Pinspire Me Monday: Tiered Cake Pans

 Happy Monday Thursday!  

Wish I had a good excuse as to why this is so darn late.  

It's too late to claim a turkey hangover, or to say I got tangled up in the Christmas lights.  

Really I've just been up to my tree topper in handmade projects (more on that later).  

And who knew that in late November, Massachusetts would have mild-enough temperatures to be spray painting outdoors.  Originally I had planned to do a Pinterest Recipe-Roundup for this week, but when temps hit the 60's over the weekend, I grabbed the half-empty can of spray paint and got busy on a last-minute

Here's the original from Alissa Fast:

Genius, right?  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted it. 

So I headed to the dollar store for three different sized cake pans.  Then it was off to the wood store for some wooden candlesticks.  No luck, so I had to improvise by piecing together some little wooden gizmos.  Wish I had taken pictures of the pieces before I assembled them, but I can tell you the topper is two pieces, and the other two are made from 4 pieces each: a bell-type piece, a little rail, and two mini candle cups.

These are great for holding craft supplies, but how about make-up and perfumes in the bathroom, or jewelry on the dresser, or as a serving try at a party (minus the spray paint for that one), or the kid's little toys and figures.  Lots of possibilities with this one!

I'll be taking the rest of December off from Pinspire Me Monday so I can keep my sanity getting ready for Christmas.  We'll resume in January with more Pinspired projects.

Pinspire Me Monday: Altered Birdhouse

A couple of weeks ago I poked around on the Zutter Bind-It-All Handmade Blog Hop, and came across this adorable project.  I loved it so much I pinned it:

photo credit: Andrea's Creative Paper Trail

Then last week, I visited For the Luv of Art and discovered that they had a Pinterest crop going on.  One of the challenges was to glitter something.  So here's this week's

I created this little sparkly birdhouse. 

It was really fun to do, just kept layering things on: patterned paper, paint, pompom fringe, lace, ribbon, tinsel trim, buttons, punched snowflakes, pearls.

 And then topped it all off with some chunky glitter and some painted-on Stickles.

And of course a little banner strung across the front.

Thanks so much for Pinspiring me, Andrea!

Your turn: link up your Pinspired projects in the sidebar.

Pinspire Me Monday: Thanksgiving Placecards

Happy Monday!

This year, I was going to host Thanksgiving for the first time.  I was sweating it a bit because, let's face it, Thanksgiving is ALL about the food.  Yes, we think about what we are grateful for, and we are happy to be together with family and friends, but at the end of the day (when our bellies are stuffed fatter than the turkey was), we look back and think about how delicious everything was.

So when my aunt mentioned hosting the holiday this year, I graciously and gratefully handed over the baton errr, turkey baster (and then I said a little prayer that I am spared from having to cook a 28 pound bird, 14 side dishes, and 7 pies for at least one more year).  I will bring whatever her little heart desires

like Wegman's scrumdiddlyumptious pumpkin layer cake

and I will also be making the place cards for the table, which brings us to today's

This week's pin comes from Martha Stewart:

I picked up a few sprigs of fall doodads (technical crafting term) at the craft store, gathered up some sticks, and created a little label template in Word.

Some hot glue and these were a snap to put together.  Martha gives directions on her website linked above, but I do have one tip for you:
 if you find that your assembled sticks tip over, add a dot or two of hot glue to the underside to create a little "foot" for the piece to stand on.

Thanks so much for checking out this week's project.  And don't forget to link up your Pinspired creations in the sidebar (pretty, pretty please!).

Pinspire Me Monday: Cracked Marble Pendant

Happy Monday!

Time for another...dum da dum dum...

Are you growing to love Monday's?  I think I am.

So here's this week's pin:

Source: craftster.org

Aren't those purty!

When I read how to do this, I just had to try it for myself--it seemed too easy to be true.

I baked mine at 325 for 20 minutes and plopped them into a bowl of cold water.  It worked, though I don't think I achieved quite the same faceted effect as the gorgeous ones above.

I topped it with a bead cap into which I inserted a rounded wire and threaded it onto a satin rope.

I'll be playing with this just a bit more to see if I can get more cracks in my marbles.  Just what I need, right--more cracks in my marbles!

ETA: go ahead and cook them up at 500 degrees for 30 minutes to get more 'crackage.'

If you've been pinspired by something you pinned on Pinterest, please link it up in the sidebar.

Happy Creating!

Pinspire Me Monday: Christmas card album

Happy Monday, and to those of you celebrating, Happy Halloween!

It looks more like Christmas around here than Halloween, though.

Yesterday we woke up to this:

And then the sun warmed things up to reveal the colors of fall against the pure white snow:

It was really quite beautiful.  But the storm knocked out our power for about 7 hours.

So on with this week's Pinspire Me Monday. 

