Leprechaun Hat Pot-A Tutorial

Another repost!

The finished pot with a Shamrock in it!

Don't you love crafts that are completed in less than an hour?  I do.  Especially when I can get my kids involved!

You'll need a clay pot, green paint, a paintbrush, a large washer (metal), sandpaper, gold paint, black grosgrain ribbon, and a hot glue gun. (A cute cheerleader in the background never hurt anything either.)

Paint your pot green. (Or, have your assistant do it.)

We painted the inside rim of the pot so it would look finished.

Now, we're ready to paint the washer.  (This is the buckle on the leprechaun hat.)

Sand it so paint will stick.

Paint it gold.  I like the look of the brush strokes.

When the washer and pot dry, assemble them.  (Wow, I forgot to take pics!) I hot glued the black ribbon around the pot. Then I hot glued the washer on top.

This is the mostly finished pot. I wanted to show it to you with a clover planted nicely inside.  Unfortunately, after trips to 5 different nurseries in search of one, and a scan of my yard, I gave up.  Apparently, they aren't in season yet.  I need to check sometime next month.  What!  Next month St. Patrick's Day will be over with and I won't want a clover in a Leprechaun hat as a decoration. With all this spring weather we're having, I'm hoping one will pop up in the yard any day now.

Does this remind you of the pilgrim hat planter I made? http://www.oursevendwarfs.com/2010/11/copycat-crafting-4.html

or the Santa hat?http://www.oursevendwarfs.com/2010/12/santas-hat-tutorial.html

Our St. Patrick's Day Wreath-A Tutorial

I'm going to share some of our St. Patrick's Day projects from last year and then I'll start posting the new ones I've made this year.  This wreath was fun to make and can be used over and over again. It's a good thing!

I have to admit, I was VERY sad to put my Valentine's Day wreath away.  It was just so cute! I headed to JoAnn's in search of supplies to make a St. Patrick's Day wreath.  Jill and I got together with our now crafty, breastfriend, Amy.  This is what we came up with.

Our Shamrock wreath!

Amy's wreath wrapping!

Amy was our wreath wrapper.  She wrapped all three wreaths with the light yellow ribbon. I chose yellow because I wanted something that would contrast nicely with the green of St. Patrick's Day.  I also chose fabric that had a rainbow of colors and I thought the yellow would tie in nicely with that. I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled with the yellow when it was all done.  It's a little buttery.

We then made rosettes out of green fleece. Here's directions on how to make the rosettes. http://www.oursevendwarfs.com/2011/02/valentines-day-celebrated-with-burlap.html We then hot glued three rosettes together and added a stem to make shamrocks. We made 3 shamrocks for each wreath (9 rosettes total per wreath.)

I found this fabric that I really liked. The backdrop is rainbow and Shamrocks cover the rest of the glittery fabric.  We made another kind of fabric rosette out of this, for our wreath. First, you snip fabric about an inch wide and then rip it the rest of the way. This gives it a thready look.

Then, we tied a knot in the center of the fabric.

We folded the fabric together, at the knot, so we had the positive side of the fabric facing out on both sides.

Starting at the knot, twist and roll the fabric.

Stop every now and then to hot glue the rosette.

Stopping to glue again.

We made a pattern: rosette, shamrock, rosette, shamrock, rosette.

We also added a rosette to the bow (that we made out of the same fabric). So, we had 5 rosettes per wreath.

Here's the finished wreath.

Meatball Sub Casserole

Are you ready for some pure deliciousness?  I had this casserole over the weekend and I fell in love!  I scoured the internet and came up with my own concoction that is closest to what I had this weekend.  If you love the traditional meatball sub, you will love this recipe!  My kids have a hard time eating meatball subs so this is the next best thing!

Check out this yummy goodness!

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Minnie Mouse Purse

My friend's daughter had her first birthday a couple weeks back.  It was all Minnie Mouse themed.  I made her a Minnie Mouse Hat like I have shown you before.  I wanted to make one more thing for her. I believe every little girl should have an adorable purse.  I went beyond the other purses I have been making and made her a Minnie Mouse Purse!

Check it out!

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Repurposing Broken Crayons into a Valentine's Day Surprise

What can you make with a bowl full of broken crayons?

A Great Valentine's Day Gift!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Valentine's Day Gift-Scrabble Tile Framed Art

Do you need a very last minute gift?  This one was made with three things and took less than ten minutes.

You need: a frame, a piece of background paper, scrabble tiles, and hot glue. That's it!!!!

Personalizing Pre-Fab Picture Frames

These cute heart frames were $1.99 each at Hobby Lobby (unfinished).

They came very plain but it was easy to make them fabulous!

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My Second Cake Decorating Class

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope your day is filled with feeling loved and loving other people!

Yesterday, I had my second cake decorating class.  It was a ton of fun.  I have been practicing using the bags and tips all week and I was ready to tackle a cake!

Being the over eager student that I am, I practiced everything for the week ahead prior to class.  (Yep, I am one of those students.  I can't deny it).  I also found a great resource for learning some basic cake decorating.  Did you know that Wilton has its own you tube channel?  I am now in love.  Here is a link to the main you tube channel.

I watched two videos last week in preparation for class.  If you are interested in learning some new skills, these are a great resource to start with.

This is a video on how to ice a cake using the tip 789.  It is so much easier and smoother than using a spatula.




The second video that I viewed was how to make Rosettes.  I thought these were beautiful and easy to do!




I utilized my new learned skills to decorate my cake in class today.  The teacher is great and very helpful so it is nice to try new things in class.  I wanted my cake to be decorated for Valentine's Day.  I used a transfer technique for the heart, it was my first time so it wasn't perfect.  I also want to work on the shells that I did the border along the bottom.  They aren't quite right.  Other than that, I am very pleased with my first attempt at decorating a cake.

What do you think?

I can't wait to show you some of the ideas I want to try on future cakes.