St. Patricks Day - Last Minute GREEN!

I don't know about you, but I never think about St. Patirck's Day until it's here.  I mean, I don't know what I'm going to wear (much less whether any of my green clothes are clean), where to find my Irish dinner, be it Irish stew, corned beef & cabbage, or soda bread ??   Well, this last minute project may help you prepare for St. Patties's day, be it last minute.  Shrinky Dinks SAVE THE DAY!

Use Shrinky dinks to make a charm, necklace, bracelet - and in our case EARRINGS.

Find them at your local hobby store.

1.  Make a pattern about 3-4 times the size you what them to end up!  They will "shrink" down.

    

2.  Cut and color them.  We use green markers on both sides of the shrinky dink pattern then cut them out.

3.  Make holes where you need to.  We use a standard hole punch (but remember, your holes will shrink down to about 1/4 of the original size).

4.  Next, prepare your project for baking by using a flat cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. 

5.  Bake your project at 300 degrees for approx 2 minutes.  Watching it constantly, your project will begin to curl up and then start to flatten. 

6.  Pull your project out of the oven with good cooking mitts.  Then flatten quickly - we used a book.

7.  After cooling, add your earring wires, ribbon or whatever is needed to achieve your final product/project.

Never hurts to have Shrinky Dinks on hand and they are great for a kid's rainy day of fun!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

Cute Spring Swag Lamp

We're always coming up with cute display ideas.  I saw something similar to our garden swag lamp in a magazine.  We had several similar zinc planters.  So here's how this fun project came together.

First, Dad drilled a hole in the bottom of the planter wide enough to handle our light kit.  Fortunately, we carry these 15' light kits, so he was able to get the exact size of the bit needed.  He did say that the zinc metal was really hard on his drill bit, so be prepared to sacrifice :-{

Next, Mom made a cute little skirt for the planter and ran some elastic inside, so it would grip the planter  snuggly. 

Easy, peasy!

Last we strung the light kit through the planter.  Cute little spring swag lamp - Don't ya think?

Duct (or 'DUCK') Tape Roses

Supplies: Bailing wire or pipe cleaners, florist tape, "Duck" tape from Hobby Lobby or "Duct" tape from your favorite hardware store, scissors.

1.  Fold small tab of tape over leaving equal amount of tape folded over and equal amount of glue exposed.

  .....  

The amount of each piece of tape will determine the size of your rose.  Experiment with sizes to determine the size of your rose.

2.  For inside of rose, Use one folded piece and wrap glue side around bailing wire.

3.  For each petal round the folded side of tape with scissors, then wrap the glue side around bailing wire.  After wrapping each petal, curl and twist over to add fullness to petals.

4.  Continue wrapping petals until desired rose size is achieved.

5.   The last step is to wrap florist tape around the exposed bailing wire to cover the stem of the rose.

Voila! Make as many as you want - This tutorial will come in handy when you need a last minute gift!