Christmas, Craft Projects, Holiday, Quick and Easy Crafts, Wine Crafts

Wine cork grape ornaments

I think this craft is one of my all-time favorites. My neighbor and I did a craft night before my Trash to treasure fair and we made so many cool things out of corks!

Unfortunately, I only have photos of the finished project. It’s hard to remember to take photos when you are crafting with one of your best friends. It’s basically non-stop talking mixed with singing along to Christmas music.

Anyway, check these out!IMG_0020

To make a wine cork grape ornament, you will need 8 wine-stained corks, a thin piece of cork, wire, hot glue, ribbon and a leaf!

First, you will need to cut the tops of your corks off. We used sharp knives from my kitchen to cut through the cork. Err, correction, Allie used the sharp knives… I couldn’t stand the noise it made. Either way, cut about half an inch from the wine stained end. We didn’t care if ours we all the same length because the different sizes gave the ornament a nice depth to it. (Can an ornament have depth?)

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Once the cork tops were sliced off, I arranged them on a flat piece of cork that Allie got from TJ Maxx. It’s super thin and was meant to be a placemat. It worked great for this project, but you could use really anything to glue the corks onto. Cardboard, maybe.

Once the corks were arranged in a grape shape, we traced around them and cut out the cork. Then, we glued the leaf at the top (from a fake flower) and proceeded to glue each grape onto the cork.

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When the glue dried, I poked wire through the cork and made a hidden loop behind the leaf. Then I strung my ribbon through the top and hung it on our holiday garland!

I absolutely love these ornaments and will definitely be gifting a few this holiday season.

 

Craft Projects, Paint, Quick and Easy Crafts

Painted Frame Mats

{A Smith of All Trades} Painted Frame Mats

I have been trying for about a year now to accessorize our house with adorable and mushy pictures of us, cutesy pictures of our pup, and wonderful photos of our families. Last night, in between cleaning out a hall closet and playing with my pup, I attempted this feat again. I broke out my stash of picture frames and rearranged a few shelves in our living room. I set my sights on this trio of white frames — I love the white frame with the patterned, yellow mat that I bought from Target a bajillion years ago. The other two frames are just… meh. Boringggggg.

I picked them up from the thrift store last year and never did anything super exciting with them. Last night I changed that.

I pooped the mats out and dashed off to my craft room to unearth some paint!

One mat got a green polka dot treatment using the end of a pen.

{A Smith of All Trades} Painted Frame Mats

The other got a blue chevron stripe. I did both by hand and just eye-balled in. After all, the other side is free for painting if I screwed it up!

{A Smith of All Trades} Painted Frame Mats

Once my mats were dry, I popped them back into the frames and set them on a shelf in our living room. Lord knows this won’t be their last home, but for now they are quite the colorful and cheery trio.

{A Smith of All Trades} Painted Frame Mats

{A Smith of All Trades} Painted Frame Mats

Cute, huh? Now I need some purple and orange and I’ll have a whole rainbow of frames.

{A Smith of All Trades} Painted Frame Mats

Graphic Design

The Adventures of Remmy the Dog: Underwater Dive

The polls are in and Remmy’s next adventure is an underwater dive! Gosh he is just the cutest, diver pup.

The Adventures of Remmy the Dog_Underwater Dive

Stay tuned for his next adventure: Hot Air Ballooning!