Finally....Giveaway Winner

Well, I gave up on the camera, and just went with random.org. Sorry it took so long.

And here's the winner.......2. Christy! Let me know what you'd like Christy, and I will get it to you soon.

However, because it is snowing right now, I've decided I will give everyone 1 coaster of their choice. So let me know what you want! For those of you that live in the area, hopefully I can give the coaster to you at church or in passing sometime. For the rest of you, please send me your mailing address. I will try to contact you all as well by email.

Remember to let me know what you would like stamped on the coaster, if you want it in black or brown, and what color of tile you'd like.

If you are getting snowed in as well, I hope you have a fantastic day Wednesday. I don't know yet if I will be working or not. If not....I will definitely be working in the craft room.

Happy crafting!

Wait For It...

Due to some technical difficulties (which means trying to upload pictures from my camera to the laptop), the giveaway winner won't be announced until Monday. I will be back in the office then and will be able to include pictures.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Christmas Wreath

This year I have been seeing a LOT of wreaths...but square ones. I link of like that...a LOT. So, I thought I would finally venture out and make myself a square wreath. I had nothing extra on hand, so had to purchase everything. I began by adventure by picking up a plain wood frame from Hobby Lobby and an extra swag of greenery at KMart. I had that sitting around my place for a few days, but never got to it since I thought it would be better to use a staple gun instead of my glue gun.

Then on Sunday, I took a trip to another town and visited Michaels. Outside the store in their 'sale' bins, I saw a round wreath for $2. It was fairly small, looked decent, and the wire on the back was nice and bendable.

With the wreath in hand, I proceeded throughout the store, and came across some fun ornaments made for wreaths, that had a wire where the hook normally goes. After I picked out which ornaments I wanted, I proceeded to the Christmas ribbon. I finally decided on a cream/gold ribbon that had some fun swirls in it. Originally, I had a different plan of what I was going to do with this wreath, but that didn't work out, so I used the ribbon in a different way. In the end, it was under $10 for all the supplies to make the wreath.

To begin, the nice and round wreath (with the tag still on it).
I bent the wreath in half both directions in order to get the 4 corners bent for the square.

It's close to being square.

How it looks from the front. It doesn't look entirely square, but it sure doesn't look round. I guess that is what you get when you pick up a 'children's wreath', instead of an adult wreath. But oh well.

After making a mess with the little bit of glitter that is on the ornaments, I worked on my wreath hanger. You can't tell, but this hanger is silver. I grabbed it for dirt cheap at Target after Christmas last year. Since the ornaments have gold in them, I didn't want this silver hook to throw everything off. So I covered it with ribbon. (Not the ribbon shown....that was one of the ribbons I was planning on using, but changed my mind.)

The final product! I like it! I'm very happy with how it turned out. And yes, I know doesn't look centered on my door. At the time, it wasn't. But after removing a nail, I can tell you it now sits centered on the door.

So now go and give this project a whirl. It was really easy. I didn't even use any glue on the ornaments. I just used the wire that was attached to them to wrap around the wreath, and they are staying put.

Happy Crafting!

Craft Time....Giveaway Time!

More coasters!! Some of these are for gifts, some are for a handmade gift exchange, some are to add more to mom's stash, some are for me.

In the spirit of the season, I thought I would give away a set of coasters. The winner gets a customized set. To enter, leave a comment of what handmade gifts you will be making this year (or buying if you don't do much crafting) and that is all! Well, if your name is not linked to a blog, please list your email address as well so I can get in touch with you if you win. I will randomly draw for a winner on Saturday, Dec 7. So sign up!

Be sure to look through some of the other coasters in my posts to see if there is anything special you would like. And if you would like to place an order for a set, I am selling them for $10 plus S&H. 2 sets for $15 plus S&H. More than that, we can talk. :) Just send me an email to farmgirl.chaos (at) gmail (dot) com with your order.

I haven't yet ventured in to selling on Etsy...but have thought about it. Any suggestions?

Crafts Galore!

While spending a sick day at home on Tuesday, I thought I would try to be a little productive and work on some craft projects to sell to a friends mom, to stock her new store. The fun thing about the store, I was told that she hopes to sell things that people make or make better.

Here we go. I decided to make some labels for my items. Not exactly ideal...but it worked for now. Anybody have any suggestions of where to get some great and fun tags?

Now on to the first project. I picked up these coasters at Salvation Army. Actually, all of things I made better came from Salvation Army.

