Lucky Star Lane

My Craft and Antique Booth

2011-10-26T16:30:00.002-04:00

Last week I bought a Canon Rebel so I can FINALLY start blogging again! It's been so frustrating not having a camera! Hopefully I'll get a chance to take a photography class soon. It's something I've been wishing for for a long time.

Since I have a camera again I have a lot of pictures of my antique and craft booth. It's definitely a work in progress. I like some things but some aren't perfect but then again that is the joy of old things. You can probably see some of my old blog projects like pillows made from old skirts and the bingo card "Family" sign. I'm hoping this booth will be a place I can display and give ideas to readers from blogland in person. I'm not sure if a lot of my Mega Mall cronies are bloggers but I would guess not. They have all been very helpful in teaching me things about having an antique booth even though I'm stubborn and like to do things differently sometimes!

I have a blog friend, Mitzi and she has a few antique booths that I was able to visit for inspiration. I actually purchased the colorful granny square blanket from one of Mitzi's booths. I saw one like it in a magazine and was on the hunt for one ...very exciting find! All the things I buy for my booth I would like to own (well I do own until someone else buys them!). I also look for things I see in magazines.

Have you tried the new Martha Stewart acrylic craft paints at Michael's? They are for metal, wood and glass. I painted these old metal bronze colored candle stands and vase with the glitter paint. I was wondering how it would dry on the metal but they turned out really cool.( I had to do a lot of coats.) There's also chalkboard paint in some great colors. I painted the box with the drawer in mint green chalkboard paint.

I'll be back soon! I promise. Next week we will start back with Lucky Linky....does anyone have any suggestions for who to use for link party hosting?

Erin

My First Post of 2011

2011-08-08T10:13:00.000-04:00

Hello,
Does anyone remember me? Its been so long since I've logged into blogger. It's hard to explain why. The main reason is my computer was no longer working. It basically exploded. I made the mistake of keeping way too many photos and files saved on it. Now I have a new laptop and I bought the geek squad service and all sorts of warranties so this thing should last me for a while. I've also learned to use flash drives! Ha!
As all of you creative people know, it's hard to stay away from that side of you for long. You may see more of me in the near future so check back.

I also wanted to mention my father, who passed away in March. My last post of 2010 was on his birthday. I miss you Dad!

Erin

Lucky Linky December 28

2010-12-28T10:43:00.000-05:00

I've missed my blogging friends! It's been one crazy December starting with about a 3 week flu. I volunteered to be on a donations committee for our PTA carnival and had to get all the donations letters stuffed and mailed so being sick came at a very inopportune time!

Today I finally feel caught up and ready to get back to blogging. I can't wait to see what you've been working on this week!

Lucky Linky December 7

2010-12-07T04:52:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the first week of December 2010! Have you received any holiday cards yet? We've gotten 3 or 4 already (as mine are still sitting waiting to be mailed on my counter..). I usually have a wall hanging cloth thingy with pockets that my cards go in. Last week one of our partiers, Megan from The Brassy Apple linked a tutorial to her greeting card display holder made with burner covers. I thought this was great!

If you've been featured here at LSL please grab my featured button from my right sidebar. If you're interested in doing a guest post or being featured here in the future, please email me at erin@luckystarlane.com.

Wood Shape Ornaments..so many ways to decorate them!

2010-12-06T14:37:00.000-05:00

Wood cutouts in holiday themed shapes can be found at your local craft stores at very reasonable prices....like maybe $.99 each when they're full price. I went to a mall today and looked at the beautiful holiday tree displays the department stores had with ornaments in varying themes. There seemed to be many ornaments they were selling that were made to look handmade but obviously mass produced.

You can make your own themed holiday ornaments to fill your tree for hundreds of dollars less than what a department store would cost. These are some I've made for my handmade tree using wood cutouts and various supplies to decorate them. The gingerbread man is covered in felt and edged in tinsel pipe cleaners. You can also see glitter in various forms, including glitter mod podge on the stocking (who knew?), fine glitter on the star and coarse large glitter on the tree. I've also pulled out some buttons and ribbon to embellish them.

I actually saw a gold glittery word ornament at a department store today for $12. This one cost me about $1.20! I bought the unfinished wood cutout at JoAnn's and then painted it with gold glitter paint and tied a piece of twine to it to hang.

What other supplies have you used to embellish wood cutouts?

Finishing Touch on my Mantel

2010-12-03T12:32:00.000-05:00

I found this wreath at Target for $20 and the burlap ribbon at Pottery Barn. Yay, it's done!

Have a great weekend!

Handmade Gift Ideas from Lucky Star Lane

2010-12-01T11:46:00.000-05:00

Decoupaged personalized hangers

I went back through my blog pictures to find handmade gift ideas so I thought I would share my finds with you. I'm trying to think of some new ones for teachers so hopefully this will help me get inspired. Enjoy!

Handmade Accessories from Recycled fabrics

Candy Cane Vase

Recycled Sweater Mittens

Blanket Stitch Appliqued T Shirts

Fabric Yo-Yo Embellished Accessories

Crayon Bags

Personalized Containers

Recycled Denim Pocket Journal

Bottlecap Necklaces

Giant Paper Clip Bookmarks

Hair Accessories Made with Scrapbook Brads

Lucky Linky Tuesday November 30: Salt Dough Ornaments from Ador

2010-11-30T09:23:00.000-05:00

Salt dough ornament from Melissa at Ador.

Welcome to Lucky Linky! I hope everyone had a safe and fun Thanksgiving weekend. I was able to visit my hometown of Shelby Twp., MI and see my family while my husband and brother-in-law drove down to State College to see Michigan State *beat* Penn State. Yay Sparty's!!!!

I can't wait for this week's edition of LLT! Holiday time is my favorite time for crafts. Last week Melissa from Ador shared her instructions for making salt dough ornaments. These remind me of childhood and my mom. Melissa has more to share at her blog, ADOR.

What do you have to share today? I ask that you link to a post, not your home page. Your post needs to be something you created, cooked, invented (cool!), painted, fixed up, decorated...anything you put your creative mind to work on. Please share as many posts as you want and visit others who have also posted here. Thank you and have a wonderful week!

Kicking off the Holiday Season with Some Anthro Inspired Decor!

2010-11-25T10:47:00.002-05:00

I have a few pictures of some holiday decor I've done in my home for you. I tried to do some Anthro inspired displays after looking at some of their awesome window display pictures on Facebook. If you haven't "Liked" them on facebook yet, you should take a look!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you enjoy all the wonderful people and beautiful things in your lives:)

Lucky Linky...almost Wednesday??!

2010-11-23T17:26:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Thanksgiving week...surprise, surprise..my husband decided to take the week off. This is the first chance I've had to get to a computer today because we've been getting things done around the house that have needed to be done for a while. I don't think my husband realizes how much I'm normally on the computer during the day( lol )!

Last week the post that stood out most was from Rusty Rooster Vintage. I really liked her Santa book wreath and photographs of her booth at a recent show....gorgeous and inspiring!

Well, if you're here to link up, welcome, and excuse my tardiness. I can't wait to see what you've been working on!

Etsy shop owner interview series: Megan from Buggy Bowtique

2010-11-22T05:52:00.000-05:00

Lucky Star Lane loves promoting handmade shops!

I recently asked if there were any readers out there interested in free advertising for a month here at LSL and this is how I came about meeting Megan from

Buggy Bowtique. Megan just started her own Etsy shop and I'm pleased to share her interview here!

1. How did you decide to start a handmade business?

I quit my job working at a daycare to stay home with my daughter and started to make more things for her. I fell in love with it from the beginning. I love creating new designs and knew that there was no way that I could create all these beautiful things for my little girl! I would love to be able to that but ... there aren’t enough days in the year for her to wear all of the wonderful things I would want to make for her. I decided to name my business after her because she is the inspiration for all of my beautiful creations. We have nicknamed her Buggy, thus my Buggy Bowtique.

2. How would you describe your design style?

I think I am pretty modern. I like to keep things new and fresh. I love to work with soft comfy fabrics that are good for baby or to find cute one of a kind embellishments to use.

3. What made you decide to sell on Etsy?

I have loved buying from Etsy!. You can find the most amazing things on this site and I’m just really excited to be a part of that now.

4. What kinds of items do you currently sell?

I sell mostly bows, made of flowers and ribbon, as well as headbands. I am working on adding tag blankets this week.

5. What has been your best seller so far?

I suppose my bows. I haven’t been open for very long and I haven’t sold the same thing twice so … just the bows in general !

6. Are there items you would eventually like to add to your shop?

I am adding tag blankets this week and working on a couple of other things. I will be sticking with children’s items. I hope to have aprons up soon, as well as winter gear, hats, scarves, and mittens ! After that I am sure there will be more but this is enough to keep me busy for now I think!

7. Do you have any long term goals for your shop?

I am also going to start selling at flea markets (starting this next weekend) and my husband and I have a long term goal of opening a bakery. He is currently in culinary school. We would like to get a shop front eventually and make a family business out of it. It would be wonderful to be able to work together eventually!

I would sincerely like to thank Megan for sharing her love of creativity and letting me tell a little bit about her here on my blog. You can also find her at her blog Buttons, Bows and a Baby.

