Valentines Day Love Banner

Today I had a little time to think of what I wanted to do for my Valentines Day mantle.  I dont usually decorate the house too much for Valentines- just a wreath on the door, festive placemats (kind of my weakness, not going to lie), a table centerpiece and my mantle.

I saw this tutorial on Sarah's blog Life Sweet Life and I thought it would be perfect to hang up to complete the Valentines Day love.

It is super easy to make, and really only took about 45 minutes.

Supplies:

1/4 to 1/2 yard of burlap (which is $3.99 per yard at JoAnns- its a steal!)

Paint

Ribbon

Triangle template

LOVE letters printed on their own sheet of paper

Scissors, Paint brushes, tape and a glue gun

First start by tracing your triangle template onto the burlap, then cut out the triangles.

Then, making sure your drawn on side is down, lay a triangle over one of the letters you've printed out.  I used Elephant font and it was sized at 300.

Tape the triangle down with a piece of tape so it doesnt take off as you paint.

Since the burlap is nice and see-thru you can see the letter behind it, so you simply trace the outline with a paint pen or a paint brush if you have a steady hand.

Fill in the rest of the letter and set it on a paper towel to dry.

Once they are all dry, flip them over and attach a ribbon with a hot glue gun and Volia.

Since I already had everything except the ribbon and burlap, this project cost me a whopping $4.

Now the hubs wants one for Birthdays, Spring, and Christmas. So I told him what any loving wife would, "Get to painting then, dear!"

Now, I think that blue Mason jar needs some burlap roses. In red.



DIY Letter Art on the Cheap!

I totally love the art where objects spell out letters.

You know, this stuff

Photo Credit

But with an average price of $7 a letter unframed- it gets a little pricey when your last name has 9 letters (thanks hubs!).

We have one that I received as a present for our wedding in our entryway, and the hub's grandparents admire it every time they come over. So for Christmas this year I knew that is what I wanted to get them- but I wasn't about to pay $70. I was determined to DIY it.

Well first I thought I could go out and take pictures myself, but with being massively preggers, then a newborn and dicey weather that was out.

Then I found Leo Reynold's Flickr site.

This man is awweesomee! He has thousands of pictures of letters and numbers and allows you to use them for free.

So using that and Microsoft Publisher I came up with this:

If you go under Page Design in Publisher and click on Margins then Custom Margins at the bottom. Once the window pops up, click on the Grid Guidelines tab and add as many rows and columns as you need. This gives you nice even squares to fit your images in. Once you find the letter you want, right click and change the size to Medium 640. Then make the window smaller, and leave it open over the blank Publisher document. Then you can click and drag the letter and drop it into your Publisher page and re size it to fit the blue grid lines.

Once you get your art the way you like it, you need to save it as a jpeg.  To do this click Save As, then at the bottom it says Save As a. Click the drop down menu and choose JPEG File Interchange Format.  Then change the resolution from standard to High Quality (300 dpi).  Then all you have to do is upload it to your favorite photo printing website and have it printed. Buy yourself a frame (bonus points if you have a coupon!) and you're good to go.

Total cost- $4.99 for the 11x13 Print at Ritz on Sale and $9.99 for the frame (50% off at Michaels) makes this custom gift less than $15.  Much better than the $70 without a frame (and I'm sure a 9 opening photo frame would cost an arm and a leg as well!)

So have fun playing around, lovelies, and show me what you made!

DIY Christmas Card Holder

I don't know about you, but I hate taping Christmas cards to my walls. So after spending a few minutes of nap time searching Pinterest (yes, just a few minutes...not the whole hour long nap...no, I never spend THAT much time sucked into the wonderful world that is that website!) I got inspired.

Ta-Dah!

One 11 x 14 canvas ($1.99 at Pat Catans), one 25 pack of clothes pins ($1.79), and some paint and ribbon and I think it turned out quite alright!

I painted the canvas with light green, then painted the one side of the clothes pins with holiday green and holiday red (no lie, that's the name on the colors I bought for $0.50 each today)

Dip the back of the paint brush into the paint and you have an instant dot painter...but stripes would look equally cute. I was home with Mr. Man alone today so he wasn't really feeling me taking too much time away from making silly faces and playing peek-a-boo to do stripes on mine.

Then once everything is dry hot glue the clothes pins on, using the metal piece as a guide so theyre all even and thats pretty much it!

At a total cost of around $5 it sure beats the $50 one that I saw on etsy! Plus, while it was drying I got to stick my kid in his stocking and take his picture :)

Gah, those eyes...just like his daddy!

