It has been a long time since I’ve met up with all of you here. My last blog post was January 1st, 2019. And a lot of events and changes have happened since then. I found out I was pregnant with my daughter in the middle of January 2019. We were so elated as we’d been trying for a few months for a second child. We announced it to everyone at our sons 4th birthday party, surrounded by all of our friends and family, his last “gift” to open was a t-shirt I made that said “getting promoted to big brother fall 2019”. It was such a wonderful moment shared.

The next big event that happened was I spent a weekend with my sister in ocean city Maryland for her birthday. It was our first sisters trip that we plan on taking every year.

We made it through the summer of 2019 and our sweet baby girl arrived at the end of September, just in time to ring in my favorite season, Fall.

The end of 2019 came with a big decision to change career paths & employers and I found a position as a bank teller fairly close to my home. The hours were a bit more but the pay was right and I truly believe it was a blessing.

The beginning of 2020 came and went and we were adjusting to our new normal of job schedules, one child in preschool, one staying at the grandparents when we were working and we were getting on top of life.

Then, Covid hit. I can say, we were fortunate enough that the pandemic didn’t really affect us financially like it has millions of others around the world. My husband and I both continued to go into work through the whole thing. We juggled childcare and work but not much else because the world just shut down. We grew close, but also lazy. we didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything so, we didn’t. I let my creating come to a halt. I didn’t seem to have the time to devote to Crafty Bombshell and I grew very distant from anything crafty.

Enter into 2021. I came back with a vengeance. I started researching new crafts to try, new techniques, and I fell in love with resin products. It started innocently with I couldn’t find a bookmark that screamed “ME”. So, I bought some supplies, and I made a few. The response I received from just posting those few back in January was overwhelming! I made more, you bought more. (Thank you!)

At the beginning of this year, I was accepted for a new position at the bank I work for. I was so ecstatic because it meant no more late Thursdays, no more Saturday hours, and more financial freedom for our family. With my new position, came a new desk in a brand new building. the kind of desk that you do not want to leave a water ring on and ruin it! I started looking up coasters, and again, couldn’t find the right one to sing to me. So, again, I made a few. You love them even more than the bookmarks!

Flash forward to March, I signed up for the new Franklin Plaza Market’s that happen every Thursday in my town. It feels amazing to get out in my community and see all the wonderful people again.

For the first time I am up in sales compared to buying supplies! I created an online store and I am constantly receiving custom orders.

I could not have gotten this far without you all. Thank you.

2021 is going to be our year!

Hello all!!

Just a quick note to let you know that big changes are coming in 2019 for Crafty Bombshell Designs!

I will be updating my blog, Etsy store & more!!

So please stay tuned and remember,

Stay #fashionablycrafty !

❤️

The Crafty Bombshell

Hi everyone! I realize it’s been a while since I’ve posted and my Facebook and Instagram have been pretty much devoted to my wood farmhouse signs. I wanted to post an update here because if any of you come to this blog, it has a lot to do with diy projects and not much else.

I started making Farmhouse Signs back in February when an old classmate of mine reached out to me. She was opening up a home decor and design store in her hometown, Roxbury CT called The Little White Cabin. She wanted to see if I could make her farmhouse signs and modern farmhouse decor items. I was intrigued and said yes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re like me, you LOVE to give handmade gifts for Christmas. They are easy, relatively inexpensive, and you know they will be cherished forever!

I made these salt – dough ornaments for Christmas 2015. Kaleb’s first Christmas! Back when my baby had little tiny feet and squishing them into dough was easier.

These salt – dough ornaments are really easy to make and fun to decorate!