Ribbon Spool Ornament

2010-11-21T16:24:00.001-05:00

Do you use a lot of ribbon? I do! I end up trying to save the cardboard ribbon spools because I always think I'll use them to organize other ribbon. I recently went to a new ribbon organizing system where I take the ribbon off the spool and put it in small plastic bags and then put it in larger clear tubs by color. Colorizing it has really helped.

The empty ribbon spools make a great base for a scrappy ornament. This one I painted with red acrylic craft paint, let it dry then applied some glue around the edges and glittered with iridescent glitter. I cut two circles slightly smaller than the spool, embellished the front one with a mini clothespin, ribbon, rhinestones, and a stamped greeting. The back I left plain and hot glued the circles to the front and back. It was very easy and not very time consuming except for the painting. It took around 3-4 coats.

I'm making ornaments this week so I'll have more for you soon......

Simple Circle Punch Tree

2010-11-19T11:12:00.003-05:00

This is a quick scrappy project if you're pressed for time. You will need: a 13.5" tall paper mache cone (this one is from Michael's), a 2 inch circle punch or die cutting machine that cuts circles, 6 or 7 12" x 12"papers of your choice, glue, and a 5" flower pot (you can paint it if you want).

The hardest part of this project is choosing the paper. My house has a lot of black and I like to decorate at Christmas with gold and red. The cone fits sunggly on top of the flower pot. You could glue it for stability but I didn't need to.

Vellum greeting from Anna Griffin and red paper from My Mind's Eye

What other things could be glued to a paper mache cone to make a tree? Do you remember my macaroni tree from last year?

Dr. Seuss Fabric!

2010-11-18T15:01:00.000-05:00

This Dr. Seuss fabric from Robert Kaufman recently caught my eye so I had to make a baby shower corsage with it. I can't wait to make a funky diaper cake and centerpiece to match for my Etsy shop!

I also finished this cake to match the baby bedding I showed you last week. What do you think?

I've been working on a few holiday crafts today..I can't wait to share them with you. Stay tuned.

Lucky Linky Tuesday November 16

2010-11-15T23:15:00.000-05:00

Picture from Leanne at Organize and Decorate Everything

Welcome to another week of November Lucky Linky. Last week I saw a lot of turkeys, a few Christmas ideas starting to pop up, and a lot of just generally CUTE ideas. (love CUTE!).

One of my favorite ideas was this old window used to hold photos. Check out Leanne from
Organize and Decorate Everything for her super easy instructions. I love how the photos all have muted tones and the white border. Super charming Leanne!!

I want to see what you've been up to! Please link a recent creative post from your blog...or two or three. I look through and choose my favorite..or at least do my best...sometimes I have a sick child or am out of town or something...but I do my absolute best. It's all meant to be fun and inspiring, which is what I hope you all feel about blogging and visiting me here.

I hope you have a very creative and inspired day, friends!

Color or No Color?

2010-11-13T09:31:00.000-05:00

Photo and bedding from New Arrivals, Inc.

I had a customer send me this picture to see if I could make some items to match the bedding. I love the bright colors and pairing of the stripe with the floral. That hot pink shag rug is making me feel nostalgic..LOVE it!!

Photo and styling by Dear Lillie

This is another awesome girls room I found when browsing the blog Dear Lillie. If you haven't seen this blog yet, you really need to check it out. Everything is LOVELY.

Photo from HomeGoods

And here is a picture I saw on the HomeGoods site. I love the couch and funky pillow combo. My husband probably wouldn't go for this color but I can always dream:)

Happy Saturday morning!

Now Offering One month of FREE advertising for your Handmade business!

2010-11-11T16:13:00.000-05:00

I've been working so hard on my Etsy shop orders this week I've barely had time to read blogs and visit my lovely friends in blogland. I have to tell you I love to read blogs. It's probably my absolute most favorite way to spend my free "alone" time.

With that in mind, I would like to offer a month of free advertising at the Lucky Star Lane blog to my lovely readers and blog friends who inspire me daily. If you're interested, please email me at erin@luckystarlane.com or leave a comment. This is my way of saying THANK YOU and celebrate the last year of blogging and one year anniversary of the Lucky Star Lane Etsy shop!

LLT November 9

2010-11-09T10:02:00.001-05:00

Welcome to this week's edition of LLT. The holidays are right around the corner and I'm already starting to get a little nervous about getting everything done. I've started early with the shopping and have a weekly list for myself to stay on track. Most of what I want to do is make things, shop, and bake for people I care about.
What other things do you do around the holidays (or anytime) to show the people you care about how much they mean to you? I would love to hear your holiday traditions!

WOOD SHAVING WREATH, Munich, Germany

2010-11-08T10:10:00.000-05:00

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: CHURCHES, THE GLOCKINSPEIL AND BEER!

I was intrigued by these photos taken in Munich, Germany in 2009 by Dancejill on TravelPod. These handmade wood and pinecone wreaths are absolutley gorgeous! TravelPod is a unique website where people can share pictures they've taken while on vacation. I haven't had a chance to explore there much yet but so far I've enjoyed what I've seen.

Have you been to any great creative photography sites lately?

Wood Shaving Wreaths

2010-11-06T07:59:00.000-04:00

I've seen these beautiful wood shaving wreaths at several shops in the last month. I love the look..anyone happen to see a tutorial for making one?
I like the way they look natural, or painted in bright red or pewter with glittter. They typically retail for around $68 for the large one and $39 for the small.

This one is available to purchase at Garnet Hill.

Happy Weekend!

Great Resource for Handbag Making Instructions and Materials

2010-11-04T09:23:00.002-04:00

I just found a great resource for handbag making I wanted to pass along. It's a site called
U- Handbag. Here is an easy tutorial from Lisa for a purse similar to the ones I made above but with a slightly different handle variation. Enjoy!

LLT November 2

2010-11-02T09:31:00.001-04:00

Happy Election Day! Last week was full of great ideas..thanks to everyone who participated.

This week I chose to feature this lovely wintery rosy wreath made from discarded wool sweaters and dollar store snowflakes created by Ellen. Besides her creative projects, Ellen also has some inspiring creative quotes listed on her blog, Creative Passage. I noticed she lives in a town I spent some time in my first year of school when I went to Stephens College. One thing I remember about the school is the ENORMOUS room full of antique and vintage couture clothing. I would love to back and see it again sometime.

Okay we have an update! This wreath was chosen as a Top 10 Iron Crafters: Secret Ingredient Sweaters at Fireflies and Jelly Beans. Please go vote for Ellen's wintery rosy wreath!

What have you been crafting this week? Please link your creative posts below. The linky stays open until Sunday so even if you don't have something ready now, you can always come back when you finish. Have a wonderful week!

Holiday Ornament Contest at BHG

2010-11-01T10:59:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been visiting the Better Homes and Gardens website for holiday decoration ideas. I noticed they do a lot of photo contests so I submitted a few pictures of the ornaments I made last year. I was excited to get an email today that my red winged blackbird was chosen as a finalist this week. Will you vote for my bird so she'll be entered to win the grand prize to be featured in BHG Magazine?
All of you talented bloggers should check out these photo contests! Better Homes and Gardens could find some true gems if they started tapping into blogland..especially all the ladies who come to our link parties. We could start our own magazine!!

Have a Great Day!

If You've Ever Wondered What Glue to Use..Here is your Resource!

2010-10-28T09:04:00.000-04:00

I can't tell you how excited I was as a craft enthusiast to find this GlueGuide at the Elmer's website. I feel like I'm always on the fence about what glue to use for many of the projects I imagine in my head. Sometimes I may not even do a project I've been thinking about because I don't know what type of glue to use.

Now I won't have that obstacle thanks to this great online GlueGuide from Elmer's! There is even an iphone app for the GlueGuide with information at this link as well. (Elmer's is pretty much my new crafting hero.)

Happy Crafting!

Gingerbread and Pumpkin Trifle: Featuring Crafts & Sutch

2010-10-27T12:15:00.002-04:00

When I saw this today I couldn't resist sharing it with you immediately! Erin at Crafts & Sutch tells you how she made a Paula Deen recipe with a Sandra Lee-like mind set. I love it!

I'm still going through posts from this week...so many great ideas. Thanks for joining the party and if you haven't yet, be sure to stop by!

LLT October 26

2010-10-26T09:37:00.000-04:00

Hello! I'm definitely having a repeat of last week because now I have the other child home from school sick. These are the days I am so thankful I stay home because when I worked outside the home this would have been a huge issue (my old job wasn't the type you could just get up and leave. ) My husband can't really do that either (unless it's for golf..lol). Last week was a fun week to look through posts and I indulged a lot of time seeing all of your eye candy. I loved these felt flowers from Lolly Jane.

There are so many ways to use these...especially for the upcoming holiday season!

Please link your creative posts here. We just ask it be a link to a specific post, not your main page. We also like it to be something you personally created, cooked, baked, painted, fixed up, revamped, or rescued from the trash and made into something useful. Have a great week!

Lucky Linky October 19

2010-10-19T09:05:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Lucky Linky! Today I've got a 6 year old with a cold sitting on my lap (he wants to play Nick Jr. on the computer). We're excited to see all of the things you've been creating. Please link a post from your blog and then visit some links and enjoy!

Mason Jar Chandelier: A Knockoff

2010-10-18T20:30:00.001-04:00

Okay, this picture is pretty bad. I admit it - but no one else was awake in my house to hold onto this so I had to wrap the wiring around a doorknob so it would drape like it will when it's installed. I was inspired by Pottery Barn's Exeter 5-Jar Pendant. It's on sale right now for $103.00. (Let's just say so far my version has cost less than $35 and I have 8 jars left for my stock of canning jars ;-) Also, my version is only 4 jars. I was worried about the weight of 5...

