Auntie's Workshop

Not a sponsor Several years ago, my niece Cassandra started making Deco mesh wreaths and selling them on Facebook .  She offered to teach me how, but life happened and I moved away.  Over the years, I watched several YouTube videos to see if I could get a grasp of the concept.  They looked quite tedious (yeah, I know this is coming from someone who will paint on a 16 x 20 canvas with a brush with 4 hairs in it). Anyway... In the winter of 2018, I determined to make myself a mesh Christmas wreath and purchased what I needed, but later chickened out and returned it all to the store. Yeah, I know. Leave me alone. Fast forward to last month when my sister Clara and I decided to keep our tradition of starting Christmas crafting in July and planned a crafting day over video chat.  I decided I was going to tackle this project since I knew sis would be encouraging and honest all at the same time.  If it looked a hot mess, she would tell me.  So, th...

Not a sponsor One of the YouTube crafters my sister introduced me to is Amber Riley from This Southern Girl Can . She's an awesome creative from North Carolina.  Her specialty is Dollar Tree crafts.  This past week, she did a simple Independence Day craft that looked fun and I just had to try it.  Here's her video explaining the craft: The only things I needed to buy were the picture frame and the bag of Styrofoam stars. I already had clothespins, craft paint, and hot glue. I haven't figured out an appropriate space outside my apartment complex where I can spray paint, so I hand painted the clothespins.  I liked the color of my picture frame, so I didn't paint it.  I also had some jewels and metal letters in a box of craft supplies I was given a while back that I used on the plaque.   The only things I would do differently if I made this again are 1) I'd paint the inside of the frame backing since the pins don't fit perfectly (she warned abou...