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*** Please excuse my terribly bland and awkward blog appearance. I'm working hard on making it look pretty . . . it's QUITE time consuming!! ***

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

FAH-bulous Halloween Countdown Calendar!!!

Ok ... I was perusing ETSY the other day for inspiration. I'm not the only one who does that right??!! Well, I came across this beauty ...


click here for source

I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, but I wasn't loving the $65 price tag!! I knew I could make it for nothing, since I already had everything on hand.

I started with an 8 x 10 frame that I had lying around and I sanded it a bit and gave him a few coats of pumpkin orange paint. Once the orange was dry I gave him a few coats of black gloss spray paint. Waited a few hours and then lightly sanded the edges and corners so the orange would peek through.


This started out as a plain white 12 x 12 embossed piece of cardstock. I inked the edges and all over with orange and black ink.


I used some black and white, and orange scrapbook paper to give some more layers and texture. I decided it needed a little more, so I glued some rhinestones down the side.

That was the easy part ... what I did next took A LOOOONG time, like a few hours :( but only because I'm a perfectionist :)

I made 31 cards, one for each day of the countdown.

The first 30 cards are white with black numbers, and the 31st card is black with white. I used my CRICUT and SCAL to cut out every number and all of the little embellishments. That's what took so long, because I had to pick out the fonts and search the web for the little embellishments. I continued the inked edges on each of the cards as well. The embellishments are bats, a cat and a moon, a crow, skulls with rhinestone eyes, polka dots and random Halloween-ish words.


I used a plain binder clip to hold all the cards.

I tied some coordinating ribbons and a boa to the clip and added another rhinestone ;)


I cut the point off a white thumbtack and hot glued it to the paper. I can't decide if I want to mod podge all of this to the glass or not. So, right now, it's just sitting in front of the glass in the frame.


After I started taking pictures of the finished project I realized that I wanted to add a little something more. So, I added another little rhinestone eyed skeleton to a round metal ringed tag and hung it on the clip.


Here she is all dressed up and ready to strut her stuff!!


I wanted to have the option to hang it on the wall as well, so I added this ribbon and made the bow and attached a few feathers with a bottle cap and a little rhinestone.


After I made the bow to hang on the wall I thought it would be cute on the frame and I'm not gonna lie, I dig it this way too!! So many different options!!!

So, my finished project is a bit different from the inspiration piece. But considering it cost me NOTHING, I'm not going to complain. Beside, my cards are all hand inked and each number and embellishment is cut out and glued on. The original cards are machine printed, they are GORGEOUS but mine are a bit more personal :)

Anyway, let me know what you think. And if you are diggin' this beauty as much as I do, its in my ETSY store!!!!


I'm linking up to these AWESOME partays!!!

Make it Yours @ My Backyard Eden


CreativeShareWednesdays




Show and Tell Green




Show Us What You're Workin' With #26!!

I have a FABULOUS Halloween project to show you, but I don't want to muck up this post with 48 pictures of my project, so I will do it in a separate post!!

Let's get down to it!!!




Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Show Us What You're Workin' With #25

GUESS WHAT??!! The ETSY store is FINALLY up and running!!! Can I get a WOOT-WOOT!!! Holy Moly though, I forgot how much work and time it takes to get the store up and going and to post every item!! I only have a few things up now, but I'm staying up for a while tonight so I can get some more done. Check it out and tell me what you think!! Click here to go directly to my store or the addy is: meandmybucket.etsy.com ... original right??

NOW, LET'S PARTY!!!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Time-Out Stool

A few weeks ago our ward had a "Swap Meet". Members dropped off stuff they no longer had a need for and you could go and pick up whatever you wanted, FREE OF CHARGE!!! It started at 8:00 am, so I made sure to be there at 8 SHARP!!! I got some pretty good stuff, I will do another post about that later today :), One of my finds was a little wooden stool. As soon as I saw it, I knew what I would use it for.

I have no idea what happened to the before pic :( but it wasn't anything fabulous. The wood was in good shape, I just needed to recover the cushion with some new fabric. Once I took the old fabric off, I noticed the cushion was in good shape so I just added a new layer of batting, for a bit more cush. Once again, I have no idea where the pics are!!! It's pretty easy though :)

I wanted the stool to be as boring looking to Bucket as possible. I didn't want him to think it was a new toy, but I still wanted it to be cohesive with the decor in the house ... I went through my fabric and settled on burlap. What kid thinks burlap is cool? It's unfortunate really, because this momma LOVES it!!!


I laid it out under the cushion and cut it about 3 inches wider all the way around. Then I found the center and marked it with a pin.


I made the cover using the same technique I used for my silhouette pillows, click here to check it out!!! I used some scrap duck cloth and cut it down to size then pressed under the edges to give a nice clean seam.


Using my Cricut and SCAL I cut out "TIME OUT" using freezer paper. Then I adhered the paper to the duck cloth ***directions are on the box*** then I used a stencil brush and brown paint. Once the paint was dry I centered the duck cloth over the center (make sure to remove the pin) and then sewed it on using a 1/4" seam allowance on all four sides.



I used my staple gun to attach the burlap to the cushion, reattached it and VOILA!!! Super easy and FREE!!!

And in case you were wondering, I haven't used it yet, and I'm not sure when I will. I know he is probably still a bit too young to start the whole time out thing, I don't know, maybe he isn't. What are your feelings/suggestions about it?

Once again, sorry for the lack of pics ... I am clueless as to where they disappeared too ... Let me know if you have any questions!!!

P.S. Meg, over at A Little Knick Knack, is hosting her first ever linky party, Everything But The Kitchen Sink!!! I'm linking up over there, and you should all go over there and show her some love!!!

A Little Knick Knack

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Show Us What You're Workin' With #24!!

It's time for another party!! Last week we had 100 links!!! WOO-HOO!!! Thank you for everyone for your help in making this party successful week after week!!!

I have a super cute and easy "Time-Out" stool that I will be posting later tonight, so check back!!! And also, I'm still planning on getting an ETSY shop up and running, I'm finalizing all the items that I want to sell and I will have it up by the end of the week. I will let you know when it's ready!!!

Thanks for coming and have fun!!!!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Show Us What You're Workin' With #23!!

Welcome!! Welcome!! Welcome!! This is the 23rd party and I still can't believe it!!! You all are awesome!! Thank you SOOO much for coming back every week and supporting 'lil old me and my bucket ;) For those of you that are just joining us, WELCOME, we are glad you came!!!

We reached 100 partiers last week!!! I was so excited!!! Let's see if we can hit 101 this week!!!

Show Us What You're Workin' With!!!!!


Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Show Us What You're Workin' With #22!!

HELLO!!!! Once again, as always, another week has FLOWN by!!! Seriously, it seems like just yesterday I was sitting down getting last weeks party started. SHEESH!!! I'm glad you all are here and I'm excited to see what you have.

I've decided to stop doing a project with the weekly party. I feel like it just gets in the way of you linking up your projects. I'm trying to decide if I want to do a feature post with this party or just the party and let you go at it!! I guess we'll see how this week goes.

With that being said ... SHOW US WHAT YOU'RE WORKIN' WITH!!!!