{Blast from the Past} Wooden Firecrackers

It's about that time again, where we start busting out the red, white and blue and all the craftiness those colors inspire.  Here's a flashback to these easy wooden firecrackers that I shared a few years back {in case you missed them or forgot about them.}

These cuties took me only about a half hour to whip up.  And I love them!  

If you want to make your own {and I know you do!}, you'll need:

three pieces of wood: 1 7 inches long, 1 6 inches long and 1 5 inches long and all about 2 inches wide

Red, white and blue paint

Wooden star

Hemp or twine

Hot glue and paint brushes

I started with this block of wood.  It was left over from the posts of our fence.  Pre-cutting, it was about 4 inches wide.  I divided it in half on two sides and drew some lines.  Then, my brother-in-law helped me do the cutting-I don't trust myself with power tools while being pregnant.  Once I had four pieces, I had him cut two shorter-taking one inch off of one and two inches off of the other.

So they looked like this.  Now, my pieces were pretty rough and I wanted them that way.  I liked the rustic look of them.  So I just lightly sanded the edges and tops and bottoms to smooth them out so there wouldn't be rough edges to catch on things or scratch up the furniture.

Once they were sanded and ready to go, I painted them.  Each piece got two coats of paint, which I let dry in between coats.

Like so.

Then it was time to add the "wicks."  I used three pieces of hemp for this that I just cut at random lengths.

Then glued to the top of each firecracker.

So they looked like this.

Then I wrapped a piece of hemp around the whole thing a few times and tied it in a knot at the back, then slid the star in.

Here they sit with some of my other red, white and blue decor.

I quite like the way they turned out.  And since I had almost everything on hand already, they were super-cheap.  The only thing I had to buy was the little star, which was a whopping 79 cents at Michaels!

{Blast from the Past} Burlap Pumpkin

I'm currently ready to pop-this little girl is due in just one week!!  So crafting has been, shall we say, non-existant lately as I've been getting things ready for her arrival and {trying} to keep up with school AND being mommy to my little man.  Here's a past Halloween goodie to tide you over for the time being :)


Ribbed Burlap Pumpkin

When I first saw the orange burlap at Joann's, I knew I had to have some.  And I knew I wanted to make some fun fall decor with it.  I have insomnia some nights and one of the nights I was lying awake, starting at the ceiling, the idea hit me.  An orange burlap pumpkin!  I could see the whole thing in my mind-all the details, where I'd put it once it was done, the works.  I got so excited I got up and wrote it all down.  So here is the fruit of my sleepless night.

What do you think?  

And now I'm going to show you how to make your own!  This is a super-easy project that's both inexpensive and fast-the whole thing took me under a half hour.

To make yours, you'll need:

About 1/2 yard of orange burlap

Brown embroidery thread

Polyfill

Thread

Hot glue gun

A large circle to use as a guide

I wanted my pumpkin to be a good size so I needed to use a BIG circle to use.  I flipped over my hamper and traced around the top onto the burlap, then cut it out.

This will be the "body" of your pumpkin.

Cut 6 pieces of embroidery thread about a foot long and thread them through the center of the circle.  Tie the ends in a knot.

With the knot on the inside, stitch around the outer edge of the circle and pull tight, gathering it all together.

Fill with polyfil before tying the thread.

Flip over and arrange the 6 pieces of thread like so.

Pull them tight over the pumpkin and tie together at the top.  Tuck the ends into the hole at the top.

I made a little stem using a scrap of green burlap that I had.  You could use a stick or felt or fabric-whatever floats your boat, really.  Attach it to the top of your pumpkin with hot glue.

There you have it!  I love the way the thread gives the look of ribs.

Right now it's keeping my rolly-polly scarecrow company on my kitchen counter.

I hope that everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!!

{Hand-made Goodie of the Week} Wooden Firecrackers

Um, where did it go?

That's what I asked myself when looking over my blog this morning.  I posted this last week, but it magically disappeared.  And it's one of those things that only I would notice, since you guys never even got to see it, so how would you know that it was gone?!

So, yes, I know, it is way past the Fourth of July by now, but I really wanted to share this fun, fast project as it can be used for decor for our other patriotic holidays throughout the year.

Enough of me rambling, to the crafting!

These cuties took me only about a half hour to whip up.  And I love them!  

