Sweet Pennies from Heaven

Coffee Filter Wreath Tutorial – Easy Home Decor Craft

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coffee filter wreath

Valentine’s Day Coffee Filter Wreath

 

Ever wanted to try your hand at making a coffee filter wreath? I made this one last year, around Valentine’s Day. I’m not gonna lie. Valentine’s Day is one holiday that I don’t really decorate the house for too much. I do have a few favorite Valentine’s Day recipes, though. We tend to celebrate more with food than decor for Valentine’s Day, however, this sweet coffee filter wreath adds a touch of “love” to our front door!

Aside from all the love, romance, flowers, and chocolate….we’re celebrating because SPRING is on the way! Yes, I know more cold and snow is on the way but I’m dreaming of green grass and flowers popping up from the ground.

This coffee filter wreath is seriously SO easy to make, and so frugal. I found ALL kinds of them on Pinterest, and honestly there are SO many different colors and some of them are downright fancy schmancy looking! This was my first one and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

 

 

how to dye coffee filters for crafts

Before you get started though, you need to decide what color you want your wreath to be. Here’s my How to Dye Coffee Filters for Crafts tutorial. Make sure to visit that link, it also explains how to quickly DRY your dyed filters so you can get on with your projects without having to wait.

 

Here’s what you’ll need:

 

Now that you have all your goodies ready to go, pick a seat (preferably in front of the TV watching your favorite show!) and get to work. It seems tedious, but honestly – the time goes by pretty fast and your wreath will be done before you know it!

 

coffee filter wreath tutorial

Instructions:

Take each coffee filter and fold it in half, then fold it in half again – like shown above. Now you should have a triangular funnel shape. Holding the tip with your fingers, kind of scrunch and fluff up the other end….like you scrunch your hair?! That’s about the only way I can explain it, haha!! The end result of all this scrunching and fluffing is a fuller looking wreath.

 

Remember in Legally Blonde – “Bend & Snap”?
Okay, now think “Scrunch & Fluff”

Say this each time you pick up a new filter. Just for fun! 😉

 

coffee filter wreath tutorial

After you get all of your filters scrunched and fluffed, it’s time to start attaching them to your wreath. Beginning on the inside of the wreath, attach each filter by the tip using a stick pin or glue gun. Work your way around the inner section of the wreath until you have a row finished. Then start a new row, and keep going until you’ve made 3-4 rows from the inside to the outside.

Don’t worry about attaching filters to the backside of the wreath, as it will be laying against the wall or door. If you notice holes here and there, you can fill them in as needed.

 

coffee filter wreath tutorial

Now, I’m so excited with how my coffee filter wreath turned out – I’m thinking of new colors to use for different holidays and seasons! They’re fun to make and I just love how frugal they are too. I really wanna make a solid white one and a solid brown one. Those look really classy looking and honestly, you wouldn’t even have to dye them. For the brown ones, you can just buy the all natural brown filters! Woot!!

What color would you make your coffee filter wreath?

 

DIY Candy Corn Mason Jars | Super Easy Fall and Halloween Craft

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These DIY Candy Corn Mason Jars are the sweetest and easiest craft on the planet to make! Perfect treat jars for fall and Halloween! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Candy Corn Mason Jars | Fall or Halloween Craft

Nothing screams fall, like candy corn. Now, I have to admit…I’m not a huge fan of the real candy corn. Unless I pair it with peanuts. Then it kinda reminds me of a Payday candybar. Nom. However, these Candy Corn Mason Jars are just the sweetest, AND the easiest things ever to make!

They are perfect for making into a treat jar for teachers, neighbors or to serve at your Halloween or Thanksgiving party! It only takes a few supplies and a few minutes to make and the best part is, when you’re finished – you can remove the decorations and reuse the jars for something else!

Supplies:

 

Instructions:

These DIY Candy Corn Mason Jars are the sweetest and easiest craft on the planet to make! Perfect treat jars for fall and Halloween! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.comFirst wash and dry your jars so they are ready for serving.  

