Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Quick & Easy Halloween Decor

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Annnnddd we're back. You guys, I've been so busy launching Fresh Bib, I've totally neglected my first baby and her followers. I'm so sorry. So how have things been in blog world? Anything earth shattering that I need to know about? I trust you'll tell me if so.

So what have I been up to lately, besides working my tail off for Fresh BiB? Well, decorating the house for Fall/Halloween for one. I wasn't going to do a thing, but then my boys begged with little puppy dog eyes and I couldn't resist. Oddly, I have lost most of our halloween decor so I was forced to create a few new things. Inspired by where else but Pinterest? I created a few new banners that took me less than 30 minutes for both! I had some stiff felt in black and sticky back felt in white left over from some other craft projects; both were perfect for what I wanted to create.

A Beautiful Mess created this fun "Boo" banner a while back; I've always loved it and thought I'd finally try making my own...
Y'all, it was so easy. I simply cut the banner out of the sheet of stiff felt and punched holes in the corners for my yarn. Then I traced the word "BOO" onto the sticky back white felt, cut it out, peeled off the backing and stuck my letters onto the banner. Done!  How easy is that? The pumpkin and black cat cutouts above are actually old Halloween cards that my aunt sent my boys two years ago. Old cards are such a simple way to decorate. I perched these atop vintage spools, but they also look great framed.

Since our fireplace is in the boys' playroom, I wanted their decor to be playful, not scary! I'm not big on the scary side of Halloween. Plus, my boys have been having nightmares lately and are sleeping with their bedside lights on. This pacman garland from Minieco was perfect for them! Using my stiff felt, I traced circles (using chalk so that it would show up) and ghosts. After cutting out the triangle for pacman's mouth, I added googly eyes with my hot glue gun to the ghosts. The finishing touch...hot glueing my pieces to a string of bakers twine that I had on hand, followed by hanging above the fireplace, adorned with candles, owl, pipecleaner pumpkins and egg crate spiders. Done.

So easy right? Tell me, do you do the scary decor thing for Halloween? It's good to be back. I've missed y'all! xo

Last Minute DIY Mother's Day Gifts

Tuesday, May 6, 2014


Last Minute...that's how I roll. If you're anything like me, you need a quick and simple gift that you can give to all the amazing moms in your life. Here are links to a few of my faves.

1. Printable "Mom" crown. Who doesn't look for a reason to wear a crown? Mother's Day is perfect.
2. "Mom You Rock" painted rock, in a box. Yes, please. How adorable is this?
3. Fingerprint Pendant. With a little polymer clay and a thumb, or two, this would be a great gift. I'm thinking keychain with both boys' fingerprints (making a heart) for my Mom.
4. Paper flower in a box. Come on! I die. This one is perfect for every toddler out there. Listen up husbands! (Feel free to share this with your husbands since I am quite sure none of them read blogs.)

Happy soon to be Mother's Day to all you Mommies out there. It's the hardest job in the world with the greatest return (most days). ha ha ha. Love you all to the moon and back. xo

Around the House: Updating An Ikea Classic

Monday, April 28, 2014

Ikea is a staple in our house. Clean lines. Affordable prices. Check and check. My hubs bought these old Ikea barstools a long time ago for location shoots because they are lightweight and were extremely inexpensive. While the stools aren't bad, the bolts come loose really easily and require a bit of TLC every now and again to make them sturdy. (That's probably why they don't sell them anymore.) Unfortunately, it's currently not in our budget to buy new stools. So I gave our old grey stools a quick makeover with some spray paint and twine. Who doesn't love a good Ikea hack?
Oh, and my boys think popping off this black foot rest is a sport (annoying), so I happily discarded that piece in the makeover.
 I taped off the feet and the base of each leg on the underside of the stool with painters' tape...
Once a few coats of Rustoleum and a clear coat finish were dry, I brought the stools in and wrapped the footrest bar in twine. The twine I had on hand was pretty fuzzy, so I trimmed any long stragglers and applied a coat of Mod Podge so that the twine wouldn't unravel.
I love how they turned out. This should hold us over for a few more years. Hopefully. When the white seats get dirty, I just clean them off with my favorite sponge - the Magic Eraser.
And if I get sick of the mint green or twine... I'll just cut off the twine and grab a new color of spray paint. This project was really easy and cost me $0 since I already had everything I needed in my garage. Bam. My heart explodes with joy when that happens and I may or may not have done a happy dance around my kitchen.

