Tree of Blue

Soooooooo, I had all these fun goodies lying around the studio…….

white flowers

Pins

silver beads

blue flowers

blue sparkles

corsage pins

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And I decided to make this……..

who do voodoo like i do

My niece has been staying with us for a few weeks and we have done all kinds of fun and creative things.

Dying our hair blue was one of our endeavors.

blue hair before

Shaving a portion of that pretty blue hair off my nieces head came next….

blue hair after

I hated to throw that vibrant blue hair away so I came up with the idea to make voodoo dolls, of course!

double voodoo

my voodoo

Savannah’s voodoo

Savannah and I worked on these together and they each have a few personal touches.

voodoo backs

I just made a very simple pattern from an old file folder.

simple pattern

And used some old denim I have been using as a painting drop cloth to make the bodies.

We are both very happy with our dolls and will always have them as a fun memory of our time together.

Rusty Bungs

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The golf course I worked at had a lot of old oil and hydraulic fluid barrels sitting around in the yard

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So like any normal person would…….

I came up with this idea

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And because everybody likes to learn new stuff here’s some info from Wikipedia…

Bung

A bung, stopper or cork is a truncated cylindrical or conical closure to seal a container, such as a bottle, tube or barrel. Unlike a lid, which encloses a container from the outside without displacing the inner volume, a bung is partially inserted inside the container to act as a seal.

A glass stopper is often called a “ground glass joint” (or “joint taper”), a rubber stopper is sometimes called a “rubber bung”, and a cork stopper is called simply a “cork”. Bung stoppers used for wine bottles are referred to as “corks”, even when made from another material.

A common every-day example of a bung is the cork of a wine bottle. Bungs are used to seal the bunghole of barrels. Other bungs, particularly those used in chemical barrels, may be made of metal and be screwed into place via threading.

I don’t know what it used to be but it is a table now……

So there I am, happily driving down one of my neighborhood streets, when I happen to spot an interesting wooden formation on the side of the road. I stop, investigate, and determine that I must have it. My husband happens to be out of town at the time and I can’t lift it myself so I borrowed my friend and neighbor to help me get it back to my house.

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I removed the 2X4 from the interior of the bottom, filled holes with wood putty, sanded, vacuumed, and tightened a few screws.

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Then I had one one of the guys I work with cut 4 legs out of a 4×4 and I added them.

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I then painted the entire table with a sealer and then with gray paint.

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Then it was time to have another friend help me move the table into the house to finish. The 90 degree temps in the garage were not my favorite working conditions.

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And now the real fun begins. I knew this is what I wanted to do from the moment I saw that wood ‘thing’ on the side of the road. I wanted to cover it with these bottle caps so lovingly saved for me by my friend Jessie! I also had a decent assortment of other red themed bottle caps to mix in. I was ready to glue!!!!! (I LOVE to glue)

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And the finished product…….many days later.

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Thank you to Jessie, Nick, Keith, Marshall, Charlayna, Michael, & Bennett Nursery for helping me with my bottle cap collection!

Blue Jeans Aren’t Just For Wearing Anymore

I love denim.

I love beat up, torn up, old blue jeans.

I love how the fabric changes color with age and use.

I love how soft old blue jeans are.

I love making things out of old denim.

A few weeks ago I put a call out at work that if anybody had jeans lying around the house they didn’t wear anymore they should bring them to me.

I got some that were very well worn and others that just didn’t fit any more.

They all work.

The pink flowers and blue butterfly are from a set of curtains given to me by a friend.

The sunflowers were found at a thrift store in Cullman, Alabama.

Stepping Stones: part 2 – 4th of July

Being as we are in stepping stone mode it seemed appropriate to make one in honor of our 4th of July get-together.

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Keely coating the mold with petroleum jelly.

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The cement is poured and ready to go…….

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Looking for the right letters

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Thomas is first

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Micah

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Maddy

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Isaiah

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Keely

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John

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Cheree

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Ivan

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Michael

Things we learned……..

This is the first time we have used the letter stamps. We knew that the cement needed to sit for awhile before we used the stamps so it would firm up a bit. We let it sit about 1 1/2 hours but that wasn’t long enough. Next time I would wait 3 hours before stamping.

Here it is, 12 hours later, still in the mold, still drying. We will leave it in the mold until sometime tomorrow.

I’ll show you the finished stone in a future post 🙂

Stepping Stones: part 1

This month my niece and I are going to work on a project I have really been looking forward to.

We are making our own stepping stones.

We have two different sized molds to give us options.

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Plates and butterfly from the thrift store, cute little pink flowers from the Hobby Lobby clearance isle.

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More thrift store finds.

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Store bought mosaic pieces from Hobby Lobby.

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More plates for mosaics and cement stamps so we can add names & dates.

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Picking out the perfect bottle caps.

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Candle holders from the Unclaimed Baggage Store

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Pam and/or petroleum jelly to coat the mold.

Keep a look out for future posts that will show the process and completed stones 🙂

PINK & PURPLE

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Thank you to:

  Charlayna for the Pokemon characters & the Chinese New Year charms.

Sherry and Tisha for the pink bunny.

Roseanne Leiner for the Pez dispenser, tea set, Mini Mouse & pink flower.

Karen for the paint set and rubber balls.

Katie and Colette for the baby rattles.

I couldn’t make my random art without all of you!

🙂

Yellow

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And here is my yellow shadow box.

Thank you to Charlayna for the Pokemon figures & Monopoly houses.

Thank you to Pam for the Ker Plunk sticks, Tiddlywinks, and other random game pieces.

Thank you to Katie and Collette for the baby rattles.

Thank you to Karen for the sunglasses, rubber balls & paint set.

And thank you to the McDonald’s Happy Meal for Hello Kitty 🙂

I love this little Pokemon guy!

BLUE

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Over the period of a few years I have been given a variety of kids toys and game pieces.

This is what I did with the blue stuff…..

I know there are some Pokemon character in there, and Tiddly Winks. The numbers and letters are magnets.

I don’t know what some of the smaller pieces are from.

Oh yeah, there are pieces from Sorry!

And a Disney version of Monopoly (that’s the blue castles).

The little blue fish looks like a character from ‘Finding Nemo’ but I’m not sure about that.

I think this would be fun in a kids room!

SMILE

🙂