Category / Crafts

Make An Embroidered Pet Silhouette

February 28, 2017 by Melissa

I was on assignment for DIY Network this past week. We’re celebrating Pet Love and what better way to show you care than to create a gorgeous pet silhouette of my editor’s pug. I’ve worked the past 6 years with the same editor at Scripps Network. She is amazing and super fun and has the most darling dog named Oskar. I wanted to surprise her with a keepsake. So, I asked here what were her favorite colors and got to work. Of course, she had to know what I was up to when I asked for a profile photo.

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Noel Lettered Wreath Craft

December 3, 2016 by Melissa

I love Christmas time. It’s one of my favorite times of the year for crafting too. Every year I make wreaths. This year, I wanted one of the wreaths to showcase the beauty of a simple and peaceful Christmas. So I featured a little tin church, some decorative sprigs as well as the Star of Bethlehem. I combined some off the shelf letters and a simple grapevine wreath as a jumping off point. The rest just seemed to come together for this lettered wreath with a little bit of inspiration from the Christmas season displays in town.

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Christmas Crafts Family Fun Gardening Holiday Plants Projects

Growing Paperwhites Indoors for the Holidays

November 27, 2016January 1, 2017 by Melissa

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is growing bulbs indoors. I do this for both Christmas and Easter. There is something about growing flowers indoors during the chilly winter months. During Christmastime, I especially love growing paperwhites. This is a fail-proof project for even those with a brown thumb. If you have grown paper whites in the past, I can bet that one of your biggest pet peeves and mine too is that when they grow tall they often flop over from gravity. Sure, there are ways to add things to the water to stunt their growth, but why harm the bulb? This year, I wanted to show you a simple and easy way to grow paperwhites without them falling over. I love to give these as gifts. They are simple and stunning and I’m going to show you how to make them!

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Featured

Get Dirty: How to Plant a Window Box

April 12, 2017April 28, 2017 by Melissa

How to Speak Chicken

March 29, 2017March 29, 2017 by Melissa

Luck of the Flock: Planting Clover for Chickens

March 17, 2017March 21, 2017 by Melissa

Crafts Family Fun Halloween Holiday

Halloween Fun: Tricks and Treats

October 24, 2016October 24, 2016 by Melissa

I love celebrating Halloween with my kids. Both of my kids do not enjoy being spooked with scary masks or things that go bump in the night, but rather they enjoy the more whimsical side of Halloween. This year, we were especially lucky that my editor at DIY Network had kid-friendly Halloween crafts in mind and our friends at Shari’s Berries sent along a treat to top off our day of crafting. It was a fun day filled with tricks and treats.

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Crafts Fall Gardening Holiday Plants Projects Seasons Wedding

DIY: Cinderella Succulent Topped Pumpkins

October 7, 2016November 27, 2016 by Melissa

Last fall, I created the most fantastic succulent topped pumpkin for HGTV Gardens. It was so much fun and I loved seeing how it all came together so easily. This month I’ll be at the Country Living Fair doing a live demonstration on Saturday afternoon to share how simple and easy it is for you to create succulent topped pumpkins at home. I love creating each and everyone. No two succulent topped pumpkins are ever alike.

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Chickens Crafts Family Fun Video

Create Colorful Paper Chicken Friends

October 2, 2016October 5, 2016 by Melissa

This past week I presented at the Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, PA. Each year, one of my favorite things to do is meet up with the kids attending the fair. I love to get kids excited about art and put on a workshop just for them. This past year we did bookmarks and this year I decided to inspire the kids’ creativity with paper chicken friends.

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Crafts Family Fun

Craft This Vacation Shadowbox

September 4, 2016 by Melissa

Last month, we quietly slipped away for a family vacation. It had been so long since we had taken a really big vacation. Off we went, even the kiddos, to the beautiful Hawaiian Islands. We had such a blast exploring. We hiked to waterfalls, rode horses, swam in the most amazing lagoons with sea turtles, snorkeled, sailed, and peered into a sleeping volcano. Of course it is never long enough and I knew it was a complete success when my kids asked me when we could return. As I was unpacking the bags, I realized that the kids had picked up maps, brochures and oodles of pamphlets. To me, holding onto these meant something to them. So instead of putting them away in a box to collect dust, I scooped them up and decided to turn them into this vacation shadowbox.

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Crafts Family Fun

A Berry Sweet Pom Pom Craft

July 30, 2016April 12, 2017 by Melissa

I used to love making pom poms as a little girls with my Mom. We would sit there for hours making them and putting them on hats, scarves and afghans that she knitted throughout the year. I was always intrigued with the “magic” of how the pom poms and tassels would come together. I’d watch her intensely, committing the techniques to memory in my seven year old mind. I can still “see” her working the yarn in her hands and fingers if I close my eyes. This past week, I decided to share my love of pom poms with my daughter. She absolutely adores strawberries. So with that as our inspiration, we turned her favorite fruit into a sweet fluffy, bouncy ball of red and green strawberry pom pom for her backpack. I created a cardboard template that worked well with with her small hands and in no time we ended up with a dotted red pom pom ready for quite a hair cut.

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Crafts Family Fun Fourth of July Holiday Summer

Fabric Sparklers Craft

June 30, 2016July 1, 2016 by Melissa

I love celebrating the 4th of July with my family on Cape Cod. I have fond memories as a little girl playing with sparklers. In fact, we looked forward to them each year. Unfortunately, fireworks, and yes-sadly sparklers, are illegal in the state of Massachusetts. This year I thought that it would be fun to make some sparklers out of glitter bombed tulle fabric from my local fabric store. With a little bit of help from the kiddos and bit in ingenuity, we were able to make these sparkler beauties to bring the the local parade.

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Crafts Gardening Projects

Succulent Tea Party Tablescape

June 10, 2016October 5, 2016 by Melissa

I’ve been on the road for the past 2 weeks. I’ve been traveling non-stop but have had such a blast meeting so many of you in person at both the Beekman Boy’s Summer Garden Party and the Country Living Magazine Fair in Rhinebeck, NY. While I was at the Country Living Magazine Fair, I did a presentation sharing how to create a beautiful succulent tea party tablescape.

I love to entertain and I love to send home a personalized planted tea cup with each of my friends. It’s a little piece of me and memory of the special day we all shared. Well as promised, here is the DIY tutorial for those of you that missed it in person.

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