Finished Wall Art - FINALLY!!

Ok, so I FINALLY got around to finishing my wall art!! I needed a big piece of wood to make the top piece, and finally realized I could use something I already had!! I had a piece of wood that had 3 peg-hooks - - - didn't need the hooks, so I just sawed them off!! :) Added a coat of paint & then repeated the same lettering process as I did in step 1 & hung them all up!!! I made some cute Contact Paper flowers with the Cricut to fill in the emptiness around the words. No, the words on the top board didn't get centered perfectly, but all-in-all, I'm quite happy with it!! :) (Not exactly the "shabby" PB look, but still cute!!) ;)

I think the Contact flowers added a lot!!!

Pottery Barn-Inspired Art

A while ago, I found these boards at Home Depot in the scrap lumber:

For 50 cents each, I just knew that I could do something with them!! :) Well, a few weeks later, I was at Pottery Barn Kids, and got my inspiration!! I saw these hanging on the wall:

I immediately wanted them, (but didn't want to pay $19 - $34 EACH!!), so I came home & got to work!! ;)

Here's what you do:
* Cut the wood (or have it cut for you), to the sizes you want.

* Paint the edges & front sides of each piece (since I was covering it with paper, I only painted the edges & a tiny frame around the front side, just in case the paper didn't fit perfectly)

* Once the paint dries, you can hand paint details on the front sides, or add scrapbook paper, trimmed to fit. (To attach paper - apply a layer of Mod Podge, add your paper, and then add a top coat if desired. I used Elmer's glue & a flat edge (ruler) to smooth out the bumps - - Mod Podge will be much cleaner!) ;)

* After that dries, add lettering - you can use vinyl, paper, or hand-paint it yourself. (I printed out the words in the fonts I liked, cut them out, traced them on, then hand painted them with craft paint! A little time consuming, but wanted the painted look! I had hoped to sand the words, to give it a distressed look, but it just smeared the paint onto the paper & had to start over! Good thing I tried it out on the smallest word!!)

* Unless you care to add embellisments (I did), then you're done!!

So they don't look EXACTLY like PB's, but I love them!! I think the bolder colors will look cute with her room decor!! Since I only spent $1 on the wood & $1 on the green paint I only spent $2 total!! - - Not too shabby!! :) I'm not quite done though, I have one last one to finish & then I'll post pictures once they're all up!!

Fabric Flowers

I love the cute fabric flowers that are EVERYWHERE, so I decided to give it a try!! These are a little time consuming, but super easy!! The materials I used are:
- hot glue gun
- extra glue sticks
- fabric scraps
- scissors
- buttons/embelishments if desired

* The first step is to cut strips of your fabric. Cut long strips - you can always stop "rolling" your flower & cut the fabric to make smaller flowers!

* Next, take the end of one strip & kind of roll it a little. Put a dab of hot glue on one side & kind of pinch the sides together.

* Now, just keep rolling the fabric around the center, creating a "spiraled" effect. As you roll, continue to add dabs of hot glue here & there to secure it.

There is an alternate way to make this flower - twist the fabric as you make the "spiral" - this will give a "neater" look, however, I found it way too time consuming! :(

* I kind of forgot to take a picture of the finished flower, however, here is the finished project:

For this, I just made 9 different flowers, (4 small pink, 4 medium tan, and 1 large tan), then hot glued them all together & topped them off with a fabric-covered button (didn't have a button the size & color I wanted, so I used a scrap of an old shirt to cover a button!!)!! I haven't yet, but plan on attaching pins (like broach pins) to the back, so this can be removed for washing (or adding to another shirt)!! I also made a bow (using the "twisting" technique)! Turns out, Madelyn has two pairs of shorts that this will match with!! :)

Another bow/flower idea:
I bought this shirt, which had yellow sleeves, (you know, the 2 sleeve look), so I simply cut out the yellow sleeves, making it a short-sleeve shirt! (You can get really cheap shirts at the end of winter, & just cut out the layered sleeve - - ta-da. . . a short sleeve shirt for summer!!!) :)

Anywho - I used one of the sleeves to create a flower for Madelyn's hair!! :)

Back To School!

Well, we don't officially go back to school for 9 more days (who's counting :), but we did a fun project today to get ready!! Since Madelyn's going into FOURTH grade this year, she needed a HUGE 3 inch binder!! Being that they're kinda pricey, (like $10!), we used one that we had & "jazzed" it up! ;) Using the Cricut and some white contact paper, we came up with this:

Cute, huh?? I guarantee no one else with have a cuter 3 in. binder!!! :)