Halloween is Almost Here!

Ahh Labor Day Weekend is upon us.  Now for most folks that is a sad time but not for us crafters!  Fall is the beginning of the holiday season and that means handmade decor for your home.  The first is Halloween.  As I recently began doing clothespin wreaths I made two so far.

Spring clothespins

 This is sooo easy to make.......get a Mod Podge to attach.  I then cut a circle and hot glued the pins to the form.  I then made paper flowers and attached with some favorite Haloween creatures like spiders and bats from Michaels and Voila!  The most time consuming part is cutting and gluing.  But it really does't take that long.

Dollpins

This wreath came out so fun!  I handpainted dollpins from Joann Fabrics in black, green  purple (I glittered just the purple ones).  I used an embroidery hoop (just the inner ring) and a piece of cardboard for the part that the pins stand on.  I painted the ring purple glitter and the cardboard black and purple.  When everything dried I placed the dollpins on the cardboard and hot glued them in place.  I hand cut the letters on my scrollsaw and painted them cream with orange, black and purple dots.  Here is a tip for the perfect polka dot..use the eraser end of a pencil.  Dip it in the paint and press down.  Perfect dots everytime.

I made a bow from black glitter ribbon and aded a spunky glittery spider!

Two great wreath projects for your door!

Trick or Treat!!

Hope someone makes a version of these and posts it on here.  Would love to see yours!

Talk soon, Diane

Keeping Organized in the Craft Room!

So here is a great idea for all you paper crafters!  I have a multitude of paper punches and had them in a box.  When I needed one..forget it.....So I was roaming around Bed, Bath and Beyond and found an over the door shoe hanger!  Fits my most used punches and since the pockets are clear I can see what I need at a glance.  I have to tell you this had made my crafting life soooo much easier.  They are inexpensive and work for any crafting item.

Morning all!  It has been a rainy few days, perfect for crafting!  I have seen some beautiful clothespin wreaths with tulle and I am attempting to learn to do that.  I was hot gluing the fabric to my mdf wreath form without the best results (especially my burned fingers!) and in the middle of the night, as usually happens, I thought of using a staple gun.  I will hunt up the staples and try it today.  I will let you know how that works.

As like any crafter, I have many projects in process.  I am also going to get started on crocheting a water bottle holder for my husband.  I have been crocheting for a few years but really haven't gone much past the scarf stage.  Hmmm scarves in Florida.......go figure.

Well I'll post after my staple gun adventure!

Bye for now.

Diane

Welcome to my Creative World

Hi and welcome to my crafts blog!  I have been crafting a long time and so enjoy looking at other craft blogs and thought, Wow, I would love to share my creations with the world!  And so you have The Loaded (Glue) Gun!

I live in the most beautiful place you can, Tampa Bay, Florida.  So you know I have access to a plethora of great shells.

Beautiful,  Honeymoon Island Beach in Dunedin Florida.  Shells are plentiful and there are so many different kinds you can make unending things.

Wall decor

 Here are two items I have made with some local shells.  I like to use items from thrift shops to create my shell stuff.  The blue BEACH Sign is a candle sconce I found at Goodwill.  It was wood with a mirror and a candle cup and ledge (if that is the word for it) that you would put a taper candle in.  I removed the mirror, painted it this wonderful beachy teal color and arranged my shells on it.  I then printed the BEACH letters with my inkjet printer and voila.  I also did a matching one with RELAX.  This is proudly displayed in my friend Marcetta's Gulf front home!

These are more shells from Honeymoon Island as well as Nokomis Beach, Venice Beach and Anna Maria Island.  My hubby and I spent our honeymoon (yup, we are newlyweds) beachcombing for shells all along Florida's Gulf coast beaches.

Now in case you think I am the only crafty one in the family, my Husband also whips up fun and whimsical shell creatures.

These are flowers made of shells!  I just think they are so cute.

This sign is made from old fencing someone on AMI was tossing.  We stopped and picked it up and made some great signs for our pool deck. I know it is hard to see.  I stencilled SEAS THE DAY in while paint and added our shells.

And this is also using the shells we found.  We got a small round mirror at Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store, a silver charger from Michael's and some of those glass stones you put in vases and made a wonderful wall mirror for our pool bath!






I hope you enjoyed my first blog post!  And also hope this gave some inspiration to any of you who have all those shells and want to do something special with them.

See you soon!

Diane