Recycled Mississippi Mud Jugs into a Butterfly Jug

My neighbor gave me these to recycle, I am recycling them but in a different matter. I have created a cute craft idea for these jugs and I was playing around with one of the three I have, of course I took pictures of it and I am thinking about making it a craft project to share with all of you.

This is the finished recycled jug that I now call the butterfly jug and was this lots of fun to create, so in a few days I will post how I created this cute project and share what items you will need to recycle these neat jugs.

Already my brain is cooking and stewing up some new ideas to do with the remaining 2 jugs. I will show how to make this one and I am thinking about something totally different for the other jug.

It just was something to do a very quiet Tuesday afternoon besides just sitting back and watching some silly t.v show.

Just for Dad on Father's Day, Sweet huge Sticky Buns

This is an easy recipe to do up for dad either on Father's day or anytime.  What you will need:
3 loafs of frozen pre-made bread dough ready to thaw; thawing and rising the night before.
3 cups of brown sugar
3 cups of Marmalade (orange)
1 cup of favorite nuts, walnuts, pecans, etc
1 cup of coconut
1 cup of butter melted
Thaw out frozen made up bread all 3 loafs over night and let rise in a very large mixing bowl.
The next morning either Father's day or any day, weekend,  take the risen dough and roll out on a well floured surface. Brush on the butter to the center of the rolled out dough and then sprinkle about 1 cup of the  brown sugar.  Roll the dough up, making a very long roll, slice the dough about every 3 inches, you will have some very large rolls when they are done rising and baking.  Place the rolls onto a large well greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly brown and tooth pick comes out clean.  Now on the stove mix all the other ingredients; brown sugar, nuts, coconut, marmalade in a sauce pan on medium high heat, stir often and let come to a slight boil still stirring often, boil about a minute, remove and drizzle over cooked sticky buns and finally let cool slightly because you want to serve these warm.  One of these makes a feast! the picture I shot does not quite do them justice!  This is a nice treat anytime or to do something nice for the man around your home.  I know my two men just love these!

Fourth of July Foam Magnets Craft Project and A Painted Plate for Dad

This is a very simple fun project you can do using craft foam.  I call these my Fourth of July foam Angels.  What you will need for this project

scissors 

flesh colored foam 2-3 pieces depending how many you would like to make and these are large foam magnets measuring 9 to 10 inches long.

hot glue gun

Red, white, blue craft foam

buttons of various kinds 

gold cording

yarn or cotton floss 

round heavy duty magnets

acrylic oil base paints of various colors.

What I have done first was to cut out my shapes for the body and dress.  The body is flesh colored foam and for the head I cut out an egg shape, the hand and feet are also round circles.  I have done this so that those that can not draw so well will find making the body easy.  Now the dress, fold the craft foam in half.  Now on the fold cut a neck line by cutting a half circle, then cut out from the half circle to start the sleeve. Come down and make a funny shaped triangle, this may be a little hard to under and if it is you could just draw out the dress using the photos as your guide and then cut.  Hot glue the head to the dress and do the same for feet and hands.

To do the facial features you will need some oil based acrylic paints, which is what I like to use and I have these in a marker form that you can buy at Jo Ann's or any art store.  I like them because they blend so nicely.

Now cut out some stars in contrasting foam colors; I happen to like my stars a little less than normal.  I have also stained a wooden pop stick for the wand and I used a bit of instant coffee to do this.  I have hot glued the star and stick to the hand of the angel.

In this photo I have used some black craft yarn, I have wound up the yarn and knotted in the center and hot glued it to the head of the angel.

I am adding the round heavy duty magnets with hot glue, because the angel is 10 inches I am adding 4 magnets; one on each hand and two in the center.

This is the angel finished and sitting on my refrigerator.  I said I needed to get something done for Father's Day in my last post and I created this painted plate.  The picture is a daddy bear with his son and I will be adding it to my store in a day or two along with the magnets.  I hope you liked this simple way to decorate for the Fourth of July working with craft foam.

Fourth of July Painted Plates

I thought I better get busy and create some things for the up coming holidays, so I did some plate painting with acrylic oil based paints that come as markers and I just love them. One can find them in any art store or a Jo Ann's. I bought mine in the local art store and love them lots.

It's a way I can show off my drawing ability each plate is original in that I just draw the picture free hand and I use no patterns.

