Photo Lampshade.

Things You'll Need:

• Lampshade
• Glue
• Vellum
• Craft Knife/ Scissors
• Ruler & Pencil
• Photos
•  Printer

First, pick out your pictures on the computer and make a collage. Second, print them out on vellum. Make sure to check and see if you need to change the printer settings. Third, once the collage is printed leave it alone for a few minutes to dry. Once dry, use your ruler and a light pencil to mark where you need to trim the paper. Fourth, after being trimmed make sure it fights around the lampshade the way you want it to. Fifth, use tiny dots of glue and put it on the back corners and middle of the collage. Sixth, now carefully put it on the lampshade and make sure there are no crinkles or bubbles. REMEMBER: do not bend the vellum because the crease will never go away. Also, if the vellum is printed with and inkjet printer & the vellum ever gets wet, it will most likely smear.

Waxed Leaves.

Things You'll Need:

• Fall Leaves
• Beeswax
• Double-Boiler
• Cinnamon Oil

First, Make sure your leaves are completely dry. Second, melt some beeswax in a double-boiler. You can also use old candle stubs. Third put a few drops of cinnamon oil into the pot of melted wax. This makes them smeel like fall. Fourth, when it is thoroughly melted, take the leaves by the stem and immerse them, one at a time, in the wax. Hold them over the pot to drip a bit, then lay them on waxed paper. Continue until you have a nice assortment. Now you have a pile of gorgeous leaves. You could; use them in a floral arrangement, wire them to wreath, display them in a nice wood or pottery bowl or go half-blind stringing them with invisible nylon thread and hang them from the ceiling.

Glitter Flats.

Things You'll Need:

• 2 oz. of Mod Podge
• 2 oz. of Glitter
• Foam Brush
• Clear Glaze Spray
• Pair of Plain Flats

First, brush a thin coat of the glitter/glue on to the shoe. Don't worry, the Mod Podge will dry clear. Second, continue glittering both shoes all over. If your shoe has a larger, different color sole, you’ll probably want to put masking tape around it. Hold the shoe from the inside, so you don’t get yourself covered in glitter. Third, when you have the initial coat on, you’ll need to let it dry. With Mod Podge it took about 25 minutes. Fourth, once the last coat dried, give a healthy spray of the glaze spray and let that dry too.

Cloud Lights.

What You Will Need:

• Cotton Batting
• Paper Lanterns
• Flameless Candles
• Hot Glue Gun

The amounts you will need will depend on the number of lanterns, their size and brightness you want, you might need to test a bit to get your desired effect. Be sure that little or no heat is generated by the ones you use and with all 'candles' do no leave unattended. First, pull at the cotton batting until it looks fluffy, light, and cloud-like. Second, hot glue it to the outside of the paper lantern in various places. Make sure it's fluffed to your liking. Third, light the candles and stick them inside. Fourth, hang the lantern wherever you'd like. Now you have your own cloud lantern to hang anywhere in your house.

Enamel-Painted Vases.

What You'll Need:

• Three different sized vases
• dishwasher safe PermEnamel paint
• PermEnamel Surface Conditioner
• Paper Towels
• Paint brush and a mixing bowl

First, clean the vases with hot, soapy water. Second, When they are completely dry, pour some surface conditioner in and cover the inside of the vase. Pour out the excess and let the vase dry. Third, Get the exact color you envision by mixing your PermEnamel paints in a mixing bowl, then pour inside the vase. Fourth, Paint the inside of the glass using the paint brush to cover the inside surface. Fifth, Once the vase is painted, lay it on a paper towel to let the thick paint drip off. You will be amazed at how much comes out. The longer it's upside down, the thinner the coating will be. If you like the thicker look keep it upside down only for a few minutes. Sixth, Turn the vase back over and touch up the drips inside. Every fifteen minutes you can even out the thickness on the bottom of the vase as the paint will start to collect. Seventh, Let these dry over night and in the morning you should have a beautiful decor vase! REMEMBER, never drink or put water in these vases!