This "chandelier" is for my Dad's house. His current dining room chandelier has been on life support for at least a year and it's a horrible Tiffaney-esque builder grade chandelier. It's ugly and it's broken at one of the leaded pieces. His house is kind of lodge-y so this will fit right in. I still haven't figured out exactly what will cover the wires at the installation site. I have a cover I got at Home Depot, but since it's going to hold all 4 wires, I'll have to drill out the center hole. I've made lamps before, so I just used my experience to make this. I'm a bit too scared to put out a tutorial for how to do this, especially since I'm not an electrician, but luckily I found one for you ;) If you need step by step instructions that ANYONE can follow, check them out here at Kara Paslay Designs. She explains everything well and has great pictures. Her version has different size jars and is a really fun version, but heavy! I might use her version of a cap to cover the fixture wiring etc. at the top, if the one I have won't work. Also, I might go back and drill a hole in the lids to let heat escape. No one likes an exploding chandelier.

So, this has been a fun project. I have a few battle wounds (those jar lids are SHARP!) but I think it's turning out quite nicely and I can't wait to see it installed.

PS-Thank you to my father-in-law for drilling perfect holes in the lids for me. Want to help me drill the opening for the outlet cover? :) Also, I'd love drill press lessons for Christmas ;)

PPS-If my name shows up under these, it's only because Blogger thinks it should be that way. Ugh!

I linked this to Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog.

Decorating for Halloween in Black and White

2010-10-18T17:07:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween, everyone! I finally have all of my spooky stuff out. I have to admit I sometimes dread decorating for holidays. The main reason is getting the stuff out of my storage space. It is really packed and is a tiny hallway connecting to the area under our basement stairs. (spooky and spidery in there!)

I changed most of the photos here to black and white even though everything I've used is mostly black or white. I like how black and white photos emphasize the contrasting textures in the items.

These are some sticky fake eyeballs from Target.

The skull and crow are also from Target.

I bought this vintage owl on Etsy. It used to be painted to look realistic but I sprayed it with black spray paint. I also used a lot of my vintage hobnail white depression glass on the mantel display.

The black velvet garland is a smooth contrast to the hobnail. I love hobnail pattern in black and white photos!

This is my every season rag wreath. I added a black rose garland to it that I tied to the wreath with twine. It's kind of a different and funky look. I also bought this garland at Target.

It's hard to see but I have black vinyl bat clings on the windows. They're from Martha Stewart Crafts and I purchased them at JoAnn's.

Here is a "faux" white pumpkin on my bench. I want to find real white pumpkins to carve with my kids this year.

This is how it looks in color photos.

Happy Halloween! I hope you enjoyed visiting my house.

Erin

The Beauty of Fall

2010-10-18T09:19:00.000-04:00

Fall is a so beautiful here in Michigan. Here are some spectators at the MSU Homecoming parade from Friday night.

These are my favorite fall plants. These are in my mom's garden.

This pumpkin is a cool shape and color.

Go State!

My mom made this pumpkin display.

I hope you had a great weekend enjoying fall, too.

Erin

Ribbon Organization and a Treasure Hunt of Sorts

2010-10-13T12:00:00.001-04:00

My grandma has a cool basement. It's not cool because it's finished and has a big screen TV or an in-home gym. It's cool because it's full of interesting and vintage things. My grandma fully believed the "She who dies with the most fabric WINS!" ideal and was really in the running for first! Since she hasn't been sewing for a while, we've stolen most of her stash (she calls it our inheritance and is happy to see us use it while she's still here). A few years ago I got her ribbon stash and the button box that was my great grandma's. In tackling my basement studio and trying to bring some order to it, I started sorting and organizing the ribbon stash. I found some cool stuff.

The top two here are vintage velvet ribbons. The bottom one is a deep purple color. I love them both. I can't wait to ask my grandma if she had these for a special project.

My mom and I couldn't remember if we got this for my Cleopatra Halloween costume (in middle school) or hers (probably around the same time). Either way, it brought back good, but a little bit traumatic memories of my first costume Halloween party where my blue underwear showed through my white toga. Darn! Oh well. I probably remember that more than anyone else - hopefully! ;)

This was a cool purple , red and olive paisley ribbon. I imagine it was bought around the late 60's/early 70's, but it's in great shape and it's so pretty in person. I was thinking it'd make a fun trim for a little girl's pillowcase dress.

This is from my stash. We bought my wedding dress the day before I got married (It wasn't a shotgun wedding, but it's a long story!) and it needed a tie to "cinch" it up. We got this ribbon to do the job. Apparently, we bought a lot extra as I gave the dress to Goodwill a long time ago. Maybe if I ever have a little girl, I can use this ribbon for her baptismal gown, or something else that ~~I'll~~ she'll want to keep for a long time.

I didn't take a picture of the before, but it was basically all thrown together in two plastic bins. I'm happy to have the ribbons on display and the plastic bins available for other storage. Also, I think the ribbons are happy to live with my great grandma's buttons.

PS - I modified the clothespin idea found at Lu Bird Baby and used large popsicle sticks when I ran out of clothespins. I used glue dots on the ends instead of pins. Easy, but time consuming.

PPS - I have more sewing/crafting space organization coming...I'm just still in the middle of it ;)

PPPS - Sorry for the bad pictures...that place has NO good lighting!! :(

Lucky Linky October 12

2010-10-12T08:52:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the second week of October Lucky Linky. I loved looking through last week's posts. My favorite was a recipe from Jaime at The Baeza Blog.

She shows us how to make Halloween cookie bark. It looks delicious and so festive. I'm going to make it today if I get all of my work finished...my kids and husband will love it.

Please link your creative posts below. If you can visit 2-3 of the other links and leave comments, I'm sure it would really make their day!

Boo Sign

2010-10-08T07:05:00.003-04:00

This is a post I did last year and I thought of it when I was pulling out my Halloween decor for this year. I had to completely change the post because I was just learning to blog and everything was backwards! Here it is:
This is the "Boo" award clipped to a pumpkin. I thought it would make a cute prize for a pumpkin carving/decorating contest. It also looks cute just attached to a plain pumpkin as a greeting.
I also hung the ribbon to a plain square orange berry wreath and hung on a door.

These are the supplies needed: circle stencil, pencil, scissors, glitter paper, about 14 inches of 1 1/2 inch black grosgrain ribbon, 3 yards 1/2 inch ribbon of your choice, rub on letters, clothespin, glue gun, cardboard.

First, cut out 3 circles from glitter scrapbook paper. (I traced them using a circle stencil about 3" in diameter and then cut out..you could also use a punch or circle cutter...or a Cricut machine if you are lucky enough to own one!) I bought this one sheet of glitter paper at JoAnn's and it already has adhesive on the back. Use Rub On letters to spell "BOO" on the glitter paper circles.

I cut out 3 slightly larger circles from cardboard. This picture shows the size of the cardboard is a little bigger than the glitter paper circle.

Here I am hot gluing the 1/2 inch ribbon to the cardboard circle. In order to ruffle it, you have to first glue about a 3/4 inch spot flat to the cardboard, then fold about 3/4 inch and hot glue inside the fold. (then repeat the process until it covers the edge of the entire circle. ) If you have fraying ribbon ends, use a little hot glue on the edge or run a lighter over the edge to heat seal it. When I was done with all three circles, I attached the "Boo" glitter circles to the center. (if your paper doesn't have adhesive, use hot glue or better yet white craft glue like tacky glue) The last step is to hot glue the three finished ruffled circles to a length of 1 1/2 wide grosgrain ribbon equally spaced. I glued a small black bow to a black painted clothespin to use as a clip.

Have a great weekend! Go Spartans!

(MSU vs. U of M is Saturday)

Lucky Linky Tuesday Oct. 5

2010-10-05T09:37:00.000-04:00

Hi there, crafty people! This is the first week of October and I am guessing there are a lot of Halloween and pumpkin related projects out there. I love holidays and Halloween is one of my favorites. Last year my costume was the drummer from Kiss. I haven't decided on a costume yet for this year...any ideas??

normal picture of Mike and Erin

Mike and Erin in Kiss makeup..haha my husband is wearing makeup!

Please share your creative posts with us! We ask that you link a post, not your main page. Also if you could grab our button and link back to our page, that would be great.:)

Backpack Tags

2010-10-02T18:30:00.000-04:00

Stay tuned for a backpack tag tutorial next week with options if you don't have access to an embroidery machine.

Birthday Banners for Kid's Parties

2010-09-30T12:36:00.000-04:00

Please forgive the HORRIBLE lighting in my basement studio. My cousin (in-law, but who's counting) Jen has two adorable kids who are both having a birthday this fall! James will be turning 4 in November and Olivia turns 2 today! Happy Birthday Olivia! Happy Birthday James!

Jen and my cousin Ryan (her hubby) are two of my favorite people and given that they have lovely red-headed children, their family makes 4 of my favorite people! Ryan and I lived together for a while before either of us were married, so I love the guy like a brother. Then, he went and married Jen, who is just the sweetest! Really, none of us could've picked a more perfect wife for him. But, then they had kids with red hair! I loved it on James, but only really appreciated it when my own little guy's hair started to get more red! I don't get to see James or Olivia very much, as they live in a different state, but Jen always shares pictures with me, so I feel like I know them better. When Jen asked me for ideas about non-commercial Toy Story type decorations, I was so excited. (She'll totally back me up as I sent her about a million pages off Etsy!!) I really wanted to make them something, so I was super excited when she asked me to make them each a banner!