What have you spray painted lately?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: T-shirt Bib

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Pointing fingers isn't really my jam. So I'll skip the pointing and just say... there are knit bibs retailing for upwards of $25.00! Choke. Choke. Gasp. Gasp. Yes, they're organic, super soft and have great prints, but if you're anything like me, you can't afford that. Why not make your own knit bandana bibs? It's really easy and will take you less than 30 minutes to make two!

Here's what you'll need:
1 old t-shirt
scissors
marker or pencil
ruler
sewing machine
Serge your raw edges or finish with a zigzag stitch.

This is where it gets fun... feel free to embellish your bibs with fun stitches. I used a neon green thread to create a graphic element on one of the bibs I made.
Here's my proverbial beef with selling bibs that have serge finishes - they fray! Easily. For this very reason, I went back over my ends with a straight stitch, as seen below.
 Bam! you're done. Easy huh? And look at how cute...
Y'all, that's two bibs for 66 cents and about 30 minutes of my time. You just can't beat that kind of return. And if you're wondering what I'm doing with the rest of the t-shirt - think dust cloths and bathroom cloths to clean up my counters every couple of days. (So much better than using a towel or washcloth every time.) Waste not, want not. xo

Last Minute Valentine's Gifts

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

My poor kitchen table has been covered in perler beads and craft supplies all week. And the craft heavens have opened - my boys are making all of their own Valentine gifts. Thank you Perler!!  Just in case you are a last minute mom, like myself, here's what we've done for my boys' classmates.

First let me tell you, I found the cutest Valentine monster cards at the Dollar Tree - no mushy stuff, just straight up "you're the coolest" sayings that would actually come from a boy's mouth. One package came with 30 cards, including 2 for teachers. They are the perfect size for attaching small gifts.
For the girls: barretts and rings
We made tiny little perler bead hearts and hot glued them onto inexpensive barretts (Dollar Tree) and metal rings from the craft store. (I bought the rings 2 years ago when they were on sale, but I had never done anything with them. This is starting to be a pattern huh?) Rings were attached to the cards with pipe cleaners.
For the boys: Minecraft Steve head and creeper head keychains. What else?
As you can see, we still have some creeper heads to make. The creeper head pattern can be found on Pinterest. You can find the Steve head there too, but my oldest made his from memory so they differ a bit from others I've seen online. We are attaching the "heads"to keyrings found at the crafts stores in bulk. My youngest made a few oversize hearts that we attached to some small carabiners I found at the Dollar Tree (4 for $1.00), and those work great for this craft as well.

All in all, I think our Valentine's ended up costing about 25-50 cents each. Best part - afternoons of busy bee crafting hands and zero candy.

Happy Crafting my little Valentine's. xo

Heartfelt Valentine's Cards

Friday, February 7, 2014

Do you ever start crafting and then just never finish? You end up packing the day's work away and then forget all about it? That's me. Often. More often than I'd like actually. So it's pretty great when I stumble upon an old project at just the right time... enter felt hearts. Last year I had some scrap felt lying around and while I was sick with the flu I started cutting out triangles and hearts in an attempt to feel human again. It didn't work, but it sure made for a great Valentine project a year later. 

I recently purchased some cute scrapbook paper for the upcoming holidays and birthday cards, etc. It has some lovely reds and pinks that were dying to be made into Valentine cards. I took my felt hearts, cut up some of the paper and began sewing.
You guys, this is so easy and the punny sayings are pretty limitless too. Here are a few that I've come up with so far, in case you decide to make some of these as well.

