Sprouting Irish Derby

Don't Forget to Link up to my Marvelous Mess Party going on right now!! I will be picking one project to feature on my sidebar for a WEEK!! 

I thought I would re-share a tutorial I made around this time last year....right around the time when I began to figure out HOW to blog. I didn't have much a clue for how to become more "known" in the blogging community.....so, I'm going to reintroduce this post and give it a second chance. Plus, it's wicked cute. A little St. Patty's Day Sprouting Irish Derby!!

After some deliberating over an Irish craft I came up with this doozy-a doozy of a derby. And it satisfies some of that planting instinct that seems to affect people (or maybe just me??) this time of year. It's a pretty easy little derby you can create with your own munchkin buddy or by yourself. 

You'll need:

Small Flower Pot

Medium size Saucer

Emerald Paint

Flathead Screwdriver

Rock (or hammer) ;-)

Green Glitter

Coffee Filters 

Wood Glue

Elmer's Glue

Potting Soil

Clover Seed

Start with your clay pot and base and knock out a large hole out of the bottom using the screwdriver and your trusty rock. I honestly use a rock more than a hammer when pounding things in.....they seem to be much more available in my house. I did things a little backwards and painted first, then knocked out the holes....so I had to do a little touch-up painting.

Next, you need to put a little hole for drainage in the middle of the saucer. I had attempted to use a drill and a nice large drill bit the first time through but it turns out that I kinda suck at drilling things. I couldn't seem to get it to work. No doubt, you may be more handy at it than I am.....however, with the clay pots, it's super easy to chop a little hole using simpler tools. Either way works!!

Now it is *glitter time*. Once the pots are dry, make a mixture of glue and water and a bit of the emerald paint and paint your pots with it. While they are still wet, sprinkle some glitter as evenly as you can over the whole thing.

 

Then, use the wood glue to attach the pot to the saucer (that you have drilled a drainage hole in). Let it dry. Then douse the finished project with the glue mixture and the glitter.

  

Now, it's time to use the coffee filter. Take one coffee filter and put a little bit of soil in it then stuff it gently into your flower pot and place it over the drainage hole in the bottom. This will help to keep the soil from draining out of the pot when you water it (it's a great trick for any potted plant). Open up the filter and press it up against the insides of the pot as wide as it will go. Then fill it up with the rest of the soil and water it (you'll want it sitting on a folded paper towel). No doubt you will need to add some more soil and water to make it close to level with the top (you don't want it to be higher than the lip or it will spill over when you water). 

It's time to put the seeds in as well!!  The clover should sprout fairly quickly over the next couple of weeks!!

  

And, there you have it, your St. Patty's Day Sprouting Irish Derby. This should be a really fun (if a little extensive) kids craft!! 

I shared this post at these fantastic parties:
Works For Me Wednesdays
Get Your Craft On

Toy Storage System For My Kids

Guest post written by James Dwyer

I figured out that I really needed to come up with a way to teach my kids how to store all of their toys in our house besides leaving them on the floor when I tripped over some toys and fell down. Luckily, I wasn't hurt. But I knew that I could have just as easily hurt myself by doing that just the same.
So I went online to try and get some toy ideas. When I was online looking for that stuff I came across some information about clearwire prices and thought that it sounded really great, so I decided to sign up for the new internet service. Our old internet service hadn't been cutting it for a while anyway.
I came up with a system out of a couple of small toy boxes that I let the kids paint themselves so they can tell what kind of toys they're going to put in each of the boxes. They share a lot of their toys, so having a box for each one really wouldn't work out well.

 Brought to you by your friends at www.clearwireinternet.com

A Marvelous Mess #3

Shamrock Wreath

*Don't forget to link up to my weekly Marvelous Mess Party.... one project from each party will be featured on my sidebar for a week!!*

We decorate our houses with wreaths for so many occasions, I though it would be fitting to make a Shamrock Wreath for St. Patty's day. :-) 

I went with a four leafed clover, for luck, rather than a three.....because I just like the number four. 

If you would like to make this very simple wreath here is a list of supplies you'll need:

Green Garden Twine

Foam Wreath

Green Floral Wire

Hot Glue

Jon Stewart

~Take the hot glue and attach an end of the twine to the foam wreath:

~Wrap it tightly around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around...........until you cover the whole wreath and then hot glue the end of the twine in place. 

~Make a little loop out of twine and hot glue it to the back of the wreath (you'll use this to attach your wreath tot he wall, etc). 

~Take a long piece of floral wire and begin threading it through an equally long piece of twine. Don't worry if it's tricky, Jon Stewart will help you.

~Shape it into a shamrock. Call upon the powers of Jon Stewart to aide you in this endeavor:

Thanks Jon!!!!

~Use an end piece of wire from the shamrock to make a stem and attach the base of the stem to the inner bottom of the wreath. 

~Cut a little extra piece of wire to secure the top of the shamrock to the inner top of the wreath like this:

~That's it!! Now you've got a sweet little St. Patty's day wreath. :-) 

I shared this project at these funky blog parties:

Get Your Craft On
Frugalicious Friday
Works For Me Wednesdays 

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