They're having a Buzz Lightyear - Jesse themed party! The James banner is made from paper, ribbon and tissue paper. I got this awesome scrapbook paper that looks like sheet metal (my girlfriend Brigett's Cricut didn't love that paper, but it did a pretty great job of cutting everything out!) for the letters. Then, on the rocket flames, I used several layers of tissue paper so it'll kind of flutter and look a bit more flame-y. The Olivia banner is made from denim pockets, fabric, paper and bias tape. I cut the cow print fabric in long strips, made them into bows and sewed them on the tape. The pockets are just stitched together (and to the bias tape). I glued the letters on. The bandanas are stiched into the pockets. I had some little cowgirl cutouts, but I couldn't figure out where to put them, so I left them off.

I love taking commercial kid's party themes and making them a bit more homemade! The colors and the textures are a good place to pull ideas from and it's just so much more fun to me than a bunch of pre-printed merchandise from China. No offense China. ;)

Hope you like them. Jen liked the pictures (though she's so sweet, she'd never say she didn't like them) and I hope she loves them when she gets them in the mail! Do you have a party you've thrown that mixed commercial and handmade? I'd love to see them. Throw me a link in the comments and I'll come visit you ;) I know I'll love all your creativity!!

PS - To Ryan and Jen's baby on the way, I will still love you just as much with another hair color, I promise!

Quilt Class & Giveaway!!

2010-09-30T09:43:00.000-04:00

2009 Quilt Pattern - 2 different fabric choices both made by Nancy O'Keefe

Nancy O'Keefe has taught arts and crafts classes for a long time. My mom and grandma started taking classes from her when she worked at a craft supply store in Jackson, Michigan in 1986 or 1987. They took painting classes, and if I am remembering correctly, even some stained glass classes. My brother and I even took a few painting classes from her. We were nearly equally excited to see her dogs, as Nancy has always had Great Danes....and, she has always been a night owl...

Once I started quilting, my mom and I decided to go to one of Nancy's All Night Quilting Classes. Every year, Nancy picks a pattern that works well for beginners, but also will use a new technique or little extra that will challenge experienced quilters too. Everyone picks their own fabric and makes their own quilt - but they're all that one pattern. Every year, a little after 7 p.m., we get together at the Jackson Sportsman's Club and show off the quilts we finished from the year before. Unless, you're my mom and I. Then, you admire others quilts, and maybe show off one from 2 or 3 years ago that you've finally finished. Anyway, Nancy takes the instructions (usually 1 or 2 pages) of this pattern and turns it into 5 pages of written instruction and 4 pages of drawings that will help you along the sewing process. The cool thing is that you can literally pick up these instructions years later and finish that quilt. I know because I've done it. Most of the time, with much more precision and ability than my 2 a.m. stitching from 2 or 3 years ago.

2010 Quilt Pattern (Center) Plus Bonus Pattern (Left & Right) from Scraps - all made by Nancy O'Keefe

Mom and I have taken other people most years. Friends, family, my mother-in-law, even Holden went with us once (He was only 5 months old and he was SO good, even when he was awake!). But, year in and year out, I realize that I am not a night owl. Most years I go thinking, "I can make it to 7 a.m. this year. I can do it!" only to tell my 65 year old mother-in-law that I can't keep my eyes open anymore and we have to pack it up and go home. I think in my entire life, I've only stayed up all night twice...once, that I can completely recall. I just don't have it in me. This year, I planned the Mid-Michigan Breastfeeding Walk on the same day. To say I was exhausted when it was over was an understatement. Since I'm a die-hard procrastinator, much of the last minute details were finished in the wee hours of the morning before the walk. Then I was up early again to finish everything else I needed to do. So, mom and I agreed to go, get the pattern and head back home. We were bummed, but since Nancy provides such awesome instruction, we knew we'd still be able to do the quilt as well, if not better, than if we attempted it that night. I might have actually saved my own life or my mother's as I'm sure we would've had a rotary cutter accident or stitched through a finger.

Feeling better about our decision to not try and get a lot done, we started musing about an afternoon/evening quilt class. This year Nancy had so many people sign up she thought she might need to have two classes. She ended up only having one, but it really made me think...maybe she'd have a 2nd class in the evening?!? After mentioning it to her and harassingly persistently e-mailing her how it could work out, she agreed it was worth thinking about. So, I figured I'd e-mail my entire contact list (which I still intend to do) and solicit people to sign up for this class (in hopes that she'll be forced to have it). But, then, I thought what's better than e-mail? A blog post! Surely, my crafty peeps will spread the word to anyone they know in Michigan who has a slightly crafty bone in their body!?!

Here's the details:

This theoretical class will be held in Jackson, Michigan on September 17, 2011. It will start at roughly 5 p.m. with time for setup at 4:30 or so. There will likely be a pizza party around 7 p.m. or so, for those who want to participate. Women will bring candy and treats. Women will have lovely fabrics for you to admire. Women, okay and maybe men too, if one or more decides to sign up, will make quilts! It will be so fun! The class is $33 and includes the pattern with amazing instructions as well as personal assistance and troubleshooting (if you should have trouble) from Nancy O'Keefe. (If you're like me, you'll love knowing that you can pay a $16.50 deposit before the class and $16.50 at the class. Sorry, this makes me feel like it's only $16.50 as I've already forgotten I paid the deposit. Dave Ramsey will hit me with lightning in 3-2-1.)

So you can know a bit more about the awesomeness of this class, check out this article about the 2010 class in the Jackson Citizen Patriot. One woman even came from North Carolina to attend the class!

To induce you to spread the word to anyone you know who might want to come to either class (the less-theoretical class on 9/24 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., or the one I'm pushing for on 9/17 from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m.) or who will volunteer their interest in the "afternoon/evening" class, I will personally sponsor 1 class entry (in addition to my own ;) to the class of the winner's choice (assuming there ends up being an additional class). A winner will be chosen at random among people who comment to this post saying they've forwarded the information to someone who might be interested (Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, whatever, I'll trust you.) or that you are interested for yourself. Please send me an e-mail at heather@luckystarlane.com if you have any questions!!

I can't wait to meet you at next year's All Evening Quilting Class ;)

xoxo,

Using Scrapbook Brads to Make Hair Accessories

2010-09-29T18:50:00.001-04:00

CONFESSION: Sometimes I see things on sale and buy them even though I have no particular use for them.

I purchased a package of K & Co. Amy Butler scrapbooking brads when they were 50% off at JoAnn's. My investment was $2. (that's not so bad..right?)

I 've recently been visiting Brown Paper Packages a lot after getting hooked on the tutorials. There is a great one for making easy satin poppy hair clips using brads and it was perfect for my great find.

I used one of my sale brads in the middle flower. The other flower centers I made using vintage buttons, jewels, and tiny beads.

These clips are made using scrap grosgrain ribbon and a leftover scrap of silk that I made into a spiral flower and glued to a bobby pin.

I'm so glad I put my sale find to good use! Phew....that $2 find came in handy for my creative outlet.

Lucky Linky September 28

2010-09-28T09:11:00.000-04:00

WHAT?! It's September 28? How did this month fly by so fast? My project list is growing by the minute after seeing all the great projects from last week. It looks like October will be a busy crafting month.What do you have to share this week? We're very flexible on what you share...as long as it's something you made. If you can grab our button and feature it somewhere on the post or blog, that would be great, too. The linky stays open through Sunday of next week.

Raspberry Jam - A Tasty "Craft"

2010-09-27T22:05:00.000-04:00

This last week I was on vacation. Funny how when you're a mom (or you know, when you volunteer for EVERYTHING) even a vacation doesn't really feel much like a vacation. Honestly, I had about two days that felt carefree and my own. I'm not complaining too much though. I had a good week. I'm just ready for another vacation already, which is pretty bad since I haven't gone back to work yet. Oh well. I did get a few things done that I am really excited about.

A few weeks ago I pressure canned some chili that my husband made. It's not very pretty, but it's delicious. I have to admit that the canning bug has totally bit me. We went raspberry picking again and got enough that I made jam. It's so pretty! I love canning enough that even when it's not pretty, I'm excited and giddy. But, this was SO pretty!

I got a few other things finished while I was off work, so I'll be back later this week to show you some more...Can't wait to see what you've been up to tomorrow for Lucky Linky ;)

Lucky Linky Sept 21

2010-09-21T08:10:00.001-04:00

Good Tuesday Morning! Are you ready to party? We hope you had fun at The Creative Chick Parade last week...I know we did. My mom was a huge fan of the recipe day and keeps going back to the post and finding new things to make. THANK YOU to everyone who added a link or visited links. What have you been working on this week? Please link a creative post from your blog. It can be a recipe, a craft, a furniture re-do....we're very flexible. Hope to see you!

My Metallic Paint Obsession

2010-09-20T09:43:00.002-04:00

If you don't already know this I love to "thrift". (is that technically a verb?) I could look at old stuff all day. I could also look at new stuff all day because I just like stuff. If I could be a hoarder I probably would but I don't really have the room for it in my house here in Midwest suburbia.

