designed by jen

fall craft time

2015-11-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

Back in September, I had this notion to make some wooden Fall decorations that I saw on Pinterest. With some help from my dad, I was able to make these adorable pumpkins and apples out of old wood that was lying around. I still need to get something as leaves for the apples, but I'm pretty please at how they turned out. Plus I had some great father-daughter bonding time!

wooden pumpkins & apples

Disclaimer: I did NOT come up with these ideas! The designs I followed can be found on my Pinterest board. They are from the following:
Pallet Pumpkins - She gives a great step-by-step guide to making these. I altered the wood sizes and colors to make mine.
Wooden Apple Blocks - I changed the color of one of the blocks but used their design. If you like them, and don't want to make your own, contact the Etsy shop and purchase from them!

With that said, here's how I did it:

My dad kept all the 100 year old wood from the house remodel, so we pulled out some boards, measured the size of the pumpkins I wanted and then he cut them on his table saw. We made the boards about an inch shorter on each side as they were stacked. The middle board is the longest. The next boards on top and bottom of the middle are the same size, and so on (see below).

cutting the wood

The apples were cut from a square redwood piece leftover from something. I can't remember. We had an estimated height of about 4 inches and then he cut them all at different heights near that.

blocks for apples

After cutting and sanding the pumpkin boards, we stacked them how they were going to be assembled. Once stacked, we put wood glue between each one and nailed the boards together using finishing nails (with the nail gun) for extra security. The top pieces were drilled for the stem placement. I found a great curvy tree branch that had peeling wood and a little moss on it. We cut that for the stems.

stacking the wood for pumpkins. (L) sanded. (R) not sanded.

Here's what the apples look like after they are sanded. Redwood splinters easily so I wore thick gloves while sanding. After I sanded them, I rearranged the sizes for each apple set so I could have different sizes of each colored apple.

sanded apples

I ran over to Michael's and picked up some new paint. They were on sale so I was able to buy a slightly nicer brand than the super cheap one. Yay! :) I wore plastic gloves while painting. I didn't want any paint on my hands because I needed clean hands for a social event the next day.

new paint

I have never white washed anything before, so I had to do a little research on it. Basically all you do is water down your paint to the color and consistency you want. The picture below is of my first attempt at an orange paint wash on my pumpkins. The top half is stained and the bottom half is not. There's hardly any color, which means I added way too much water for what I wanted.

top half stained. bottom half not.

Here is the color I finally ended up with. I wanted the wood grain to still show through the color, so it took me about 3 times to get it right, but with each time, I added another layer of paint. When I do this again (for Christmas decorations!) I won't water down my paint as much.

orange washed pumpkins

I did the same with the apples, but wanted more color on them, so I added just a little bit of water to the paint. I slopped it on leaving spots (which was very hard to do and not go back to finish!). Once they were dry, I went over them with a fine-grain sandpaper to rough up the paint a bit.

painted pumpkins & apples

Next comes the stain! Yes, this is the secret ingredient. Using leftover stain from another house project, I applied the dark stain to the apples. I love how it toned down the bright paint.

stained apples

After the stain, comes the sealant. I had some old thick acrylic clear coat that worked great! It really adds a nice shine to them. I slopped that on, making sure all the holes were thoroughly coated. Since they will be outside, they are also protected from bugs and the weather! I also applied a spray seal coat (about 3 times) on the pumpkins and the stems.

sealed apples

While those were drying, I worked on the vine part of the pumpkin. This is old green electrical wire. It can easily be molded into whatever shape you want, so it was perfect! I found a kitchen gadget that I used to wrap the wire around and then stretched it out a little. Once the stems were dry on the pumpkin, I molded the wires around it and then hot glued them to the pumpkin.

curly pumpkin vines

vines glued onto pumpkins

Here's my finished picture again. We drilled tiny holes on to the tops of the apples and then carefully nailed in old square-point nails (again, from the house remodel) to use as stems. Once I find the right material for the apple leaves, I'll post that picture.

pumpkins & apples

Happy Fall Y'all!

is it christmas time yet?

