Dollar Store Garland

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I grabbed some of these heart picks from the Dollar Tree, not knowing exactly what I'd do with them. After holding on to them for about a week, I decided to make a Valentine's Day garland with them. It seriously took like 10 minutes! My kind of project!

I just pulled the styrofoam hearts off the picks.

Most of them came off super easy, I had one or two put up a fight. Then I just used a needle and some crochet thread and strung them up, and adjusted the hearts so they were spaced evenly! The thread was thick enough to hold them in place. Super easy, and you can make it as long or as short as you want. The best part is this only cost me $2!

linking up @: Under The Table & Dreaming, I Heart Naptime, C.R.A.F.T, Skip To My Lou, Making The World Cuter, It's All In My Head, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Sew Can Do, The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, Topsy Turvy Tuesday, Sugar Bee Craft Edition, Vintage Pollyanna, Sew Chatty, Blue Cricket Design's Show & Tell, My Backyard Eden, The Thrifty Home, Seven Thirty Three, Someday Crafts, Creations By Kara, Sew Much Ado, CSI Handmade Holidays, Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff, Life As Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, House of Hepworths, Beyond The Picket Fence, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Kojo Designs Friday Fun Finds, My Romantic Home, Thirty Handmade Days, 504 Main, Sassy Sites, A Little Knick Knack, Frou Frou Decor, Simply Designing, Fun To Craft, The Shabby Nest, Poppies At Play, Tatertots And Jello

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Valentine's Day Ruffled Ribbon Topiary

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This is one of the funnest projects I've ever made, it was simple and I could do most of it while I sat and watched shows at night with my husband! I'm also pretty happy with the way it turned out. Sometimes I get an idea in my head, and when I actually make it, it looks nothing like I had hoped, but this turned out just like I wanted it to!

What I used:
•Little Tin Bucket (last year's walmart clearance)
•Floral Foam ($ store)
•3" Styrofoam Ball ($ store)
•4 yards of 1/2" Braided Elastic
•60' Satin Ribbon (hobby lobby, didn't end up using ALL of it)
•Moss ($ store)
•Wooden Rod (hobby lobby)

I started out by making the ruffled ribbon by sewing the elastic to the mat side of the ribbon. I used a zigzag stitch and I stretched out the elastic as I sewed, so that when it went back to it's original form, it would create a ruffle in the ribbon. Make sure to pull both sides of the ribbon/elastic when sewing or it won't feed through your machine.

Here is what my ribbon looked like when I was done, it was really fun to see it transform as I sewed!

I used straight pins and pinned a strip down the ball.

Then I just wrapped the ribbon around the strip, up and down in a circle until the whole ball was covered.

I made sure to push the pins through the elastic, under the ribbon, so they would be hidden.

Then I assembled my topiaries by painting the wooden rod white, cutting it to size and pushing it through the ball and into the floral foam in the buckets ( I ended up spray painting my buckets and hot gluing a strip of ribbon on the inside to cover up the heart holes). Then I put hot glue on top of the floral foam and smooshed the moss on top and tied a little bow around the rod!

I had so much fun making these, I think I might make a wreath or some kissing balls with some different ribbon, I think a black and white damask might look pretty!

Linking up @: Under The Table And Dreaming, IHeart Naptime, C.R.A.F.T, Skip To My Lou, Making The World Cuter, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Sew Can Do, Sew Chatty, Today's Creative Blog, Topsy Turvy Tuesday, Sugar Bee Craft Edition, Vintage Pollyanna, Blue Cricket Design's Show & Tell, My Backyard Eden, The Thrifty Home, Seven Thirty Three, Someday Crafts, Creations By Kara, Sew Much Ado, Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff, Life As Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, House of Hepworths, Beyond The Picket Fence, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Kojo Designs Friday Fun Finds, My Romantic Home, Thirty Handmade Days, 504 Main, Sassy Sites, A Little Knick Knack, Frou Frou Decor, Simply Designing, Fun To Craft, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots And Jello
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Pine Cone Topiary

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I saw these pine cone topiaries on Ballard Designs and thought they were so pretty, but knew I could recreate one for a lot less!

I called up my sweet Mother, who graciously gathered pine cones from her backyard in Washington and brought them with her to Texas where we were all having Thanksgiving at my brother's house! I had to let them dry out a bit before I could use them, so they would open up, but here's how my topiary turned out:

Even thought it was really easy to do, it was definitely time consuming, it took two nights to finish, but I just worked on it while I watched TV with the hubs. It also took way more pine cones than I thought, so I ended up only making one.

Here's what I used:

• 6" styrofoam ball
• black garbage bag
• pinecones
• hotglue
• white spray paint



Steps:

1. Wrap a black garbage sack around your styrofoam ball, twist the bag tight and tie it off with a twisty tie. Cut off the extra plastic from bag. This will keep the white from peeking through and help the pine cones adhere better.

