Halloween Banner (a little late....)

Better late than never right?

The reason I post this now?

Because it just went up last night!

It took me about 15 minutes, if that long, to make it.

Quick  and Easy, just how I like it!

I used Halloween themed scrapbook paper to cut out my triangles. Then trimmed the top with washi tape, to add little visual interest and also for a little extra support on the corners where I punched my holes for the twine.

Punched out 2 different shaped circles and added my green letters.

Thread the twine and hang it up! Easy, oh so easy! You should try it!

 

 

Hope you guys have a great Halloween!



DIY Beverage Tags

 

I absolutely love Ballard Designs, the design is so me and I could go crazy with the plastic if given the chance!

One day while browsing through the magazine I came across these beverage tags.

The price in the catalog was $18 for a set of 6, which is a very reasonable price, but I thought to myself that it would be fun to try and make them myself.

I started off my visiting my local Michael's store, I picked out the tags and headed home.

I had some black rub-on letters in my scrapbooking supplies and thought that would be perfect for the words on the tags. 

 

They went on well, but you just had to be careful to go slow and take your time because the texture of the tag was a little rigid and you have to be sure to get the entire letter onto your tag or it would be hard to line up the portion of the letter that didn't go on the first time.

 

After all the words were on the tags, I decided to add some scrapbook paper to the back of the tag, mostly because the price sticker for the tag was stuck to the back and I could not remove it completely and this solution took care of that ugly problem. I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the back.

There was one tag that I did not have a word for, so I thought that by covering the tag in a Chalkboard sticker would be cool, that way the host could use it for any beverage just by writing in chalk the name of the beverage on the tag.

 

To age the tags a little, I used Ranger Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap around the edges of the tag till I got the look I was going for.

 

Then I covered each tag with 2 layers of Mod Podge, allowing each layer to dry in between coats. Then added twine to hang the tags.  And I must say I love the results!

 

 

The tags are so cute on the pitcher! I made these as a  Christmas gift for a special person, I hope she likes them!

 

 

 

The tags are perfect for a gathering of friends at home, a bridal or baby shower or even a family BBQ in the backyard.

 



 

Have you been making any Christmas gifts for friends and family?

 

 

 





 

Halloween Wreath

Yeah, I know that Halloween is still over a month away, but I just wanted to get everything ready so when Oct. 1st arrived, all I had to do was take my fall wreath down and replace it with this one.

To make my wreath, I began by recycling this grapevine wreath, I just removed all the flowers, twigs, etc. and since the grapevine wreath was still in good shape, I decided to use it again this year as the base for my Halloween wreath. I spray painted the wreath with gloss black spray paint (love it!).

 

After the wreath was dry, I gathered a few items, paint, plastic Halloween goodies and black duck tape.



Here is a close up of the paint I used, Martha Stewart glitter craft paint from Michaels (love that stuff!) and orange acrylic paint I picked up at Wal-Mart a while back.

I painted several spiders, a bat and a skeleton and left to dry.

For the "Boo To You" I used Hemp Cord from Wal-Mart as the string to hold the banner together and made the flags out of the black duck tape. I folded the tape over the cord and cut a V into the bottom of the flag. I used my Cricut to cut the letters, then glued the letters onto the duck tape and tied the banner onto my wreath.

I knew that my wreath still needed a little something, so I used more of the Hemp Cord, this time in white and made a spider web. I cut the cord into lengths that I wanted and placed them into the shape of a spider web on top of wax paper, then used a paint brush and painted regular school glue on the cord to hold the web shape together. After it dried I peeled it off the wax paper and hot glued it onto my wreath.

After placing the web on the wreath I filled in spaces with the painted Halloween spiders and bats.

 

 The completed project:

 

 

 

 

Linking up: ItsyBitsyPaperBlog 2012 Wickedly Creative Halloween Ideas Linky Party, TatertotsandJello & BrassyApple

 



DIY Wall Art-Boy Bedroom

For a while now, I have had the urge to redo R's room. On one wall, there is a large map and the color of his room is navy blue. It was not hard to come up with a theme--travel, adventure, water. I was not really wanting to go all nautical, but more like pieces that could be about more than one idea.

