Front Door Sign and Paper Napkin Flower Tutorial

Hey there girlies! How are you on this beautiful Saturday?!! I am feeling super creative today so I decided to make a little Fourth of July craft to share with you all. I have been wanting to make another wreath for a while now, but I wanted to make one with a twist... I wanted to use a picture frame. I have seen a few around Pinterest, but for some reason, the inspiration I needed never came to me. Until today. What I ended up with is less of a wreath and more of a sign, but it's going on my front door anyways.  :-)

I started out with a plain black picture frame, but I didn't want black, so I grabbed my handy dandy spray paint and painted it white.  The picture frame was missing the glass, so I decided to use some chalkboard paint and spray the cardboard backing with it.  I messed up a bit on the chalkboard paint, but I swear, once I seasoned it and wrote on it, you couldn't tell.  Anyways, Ta-Da!!!  Instant chalkboard.

I couldn't just leave it plain though!  Hmmm, what to do?  I had these little pinwheels that I bought for the Fourth of July so I pulled three of them off of their sticks and hot glued them to the corner of the frame.

 

Then, I decided I wanted a big red flower to go in the top corner of the frame.  I didn't have a red flower and I didn't have any red material or felt.  I had red paper napkins though!  I have never made a flower out of napkins, but there's a first time for everything, right?  Here's a little how-to on the paper napkin flower.

 

Start with a small napkin.  These are about 9x9.

Next, cut circles out of the napkin.  I just freehanded it .  You should get 4 circles out of each napkin.

Fold your circle in half and then in half again to make a triangle shaped petal.

Use one of your circles as the base for the flower and glue each petal to it.

Continue gluing petals onto your base until your flower is as full as you want it to be.  I think I used about 5 napkins for this flower and it's pretty full.

And there you have it!  A super simple flower made from paper napkins!  I love it!

 

Back to the frame.  Are you ready to see the finished sign?

There's a weird glare on this picture that I couldn't edit out, but you get the idea, right?  I'm thinking that I could easily pull off the little pinwheels and use this at different times of the year too.  Christmas maybe?

 

So, what do you think?  Are you going to be making a napkin flower any time soon?  I would love to see it if you do so leave me a link in the comments below.  And remember, I love hearing from my readers, it puts a big smile on my face! 

 

 P.S.  I added an "About Me" page.  If you haven't checked it out already, please do and let me know what you think.  You can find the tab for it at the top of the page.

 

Thanks for reading!  See you next time everybody!

Making New Paper Look Vintage

Hey everybody! How's it going?!! I'm so glad you decided to come visit me today! I have a little tale of trial and error for you today. Here's the deal, when I started planning the Vintage Airplane/Travel Baby Shower I knew that I wanted to use old maps throughout the décor.  One problem.   Do you guys know how difficult it is to find vintage or even moderately old maps where I live?!! I put multiple pleas out on Facebook, I searched any store I knew of...nothing. So, I decided I was going to have to use new maps whether I liked it or not. I didn't like it. :-/ There was no way it would look right. Next option, make new maps look old. But how? I grabbed an atlas and took to the internet to find out ways to age paper. There are several different ways, so I decided to try a few and see which one got the best results. Are you wondering the same thing?

The first method I tried was the wet coffee grounds method. I put two scoops of instant coffee in a plastic cup, added water and stirred it around until all the grounds were wet. Then, I spooned the coffee grounds onto the map and let it sit for a few minutes. I then had the totally fun (not) task of spooning up and wiping off all of the coffee grounds. This was by far the messiest method I tried.

I'll be honest, I'm pretty sure I did something wrong here. After wiping off all of the coffee grounds, the map came out looking like I had rubbed mud all over it. Not exactly the look I was going for. :-/

I think maybe I left the grounds on for too long and I definitely think that wiping the coffee grounds off was a bad idea,  that's what made it look like I had rubbed mud all over it, but I'm really not sure how else you would get them off. This is a method I may try again, just because I'm curious.

The next method I tried was another one using coffee. This time, I used a little bit of the coffee I had bought for my hubby at Sonic that morning (I was too lazy to actually make coffee... I took his coffee and did I mention, it was Father's Day? Sorry honey!) Anyways, I poured the coffee onto a 9x13 baking sheet, just enough to cover the bottom, and then I laid a map on top of it (it kind of floats). I spooned a little of the coffee onto the top of the map and then let it sit for about 10 minutes. Then I transferred it to a dry baking sheet and put it in the oven at 200 degrees for about 10 or 15 minutes.

Here is a picture of the map before...

This is a shot of the map during the process.

This is how the map looked afterwards.

Here is a side by side comparison of the way the map looked before (it's a different map, but it looks exactly the same) and how it looked after. You can see that the after (the one on top) is quite a bit darker and a bit wrinkled. It just looks older.

