cork – A Smith of All Trades

Paper flower arrangement

June 26, 2014June 26, 2014 Jessica Smith

I went to Hobby Lobby to buy one knob and left with my knob and a ton of fake flowers. Hobby Lobby has the best flowers. I especially love their paper flowers, which don’t look real, but also don’t look like they are supposed to be real.

The best part about the flowers was the price! Each sprig was 80¢ on clearance.

I scooped up all of the clearance flowers to make an arrangement for our family room. I wanted to use the vase that we used as our unity candle for our wedding. It’s been sitting in our guest room with the half-burned floating candle collecting dust. Instead of filling the vase with the glass marbles that often accompany floral arrangements, I decided to use corks. We got married at a winery, so it made sense to use corks with the vase for that reason. Plus, I have so many corks! So, corks were both creative and cost effective!

I tried out my plan before cutting any of the flowers down.

Once I decided that I liked the cork and the flowers in the vase, I cut down the stems to fit.

Then, I started to put everything together in the vase. This was easier said than done because the corks didn’t really want to fall nicely in line. First I tried stacking them so everything was in a vertical line. Five tries later… I gave up on this method.

I opted to stick the flowers in first, then just toss all of the corks in and let them naturally fall into place. It seemed like the only other method to try, so I just did it over and over again under they fell a way that I liked.

Here’s what I came up with:

This picture took forever to take because someone kept getting in the way….

This was after he stole a cork and ran away with it, forcing me to chase him under our kitchen table. The joys of having a mischievous dog. Thanks, Rem.

Anyway… I love how this turned out and that it is secretly sentimental. If you look close you can see the inscription from our wedding. You can also see little specs of the green stem.

For now, the arrangement is living next to our television. I want to jazz up this space a little bit so it is less black.

We’ll see if it drives Brian nuts having a few sprigs in front of the TV.

If you see any clearance sprigs at your local HL, pick ’em up! They add such a nice pop of color and a fresh look to a room.

Craft Projects, Quick and Easy Crafts

Clearance Jug Lamps

January 5, 2014 Jessica Smith

I hope you all had a merry Christmas and a wonderful New Years! I’ve been off work for three whole weeks and it has been amazing! You might think I would update my blog more since I had a lot of time off, but I’ve been happily hanging out with my family and friends instead of doing work of any kind! That’s not to say I didn’t craft on my three-week staycation. Stay tuned for a bunch of new projects that I’ve been working on!

Today’s project couldn’t be easier to make. And yes, if you read the title of the post, it is a lamp!

An easy lamp? Yup!

I was browsing around at Michaels a couple of months ago and I found two beautiful green glass jugs on clearance for around $3 a piece. I knew right then and there that I wanted to turn them into a set of lamps for our night stands. You see, ever since B and I have lived together (oh, 4+ years), he’s had a lamp and I haven’t. Or at least that’s how I remember it. I definitely have had one since we moved to our house.

I’ve wanted to buy a matching set but they are SO EXPENSIVE. So when I saw these jugs I knew I already had the perfect tools to turn them into lamps.

Even longer ago — sheesh, probably two years ago — I bought a kit on Amazon to turn a wine bottle into a lamp. After I bought the kit I decided that a wine bottle makes for an awkward lamp, but I saved the kit for later. Perfectly enough, the clearance jugs had an opening and a neck as skinny as a wine bottle! So making my lamp was as easy as plugging the kit into the opening of the bottle. I thought I might have to seal it with glue, but the cork is in the neck of the jug very tightly.

You can see the cork in the neck of the bottle in the above photo. For a better photo, or to buy your own, check out this listing on Amazon. I definitely don’t think I paid $20 for a set of two. I think I paid closer to $10…. so maybe shop around?

Anyway, I made two lamps in two minutes. The hard part? Finding shades! See, the jugs aren’t huge, so a normal shade would be too big. And then I found one at Target I loved, but they only had one. I held onto the one for about a month before giving up on finding its mate. I returned my favorite shade, then found a set of two a couple of weeks later. SCORE!

Here’s how the lamps turned out:

The only downside to the kit is that the cord runs out at the fixture instead of through the lamp, but I love them regardless.

And now I finally have a lamp to go in my nightstand. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to me, amiright?

Hope you are all doing well in 2014! It’s back to work tomorrow and back to more diligent blogging. Getting back into the groove will be rough, but normal will be a nice change.

Christmas, Craft Projects, DIY GIFT GUIDE, Gift Idea, Holiday, Wine Crafts

DIY GIFT GUIDE: Eucalyptus Christmas Tree

December 10, 2013December 8, 2013 Jessica Smith

Today I’m sharing a Christmas decoration that would make a great gift. This project was a pain in the butt, but SO worth it. So only make it for someone you really really like :p

Supplies:

1 tree form
Eucalyptus (you can grab this from Michaels or any craft store that sells floral stuff)
Staples
Hot Glue
Corks
Tacks
Ribbon
Teal feathers

Steps:

Rip the leaves off of your eucalyptus plant.
Turn your tree base upside down and start to attach the eucalyptus. I did a mixture of staples stuck into the styrofoam, hot glue and some bent wire. Really anything I had at my workbench that would make the leaves stick. Go around and around and around and around until you reach the top.
Once the leaves are covering the tree, glue corks to the bottom. I chose to place mine at the outer edge of the base of the tree so no white showed. You could place yours in the middle if you wanted it to be more like a real tree.
Fill in any holes/white spots using teal feathers and small dabs of hot glue.
Embellish with silver tacks to look like ornaments. You can use these to strategically pin down any loose leaves, too.
Wrap your ribbon around the top of the tree and secure with glue.
Stick your choice of topper into the top of the tree. I used a flower I had snagged on clearance a while ago. I stuck it into the top of the three using a nail.
Admire your adorable-yet-not-too-Christmasy tree!