Pink Cauldron Halloween Tree

Hey Crafters and Decorators, I'm back! I have been working outside the home for the last couple of years, but now I am back at home doing my own thing. I am developing my own business which includes many handmade items in the works. But it also means I will be back at it decorating and sharing my home and ideas with you! I've missed this, so I'm super excited! I thought I would ease back into the blogging and youtubing game with this Pink Cauldron Halloween Tree Tutorial. Here is what it looks like:

This little tree is in the breezeway area between my house and my craft room that is over my garage. I purchased it from Treetopia Take a look below at some closeup pics.

I made this tree topper using my laser. The pink portion is sparkly, I achieved this by simply adding a translucent glitter to the wet paint. This is made from layered pieces of 1/8" Baltic Birch plywood.

The spiderweb ribbon, the black velvet ribbon and the sparkly black ribbon were all purchased from Craft Outlet. The pink leopard ribbon was purchased at Mels Crafy Mojo.

I made the pink cauldrons out of 1/4" MDF.

The spider floral pics came from The Wreath Shop

Here's the YouTube Tutorial with a bit more insight into my process:

Hope to see you here again! I have many more projects to share with you! 

You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok. Be sure to say "HI" and share your Halloween photos with me! Thanks for stopping by!

Angela

www.Angela-Decorates.com

angeladecorates@hotmail.com

It's been a long time...

Hi Crafters!

Where do I begin? Yes, I'm still around, but a lot has changed. I suspect a lot has changed for you too.

This morning I opened up my blog for the first time in A LONG TIME and was a bit bummed.  My last post was in 2019, and quite frankly, I'm having to reteach myself some blogging things.

Where have I been? I went back to work full-time in July of 2019...the first time I have done that in literally 20 years! Before that, I was a stay-at-home mom. So, the crafting side has definitely taken a huge hit. I'm pretty tired when I get home, as I'm sure all of you out there can relate to (forced to become a morning person...that's sucked😝). Fortunately, I'm at a company that really encourages my creativity which has been an immense blessing to me and my family. And with that opportunity has come a new digital skill set that I hope to bring to my personal creative world. 

To my faithful followers over the years, let's play catch up. We are still in Houston, but my oldest daughter, Abigail, has flown the nest!!! It's hard to believe I have a child in college, but there she is killing it. And this Texas Aggie is very proud that she is an LSU Tiger. It really suits her. She's studying Graphic Design, so I'm really hoping she teaches me a thing or two or twenty. I must admit, I'm a bit jealous. Her classes, to this creative, sound AMAZING. She talks about art mediums now that I've never even heard of! I absolutely love seeing her blossom. My youngest daughter, Lucy is a sophomore in high school and about to kick off her softball season. And she's already preparing for college as well...can you say ACT tutoring...ugh. My man, Drew, and I are starting to talk empty nest...what??? 

Now crafting....oh crafting....I miss you. I've dabbled with different things here and there over the last year-and-a-half but nothing extremely post worthy. I was just telling my husband this morning that I am overwhelmed with all the things that I want to do...practice painting techniques, make doorhangers, tryout pressing screen prints, decorating my house, learning Corel, learning Adobe Illustrator, cross stitching (I used to do that a lot).  Do you ever find yourself wanting to do so much that makes you happy that you literally don't know where to begin? 

So, I'm going to get back into the creative game. What that looks like, I don't know yet. But I know I miss my creative community. Let's reconnect. How have you been? What creative things are you doing?

Angela

www.angeladecorates.com

https://www.instagram.com/angela_decorates/

https://www.pinterest.com/angeladecorates/_created/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/angeladecorates/

 

Unexpected Craft Tool

Happy Friday Crafters!

So I was perusing Pinterest a couple of weeks ago and stumble upon something that I've needed for awhile.  It was one of those AHA moments.  It was a pic of nail polish holders used to hold crafty things like glitter glue and dimensional paint so you don't have to shake, shake, shake the liquid down to the tip each time you need to use it.  Yes please!

Before this little find I was rigging something.  But these little gems work amazingly well!  You can purchase them here.

Have a great weekend!

~Angela~

My Craft Room Tour

Hi Crafters!

Well this post has been a LONG time in coming.  Many have asked me to do a craft room tour over the last few years, and I've truly wanted to.  But I was caught up in my own web of perfectionism.  I wanted my room to be just so before I shared it with you.  I've come to realize over the last year or so that my craft room will ALWAYS be changing, whether it be to purge old stuff or make room for new equipment or just simply rearrange furniture.  And that's ok!  Artistic people should never be stuck in a rut, being and doing the same thing all the time, right?

