Medicine Cap Name Badge Flowers

If you are a nurse, you definitiely know what THESE are:

and if you aren't a nurse, well, THIS is what they are:

~ the caps/tops off of the medicines that we give to our patients.

When I started working at the hospital I noticed the nurses were saving these caps & I asked why & my preceptor (trainer) told me the pharmacy used them to make flowers for the name badges. I didn't see any for a while but when I did they were so cute and I thought it was a great & creative way to turn trash to treasure. I am not sure how many other people know about it or do this at their own hospitals but I've met several other nurses who have never seen them so I figured I'd share them here and on Pinterest.

They are super easy to make. You just use glue- either hot glue or super glue for permanency- & attach them to your badge clip.

At my hospital, we use these round ones that have a string to pull down from the circle but I have seen some folks just glue them to the silver clippie part of their badge. I bought this pack of 6 from Walmart in the office supply section for about $2 or so:

You arrange them however you like with whatever colors you want.A lot of folks try to get school or college colors, I noticed. This is how they look like this from the horizontal view:

So here's a pic of a finished one where she also placed a small heart sticker on it:

And I also wanted to show you this one becuase one of our transport gal's grand child made it- she went a little heavy on the glue but she's 4 years old- look at that pattern. She said it is really fun for her grand kids and teaches them dexterity- I didn't even think of THAT. Also, she said she lets the kids use school glue for safety reasons but it does take longer to dry and they fall off sooner.

If you wanted to, even if you aren't a nurse- you could probably get the hospital to save them for you if all they are doing is throwing them away- and you could just pick them up a certain day each month or when ever. We have been giving small craft size plastic bags our meds come in to someone for her jewelry and the IV tourniquet bands they tie around your arm to start an IV- we save those for a man who makes them into slingshots... of course we can only give the clean things away, just in case you're wondering. Nothing that has been in an isolation room or anything. And we wipe everything off with our hospital grade sani wipes too, before letting someone have them.

Thanks for looking & be blessed,
Kat

Just Ducky!!!

I told you in my last post that I had been hoarding supplies for projects and I wasn't lying. This is one I did yesterday when the rain had stopped long enough for me to paint something. I never knew you could spray paint glass until I saw some of the posts on BetterAfter & others. ----WHAT?!?! You mean all those things I gave away cuz they were the wrong color- I could've saved them???? ...Oh well, now I know.

So remember the country blue & duck fad of the lates 80's/early 90's? I got rid of all that stuff years ago but I guess my Granny had not. For my Bday this past May my Aunt Sue gave me a pitcher that had been my Granny Merritt's. My aunt and my mom are Hoarders for sure and I am trying not to be, but I am incredibly sentimental so it's kind of hard... but I CAN walk through my house (if not my bedroom- & I am working on that so...) but anyway- here is the picture of the pitcher BEFORE~

And another in case the first one didn't make you groan or wince enough~

And I HAVE to say, before I go any further, that my mother would probably have a kannipshun fit if she knew that I had painted my granny's pitcher, but I loved my Granny & I know she loved me- she always signed her letters and cards to me with, "I love you and Jesus loves you too" (side note-Thank you to BOTH my Grannies- for instilling in me, the knowledge that I am a child of a God in Heaven who knows & loves me) so anyway- my point is- if my Granny Merrit was still alive and I had asked for that pitcher and I had told her, "Granny, I'm gonna paint this white cuz I LOVE the curves and the shape, but these ducks and this blue, well they just don't go with my style right now!" I am CERTAIN my granny would be okay with it and she would've given me her blessing because she wanted me to be happy. So, that being said, I got some Valspar Gloss white spray paint and went to town. Or rather, went to driveway, cuz I had already gotten the paint in town. And here is the result:

WOW! Can I just say that again? WOW!!! WOWWEE WOWZER WOW!!! I am in LOVE with this pitcher now. I hope my Granny can see it. I am sure she likes it better now too. I just can't stop staring at it. I can't wait to put some flowers in it. I was gonna put it on top of my kitchen cabintes but now I just want to keep it in the center of my table. Am I crazy? Surely I am not the only person to fall in love with something just because it is a different color am I?

Thanks to my Aunt Sue for giving it to me and thanks to my blogging genius friends who have posted about painting glass. the truth is, I probably would have just kept this up in the attic until Country blue & ducks came back in style. Okay, you're right- it would've stayed up in the attic till one of MY grands inherited it and donated it to GW or something. One more pic because it seems such an amazing transformation to me:

Okay, now that I have posted twice today, I can get back to my bedroom...I CAN walk through it really, it's just this one corner that is full of boxes from my 5 years of college. I am slowly but surely getting it cleaned up. Wish me luck!

I am linking up with Domestically Speaking's POWER OF PAINT PARTY here:

http://www.domestically-speaking.com/


I took apic with flowers in...forgive the edit to republish but I thought it looked so pretty!