2015-11-10T14:42:00.003-08:00

Halloween is very quiet at my house because we don't get any trick-or-treaters, and I'm not much of a party person. So, on Halloween, I got very inspired to begin making Christmas cards. Ha! For me, that's early! As much as I love Thanksgiving, we decorated the house for Fall in mid-September, so I'm ready to see Christmas. But, I will wait until Thanksgiving weekend to change everything. It's my family tradition after all.

This is my favorite Christmas card so far!! Isn't he cute? I love how the background dots look like snowballs. The eyes and buttons are black rhinestones I got from Dollar Tree. The cookie mittens and "Let it Snow" sign are stickers from an older photo card back that I found while digging out all my Christmas supplies.

snowman

I traced the gingerbread from a cookie cutter and then stitched on the piping on his arms and legs. The candy cane cookie sticker is from the set mentioned above.

gingerbread

This card is just happy. The heart and ornament cookie stickers, again from the same set as before, needed a little more, so I added a rhinestone on each. I also outlined them to make them stand out just a little and not blend into the cookie paper behind them. The curly stitching at the bottom was done by hand.

be merry

Ornament cards coming soon!

birthday cards - batch 3

2015-11-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

More birthday cards! Yay!

These all come from a HUGE donation of papers, stickers & scrapbook packs from a close friend of mine. Such a great surprise! I love the bold colors of these papers. Makes them perfect for birthday cards, don't you think?

cherish smile

laugh smile

wish believe celebrate

wish balloons

hope wish dream

birthday cards - batch 2

2015-11-03T16:01:00.001-08:00

Time for another batch of birthday cards! I can never have too many because with my family, it's always someone's birthday!

This birthday cake was fun to make. I cut the end off a colored toothpick & glued it on the side of the 3D banner to make it a flag. The white parts I just cut with some fancy scissors and used both sides. Everything was glued with foam tape to give it more dimension. Adorable!

birthday cake

This card has only 3 parts: the 3D party hat sticker, the white background punch outlined with blue colored pencil, and the 3D banner at the bottom. I love the simplicity of it.

orange party hat

Tried hand-lettering again. I'm still not sure about it. Maybe I need more practice? Everything else about this card I love.

grey & yellow

These stickers looked much cuter when they were on their white background paper. After I had put them all down, I rethought the look of the card and decided I should have put a white colored square on it. Oh well, move forward!

birthday letters

Do you have any ideas for a creative birthday card? Leave a comment and let me know!

flower cards part 2

2015-10-26T14:53:00.000-07:00

Here are the more detailed flower cards I've made.

This was the first time I've made a flower like this. It wasn't as easy as it looked. I kept having trouble getting the folds exact. If you want to attempt this challenge yourself, here's where I got the idea. I glued a circle on the back and the front to keep all the petals together. Then I added the small flower center and put a brad in the middle. The leaves are from my leaf punch and I added the lines. The background stripe is white cardstock, blue washi tape and then a yellow flowered washi tape layered over it.

butterfly flower

This flower was another variation of a "leaf punch flower". This time I added more petals. Again, I glued them on to a circle for the back and then put a punched design on the front. The center is a plastic dot sticker that I think is perfect as a flower center!

purple orange flower

I wanted a different type of bouquet than what I had previously done (yellow thank you card). This one is just a free bunch tied together. I tied them with string first, then spread them out and glued down the ends. For the flowers, I glued a mini flower on to a slightly larger flower, but without punching the outer rings (like before). Then I swirled a center on with gold gel pen.

pink & purple bouquet

flower cards

2015-10-26T14:04:00.002-07:00

Flowers are fun! They always make me smile. While I am allergic to the more potent ones, I love admiring them, taking pictures of them, and making cards with them. Here are some flower cards I've been working on. Apparently I was on a polka dot & striped kick when I made these.