DIY Closet Size Dividers

When I was over at a friends house looking at her baby's nursery I saw in the closet clothing size dividers. She told me she got them at Babies R Us for $10- so I checked...sold out in blue AND green. Well, not to be discouraged I figured it was something I could make myself on the cheap- and I did! I picked up my supplies- blank closet size dividers (eBay seller, $5 for 20 of them plus free shipping!), scrapbook paper (5 for $1), vinyl sheet for the letters (already on hand), Mod Podge, some scrap cardboard, and a foam brush.

I started by tracing one of the blank dividers onto the cardboard to make a template. The edges are raised, so I wanted the scrapbook paper to fit down into the insert. By making my cardboard piece to fit, all I had to do was trace it 16 times to make the set. This took some trimming of the cardboard to get a perfect fit...and I may or may not have wanted to chuck the whole thing out the window and just cough up the $10...but I'm too proud and far too cheap for that, so on I pressed.

Once it was a perfect fit I traced and cut out my scrapbook paper. I made a bunch of them, and I made sure to flip my template over so that the animals on the paper were right side up on each side of the divider.

Once they were all cut out I busted out the Mod Podge and painted on a thick layer. Then I adjusted the paper to fit the opening and let it dry. Note- in 90 degree heat and high humidity Mod Podge dries QUICK. Like, I wasted a circle because I took the time to pick up the camera to take this action shot and it dried in place- insert curse word *here*.

Then I busted out my Cricut and cut out the labels for the dividers...I chose to go with Newborn, 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12, 18 and 24 months.

Yes. I'm anal retentive and ridiculous.

The pre-packaged ones come with 5, and I wanted more so I made more. We have not even had the baby shower yet and already I have two Rubbermaid totes of clothes for our little guy- I want to be able to see what we have and what we need quickly. It only took one 12x12 sheet of vinyl (a 12x24 sheet is $1.89 at Expressions Vinyl) to make all of my labels, and about 20 minutes of cutting time. Once they were cut off, I peeled them off and stuck them on. I made my letters one inch in size, so you could easily see the sizes inside of the closet. Because they were vinyl and self stick, I didn't need to worry about gluing them down. Then I added a coat of Mod Podge at the top to seal everything in and they were done! Now, we just need to get hubs to clear his junk out of the Bean's closet, and I can get to work painting and organizing. Here's hoping it won't wait until after the little guy arrives??

DIY Vinyl Calendar

Step one of getting organized involves making sure everyone is where they need to be when they need to be there. A few months ago I saw this project over at Sarah's blog Life Sweet Life and thought "hmm I can do that!" Well today, I decided it was time to get started.

I had an old picture frame lying around the house that I had bought on clearance for $3.00 at JoAnn's a long time ago. . (Please forgive the bad pictures, the good camera was dead so my point and shoot will have to do!)

I removed the back and hot glued the glass to the frame. I simply ran a line of hot glue around the frame and inserted the glass. Then to make sure it was in there good and tight I added another layer to the top of of the glass and folded down the tabs on the back of the frame to secure the glass. I used my Cricut to cut out the vinyl that I got super cheap at http://www.expressionsvinyl.com/. I purchased a 12x24 sheet of one of about 38 colors for around $1.89. Go to Michaels and two sheets is going to cost at least $9, and you cant get near as many colors. Shipping was also very cheap and very fast.

My kitchen is light blue and white, so I went with a black, dark blue and gray color scheme. I used the Cricut Cartridge Designers Calendar that I got on clearance, I use it to make really fun calendars for my classroom. It already had the blank calendar and the days of the week on it, I just had to choose which ones I wanted and hit cut!

I knew I wanted the calendar to be dry-erase, so I used the flip feature to cut the words out backwards and stuck them on the back of the glass. I know the Cricut Expression has this button, but Im not sure about the other Cricut machines.

I used brackets to signify where I can write in the Month and added our name for a little personalization. After it was all stuck on there, I went over it with some windex to remove fingerprints and Volia- Done!

As for sizes- the frame is 12x12, so I cut out an 8 inch calendar box. The days of the week are all 1 inch, the name is 1 1/2 inches and the brackets are 2 inches. I left some space at the side to write in any notes that I may need to remember that month. All I need to do is find a skinny dry erase marker and Im good to go!

The best part- I already had all of the supplies, making this a free project :)

Now- the next challenge is to actually get the hubs to use it....we'll see how it goes!