Image Map

Candy Cane Wreath

Hi! Happy December! If you read my last post about our Elf on the Shelf experience, I have to say it is going a little better, we have put "Simon" out everyday and Carter laughs when he sees him, but still is like, yea I don't want him around. LOL. But, not only did Carter rain on my Elf on the Shelf dreams parade, he isn't really liking the Christmas music I've been playing.  Seriously kid? And I was giving my husband about getting into the spirit this year, and here Carter turns out to be the Scrooge. LOL! No, he's not that bad, I guess he just doesn't want to waste his time listening to Jingle Bell Rock, when he needs to listen to Prince's Purple Rain for the 150th time (for real lol). He is so funny, I never would have thought having a kid would be so entertaining. ;) 
So I digress, I wasn't really planning on making a Christmas wreath this year, but I had a wreath form already. And I found this bright and blingy red ribbon that inspired me.  It didn't require gluing, so that always cuts down on burns time.  Here's what I did...

For this I needed:
A wreath form wrapped in white fabric
red ribbon
stems and picks in various shapes from Hobby Lobby
straight pins 
I started this wreath out with THIS one I made last summer.  The fabric was pinned on so I just took it off and it left me with a white base.  
 I pinned the beginning of the ribbon to the back of the wreath then wrapped it tightly around,  then just pinned it in place. 

Next I stuck the stems and picks under the ribbon, which was tight so I didn't need any glue or pins for this, they just stayed in place. 

Once I got my sticks how I liked, I used another red ribbon (this time mesh, I got it for $1 at Dollar General) and tied it into a bow. Then pinned it onto the wreath.   I kind of just tucked and pinned until it looked good. 

That's it! 

I LOVE it! And since it's pinned I can just take the embellishments off and reuse the white base after Christmas.

So, I think that is all for my DIY Christmas decorating, now onto presents! :) 
Thanks for checking it out, have a great week!


Pin It!

Chalkboard Christmas Countdown


Hello there! I am really glad we had a week after Thanksgiving before the first of December, anything to stretch the Christmas season a little further.  Every year I want to make an advent calendar, I think they are so cute and there are so many creative ways to make them.  But, since I'm trying not to do too much this year, I made this simple chalkboard Christmas Countdown!  I just LOVE chalk art, I had so much fun this summer with Carter's sidewalk chalk, more fun that him probably. :)  
I have been wanting to make a chalkboard for our house for a while, and then I thought that making a chalkboard countdown would be easy and cheap, which it was because I had all the supplies on hand. Oh yea! 

I used, a frame, chalkboard paint, and a white paint pen.
I painted the glass of the frame with the chalk paint, doodled the "Days until Christmas" onto it and that was it! 
First I wrote the letters on a piece of paper just to practice and see how I wanted them to look.  Then used a pencil to lightly draw them on the chalkboard for a guide.  I like making letters like this because you don't have to be that precise. 
I love how it turned out!
So we also started Elf on the Shelf this week, I have been dreaming of the day we could do it, since Carter was still a little to young to get it last year.  I had envisioned all the silly little set ups to do and Carter cracking up at the little Elf.  I hyped it up to Carter, saying Santa has a special book for him, etc.  I was so excited I just knew he would love it!
Well... as I was half was through the book, Carter looks concerned and shuts the book, saying I don't like this book and shaking his head.  
I'm like, why he's Santa's helper? 
Then his lip curls up and he starts to cry, saying I don't want him here! 
Jamie and I started laughing just because I had built it up so much, and Carter was the exact opposite of excited about it. Poor guy.
 My Elf on the Shelf dreams were crushed! LOL 
I guess the thought of a tiny Elf creeping in your house is a little scary, for Carter at least, I'm pretty sure he's the only kid in America that doesn't like it!  What I really think is that he just didn't want the Elf to tell Santa on him. Which makes it even more funny.
I just knew it would be a great bribing tool fun thing to do until Christmas! he he :)


Photobucket
Pin It!

