Southern Scraps

For the first time ever, I'm into decorating for St. Patrick's Day. In the past, it was just one of those holidays I didn't decorate for. Wearing green is about all the celebrating I do. Which is ironic, since I have Irish ancestors and live within driving distance of the famous Savannah, Georgia, celebration. I do like the color green and this year I was won over by all the shiny sparkly green craft supplies in the stores. I'll be showing you a few things I've made for St. Patrick's Day in a few days, but for now, here's a round up of 17 crafts and decorations . The Pampered Chef     Centerpiece by Cupcakes and Crinolines     Shamrock tree by Lolly Jane     Shamrock button art by Happy Clippings     St. Patrick's Day Garland by This Girl's Life   Door hanging by BHG     Framed shamrocks by Life in Wonderland     Leprechaun pants treat bags     Shamrock wreath by Flamin

Last year I was inspired by this post to make some altered mini mailboxes for Valentine's Day, but I wanted to make mine a little more dressed up.  I started with mini mailboxes from the Target dollar section. I bought mine last year but it was too late to get them done in time for Valentine's Day. I haven't seen them this year, but you can find some similar mini mailboxes HERE .

According to Blogger statistics, eight of my top ten most viewed post/projects for 2011 are 8 of the 10 popular posts over in the sidebar, along with the wrapped cord bracelet  and fancy flip flops. Here are my own top ten favorites- the ones I had the most fun doing or was most pleased with the results. Bubble gum bracelet

CHRISTmas is coming! And to celebrate I'm co-hosting Creating Christmas with The Girl Creative.   Or Creating CHRISTmas as I'd prefer to call it. I mean- we are celebrating the birth of CHRIST. I pray you do know him as you personal saviour, and while gifts, decorations, and time with family are fun, I pray it means more to you. And what a way to celebrate! Creativity is one of HIS gifts to us. This event is to encourage you to create stuff, not just pin and save ideas. Get out there and do it! All week next week I'll be posting just Christmas projects. (I will still have my Friday Feature, and the other regular posts will resume the next week.) At the end of the week, there will be a huge link party. So get ready to create and link up!

I think we all agree that creating is fun and there are some “go to” tools that make it easier and more fun. Some of those tools can even be used for more than one type of craft. Here are my top ten favorite crafting tools and few of the things I use them for.

    A couple of months ago I stumble across this great find in an antique shop: A large vase full of jewelry! Some of it's broken and some of it is completely wearable as is.  See all the goodies:     I repurposed some black faceted beads for my Stella and Dot knock off from this stash. I also intend to make myself a broken jewelry letter like the ones Tip Junkie has featured. I haven't gotten around to that yet, but I do have a wooden "F" in my stash of other things from a project that was never done and now abandoned, so one day I'll have a cool initial on my craft room door.  What I HAVE gotten around to is a broken jewelry cross. I picked up a wooden cross at Michael's for a dollar. I wanted to alter/decorate it some way for Easter decor but didn't really know how when I first bought it. Then this idea came to me.... and I LOVE IT. A shell necklace and these other pieces became the final product (Please excuse the lovely

Don't you just love sparkly, glittery goodness? Want some glitter eggs for Easter decor? Get out the Mod Podge and some glitter. I picked up a bag of 18 eggs at the Dollar Tree. I used glitter in shades that matched the color of the egg. I coated each egg with Mod Podge and covered in glitter. I set them on some wax paper to dry. And I have glitter eggs! So easy! Here is another shot of them drying. I just couldn't resist the sparkles. And here they are piled into a clear glass hurricane: What simple Easter ideas do you have? I'd love to know. I'll be linking these up to the parties on the side. Linking to Get Your Craft On On another note, I just want to say welcome to the new followers I've picked up recently. Thanks for your interest and support.

