Coral Collection

I have had the opportunity to go snorkeling several times in the Caribbean and see beautiful corals in their natural habitat.  They are truly amazing in their variety.

To add some whimsy to the display, starfish in vases were added.

Summers seem so short now that children go back to school in the middle of August.  I'm going to keep my coral display up till college football kickoff to make the summer stretch out for me. 

You may have already figured it out, but most all my 'coral' is made from the floral department  at Hobby Lobby, a couple of cans of Great Stuff Foam, and paint. If you want to try making your own

faux coral too click on the highlighted text below...

DIY Faux Coral

Coral Under Cloche

I have admired others' glass cloches but didn't have one of 
my own until I decided to treat myself last week when
 Hobby Lobby had all their glass products on sale.

 This summer I have enjoyed looking at the faux coral displays in Pottery Barn catalogs.   I decided to try my hand at making some faux coral of my own to display  under my new cloche. 

For a tutorial on how to make your own faux coral click here.

In doing some research to learn exactly what coral looks like in order to try to copy some, I learned that there are so many different shapes, colors, and sizes of coral.  Did you know there are even Youtube videos that people post of live coral in their aquariums?

Another learning experience was in the making of the coral arrangement. It was a challenge to keep all the elements 

within the size constraints of the inside of the cloche. 

Something else I still need to learn is how to focus the 
camera to capture the detail of the item inside the cloche.   

It seemed like the perfect time to get out the octopus pillows that I made last summer and put them on the sofa.

Just for fun, I tried making some starfish too to go along

 with the coral/beachy theme.

For a tutorial on how to make faux starfish out of spray foam click here.

Plastic Spoon Laurel Wreath

I am "kopy katting" a clever, fun, inexpensive 
craft/design item I recently saw:

a wreath made of plastic spoons!

Nesting Place blog posted the first one I had ever seen. 

She did one of white spoons and then another one
 with green and blue spoons...both very cute.

I couldn't really think of a place in my house to use a 
wreath made of spoons with fun colors.
  I decided to try to make the wreath with the cheapest 
spoons I could find and then spray paint
 it to try to look like metal. 

At the Dollar Tree, their clear plastic spoons are 48 per pack.

The original instructions said that the wreath 
takes over 50 so I bought two packs.

The only other things you need is are hot glue gun,
 glue sticks and spray paint.  

If you find a cute color of spoon and it goes with
 your house, kid's room, party theme, etc., you 
would not even need the paint. 

You put a dab of hot glue on the neck (near the bowl)
 of the spoon and on the end of the spoon handle. 

Then place the second spoon on top of your first spoon
with the bottom of its bowl on top of your hot glue 
 blob that is on the neck of the first spoon. 

 Press the handle of the second spoon onto the
 glue on the handle of the first spoon.  
The second spoon's handle will be longer than the
 one it is on top of.  Continue this exact same process 
over and over and over and over. 

This is the almost-finished wreath to show that it does the curving for you.

  

My wreath took 56 spoons and 30 minutes to construct. The only cost for me was for the spoons ($2 with lots of leftovers).

I already had the glue gun, glue, and paint.

Ta-dah!!! This is the wreath "going full circle" but not yet painted.

Mine is not perfectly lined up (notice wobble) .

  

This wreath turned out 17" across.
  The type spoons and how far you place them
 down the handle could affect the amount 
of spoons you need and the diameter size.  

Mine is not what I would consider "kid tough"
 so you might keep that in mind if you are
 planning to use one in a kid's area. 

Getting a coat of spray paint in Rust-Oleum Hammered Finish Autumn Brown

 (left over from another project).

It was not as hard as I thought it might be to get good coverage in all the nooks and crannys.  

Well, looking at the drips in this photo, maybe I sprayed too heavy but it messed 

up the textured finish if I tried to "fix" the drip while it was wet.

I might play with the color to make it more metal looking 

(and will for sure clean up the "spider webs" from the 

glue gun and the paint drips). 

Depending on the color of spoons you choose

 (and whether or not to paint), the possibilites for

 this project are endless!

Solar Firefly Jars

These glowing jars remind me of catching fireflies when I was a kid.  We would gently trap them in our  hands and then put our "prey" into jars to watch their little florescent bottoms blink 
off and on in the twilight.

The tiny little bulb of the solar light looks like a firefly's tail end to me.  A candle in a mason jar on a summer night looks great outside to light a path or patio but sometimes, due to safety concerns,
a candle is not a good option. 

I am copying this idea from Dawn at Creative Cain Cabin blog. 
 When I saw some solar yard lights on sale at  Hobby Lobby, I decided to give them a try.

  The lights I got were smaller than the ones Dawn used so I got a smaller jars also. 

The main part of this solar yard light that you are going to use
for this project is solar cap. In the photo below it is the navy
blue with stars part. 

The solar lights were $1.85 each. 

The jars were also on sale for $.65 each.
 The total for each solar jar was $2.45. 

There are three main parts to the lights: the stem (or stake), the diffusing cone and the solar light top.  They disassemble easily. 
They also reassemble easily so you can play with different looks for your solar jar. 

See the little light near the top of the jar?
Doesn't it look like a firefly's bottom?

I had seen some cute old-timey zinc-looking mason  jar lids on Etsy so I tried to mimic that look in order  to cover up the stars on the outside my solar lights.

  I painted a coat of grey on first.  Be sure not to cover
 the solar panel up with paint.

When that was dry, I put on dry-brush coat of pearlized white.

I was actually hoping to find a bottle of silver but I got tired of looking in the bottomless pit I call my "box of craft paints".

After you have painted the tops (if you want to), let them sit outside and soak up some sun.  I left the jars under the tops while they were "sunning" so the little bulb would not get damaged .

  Dawn hot-glued her tops onto the jars. I'm still experimenting with the look of the jars so I have not committed to attaching the tops.  

When it gets dark, the jars begin to glow all on their own. 

Shaky picture of jars in the grass to show amount of  light shed by each type jar I experimented with.

Here is a solar jar with the diffusing cone still on:

 Dawn had said in her post that the cone could be  removed, so I tried that since I was not "in love" with the look of the cone. The cone does serve the purpose of spreading the light which
 you lose by taking it out. 

Here is the jar without the diffusing cone:

I also tried crumpled up (wrapping paper type)
 cellophane in hopes of diffusing the light but not
having an obvious cone hanging down in the jar.

 The little bulb did not get hot so it never made
 the cellophane in the jar hot either. 

Here is the jar with crumpled cellophane:

I photographed these jars sitting on a white surface
 so you can evaluate the different light patterns that
 are cast by the jars.  \

Outside

Inside

Here are bird's eye views of the patterns...

...and to be fair, here is the fun pattern of the cone

 before it was encased in a mason jar...

Which type jar filler (or not) do you like best?

What is another type "filler" that would diffuse the 
light in the jar but be attractive? 

I'm leaning towards the naked little light bulb that looks
like a firefly's behind.