I sanded them a bit just to rough them up so the spray adhesive would stick. Then I added the paper, a little inking done to the edges, and there you go.

SO MUCH BETTER! Hmm. Too bad I don't keep these for myself. I'm sure someone will enjoy them.

Up next...more coasters! However, these are tile coasters. I used a variety of stamps, and the black and brown Staz-On stamp pad.

(I have a set of the above for myself. My favorite! 4 different belt buckles.)

I believe the next project was probably one of the most dramatic. I like it a lot! First off, we have gross and boring.

Then we come to this. Clean and rustic looking.

This dome display looked pretty bad as well. I had to take some Goo-Gone to the glass part to clean off who knows what. For the base, I sanded it quite well, both top and bottom.

With a couple layers of brown paint and clean glass, you get this.

Last of the big projects...a little crate for a set of coasters. I sanded the wood just so the paint would stick. And it goes from this...

...to this, in just a few minutes.

And because I didn't think I had enough to do, I decided to finally jazz up some hand sanitizer bottles. I will be taking the 2 right bottles to one of the schools I serve. The counseling secretaries enjoy stamping and making cards, so I thought they would enjoy these as well. The one on the left is for me. I thought I should keep something finally. :)

Finally, I decided to bring some life to a notebook I will be using to keep track of the things I make for Farmgirl Chaos.

I hope you enjoyed what you saw. If you have any questions about any of the projects, please let me know. I'd be happy to help.

Happy Crafting!

Boo Re-do

A couple weeks ago, I visited the local Salvation Army. I wanted to see what I could find that I could re-do/re-craft and make in to something good. I picked up a few things, and finally worked on one little item late last night. So pardon the pictures...I guess this is what you get at 11pm.

Here is the picture frame I picked up. (At this point in time, I already removed the glass and the back stand piece.
Getting ready to paint the frame. I did nothing to prepare this frame but wipe it off. Next time, instead of going right for the black paint, I will do a base coat to cover up the blue and the little flowers. The reason being...after it dried, I sanded the edges a littel bit, and the blue started showing through. I was fine with it, since one of the papers I used had a little blue in it. After I painted the entire frame (not just where the blue was...since they left some spots bare), I cut out a black piece of cardstock to fit the entire frame. I then cut 3 little pieces of patterned paper and glued them to the black cardstock so they showed through the frame correctly. I then put a b-o-o sticker on each of the different pieces of paper. (I originally thought of having them be glittered...but wasn't in the mood for it last night.) After the stickers were on and everything was together, I decided that the stickers needed a little 'pop'. So I took a gold marker pen that I have and outlined the letters. Not as fun as if I would have used glitter, but I'm fine with that. It suits my style a little more.

And the finished product.

Here's a close up, where you can see the outline of the letters a little better.

Because of having the 'boo' part on one sheet of cardstock, I can easily change this out for every season. Something simple and easy to do with any scraps of paper and stickers. So have fun with it!

Happy Crafting!

Glitter Pumpkins

This season, I am noticing a ton of pumpkins that are blinged out in glitter. I thought I would join that bandwagon, and make a little 'fall' tray for Denean, who's fighting hard against her cancer.
I started by cutting the scrapbook paper to fit the tray. Not an easy task with all the crazy/uneven angles. Then I took the unfinished wood tray from Hobby Lobby, and painted it brown. I did 2 coats on this tray, since the wood really soaked up the color. Once it was dry, I used the spray adhesive to glue the paper to the tray. I've never used this stuff before, and I'm not sure what I think about it. It did a great job with no bubbles or anything. But I did have to paint over the edges again, since I could see some of the residue on the sides. Once that was all done and dry, I sanded the edges a bit to weather it. Final step with the tray was putting a layer of Mod Podge over the scrapbook paper to help seal it in there.

Next up...glittering the pumpkins.

I used Mod Podge again as the glue for the glitter. For the single orange pumpkin, I mixed orange and white glitter. I then spread Mod Podge all around the pumpkin, even the bottom, but made sure to keep it off the stem. As soon as I had all the MP on, I started putting the glitter on. For some reason, the orange/white glitter stuck together in the container, so didn't sprinkle the best. But, at least you can't tell on the pumpkin now.

