Concrete Vases: Hidden Treasure

Good hot Wednesday to you!! The heat and humidity are ramping up here in Nebraska.

So I guess sitting inside for a bit to edit photos and post to my blog seems like a great idea.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across this blog called Made by Barb.

She had this project which really got my attention, layered concrete jewel vases.

I knew I wanted to try it.  I also knew that mine would end up very different because so many factors come in to play.  I was hoping it could be a 4h project for the girls.  They did help, but Nora lost interest fast and the pouring the concrete in a very small space and arranging the broken pieces of glass became trickier that I thought it would be.  So Audrey mostly helped me mix the cement.

We made this first vase not really connecting the dots of how much concrete the container we had would need to fill it.  Almost the entire 20 pound bag of concrete was needed.  So....this thing is heavy.  But, wow....what a statement it makes!

I needed to go out for more propane for our grill so I could justify making a trip in to Menards just to buy more concrete.  Since the quarantine started we've made no extra trips for one item at all.  That's been pretty tricky for me who flies by the seat of my pants often.

So I had more concrete, but still needed a smaller container to go around the jar on the inside.  It just so happened that I had a nearly empty shortening container.  Perfect size. ♥

I left a residue of the shortening in it, to help the concrete release and interestingly, that gave the new vase a texture that I didn't expect.  Of course, truly, I had no idea what to expect with any of this, so it's all been a surprise and all new things learned.  I used broken bottles and china to go inside the concrete to be exposed just a bit.  Then chiseled away gently at a couple of spots to reveal more of the broken piece inside.  

Then the next thing we tried was a planter.   I still need to "plant" it and find a place for it outside. Maybe I'll bring it back inside if I can find a good way to catch the water under it.  

By this time, I realized that more pattern from the broken tea cups would be neat so tried to get them to show.

It's kind of like finding a hidden treasures or the half buried things we see when we explore old houses and places.

And, they are intriguing.

I pushed a cork into a terracotta pot then placed it into the bigger plastic container and then poured the concrete in. I was able to break out the cork easily and with just a bit of coercion (and a prayer!) I was able to get the terra cotta pot out without it breaking!  My husband suggested tapping it gently, and it worked. Whew. I wanted to keep the pot!

A "woodland" type of arrangement seemed so perfect for these two vases.  

Now I need to make room on a shelf that is about waste level to store these, ha! 

More cement projects are in the works (in my mind anyway)  

This is what I want to make next. 

How neat would that be out in the Garden?!

It's Heart Season

For the last number of years I have made hand made Valentine's for my family.  I think I've only posted about them once here.  (Still get excited about fish and puns!)

This year I'm jumping the gun and posting photos of some of them now. 

I've posted a few process shots and videos on Instagram.  I used Pellon wash away stabilizer to layer scraps and tidbits and threads into a "scrap sandwich".  Then using invisible thread and the free motion embroidery foot on my machine, I stitched and stitched and stitched.  I then washed away the stabilizer, dried the new piece of "fabric" and cut out the heart shapes.

I used heat and bond to fuse two heart together; then I added little bits of stitching and beads here and there.

As you know, I'm a fan of scrappy and this little project satisfies that need to use all the little bits!

Of course there are scraps left of my scrap fabric...may actually toss them!  We'll see. :)

The back sides are actually fronts (because I fused two hearts, wrong sides together) just without any embellishments.

I still have more to stitch and hopefully will complete those yet tomorrow.

Here are few links from past Valentine's Day posts, perhaps you'll find some project to inspire you to cut, paste, or sew!!

Paper hearts

Paper Bag Valentines

Kid's Stitching Valentine

Shabby Chic Heart Wreath

Simple Newspaper Heart Garland

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Completely unrelated to Valentine's and Hearts:  I started listening to this podcast, Out of the Ordinary last week.  It is so good.  SO VERY GOOD.  It's a conversation between friends about the ordinary holiness of life.  Their stories are simple, relatable, and true to how God moves in their lives.  Maybe you would enjoy it too.

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So There Was a Third

The ideas started spinning when I began to adorn the vintage sari ribbons.  You can see the first two here and here.

After making the first two, I thought just words would be interesting. I can see this being a wonderful gift to someone!

Descriptive words or words of affirmation.  You could string it along a shelf or wrap it around a bottle or jar filled with treasures.

I used one of my vintage typewriters to type the words on to muslin.  That in itself got more ideas going, fun!!

I hope you're having a great week. I've been working now with some rusty metal assemblages and am really enjoying the process.  I'll share some soon.