Favorite Christmas Projects

Hi! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I did, and now I am so glad the Christmas season is here! This year will be so much fun with Carter since he really knows about Santa and can really get into the excitement too.  It will be so fun to see his face light up on Christmas morning!  I am trying not to go overboard and stress about having the cutest Christmas decorations or crafts or gift wrap or neighbors gift.  I feel like last year I let all of that take priority over the real reason for the season.  It can get to be too much and then it's over without even enjoying the moment.  So this year I am determined to step back and not care so much about the material things.  Carter is only this age once and I want to make it as special as I can for him and our little family!  
But... Since I did go a little overboard last year, here are my favorite projects... :) 










These are all really easy and fun to do! Just don't get caught up in trying to do too much unimportant stuff this year, like I did last year!  I hope you all enjoy the little moments this Holiday Season! 


Photobucket
Pin It!

No Sew {Turkey Flag}

Hello! Can you believe it is already November?? And a week into it at that.  I cannot, this year has flown by, but I am really excited about the holidays coming up!  I'm ready to put my Christmas decorations up, but I don't think my husband would be up for that yet, so I'll try to wait just a couple more weeks. :) 
So onto my latest project!  I may have turned my love of making wreaths into something else... garden flags! lol Yes, this is another post about a garden flag, I'm sorry, I know its really redundant, but this one is so cute I just had to share! :) My mom wanted me to make her a Fall one like the one I did here, but I had something else in mind.  Since she is hosting Thanksgiving for our family this year I thought a turkey would be super cute! 
These flags are SO SO easy to make I'm telling you!  I know I say that about everything I make, but seriously this is simple as it gets.  And for this one I used up the rest of the scraps I had from my from my Fall tree one.  I love using up scraps! I had the burlap, so all I needed was a piece of felt for the body, that was .25 cents! 

For this one I cut a piece of burlap about 12 inches wide, then cut 7 pieces of fabric for the feathers.  I cut one piece then used it as a template for the other 6 pieces.  
After that, I cut a body shape out of felt.  I didn't sew a single thing on this.  I used fabric glue for everything, making it even easier!! I put glue along the edges on the back side to keep it from fraying and used a paint brush to paint on the glue to the fabric pieces.  
Finally, I added little eyes, beak, and legs out of fabric too.  I love how he looks googly eyed, my husband said he looked like a South Park character, lol.  I think he is super cute!! :) He kind of reminds me of a Shawn the Sheep character, have you seen that? If you have kids you should watch it on Netfilx, it's claymation and it cracks me up! 


Just to let you know how strong the glue is, the first garden flag I made held up really well, in rain and everything.   The possibilities are endless for garden flags, especially if you have fabric scraps to use up!  I'd love to know if you try to make one.
Like I said before I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving, but I am so excited for all the festivities. Gobble Gobble, I hope you are having a great start to the Holiday season!  

Craftomanic ~  The DIY Showoff ~  Under the Table Dreaming ~ Today's Creative Blog ~  Tip Junkie ~  Blue Cricket Designs ~  Organize Your Stuff Now ~  Shabby Creek Cottage ~  The Crafty Blog Stalker ~  See Vanessa Craft  ~ Southern Lovely ~ Grits and Giggles ~ Thrifty Decor Chick ~ It's Overflowing ~ Creatively Living ~ 52 Mantles ~ 30 Handmade Days ~ The CSI Project ~ The DIY Dreamer

Pin It!

