Happy Together

A DIY craft blog

A Butterfly Cake

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This past spring my mom had her birthday and I asked her what kind of cake I could make for her. The only request she had was that it be all chocolate. She made it easy for me! I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to decorate it but it quickly came to me. My mom loves butterflies so found a brown paper bag to cut out butterflies from. Then I hot glued them to some wire that was strong enough to hold them. I also cut some branches off of a butterfly bush, one of her favorite plants, to add some greenery to it.

Lastly, I added some purple candles which happen to be one of her favorite colors. I was so excited to put together a cake that I felt reflected her in so many ways. It was simple and lovely and delicious. And I’m happy to report she loved it and thought it was very tasty.

Snowman Lantern DIY

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We had our very first snow day this winter today! It was so fun. My girls were up really early and were more excited than they were on Christmas morning hahaha. Since it is still very much winter here, we are still making winter crafts. This is one I had shared on instagram, but decided to give it a home here on the blog too. It’s not a super specific tutorial, but it’s enough to help you create one of your own.

I’m always looking for ways to add some extra light to the winter darkness so I was immediately drawn to winter craft lanterns I had seen on Pinterest. The only thing was is they were all made with glass jars. I wanted something I could make with my youngest (and niece and nephew) that would be more kid friendly. I found a great alternative one day when I was at Michaels. I saw these plastic snow globes and knew we could create our very own kid friendly snowman lantern. (These were a seasonal item at Michaels so you might be able to find them in the clearance section, but you can also find them online from other places.)

Besides a plastic snow globe (or some kind of plastic jar), all you need is a few simple crafting supplies:

  • Plastic snow globe/jar
  • Mod Podge
  • White Tissue Paper (cut up into small pieces)
  • Foam/Paint Brush
  • Black and Orange Piece of Felt
  • Felt Color of Choice for Scarf
  • Pipe Cleaner
  • Pom poms (I actually had cut off small ones from some yarn I had)
  • Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
  • Battery Operated Candle that fits in plastic container (I picked one that flickered)

To begin, I had the kids cover the globe with mod podge and stick on the pieces of tissue paper. Then they did a layer of mod podge on top of tissue paper. To make it simpler, I had already cut out the eyes, mouth, and a nose from felt for them to glue on using a glue gun. You could use regular glue too. I dabbed on the glue and they placed the felt in the right spot. Then since it was a bit trickier, I glued the pipe cleaner in place and the pom poms on top of the ends so it looked like ear muffs. The pipe cleaner even acts as a handle if you leave enough room.

I let them decide on the scarf color and then cut that out and glued it on. I had to cut two long pieces for it to be long enough to fit around the “neck”. The seam is in the back middle. Then once it’s all dry you can place the candle inside. The fact that it flickered added a bit more magic to the finished product. You can be creative and make other winter themed lanterns too…. like a reindeer, the Grinch, Santa, an ornament…. just change out the color of tissue paper and accessories and there you go!

Painting Abstract Bees

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Right now we are beginning to have those lower temps that come in the winter time. It is during this time of the year I just want to be in front of a warm fire, under a blanket, working on a handwork project. This usually comes in the form of crocheting, needlework, or sewing. I challenged myself this year and decided to try to learn some painting techniques. I came across this amazing abstract bees tutorial from Beth Can Paint and it felt like me! I can do some things, but getting into super detailed painting has never attracted me so I love this style.

I wanted to share my progress as I followed her directions. There are times it looks pretty bad, but that’s part of the process. You have to trust the process. All the layers come together so beautifully. So above is my very first step. I wanted to make mine more textured, so I kind of globbed the paint on.

After the first layer dried I added a contrasting color.

Of course, I wanted to add one more color after that.

At this point, I experimented with some splatters. She doesn’t do this at this point, but I decided to try it out for fun.

Now is where it looks a bit not so good to me hahaha. Hers looks way better at this point. But, again, this is a process!

Now the bees are starting to really pop.

This is after a few steps. I had painted the yellow on the body and done some splattering. I also tried a technique on the blue where you use the end of a paint brush to “scratch” into the paint.

I decided to fill in the head area a bit more so it would stand out better.

Now it’s time for the wings to pop!

Making the outline more prominent here. I also decided that I didn’t like how many stripes on the body I did initially, so I thickened them up to make it look like less.

I was in awe of what detail the white paint pen did for the bees at this step.

Then of course, a gold paint pen gives it a little sparkle. I have really come to love gold paint pens.

I finished them up with a layer of this product called “glitterific“. It’s a clear medium with glitter in it. So much fun! I felt like this year was going to be a fun creative journey and so far it is proving itself to be just that. And I always love when I find ways to be creative that just feel “so me” in my heart. Now that I did these, I challenged myself to create my own personal style of bee. I did just that and am currently working on some mini pieces. I’m excited to make it my own. Remember, it’s always worth trying something you want to learn. You never know if you will really enjoy or not, but at least you will find out.

