Many years ago, on a road trip to the Kitchener/Waterloo area we picked up an old whisky barrel. I remember that we saw a sign on the side of the road saying they had barrels for sale and I thought it would be a great idea to buy one. As great of an idea as this was, fitting it in our vehicle was an entirely different matter. However we did have success!
When we arrived home we transformed it into a rain barrel, before rain barrels were even a thing. We used it for many years and collected rain to water our plants. Eventually it started to break down and wasn’t such a good rain barrel anymore but, we couldn’t bare to let it go to waste. So we disassembled it, we kept all the long barrel slats, and removed all the metal barrel rings.
We saved these materials for years, knowing that they would be used for different projects one day. My husband created an awesome light fixture for his office using some of the wooden slats.
Our latest project though was for our fire pit area. We wanted to create a space where we could keep the wood for our summer evening camp fires. We selected two of the smaller barrel rings, and went to Home Depot to purchase some heavy duty twine. The next step was to saw one of the barrel slats in half for the base. After assembling this fire wood holder we placed it out in our backyard and it works like a charm and looks good too!
I have always wanted a potting bench for my backyard garden. A place that I could transplant seedlings. The opportunity to store my gardening tools, display flowers and treasures from the garden, and a general outdoor work surface.
This was a weekend project that my husband and I did together.
We used cedar to create this bench. Cedar wood is very nice to work with, and it also holds up well to the outdoor weather.
We used tools that we already had in our garage to make the cuts we needed. The next step was to screw the pieces together to form the potting bench. We made the top deep enough to be able to have a good work surface, which was important to me.
I wanted somewhere to hang things like, twine, gardening scissors, and other gardening tools. We had some left over chicken wire which was the perfect thing to attach to the top portion using a staple gun. We also reused some old Ikea shelves for added storage on the top as well.
I think this is a great addition to my backyard gardening space. I love the way it turned out, it is absolutely perfect!
Are you like me and have a stash of buttons? I have collected these vintage buttons over the years. Some from my grandmother, my mom, myself and even antique stores. I store them in a glass mason jar in my craft room so they will be ready when I want to do a project. To be honest, I really have more than one jar!
I feel like each tells a story. Each one individual and unique. It is fun to think of what garment or accesory they started out on.
On a recent visit to a local antique market, I had the goal in mind to procure a set of vintage salt and pepper shakers. I thought they would make the perfect vessel for some button flowers.
As luck would have it I was able to find this lovely set for $2 a piece and they were perfect. I love how the glass swirls in a pattern and the delicate top sits upon the shaker just so.
I had fun creating my button flowers for these vintage vessels. The project started with pouring out all the buttons onto a large tray so I could look through them. I cut green floral wire into pieces and then attached the button through the holes. I then twisted it to secure it and was able to then arrange them into the vessels.
Is this a project you would try yourself? Here are some tips to keep in mind before starting. First, you will need to make sure that your floral wire is skinny enough to fit in the holes of the salt and pepper shakers. Second, you will need a good pair of wire snips and a pair of craft needle nose pliers. Third, you can also purchase buttons if you don’t happen to have vintage ones. I also doubled up some of the buttons for a more layered look. Have fun and mix and match colours and styles of buttons, the options are endless.
Have you ever just painted carefree and filled up a page with colour?
Recently my daughter introduced me to collage, and the beauty of piecing together painted pieces of paper to create art. She follows a well known artist, Clover Robin, who uses collage brilliantly in her artwork. She is a surface pattern designer and illustrator who lives in England. We have purchased several of her pieces and love her work.
In the classroom, my teaching partner and I have explored Eric Carle and his collage illustrations with our kindergarten students. It was so interesting to learn that he too uses different media and textures to create his illustrations. He then stores the papers in like-colours to use when creating his beautiful, detailed illustrations for his children’s books. As a class, we explored texture and colour with paint and different types of combs and pattern-making supplies. The students then transformed their paintings into collaged flowers inspired by the book, The Tiny Seed. They turned out beautifully and the students gained a better understanding of the creation process.
I was inspired and created these spring flower collages that I wanted to share. The next step that I would like to explore is to try layering and overlapping with the collage pieces to create a more elaborate design.
Here is the perfect quick place setting if you are looking for a little something extra for your Easter table scape!
I found these great mini terracotta pots at my local dollar store. I have reused them multiple times for different projects. They are just so cute!
For this project, I gathered the following materials: a foam ball, wool roving, a small piece of felt for the feet, a glue gun and a felting needle. I simply wrapped the foam ball with the wool roving and began poking it with the felting needle. A special note to those of you that have never used a felting needle, these are super sharp, so practice caution when using them. Once the entire ball was covered I then felted a tail. Then feet were added with hot glue and I even added in a felted orange carrot.
To finish off my little Easter flower pot I cut a piece of card stock to create a little sign, which was hot glued to a cut skewer stick. Green paper shreds fill in the flower pot as a final touch.
I have also used these little pots with paper shreds and mini chocolate eggs for place settings. Another idea is placing some Spring seasonal flowers into the mini flower pots. You can also add family members’ and friend’s names to your card stock signs. This makes your table more personalized and adds a nice touch.
Happy Easter!
In an earlier blog post I documented the process of creating this felt flower wreath. I am now sharing with you the final reveal.
I have a couple of tips to share with you for assembling the final product. The hoops were fairly skinny so there was not a lot of surface to glue onto. The solution that I came up with, was to back the area where I was glueing. I used a piece of felt that was the same shape and created a base to glue it to. This gave the flowers something to adhere to in addition to the metal ring. It was very successful.
After adding the flowers with a glue gun I added in some foliage to fill in the empty spaces. Using different colours of green I added free cut leaves around the flowers to complete the look.
Felt Flower wreath made by hand and made by Mum.
Here is my latest creation in progress. When I saw this amazing set of three metal ring wreaths at my local Dollar Tree, I knew I could create something wonderful. This project began by looking through my large collection of felt. I really love using felt as it can be formed into many things and keeps its shape.
I compiled colours that blended together and began cutting with my rotary cutter. This tool is amazing for creating straight cuts using a clear fabric ruler. I have made felt flowers before so I just began creating different flowers using the various colours.
A great tip is to use long straight pins to hold the flowers in place until you are ready to hot glue gun them. I like to position the flowers and move them around until I can create a good balance. I will be posting my final product once I get the last touches complete. Stay tuned for more pictures coming soon!
With my Mom’s birthday around the corner, I thought that a cheerful handmade Spring wreath would be the perfect gift.
I made this using a green foam form and began glueing twine tightly around it. This created the base for the wreath. I then added various faux succulents around the bottom to create a nice full look.
The finishing touch was a ‘Welcome’ wooden pick and a lovely burlap ribbon. Happy Birthday Mom, made by hand and made with love.
