Month: July 2014

Driftwood Jewelry Organizer

Driftwood Jewelry Organizer

Hello World,

I love the beach. Having sand between my toes, sun on my skin, and a beach bag full of found treasures makes me happy as a clam at high tide. Because I don’t live near an ocean, I collect rocks and driftwood instead of sea shells. (Fun Fact- I have never found a whole sand dollar, only bits and pieces. The Pacific Ocean is rough on those guys!)

Back to my driftwood collection- I have long ones displayed in a vase, other interesting ones decorating my shelves, and then a pile of make-something-with-mes sitting outside. Well, I finally put a little dent in that pile, and made two jewelry organizers:

Driftwood Jewelry Organizer

1. Gather your supplies: clean driftwood, screw-in hooks, a clear sealant (spray paint or polyurethane), acrylic paint, paint brush, stapler, staples, rope, and scissors.

2. If you want to decorate your driftwood, paint a design and allow it to dry.

3. Seal your driftwood and allow it to dry. This will make it darker and slightly glossy, but it will preserve it. (Note- be careful with woodworm. My piece of driftwood had shallow surface bites on it, but I kept it outside for months (away from other wood), where it could cook in the hot sun. When it doubt, throw it out or insecticide it.)

4. Screw your hooks into your wood. I followed the flow of my driftwood instead of placing them in a straight line.

5. Staple two short pieces of rope to the back of your wood- one on each end. This is how you will hang it. (You’ll probably notice that my wood is bright orange on the backside. This is because I sawed the back of it off, so it would be flush with the wall.)

6. Hang and enjoy!

driftwoodjewelry4

Driftwood Jewelry Organizer

 

For my second jewelry organizer, I used a flatter piece of driftwood and painted a more basic design.

Happy Crafting!

Fresh Cherry & Lemonade Muffins

Fresh Cherry & Lemonade Muffins

Hello World,

Back in the homesteading days, my now neighborhood was farm land full of fruit trees. Many of the fruit trees were removed to make room for homes and such, but my yard still has a few fruit trees. I have apple, pear, plum, quince, and cherry trees, that all look so beautiful when they bloom in the spring! As it is cherry season, I recently picked some and decided to switch it up and make something besides a pie.

I searched online, and found this recipe to make cherry lemonade donuts. I didn’t have a donut pan, so I went shopping to find one in my city. I looked for one at Target, Walmart, T.J.Maxx, and Ross. I didn’t find one, but I wouldn’t say I came back empty handed, because that is near impossible for me to do in Target (the clearance end caps get me almost every time!). Instead of buying a pan online, I used some silicon muffins pans I already had. I slightly modified the original recipe, and they turned out great!

Fresh Cherry & Lemonade Muffins

Head on over to Inside BruCrew Life for the full recipe. For my muffins, I used fresh cherries, and powdered lemonade concentrate. And since I used silicon muffin pans, I baked them for 18-20 minutes (original recipe said 10-12 minutes).

Have you baked anything delicious with cherries lately? If so, share a link in the comment section below!

DIY Floral Letter

DIY Floral Letter

Hello World,

Want to know why I love DIY-ing so much? It’s an affordable and fun way to create items that are totally custom to your unique style! I love projects that I can make while watching a movie. Today’s project is just that! I had everything except the fake flowers in my craft stash, so this project only cost me $3.00 to make.

Check out the tutorial below:

DIY Floral Letter

1. Gather your supplies: fake flowers (I bought mine at Dollar Tree), cardboard, scissors, a writing utensil, and an adhesive. I took a photo of e6000, but didn’t want to wait for it to dry, so I switched to hot glue at the last minute.

2. Draw out your letter on your cardboard and cut it out.

3. Pop the leaves and flowers off of your fake floral stems.

4. Cover your letter with a base layer of the fake leaves. Glue each of them in place.

5. Glue your large flowers to the letter.

6. Continue gluing flowers to your letter until it is nice and full. I also glued some vintage-style keys to mine.

7. Prop on a shelf or glue some string to the back so you can hang it. And enjoy!

DIY Floral Letter

This could be a cute project to do with your initials, a decorative monogram, or an entire word.

Happy Crafting!