making suncatchers

A while ago I posted in my crafts newsletter about making suncatchers by melting pony beads.. and how I wanted to try it. I finally got around to doing that this past weekend. (after a reminder that I had said I wanted to try it) and Well my results are intresting.

I put my table top oven outside because, well, let's face it, melting plastic stinks.

 

I started off with just some random colors.  But I changed my mind and just picked out a few colors to work with. I went with yellow, blut purple orange clear and red or pink. I had bought some black beads as well, to see why they said only use the clear ones.. Well they are sun catchers so you want to sun to shine through, I wanted to be able to do outlines and black beads will do just that.

 

 

Here they are just going into my oven

 

 

 

 

All melted

 

and all done and cooled again

 

 

I'm going to save these for Halloween  and hang them in my front window.

Billie C.

Check out Pringles Can Crafts For Halloween | Rustic Crafts & Chic Decor

Pringles Can Crafts For Halloween | Rustic Crafts & Chic Decor

 

Billie C.

HALLOWEEN WREATH

http://www.rookno17.com/2009/10/boutique-chic-diy-cheap-series.html

 

BOUTIQUE CHIC DIY CHEAP SERIES: HALLOWEEN WREATH

ASSEMBLY TIME: approx. 15 minutes

TOTAL COST: approx. $15

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

• HALLOWEEN SPIRIT (without it, what's the point?)
• (1) A grapevine wreath from the craft store (got mine at Michael's for $4)
• (2) Silk Japanese Lantern Stems (got mine at Pier 1 Imports, $2.99/stem)
• (2) Silk or dried cattail stems (on sale at Michael's for $1.67/mixed fall bunch)
• Dried Corn Stalk fronds (picked mine up off the ground in the pumpkin patch parking lot)
• wire or hot glue
• A few vintage inspired Halloween ornaments. If you don't have any cute little ornaments just laying around your house, here's a tip: Download some free vintage Halloween images from Matthew Mead. Cut out an 8.5" x 11" piece of cardboard from a cereal box (recycling ~ love it!). Most printers will print on this thickness of cardboard. It gives a nice vintage look, and has a good weight to it. Print on blank side (obviously). Cut out. Cover commercially printed side with craft glue and coat with glitter ~ voila! Your ornament is complete!

Start out with ye olde grapevine wreath, available at any craft store. Begin by sticking a few cattails into the wreath. Bend to shape if necessary. Secure with wire or hot glue. Pretty boring so far...I know...

Next, stick in some of your corn stalk fronds. Secure with wire or hot glue. We have a little contrast going, but how about some color?

That's where the japanese lanterns come in. Snip from bunch into smaller clusters and arrange by tucking in to wreath. Secure with wire or hot glue. Ahh, now that's starting to look better...

Dry-fit decorations, then wire or hot glue into place. Fill in gaps with additional corn stalk, cat tails, or Japanese lanterns as you see fit.

Ready to hang and greet guests with Halloween cheer!

 

Billie C

Each leaf on the four leaf clover represents one of the following:



1st leaf is Hope
2nd is Faith
3rd is Love
4th is Luck

Count Mintula lives...

http://davelowe.blogspot.com/2008/08/peppermint-coffin.html

Peppermint Coffin

Instant creative gratification is nice. Here's quick little Halloween project  made in under a half hour. It's sort of a craft doodle.

Empty mint tin...


A little paint, some glued on leather shoelace pieces, a small cut-out drawn character and Count Mintula lives...


Outside of being a little toy- sliding the lid up and down, it serves no real purpose. I guess it might be good to keep a skeleton key in or your arsenic for when unwanted guests stop by.

 

 

Billie C
make a fake email address in your address books. It works for any email account and will prevent anyone accessing your address books to send viruses and spam out. It is really simple to do. Go to add a new contact. You do not have to put a name at all. All you have to do is make the email address as follows. ~aaa.aaaaa@aaaaa.aaa

Because I also text to phones from my computer, I used ~111@11.11 so it's at the top of my email book

Once done the hacker cannot get past this fake address and so all your other addresses are safe and out of reach. The second safety feature of doing this is that you will be notified of a mail delivery failure notice when a hacker tries to uss this fake address to begin sending out mail. Because it is all (a's) this will always be the very first contact address in your email address books and hence why all others will be safe. I hope that this helps.

What a weekend.

What a weekend. Our water frozen on Friday. We both forgot to let the water drip overnight. Even the sewer hose froze over night. Jerry called Skip (owner of the campground) to come thaw out the water line that we attach our hose to, since it was frozen as well as our hose. He was so kind, He not only thawed his waterline, but he also aimed the jet heater into our camper and thaw out our inside water lines, as well.

Skip said that this is the first time he's seen the lake have any ice on it. He's only owned the campground for 3 years.

