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This is so easy, I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before, thank you Pinterest! BTW, I pretty much do this on all my packages now if I’m going to be including a card; it’s genius!  Fold in a flap on what will be the front of your gift  Same step seen from far away  The front of the gift without the card  Slide the card into the slot you created
 An added touch of ribbon! June 18th, 2013 | Leave a comment
 DIY. SAVE MONEY.If you’re looking to add some accessories to a room right now, birds are definitely the thing right now and I love this trend. Birds are just so darn cute and when I saw these birds on Pinterest, I thought why not? I’m so glad I did, because I had all the supplies on hand and therefore cost me $0, plus they were easy to make and super cute! I love that you can make these any color you want. I had to make a “fun” bird just because I wanted to see how cute it would be, not that it would match anything in our house. I’m glad I did though, because Rylan adopted it…I should’ve known; his bed is practically an animal shelter.
Supplies:
Game Plan:1. Draw birds onto card stock and cut out to make a template or use the ones I did at Charcoal & Crayons. 2. To make the “kid” birds, just insert into word and make them smaller and print and cut into templates. 3. Fold scrapbook paper and using the template, cut out your birds and wings. By folding the template, you cut out both sides of the bird at once!
4. Rub the ink pad on the edges of your birds and wings. I used brown to create an aged effect.  BEFORE ink  AFTER ink 5. Glue wings to each side of the bird. 6. Glue the top portion of your bird together, but don’t adhere glue to the bottom portion.
7. Straighten out one loop of your paperclips. Make sure you don’t end up with two left feet or two right because I think it creates balance issues.
8. Put a piece of double stick tape along bottom of bird, press paperclip legs onto tape, add another piece of double stick tape on top and then press the bird firmly on top.
9. Cut a circle out of felt as big as you want the bottom of your nest.  This is what the bottom of my nest looks like
10. Glue jute onto bottom of felt in a swirl and then when you’re ready to make the sides you just gluing on the outside upper edge and keep twisting. Just cut the jute whenever you get it to the size you want.
11. Cut little strips of raffia and using a hot glue gun, glue into your nest. 12. Make baby birds for your nest, just like in the above instructions, but I don’t put legs on them. 13. Glue baby birds into nest with hot glue.
Now we have a bird family in our home that is representative of ours. What an adorable little bird family!
What idea do you have for these little birds?
June 17th, 2013 | Leave a comment
ORGANIZE. SAVE SPACE.This mother’s day I decided to do something a little different for my mother-in-law. I bought some tubs and reorganized her cabinet for her. We had talked about it before so I knew it was something she wanted done and I thought I would just do it for her but… I ended up needing her help to decide what to keep and what to toss.
Here are the steps I went through to organize her cabinet space:
 BEFORE  Halfway through the organization process.
If you’re planning on reorganizing a closet, I highly suggest getting some tubs. Tubs are great because you can organize like items together, making them easy to find and stay organized because everything has a spot. Solid tubs also help a space feel clean because the mess is hidden within the tub. Make some labels for the outside of the tubs so you know what kind of items are inside. I used some of the tubs she already had in addition to the new ones I had gotten her.
She even has two tubs that are empty! Here are some other related posts of mine you may want to check out: Mother-in-Law Bedroom Closet Makeover
Maximize your Closet Space with Pegs
June 14th, 2013 | Leave a comment
DECORATE. REPURPOSE.Since we’ve finished our downstairs, which was about four years ago, I’ve been waiting around to do something down our stairwell. I’m so glad that I was able to finally get around to filling up the space. I decided on another photo wall because I get so many compliments on our black and white photo wall. This time I decided to go with color photos and white frames to try to make all the pictures uniform. I love the fresh and clean look that’s created by the white frames. Who knew that white matting with white frames could look so good? Here is the wall before (blank and barren):
Here is the wall after: I apologize for the pictures not being that great. It was really hard to get photos of the wall because it has a wall on the other side of the stairs so I couldn’t get a good angle.
