The Evolution of an Idea

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Back in March my niece asked me to write something for her blog... I WAS CLUELESS, but I had a SUDDENLY....  I mentioned it here, but I doubt many folks actually went to see what I said so I figure I can load it up here for today.  If you have already seen this, just ignore

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We'll call this... "The Evolution of An Idea" ... because this really is how I get most of my ideas!...and why I think its silly to have a clean house! 


And it all started with this....

Yup, that's right, I dropped the whole thing on the floor!  OH JOY!  Yet another mess that needs cleaning up!   As I was sweeping and about to dump it in the trash I had the thought... "WAIT, you can use it in a can to hold up pencils!"  So I grabbed the ever-ready can and filled it up.

  

I looked at it and just had a "ho-hum" feeling about it at which point I looked down and saw a jar ....

And EUREKA!  My idea was born!  I would make a "Hidden Treasure Container!"  Cool!


To work!


I've never made one, or seen one made so it took 3 times videoing the steps because I was just "winging it".


Here is what we will be making:

A place to hide your treasures!

(Important note!  REMEMBER where you hide it!!!  I honestly lost all of my diamond jewelry for TWELVE years by hiding it when we went on vacation!  It took a fire gutting my house and the Holy Spirit directing my steps to find it!  Talk about a God story!  I'll have to write about that on my other blog: Life Lessons)

Anyway, anyway...seeeeee.... FOCUS!

What you will need: 

• A Jar
• Popcorn or Beans or Rice
• A container that will fit inside your jar (I used a Dr Pepper can)..it could be a paper/plastic cup, a toilet paper roll, whatever.
• Glue
• Scissors (NOT your momma's fabric scissors!!!)
• A label (Included as a FREEBIE! click HERE)
• Something to pour with
• Something pointed if you are using a can (missing from picture)

Now, go make you some popcorn, grab a Dr Pepper .... sit back and relax ...  I'll do the work for you now...


Enjoy the show!

What I did next, after my battery died, was add a few more kernels in the wet glue..so that even if it turns over nothing but the treasure is going to fall out. 

OH!  And I added the label... I printed mine on 8.5" x 11" label paper, but you can print on regular paper and use your favorite glue to glue it down.


Lessons learned....(and the reason I had to tape 3 times):

• The first time I opened a can that I had not washed out as soon as I finished drinking it...you can't tell that until you have cut the can open, so be sure and wash your can out ASAP if you think you may use it.  (I have a few more ideas for drink cans coming up so you may want to start your collection now.) Yes, you can wash it after its open but there is a little groove in the bottom that catches all the sticky, that groove is hard to get that clean, especially with the sharp edges of the cut can.
• The second time I had to stop because I had not made the can short enough...That's what happens when you don't measure first.  You want the can to be just below the neck of the jar.

OK then, I hope you enjoyed watching me learn and an idea evolve.  That was fun!  




PS.  A PLASTIC Dr. Pepper bottle would have been A LOT easier and I could have put it on the Recycle blog!

And They're Baaaaaack.....

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That's right, but this time they are disguised as "CANDY BULBS"!!!

Cleaned Out Light bulb + Dr. Pepper Bottle Cap = Candy Bulbs

All ready for the quick gift in need!

Check out the top, YUP, our trusty ole Dr. Pepper Top!  YES it does screw on!  HA!! 

 And, if that writing on the bottom of the bulb and top of the bottle top bothers you as much as it does me.... then I have a little tip for ya!

Drum rooooooollllllll......

I LOVE THE MAGIC ERASER!!!  Takes that print right off :-)

And the tag is probably self explanatory but here are some shots anyway...

1. Cut thread, fold in half and put the loop through the hole

2. Slip the loop over the cap

3. Pull it tight and tie a bow

Make a good supply of them and have the ready to grab as you run out the door to lunch with a friend..... for the friend and/or the server.  I actually thought about having some ready with a dollar bill rolled up inside a clear straw and stuck down inside with the candy :-)... but I'm not so certain they would love just one dollar and I don't have a surplus of more just lying around waiting to be given out!  That's what cash cards are for.

If you missed my first post on using a cleaned out light bulb, that is HERE.

The Rest of the Story...

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Last week you guys helped me

 out with what to do about my

friend's sweatshirt.... this is what 

I ended up doing with it...

because I had to agree with Pat,

 I wouldn't want someone staring at it long enough to figure out what it said!  I THOUGHT the color I was using was more gray than blue, but up against the gray it looks totally blue!

And then I moved on... I have THREE nieces going to LSU right now!  And two more that are LSU crazy so I figured I would be safe doing this one... out of five girls, somebody is gonna want it!