I've been thinking about this silver leafed table ever since I saw it in an antique store in Grand Rapids, MI. I asked the lady working in the shop about it and she said when she got it the top was separate from the base and it had been silver leafed but was chipping. She applied automotive clear coating over it for a super protective finish. You can't really see in this picture how gorgeous it is but imagine more variation and depth in the silvering.

The base of this table was also amazing. The artist who painted it said she used a metallic silver paint and then did a pickled effect in white over it. She thought this would make an awesome desk with the chair that had been painted white and had a metallic print fabric on the seat.

The price tag on this set was only $298. I wish I would have bought it when I saw it but I was broke that day. I will definitely go back and see if it's still there when I visit ArtPrize in Grand Rapids next week.

Remember this old window? I was playing around here in this photo with adding chair die cuts in each space. I would have to staple fabric to the back and then glue on the die cuts and that would have looked kinda cool.

I change my mind a lot so when I had my metallic spray paint out I sprayed it with silver. I also stapled chicken wire to the back to use for flower pins and clippie hair accessories.

Instead I framed one chair and painted my black decorative shelf silver metallic. The metallic adds a little bit of a modern edge..a little more funk.

Centsational Girl had a great post with pictures of metallic furniture back in February. Check it out for more inspiration!

Kids Sports Spirit Gear Fundraiser Ideas

2010-09-18T13:35:00.001-04:00

Have you ever thought of using your creative talents to benefit a cause? It can be very rewarding. Here are a few ideas I came up with for a swim team to sell.

Do you have any good ideas that are pretty easy to make?

Before and After at The Creative Chick Parade

2010-09-17T09:05:00.001-04:00

Before: old bad art canvas from when I tried to paint and I had no idea what I was doing

      After: cork message board

Today is the last day of The Creative Chick Parade.  We would like to sincerely thank Diana from The Girl Creative for coming up with this super fun blog hop style party and for inviting us to participate. We had a blast!

Today's theme is Before and After. There are a lot of things that could fall into this category so link away! We hope you have a great weekend.

Recipe Round Up at the Creative Chick Parade

2010-09-16T06:58:00.003-04:00

photo from Bev at Food.com

Good morning bloggy ladies and gents. Today is the day we share our recipes at The Creative Chick Parade. Do you have any dishes that have been a hit lately?
I have to say cooking is not my forte. When my boys start to eat a bigger variety of foods I will probably be more interested. My husband loves to cook but he and I will typically eat the meals he makes and the boys will want simple veggies, noodles and sauce or a plain chicken breast. They aren't real big on foods mixed together yet!

I had no doubts when looking for a recipe in going to my mother-in-law, Cheryl. She always has a good recipe up her sleeve and enjoys cooking. She's still working full time as an RN at age 65 and can probably run circles around everyone at the surgical center.

The recipe she recommended is a grape salad.

8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Mix these together in a medium sized bowl or 9 x 13pan, then mix with 1 large bunch of seedless red grapes taken off the stems and washed.
TOPPING:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans or your choice)

I found a similar recipe with the picture shown at Food.com.

Please link up a recipe you have up your sleeve! Your link will also show up at these lovely blogs who are part of the parade.

The Girl Creative

Beat Until Fluffy

Blog Guidebook

Brown Paper Packages

Dear Madelyn

Dilly Dally and Flitter

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Girl.Inspired

Moody Girl Projects

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Sew Much Ado

The Trendy Treehouse

Furniture Fix Up: Creative Chick Parade

2010-09-15T00:01:00.002-04:00

I got this cabinet for FREE on Craigslist! I went to look at it expecting to pay $20 or something like it, thinking I was getting a great deal! When I got there the seller was SO happy that someone was actually following through that she gave it to me for free! I was excited. I didn't love the way it looked, as is, but I was only using it for fabric and toy storage in my studio, so I didn't mind too much. Here's what was "wrong" with the cabinet:

It's pretty heavy, so there's real wood in there somewhere, but the top (and maybe even the sides) were covered in some sort of laminate. I got the paint in the Home Depot Oops! section for $5 (a whole gallon) and have a TON left over! Without further adieu, here she is:

I haven't drilled the new holes for the knobs of the outside top drawers. But, you get the idea. So, what do you think? I really love her ;)

Check out the other furniture projects the other Creative Chicks are debuting ;)

The Girl Creative

Dilly Dally and Flitter

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Moody Girl Projects

Sew What Sharefest: Creative Chick Parade

2010-09-14T00:01:00.005-04:00

I refashioned this shirt for my little boy, Holden, who is pretty much obsessed with tools. He has a billion play tools and he'll tell you "Tools dangerous. Gotta be careful." It's pretty adorable if I do say so myself ;)

My mom bought him this shirt as part of a set and lucky for me, she specifically told me I should cover the wording, as I'm not big on little kid's shirts saying things, especially not things implying that my sweet, little angel ( ; would do anything wrong! I was thinking of different animals I could use to cover the wording when I looked down and saw Holden's play hammer. It was perfect! The colors matched so well; it was kismit!

I traced the hammer onto scrap paper. It wasn't quite large enough, so I made a "seam allowance" outside of the tracing to make it bigger. I pinned the tracing to a piece of black jersey knit.

I pinned the template and the jersey to the front. I wanted to keep the template on the shirt so I knew where to sew. I sewed on the actual tracing line of the template (inside my "seam allowance").

After I stitched over my paper template, I ripped the paper (very carefully). Afterwards, I thought it might have been better to wait until you've stitched a few more times (though I didn't test this theory, so it might be better to take it off first).

I stitched around the hammer a few more times. I added a couple of zigs and zags in a few spots to make it look a little rougher. I trimmed some of the jersey so it was more even around the stitching. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. I think Holden will love it too, but since I'm the queen of finishing at the last minute, he's already asleep :( I'll get back to you with a picture of this shirt in action. I think it'll be one of his favorites! (Sorry for the bad picture quality, my studio is in the basement - bad lighting is an understatement!)

Link up your sewing posts ladies...We can't wait to see what you've been up to!

Don't forget to visit some of the other hosts of the Creative Chick Parade and see what they've been up to!

Dilly Dally and Flitter

Fingerprints on the Fridge

The Trendy Treehouse

Day One of Creative Chick Parade: Mod Podge Mayhem

2010-09-12T20:02:00.005-04:00

Welcome to Day One of The Creative Chick Parade! Our first project theme is Mod Podge Mayhem. I have to admit I haven't used Mod Podge very much and the few times I have my projects turned out a little rough...

BUT ...

This project turned out great in my humble opinion:)

Here is the secret: THE PAPER HAS TO BE COMPLETELY COATED ON THE BACK WITH MOD PODGE...WE'RE TALKING SOAKED.

If you do this it will be less likely to pull away from the surface you're attaching it to.

I took pictures while I was making it so hopefully my pictures will be worth 1000 words because I want to go finish the rest of my projects! :)

I painted the bushel basket style basket inside and out with two coats of acrylic craft paint. I used the entire bottle of paint.

While it was drying I measured the width of the raised wood strips on the basket and cut strips to fit in 4 papers I liked. I used about half (not exactly) of each sheet of 12" x 12" piece of scrapbook paper. There were 16 slats so I choose 4 papers and did them in a consistent pattern. You could do them all different if you want.

Don't go lightly on the Mod Podge..I can't stress that enough. I used about 5 coats and then sprayed the whole thing with a clear matte sealer. Make sure the Mod Podge is completely dry before you spray the sealer. I kind of wish I had the handle because I think it would look great if the wood piece were Mod Podged. For now I will use it to hold my fall mums.

We want to see your Mod Podge projects! Remember this is a blog hop style party so if you link here your link will show up on all the blogs participating. Let's get this party started:)

Creative Chick Parade Starts Monday

2010-09-11T19:56:00.000-04:00

giant paper clips with buttons and yo-yo's by luckystarlane

I'm working hard on my Creative Chick Parade projects. I've got my Mod Podge Mayhem project completely finished and my Before and After is about 90%. This is also amazing but my recipe for Recipe Roundup is also ready to go. Do you have any projects to share? You can always link a semi-recent post if you've done anything that would fit into the categories. Hope to see you Monday!

September 11th - an Anniversary

2010-09-11T01:00:00.001-04:00

I don't know any Americans who forget what happened on September 11th, but it's certain that it's not at the front of everyone's minds constantly, like it was nine years ago. I can't say as eloquently or as completely as I'd like how much that day impacted me, or our country. Faced with such a tragedy, I'm rendered mute. So, I'll just say this:

Tomorrow, especially, and every day - Remember.

Thank you to everyone who was brave and protected us that day and to this day. We remember.

Lucky Linky September 7

2010-09-07T08:33:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends. I just sent two boys on the bus heading to first and second grade. My youngest didn't sleep very well last night so I hope he makes it through the day.
I feel a little guilty for feeling relieved that I can work on orders uninterrupted today. I also have a few blog post ideas that are half done waiting for me to give them attention.

What have you been working on? Do you have any goals set for yourself to accomplish this fall? Please share your links with us!

Fall Decorating at Erin's house

2010-09-03T16:28:00.002-04:00

Hello Fall. You've come to visit my house today and I like it. It feels cool, breezy, and crisp.

I felt like getting my fall decorations out so this is my start to transforming the house. I also added old books to my cabinet even though I am still collecting the white milk glass. I just need to find more but it's a slow process collecting.

