Blessed

 

Fall is my very favorite time of the year. We have been enjoying such beautiful fall weather that I don't want to end. The leaves are turning into red, orange and yellow and swirling up and down the street. The sun is shining and there is just a little bit of chill in the air. It couldn't be more perfect.

 

 

 

It is also crafting season for us.  Time to get ready for our annual Christmas craft boutique.  We have been up to our elbows in sawdust and paint, but it is all starting to come together.  I just wish I had room in my home to keep half of the crafts we have made.

 

 

I am feeling very blessed, as I always do at this time of the year.  My family is a huge blessing to me and I cherish the time I am able to spend with them.  I realize that my most wonderful blessings are the people in my life and the love that we share. 

 

 

 

 

Girls' Camp Crafts

Natalie and I just returned from girls' camp and we had a blast!  Now that I have caught up on some much needed sleep, I wanted to post the crafts that we made at camp. 

I was asked to be in charge of the crafts and I had so many ideas running through my head.  We narrowed it down to three ideas.  We didn't get to make all three but I will be showing them all since I made a sample of each one.  The young women keep asking me about the third project so we will be doing it for a mutual night.

 

For the first craft each girl received one of these cute lunch bags that contained a 4X4 wood block and a picture of the Snowflake, Arizona temple.  My brother was generous enough to provide me with a picture of the temple with this years' theme.

 

This project was very simple.  The girls just had to paint and sand the block, then cut the picture into a 4X4 square.  (I ordered 4X6 prints)  They modge podged the picture onto the block then tied a scrap of fabric around it.  I brought a big bag of scrap fabric and several colors of paint.  It was fun to see how creative the girls were.

For the next project they received a cup with a chain and a pendant in it.

 



I brought some scrap paper from all of my scrapbooky projects.  They cut a square of scrapbook paper for the background, then added a monogram and other small embellishments such as rhinestones and small brads. I also brought some old magazines with me and some of the girls cut out letters or words or images from the magazines to put into their necklaces.  We used a glue stick to glue the paper down temporarily so it wouldn't float up when we put the diamond glaze in.  Then we covered the scrapbook paper with a thin layer of Diamond Glaze and let it dry for about 30 min.  The Diamond Glaze dries hard with a glossy finish.  The girls used their cups that we gave them to put the pendant in while it was drying.

The girls loved this project and I noticed many of them wore their necklaces to church the next Sunday.


The last project (the one that we didn't have time for) was a metal chalk board and magnets.  Our Bishop happens to own a heating and cooling business so we got sheet metal scraps for FREE!

 

Randy drilled holes in the metal to thread ribbon through for hanging.  I primed the sheet metal, painted it with chalkboard paint and threaded the ribbon through the holes.   The magnets are made with fabric flowers.  The girls are so excited for this one and they keep asking me when we are going to do it.

I think the girls really enjoyed all of the projects.  They kept telling me thanks.  They are so sweet.  We had a great time and everyone got along so well.

Camp was a blast!  I can't wait until next year!

 

Fall Decor

Holy Cow! Almost 2 years since my last post.

I just wanted to share some of my fall decor. I know it's a little late since Thanksgiving is tomorrow and its almost time to take down the fall decorations and start on decorating for Christmas.

I am mostly posting this for my benefit so I will remember what I used next year. I hope you enjoy.

A cute be grateful sign that I made.  I know the chevron is not quite even but I still love it.

Bunting made from fabric circles and doilies.

Hydrangeas are my favorite.  I had these flowers and a wreath form sitting in the pantry.  I just had to buy some brown ribbon to go with it.

My cute pumpkins from a couple of years ago.  I just tied some lace around them.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Sentiments

Altered Christmas Books

I made some cute Christmas books for the boutique.  I love the paper on this one.

 

This is my absolute favorite.  The deer ornament came from the dollar store.

Loving the polka dot ribbon on this one!

I have lots more crafts to show.  Tomorrow is setup for the boutique, hopefully I will find time to post the pictures.  Yee haw!

Shadow box/Memory board

Two of my favorite projects so far for the boutique.

 The big beautiful black one:

The pretty little green one that I so want to keep for my girls' room:

Boutique Season

We are getting ready for a big boutique that runs the week before Thanksgiving.  Our house is a wreck but we are sure having fun.

The state of the living room

Kitchen table.

At least I have some cute pumpkins to show for it. I got this idea from another blog.  I can't remember which one at the moment.  

All other projects are at the midway point, waiting to be painted.  Hopefully this week will see the rest of the projects finished.

Altered Halloween Book

Just a cute little Halloween project I wanted to share.  This is an old book from the thrift store.  I had a lot of fun jazzing it up for Halloween.  It turned out so cute I can't wait to make one for Christmas!

I'm linking up to Just a Girl.  Go check her out.

Halloween Table

I got the Halloween decorations out the other day and played around with them a little bit.  I had lots of fun putting this table together.  The picture is kind of at a funky angle but that is because it is so hard to photograph in front of a mirror and not get the rest of the mess room.

I found these weeds on my morning run.  It is kind of hard to see in this picture but the tall ones are a pretty orange and the shorter ones are a rust color.  The ones in the bottom of the vase are sunflower heads.  We have a ton of sunflowers growing around here and they are all drying out now.  I just lopped off their heads and put them in the vase for filler.   I looked like I was carrying the Olympic torch running home with them in my hands.  I kind of messed up my back in the process but it was definitely worth it. The bird is from dollar tree and the cute jack-o-lantern kettle came from a yard sale.

  This cute sign was painted by my mom last year.  I love the simplicity of it.

 The boots!  Aren't they the cutest things?  Megan and I made these last year.  She came up with the idea.  They are so fun.  I really love the moss growing out of them.  The burlap pumpkins came from a yard sale. 

I hope you like it.