Erica & friends make bowls out of buttons.

**EDIT** - In this weird time of covid-19, we did not meet in person to complete this project. The project was started in February before the quarantine began. We got to the part where we glued buttons all over the balloon and Courtney worked on the project some (since we left everything at her house and she's super generous with her time) and sent me pictures for this blog post. I picked up the semi-finished project from her porch--contactless!--and finished up the rest at home.  

I’m so excited because I haven't posted a DIY tutorial (or any sort of blog, really) in ages and I’m finally getting to now! I'm part of a semi-regular craft night with three other women (Courtney--one of my really good friends and mother & wife extraordinaire, Jessa--who is always so generous in providing our art supplies, and Rachelle--owner of the wildly successful international yarn brand, Moon Drake). Our last project was to make a bowl from glue and buttons. They turned out really nice. 😄 Mine is currently in my sewing room. Just a warning: this project takes forever to complete due to having to wait for layer upon layers of glue to dry, so don’t start it if you’re short on time. LOL

The ladies crafting in Courtney's kitchen.

DIY Button Bowl:
SUPPLIES – buttons, balloon, Sharpee (or another brand) marker, paint brush, glue (we used Elmer’s), mod podge, plastic cup, water resistant coating. 

1.   Inflate balloon; the top of the balloon will be the size of the bowl.

2.   Set the balloon on top of a plastic cup for balance. It will remain here for the duration of this project. So use a cup you won’t be needing for the foreseeable future. LOL

3.   Use a permanent marker to outline the size/shape of the bowl onto the balloon.

4.   Brush Elmer’s glue onto the bowl portion of the balloon. 

      We used three coats of clue and left the balloon alone to dry over night. I think each layer took 1 – 2 hours to dry but I wasn’t really timing it. While we were waiting for the glue to dry, Courtney and I ate dinner 🍲😋🥘and painted our fingernails. 💅

5.   Using Elmer’s glue, adhere buttons over the dried glue. 
     *Glue the buttons above the Sharpee line. 
     *Glue a large button in the top center so the bowl will balance once its taken off the balloon. 
The buttons should be spaced pretty close together but don’t worry if there is empty space in between. The mod podge will fill all of that in. We left our balloons alone and let them dry over night. 
While not necessary, Jessa & I covered our balloons with plastic wrap so the buttons wouldn’t get disturbed.

6.   Brush mod podge over the buttons and let dry over night.

7.   Take the balloon off the cup and pop it (cut the knot from the bottom of the balloon and carefully let the air out). Slowly peel the balloon off the button bowl. This is when I picked up my semi-finished bowl from Courtney's porch. I decided last minute to paint the inside of the bowl red to match the buttons.

8.   Brush water resistant coating onto the inside and outside of the bowl. Let dry.

And we’re finally done!! The project itself is pretty easy. It just took forever to dry. I’m curious to make other bowls from different small objects…like beads or confetti or jewelry/charms. So many things to experiment with!! Another quarantine project!!

Erica's handmade Christmas gifts.

My Christmas gift to the Sapp family (but mostly for Courtney LOL).

I know I'm about a month late with posting this but I didn't want to post anything until after my gifts were delivered, which happened to be at dinner tonight. Luckily, none of these projects are holiday themed so you can make and gift them for any occasion. Let's change the title to "Erica's handmade everyday gifts." LOL
       Now that I'm writing this, I think I was late with posting my handmade gifts last year, too. I guess my new tradition will be to post Christmas gift DIY projects in January.

For my coworkers.

I chose three easy and inexpensive projects for my gifts this year. I was super swamped with pillows, craft shows and custom orders so I needed Christmas DIYs that weren't too involved.
     ...And my unrewarding day job was super stressful and extra terrible this year so I had zero holiday cheer >.> Blame it on changes in management and job duties/responsibilities. *rolls eyes*

Cookies & Street Fighter mugs for Wes' two best friends.

I think every craft/DIY blogger has a segment about Dollar Tree projects. It's like a transformation story...
       "buy these seemingly un-craftlike things from the Dollar Tree, read my creative project blog, and turn them into awesome projects that look totally classy and not like they are from the Dollar Tree."
       I personally love the Dollar Tree (household items and office supplies for only $1!!!) and reading about these cheap projects. They are so fun and simple! I have so so many saved from Pinterest on my to-do list but I've never really done any of them. For my projects tonight, I have one classic and two that I think are originals (I could have been inspired by an existing project but I feel like I mostly made it up on the fly.)
       We're  going to borrow a page from Sesame Street's book and use the number three as our theme... three projects, done in three steps, using three (okay, maybe a few more) materials. Let's go!

For Courtney, Rachel, Tashara, Audra, Jessa & Brendon

Framed artwork tutorial:
       Materials needed- cheap picture frames--we'll just be painting over them, a calendar (I used an old one from 2014), paint & paint brushes

1. Remove the backs and glass from the frame. Clean the glass with Windex to get rid of finger prints. I hate how frames and artwork get so dirty and smudgy at the store! Ugh!

2. Paint the frames. I am really proud of the colors I mixed. I think this is the best purple I've ever made!

       I wanted them to look rustic/vintage so I only used one coat of paint. The original color of the frame was still a little visible so it looks "worn." I normally do two coats of paint on everything, though.

3. Measure & cut the artwork (calendar pages, in this case) to fit the frames and place them back into the frames. A friend of mine got this calendar for me & Wes for our first Christmas together. I really liked the Keep Calm and Carry On poster at the time.

       I had some fun dessert stickers from an old Halloween costume that I ended up gluing onto the frames (not shown in this picture but they're on the first picture). It made the finished project more whimsical--my coworker, Brendon, loves whimsy. (LOL...inside joke...)

So... I was totally just kidding about the three projects tonight. I do really have three crafts to blog about but I don't have enough time for them all tonight. Plus, you've read enough for one night, right? And for some dang-gum reason, my blog formatting aligned to 'center' without my input & I don't like it!! Typing any more is just going to drive me crazy! I've already teased what the other two projects are with my pictures but you'll just have to wait until next week for the tutorials.

TO BE CONTINUED...