Easy decor projects

Over the weekend I got the inspiration I needed (pinterest, of course!) to do a few projects around the place.

Most of my kitchen is visible from the door and I wanted something pretty for people walking in to see. I've had the idea to do a "coffee station" for quite a while but have been slowly gathering components to it together.

As I find more pieces (thrifting makes decorating go the long way home) and it really comes together I can let this space evolve. For now I'm loving it! I have an assortment of sugars, cinnamon, cocoa (for the poor man's mocha) and my matcha and melon syrup for my green tea frap. The little chalkboard I bought on jane.com and featured in some photos on my instagram. The chalkboard bunting is a free printable found here that I spent forever cut out and affixed over a jute string. Tiny, clear Command hooks hold it in place.

Also in the kitchen area I already hung my canvas art and had this idea about a clipboard for my grocery list. I buy a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables so my list is constant. I took a cheap clipboard and painted it with Plaid Crafts FolkArt Chalkboard Paint.

This was a brush on paint and the brushes I bought for this project were absolutely horrific. The paint is thick and needed something much smoother hence why I only painted part of this clipboard so far. My intention was to paint it in a pattern or design but with the brushes inability to keep within the lines....that didn't happen. But it still works great!

The canvas art I made by designing the words in picmonkey, printed it with my little home printer and Mod Podged it to a small canvas. This made it easy to hang and I didn't need to frame it.

The quote is from my favorite scene in Arrested Development. I looked high and low for a clip of this scene and couldn't find anything worth showing which is really sad because it was hilarious.

I also finally figured out how to hang this Eastside Distilling calendar that didn't have any holes in it. The idea of poking a hole in the lovely photography made me sad and then the other day I had an epiphany...

I've also taken to growing lavender indoors.

I read somewhere that lavender (and other aromatic herbs) purify the air and I'm obsessed with lavender so any old excuse will do.

See? Lavender obsessed.
Herbes de Provence goes into many of my dishes (it contains lavender) and I had a lavender lemonade the other day and all I can think about is going back to that cafe and getting another one and maybe a lemon lavender cookie to go with it.

And speaking of obsessed, a fruit salad with the combination of watermelon, strawberries and blueberries is what I eat at least twice a day.

I hope your life is as delicious as mine has been lately. And remember, if you miss me you can visit me on flickr or instagram where I post more regularly.

A hello and a "metal" necklace how-to

Happy Saturday to you!




Try not to faint as you see there's a new post. A lot has been going on and this poor blog has been so, so neglected. I had some people recently tell me they missed my posts and then I got a message via Etsy (Hi, Mary!) saying she'd read my whole blog and I thought...holy cow I haven't written anything in a long time! So you all can thank Mary for making me post something.
I admit a lot of my lackadaisical approach to blogging has to do with all the changes to blogger. I worked so hard to learn all the tricks and now everything is different and it gets exhausting; I am no computer genius.

Halloween has come and gone and I thought I would share his year's "costume." I don't care how old I get, I will absolutely grasp at any opportunity to "dress up," however, I work in an office and my costumes have to be fairly subtle.

Last year I was the Doctor from Doctor Who and this year I decided to be Sherlock. So two years in a row I've dressed as a British man. I'm not sure what to say about that.

For Christmas last year a friend bought me a "detective hat" and I bought myself a blue Pashmina style scarf which I believed was essential to the BBC Sherlock look but I knew the two elements together wouldn't necessarily scream Sherlock (I did look a bit Dickensian to be honest) so I decided to make a necklace to try and pull the look together.




Here was the final outcome. My coworkers exclaimed over the fact that I'd made it and that it looked like "real metal" which I'm taking as a good thing?

What you'll need:



Black paper (a sizeable scrap will do)
Metallic letter stickers
Small, sharp scissors
Tweezers
Two pair pliers
Chain
Metal jewelry frame (not shown)

The metal frame comes as the metal edging with two slides of glass. It has a hinge of sorts and you open it to removed the glass slides and can place whatever you like inside. I first cut my paper to fit the slides and then made sure I had enough room for my stickers. I would almost suggest waiting to cut the paper after you've placed the stickers on it, and then you can use the slides as a guide and make sure your design is centered. I ended up having to cut mine and placing a secondary piece of paper behind to frame it.

Cut your letter stickers out with the scissors and make sure you have enough room for them all. The frames come in a variety of shapes and metallic finishes so pick what will work best for your project.

I then peeled the stickers from their paper using the tweezers and was able to line them up and lay them down easily using the fine point.

Trim your paper as necessary, and place between the two glass slides and put back into the frame and close the hinge.

If you don't have unsoldered chain you will need wire cutters and some jump rings to connect the chain, but my chain was unsoldered so I was able to simply open the links and attach directly to the frame loop. My biggest pet peeve about "gold" jewelry supplies is that none of it matches which is why it is so rare to see anything of gold tones in my Etsy shop. I don't think it was too noticeable but I knew it didn't match perfectly.

