{Featured Guest} Apple Loves Orange and a GIVEAWAY!!!

I am so happy to introduce  our next SJ Homemade Christmas guest, April from Apple Loves Oranges has this amazingly cute blog with great tutorials and fantastic pictures. She is a doll--check her out.

Now say it with me, "Hello, April"...good you got it!

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Howdy y'all! No...I don't really talk like that, but I do live in Texas, so I thought it might be fun! My name is April, but feel free to call me Apple. I am super excited to be guest posting here at Spunky Junky. Today I'm going to share with you the ornaments I'm making this year. This is something that you can totally put your own spin on based on what "junk" you have around the house. It was important to me not to have to go out and purchase anything to make these. My inspiration for these came when I decided that my boring, t-shirt material covered dress form (I used to sell vintage clothes on Etsy) needed a make over. I came across a pack of vintage sheet music in the closet and thought it would make for a much more interesting dress form. Here's what you need to gather up - card board or poster board (a cereal box would be great) - torn up paper (sheet music, book pages, scrapbook paper) - Mod Podge (or thinned out glue) - paint - embellishments (lace, ribbon, buttons, etc) First you need to find an image to use as your template.  Mine is a dress form, but the sky is the limit here folks.

I found this one here!  This is the BEST place to find just about any image (especially vintage)!

I used the copy function on my printer to shrink the image to the size I wanted, then I cut it out (minus the stand) and traced it onto the cardboard.

Cut your shapes out and use the Mod Podge to attach the strips of paper to the cardboard.  Make sure you get the whole surface covered.  It's ok if you go over the edges, you can trim the excess when it dries.

Now it's time to add some color.  I mixed some acrylic paint with a little bit of water to make a color wash, because I didn't want to cover up the music notes.  If you're using colorful scrapbook paper, you can skip this step (obviously!).  Punch holes in the top to add ribbon/string to hang from your tree.

Now grab your "junk" and get decorating.  I used craft glue to attach lace, string, buttons and little birds and heart punches.  This is another area where you have free reign.  Be creative!!  

Hang your pretties on your tree and marvel at your craftiness!  Give some as gifts and amaze your friends and family!  You could even tie these onto the fronts of your packages to dress them up!  

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Isn't April amazing?!

Not only has she graced us with her amazing (and thrifty ideas) but she is also going to be giving away two custom flower flowers to TWO Spunky Junky readers...Wow, that was a lot of "to's" in one sentence!

Soooo, here is how you can win some of April's amazing goods:

*Become of follow of the  Apple Loves Orange Blog (1 entry)

*Check out April's etsy shop and tell me what you love most

(1 entry)

*Become a fan of Spunky Junky facebook page (1 entry)

*Become a follower of the Spunky Junky blog (1 entry)

Annnnd, if you purchase any products from April's shop THIS WEEK you will receive FREEEEE shipping.

(for free shipping write "SPUNKY" in the message to the seller).