The Impatient Crafter : aleene's turbo tacky glue

Craft Wars Inspired (Junk Drawer) Ocean Dreams Birdhouse
Avalon Potter for iLoveToCreate
"Teen crafted, Mom approved."

My mom is going to be on an upcoming episode of TLCs new show Craft Wars and she's making projects every week with other contestants from the show inspired by the theme of the week before. Last week's Pop Craft challenge was to make a junk drawer themed birdhouse. We had two of these old birdhouses sitting in our yard, so we decided to both decorate one. I used her paint scraping technique in colors that fit my style and added some things from our 'junk drawer', some sea shells from our last trip to the beach, old buttons and a seahorse metal charm. Layers of mixed acrylic paint colors from Crafty Chica, Scribbles and Tulip are all sealed under Aleene's Spray Sealer so this can go outside. I can't wait for a bird to move in!

Materials
Old wooden birdhouse
Seashells
Old buttons in colors to match
Seahorse or ocean themed metal accent
Number tape (7 gypsies)
Blue, black, copper, white and brown paints (Crafty Chica, Tulip and Scribbles brands)
Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue
Aleene's Spray Acrylic Sealer (matte)

Tools
Scissors
Butter knife or palette knife

If you are using an old birdhouse, clean off any debris and lightly sand. If a new birdhouse, sand lightly.

Mix up paints to make several shades of blue, grey and tan. Use a butter knife to add paint to house door, roof and sides in layers, starting with the darker colors and continuing until you're happy with how it looks. try not to smash the colors together, layer them on top of each other instead.

Use Tacky Glue to glue shells around your door frame.

Glue buttons around opening using more Tacky Glue.

Glue Seahorse to Door with more Tacky Glue. Yay, Tacky Glue!

Run tape along edge of roof on front and sides. Cut to fit.

Spray with sealer, apply several coats allow them to dry in between each layer.

Hana Ami Flower Scatter Pins by Margot Potter

Knit Wit Flower Loom Ad from the 1960s!

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts
Hana Ami Flower Scatter Pins
Margot Potter

Some crafty days are smooth sailing and then...there are days like today. I was going to whip up some quick and easy yarn fabric flowers on my new Hani Ami loom and...well...virtually everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Ergh. I persevered, because I'm both impatient and stubborn, and eventually I got there. These yarn flowers were all the rage back in the day, there are countless ads in my vintage magazines for looms to make these. This was a new loom, I just wasn't used to the platform and the process and the instructions were confusing, as most instructions seem to be. I ended up making up my own way of finishing the flowers, removing them from the platform and sewing through the centers of the flower petals and around them until I made my way around each flower. It isn't the darning method recommended, but it's the one that worked for me!

Once I finally got three double layer petal flowers finished, Aleene's Tacky Glue made fast work of the rest. I added a button center with an acrylic 'gem' to each flower and a safety pin back to each one and...phew! I did it! You can too!

These are fabulous on hats, jackets, t-shirts, flip flops...you will never run out of places to pin or glue them...and you can attach them together to make a funky scarf or sew them into pillows or garments. Hooray!

Materials
Yarn
Buttons
Acrylic gemstones
Safety pins
Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue

Tools
Clover Flower Making Loom (with darning needle)
Scissors

Attach yarn and begin winding following manufacturer's instructions. Take your time and keep yarn tight as you wind.

I went around each peg twice for fluffier flowers.

Use needle to sew through and around petals, going into the center of each pair and around into the center of the pair at the opposite side, working your way around flower until you reach the final pair of petals.