Tag Archives: crafts

Distracted from Cleaning – Creating a Calming Zen Display and Another Use for a Oui Jar

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I was starting to clean up my messes (and put a few bags of DT items away) 🙄 and had a bit of a new DT “plank look” rub on transfer from covering the coaster I made yesterday. I also had some pieces of boho looking transfer left from another project …. and a rock.

The DT coasters are actually really nice, but I thought the “plank” rub on transfer might tone this one down some and it did! You can still see the wording even after I sealed it with Mod Podge Pearlized Glaze sealer.

I had a rock and some of that transfer leftover. I looked at the rock, then looked at the transfer, then thought ….I wonder what would happen if I covered the rock with it? Wow! I love the look! I may never paint another rock! Well, as long as I can still find this transfer. Lol

So then, I added some of the boho looking fish transfers and ….Voila’! I had a beautiful little Zen display… and I had something beautiful and calming from practically nothing!

But I wasn’t finished yet!

I’m also putting away some gifted Oui jars. But….the other day I found these wired canning jar lids at Dollar Tree. I wondered if they would fit over a Oui jar since I knew the seals did. Yes, they do. Like a charm!

So, I put into these little jars some of the beautiful Missouri Chicory that grows through cracks in the asphalt in the grassy areas along our roads. I knew the blooms/buds would be mowed down soon, so I cut some. I also had a beautiful goblet I had thrifted the clay “frog” I made the other day and put some blooms/buds in it.

They turned out so pretty! Can you image a big display of different size glass jars and bottles for blooms? You could easily buy a bouquet of real flowers at the grocery store or use blooms from your own garden and do the same.

Boho Wall Hanging

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Last night I made a simple macrame boho wall hanging….while I watched TV. It was fairly time consuming so I recommend TV watching while you do this. 🙂

I had a dowel 16” long by 3/4” diameter. A slightly smaller one would work as well. A cut down plunger handle from Dollar Tree would be perfect.

I unraveled the whole nautical rope from Dollar Tree. It made 3 strands. Then I cut those strands in half and I had 6. Then I cut those in half and I had 12.

I attached the 12 strands to the rod with a larks head knot (a basic macrame knot). That was the quick part. Here’s a tutorial on how to attach the strands to the dowel rod: https://www.macrameuk.com/amp/2018/03/02/beginners-macrame-knots-1-larks-head-knot

I know had 24 strands to unravel. The time consuming part was unraveling all the strands until I got the look you see in the photos. Take your time and do just a few strands at a time or you will get it all knotted at the end. Trust me… I know. I did use a dog brush I bought at Dollar Tree for macrame projects and brushed the strands out as much as possible after I separated them. Then I trimmed the bottom a little trying to go at angles toward the center.

I attached a flower and foliage with hot glue. I bought four flower pots with a variety of high end flowers and foliage through an online auction for just $8.50 for all four after fees. They were originally priced at $10 each! What a bargain! If you haven’t tried online auctions, you should!

I then used some of the burlap trim from Dollar Tree to make the hanger. I wrapped some around a small metal book ring from Dollar Tree, hot gluing it as I went around. I took the length of one of the pieces in the package and cut it in half. I wrapped one end of the piece completely around the dowel rod, securing it with hot glue. I did the same for the other side. Then I brought the ends together, put them through the covered ring and hot glued them to the ring on the back side. I did that twice to make them very secure.

I took photos hanging from my fireplace and French Door. I especially love how it looks hanging from a fireplace for summer!!

A Boho Greenery Arrangement in a Oui Jar

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This beautiful boho greenery arrangement is just another way I have found to use a Oui yogurt jar.

  • I sprayed the inside of the jar and the top edge black.
  • I cut a styrofoam ball in half and then trimmed down the edges and glued to the bottom inside of the jar.
  • The boho fringe was a left over piece of a Dollar Tree hula skirt, trimmed to fit the jar and glued in place. The original hula skirt was too yellow for me, so I dyed it with coffee grounds. Love the color now.
    *I cut two stems of high end greenery and stuck them into the styrofoam.

I love taking photos of the projects I do outside on sunny days.

