PRIMITIVE NIGHT LIGHT from Metal Food Can

I have been using/recycling these metal/tin food cans for a while now into my crafts.

Usually just by making them into a display can for magnets and such.  Here's a previous pic of how I used one:

                    DIY PRIMITIVE SNOWMAN LID MAGNETS:

The tin can also is great to hold extra stock inside!

But for today's craft, I used the metal/tin food can as the craft. I first had spray painted it black. Then I just punched the can with a nail, to make a shape of a star.

And I took a flat, large screwdriver and hammer and punched out the bottom of the can. Just big enough a hole for the night light bulb to fit through.
 Then I used some E6000 glue and glued in around the base of the can to secure it.

And after it sat and dried for 24 hours it was ready to go. That's it!

Happy Crafting & See ya'll next time,
~Lisa

MASON JAR MINI PLANTERS

Super simple idea here ya'll. If you like little mason jars as much as I do, you may like this.

I started off with these clear, plain and simple little cute Mason Jars.

And sometimes, instead of clear, I use the these ones I hand stain.

I just took some little new growths of  "Hen & Chicks," (I think, no idea really about names, but someone told me they were) separated them,

 added some more good ground dirt to the jar

 and stuck them in their very own mason jar.

That was pretty much all there was to it.

Now I know this doesn't give the little plantings much room, but I don't mind transplanting them on down the road into something larger.  

But as for now, I am loving having the little brown, grubby jar sitting on my desk.

I even stuck one in this cute little dish I found at a flea market.

I love it!

Happy Crafting Ya'll,

~Lisa

 If you want to see I tinted the clear mason jars blue and various other colors, click here.

 Or how I made the jars n' things grubby, click here, for the previous post.

Craft Show Display Ideas

With just a hint of warmer weather today, (which will soon drop again,) I have already started to prepare for my spring craft displays.

I have been watching auctions and estate sales for some old suitcases, wooden cabinets and metal basket trees. Luckily, I have found a few and saved them back. 

But I usually always end up needing more cabinets to hold many little treasures.  And here is where my other half comes in.  He is great at making things (on his one day off.)  And as you probably seen before, I love having him make these cabinets out of old barn lumber.

And keep in mind, about any type of found wood could be used, not just old barn lumber!

Try to work with just about anything you have on hand.  I do this all the time so I'm not 

out any more extra money than I have to be.

And this one was from last spring with some beautiful, fresh Easter flowers in an old Mason jar.

Just look how vibrant and beautiful they were!

Don't forget to add little touches like this to your displays.

Make your items stand out and show shoppers how they may be

able to use them.

Here's a child size chair we made out of old barn lumber also.
It's a great display for anywhere you want to add some decorations.

And by adding some fresh flowers to it last year, you can see it make it really "Pop" with color.

Anything you can do like so, will really help get people's attention to your items!
And every little bit helps right!

 Hope this post gave you a few ideas to help in your next craft show display!
Happy Crafting and see ya'll next time,
~Lisa

DIY Stamped Gift Tags

I have been on a kick recently about making stamped gift tags.  

I have all sorts of stamps I have collected over the years and they are now being put to use. 

And if you don't have the right stamp for the right occasion, 

they are super easy and cheap over on ebay.

Here's what you need:

-Plain Manilla Tags or Make Your Own 

out of stock paper and a tag punch (which I do a lot!)

I got my punch on ebay.

-Stamp of choice

 

-String 

( I love bakers twine and it comes in all sorts of various colors)

Then simply just get to stamping up your favorite designs! 

String it and you are done!

So super easy and the designs are only limited to your imagination really!

Here's some of my recent sets.  I tend to make them in sets of 25. 

That amount fits great in my little baggies.

Oh yea, some of them I like to "Grungy" up. 

I think it makes them a bit more primitive looking.

But you must do this before stamping, or so I've learned so that the stamped

design doesn't run.

CLICK HERE FOR MY GRUNGY TAG RECIPE POST

To do so, I just mix a bit of brown craft paint into a small amount of water.

I then dip the tags down into the mix, 

lay them on a baking sheet and back for about 10 minutes in a 400* oven.

Take out, set aside and cool. And then I go back and brush on a bit of Vanilla Extract.

It takes a bit of time, but it is o'so worth it!

Here's a close up of some of my "grungy" tags:

Whether you choose to make your tags grungy or not, I'm sure they will be super cute.

