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Another National Crafting Month Creation! 

I am lucky to have a lot of friends that I consider family. My friend, who I grew up with and consider a sister, just had a beautiful baby girl in September of last year.  It has been so exciting to watch her little girl grow and learn over the last six months. She is beautiful and full of giggles and drool and I absolutely adore her. It's fascinating to watch her learn and grow... and of course, I love to spoil her!  So, when I ran across this simple and fun DIY, I thought it would make a fun gift!

I took a trip to Home Depot and got all of my supplies. I searched through a bunch of the pine boards to find one that looked the cleanest and had the fewest knots, grooves, and imperfections. The board was about $8.50, not too shabby! I snagged some sandpaper blocks for less than a dollar and a sample size of paint, about $3.50. It took me a few minutes to find the perfect coral color to match Allison's nursery decorated in coral and creme (it's stinkin' precious!). I also grabbed a wall hanging kit. My mom had black vinyl adhesive paper leftover from another project, so she help me cut the numbers, letters, and dashes with her Cricut machine. She also happened to have a bunch of felt adhesive wall bumpers, always prepared! 

Supplies

pine board, 6 ft tall x 12 inches wide 

sandpaper

paint

paint brush

number and letter stickers 

wall hanging kit

wall bumpers

I was pretty proud of the pine board I found. I managed to find one with just a few imperfections/grooves. I still needed to make sure that the surfaces were smooth and looked nice when painted, so I took the sandpaper to it and smoothed it all down. 

Once the surfaces and edges were nice and sanded down, I began painting. I first started with some leftover foam brushes that I had around the house, but then went back to Home Depot and got a trim painting kit for $1. It came with the perfect size small roller brush and a small tray that I could pour the paint into. 

I got a Behr Premium Plus paint sample. I love how this color turned out. I did about 3 coats by the time I was done painting. 

After I let it dry completely, I got out a tape measure and marked off the inches with a pencil on the edge of the board. Then I marked each six inch interval, where a longer marking would go.  My mom helped me apply the vinyl cut lettering for "Allison" at the top of the board. We were careful to do our best to make it centered on the board. 

Then I added the small lines for each inch mark and longer ones for the 6 inch and foot markers. I started with the bottom of my board being the 6" mark, so the board could measure up to 6'6". Then I added the numbers at the foot markers. 

I thought it turned out pretty cute for my first large-scale craft. Allison sure looked adorable next to it! Pretty soon she'll be standing up on her own. Time sure does fly!

St. Patrick's Day Wreath

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

I found a crafty way to celebrate! My sister is always in need of seasonal decor for her salon, so I made this fun, super easy wreath. I took a trip to my local Hobby Lobby and gathered my supplies. I got my four rolls of tulle for 50% off, thank you clearance aisle! I had the straight pins leftover from the Valentine's Day Wreath that I made for Catherine and my mom. I chose a straw wreath form over a styrofoam one because it was about half of the price ($4.50 vs. $8.99). 

Supplies

Straw or styrofoam wreath form (I got straw b/c it was cheaper)

4 rolls green tulle (3 dark green, 1 light green)

scissors

straight pins or glue

St. Patty's decorations

How to...

First, I prepared my wreath decorations. I had decided on the letters for "Lucky" on sparkly foam shamrocks. I painted the small wooden letters white, waited for them to dry, and then glued them onto the foam letters.

Then, I took my tulle and cut it into ~17 inch strips. Then I tied the strips around the wreath form. I alternated 3 green and then one light green strip. I tied them all the way around, scrunching them together as I went to make them tightly spaced together. I ended up using one full spool of light green tulle and about 2 and a half spools of the darker green. 

When I was done tying the tulle onto the wreath form, it looked like this:

Then, I attached the foam shamrocks to the wreath. I used both straight pins and glue. 

Finished product! Ta-da! 

So excited for this to be hanging in my sister's salon! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day and National Crafting Month to all! 

Easy Burlap Wreath

National Crafting Month: Creation #2!

If anyone looks at crafts or DIY on Pinterest, they're bound to see all different kinds of wreaths. With all the wreaths I've been seeing, it seems that burlap wreaths are trendy right now. Since I had some chevron printed burlap left from this initial wreath I made for my mom and burlap ribbon was 50% off at Hobby Lobby, I decided why not? I searched for a burlap wreath I could easily make and stumbled upon some pretty easy directions here. This blogger is so right, you kind of learn to make it as you go along, and it's super easy!

Burlap Wreath with Chevron Print Bow

Supplies

burlap ribbon ($4.99/roll)

accent ribbon ($2.50/roll)

12" wire wreath form ($2.99)

Scissors

Embellishments

Begin by placing a pre-formed loop through the bottom of the wreath form. Leave a small tail of burlap behind so the loop doesn't come out. Continue by poking loops through from the bottom in each wire section (3 loops across). 

