Fall Leaves Soap Petals recycled container

This year, I wanted to give my lil' man's teacher something different for Thanksgiving rather than the typical pie or baked goods. So I made Fall Leaves Soap Petals and put them in a recycled cheese container ...

Two Christmas' ago I made soap petals using poinsettia leaves. I figured why not try it with fall leaves. That way, if his teacher was going to have company over, her bathroom soap can be extra-ordinary.  Here's how I did it ...

You will need:

clear melt and pour soap base
essential or fragrance oil (1 tbs per pound of soap base)
pyrex measuring cup or bowl (pyrex withstands heat very well)
tweezers
stirrer - I used a chopstick
fabric fall leaves - I bought mine from the Dollar Store
aluminum foil

Break off  your desired amount of soap base into a pyrex measuring cup or bowl.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds.  Stir to melt.  If needed, put back in microwave for another 15-30 seconds to melt the soap base.  Once melted, add the fragrance oil and stir.  Dip a leaf, one a time.  I submerge the whole leaf and then using tweezers, pick up a corner of the leaf and let it the drippings drip back into the cup/bowl.  Lay the leaf onto the aluminum foil and repeat the process for the other leaves. Allow to dry about an hour.

I know!  I know!  I'm using my fingers but I can handle the heat.  For your protection, use tweezers.

 

  For the container, I took a Cheese Dip glass jar, removed the label, and cleaned out the inside.

 I then took scrapbook paper in a fall theme and traced the cap onto it.  I cut the circle out bigger than the tracing so that I can fold it over the sides of the cap.  You will need to cut tiny slits in order to fold it over.

 Apply Mod Podge on the cap and glue it onto the center of the circle scrapbook cut out.

 Apply Mod Podge to the edge of the caps and start folding over the little strips.

I then applied Mod Podge over the whole cap to seal it and protect it in case water gets on it (since it is a container for soap).

Afterwards, I took a strip of orange paper and the same fall paper on the cap and made strips to go around the jar - just to pretty it up.  Then I added some non-dipped leaves onto the top of the cap.  Threw on a ribbon with a tag, and tah-dah!

  I made 2 because I gave the other one to lil' man's teacher last year.

 Sorry if my instructions weren't very good.  Here's another one that I found that shows you how to dip the leaves ... CLICK HERE.

 Have a great Thanksgiving!

Peechee

Washer Necklace and earrings

While browsing through pinterest, I saw one ingenious crafter upcycle a bunch of washers into a long necklace.  Well, I just fell in love with it and had to make one myself.... with earrings.

It was perfect because I was doing a promotion for Kobalt Tools at Lowe's.  So wearing hardware items as jewelry, I thought, was appropriate.  ;-)

Want to know how to make one yourself?  Visit Wobisobi's site - http://wobisobi.blogspot.com/2011/04/rondelle-necklace.html

Raven's Flower n Class Book

So this weekend is my lil' man's teacher's birthday and I wanted to give her something that is different.  She mentioned she loved the Raven's so I knew I had to make something Raven-y, and this is what I came up with.

Basically, I took 2 silk flowers (one purple, one black) take them apart and split up the colors.  I then put them back together but this time putting the middle section of the flower using the purple and the bottom using the black.  Then I just put it in a vase with some black rocks, added purple and black netting, wrapped a purple ribbon around the vase, and added a Raven's logo to the middle of the ribbon.  That's it.

But I didn't stop there with her gifts. I also made a birthday accordian book card from all the students in her class which had a picture of each child holding a letter.  And when read spells out - "Happy Birthday We Love U!" Here's how it looks ...

Sorry it's blury. It was hard fitting 22 pages in 1 shot.

 

There's my lil' man holding the "love heart".

So?  What do you think?

 Peechee

Halloween and Fall Photos by Peechee Neric

So for those of you that don't know, besides my love of crafting (and Jeremy Renner), I also love to do some acting.  I did it for a while, stopped after lil' man came, and since he is not as mommy needy anymore, mommy can go play again.

Anyway, the other day I was on the set of House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey.  It's a show that will be available on netflix.  It's not a movie.  It's a show, but not on tv.  Guess you can say it's a flix show.  LOL!

Well, for many that may not know, when working on a set as a background actor, there is a lot of down time due to setting up lights and/or camera or even just dressing the set.  So while I waited and waited and waited, I decided to take some pictures of the beautiful surroundings we were filming in.  Here they are - all taken in Baltimore, MD.