I like the simplicity of this polka dotted flower card.

dotted flower on red

This one is pretty and elegant. I like the curves, the see-through washi tape, and the coloring.

cream & blue striped

This daisy one was quick, since the daisies are stickers, but I added a little dimension on the centers and I like it.

daises

The flower for this one was created with a leaf punch. I like how the leaves form a flower when put together this way. The blue polka dot background is actually large washi tape cloth!

flower & polka dots

miscellaneous cards

2015-10-26T13:18:00.002-07:00

August usually marks the winding down of the summer wedding season. I only went to one wedding this summer, as most of my friends are already married. Being a little short on the financial end, I decided to make a wedding card for some friends. I hope they liked it!

I had some paper that had sparkles printed on it, so I used that as the background. The tags hang freely and are backed with plain white cardstock to hold the string. The tags and paper come from a scrapbook kit I purchased at TJMaxx or Ross. Their last name begins with "E" so that explains the sticker in the middle. I glued the velum wording on with velum adhesive.

wedding card

As a former teacher, I always felt that September was the beginning of a new school year. Around here, our school seasons begin mid to late August, but it never really felt real until September. To honor some teacher friends, I made these cute "teacher" cards.

First, I have to say, I did not come up with the owl design. I wish I had! I found it on Pinterest and if you want to make one, follow the instructions on this blog. The pattern is for a felt stuffed owl, but I was able to adapt it for paper. Let me add, my owl is just over 1 1/2 inches, so it's tiny! It was a challenge to make since I didn't have an Exacto knife at the time, but I don't see myself making any more in the near future.

owl & tree

The tree is from some very thin, wood-printed paper that was used as packaging material and came with something I ordered. I really like it, but it's very fragile. Everything else was from scrapbook paper and colored cardstock. I swirled a little gold ink on the flowers for the centers. After I had the tree glued on, I wished I would have put it on a simple colored background. Oh well.

The other design I decided to try was making a Fall-themed button tree. I felt like I was back in my teacher days when I was making this. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with it, but it's not too bad for a first try.

button tree

To create the tree, I cut a square of green patterned paper I felt would look good behind the buttons. Then, starting with the center and working outward, I started gluing buttons on with regular glue until I had a tree shape. Once they were dry, I carefully cut around them, and glued it on top of more tree paper. This tree top is heavy! I added a couple buttons at the bottom to symbolize fallen leaves. I'm still thinking this needs one more thing, so for now, this card is put on hold until I feel satisfied with it.

quilting inspired cards

2015-10-26T12:18:00.002-07:00

I decided to try my hand at some quilt-style and sewing inspired cards.

The idea of turning your scraps into a quilt-like pattern can be found in several places, so I'm not sure where I found the idea. Probably Pinterest. I'm not very happy with my quilt card. I ruined it with the purple "stitching". I might just color it in solid. Oh well. Live and learn.

hello quilt

Yes, I did go back and color in the stitching. Every time I would look at this card, I wasn't satisfied with it. So, here it is all colored in. You can still see some of the "stitch" marks on the papers but, I think overall, it looks much better.

hello quilt 2.0

For these two, I decided to try my hand at weaving some ribbon. They remind me of paper weaving projects I made as a kid in school.

blessings ribbon weave

ribbon weave

Again, I had a card that didn't seem quite finished. As much as I liked showing off the ribbon weave (above), I felt like I was staring at a place mat waiting to have something to show off. I recently acquired some paper flowers and after assembling the combination I liked, glued it on the "place mat". Much better!

thank you cards

2015-10-26T12:16:00.001-07:00

I've been a busy little bee lately and haven't been posting. I'm still trying to get used to this whole "post frequently on your blog" thing. With that said, I will most likely post 3 or 4 themed posts today. Ha!

I realized that I was a little lacking in the thank you card department, so I made a few. These are great for anyone who loves flowers and Spring. I will be creating some a little less "feminine" so look for those.