If you want to make your own {and I know you do!}, you'll need:

three pieces of wood: 1 7 inches long, 1 6 inches long and 1 5 inches long and all about 2 inches wide

Red, white and blue paint

Wooden star

Hemp or twine

Hot glue and paint brushes

I started with this block of wood.  It was left over from the posts of our fence.  Pre-cutting, it was about 4 inches wide.  I divided it in half on two sides and drew some lines.  Then, my brother-in-law helped me do the cutting-I don't trust myself with power tools while being pregnant.  Once I had four pieces, I had him cut two shorter-taking one inch off of one and two inches off of the other.

So they looked like this.  Now, my pieces were pretty rough and I wanted them that way.  I liked the rustic look of them.  So I just lightly sanded the edges and tops and bottoms to smooth them out so there wouldn't be rough edges to catch on things or scratch up the furniture.

Once they were sanded and ready to go, I painted them.  Each piece got two coats of paint, which I let dry in between coats.

Like so.

Then it was time to add the "wicks."  I used three pieces of hemp for this that I just cut at random lengths.

Then glued to the top of each firecracker.

So they looked like this.

Then I wrapped a piece of hemp around the whole thing a few times and tied it in a knot at the back, then slid the star in.

Here they sit with some of my other red, white and blue decor.

I quite like the way they turned out.  And since I had almost everything on hand already, they were super-cheap.  The only thing I had to buy was the little star, which was a whopping 79 cents at Michaels!

{Hand-made Goodie of the Week} Being Patriotic

The Fourth of July is in less than two weeks, and with me {FINALLY!} getting a small break from school, I got to do some crafting, patriotic-style.  I made a red, white and blue star embellishment for my interchangeable wreath.  And it only cost me $2!

To make your own, here's what you'll need:

Wreath

Felt stars-I found mine at Joann's for only $1 per package and each package comes with 2 stars of each color

Hot glue

and velcro

I laid my stars all out to get a visual because I'm kinda dumb that way 

Then messed around with the layout.  This one was a little star-heavy for me, so I took a couple out

 

Until I happened upon the perfect layout.  I then carefully glued them together, then attached my pieces of velcro to the back, using the pieces on my wreath as a guide {you can check out the original tutorial for this step-it's easy peasy!}

The little man even wanted to get in on the action {really, it's just a shameless excuse to show off my cute little boy}

And ta-da!  The whole thing only took about 10 minutes, tops.  I'm going to get some blue ribbon and make a red, white and blue bow to go on it.

But it'll more than do for now.

I have another fun and easy Fourth project coming up next week-see, I told you good things were in store!

Easter, Easter

Hope you all had a lovely Easter!  Ours was one jam-packed weekend!  Saturday morning our ward had an Easter activity for all of the primary kids.  They did a little mini service project where they put together hygiene kits for a local shelter, then played fun Easter games and had an egg hunt at the end.

Then it was back home to clean like a madwoman-see, I had the nutty idea the week before to have our ENTIRE family (both sides) over for Easter dinner at our house-and get some homework done.  

Sunday morning came after a long night with our poor little man having bad dreams-he ended up sleeping on a little bed my hubby made up for him on our bedroom floor.  We hid his Easter basket and he had fun looking for it.  He was very happy with the goodies he found.

Then off to church we went-I had my first sharing time this past Sunday and I think it went pretty well, if I do say so myself : )

We snapped a quick family pic of us all in our Easter best before finishing up the last minute tasks around the house before our guests arrived.  I was too busy with everything to remember to get pictures of everyone while they were here, but we had 18 people in our house!  It was our first family gathering in our new place-it was a blast!

Before most everyone left, I hid the little man's eggs (we weren't able to do it earlier because it began to rain) and he had a little mini egg hunt.  

And that's our Easter in a nutshell : )

Before I packed it all up, I thought I'd give you a glimpse at my Easter decor.  We don't have much, but I add to it a little each year.

 My little bicycle bunny-she hides treats in her basket.  And see that little {bare} tree in the background?  I've got a cute Easter/Spring project planned for it, so be watching!

Her basket holds yummy Cadbury eggs.  Most of them are gone now, though : )

This little guy is from WAAAAAY back in the day-I made him at a Relief Society meeting back when I was still a Young Woman.  Talk about old.

These little chicks were a steal-I found the pair of them in the dollar section at Target.  They, of course, came home with me.  I filled each one with a different color of Easter grass and ta-da!  fast, cheap decor.  They're hanging out next to my free canvas (from Canvas People-love it!)

And here's my spring wreath.  If you've been a follower for a while, you may remember my interchangeable wreath.  I whipped up a pretty spring embellishment for it-stay tuned for the tutorial!