Painted Silhouette ~ and a product road test

A few weeks ago Linda, from Craftaholics Anonymous, put out a request on Facebook for "Craft Product Road Testers".   The request was something like "do you like free craft products, crafting, or showing off crafts?", so yea... that basically sums me up... so I immediately applied!  :) I didn't think I would ever get chosen, but I actually did! Yay!
I was super excited because the product for review was decoupage, besides hot glue, it is one of my most used mediums in my crafting projects.  She sent us 4 bottles of the medium, 2 matte and 2 gloss, we picked either gloss or the matte for our project.  I picked matte, so I needed to do 2 projects using the 2 different matte bottles then review the differences/similarities.   Did you get all that?? lol You can read all about it on Linda's site here.  The brands are kept a secret until after everyone submits their reviews.  

So onto what I did! I am in the process of re-doing my living room wall, I wanted to incorporate more family photos than what I had, and that means our dogs too, of course. :) I have had an idea of doing a dog silhouette for a long time, but haven't really gotten around to it, but since I needed 2 projects and I have 2 dogs I thought Yes! This is a perfect time to get it done.

So, another suggestion Linda had for this test was to use things already in your craft stash, which I loved, because I need any excuse to use up all the stuff I have in my craft closet.  The only thing I did buy for this were the 2 small canvases, which I actually just now thought that I could have used cardboard and then I wouldn't have had to buy anything. Oh well, maybe you can do that if you try this project out! :)   
So onto the supplies:
Large canvas
2 small canvas' (or cardboard) 
book pages
decoupage
paint 
paint brush

 I didn't take step by step pictures because this was VERY very easy to do. And it didn't even require a cutting machine,  Score! 
First, I cut 1 inch strips of book pages. And used the decoupage medium to glue them randomly onto the small canvas.  I used one bottle of the medium on one small canvas and the other bottle on the other small canvas.

Next, I took a picture of my dog's profile and printed them out on regular copy paper and cut them out around the head.  I decoupaged these over the book pages. 
  
Once it was dry, I just went over the printed picture with acrylic paint.  

Then I glued the finished canvases to a larger canvas so that they would be more like one piece of art.  I added stripes to the larger canvas to match this one I already have in our living room as well.
And... done! So easy! 

I didn't really go into this thinking I would paint the silhouettes, I was just going to leave the photo as is, but in black and white, I thought it would look old and newspapery, but it really just looked weird, ha.  So,  as I was painting the sides of the small canvases with a blue to add some color, thinking that would make it look less weird. I thought, Hello! Just paint over the pictures! That made a huge difference, and I loved how it turned out.   I was so stoked because I didn't have to use any kind of a stencil or cut out, that would have added another step in the process and the less steps the better, am I right?

Although it's kind of funny because the dog on the right's head is actually about 4 times smaller than our other dog. But if I would have done the proportion right, his silhouette would be like the size of quarter. No really, he's that small. LOL

So onto my thoughts on the craft mediums, the 2 matte bottles I selected were labeled with a red top and an orange top.  I used the orange bottle first... this is our dog Weezy he's lazy and scared of his shadow, but we love him.

And I used the red bottle on the second... This is Marty, he has pencils for legs and only wants you for your warm lap to sit on, but we love him too ;)

Overall each of these were pretty similar.  They both had a good matte finish, but side by side I thought the red bottle had a slightly more matte look, not much but in comparing the two it was.  
The major thing that I did notice is that I only used 1/4 of the orange bottle and ended up using half of the bottle of the red bottle.  It seemed when I was using the orange bottle I didn't have to keep dipping my paintbrush back in the decoupage like I did the red bottle.   That's kind of a big difference, so if I had to choose one or the other I would choose the orange, just for the fact it would last longer.  
This was so fun getting to compare 2 different mediums and seeing the differences/similarities.  Thank you so much, Linda, for letting me road test these products out! 

If you have any questions about this project just let me know! 

Linking up here...
Craftomanic ~  The DIY Showoff ~  Under the Table Dreaming ~ Today's Creative Blog ~  Tip Junkie ~  Blue Cricket Designs ~  Organize Your Stuff Now ~  Shabby Creek Cottage ~  The Crafty Blog Stalker ~  See Vanessa Craft  ~ Southern Lovely ~ Grits and Giggles ~ Thrifty Decor Chick ~ It's Overflowing ~ Creatively Living ~ 52 Mantles ~ 30 Handmade Days ~ The CSI Project ~ The DIY Dreamer
Pin It!