 

These DIY Candy Corn Mason Jars are the sweetest and easiest craft on the planet to make! Perfect treat jars for fall and Halloween! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Then cut off the long skinny part of each of the orange, yellow and white balloons.  Cut part of the other end of the balloon as well.  You want there to be a hole on each end of the balloon.  

 

These DIY Candy Corn Mason Jars are the sweetest and easiest craft on the planet to make! Perfect treat jars for fall and Halloween! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Stretch the yellow balloon over the bottom half of the cup.

 

These DIY Candy Corn Mason Jars are the sweetest and easiest craft on the planet to make! Perfect treat jars for fall and Halloween! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Stretch the orange balloon overlapping it slightly on the yellow.

 

These DIY Candy Corn Mason Jars are the sweetest and easiest craft on the planet to make! Perfect treat jars for fall and Halloween! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Lastly, stretch the white balloon over the cup overlapping slightly over the orange.

Ta-da!

 

We’ve got some more fun Halloween ideas below…

 

Easy DIY Black Cat Pillow. This is the sweetest primitive or farmhouse decor Halloween craft, especially for beginners! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.comDIY Black Cat Pillow

 

 

Super simple mummy oreos Halloween treat instructions - www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.comMummy Oreos

 

 

DIY Halloween Wreath with black feathers - www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.comDIY Black Feather Wreath

DIY Black Cat Pillow | Primitive Farmhouse Decor | Easy Halloween Craft

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Easy DIY Black Cat Pillow. This is the sweetest primitive or farmhouse decor Halloween craft, especially for beginners! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

DIY Black Cat Pillow | Easy Primitive or Farmhouse Halloween Decor

When I think of Halloween I think of ghosts, goblins and black cats. Sometimes it’s hard to blend in holiday decor with your primive or farmhouse decor – but this DIY black cat pillow will fit in perfectly and he’s anything, but scary! It’s easy to make and even if you are a beginner to DIY projects, I promise you can do this.  The primitive style makes it not only super sweet, but made to not look exactly perfect.  Everyone is sure to compliment your not-so-spooky black cat pillow!

 

Easy DIY Black Cat Pillow. This is the sweetest primitive or farmhouse decor Halloween craft, especially for beginners! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Supplies

1 pillow insert

1 black pillowcase (I bought mine at Hobby Lobby but this one is similar to the one I used)

2 button eyes – I chose to use an amber gold sparkly buttons for eyes.

1 button nose

1 metallic embroidery floss

Black thread

Hand needle

Scissors

 

Instructions:

Easy DIY Black Cat Pillow. This is the sweetest primitive or farmhouse decor Halloween craft, especially for beginners! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

This is really a simple project!  First, place your pillowcase on your pillow.  

 

Easy DIY Black Cat Pillow. This is the sweetest primitive or farmhouse decor Halloween craft, especially for beginners! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Find a spot for the eyes to go.  You will want to place these about a third of the way down your pillow.  

 

Easy DIY Black Cat Pillow. This is the sweetest primitive or farmhouse decor Halloween craft, especially for beginners! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Easy DIY Black Cat Pillow. This is the sweetest primitive or farmhouse decor Halloween craft, especially for beginners! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Thread your needle with the black thread and sew the button on.  You will want to make sure that you go all the way through the pillow at least once when sewing the buttons on to pull the buttons into the pillow a little bit.  Sew the other eye on the same way.

Next you will sew your button nose the same way that you sewed your eyes on.

 

Easy DIY Black Cat Pillow. This is the sweetest primitive or farmhouse decor Halloween craft, especially for beginners! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

The whiskers are up next.  Thread your needle with the metallic embroidery floss.  Starting from just under the button nose, add some wispy whiskers.  There is really no wrong way to do this!  I found it is easiest to make one very long stitch to create the whisker.

Your pillow is complete!  

 

Easy DIY Black Cat Pillow. This is the sweetest primitive or farmhouse decor Halloween craft, especially for beginners! www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com
Fun, pretty and perfectly primitive – this pillow is something that you would expect to find in a high end boutique! Everyone will be so impressed when you tell everyone you made it yourself.  Just get prepared for when your friends ask you to make them one as well!

