I Love to Create - Plant Marker People

Sure when you buy herbs at the store they come with a little plastic stake telling you what it is - handy yes, attractive no. It's nothing a little paint and a trip to the craft store can't fix.


SUPPLIES
Liquid Fusion Glue
Wooden People Sticks
Crafty Chica Little Chica Paint Packs
Small Wooden Ovals
Crafty Chica Glossy Gloss Varnish
Paint Brushes


PAINT YOUR PEOPLE
I found my wooden people at Hobby Lobby. They were a blank wooden canvas just begging for polka dotted bikinis and lime green tank tops. I did my best Sarah Neuburger impression to give them faces.


NAME THAT HERB
Using small wooden ovals and a thin paint brush I painted the names of the herbs in my garden.


PROTECT FROM THE ELEMENTS
Using a paint brush apply two coats of Crafty Chica Glossy Gloss Varnish, allowing to dry completely between coats.


SIGNAGE
Using Liquid Fusion Glue attach the wooden oval to the hands of the person.



STICK IT IN YOUR GARDEN
All that is left to do is stick your little people in your garden so that they can tell you which herb is which.

Rock-n-Roll Accessories on Stylelicious

Join me tomorrow morning on the DIY Network at 7:30am EST on Stylelicious. Tomorrow we are rocking out with Rock n' Roll inspired fashions. Host Tina Sparkles combines old band shirts and a Victorianesque shirt to create a frilly rock frock. Host Jennifer Perkins shows ways to add a rock edge with jewelry made from guitar picks. Jen Arntson spray paints cool designs on shirts and tote bags.

Check out all our rock gear on Naughty Secretary Club: It's a Hit Clips, Fashionable 45's Earrings, Tropic Rock Earrings, Mixed Tape Earrings, Rockstar Pin and I'm with the Band Earrings.


Don't forget our post on Rock-n-Roll Home Decor.


Once you conquer making guitar pick jewelry, upgrade to screen printed vinyl record bracelets.

Win a Copy of Green Craft Magazine

When the nice folks over at Green Craft Magazine wrote me to see if I wanted to give away a copy of their magazine on Naughty Secretary Club, I said sure thing. You love free stuff, contests are fun and I happen to have a real soft spot for green crafts.


Green Craft Magazine is brought to you by the folks at Stampington. Ya know the people who put out (apron.ology), Altered Couture, Haute Handbags and a million other fun titles. I love all their magazines. Each issue is more like a book that you keep on the shelf to go back to time and time again for fresh inspiration.


I told you my Recycled Cardboard Cupcake Coozies were inspired by a project in Green Craft Magazine and this is it. Clever die cut tags, flowers and more brought to you by Lisa Guerin.


No matter what your crafty passion, if it is green this magazine has something for you. Tissue paper candleholders, T-shirt scarves, felted ankle warmers, burlap purses, leather jewelry - you get the idea.


All you have to do to win a copy of Green Craft is leave me a comment about Green Crafting. Where do you get your ideas from? Do you already subscribe to Green Craft Mag and luv it? Do you hoard trash just sure it can be transformed into something else fab? You have a week to let me know.

I Love to Create - Recycled Cardboard Cupcake Coozies

Tomorrow is my monthly mommy meet-up. Every month we get together, let the kiddlets frolic and eat snacks. Last month I brought a batch of cake pops and this month I thought I would go with plain old cupcakes. The cupcakes might be plain, but the custom cupcake wrappers are not.


I have made cupcake toppers a bazillion times and decided today for I Love to Create I would spice things up. It all started with my new issue of Green Craft Magazine and a project called From Trash to Treasure: Embellishments From Boxes by Lisa Guerin. Tune in Monday for a full magazine review (it's more like a book than a magazine) and a chance to win your own copy!


SUPPLIES
Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage Medium
Scissors
Pictures
Circle Paper Punch
Boxes (I used cereal, cake mix and coke)
Sizzix Big Shot
Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Cupcake Holder, Ruffle


REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE
Cardboard piles up around my house. Sure I recycle it like a good girl, but for my custom cupcake wrappers I thought I would revamp them. Cut your boxes open and measure to fit for your Big Shot Machine.


ADORN
Decorate your boxes with scraps of paper or scrap booking paper like I did. I used a Circle punch to cut out pink circles and a smaller punch to cut out circles of photographs of all the kids in my mommy group. Using Collage Pauge I adorned my boxes. I found it was best to decoupage on the side of the box without print. Plus I kind of like seeing the print inside my cupcake wrappers.