And you're done! Talk about a simple project!

I did have a person ask me if there was significance to the numbers on my necklace. It was almost as depressing as the time I asked a library assistant for help and she didn't know who or what Jane Eyre was. Argh.

If you haven't seen BBC's Sherlock I highly recommend it. I believe they are on Netflix...
The Basil Rathbone films of Sherlock Holmes are also good.
I liked the Robert Downey Jr. version, but the sequel I did not enjoy as much.
And of course there's The Great Mouse Detective, an animated feature that is one of my favorites as well.

I've been reading the stories but am only 3 or 4 in so far. Have you read/watched any? What are your favorites?


 

Independence Day picnic utensil bundles

This is a re-post of a project I did last year but I've added photos and instructions on how to make the paper flowers. I hope this helps. You're welcome. :)

For all of us Americans our 4th of July Independence Day celebration usually means a barbecue, a picnic, or some kind of gathering in the sunny outdoors. I don't know about you, but my plastic utensils are all completely mismatched now that I only needed forks one time or only needed a spoon and a knife another, but I refuse to buy new when these will do. I would, however, like it to look less like I ran around to camp or picnic sites stealing a knife here and a fork there. To add a little unification and to take some of the hassle out of the food line I bundled the utensil sets inside a paper napkin and bound it together with a festive paper flower in flag colors.

Materials needed:
thin weight paper
scissors
glue
green covered floral wire

Optional but recommended materials:
sewing pin
circle punch

You can start with colored paper but make sure it is a thin weight paper as you'll be folding it several times and the thicker it is, the more difficult it will be to fold. If you don't have colored paper available computer printer paper works just great.

If using printer paper:
Do not use a circle punch, the paper is too thin and it will likely tear instead. Use a biscuit or cookie cutter, jar lid, compass, etc. to trace your circles and cut them by hand.
When you've gone through the steps listed below you can then color your plain paper by making a wash (paint and water mixture) to color your flowers.

Cut floral wire in half and dab some glue on each end to keep the covering from fraying loose when you try to work with it. When that is dry curl one end in on itself to create the flower center. While the glue is drying...

Cut or punch your circles.


Fold your circle in half, then in half again, then in half again - it should form a tiny cone shape (see below).
Trim the wide end to a rounded edge - this will form the "petals" when you unfold it.


Cut down one of the fold lines - it doesn't matter which - then trim the top and side off the "petal" to give yourself a little flap.

Dab glue on your newly made flap and bring your sides together, putting the flap behind the whole petal. This adds dimension to your flower. Let glue dry.


When your glue has dried, use a sewing pin to make a hole in the center of the flower - this will make it easier to push your floral wire through.

Et voilà!

Now gather your utensils inside a paper napkin and use the floral wire to bind them together creating a napkin ring/bundle all in one!





Enjoy your Independence Day!

Linking to:

Creations by Kara

Everything Etsy

Tea Party decorations

It's almost time for a very important date - The Mad Tea Party hosted by A Fanciful Twist!

I have been madly preparing as this year (my second year participating) will be a party with lots of guests.

To get in to the party one must have a ticket. (A digital purchase from MM Scrap Shoppe)


I'll be serving mint water along with the tea so I made some tags to tie to the carafes. I used my tag punch, hand-wrote the message (which explains a lot about how it looks, doesn't it?) and used a mini-stamp to decorate the edge.

As a fan of the Swanky Tables blog I saw these party banners recently and rummaged through my supplies.


I used white garden string, white glue and wide ribbon (and smaller ribbon to fill in) with edges cut to points.


Of course if you want one that looks REALLY good the lovely Paperklip Design has a fantastic assortment.

Next I tackled the mini top hat using Fetish Faerie's instructions. I made mine out of paper and I really recommend using fabric instead - that way you can stitch your seams together and I think it would just be way, way easier. Here in it's not-quite-complete state:

Oh drat! I didn't get a photo of my Merry Unbirthday banner. Well you can see it here at the party on the 26th - don't be late for this very important date!

Cake bite recipe found here. Candied orange peel recipe here.

Linking to:

Making the World Cuter

How I did it: little girl's first birthday

Whew the birthday part is over and it was a success! I felt like I was running around to get decorations completed on time but it was really a lot of fun.

I've been seeing pennant/bunting style banners all over the place and wanted to try one. The theme was lavender and pink and, borrowing from my mom's and Judy's stash of fabric (and using Martha Stewart's template) I cut 13 triangles using the pinking blade rotary cutter. That way I wouldn't have to worry about fraying or adding another layer to the back. I'm lazy when it comes to sewing, what can I say? :)

Now for the hard part. I needed a binding and I needed to sew it together. If I shared some of the sewing machine stories I had, you would completely understand why I don't like to sew. So I did what anyone would do in this situation: I asked my mom. :)
She has a super nice Bernina and I think she was glad to have an excuse to use it.