 

Don’t miss these other fun Halloween Ideas below…

 

DIY Halloween Wreath with black feathers - www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Black Feather Wreath

Super simple mummy oreos Halloween treat instructions - www.sweetpenniesfromheaven.com

Mummy Oreos

If you enjoyed these ideas, drop us a comment! We’d love to hear from you! Tell us what are some of your favorite Halloween crafts or snack ideas!!

Day 5 – Patriotic Deco Mesh Wreath Tutorial (12 Days of Celebrate Summer) #12DaysOf

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patriotic deco mesh wreath tutorial

I hope you’ve enjoyed all of the yummy recipes we’ve shared the last few days in our 12 Days of Celebrate Summer posts! Today we’ve got something a little bit different and it’s also perfect for the 4th of July!

Mary at Just Plum Crazy made this Patriotic Deco Mesh Wreath (<– click for tutorial). This deco mesh wreath is easy to make and although there are many variations of how to make one, I have tried most of them and this way seems to be the easiest.

Don’t forget to stop by and visit all the other participating blogs linked below and see what recipes and fun ideas they have for the 12 days of Summer Celebration. Enjoy!



DIY Easter Egg Bath Bombs (12 Days of Easter Recipes and Crafts)

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easter egg bath bombs

Today is a fun post in our 12 Days of Easter recipes and crafts series. If you’re looking for a great DIY craft to make for Easter, you’ll love this DIY Easter Egg Bath Bombs recipe from Dawn at Blogging Mom of 4. You’ll have weeks worth of amazing baths, for sure! Fill with your favorite essential oils and melt all that stress away! Click here for the full recipe.

If you’ve missed any of our previous 12 Days of Easter recipes and crafts, don’t worry. You can find them all below…enjoy!



11 Genius Plastic Bag Hacks & Craft Ideas

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11 genius plastic bag hacks Hometalk board

Don’t you love hacks?! I mean, seriously……I always say “Why didn’t I think of that?!” when I find a killer idea! Some of them are life-changers!! I put together a post back last year – 21 Ways to Reuse Plastic Bags. While I was searching around on Hometalk, I put together a board with some other plastic bag hacks and craft ideas so I wanted to share it with you.

Visit my plastic bag hacks Hometalk board to find all the different ideas!

What is Hometalk? If you’re not on Hometalk, then you’re really missing out. It’s basically Pinterest, but for Home & Garden ideas only. I love it over there. Make sure that you follow me on Hometalk – cause you know we all love to follow eachother!

There are many different ways that I reuse plastic bags but so many ideas I’ve never thought of. Since my house is usually overflowing with them, I’m interested to see all the different ways I can reuse them!

I’ve now enlisted the help of Hometalk to help me organize my kitchen too. It’s a New Year and this week I’ve spent a ton of time organizing my kitchen cabinets. I live in an old farmhouse and I don’t have a ton of space in the kitchen…not even a pantry. Ugh. So I have to get creative when finding new ways to organize everything in there. Lastnight, I actually pulled EVERYTHING out of my pots/pans/mixing bowls/baking pans cabinets.

I was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor when my husband walks in. He instantly turned and walked right back out. Hahahhaa! He knew what I was up to! I usually start those kinds of projects at night, so he walked out before I got the chance to wrangle him into helping me. Smart man. Smart, smart man. Hometalk has given me lots of great ideas that I can’t wait to put into use in my kitchen!

How do you reuse plastic bags? We want to know!

I invite you to follow me on Hometalk, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter!

How to Dye Coffee Filters and DRY Them Quickly for Crafts

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how to dye coffee filters for crafts

How to Dye Coffee Filters – and DRY them too!

Coffee filter crafts are all the rage and have been for awhile. I actually just made my first coffee filter wreath and it turned out way better than I expected it to. I’m one of those “on the fly” crafters so if I can do it, I know you can! There is a little prep work that needs to be done when making coffee filter crafts, if you’re planning on dying your filters a certain color. It’s not difficult at all, so I’m gonna show you how to dye coffee filters and how to DRY them fast too – so you don’t have to wait to get craftin’!