Halloween Garden Flag

I shared this Halloween Flag over at Delightfully Noted last week, I thought I would share it here too in case you missed it, my posts have been pretty light this month! I guess I have been busy! I did take the time to make this flag, which was really no time at all! See...

I just love the way a little garden flag can add a some personality to the front of your house.  This one didn't take long to make, with just a few simple steps.

First, I cut a piece of material 12" by 21"

Then I sewed around the edge of the fabric and frayed them out. 

Once I had the fabric done, I cut out a candy corn shape from felt.  I lined up the felt and kind of just sketched a shape with a sharpie then cut it out.  
After I had the shape cut out and lined up the way I wanted, I used fabric glue to glue the pieces together. Fabric glue holds up so well, I would have never thought, but once it dries, its going to be there a while! 

Then I cut three pieces of felt about 3" long, and glued the top and bottom to the back side of the fabric, in order to insert the flag rod through.

Finally, I used the fabric glue again, to attach the candy corn to the fabric, then hung it up! That's it! So simple, and there are so many variations you could to too, I thought a ghost or an owl would be cute, maybe a witches hat.  Not only is this easy, but it's really inexpensive as well.  Sometimes the flags you buy at the store can be pricey, but this is cheap and one of a kind! :) 

I love the gray chevron against the bright orange and yellow.  I think a giant candy corn says "Hey, this house is ready for Halloween!" :) I've had this hanging for a couple weeks, and even though it's fabric and felt, it is holding up nicely in the weather! 

I think Garden Flags are my new "thing" lol, so you know I'll be making a Thanksgiving and Christmas one! :)

There's still time for a few more Halloween Crafts, check out Delightfully Noted's Wicked Craft Week for some easy and cute ones! 
Thanks for stopping by! 

Linking up to these parties...


Pin It!

Wicked Craft Week {Delightfully Noted}

Hi friends! Today I am sharing a fun Halloween craft at one of my favorite blogs Delightfully Noted.  She is hosting a week long Wicked Craft Week with some super talented people, I was so excited that I was asked to even be in the same line up as these ladies! So far there have been some amazingly cute and simple Halloween craft ideas, go here to check them all out, you wont be disappointed!! :) 


Photobucket
Pin It!

fabric scrap {garden flag}

Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely Fall weather we are having, I know I am! Now that the season is changing, I needed to change my little flag in our front flower bed.  I had one all summer I bought at a local nursery that was bright and said "cool off" which was perfect for our blazing summer. I have had this thought about making my own flag for a while. I thought about getting some outdoor fabric to make one, but didn't want to spend the money on MORE fabric.  So I decided just to make it out of burlap and some use up fabric scraps I had on hand! And I LOVE how it turned out! 

 I used the flag I had for the summer as a template to cut the size of burlap, then folded down about 2 inches at the top and glued it to make a pocket for the rod of the flag holder to go through.  
I saw this pillow a long time ago and it came to mind when I was thinking of what to do.  I knew I had a bunch of fabric scraps I could stand to get rid of, so after rummaging around in my fabric tub, I was so happy to have found some Fall colors I could use as leaves!  
After I cut leaf shapes and a trunk, I used fabric glue to glue them onto the burlap in a tree shape.  I wasn't sure if that would work very well, but I was too lazy to sew all the way around all of those leaves. ;) Luckily it worked just fine! 
Although, I did sew about 1/4 of an inch around the edge and frayed it out.  (Do this before you glue the top down.) This is not a weather proof flag, obviously, so I have taken it in a couple times in case it rained.  I don't know how well the glue would hold up in the rain.  But we have had the most beautiful weather lately so it has gotten to stay the night outside a lot. ;)
This was SO easy!! It didn't take long at all, usually I work on a project off an on for a few days, but this one was easy enough that I just did it all at once.  I love it! I love the colors especially against our green shrubs.  And my basil too, that thing is taking off like crazy lately. yum.
Projects that use what you already have on hand are the best! I have so much left over stuff piled up in my craft closet, it is nice to get rid of some of that in such a pretty way! :)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Pin It!