If you've been around LSL for awhile, some of these things look familiar from last year. I have more fall ideas in my head so stay tuned for more! Have you started to get out your fall decor?

I hung this from my tree outside. I made it using a vintage farm dress, old lace, designer quilt fabric, and grosgrain ribbon. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

Handmade Gifts for a Bobby Birthday!

2010-08-31T13:18:00.000-04:00

We went to a birthday party for my friend Nicole's oldest son Bobby. He turned 7 and really likes science. I've been trying to keep up my all-handmade gifts committment and though I don't always remember to take pictures, I have been pretty good about sticking to the commitment part. For Bobby's love of science and learning, I thought he might like to do some screenprinting. I got him two plain t-shirts. I embellished one with this truck material I already had. I left the other plain so he can design his own shirt. I told Nicole they can come over sometime once he draws what he wants on his shirt and we'll screenprint it with the Yudu together. I think he'll love it!

I just made a simple strip of the fabric in case he wants to screenprint his name across it or something else fun. I made the bag of the same truck fabric as I don't like to use wrapping paper if I can avoid it. It was also good practice for french seams. Here's everything I included in the bag.

The party was at a local aquatic center. It was so much fun! Holden really enjoyed the water and the sand. It was a great day for it!

Happy Birthday Bobby! We had a great time at your party and we think you're a great kid! I'm so glad we get to be friends with you and your family!

Lucky Linky August 31

2010-08-31T10:34:00.000-04:00

Hello! I'm running behind today as you can see by my tardiness in getting the link party up. My husband likes to surprise me and decided to tell me he's on vacation for the week starting today. I'm happy he's here but we've already washed windows, trimmed bushes, swept the garage, taken a bike ride, went and got coffee, and cooked the kids breakfast. I usually take my mornings a little easier! :) What have you been up to this week? Please link anything creative you have to share with us. Don't forget about the Creative Chick Parade starting on September 13! Have a beautiful day!

The Creative Chick Parade

2010-08-25T10:46:00.004-04:00

Hi, Everyone! I'm writing to tell you about an event we're participating in called The Creative Chick Parade. It's going to be five days of link parties with 5 different categories.

There are several lovely blog friends participating and I've listed them for you at the end of this post. We'll all have the same link party codes on our sites so if you post at one, it will show up on each participating blog's page. What a great way to gain exposure of your projects!

And.....for an added perk many of the blogs will have giveaways each day.

The categories are:

Mod Podge Mayhem

(any project using Mod Podge)

Sew What Sharefest

(sewing projects or tutorials)

Furniture Fix Up

(any furniture you've repurposed, improved, refinished)

Recipe Roundup

(food, food, food!)

Before and After

(a room re-do, closet reorganization, item transformation)

We hope you'll get inspired by these categories and have fun coming up with some posts to share.

Here is a list of the participating blogs:

The Girl Creative

The Trendy Treehouse

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Dilly Dally & Flitter

Moody Girl Projects

Sew Much Ado

Girl.Inspired

Blog Guidebook

Lucky Star Lane

Beat Until Fluffy

Dear Madelyn

Brown Paper Packages

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Lucky Linky August 24

2010-08-24T08:11:00.001-04:00

Good Tuesday Morning Friends! Welcome to the LLT link party. Last week we really enjoyed your posts and meeting some new creative people. One new blog we found is called b3 Home Designs. There were some great wall art ideas and instructions and even reference book suggestions. We hope you'll visit them and tell them we sent you!

Subway Art created by b3homedesigns

Please share your creative links with us! We are excited to see what you've been working on this week. Fourteen day countdown to school is on at our house..how about you?

Canning: New Traditions & Skills

2010-08-22T23:40:00.001-04:00

Saturday I canned spaghetti sauce for the first time. My friend Lina let me come over and observe the canning process last Wednesday and I was eager to try it myself. I didn't take pictures of the in-process sauce and I didn't follow any recipe or tutorial exactly. I have the Ball Jar booklet about canning and I followed it for timing, etc. but I just sort of made up the sauce recipe. It tasted really good before canning, so I'm hoping it will still be good when we open the last jar.

I really love doing traditional things. I like hanging laundry on the line, picking berries, making jam. I sometimes think I was born in the wrong era, or wish I was Amish. I have to say though, that I quickly remember that these ideas involve no iPhones, no internet, no indoor plumbing. These things make me think we really have the best of both worlds. We can choose technology and tradition...We can can in the morning and blog at night ;)

Anyway, I was excited to share since I didn't break any jars and they all sealed. I was pretty much ecstatic about the turn out and I feel like I could look at those beautiful jars all day. Do you can? Do you do something else that's a throwback to different times? I'd love it if you'd share your perspective...

Giveaway Week at 30 Handmade Days

2010-08-19T01:00:00.002-04:00

Lucky Star Lane is giving away a $30 gift certificate on 30 Handmade Days today! Come by and check it out, and enter for a bunch of other cool giveaways at the same time ;)

Lucky Linky August 17

2010-08-17T09:24:00.004-04:00

Hello Everyone! Today is a gorgeous summer day here in Mid Michigan. It would be a great day for a golf outing. (I am jealous my husband is actually playing in one). I played last Friday and had a birdie and parred two holes so now I want to play again. Once you get into golf it does get a little addicting.

Okay time to stop talking about golf and get onto the crafts! I love the time of year approaching because it's not so hot and it's not so cold so I can get out in the garage and do some spray painting. My 7 year old son asked me why I haven't been spray painting anything in awhile. It's been way too hot..that's why! Even though summer is coming to an end, I have to look on the positive side and fall does have many. Spray painting stuff in the garage, tailgating for MSU football, and watching early morning soccer games where my grande coffeee beverage never tastes so good.

What have you been up to this week? What are some of your favorite things about fall? Please feel free to link any of your projects and creations below. We look forward to seeing them!

Diaper Cake Designs

2010-08-14T15:20:00.009-04:00

This post is dedicated to diaper cakes! I really love making these. Maybe it's the baby powder smell of the diapers...maybe it's the joy of creating something that looks like food....not sure but I do love them. They're available on our Etsy shop and we do custom designs. Have a great day!

Owls... Hoot Hoot!

2010-08-13T07:46:00.009-04:00

Owls are everywhere right now. Owl craft supplies are getting a lot easier to find I noticed. These owl party decorations are for a baby shower. The baby is a girl and her name is Norah. ( I love that name:). I'm finishing up the diaper cake now. This is the first diaper cake I've had to ship. Any suggestions for the best way to pack it and the best carrier to use?

Creating Art with Vintage Paper

2010-08-11T12:40:00.018-04:00

I just love vintage paper products like cards, wrapping paper, labels, postcards, and sheet music. When looking through an antique market a few months ago, I found this old wrapping paper with kids having fun at a carnival. They look so happy! I started creating and came up with this pennant out of two pieces of poster board glued together and added some vintage lace and ric rac. The letters are distressed with brown ink. I also added y0-yo's and vintage buttons.

These are some things I am toying with framing. They're made with old book pages, sheet music, and die cuts made with card stock and velvet paper.

I may have these chairs matted and framed. It helps me to lay them out in a frame when I'm creating an art piece before I glue everything together. What do you think?

Yes, I have gone a little bit overboard with these chair die cuts!

Lucky Linky August 10

2010-08-10T08:27:00.003-04:00

Hello, friends around the blogosphere! I don't know about you but I've been in a really creative mood lately. I feel like refinishing or painting something so I'm lookinag around my basement for an object to tranform. We'll see how that goes.

Please link a recent post from your blog. We're not very picky, just make it family friendly and something you created. We're excited to see what you've been working on!

Lucky Linky Tuesday

2010-08-03T11:08:00.001-04:00

I almost can't believe it's Tuesday already. But, at the same time I already wish it was Friday. So sad to be rushing life away, I know. Just the weekdays though, I promise! The weekend goes too quickly...

I always look forward to Tuesdays though because you folks are so creative and inspiring! I loved checking out all of the links, but I was especially pleased to find these:

http://www.thecheapandchoosy.com/2010/07/bumgenius-snap-conversion-kamsnaps-25.html

I have some of these and I hate velcro dipes, so I added this to my to do list!

Creme De Menthe Brownies @ Beat Until Fluffy

I never need a reason to love chocolate and brownies are my favorite! These look delicious!

http://craftedition.blogspot.com/2010/07/magnet-accessories.html

I love these! I have some magnetic nametags, so I need to do this!

This Beautiful Kitchen Reno @ The Tidy Nest

I still really want to paint my cabinets!

Or, better yet, have a magical kitchen reno fairy come and paint my kitchen cabinets.
A girl can dream, right?

I wish I could highlight you all, because you ladies do some amazing stuff! My mom was telling me last week that she thought she was creative until she started reading blogs. With all the crafty and talented people out there, it's easy to feel that way...But, we all have our own unique perspective and can all inspire each other! So, a HUMONGOUS (that's Holden's favorite word right now) thank you to all of you for coming by and inspiring me (and lots of other people who come by too)! I am incredibly indebted to you all!

PS- Blogger was VERY finicky today and I'm annoyed. I've read things about other people having problems with it, but hadn't experienced much of it myself until today. Bad Blogger, bad! If it shows up weird, that's why!

PPS- Erin's new nephew is likely to be born today...YEAH new babies!