Here’s what you’ll need:

water

coffee filters

food coloring of your choice
(I wanted pink and cream, so I used red food coloring on half of the filters and then I coffee stained the other half just using really strong day old brewed coffee.)

 

how to dye coffee filters

Instructions:

Decide how many coffee filters need to be dyed, depending on your craft.

Fill a bowl or container with water, starting with 2-4 cups of water. Then pour in some food coloring and try a filter or two out to see if it’s the right shade. Add more food coloring to get a little darker or more water to lighten the dye.

**HINT: Make them a little darker than you actually want, because after they’re dry – they’re going to be a little lighter in color.

After you get the shade you want, begin placing coffee filters in and soaking them in the dye. Just leave them submerged for a few seconds, then wring the dyed water out of the filters with your hands, and then lay flat on a cookie sheet or another surface. You want to make sure to squeeze most of the water out, so the filters aren’t dripping wet. You can dye 10-15 filters at a time to save a little time. Now you’re ready to dry them!

 

how to dye coffee filters

How to DRY dyed coffee filters quickly: 

I’ve read online that just leaving dyed coffee filters out to air dry takes forevahhh!!!! I am not a patient crafter. At all. So, I decided to just stick those babies in the clothes dryer on low-medium heat. Literally put the filters IN the clothes dryer and dried them in 2 minute increments so they wouldn’t singe. DO NOT put them in and walk away from the dryer folks. We’re drying paper here, not a load of towels! You don’t want to use a high heat – just a low to medium. And again, DO NOT walk away from these as you’re waiting.

 

how to dye coffee filters and dry them quickly

Check the filters every 2 minutes. You’ll eventually start to feel them getting dryer and dryer. Just dry them in 2 minute increments, and after about 5 times or so they should be pretty dry or at least starting to dry. Once they’re dry, I just put mine in a laundry basket and went and sat on the couch and made 2 piles. A pink pile and a cream pile. Just flatten them out as you stack them. You can store them in a coffee can or similar until you’re ready to use them.

Here’s what I did with mine……..

coffee filter wreathClick here for our Coffee Filter Wreath tutorial

Have you ever crafted with coffee filters?

 

Make Homemade Christmas Ornaments with This Salt Dough Recipe (Fun for the Kiddos)

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Homemade christmas cookies and angel cutter on a kitchen table.

Christmas for me, besides the obvious reason, is about memories and creating new memories for my son! One thing I remember growing up was making homemade Christmas ornaments with my mom and sisters using an old fashioned salt dough recipe. My mom was always such the crafter – and if it could be made by hand, she did it.

Here’s a fun and super easy salt dough recipe that you can use to make homemade Christmas ornaments! All you need is all-purpose flour, salt, water, and cookie cutters! Ohh, and cinnamon if you’d like to make them darker in color and smell yummy too! We make them both ways…with and without.

 

homemade christmas ornaments with salt dough

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup salt
  • 1 and 1/2 cups warm water
  • Cinnamon (optional. Just start with a little and keep adding and mixing until you get the desired color.)

Directions:

Combine flour (and optional cinnamon) and salt together and mix well in a large mixing bowl. Then slowly add the warm water and mix with a large spoon. After I mix it as good as I can with the spoon, I go in with my hands mixing and kneading until it’s all soft and combined really well. Flour your workspace (I just put it straight on my counter) and then plop the dough onto the flour. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough flat until it’s about 1/8″ thick.

Start cutting shapes out with your cookie cutters. I have several that I’ve used that were my moms. Spray a cookie sheet with spray and place your cut out shapes on it, then use the end of a paper clip or a tooth pick to make holes where you want the ribbon or string placed. I kind of swirled the paper clip around until I got the hole as big as I wanted it.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until they’re hard. Let them cool, decorate with paint and then you can paint them with a clear coat to preserve them.

 

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

After they’ve dried, add some string or ribbon and decorate your tree. You could also use some ornament hooks if you have some leftover. I usually have a few in the bottom of the box that I keep all of my ornaments in.

**When you’re putting up your tree, ornaments, and decorations, make sure to put these in a nice dry place. They can mold if stored in a place with alot of moisture.