I've seen a few of these in blog land already, but I was inspired to  make these by the ones here on Inspire Co . I made my book page eggs by tearing strips from a book I got at the book exchange for less than a buck. (Book lovers don't fret, I'm not ripping up a famous novel.) I Mod Podged them onto plastic eggs from the Dollar Tree. This is a messy project, but go ahead and get messy. I found it easier to smooth down the strips if I already had Mod Podge on my hands. Once you've got all your strips down, go over them with a final coat of Mod Podge. Lay them on wax paper to dry. I didn't glitter my eggs like the ones at Inspire Co. I did embellish them with ribbon and flowers. I used an acrylic rhinestone for the centers of the flowers in colors that coordinate with the ribbon.  I'm so excited to have some Easter decor made ahead of time. I'll be linking these up to the parties on the side. Edited: These have been featured at Tatertots and

I was searching through my old project photos and found this cute little decor that I made a few years ago for a swap. The photo is not great because I was not blogging then and didn't have a good camera. I thought I'd share it anyway. I got the wood base, pegs, and letters at Wal-mart. The scarecrow was probably a Dollar Store item. I painted the letters and pegs and base. I should have painted the scarecrow's peg but I see now I didn't. I layed each letter down on scrapbook paper and traced them. I cut out the paper and decoupaged (Mod Podge) the paper to the letters. I decorated with some leaves, berries, ribbon and stickers. This is another fairly quick and easy project. Thanks for looking. I'll be linking up to the parties on the side.

Here's a fun gift I made for my hubby a few years ago. It's a candy bouquet arranged in a skull goblet. I designed the wrappers with graphics from PCCrafter in a photo editing program and printed them out. I wrapped the candy, attached it to skewers, placed foam in the cup, and stuck my candy in. I also added some spiders and skeleton hands. I used black tissue paper for filler. Easy and fun! Be sure to check out the Halloween candy cake too. I'm linking up at Get Your Craft on Tuesday and other parties on the side. Linking up here too

It's October 1! That means 30 days 'til Halloween! We have so much fun with Halloween here. ( Check out my handmade greeting card giveaway HERE .) Here's a great conversation piece for your Halloween functions and parties: I wish a I had a better picture but I made this years ago before I ever thought about blogging. Here's a quick how to: The base is a cardboard hat box lid. Turn boxes upside down and stack them from largest to smallest, however many layers you want. This one just has two. You could paint them first I suppose it you don't want the cardboard peeking through. I'm not sure how that would affect the ability to stick the candy on. I attached the candies with double sided tape. After I had all of my candy on, I went back and attached toy eyeballs, bats, spiders, hand, etc. So much fun.  Thanks for looking. I'll be linking up to the great parties listed on the side.

Today's tip is one that crafters of all types are good at- REPURPOSING - We paper crafters tend to call this "altered" art and some of us will modge podge and embellish anything we can get our hands on. Seriously, many items can be used for another purpose once they have fulfilled their original purpose. Cereal boxes can be cut, covered and used as magazine holders. Altoid tins and General Coffees containers can become gift boxes. Old CD's become scrapbooks or ornaments. The list can go on and on. Here are some links to some neat repurposing crafts and tutorials I've found on the net. A turntable caddy made out of pill bottles http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_furnishings_other/article/0,1793,HGTV_3433_1378755,00.html Notebooks from scrap paper http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=b97041a967557110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default Denim supply organizer http://www.allfreecrafts.com/sewing/denim-o

button - (but'n) n. 1. A disk shaped fastener used to join two parts of a garment, or for decoration. 2. A versatile craft embellishment. As a child, I loved to sift through my grandmother's buttons, many of them vintage. Today I love to use them on cards and crafts. Let's examine some ways to use them. I used buttons to create a border on these cards . A button became a flower center on this tag Many other crafters and fellow etsians use buttons in their work or to create whole pieces. Marymarsh uses fabric covered buttons in her hair accessories as does CoutureBrewToo Strings of buttons become earrings by liasaun1 and by nakedtile MichellesCharmWorld makes bracelets out of buttons and Crazy Dreams Studio makes these bracelets Aren't these just so cool and fun? Ambika has accented a purse with buttons and if accessoire aren't your thing, how about the button eyes on this adorable monster by Tizzalicious These are just a few ways buttons are used in cr