Portabella Pizza Bites.

Ingredients:

• 6 mini Portabella mushrooms (or 2 large Portabella mushroom caps)
• 1/2 cup marinara sauce
• 1/2 oz. turkey pepperoni (approx. 6 slices)
• 2 oz. black olives
• 3 oz. low-fat Mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg white

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean mushrooms and scoop out the insides and stem with a spoon. Place on baking pan and bake for 7 minutes.  While mushrooms are baking, grate Mozzarella, and combine in a bowl with one egg white. (Usually low-fat cheese has trouble melting, so this technique helps the cheese melt while adding a bit of protein.) Remove mushrooms from oven, and turn the broiler to High. On the mushrooms layer pizza sauce, cheese mixture, olives, and pepperoni slices. Return pan to oven and broil on High for 3 minutes or until cheese has melted and started to brown.

Yarn Wreath with Felt Flowers.

Things You'll Need:

• Straw wreath
• Yarn
• Felt
• Scissors
• Glue
• Other embellishments

First, keep the plastic wrapping on the straw wreath. Second, tie a knot to begin and wrap wreath with yarn. you will want to keep it tight and keep in mind that it is close to impossible to have the yarn perfectly lined up on the entire wreath, then tie a knot to end. Third, cut a circle out of felt. the bigger the circle, the bigger the flower. Fourth, cut around the outside of the circle to make it have a waved look. Fifth, pick any point on the circle to start cutting the felt. you will be cutting a large spiral shape so that you will end up with one long thin strip of felt. Sixth, when you get to the very end you will have a circle or oval shape left that you will want to leave and not cut into. this will be the base of your flower. Seventh, take the end of the felt where you began cutting and start to roll. you will want to keep it tight in the beginning so it holds. if you want a smaller more circular flower keep it tight. if you want it to have a more open look you can keep it a little more loose as you roll it. Eighth, once you get to the end you will glue the bottom onto the flower. Nineth, glue and place them randomly. add any other embellishments that you would like. Tenth, add a ribbon, raffia, twine, fabric, etc to hang your wreath with. Now you have a beautiful yarn wreath to hang anywhere.

Button Bird Plaque

First, find two long pieces of worn wood.  Next, paint one white and the other your favorite.  Then, cut them into smaller pieces. Then, add hardware to the back, but they also look pretty sitting on a bookshelf or windowsill. Next, cut a few birds out of fabric scrapes.  Don't forget to cut out wings. Once you are done cutting out your bird pieces, spread Modge Podge on the wood.  Glue your bird down and make sure there are no bubbles. Grab some buttons for the eye and glue on with a glue gun. And finally, you have your very own button bird plaque!   

 

Hemp Pendant Lamps.

First, draw a circle on the ball with a permanent marker. This circle will mark a space on the lamp that needs to remain clear of string. The empty circle will be used in assembling the light fixture and will allow you to have access for changing light bulbs. If the light fixture you are using has lamp shades, make sure that the circles are big enough for the shades to easily pass through. Next, cover your work surface with trash bags or a drop cloth, and put on gloves. Then, squeeze a quarter size amount onto your fingers and run the hemp string through the glue and then wrap it around the ball. After that, glue and wrap, glue and wrap, glue and wrap.  Just keep going.  Try to wrap randomly to avoid criss-cross patterns. The more densely wrapped the lamp is the stronger it will be. Then, make sure to avoid wrapping string over the circle area. If there are any areas that seem weak, you can apply a little extra glue to give it more strength. Next, repeat the steps 1-5 to make multiple lamps. Let the glue dry completely. Then, use the inflating needle to deflate the ball and remove it from the lamp. Then last but not least,  follow the installation instructions that come with your light fixture. While installing the light string, feed the wires through the circle hole of the lamp and up through the top, so that the light bulb will hang down in the center of the sphere.