Just so you know, my "model" insisted that her head be cropped :-)  she wasn't "camera" ready.

OH! The sweat shirts are for sale, any letters, up to 6 letters = $15 HERE

Think early Christmas shopping

Email me, at nancy@myfathershands.com

or I'm gonna add it to my store in a minute.

And, one more thing, you know I never go to lunch with a friend empty handed so when my model and I decided to go eat I threw some vinyl polka dots on my bulb and tied an already made heart string and was ready to roll in 5 minutes!  Gotta love having all the parts made ready for throw together :-) The hearts helped make the red bottom make sense. 

Precious In His Sight

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Nothing else to post today so here you go ... I did two drawings for Polly Wolly today, this is one. 

I was looking at a GORGEOUS little girl's picture on the internet.... so that big clump of loops on the left side of her head are petals of some kind of silk flowers...you couldn't make out an actual flower, just big loopy looking petals.  I didn't want to color them so its hard to know what they are here.

OH! and no, it doesn't look like her, I wish.

This One Makes Me Giggle :-)

One day, a couple months ago, I was "out on the web" and saw some hanging flowers in emptied, recycled light bulbs!    I FELL in LOVE!  But it was hanging in a shop without instructions.  So I did a search on how to clean them out and found a "How To" on TeamDroid.... And I went about claiming all the burnt out lights in the house (I have TONS) and started cleaning those babies out!  So, now I have a lot of cleaned out light bulbs, but what do I want to do with them?  TeamDroid had used theirs for a little terrarium ...cute, but I didn't love the little contraption they had made to sit it on, and I knew I didn't want to hang them, so that was out. 

I wanted it to stand straight up!  

Welllllll, last night I had a AH HA! moment!

Here you go...

LOOK WHAT I USED!!!! 

I KNEW I was saving them for a reason!  One more bottle recycle thing! (insert giggling here)  I LOVE MY LIFE!!!!


I just used white glue to glue it on... now, I will probably paint it another color to use for real...you know this was just a prototype.  Actually, a lot of water bottles have a simi-clear top and the ring is smaller...better yet!

Putting it All Together

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This morning I was digging through a drawer looking for something I needed and found these:  I LOVE these things, but never really use them...

Until today.... 


Not long after I started this blog I showed how to make fabric yo-yos  and a few days later I was crocheting flowers.  But I had ZERO clue what I was going to do with either one... until this morning!!!


I made gift tags!

I just put the yo-yo and flower together with a decorative brad then glued that down to the store bought tag.  Oh, I did change the string out with a piece of black jute, because you know I love black!

FINALLY!!!


This is why I sit and make things all day long with no clue how I'm going to use them... the idea always comes.

I NEED Your Opinion!

I woke up this morning and decided to start making Christmas presents!  And I started with this sweatshirt.  I need your opinion... I wanted subtle, but is this too subtle?  Should I stick with the white, changed it to a gray that's a little darker, or go on and do black?  PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!  I'm leaving it on the hoop until I get some input...I can restitch as long as I don't move it too much.  OH! and I will be add a few crystals...gotta have that bling!

You can let me know in the comment section or on the poll to the right >>>

... (it didn't let me add a blank for "other" so please leave a comment if that is your answer)  Another reason I'm asking is to see how the Poll function works :-)

In case you are having a hard time making it out....

Lileth (link to free download) is the font...I've just decided I really love it....I've had it forever just never thought about using it for anything until I started quilling again .... that's what I was trying to copy when I made this.  Again, don't be too critical, it hasn't been glued down and forced into shape...it is just sitting on top of a piece of paper right now....until I figure out what to do with it.

I Wanted Puffy Hearts!

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Looky what I "won" on Ebay tonight.... I always use quotes since you really don't win anything...paying is required!  But, I did get it for a good price..$13.50+.  It is normally $40+ so I'm happy!

I fell in love with little red felt hearts when I had to make gifts for a conference that had hearts as the theme....

Thing is, I had to cut all that I needed BY HAND!!!  NOT fun!  Stitching and stuffing them is enough!  So, I went in search of a die and found this one:, and bought it about a month ago.

I actually like the primitive heart better BUT, it is smaller than it appears :-(  I can't stuff them :-(.  They are cute, and I'm glad to have it, but....  I can't make them puffy :-(  ...  I used them here:

And yesterday I glued some to some black jute cord to be ready for the next need:

I can't wait to get my new die!  Next is to figure a way to sew them on the machine and stuff at the same time! Hummmmm.... I have an idea!... off to test now!