Supplies Needed:

• 1/2 Cup Salt
• 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Warm Water
• Mixing Bowl
• Mixing Spoon
• Flour
• Wax paper
• Baking Sheet
• Wriggly Baby Feet (optional)
• Cookie Cutters (optional)
• Rolling Pin
• Straw
• Twine or Ribbon

Directions:

1. Set your oven to 250 degrees F
2. Mix salt & flour together in mixing bowl.
3. Slowly mix water together with salt-flour mixture with a spoon until thoroughly mixed.
4. Roll out dough on a flat floured surface with the rolling pin, about 1/4 in. thick.
5. Choose your shape cookie cutter and press down in the dough gently but firm.
6. Wiggle the cutter around a little bit to break it free from the edge of the rest of the dough.
7. Carefully pick up your cookie cutter, if the dough cut-out didn’t lift up with it carefully pick up your design and place it on the wax paper on a cookie sheet.
8. Repeat steps 4-6 until all your dough has been used up.
9. Take the straw and poke a hole near the top of your ornament so you can later add your twine or ribbon hook.
10. Place your baking sheet with your ornaments in the oven for 10 minutes. Keep watch as oven temperatures vary.
11. When your ornaments hard you know it’s time to take them out of the oven.
12. Take them out and let them cool.
13. Decorate however you want!!!!
14. Gift them to your family and friends for a one of a kind keepsake!

Variations:

• use your child’s footprint or hand-print and decorate
• use your pet’s paw-print (just be careful to wash their paw after as too much salt is bad for animals)
• use objects you can find around the house to add extra texture to your creation
• the possibilities are endless!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay Crafty!

Hi! If you are reading this chances are it’s probably because you searched for easy, last minute, handmade gifts to give to grandparents or family members. Believe me, that is EXACTLY what this is! This Christmas season one morning I was frantically trying to think of a heartfelt gift to give to the grandparents from my son.  I searched amazon high and low for “grandparent gifts” and nothing really stuck out. I went to my go to Pinterest and started to search for homemade grandparent gifts. A whole cornucopia of ideas popped up and one that was incredibly cute was a snowmen ornament made out of hand-prints. How Cute!

We recently moved into a new home in the beginning of December *yay* and with it we also inherited a few things that the previous owners left behind. Looking around, I realized that we were never going to use the wine glasses they had left (we own more than I am proud of already) and I looked at Kaleb and said, “You want to paint a craft with mommy today?” What toddler says no to paint??

These were simple supplies that I had on hand already but in case you are new painting here are some things you will need!

Supplies:

• Wine Glass, Ornament, Canvas – the options are endless!
• Paint – White, Black, & Orange * (for the snowmen themselves)
• Paint – Any Color Paint for the scarves!*
• Ribbon or Bow
• Foam brush
• Smaller Paint Brushes

*(I used acrylic, but if you want to be able to wash and use the glass, I would recommend glass paint that you bake in the oven)

This craft will probably work best with a sleeping newborn, or an older toddler. I tried to do a few handprint and footprint crafts with my little guy when he was younger and it never worked out due to a squirmy baby!

First things first!!! Make sure you are starting with your toddler strapped into his or her high chair or booster seat, wearing old clothes you don’t mind getting paint on (for both of you!) This is a messy craft. I was able to come away unscathed as this literally was a last minute decision one morning (I tackled this before coffee mind you.)  I had no idea it was going to happen. I just looked over, saw the wine glass and decided to go to town!

When you have all your supplies set up (you will only need the white paint and the foam brush to start) Coat your little one’s hand with white paint using the foam brush. Then, take your object you are using, in my case, wine glass and gently press your little one’s hand onto the glass. Press down all their fingers gently and then slowly and gently peel their hand away. You just made a successful handprint!

You may have to touch up some parts of the handprint where their little hand either smudged or didn’t quite touch the glass. You can do this with the white paint and a small paint brush.

Next step, and I can’t stress this enough, is to let your handprint dry thoroughly. You will need to cover some of it and you don’t want your colors mixing together.

After a few hours of dry-time, it was nap time and I was able to complete the snowmen!

There is no right or wrong way to decorate your snowmen. If you want your little one to help you of course go for it! You can add little snow flakes around them, make their faces all different (I love how the middle snowman look like he’s angry)

The best part about making a present by hand is giving it to the person and know that they will cherish it forever!

If you have pictures of your handmade snowmen handprints I would love to see them! Post them in the comments section below!

 

Stay Crafty!