November, 2012 | Chicken Scratch

Christmas Rag and Bead Garland Tutorial

Nov 292012

Last year there were a bunch of adorable raggy garlands posted around the holidays. Bloggers all over the place were tying billions of fabric strips to ribbon and twine to make scrappy holiday decorations. I absolutely adore the look, but let’s face it; I’m lazy and I love giant Christmas trees. There is no way I’m sitting around for days making little knots. Luckily for me (and really, for all of us) I spend excessive amounts of time stalking craft stores and I found a short cut to that rustic Christmas feel!

Beaded Garland Tutorial

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Christmas Poinsettia Candle Wreath

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Nov 272012

Today I’m over at Embracing Messy sharing my tutorial for this classy, pet-safe and long lasting Poinsettia Candle Wreath!

Don’t forget Sunday kicks of my Christmas Series!

There will be a week full of Christmas Carol-Inspired DIY projects and a link party starting on the 2nd!

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Princess Christmas Countdown Tree

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Nov 252012

I’ve wanted to do some sort of Christmas Countdown for a long time now. I was browsing in Hobby Lobby and found (of all things) a pink Christmas tree and a miniature tree skirt with the word “Princess” on it. A little while (and about $30) later I had everything I needed to put together a Christmas Countdown Tree for my 6 year old ~~niece~~ cousin (my Grandmother emailed me to point out that I don’t even have a niece, oops!) Scarlett. (Side note, on Thanksgiving we found out her mom is pregnant so she’s going to be a big sister again! I tell ya, our family has all of sudden started popping out babies left and right!)

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Christmas Word Searches – Snowman and Holiday Songs

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Nov 242012

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! I love the holiday season and I’ve spent the last few days getting my Christmas craft on. Here’s a few holiday themed word searches to help you unwind (or keep the kids busy while you’re working that glue gun overtime!).

First, get your brain working with the tougher one:

And then kick back with a mug of cocoa and help the littles with this simple one:

The un-watermarked versions are available [free] from my Google Docs page. Print and share as much as you like but please do not resell or otherwise profit from my work.

Last years word searches can be found here.

Don’t forget the Country Christmas Sing-Along starting December 2nd! Some of my favorite bloggers will be here sharing their Christmas projects.

PS. I’ve already watched the Grinch with Jim Carey 2x and the cartoon once. In two days.

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Daffodil Favors from Van Engelen Bulbs

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Nov 192012

Once Upon a Time…

A princess was getting married and she really wanted to give away daffodil bulbs for her wedding favors. So for once in her life she actually did something with plenty of time to spare. The very nice people promised she would have the bulbs in for her wedding. But they lied, several times.

This left the princess very sad, very angry and very nervous FOUR DAYS before her wedding. Thankfully the princess consulted the magical Google and found a knight in shinning armor. That knight was Van Engelen Bulbs. (click the pictures for the links to the bulbs)

I found Company X and they straight up LIED to me for months and then I called and begged Van Engelen for help and they had my order to me in 2 days! And got 500 miniature daffodil bulbs for the same price I paid for 200 from the other company! Amazing!

So why am I telling you this? Because I like to support good companies and I love to talk about good experiences. I worked in retail through high school and college and all you ever hear is what you’re doing wrong. So I’d like to take this time to tell you all that Van Englen Inc is awesome!

And they are running their fall clearance sale right now. The only downside (if you can call it that) is they have a $50 minimum, and with their crazy-good prices you can get a lot for $50! So call up a flower-loving friend or relative and head over to their sale page and fall in love. You can plant bulbs as long as you can get the shovel in the ground so get diggin!

*I was in no was compensated for this post, they didn’t even know I had a blog when I ordered. All flower images are from Van Engelen Inc. The top image is from my wedding, the bulbs were in the little boxes, and yes, I ate the squash from the vases.

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Fence Post Pumpkins

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Nov 182012

I’m on a mission to fill the world will festive fence posts. In many ways this is the fall version of my Firecracker Centerpiece. Three pieces of wooden fence post and paint. I wonder how many projects I could come up with using those? Probably something my husband never wants to think about!

*This project was originally a guest post over the The CSI Project but I thought it’s non-Halloween side deserved some love so I’m sharing it here again

I call these my Fence Post Pumpkins. They work for Halloween and with a quick spin, all through the fall season.

You will need:

3 pieces of wood, all different heights

3 dry sticks for stems (no one wants moldy pumpkins)

Orange and black paint

Dremel with carving bit, Sanding blocks, Paint brushes, Drill with bit large enough for your sticks, Hot glue gun

*You can skip the dremel and just paint the faces if you want

Starting with three pieces of round fence post, sand off any splintery edges and drill a hole, about 1/2 in deep in the top.

