Flower Earring Holder

My niece got her ears pierced. She then quickly amassed this collection of different earrings for every occasion. I had this idea to create an flower shaped earring holder. Now this project requires some odd skills. You need to be able to put a hole in a heavy plate and you need to be able to solder. Really neither of which are that hard.

Start off by cutting petal shapes out of screen. Keep the shape somewhat simple.

 Then cut a piece of copper wire.

And for the wire around the screen.

Make sure the screen is free of any grease or dirt. Then apply a foil tape around it. This is the tape that is used to create stained glass.

 Then spot solder the wire form to the screen. This is necessary to give the screen the stiffness it needs. After this is done you can spot solder all of the petals together.

Then I took a heavy piece of wire (like a wire coat hanger) and wrapped the end with the foil tape. This will need soldered to the under side of your flower.

For some added rigidity (and you hide the ugly solder job I did) I created a coil out of the copper wire and soldered that on as well. 

Once I was done with all the spot soldering I went over the entire flower again to fill in all the gaps. I then decided to do the optional step of adding leaves.

Using some thick copper foil I had I cut out two leaf shapes. I intentionally added ribs to the top with the though of being able to hang necklaces or bracelets on them.

These were then soldered onto the rest of the flower.

Next came attaching it to a heavy plate. Mine is a homemade ceramic plate but you could use any plate. You just need to make sure it is heavy enough to hold your flower upright. I put a hole in the center and put the "stem" down through. This will just need epoxied into place.

Then everything got painted. Be careful painting the screen as if it is put on to thick the holes will fill up. After the paint dried I glued on a piece of stained glass in the center. You could use a button or something similar as well.

And after that you have a brand new earring holder. A flower is just one idea. The possibilities are really endless on different designs you could do.

 -Karen

AG Dog Toy

This one is a super simple AG dog accessory. Just take a few colors of embroidery floss. I used 12 strands about a foot long. Split them into three equal sections.

Braid.
 

Put one knot toward the middle. You could add a bead but I wanted it to be magnetic so I painted a nut black. Slide it on and not the other side.

That is all it takes to make a AG tug of war style dog toy.

-Karen

AG Dog Food Bag

To go along with the dog food bowl I needed to make a bag as well. Started with a empty dog food bag (real size of course).

Then  cut out a little section at the top. It is about 3.5"x4.5". It just so happened that there was a little dog in the corner.

Next I took the sides apart and cleaned them both. You don't want any dog food residue in there.

Then the sides went back together. Zip them shut and remove the plastic zipper. Don't loose it as you will be putting it back on. Flip them so the right sides are together.

Then using embroidery floss to stitch down the three open sides. I also reinforced this with hot glue. Probably not necessary but little kids can be very hard on things.

Flip the bag right sides out again.

Slide on the zipper. Then put a little dab of hot glue on each end of the opening. This is to keep the plastic piece from sliding off.

 You could just keep the bag empty. I decided to make it look like there was dog food in it. I used a piece of packaging foam to be the filler. Really you could use a ton of different material. Anything that is laying around.

Using the same method as the dog food bowl add seed beads and glue.

Paint them brown if necessary. Then just glue it into the bag. That is it. Now "fill" your AG dog bowl.

-Karen

AG Dog Bowls

I bought my niece a dog for her AG doll for Christmas. Actually my dog bought it for her haha. They look alike. So I have been making some accessories to go along with it. First up is dog bowls and a food bag.

To make the dog bowls I started with two empty make up containers.

Using a Dremel I cut off the top threaded portion.

Then I did a little sanding to make the top smooth.

A quick coat of spray paint made them look like real dog bowls.

But I decided to take it a little further by drawing bones and labeling each bowl. Then I clear coated to protect it.

I decided to fill the bowls with "food" and "water. For the water bowl I simply poured some left over clear epoxy into the bowl. For the food I mixed some glue, brown paint, and seed beads. I laid it in the bowl and let it dry.

That is all there is to creating some simple dog bowls. Tomorrow I will cover how to make the food bag.

- Karen

Marshmallow Ghosts

Marshmallow treats are relatively easy to make and they can be changed for any season. All you do is soften 1 packet unflavored gelatin in 1/3 cup of water. I do this in a stand mixer to prevent unnecessary dirty bowls.

Then in a sauce pan mix one cup sugar and 1/4 cup water.

Bring it to a boil and let it cook until it reaches soft ball stage.

Immediately add it to a stand mixer and begin beating. Beat until peaks form and can hold there shape.

While it is beating put sugar on a baking sheet or plate. If you want your marshmallows to be colored then add food coloring to it first.

Sorry for no pictures of this step but you have to move fast. Put your marshmallow mixture into a piping bag with a large circular tip. I used a 1/2 inch. Then make your ghost shape. Use more pressure at the bottom of the ghost. Let up at the top of the ghost to form the "head". Sprinkle with sugar.

Then melt some chocolate chips in a bag.

Snip off the corner and add your ghost face. That is all there is too it. There are so many possibilities of different marshmallow treats you can make.

-Karen

Halloween Shadow Candle Holder

I save containers. I can't help but thinking I will have a use for them at some point. Probably because that is usually true. In this case I had a small glass cylinder which originally had a candle in it.

I used a sponge to paint the glass starting with a thin layer of white. (Don't pay attention to the fact that it is slightly tinted orange. I had orange pain on my hands from something else I was doing.)

Then I did a stripe of pink.

Then blended in purple.

Then continued on with blue and navy blue. Then I let it dry. I used some black paint and a fine paint brush to paint a Halloween silhouette the entire way around. You could use a pattern. Or even cut it out of vinyl.

I covered the entire thing with a few coats of glue thinned with water. After putting in a battery lit candle I was left with this cute little Halloween decoration.

-Karen

Almost All Natural Fall Wreath

I love fall. I love the cooler weather. I love the gorgeous colors. I love the crunch of the leaves and the fall aroma in the air as you're walking through the woods.

For some reason this fall I was all about using leaves as decorations. The  first thing I made was a wreath made almost entirely out of things you would find in the woods.

The first thing I did was collect a bunch of sticks. They have to be green which means that they are off the tree or just fell otherwise they won't be flexible enough. I cut any little tiny pieces of brands are coming off of the main branch off. Sometimes I wonder what normal people would think if they walked into my house while I was working on some of my projects. Why in the world would anyone have a pile of sticks laying on the floor?

Next I took one of the slightly larger branches and formed it into a circle attaching the two ends with a zip tie.

From there I just kept wrapping new branches around it, zip tying when needed.

I kept going until I decided it look just right.

I let it dry for a few days and then I took some less noticeable wire and replace the zip ties. After a while the branches will dry like that and it won't be necessary to have zip ties or wire holding. Since I wanted to use it pretty much immediately I left them on for now.

I had preserve some leaves in glycerin just for the this. Using a few small pieces of twigs that I had leftover from the wreath I got to work on my leaf decoration. I glued a few leads on to the main stick.

Then I started putting some small twigs over top and gluing leaves to those twigs.

This gave it a little more dimension then a single layer of leaves would have.

Then using a zip tie hidden behind the leaves I attached the decoration to the wreath. That way if I get bored with the decorations as they are now I can easily cut the zip tie off and reuse the wreath.
There you have it a almost free wreath made using things I found in my yard.