Mini Santa Mug Ornament

Over the last few years, I have made quite a few faux hot cocoa mugs for my Christmas decor. They are quick & easy  to make. Not to mention adorable!

Do I need more? NO! Do I have room for more? NO!

This should be a project that I retire. But, when I saw these miniature Santa mugs at Hobby Lobby, I couldn't resist. They're the perfect size for an ornament. And, there's always room on the tree for another Christmas ornament. 

To start this project, I first filled the mug with paper. 

Then I cut a circle out of cardboard & glued it into the top of the mug. I do this because I use spackle to make the "whipped cream" & it's best to have a base for it. 

For the faux whipped cream, I place a plastic sandwich bag over a glass & spoon the spackle into the bag. This makes it much easier than trying to hold the bag open while also spooning in the spackle.

I cut the corner of the bag & then pipe it in just like icing.

I made sure the spackle came over the edge of the mug to not only hide the cardboard, but also look more realistic.

I cut a paper straw to about 3 inches & inserted it into the spackle.

Then I inserted a bottlebrush tree, some faux candy, & an ornament hook. Make sure you keep reading to learn the problem with the hook... & the solution.

I added red seed beads to look like sprinkles.

Adorable!

I let the spackle cure overnight before hanging the ornament on my tree. After an hour or so, the ornament fell to the ground. I was afraid this might happen! The spackle acts like a glue when dry, but it wasn't enough to hold the wire hook in place.

So, what did I do? I went to Hobby Lobby & bought 4 more mugs. I was determined to make this work as an ornament. 

So, I started over. I filled the mugs with paper & cut cardboard circles for a base for the spackle. But this time, I used a nail to punch 2 holes in the cardboard. I put wire through the holes, & twisted it on both sides of the cardboard to secure it. 

I glued the cardboard into the mug using a combination of E6000 & super glue. I probably only needed the E6000, but better safe than sorry.

When I added the spackle, I made sure a tiny bit of the wire loop was still exposed so I could thread another ornament hook through it.

Once again, ADORABLE! 

Threading the wire through the cardboard worked. The ornament has hung on the tree for days with no issues. The other 3 will be cute gifts.

Linking To:

The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, The Answer Is Chocolate, Flutter Buster, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction,  Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers, The House On Silverado

Salon Cabinet Makeover

 Recently, my good friend, Barbara, was working on giving her hair salon a makeover. She showed me a little white cabinet & said she thought she would paint it. To which I replied, "you know what you should do? Let me paint it." She was more than happy with that so it went home with me & I went to work without her having any idea what I'd do to her little white cabinet.

This piece had a shiny, slick surface so I gave it  2 coats of Dixie Belle's Bonding Boss to help the paint adhere. It works as a primer to not only help the paint adhere, but also blocks odors & bleed through.

Barbara had given me a piece of the light, gold wallpaper that would go on a few accent walls & I wanted to pull that in to the cabinet. So, I painted the recessed sections of the cabinet with 2 coats of the Moonshine Metallic color, Gold Digger.

Since the Gold Digger was too dark, & I wanted to add a little texture, I did a crosshatch pattern over the gold with the metallic color, Wedding Bells.

Before painting the rest of the cabinet, I added a little petroleum jelly to the perimeter of the gold. This helps make it easier to remove any paint that gets on the gold.

After painting the cabinet with 2 coats of the Silk color, Anchor, from Dixie Belle, I used a paper towel to wipe off any of the black paint that was on the gold. I did have a little touch up to do, but the petroleum jelly made it so much easier & faster.

Since I had gold on the cabinet & the wallpaper was gold, I changed out the silver knobs to black.

I chose a black knob & used my finger to add just a touch of gold gilding wax to the raised areas & edges of the knobs.

The cabinet had a marble top that Barbara wanted to keep & it looks great with the black & gold.

The most important thing is that Barbara loved it!

Linking To:

The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, The Answer Is Chocolate, Flutter Buster, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction,  Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers, The House On Silverado

Old Bay Easter Tin

I recently shared this cute project that I created for Valentine's Day after cleaning out my spice cabinet. You can find that post HERE.

I had so many expired spice tins that I invited some friends over for a craft night to make their own "spicy" Valentine.

In my plethora of expired spices, was an Old Bay tin. I held on to it thinking its colors would be perfect for Easter.

I filled the tin with styrofoam to give me a base to work on...

I found some pretty, colorful stems at Hobby Lobby...

I cut them different lengths...

Then I inserted them into the styrofoam at the back of the tin.

As in the Valentine project, I used Snow Tex as a base for the other items I was adding to the tin. It will works as glue to hold the items in place once it's dry.

I used a plastic pallet knife to add the Snow Tex to the tin to cover up the styrofoam.

If you saw my last post, you saw the cute little clay chips that I used to give a pair of candles a Spring makeover. I also found some cute little pastel bunnies & some miniature carrots.

I inserted a little bunny into the Snow Tex.

Then I added some carrots.

I didn't want my bunny & carrots to look like they were in snow, so I sprinkled the clay chips onto the Snow Tex.

I used a plastic pallet knife to gently press the chips into the Snow Tex.

What a cute addition to my Easter decor!

Linking To:

The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, The Answer Is Chocolate, Flutter Buster, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction,  Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers, The House On Silverado