Things You'll Need:

• bouncy balls of various sizes
• clear drying craft glue (about 1 bottle per ball)
• hemp string 20lb. weight
  estimated amounts needed:
  16 inch diameter ball—400 yards
  14 inch diameter ball—300 yards
  9 inch diameter ball—100 yards
• plastic gloves (optional)
• trash bag or small drop cloth
• permanent marker
• ball inflating needle

Newspaper Nails.

• Base coat ( OPI Natural Nail )
• Light nail polish ( OPI Elephantastic Pink )
• Top Coat ( Sally Hansen )
• Old newspaper.
• Rubbing Alcohol ( 70% )
• Remover and Cotton Swabs
• Scissors

First, apply a good base coat. Next, choose a light-colored polish. Any light to medium pink, green, blue , yellow, white etc. will work. The ink won’t show up on colors like black, red, dark gray, navy blue or anything like that. Then, use a good, fast dry top coat. Do this step before and after the ink transfer for this reason. Sometimes, the ink won’t transfer correctly, straight, or fully. Everyone makes mistakes and this step will make sure that you can easily correct them if you do. After that, let your nails completely dry. This step is critical in the process, because if you do the following steps with wet nails it will ruin the polish underneath. Allow a few hours or overnight of drying time before transferring the ink. Cut the newspaper into small squares. Taking your scissors, cut out squares that are larger than the surface of your nail. Make sure that what you’re cutting out has equal sized writing on it. Transfer the ink. For this step, you want to carefully pour the rubbing alcohol into a small container, or lid. Dip your dry nail into the rubbing alcohol for 10 seconds, then firmly press the newspaper strip onto your nail. Be sure not to move it around , so you don’t smudge it. Hold it on your nail for around 20 seconds, and then carefully peel it off. Repeat on the 9 other nails. Clean up edges. Use a q tip and some nail polish remover to clean up any edges. And finally, Apply a top coat, again.

Fabric Flowers.

Start with a piece of fabric 3 inches wide by 24 inches long, and twist it really tight. Fold it in half and it will twist together on its own. Hot glue the unfolded end under to create the center of the flower. Continue wrapping around until you get to the folded end, gluing periodically. After all the glue dries you can get creative with it. You can glue on buttons, or glue the flower onto a headband to wear in your hair.

Made From Scratch Banana Pudding.





• 1/3 Cup Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. Salt
• 1 1/2 Cups Half and Half
• 2 Egg Yolks
• 1 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter
• 2 tsp. Vanilla
• 3-4 Bananas, sliced
• 24 Nilla wafers, coarsely crushed
• Whipped Cream, for serving

Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg and salt in a medium saucepan, then whisk in half and half and egg yolks.  Place over medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, until pudding thickens and begins to boil, 5-8 minutes.  Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.  Whisk until butter has melted.  Transfer pudding to a bowl and refrigerate until cold, about 3 hours.

In your preferred serving dish,  create two sets of layers using the bananas, 1/3 of the pudding and Nilla wafers.  Top with the remaining 1/3 of the pudding.
Before serving, top with whipped cream and additional banana slices and Nilla wafers, if desired. This is a delisious treat anyone can make at home.

t-shirt scarf.

First, find a few old t-shirts you don't wear anymore, thrift them, or buy new - but choose thin, soft t-shirts. Second, lay the shirt flat on the table or floor. Third, cut 1 1/2 inch strips, remove the hemmed edges.  (fabric scissors work best). Fourth, save the sleeves for the end; they are used for the final wrapping. Fifth, organize the strips by length and gently pull on them.  They naturally curl in on themselves. Sixth, start piecing the stripes together the way you want it look.  Twist them, braid them, mix colors, add beads or old jewelery. Seventh, tie together, trim ends, and wrap with excess sleeve fabric.  Use a needle and thread to secure the end wrap on. Now you have an origanl scarf made by you, that no one else has!