Two Classy Chics

Archive for the ‘Crafts’ Category

With our “Fun in the Summer Sun” blog event getting into full swing, our next company makes the perfect addition to our summer buying guide. Today I would like to introduce you to the company called Michele’s Handcrafted Birdhouses where you will find the prettiest handcrafted birdhouses that I have ever seen! All of Michele’s birdhouses are handmade by her here in the good old U.S.A. and I absolutely love to support American Artisans like Michele!

All of her birdhouses are made from cedar material to accommodate a variety of cavity nesting birds. They have lifting clean-out doors that are embellished by classic knobs or a piece of genuine driftwood which is used as the handle. The bottom floor of the birdhouse has drainage holes to keep the bird nests dry should any rain water get into the birdhouse. There are ventilation ducts that are just under the roof eaves.  

My Review: I was really excited to be reviewing a handcrafted birdhouse made by Michele as I have always loved birds and been birdwatching for the past few years. We have a variety of birds here in our backyard like blue jays, cardinals, Downy woodpeckers, robins, house finches, sparrows and wrens. I just love watching them feed at our bird feeders and I used to have a birdhouse until Hurricane Irene swiped it last year.

Michele sent me the Rustic Birdhouse with Country Charm  to review for all of you. I love that it is very rustic looking which fits in perfectly with our garden and landscaping decor. The birdhouse is quite large and very sturdy, hubby said extremely well-built! We decided to hang up our new birdhouse directly onto one of our rustic fences that surrounds our one patio/deck area. It only took hubby about 1 minute to get it hung up and I think it looks beautiful hanging onto our rustic wooden fence.

I love that with this birdhouse that I can easily clean it out once the birds are done nesting in it thanks to the way this birdhouse artist built it. I also appreciate that there are venting holes for ventilation and there are draining holes in the bottom.

Michele added several pieces of driftwood onto the exterior of the birdhouse which is perfect for decoration but it also serves as perching opportunities for the birds. Besides that, I have various other pieces of driftwood around my yard due to my coastal theme’d landscaping. The picture above and to the right shows the side view of this beautiful birdhouse so you can really see the depth of the piece.

Michele did a beautiful job making this birdhouse and I am super proud to now own a birdhouse from Michele’s Rustic Birdhouses & Home Accents! This is one quality-made handcrafted birdhouse that you would love to have for your own backyard or purchase a few and give them as gifts!

I have been watching my new birdhouse like crazy the past several days and I am just waiting for a bird to find my new birdhouse and to call it home! We have had some really terrible rainy weather here on the east coast for the past week, hopefully when we dry up, I will have a tenant in my new beautiful birdhouse!

When I catch my new tenant setting up house in my new birdhouse, I will try to get some photos and make a new blog post here on our blog to share the excitement with all of you!

If you are in the market for a beautiful handcrafted birdhouse, I would HIGHLY recommend that you check out Michele’s Handcrafted Birdhouses! They are beautiful, extremely well-made and super affordable! They come well-packaged and are shipped quickly to your front door! We give this company 10 stars out of 10 stars on our rating scale!

Thank you Michele for sending me the beautiful birdhouse to review for all of our readers. You can follow Birdhouses by Michele on Facebook, Unique Birdhouses on Twitter and you can check out her Etsy Shop called Birdhouses by Michele. We would also like to invite you to check out her wonderful blog called The Birdhouse Builder.

Disclaimer: Shelly Hill has personally reviewed the product listed above. Shelly has not received any monetary compensation for her review. Shelly did receive a free product to try out so she could evaluate and use it for her review. Her thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your opinions may differ. Two Classy Chics is not responsible for delivery of any giveaway items won from this blog. We are not responsible for injury or mis-use of any products won from the Two Classy Chics Blog. Please read our Terms of Service & Disclaimer Policy before entering our giveaways. This giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook or Google+ in any way. Thanks!

Are you looking for an easy & fun craft project to do with the kids? If so, we would like to share with all of you how we took a dime store glass vase and turned it into a pretty vase that you will be proud to put on display in your own home.

This is a great project to do with kids and you only need a few supplies to make one. It is also a great way to repurpose all of that colored tissue paper you have around your house. (we used red, medium pink, light pink and white tissue paper on our vase).

Supplies Needed:

* Clear glass flower vase
* Foam craft brushes
* Glossy Decoupage medium
* Scraps of colored tissue paper
* One vial of clear or colored “fine grade” glitter
* Newspapers and paper towels

Wash and dry your glass vase. Lay newspaper down on your work surface (we recommend a few layers of newspaper). Rip your scraps of colored tissue paper into odd shaped small pieces and set aside.

Take your foam brush and dip it into the Decoupage medium and brush a thin layer of the Decoupage along one side of your glass vase. Randomly place your ripped pieces of tissue paper onto the glass vase to cover up the areas that you brushed with the Decoupage and make sure you overloap your pieces of tissue paper. It is best to work small areas at a time and then repeat this process until your glass vase is completely covered.

Let the vase dry for 8-10 hours (or overnight). The next day you want to brush a thin layer of Decoupage over the top of the tissue paper pieces on the vase. (being careful to make it as smooth as possible). Once you have the vase covered sprinkle small amounts of fine grade glitter on top. Let the vase dry for 24 hours before using it.

Note: You can completely omit the glitter step if desired. We like our things sparkly around here so we added the glitter.

I love my job. We get to support and promote awesome craftsmen and products from right here in the USA. Hardworking people that are living the American dream, just like you and I. I am thrilled to bring you a highly talented leather craftsman that creates his products by hand the old fashioned way bring us beautiful handcrafted American leather goods that you will love to own.

