Simple Display Frame

I've been wanting a magnet board for a long time and I've also been wanting to try out chalkboard paint. I had an old frame that I didn't know what to do with, so I decided to make it into a display board.
I started out by getting a piece of metal at Home Depot. They sell sheets of metal there that are 1' x 1', 1' x 2' and 1' x 3' so if you can find a frame that fits a piece that size, you won't have to do any cutting. For mine, we had to cut about 1/4" off the side so my husband used kitchen shears and they worked great.Then I taped off half of the metal sheet and painted it with chalkboard paint. I did about 4 coats since metal is kind of a slippery surface. Then, I pulled off the tape and put the entire metal sheet in front of the glass and put the frame back together. The piece of glass showing at the bottom is used as a white board and I just put a piece of fabric behind the glass on this part to add a little texture.

This project was super easy and I love how it turned out. You could do this with any frame you have and divide it up however you want with magnet board/chalkboard/white board.

5 second Christmas Card Solution

We're staying at my parents house for the Holidays and the other day I came upstairs to find all my mom's Christmas Cards just stacked on the kitchen table. She told me she didn't know what to do with them, so I thought and thought of a cute way to display them. I'm probably not the 1st person in the world to do this...but I thought it turned out cute.

All we did was tie a bow at the top of a big ribbon and staple her cards down the ribbon, leaving space for more cards as they come. It literally took about 35 seconds and now she can show off all of her cute cards :)

DIY Garden Lampshade

So here is the shpeal... I saw this garden lampshade at Anthropologie and loved it and was inspired from it... I had a plain cream cloth lampshade at home and I thought...hmmmm... I could spruce it up a bit... and so I called my friend Dani and begged for her help since craft stores scare me and I don't know what to do when I go into one... so she came with me, and this is what we came up with... we used the cheapest material we could find... felt... and we bought a few squares of different colors... some green yarn (she already had some yellow), and she already had a glue gun and a sewing machine so we were set there... and we went to town... in this manner...

1st we cut out flower shapes... the perfect circle flowers were done with my friend Dani's various sizes of dye cuts, but we free-handed the spiky flowers and the leaves, and the middles of the flowers were either knotted strips of felt we glued on or knotted pieces of yarn.  Some flowers we tried to make 3 dimensional by bunching them in the middle, some flowers we sewed detail on (and same with the leaves) and we sewed at least a tack in the middle of each flower to hold them together... and you probably get the idea...

 The perfectly good and nice lampshade before we glued the heck out of it...

 This is the manner in which we designed what the lampshade would look like... we measured the height and circumference and then mimicked that on the floor and made our design. We also ate m & m's to help us think better... highly recommended...

 We then glued our first flower... and got confident and glued the rest...

We then used spray adhesive to spray pieces of yarn to make the stems... this was the hardest part because it stuck to our hands so bad but we managed and it worked!
And this is the finished project posing on Dani's cute lamp...

 A close up of some of the detail...

And the lampshade resting on its rightful stand in my house...

And thats it! It only takes 6 hours! HAHA... which is a LONG time... but its worth it... you initially will have gluers remorse because it was a perfectly nice lampshade without all the flowers on it, but then you will start to love it because its funky and fun and gives your room pop.  Anyway, give it a try, copy it if you like or you don't have to like it at all... just thought I'd share (most the pictures are courtesy of Dani's camera).

another tree skirt

I was going to make the tree skirt that Liza showed and mine ended up like this...

Follow Elizas directions below. Cut a circle, I did what she said and yes it makes sense. Hold your measuring tape in the middle and swing it around in a circle then cut! I then cut a line from the outside to the middle and cut an small circle in the middle for the trunk of the tree. Then cut strips of white felt, 1/2 in thick and make snowflakes all around! I saw this a few years ago at a Christmas specialty store, super cute!

Christmas cards display

Don't know what to do with all those Christmas cards you're getting? Here's one idea. Take some ribbon, rope, twine, whatever you've got, string it on the wall, then hang up all your cards with clothes pins. We have a brick wall in our kitchen that makes a great backdrop. You could also put it across a mantle, over a window or above your bed... wherever you have some extra space. A great way to enjoy all your friends and families pics during the holiday season!