2. Drench the tied end in hot glue to keep it from coming undone.

3. Grab the middle of the pine cone, and twist the bottom to create a "smaller" pine cone. Get rid of the bottom, you'll only use the top. Make sure all your tops are about the same size to get a symmetrical ball.

4. Hot glue your pine cones onto the covered ball, starting at the top and working your way down until the whole ball is covered.

5. Lightly spray paint with white or silver spray paint, I used white.

I got the planter at Hobby Lobby, it was $7.99, but it was half off, sweet deal!

If you're not as lucky as me to have a Mom do the dirty work for you, or if you don't live in the Northwest, Michael's has some pre-painted smaller pine cones in bags in the floral section. I love this project because I can keep it up all winter!

Linking Up @ The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, Topsy Turvy Tuesday, Sugar Bee Craft Edition, Vintage Pollyanna, Sew Chatty, Blue Cricket Design's Show & Tell, My Backyard Eden, The Thrifty Home, Seven Thirty Three, Someday Crafts, Creations By Kara, Sew Much Ado,

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Faux Fireplace

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For the past 9 years, I haven't been able to hang my stockings with care, they've been on the wall or on a couch or chair! (I didn't mean for that to rhyme). I was on the phone with my sister the other day, and she was telling me about a fireplace she had just made for a church Christmas party she was in charge of. I was so excited and couldn't wait to make my own, I knew my kids would have so much fun with it! I went onto Family Fun to get the instructions, this seriously couldn't get any easier. I roped my husband into helping me, it only took us a couple of hours, including the time it took for the paint to dry!

Supplies:
•4-18x18x16 cardboard boxes (home depot .96¢ each)
•2-28x20x5 cardboard boxes (I just snagged similar size boxes from the stoker man at WalMart)
•1-2 rolls of brown craft paper (walmart for $3 and change)
•packaging tape
•acrylic paint (brick red or mix of red, brown and cream)
•sponge
•red, yellow and black card stock (dollar store, .50¢ each)

Get 'er Done:
Step 1: Tape all 4 18x18 boxes up, leaving one flap open, like this:


Step 2: Flip the boxes on their sides and stack them to make the base of the fireplace and tape the sides and back seams together like this:


Step 3: roll out 130" of the craft paper and start sponge painting your bricks, we found if your sponge isn't too saturated, it gave it a more realistic look! The craft paper wasn't quite tall enough to cover my boxes, so I cut 4 or 5 strips that were 7" tall and taped them to the larger 130" strip before painting (tape goes on the back side, not sure how well the paint would stick to it). Hope that makes sense!


Step 4: Once the paint has dried, lay your paper over the boxes and secure them with packaging tape, your base is now done.

Step 5: I totally spaced taking pictures of this part, but it's similar to the first part, just assemble your two 28x20x5 boxes and tape them together so the dimensions are 56x20x5. Cover the top and sides with craft paper. I chose not to paint my mantle, but you can paint it with mixed black and white paint, using a rag to get a marble look, see Family Fun for the technique. Then just set your mantle on top of your bricks, put the black card stock down for the "fireplace floor" and cut out red and yellow flames if you want a fire!

My sweet, sweet husband helped me with the flames, he cut them out and then made a crown shape with them so we could put flameless candles in the middle! I love the way they look!

If you already have a fireplace, you could easily do this on a smaller scale for a child's room, or a play house! My kids love it!

Linking up @ Under The Table and Dreaming, C.R.A.F.T, Skip To My Lou, Making The World Cuter, It's All In My Head, Somewhat Simple Winter Holiday Link Party, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Sew Can Do, The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, Topsy Turvy Tuesday, Sugar Bee Craft Edition, Vintage Pollyanna, Sew Chatty Blue Cricket Design's Show & Tell, My Backyard Eden, The Thrifty Home, Seven Thirty Three, Someday Crafts, Creations By Kara, Sew Much Ado, Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff, Life As Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, House of Hepworths, Beyond The Picket Fence, Tales From Bloggeritaville

To have your ideas featured on Crazy Domestic, click HERE

Melted Snowman Cookies

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I saw a picture of these the other day on Allrecipes.com and thought it was such a cute idea, I had to try it. After googleing it, I found a good tutorial on Stacy's Sweet Shop. I modified a few things to make it more simple for me (less homemade more store bought). To see the original Melted Snowman Cookie, and meet the inventor herself, go check out Meaghan (great name) @ The Decorated Cookie!

