Valentine's Day framed button art

**this project was first seen as a guest post on DebbieDoo's. I thought you might enjoy it too in case you missed it.**

Red is my absolute favorite color. I just love the energy that it brings and how it automatically livens things up a bit. Maybe that's why I gravitate towards all things hearts and Valentine's.  I created this Valentine's Day framed button art with a clearance frame, some striped scrapbook paper and some buttons I had collected in my button jar.

how to make your own handmade leather passport cover from vintage leather

I have a love affair with leather. Not just any leather--that soft buttery leather that just feels right when you touch it. That kind of leather is hard to come by, but when I found a piece of it at a garage sale this past summer, I couldn't pass it up. 

It wasn't in the best shape, but it was the smoothest leather you have ever felt and it was nearly 100 years old! It was an old book cover with a hand painted Indian on it that was falling apart. Boy if that thing could talk! The stories it could tell and the places it had been!  So, I kept that book cover that was falling apart tucked away in my closet until I decided what to make with it. 

I finally decided to make a leather passport cover. Our whole family has passports and in a drawer, they all look the same.  I knew I wanted something that would set it apart from the others and have a fun story to tell.

Lately, my passport has become one of my favorite possessions. I love the stories behind the stamps and the amazing places that it's taken me. Travel to me, is one of the greatest gifts.  I love my passport now even more with this handmade leather cover made from an old treasure I picked up at a garage sale.

You don't have to use a vintage book cover, you can use any piece of leather that you have. Maybe an old coat or a scrap from a project. It took me less than twenty minutes to make. Come see how!

Last minute crafty gift ideas

I know, I know, Christmas is in two days, but I couldn't help but squeeze in a few last minute gift ideas that you can make in case you have a few last minute presents to whip up.

I actually had all of these supplies on hand, so no special trip was required to a craft store. But I am a craft supply hoarder, so perhaps you are much more organized and less in need of craft supply intervention than I am.

Regardless, these gift ideas can all be whipped up in under an hour and most of them can be made in under twenty minutes.

Easy chalkboard art secret for those of us that aren't hand lettering artists

I'm a huge fan of chalkboards. I love the chalk art trend and wish that I could say that I was an expert chalk art hand letterer {I'm sure that's an actual thing...maybe} but alas, I am not. However, I have learned how to fake it.  I shared with you a tutorial several years ago and then got slapped with a lovely copyright infringement notice and well, in the end, I took my tutorial down. Earlier this year, I redid the tutorial {with images that I am pretty sure are safe} and what better time to revisit chalk art than right before the holidays.

Snow and Christmas trees to make a fun holiday decoration

Last year, one of my favorite Christmas crafts that I made were these die cast cars with snow and mini Christmas trees. They were huge hits at my local craft bazaar last year, so I kept my eyes peeled this year as I did garage sale and thrift store shopping for more things that I could add faux snow and trees to.

I found a few things, and this time, they were even bigger than the little die-cast cars I used last year!

Vintage tablecloth turned into Christmas tree skirt

I love Christmas! I love decorating for Christmas and I love unpacking my Christmas boxes every single year. Every year I add to the boxes with handmade ornaments like I featured all last week in my six days of handmade. Sometimes, I add big items, sometimes I add small items.

This year, one of the new items I added to my Christmas decor was a new tree skirt. But not just any tree skirt. It's a tree skirt that I made out of a pretty amazing vintage round tablecloth that we got from my husband's grandmother's estate just after she passed away this summer.

I actually see round tablecloths like this at garage sales and estate sales quite often, so in case you are like me, you can pin this or tuck this away and remember when garage sale season starts back up again to keep your eyes peeled for a round tablecloth to make a no sew Christmas tree skirt.

It took me under 5 minutes and I promise, there is really no sewing to make this tablecloth into a Christmas tree skirt. Want to see how?

Handmade clay antler ornament

Welcome back to day five of the six days of handmade ornaments.
In case you missed it, check out the scrabble tile ornaments, typewriter keys, Christmas tree in a jar and woodland diorama ornament. 

Today, I will be sharing with you a handmade clay antler ornament.

Deer and Christmas tree ornament

Welcome back to day four of six days of handmade ornaments. I hope you have enjoyed seeing all of the fun homemade ornaments so far. In case you missed it, check out the scrabble tile ornaments, typewriter keys and Christmas tree in a jar.

Today, I will be sharing with you these snow globe diorama ornaments.
I had a half a dozen of these adorable little deer that I bought for a quarter a piece. They were floating around in the bottom of my purse just waiting for glitter, when my purse got stolen from a Starbucks parking lot. So some bad guy probably has some deer they are making diorama ornaments from too.

These were really easy and fun and the possibilities for them are endless! Let's get started!

Handmade typewriter key ornament

Welcome to day two of six of Holy Craft's six days of handmade ornaments. Yesterday I shared with you the handmade Scrabble tile ornament.  Today, I will be sharing with you a round typewriter key ornament. 

There are so many ways to personalize these ornaments for your family and friends. I picked this 5 since there are five people in our family. They are super easy to create. Let me show you!

Six days of handmade ornaments. Scrabble tile ornaments on a vintage ruler

Welcome to day one of six days of handmade ornaments. I can have a boxes full of ornaments, and yet every year, I end up making a few more to hang on the tree.  This whole week, I will be sharing with you easy and inexpensive ways to create your own handmade ornaments this year.

The first one I'm excited to show you is my scrabble tile ornaments mounted on a vintage yardstick and hung with plaid ribbon.

