DIY Christmas Candles

This year I'm trying to be good and stick to a budget on decorations. Last year we spent the extra monthly fund on a tree and stuff we needed for the house, this year I'm seeing how much I can make on my own. 

These one here is another Dollar Tree Win! I bought 2 packs of small bells (comes with 9) and 4 tall white candles in jars. Had some extra hemp laying around the house cause I'm always doing something with it and a hot glue gun. 

First parts, tying the tiny stings to the bells and making them ornaments, if I were to this this again I would just buy those hooks they sell for ornament hanging. 

Took all 18 and placed them on a dowel outside and spray painted them with the bronze looking color. 

I'm in love with Hammered Metal Dpray Paint by the way. I use the black on everything (look back to my lamp revamp post to see it there too) Aftet the bronze dried u stepped back and lightly sprayed black on top to give it a more rusty look.

There were pretty of tutorials that shows your how to rust them but I didn't want to deal with the chemicals or really wait for it and this gave me the desired color and finish.

While waiting for those to dry I went upstairs and started wrapping hemp around the candles and securing the end with hot glue. 

I wanted to add alittle more Christmas to these so I ran across the street and trimmed some branches of some really overgrown tree. 

Cut alittle here and then alittle there and glued the ends to the hemp. 

Then I glued the bells and just wrapped a tiny bit more hemp around the top to hide the glue. I think they are awesome. Came out with super rustic Christmas vibes! 👍🏼 goal achieved. 

(Will post finished project soon, got dark when I was making these) 

DIY Gourd Birdhouse

Okay, today I'm cleaning up some old gourds from my friend garden from last years crop. You really have to let gourds dry out before you start working with them. 

And FIY some will look like they have some rot to them but it's just there colors, others are rotten, just gently push againsts the discoloration with your finger, it's it's soft and bends inward alittle it has already started, you can still use these, some I put the hole the the entrance of the birdhouse. 

First we're going to wash them, this helps loosen up that dry outer skin that's going to need to come off. 

Then I used some of Billy's medium grit sand paper and these sponges I found from the dollar store. I love these sponges they work great and have a nice nail guard and grip on them. 

Most of it comes right off with the green part of the sponge. I had to alternate scrubbing and spraying it with the hose here and there do get chunks of skin off. 

And now we sand down the rough spots and the extra hard parts of the skin that wouldn't come off with the sponge. 

So naturally pretty, I couldn't imagine sanding them. 

Here I missed taking a few pictures. I took a screw gun and I don't know what it's called but I attacked the head to it that drills whole. This is using a 1 inch diameter drill. Then using just a normal drill bit. Drilled a whole underneath the big one for the perch and then drilled a few on the bottom for water drainage. Also one of the top and strung zip ties through them. 

Here I used three different colors of wood polish and used a cloth to rub it in. You can use stain which I would probably recpmmend using but this is what I had at my house at the moment and was impatient and wanted to finish these that night. 

I let them dry for about 3 days. And let the polish rely soak in. Even after a few days thru still feel greasy to the touch but I just wiped them down with paper towels. 

Took them out side and hung them up using hemp.  

I love them, I feel like I couldn't hang enough of them. 

We had a branch fall on the corner of the fence last year but when we went to move it in the spring it stayed strong and grew so we left it. It process a cute shaded corner anyways! 

Please note it can take a few years for birds to take to any type of bird house. Leave hair from you comb and strings out on your branches or fences to let them pick and play with it and help encourage best building. 

Revamped Lamps

THESE BEAUTIES!!! Have been sitting in our house collecting dust! They are ugly in every sense of the word! These were given to my mother in-law after we moved out by her mother, and she just though they were so ugly she'd give them to me and she'll just buy knew ones.... Fucking awesome! Now I'm stuck with the ugly lamps and grandma knows it, so now I have to keep them until she kicks the bucket. Well a year goes buy and I just felt it was time, I have extra spray paint and some nice weather, let's do this!

