Pumpkins

Pumpkins are finally here! 

I only make a few for each fall season and they are available in my shop now!

They are about 10" x 8" without the ribbon.

If you are in the San Antonio area, I also have a few in the boutique at The Royal Canvas
 at 5005 Broadway.

Homecoming Mum - Purple

 

After seeing all of my daughter's friends' fabulous mums, I had to make one more! This is for a friend who goes to a "purple" school - what a gorgeous color for a mum! 

 

I used only a few "traditional" types of mum ribbon and used more glittery and sparkly decorative ribbon. I still added all of the "cheer" embellishments and cowbells, but the wired ribbon definitely made this mum more "flow-y" and a bit lighter since I was able to use less ribbon.

 

I used wired ribbons, sheer ribbons, metallic ribbons, holographic ribbons, and plain curling ribbon, although the sparkly curly ribbon would have been fun, too. Instead of making points for around the flower, I just folded the ribbon length directly in half and stapled and layered them.

I do have a few instructions on making mums in some posts from August and September of 2011.

Just some final - I think - mum photos so y'all can see how they look. They are all pretty much variations on the same idea just using different ribbons.  (I was in a rush so I apologize for not-so-great photos.)

My mums just barely touch the surface of all the things you can do with your mum.

There are so many fabulous ribbons and decorations out there that as long as you don't mind the cost, your mums can be as over-the-top as you want!

At my daughter's mum exchange many of the mums were so fabulous that I wanted one!

I still like the braided ribbons and I used the tiger/zebra striped ribbon to make a looped ribbon this year (just like the "homecoming" one from last year but without the letters!)

I added some sparkly tulle between the points and the flower to give it a bit more substance.

Completed mini-mum.

I layered grosgrain ribbon on top of "typical" mum ribbon. The black mum is going to have a smaller white mum in the center so the cheerleader doesn't disappear!

Please see some of my other posts for some how-to's! (August and September 2011 and September 2012)

Homecoming Mum Idea - Tulle Ribbon

So, I am getting started on my mums for this year and thought I'd be brave and try something different (at least for me!).  My youngest loves anything sparkly so I am using glitter tulle for the decoration around the flower. (See my last post for how to get a super cute cheerleader!)

This particular mum is a small one - about 4" in diameter.

I started off folding the tulle in half (about 4" strips), kind of bunching each strip together, and layering the colors.  This was not my favorite so I went back to the points that I used last year.

I cut approximately 4 -4 1/2" strips, folded each in half and then in thirds (with the raw edges on the inside). I then just folded them like I normally would to make the points.

I love how sparkly it turned out! As a warning, glitter does come off of the tulle and there were (are) sparkles everywhere!

Hopefully, I will have pictures of all the streamers soon! These are links to my other homecoming mum posts with more details about attaching everything.

I have not attached the cheerleader yet, but I am planning on lots of hot glue!!

mum #1- smaller mum and point details
mum #2 - looped ribbon for mum
mum #3 -larger mum and finishing
mum #4 - another mum idea

Homecoming Mum Idea!

It's August and at least in South Texas that means football season is almost upon us, and homecoming is right around the corner!

Are you already planning mums for your daughter, her friends, or your son's girlfriend?!? 

I loved the lions that we found last year, but I was super-excited to discover Alisha Todd on Etsy (her shop link - Alisha Todd) who makes the cutest polymer clay figures.  

I requested a custom order for these little cheerleaders and received them in about a week and a half - a great turn-around time!

And since weight is always a factor - the larger girls weigh 1 oz and the smaller girl weighs .8 oz. They are about 3" and 2 1/4" tall.

I still need to gather a few more ideas - and find some cow bells! - but I am really looking forward to making mums this year now that I have a bit more experience!

 

You can see more of her figures (and some adorable bows!) in this shop, too.

These are my mum tutorials from last year:

1. beginning 

2.almost done

3. finished!

Organized Craft Armoire

So many projects this summer and one I finally completed!  I really don't like plastic boxes - but I finally decided that I just could not get organized without them - 

I NEED to see what's inside! 

I really did not get rid of as much stuff as I thought I would - 2 paper bags full, but most everything I really do use when I can find it!

Organized Armoire - hopefully organized forever!

Shop Ribbons

I found tons of stuff that I had forgotten all about and tons of repeat ribbons.

 Did I mention that I like ribbons?!?

Presents and Gift Bags Ribbons

Tulle for Shop and Special Gifts

I found several more spools of each style after I took these pictures and they don't include my Christmas ribbon box, homecoming mum ribbon box, and random just-because-I-liked-it ribbon box.  