We now have a water leak.. (yeah, I figured we would end up with at least one) A copper fitting broke loose. At first, Jerry tied to solder it back together but that didn't hold. Next, he's tried J-B Weld. The first time didn't hold, but he found a small area that he may have missed with the weld and patched that, We haven't tested it yet to see if it will hold. After eating dinner out, we stopped at Home Depot to pick up more J-B weld and a case of water for my use tomorrow.

 

We had a very pleasant Surprise when we ate out Saturday evening at Appleby's.. Although it's a bit more pricey that what we usually pay. We got just what we ordered and it looked just like the pictures on the menu looked like. I got the Chicken that was on special. It was served over zucchini and squash and cut up potatoes, had shrimp and tomato on top as well as Cheese.. and it was yummmy.. A 10. Jerry had a sandwich and he said it was just how he wanted it, as well as the fries. We shared a plate of deep fried twisted potatoes and the dessert of a chocolate chip cookies, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, chocolate fudge drizzled on top and some whipped cream. I do believe we may be eating there more often.

I finally got the stitching pulled out of the top tier of the skirt I'm working one. Now to refill the bobbin and go at it again.

I could have spanked Rocky late last night. Our "last walk" of the day and he goes over the hill to do his ... and got tangled around a small tree. I had to put Macon and Barney inside before I could help Rocky , He was so tangled that I had to sit on the ground in my flannel gown and dangle my feet over the edge and try to reach him to get him loose.. and that failed. I had to really pull on his collar to get him close enough I could undo his latch, then I was able to un-tangle his lead from the tree.. I think he thought he was going to be left outside because he started to "cry" for me when I walked away. I just had to have both hands free so I could get to him. Now my gown is dirtied. I just hope the staines wash out next time I wash it.

 

Billie C

<

Hello ... And Good Morning.

Hello ... And Good Morning. (5 am) It was a quiet Weekend here in Virginia. There is still some snow back in the woods, where it is very shady. I have a tub under the edge of the camper and it had filled up with water. It thawed by yesterday afternoon and I was able to dump it and put the tub on it's side. I don't want it to split but I don't have room in the camper for it.

 

I had to turn on the propane heater this morning. here at 5am the tempt outside is 27 which is suppose to be our high tomorrow. Considering where we live, That's just plain out COLD. I'll be bundled up for sure, tomorrow. I'm even going to put extra blankets on the beds today. I expect that the cats will sleep in the camper most of this week. At least we don't have snow or ice to deal with along with this cold snap.

 

Jerry had to work 10 hours Saturday and 8 hours yesterday.

 

We did our food shopping after eating at Ruby Tuesday last night. I had the salmon and Jerry had the Herb Crusted Tilapia.
Dinner will be Salad, Spaghetti, with seasoned ground pork in the tomato sauce and I hope to bake some bread to go with it today.

 

I'll be watching some of the things I have on DVR'ed most of the day.

Poor Rocky.. (6 AM) Strips is "lovin" all over him. Rocky came and got on the couch by me, only to have Strips follow him in here, and lay on top of him. I have Rocky's usual spot on the bed taken up with a tub of clean clothes I need to fold and put away today. Strips and Tupelo are both inside right now (7 am) No idea where Fuzzy is. Rocky gave up trying to sleep on the couch and went back to get up on my bed. Macon is already there so Rocky had to "Make" some room for himself. Strips followed him back there and got on Macon.

 

I didn't get on-line much yesterday, I did some reading, and I decorated up a white apron I had picked up a couple of weeks ago. I used an iron transfer to put a "B" on it and some flowers under that. I used the tube paints I picked up when Jerry got rained out.

(A close up of my apron)

 

 

I am wearing... Black Sweatpants. top with dark blue pattern on it.

 

 

I am reading... emails, Exodus 28, "Patchwork, A Story of 'The Plain People".

I am hoping... That Jerry has next Sunday off work next Sunday. Trying to get laundry and shopping done after work on the weekend.

 

I am creating... I really need to finish that skirt. Just a few mnutes to dig out the sewing machine and set it up on the end of the table.. but first I need to find the end of the table under all the junk that's piled there,, and I have to un-pile the beds and make them so I can get the ironing board out from the foot of my bed.

 

 

A few plans for today...
put away laundry.
tape up the windows with duct tape.
take spare hose off the water system. be sure it is drained
tape up hatch in back.
tape up door to back of the water heater tank
sew skirt together

 

Billie C

<Goals for 2013
Week of Jan 20 - 26
lose a pund a week...YX2
Walk around drive twice a day....
Complete one craft a week Yx3
Read at least one book a week

Check out Halloween Paper Centerpiece

Halloween Paper Centerpiece

 

Billie C

<Goals for 2013
Lose a pound a week. Yx2
Walk around the drive circle twice each day.( )
Complete at least one craft a week Yx2
Read at least one book a week. Yx3