From Junk to Jewelry

Have some of grandma's old clip on earrings? In my case I just go into Galoshes' stash of junk jewelry :)  When Galoshes is away MaryJanes will play.  So I pulled out some fairly ugly (as earrings) clip ons and turned them into some fabulous rings!

I pulled the clip on piece off the back of the earring with a pliers.  Then with E6000 glue, attached an adjustable ring (I bought a bunch of them off etsy in supplies).  Let dry 24 hours and your ready to rock!

I got a little messy with the glue on this one, it was my first time using this glue but I love it!  The gold ruffled ring reminds me of 80's nautical, I loved sailor dresses and it looks like a button from a sailor dress.  The gold part was the earring, I added the navy ruffle with a ribbon and a long running stitch to gather.  Then on back I glued the base of a broken watch to give the ring a nice surface and hold everything together.  I love it!

The black ring was much more straight forward, just pulled off the clip and attached the ring. 

So go raid grandma's jewelry!!

Graffiti Cupcakes

I love rainbow cupcakes, but they use WAY to many dishes for me (separating everything out to get all the colors) so I've come up with a fun alternative..... Graffiti Cupcakes!

What you need-
White cake mix
Neon (or any) food coloring

Prepare the cake mix as directed.  Before pouring into pan, drop 3-5 drops of each color into the mix.  With a rubber scraper, slice through the mix and the drops for a marbled look.  DO NOT OVER MIX.  Pour into your cupcake papers and bake.  I suggest white cupcake papers as you can really see the marbling of all the fun colors through the wrapper.

Make it Healthier Tip-
In effort to be able to give my kids fun treats without giving them a lot of sugar, it's nice to substitute a few things here.  Apple Sauce, as I'm sure you all know, for the oil and I swap whipped cream for frosting! My kids love whipped cream and I love that it's not completely made of sugar.

P.S. I recently came across a recipe for an even healthier alternative to whipped cream!  I have to make a grocery run, but then I will share it with you in a fun valentines themed treat!!!! Can't wait to test it out.

McHomeMade!

I love recipe knock offs, and I've finally come up with one of my own!  Okay so it was super simple and I don't deserve to much credit.... but I took something that I love and made it at home!  Hello McDonald's Caramel Frappe!

What you need-
Regular strength Hazelnut coffee (I used dunkin donuts brand)
Ice
Whole milk
Caramel syrup (ice cream topping kind)
Blender

Fill your blender 3/4 of the way full with ice.  Pour in your coffee to about 1/3 of your blender, fill the rest of the way (to the top of the ice) with whole milk.  Add 4-6 tables spoons (per  16oz serving) of caramel syrup and blend.  I use this convenient little single serving blender (it's Hamilton Beach if your interested, like $15, nothing special) but it works great because it has a coffee cup like lid that you can drink right out of the blending cup.  Less dishes to wash! 

So you will go from this.....

To this.....

 Yum!

If you really want to get authentic you can top with whipped cream and a drizzle of your caramel sauce.  I have been working at my waistline and have managed to trim off 23 pounds so although I LOVE whipped cream, I will do without.  I have no idea if my ingredients are even close to the original, I can't help but assume it's some sugary mix that gets blended with about a bazillion calories.  So I'm hoping that not only is my version a whole heck of a lot cheaper.... but it might be a bit less of a guilt pleasure as well. 

 If you prefer the Mocha Frappe (like Galoshes does) you could try chocolate syrup, or maybe some cocoa powder mixed in.  Go nuts, I'll stick to the caramel!

Glitter Bow Headband Tutorial

I've been going into the hair accessory section of the store lately looking for something new and fun and I fell in love with a really sparkly bow headband.  I did not however feel it was worth the $7 when I knew that I could make it myself (sometimes I'm cheap).  I knew glitter ribbon would be 1. hard to find in a variety of colors and 2. expensive! so I decided to make that myself too!  Here's what I ended up with.