I then did the same thing to the pink pumpkins. That glitter was much easier to sprinkle.
After the glue was dried and the glitter in place, I sprayed a clear coat over the pumpkins, in hopes that not much more glitter will fall off. Then once that was dry, I painted the stems brown on the 3 pumpkins. I liked the brown better than the cream that it was.

And now the end product.

It's nothing too fancy, but I think it will look cute sitting on a side table or on a dresser.

I purchased the tray, hay bales, and scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby. Only the paper was not on sale. The others were between 30-50% off.

I know it is a bit early....but I also gathered so Christmas decorations, since they were 50%. It was too good to pass up.

Oh, forgot to mention, for the glittered pumpkins to dry, I placed two straws on wax paper. It worked great, and the pumpkins did not stick to the straws.

Happy crafting!

Frilly Flower Bucket

On the drive home after the benefit a couple of weeks ago, I was wondering what I would do with the flowers, ribbons, as well as scrapbook paper. There was a lot of it, and I don't usually do a whole lot of projects with pink in them.

Back track to about an hour earlier that evening. I was taking all the flowers out of the ball jars and putting them in the 5 gallon bucket to transport them home easier. In the end, the bucket looked awesome! Since the flowers got cut down to go in the jars, they bunched together very nicely, and looked great.

Now return to the drive home. I got to thinking about the flowers again, and knew that mom has ice cream buckets that she keeps, because they are just too handy at times. I got to thinking that I have LOTS of ribbon. I got to thinking that I have scrapbook paper. I got to thinking that there are lots of flowers. And there you go....my frilly flower bucket.

So as soon as I got home, I got to work on the bucket. The hardest part....taking the brads out of ALL the ribbons, then tying the ribbon to the bucket handle. Once I got that paper on and all the ribbons tied on, I put the flowers in, and then completely forgot to take a picture of it! Can you believe that?

Thanks to a church friend, she got a picture of it when she visited Denean one day. (Please don't mind the look of the flowers. They looked much better when she got them...not wilted or droopy.)

If you are wanting to spread some cheer to a person, but in a unique way, try this out. It's so much more fun that just a plain vase. This frilly flower bucket could someday be used for another purpose.

Happy crafting!

Bath Sign

This past Sunday evening, I was finally able to get to my brother and sister-in-law's house to check out the 'bath' sign I made when Lindsey was redoing colors and decor in the bathroom. I got to help her pick out the colors, which was fun. They are a chocolate brown and a neat blue color. The walls got painted tan, and the trim and cabinets are white. I guess I should have just taken a picture of the bathroom, but didn't think about that then.

Here's the sign I made that works perfectly in the bathroom. The colors match quite well, which was a surprise to me since I just mixed the tan and the blue on my own.
(And yup, the same picture twice. One with flash and one without. Since it was about 8pm, no much natural light coming in to help out.)

I picked up the knobs at Hobby Lobby, and they are great. They weren't what I was originally looking for. But in the end, I think they work better than the others would have.

Anybody want one?

Happy Crafting!

Tile Coasters

For the benefit that was last night, I decided to make some coasters.

When I got the tiles, I had addition gift ideas in mine. I knew I was going to make one set for my mom...the far right column, since her birthday is coming up. Don't worry, she got them early. So not spoiling the surprise here. :) I also made myself a set. The 2nd column from the left.

I already have requests for some, because the 3 I took for the silent auction were fought over in bidding wars. If anyone else out there would like a custom set of coasters, let me know. I just might have to finally start an Etsy shop.

Easy Decorations

If you read my other blog, you know that I have been helping out with random things for an upcoming benefit for a young gal that has been fighting various forms of cancer off and on for the past 11 years. Because of the many unknowns with the benefit...like number of people for one, we needed table decorations that were easy to replicate, but on the cheap side.

My idea....flowers in ball jars, with scrapbook paper underneath. It was my mom's idea to try to put the pink cancer ribbon on the top of the jar, where brown and pink polka dot ribbon was placed to add a little color. But, I inquired about if it would be seen, or if the flowers would cover it up. So instead, mom thought we could just scatter the ribbons around the tables.

Thanks for Hobby Lobby having their sales at the right time, I got various forms of pink ribbon at 2 for $1. I also got a bunch of pink and brown 12x12 sheets of scrapbook paper at 3 for $1.

I was thinking about how to make them...and didn't really want to use glue dots (even though I picked up a box). I was wanting something a little more fun! I decided to go with brads. I just used my small hole punch, because it was faster than a push pin, and then put the brad through. I originally had small round white brads that came 50 in a pack for $2.99 (which were not on sale). But then I saw a pack of small square white brads that came 100 in a pack for $2.47. I think it's obvious what I went with. I think they turned out great!