For more ways I’ve used Oui jars:

* Faux Depression glass

* Christmas Decor

Nature in a Bottle

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This was a quick little project this morning for my kitchen window sill.

I was gifted this awesome bottle with such a cool shape! I think it held some type of oil and vinegar. It had white script writing on the front, but that easily washed off.

I simply placed (well, shoved and rearranged with a chopstick) a sprig of faux greenery and a blue flower bud in the empty bottle.

I whittled down a wine cork to fit the top and that was it!

It will sparkle in the sunlight!

My Reward for Cleaning My Kitchen – a small DIY woven rope vase

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It all started this morning when I decided to give myself the incentive I needed to start some deep cleaning I’ve been putting off….so I started with my sink area.

I saw an idea for adding a pedestal to your sink area for your dish soap, etc. I just happened to have one I made.

I glued a round piece of glass I had to the bottom of a small bowl. I’ve been using it in other places. I had this thick round piece of glass I got at a flea market one time, but a wood round would work, maybe even the plate from an old microwave.

Then I cut a placemat to fit it. I had a plastic hand soap dispenser I already made and cleaned off the label on another one.

Of course, I just had to add some small transfers I found at Dollar Tree just because.

Then I was ready to start deep cleaning……

My kitchen is now clean! Yay! So my reward to myself was creating this little boho woven rope vase!

I’ve been seeing similar rope vases all over. In fact, I could buy one for $50 from this vendor. Or…. I could create one myself, which is so much for fun and cost saving, too! 🙂

I saw this woven rope idea and tutorial on Pinterest.

https://pin.it/bxRLiUf

I had already spray painted a little red glass vase I had with metallic gold paint.

The rope was from a Dollar Tree mop head I cut apart. I used 15 strands of it and hot glued each strand side by side from bottom to top, laying the vase on its side to work. Then I separated the strands into groups of 3 and wove them over and under (spot gluing ever so often to hold them in place) until I got back to the beginning. I cut each group of 3 even with the beginning edge and hot glued in place.

Whew! Oh! And my clean kitchen. Here you go!

Now, for a late lunch and a much needed rest before I tackle another room. 😂

More DIY Clay Beads

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A very early morning project – I can still hear a rooster crowing in the distance and I live in the city limits. Lol

I made these big clay beads for a friend yesterday. They dried quickly in the hot sun. This morning I painted them, dried the paint and added white wax and rubbed it in. I strung them on jute rope. This will still need to fully cure a few more days.

For a full tutorial on how I make this type of beads, click here: https://sharsumpaint.com/2022/04/26/pottery-barn-inspired-knotted-cement-rope/

The clay I use for these beads is from Dollar General.
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Yard Angel

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Meet Agatha, my yard angel. After making some other yard decor yesterday and seeing some cute angels in a garden group I’m in, I knew I had to have one. So I made her this morning…. all by myself …. with materials I had here and my husband’s power tools. Ok … his battery drill with a screwdriver bit. But “power tools” sounds better.

Head and neck: a thrifted cutting board
Halo: a grapevine wreath from Dollar Tree
Hair: bed springs he cut off an old mattress he found on trash pick up day awhile ago. It kept him busy for two days cutting them off. 👍🏻
Necklace: I made gold bells out of big pill bottles for a wreath I made at Christmas. Agatha wanted them for a necklace.
Body: a wonderfully rustic shutter a friend gifted me.
Arms: braces from an old chair
Wings: leftover pieces from my son’s new deck. They were already triangles.
Bag of flowers: tote bag from our trip to Amsterdam several years ago. Flowers from Dollar Tree. I will be changing that out to a watering can soon but I wanted a photo before the rain and the watering can is In my booth for sale right now. Lol

I gave her wings and arms a touch of paint to blend them in.

I screwed the pieces on (I even found that metal stuff with holes in it to attach the wings) and placed her on the hill by the pond.

Contemporary Boho Feather DIY

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I think one of the reasons I’m liking Contemporary Boho decor, besides the fact it will fit into almost any style, is the nature aspect of it.

I saw this idea https://pin.it/7nmdV6n for making boho feathers with rafia and starch to make it stiff.

