Just a little note...

Dear Crafters, just letting you know that I have not kept up with my posting as I injured my back lifting the camper hitch and had X-rays and meds to help me recoup from a bulging disc!  Also, Sweet hubby has been having a rough time of it with nausea that won't quit!  We see the cancer doc on Thursday and hopefully will get something to relieve it as Compazine is not working.  He spent Easter Sunday in bed.  So I have not finished our paintings, or the totes but promise to and will post ASAP!  Thank you for your patience!  In the meantime, please see my other blogs for new pictures of baby Mute Swans, they are so beautiful.  Links are Two Happy and Kerrie's Korner, SC--Thanks!

Easter table, my clear glass flowered plates do not even show up-ha!

 

This is the Easter Apple Pie we made being creative-ha!  before baking, I cut a bunny head into the top crust and painted the color with egg whites and food coloring.

Hubby added the dough nose...

Once baked, I added colored sprinkle candy eyes and a few pink ones at the slits in the crust.  Pie was made with Granny Smith Apples and was delicious!!

Thank you for coming to visit and I hope you will come back soon!

♥KERRIE♥

My Krafty heart to yous...

Small Camper remodel...

I WILL be showing you my finished totes but had to share our morning's little camper remodel.  Bill has been wanting to make room in our pint size camper for a thin leather recliner that has been in storage and we just got it out.  His idea was to take the part of the sitting bench that extends out from the dining table and cut it out making space for the recliner.  Well, this morning we did it and here is the result.

Here is the corner that he wanted to put the chair in.  He removed this area as wide as the cushion.

Here he is removing the screws in the floor where wood framing was.

Amazingly, the floor underneath was just fine!

We removed one arm from the chair to get it through the camper doorway and it fit just right in the corner!

 Here is one happy man-ha!

And here he is with the arm back on and testing the recliner out.

When turned sideways, the chair fits snugly into the space for traveling.  How good is this?! Now he will just make an end cap for the bench and we will be all set.  Incidentally, we saved the wood and fixtures from the part we took out so that if we ever wanted to put it back (resale down the road) we could).

And here is my one addition, a new valance over the table in the eating area.  I had this left over from our living room and now will buy some material that matches so I can make the curtains for the 2 bedding areas (you can see the old faded green to the right)  We were so pleased with our little remodel and hopefully next week we will take a little camping trip---Yes!

Thank you for coming as always and come back again to see my finished totes next time.  Hugs to you.

♥KERRIE♥

My Krafty Heart to Yours....

Spring Totes and Purses...

Now look at all the things you can buy at the Dollar Store for your Crafting!!

I have gathered everything together in a pile and roughly laid it out to see what I want to do with it.
  The lavender and blue (Spring and Easter colors) are mesh place mats.
  The matching ribbons were from the craft aisle and were $1 each for 4 yds.
  the blue and lavender butterflies came 4 in a pack.  
  As you can see, my plan is to make totes with ribbon handles and decorate them with the fabric and wire butterflies.  When finished, I will put them on my Etsy Shop.  But as I sew them, I will show you how to make them in the next post. 

The striped one is one I made last fall and will be just right for this spring colors.  The place mat was from Wal-mart and cost $3.  The embellishments are fabric flowers that I made with button centers and you can see them by looking at last fall's posts.  I have 4 of them and plan to offer those already made on my Etsy as a set of 4 all season totes for one economical price.

Next, these round pouch totes were $1. each at the $ store!  The star doilies came TWO in a pack for $1!!  I am going to sew the doily on one side and add a butterfly.  Just right for little hands to carry or teens to carry their essentials in! 

I love this Lavender one!! 

And last but not least, these photo mats came 3 and 4 in a pack.  I plan to draw, paint or put shells or buttons around the edges.
  They have a nice texture and will hold acrylic paints nicely to decorate.  Or you could personalize with a name with Marker if you are making for someone special. 

I sure hope you like all my ideas for creating on a shoestring budget and will come back as I finish them.

Have you visited your Dollar Store yet??  They should PAY ME-HA!  I am their best advertisement on line-tee-hee.

I hope I have inspired you and show me what you make if you use any of these suggestions, I would love to see!!

♥KERRIE♥
My Krafty heart to yours....

Oil Painting With Bill

Hubby always wanted to learn to oil paint and I bought all the supplies get him started a few years ago but we never got into it.  We loved watching Bob Ross (His videos are still on now and then though he has passed on) and though he painted in Acrylics, we loved his easy style.  Also William Alexander who was so dramatic with passion for his Oil Paintings that he finished in a half hour per program!!  So yesterday was our day for finally getting to it!  In the 70's I taught drawing and painting to adults and children at the local YMCA in our home town.  I have painted almost all of my life.  But I have let it go by the way side as there never seems to be enough hours in the day...
  But here are the pictures of our basic "putting the colors on" from yesterday:

We are painting a lighthouse using a photograph that Bill found in a Country Magazine.  He tackled it with zest and although he has never oil painted before seemed to know instinctively how to mix colors.   Being a carpenter and woodworker, he eyed the canvas up and divided it for horizon line.

 I really loved the way he put the sky in, blending Cobalt Blue with Cadmium white and using a dabbing motion with a half inch brush to blend.  Lookin' good!