Originally I had plans to cut some fabric letters to spell out "happy birthday" on the banner, but I got to thinking that, since this is fabric and reusable, maybe she'd like to use it for a tea party someday or maybe she'd like to hang it up in her room after the party. That in mind, I used my scallop circle punch to cut some white paper which I stamped. Then I Scotch taped them on. You couldn't even tell they weren't permanently fastened. Total easy fix.

Using the same scallop circle punch and my larger smooth circle punch I cut pink and lavender paper and embossed the birthday girl's name using some "Vintage Rose" Distress Ink embossing powder.

I punched holes in each side using a regular old hole punch and ran ribbon through the holes. Super easy and I already had all the supplies.

On pretty much every party website and blog I've ever seen in the history of ever they are making the tissue poms and they look so fantastic. I knew a frilly girl's party wouldn't be complete without them. I used some leftover floral wire I had sitting around and I made a little noose looking loop so I'd have an easier time hanging them with the fishing line.

For the how-to, I used Martha's instructions here. Mine didn't turn out as well as hers. My cousin Mario helped me with them and mine didn't turn out as good as his either. I'm a failure at poms? Good grief!

The other dangles in the window were made using more ribbon-on-hand and some pretty paper cut out with my paper punches and layered. These seem to be popular in party decor as well. They are so simple and I really liked the extra touch they added to the window.

I also found out by accidentally gluing my hair into one of them that tiny paper punches can be glued back to back in your hair and they totally stay as long as you don't yank on them. :)

I also put together a couple of dishes made from dollar store stuff because I've seen it done everywhere and just really wanted to try it. For some reason my dollar stores (yes every single one in my area) hate me and don't sell the same stuff they appear to sell in every other state and I had to make do with these.

The birthday girl's mom bought dishes at Ross and Dollar Tree to use for platters and bowls and I brought along the cake plate I scored in a garage sale free box along with the candy dishes I made.

You can see the name banner on the wall along with some extra circles I punched out of leftover paper and simply Scotch taped to the wall (by making it double sided and sticking it to itself, I didn't leave the tape visible. Just had to clarify that)

Aside from the Snowballs and the foil wrapped candy my friend made all the food - meringue cookies made with food coloring, popcorn balls colored with strawberry and grape Jell-O. Cupcakes she made and frosted by colorinng white canned frosting, and the candy-dipped pretzels she made using colored candy melts. Lots and lots of pretzels.

Of course we had goodies left over and since I stayed a few extra days to clean up (and to have fun and visit) there was much sampling of the leftovers. So much so that I was inspired to make a little drawing.

All in all - this was a pretty inexpensive and easy party that was handmade but I think it came together fabulously. And when we took it all down, all the decorations were perfect to put up in the little girl's room - now she can look at the pretties (which she kept pointing at with enthusiasm) every day.

For more detailed pictures of all the pink and lavender goodness, see yesterday's Mosiac Monday post.

My decor and the sweet birthday girl even got photographed by Ober Digital Media. Check out the photos here.

Linking to:

Making the World Cuter

The DIY Show Off

A Soft Place to Land

Adventures in cardmaking

I choose not to card shop much anymore. Last time I tried I think I created some frown lines reading those awful and ridiculous lines that you just can't believe someone got paid to write. My cousin gave me a package of cardstock pre-cut and creased into card shapes and even includes some envelopes and I've been using those for all my special occasion needs. Plus it's just way more fun. :)

My brother's birthday was in March so I made him a card of some of his favorite things, diamond plate chrome and tire tracks. The "diamond plate" is a scrap of scrapbook paper - I used it as my base, layering a piece of rippled carstock covered by...

...another piece of cardstock that I made tire tracks on. Super easy! Just use a toy car, roll the back tires over an ink pad and vroom vroom your way to a custom pattern. He loved it. :)

Several couples I know recently announced engagements with weddings set for this summer. I've been dying to make a cute layered cake using this tiny pom trim I bought from Christopher Pines so this is perfect! This one is a work in progress, just so you know. :)

The layers: I cut the oval out of the white card and layered the pink behind it, window style. For the cake layers I first embossed strips of paper using the "vintage rose" distress powder. The cake stand and topper are rub-ons by Heidi Grace Designs (found in scrapbooking locales all over the place). Around my oval I put a piece of my ever-present dictionary page - I'm not sure I'll ever use them all up!

Inside the front cover of the card I used the "love" dictionary page with a pair of rub-ons highlighting the important part.

So, any fabulous ideas on what I can use to cover the gap between my dictionary page and pink oval? I've been pondering it a good month now and I'd appreciate some ideas!