The background for this small card is actually from a note pad of thin recycled paper. I thought it would be pretty to use as a background.

pink & brown

I love how this bouquet turned out! The "newspaper" is a circle punch from 2-sided paper. The flowers are from two different mini flower punches. To make the outer flower ring, I punched the bigger flowers first, and then punched them again (carefully!) with the small flower punch. I glued those on top of a patterned flower punch, and used colored rhinestones for the centers. Using a small piece of twine, I tied the "bunch" together.

yellow & purple boquet

Another quick, yet simply pretty card. To make the thank you square, I punched out the purple center with a fancy square punch Then I glued it on to a white square and stamped the center. I added a white rhinestone gem to the butterfly and put it on the corner.

purple square

The blue background of this was already printed. It came with a pack of papers for creating baby cards. I stamped the white center, added the flower sticker on the side and assembled it on to a pre-edged natural card.

blue thank you

father's day cards

2015-07-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

Oh where has the time gone? With internet issues and being away from my computer, I have not had a chance to post lately. No matter. I'm back.

So, Father's Day was in June. After some research on my favorite place, Pinterest, I found some cute designs that I altered for my cards.

The shirt sleeve idea was from this blog. I didn't copy hers exactly and made mine a little more simple. So cute!

shirt sleeve

The shirt & tie card was from this blog. I don't even know what language that is (Russian? Ukrainian? Polish?), but the pictures were pretty easy to understand. I made my own flat tie instead of the folded one on the blog and tweaked the design to my style. I didn't have small buttons (but I do now!) for the collar, but I like these pearls. They make it a little fancier. For the tie clip, I researched a little on styles but just decided to keep it simple and play around with the corners. (For some reason I had to take these on my phone, so again, I apologize for the quality.)

brown tie, striped shirt

black tie, blue patterned shirt

The best one, that is now my favorite over all the others, was the one I made for my dad. I doubt I will make it again, because it was so time consuming, but I absolutely LOVE IT!

I got the idea for the toolbox & tools, from this blog. It's actually a pattern for a boy's quiet book made out of felt (which is really cute). I love her simple sketches, and they are easier to recreate from paper.

toolbox card, size A2 (4.25in x 5.5in)

I created the box first, outlined the edges in brown marker, and made a little pocket for the tools to slip into. The letters are puffy alphabet stickers from Jo-Ann's. This was the only color they had, but it worked out great! I had some brown polka-dotted paper I used for the background to resemble a peg-board.

I sketched copies of her tool sketches and made them much smaller. Since I was sketching on thin paper, I had to cut them out and then trace them onto cardstock. I traced them with the tip of my bone folder so I would have lines but ones that didn't show up. As I was tracing that with a pencil, I was able to adjust and fix any margins that I wanted to correct.

tracing the tools

As you can see, my sketches were pretty small (about 1 inch by 2 inches), and not to scale, so I didn't add a lot of detail. Plus, I wanted the look of my card to be less realistic looking and more playful.

tiny tools

I traced the tools onto a light gray cardstock and cut them out. (I don't, at present, have an exacto knife so I did this all with regular scissors. The hole in the saw handle, for example, I would have cut out if I had a knife.) Then I added the colored cardstock parts on top. Last, I added a few details with pencil.

tools & card scale

If I were to do this again, I would get a knife to cut details and make the metal parts with metallic washi tape on cardstock.

I did another hand written Bible verse on the inside and added some black duct tape for the corners (we were out of regular silver). My dad LOVED this card and will probably keep it forever.

inside of card

it's photo time! part 1

2015-07-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

After making several posts of cards, I decided it was time to post some photos I have taken. Here's a random assortment.

I also whipped up a new logo design. Still working on sizing. Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

broken fire hydrant
lincoln, california

white roses in b&w at apple hill
placerville, california

tulips at cheekwood botanical gardens
nashville, tennessee

captain hook's pirate ship at disneyland
anaheim, california

behind a waterfall at opryland hotel
nashville, tennessee

raindrops on a rose leaf
lincoln, california

water mill in apple hill
placerville, california

white flower
lincoln, california

mother's day cards

2015-05-10T22:21:00.003-07:00

I love my mom!

I'm very fortunate to have a great relationship with my mom. My mom loves flowers and the color blue, so I made an extra special card for her this year for Mother's Day. This is my favorite card I have made, so far.

flowers in vase

The vase:

I drew (and erased, and drew again) and cut out a vase template, and traced it on to card stock so it would be thick. Then I covered it with my teal washi tape.
I had some thin brown string that I wrapped around the neck of the vase and tied in a knot.