scrapbook paper fall wreath

Since Fall is basically here, although it's still in the hundreds this past week here in Oklahoma, I knew it was time to get busy on a Fall wreath.  :)

If you have followed this blog a little while then you know my favorite things to make are wreaths.  I hadn't had a cute one on my door for a while.  The last one I made was my OKC Thunder wreath.   They lost that night I put it up. whaa. My husband said I jinxed them, lol.  So I thought, well I'll just take it down. But they ended up losing every game after that. double whaa.
 Since then my door has been totally bare, which gives me major anxiety, I must have cute door decor! ;) 
Anyway, I'm totally loving how this one turned out! I didn't want to spend very much money on it, so I thought what can I do for $5?  I got a wreath form for 2 something because I had a 40% off coupon from HL, it was originally $3.99.  Then I was feeding my addiction, ahem, I mean browsing the scrapbook paper aisle and came across this burnt orange chevron and thought, YES! I can use this, the same way as I did the book page wreath. 
Then I found a really cute piece of paper that coordinated with the chevron.  It had Fall words written all over it, I had to get it.  
After I cut feather shapes out of the paper, I glued them half way around.
I used the paper to make flowers by twisting it into a flower shape. I used a blue piece I already had, and burlap the same way.  Then I added a button for an extra texture.
 Once I got the paper and flowers glued on I thought it needed something else, a little bunting always makes everything better! I printed "FALL" onto an actual book page, and glued it to burlap.  I painted the branches of the wreath a blue before adding the bunting. 
So, I spent $2 something on the wreath, another $1.50 for the paper, and I had the paint and burlap, so that is definitely under my $5 budget!!! I was really excited about it. :)

I love how the colors complement each other, and I liked adding the not so typical Fall color as well.
There are endless styles and colors of scrapbook paper, so the possibilities of this kind of wreath are infinite. Plus it doesn't break the bank!

Thanks for checking it out! :)


Pin It!

Pallet Sign - laundry edition

Using repurposed wooden pallets has been very popular over the last year or so.  I for one love how they look and how you can make so many different things with them.  I've been wanting to make a sign out of pallets for so long and I finally got around to doing it.  I needed something to go above our shelves in our laundry room so I came up with this.

This was so super easy, the hardest part was prying the boards off the actual pallet, that took a little time and muscle.  The first one came off pretty easy, so I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, but the rest took so much prying and pulling and hammering!  I totally broke a sweat, but once I got them off it was smooth sailing after that! :)

All I did was paint the boards white, then painted laundry onto it with a blue acrylic paint.  Total cost for this sign was under $2 because I had the white paint and the boards were from my husbands work! Score!! All I had to buy was the blue paint.

Jamie screwed in two boards on the back to hold them all together and then two smaller ones on the top to hang it by.

That's it! I love the way it looks in our laundry room, I'm almost finished getting everything just how I want it in there.  These things take time! And money, which is why I love projects like this, cheap and easy! :)

Have you done anything with wood pallets? 

Photobucket
Check out more projects at these linky parties...
Pin It!

fall fashion inspirations

Fall, my most favorite time of year.  I've said it and I'll say it again every year. :)

But this fall is really special for me because I turn 30! Gasp! Dun, dun, dun... 
Yes I will be leaving my twenties behind next month, and to celebrate, my mom, sister, and I will be going to NYC!!! Their birthday's are two weeks from mine, so it is a celebration for all of us!  I am beyond stoked for this!! None of us have ever been, so I have been googling like crazy to see the best places to eat and go.   And of course I couldn't forget about looking cute! So, I thought I would share some outfits I have found that say Fall is here! Ok, it's not here just yet, but I can't help obsessing over boots, scarves, and sweaters!!