 I just finished my project (when will I learn to not be such a procrastinator?).

I love finding new ways to use/save our holiday cards:

• using card fronts as gift tags or accents on scrapbook pages
• turning artwork into new cards
• slipping them into photo sleeves 

I loved the idea of binding them all into a book--the boys love to look through the photos throughout the season, and even the year.

So here's my Pinspired Project:

 Although I loved the ease of simply punching holes in the cards and sticking rings on them, I somehow feel the need to take a simple project and put a complicated spin on it.

So here's my process:

1. Match up cards according to size
2. Glue card pairs together along one side (the side opposite the one the binding will go into)
3. Cut strips of cardstock wide enough to fit the binding (I used 1 1/2" for the Bind it All)
4. Cut the strips to the same length as each card pair
5. Glue between card layers
6. Punch holes for binding and bind together (I created a front and back cover from chipboard)

I love how the cards still open to reveal the greetings inside.

 

 

What's Pinspiring you lately?  Please share it in the side bar!

Pinspire Me Monday: crochet owl pouch

It's Monday!  Time for another Pinspire Me Monday.  

Can it be?  Monday may just turn into my favorite day of the week!

So here's what Pinspired me last week:

photo credit: Crochet Ninja

A little crocheted owl coin purse from A Crochet Ninja.  Is he not the cutest?!  The owl was simple as pie to hook up (and now that I'm looking at him, I forgot his little beak and feathers--whoops!).  It was that zipper that had me procrastinating this project until just this morning.  I've never done a zipper before.  I was scared.

But I conquered my fears, bought the zipper, consulted with the nice woman at the cutting counter of the fabric store and set to work on it.  Only took me two tries to get it right.  Third times a charm, right?  The first time I sewed the zipper to the liner inside out--whoopsie!  The second time I hand-stitched the zippered liner to the owl a bit off center.  Let's just say my seam ripper is my new BFF.

But here he is all zipped up and ready to use (minus the beak and feathers I'll be adding shortly):

Itn't he cute!  I'm toying with the idea of adding a crocheted strap to him to make him a wristlet.

Now it's your turn.  Link up one of your Pinspired projects in the sidebar (it's very empty and sad over there...).  Remember it can be anything you've found on Pinterest and tried for yourself: a recipe, a decoration, gift-wrapping, a photograph...anything!

Can't wait to see what you're finding Pinspiring these days!

Pinspire Me Monday: Framed Chalkboard

Welcome to the first {official}

I hope you will play along and link up some of your Pinspired Projects (see the sidebar).


This was one of my first Pins, so it is only fitting that it be my first Pinspire Me project:

photo credit: English Organizer

When I saw this fabulous chalkboard, I knew I had the perfect frame to use for it just sitting in our attic:

 Here's a little background {feel free to skip right over this}:
This was the first piece of art that hubby and I bought for our first home in 1998.  When we moved to our new home in 2004, I thought I would be oh so cool and give the frame a white wash treatment to better match our decor here.  I not so quickly discovered that a white frame on this piece of art completely washed out the colors of the picture.  I then tried to undo my mistake by sanding off the paint.  Ummm, that didn't quite work in all the intricate detailed parts.  So I stashed the whole thing up in the attic and tried to forget how I ruined it (thankfully hubby and I had both grown tired of the picture anyway).

Fast forward 7 years and enter this Pinspiring chalkboard frame:


Here's all it took

ONE:

Any frame will do, but ornate vintage looking frames add that special something.
Scour those fall yard sales and see what you can find.  It's the thrill of the hunt, right?!

 TWO:

Seriously, I almost skipped this part.
I mean how much grime can one little picture frame gather from 7 years in an attic {wink}.


THREE:

 I got out the old Frog Tape, which worked beautifully by the way, and taped off the frame.  Typically I go rogue and skip the taping part, but I had little hands helping me with the painting.  Better safe than sorry I always say.

FOUR:

Just some good old fashioned chalkboard paint.  I've had this one little can for years and have painted several surfaces with it.  It's like the magic pot of paint that just keeps replenishing itself.
This took two coats to cover.

FIVE:
Paint the frame.  Completely spaced on the photos here {whoops, sorry!}.  But I can tell you I did another wash (just mix a little water in with the paint).  I didn't want to get bogged down with even coverage in all those tiny cracks and crevices, so this was the easiest solution.

And voila!

Now I gotta get hubby to hang it up on the wall in the kitchen.  This baby is HEAVY!

ETA:  Forget hubby. I go to Pilates, I have {a tiny bit of} muscle in my arms.  Got the board hung into the studs and everything.  Hubs will be so proud!

Your turn.  Link up your Pinspired Projects in the side bar.  Can't wait to see what has Pinspired you lately!

Have a fantastically inspired week!