Beaded Snowmen Ornaments

Over Spring Break, Jodie and I put together these beaded snowmen ornaments. They came from a kit that I bought from Mary Maxim: Faceted Elegant Snowmen Ornaments. Everything came in the kit except the hot glue. Jodie graciously took the photos as I did the steps. No polka dots or hearts, but it's our AuralArtists Extra. 

We started by separating and sizing the pieces.

Take a chenille stem and, using a round-tip pliers, make a small loop.

Add a drop of hot glue.

Thread a large faceted bead.

Add a drop of hot glue.

Thread a medium faceted bead.

Add a drop of hot glue.

Thread a small faceted bead.

Add a drop of hot glue.

Add the flat button-like bead.

Add a drop of hot glue.

Add the black pony bead.

Bend the chenille stem into a loop, then tuck the end into the top of the pony bead.

Tie a piece of ribbon with a square knot between the top two faceted beads to be the snowman's scarf.

Trim the ribbon to a scarf-like length.

Ta-Da!

We made a dozen of these little gems.

I enjoy making Christmas ornaments throughout the year.

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and 

Bunny Fruit Basket

Here's a little AuralArtists Extra that Julie and I did together on Easter morning. We carved the bunny from a watermelon, then filled him with fruit and berries. We were inspired by a post on Pinterest. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

I got some photo help from Julie Davaz and Jeff Otto. Food Styling by Dale Davaz. Thanks!

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Inspired by Clean Food Living:

A Mother's Love

My April Artist Trading Card Challenge is complete!

With Easter and Spring as the theme,

What's better than newly hatched eggs?

Jodie and I had fun working "together" on our cards via Skype. 

We're quite enjoying our Thursday Crafternoons - digital style!

While she was stamping, I was busy with fabric, lace, buttons, stickers, google eyes, markers, and glue.

Six happy little momma and baby birds, dancing and chirping.

Our friend Mary Elizabeth will be joining us in this craft.

So one card each to trade with one another.

And one extra if any of our readers want to trade with me!

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Inspired by Welke.nl:

Bits of my Heart

It's CHALLENGE TIME!

Mom and I got to have a Crafternoon together over Skype as we completed this month's challenge.

Their creation was pretty straightforward. I reused greeting card envelopes as my base, cutting them to 2.5"x3.5". Then I used a circle stamp and hot pink ink, which came out differently on each card. Finally, I used a pencil eraser, acrylic paint, and a paper cut-out for a stencil to create the heart.

Off they go!

Losing my keys drives me...

...dotty!

But sadly, it happens often enough that I wanted to have a distinguishing key to help people identify it if they see it.

I could hardly believe it when I saw my mom's heart key. So I thought I'd share mine, too!

Key to My Heart

Well ... to my house, anyway. I lost my spare key. Drives me crazy trying to find it. I finally gave up and got a new key. A fun key. A blinged-out key. Ahhhhh

Christmas Eye-Candy - Putting It All Together!

Unfortunately for me, I had to work the next morning and wasn't part of the put-it-together party. However, I was able to visit again that afternoon/evening to finish my igloo and stare in awe at what the other AuralArtits' had done while I was away.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Jodie's "polka-dot" theme came in the form of the front garden.

Not to be outdone, she also came up with the brilliant idea of having goldfish swimming in the forest river and lake.

And for the grand finale:

What a blast! And what an amazing result!

Next time, we do an entire village!