Valarie with an "A"

So this is an old project that I posted photos of on Facebook, but never really talked about much. *Disclaimer, these photos were not taken with the purpose of being posted on a blog and show a “lived in” house. For Halloween in 2011, I had originally planned to just let Austin and Allie sit at the house and hand out candy to any random trick or treaters that we might get. At most, we would get 5 kids each year, so that was pretty boring. About 3 days before Halloween, a friend of mine said “Hey, come let the kids trick or treat in my parents neighborhood. They give out good candy and it’s low traffic.” Sounds great, but we had no costumes and no money. What’s a momma to do? Why make costumes, of course! After sitting down and talking to Austin and Allie, both being pretty big fans of the Disney Cars franchise, Austin decided on Lightning McQueen and Allie would be Mater. Right…. Not a problem……

I started by digging through a stash of boxes that we used for various things. One was large enough to cut out the shape of a car, so I brainstormed… If Austin can fit his waist into a smaller box, we can put cardboard car cutouts on either side, then fill in the gaps in between. I had plenty of cardboard, and kraft paper to allow for all of Lightning’s curves.

All of the little details were fun to put together. I tried to find as many of the sponsor logos online as possible and just printed them off and modpodged them to the body. For the lightning bolts, I cut them out of poster board, used spray paint to get the color gradient right, and outlined it with black acrylic paint to set it off from the red background color. Pre-cut cake cardboard made the perfect wheels. Added some shoulder straps to carry this contraption and we were good to go…

Next up.. MATER!

Being an older model tow truck, Mater had fewer curves. So one box for the cab, one for the bed and one for the front. I had an old, cheap curtain rod that I had recently taken off a window, and used it to frame up the towing equipment. Lots of rust color spray paint with small touches of the powder blue that is mostly a memory for Mater. I hand lettered his doors with acrylic paint and cut the whites of his eyes out of posterboard, painted the irises and clued on to his windshield.

Overall this was a super fun project with a quick turn around time. I miss making things like this, and really have to force myself to make time for the fun stuff. I hope you enjoyed and got some inspiration to do you own costume!

Why have I not blogged this yet? Tiff and I made this over a month ago. While browsing our local craft store, we came across clearance canvases and wanted to do something with them. Tiff has a music room in her house, so she decided on a music note. We hit the wood cut out aisle and found an eighth note, grabbed some spray paint and headed home. The canvas is spray painted with that stone texture spray paint, and a bright green music note really stands out against it.  :)

I’ve recently started wearing makeup more often, but I’ve never been much on lipstick. I prefer a tint or gloss. But I have so many kits that have come with lipstick, or even old glosses that take up space. I guess this post didn’t help me downsize my lipstick, however, I will now use it :) This is my current collection, which I did throw several out a few months back, but all of these are in good shape, even though I’ve already been cutting on some.

I’ve seen in a few stores a kit for making your own lip color palette, from melting down what you already have. It costs about $18 from Japonesque and comes with a tool, a bowl, and an empty palette. Great idea to have it all together for you, however, I wasn’t about to pay that much. I’ve been down sizing my eyeshadow as well (more to come on that) so I had some empty eyeshadow cases. This case, even if bought new, was only 99 cents at Sally. I got all the eyeshadow out, washed it well, and used nail polish remover to take the ink off the front.

While looking for something totally different in the kitchen area at the local big box store, I came across a two pack of these silicone pinch bowls for less than $2. Heat safe to 500 degrees. Jackpot! This is something similar on amazon.

The next steps are pretty easy. I used some spatula type things I bought at Sally as well to scrape lip color into the bowl. I added something without color (chapstick), to make it more like a gloss, and sometimes I added a tiny bit of a gloss that I have that has glitter in it.

Melt in the microwave in 10-15 second intervals, pinch the sides of the bowl and pour into one well of your palette. I had another empty palette on standby to take any extra I had, since there really wasn’t a way to measure. Rinse and repeat for other colors.

Now I have a nice little compact with four lip shades that I love, and I’ll eventually use up all my lipsticks. At this point, I’ll probably throw out some of the old ones, and keep my faves to refill this palette. I know this doesn’t seem like much, but I’ve had some of this makeup for YEARS. You’ll see examples of the age of some of this stuff in the next post. Anyone remember the “Art Stuff” line at Bath and Body Works?

*****UPDATE: When I tried to use the one on the bottom right, it was too soft. I scooped it out, back into the melting bowl, added more chapstick, remelted, and repoured. Now that it has set up, it has a much better consistency to it :) *****

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I know, I’m not blogging. And it’s not because I’m not crafting, but more because I’m not taking photos. I have very few progress shots, but several cell phone photos of my finished works. I’m hoping to get out of the funk soon, but here is some of my most recent cell photos of crafty things.

First are the Rapunzel scarves. I’ve made several of these recently. Pretty simple, lots of 10 ft. lengths of yarn, divided into three sections and braided, knotted on the ends. Tiff has two already! I love how I can incorporate many different textures and colors all into one project!

Then there’s the ink pens. I’ve been making these for at least 10 years, maybe longer. There’s about 10 ft. of embroidery floss inside the barrel of each pen and I love them. One of my facebook friends commented that they were “trippy” which I think could be an accurate description.  These will be posted in my shop soon, so stay tuned.

And I’m doing the stars again. We have a nice dining room table and I want centerpieces now. Also hoping that I’ll be able to get all the electronics off the mantle so I can decorate it eventually, but that will require another piece of furniture. We shall see.

Next on the list, is melting things. Just waxy things. I found these silicone molds for cheap and thought I’d try out shaped crayons that I see everywhere. Austin likes the bears and butterflies better than the fruit, but that’s because he stacks them like blocks! The first picture is the first try, fresh from the oven still in liquid state. The second picture is popped out of the mold and ready to be used!

That’s the past few months in a nutshell. I’m hoping to be taking more, better quality photos of my craftiness soon, so please come back.

Been a long time without a blog entry. Two toddlers will do that to a person. Anyways, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and open an Etsy store. I’m now known as Spring Daisy Studio, but I have no listings yet. I have several items ready to photograph as well as several works in progress. I’ll be sure to update as soon as I’m ready to open!