"Wishing you a heartfelt Happy Valentine's Day."
"My heart felts for you."
"Have a warm and fuzzy Valentine's Day."
"You make me feel all warm and fuzzy!"
"You make my heart felt."
"Somefuzzy loves you!"

I'm sure you guys have some puns too. Care to share? Come on... whatcha got? Valentine's Day is officially one week away! xo

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Coat Hanger Valentine Banner

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Lately, it seems as though I have been losing hair by the handful. This would have zero significance to this post if it weren't for a necessary drain unclogging event that recently took place. After said event, I was left with a brown paper "stick" for lack of a better term. Perhaps rod would be better. Anyway, I decided to use the "rod/stick" to create a Valentine Countdown Banner for the littles.

Materials: 
pant hanger
gold paint
brown craft paper
valentine stamp (found ours at Joann's in the $1.00 bin)
stamp pad
paint
twine
drinking glass
ruler
pencil
hot glue gun

step 1 - remove wire from rod and paint rod gold
step 2 - cut your craft paper down to size for banner (ours is 12" wide and about 16" long)
step 3 - using drinking glass, draw a circle onto your paper (centered towards the top)
step 4 - using your ruler measure spaces around the circle that allows for 14 stamp prints
step 5 - stamp your valentine stamp around the circle 14 times
step 6 - erase pencil markings
step 7 - using your hot glue gun, glue the banner to the "rod"
step 8 - cut your twine to hang your banner and attach to "rod"
step 9 - embellish your twine and banner with washi tape or other decorations (I added a painted heart to the center of our circle and outlined it in gold sharpie)

Starting February 1st, we will tick off the days leading up to Valentine's by coloring in the open hearts on each of the black "Feb 14" stamps. There you have it... an easy peasy Valentine Countdown banner for less than $5.00.

I used to loath Valentine's Day, but now that I have littles to dote all over, I love it. How 'bout you? Fan or Foe? xo

For the Love of Coffee

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

I love coffee. The aroma. The taste. The way it warms you up in the cold. And the way it wakes you up in the mornings. It's not just a drink, it's also a bonding agent. My friends and I gather over coffee often. I drink my coffee while I meet with God and read His word.  To me, coffee just goes hand in hand with the warmth of love of community. Silly I know. It's a bean. 

Now, let me tell you what I don't love. Fake. (Well, unless it's fake fur.) And because I love my coffee along with the pure joy it brings me... I don't want any fake in my coffee. I have tried a number of coffee creamer recipes found via Pinterest and much to my dismay, they have all disappointed. Until now. I have finally figured it out. It's all in the ratio. Ratio. Ratio. Very important, otherwise it's not sweet enough or the flavor is just all wrong.

Here's what you need to make the perfect creamer - Yes! I said perfect and I mean it. (If you're wondering why the two mason jars? - ratio! One can of sweetened condensed milk makes about 1.5 mason jars of creamer.)
 <half of each per container
.>>
Once you fill your container with half of each milk, add pure vanilla extract if you like French Vanilla creamer. One to two tablespoons depending on your preference. Before stirring, your creamer will look like this...
Mixing your ingredients well is also very crucial to a good consistent flavor. That's where the trusty blender (one of my most beloved Christmas gifts ever) comes in handy...
That contraption/mixer/extension or whatever you call it, is uh-mazing...blending all of the ingredients to absolute perfection.
Yum. Yum. Yummers. So simple right? Half and Half. Sweetened Condensed Milk. Vanilla. Three ingredients. Here's the kicker - not only does it taste great, but it's inexpensive and lasts us 2 weeks or more. I also use it in my tea, both Chai, pictured above, and Chamomile Vanilla. (I think I have a thing for vanilla. And sugar.) How do you take your coffee or tea? xo

PS - the hubs and I got an espresso maker for Christmas. I die!
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