The Leather Belt Shop is a online and offline retailer that has taken his love of leather work and brought it to us. Bill has worked on leather for over 40 years, a trade that he learned from his grandfather. I am excited to feature his work for you on the review and I hope that I can do it justice as I am not familiar too much with leather work other than I know what an awesome leather purse feels like LOL

The belt I received for the review is for my son. It is the Horse & Floral Patterned Leather Belts 1-1/2 Inches Wide and it is awesome. The belt is made of thick leather, handcrafted and hand darkened. The belt comes made with snap closures so you can add your favorite buckle or use the Stainless Steel heavy grade roller buckle that it comes with. I am very impressed! This looks fabulous with his jeans and he really likes it and wears it everyday.

The shop offers several patterns or you can design your own. They can tan it in black or brown or leave it natural, your choice. The size selection is large on the belts too. So that is a big plus. All of Bill’s other work is just as awesome. Besides the belts, he also has buckles, wallets, fingerless gloves, leather clothing and purses. Much of his clothing is geared for motorcycle riders and it is wonderful custom work. And make sure to check out the riders wallets too. Huge selection!

I cannot say enough about The Leather Belt Shops work and attention to detail. I hope that you take a minute to swing by Bill’s site and check it out. The prices are wonderful for a piece of hand tooled leather that you will wear and enjoy for many years to come!

The Giveaway:
We are so excited to offer to one winner the belt of choice in the size of choice!! Here is how to enter!

CONTEST CLOSED

Disclaimer: Please read our Official Rules before entering this giveaway. Chris Carroll has personally reviewed these products. I was provided with a free sample of this product to review. I have not received any Monetary Compensation for this review but did receive free products to use & evaluate for the review. Your thoughts & opinions may differ from me. We must receive all entries by the end date of the contest and the odds of winning are determined by the number of entries received. No purchase necessary to enter. All Content on this site is Copyright of the Two Classy Chics – Shelly Hill and Chris Carroll. All Rights Reserved

I pretty much gave up using paper towels last year. I do keep a roll on hand for draining food and that is pretty much it. But as far as using them on a regular basis, I use kitchen towels almost exclusively. My favorite kind of kitchen towel has been the cotton flour sack towels because they are so sturdy and useful. And today I have some awesome towels to tell you about!

There is an online kitchen towel company called The Towel Place and they sent me some fabulous towels to review for you.

Introducing the UnBleached 100% Cotton Flour Sack Towels. Since they have not been bleached, the natural color and creamy texture of the cotton comes thru in this great towel. Wonderful for those that like natural fabrics and stay away from dyes.

These are lovely pure cotton towels that are great for many different uses besides being a great kitchen dish towel. Flour sack towels work better than cheesecloth for many recipes and now you can use a natural product that is durable and reuseable, over and over! Also many crafters have used flour sack cotton towels for needlework, for printing and many other craft projects for years. These are a beautiful, natural choice that last.

I love using these towels because they do not leave lint on glasses. They wash up beautifully and get softer and softer as they age. They absorb water well and are just the prefect choice in towel. I love that these are unbleached. I can use them while cooking without worrying about what is leaching into my food. These are a must in any kitchen. They will save you a lot of money in unnecessary items like paper towels and cheesecloth. Paper towels are a huge expense and I don’t miss having to lay out $2 a roll any more!

Swing by The Towel place and see all of their other items that they offer. A great site to shop and bookmark for sure!

The Giveaway:
Our Sponsor is going to be giving a lucky winner 6 unbleached flour sack towels! ARV $17.95 Here is how to enter!

CONTEST CLOSED

Giveaway Details: This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or over. You must be a PUBLIC FOLLOWER of the TCC Blog on Google Friend Connect and complete the Mandatory Entry to be eligible. This giveaway will close on January 11th, 2012, at 11:59pm EST Time. Please read our Official Rules Policy before entering.

Please leave a separate comment with email for each entry that you complete. All non-blog followers will have their entries disqualified from the drawing.

Mandatory Entry – Earns 2 Entries You must be a PUBLIC FOLLOWER of the Two Classy Chic’s Blog via Google Friend Connect
Mandatory Entry #2 – Earns 2 Entries Swing by the sponsors site and tell us what other product you would like to have.

Bonus Entries: (complete after fulfilling both Mandatory Entries)
All Entries will be verified!

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Earns 5 Entries: Add the Two Classy Chics to your Google + circle
Earns 5 Entries: Subscribe to the TCC blog via email & verify (top right corner).
Earns 5 Entries: Place the TCC Button on your blog. (leave link)
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Earns 1 Entry per giveaway: Enter 1 or all of our current giveaways here on Two Classy Chics. If you enter 3, you earn 3 more entries, etc. Let us know which giveaways you entered.
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Copy & Paste Tweet:

#Win a 6pk of Awesome Unbleached Cotton Kitchen Towels on @TwoClassyChics http://bit.ly/vb7f5c Ends 01/11 #giveaways

Disclaimer: Please read our Official Rules before entering this giveaway. Chris Carroll has personally reviewed these products. I was provided with a free sample of this product to review. I have not received any Monetary Compensation for this review but did receive free products to use & evaluate for the review. Your thoughts & opinions may differ from me. We must receive all entries by the end date of the contest and the odds of winning are determined by the number of entries received. No purchase necessary to enter. All Content on this site is Copyright of the Two Classy Chics – Shelly Hill and Chris Carroll. All Rights Reserved