The flowers:

I had little star/flower shaped cut outs from something way back when. Those are used as the base of the flowers.
The fuzzy felt flower shapes were actually all connected as a ribbon. There are three colors: blue, pink and orange. I cut them to make individual flowers. I think I got that from the $1 section at Target (there are great finds there!) around Easter time.
Then I added different colored, tiny pearl stickers for each flower's center. I bought a couple packets of those on Amazon (another favorite of mine!).

The flower stems:

Using some of my embroidery thread, I attached the end to the back of the flower first. Then I "eyeball measured" it down to the vase and snipped the ends.

I'm experimenting with hand lettering on the inside of the cards. Here is what I put inside this card:

Proverbs 31:28

It's still a little wobbly, but this is only the third card I've written in. The ink bled on the paper a little, but it's not too bad.

This is another Mother's Day card I made:

red flower with stripes

I like the lighter colors for this card. I think they make the red flower pop out more. Here's what I wrote on the inside:

Ephesians 2:10

This one is a little more shaky than the previous one, but that was a lot of writing to do and not mess up!

This last one was slightly disappointing. I was sad that this one smeared when I was erasing my pencil lines (to keep the lines straight). I even let the ink dry for 10 minutes!

Luke 1:45

I hope that you all had a Happy Mother's Day! Regardless of who you were celebrating it for, know that you are loved and appreciated!

little boy's 1st birthday party

2015-05-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

Recently, a friend of mine wanted some help with preparing for her little boy's first birthday party. She knew what she wanted to do, but needed some help doing it. (She claims she's not artistic, but I disagree.) After shopping at Jo-Ann's for some fabric and paper, we planned another day to get everything ready.

The day came to get our creative juices flowing. When I arrived, she and another friend had already created the birthday banner.

Didn't they do a great job?

My first project was to help create a few photo-op onsies by combining ideas that she saw on Pinterest. Here is a picture of her dining room table mid-project. We were fully in the groove at this point.

Creative chaos

Here are the onsie's that we created. (I love this project by the way! It's so fun to create them for baby showers. Just make sure that you get the strong adhesive iron-on backing and that you iron down all the edges. If you're able, stitching around the design helps make sure it will stay on after washing.)

Aren't they adorable?

So my friend would say that I was the creative one, but she was the one with the ideas. I just helped her see it become real. I was in charge of creating some of the templates, and re-creating the loosened tie onsie. I just love the suspenders! So cute!

The next item on our agenda was creating flag pennants for cupcakes. I made the labels and we glued the cardstock & toothpicks together with some fast-drying adhesive glue. They needed a little help with some clothespins, but dried in about a minute!

As you can see, the tags coordinated with the flavors. The lemon cupcakes had yellow frosting and some red striped paper straws that we cut into thirds. So cute!

Cupcake types

Red flags for chocolate

Tan flags for vanilla

All glued & ready for cupcakes!

Here's a quick snapshot I was able to get at the party without any kids in it. If you've ever been to a child's birthday party, you know that's hard to do.

Waiting to be devoured

It was a great party and I had a lot of fun creating these decorations with my friends!

birthday cards - batch 1

2015-05-03T23:07:00.002-07:00

I love celebrating people and I especially love celebrating them on their birthday! I love the decorating and the festive atmosphere. I love singing "Happy Birthday" as obnoxious and off-key as I can. It always makes people laugh and usually I get a few others around me to do it too. And I love cake! Who doesn't?

When I make my cards, most of the time I have a recipient in mind, and I try to put in designs or colors that he or she would like. I haven't purchased a birthday card for someone from a store in a long time.