By the way, when you go to put it in the oven, make sure that there are not any puddles of coffee left on the map. If there are, you end up with a paper that looks like this... Not pretty.  Unless that's the look you're going for.  :)

 

The next method I tried is one I didn't see anywhere on the internet, that doesn't mean it's not out there though.  I thought, hmmm, I've got some tan craft paint and also some brown, why not try that.  I grabbed both colors, a cup of water and a small paintbrush. I barely dipped the brush in the tan paint, wiped off the excess and then dipped it in the water.  After that I painted it on the map and then took a paper towel and wiped the map to give it a worn effect.  I also crumpled the paper up some so that it would look even older, but this is not something you have to do.  Just a side note, I preferred the brown paint to the tan.  It was just a bit darker and I liked that.  It just depends on what your preference is. 

Here is a shot of the painted map.

Given the choice between these options, the painting method was definitely the easiest and quickest and since I usually go for whatever is easiest, I'm thinking that I'll probably use it to do my project for the baby shower.  I think that the one done with coffee in the baking sheet is a really good option too.  Hmmm, I might do that one instead.  Which one did you like best? Wondering what I'm going to use my aged maps for?  Stay tuned!  The Vintage Airplane/Travel Baby Shower is coming up soon!!!   

 

*Update- I went with the coffee in the baking sheet method, I just thought it looked a little bit more "vintage".

 

DIY Chalkboard Bunting

Hey there! I wanted to pop in and show you guys this little project I did the other day. A teacher friend of mine asked me to set up her room for her "Muffins with Mom" Mother's Day get together. I didn't really get any pictures of the room, but I did get some pictures of something I made for the backdrop. A chalkboard bunting! I have been wanting to make one and I decided that this was the perfect excuse.

 

I'm just going to jump right into the tutorial.  I haven't done a whole lot of tutorials, so I'm definitely open to pointers if you have any!  Just leave me a comment! 

 

Ok, so I started with these chipboard bunting flags that I found at Hobby Lobby.  They came 9 to a package and I got them on sale for around $3.50 a package.

 

 

Next, I grabbed some chalkboard spray paint and followed the directions (shocking, I know) to cover each flag with the paint.  So here's where I tell you my little secret.  The can said to wait 24 hours for the paint to dry completely... Ummm, I am just not that patient.  I think I might have waited 12 hours...maybe.  Guess what?  I don't think it made a bit of difference.  I had no problems with the paint.  So, here are the flags after the 2 coats of paint.  Sorry they don't show up very well.  I was painting them on a trash bag. :-/

 

After waiting as long as I could for them to dry, I seasoned them with a piece of chalk.  To season them, you simply take a piece of chalk and rub the side of it all over the flags until each one is pretty much covered with chalk.

 

Next, I just took a dry washcloth and rubbed off most of the chalk.  I left a little on the flags because I liked the way it made them look.  They looked more "used", not brand new.

 

Luckily, these flags came with prepunched holes already in them, so all I had to do was string twine through them.  You could really use anything for this. Ribbon, fishing line or even tulle would work.  I used the twine because I plan on reusing this bunting over and over again and I felt like the twine would go with just about any theme.

 

After that, it was just a matter of writing my message on it and then hanging it on the backdrop I had created.

 

So there you have it.  A super simple diy chalkboard bunting.  I have a feeling I'll be using this for lots of different things.  When I went to erase the message, it came right off, no problem!  So, what do you think?  Will you be making one of your own soon?  What will you use it for?  Any tweaks you might make?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Valentine's Day Bunting Freebie!!!

Hey everybody! Sorry it's been so long since my last post! Hope you've all been doing lots of creative things while I've been away! I am going to try something new today and see if it works. I've never done this before, so if I mess it up, please let me know. :-) I love making printables, especially printable decor. It's one of the least expensive ways to dress up your home. Today I've created a Valentine's Day Bunting and I'd like to share it with you.... The only thing is, I'm not sure how to do that. :-/ Here is a sneak peek at what it looks like.

By the way, on my screen, the heart looks bright pink, but when I print it out, it's red. Not sure if that's my printer's fault or mine. Click here for the link to the bunting. You should be able to print straight from this link. If not, let me know. If you do print this out, please, please leave me a comment and let me know!!! I would love to see how you use it to decorate your home or maybe even a Valentine's Party!
Also, I am using Google Docs, but if any of you fabulous bloggers out there could tell me an easier way, I'd love to hear it!


Please let me know if this works for you guys. Like I said, this is a first attempt. Hope it works! Have a great day!


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Tissue Poms and an Upcoming Party!

