Sweet Succulents

 

I stopped by Walmart yesterday to pick up some alphabet letters for a project later this week and saw a tube of jungle animals for $3. I couldn't pass these sweet little ones up. I also picked up a few succulents for under $10 at lowes.

About six months ago my grandparents stopped by the office and dropped off a mixed succulent arrangement. It's so pretty, and I have managed to keep it alive. So I decided it would be relatively safe to try to grow some at home too!

Supply list:

1. Container, vessel, or in my case an old glass square vase that is completely impractical for flowers.

2. Rocks of some kind ... i.e. fish rocks or river rocks/pebbles.

3. Potting soil.

4. Succulents ... If you are clumsy like me I recommend the sturdy looking ones because they break really easily.

5. Plastic toys ... I used zoo animals but dinosaurs would be fun too.

6. Gold sharpie.

Put an inch or two of rocks on the bottom for drainage. Fill 3/4 of the vessel with potting soil. Delicately plant the succulents. Make sure to leave room for them to spread out a bit. Lightly pack soil to hold plants in place. Cover soil with rocks.

I was really happy to get to use the rocks I bought for G Dub right before he went to the big fish bowl in the sky. I'm not sure I can handle having another fish after the trauma of trying to save that little guy!

Next I picked out the 3 animals from my jungle tube that I liked best, and I colored them gold with my sharpie. I was originally going to spray paint them gold, but they are so small, I colored all 3 in under 10 minutes. The sharpie worked great, covered really well, and dried quickly. I like it so much better than the faded colors the we're rocking before. Now my little friends are perking up the corner of my kitchen.

We have been super busy with back to school, but I have a few projects planned for this week. I also have to work on Dr. Steve's birthday. He is always hard to buy for... Especially on a budget! Trying to think of something I could make him, but so far I'm striking out!

 

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Book Art

I have been wanting to try this project for a while and it was the perfect little project for today.

Round up an exacto knife (to make sure the page comes out of the book clean instead of ripped), a felt tip pen (especially if your book is old so the paper doesn't rip), painters tape for clean edges and a clear ruler to make this project super easy!

1. Tape off the edges. I always stick my tape a couple of times to my pants or shirt so that it's less tacky. Super important step for delicate old book pages.

2. Outline your quote with pencil.

3. Take your straight edge ... Or in my case, piece of wood because I was too lazy to search for a ruler, and make a few guidelines. I went diagonally from the corners of the rectangle I drew around my quote. I messed up the first page I tried because I drew a line through my quote. So the second time I used tape to cover up my quote while drawing my lines.

4. Once I drew my guide lines to get the right angles, I pretty much free handed the rest of my lines.

5. Carefully remove the tape. Frame and admire.

It's the perfect addition to our gallery wall. We are trying to fill it with prints from our travels, a map of our old neighborhood, artwork, etc.

Enjoying a super lazy Saturday after a long week!

 

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