And here is what I have done as of now. I might do a few more, just so we can use them in other places.

I'm excited to see how the table will all come together. I think it will be great!

Printable Calendars

Who isn't in need of a fun, simple, colorful calendar? I enjoy the calendars from the ISU Alumni Association. But after they put in any and every activity happening on campus or with the association, there isn't any room to write the important things in life.

Cameron over at Cottage Industrialist made a fantastic calendar that you can go ahead and print off on your own. The calendar starts this September, and continues through August of 2010. It's simple, but colorful.

Click on the calendars, and it will take you right to the site. The calendars print off in sets of 3. If you have cardstock on hand, you might want to use that to print on, just to make it a little more sturdy.

Also a great Christmas or birthday gift idea would be to put the calendars together like your typical calendar (with the spiral binding), but add photos, scrapbook paper, or have kids color on the back (and upside down) of each of the pages.

Be sure to check out all the other 'Good Stuff' on the site. Fun stuff!

Happy crafting!!

Free Printables & Ideas

Are you looking for some great, free printables for yourself or to give to others as gifts? Head on over to Leo on the Loose and see what Erin has to offer. There are tons of free printables, in addition to links to other printables, and numerous fun ideas for the freebies.

One that quickly caught my attention was her grocery list. On the list you are able to check if you have a coupon for it or not. What a easy and simple idea to add to a list. That way you won't have to dig through your coupons while at the store. Planning ahead of time will save you time while in the store.

Happy Crafting!

Bath redo

A couple-three years ago, my sisters and I did a little bathroom makeover for our mom for Mother's Day. At the time, it worked.....but not for long...thanks to the paint. I picked out a nice light sage green color that worked with the new towels and all. However, once the paint got on the walls, it looked more like a neon green. So thanks to Martha and her bad paint color, it never looked completely right. Now, it has been repainted with a tan, and looks much better.

But while planning for this, I made a 'BATH' sign that had some knobs below it. I painted a base color that matched one of the accent towel colors, then crackled white over it. It looked nice when everything was put together. But with the new bath colors this time around, it was all wrong.

Finally a couple of weekends ago, I tackled the sign again. But due to the original crackle finish, I had to start from scratch on a fresh piece of wood. I also changed up the font, to be a little more fun. The sign looks much better now.

I also finally made one for my brother and sister-in-law. When I helped her redo their bathroom, I said I would make a sign. But I finally got the sign done (well, started and done) the weekend before the 4th. For theirs, I think I did a tan base, followed by crackled brown. Then the 'bath' was tan as well. I then tried to match the blue in the bathroom and put a border around the sign. I still haven't seen the finished product, since I had to leave before the knobs got in. So hopefully I can get over there sometime and take a picture of it.

But here is what mom's looks like close up, and how it looks with the other accessories around it. If you would like one for your bathroom, let me know, I'd be happy to make you one.....for a price. :)

If you notice....the knobs on the sign and the knobs on the box below the towel match. Too bad I can't find them at Hobby Lobby anymore. I really like them!

Father's Day Gift

Thanks to Living Locurto, I came up with this for my dad for Father's Day. To make it, I used digital scrapbooking paper and elements (that I have gotten for free). It would have been just as easy to do this with real paper and elements, but I didn't have them handy or available. I made them in Publisher. And here they are.
The outside says 'One COOL Dad - Happy Father's Day'

The DAD COUPONS are good for one free: yard work pass, chore pass, show sweeping, cheesecake or other dessert, control of the remote (for one day only), car or truck wash.

In addition to the coupons, I made a 'sticker' for dad that said 'Cool Dad' on it. Since mom's always seem to get flowers, I thought it would be good for dad to get a sticker. :)

Happy crafting!

Buttons Galore!

[I apologize for the blurriness of this picture. That's about as good as I could get it with my camera and the fluorescent lights.]

What you see here are mini buttons I put together for my upcoming Citizen Washington Focus trip to Washington DC. I am a chaperone for this trip, and am looking forward to it. One big part of the trip is that the students take pins/buttons that they purchase, make, or request from business, and swap them with other youth from around the country. After some of the chaperones made calls, sent emails, etc, we realized we weren't rounding up the pins like we had hoped. That's where these guys come in.

