Wood burned Nativity puzzle

Hey all!  I had fun last night wood burning another Nativity Puzzle.  I am feeling more and more comfortable using the wood burning tool.  I love the texture and character it gives the puzzle.  So here it is done raw.

This Puzzle was one of the first ones I cut by myself with the scroll saw so the lines are not perfect and straight, So I had it sitting in my less than perfect pile. I have been practicing my wood burning on my imperfect puzzles first while I get the hang of it, but I've decided that this puzzle looks like I intentionally tried to cut it like that.  I think it gives it character. I have not decided if I want to just stain this one or add a little splash of color here and there.   I will post tomorrow what I decided

to do ;-)

Find all my Nativitiy puzzles for sale at my Etsy store Bugaboocrafts

My new craft toy!

So I have been wanting to get a wood burning tool for a long time!  And this week I finally got one.  I specifically wanted it for my Nativity puzzle so I could give it a different more rustic look.  Here is my first wood burned puzzle :-) I also decided to try water color paint instead of acrylic paint So it would have more of a muted look.

I am really liking my wood burning tool!  I really like the look it gave the puzzle.  I love how the watercolor turned out too.  After I painted all the pieces I applied a wood stain all over everything. 

Homemade Krispy Kreme dougnuts

Saw this recipe today at  "Homegrown Beanes" for copy cat Krispy Kreme doughnuts!  I am totally going to try this one!  (As soon as I'm off my diet :-)  It is so hard to find a good recipe for doughnuts!

Spooky! And other crafts :-)

My kids complained that I keep making cute wood crafts for others and not our self so these are some  Spooky letters I made to put on to of our piano :-)

I still need to antique the edges and add some embellishments,but I thought I would show what I have so far because   I have been so busy making Turkeys like this one below that this has been put on the back burner.

These Turkeys are what everyone seems to want right now at my Etsy shop.  I made two more today. I just don't think there are enough cute Thanksgiving decorations these days.

Here are a couple of Halloween stitcherys that I have made also that I think are fun.

This one is so cute and simple and so easy!  The picture is kind of bright so you can't tell what the top button is.  It is a crescent moon.

My kids love this one!  They always ask when we are going to put this decoration up because they love the saying :-)

Here is another fun Witch boot I made  :-)  I added glitter to it to add some sparkle :-) I like this one a lot!  can't decide if I want to part with it or not. 

Let's play house!

I was looking for a little play house to go with the peg people I make.  I came across this idea And anyone willing to pay the price they are asking  for it is insane! And thought "I CAN DO THAT!" And I did :-)

I call this my pro to type because I made it out of foam board, but I want to make it out of wood eventually. (Another scroll saw project!) I was lucky enough to find a fantastic tutorial on how to make one at sweet sweet life.

I added windows to mine that double as handles if you wanted to carry it into the next room or something.  I also made mine shorter because my peg people are not that big. And I made my doors closer to the outside so I could have more wall space to decorate when I  add appliances, couches, bed etc. on the walls,but I might save that for the more sturdy wood version.  I like that this doll house it is so open.  It makes for easier play.  Especially when more than one child is playing with it. who needs the roof and all that when you are pretending you are in a room.

Here are my other rooms.

my neighborhood  pre-school kids loved it!

 Now I just need to paint more peg dolls to go with it.  I sold all but one at my Estsy store.

I'm liking this Advent Calendar!

I know it is a little early yet for Christmas stuff, but I saw this cute and clever Advent calendar at "Duty Chronicles"  and had to share.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am addicted to Christmas Advent calendars and This one is on my list for making this year!  Start saving up your toilet paper rolls!

Spooky part 2!

So here you have it people!  The whole word is finally all together ;-)





Spooky!

These are some letters I cut out today for someone in my neighborhood. It is going to say "SPOOKY",  I did not have enough wood to finish it today, but I thought I would give a sneak peek to what it is looking like. The letters are pretty large about 10 inches tall.  Hopefully I can finish it this weekend :-)

I like how it kind of has the look of an old haunted house.



Grapes! Grapes! and more Grapes!

My dad has Concord grapes in his back yard and every year we pick them and juice them.  I have been juicing for 3 days!  But my house sure smells good :-)

Last year at this time I was juicing the grapes and making my famous secret "Brain Freeze" out of the juice for my brothers wedding reception.  In case you are wondering it is kind of a cross between Italian Ice and a sorbet.  Anyway because I was going to turn the juice into my brain freeze pretty quickly after juicing it I did not want to bottle it.  I decided to freeze it instead.  I looked it up on google and I saw that others do that so that is my new way of storing it!

So this is what I do.

first rinse off your grapes of all the dust and spiders and anything else undesirable you don't want in your juice. 

Next you will need a juicer.  I have my moms old juicer.  It looks like this.

If you don't have a juicer I know that there are other ways of doing it.  Just google Juicing grapes and it will take you there.

The kind of juicer I am using has 3 levels.  the top is the basket (Kind of like a big colander) this holds your grapes.  The middle level is where the juice drips into.  The last level is full of simmering water.  you bring the bottom pan with water to a boil and then turn it down to a simmering boil. This steams the grapes that are up in the top level. As they soften the juice seeps out into the middle pan.  Then the  drains out of a spout in the the middle level.  You attach a rubber hose onto the spout and you can place the hose into whatever container you are wanting your juice in.  As   you can see from this picture I have mine draining into a gallon milk jug that I have cleaned out and sanitized.

So as you can see the juice is happily draining in there.  I leave some space on top because once it freezes it swells up some.

So there you go!  This juice is ready to cool and go into the freezer.

I pull the jugs out of my deep freezer when I need them. I let it thaw in the fridge and I can make about 4 pitchers of juice from this gallon of concentrate.

How to mix your Grape juice concentrate

1 quart of grape juice

1 quart of water

1 cup of sugar (I like to do 3/4 cup)

stir and enjoy :-) 

Another cute Turkey!

Here is my latest scroll saw creation :-)  My 15 year old daughter says she likes this turkey even more than the 2x4 turkey.  I have to admit that it turned out pretty cute :-)

Like the other wood crafts I have made lately it is decorated with paint and scrapbook paper.

I also came up with this Owl on a limb with left over wood scraps ;-)

 I have an Idea that I want to do with it.  I will show you soon what I came up with.

If you are interested in any of these wood crafts to paint and create yourself or to buy finished check out my Etsy store  @ Bug a boo crafts. 

Happy crafting!