Have a blessed day,
Karyl

Redneck Wineglasses

I have been gone awhile I know, but I have been lurking and following a lot of new wonderful & inspiring blogs. I have been at my new job at the hospital for almost 6 months now and I am LOVING it!!! I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with my job.

But-onto my post-
I was in a new home decor store the other day and I saw these redneck wine glasses for $17.95~

They were listed online here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HJLVUW/ref=asc_df_B005HJLVUW1740380?smid=AXCC5F4I8GC0F&tag=pgmp-928-95-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395109&creativeASIN=B005HJLVUW


for $14.99 & $5.99 S/H


Seriously?!?!?!? I think not- now that I have seen the AMAZING things some of my blogging friends can do-I mean, it's just a Mason jar glued to a dollar tree glass candlestick right?

Well, I don't drink, but my mom does and I think these would be hilarious to give her as a gag gift, but I am not gonna spend that kind of money on them. I couldn't find this magic E6000 glue that everyone in the rest of the blogging universe has access to, so I got what I thought would work- glass glue- but it didn't stay together. I was very discouraged because I had been so excited about making them.

So, I got to wondering and thinking... And I was certain someone else, more clever than me must have done this before...so I typed "redneck wine glasses" in my search bar and VOILA! I found that a creative blogger had a great tutorial to make them. I hope it's okay that I leave her link here- I am sure many of you know her. I am her newest fan & follower. The tutorial is here at:

http://kraftingwithk.blogspot.com/2011/04/redneck-wine-glasses.html


My Lowe's also had the same epoxy that she used. Glad to know I am not the only person who can't find the elusive E6000 super adhesive stuff. And VERY glad to know something else works. I also wonder now, if the glass glue would work if I had sanded them first. Oh well, I have another project to try this stuff on.

I got the mason jars from goodwill here for only .35 cents a piece. Since I don't can & I only have my mom to give them to, I didn't want to buy a whole case, y'know. I also have 2 different brands but I figured that's okay cuz what true redneck would have MATCHING wine glasses anyhow right?


This was a fun & easy project too. Thanks again to "crafting with K" for the tutorial. Now that I have a set schedule, I hope to post regularly again. I have been hoarding supplies and I will start actually DOING projects again now.

Oh- I almost forgot to post pics of my own redneck wine glasses~

So I only spent about $1.75 for my Redneck Wine Glasses. The glass glue can be used for so many other things. I think that's a pretty great deal, don't you? Oh, and I tried the glass glue again after sanding and it worked. I didn't have lids for mine since I bought them used and so to hold the jar tight against the candlestick, I filled it with water to weight it down till it bonded which was only about 1 minute. I DID wash them in the dishwasher first- on the SANITIZE setting- since, as My hubs pointed out, my mom really IS s smidgen redneck, and may actually drink out of them.

I am linking to this party at The Thrifty groove:



Y'all have a blessed day!!!
Karyl

Altered Book with mixed media

Let me introduce you to my friend Wanda McCullough. She is a fantastic artist and has actually been published in an international crafts magazine for one of her books similar to these. We met for lunch at Olive Garden yesterday and she had brought her 2 newest creations with her for me to see. Let me just tell you that several folks stopped and had to ooh & ahh over them. She does wonderful work. I asked her if I could take pics and post them and she gave her permission for me to do so. She creates the gorgeous pieces just for herself . Wanda is a wonderful, fun, beautiful, creative, and compassionate person. She also graduated with me from nursing school, but was a semester ahead. Anyway here is one of her altered books. There are several pics to show all the pages and the detail.  Hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I did~

Click on the pictures to see them larger- it's worth the extra time to see the details!

She hand cut these figures out of an art book she bought at one of those fundraising book sales for like 50 cents. Several pictures she uses she got from that book but she also has lots of found objects in here. I told one lady at the restaurant that she could find something in auto zone to use in her art. She just amazes me!

Sorry for the bad pics- we were in Olive Garden so it's the best I could do. Wish you could hold it and feel it. It's an altered Golden Book- you know the kids books- she just did this right over it. She displays them in her home- which is amazing too, BTW. She has such great style.

She'd lifted this up to show the building was printed on acetate and laid over the throw away packaging of a "seven gypsies" scrapbooking product. The beaded around the picture of the lady- she just glued each of those tiny beads around the pic to frame it. She has used clothing tags, fabric remnants, buttons, clips, repurposed jewelry, a  restaurant coaster, various tassles, beads, stamps- you name it- it's proabably in here!

Many of her pages have pull out tags and mini books and trinkets and "journaling" on the back. When she is with you, she explains the story behind the piece of work and why she included this or that and it is so interesting to hear her tell how she comes up with ideas for her art.

that X is actually a rubber stamp taken off the wood block mount and painted, with tiny beads sprinkled over it & I tried to take this next pic from a different angle to show the texture with the beads on it but it didn't show up well. I wish you could actually just hold the book and feel it because I can assure you- these photos do NOT do it justice!