I have already had occasion to destroy all of my organization, but so far the worst thing that has happened is I left a few boxes out overnight.  I am so happy that everything has a place now!!

Cartwheels in the Summer Rain

Cascarones Cookies

My version of the "pinata cookie"

My friend over at TheCottageMarket linked to the cutest pinata cookies at SheKnows and I really wanted to give them a try.

I just used my own sugar cookie recipe and since I waited until the night before family day at school I had to make do with an egg-shaped cookie cutter instead of a burro-shaped one.  (I do have a Dala horse cutter that would have looked really cute but it is solid and I would not have been able to flip it over.)

We are just finishing up Fiesta here in San Antonio and we go through a lot of cascarones in April, but since cascarones are fun any time of year I thought the egg-shape would be perfect!

So, they turned out a bit more round than I planned and my colors didn't turn out quite like I wanted - I haven't used food coloring in ages and used a bit too much, but they were still a hit - I mean they have m&m's inside - what more could you want!!

My changes from the original recipe were that I used a different dough (a lot of people seemed really unhappy with the recipe listed plus I prefer butter to oil), a different cutter shape, and I rolled the dough in a cylinder shape in some parchment paper before freezing.

Yes, they did take a long time to make, but not really any longer than any other cut-out and decorated cookie I have ever made.  And the leftover cookie didn't go to waste.  My children have almost finished every bite!

 

Re-Decorating With Architectural Salvage

I wish I had before pictures, but, of course, I don't! So you will just have to imagine a cluttered piano top and a lonely metal piece floating on the wall.

The day before my grandmother's house was torn down my mom and I manged to salvage a few things - pink! shutters, some windows and moldings, and a few other odds and ends. With the help of a friend I finally got around to using some of those features to make my place just a bit more homey! 

 

The weathered shutters add a fabulous pop of pink and fill the space on a rather tall (for my house) wall. We centered the little kitchen window under the metal scroll and added one of my favorite ceiling tin hearts so there would be a bit of "me," too! The oil lamp and candy dish are from my other grandmother and the picture that needs matting and re-framing is of her parents.

This super cool lamp is an early bday gift from my husband.  I found it at Tuesday Morning and was so excited - Don't you love it when you don't know what you are looking for but find it anyway!! I don't know if you can tell that it is covered with tons of little weathered mirrors. And it has fabulous light so my little one can read her piano music!

These little tables are underneath each shutter and will hopefully soon be undergoing a transformation to cottage white (and maybe a bit of mosaic on the horizontal surfaces).

Teenage Bedroom Redo

Don't you just love the difference paint makes!?!

From pink walls and girly-girl cutesy . . .

. . . to something a bit simpler, bolder, and "teen-ager-y"
Slightly off-white walls and squares in her school colors.

Oops! I still have to do something about those super pink baskets!

Well, we didn't make all the kid stuff go away!

Condensed version of all the steps!

I think this is the most important!
I cut and taped poster board squares to the wall in a way that I thought looked balanced and not too busy. The squares were too small the first time (top photo) and looked "too cute-sy" so even though I didn't want to - I cut more and bigger squares and re-did it (bottom photo)!

For the next step I called my husband in to help!
I penciled around the corners of the squares so I knew where I wanted them to be and then my sweetie used a level and drew the squares all perfect (and square!) for me - I hate measuring!

I managed to tape around the lines pretty evenly - I learned to tape slightly on the outside of the pencil marks.

After having the paint bleed and look awful I read online about taping, then paint the original wall color over the tape, letting it dry, and then painting the new color. This worked amazingly well! I only had a few places that I touched up with a tiny artist brush.

I did all of the red first - it took 4-5 coats!

Then the black. The taping was a bit trickier - I had to cut the tape and make sure it was perfectly straight where it met the red. And I had to paint over the tape in 2 different colors (original wall and red) to make sure there was no black bleeding onto the red or the white. The black paint was only 1 1/2 coats and went on super fast.

Done!
Now I just need to find the time for new curtains and bedding . . .

And the best part - I did this in 3 days while she was away at cheer camp (I used an oscillating fan to help it dry faster) - she was totally surprised AND loved it!

New in my Shop

My first Christmas together ornaments were quite popular last year, so I've decided to add a customized version!

I'm adding more colors ready-made, but also listing an option for design your own!

And since they are now available in whatever colors you would like - wedding colors, school and team colors, or favorite colors, they are perfect for many different occasions.

I love the coastal/beach theme colors of this one!

Autumn Wreath - Part Two

Yes, I know I just made a new autumn wreath last year, but I found these fabulous flowers - zebra and cheetah - so cool!! - and just had to make something with them! (And wreaths are pretty much what I can make - my flower arrangements never turn out quite right!)

