A couple quick things…

Here are a few small projects I’ve done over the past week or so…. the first is the hanging on the right. I covered a board with some cute fabric. I hot glued painted mini-clothespins to it for a little board to hold the recipe of the day, my favorite photos, a quote or two, or whatever I feel like looking at! The second was a little something for my sis. I painted a wooden cutting board with chalkboard paint and added a ribbon for hanging. A perfect chalkboard for the kitchen!

I know these are simple little projects but that is what my life is currently full of – lots of small projects!

Baby Projects

Incubating this baby has taken up a lot of my energy these past few months! Sorry for so few posts. I have actually been working on some little projects that I will share shortly. I’m handmaking quite a few Christmas gifts so I wont’ be able to share those until after Christmas.

You can check out some of my hubby’s honey-do’s here though! I’ve kept him busy getting our house baby girl ready! Oh, and we came up with a baby name… you can see our name announcement here.

It’s A Girl! Another Baby Shower!

I helped host another girly baby shower on Sunday… it was so much fun and sooooo girly! Our friend is expecting her fourth baby – but it’s a girl! After 3 boys, she definitely deserved a shower to get some PINK! 

I made the banner to hang on the table featuring Baby Girl’s name.

The diaper cake featured a sassy tutu, hot pink tulle, and matching ribbon. If anyone is interested in a tutorial, let me know! I might post one in the future.

The whole spread! The table had green & pink tulle along with pink beads and jewels to add sparkle.

I designed cupcake toppers that matched the invites. I currently don’t have a cupcake tower though I’m coveting this one. I stacked two cake plates to display the cupcakes.

One final picture! I loved the color combination and how everything matched perfectly – even the punch!

Burlap Monogram

I’m working on cozying up my kitchen and making a few little changes – including this chalkboard!

I had two of these apple wood things hanging in my kitchen… they’ve been there since we moved in (6+ years!)

I painted the plaque because the pattern does show through the burlap. I did use my Cricut to cut out the j on freezer paper. I put it on the cutting mat, shiny side up and then used the flip image feature to flip the j.

You don’t need a Cricut for this project! You can print out your pattern on your printer and then trace it onto the freezer paper and cut out using an X-Acto knife. I’ve done this before an it’s quite simple. It’s also great because you have access to a lot more fonts just with Word. 

I ironed the freezer paper, shiny side down to the burlap. Be sure to empty the water reservoir. Then I just painted the stencil.

Peel off the freezer paper once the paint dries.

I stretched the burlap over my plaque attempting to center the design and then stapled it in place. I had to add a wall hanger to the back since it had previously hung horizontally.

I have another similar project but on a larger scale that I am going to attempt! So stay tuned!

Find another freezer paper stencil project here.

Short & Sweet: Ribbon storage

My sweet husband helped me make ribbon spools last week. I’m so excited to have a somewhat organized system for my ribbon.

We just cut the 2x4 into squares and drilled holes for the dowels. Cut the dowels and used wood glue to secure. So easy!

The jar on the end is for storing all the ribbon scraps.

25 Cent Frame Makeover

Remember this picture frame? I bought it for a quarter at a garage sale and figured it would make a great chalkboard for my kitchen.

I finally finished the project and now have a magnetic chalkboard for my kitchen.

My sweet hubby cut a piece of sheet metal for me to prime and paint with chalkboard paint. Now we have a great spot for writing sweet nothings… or grocery lists.

Vacation=Craft Mojo!

I am so excited to say I’m back into a crafting/decorating mood! Apparently, our little getaway was just what Martha Stewart ordered. Since returning home, I’ve been working on several projects trying to get our house in order and ready for Baby #2.

Here’s a quick project I did yesterday afternoon… I’ve been in dire need of a few magazine holders for my craft room but hadn’t found any I loved. While cleaning out my dad’s office, I threw these in the thrift store pile before rethinking the possibilities…

Ugly, unattractive yet functional.

I just glued some scrapbook paper to the front and trimmed it out with ribbon to beautify them a bit.

A perfect spot for my scrapbooking magazines and felt!

I’ll hopefully get some of my other projects completed and will be sharing those in the upcoming week!

Packing up and heading out…

…for  a little R&R this week! Dusty and I are heading to St. Louis for a mini-getaway. Thanks to our wonderful parents who are keeping Cayson! I know we will miss him like crazy but we’re looking forward to some sleep-in time, shopping and baseball!