Look at these!! Hideous! And thank god the texture was on the inside because I'm just not sure how these would have looked. 

So here I just hit it with some thin layers of Hammered Metal spray paint by Rustolium that I had used on a lamp a few weeks ago, give it skittle texture. And it's kind of a semi matte look which I kinda liked. 

Added just a thin layer of just your average black spray paint from Rustolium and let that dry. 

There! Looks a little bit better, right? Half way there, now those lamp shades. I was planning on getting some new ones but I had some hemp in front of me so I thought, hmmm well worst comes to worst I'll buy new ones like I was planning on anyways. 

And I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with the results! So much better then that ugly purple mess! 

Any questions feel free to ask! 

DIY Scrabble Tile Coasters

Well let's start with a game called Scrabble. For this project, I ended up using two game boards. One was really old and from my in-laws and the other one I unfortunately had to purchase. If you had more time to hunt, ask around! I guarantee you most of your friends and family have an old board laying around, even if it's missing a few letters it's better then buying them. Also these games are little pricier now adays. 

So I just started off by laying out some letters, I looked on Pinterest and looked up a couple of word ideas and then made up a few on my own. You could totally make these bigger if you wanted to. 

Next was cork board, I went to Lowes and got a 4 pack of 12x12 cork board sheets. These were pretty hard to find actually. So when looking, look in the section where you would buy collage dorm room stuff. I was originally looking for just a cheap roll but I couldn't spot any and actually had to go to two stores just to find this stuff. 

Get good glue! I've used this glue on so many projects, from jewelry making, to cork board coasters!

Sharpen your exacto knifes, it'll make this go way smoother so you don't have those weird cork chunks and flakes. 

Unfortunately, I need just a few more letters to complete my set, they don't have you to many M's, but here's mine. Endless possibilities for lettering.

So grab some cardboard or an old shirt and bring these guys outside. Time to Shellac! I probably did about 3 or 4 coats, they seemed to absorb quickly. 

 

And tadaa!! I'll figure out how rotate this picture in later but you all get the idea! 

Tag me in your cork coaster designs! 

2 Minute Microwave Cookie

So while scavenging Pinterest all day and everyday with any spare time I have now because I have become obsessed, we came across a pin about a 2 Minute Microwavable Cookie. We'll my husband loves cookies so I got his ass up and made him learn how to cook one. And I gotta say I think this recipe might need a tad bit refining. 

The recipe was found on http://recipesweet.net/2-minute-chocolate-chip-cookie-for-one/

Her/His pictures and cookie came out perfect of course, mine... We'll I'll let you be the judge!

All my chocolate chip cookies fell to the bottom so here's what it looked like flipped.

We'll definitely be trying this recipe again, my husband said it wasn't bad it just tasted more like a pancake cake, so he covered it in maple syrup and whipped cream! 

Ingredients

1. 2 tbsp (3O grams) unsalted butter,softened
2. 1 1/2 tbsp (2O grams) white granulated sugar.
3. 1 1/2 tbsp (2O grams) brown sugar.
4. 2 tbsp (3Oml) beaten egg
5. 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
6. 5 tbsp (60 grams) all purpose flour
7. 1/4 tsp baking soda
8. pinch salt
9. 1/4 cup (40 grams) chocolate chips

Cook for 2 minutes or slightly less depending on your wattage of microwave. 

-Clam

Welcome Welcome

Well well what do we have here? Yes, it's another DIY blogger joining the community! Here I will be posting, well, a little bit of everything! My husband and I recently bought our first house, an 1892 Victorian.

Eh, eh, it was a pretty get lucky buy!

Anyways it's time to become addicted to Pinterest and start saving some money finding good tips and trick. Stay tuned to see how the New House comes along and see what other fun projects I'm working on! 

If anyone is interested in Makeup Reviews, Product Reviews or Eye Looks please visit my other blog NarleysZone.blogspot.com or visit me on Instagram @narleyszone

-Clam 

Yup that's my name!