My winter tree made with yarn

For my winter shelf I thought a tree covered in snow would be just what it needed.  At first I was going to add snowflakes but once I had the yarn around my "tree" I thought it was perfect - I like the simplicity of this project. 

This project took me less than 15 minutes.  I could have bought a white Styrofoam cone but I opted for the green one - ya know because trees are green and I wanted a little bit of the green to peak through.  However, if I was to do this again I would probably go with the white Styrofoam cone because this green one is a bit messy to work with.

All you need is a foam/styrofoam cone, yarn and pins.

At the base of your cone attach the yarn with a pin.

Go around the entire bottom putting pins every inch and a half or so.  This creates your bottom layer and keeps your yarn in place.  

You only need pins for the bottom and top layer.  Begin wrapping the yarn around the cone until you get to the top.

At the top you will need to swirl the yarn around using a pin every so often to hold it in place.  At first I was worried you would be able to see the pins but once it was up and on my shelf you really couldn't see any of the pins.

I love how my little winter tree turned out and love how well it goes with everything else on my shelf.

To see how I made the other items on my shelf be sure to check out my Winter Shelf post.

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Consumer Crafts.com Back to Basics Sale #craftbasics

What's can be better than shopping for your craft supplies in your pajamas?  That is what I did this past week.  I have shopped at a few online craft stores but I tried out Consumer Crafts for the first time this week and I have to say that I am hooked! I spent hours browsing through all of their craft supplies and had so much fun imagining ideas in my head while shopping.

The site was super easy to navigate and after registering (which was quick and easy) I did some shopping with their Back to Basics Sale.

I have to say my favorite item purchased were the cupcake supplies - I kinda have a crush on cupcakes.  I just can't wait until my package gets here!

I also ordered some styrofoam wreaths, Mod Podge and ribbon because these are items I am always using and they were such a great price!

For fun I threw in some Skull and Pink Zebra duct tape - I think the kiddos will love these!

 


If you want to do some shopping in your pajamas like me without breaking the bank you really should check out the Consumer Crafts Back to Basics Sale!

For Craft Ideas and Inspiration you can Like Consumer Crafts on Facebook or follow  ConsumerCrafts on Pinterest.

I wrote this post as part of a campaign with Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.

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Snowflake Candles on Brookie Crafts

Today over on Brookie Crafts you can see how I created my Snowflake Candles from my winter shelf.  I would love for you to hop on over and check it out!

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Superbowl munchies

For me the Superbowl is about the funny commercials and the yummy food.  I really don't pay attention to the football.  I usually work on a craft or my blog during the game.  I like to relax and enjoy myself with my family and love to have some yummy foods to munch on.  I thought I would share some ideas with you.  I know for sure that we will have our delicious Caramel Turtle Brownies

The kids are begging me to make my Breadstick Bites again so this might be the perfect time.

I will most likely make a yummy soup to keep in the crock pot.  I might make my Potato Soup

or I am thinking of making my brother's Taco soup.  His soup is so yummy - I need to share that recipe on the blog soon so you can share in the yumminess.

For some more ideas I did a search on Pinterest for some fun ideas.  I found these tasty looking ideas that I am sure my family will love. (If you would like to pin these ideas please pin from the original source - you can find that by clicking on the link and it will take you to the site that created the recipe)

I found these yummy Mozzerella Bites The Curvy Carrot that I know Kayden, Adison and I would love.

I also love this Football Helmet fruit bowl - doesn't it look fun and tasty!

What are you planning on making for the Superbowl? Do you watch for the football or for the commercials like me?

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Let It Snow Blocks with Cricut Tutorial

With my Christmas decorations now put away my shelf is looking very bare.  I am not ready yet for Valentine decor so with the recent storms we have received I thought it fitting to put up some "Snow" decorations and put together a cute little Winter shelf display.  The first thing I made are my "Let it Snow Blocks".

I am often asked by many people how I make my letters so tall and if I am able to do it with my Cricut.  Now with the Cricut Craft Room you can.  Today I thought I would share a little tutorial on how to make your letters the exact size you want.

Before I start let me tell you that I have always loved my Cricut Machine (I have three machines right now) and I am so excited with the Cricut Craft Room that is now available. You can download it for free by clicking on this page and scrolling to the bottom - there you will see a box that shows Cricut Craft Room.  So once you download it you can work on projects and save them for later use.  This will be very handy for me. Also your projects are saved in the "cloud" so if your friend has a Cricut and the Cricut Craft Room you can access your projects you have saved there as long as you login to your account - awesome right??

Also just a side note - I am so excited about the Circut Craft Room that I decided to become an Affiliate with Cricut.  I am excited to share this Let It Snow tutorial along with future craft projects I make and share any good deals that may come along.

Now let's get started.

Here are the blocks before I put the vinyl letters on them.  They are wood blocks that I painted white.  I then glued some cute scrapbook paper on each block of wood.  Do you all know how to do that or would you like a tutorial on that some day?

