Halloween FUN!!!



I have been so excited to decorate for Halloween! I know, I know, its WWWAAAY too early! I don't even care!  I love this time of year when it's starting to get a little cooler, and you can start to spend more time in your house and decorate!!! I love to burn my pumpkin spice candle and make soup in the crock pot!! Am I weird, or does anyone else love that too? Anyway...I just wanted to post some of the projects I have been working on this week.

First is this darling lamp shade. When it comes to decorating for any holiday I like to use what is already in my home. I have these two lamps on my piano all year round. I have always wanted fun and funky Halloween lamps, so I decided to make some! I just simply cut strips of Halloween fabric that I had in my sewing scraps and tied them onto the shade. And then voila, I have a really fun Halloween lamp that cost me NOTHING! I can just take the scraps off when Halloween is over and I am set to do it again for Christmas!!





Here is my Halloween mantle. I love changing the mantle up for every Holiday, but I usually keep the basics up there and use them to layer and add some dimension to the design. I leave the oval white mirror up all year, and just add a frame, or a wreath, or whatever to get the look that I want. For Halloween I added the gold frame, and the oval gold mirror. I cut the crow out with my silhouette and added some glitter. You can always use glitter! I just taped it on with double sided tape and it was just what I wanted. The candles and candle sticks are used a lot on the mantle too. I just change the ribbon on the candle. If you can use what you already have it saves a lot of money, and gives you a lot more options.



 I found these plates at the dollar store! They were just plain black and I added those white sticker labels for polka dots(I think they are used for writing prices at  yard sales and stuff?).  Cheap and cute!!  Perfect for Halloween!

Another thing that I already have, but like to change up for each Holiday are my old Windows up on my plant shelf. I added some spider webs and spiders for Halloween! Seriously, just look around your house and get creative1 You will be surprised how much awesome stuff you have that you can play with!!

Painted Rug

I have been loving all of these stripped rugs I have seen in home decor magazines like Ballard design, Country Living, and even Pottery Barn. I just don't love the price you would have to pay to get one. So I found this rug at Costco for like 25 bucks! I already had some blue paint left over from painting a wall, so this was a pretty cheap project! First I grabbed my blue painters tape and put a strip of tape every 12 inches.

Then I painted every other section. after it dried I did one more coat.

Then just take the tape off, and you are done!

It was as easy as that! It adds a pop of color and looks awesome!

Goody Goody Gumballs!

I have been saving jars for some time now, not really knowing what for??? So I had this idea to use them for teacher gifts for Valentines day! They turned out so cute that I made some for me for decorations too!

I just used some old peach jars, and some cute jars that I found at Hobby Lobby (the smaller one) for $1.50! I found the candle sticks at the dollar store. All you have to do is...drill a hole in the lid, paint the lid, and put the knob on. I found these knobs at Hobby Lobby. They are always 1/2 off now! I used some glue called Glass Bond to glue the candle stick to the jar. And done! You could fill it with whatever you want, but I love gumballs!! They look so cute, and you can find individual packs of colors at any party store.

I added some tulle and ric rac to the ones I am giving as gifts! They look so darn cute! I think I will add a cute tag to them too.

I think I will give these smaller ones to the ladies I visit teach.

Hooray for Valentines Day!

I made some fun Valentines decorations that I wanted to share with all of you!!

Pennant banners are all the rage right now, and so is burlap....so I cut out some X's and O's with my silhouette, and stenciled them on. Then I added some glitter to the letters and around the outside. I love how it sparkles at night when the chandelier is on!

I have some twigs in a vase on my fireplace mantel. I decided to cut some hearts out of old book pages and some with just regular cardstock using the silhouette. I just hung them on the twigs and it added a cute little Valentine touch!

I Love to take pictures of my little ladies!! I change the pictures for every Holiday! I love having my kids be part of my decorating. They really have a lot of fun with this! For Halloween they all wore witch hats, and for Christmas they were dressed in lime green sitting in front of a lighted tree. Its fun to edit the pictures and add sayings or poems. For Valentines I spelled the word LOVE!

I had some left over Burlap, so I just bought some wreath forms from the dollar store and wrapped strips of burlap around them. This project seriously took only 15 minutes, and I love how it turned out! I just tied some ribbon around it, and added some felt flowers and it turned out great!

