Easy Gift Plaque

So, I wanted to be crafty for Christmas. I have made all of the gifts for our family. However, you don't get to see any of them until after Christmas because they all read my blog! All, of course, except my dad. He does not read blogs, so you get to see his gift. Hurray!

The Finished Product:

What You Will Need:

• Wooden plaque - I got mine from Michael's and used my 50% off coupon. SCORE.
• Spray primer
• Any color of spray paint in matte
• Wooden decorations
• Picture stand ($3 from Michael's - I just love that place)
• Not pictured - spray finishing gloss
• Not pictured - wood glue
• 8.5" x 11" Card stock
• Pazzle, Cricut, Sillouette, or Xacto Knife and stencil
• Sponge brush
• Acrylic paint

Let's Get Started:

1. Spray your plaque with primer.
2. Let dry for about 10 minutes, spray with your color. I only did one coat because I did a really good coat of primer and didn't need to. Thank goodness for primer.

3. Leave plaque to dry.
4. Pick your quote and fire up your Pazzle, Cricut, Sillouette, or grab your Xacto knife and stencil. I decided on a font and then cut it out of card stock.

5. I love my mom's Pazzle, but I always have to do some trimming.

 6. Lay your newly created stencil on top of your (now dry) plaque. Mine didn't move, so no worries about tacking it down. Start sponging your paint lightly into the stencil. Be sure to use only a small amount of paint or it will bleed through the stencil (Oops, I did that - oh well, it makes it more homemade-y ...right?)

7. Carefully pick up your stencil.

8. Adhere your wooden decoration using wood glue.

9. Allow to dry for a few hours and VOILA!

As always, thanks to my beautiful mama, who is my loving and faithful assistant/master crafter!

Christmas Flowers

So, we really were NOT going to do a craft today. We just got back from a long vacation (I know, poor us) and we just needed to take a weekend to recover. However, we were walking from Target to the Dollar Tree and we passed Michael's. I saw these shiny flowers and we got sucked in. You can thank the outdoor Michael's display for this one...

The Final Product:

 What you will need:

(the picture won't upload, so use your imagination)

• Colored marbles or stones
• Christmas-y silk flowers
• Ribbon
• A cheap vase (ours is from the Dollar Store!)
• Floral Wire

 

Let's Get Started:

1. First fill your vase all the way up with your marbles.

2. Cut all your silk flowers from their stems.

3. Now, my mom is the pro flower arranger (I take pictures) and she says that you should put the tallest flowers and plants in the center of the arrangement.

4. Go pet your puppy (oh wait... that's just for me)

5. Finish arranging your flowers.

6. Make your bow. (Next week there will be a tutorial on how to make the beautiful holiday bows that my genius mother can create).

7. Add bow to arrangement.

8. VOILA!

Enjoy the Christmas-ness.


All the credit for this project goes to my mama... she's fabulous.

Cutest Burp Cloths EVER

My mom made these for a friend of ours a while back when her beautiful baby was born. About a year later our friend asked her to make some for a friend of hers. It was so fun the first time that she jumped at the opportunity. So, this is a post for my mama and her fabulous craftiness:

The Finished Product:

 What You Will Need:

• Cloth Diapers
• Fabric scraps 
• Ribbons the same length as the width of your diapers
• Sewing machine (hers has and embroidery option - shes spoiled)

Let's Get Started:

1. First you are going to want to unfold your cloth diapers
 and measure the width so you can cut your fabric scraps about one inch wider (to allow for a seam)
2. This step is optional: BEFORE you add extra fabric, do your embroidery.

3. Lay out your diaper and lay fabric scrap on top of it. Cut the desired length of fabric. This is totally up to you!

4. Make sure you leave about a half inch for the seam.

5. Lay out fabric, diaper, and ribbons to decide what combinations you like best.

(I just LOVE the super hero one. Definitely my favorite.)

6. Using a straight stitch sew the fabric and ribbon on to the diapers.

VOILA! Revel in your handiwork! Great beginner's sewing project!


Another look:

Key Hanger

So, I received TWO, count them TWO, gift cards to Michael's for my birthday. WHAT?! I love that place. My friends and family are geniuses (I always suspected)! So I went in search of a craft for my blog. This is what I came up with (you can all thank my sister, Emily and my friend, Christie... you're welcome):

Here's What You Will Need:

• Wooden plaque of some sort
• Wood letter
• Gray spray paint primer
• Whatever color spray paint you want
• Sponge brush
• Small command hooks

Let's Get Started:

1. Spray your plaque with primer (sorry, I forgot to take pictures of this step!) Allow to dry for about ten minutes.
2. Spray your plaque with your spray paint. This may take a couple of coats. Mine took about three coats and still wasn't completely covered, but I am impatient, so I stopped at that point.
3. Paint the outside using your sponge brush. Allow to dry completely.