This is two sets of three loops- 6 loops total. I put 3 or 4 rows of loops in each section. 

Continue looping through wreath form. One roll of burlap got me around half of the wreath, then I began on roll number two. Make sure to leave a tail on the ends of the ribbon so you can secure the loops.

This is what my wreath looked like when I was done with the loops. There's a small gap on the bottom, where I glued the bow I made out of the chevron accent ribbon. 

I glued a loop to hang the wreath on the back and ta-da! Complete! 

I love how it turned out! 

Bounce House Birthday!

Throwback Thursday! 

Happy 3rd Birthday to me!!

I remember having some pretty legit birthday parties over the years when I was a kid. Discovery Zone, mystery dinner sleepovers, and this gem... bounce houses at McDonalds! Friends, bounces houses, happy meals and cake, what more could a 3 year old ask for?!

I love this cute little sailor dress that I'm rocking!

Birthday hugs from my oldest sister.

Me and one of my best friends when I was little, Cindy.

My sister, Catherine, was way excited about her happy meal.
And she is rocking that gingerbread man dress in June... Hah!

Time to blow out the birthday candles!

Pure goofball.

I got some pretty sweet presents for my 3rd birthday, including
Dumbo and The Little Mermaid books and a cassette tape! 

Birthday buddies! 

Wreath for Mom!

National Crafting Month: Creation #1! 

I saw this wreath for sale on Etsy and immediately fell in love with it. I loved coral and white flowers and the light blue/aqua color combination. Since I had seen the branch wreath forms at Hobby Lobby/Michael's before and since I also had experience working with fake flowers, I thought that this cold be a fun and beautiful craft to make! I made this wreath for my mom- hence the "S" for out last name. 

Personalized Floral Wreath

Supplies

branch wreath form 

decorative flowers 

burlap ribbon

Letter 

paint

glue gun and sticks

scissors

Crafting the wreath:

The first thing that I did was paint the letter for the wreath. 

It's a lovely mint color, but looks bright green here.

Then I laid out my wreath and decided where I wanted to place the leaves, flowers, bow and letter.
I was most worried about the flower arrangement. I had a general idea of where I wanted to place the bow and letter. 

Tucker was doing a taste test of the burlap ribbon.
He also tried chewing the wreath. Goofy dog!

This is the general arrangement of leaves and flowers that I decided on. 

Bow time... so, I googled some ways to make bows for wreaths. Honestly, I've always been bad at bows. When I have to wrap Christmas presents, they always turn out a mess. After reading about how to make a few and briefly attempting, I took the easy way out and made a makeshift bow that's actually three loops glued together with two tails glued to the back.

Next, I started gluing the leaves to the wreath.

I used this handy-dandy miniature, low-heat glue gun. It doesn't get very hot, which is good because I always manage to burn myself with the heavy duty glue guns.

Below is what my wreath looked like when I finished gluing leaves onto it.

Then come the flowers. I was a little nervous about gluing them on.

What if I put them in the wrong spot and they're permanently attached?!

I said 'screw it' and just glued the first three on. And they looked great!

I finished gluing the rest of the flowers on, including a wimpy looking one that

I placed specifically so the bow would be on top of it.

Then I glued on the bow and the letter.

Ta-da! 

I absolutely love how it turned out!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Update:

I wasn't 100% happy with what the initial letter looked like. I love the mint color, but it needed a little bit extra besides just a solid color. I searched the house and found some white acrylic paint and painted small polka dots all over the "S." It looks even better now! Check out the painted letter-

National Crafting Month

I've always enjoyed being crafty. I got that from my mom. She's amazingly talented when it comes to crafts and has a great creative vision. Through my mom, I got exposure to scrapbooking, card making, and sewing. [I was never patient enough for sewing as a child, but I could see myself getting into it later in life.] She has nurtured my creativity and encourages my crafting- and of course, it's always fun to share my crafts with her. We also enjoy crafting together, which she always made time for on the weekends when I visited from college. 

I recently learned that March is National Crafting Month! And what a better way to celebrate than to do some fun crafts that I've been eyeing! I am a minor Pinterest junkie, especially when it comes to finding new recipes and fun crafts that I want to try out. Right now, I've got a lot of pins on my crafting and  "Recipes to Make in 2014" boards. For National Crafting Month, I'll be tacking a few of the Pins from by craft board. I've narrowed it down to a few fun projects. I'm excited, because I've been slacking on decorating my home since I moved in seven months ago. I'll also get to make a few homemade gifts.

So here is to a fun month of crafting! 

These are some of the crafts I'll be tacking this month...

Personalized Wreath for my Mom
St. Patrick's Day Wreath for Catherine

Burlap wreath
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