Sunflower Invitations

2010-08-02T09:58:00.006-04:00

My husband's oldest brother is getting married in a few weeks and they're having a sunflower theme. The bride asked me to coordinate a brunch the morning after the wedding so I went to the store looking for invitations with a sunflower. I could not find anything! I stayed in Meijer for awhile looking through their card aisle. They had a good selection of cards including Papyrus brand that look handmade and are really beautiful (they cost around $6 each!).
I said to myself, why are you looking at cards when you have so much paper and a die cutting machine at home?
I only have an inkjet printer and it's old so I printed out the written part on paper and then cut it out and glued it inside. I'm sure I could have figured out how to print directly on the card but I didn't have the patience for that last night. Maybe Heather can help me out with that since she is very good with computers and figuring out software!

Goldeluxe: An Etsy Shop Highlight

2010-07-29T10:30:00.010-04:00

My husband will hate this statement, but I love Facebook. He's totally on board with Twitter, but really dislikes (and refuses to use) Facebook. I don't use any of the apps or send hugs (sometimes I will return them because I feel bad for ignoring them) or build farms or anything. But, I love the idea that you can reconnect with people that you've known over the years and really see what people have been up to. Inevitably, you will run across people you probably didn't like very much when you knew them before, but you never know what people are like now. So, I try to be friends with everyone and sometimes hide notifications for people with statuses I regularly dislike. It's a very neutral way to be friendly, without a lot of effort. And, we are all SO busy these days that we need ways to keep in touch without a lot of effort, right? (I think this is part of what my husband objects to. He thinks if a relationship is worth having, it's worth the effort. Which I agree with on some levels, but...) I'm always excited, though, when I see people on there that I have missed, or really enjoyed knowing when I knew them. Do you do that too? Do you like social media in its various forms?

One of these people was Libby Hopper. I've been friends with her brother Dan for a long time, in real life and on Facebook. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to see if Libby was part of his friends list. (That actually almost never occurs to me, to look for people.) But, Facebook is super cool for suggesting people that you might want to be friends with. Libby popped up, and I was excited. See, Dan and I dated a couple of times in middle school (if you can call it dating) and high school. Libby was his younger sister. She was young enough that we never really hung out, but I could tell even then that she'd end up being a really cool person. She was always nice and genuine and those are my favorite kinds of people. I was checking out her profile and found she has an Etsy shop, Goldeluxe.

My kind of girl ;) So, I follow the link to her shop and it's so fun! This is my favorite necklace she's made!

Super cute, right? She makes jewelry with vintage finds. I love the idea of using vintage items in crafts and especially jewlery, but I really love Libby's results! I'm usually not even a big fan of gold jewelry, but these are such fun combinations...

Have you found that some people from your past are really fun, creative people? Do you love Facebook, Twitter and the like? I'd love to "meet" some of the creative people you know! Comment with a link below and I'll pop on over sometime :)

If you want to visit Libby's shop, click here or click the picture to lead you to that listing.

PS - This is one of the posts I promised for last week, but I messed it up and had to redo it before it posted. Sorry! I'm trying to figure out HTML and I keep breaking things in Blogger ;)

PPS - I should've known that Libby would be a crafty girl because she made me a homemade birthday card once. She's super sweet that way ;)

PPS - Libby is now offering 25% off to anyone who mentions Lucky Star Lane at checkout. See, told you she was nice ;) Convo her before you purchase and she'll arrange the discount!

Lucky Linky Tuesday July 27

2010-07-27T08:44:00.005-04:00

Good Morning, Friends! It's a great day for some creativity. Please share your posts with us. We can't wait to see what you've been up to this week!

Birthday Party Decorations and Gifts

2010-07-23T18:56:00.007-04:00

I have a few pictures...(okay several!) of some paper projects I've done using my Cricut Expression die cutting machine as well as my own hand-cut paper designs. I Love paper!

Yes, I am too lazy to write much today but a picture says 1000 words.

Have a great weekend!

Erin

Winner of Snazzie Drawers Giveaway

2010-07-23T08:01:00.000-04:00

The winner of the Snazzie Drawers giveaway is Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous!

Thanks to everyone who entered! I totally can't get enough of this shop...The pictures are just gorgeous!

Okay, I'm done for now. I'm headed to Ohio this weekend to see some of my favorite family members ;) My nephew Mason is having his first birthday party! I can't believe he's one already! It goes by WAY too fast, especially when you don't live close enough!

I've got a few things scheduled to dazzle you this weekend. Hope you enjoy them and I'll "see" you next week ;) Have a lovely weekend!

Thanks again to Joy for offering some of her beautiful patterns to our readers. I can't wait to see which ones Linda picks!

Lucky Linky July 20

2010-07-20T07:44:00.009-04:00

Hello Everyone! It feels good to be back from vacation (even though we had a wonderful time!) and back to looking at your creativity. I love to travel because I get inspired by looking at stuff that I don't normally see. We visited Grand Haven and Holland, Michigan. There are some beautiful home decor and gift boutiques in Holland. I have so many ideas...one of which is a magnetic board that I hope to finish today.

This is my son playing in his baseball tournament in Grand Haven.

I saw this cute trunk planter in our hotel courtyard. I love the ferns!

Link away! I hope you've been inspired this week!

Patterns & Pattern Makers

2010-07-15T23:15:00.000-04:00

SnazzieDrawers Starlet La Fleur

I am totally in love with smaller scale pattern makers. I love that I can get them right away when I order online. I love that most of the pattern designers will let you e-mail questions about the patterns (and will answer them (: ). Plus, you know I love to support small businesses. It's one of those win-win situations. You get something AWESOME made by a person, not a machine or a huge corporation. You know that the person put a lot of thought and care into making that item. That person gets a sale and gets to continue their creativity and their livelihood. It's just totally karma ;)

Anyway, I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite pattern designers. You've seen a few things I've made with Lil Blue Boo's patterns. For recycling knits (any recycling just thrills me!) and making cute, casual clothes, these patterns can't be beat! They're cute, trendy and eco-friendly! What more could you want?!

A while back I bought some patterns from Frog Legs & Ponytails on Etsy. I love the Amelia shirt and I can't wait to make one for myself! I really will eventually get making something for myself on the top of my list, right? I also got a couple little girl dress patterns to make for my nieces but I haven't finished them yet. Hopefully they won't grow out of them before I finish!

And last, but CERTAINLY not least, Joy over at Snazzie Drawers! She just might be the nicest person I know! And she makes A-Dorable patterns for flowers, headbands, bib necklaces and even a onesie embellishment that would be perfect for EVERY baby girl EVER!

Remember when I said she was the nicest person I know? Well, she's so nice she's going to give one lucky winner her choice of 3 patterns from her shop! Isn't that sweet?!?

So, go check out Snazzie Drawers on Etsy, come back and leave us a comment with your favorite listing to enter ;)

For an extra entry, come back and leave us a separate comment:

if you are (or become) a follower of Lucky Star Lane
if you are (or become) a follower of Distinct Design
if you follow Heather on Twitter
if you follow Joy on Twitter
if you "like" Lucky Star Lane on Facebook
and if you "like" Snazzie Drawers on Facebook!

That's 7 chances to win ;) We'll close the giveaway on July 23rd at 8 a.m. EST and pick a winner with random.org.

Thank you to Joy at Snazzie Drawers...You've made me a customer for life!

Lucky Linky Tuesday July 6

2010-07-06T09:04:00.003-04:00

Hello Crafters and Artists! It's time for another week of LLT. What have you been working on this week? We had a beautiful weekend here in Michigan. I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend as much as we did.

Please link a recent creative post from your blog. Please link to an actual post, not your main page. We love to see creative cooking and baking, home decor, furniture re-do, party decorations, arts or crafts, or anything creative and family friendly you have to share. Please link several posts if you have been busy!

Creative Tithing

2010-07-02T08:03:00.002-04:00

[picture is from Gussy]

This is my new baby. Well, she's not that new anymore. I've had her for a few weeks...But, isn't she pretty!?! I love that ruffle. It makes me smile everytime I put my keys away or take my keys out, or - well, you get the picture. This sweet little clutch is from Maggie Whitley - aka Gussy. I can't even remember how I found her now, but I've been wanting a ruffle for my very own for a while now. But, I'm a bit frugal when it comes to buying things for myself. Craft supplies, not included, of course. But I read this post on Scoutie Girl about creative tithing and it really got me thinking. It's a guest post written by Kristen Walker. She talks about being an artist/crafter person who sells handmade things but is too frugal to pay the price for handmade things. Then, of course, she had a wonderful revelation and decided to follow religious ideals applied to craftiness and handmade items - creative tithing. So, instead (or in addition to) giving to your church, she buys stuff that's handmade.

I love this idea. Some people will tell you that I love any idea that justifies spending money. I will agree on some level with those people. But, of course, my love for this idea goes far beyond my delight in not feeling guilty for a purchase. Not that I always feel guilty mind you. I just feel a little too American sometimes. (I probably shouldn't say that this close to the 4th huh? I don't mean that all Americans are lazy, greedy people that spend too much money - just that our culture is definitely caught up in keeping up with the joneses, etc.) Most of the time I'm trying to keep myself from thinking I should get something because it's on sale, or because Holden might like it, or because he's asking for it. I find the boundary between want and need (especially for my little boy and those I love the most) is quite blurry. Please don't tell Dave Ramsey on me, k?