Will you be making homemade ornaments with your kids?

 

How to Get Rid of Ground Moles – The Most Effective Way

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how to get rid of ground moles

How to Get Rid of Ground Moles

I’ve lived in the country all of my life. Since I was itty bitty, I remember my daddy trying to figure out how to get rid of ground moles. He tried EVERY way possible to get rid of them. He tried Coca-Cola, bubble gum, the wind mill contraptions, standing guard with a shovel, and even sitting for hours with a gun. He also called them every name under the sun. He was always a DIY’er, by nature, so he wasn’t interested in hiring someone to take care of the moles for him.

Before I start getting hate comments, we LOVE animals. We have 2 dogs, and raised all sorts of animals. Ground moles, however, I can live without. Yes, they’re furry and they’re one of God’s creatures. But a fly is one of God’s creatures too and I have NO issues whatsoever, with being the maker of their demise!

Izzy, my boxer – God love her heart. She tries her darndest to catch ground moles. She’s just not fast enough. Here she is all brown nosed after trying to catch one. She even had dirt caked on her tongue!

Moles eat grubs, so people say to use this product and that product to get rid of grubs. That’s fine, but that won’t keep moles away because moles also eat earthworms. You don’t want to rid your yard of earthworms though, because those are good for the soil. So what is a person to do?

Ground mole traps are the MOST effective way!
It’s the tried and true method!

how to get rid of ground moles

There are many types of ground mole traps available. They’re really the only thing that has ever been proven as trustworthy. This particular trap, the Victor Out O’ Sight Mole Trap, has TONS of awesome reviews and if you’ll spend some time reading those reviews, you’ll get lots of tips and information. Several of them explain just how to set the trap and what has worked best for them!

We’ve always had luck with traps over the years, but we’re giving this one a go. We’ve never tried this particular type of trap yet – so I’m anxious to put some of these tips in the reviews to use and see what happens!

Have you had any luck with a particular mole trap? If so, tell us about it!!! We WANT to know!!

 

DESPICABLE ME – DIY Tic Tac Toe

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Who doesn’t love the DESPICABLE ME movies?!?  I think grown ups and kids alike will agree that minions are just about the most adorable little creatures around.  This DESPICABLE ME craft is not only fun to make but it will give endless hours of fun for the family during game nights, on rainy days, in the backyard, or even on road trips! DESPICABLE ME - DIY Tic Tac Toe

DESPICABLE ME – DIY Tic Tac Toe

Supplies:

Instructions: There really isn’t much to making this craft besides painting the rocks.  This is also the fun part!  I love painting rocks and my kiddos really enjoyed getting in on the minion making! You’re going to split the rocks into 2 groups – purple minions and yellow so the opponents pieces are easy to tell apart.

Begin by painting 4 rocks yellow and 4 purple.  You’ll want to cover the entire face of each rock with 2 coats of paint, allowing the paint to dry between coats. Once the yellow and purple paint has dried, use black paint to add the goggle bands to both colors of minions.  Also use the black paint to give the purple minions “pants”.

While the black paint dries, use the blue paint to add the “pants” to the yellow minions. After the black paint is completely dry, add a small white circle to the black goggle band for the eyes of the minions.  Give some minions 1 eye and some 2. When the white paint is totally dry, use a small amount of black paint to give the eyes a pupils and to add a mouth for each minion. To finish up the minions, use a silver paint pen to outline the white circle eyes to complete the look of the goggles. DESPICABLE ME - DIY Tic Tac Toe Use a piece of chalk to draw the tic tac toe lines onto the framed chalkboard and your DESPICABLE ME – DIY Tic Tac Toe game is ready to use!

Check out this great DESPICABLE ME treat idea!

the chick behind this blog! I'm your ordinary, everyday wife and mom to an incredible pair of stinky guys! I am a self diagnosed coffee addict with a ginormous sweet tooth, preferably baked goods!! My hope is to help you, teach you, and entertain you on your way to a more thrifty and frugal lifestyle! Along the way, you'll find awesome recipes, great tips, and tons of randomness! We have loads of fun, so ya'll come back now, ya hear?!

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