Draw or trace a face on each chunk of wood. Using the Dremel carefully carve the faces about 1/4 of an inch deep (safety glasses and masks everyone!).

It doesn’t have to be perfect, we’re going for rustic here!

Paint the sides and top orange and using a smaller brush fill in the face with black paint (if you do what I did and put the face on upside down this is where you drill another set of holes)

Once everything is dry sand around the edges, over the face and anywhere else you’d like a bit of the original wood to show through. Glue the stems in the holes you made earlier, tie a piece of ribbon, rick rack or raffia to the top and you’ve got an everlasting pumpkin display! Ignore my nail polish. I haven’t painted my nails since the wedding, the orange is what’s left from the big day!

Since Turkey Day is RIGHT around the corner you can totally skip the faces all together. I’m in love with my silly little fence post pumpkins (anyone else know that song?) and if you decide to whip up a pumpkin patch of your own I’d love to see it!

I’m kicking it into Christmas already (ask me how happy my husband is.. no actually don’t, I try not to swear here!) so make sure to ‘like’ me on FaceBook so you don’t miss a minute of the Christmas Crazy about to go down!

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Fonts on the 15th – Kimberly Geshwin Fonts

Fonts 2 Responses »

Nov 152012

I’m interrupting our regular programming to welcome a new Chicken Scratch Sponsor! Kimberly Geswein is a brilliant font designer with a huge catalog of work. Her fonts are all so happy and cheerful. They would be right at home on invitations to a little girls birthday party of thank you notes for a tea party. She has 198 fonts available for download on Dafont and all are free for personal use! That means you can use them for your crafts and scrapbooks for free. If you want to use them commercially, for example on your blog or in your store, licenses are available for only $5 per font.

Today I’ll be sharing some of my favorites to give you a taste of what she has to offer:

From Where You Are, Janda Apple Cobbler, Janda Curly Girl

Janda Snickerdoodle Serif, Janda Sparkle and Shine, KG God Game Me You

KG Skinny Latte, KG Strawberry Limeade, Lavender Lime, Shadows into Light

*Bonus Fact*

God Gave Me You by Blake Shelton was our first dance at the wedding

Kimberly makes and updates her fonts almost constantly (I’m not sure she even sleeps!) the best place to keep up id on her Facebook page. Tell her Alecia from Chicken Scratch Sent you!

Please remember artists like Kimberly rely on licensing fees to let hem keep making new fonts and provide for their families, please stay honest! If you want to use a font for watermarking or creating a logo pay for the license and support the community

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Burlap Linky – 2 Winners!

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Nov 142012

Did you enjoy our Burlap Tutorials? (If you missed mine you can checkout my DIY Burlap Stamps and Kelsey shared a Burlap Utensil Holder) Now it’s time to share your Burlap Projects (Technically paint too, somehow Kelsey and I both skipped that part). The winners will be chosen by .

There will be two winners, the first prize is provided by Kadie @ Seven Alive. The winner will get to choose between an Owl Hat and a Santa Hat set!

The Second prize is a Mug Cozy from Lesley @ By The Porchlight

Mug Cozy Prize

Just to sweeten the pot, another winner will be chosen out of all the craft challenge winners for a goodie box from Pick Your Plum!

Link up your best burlap and/or paint projects now:

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Thanksgiving Word Searches

Wordsearch 4 Responses »

Nov 132012

I can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving! I can’t believe it’s right around the corner, Christmas will be here before we now it! Here are your Thanksgiving Word Searches:

As always the PFDs are available for free from Google Docs. Feel free to print as many as necessary to keep the kiddos entertained, but do not sell or otherwise profit from them (family bets are another matter, make it a race, loser makes everyone else sandwiches!)

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Burlap Stamp – Crafty Cornucopia

DIY 11 Responses »

Nov 122012

This event features bunch of my fellow bloggers, and I’m really excited to be kicking off burlap week. If you missed last week the theme was Buttons and you can check out the tutorials over at The CSI Project and My Favorite Finds.

When I picked burlap I knew I wanted to do something a little different. I’ve already covered half my house (and roughly 3/4 of my wedding) with the stuff and I wanted to step out of usual box. I have a 45 minute drive home everyday and this little gem popped into my head on the way home one day.

Homemade Burlap Stamp

The card on the left is matte brown ink, the right is embossed with dark brown.

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