Painted block presents

This is a very easy and inexpensive decoration for the holidays. And a very cute one, too : ) For this project all you'll need is some wood, paint, fabric and twine. You can cut up some wood you have lying around or go to Home Depot and buy some. Then paint them green and red (you can probably figure out what you need to do just by looking at the picture, but I guess I'll write them out anyway). After the paint dries, scratch the edges with some sandpaper. I also painted some small pieces of wood with a hole drilled through them to be the tags. Cut out long strips of material and use them as ribbon for the presents. Then attach the tags with some twine. Set on a piano, table, dresser, mantle, or under your tree. This could also be a fun project for kids... let them paint the blocks, then wrap with fabric ribbon and put them in their own bedrooms or under the tree. Enjoy!

Super easy Christmas tree skirt

I decided to try my hand at making my very own Christmas tree skirt, and it only cost 12 bucks to buy everything including the sewing thread... and it worked out rather nicely... All it took was a yard and a half of green felt, two packages of each color of rickrack and a sewing machine.  My crafty friend Dani Frisby helped me you can see her very crafty craft blog HERE ... anyway... the instructions sound way more complicated than it actually was to do... just look at the picture and  I'm sure you can figure it out better than with my babblings... but here they are anyway....
1. she and I just drew a circle by folding the material in half and then one of us pinned the end of a measuring tape in the middle of the folded end and then let out the measuring tape approximately 28 in. (or smaller if you want it smaller) from the center point and then the other person moved the measure tape in a half circle drawing a white dotted line at the 28 inch line of the tape measurer on the felt... uh... does that make sense?  Its the only way we cold figure out how to make a perfect circle. 
2. Than I pinned the yellow (more specifically the package said "golden rod") rickrack around the entire parameter of the circle and then sewed down the middle of the rickrack... when I almost arrived at the meeting point to make a full circle I stopped a bit shy and left about 2 inches unsewn so I could cut a straight line to the center of the circle so that you can actually fit it around the tree... and so that you can sew the rickrack underneath to make a nice edge.
3. Then I did the same with the red rickrack (choose what ever colors or color you want).
4. Then I cut a strait shot to the middle of the circle and then  folded and sewed the loose ends of rick rack underneath the treeskirt so it looked nice and trim... and thats it!  Since I used felt there is no need to hem... I'm such a beginner sewer so this was at the perfect level for me :)

jewelry frame

I was tired of having all my jewelry stuffed in a drawer, it was hard to find what I wanted and always tangled up! So I came up with this jewelry frame to help me organize (I LOVE organization). I found a frame at DI and painted it black. Then bought hooks and chicken fencing (the most expensive part of this project) at Home Depot. I cut out the chicken fencing to fit the frame then hot glued it on. Then I covered a piece of cardboard with fabric (just some fabric I already had... you could also use scrapbook paper for a more fun look) and hot glued that on to the back of the frame. Then screwed on the hooks and glued on some decorative flowers (I learned how to make them from my sister-in-law here). And now I love getting ready for the day! I can see everything in one glance.

ribbon board

I've been rearranging/decorating my daughters room and made this for her to hang her favorite pictures and artwork (aka scribbles).

It was easy smeasy to make as my kids would say.

The backing is cardboard, I just used a big huggies box and opened it up and stapled it together. You can make it any size this is about 2x3ft.

I put batting on next, you don't need to do this but it gives it a little puff! glue gun that on.

Then hit up Joannes sale rack, they always have cute remnants for super cheap, get some ribbon and buttons to match.

Then just glue gun it all together! I glued the buttons on and the ribbon at each cross, you could sew them on- but that takes effort!

Cute hu!

Thanksgiving Pillows

I've always wanted interchangeable holiday pillows, but I hate to spend money so I decided to use things I already had to make some Thanksgiving pillows.
Tip: When you're making a pillow cover, make it about 1" smaller than the actual pillow (ie. for a 17"x17" pillow, make your cover 16"x16"). This ensures it won't look flat or under-stuffed.