Sorry about the glare on several of the pics. We were inside and I couldn't get a good pic without the flash going off. I tried to darken them a little with photoshop but I am not very good with photoshop yet. I have pics of the other book she brought also but I'll post them a bit later, maybe today or tomorrrow.

Oh, here's Wanda~

 Isn't she pretty!? She was hesitant about taking a picture because she didn't think she looked good. (Crazy woman!) I told her she should make a blog of her own because she would have a ton of followers if she did. But she says she doesn't have time right now. I am going to try to get to her home and take more photos of some of her wonderful creations. She has bodyforms and dollhouses and decorating tricks and all kinds of great ideas! She has won lots of amateur art shows too. I know you can see why I had to share some of her beautiful artwork with you.

Thanks for looking Y'all & as always- be blessed,

Karyl

I am linking to this party at Frou Frou Decor

My first decoupage- the table B&A

Well, yesterday was my middle daughter's 12th Bday so I am late in posting this. I had it done Fri night but she wanted to go to Carowinds yesterday so anyway...  This little table was given to me from a friend probably about 15 years ago. I always kept a cloth on it to cover it up cuz it was just so ugly. Then I found all of you here on blogland and I thot I could make this ugly table pretty.  Here is the before:

My 4 toddlers had done there own bit of damage to the top as well over the years.

And here is the after:

There are a few wrinkles in it but they're not too noticeable. I was afraid to rub them out cuz this is the second piece of paper I used cuz when I rubbed the wrinkles out the first time, it rubbed the top layer of the paper off so I had to take that off and redo it. I am happy enought with it to leave it alone.

I am just excited to have made it look better. Even my son said it was an improvement.

Thanks for looking! have a blessed day,
Karyl

I am linking to a party at  http://makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com/2010/10/making-world-cuter-monday-oct-11.html 

I am gonna try to post the button too y'all so here goes...


And on Tuesday I am linking to this party at sassysites.blogspot.com~




I am also linking to My Dear Trash's first linky lasting from
Oct 14-Oct 21 @

Linky...& stray puppy visitors

I am trying to link to a "Thrifty Thursday" Party @ http://lbratina.blogspot.com/2010/10/thrifty-thursday-and-tablescape.html. I don't know how to grab buttons or anything else. I am still learning. & thanks for all y'alls' help in trying to figure it out. But I think I am supposed to attach this somehow to the end of one of my posts but...I am a goober! So I just made a post about it by itself so I can give linky love to this AWESOMELY creative gal at Bloggeritaville- don'tcha just love that blog name???   =0)


Anyway, I am off to lunch with Hubby (his day off) and then hopefully when I get back I will finish at least ONE of my modpodge projects. I was gonna do it this morning but God sent a couple of puppies and their hungry & thirsty mama into my garage and , well, I just HAD to play with them. And feed & water mama doggie, of course. Gosh I wish I had money & land to take all the stray & neglected animals in. Then also, the thought of playful puppies hanging around is bringing my college age daughter, Kimi, & her beau Zach over to visit.

Be blessed,
Karyl

Thought I'd post pics of my visitors since they are so cute~

Stray puppies...and stray daughter...    =0)

A deal from hobby lobby

I'd gotten a candlestick and another piece from HL in their clearance section. The candle holder was originally $29.97 but it was marked down to $2.50 for a crack in the base. The other thing (I don't know what to call it) was metal & had scratches on it. It was $1.99 from $14.99.  I don't have before pics but you can see the crack & where I filled it in with wood filler in the pic. After that I took a little gel wood stain and covered it. I know you can still see the repair but not really when you turn it around- I mean, who looks at the back of a candle???? The whatchamacallit piece was black so I just colored over the scratches with a black sharpie.

I don't have any before shots but these are the deals after I "fixed" them:

The hardest part was that there was this divot-y part in the wood so I had to wait till the filler was almost dry, but not hardened and I took the cotton off of a Qtip and it fit well, so I scooped out the filler in that spot. The I used the gel stain after it all dried & like I said, it does show up but not if you turn it to the back.

I should have "polished" my candle before I took this picture...Did you know you can use old pantyhose to do that?!?!? A friend told me you just kind of wad them up into a ball (well, cut them first so the ball will be a hand size) and rub it vertically on the candle. It gets rid of fingerprints that are noticable on some colored candles. Also if there are minor nicks or scratches, you can run a hair dryer over the candle just enough to make the surface a little bit warm & you rub the stockings over it and it will rub out/in some of those.



I did a real quick rub just to show you-

Anyway, I am working on my first decoupage now. I have sanded the pieces and am about to prime, then paint them & after that dries, I hope I'll get to start adding my pretty paper and Mod Podge!!!