How to Make Paper Streamers with Your Sewing Machine

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There are lots of blogs out there telling how to make the circle punched paper streamers....  Most of them do it the same way... glue it to a string... but if you have been around me long you know that I am always looking for another, faster way and I think I have it!  

Now the pictures I have below are for a pom-pom (I haven't seen those...they are probably out there, I just haven't seen them). You can follow the same directions for plain single layer (or more) punches as well...

The first thing I did was use a Border Punch that creates a free-standing "ribbon" rather than just an edge to a card.  The one I used was great because it makes a good circle, but I tried several that I already had and they worked fine, try what you have already.

Before I tried the border punch I just took a piece of cardstock and fan folded that...cut it into the shape I wanted and did the following...that worked too, but it wasn't as lacy as the punch.

 After I punched  it out, I fan folded it

 Then, sewed through all of the layers (this was a 12" strip folded so it was quiet thick)... Sew from fold to fold so you don't have to cut the folds apart later.

 Now here is how you can make all of the distances between pom poms even.  Cut scrap pieces of cardstock so that they are all the same width... stitch across that width and then add the next punched pom pom

 Butt the next pom pom right up against the cardstock and continue doing this until you have the desired length.  

You can see that my paper between the pom poms is ugly...doesn't matter because of the next step...I just cut one long strip and kept tearing off the far end.

 Now tear the cardstock away...it should be easy and the thread didn't break on me so you should be fine.

And here you have it... a string of "pom poms" ... that need to be fanned out, easy enough to do, just crease them and fold toward the middle 

Sorry for the lousy picture, and I didn't do a very good job fanning them out, sorry.. As always, I'm not actually going to use the streamer for anything, I just wanted to figure it out!  You do better than I did, make yours pretty.


More Ideas:
You could also sew it down onto a card for a 3-D look...  How cute would it be to have a little dress on the front of a card and use this technique for the skirt ...smaller version, not as large.  You could use plain paper and cut it into the right shape instead of using the punch. ...Or, make a Christmas tree... or you could make a larger version into a Christmas ornament.  Actually, you could sew it into the inside fold of the card...glue the two outside pieces down and when you open it up it should open up..... Hummmmm.... I guess I know what I'm trying tomorrow morning!


HA!  You have just witnessed my brain at work again :-)

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Lip Gloss Gift for Servers

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On Monday I mentioned that I had made some lip gloss over the weekend.  It is SUPER SIMPLE!  But SUPER MESSY!!!  I got the recipe (Vaseline and Kool-aid) from HERE.  But I did something wrong because mine looks NOTHING like Jill Dubien's!  So I won't even bother to tell you how to do it, she gives great instructions... but you have to follow them!  I don't know why, but I always want to skip the actual instructions and speed things up....like I added the Kool-aid before the Vaseline was melted!  WRONG!!  AND, I also bought the store brand, maybe that was part of the problem???


Anyway, anyway.  Mine taste like cherry, it just isn't a pretty pink color.  And I'm thinking that really isn't a bad thing either because this way I can give it to guys and they won't be put off by the pink.  And, since I put it in metal tins instead of clear, it really doesn't matter.  OH!  Here it is, I almost forgot!  

She provides a free printable.  I used it but I will probably make my own, less cutesy one for guys.  I printed the labels onto 8.5"x11" label paper.  I LOVE THE STUFF!!!  I collect it!  I have as many colors as I can find... well, at least colors that I think I might use.  Which brings me to the packaging....I use kraft color label paper there....

I made the box from a die that I have.  There are tons of box templates "out there"... but, maybe I will make pre-cut, pre-scored boxes available in my store.  I sold them AGES ago when I sold Stampin'Up! but when they started selling boxes I lost the business so I have TONS of dies just sitting there!


What I did:

1. Cut a 1/4" strip of Kraft label paper and stuck it down to the bottom of the box, while it was still flat

2. Used the "bird on a wire" boarder punch (Martha Stewart, I think) all the way across the 8.5" width of the kraft paper.

3. Cut that into a strip

4. Stuck it down onto the flat box leaving a gap of color above the last strip

5. Glued the box together and added the little banner (from THIS KIT by Cecelia Louie)  

6.  When I stuck the of birds down there were a couple hanging off the edge so I trimmed those off and added on to my little banner.

7. Tied it closed with bakers twine.  DONE!

I will be making enough boxes today for all the lip gloss tins I made this weekend so that I can keep them in my car and give them out to servers, or friends, or whoever.

OH!  I forgot, I did seal the tin so that it is a  little less obvious that it is homemade.