The Apple Street Cottage

It's November and the holiday crafting is in full swing!  Today I have an easy, inexpensive ornament for you to make.  It can be a little messy, but, trust me, it's easy! Welcome back to Ten on the 10th - a group of bloggers sharing ideas and inspiration for under $10.  This is a Blog Hop so everyone participating will be listed at the end of this post.  The theme for this month is 'Ornaments' so  let's get started! Here are the basics for this project: White glue (that dries clear), jute twine, and some balloons. Before we go on, let me say I tried to find water balloons since they are round and small.  In the fall, they were nowhere to be found, so I went with a bag of 15 12" balloons from the dollar store. ********** Blow up your balloon to the size you want, tie it off, and add a small string for hanging.  Your ornament will need to hang during the drying process. After adding the glue to a container, I mixed it with water - 2 parts glue to 1 part ...

  Welcome back to Christmas in July at The Apple Street Cottage.  This time I have a quick and easy project for you that doesn't cost much at all.  Why, you ask? Because it's also Ten on the 10th - when a  group of bloggers share ideas and inspiration for under $10. 'Christmas in July' is the theme for the hop and I've got a sweet little ornament you can make.  It all starts with a small block of polymer clay. The first step is to roll it out.  The instructions mention a thickness of 1/4" so I used two pencils and rolled out the clay between layers of waxed paper. I needed a little more surface area for my cookie cutter, so I rolled it a bit thinner until I had the size I needed.  I used my bell cookie cutter and peeled the excess clay from around the edge. Since it looked a bit plain, I grabbed an embossing folder that I had to give it some texture.  If you don't have any embossing folders laying around, rubber stamps, a piece of lace, or anythi...

 It's summer around here and that means   BBQ's  and summer parties.  W elcome back to 10 on the 10th.  A group of bloggers sharing ideas and inspiration for under $10.  This month our theme is 'July 4th/Summer' and I've created  the perfect way to 'dress' a bottle of wine.   Whether you're bringing the Hostess a gift or you've been asked to bring some wine to the party, it always looks better when it's 'dressed-up' a bit.  Here's what you need: An old pair of jeans, a pocket, rubber band, ribbon, a flag, and a bottle of wine.   Start by cutting off one of the legs from your jeans.  I cut mine a little longer than the wine bottle. Turn the leg inside out and run a stitch across the cut end.   Sit the seam flat on a table and stitch either end.  It makes the bottom of the bag neater. Turn the bag right side out and decide on the placement of the pocket.  I used Aleen's Tacky glue to attach it. The basic ...

  Hot cocoa bars and hot cocoa bombs were all the rage for the holidays, but, it's still winter and there's nothing like a cup of hot cocoa to warm you up on a cold winter day.   Welcome back to  10 on the 10th ,  a group of bloggers sharing ideas and inspiration for under $10.  Our theme this month is 'Winter Blues' - anything Winter or blue and I've got just the thing! While hot cocoa bombs sound delicious and hot cocoa bars look amazing, often the ingredients didn't really thrill me.  People were using pre-made cocoa mix and from my experience, anything you buy pre-made tends to have extra ingredients that don't sound very appetizing.  Here's a list of the ingredients of a popular brand of hot cocoa mix: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Modified Whey,  Cocoa  (Processed with Alkali), Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Nonfat Milk, Less Than 2% Of: Salt, Dipotassium Phosphate, Mono- and Diglycerides, Natural Flavor.  Some of those ingredients make me ra...