Two Turtle Doves

Here are two ornaments I made for my tree.   I found the pattern at

 belladia.typepad.com and made my own variation.  These are nice and soft and very kid friendly!

Mixed-Media Experiments

Flower Flap Hat

Ok, I really think I am addicted to crocheting hats now.  I just can't seem to stop!  Here's my latest hat.  If you would like to try to make one yourself, I found an awesome website with tons of free patterns.  Visit http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory.php and check them out!

$3 Christmas Wreath

Hooray for the dollar store! Last night I picked up a few items and made some Christmas Wreaths for super cheap!  I found the idea for these at creaturecomfortsblog .  Awesome idea.

Here's what I got at the dollar store:

silk flowers- $1

Tinsel- $1

wooden wreath- $1

Photo of the week

The sky is so clear and blue today.  Its beautiful!

Pies, Pies, Pies

 

I have to use this post to brag about my husband who is turning out to be an amazing cook!  These are the pies he made for our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday:  Mexican Chocolate Pie and Coconut Cream- yum!  I think he could give Marie Calendar's a run for her money!

Photo of the week

 

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas- and we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet!

Bird Painting

Experimenting with oils is always fun!  I'm such a realist, so its good for me to branch out once in a while, but I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it.  Your honest opinion would be very much appreciated.

Photo of the week

 

Ok, so I haven't been posting my pictures as much.  I just haven't been out taking them as much.  The cold weather keeps me from getting out.  So this one is from last year-can you guess where this is?   I love the colors.  I'm going to miss them!

Truck Pinata Tutorial

For my son's birthday party coming up, we ventured to make a truck pinata, since he is SO in love with trucks!  I also didn't want to fork out $20+ to get one at the store.  I took the time to take pictures so I could post a tutorial, but I must warn you, only attempt this if you have at least 4-5 hours set aside for it.  It is very time consuming, but it was a fun project for my son to help me with.

1.  Gather up your materials.  

You will need:

Lots of cardboard (scraps, or shoe boxes work well)

Masking tape

Exacto knife

Ruler

Candy and toys to stuff it with

Elmer's glue

Tissue paper

colored paper

2. Start shaping the cab of the truck.  Make a rectangle with one side slanted.  Let your kids help you do some taping- they'll love it!

3.  Leave the bottom of the cab open so you can attach a wire for the hook to hang the pinata with.  I made the mistake of not thinking about the hook until I had the shape all taped up.  I had to take some of it apart to put the hook in and then tape it back together- not fun.

4. Tape the cab on top of a shoe box, or other box formed with scraps.  Make sure the cab and the box are the same width so that they fit together nicely.  Offset the cab to leave room for the hood of the truck.

5.  Tape another box to the back end for the bed of the truck.  Leave a space open somewhere in the body to stuff the candy in.

6.  This was the best part!  Stuff the candy and toys inside- and eat some of the candy while you're at it!  Then cover up the hole.

7. Cut 4 circles out of thick cardboard and stick them on for the wheels.  Make sure you use THICK cardboard.  I used thin cardboard and the wheels are now too flimsy to hold up the truck.

8.  Cut out shapes for the windows of the cab.  I used some silver wrapping paper, but you could use just about anything.  Tin foil might look nice.

9.  Tear the tissue paper into small pieces.  Crumple up the pieces and glue them everywhere, except the wheels and windows of the truck.

10.  Once you have the truck covered, cut out small paper circles for the headlights and glue them on.

11.  Cut out larger paper circles for the wheels and glue them on.

Now it is finally finished, so you and your kid go take a nap!

Finished Pumpkin Painting

It's finished!  Well, at least I think so.  Its hard to know when to stop and leave it be.  After I finish a painting I keep seeing things I want to change, but what I need to do is just enjoy it.  

My website is almost done too!  Yeah! I'm so excited about it!  So take a look and tell me what you think.

https://sites.google.com/site/eliseenghart/

Wedding Cards 2

Today is the big day!  My brother-in-law is getting married!  We are soooo excited for this one cause he's marrying such a nice girl!  Here's the card I made for them and below is one I made for my old room-mate, who's getting married later this month. I'm still lovin the patterned packing tape!

Flower Hair Clips

I started making these little flowers last month.  Visit my Fabric Flower Post to learn more.  I had some little leftovers hanging out in my sewing box and thought they would look good on some hair clips!  I love how they look!

Pumpkin Painting

I've been busy working on a painting this week!  This one is not nearly done yet, but I wanted to show you what I've been working on.  I haven't done any oil painting all year, so this has been really fun for me.

  I've decided I want to try to sell my art.  I'm going to sell art I've already made and also offer to make custom art for anyone who wants it, and can pay me for it.  I'm working on a website too.  I'm so excited about all of this!  I know the competition here in Utah is pretty fierce.  There are so many good artists out there, but I think I may have a shot.  So, if you want some art or know anyone who does, let me know!

Crochet Flowers

If you haven't noticed yet, I have a severe flower addiction.  I love making them out of all kinds of materials because they are just soooooo cute!  So, bear with me while I share yet another one of my flower-making adventures. 

I got into crocheting again with my first crochet hat.  Since then I've been learning how to crochet flowers so that I can stick them on my crochet hat.  I found some awesome patterns for the flowers at littlebirdiesecrets.  The seven petal flower pattern is my favorite- although I must be doing something wrong because I keep coming up with an 8 petal flower.  Oh well, no matter.  They are still cute. 

So, if you have some basic crochet skills, take a look at the patterns and try them out! 

 

Photo of the week

Is anything more beautiful than fall colors?

Patterned Packing Tape Cards

Ever since I discovered patterned packing tape at Michaels, I wanted to try some out on cards.  I love it!  This tape is awesome (and very affordable, I think I paid $1 for a whole roll!).  The possibilities for it are endless.  The wheels in my head are turning.  What else can I use this on?

Felt Ghosts and Spiders

These are the extent of my Halloween decorations this year.  I cut out some simple ghosts and spiders from felt and stuck some eyes on them.  My son loves them- probably because they are more cute than scary! 

I have yet to figure out what to dress up as for Halloween for me and my son.  I always have such a hard time coming up with a good costume.  If you have any good costume ideas for a 2 year old boy who doesn't like wearing anything on his head, send them my way please!

Hard and Fuzzy Friends

My son got into my craft stuff last week and we ended up making some cute little friends for him.  Googly eyes can make just about anything cute!

 

Flower Addiction

I took a walk this beautiful morning with my camera.  I couldn't stop taking pictures of the flowers in my neighborhood.  I love flowers, even the weeds!

I've about filled up our entire hard drive with all my pictures, but I can't seem to stop.  I can't resist trying to capture some of the beauty I see around me.  It makes me so happy!

Fall Decorations

This week I've been decorating for fall!  Better late than never, huh?!  Not having money to spend on new decorations meant I had to get a little creative and use some things I already had.

Acorns and Pine cones are great to decorate with.  I went around my apartment complex and collected tons of them for free!

I had some old silk flowers and leaves hanging around.  The flowers were really tall, so I cut them down to fit my little vase.

I'm all set for fall, now on to Halloween decorations!