My 2020 Handmade Christmas

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Last year has come and gone and as slow as it felt at times, I’m still surprised it’s over. Christmas flew by for me and I was looking back at all the handmade things I created for gifts/decor and wanted to compile them all in one place. I have lots to share and hopefully it can give you some inspiration for next year. It’s never too early to start creating when you plan to give handmade. I always find myself making things last minute even when I started far in advance. Above is a sweet little lovie I sewed up for my niece. It had been a while since I made something like this and I enjoyed spending the time to make her.

I started off with a really simple shape and then had my daughters help me decide on the finishing details. We ended up giving her a pink nose, naming her Ruby the Pink Nose Reindeer. I experimented with using this sheet of glitter I had found at Hobby Lobby forever ago (near the felt) for the antlers. It’s stiff and holds up pretty well, but I ended up gluing a pipe cleaner behind it and then a piece of felt over that so it was covered. I’m thinking this will be a cute pattern to share next Christmas so y’all can sew one up if you want to as well.

The next few handmade Christmas pics are of these ornaments I made. I found the acrylic ornaments at Michaels and went to town. I played around with this process a bit and still want to try a few other things next year. Little touches like gold around the edges takes them to another level and finishes them off nicely.

The horse ornaments were actually unicorns. I did some research and found that I could use a dremel rotary tool (like these) and cut the horn off. It worked really well and then I lightly sanded where I had cut it off to make sure it was smooth. My oldest loves horses so I wanted to make her one and then made some for her to hand out to others she knows at the barn where she takes lessons.

These little guys were a handmade gift I crocheted. They are so cute and small! They fit in your hand. I started by using this bubble seal amigurumi crochet pattern from i crochet things. Then I used this amigurumi whale crochet pattern from Yarnhild. I used the basic shape from that pattern to form the jellyfish and the octopus bodies so they would be the same size roughly. I was able to look at other crocheted creatures and determine how to add the little extra “ruffles” on the octopus and used the tentacle pattern from this crochet jellyfish pattern (also from Yarnhild) to get the right sizing I wanted for my jellyfish.

This handmade gift is great because I think it is fun to gift “life” when it’s winter. I grabbed these tall vases and the rocks from the dollar store and the paperwhite bulbs I found at a local nursery and Home Depot. You simply place the rocks in the bottom and add a bulb on top. Then fill with water so only the roots are wet. The tall vase helps support the plant as it gets pretty tall and it has an elegant look to it. It adds some greenery to a time of year when there isn’t as much.

I snuck in a project for the kids welcome center at our church last month as well. I made these floating shelves and decorated them with party supplies I had that had a Christmas party vibe to them.

I tried to make one more ornament to gift, but only got around to making one of them. I used an old deck board to cut out a Christmas star shape. Honestly, it just took too long to do with my jigsaw so I kind of put it away for another year. I think I might need to add a band saw to my tools for projects like this.

One of the biggest diy undertakings was making 40 foam snowflakes. I learned a lot from this! It took over my garage for a while, but they looked so pretty when they were up. I used my projector to trace snowflake silhouettes as big as I could (I would do half of the shape on one sheet and half on another so I could tape them together). Then I used a utility knife for all the straight edges and an exacto knife for the curved spots.

To add glitter, I sprayed a spray adhesives and then dumped glitter on it. It was a mess, but it was the best way I could think of. I tried a glitter spray, but it just wasn’t glittery enough. Also, to make this job easier for myself, I only used three different snowflake patterns. Once I had made one from each, I used it as a pattern to trace the rest.

The last item is a gift for a friend that loves Christmas. She had commented on the ones I had made before so I knew I needed to make her one too. I can’t wait to get it to her. Well, that’s everything for my 2020 handmade Christmas. I’m already scheming for what I might do for next year lol. Anyone else with me? Happy new year to you all! May it be full of creativity and love.

The Scrappy Bee Pattern Now Available For Free

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I have noticed that there has been quite a bit more activity over here on the blog than normal due to everyone doing their part and staying at home during this time. I decided I would release The Scrappy Bee Pattern for free to download and print to add to your sewing possibilities right now. I created it about ten years ago (crazy, right?), but I still think it’s really cute. In fact, my girls still have the bees I made them. They don’t get played with anymore but you can tell how they are worn a bit with all the loving they received over the years.

I also thought that these cute bees would be adorable in an Easter basket (and Easter is next Sunday!). They are a fairly simple sewing project and you can be so creative them. You can use different materials in so many ways to create a one of a kind whimsical bee. If you go all the way back to this original post, you can see some of the original bees in action along with pattern testers bees. All the information you need is in the two links below. The first includes the instructions and the second is the pattern pieces. If you have any problems with these, send me a message with your email and I can email it to you.

You can click here to view/save/print The Scrappy Bee Instructions.

You can click here to view/save/print The Scrappy Bee Pattern Pieces.

As always, I would love to see what you make! Tag me on social media or use #happytogetherbyjess to share your scrappy bee with me and others. Happy sewing! -jess