Everyone has probably seen these coffee filter wreaths. I made this one last fall, and it has had a few different looks! I used a grapevine wreath form from the dollar store, and then just folded and glued the filters on. I love that it cost me only 3 dollars! For Halloween I used a foam stencil brush and just dabbed a little black on the edged. It looked darling! Then at Christmas I did the same thing over top of the black with gold paint. Then I added some glitter while the paint was still wet. So....why not change it again? I added pink paint and red glitter for Valentines day! I sure have gotten my 3 dollars worth out of it!

Lamp Re-do

This lamp was really fun, and I adore it! I made it for a little craft fair booth I did this summer. I didn't make it to sell, just to decorate my booth...but I could have sold it in a second because I had sooooo many people ask me if it was for sale. When I said no they asked if I would sell it anyway. I guess I maybe should have! A lot of ladies came into the booth to inspect the lamp and see how I did it. They were amazed to find out that it was really fast and simple. But your not surprised right? I am all about fast and simple! Oh, and ruffles! I have the lamp in my babies nursery now. It is a perfect addition to her sweet little room.

Here is what the lamp looked like before....BORING!

I ruffled 3 strips of fabric. Then I simply hot glued each strip onto the shade. That's it! Easy huh?

Then I just spray painted the lamp base. I LOVE spray paint. It's like magic!

The great thing about this is that you can make it to match any color scheme. There is such cute fabric out there- you could make a lamp shade and pillows to match! I love anything you can customize with fabric. It gives a room a splash of color and personality.

Thats right....its a new post!!!

Can you believe I am finally posting something? I have had a crazy busy summer! No time for building and creating things. It has been sad, I have missed creating and blogging....but I'm back now! So for my first project I decided to finally do something about the hideous chairs in my garage. Take a look at these beauties!

All I did first was take the seat off and strip the fabric. Then I grabbed a can of my favorite spray paint and let 'er have it! I love the ocean breeze color by Krylon. Then with the seat part I just got some cute fabric that matches the paint and cut it just a little bigger than my seat.


Then I just hot glued the fabric around the seat. All you have to remember is to pull it tight, and kind of gather it on the corners. EASY! This part took about 5 minutes.

Then I trimmed the excess and that's it....its done!

Different seats attach to the chair in different ways. This one just kind of clicks in, but I think the other ones I have screw in. Either way, it's pretty easy. It is well worth the 30 minutes it will take you to spray paint and re-do the seat. Look at how amazing it looks now....

I also did one the green color that is in the fabric. It turned out darling too. They look so cute together. They used to be an embarrassment that I would never take out and have a friend sit on, but now they are the conversation at the party! I have 2 more that I am going to finish today. I am just going to do one more green one and another blue one. They will be a fun little set that I will use for lots of fun stuff!

Party Decor Ideas (cheap and easy!)

First of all... sorry it has been so long since I have added a new post. I have been on vacation, and also just super busy with the kids being home for summer! This post is inspired by the Birthday parties I have thrown for two of my little girls the last couple of months. These ideas are quick, cheap, and easy! I guess that's kind of the theme here on this blog...and my house! Also, most of these projects can be done with items you already have in your home.

Above is a paper cupcake baking cup garland. It turned out darling! I used 3 different designs. All you have to do is get a needle, thread some thick thread, or fishing line through it, and then slide the cups right on. String them facing different ways in a random pattern. Make it as long as you want and hang it up! This is a really fun decoration for a Birthday party, baby shower, wedding shower, or any kind of party. Red, White, and Blue would look so awesome for a 4th of July BBQ!

These little cupcake picks really add a lot to a cupcake. These are baby bottles that I cut out with my cricut and then hot glued to a tooth pick and stuck it right into the cupcake. Perfect for a baby shower! For a Birthday party you could personalize it for the Birthday girl or boy. My daughter loves everything pink, so for her Birthday I did a sparkly pink and turquoise present cut-out on a toothpick. She loved it! You could do princess crowns, dinosaurs, cars, whatever...the possibilities are endless! Once again....think Red, White and Blue for your summer BBQ!

Next are my very favorite party decorations! I love them so much because they are HUGE! I can't think of a better way to add a pop of color to a room than with these. I am sure you have all seen these, but if not, here is a quick tutorial on how to make an awesome "puff ball". 1- see above picture...take 8 sheets of tissue paper and lay them on top of each other. Then fold them into a 1 1/2 inch fan. Then I like to loosely tape the middle. then tie a long piece of fishing line in the middle.