So I began looking for wall art for the area above the bed. I wanted something sorta big but not too overwhelming. I was not able to find anything that I liked so I thought that I could just come up with something on my own. I bought 2 16 x 20 canvas and went to work.

My first thought was that I would just make the canvas a solid color and have one word across the canvas.
This is what it looked like (sorry the photo is so dark, this is where all things messy with paint happen in our home and the lighting is not good).

 

And I HATED it! I used oil based red paint to paint the letters on and I was like  "what am I going to do now?". So it sat, for like a couple of weeks till I finally thought of something! Since the theme is travel, adventure; I thought about a map art with a twist. :)

 



I picked up a map at Target and found a quote online that I loved and thought that the combination would be perfect for his room.

As a test to see if the quote would fit on my canvas I cut out the letters in plain cardstock with my Cricut and laid them out to see how it would look.

Awesome! They all fit and my vision of the finished product rocked in my head so I kept going!

I had to paint over the word DISCOVER (and that word was not a good choice in the beginning because my husband too one look at it and said "Disc Over". I was not able to get that out of my head and to be honest that was the first thing I thought when I looked at it too!) Anyway 2 coats of Kilz later and this is what it looked like

As you can see the red was still visible. So I had to come up with a background first and so I used a color that we had left over from another room so I thought that I would use it instead of buying more paint. I painted the canvas with 2 coats of the leftover light brown paint.  And let it dry.

In the meantime, I got my map and cut out sections that I wanted to use and with my Cricut, I cut out each letter. Again.

After all the letters were cut and the paint was dried, the letters were arranged in order on the canvas, it looked like this

Side Note: I used old picture frames (from an idea that I have not tackled yet) under my canvas to elevate it so it would not be laying directly on my table and allowed the paint and later the glue to dry on the sides.
After all the letters were arranged to my liking, I glued all the letters down one by one with Mod Podge (LOVE that stuff!). Then when all the letters were glued down I went back over both with another layer of Mod Podge, it gave it a glossy look which I love!

And the finished product:

What do you think? 

Although it took a while to figure out what I was going to do, but when I did, it all came together nicely!

Office Chair Redo

This chair was just waiting for someone to give it a little love. So I did! I wanted a pretty chair for my craft area but I did not want to spend alot of money for one, so I decided that I could just recover the chair in any fabric I wanted.

I took off to my local Hobby Lobby and found a fabric that I LOVED! It had colors in it that would coordinate with my craft space.

I brought the fabric home and got busy. I gathered a few items that I knew I was going to need.
Screwdriver
Scissors
Staple Gun
Staple Remover Tool
Fabric Glue
Small brush (for the glue)

I took the chair apart. That was easy but the whole time I am thinking that I hoped I could remember how to put the chair back together once I finished. (I did, kinda).

I had to remove the fabric on both cushions and on the back panel that goes on the back of the chair. That is where the staple remover helped out alot. The cushions and panel were still in good shape so I just put my fabric right on top.

I cut each section and then began to staple the fabric to the cushions. I started with the sides and then stapled the corners last, making sure to get the corners just right and where they would all look the same. (I just gathered the fabric, creased it and pulled tight and stapled it to the under part of the cushion.) I had a tough time at first getting my staples to go completely flush into the wood backing that the cushions were attached to but this is where my hammer came into play. Just hammer those staples in and move on.

 The backrest cushion is where I had to add a little fabric glue because the cushion was not exactly flat so I brushed the glue onto the cushion (a thin layer) then pressed the fabric on and let it sit overnight to dry completely.  (I only used glue on the backrest cushion). After each cushion was completed I did the same on the armrests.

It helps if you have a handsome handy husband who is willing to help you out a little. It made a huge difference when one person was helping stretch the fabric and hold it in place while the other person staples it. After all the fabric was done it was time to put the chair back together, I got it put back together almost completely when I realized I had a screw leftover and thank goodness my handsome husband came to check on me and helped me put the chair back together the right way.  I was so happy to see it come together and I must say that I LOVE IT!

It looks so good in my space and I cannot believe that it looks so good, it was my first time trying this so I will be doing this again! And it cost me just under $14.00!

 

Linking up to Liz Marie Blog.