.

2008-11-02T19:55:00.000-06:00

The election is so close I can smell, taste and almost touch it (all that really?!). On November fourth we will be electing the next president of the United States along with countless congressmen, senators, state legislators etc. Of course if you don't vote your basically throwing away your rights. To those people who plan on complaining about the outcome of the election, and I know there are plenty of you, and not voting...I have some words of wisdom- if you don't vote you have NO right to complain, or ever say anything about the way things are going in this country, in fact you should be slapped, and hard. My great-grandfather was an immigrant, he came to this country from Russia when he was 17, and he took his right to vote in this country very seriously, he always voted, always. And he had something to say about those people who took that right for granted "If they took away these people's freedom to vote they'd be screaming their heads off"...and he was right. So think about your choice for president on Nov. 4th, and go cast your ballot in this historical election. Of course I have no clue why anyone would want to vote for an angry, crazed old man and his half-brained, blood thirsty, running mate, but if that's your choice and they pull off a win then I hope you can live with that on your conscience when they destroy this country. It's no secret I fully support Obama and Biden, and good God I hope they win for the sake of this country and my sanity!! Yes We Can!!