Beaded Christmas Spiders

WARNING:  This post is not for the faint at heart.

If you suffer from arachnophobia, please run away!

RUN!!!!!!!!

But if you want to make a unique Christmas ornament, keep reading.

 I saw an amazing family of spiders which peaked my

 interest.  You can see them here:  Heather at the Inspiration Cafe

She is one of the co-authors of Inspiration Cafe and also hosts her own blog

The Beating Hearth

I had to try my hand at these little gems, so I Googled  "beaded spiders"

 and came across a very talented artist!  You can find her

 here:  http://atomicrose.blogspot.ca/

  She has a blog called 365 spiders.  That's right,

 she made 365 spiders in a year; that would be one a day!

  Holy crap!  That's a lot of spiders!  They are amazing.

The tutorial I found on Google, was actually on Instructables which was super easy to follow! 

This is what I came up with.  I was very excited after my first, which let's face it, was pretty crude. 

We will call him Wolfy!

 But after I found some more appropriate beads in my craft room, I was off!

  

She`s a real lady!

Espresso
I epoxied small beads onto a larger yucky wooden bead to glam him up!

And then I stopped, cuz I had to go to the dentist.  :(

And now I am back from the dentist armed with  more beads from the Dollar Tree!

And yes....I am building an army!

Of course....Charlotte

 King Tut

They're coming for you......

  

  Go and make yourself a spider or six!!  I guessing  you will be hooked after your first.
Stay tuned.  I've already finished three more since I posted.  They just keep getting better.

Cheers!

Linking Up With

Crafting for Christmas

This was the first of the craft parties at

 the Feral Turtle pond!

The goal was to cram as many crafts into one day as we could. 

 A good time was had by all, and nobody got their eye poked!

 Of course there were a few glue gun casualties but all in all, a successful day!

We made sock snowmen, which are all over Hometalk and Pinterest.  

We etched glasses for tealights, (no pics...oops) some crafters made cards, and we all crafted a Christmas centerpiece  created from a piece of painted fence board, pine cones and tealight holders.  I was only able to snag a few pictures as it was a busy day with good food (Thanks Mr. FT) and great company!

A few of the crafters with their amazing centerpieces.

This one was mine.

I got a little busy so poor Mr. Snowman is having a difficult time breathing!

The second party was pretty much the same except instead

 of having seventeen people here

  we had four.  Three couldn't make it due to poor weather.

Another party gave me a chance to try out an amazing recipe from one of my

 bloggy friends, 

Heather at the Beating Hearth

A knock off from Starbucks!  

Cranberry, Orange and White Chocolate Love.

Click HERE for the recipe!!  It was very well received.

  I am going to try it again using chocolate chips, as I ran out of

 white chocolate and need to use up my regular chocolate chips. 

 Give it a try....so good!!

Only one pic from craft day two!  But I would say by the smiles on their faces,

 it was a pretty successful day!

Cheers!

Green Apple Tree makes a Twosome

Pull out the party favors!  I finished it!

I had high hopes of completing the yellow tree also, but that never happened.

 Other projects happened though, and I will get around to posting them this week!

I kinda forgot to snap some pics of the process, but really, it's pretty straight forward.

Cut apples,hot glue, burn fingers,  and glue some more.....lather, rinse, repeat!

When it came to filling in all the holes, I went to the dollar store and bought two rolls of their glitzy tulle  fabric.  I eagerly chopped up the first roll into 6x6 squares, singing look at me go!  They got down to 4x4 by the start of the second roll and by the end I was using 3x3 squares, and my singing turned into a frantic whisper "Come on baby....Momma just needs a few more pieces."

  The crowning glory was made from two gold stars I snatched from my Christmas tree.  I forgot to look for a cheap star at the dollar store.  I cut one of the stars right down the center, and glued the two halves to the center of the whole star.

Green Girl  measures in at 44"

Shes not as tall as Big Red, who measures a whopping 54".  

And now, the twosome:

Yep, we got more snow last night.  But on the upside, it was only -3 C when I took these pictures.  We have improved from the -30 C that plagued us just days ago!

Hopefully Miss Yellow  will be about 34".  As soon as I find some more cardboard, cut yellow apples, and burn my fingers I will take pics of the trilogy.  Luckily, we just bottled some orange chocolate port from a kit we bought a few months back.

 That will soothe the glue burns.

Cheers!

Apple Christmas Tree

You might or might not remember my apple Christmas tree from last year. 

I decided to make a trio and I just wanted to share the latest of my glue gun burns.

  Being snowed in is kind of a blessing. 

  I'm forced to spend time with my favorite torture tool; you guessed it, my glue gun . 

This is the start of my trio; not finished of course as I like to stay true to my name....Feral Turtle

I used some single ply cardboard and rolled it into a cone.  it's secured with a bead of hot glue and packing tape.

A circle of heavy double ply cardboard was attached to stiffen the bottom.  Again, secured with hot glue

When paint is left for awhile, it tends to harden.
 Being snowed in creates many challenges like eating questionable science experiments in your fridge..
or softening some gummy paint that had to be cut out of it's container.

Covered just enough so the cardboard won't show through.

My faux green apples are put to use!

I cut them all in half.

and started gluing them on.  That's as far as I got yesterday.  I need a few supplies to finish her off, but that requires travel which at this point, as you can tell from the picture below, is pretty much impossible!

The entrance to our driveway yesterday!

Hopefully my next post will be of a trio!

P.S.  No food poisoning yet......

Cheers!

Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies are like washing your mouth out with soap, but in a good way!

I like to eat these when I finish up  a day of construction!  

You can read about that HERE!

Mix the ingredients:

1 cup butter

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 cups flour

Stop here for traditional shortbread,

  or you can add the next for lemon lavender.

*1 TBSP lemon extract

*2 TBSP dried lavender seeds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Cream butter and icing sugar.  Add the rest of the dry ingredients about 1/2 cup at a time while beating with your mixer.  It will become a dried bunch of fine crumbs.  With your hands, mix the dough into a firm ball.  

I like to split my dough  into two balls and make half  Traditional Shortbread, and the rest  Lemon Lavender.

  Roll your traditional into a log and store in the refrigerator in waxed paper.

  With the leftover dough, pour in your lemon extract and lavender.  Get in there and mix with your hands.  Roll into a log and place in wax paper and refrigerate for about an hour.

  Take out dough and slice into 1/4 inch slices and bake at 325 for about 12 minutes.

I sprinkle orange sugar onto one batch before baking

and cinnamon sugar on the next!  I usually put a maraschino cherry on each cookie but I was out :(

Wash away your day with a cup of mint tea and a cleansing cookie!

Cheers!