DIY Cookie Cutter Yard Decor

What do you do when you buy some super cute vintage cookie cutters, but don't want to use them because you're about 99% sure that paint on them is lead?

Well, first you punch holes all around them.

They were rather thin, so I used a leather punch and it worked just fine.

Then, string some pretty beads and baubles onto something very strong.  Since it is crazy windy where we live, I used a very heavy test fishing line.

Then, tie the line to the holes.

Alternatively, you could use some cheap chain and then use jump rings to attach them!

These already had holes in the top on either side of the little handles, but if yours don't, that could be remedied with the leather punch or with an awl.  I used chain through the holes of the beaded one to hang...

...then I used a leather cord for this one since I'd used up all of my gold cheapie chains on it already.

Super quick craft that turned out very cute!  Bonus?  They hold up crazy well.  These have been hanging up for about 4 months now outside in the harsh summer heat and wind and withstood several bad storms and are none the worse for wear!

<3 WW

Listening to:  "The Lost Vikings" - Dethklok

Fairy Garden!

This really isn't so much of a tutorial as just a completed craft project, but there isn't much to show for a how-to on this one.  I mean, you plunk some plants you like in some dirt in a cool container and add some cute accouterments.  The whole project took maybe 20 minutes and has looked adorable on the window sill ever since.

I love fairy gardens and see versions of them all over, some very complicated and intricate and some simple. I decided to start with a simple one for my first one, but now I want to make more of them and will be keeping an eye out for dollhouse parts and things because I just really don't want to sit around with toothpicks making tiny little fairy houses!

The container we found at the flea market and it was hand-made.  I don't have a shot where you can see the base of it, which is a pity, because it looks awesome.  The plants were rescued from Wal-Mart, the gnomes and small stones came from friends over the years, the antler and the small jawbone were found objects and I just used a small piece of jewelry wire to fashion the swing for the little hanging gnome.

I'll have to update pictures as it will look better and better the more the plants in there grow.  It already looks different from these pictures and it has only been a few weeks!

The small thick plants on the lower-right-hand side all didn't make it except one, but all of the plants were from Wal-Mart, so they were quite beat up and in bad shape to begin with, so I count it as a victory that even one of the little dark green ones lived as they were in the worst condition, but that one is going strong and already starting to propagate.

A close-up of my little gnomes.  XD

Super easy and quick project that made a nice little pick-me-up in the living room and as an added bonus - succulents are super easy to grow and if you forget to water them for a few days, they don't mind a bit.  Also, with most of them, if you decide you like them enough you want them somewhere else, you simply pull off a leaf, figure out where you want your plant to go, bury it with the half that attached to the stem down in the dirt and the other half sticking up and it will grow!  It can't get any easier than that.  I've literally tossed leaves on the ground from these sorts of plants and had them start growing, so I adore succulents.

Any other fairy garden-makers out there?

<3

WW