Martha Mondays - Crayon Hearts

It was my turn to choose what we were going to do this week for Martha Mondays crayon hearts. I wanted to do a Valentine craft, and Brette of Martha and Me had already done my first choice, the glittered roses. I thought this one was pretty and easy enough for everyone to try. I also chose to post it here rather than my food blog, just because of it being a craft instead of cooking. My other cooking Martha Mondays I'll post on The Tiny Skillet sorry to confuse anyone. So here we go! It seemed easy enough, and I had all the stuff on hand to do it. You take some wax paper and spread some crayon shavings on it, fold it over and crimp the edges. After protecting your ironing board, and iron with craft paper, simply go over it with an iron set on medium, melting the shavings.

Okay, again easy enough. The first sign of difficulty was finding a sharpener that would fit the crayon, the first one was too snug. Then the points kept getting stuck in the sharpener. I thought of shaving them a different way, but I used a tooth pick to keep getting tips out that broke off and stuck in the sharpener. I think I might of had too old of crayons.

It said not to overlap them, yeah, right! I spread them thin hoping it wasn't too thin. I remember ironing Fall leaves between two sheets of wax paper as a kid. They didn't always turn out like the teacher's did either.

So why did it get those wrinkles? Humm...I was able to get a couple hearts cut out, but it was had tracing around the heart, nothing would show up so I used a red sharpie! They looked okay...but not what I expected it sorta curled and so I peeled it apart...then it curled and so I just ironed it on craft paper. There!

But then it didn't give you the see through hang it in the window look they were going for! It did look cool on the paper and would make a great Valentine's Day card!

I'll have to cut some more out to use for some cards! ...and I got some really sharp crayons out of it!

I don't know, maybe I should try shaving it different or adding a thicker layer, maybe next time, it was kinda messy with the shavings all over! I am curious how everyone else's turned out. So please check out theirs off the Martha Mondays blog list.

So this is what Tucker was doing while I was crafting. Talk about a lazy dog!

Laying down while he's eating!

Well after all he is almost 14 years old. You know how old that is in dog years!

Hope you all have a great week!

Shell Crafts

These are my shell angels that I make every year. The smaller ones are the shells that I've found on the beach. I have different size pearl beads that I use depending on the shell size.

And a better addition to my new sea urchin "jelly fish". I still have to make more sea urchin "snowmen". I have enough shells, I better start glittering!

I usually have on my tree some sand dollars that we found and decorated too, they are packed away right now.

I also made some night lights. I have one in my kitchen with a sand dollar on it.

Here is a sea urchin shell that I bought at The Green Turtle. It's a different variety, a lot larger shells than the ones I found. The natural opening is large enough to put the bulb in through.

I originally got this shell to make a candle out of. These we can find at our beach at times.

A large scallop shell, usually have do dive for them.
A blogger friend said I should take more photos of Tucker. Well, I have plenty, but didn't want to post too many. I took this the other day just for Phyrra! This is his "do you have anything for me?" look, "are you sure? I'm just sitting here watching"

Sea Urchin Ornament #2

My friend called me last night to tell me to try to make these "jellyfish" Ornaments with my sea urchin shells. She saw someone on Martha do it, but I guess she used tinsel. Now I had most of the stuff except for the ribbon that I wanted to use instead of tinsel. I think the wired ribbon which is slightly translucent works well. I was kind of rushed to make it before the sun set. I had to run out to Michaels after work, and of course we had a staff meeting, so I didn't have much time to let things dry. I like it better without the pink beads the fine snow glitter didn't show up much, but I think you can get the idea. The ornament on the tree looks better, otherwise these were hard to photograph!






I also just put glittered sea urchin shells over my tiny glob lights on my tree. The natural design of the shells are beautiful by themselves.


The sea urchin snowman feels right at home on the tree.

Sea Urchin Ornaments

We like to walk the beach often and when the weather is cooler we go more often. You never know what you are going to find. I don't know what it is that "dumps" certain sea life on the beach. The weather, time of year, currents, I just don't know, maybe I'll look into that. Anyway last January when Wade was running on the beach he told me that there were a ton of sea urchins. So when we went to the beach that evening for sunset to collected some. Then Maranda and I went the next week in the morning to collect some more, we couldn't believe how many were there. When we get them they still have most of their quills on them, so we look for the ones that most have fallen off. They are already dead, so we have to take them and clean them up. I make sure they are dry by letting them set in the sun. Then it easier to work with them. I do use bleach to make sure they are nice and clean.



When they were setting on the tack box drying, Maranda noticed the sizes and put them onto snowman. So the idea to make them into Sea Urchin Snowman came into play.




First I use some watered down glue and paint it on the shells, then sprinkle with snow glitter. Then I get some small ribbon and thread it through the natural holes in the shells. I put a large bead that will hold it inside the bottom one so it won't slip through. Using beads I glue on the eyes and nose. Glue the three sections together, and add a ribbon scarf. I am still trying to figure out what to use for a hat.












On the tree in action! I gotta find him a hat.



A preview of the next sea urchin ornaments, jellyfish!

Martha Mondays: Map Coasters

Welcome to Martha Mondays. If you aren’t familiar, this is an open project where every week, we’ll cook, craft or do a Martha project together and then post or comment about it. The Martha Mondays for this week was Map Coasters.


You need paper maps (and if you don’t have any you could print some online, or use any other decorated or patterned paper you have), cutting mat, round cork coasters, craft knife, foam paintbrush and ModPodge.

Okay so I had some cork coasters already and I know I have some ModPodge somewhere. I had moved my crafts drawers out to the garage. There are jet skis in front of it, I pushed them out of the way. Looked and looked, I know it's somewhere but couldn't find it. I did find my flexible cutting matt, and my cork coasters, and I always have my Exact-o knife handy (no problem there). So I grabbed my 40% off coupon and picked up some more ModPodge. I thought I'd get the matte version this time. I really didn't have to spend that much on this project.

I didn't have any good maps to cut up, but I always have decorative paper because I make a lot of cards and have stuff just in case I ever have the space and time to scrapbook.

I chose a nice summer print for my coasters, they'd look nice by the pool. I didn't trace the coaster because I can never stay on the line. So I cut around the cork coaster and it worked okay but it did flake off and had cork dust all around.

Adding the ModPodge was easy as long as you didn't touch anything (I got some on my camera). And I got some of the cork dust in it so I brushed it out. Had a cloth on hand to wipe my hands.

Slide the cut out circles on the cork and put a top coat of ModPodge and let it dry. It was a simple job, and it dried quicker that I thought it would in Florida humidity.

They are quick and easy and I think it would be a nice gift that you can really personalize. I would love to use kids drawings, or I bet fabric would work to make some nice coasters.

The most work was writing and posting about it. This week was busy getting ready at school for the kids to star on Monday and meet your teacher on Friday. Next week For the next Martha Mondays, let’s make Roasted Chicken and Plums, which is on page 162 of September Martha Stewart Living. Make sure you check out how everyone's coasters turned out. It's fun to see all the varieties, and what a good job they did.