Mom's wreath project

The other week, I shared mom's Mini Christmas Tree so I thought I'd share her wreath that she made as well. This is made similarly to my Welcoming the Holidays- Burlap wreath but a little different and wanted to share her pretty little piece too.

Mom wrapped her burlap a little differently and tighter than mine which gives it a neat look that I am pretty fond of. instead of the berries like I did, she picked these pine pieces with red berries.

These are two close ups of the pine with berries and the fun red bow I made for her.  My mom wasn't really wanting to learn and was working on something else (I think helping dad, not screw up the tree- which he did anyway- which was really pretty entertaining actually!!) I really like how it turned out!

Before I go though, a little funny story. We actually had to make two trips for ribbon for two reasons. One, because mom isn't a craft hoarder like I am and doesn't just have supplies in case something goes wrong. Two, because apparently the little elf that does quality control for Dollar tree - assuming there is such a thing- didn't do his job too well. Don't get me wrong, I am all for some good deals at the DT, but I am now a little hesitant to buy ribbon. Why? Well, we bought a 9 feet roll of red ribbon which should have been totally sufficient, however, in reality the ribbon was only about 5 feet!!! It was very strange when I had just 2 loops done and wham I was out of ribbon!! Needless to say we were going over by Walmart and picked up the fabulous ribbon shown here :)

Now on to make up Cookie dough to take down to moms for or little mini cookie making party. I swore ThursdayI wad going fora run this morning, but the wind sounds as if it could rip our house down, so I think I will pass and work inside before running errands.

Wine bottle makeover

Yet another fun and fabulously inexpensive gift idea brought to you by ME!! For this project I didnt take step by steps because, well there really wasn't much exciting to report! I had hubby help me drill the hole in the back, I strung lights through then grabbed my hot glue gun and these stones I got at a store closeout sale for about 1.50 per bag and here you have it. An awesome stinkin gift. The best part about it- I got to drink the wine and then the stones were a few bucks and the lights were from the dollar store. Doesn't get much better than that does it?? I cannot wait to give this to my mom since she mentioned seeing one at a show and loving it.

Isnt it beautiful?!?

Loving on the glow the peachy and tan stones give off

Ignore me being akward in the reflection and this is a little better idea of the colors of the stones. So fun!

So my question to you all is- are you still scrambling to finish making or buying gifts for Christmas? I know I for one have a project or two to finish up. On the plus side, half of my wrapping is done and I should be able to finish up in another hour or two. Wish me luck!

POUF POWER!

Back in August or September I was parusing the internet and came upon the amazing POUF tutorial at Living with punks and although I haven't even touched a sewing machine in (literally) over 10 years I was determined that my nephews HAD TO HAD TO HAD TO have these for Christmas. I realize this is a tad ridiculous because the youngest will be all of 2 months old, but really if I was doing this I was going to do all three at once.

So seriously I message my sister and asked her what she thought and she agreed these would be awesome. I thought that the tutorial seemed simple enough so I made this my mission. I think I shared at one point the fabric options I have my sister during one of many trips to Joann Fabrics where I got a fabulous deal on this really nice & thickish fabric. I debated for the longest time because I didn't just want a really basic cotton fabric and I wanted it to be kind of age nuetral considering the 5 y.o, 2 y.o and 2 months.

I did this in two phases- I got my stuff cut out one day and the trim put on (which I bought the wrong thing first, so the wrong stuff is on in these pictures)

 I rigged a little way to make my circles- yes really high tech with the card board right??

 I then pinned my felt circle to the fabric and cut out 6 big old circles.

 Circle # 1- oh my goodness!!

All 3 sets of all the pieces for this crazy project. I'd say it easily took about 2.5 hours for all the "prep work"

I didn't take pictures of the "during" process, but the tutorial linked above is amazing and she did a fantastic job that even a dingy slacker sewer like me was capable of following! (see, there is hope!!!)