What you need-
Ribbon (I used 1.5 inch satin ribbon)
Spray adhesive
Clear fishing line string
Headband
Hot glue gun
Scrap of felt
GLITTER!  I prefer Martha Stewart brand, it sparkles like no other I've used.

To make my bows lay nice and flat on the band I used a bit of glue to tack the ribbon folded into a bow like position.

Just a dab of glue to tack it into place.  Then scrunch the middle by pinching and tie with the clear string around the center.  The glitter will cover the string up so just knot and trim on the backside of the bow.

Shape the bow with your fingers so that the loops are puffed.  Once the glue and glitter is dry your bow will be fairly stiff so you want it to be fluffed before this step.  Spray the bow liberally with the adhesive and cover with glitter.  Make sure you get the whole outside surface.  If you miss spots spray and cover again.  Shake off the excess and allow to dry.

Hot glue the bow to your headband.  Then reinforce the bond with a couple strips of matching felt.

All set.  Now make one in every color!  You can also attach them to alligator clips, I used a smaller ribbon for this one for a smaller head ( a toddlers ).

You can see this one needs to be tapped for excess glitter a bit more.  It was getting on my photo surface.  If your glitter really rubs off you can also spray it with a coat of clear spray paint.  Works like a charm!

Ruffle Rosette Headband

The other day I showed you how to make a Lace ruffle rosette hair clip.  Using that same technique with strips of fabric instead of lace, you can make this!

I like the little bit of fray on the edge of the fabric, but I didn't want it to fray any further so I used a bit of fray check once everything was all put together.  Nothing to precise, just enough to keep it from getting to stringy.  I'm sure you also noticed I put this one on a headband rather than a clip, you can attach it to anything you like.  I attached the headband with some hot glue then another felt circle hot glued to sandwich the headband between the two felt pieces.  Enjoy!
 

CSN Stores take me away!

As you can imagine with three small children, in Wisconsin, where the is a -30 degree windchill today, I'm not getting out of the house much.  Lucky for me there is nap time an internet!  One of my favorite things to do during nap time, aside from catch up on my favorite blogs, is to browse around CSN stores.  With the cold weather today I'm dreaming of summer and looking for the perfect swing set (because they have EVERYTHING!).  What kid doesn't dream of a playground right in their own back yard.  We add on to ours a little bit every year and CSN stores offers kits for all the fun additions. 

I think I will stop dreaming of warmer days and start shopping for something a little more practical while we are buried under all this snow.  Like maybe a new counter top oven (because we have a make shift kitchen right now and I currently cook in a pizza oven, I'm so not kidding).  It would be really nice to bake some biscuits and not burn the tops! Back to shopping!  I'll tell you all about it when my little gem arrives!

Anthropologie Inspired Necklace from Wedding Dress

Last summer I told you how I was cutting up my wedding dress to make all kinds of fun (more useful) projects.  I called it "I DO, re-done".  It was supposed to be this big event and even had a button.  Well as it turns out I'm not a big event person and although I love making things from the endless supply of fabric that is my wedding dress, I wasn't strict enough to do a month of just that.  So here and there I share projects made from (yes my ACTUAL) my wedding dress.

It's my first official "inspired by anthro" project!  To be honest I didn't even know what Anthropologie was until I started blogging and saw it all over the blogs.  We don't have one here, but I do love it!  I say Inspired by because it was not my intent to completely copy it, I took what I loved about it and created something more ME.    So here was my inspiration-

And here is what I ended up with-

The flower portion is made from my wedding dress skirt.  There were three different layers to the skirt, satin, organza, and tulle.  So you will need bits of different textured fabric in the same color (white in this case)

You will also need a fashion pearl necklace (mine was thrifted) and some chain
A hot glue gun
Two jump rings
Some felt

Cut a TON of circles out of all three of your fabrics in roughly three sizes.  No need to be anything close to perfect.  Once your circles are cut fold each one into fourths and cut a petal shape.  Again, mine were completely wonky and you won't be able to tell in the end.  Just give it some points here and there, leave some rounded, texture is what we are after.