Peechee

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Book

So I've seen the Apple Books everyone has been making and thought .... "Hmmmm, Peechee. You should try it as a pumpkin."  And so I did (of course not realizing everyone and their mother has done the pumpkins too) and here's what I came up with.

This was crazy because the book, which I got from the Dollar Store, was over 500 pages long.  At 400, I was tired so I stopped there and it still looks pretty full, don't you think?  I have other plans for the other 100 pages.

Anyway, after cutting it all out, it looked good but I thought why not give it a little more "ummphh".  So I took orange water color paint and painted the sides (which uh ... everyone has done too, better late than never ;-) ).

 Took a little while and I had to keep blowing at the pieces to separate them as they dried so they won't stick together but it was all well worth it, don't you think?

Oh yeah ... I did shove a piece of stick on the top of the pages to represent a stem. I'm thinking of changing it to a fatter piece of brown paper or brown felt and then adding a felt leaf to it.  I dunno.  I like it this was too.

By the way ... instructions on how to cut up a book shape can be found here.

Hope you enjoyed anyway!

Peechee

Pumpkin Bat

This is a Pumpkin Bat that I made as a prototype for my son's teacher.  They are having a pumpkin decorating contest in their school and each class must decorate a pumpkin.  My son's teacher asked for ideas and this is one I came up with.  I figured each child could cut out and decorate their bat and we will add it to the pumpkin.  Below are pictures of my son decorating the prototype (I had to see if it was easy enough to do for him - he's my guinea pig - shhhhh!)

This was an easy and cheap project.  I got the idea here but tweaked it a bit.

First we took a dollar store carvable pumpkin and painted it black with acrylic paint.

We let it dry and cut out wings, ears, and eyes.  We taped toothpick to the ears and skewers to the back of the wings to give it stability.

My lil' man then added the baby bats (which also had toothpick taped to the back - but we painted the toothpicks black since it can be seen).

And here it is!  Can you tell my lil' man is proud?

He enjoyed.  Hope you did too.

Peechee

3d Pumpkin in a Fall Leaf Frame

I just love this wall decor.  I made it as a present for my son's teacher but I'm loving it so much I might have to keep it for myself.  LOL!  Or I could always make her another one.

Anyway, this was a super easy and super cheap project. Everything came from the Dollar Store!  I purchased:

 * 1 carvable styrofoam pumpkin
 * 1 8x10 plastic frame
 * 2 bags of fall leaves (green/yellow and green/red variety)
 * 1 sheet of moss

1.  I discarded the glass on the frame and replaced it with the sheet moss.
2.  I cut the styrofoam pumpkin in half using regular large kitchen knife.
3.  I glued the leaves around the frame.
4.  I glued half of the pumpkin in the middle of the sheet moss.

That's it. Super easy, huh?  And definitely super cheap and super-duper cute!

Here's the back and side profile.

Hope you liked it!

Peechee

Beach Theme Cupcakes

It was my lil' mans birthday party and the theme of his birthday was a Hawaiian Luau.  So for his "cake", I made him a beach theme cupcake.  I didn't feel like doing the whole big cake thing so just made cupcakes and decorated them. He was very happy with that.

 

Yes!  Those are gummi foot sandals!  Aren't they cute?  I bought those from Oriental Trading.

I purchased the Umbrellas from the Dollar Store.

The "sand" is actually cinnamon graham crackers mashed up and sprinkled on like sand.

 

I made yellow cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes.  The yellow was ok but the chocolate was amazing and was gone quick.

 

 

~ Peechee

Super Mario Duct Tape Shoes - Recycle Project

So I had these shoes that are totally worn out and was about to throw out when I decided to give the duct tape covered shoes project a try. I figured that if it didn't turn out right, it's not really a big loss.  Well, they turned out pretty darn cute, if I don't say so myself.

 I used the Nintendo Super Mario duct tape that I had purchased for my little man's school folder cover.  Here's the shoes with one as an after and the other as the before.

 

I took the duct tape and pieced it around the shoes.

 

I trimmed it up with an exacto knife and here's the finished product.

 

Aren't they cute?

 

I think I'm going to make a matching duct tape hair bow and small purselet.  Maybe even a belt.  Possibilities are endless.

 

Peechee