Pinterest DIY Fail!

Don't you love browsing Pinterest and seeing all those cool little crafty projects and thinking to yourself "I'm going to make that!" Well, I tried. And I failed.

Pinterest version:

Real life version:

Not even close.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that I bought glow bracelets instead of glow sticks. It was all liquidy so it just stuck to the sides and bottom so then when I added the glitter it just stuck to the glowy liquid!  Tomorrow I'm going back to the dollar store to get glow sticks and try this again. 

Ready for Christmas!

I finished my Christmas shopping today! Well, for my family anyway. I still have to get something for my best friend, but I am not going to see her until New Years so I may hopefully take advantage of some after-Christmas sales going on. I already know what I want to get her.

I've totalled up my receipts and am happy to report that I've only spent a total of $205.00!! I am really pleased, especially because I didn't really have a budget at all going into this, with my recent car purchase this past summer I was not able to save up Christmas money before hand (something I hope to do next year!!). I only had 3 people to buy for so I feel thats a good amount to have spent for 3 people!

I also wanted to share with you what I have been making for my co-workers for Christmas presents. They are little charms that I hand made. They can go on your cell phone, on the zipper of your purse or makeup case, or they can just be a key chain.

Getting Christmas Ideas

This weekend I went to Michaels with my 50% off coupon from this weeks flyer. I was hoping to get some jewelry making items, but wasn't really feeling any of it. But looking at the Christmas items gave me an idea.

Each year everyone in my department at work gets little presents for each other. I have started to think about what I want to do. Since I have been learning how to make jewelery, I was thinking about possibly making something simple for each person (its all women) like a cell phone charm/keychain type thing. But I am not sure if everyone would be really into that. I am the youngest person, and the other women are all older, mostly married with kids. I am the only one in my twenties, everyone else is like 30+.

Today while browsing around Michaels I got the idea that maybe I could do some baking and make a little gift basket of goodies for everyone.

I could get little boxes like these and fill them with goodies. Or another option was to get these little Christmas themed clay dish things that I saw there and put stuff in them and wrap them with cellophane like a gift basket. I searched the Michaels website and could not find a picture of these little dishes I saw, and couldn't really find anything similar either, so "Christmas clay dish"is the best description I've got!



There was also this mini cake pan that I saw. This is not the one I want, again, I couldn't find a picture of the one on the Michales site, but it was kind of like this, only I think there was only 4 shapes so they were a little bigger. I think there was like a santa, a snowman, a tree etc. It was really cute! It was about $17. I am seriously considering going back there this week and using my 50% off coupon to buy it.

I am going to start looking online for recipes of stuff to make. I am hoping to find simple recipes, hopefully ones where I have most of the stuff already or won't have to buy too much more. I'm thinking brownies, cookies, any other kind of "bars" etc.

If anyone has any other ideas I would love to hear them! And let me know if you have any easy yummy recipes.

Who Knew I'd love Michaels so much...?

First off, I wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers! I hope everyone had a great day and stuffed their face! :)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been interested in learning how to make jewelry. I even bought this book off Amazon to get me started. I've been slowly purchasing various items, mostly at Michaels. Now, I always thought of Michaels as being fairly expensive, I never imagined I would end up shopping there so much. If you pay attention you can get great deals.

Every week in the Michaels flyer, there is a coupon for 40% off one regular priced item of your choice. Now, the secret is, that when you go and use that coupon, they give you ANOTHER coupon that prints with your receipt, for the following week. So I started out with one coupon. Then they gave me one for the next week. Then, the next week rolls around and I cut the coupon out of the flyer again, so now I have two for that week. Then the next week, I would end up with three, and so on. Get it? The catch is that you can only use one coupon per day.
Ok, so you could probably go in like once in the morning and once in the evening and they wouldn't recognize you, but I'm not nearly that sneaky. So if you don't mind going numerious days in a row you can basically get 40% off all the time!! The best part was for this week, there was a 50% off coupon to use during the weekend, and then the usual 40% off coupon for the rest of the week.

So I have gotten a few things at some great deals
.

Round Nose Pliers

Various "findings"- they are the items that you use to put the jewelry together like clasps etc. Pictured here from left to right are : jump rings, clasps and eye pins.

Various beads, I've got pink pearls, some circle pendants that have words like "faith" and "hope" written on them, and in the little bowl are some large black beads with like a rose impression on them and some clear crystal beads.

Here's a breakdown of what kind of savings I got:

Pliers: reg $11.99 - 40% coupon = $7.19
Black beads: sticker said $1.49 clearance but really they were: $0.98!
Eye pins: reg $4.99-40% coupon = $2.99
Pearls and clear crystal beads were reg $5.99 each on for 2 for $8.00
Circle word pendants: reg $5.99 - 30% (sale) = $4.19
Jump rings: reg $4.99 - 40% coupon = $2.99
Lobster Clasps: reg $4.99 - 50% coupon = $2.49

And of course they sell all kinds of other things like scrapbooking stuff, art supplies, holiday decor and tons of home organization stuff. Don't forget to check your flyer for the coupon!

My First Homemade Stamp!

As I mentioned in my previous post I have recently become interested in learning how to make stamps. Well, I made my first one. It's nothing special, just a heart but I just wanted to try and see if it really was as easy as it looked.

First I drew the heart on the eraser.



Then I carved around it like so..



Here's what it looked like once stamped.

Then I went a bit further and carved out the middle of the heart so that the stamp would just be the outline of the heart. Sorry this one is kind of blurry.

And this is the final product :)


Verdict: It IS pretty easy! The erasers are definately a cheap alternative to the carving blocks that you get at Michaels or any artsy stores. Anyways I just thought I would share my little crafting adventure with you guys :)

Feeling Crafty Lately

Lately I've been browsing a lot on Etsy and it's gotten me in a bit of a crafty mood. I've even starting reading a few craft blogs. I stumbled across some tutorials on how to make your own stamps. Here is a tutorial for making your own rubber stamp from...are you ready for this...an eraser!! Anyways I stopped by the dollar store after work on Monday and picked up the supplies I would need. I've never been like a super crafty person..but lately I've just been feeling like...I don't know, like I need a new hobby or something.
Anyways I got everything above for $1 each except the carving set for $2. Can you believe this? A whole set of carving tools for $2. I did not expect to find this at the dollar store so you can imagine my surprise when I found it! So anyways I got: tracing paper, pencil sharpeners, erasers, the carving tools, a sketch book and an ink pad. I got a sketch book cause I want to try and sketch my own little designs for stamps. Let's see what I can come up with yet.
I haven't actually tried to make one yet. When I do I will let you know how it turns out!

p.s. yes that is my cats ear in the corner of the picture...she wouldn't get out of my way!