Here are the first batch of birthday cards I've been working on (that I haven't given away yet):

it's your day

cupcake zig zag

The two above are ones that I initially made about a year ago, when I learned how to hand stitch on thick paper. Man were my fingers sore! Recently they've been partly dismantled and added to as I've acquired more materials.

pink cupcake

I had fun stitching the border on this one.

yellow & gray happy birthday

I did a little research (on Pinterest, where else?) on hand lettering and found some cute styles. I'm creative but I'm not the greatest artist. Hand lettering is one of my weak spots. But I think I did pretty good on these.

polka dotted happy birthday

I had fun creating this little card. I have it laying on top of a standard 4.5" x 6" envelope. As you can see, it's a little smaller than the one pictured above.

hooray

I forget where I found these 3-D stickers, but I really like them.

party

I like the opaque look of the teal washi tape on this one. Plus the 3-D stickers are super cute!

More to come!

diy nautical mason jar

2015-04-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Nautical glass fishing floats.

Rope-covered bottles, jars, and boxes.

Net-covered vases and candle holders.

Some type of netting is involved in almost every style of ocean decor.

I've been seeing these every summer, wanting to buy one because I LOVE ocean-themed things. I think these are so pretty. However, all the ones I have been looking at are very expensive. (Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places?) So, when you can't find what you want exactly, make it yourself!

wisteria.com

I wanted to make a net-covered mason jar kind of like these lanterns to put some of my shells or unique rocks in. So this week I've been researching how to make them on Pinterest (oh what did we ever do before that glorious site?). I was having trouble trying to find a pin on how to make net-covered jars without using a glue gun or too many little strings and knots that could come undone. Plus, I wanted my covered jar to be wrapped, in case I decided to make some to hang, so I wanted it to have a bottom that was strong.

More searching led me to a Twigg Studios blog on a knotted jute vase diy and that gave me a better idea of how to make this, but I wasn't too thrilled about all the little strings at the top and bottom. So while this gave me a better idea on how to make it, the next question was how do I start?

I did some more searching on Pinterest for macrame projects and found a great visual tutorial from friendship-bracelets.net on how to start a macrame pouch. Success!

So, here's how I made my nautical mason jar (without glue) in 10 steps for around $5.00!

materials

main materials additional materials used

I found a ball of jute in the $1-$3 section at Target. 270 feet for $1. Score! I bought a few. I found this teal mason jar (very nautical colored) at Jo-Ann's, on sale for $2.61, regularly $3.49. Another score! (Tax not included)
A few other items I needed: a piece of tape (I used transparent tape, but any will do), some type of clip to hold the strings, and clear nail polish. Just mentioning those now, but you will see when I used them.

step 1 - laying out the string

Measure out the jute string so that it is 8 times the length of the jar. I used 8 strings for mine.
Take one string and fold it in half, leaving a big loop at the end.
With the other 7 strings, fold in half and wrap the loop around the main double strings, pulling the ends through the loop to make a knot on the main string. (By the way, I found this great website that shows how to tie every imaginable knot!)

step 2 - forming the base of the net

step 2-A

Take the ends of the main string, and pull them through the loop. (step 2-A)
As you do, slide the other strings closer to each other so they touch.

step 2-B

Tighten all the strings, including the main string until you have a circle of string pairs. (step 2-B) Isn't that neat?
Remember to keep the pairs together during the entire project.

step 3 - knotting the base

Here's where the tape comes in! I used a little piece of tape to hold the ring to the center of the bottom of the jar. It was a lot easier as I worked to keep everything in place.
Taking 2 string pairs next to each other, make a double knot.
Do this for each pair of strings, so you end up with 4 knots.
Leave a little distance from the ring but space them evenly apart so the jar is flat when turned over. This is the base of the net.
Each knot now has 2 sets of strings.

step 4 - knotting the net

Take the right set of strings (A2) of one knot, and the left set of strings (B1) from the knot next to it. Tie those sets of strings in a double knot. I let my knots be loose and tightened them later.
Do this with the other sets, tying the knots the exact way each time. This makes for a more uniform pattern.
I could have tied them in a different style to make a bigger knot, but this was my first one, so I was doing easy knots.