I recalled that the Workspace on campus often advertises that people can make their own buttons. So I checked in to it. The above buttons are what myself and 2 other chaperones made one night, in about a 3 hour time span. After work, before the others got there, I cut out 400 (100 of each) of the designs, and had a good start on assembling them. We could have been done a lot faster, but they have only 1 of each button machine size. So we just assembled them one at a time. It was really quite easy. The hardest part was getting them all cut out. I think next time I'll take a Stampin' Up punch (or something similiar) and cut out the circles that way. It would be much easier and more accurate.

The top left button says 'Iowa - Youth - Power', with 4 hands clasping a wrist, with the 4-H clover in the middle. (The hand graphic and saying was sent in by one of the youth. I added the 4-H clover.) The top right is an outline of Iowa, with the 4-H clover on it. There is a green border that you can't really see. (I would like to have made it wider, so it could be seen on the front. Oh well.) The bottom left is my favorite! It says 'Fresh Picked - Sweet Corn - Bushels Ahead! - 2 Miles'. I then added 'Iowa' to one of the ears of corn. To me, sweet corn and Iowa just go together. I sure can't wait to finally eat some! The bottom right button is a picture of a covered bridge, since we are famous for our covered bridges. This was sent in by one of the youth as well. I added 'Iowa' to this one as well.

To make 400 mini buttons and use the Workspace's equipment, it cost about $65.

So if any of you are looking for a fun project to do with kids or adults, or cheap and easy gifts to give out, or maybe you feel like putting your picture on a button, this would be the thing to do.

Happy Crafting!

Crafting Again...

It's been way too long since I have done any crafting. Finally, this past Wednesday night, I had nothing going on. So I spent the evening doing a few crafting projects. I was quite pleased with them. :)

The first project...I can't remember where I saw it, but someone etched words on jars and I LOVED it. (Well, I still love it.) I forgot to take a before picture. But I started with some plain glass jars that I have been using to hold my sugar, sweets, and flour. I dumped out all the goods, cleaned and dried the jars. I then taped off the area that I wanted to etch with painters tape. Then I centered the stickered words on the jars. (I ended up using the middle stickers that were with the pack that I bought. I originally wanted to use a size bigger, but they were too big. So the middle size worked just fine.)



Once everything was set, I used a foam brush and brushed on a think layer of the glass etching stuff. Let it sit for at least 1 minute (I think I waited longer).




Without touching it, wash off the etching stuff. Once it was all washed off, I then took the tape and stickers off.

I then rewashed the jars, dried them, and filled them back up with their item. I apologize for the final picture. It looks much better in person. It was just very had for the camera to see it.





If I get the chance to do something like this again, I will make sure I put the etching cream on a lot thicker than what I did. I thought it was thick, but I completely missed some spots. So if you attempt this project, don't be stingy with the etching cream. Lay it on thick!


Now on to the next project...custom coasters! I got this idea from a fellow TRiO employee, and here is what I ended up with.


I found the ceramic tiles at Lowe's for 28 cents each. The stamps can be whatever stamp design you would like to use. The ink needs to be the StazOn Ink Pads (Hobby Lobby has them if you want to pick one up. They aren't on sale this week and the weekly coupon is not the 40% off one, so my fabulous Stampin' Up demonstrator let be borrow her black and red StazOn ink. Don't worry, I'll be getting her a new black pad as soon as they go on sale or the coupon is out.)

I stamped my design on the tiles, and then let them dry completely. If you mess up, just have a wet paper towel or wipe sitting by, and wipe off the mistake. A few times the row of dots got a little smudged, so I just wiped them off right away, let the tile dry, and tried again. Once all the tiles were completely dry, I then added little felt circles to the bottom of the tiles so they would not scratch tables, etc. Let me tell you....these were not easy to find. At my local Hobby Lobby, the little felt circles are located in the FRAMING area. Not really sure why, but they are. So keep that in mind if you ever go out looking for little felt circles or squares. Or just save yourself a few minutes of walking around the craft section of the store about 3 times, and just ask someone that works there.

In the end, I was quite pleased with the coasters, and I think the people I gave them to liked them as well! Success!!




When I make myself some coasters, I'll be sure to post them. They are also a fun, cheap, and easy gift idea if you would bundle them up in a pack of 4 or so. I just gave them out as an individual gift, since they were given to people who work at the high school I serve.


Happy Crafting!