Here's what I used:

•1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
•10 large marshmallows
•Betty Crocker Cookie Icing (white and orange)
•Wilton Decorating Icing Tubes in Black, Red, Green, Blue and Pink
***it would have been a lot cheaper if I had just made the icing myself, see Stacy's tutorial for a good recipe)***

Here's what I did:

•Mix cookie mix according to directions, or prepare your favorite cut out sugar cookie recipe, then just grab a golf ball sized chunk and squish it down until it's about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Do not worry about the shape or how lumpy it is, the more misshapen the better! Bake according to recipe directions.


•Once the cookies are cool, load them up with the cookie icing and spread it around with the back of a spoon, let some dribble over the edge for a "puddle" look.


•Spray a microwave safe plate with cooking spray, and place marshmallows on the plate. Set the microwave for 30 seconds, but watch the marshmallows as they cook. Stop the microwave as soon as the marshmallows start to get puffy, do not let them double in size.


•Spray your fingers with cooking spray or grease them up with shortening, and carefully pull the marshmallows off, by the base, and set them on top of the frosted cookies.

•Then just decorate as you'd like with the Wilton frosting, or your own homemade frosting! I was pleasantly surprised at how yummy the Betty Crocker cookie icing was!

Linked Up @: Under The Table & Dreaming, C.R.A.F.T, Skip To My Lou, Making The World Cuter, It's All In My Head, Somewhat Simple Winter Holiday Link Party, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Sew Can Do, The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, Topsy Turvy Tuesday, Sugar Bee Craft Edition, Vintage Pollyanna, Sew Chatty, Blue Cricket Design's Show & Tell, My Backyard Eden, The Thrifty Home, Seven Thirty Three, Someday Crafts, Creations By Kara, Sew Much Ado, CSI Handmade Holidays, Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff, Life As Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, House of Hepworths, Beyond The Picket Fence, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Kojo Designs Friday Fun Finds, My Romantic Home, Thirty Handmade Days, 504 Main, Sassy Sites, A Little Knick Knack, Frou Frou Decor, Simply Designing, Fun To Craft, The Shabby Nest, Poppies At Play, Tatertots And Jello, Smile Monsters

To have your ideas featured on Crazy Domestic, click HERE

Road Trip Travel Trays

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We went out of town for Thanksgiving, and we have another road trip planned for Christmas. Normally we just let the kids watch movies while we drive, but I wanted to have something else for them to do this time, especially since my kids are only 3 and 1 1/2 years old, and don't quite play most road trip games yet AND our Christmas drive will be 18 hours...SOOO...I made some Road Trip Trays!

I picked up two cookies sheets at the dollar store and spray painted them with Krylon Chalk Board paint that I FINALLY found at Ace Hardware. Super simple! I love these trays because they are fun and multi-functional!

Option 1 is A COLORING TRAY. I got some clamp magnets at the dollar store. The crayon holder is actually a note card holder I picked up on clearance at Walmart for .75¢ Traditional coloring pages don't fit, so I trimmed some down and brought some plain white paper to color on.

I just hot glued some magnets onto the back of the "crayon case" to help it stay put.

Option 2, A RACE TRACK FOR CARS! My little boy is in LOVE with cars, so this was a good option for him, I just colored the track on with chalk and brought along a few of his favorite cars to use.

Option 3, A TRADITIONAL CHALK BOARD. I did the same thing with the chalk as I did with the crayons and hot glued magnets on the back to help them stay on the tray. I just brought some soft rags to wipe them clean.

Option 4 is A MAGNET BOARD, bring along number and letter magnets, paper doll magnets, laminated shapes to match, you name it! My kids are always playing with the magnets on the fridge, this just made it portable!

No picture of Option 5, but you can use these as SNACK AND DRINK TRAYS! It helps keep SOME of the mess off the floor!

The best part about these is that when you are done using them, you can just stack them up and slide them right under the seats! Happy Holidays and sane safe travels!

Linked Up At These Parties:
Making The World Cuter, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Sew Can Do, The Girl Creative, Skip To My Lou, Craft-O-Maniac, Today's Creative Blog, Sugar Bee Craft Edition, Topsy Turvy Tuesday, Blue Cricket's Show and Tell, SomewhatSimle's Strut Your Stuff,Under The Table & Dreaming

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Glittery Acorns

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When I was growing up, my Mom used to make BEAUTIFUL pinecone wreaths! I used to think she was a little crazy when she'd pull the car over and say, "everyone out, help me gather these pinecones!" anytime we'd pass a pine tree! I guess it's true when they say you become your mother because I am now that crazy lady!

Turkey Placemats

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I first came across these placemats on examiner.com while I was looking for kids table ideas for Thanksgiving. It was a McCall's pattern, but it looked so simple, I figured I could replicate it without buying the pattern. Then I saw She Wears Flowers version on Ucreate, and it was pretty much identical to the McCall's pattern, so I tweaked her templates to make it easier for me to do! Because these are going on the kids table, I wanted to use a material that would clean easily, so I chose vinyl with flannel backing.