Recent Craftiness.. and re-craftiness

For my birthday, my sweet friends Marianne and Jaime took me to dinner and then we went back to Jaime's house to craft. We made these holiday countdowns. One for Halloween...

and one for Christmas.

We finished the Halloween one that night, but I took the Christmas one home to finish up. Upon arriving home I started tweaking the original materials. I changed the numbers from white to green, sanded the edges, stained the edges and finally put it all together with Mod Podge.

When finished, something kept bothering me about it. I finally realized that it was the "countdown" that was bugging me. The background was burgundy and the lettering was white. It just didn't fit with the numbers and colors of the background papers. So I peeled off the old "countdown" and replaced it with a new and improved "countdown".
Here's the finished product. A true red background with a green letters.

Ahhhh, much better!

Don't say it... I already know... I can be a little... whatever you want to call it. But in my defense, I was sending it to a "Handmade Gift" swap partner and I didn't want to give her something that BUGGED me... it might BUG her too.

This was a inexpensive fun project. I bought the metal platter at the Dollar Tree, spray painted it red, then stenciled the word JOY on it. Also bought a little metal easel at the Dollar Tree to display it on.

I wasn't satisfied with the stenciled JOY because of how the paint bled under the stencil, so I purchased some vinyl and slapped it on and liked it a whole lot better.

See?! Much better, huh?

Don't say it!... we've already discussed this. It too was a gift. Can't give a gift that BUGS you. :)

I found this project here.

The instructions called for different sizes of styrofoam cones. I didn't have any or money to purchase cones (I've been told they're kind of expensive) so I got creative and used rolled up newspaper ads and duct tape. I covered them with wax paper and hoped they would work for what I needed.

Next, I soaked the jute twine in the Stiffy fabric stiffener and wrapped it around the newspaper cones. I let them dry for 24 hours and then peeled them off the wax paper.

Next step was to decorate them. Instructions called for little red berries or glittery spray paint. I opted for the "natural" look.

I think my "Stiffy" wasn't as stiff as it should have been (it was 18 years old, or so!) so my trees started to "wilt". I may try this project again with not so old "Stiffy" to see if it works better.

Here are what hers looked like... so cool!

Photo from "Chris, Erin and Jayce" blog

I found this project here.

I thought of my mother-in-law immediately and knew I HAD to make them for her for Christmas.

Instead of making the bookends, I found mine at a thrift store. I liked the beadboard look, the time savings and the price. :)

I used soup cans, wooden circles and cotton yarn to complete the spools.

I also added my own touch by creating and printing off decorative "labels" for the spools.

I think they turned out kinda cute.