Gold painted goose feathers

I find some pretty cool things at garage sales. Sometimes some of the most random things are the things that I have the hardest time passing up.  A few months ago, I picked up a ziploc bag full of goose feathers.  The family had a goose as a pet and apparently he shed.  A lot.  So for $1, I got a whole bag full of some pretty sturdy white feathers and for months they sat in a drawer because I wasn't quite sure what to do with them.

But alas, don't you worry, I came up with a cool use for those goose feathers. I love that I can use them for a few different things and hopefully, it will give you some inspiration to start creating if you happen upon your own bag of feathers at your next garage sale.

How to make embroidery floss tassels

I'm a huge fan of this tassel trend that is happening right now, so when I found some embroidery floss at a garage sale recently I knew I had to whip up some tassels of my own!  It's super easy and I can't wait to show you how!

Boo! Unfinished letters, finished with mod podge and scrapbook paper

I love a quick craft that doesn't cost me a whole lot of money.  Those are my favorite!  Mostly because it gives me a chance to have a little creative outlet without breaking the bank on supplies.

I'm sure you have seen this little image making it's way around the craft circles.  It is so true though!

That said, I try to keep my craft costs low by buying most of my supplies at garage sales and with coupons at the craft store. Because we all know that we could spend a pretty penny buying supplies!

I was lucky enough to find some unfinished letters that spelled Boo at a garage sale. I'm guessing the gal had the same idea as I did, but never got around to it. It took me 10 minutes, some scrapbook paper and some mod podge to create a fun little addition to my Halloween decor that's already around the house.

DIY infinity scarf with snaps--a Lululemon vinyasa scarf knockoff tutorial

It's fall. My least favorite time of the year. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand why the rest of you love it. I used to love it too when I lived in the Midwest, but now as a pacific northwest transplant, fall marks the start of our rainy season and nine long months of doom and gloom. But I digress. 

Fall means cooler weather, dressing in layers and scarves. Lots of scarves! One of my favorite scarves of all time is the Lululemon Vinyasa scarf.  I received it last Christmas as a gift and love the tutorial on how to wear it 10 ways, though I really only wear it one or two of those ways most of the time.

I'm too cheap to buy another at the $48 price tag so I used my current scarf as a guide to sew a knockoff that I love.

Driftwood succulent planter

It's no secret that I am crushing hard on this succulent trend. I bought a whole huge flat of succulents at a garage sale this summer and they have done so well that many of them are growing new blooms. I needed somewhere to plant these new shoots and happened to have a large piece of driftwood that I found on the beach this summer.

With a little help from my handy husband, I was able to make a driftwood planter for my succulents that I am in love with!  The best part is, it cost me next to nothing!

Want to know how?

The Great Craft Swap with Wayfair-patterned cutting board

Recently, I was asked to be part of The Great Craft Swap sponsored by Wayfair and well, to be honest with you, they had me at craft swap. I was in! I was given four super fun products to chose from, and immediately, the ideas started coming with each of them.  I ultimately settled on the 3 piece bamboo cutting board set because I had a plan A and a plan B. 

Can I just tell you, that sometimes things don't go as planned with a project and you need a plan C. That's the fun of the learning process though.  More on that later! 

The fun part of the project was that I wasn't crafting for myself, but instead I was crafting for another crafter who I had never met before. I love that! 

After I finished crafting the cutting boards, I mailed the package off and not even two days later, a package arrived in the mail for me! I love getting mail.  Especially handmade mail. It's the bestest!

Here's a little peek of the boards that I gave and the tea towels that I got.  I love them!

I've even got a full tutorial just for you on how I updated the 3 bamboo cutting boards.

Easy to make tassel pen and coordinating notebook with Duck Tape

It feels like summer just started, but really, it's starting to wind down a bit and we are beginning to think about heading back to school.  My kids have been doing this school thing for quite some time now. Two of the three no longer get lists of school supplies in the form of a checklist. They just know what they like and what works for them.

My daughter is obsessed with stationary supplies. I had no idea that was a thing. But then I started mentioning it to other people and apparently there are other people who love office supplies. Who knew? Maybe you {or one of your kids} is one of them!

I learned that one of the things that office supply lovers love is coordinating supplies in a great print. One of our best tricks is picking up Duck Tape and using that to update cheap school supplies.



A plain composition notebook on sale can be picked up for less than a dollar. One with a fun print is usually at least double. So why not make your own? Not only that, now you can use your Duck Tape to create coordinating supplies for everything from folders, to pencils and pens. The only thing stopping you is your creativity!

Tassels are hot this season, so not only did we want to coordinate some supplies, we wanted to do it in style!

Handmade cards made from something {free} you would never expect!

Do you ever see something and inspiration just strikes? That happened to me earlier this week on a coffee date with my littlest guy. We were literally standing in Starbucks and I immediately wanted to get home to start crafting.

I whipped up these handmade cards in a matter of minutes.  You wouldn't believe the {free} thing that inspired me to make them.

Easy chalkboard art tutorial

Several years ago I posted a tutorial for easy to make chalkboard art. It was my first ever {and only!} time I have been slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit.  Thankfully, we were able to work things out, but that meant that I had to take my tutorial down.  I have been meaning to re do the tutorial and post it again, because it's a technique that I use often, but the days turned to weeks and those weeks turned to years, but holla!  I'm finally getting around to getting a new improved tutorial up for you!

And I'm using images that you can find as free printables on-line so there is no copyright issue we should run into!

If you scratch your head and wonder how people make such awesome chalkboard art, this is how non artists do it!  And you can do it too!

Unfinished craft frame turned into a custom earring and memo board

I'm slowly making my way through the amazing swag that I received at SNAP conference in April. I had an awesome unfinished frame from Cut It Out and some paint from Folk Art.  Come see what I made when I put a few things I had on hand together.