Cut a felt base in a kidney bean shape that gets smaller at the bottom.  Fold each flower in fourths and tack down to the felt base with needle and thread.  Large ones at top working toward the smaller end with the smaller flowers.

I did the outside layer in all satin so I didn't have any itchy parts next to my skin.  Then worked my way in with the other textures sticking satin here and there.  Work until your felt is full!

I shortened my pearl necklace a bit and added some silver chain by attaching it to the pearl necklace hardware with jump rings.

To attach the flower portion to the necklace I used hot glue on the felt.

Then more hot glue and a strip of felt again to cover all my glue mess and polish it off.

Voila! Reminds me a little of the butterfly wreath everyone loved so much :) 

Enjoy!

You can chill with our source of thomas sabo bracelet & dedicated web hosting. Out store contains different kinds of fortis watches & timex watches, all are shifted to upper rolex watches of the building.

Blogoversary! Blogger insight shared

Good afternoon!  You know it occurred to me today that my 1 year blog anniversary came and went and I was so busy with other things (and not blogging!) that I missed it! So January 7th was the official one year mark.  Happy 1st Birthday MaryJanes and Galoshes! I have a really stunning necklace to share with you tomorrow, but today I wanted to re-visit some blog goals I had set for myself (and shared with you) almost one year later and see how I did.

1. Have authentic readers.  This is always a good one to remind myself, especially on weeks like this one where I think I've lost like 4 followers.  There was a point in writing this blog that seeing that "followers" number drop by one just killed me.  It was like having someone say "I no longer find you interesting".  It was only until I realized that I too unfollow blogs when I find that I'm "just not that into" what they are posting about anymore.  We all go through stages and phases in our interests.  Maybe to them I was a one hit wonder and they aren't really interested in my style.  Anyway, my point is, try not to take it personally if your number drops here and there, everyone's does.  Be true to you, it's YOUR blog.

2. Be featured by favorite bloggers. I've been so lucky to be featured by so many of my favorites! See my side bar for links.  One Pretty Thing is one of my absolute favorite places for inspiration and I'm forever grateful for the many features I've gotten there!  Really the features are what help people find you.  Not everyone does features, you notice I don't really do them here, if there is a blog you wish you could be on that doesn't feature ask if you can swap or if they would guest post for you.  Just remember that you need to ask blogs about the same size as your own.

3. Be asked to guest post or swap.  I've guest posted on some of my favorite blogs (V and Co!!!!) as well as swapped with some blogger friends.  I'm picky about who I would let post on my blog, so the fact that these people want me to be on theirs is a  HUGE compliment to me.  Thank you to everyone who has had me over.

4. Create a happy childhood for my kids through these projects.  My blog has been tremendous therapy for me.  It keeps me going when I'm exhausted with my life.  It gets me to sit down with the kids and paint when I might not feel like it.  It also gets me to make that handmade thing for my kids so that I can share it with you guys.

5. Post things worthy of comments.  It's important to me that if I don't have anything interesting to share, I'm not going to share anything at all. You have never and will never hear my apologize for not posting for a couple days (when that happens).  It doesn't mean I'm not feeling guilty, but I think it goes back to number one, you follow MJ&G because you enjoy the things I do post when I post them.  I've done 327 blog posts this year.  I'm not absent much.  There are so many great blogs out there I know your being entertained.  Don't put to much pressure on yourself.  YES you need to post regularly in the beginning, you need quality posts, but if you hit a burn out period know that your readers enjoy as much or as little as you can share at that time.  Life's a marathon, not a sprint.

That said, 2011 is going to be less about blog goals and more about personal (business) goals that I have for me and my art.  My blog is still a huge part of my day, and it's not going anywhere, but you will notice that I don't share as often (you probably already have).  And I may share more frequent personal tid bits or snap shots.  I would say it's going to turn from a crafter's blog to an artist's blog.  (Although there will still be plenty of crafts)  If you're still reading at this point I don't think you'll mind, your obviously interested in more than just the pictures LOL.  So here's to moving forward, thanks for sticking with me and supporting me through the first year, and to come!

