Saturday, June 22, 2013

Better than imagined...

I'm SOOO excited!  I found this rack, box, whatever you wanna call it at the DI.  Initially I bought it with the intention of storing some of my ink pads in it.  I thought it would be perfect.  Then as I started taking it downstairs, I had an idea.  I pulled out my red paint and started putting my idea together.
 First, I painted my rack with a couple coats of red paint.  Then I had to scrounge up some jars.  (Thanks Brittany!)  I had a few cleaned out and put away for the day I had a thought like this, but SOMEONE threw them away.  So my friend Brittany saved my day.
I poured some white paint inside my mason jars and swirled it around slowly.  I turned and swirled until my entire jar was painted white inside.  I did this for all 4 jars.  Then I turned them over and put Popsicle sticks underneath them on Styrofoam plates so that the extra paint would come out and my jars would dry.  It took about 2 days for my jars to dry.

Then when my jars were dry, I wrapped some (not sure of the right name) twine around the necks of my jars and hot glued them in place.  Originally I had planned on putting the twine around the center of my jars.  I'm really glad I went with my second thought and wrapped it around the top only.  
Finally, when that was all done, I had my kids walk down to the pond we have around here and cut some of the dried grass, weed, plant, whatever its called and that completed my center piece.  I still need to go sometime today and get some more to finish it, but I love how it turned out!  I'm so excited about this idea and the look of it.  It turned out much better than it did in my head.  
 I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but I have put the dried plants in just two of the jars, and then in the other two I'm putting just the sticks in at a higher level.  (I didn't cut them down as much as the plant.)  The empty jar will also have the sticks in it.  I just wanted to show this off before it was completely finished.  I ordinarily like to do projects that are quick and done as soon as I come up with the idea.  I'm just not a patient person.  This project was killing me how long it took.  Having to wait for 2 days for the paint to dry in my jars was torture!  I like my projects to be done quickly so I can sit back and admire them immediately.  This was worth the wait though.

Again, this cost me nearly nothing.  I think I paid $1.00 for the rack.  Everything else I had or borrowed.  (the twine and white paint.)    The hubby wasn't too sure about my idea when I told him what I had planned, but I think he was pleasantly surprised too.  I LOVE how this turned out!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Crafting away...

I have just been having so much fun the last couple of days making one thing after the other.  My biggest addiction right now is going to the D.I and picking out things that I can re-make into something else.  I'm seriously loving it!

So I found these fairy pictures, and my oldest loved them just the way they were.  Me, not so much.

I immediately set to work.  I had an idea in my head, and wondered how it would turn out.  I painted the blocks all white, and then tried to think of cute words, saying, or something that would go well with where I wanted to place them.  I knew that whatever I was making I wanted it to go into my bedroom.  So with that in mind, I found these sayings already in my cricut, (if your interested, I'll look up the name of the cartridge.)  and picked out the brown vinyl.  I know in the picture it looks black, but it's dark brown. Here's how it turned out. 



 I really like how they turned out!  I'm still trying to figure out right where I want them in my bedroom, for now it looks good right on the space above my head board.    I used my Cricut to cut out the vinyl.  This is only my 2nd project using my Cricut and Vinyl, and I'm really loving the ease of this wonderful machine!  All in all this project only cost me $1.50 to make.  LOVE IT!! ( that's how much the fairly pictures where at the DI, everything else I had on hand, or borrowed from my friend Brittany).

Now, I have also been working on a table center piece, and it's just about finished.  I am so in love with it.  I seriously surprised myself with how well it turned out.  I'm so excited to share it.  Hopefully by tomorrow it will be ready for show.  I'd love to see what you're all working on and hear what you think.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Reduce, reuse recycle...

I am having too much fun decorating my home and recycling as I do it. A while back I covered one of our moving boxes with an old curtain that I had laying around, and LOVED how it turned out.  I just didn't love how much work and time it took me.  (Here's the box).



I didn't think much of it again until just recently when a good friend of mine was looking for a particular sized box.  (I just happened to have that particular sized box) and she came over to pick it up.  I asked her what she needed it for and she told me it was the perfect size box to fit in our mud room cubby's.  So that of course got me thinking that I would love to have a cute box to hold all of my kids dang shoes in and have that mud room look nice.  Finally tonight, I got my boxes, and started on my project.

I first took my boxes and painted them both black.   (Here's just one of the boxes on it's side painted.)
I experimented with a punch I had and made a template and then painted the template onto my box.  Here's what it looked like.

  I didn't like it at all!  My oldest on the other hand loved it.  I thought since it's gonna be her shoe box holder I would let her have it the way she liked it and I quickly moved onto my next box.  I found some paper that I really like from the Black Currant Stack, and I cut it into strips.  I then used modge podge to glue the paper to the box.  (I LOVE that stuff!)  Here's how my second box turned out.

LOVED IT!  Once my oldest saw how cute this one turned out she decided that I could change the box after all.  So I decided that I would use the same paper stack and cut another paper into strips and just glue them on top of what I had already done.  It turned out really nice too!
Doesn't that look so much better than my first attempt?  Now here's how they look put in there cubby's with shoes in them.
Doesn't that look fabulous!  Before they just had their shoe's thrown into the cubby's and it just looked like a hot mess!  Complete Chaos!  Love how this turned out!  SO simple and fun to do.

Come on back soon, I have several more projects that I have finished and just haven't had time to post here yet.  Including a couple of birthday cards I've made, and the presents to go with them.  (Those I'm purposely waiting to post till I give them away tomorrow.)  I do have some fun projects I've finished though that I 'd love to show.  Have a great day!

Sunday, June 9, 2013

I'm so excited to share my wreath!  I've spent weeks working on it.  When the kids finally went to bed, I would sit on my bed and roll my paper and cut it to size, fluff it out to make a rose, hot glue it and go on to the next.  It took so much time and I thought I'd never be done with it.  Here it is...finished at last!
It turned out amazing!  However, before I could get around to posting this my dang kids got to my wreath.  I had it hung up, proudly displaying it on my door and "it wasn't me" broke it!  Now look at it.
I'm so upset!  Weeks and weeks of work.  I'm going to try to hot glue it back together and see if that works.  I would like to wring the neck of "it wasn't me" though.  That little trouble maker has been reaking havoc around our house for days now!

Oh, and since I didn't mention it, I found this idea and how to do it on Pinterest!