Beautiful Trees

Beautiful themed trees keep popping up all around the store!  These trees LOOK like they arrived at  the store ready to put up but they didn't!  Every year they are exquisitely put together by 2 of our talented Beverly's Santa Maria employees!  We asked Linda and Bev how it is that they do what they do with the Christmas trees.  If you happen to want a lighted tree...lights are the very first thing to go on the tree.  With a group of ornaments in mind, Linda says she chooses a fabric or ribbon that coordinates with them.  Once the tree is properly draped with the ribbon or fabric Linda and Bev start placing the ornaments.  The real trick is that they do NOT settle!  It is not beneath them to place and then change the location of any of the ornaments.  The result:  GORGEOUS TREES that turn Beverly's Santa Maria into a breath-taking Winter Wonderland!  AND....our wonderful customers are ENCOURAGED to purchase the ornaments right off the tree, if they choose! 

Linda and Bev pose (reluctantly) by one of their beautiful creations.

 

Bev and Linda use a variety of decorations to adorn the trees, including home décor items!

  
The cowboy tree:  ornaments, home décor and fabric!  Beautiful!

So, there is a sampling of our pretty trees! Surely, there will be more trees in coming weeks so make sure to stop in to check them out!  We’re proud of our trees because well, they’re awesome and they make our store super festive!  We are also grateful for our crafty and talented (and modest) employees:  Bev and Linda!

Now Go…Be Crafty!

A Ghostly Post-ly

We made one of these cheesecloth ghosts awhile back and garsh dang it!  It got smooshed!  OMG!  How are our awesome customers going to know how make their own ghost if they can't see one already made!? So, we had to make another one!  We just had to!  That was the only solution BUT this time we took pictures and posted the how-to here!  Hope you like our Ghostly Post-ly!

Cheesecloth Ghost

All of the items you will need to create your ghost can be found on the end cap between aisles 25 and 26 at your Santa Maria Beverly's.   

 We used wire to create "arms" but midway through the project decided that chop sticks worked better for us.  Really you can use anything.  All you're really trying to do is provide a shape to drape the cheesecloth over.

We used the entire bottle of Stiffy (the fabric stiffener).  The instructions on the bottle say to dilute but DON'T!  Diluting will cause your ghost to be a less sturdy.  We used a plastic bag, placed the opened cheesecloth inside and poured the Stiffy into the bag with the cheesecloth.  (If you choose, you could just as easily place everything in a bowl.)  When doing this part use your fingers to knead the plastic to saturate the cheesecloth with Stiffy.   

Once the Cheesecloth is completely saturated with Stiffy, you simply drape in over the ghost shape that you made.  If you want to you can cut the cheesecloth into sections and drape one at a time.  We used one long cheesecloth and continued to drape it until it was the shape we wanted.  Once we completed the draping we let our ghost sit for 24 hours.

 You can cut out circles out of black cardstock (like we did), you can sew on a face or use sticky eyes (which we also happen to have in our store). 

So, here's our little ghost, ready to be placed on display on his little end cap between aisles 25 and 26!  Thank you for checking out our cheesecloth ghost project! 

Now go!  Be Crafty!

Our First Post Ever: An itsy bitsy Spider

Welcome to the Beverly's Santa Maria Blog!  We hope that you will come to visit us when you're in need of some crafty time.  We plan on inspiring you with the crafts and project ideas that we post.  Really though we're just trying to return the favor as our customers are always inspiring us with new ideas and unlimited talent!

No matter how crafty you are, we've all had that moment when we see a cool new product or a fun looking older product and think, "That's cool but what do you do with it?"  Sometimes we need a little help and THAT is where we come in!  So, with this very first ever post we will begin with products that have been around for a while: a pumpkin, craft sticks, acrylic paint, black paper and some silk pins. All of those things have been around for a bit but put them all together and they create a cute little spider that is sure to make you smile. We hope you like the project!

We painted a little pumpkin black, let it dry and then painted lopsided eyes with a stencil sponge.

 We took 8 craft sticks and broke them (not quite in half) and then painted them black, too!

We used little strips of black paper to attach the 2 broken pieces back together but with space between them.  Now, the "legs" have a little flexibility.  We made 8 slits around the pumpkin spider's body and inserted a painted craft stick into each slit.  We also used silk pins to secure pupils made out of black paper.

The slits that we made for the legs caused some of the paint to peel and scratch off so once all of the legs were in place we touched up the pumpkin with some black paint.   

 The finished product:  A cute itsy bitsy spider!  We decided that he would make an adorable centerpiece at a Halloween party or as a welcoming little friend for trick-or-treaters!

Thanks for visiting us and checking out our first ever blog post! See you soon...now go! Be Crafty!