Turkey PillowI cut out all the pieces, then used iron-on transfer adhesive to stick the pieces to the pillow. Then, I sewed around everything so that it wouldn't peel away at all. After that, I used embroidery thread to add the eyes, mouth and feet. Then, I sewed the pillow together.

Thanks PillowI used my Cricut to cut out the letters, but you could easily cut them out by hand or find a font on your computer to trace. I used the same iron-on transfer adhesive and then sewed around the letters.

Striped PillowI wanted to pull all the fabrics together with this pillow, so I just used different widths of each fabric and sewed them together.

For all the pillows, I used buttons and button-holes on the back so that I can easily take the covers off when the holiday is over and replace them with new covers. Plus, buttons are way easier than a zipper in my opinion.

lace earring holder

I'm always looking for good ways to organize jewelery 

usually without success

but this one is kind of fun, I've loved it!

I bought the lace and frame at D.I. for a grand total of $3

You could really use any kind of frame you'd like

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All I did was:

 take out the glass and backing to the frame

cut out a piece of lace the size of the frame

and hot glue the lace to the inside edge of the frame

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You could of course use a wooden frame as well

in that case I would nail the lace on first to the corners of the frame

but using only hot glue has worked just fine!

I love the lace,

 I think it has kind of a fun vintage look

and it keeps your earrings from getting lost in the abyss of a jewelery box....

enjoy!

A gallery in your home...

This really isn't anything too creative, its just something I've grown to love and I think it looks good on a wall if you don't have any big paintings to fill the space (being young and unwealthified I doubt many of us have large fine art pieces to hang on our walls)... I like to hang my photos and small art pieces I've collected in gallery style... you can do a variety of frames such as this.... (we're really not obsessed with ourselves, we just don't have kids yet to show off so we have to put up pictures of us)...

 Or a monochromatic display of frames such as this...

 See? Its simple, and it takes up space and it creates a neat design in any room.

I just bought my frames at TJ Maxx and Target, not expensive at all, give it a try!

Vinyl Bibs

Okay, so this isn't really for your home...but it's a very easy (and cheap!) project.
You need: a sewing machine, vinyl and some velcro.



Trace a bib that you already have onto some Vinyl and voila! you have your bib! Next cut out your desired designs, initials, shapes...whatever out of different colored vinyl. I hot glue gunned the snowman shape onto the bib before sewing it, to hold it in place, but that's probably not necessary. Next, sew around the snowman. Add some velcro to the top to fasten the bib and you're done! The design possibilities are endless :)

"Stop sewing and get me some breakfast mom!!"

Edible decorations

Squash... a great way to spruce up your kitchen or family room in the fall. AND they're edible! You can put them in a bowl or basket or just standing alone, then when Fall is coming to a close... eat them!

How to cook: cut in half, scoop out the seeds, place a slab of butter in each center, then a scoop of brown sugar or salt (depending on how you like it). Place on a baking sheet or pan lined with tin foil and cook in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Mix up the insides and there you have it! A perfect side dish or yummy snack to have on a chilly Fall day.

Vases... oh, the possibilities!

Yet another vase idea. I do this every year, it's a perfect decoration for Fall. Simply cut some long grass, hairspray the ends (so they don't shed everywhere) and stick them in a vase. It doesn't cost a penny and you don't have to take up space in your house storing them the rest of the year... just cut a new batch next year!

Fall Leaves

I've seen this done in a few of my favorite "POSH" magazines, so we (me and the 4 kiddos) went for a fall walk and gathered a few leaves. Find a glass vase or anything glass, I was thinking old mason jars would be really cute. place leaves around the jar and tie with raffia, place a candle in the jar and walla! The leaves glow when the candle is lit, the kids really liked helping make this and it turned out super cute!

A glass and some sticks

Not anything too exciting... but it adds to a room! And its so easy!  I bought the glass... its not even a vase, its an old glass from the kitchen section... at a local thrift store for $1.50, I got the sticks across the street in the forest and then I put them together and VOILA! A nice bedside table, kitchen table or counter top decoration. Try it out...