2- Start to carefully pull each piece away from the other. alternate sides.

3- Now you have one half done! ow do the other side the same way. When you have done both sides you have your "puff ball!" You will have to move each piece around a little until it looks nice and full.

4- Hang them up and enjoy!

My last idea for this post is a little thing I did this week for my daughter Brielle's Birthday. I wanted to make her feel special on her special day so I cut her name out with my cricut, and then just used some cute clothes pins that we painted and hung them up on a pennant banner that we already had hanging on the fireplace. I love when you can add to an existing decoration.

This is a really easy way to decorate for someones Birthday without spending much time or money. Think of a way to add their name, or favorite thing to your current decor. This way, it looks great. like you spent lots of time, but really you just embellished an existing look. Also...It does away with those cheesy dollar store Birthday signs! YAY! (sorry if you love those!)

Bedroom Makeover!

A good friend of mine asked me to come over and help with some ideas for her little girls room she was working on. I came over expecting to see a big mess that needed a lot of help, and this is what I saw! It was love at first sight! I was so impressed! She did an amazing job. She was looking for a little more though. She wanted an idea on how to add more color to the room. I usually go straight to window treatments. This room was a little more tricky because she has those awesome plantation shutters on the windows, so curtains would not work. I gave her the idea of a pennant banner. She went and picked out fabric and we made a killer banner!
It turned out AMAZING! It really added the pop of color to the room that she was looking for. It was really simple and we had a lot of fun doing it.We didn't even use a sewing machine! Here is a quick tutorial on how to make your own pennant banner:
1-Find some awesome fabric
2-Get a ruler and a piece of card stock paper and make a triangle the size you like.
3-Cut the fabric using the paper pattern you just made.
4-I used pinking shears to go around the edges of the triangles. This helps keep the fabric from fraying, and adds a fun bit of texture to the fabric.
5- get out the hot glue gun and glue those bad boys on! We used jute, but depending on the look you are going for you could use anything. Ribbon, ric-rac, or even rope.
6-Hang it up and enjoy!

We decided that the room needed a big tree. So what did I do? Yep- I painted one right on the wall! My friend was a little nervous I think, but willing to give it a try. (the vinyl ones we found were SUPER expensive!) Her husband had access to a projector at work, so we had him bring it home. I painted trees on my own wall free hand, but I was too scared to do that on hers. So we found an image of a tree that we loved, and projected it onto the wall. Then I traced it, and then painted it. It took about 4 coats of paint, but it turned out great! I adore this!

This room is amazing! I had tons of fun helping with it. Thanks Amy!

EASY Burlap Wreath

This wreath is a perfect summer wreath for your front door, or anywhere. It is super simple and fun to make. The items you will need for this project are listed below.
1- Some kind of wreath form. I just bought a wreath from the dollar store.
2- Burlap. Any color, you will need less than a yard.
3- Scissors and hot glue
4-something fun to put on wreath....ie. I cut a letter "B" out of a sheet of moss. You could use anything like a small birds nest, flowers, whatever you want.
First I just cut long strips out of burlap. you will need 2 long strips. One strip wider than the other. (about double the width.) Then I just started to glue it on the wreath. I just put the hot glue on the wreath and layed the burlap on top and pinched it about every 1/2 inch. This makes it look cute and ruffled.

Ruffle it all the way around. Then do the same with the thinner strip right on top of the piece already glued on the wreath.

Then I just added the "B" I cut out of a sheet of moss that I found at the dollar store and tied it on with ribbon.

Book Page Accent Ball

There are a lot of fun accent balls out there. They are used to decorate anything and everything! Put them in a bowl, on a candlestick, or book shelf. Make a topiary, or just stick it in a pot. The possibilities are endless! I have loved the project I have done thus far with book pages, so I thought why not try a ball? It turned out awesome! I adore this!
First I just got a little ball from the dollar store. Then I Mod Podged the book pages right onto the ball. It doesn't have to look pretty, you wont see this part very much.

Then I cut a bunch of pages into large circles, and then I cut the circle into a spiral.

Next, just start from the outside and start to roll inward.

Look how cute! It turns into a darling rosette!

All you need to do now is hot glue those rosettes onto the ball. Easy huh?

Look how great it turned out!! I think this would look awesome displayed anyway you could think of. I am thinking way ahead here, but I think some of these little guys might end up on my Christmas tree this year!