4. Adhere the letter to the plaque using wood glue.

5. I had to allow the wood glue to cure for several hours, but I am glad I did because it is super strong. I also used the wood glue to stick the command hooks to the back of the plaque.

6. Then I added a picture hanger to the back and hung it up!

VOILA!

Days of the Week Baskets

So, Rob and I have been trying to eat at home more. We have been planning our meals and then swearing we eat them at home. I have been grouping everything in the pantry. Last weekend, it occurred to me that I needed a better way to do it so I could see what I had. Thus, the idea of the baskets was born. Eventually I want to add a bar and hang them up. But this works for now. 

The Finished Product:

What You Will Need:

• 7 Dollar Store Baskets
• Pretty paper
• Cricut, Pazzle, or pre-cut letters
• Laminating machine (optional)
• Hole Punch
• Ribbon

Let's Get Started:

1. First you need to cut out your tags. We used the Pazzle machine, but you can cut them by hand, with a Cricut cutter, or even use dye-cuts. Be creative!

2. My tags had two pieces, so I had to stick them together. Don't worry if your pieces curl, we are going to laminate them and that will flatten them.

3. Laminate tags. We have a laminating machine, but I have heard that there are cold-laminate kits out there that may be cheaper to get started with.

4. Punch holes in the tags and use ribbon to tie them to baskets. DONE.

Now I can bring my groceries home and throw them in the baskets for the days I need them on. On the day I want to make that, I can just grab the basket and I have all the non-refrigerated items! VOILA!

PS. Thanks to my mom for getting these baskets from the Dollar Store for me!

Fall Wreath

In keeping with my deep, deep, deep desire for Fall weather and the holidays, my mom and I attempted a project today that turned out quite well, in my opinion! This one makes me proud because we used mostly silk flowers that we already had around the house and we used our 50% of one item at Michael's to buy our wreaths, so this project cost about $28 for two 22" wreaths!

The Final Product:

What You Will Need:

• 1 Grapevine wreath in whatever size you like
• Silk flowers
• Optional: gourds and berries
• Ribbon
• Wire
• Wire cutters
• Hot glue gun

Let's Get Started:

1.  Take your silk flowers and cut them from the base using your wire cutters. 

2. Lay all the flowers out the same direction so that you can see what you have.

3. This is the point where you would want to either make a bow out of your ribbon, or attach a pre-made bow using floral wire. I am lucky because my mom made my bow!

4. Lay wreath flat on the table and start laying your foliage out so you can get a good idea of what you want, but do not glue yet.

5. Remove all the pieces, CAREFULLY laying them approximately where they would go around the outside of the wreath.

6. Now is the artistic part. You can use your wire cutters to cut off the pieces that you want to use and just go to town. Wherever you put a piece in, make sure to use enough hot glue so that it won't fall off, especially if it is going to be outside. 

7. Keep filling in until you reach your desire level of fullness. Tip: add gourds, berries, etc. in groups of 3.

8. Optional: I added a C for my last name using hot glue and twine to secure it to the wreath.

9. Hang on your front door and enjoy!

My mom's is on the left and mine is on the right.
VOILA!

Fall Vase

It's almost fall and I AM SO READY. Please excuse the Jaguars mug, it is ALSO football season. So, I saw a picture on Pinterest, and I wanted it. But, it didn't have any directions except use hot glue and twine. Well, the hot glue didn't work out so well for me. So, here's what I did, and it turned out pretty well.

The Finished Product:

What You Will Need:

• Dollar store vase
• Jute twine (dollar store find!)
• Glue Gun
• Elmers Glue
• Foam paint brush
• Silk flowers (also, dollar store, hurray!)

Let's Get Started:
 Caviat: We started with using hot glue and it didn't work so well. So, my mom came up with an idea!

1. Paint vase with a foam brush dipped in Elmer's Glue!

2. Slowly, and extremely patiently, wrap twine around jar. We worked from the bottom of our vases up to the top, and that worked really well.

3. When you get to the part of the vase where it starts to get narrow again, use hot glue to secure it. This part is time consuming, but it's definitely worth it so you don't have to go back and fill in the holes.
4. Arrange silk flowers in your vase. I DO NOT have the patience to arrange flowers, so my mom handled this part. Looks good, don't you think?

5. OPTIONAL: Tie ribbon around vase to make it more fall-ish.

VOILA!
I LOVE how fall-ish this looks. It totally satisfied my obsessive need for fall decorations. YAY