Since summer is coming to an end I wanted to do a craft that would allow us to combine some of the fun things that we might have found at the beach. This is an easy project that can be done with just about anything and can be done on all sorts of bottles. The great thing, I have found, about these bottles is that they can given as gifts for any occasion.

Materials Needed:

• Empty diffuser bottle
• Seashells
• Glass beads
• Colored/stained sea glass
• Strong hold glue- I used Gorilla Glue
• Craft stick- used to apply glue
• Sand-this is optional

Instructions:

1. Clean bottle if it contains any labels and glue. Lay out some newspaper to protect your workspace and lay the bottle down flat on the newspaper.
2. Glue on the sea glass, seashells and beats. If you have chosen to use sand you can leave spaces between the sea glass pieces to sprinkle to sand onto the glue.
3. All that is left is to let the glue dry completely before moving or gifting your new diffuser bottle.

So I was looking for something unique to add to our home decor and found this amazing lamp shade. I have never seen anything like this but loved it immediately. It is also a great way to recycle those cocktail umbrellas after you have a party or get together. This lamp shade is a piece that will make your home decor stand out and have people talking about it.

Materials Needed:

• Cocktail Umbrellas in all designs and colors
• Hard, hollow plastic ball-any shape and size as long as it can fit a bulb inside
• Light bulb

Instructions:

1. Start by taking the plastic ball and cut a 5cm radius. This will be where you place the light bulb when you are finished.
2. Next you will take the cocktail umbrellas and one by one poke them into the sides of the ball. If you have problems poking the toothpicks through the ball you can use something sharp like a safety pin to make the holes. Continue to poke them through the ball until the ball is filled.
3. This can then be placed over the bulb and used to decorate any room.

It is almost the 4th of July and that means that people will be getting together and having BBQs or parties with friends. There are many different things that people will do including going out and buying paper plates and napkin that are already decorated for the 4th of July. Well this year, you can take the extra step and make napkins that will stand out.

Materials Needed:

• Tape or glue
• White poster board or heavy paper
• Starlight mint candies
• Double-sided tape
• Blue napkins

Instructions:

1. Tape or glue a strip of white poster board or heavy paper (ours was 1 inch wide and about 7 inches long) into a ring.
2. Fix a row of Starlight mint candies (in their wrappers) to the ring with double-sided tape.
3. Stuff the ring with a blue napkin and one set of utensils.

Finding ways to recycle old and used items into new things can be fun and helpful to the environment. Some of my favorite crafts have come from old things that I have made into something new and exciting. This is something that I have done many times and given them away because they make great holders for notes on the fridge.

Materials Needed:

• Denim jean pockets cut from old jeans
• Fabric paint
• Lace trim
• Ribbon flowers
• Fridge magnet
• Hot glue or craft glue

Instructions:

1. Carefully cut the pockets from the jeans.
2. Beginning and ending at the back, glue lace trim around the top of the pocket.
3. If desired, glue a small ribbon rose to each top corner.
4. Write coupons or whatever you wish on the front in fabric paint, following the manufacturer’s directions.
5. Glue a magnet to the back of each denim pocket and stick the fridge.

Before

It has been a long time since I posted and I have been scrapbooking and crafting but just not a lot of time left to post, but I really enjoyed doing this project so I thought I would share. I have been looking for a large, 24″ wood wall clock that I could finish and Provo Craft used to sell them but I guess they had problems with the hands and clock works so they quit making them,  I finally found another store that makes them, http://www.thewallclock.com and it was exactly what I wanted. So here is the before and after pictures. We ended up using these clocks for one of our churches super saturdays, they were really easy and the best part was, we finished them all on the same night. (sometimes we start projects and never get them done). This was easy, we just spray painted the numbers, then sanded off the excess paint, then used a small paint roller and painted over the numbers, the paint didn’t go into the recessed numbers, ( did have to touch up the numbers just a little, too much paint on the roller) then we used a spray stain to finish it off and accent it. I love my new Families are Forever clock.  PS some of the clocks had peoples names, for example, Smith established 1973, they were very cute.

SO here is the after photo:

After