I started with my summer wreath that literally melted apart it was so hot this year - notice all the old hot glue - and fern and flowers that coordinated with the big ones that I love! The wreath at least was free, but even purchasing everything on a half-price day the flowers and foliage were around $30 (the animal prints are regularly $7 each - yikes!) Oh, I found everything at Michael's - the animal prints are from the "safari floral stem collection."

I really wanted the animal print flowers to go all the way around like my sunflower wreath, but they were quite pricey and since I went on the last day of the sale, they were down to these five.
I used the same steps as on my other autumn wreath - main foliage, big flowers, more foliage, and then the smaller flowers. (I didn't use the cream colored ones.)
Normally I just pull all of the flowers off and glue them directly to the wreath, but this wreath is on its last legs, so I cut the stem 3-5" on each flower so that I would have plenty of room to adjust them and make them do what I wanted.

I just couldn't wait and put it on my door tonight - sorry about the flash!

Homecoming Mum Making Experience - Finished !!

I'm so excited that they are finally finished - Homecoming seems early this year and I was so stressing about getting them done just right! They are for my oldest and her "big sis." These mum are both larger than my first one - about 40" long with 36" streamers and the mum flower is 6" across and 8" across with the backing. I think they are a really nice size without getting in the way too much.

And I have to share - When I was trying my youngest daughter's mum on her she asked - "And why am I wearing this again?" My husband (not a Texas native) thought this was too funny and rolled his eyes when I told her it was because she was a Texas girl and that's what she's supposed to do at Homecoming! I loved the mums I had at Homecoming (back when the flowers were real!) and I hope my girls love these just as much!
I put these together just like the smaller mum - I just added more embellishments.
I made some military braids (I looked at several sets of instructions and practiced quite a bit - I also had to adjust the ribbons more tightly after I finished, but they turned out just as nicely as the ones in the stores and as long as you are careful not to crease the ribbon the adjusting goes quite smoothly.) I also made some diamondback style braids that my daughter really liked. (Again, it just took a bit of practice after looking at instructions.) You can also buy the military braids at a craft shop if you'd like.

Before I got started attaching everything I made up some ribbons with footballs, bells, and megaphones. (I punched out some star shapes from glitter paper and attached them to the megaphones.)

I wasn't quite sure how to finish the ends of the braids, so I stapled and then used hot glue and ribbon to cover the staples.
I glued the ribbon and charm on the front and then wrapped and glued the ribbon that I tied everything with around the back.

I laid the flowers and ribbons out to see what I had and decide what all I was going to use. I used zebra ribbon, school spirit ribbon, 2 different braids, name ribbon, homecoming ribbon, gold star chain, gold cheer chain, curly ribbon with megaphones, bells, footballs, and skinny gold sequin ribbon.
Using 36" lengths, I began the streamer circles by attaching 9 (#9) ribbons (4/5 red and 4/5 black) to the fronts. My daughter felt they needed to be fuller, so I added 7 (#9) more ribbons (3/4 red and 3/4 black) ending up with 16 lengths on each circle. I also added 8 (#3) ribbons (4 red/4 black) to each.

I almost forgot - I found the cutest little lion head pens, ripped the heads off, and glued them to the center of the flowers. They weren't quite big enough all on their own, so I added a little embellishment to teach of them! I used different color accents since the bases are different colors (one is more red, one more black) and so they would each be unique.

I don't have a picture, but I then laid out all of the "fancy" ribbons and chains on top of the streamer base so that the colors and chains were balanced, not exactly symmetrical, but spread out so that one side of the mum didn't have too much red or too much black, etc. You can get an idea of how this looks by checking out my other mum post.
I used the homecoming ribbon for the center, attached the zebra and school spirit ribbons more-or-less evenly on the sides and then also placed a braid and gold chain on either side. I attached the braids, chains, and skinny ribbons on top of the fatter ribbons.
If you look at both mums you can see that one is more black and one is more red, but they are both balanced. I made sure everything was stapled down, glued the flower on top of the streamers (a lot of glue), and glued a plain circle to the very back to cover the staples.

I have tons of photos of the completed ones!



I angled the bottom of the ribbons just a bit to give it a more finished look.


Close-ups of the military braid and zebra striped ribbon. I found the star garland in the Christmas section at a craft store.

Sequin ribbon, cheerleader chain, and megaphone charm.

Close-up of the diamondback braid and a bit of the black velvet sparkly ribbon adorned with shimmery gold and white bows.
Mum #2!



Cheerleader chain and military braid.


Happy Homecoming!