I love this distressed denim jacket, and the color of that bag!

I found a coral blazer at the Goodwill, and my mother in law is taking it in for me as we speak.  I love this color! And I love how the scarf takes it into Fall. 


Mint and Leapord... totally chic, and totally comfy.

I actually found a plaid shirt like this at the thrift store the other day, as we were looking around they announced it was half price day. Yea the line immediately got reaallly long, so I put it back, no sale is worth a hour line at the thrift store, not even for a cheapskate like me! lol

I'm definitely on the hunt for a denim jacket. And maybe a Michael Kors bag. But that doesn't really fit into my thrift store budget, so I'll just dream ;)



These are my Fall inspirations and I am totally convinced that I can find these things on a budget! 
I am so excited to go on a trip with my mom and sister! 
If any of you have been to NY or live there, I would love to know some tips or suggestions! Since we pretty much know nothing :)

I also want to say HI to all my new followers! I am so happy to have you here!! 

Photobucket
Pin It!

strawberry bread {neighbor gift}

I recently shared this recipe on my friend Barbara's blog Chase the Star.  I thought I would share it here in cased you missed it! 
 I live next door to the cutest elderly couple, we are fairly close, we pick up each others mail when we're out of town, she always yells hello in the sweetest southern voice when we see each other outside.  During one of our recent hello's she told me that her husband had become ill and was going to have to undergo some treatments.  I was sad to hear this and began to think of something I could do to brighten their day. I remembered when I had my little boy, I loved it when people brought us food, it took a load off just having something already there to munch on.  So I figured I could make them my favorite strawberry bread.  


This bread is very moist, and sweet, but not too sweet. And best of all it is super easy to make! 
Strawberry Bread 
2 cups of strawberries, sliced
3 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of cinnamon 
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 1/4 cups of vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 eggs

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and butter 2 loaf pans.
Sprinkle sliced strawberries with a little sugar and set aside.  Mix all dry ingredients together in large bowl.  In a separate bowl combine vegetable oil, vanilla, eggs, and strawberries.  Add strawberry mixture to dry ingredients.  Stir until combined.  Add mixture to two buttered loaf pans, bake for 40-45 minutes.
The butter from the loaf pans makes the outside kind of chewy, while the inside is super soft and sweet.  SO good, especially while it's still warm!  My whole house smelled like strawberries.  It was hard for me not to eat a whole loaf, luckily this recipe makes 2 loaves. ;) 

I also wanted to add a little more fun to plain wax paper to jazz it up a bit.  After doing crafts with my little boy of ironing crayons between wax paper, I realized that I could just iron anything between two pieces of wax paper to create a fun design! Confetti always makes me smile, so I thought it would do the same for my friends next door. 

1. First I punched holes into paper scraps I had in different colors to make confetti *tissue paper would work great too.
2. Sprinkle confetti onto one piece of wax paper  *be careful not to bust out a laugh or breath too hard through your nose during this part.. just trust me ;)
3. Lay second piece of wax paper on top of the confetti.
4. Iron two pieces together, using a very low setting
That't it!  The pieces stick together and the design shows through.  There are so many variations you could do with this as well, holiday colors, or different shapes even. 

Once I had the loaf wrapped I tied it with a colorful string, and since my neighbors are going through a rough time I added a bible verse to give them some encouragement as a tag.  
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 
Philippians 4:6-7
Another idea would be to add a recipe to the tag, or any kind of note to make it more personalized.  I printed mine off of Word, but even a hand written note would be cute.
I was so happy when my neighbor gave me a big hug when I gave it too her, I am lucky to have such great neighbors and loved giving them something special to brighten their day!


Im linking up to these parties...


Pin It!