Lace Flower Tutorial

I think the lace I used was a bit wide, it was 2.5 inches.  The next one I make will use smaller lace to create a denser flower, but it turned out fun and feminine none the less!

 

You will have to ignore the fact that I'm not wearing any make up today.  

What you need-

Felt 

Circle template

Two colors lace

Hot glue gun

Hair clip

Sparkle for center

Cut a circle from your felt between 2 and 3 inches in diameter.  Starting from the outside, work your way around and in with hot glue and the lace, gathering and bunching the lace as you go.

After a second loop around, switch colors and continue until full.

Glue a sparkly something or other into the center.

Attach a hair clip to the back side.  Which ever kind you prefer.  I used an extra bit of felt to secure it with hot glue.

Enjoy!

I also made this feather piece to wear to a wedding I have coming up.  I would have loved to show you the tutorial, but I purchased it off etsy.  You can find it here if your interested.

Today I'm 28

Good morning friends.  I've been laid out with the flu so not much crafting going on in my world, but today is my 28th birthday so I thought I would share some things about me, 28 things of course!

This might be harder than I thought...

1. I've collected rubber stamps since I was a kid.  Something Galoshes started for me and I love.
2. I'm a minimalist
3. I'm allergic to raspberries, but nothing else, very odd.
4. I got my first motorcycle when I was 8 years old
5. I learned to drive a vehicle (manual truck) at age 6 on our 40 acre farmette
6. I've had about every pet you can imagine including a duckling for a while
7. When I ran into my 1st grade art teacher (who I did not remember) at 24 she recognized me and remembered that I was really good at art.  That still baffles me.
8. I always said I was going to have two boys and a girl, in that order, and I did. I'm pretty sure I even put it in my wedding program.
9. My first date with my husband was on my 18th birthday, which means this makes 10 years for us!
10. I love my family life, but had I not met my husband I would probably be in London right now, I'm pretty sure I was supposed to be born there.
11. In high school everyone said I looked like Reece Witherspoon, a drunk guy even once asked for my autograph. 
12. I love going to the movie theater, even if it is a rip off.
13. I love roller coasters! The bigger and scarier the better
14. I'm constantly rearranging.... EVERYTHING
15. I was graduating college magma cum laud, until they told me that, then I realized I could do less and still graduate.  I was barely doing anything as it was.  I ended up graduating with honors on the deans list.
16. I changed my name when I was 16, legally.  My birth name was Heather, I hated it.  Not so much the name, but that there were 5 other Heathers everywhere I went.  
17. I joined the army at 17, you can read all about it at Dear MaryJanes
18. I'm a pretty quiet person, until I feel strongly about something
19. I would love to be a real photographer someday
20. I did something different every year of school, volleyball, cheer leading, managing, tutoring, you name it I did it, once. 
21. I don't have favorites, no favorite movie, food, color... there are just to many great things out there to have favorites.  Okay, so coffee ice cream is the exception :)
22. I get really upset by people who do not have good manners.  There are lots of good etiquette books out there, if your clueless READ THEM! 
23. I love popcorn
24. My favorite wine is Mascato d'asti...... okay so I have SOME favorites
25. I have a strong feeling I will die a very violent death.... no idea why, just always have
26. I told Galoshes I was pregnant before I told my husband (he was at work with no way to reach him)
27. My lucky number is 4
28. I LOVE quotes.  Sucker for typography

whew!  Thanks for stopping by on my birthday!  I'll be crafting again soon, when I'm 100% well, I think the kids are starting to get it today :(

Straight hair

Okay, you guys know I don't really post pics of myself.  The only reason your seeing me this much this week is because of the request to see the after pics of my haircut.  Although it's not quite as dramatic as the inspiration haircut..... but mostly that's just because I don't curl my hair at the ends as dramatically.  You saw the curly after pics, so here are the straight.