Keep working around the jar in sets of 4. I kept it on the table because it was easier to rotate the jar and keep track of my string sets.

step 5 - checking progress

Halfway though, I stopped to check my work, stretching and pulling the jute to the top of the jar. It stretches a lot! If I wanted to make a hanging jar, I could have tightened the knots and stopped here.
I wanted to have slightly smaller diamond shapes in the netting, so I flipped the jar upside down again. Starting from the top and working my way down, I shifted and tightened my knots a little more so the diamonds were smaller.

step 6 - tightening the knots

Once I had my knots to the mouth of the jar, I grabbed a plastic clip (this one is from Ikea), stretched and pulled the jute to the top, and fastened all the strings in the clip. This holds the net to the jar without it slipping down, allowing me to check my knot progress.

At this point, I put the jar in my lap for a final tightening of all my knots. Starting at the base where the ring is, I worked around the jar.
When I reached the knots at the base of the mouth of the jar, I made sure my knots didn't go higher.

step 7 - securing the net

I added an additional set of tight knots around the top to secure it. I stopped at this point to think of what I wanted to do with the remaining string.
I could have trimmed the ends off and stopped here, but I wanted to create something around the mouth base with the extra strings.

step 8 - making a rope rim

I took the strings of one knot and kept tying double knots in that set of strings, leaving about an inch or so at the end. (I used to do this with my hooded sweatshirt strings all the time when I was younger.) Now I had something that looked like a rope.
Pulling that over, I stretched my rope until it reached the next set of strings. I did this for each set of strings.

step 9 - securing the rope rim
(After making another one of these, I changed this process just a tiny bit. I took new pictures, so that's why they are different from the rest. The steps for this process have also been altered.)

step 9-A step 9-B step 9-C

Pull the rope over until it reaches the base of the next rope. Taking the string ends, tuck one underneath the jute tied around the mouth of the jar, but past the next knot. Undo a knot on the string if it won't reach. (step 9-A)
Make sure your rope end is pulled over to the next knot and secure it with a tight double knot. (step 9-B)
The rope should look like it's connected to the next section of rope. (step 9-C)

step 10- trim the ends

Trim the ends close to the knot, but not too close.
Dab a little clear nail polish on the ends to keep them from fraying.
Don't forget to take off the piece of tape on the bottom!

finished

So here's my final product! I'm pleased that it looks so good for my first try. I can't wait to make another one.

on display

I filled it with some pretty rocks I had, and put it with my other shell decorations. I'm sure I will change that and fill it with sand and shells or a tealight candle at some point. For now, I'm going to enjoy my nautical jar.

getting started

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I should have started posting this stuff at least a few months ago, when I picked this up again. I would have liked to have seen a few of my projects all spaced out in a nice time frame order on the side of this blog, with cute little titles all in a row. I like things in order, and from the beginning. I'm a perfectionist like that.

But if I were to wait until it was the right time to begin, I would never start. If I were to never begin, because I missed the perfect time to start, I would never start. So I'm starting now, because there has to be some sort of beginning. Even if it's awkward.

I've been unemployed for 3 months now. Getting laid off really sucked. However, I think that many good things have happened from this harsh transition. One of which is that I started making stuff again! And taking pictures! I have tapped back into my creative roots and I am so happy I did!

my cozy crafty area - all smooshed together

As you can see, I've been taking out all my crafting supplies. Well, most of them. (Although it's not as much as some people I know.) As soon as I have more space, I can spread out properly. I really don't work with all this clutter on the table. Things are just shoved together for the picture.

One of the crafty things I am doing is making greeting cards. I love giving homemade cards to my family and friends! (I've been making cards for my family since I was a little girl.) I think they say so much more than an ordinary store bought card. Granted, they are pretty simple, but I'm a quick learner. Besides, I don't have a lot of access to some of the cool tools out there. Yet.

So my current cards are either Happy Birthday or flowers and are blank on the inside. Here's a few flower card samples:

green flower pennant

purple & blue flowers

I found great ideas on how to make paper flowers on Pinterest! With these flowers, I drew the designs with colored pencils. I did the same for the leaves too. Super easy and fun!

red flower outside

red flower - inside

I decided to get a little creative with the inside of the card and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

hand signed

All of my cards are hand signed on the back. Just a little way to let the recipient know how much they are loved.

More cards next time!