I didn’t have either of those this morning, but I did have a Dollar Tree hula skirt 🙂 and I found a recipe for making my own spray starch. https://www.thespruce.com/spray-starch-recipe-4155709

You can find anything on Google. It worked perfectly.

I cut off strips from the hula skirt. The idea video above explains how to attach the strips.

Once I had enough strips tied on, I put down a sheet of parchment paper, placed my piece on it, sprayed it with my homemade starch, then added another piece of parchment paper, and ironed it dry.

It came out nice and stiff. I was able to peel off the top piece of parchment paper easily. I left the back piece on at that point because I thought it would be easy to cut the shape of the feather with it attached. And it was!

I then used glue. The gluing isn’t shown here but I spread tacky glue on the back across the top and bottom and down the seam to hold all the strips together and so they wouldn’t shift up and down.

One it was cut out, I peeled each piece apart as they were all stuck together from the starch.

I will say this wasn’t a quick project, but it was easy to do. And I made it outside in this beautiful weather we are having!

And that green glass vase! I thrifted it long ago. I never knew how I would use it until now.

More Contemporary Boho

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This is line art I created on glass – by tracing a print out with a metallic paint pen . 🙂 This YouTube channel video has many great ideas that think fit right in with this modern boho style. This project I saw on the video, by Katie Bookser, in particular caught my eye.

I printed an image from the site of free images she shared and placed it under the glass of the photo frame I was using. Then with a white metallic paint pen from Dollar Tree, I simple traced the image.

Once the paint was dry, I turned it face down on a unique piece of blue scrapbook paper I placed in the frame. In the close ups, you can see a bit of writing on the paper. With the painting face down, you can easily clean the glass.

This 8”x 12” frameless photo frame is very unique. The glass and contents pop in and out from the front. You press on the edges to release them. There is also a fun surprise under the scrapbook paper. I used a snowflake picture I made this winter. Repurposing are its finest. 🙂

Photos were a little challenging due to glass reflection.

I had so much fun with tracing line art on glass yesterday, I just had to play around with another one this morning. I’ve discovered I love to do this!

The graphic is from a free vector site called vecteezy. I did a search for face line art. I traced this graphic on glass with a black permanent ink Sharpie.

The tribal peel and stick wallpaper came from Dollar Tree. The nice solid frame is a Hobby Lobby one I thrifted from somewhere.

I painted the lines on the front with a silver metallic pen and the sides with black chalk paint.

This one is true bohemian style. So cool!

I was fighting reflections on the glass, but I actually love the reflection of the leaves in the first photo. And it’s a beautiful morning on the deck for taking photos. Honeysuckle must be blooming because I can catch a whiff of it every now and then.☺️

It was a rainy day yesterday and since rainy days are made for crafting, I had a couple more projects in me.

I was in Danny’s workshop area and happened to see this cute recipe box I thrifted so long ago I didn’t even remember it. Who knows why it was in there. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I opened it up and the lid has a little shelf inside to hold a recipe card. How cool is that! The wood was natural and I decided it was the perfect thing for a modern boho decor as well as many other styles.

I immediately knew I was adding some transfers to it and knew just which ones to use from some small ones I got at Dollar Tree.

Aunt Ada’s recipe card for homemade sausage seemed like the perfect recipe to display. I love how she titled it “Correct Way” and how beautiful her handwriting was. 🥰

I also recently thrifted this solid metal bird tea light candle holder. After immersing myself in modern boho decor, I knew I had to spray paint him metallic gold. 🙂

Yesterday was definitely “A good day to have a good day!” And it quit raining, and the sun is shining, so today looks like it’s going to be a good day, too!

Shutter and Iron Wall Art

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We had an old and chippy shutter. Danny cut it in half and sanded most of the old paint off the front so that what was left was a combination of natural and some old white paint. The back was painted brown and chipping off so he removed the big chippy pieces but let it as is.

Then, we had this iron vase holder. I learned it was from Southern Living At Home. He centered it and screwed it to the shutter.

We also had a tall wide mouth canning jar and a Bedspring. I put faux flowers and foliage into the Bedspring with the wider part on top and then placed it in the jar with the narrow part at the bottom. The flowers fit snugly into the spring and will not blow or fall out and the spring fit perfectly into the jar.

22 1/2” high x 16” wide