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!!! :)

Spool Bracelets - Part 2

Finally getting around to posting the rest of the spool bracelets!! :) These are super easy & only limited to your creativity (and supplies)!! ;) If you need (the super easy) directions, just click on the category "spools" or "jewelery" on the right!

Washer Necklace

I've seen these on a few other blogs, but wanted to try them myself!! They are super simple, super cheap, & (if you're prepared), super quick!!

What you need:
* metal washers (found at Home Depot/Lowes, Wal-Mart, etc.):

* scrapbook paper
* glue that will hold metal (ie. Gorilla Glue, hot glue, etc.)
* clear nail polish, Mod Podge, or any other clear top coat
* necklace chain, rope, ribbon, or whatever you want your necklace to be made of
* any embellishments you wish to add

For my 2 necklaces, I used scrapbook paper. First, I traced the washers on the wrong side of the paper, then cut the circles out. Apply the adhesive of your choice, (I used Gorilla Glue because that's what I had!), then attach the paper circle & allow to dry. After glue has dried, apply a top coat, (I used clear nail polish because I couldn't find my Mod Podge & it worked great!!), making sure to go over the edge a bit to seal off the paper! Once the top coat has dried, you can attach another washer, or add embellishments!! The final step is to add the chain or necklace of your choice! For the brown necklace, I used a chain that I had, with a small piece of chain to attach my lock & key:

For the other necklace, I used a "ready made necklace", that was black velvet, that I just looped around the washer! That's it - super easy, super cheap, & super quick!

You can also use nail polish to "paint" the washer for a cool effect:

I haven't done anything with it yet, but I thought the metallic blue was so cool, so I had to try it out!! :) - And it's a bad picture, so it doesn't really do it justice!! :(

Iron-Ons

Looking for an easy shirt make-over?? Well, here it is!! (Easy & cheap - even better!!) ;) I went to Big Lots the other day & found these:

Iron-on letters, that came with 2 skulls . . . for only $1!!! I also found white letters, but forgot to take a picture before I cut them apart! :( The directions are on the package, but all you do is cut the letters out, arrange them on the shirt & iron!! Super easy!!

Using plain t-shirts, (the red ones were only $1.99!!), I let the kids decide what they wanted to put on them. The boys each got a skull - Hunter, who loves Indiana Jones, wanted "Mutt" (Indy's son in the last movie), under his skull, and Noah wanted "Rock On" under his! :) I already had the "girly" skull for Madelyn's shirt, so she decided to add "Glam" under it! They turned out pretty cute!!