I did spend several days this month really committing to organizing a lot of the supplies I have allowed to pile up.  I still have a few bins of things tucked away that I need to tackle, but, in general, most things have their place.  And that makes me happy.  Makes my mind calm. So if I could offer any advice when planning a craft space, it would be this:

1. Make it YOU.  Decorate it to your taste.  It should be your HAPPY place. 
2. Decide on an organizing layout that works best for you.  I like to organize my craft space by areas.  Ribbon area.  Vinyl area.  Desk area.  Embellishment area.  Sewing area. Etc.
3. Invest in some furniture pieces over time.  My room has taken a decade, yep a decade, to get to where it is today.  Most of my furniture and organizing pieces are from IKEA, The Container Store, Michael's and Amazon.
4. Be CREATIVE in your approach to organizing. For instance, I use IKEA picture ledges as ribbon holders.

So, I've made a video tour of my craft room for you.  

Check it out below:

And here are some pictures:

The wallpaper on my back wall  is called Black Flock Damask on White Background.  I ADORE this wallpaper.  It came from a California company called Designer Wallcoverings. 

My husband made me this sewing table/large craft table out of 2 IKEA Kallaxes and a 4x8' sheet of melamine.  Home Depot has melamine.  Lowe's does not.  Or at least that has been my experience. You will need to finish the melamine edges with melamine tape, which is simply applied with an iron. I added a couple of IKEA drawer inserts on this side of the table to house my sewing supplies.

The craft table on the far right is called a  HurCraft made by Hurco Design and Manufacturing, a company that, unfortunately, went out of business. I love this table.

The piece tucked under the sewing table is also from IKEA.  I cannot find the link.  I "think" it is a BESTA tv table but can't remember for sure.

Those are IKEA Alex drawers below and The Container Store Elfa Easy Hang Components, Elfa Utility Boards, Elfa Utility Board Boxes, Elfa Utility Label Holders, Elfa Utility Board Hooks, Elfa Utility Shelf/Trays, Elfa Utility Tracks, and Elfa Utility Accessory Hooks above.

The above unit is an IKEA 4x4 Kallax and some paper organizers I bought off of Craigslist.

The table is an antique given to me by my parents, and the chairs are discontinued from World Market.  I bought them several years ago. The paintings are by Oklahoma Artist, Debbie Curtis.  I'm obsessed with her style.

The ribbon storage shelves are also from IKEA. I think mine have been discontinued, but here is something similar.  The bookshelf is another IKEA KAllax.

Here is another Elfa Easy Hang Unit from The Container Store with Commercial Plastic Screw-Top Jars to hold my growing rhinestone collection.  The storage unit is from Target.


So there you have it!  Please let me know if you have any questions!

~Angela~

I used to be that Mom.

"I used to be that Mom."

That thought popped into my mind when my daughter brought home this super cute softball bow that another mom at the school had so generously made for the entire team. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing her work. :-)

In reality I still am that mom, just not lately.  My husband was unexpectedly laid off last February.  It rocked our world.  I tried my best not to complain because I know people going through much worse.  There IS much worse.  But just allow me one moment to say that it still really sucked.  Only close family and friends caught glimpses of me on my bad days especially since I have a tendency to withdraw when I'm stressed.  But in God's divine timing and faithfulness and through the constant prayers of family, friends, teachers, classmates and colleagues my husband is now working for a company that he really likes...something I haven't heard in a long time. I'm so incredibly thankful.  If I were a tattoo-getting sort of person, I would get one that just said "2018" so I wouldn't forget.  I still may get a piece of engraved jewelry so that I never forget the year...for God's provision, for our ability to weather the storm, for it teaching us things we didn't think we could do or didn't realized we needed to know.

So what else did that bow make me think of?  It made me realize how much I appreciated that crafty mom.  She did something that, in the past, would have been something I would have done. But to put it in my teenager's words, I just haven't felt like being extra lately.  And I love extra.  It also made me think of Mommy Wars.  Oh how I HATE Mommy Wars--the working moms vs the SAHM (stay at home moms), the Pinterest moms vs the moms that roll their eyes at all that "fluff".  Can we just stop? Let's just stop it all. (And yes, I've been guilty of this too.) Instead let's simply embrace the gifts God has given each of us and celebrate and appreciate the gifts God has given others.  Some are crafty and love to spread happiness through the things they create. Just let them.  It brings them joy to give joy. Some have the ability and desire to pay for supplies or food.  So appreciated! Some are happy to be worker bees.  Yay for help! Some have full plates.  Yep, I get it.

So the next time you see a mom get all Pinteresty, try not to be annoyed or jealous, just give her a "thank you so much". Because, even if you didn't, there's a mom somewhere that needed that mom to be that person.

Now, as for 2019...I hope it's an amazingly crafty year for me!  I want to be extra again.

Angela