This first one came out so cute I thought, a little boy and his wounded dog are playing the Yankee Doodle song. You can't eat on this plates they are only for decor and need to be cleaned only with a dry towel. I have sealed them by baking them in the oven at 200 degrees for 15 min.

The second plate is with a little angel and her dog and I borrowed a famous quote from Robert Frost.

Both plates are in my Etsy store; here is the link http://www.etsy.com/shop/pamelastocker1?ref=si_shop

Both plates are $10.00 and shipping is $6.00 in the United States

Now I have to get busy and do something for Father's Day! that is in just a few days so I am headed back to the plates and painting.

Steps I use in Creating a Picture On a Wooden Unfinished Jewelry box in Oil Pastels and Acrylics

You can also do this Project, using a wooden unfinished jewelry box, on fabric, on chalkboard, or what ever else you may like. In this case I am using a an unfinished wooden jewelry box I found in a craft store.

In this instant I used my own ideas to create the look I want, but you can use a pattern you like or draw up your own design. I am using a fine pen acrylic paint to draw out my design; which is some way out sun flowers.

This next photo is my other design a crow in some sunflowers, again I just free hand drew this onto the wood but you can easy get a pattern that you like and transfer it onto the wood by coloring over the pattern and rubbing it on or tracing over the pattern to transfer. In the picture I am combining a bit of oils and acrylics. I have brushed on the black of the crow with acrylics and some of the orange is acrylics and the yellow are oil pastels that I am blending with a q-tip.

In the photo with the large flower I am adding my oils over the top of the flower which was painted with an orange acrylic paint and the green was also acrylics then I began rubbing the oil pastels in using various colors and sometimes with the q-tip or my fingers and just wiping with a small cloth.

Okay as you can see I am almost done I have my project completed in the oils and acrylics but I want to make this look old and grubby so I am going to add a stain that is walnut in color and oil based. I love how the crow and flowers have come out just the way I wanted, my crow is a bit human looking don't you think?

In this last picture you can see I have rubbed my oil based stain on with a cotton cloth and wiped away the access, now you can stain it too but I suggest using an oil based stain for better results or just leave the stain and and seal with a good sealer. I will mention what all you will need for this project: pencil, transfer paper, pattern of your choice, oil pastels, acrylic paints, q-tips, small pieces of soft cotton cloth, heavy sealer, walnut oil based stain. This can be lots of fun to do, I also want to mention if you are going to stain let the oils and acrylics dry for 2 days at least before staining. This allows the paints to dry good and the pastels to set a bit. I love how mine came out, but then I love the grubby look and bright colors.

Happy Memorial Day

Remembering those who have fallen and honoring them, to honor, families who have loved ones in the service, honoring my husband who is a army vet, all my uncles who served in the Navy, my sister-in-law who was in the army, her husband who was in the Air Force, my husband's father, my grandfather, cousins, half cousins, and so many more!!  I have borrowed these wonderful photos and art work I just thought they made the point in a beautiful way.

It's Thursday, The Happenings for Today May 17th 20012

Heaven's it seems this month is just flying away! Today I have been adding some products to my Etsy store Maplea's Rag Dolls and Animals. I created these all some time back, the first is a cute set of small primitive kitties. I used some scraps of Berber and quilting cotton fabric. I did not use any patterns, I just took some scissors and began cutting these guys out of the fabric to my amazement they turned out not too bad. I have filled them both with fiber fill and used black beads for noses and eyes. I stained both with my super sauce of instant coffee and vanilla.

A while back I had some interesting and color cotton blend fabric that is nice and heavy for making this cat from a vintage pattern. I went away from the instructions of the pattern a little, by not using fake fur or muslin. I added buttons for eyes and the buttons are mismatched a little thing I like to do now and then.

The bear turned out so cute, he was created last fall from an neat vintage pattern that I have changed, actually I used a bit of 2 vintage patterns to make this little guy.

This is a want to be clown rag cloth doll that I created and it started from a vintage pattern but I added my very own ideas, I painted the face white with acrylic paints and designed my own facial features, along with designing my own outfit for the doll.

Lastly there is a great celebration going on at Etsy and it's from the Old Farm House Gathering on Etsy, lots and lots of talented people sharing their wonderful crafting abilities so come check it out!! Here is the link http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=stcofg&order=most_relevant&view_type=gallery&ship_to=ZZ