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DRY
Let your boxes dry completely. Trust me on this, it will get ruined running it through your machine damp I know from experience. Being the impatient gal I am I put my boards in the oven at 175 for 30 minutes to speed the drying time.


BIG SHOT
I lined my boxes up with the cutting tool on the Big Shot to be sure my pictures would show on the cupcake wrapper. The Big Shot is my new fave craft tool all you do is crank the handle and the pieces roll right through with a perfect die cut waiting for you at the end. The cupcake wrapper is one of many options they have (I already invested in flowers).


CINCH IT UP
The Big Shot instructions call for using 3 small brads. 1) I did not have any brads 2) These cupcakes were going to be around little kids who love to swallow things like brads. All that being the said I decided to use a needle and hot pink embroidery thread to stitch the wrapper together. The bottom of the wrapper just has fold tabs.


CUPCAKES
I made up my cupcake recipe. I wanted something pink to match my wrappers, so I invented my own Pink Lemonade Cupcakes. I bought Lemon Cake Mix and subbed in Pink Lemonade concentrate for the water amount the box called for. I added red food coloring until a pink color was achieved.


I also used a can of store bought vanilla icing and mixed in the remainder of my pink lemonade concentrate. This made it a little runny so I added powdered sugar until it was thick again. I also added red food coloring to make the icing pink.


I baked the cupcakes in some fun polka dotted cupcake liners from Bake it Pretty. All that was left to do was sprinkle with pink sugar crystals.


The cupcakes are tart, but delish and most importantly look fab. I can't wait to show all the mommy's in my group tomorrow.


Just because you don't have a Big Shot, does not mean you can't join in the fun. Draw your own design onto a cardboard box and create a custom wrapper of your very own.

The Renegade Craft Fair - Inside My Shopping Basket

I had a sneaking suspicion that I would spend every last dime that I made at The Renegade Craft Fair and I was almost right. Although I showed restraint, I didn't walk away empty handed. Feast your eyes inside my shopping basket!


Not to pick favorites, but I am pretty damn smitten on the extra large and extra neon vinyl 80's cell phone pouch purse thing I got from Burger and Friends. My friend Karly got one first, showed me hers and within minutes we were fake calling each other on our pouches.


I finally got my Figs and Ginger mama and baby deer necklace. After planting a loquat tree last year to procure a free pair of fawn earrings, I clearly needed the matching necklace. They can add more fawns if I get knocked up again.


I'm tickled fuchsia with my new Vahalla Studios prints. This crew was my neighbor during the event and it took a lot of will power to only walk away with two prints.


My other neighbor (I was on a corner) was Rubina, a nice as pie gal from Brooklyn with a-doorbell cards. We did a trade. I also did a trade with Robo Roku for one of their awesome little notebooks.


As if Tallulah does not have enough clothing.... I could not pass up this little Texas themed Tee from Blue Bird Vintage. It was totes fun chatting with the lovely ladies of Etsy in their booth, had to get a T-shirt to commemorate the event.


Sadly the maker of this fun hand painted seahorse did not put a label in their headband or a card in my bag so I can't say who made this cutie. All I know is that I like it! I also traded Sweet Tooth Bags for two fabric covered barrettes (only one seen here, Tallulah has already lost the other).


I got an super duper fun surprise at the show. Michelle of Knotty Bags popped by to bring me one of her amazing crocheted bags. Not just any bag, one made from plastic bags! I have been dreaming about one of her purses and this one is extra colorful and extra awesome.


My favorite thing I got at the entire fair was one of my mother Fredda Perkins robots named Ritzy. She promised me if he didn't sell he would be mine. I have to say I didn't actually encourage people when they were eyeballing him since I wanted to keep him all for myself!

I'm already thinking about the goodies I didn't get and checking out the vendors stores online!

The Renegade Craft Fair Austin in Pictures

I’m still recuperating from The Renegade Craft Fair. Suitcases full of jewelry displays and tissue paper litter my house, I have tons of jewelry to photograph and add to Naughty Secretary Club and my front porch looks like a storage facility with all the chairs and racks. Slowly, but surely it will all get put away. Thank goodness my hubby was sweet enough to run all my credit card slips so at least that part is over. I wanted to share a few pictures from my booth and others with you. I wish I had taken more, but we were swamped and I never got the chance to snap anymore. Thanks everyone who stopped by and said hello, it was great to see you! Tune in tomorrow to see all the stuff I scored from the vendors at the show.