Dollar Tree Jenga Block Crafts

 Technically I believe Dollar Tree named them tumbling tower blocks but everyone refers to them as Jenga blocks.

The first one used 4 blocks each. I painted each one before gluing them together. Some people use hot glue but I prefer to use wood glue. After it was all together I took some cardstock and stamped USA and then glued that on to the blue block.

I also used some brown ink to grunge them up a bit and make them look a bit antique. These are small but so cute.

The other craft used 12 of the blocks. This time I glued some blocks together before painting. The base is 4 blocks and painted blue. The top is 4 sets of 2 for the stripes. When it was all dry I glued the stripes together and then the top to the bottom. After it had a while to sit I added the jute twine around the hat and then a jute bow and a star button. I thought these were pretty cute as well.

Keepin' busy

 The nicest part about being off work is all the creative things I have time for. Because I have such an extensive craft stash I have plenty of materials to work with. Here are some of the recent things I finished.

Love the red and black combination of this cell phone bag.

The other day when I posted the reading pillow with the blue and white striped fabric, I thought I had already posted this bag. So here is the bag I was talking about. Love the looks of this one too. I think I have made a total of 11 of these so far.

For these stars, I pieced together some red, white and blue fabric, sandwiched it with some batting and plain white or off white fabric and traced around a wood star that I got from Dollar Tree last year. I used the traced line as my stitching line. Then I turned it right side out and stitched around the edge. And there you have a fun little patriotic candle mat.

Someone asked if she could have two of the sunflower bow barrettes and I told her I only had one but could make a second. She then asked for two pink of the knot bow hair ties. 

And last but not least, I made myself a business card. I spent way too much time trying to design one and finally went to bing copilot to ask for some suggestions. It was a big help in finally finding something I truly liked. I blacked out my phone number here because I prefer not to put it out there 

Sweet stuff

Unfortunately for me, I have a sweet tooth. I'm also on a very tight budget and avoiding spending. That doesn't mean I don't have things in my house that I can use and satisfy my craving.

I had a cake mix and frosting in the cupboard. I also have a very large container of raspberry filling that I got when the store closed. Since it's refrigerated it's still good. I made the cupcakes, filled them with raspberry filling after they cooled and then used the same bag that had the filling and topped each one with white icing. The leftover filling in the bag mixed with the icing and made a delicious topping.

In case you're wondering, I put all but 6 of these in the freezer and only ate one a day. I could have eaten them all in a day or two but I can show some self control.

The next treat I made because my daughter had bought a bag of black and white drizzled popcorn at Sam's Club. She gave me some of it and it was so incredibly good. As luck would have it, I had some popcorn and some chocolate chips in the cupboard. I popped the popcorn, melted the chocolate and poured in on. Then I just mixed it all up to get a little chocolate on all the pieces of popcorn. I put all of it in an airtight container and once again, showed some constraint.

I only ate a little bit every day until it was gone.

Week 49 drawings.

 Here is another weeks worth of drawings.

A few projects

 Someone recently asked if I could make a beach glass bag. I wasn't exactly sure what she meant but when I asked she said it was a bag to collect shells or beach glass. I said I would give it a try.

I also made another reading pillow. I had leftover fabric from the blue and white striped bag I made and used it for this pairing it with a cute dog print fabric for the pocket.

The final project was a Dollar Tree craft. This uses two wood pieces from Dollar Tree. One wood plank and a mini wood palette. First I painted both pieces white, then I went over it with an antique wax.

 I didn't like the look so I covered the plank with a piece of burlap and the palette with piece of scrap fabric. This still needs a hanger on the back and I'm not happy with the flowers that I tucked into the palette but other than that, it's pretty much done. Aside from different flowers, I think it needs something else too but I'm just not sure what.

Yummy Salad

 Back when Amanda and I went to Sam's Club she picked up a container of a salad I had never seen before. She said it was really good and if I wanted to try some she would buy it and give me some of it.

This stuff was really tasty

Unfortunately it didn't come in smaller portions but it would be easy enough to find a recipe online and make it at home. 

Crafting overload

 I have several projects to show today

I don't think I've shown you this table runner yet. Amanda had mentioned that she would like one for the 4th of July. She had seen fabric on Hobby Lobby's website but they were out of stock. While I was there the one day I spotted that same fabric so I bought it. This is a double sided table runner so it can be used for two different seasons/occasions.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture but this side of it has little sunflowers on it.

Next up are post it note holders. I'm planning on also adding a mini calendar to the little box that holds the post it notes. These do stand up too. I thought these would make cute Christmas gifts for friends.

I found a tutorial for these adorable bows and put them on barettes.

This is a pen holder on a matching lanyard. How I wish I would have had one of these when I was working. I was forever looking for my pen.

Finally is yet another Christmas gift. This one I'll be giving to Presley. This is a reading pillow. It has a pocket on the front of it to hold a book.  I made this one from 3 fat quarters of flannel that I bought at Dollar Tree. There's a handle on the top of it so they can carry it to their favorite reading spot. 

And that is what I've been doing with my time.

Gibbs loves his blankets

 I don't know what it is, but Gibbs has to have a blanket when he is laying on the couch. When not in use I fold the blanket and put it on the back of the couch. Sometimes he just climbs up there and lays down on the blanket. More often than not it's a whole production of him pulling the blanket down to lay on it.

Gibbs, what are you doing?

Honest, I swear I wasn't doing anything.

Oh good, I don't think she's looking any more.

Almost have it

Ah, that's better

On another note, Ms. ~K asked about pricing on my t-shirts. I sell them for $10 plus shipping (not sure how much it would be for that. I would estimate $6-$7) If you're interested you can contact me at iannieam@gmail.com

T-shirts and a tote bag

 A local friend had seen the t-shirt I posted that I melted plastic on. She said that if I was selling them she would like one. But of course I can sell them.

The second time around the perfectly imperfect t-shirt came out great and no melted plastic on it.

I also made a cat mom t-shirt for Amanda

And finally a tote bag that I will give to a friend for Christmas. She's an avid reader.

Pretty stuff from the park

 Back on May 5th, I had taken another walk at the park just to get out of the house for a while. As I was walking, there was a slight breeze and I could smell lilacs. When I rounded the one corner, there they were. I had to stop and get a picture or two.

Then just before I got back to my car I spotted these little flowers that looked like daisies. They were only a few inches high but oh so pretty.

Backing up to Mother's day

 Since I haven't talked about how I spent my Mother's day, I'll do that now. On the actual day I spent most of it home alone because we did everything the day before. Amanda did come over and visit for a while though.

First on Saturday was breakfast with Amanda at Bob Evans.

We were all done and almost ready to leave when Amanda reminded me to take a picture of our food so this is the leftover we had boxed up to take home. First hers, then mine.

Afterwards we made stops at Michaels, Kohls, Dollar Tree, Lowes and Sams Club.

Later that afternoon I got a text from my son asking if I wanted to meet them for ice cream. I forgot to take pictures there but I got a picture of the pretty pop up card and mug they gave me. I also got an Amazon gift card.  I should have taken a pic of the ice cream I got though. It was a chocolate raspberry and so incredibly delicious.

I also got a really pretty card from Wade's youngest son. He's so incredibly thoughtful.

Out in the yard

 These pictures were all taken on May 5th. Everything is looking so good.

This is the lilac that Amanda gave me last year.

I thought I would try something different with my peonies this year. The blooms are always heavy and droop down, especially after it rains. I took an old tomato cage and put it upside down over the plant to help everything stand up straight. Hopefully this works.