Category: crafts

Felt-tastic Necklaces

Happy New Years!!!! I hope everyone had a fantastically memorable New Years Eve. Mine was definitely memorable but not so much fantastic. We listened to a really horrible 70’s cover band (in TIGHT COSTUMES!) and watched a bunch of surprisingly limber, but incredibly inappropriate drunk old women dance. Next year, I’m not even going to try. I will be at my house, with my husband and my dog; which is always what I wish I was doing when I am out on New Years Eve.

Anyways. Back to felt. fantastic felt! felt-tastic.

Felt. I love this stuff! I’ve been hearing a lot about felting crafts in the past few years- it seems to be what all the cool kids are crafting these days- but, as usual, I am running a little bit behind with the “trends” and have only just fallen in love with felt! And fell hard!

So I thought I would share this felt flower necklace craft that I’ve adapted from a couple of different crafters….I love Martha Stewart’s fabric flower necklace and have unsucsessfully attempted it several times but my flowers don’t look anything like Martha’s. And I KNOW for a fact that I picked up the felt flowers from some creative and inspiring crafter on the internet but I cannot find the website for the life of me! I’ll add the links in when I find them.

Making the felt flowers are super easy. All you need are felt squares, which come in so many different bright and fun colors (Michael’s has them for $.29 per 8 x 11″ sheet), permanant marker, craft scissors, tacky glue (the clear kind works the best) and random circular objects of various sizes! They come in so many bright and fun colors too. Just trace various sized circular objects and cut them out.

The next step is cutting the felt circle by cutting in a circular spiralliing motion. Then, starting from the inside, with the smallest circle, overlap the layers to create wider and wider circles. Dab some clear tacky glue every once in a while on sections of the felt and then a dab of clue and the ending tip to keep it together.

Once you have a good amount of completed felt flowers, (as you can tell from the above pictures of my felt flowers, I got a little OCD and made way more felt flowers than is needed), then you need to make the base of the necklace. I’ve used a kidney bean shape to create a curve around the neck, but you can do anything really.

Using needle and thread, arrange the flowers and sew them onto the backing. I also threw in some

colorful beads.

Thanks to my beautiful friend Mary who was nice enough to be my felt-tastic model!

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DIY Holiday Idea: Glitter Reindeers!

Post author By Jess Ross Creative
Post date December 12, 2011
No Comments on DIY Holiday Idea: Glitter Reindeers!

13 days until Christmas! YAY! Anywhooo…I made these three reindeers for under $15.00 total and so can you! All you need is:

* tacky glue
* 3 wooden reindeers or other Christmasy wooden pieces ($3.00 a piece at Michael’s)
* 1 canister of glitter
* ribbon/string to hang

First, simply cover your reindeer with tacky glue ( I did mine in sections so that the glue wouldn’t dry before I covered it with the glitter) and then sprinkle generous amounts of glitter onto the glue. Of course, remember to place paper under your reindeer so glitter doesn’t cover your floors (Being as I am a messy person, even with paper, my floors are still sparkling).
After, applying the glitter, let the reindeer dry overnight or at least for a few hours. When you pick them up to finish them after they have dried, give them a good shake, to let the extra glitter off onto the paper and not your floors (I learned this the hard way).
Then, I used wire and a glue gun to make little loops to thread the ribbon through, but you can glue the ribbon directly to the back of the reindeer…it will save you time.

Finally, hang out reindeer in a viewable place and when people comment on how great they are…you can brag about how you made them for $15.00.

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A Student’s Artwork: Our Classroom Tree House

Post author By Jess Ross Creative
Post date November 26, 2011
No Comments on A Student’s Artwork: Our Classroom Tree House

I was so touched by this 2nd grader’s drawing that I scanned it into my computer and want to get a professional copy of it framed….

At the beginning of the year, the students wrote about their “Ideal Tree houses” for a creative writing lesson. They all really loved writing about their dream tree houses and included some pretty cool stuff (lots of slides, elevators, swimming pools, hidden rooms, ect) and one student took it a step further and drew a tree house that had a room for every student and teacher in it!

When I saw it, I almost teared up (I’m a big softie), because I figured, being a teacher, my room would be extra small and tucked away in a corner, far from all the fun stuff. BUT, lo and behold, ole’ Mrs. Sheffy had not one but TWO of her own rooms….one was for living in and the second (the one that really got me) was my own art studio!
My living room is the first room to the right of the ladder, as you are climbing from the bottom up..titled “Mrs. S.” (I love it, I’m Mrs. S!) and then my art gallery is on the same level but all the way to the right..titled “Mrs. S art gallery” in smooshed letters…its kind of small, but thats okay, art galleries don’t have to be big! Here is a close up shot…

I love working with this age of kids because they are such big dreamers and (most) see the best in each other still and I thought it was so wonderful, I wanted to get a group hug and stand in a circle holding hands singing the Barney song or something… (okay, no not really, but still)….just wanted to share.

