Must or Bust : A.C.A Style

I'm thinking of starting up a support group. One where we all wear matching jackets {think "Letterman" but bedazzled with streamers and glow-in-the-dark stickers} and have monthly meetings to discuss our deep and lasting addiction.

It's name?

"A.C.A : Addicted Crafters Anonymous"

. . . . .

You guys. . . I'm addicted.

I can't stop.

Help.

. . . . .

Saw this little fella on my favorite place {*ahem* Pinterest} and thought, "Oh, that'd be fun." And then I couldn't just leave it at that.

See? Addicted.

DIY Flower Topiary : Must


{no legit photo source, Sorry!}

I couldn't find a real link, so I just made it up. I found some white foam balls at Wal-Mart {a pack of 2} and came across some cute fake flowers there, as well. I love yellow and wanted a bright pop of color, so that's what I went with. I busted out my hot glue gun and got to work.

My words of advice should you follow in my footsteps?

OVER-BUY. Seriously. I bought three little clusters of flowers {.97 each} and ran out after covering half of a sphere. My topiary had a pretty massive bald spot until I could make it back to the store. :)

I found the little glass stand at The Dollar Tree {by where they keep their tea lights}. Just like the picture above shows, I squirted  some hot glue around the edge and applied my ball. The foam is very porous, so it works great for projects like this.

Worked like a charm.







I had quite a bit of fun with this! And talk about CHEAP and FAST. Perfect.

. . . .

I really, really gave my poor economical   budget  cheap glue gun a run for its money this week because I found this fella and couldn't resist :


DIY Spoon Mirror : Must

{photo source}



You can find the tutorial HERE {via "Craftaholics Anonymous" . . see? She'd have a jacket and bring cookies to our meetings}. This was a really good project to do while multi-tasking, like watching TV or visiting with friends. Definitely not a lot of brain power required for this one. :) 

A few pointers :

-- OVER-BUY. Sound familiar? I mean, really. She claims you need around 75-80 spoons for a 12" circle, but I used over 90. Sooooo, I ran out. I hate leaving projects undone, so I think I went to The Dollar Tree four hundred times in two days because I kept running out of stuff. No bueno.

-- I decided I wanted to make a bigger circle {20"} for Hannah's room and LOVED it! Just to give you an idea, I bought probably 6 packages of 48-count spoons for the big circle, I had a heck of a time cutting through the thick cardboard diaper box for my 12" circle, so I used one of those thinner tri-folding-cardboard-things from Wal-Mart for the big one {you know what I'm talking about, right? Think "science fair"}.

-- Try spray painting your cardboard circle first. No matter what angle I tried spray painting, I still couldn't quite cover all the cardboard through the spoons. But maybe I'm just a bad spray painter? Sounds legit.

-- Apply the hot glue to the spoon instead of the cardboard. Trust me. You'll thank me.

-- If you have OCD, I would suggest tracing guidelines on the cardboard so you know where each line of spoons will reside.

-- You may possibly need something manlier than hot glue to adhere your mirror to the spoons. My 12" circle didn't, but my 20" circle did. So, yes. "May possibly" is as scientific as it's going to get.

-- On one of my four hundred Dollar Tree trips, I saw the teeny tiny 3" mirror I was supposed to buy and then saw one that was just over 5" in diameter. I decided to live on the edge and try the bigger one. I'm such a rebel.
The mirror had a tacky plastic frame with suction cups on the back, but it was easily popped out.


This project was much more time consuming than the topiary, but definitely worthwhile and still dirt cheap!









So, my fellow A.C.A peeps-- go indulge a bit! These projects are satisfying and affordable. . . so how, I ask you, can you go wrong?

. . .

P.S. Blooper time!

I just have to show you how absolutely adorable my little bashful boy is.



And also, I want to make sure no one thinks Hannah's room always looks that clean. What you can't see in the picture above is all this action :



And, yeah, those are discarded panties there on the left.

And one more thing. . . those spoon mirror things fit very nicely into a well-known phrase : "Good from far but far from good." So if you come over to my house, be gentle. They struggle if you look closely. :)