Hey girls (and guys, if there are any reading this post (-;)! I am super excited to be finishing up work on a baby shower this week and hopefully by next week, I will have some pictures to post for you! I also have another baby shower coming up in a couple of weeks, so it is going to a busy, busy month here and I couldn't be happier. Today, I have a little tutorial for you on how to make the ever popular tissue poms. As far as I'm concerned, it wouldn't be a party without them. :-) I know there are TONS of tutorials out in blogland for these and I'm sure that there are plenty with much better pictures than mine, but I decided to do it anyways. By the way, I'm working on upgrading my picture quality, so be patient with me, please. :-) Anyways, on to the tutorial! First, you start with at least 8 sheets of tissue paper. The more sheets you have, the fuller your pom will be.

If one side is longer than the other, start accordian folding the shortest side. My sides were the same length, so it didn't really matter where I started folding.

When you are finished folding, find the center of your tissue paper and tie some wire, string, ribbon, etc. around it tightly. I forgot to do this next step, so there are no pics for it, but at this point, you may want to trim the ends of your paper. You can either round them or give them a pointed tip depending on the look you're going for. You'll see in the final pictures that I gave all of mine (except this one) rounded tips.

Now all that's left to do is to gently pull the layers of tissue paper apart and fluff into the shape you want. This one didn't turn out great, but the ones that I remembered to trim the tips of turned out pretty ok.

So now you've gotten a sneak peek at the shower that I'm working on this week. Hope you'll come back for more! See you soon, Jamie

Winter White Christmas Tree

Hey there! So, I put my tree up over the Thanksgiving holiday, but I didn't decorate it right away. I'm not one of those people who has the same ornaments every year. I like to have a different theme or color scheme each year, but this year, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. So, there sat my poor, empty, puny tree. For 3 days. I was beginning to hate it. It was too bare, too short, too...green? I was losing my mind! Trees are supposed to be green, right? Not in my mind, not this year. I was dreaming of a beautiful, full, flocked tree. You know, the kind that looks like it has snow on the branches? I looked online and found several I liked. The least expensive one? $230.00 The most expensive one I liked? $990.00!!! Now, I know that $230.00 might not sound like much to some people, but to me, right before the holidays,not happening. So of course, I went to Pinterest in search of inspiration. Somewhere in all my Pinterest and Google searching, I came across a couple of people who had painted their trees. What's that, painted their Christmas trees? Now you're thinking I have really lost my mind. What did I have to lose? I already hated the tree and had complained about it so much that my dear husband was threatening to haul it to the dump. So, with my handy dandy foam brush in hand, some glitter for sparkle and some linen colored craft paint, I got to work dabbing paint on the tips of the branches and then sprinkling them with glitter. Then I decided to go a little bit deeper into the tree. The whole process took me about an hour and when I finished.... there wasn't much of a difference. You thought I was going to say it looked great, didn't you? I'm not sure what I did wrong. But, I set there a few more hours and then decided to just go ahead and pull out the first ornaments I saw in the Christmas closet and decorate the tree. What I came up with were just plain white ornaments and some burlap garland

Guess what? I actually kind of like it! Now, I'm sure that I will be hitting some after-Christmas sales looking for a good deal on a big, beautiful tree, but for now, I am satisfied. :-)

Wreath Update

Hey guys!  I have a teensy tiny little update to my wreath that I wanted to show you.  Remember how I said I felt like it was still missing something?  I added something to it that finishes it off... I think.
:-)  See the sparkly floral spray by the brown roses? I'm still not sure I'm finished though. ;-) Let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions. 
See you soon, Jamie

Winter Wreath

Ok.  Here goes.  My first official project post!!! So excited!  I will apologize ahead of time for the poor quality of the photos.  I promise, it will get better! The project I'm going to show you guys today is definitely not my best work, but I do like how it turned out.  I started out with a floral foam wreath form ( I know, I know, not neccesarily the most inexpensive choice, but it was all my tiny little Walmart had to offer).  I've had the yarn for a while now and wasn't sure what to do with it (don't ask me why I had yarn when I don't know how to crochet, knit or do anything else that requires yarn). :-/  Luckily, it was perfect for this project. 

 Let me tell you, wrapping the wreath with yarn is a lengthy process!  Turn on HGTV and get comfy!  Oh, by the way, if you have a very helpful 8 year old, DO NOT leave your wreath unattended to run to get dinner for everyone!  I wish I had taken a picture.  He really was trying to help, but it took me forever to untangle that mess! 

 

The next thing I did was add some pinecones that I had picked up in the Christmas section at (you guessed it) Walmart.  I also added some flowers that I had in my craft stash, but it still needed something....

 

I tried adding a letter for our last name

but I didn't like it.

 

So, I took it off and after several Google and Pinterest searches (and some serious hot glue gun burns) I made these little cuties out of some brown felt I had laying around.

Are you ready to see the finished product?!!?

I still think it might be missing something...  What do you think?  If you have any ideas, please leave me a comment below.  Thanks for stopping by!

See you soon,

Jamie