Now, onto the finished products. I made one the first evening and then the other two the next afternoon. To say I was ecstatic with the finished products would be a complete understatement. Are they perfect? No. Do I really care? No! They each have a little flaw were something went a little wonky but I am so pleased with my DIY that I really didn't even care.



Ta-daaaaaa!! I think they are so stinkin cute and cannot wait to see those little tiny hineys on these. at least there will be some extra super fun seating to open gifts from :)

And if I wasn't crazy enough, I decided to make a few teeny pillows for the kiddos to add to the mix. Sorry for the weird coloring, I took this on my cell and I think I had it on a weird setting. Either way, still loving how these turned out!

Clearance frames turned personal

Well I took an unexpected 2 day break from blogging which even included visiting my favorites out there in blog-land. Unexpected because I have been SO busy trying to finish up projects for Christmas presents and getting my house decorated (finally!!) I worked over the weekend and tried to squeeze in as much as possible after work as well as Monday and Tuesday when I was off from work. So today I present to you one of MANY projects I have been working on.

Dont't you just love Target clearance? I sure do!! The frames I am about to show you were originally 12.99/ea and I got all 3 for under that. Really doesn't get too much better.

Once we found out, my sister was going to have her third child, I decided I would do some kind of frame gift for Christmas. I didn't know how I would do it or what I would do it with, but I would do it.

With the help of my cricut, modpodge and spray glittery glitz I think they turned out pretty darn cute. The little boys in the frames help the cute cause too for sure.  So how did I do it? Well, the story is really simple and it goes a little like this. Cut letters with Cricut in whatever size and font suits you and the frame. I wanted to make the color bold but not too plain. Since all I had was plain flat blue, I had a little help from these guys- Glimmer Mist and Ditto spray.

I actually initially just sprayed with the glimmer mist though it was pretty, it was a little too subtle by itself. I dug into my drawer with these types of supplies and found the Turqouise-ish ditto and sprayed them all over again. After they were totally dried, I modpodged them and stuck the letters right onto the frames. I took a few close ups of Adam's letter's since they are thicker and the glimmer is a little easier to see

I guess it is still a little hard to see, but seriously, I love these. You can kind of see how they look a little speckled, but there is a slight shimmer too. My goal was too make them kid friendly, but not too juvenile so that they can be used for years to come.

Here is close-ups of how the other ones turned out. Pretty cool huh? Any one else have fun projects they have used spray glimmer/shimmer/color on? I am still playing around and nerous about using them so I'd love to see what you have done.

Button flower and cigar box #2

Today I want to share with you a fun and my second, cigar box upcycle. Back in October, I posted about my first Cigar Box Upcycle that I made for my husband for our 3 year anniversary. I sort of had an obsession with them and had bought a few "extras" when I bought that one and just figured I'd eventually redo them for gifts. Well with Christmas fast approaching, I can tell you that these are so super easy and fun to do. My first one took a lot more time because of weird angles and curves that I just wasn't prepared for with it being my first one and all. Many lessons learned and remembered though.


I don't have picture of each step because I was just too gung ho about it and because all boxes are so different.

To start for this one I used some 8.5/11 papers I picked up at Michael's for a previous project and just cut pieces to size for each of the sides. I mod-podged them on and let it all dry!! Then I came back and added the ribbon and button flower so WALA!!!

 I did leave the edges uncovered because I just wasn't sure I wanted to mess with those little tiny strips of paper and I kind of liked the look it gave the box. Also, you can see that there is no clasp or closure to this box. I kind of like it that way and I am not really sure yet whether or not I will replace the one that I removed.

 This paper kind of reminds me of henna tatoos. I chose to keep the color scheme pretty basic to keep it simple and timeless. The flower portion was kind of an afterthought because even though I knew I wanted to add a pop of color somehow, I hadn't really decided at the start of this project what that would be.

Not sure why this flower looks so gluey and weird here, I guess the light play on it? I will have to clean it up with some goo-gone before giving as a gift. Overall, I am totally in love with how the whole thing turned out and can't wait to see my mom's face on Christmas morning. She loves red and so did my grandmother so the little splash is sure to make her smile.

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