Another Sari Ribbon Garland

As I said in my first post about the Sari Ribbon Garland, I couldn't make just one! :) 

 I have a small collection of vintage religious medals and bits of broken rosaries. 

The patina on them just makes them that much better.

The little piece in the back is part of a handmade scapular that was in a little box of medals at our church's garage sale.  The cross is hand embroidered on felt.

 In smaller segments, this ribbon would make great book marks!

Spoonflower Bag

(Hello again!)

Our fair has come and gone and was a really good experience again for the girls.  I've shared a few things on Instagram.  I was  the most excited about this project because I have been hoping to design my own fabric and have printed through Spoonflower for a long time.  For now, I get to enjoy my daughter's design and project!

Through a 4h project manual, the girls were introduced to how to make a repeating seamless surface  design. I then learned how to do it through Photoshop watching various online tutorials.  I taught my daughter the basics of Photoshop and then how to make the repeating seamless design. 

We then uploaded her design to Spoonflower and when the fabric came, she followed the instructions here on the Spoonflower blog to make this drawstring back pack.

I just think it's great.

And, I think it's fantastic that technology has opened up so many doors for so many people!

This bag gets to go on to the State Fair (as do a few other projects) hurray!!

Hopefully, this fall I will have my first go at some yardage from Spoonflower too.  The fabric is really nice and I'd highly recommend it!  You don't have design your own of course, and can find some great yardage by designers.  Lots of fun to peruse what's available.

Stay tuned for a couple of garden posts!

A Gift Idea

I had a great idea for a gift for our youngest granddaughter back in November.  I wanted to make a matching memory game for her with photos of our family.  I thought and thought about how to have them printed so they would be sturdy.  When I pitched the idea to my older girls they told me that they were already offered as games to print online, ha! (Apparently, not an original idea of mine!) I went looking and there were a few printer sites to choose from.  I opted for Shutterfly and was really happy with the product. My plan for the pictures was to have a similar background and use a few simple props or do silly poses to make them fun.  My son wasn't there when we took all the pictures so I used one I had of him from a while back.  I loved that it worked out that there was one black background one.  

This was really a lot of fun to do!  Here are the photos I ended up using.

The games come in sets of 12 photos (24 cards) which worked out perfectly for our family!

It was a gift for the youngest, but they all love playing with it! ♥

I hope this gets you thinking about how you could take photos to make a gift for a little one in your life!

Actually, I kind of want to have these photos printed and on the wall for myself!

Decorating Tip

We moved things around quite a bit this year when decorating. No plan at all, the kids all brought up boxes and got to decking and we switched things up. We wanted to move the junk tree, but trees take up so much room there aren't many places for them.  Then I thought why not leave off some branches and just put it right up against the wall? 

Now, I'm thinking they should actually sell half trees! More people would have room and less money for the tree.  One is probably available somewhere.

But of course, you make your own half tree by just leaving off branches.  Now my junk tree fits perfectly in a new space and doesn't obstruct the traffic through our dining room.

I thought maybe someone else could use this idea too.  I'm sure it's not original, but it was to us here.

You can see the original junk tree posts here and here.

Off for more baking, wrapping, scurrying....

Book Tree

You may have seen on Instagram my post about all of our Reader's Digest books.  I found more after I posted that! Sooo....there are somewhere around 145 books here.  Give or take. :) 

A few years ago we made a book tree on our fireplace mantle. 

I had no intention of a book tree when I gathered all of these Reader's Digest books together!

  The book tree we made a few years back took FOREVER. Mostly my son built it while I ran around looking for the right books.  

This was easier, but still a bit putzy.  Turns out it's not easy to make a circle with rectangles.  It's a geometry thing which apparently, I'm not as good at as I once thought. Ha!

Then I thought about ornaments.  And these book page people came to be! I developed them from the ornaments I designed for our 4h tree in 2012.  You can see that tree here.

I could have played with these readers for a long time! 

It was like playing with paper dolls, but better.

I have more ideas how I would like to make more of them.

But, it's hard to say if I'll get back to those ideas or not. 

Reading to my kids---favorite memories of mine.

Aren't the covers of these books wonderful?

The top of the tree is made from parts of two books with folded pages and then glued together.

Can you see yourself here at all?  Cozied up with a book?

I see my kids.♥

So now, my conundrum.  I was trying to free up space and get rid of these books.  Now.  I love this tree.  Do I box them back up so I can put this out again next year??  Do I just leave it up for a long time after Christmas and then move the books along??

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I hope your Advent is going well and that in the midst of book trials (tongue in cheek) you are finding space in your heart for the Christ child to be born into.