Also, I am thinking of adapting her artwork into an art lesson, I think it would be really cool. So creative and sweet.

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It’s (almost) the Most Wonderful Tiiiiiiiime of the Year!

Post author By Jess Ross Creative
Post date November 2, 2011
No Comments on It’s (almost) the Most Wonderful Tiiiiiiiime of the Year!

oh yay. my husband and I have this debate every year at this time….when is it okay to put up Christmas decorations? We figure we have to at least get through Halloween.

So…..November 1st?

I know, I know, it is getting ridiculous, but I love the Holiday Season. I think besides the standard reasons to like Christmas (building a snowman, lighting the fire, drinking hot chocolate, spending time with loved ones) I love it because there is so much fun stuff for me to DO! Making gifts, wrapping them, DECORATIONS!

And I have a REALLY good excuse to make a mess b.c. if anyone loves Christmas more than me it’s my husband: “But babe, it’s a Christmas decoration!”

I’ve already got a list going of Christmas DIY ideas and if I can’t put them up on November 1st, I can at least start making them, right? RIGHT??

I love anything that incorporates branches! I found this on pinterest but unfortunately it didn’t have a credit. I think I’ve seen it in a decorating magazine (like that narrows it down)

This is from the amazing website craftaholicsanonymous.com, you can go there for decorations. I was thinking of doing the pom poms out of tissue paper, but then it couldn’t go outside…hmmmm decisions, decisions!

This lovely craft comes from Craftynest.com. I love how simple it looks but it makes a big statement, and I think I could do something like this with the kids in my art class!

This beautiful Christmas mantle and garland comes from Dottie Angel’s Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dottieangel/5212171753/ if this is her home….I am AMAZED and jealous.

another easy ornament idea from greatgreengoods.com.

I LOVE this DIY idea! It is just the the project I could get obsessed with…time consuming but so cute! Hmm….maybe I’ll start on this one first. from hiphiphoorayblog.com

any diy projects you can’t wait to get started on?

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where have i been??

okay, laugh if you want…but this weekend I found out about A.T.C’s for the first time ever! I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get it in on this wondrous artistic movement. Maybe this is old news to you but A.T.C’s (or Artist’s Trading Cards) are these lovely little baseball card sized pieces of artwork that artists then trade with friends, family and artists around the globe!

Here are just a few of some the amazing cards I found and love:

by http://www.flickr.com/photos/lubsy1/

an incredible way to organize cards via http://ramblingrose.typepad.com/journal/sprapodex/

via http://www.flickr.com/photos/cadjoo73/

The only rule to A.T.C’s are that they must be 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ in size. But that’s it. I stumbled upon ATCs while I was looking for some good art lessons for an after school art club curriculum I am putting together for 2nd through 4th graders. I found an art lesson on the subject of ATC’s on Dick Blick’s website: http://www.dickblick.com/lesson-plans/atc-artist-trading-cards/ (They have so many amazing art lessons). After looking over the lesson and getting excited about the idea….I then googled ATCs and it was like a hidden (or I guess not so hidden) world of ATC artists, galleries, international swaps, ideas, ect. Needless to say, I spent about 6 hours glued to my laptop (nothing new there I guess) and then another 6 hours trying to make some samples…and I am hooked. HOOKED!

And of course, you didn’t think I could spend so much time falling in love with these things without trying some out for myself…so here are my first attempts at ATC cards:

So…if you are interested here are some websites that I found along the way…..

http://www.your-decorative-painting-resource.com/artist-trading-cards.html

http://unplugyourkids.com/2009/08/17/artist-trading-cards-pocket-art/

http://www.yourtherapysource.com/files/artist_trading_cards_lesson_plan.pdf

http://www.artjunction.org/atcs.php

http://www.ucarts.com/atc.htm

Also, if you are interested in a swap or know of any swaps I would LOVE to be apart of that. Also, probably in the spring of 2012, I will have a group of elementary aged kids who would love to swap with other kids (preferabbly not in Illinois).

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new blog!

hello!

I just wanted to share that I have started a new blog for DIY Decorating Projects….If you are at all interested come on over and share your ideas, tips and projects. http://ohappydiy.blogspot.com/

Here’s a taste of what you will find….

how to make this beautiful wall art project

AND

This one too!! Just click here: http://ohappydiy.blogspot.com/

Just click here….

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Art Projects for kids.

just a quick post.

Found this amazing blog called: http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/

Not only does the blogger list some of the most creative, yet simple and easy to follow FREE art projects for kids..she also has mural templates for sale for $5.00. She has large and mini mural templates such as:

Van Gogh’s Starry Night

Kandinsky’s Circles

and my personal favorite, the Matisse inspired mural.