But, back to my original point...which was? Oh yeah, I love this idea! I love that it encourages artists and crafters or whatever you want to call them to support each other. I do think that these types of people support each other really well in lots of ways. Quilters and knitters and the like have little groups where they get together and encourage each other and display their works together. The online community is ripe with wonderful people sharing information and just being AWESOME! That's one of my favorite things about creative people; they're just so generally nice! But, this goes beyond being nice and sharing information into really, truly supporting someone. Sometimes a sale can mean the difference between having to work an unfulfilling job - or not! Between doing what they love and doing what they get paid to do. Between leaving their new baby or creating during nap times and bedtimes so they get more time with their precious new creation...In other words, it makes a HUGE difference to people.

And then, Maggie (aka Gussy) quit her day job to do what she loved and sew ruffles all day for others. How could I not support that?

So, what's next? What should I buy this month? I'd love to see what you're making & selling or what you're loving lately. I don't have anything specific in mind and I don't have a price mark in mind either. So link up, please! Show me who/what I should be supporting ;)

PS - You can read more about creative tithing on CraftyPod and CraftMBA. Both are sites I subscribe to and love.

Lucky Linky Tuesday #18

2010-06-29T08:38:00.010-04:00

Welcome to Lucky Linky Tuesday! If you're new here, this is a place you can link a recent creative post from your blog. We love to see recipes, home decorating, kids crafts, cakes, parties...really anything you put your heart into making.

Last week I enjoyed looking through the posts. There were a few great baby shower ideas at
Seven-Thirty-Three, and A Little Bit of Everything.

I also loved this fire pit patio at Recaptured Charm.

Nice work! We can't wait to see what you've been working on this week!

While the Cat is Away the Mouse Will Play

2010-06-29T00:09:00.001-04:00

So, while my hubby is out of town I'm going to paint our kitchen cabinets while he's gone...

[pic found here]

Just kidding! What would you do if your husband was out of town?

PS - Sorry Babe! Hope I didn't make you too anxious! Isn't this kitchen pretty though? ;)

PPS - I wouldn't have thought of gray cabinets, but I LOVE them ;)

Bottlecap Pendants

2010-06-28T14:01:00.011-04:00

I know bottle cap jewelry has been around for awhile, but I am just now getting around to trying to make some. I researched how to make pendants online, but I just ended up doing my own thing with supplies I found at Hobby Lobby and these great custom graphics I found on an Etsy shop called Oh So Cute Boutique. I used a nail and hammer to make the hole for the round finding on the top of the bottle cap. It works best if you do it through the side which is bent up slightly. I had some small jewelry pliers I used to attach the round finding to the bottle cap.

These faux suede necklaces came from Michael's.

This was really simple to make. I simply glued the image on and then used two coats of the Triple Thick glaze on top.

Fashion Accessories from a "Comfortable" Mom

2010-06-25T16:19:00.001-04:00

My mom used to rock the shoe clips back in the day. I wasn't old enough then to really think about them. But, when my wonderful friend Ann suggested we make some shoe clips for her, I was intrigued. I love the idea of taking one pair of shoes and fancying (I'm sure that's a word) them up a bit...coordinating them with different outfits, etc.

I'm kind of fashion defunct since my son was born (I know he's too old for me to blame him, sorry HB!). I also was never so into fashion that my handbag changed for different outfits or that I always ~~ever~~ looked like I stepped from the pages of a magazine (at least not one you'd look to for fashion advice). However, I have always liked to have something a little fun. I like fun shoes, sometimes heels, sometimes jewelry, etc.

My husband will tell you that I dress up too much. If you knew me, you'd laugh because that's not really true. I like to wear jeans and a t-shirt most of the time. I like the comfortable fashion. Anyway, I think that's the something that makes me LOVE these shoe clips. They're something that, if unpurchased from our shop, I will smile inwardly because that means I can wear them ;)

Please ignore my hideous feet and my too-long-toes. Someone please tell me if pedicures are tax-deductible as a business expense so I can rectify the situation that is my feet.

So, ladies, what do you think...did you wear shoe clips in a past life and love them? Want to get a pedi with me and dress it up with a pretty in pink shoe clip? I'm totally ready to go when you are ;)

I linked up to Frugal Friday, because clips that make one pair of shoes like several pair are frugal. I bet even Dave Ramsey would think so ;)

Lucky Linky Tuesday

2010-06-22T10:33:00.008-04:00

We're back after our week off of crafting. Michigan summers are so short, we really need to stop and enjoy it while it's here. I watched 10 8U and 9U baseball games within one week and it was so much fun. My oldest son is becoming quite the little catcher and even though he is only seven, he keeps up with the 9 year -olds pretty well. We don't have another tournament until July 9 so I'm sure he'll be having withdrawal until then! ( his dad definitely will from coaching the games).

You're invited to share your creative posts here for our readers to see. We're very open to your ideas....recipes, home improvement, graphics, parties, etc.
Have a fabulous week!

The Last Inning Baseball Baby Shower

2010-06-18T10:31:00.000-04:00

My friend Danielle is one of the sweetest people I know. I just love her! Anyway, she's having a little boy next month (and totally teasing me by not telling anyone what his name will be). This past Saturday was her shower that another friend, Liz, and I threw. It was really fun! I didn't get many pictures as I was taking care of shower stuff during the shower and the ones I got aren't great, by any stretch of the imagination. But, here's some of the details. We ended up getting glass beer steins (at the Dollar Store) and silly straws as favors and they doubled as the container for the root beer floats. We tied ribbons on the handles. If I had more time, I would've made a cute thank you tag and added cotton candy (that I bought and forgot in the cabinet) in a bag inside.

For decorations, we made toppers for the cupcake using the Stampin Up scallop punch, the 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punches with different colored papers and labels printed with the Danielle's Last Inning logo a friend made for me. I used the left over paper from cutting out the banner. I made a diaper cake for the centerpiece of the gift table. It turned out really good but I didn't get any pictures of it - sorry! I used the same fabrics I used for Danielle's flower baseball corsage and wrapped it in red tulle. The bow at the top had a covered button with the baseball centered in the middle. Here are the baseball fabrics I used. (I used a navy/orange/teal stripe, a navy solid and an orange mottled solid.)

For food, we made a nacho bar with different nacho toppings and different cheeses. We also had fruit kabobs and popcorn in fun popcorn boxes. I was planning to make corn dogs, but it was so hot I really didn't want to turn on the oven! If I'd had more time, I would've made a few more food options like potato salad, etc. But, the food went over really well and the fruit kabobs were a great looking way to add some interest to the food table, as well as separate out foods that people might not like. For example, Danielle doesn't like strawberries (a texture thing) so I made sure to make kabobs without strawberries. I don't like pineapple so I made some without pineapple, etc. I stuck the kabobs into flower forms at the bottom of this footed dish and put limes around the edge of the floral foam. It looked really good! Everyone loved them :)

We played two games: the purse scavenger hunt and the right-left game. Both were a bit different than what we were used to and it was a fun time. It was especially funny to see that some people carry around 5-7 chapsticks/lip gloss! No wonder we women have back problems and headaches so often ;)

My mind is always going a mile a minute when it comes to planning parties, so I don't think I'll ever throw one where I won't be thinking of doing something different (or in addition to) the next time. But, I really enjoy planning them, especially for good friends. It's always fun to me to find ideas and put them together into your own signature event.

Anyway, I had a good time planning and a good time at the shower and I think Danielle did too. To me, those are the most important parts of a successful event.

PS-Danielle's husband Craig e-mailed me after the event thanking me for throwing the shower and saying that Danielle came home with a smile on her face. What a sweetie! I can't wait to see both of them as parents. That little boy (whatever his name is) will be very loved ;)

Lucky Linky #16

2010-06-08T09:31:00.008-04:00

Welcome to Lucky Linky Tuesday! It's time to share your projects, tutorials, recipes, party decorations, or anything creative you want to show the readers. Please link to an actual post and not just your home page. We can't wait to see what you've been working on this week!

Readers Weigh In: Baby Shower Favors

2010-06-04T14:10:00.000-04:00

I need your opinion again ladies! I'm getting down to the wire and the baby shower is next Saturday. I've got most of the details ironed out (or at least written down), but I'm stuck on the favors. Here's a few of my ideas:

Personal Apple Pies - I found these William's Sonomoa Pie Molds via a Google Image search that found the image on the new-to-me blog Darlin' I. This blog looks so fun! I can't wait to poke around her archives a bit :) I like the above pies, but I also thought about making round pies to look like baseballs, or pies in jars.

Peanuts - Something like the above, but homemade packaging and using the colors I've used for everything else for this shower.

Cracker Jack - I haven't seen Cracker Jack around lately, but I'm sure I could find it somewhere. I'd probably throw a cute band of colored paper around the center with some ribbon and a cute label of some kind. They're not telling anyone the baby's name. Wouldn't it be funny if they named him Jack? ;)

Baseball Cookies - I'm not sure I could make these look very good myself, but I did consider buying something like this. You can find these here.

Big League Chew - I was thinking of getting a pouch of this for each guest and adding a tag that said "Thank you for attending to Welcome Danielle to the Big Leagues!" Too cheesey?

I think those are my best ideas. I'd love it if you weighed in and let me know which idea, combination or variation of ideas you like the best. I'd even love to hear from you if you have a better idea...Thanks Ladies!!