Open up the Cricut Craft Room (You can download it for free) and choose the font you want to use.  You can connect the cartridges you own to Cricut Craft Room so you can use them whenever you want.  Or if there is a font you don't own but want to use you can purchase it through Cricut Craft Room.  For these blocks I used Lyrical Letters/LoopDeeLoo for the S, Jasmine for the N, Gypsy Font for the O and Elegant Cakes for the W.  For "Let It" I used Lyrical Letters/LoopDeeLoo. To find these fonts visit Cricut and search for the fonts I listed.   Here is a picture of the letters/words I am planning on cutting out with my Cricut Craft Room

For this project I am using my Cricut Mini to cut out my vinyl.  As you can see in the photo above I have my Cricut Mini Mat picked out.  I LOVE that I can have letters from different fonts on the same page to cut at the same time. Now I just need to resize the letters to the size I need.  My letters are each 2 inches wide and the heights vary in size from 5 to 7 inches depending on the size of the block.

There are two ways that you can resize your letters.  You can stretch the letter yourself by pulling the middle arrows (please note I rotated the S first before I stretched the letter) as seen in this picture

Or you can click on the letter you want to change and type the sizes wanted in the sizing boxes as seen in the picture below

Adjust the rest of your letters to make them as tall and wide that you would like. In this pictures all of my letters are ready to cut.  I moved all the letters around to save the most space so I wouldn't waste any vinyl.

Click on Cut in the top right corner and a screen will pop up asking what type of product you are cutting (cardstock, vinyl, etc.)  Choose the setting for vinyl and it will show you what number your blade should be on and what the speed and pressure should be set at.  for my Cricut Mini it told me I should have my blade set at 3 - and it didn't quite cut through so I redid it with my blade on 4 and that worked.  You might have a bit of trial and error until you get to know your machine.

Cut out your vinyl and then remove the negative vinyl pieces and add your transfer tape as usual.

Attach your vinyl to the blocks.  Over the top I add a coat of Mod Podge and finish up with cute embellishments.

I love how the Cricut Craft Room lets you make your letters of various sizes during one cut and it so user friendly.

Have you tried the Cricut Craft Room yet?  Did you love it?

Also so you know Cricut is running a promo right now for the Expressions 2 Cricut Machine that comes preloaded with several cartridges all for $199 (this deal ends on January 31st).

Cricut Expression 2 Blogger Bundle
Today's Deals on Cricut.com







Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links.


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Winter shelf display

I am not quite ready to put my Valentine decor up yet and thought with all of the snow, rain and ice this would be a perfect time to set up a Winter display on my shelf.  It is a bit simple but I am happy with it.

Over the next week I hope to show you how I made my Let It Snow Blocks, Snowflake candles, snowy tree and Snowflake garland from my Winter display.  Do you decorate for winter or do you go straight from Christmas to Valentine's Day?

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My super messy Craft Room

Are you ready to see the messiest room in my house??  It is my craft room.  No one call hoarders on me - k??  Why am I sharing these pictures with you?  Maybe I am trying to just keep it real - and maybe this will help keep me accountable to get this room clean this week.  Plus I am on the search for ideas on organizing my craft room - so if you have any I would love for you to share.

With how busy I was during the holidays things just got shoved into my craft room and never really put away.  It looks like a bomb has exploded in there.  When I first moved here the walls were all a dark green, I have repainted them a pretty sage green but this room needs so much more help.

When you first walk in this is what you see

A mess right???

This room does have some potential though - I just need to figure out where to put everything.

Behind the door is this closet space.  I have some wire shelving in there.  I keep scrapbook albums, scrapbook pages, magazines, embellishments and ribbon over here.  I feel like this isn't the best use of this space.

The left corner of the room has my TV, DVD, VHS player, movies, stamps, misc. items that are stored in a big shelf and a paper storage rack.  I would love to have a flat screen TV on the wall to save space there - I need to figure out how to organize the shelving better.

Here is my biggest mess - where I put everything that I need to put away.  There is a table in all of that mess.  This table is where I was hoping to work on my craft projects - kinda impossible right now.

Here is the mess in the right corner of the room.  Another big shelf - the top shelf was for albums, second shelf down for cards, middle shelf for scrapbook stuff, second to bottom shelf embellishments and bottom shelf for sewing materials.  It has become a bit disorganized.

Now here is the one kinda clean spot in my room.  Some shelves and a dresser.  The shelves have stamps, ink, paper, office supplies, etc.  I was using the dresser to keep my scrapbook paper in - each drawer a different color.  But it just isn't working out for me.  I need a better use for space here.  Plus my daughter needs a dresser - so this dresser will be moving up to her room.

Now we are facing the door and looking at the left corner.  There is a filing cabinet that is pretty much empty - it is supposed to be storing all of my papers that you see around this mess.  I keep my paints and books over here.  

This next picture is of my "work" area.  Yes there are two computers in this area.  One is for my "real" job and the other I use for my blog and personal use.  My personal computer is the one with two screens (I love having two screens) and the laptop is for my "real" job.  And yes there are two printers - one for my job and one that is mine.  Papers everywhere, super disorganized.

And here is our last picture - Now facing the door.  A card table set up for my laptop/"real" job computer.  Can you spy the two cricut machines?  I need to make room for my third one.  I have a small white shelf (full of books).

A lot of this I use so I don't want to toss it - I just need to figure out a new organization system - because clearly mine isn't working. I am thinking of adding some shelving to the top of the walls?? One of my problems is that I am a very visual person - if it is out of site I forget I have it so I have a hard time putting something away that might get lost when I know I will need it.  Any suggestions?  

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