Glitter balls!

 

I was watching Studio 5 last week and I found a fun craft that I knew would be easy and fun.  I had a bunch of clear ornament balls that I bought at the end of the season last year.  Then I saw this floor finish as an adhesive and my mind just couldn't stop at all of the possibilities.  I have never thought as floor finish as an adhesive but it works great!

 

Start out with a clean glass ornament ball.

 

Pour some of the floor finish into it, and swirl it around it doesn't matter how much you pour in because once you have all of the insides of the ornament coated you will just pour out the rest back into a plastic cup.

 

Swirl it around so you don't get bubbles, we used a cotton ball to keep it from sloshing out the top.

 

Once you have it all coated, pour out the remaining finish.

 

Then pour in whatever color glitter you want your ball to be.

 

Shake the glitter around to coat all of the insides of the ornament.

 

and then pour out the left over glitter.

 

This was the fun part! To see how pretty they were turning out.

 

See how pretty they are!

 

Love these bright colors.

 

Can't you see some Halloween project with these.

 

Look at all of the colors! You have glitter without all of the glitter getting all over because the glitter is inside the ball!

 

I also tried using the finish on some mason jars.  You can make the jars look old by adding food coloring to  the floor finish and painting the out sides of the jar.  I tried this last summer with Elmer's glue and food coloring but using this clear finish makes the jars just sparkle.  Sorry I didn't add any pictures of the jars but it has the same finish that this glass bowl has that the ornaments are in.

 

I am thinking that there are a lot more possibilities with this clear finish used as an adhesive!

Love it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I saw these cute little Turkey pops and knew I would have to make them.  They are pretty simple to make and fast for a last minute favor to make.  You will need a vanilla, I  used peanut butter cookie, some small Nutter Butters, candy corn, and some melted chocolate (white or chocolate) and some black icing or some eyes that are purchased. Pull the cookie apart and put some melted chocolate in the center, stick 5 candy corns and a sucker stick into the chocolate and put the top back onto the other side of the cookie.  Use one small Nutter Butter and attach with chocolate. Then add half of a candy corn for the beak and add some black beady eyes.  Let it harden and you have a Turkey pop.

 

I made these first ones for some ladies I visit teach.  I put them in a jar of M&M's and added a bow.

 

The others I saved for "Pie Night".  We have a tradition in my family where we all get together the Sunday or Saturday before Thanksgiving and we all bring pies.  We have a great time, we get to enjoy the pies, and we get to see everyone, because we all can't get together for Thanksgiving (our family is huge!)  So, I decided to bring the Turkey pops for the kids, they had pie too but they enjoyed the pops!

 

On some of them I did add a little gummy gobbler to the side of the beak, but they look great with out the gobbler too.

 

I added this little card to the jar of Turkey pops and had fun visiting.

Hope  you all have had a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Christmas ideas

 

I had a special order for a couple of Christmas Wreaths this week, well it was kind of a do over. I kind of wish I had taken a before picture so you could see the difference. ( pretty much imagine the wreaths looking nothing like they do now.)  They both were lighted wreaths and half of the lights were not lighting, (the frustration every year with Christmas lights.) So I pulled off everything that was on the wreaths and pretty much started over.  I put on new lights and I did use the red berries that were in the wreath but gave them a fresh look by spray painting them a cranberry red.  They look brand new when you do this!

 

I added some silver and black ribbon, some pewter bells. icicle picks with bells, a horn and some green hydrangeas.

 

You can see the white lights in the wreath but it looks really great when it is dark.

 

This other wreath is really large about 4 1/2 feet across it is also lit and it looks great under under the eaves of a gable on the house it belongs too.  Since it isn't going on my house I didn't get up on a ladder to show you how it looks so great, so you just get the back deck view.

 

I also dismantled this one and started over.  Because it gets a lot of weather I used berries, pine cones and a red eucalyptus that is silk.

 

I think you could probably put this one up right now and it would look great clear until after Christmas.

 

Here is a view of the Christmas one on the front door.

 

and here is a closer view of the big one.

 

Love these big pine cones that I got by Lake Tahoe.

 I know it is a little early for Christmas but if you are going to make your decorations it's better to start early!

Thanksgiving table

 

I was looking at the Pottery Barn catalog for fall and one of the pictures of a Thanksgiving table inspired me. I have tried to find the inspiration picture but even on their website I can't find it.  So I pretty much made the table as I visioned it in my mind.  The one thing that I remember about it was that it had antlers on the table.  My hubby helped me out on this part because he loves to hunt and I knew I could find a good supply of antlers.

 

I also was putting away my Halloween decorations and came across a couple of boxes of feathers that I had purchased at the end of the season last year.  It just seemed like these feathers say, "Thanksgiving" so I put them in a white pitcher that I had.

 

I used a burlap runner and added some white pumpkins,( they used to be orange, but I spray painted them white and speckled them with a brown paint. I also painted the stem silver.)

 

I went up to the barn and found the perfect antlers and had hubby saw off the ends so they were nice and smooth.  I then scrubbed them with a bleach cleaner and other than that they are just the natural thing.

 

I think he was excited that I had a use for his stash.

 

Added more pumpkins to my shelves.

 

and more white pumpkins to the window ledge.

 

A fall garland to the mantel.  I then added the white lights because I just love the look of sparkly lights.

 

I used a fall wreath around the base of the centerpiece, and added some acorns around the base.

 

The feathers are not real, so I guess if you had real ones you could use those.

 

What do you think of the antlers on the table?

 

It is so easy to lose Thanksgiving between Halloween and Christmas but I am glad that I decided to keep fall around for a few more weeks. I loved how it turned out and the PB inspiration.