A Wonderfully Busy Time

I've neglected the blog for a few days. My apologies, but in my defense I started a new job this week, and I'm getting ready for a craft show tomorrow. 

While I'm not a fan of college ball, I do live in Razorback country, and I thought people might like a hog to hang on their wall. Even though Arkansas hasn't done well thus far in the season, I'm hoping the fans stay true. (I am a Tennessee Titans fan win or lose!)

Here are a few of the canvases I've done in the past. Some of the designs will make their way to the show tomorrow and hopefully find lovely, new homes.

The canvases feature ink and acrylic and a some have Swarovski crystal embellishments.

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Candelabra Cake Stand (tutorial)

Hi guys. It's time for another fun crafty craft, and in keeping with tradition it will be a thrifty project.

I found a simple, brass candelabra at a local thrift store. It was $2.99.

SCORE! 

Of course I couldn't leave it the way I found it. The first thing I did (after cleaning off the thrift store stickiness) was remove the
two candle holders from each arm. 

After unscrewing the cups, I glued the drip plates to the arm. They were previously held in place by the cups. Once again I use Beacon's Glass Metal and More (I love that stuff). Then I took one of the cups and added it to the middle holder for extra height.  

Now here's the part I don't like... at all. I had to wait for the glue to dry. 

I don't like waiting for glue to dry. As I've said before- that's what blow dryers are for. (If only a blow dryer could have worked on this project. It would have heated the metal and kept the glue melted.) The top candle holder cup was filled with glue, and when the extra cup was added it sealed out the air. That meant a drying time of about 47 years.

I lasted about four days before I came up with an alternative plan. I added a few drops of Gorilla Glue to hold the cup in place, and I put the whole thing in the fridge for a day. I had to take a shelf out of Matilda Maytag to make room, but  it worked. The brass got cold, and the glue finally set. 

Next I went to the garage to my box of mis-matched, thrift store plates. I decided on the adorable plates below and based my paint color on the design. I only had two, so I found a scalloped edged plate for the center.

These fabulous retro plates were 25¢ each. I think they are so swell! The design has uber-thin gray and yellow lines, so I decided to use some leftover yellow, Rustoleum spray paint. That brings my total to $3.74 plus tax!

And voilà. Here is the finished product all dressed up for Fall. And what could be better than a stack of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies? THREE stacks of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!

In case you're wondering if the middle plate is crooked- it is. Have I mentioned that I hate waiting for glue to dry? Anyway, I took the cookies off after the photo so it wouldn't stay lop-sided.

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Coffee Filter Wreath for Fall

I was looking at a new blog this week and got inspired to make something for the Fall season. The blog is called My Simple, Sweet, & Southern Life, and Ashley seems quite delightful. The craft that made me thirsty for an Autumn project was a giant, felt mum.

The tutorial can be found HERE. 

I had a stack of coffee filters, and they seemed like a good place to start.  Here's my "ingredients" list.

Coffee filters (duh)

Glue gun and glue sticks (duh again)

Cardboard for the wreath

Food coloring

Water color paints (for adjusting my colors after the fact)

Ribbon for hanging

   

    Step one was dying the coffee filters in bowls of water with a bunch 

of food coloring mixed in.

The filters soaked up the liquid faster than I could snap the shutter.

 I put the filters outside in the sunshine to dry. 

They dried alright- a lot lighter than I wanted. 

As the filters were bleaching in the sun, I cut a wreath shape from a piece of cardboard. I also cut out some tan tissue paper to use as a neutral color.

After wrapping the cardboard with tape (for extra stability), I started gluing on my Autumn  Spring colored filters. (Grab the filters from the middle and make a pouf.) Starting along the outside of the ring I glued a tan pouf after every two pink-but-should-have-been-red filters.

I glued the inner most row next. Again, I alternated 

one tan with every two yellow filters.

After the inner ring was done I filled in the middle with the orange filters and the remaining tan and pink filters. I did not put these in any particular order.

The wreath looked like a spring meadow. (Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of it then.) To offset the pastel sweetness I decided to spray the wreath with more color. I squeezed some Indian Red water color paste into a squirt bottle and added a little water, and I spritzed the heck out of the wreath. The color still isn't quite right, but it's much better. 

Here it is with some of my fabric pumpkins. The last thing I did was attach a ribbon to the back. It should have been the first thing I did, but I always get something out of order. I'm not a fan of the gold ribbon bow. That's probably going to change.

The tutorial for the fabric pumpkins can be found here.

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focused on Glory (lightning)

week 36

focused on Glory is a weekly feature in conjunction with Ponderings of an Elect Exile. (minus a couple of missing weeks)

Thank you for visiting creative confetti!  Please take a moment to "like" creative confetti (website) on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter. And I'd love to hear from you via the comment section or the email option on my profile page!  

Pioneer Woman Editing Assignment

Ree Drummond at The Pioneer Woman provided a picture for editing. 

The original.

Here are my two takes.

A Long Fall Drive

A Stormy Ride

Which do you like best?

Lions and Turtles and Camels Oh My!

Do you know what personality type you are? I've taken several varieties of personality tests for different reasons over the past few years. Each test has its own method of scoring and assigning traits. According to the Jung and Briggs-Myers TEST I am E-S-F-J (extrovert-sensing-feeling-judging). There's no real surprise that extrovert was my dominant trait. (And thankfully judging doesn't mean judgmental.)

Another test rated me as a Sanguine-Choloric. Again, no surprise. The results are the same but called by different names. For information on traits related to sanguine, choloric, melancholy, or phlegmatic personalities check this SITE. There are a dozen more sites, but that was one of the first I found for this post.

Last week I had to take a new personality quiz. I wasn't familiar with this particular form of people branding. It administers animal traits to the results. I found it amusing until I began the interrogation of my inner identity. After looking at the possible results I knew I would end up as a 

Much Loved Monkey... 

 with a heaping side dish of Leading Lion.

Content Camel...

and Tranquil Turtle didn't stand a chance.

Unfortunately knowing the end results wasn't enough. I was going to have to go through a list of four-word groups and pick the best representation of me. Sounds simple enough.

WRONG!

I don't like choosing just one of pretty much anything. My brain doesn't work that way. I have learned to adapt to a world that likes definitive answers. For example, when someone asks what my favorite food is I say it's potatoes. I do love potatoes. (Yes love. They are worthy of that word.) I'll eat a potato virtually any way it is prepared, but I could have also replied with other items like our family burritos or fresh fruit salad.

Imagine my angst when I had to choose from words like content, independent, active, and perceptive. I feel rather strongly about more than one of those choices, but I COULD ONLY CHOOSE ONE.

Dang it.

Then there's doubtful, wishy-washy, intolerant, and angered easily. Um, no thank you to any of those. Or how about non-affirming, rude, scatterbrained, or unconcerned. Wow. How do I pick one of those lovely descriptors?

Another grouping included diligent, advocate, author, or certain. Shoot! Now I'm getting easily angered at my choices and feel quite wishy-washy over my hesitance. heeheehee

Oh well, I know I end up as a Monkey-Lion, so I'm obviously not going to worry about it too much.

Thank you for visiting creative confetti!  Please take a moment to "like" creative confetti (website) on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter. And I'd love to hear from you via the comment section or the email option on my profile page!  

focused on Glory (beautiful puddles)

Week 35

Take a moment to stop by Ponderings of an Elect Exile to see Jennifer's double rainbow.

Thank you for visiting creative confetti!  Please take a moment to "like" creative confetti (website) on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter. And I'd love to hear from you via the comment section or the email option on my profile page!