In no time he had the lighthouse roughly painted in and the rocks at its base with a pool of water at the bottom.  Much to my surprise, he needed hardly any instruction on my part at all!  He found it very interesting that we could both be looking at the same picture and see it differently.  But that is what makes YOUR painting yours and mine-mine.  When I taught, I never touched the other person's canvas, I always painted side by side and showed how to do it on my own canvas and the student painted from watching on their canvas.

I realized that what I thought was a rock in the pool of water at the bottom of the photo was really a reflection of just the top of the lighthouse - ha! ( I am sitting farther away from the typing page size model we are using)  I have not decided yet if I will change my "rock" or not-ha!

But after a couple of hours, this is what we accomplished for our first day and we were both pleased with the results so far.

And while we were painting, my Mallard Couple who always visit, did not come together, she was alone under the den windows and I panicked not knowing what happened to her lifelong partner! She was making a sad little noise and fluttering her wings in this wonderfully beautiful pattern as I have never seen before.  For more photos and video, see my Kerrie's Korner, SC blog site.

I plan to definitely draw or paint her from this beautiful picture!!  So Mr. Mallard never did show up and though it was pouring rain all day, Mrs. Mallard stayed close to the house under the den room overhang as if waiting and watching for her spouse.  By supper time she had left and I will be anxious to see if she returns this morning.

Thank you so much for visiting today and please come back soon.  We love having you over to see what we are up to and also for how-to's now and again. Have a most blessed day,

♥KERRIE♥

My Krafty heart to yours...

Easter Craft Quickie

MANY Years ago I used to make bouquets of tulips using egg cartons.  I bought stamens for the middle of each tulip, pipe cleaners for stems and crepe paper leaves.  I now came up with a simple, less than an hour way to make tulips from foam egg cartons and this craft can be made with children or grandchildren.  I love the results!!

You will need:

Some pastel ribbon
Colored Egg Cartons
Straight scissors
Curly edge scissors
Glue stick
Buttons
Craft paint or colored markers

First cut a cup from the carton.  Outline 4 petals with a marker following the curves of the egg cup.

Cut out with straight or curly edge scissors.  The petals will not all be the same size but it does not matter.

When you have your cup cut out, poke a hole in the bottom with the pointed end of the scissors.  Take a strand of ribbon (about 18 inches long) looped in half by the 2 ends and push the loose ends into the opening until you can pull the strands through from the bottom leaving a loose loop on the top of the cup.  Do this with the other 2 strands of ribbon.

This one has been cut with the curly edge scissors and give the tulip a lacy look.  These can be set loose on your Easter dinner table or a cluster of several will look nice in a short clear vase.

Optional, you can tip the edge of the petals with craft paint and put an initial on the side of one petal if using as place cards.

This is one of my own hand painted egg shells set inside for a different look.  Plastic eggs from the dollar store look great in them, too!

This one has a blue flower shaped button glued to the center with stick glue and then one strand of ribbon is laced through to the back.   Below is the kind of paint I used to tip the edge of the one tulip petals and for writing an initial.

And here is a real egg I used to demonstrate how your own boiled and colored eggs can be made to sit up in the cup by pulling the strands of ribbon around the base to steady it.  It will stand up very nicely next to a plate.

Curly Craft scissors can be found even in the Dollar Stores.

I really hope you will make some of these really easy Egg Carton Tulips!!  If you do, I would love to feature your creations!  Thanks for stopping by and come again soon.

♥KERRIE♥

My Krafty heart to yours....

Just a Little Twine...

  I saw in someone's shop that they make little baskets and I immediately thought that I could make those from baling twine! 
   I found this roll in the good old Dollar Tree Store!  I used a size K crochet hook and began crocheting with a circle as when you make doilies.  When I got the size I wanted for the bottom, I stopped adding stitches and just continued the rows going around until the sides were the depth I wanted.


Twine and Needle size K



Next I crocheted 2 rows from one side of the basket to the other for a handle.

And this is the result!  I just love it!  Who knew twine could be so pretty!  I am going to try it with the finer macrame cord next time but this worked up so quickly.  It was a little coarse on the hands though.  And when I finished it I had to trim off some fly-away "hairs"-ha! 

1. The basket was all stitched in single crochet stitches.
 
2. I increased by crocheting 2 stitches in each row every chain stitch around 
until I had the desired size for the base like you would when making a coaster.
 
3. Then I crocheted without adding stitches for 8 rows until the depth was the desired size to hold small objects, candy, or even dried flowers.
 
4. Next, I crocheted 2 rows of single Crochet from side to side to make the handle.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this project and that it inspires you to make some baskets!

Thanks for coming and do come again soon!
♥KERRIE♥
My Krafty heart to yours.... 

Yard Project done

Just love the way this came out, we will have many enjoyable hours here...
Hubby redid a mosaic table top that broke and made a wood insert for it so we can place it between the chairs.

Hope you had a good St. Patrick's Day, Come back again soon!    Good old Dollar Store, I decorated some for Easter on the front and back door.

I bought the basket, 4 tulip flowers,a bunch of plastic eggs and filled the basket and added the bunny from last year's decoration.
I got all those pretty flower and butterfly reusable stickies on one large sheet for a dollar.  This was so much fun!

And here is the back door with a little felt bunny hanging decoration on the door.  The hat on the window is one I bought at the dollar store a few years ago and stapled fabric flowers all around the brim.

Thanks for coming, love your visits.  Happy crafting!!
♥KERRIE♥
My Krafty heart to yours...