Back to School Craft: Backpack Tags

I’ve been making these for Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephew and one for my son. They’re fairly simple to make – especially if you have a Cricut! My friend, Cindi, showed me how to make these – she is a brilliant crafter!

I cut out 2- 3” circles using this Gina K paper – be sure to set your Cricut on multi-cut. It’s a heavier cardstock and put together is like chipboard. If you have a deep-cut blade, you can just cut out one circle from chipboard.

Cut out 3” circles in coordinating paper. Use a glue stick to glue the layers together – 2 of the heavy cardstock and then a pretty scrapbook paper on each side of the circle. I set my layers under a heavy jar until the glue is dry.

Punch a hole in your tag.  I used my Crop-A-Dile.

Put a light coat of Mod Podge on each side. Finish by gluing the initial on the front.

Add a binder ring or clip of some kind. I finished off my tags with some ribbon to girl-ify the girlie ones.

Here’s the one I made for my son. He’s obsessed for baseball thus a baseball tag.

Friday Favorite: BabyLegs!

Can you tell I have babies on the brain? I’m just eaten up with girlie baby things at the moment. I used Baby Legs with my son but he was a spring baby and by the time winter hit, his legs were quite chubby. I’m excited that my winter baby will hopefully get a lot of use out of these darling things. I’ve already bought her a couple pairs!

For those of you unfamiliar with BabyLegs, they are leg warmers for babies. They can be worn with just a onesie – makes diaper changes a breeze or they can be worn underneath pajamas or clothing for extra warmth. They also protect knees when crawling. Oh, yeah, they are super adorable too!

You can find them many places – Target, boutiques, eBay, etc. I’ve even seen tutorials on making your own using women’s fashion socks.

Christmas, Anyone?

I picked up a few more Christmas items the other week when a local boutique's Christmas in July sale went to 75% off! My son had been eyeing this firetruck music box. It plays music and the ladder moves up and down and Santa’s head turns. Super cute since hubby is a firefighter. It was regularly forty bucks and I got it for $10. The ornaments were a little over a dollar with the discount. Fun stuff I can’t wait to use!

Pink, Pink, Pink!

We found out last week that we are expecting a sweet little girl! I’ve been scoping out adorable little girl things and put a little list on my personal blog if you are interested. Here’s a peek at what I have listed….

We put on a HUGE garage sale last weekend. It was a lot of work – I’m telling you. I wish I would have taken a before picture of all our stuff and an after. We were cleaned out! I made enough money to finish paying for our upcoming vacation and get a deep-cut Cricut blade for cutting chipboard!

Oh, and I did walk away with a nice new (to me) bed for our bedroom! I got a steal on it and can’t wait for the hubby to assemble it so I can take pictures. We’ve been looking for a headboard for…. oh…. 6 years!

Friday Favorite: Smitty Baby

I haven’t done a Friday Favorite for a very long time and thought I’d post a baby related one since babies are on my mind!

One of our previous neighbors just opened the neatest baby store online called Smitty Baby. It has to.die.for contemporary and creative baby & children items. I am so in love with this site!

Definitely check out some of their fabulous items, like this book.  This one piece

These adorable blocks

Oh, yeah, they have the cutest little boy who does the majority of the modeling. Isn’t he precious?

Be sure to watch the video on the homepage. It is crazy! How do people do that?

Darling Chairs

When my sister and I went garage saling a few weekends ago, she ran across these to die for chairs! They are child sized and oh, so cute! She got the pair for $25! Later when telling a friend about them, she told me they were asking $25 each when she was at the garage sale. My sister is a photographer and plans on using them for some uber cute childrens photo shoots.

She also picked up that little rug for a mere $2. Perfect condition. The colors don't show up well in this iPhone pic, but it has rich browns and reds in it.

Ugly Painting Made Beautiful

I took an ugly painting from the thrift store and repurposed it as a gift for one of my besties! I’m hoping it will fit in with her kitchen redo she is planning.

I cannot for the life of me find the before picture on my hard drive… just picture it being a very hideous horizontal painting- one that is probably hanging in your grandmother’s house… or hiding in your basement.

I removed the painting part and gave it a couple coats of primer before spraying it with chalkboard paint.

I painted the frame black and then distressed the edges using sandpaper. I finished it off with a coat of poly.

I added a toothed hanger on the back and used a powerful glue to add the ribbon and initial. I advise to use the hanger on the back to hang the frame and then mount the ribbon on the wall.

Isn’t it amazing what a little spray paint, chalk paint, and pretties can do to something to ordinary? Love it!