CLICK HERE FOR MY GRUNGY TAG RECIPE POST 

These are awesome to tie onto gifts or to just decorate your primitives with.

I also even just add them as a "Made by" tag for some of my handmade crafts now and then.

Till next time,

Happy Crafting Ya'll,

~Lisa

FAITH FAMILY FRIENDS WOOD CUTTING BOARD

This cool, Fall air has me in the mood for some winter crafts.  But right now I have a cute makeover to show ya!

Primitive Cutting Board Makeover

Here it is, a cute, well used, wooden cutting board. Or some say a dough board that I got from the local Good Will for only $.50.

Here it is before:

And here it is after:

Here's what I used to do the makeover with.

I keep a can of black paint on hand that is oil based and available at Walmart and painted an all over base coat. It's found in the outdoor section of the paint.

I got out one of my stencils from eBay with the wordings that I thought fit good.

Then I used some stencil paint made by DELTA in the Heritage color theme for the lettering.

I used the yellowish EGGNOG color.

This is an oil based, stencil paint, so remember it takes a little bit to dry.

And it is best to apply it with a makeup sponge if you ask me. I just can't do good with those stencil brushes.

Here it is side by side:

And that was a quick and easy makeover from a cheap, good bones find!

I bought the board for a whopping 50cents and priced it for $6.99.

SOLD Thank You!

Happy Crafting till next time Ya'll,

~Lisa

BURLAP PUMPKIN BAGS with LIGHTS

Here is my latest Fall creation. A burlap "Punkin" bag with lights and Punkin' Spoons.

I started out with some plain, burlap bags approximately 12"x8" like this:

 

Then I got out my PUMPKIN stencil I bought from eBay and some cinnamonish orange paint and burnt umber (not shown) and black. I also used a makeup sponge, not shown, to dab the paint into the stencils.

Make sure to get the excess paint off your sponge before you start dabbing.

The burlap really takes the paint great!

Way better than I first thought it would.

Notice I lifted my stencil and rearranged the letters to get the "N" instead of going on with the "M."

That is because I wanted to spell out "PUNKINS" instead of "PUMPKINS."  It's just what we call'em round' here.  

If you do this too, just try to realign your stencil best you can to finish off the word.

Next, I also stenciled on a star in the right hand top.

And then the lower left hand corner I free handed a punkin'.

I also wrote 5cents inside the punkin'. Sorry it's hard to see with that twig of grapevine in my way.

And now to I started to think what I could put inside it to hold it good upright. I know chicken wire would do great, but I don't have any left.  So I thought about sitting a large Mason Jar inside it. And it'd also act like a vase.

Yep, working.

Now I just need to add some more cuteness to it.

I had some plastic gourds and such from last years decorating.

And then I thought I'd throw in some of my 

Pumpkin Wooden Spoons too.

They stick up great thanks to the jar inside!

Okay, so now I think they are ready to get some lights.

And here is a shot of it with the flash off. Sorry, it doesn't show up too good.

But here you can see it pretty good, even with the flash on.

I just love it.

I also stuck a fall themed sprig of pip berry in it.

*NOTE: I had to remove my jar because my strand of lights was too big.

But if you don't plan on using lights, you can still use the Mason Jar as a good holder inside.

~*~

Still in the burlap bag mode, I went ahead and did another one below:

 ~*~ 

With this next cute burlap bag, I must say I cheated a little. 

I ordered a few pre-stamped bags, with the HOLBERTS HOG and some others, (previous post) size 12"x8", to see how they were going to turn out as bags. They already had the designs on the front but the ones above, in PUNKIN theme, I did myself.

Here  are the pre-stamped, HOLBERTS HOG burlap bags flat when I got them:

They were open ended on one end. All I had to do was 

-stuff them. Hum, but with what this time? Last time I used papers.  But this time I wanted to use lights to make them more interesting! 

 Just stuff a strand in. I used a white strand left over from Christmas decorating.

Just kinda push it in so that it'll look like a bag of something sitting there.

Here it is again,

And here is my all time favorite view of it with the flash off on the camera.

See, I just threw the lights in, kinda in a wad, and let them fall where they will.

And I left the plug in hanging out the top back. You can see it over to the right of this pic, where I have a plug in strip behind it.

Okay, so that's all I better post today, as I don't want to bore you with my burlap love too much!

I have about 10 different designs listed in my eBay shop. If you are interested, stop in and look around.

See ya'll next time!

~Lisa