Here are some things I did to make my photo wall:
Don’t leave without checking out my black and white photo wall adorning my upstairs staircase. June 13th, 2013 | Leave a comment
DECLUTTER. ORGANIZE. SAVE SPACE.My poor mother-in-law has been dealing with small old closets for a long time. We finally made plans to give her closet a makeover to make it more functional, prettier, and brighter. For one day’s work, I thought it turned out pretty well. It’s definitely not perfect, but it is a much needed improvement. I’ll go ahead and show your the transformation in pictures and then end with a short breakdown of what we did.  BEFORE
 Before there were lots of items stored on the floor because there was nowhere else for them to be stored
 The wallpaper was in a very sad state  In the middle of tearing off two layers of old wallpaper  After most of the wallpaper was off and cracks had been mudded and sanded  AFTER  …and then there was light!
Here’s what we did to makeover her closet: 1. Remove old shelves located behind the hanging clothes which made them pretty much useless. 2. Tore off two layers of old wallpaper. We didn’t put as much elbow grease as we should have on this step. If we did this project again, we would’ve planned for two days and spent more time on this step. 3. Put mesh tape on large cracks. Fill cracks and cover mesh tape with mudd. We let it dry and then sanded it down. 4. Cleaned up the closet and wiped down the walls. 5. Painted two coats of yellow. 6. Jeff ran electrical to put in a light above her door– this really was the best part because there was no light before and it was difficult to see in there. 7. Installed two new rods, giving her double the space for hanging clothes. 8. Hung a wire organizer that is supposed to be for kitchen cabinets on the wall for her to store wrapping paper. This is a great way to clear up floor space and take advantage of unused wall space. 9. Hung an organizer for her to store belts and scarves. 10. Put two new tubs below the hanging clothes for her to store other items. 11. Put back the top shelf for her to store items that aren’t often used. Here are some other related posts you may want to check out:
Maximize your Closet Space with Pegs
What closet in your house needs some reorganizing?June 7th, 2013 | 3 comments
SAVE MONEY.Some of our good friends had a baby girl recently and I was inspired to make something special for her. Her daddy is a die hard Royals fan and since there aren’t many of those, doing something Royals like came to mind when I was thinking of something to make for her. I asked her dad if he could spare a Royals t-shirt for his little girl and of course, that wasn’t a problem. Then I got to work…
Supplies:
Game Plan:1. Determine the length of your dress and cut it off the bottom of the t-shirt (the bottom of the t-shirt will be the bottom of the dress) I would have LOVED to have been able to use the Royals logo but I thought as far as dress construction goes, it would be better just to keep it blue. I would love to make another one of these to see how it looks with a big logo on the dress.  Daddy’s Royals T-shirt 2. You will probably not want to cut the width down of the t-shirt unless you do want a newborn or 0-3 month sized dress. I used a little over half the width of the shirt and sewed it back together but I wish I would’ve just used the whole bottom because it scrunched up quite a bit. I think the shirt was a size large to begin with. 3. Shirr the top of your dress by following Sandy Henderson’s tutorial on shirring. I did 9-10 rows of stitching for the top of this dress.
4. Attach 4 long strips of ribbon to the dress using a sewing machine. These tie together to make the straps of the dress. I sewed along the lines already in the dress from shirring so the stitches would be hidden. I sewed two lines across on each piece of ribbon.
5. Stitch a ribbon along the edge of the dress by sewing along the top and bottom of the ribbon.
7. Stitch baseball lines onto the white felt circle. I actually had this baseball looking stitch on my sewing machine which made it super easy. 8. Attach the baseball to the dress with a white stitch all the way around the ball.
9. Tie the ribbons together to make straps for the dress.
I wanted to be able to show you what this looked like on a baby, so I threw it on Emden before wrapping it up for Reese. I thought it turned out adorable.
Here is another post you may be interested in:
What interesting things have you made from a t-shirt?June 6th, 2013 | Leave a comment
SAVE MONEY.I saw a post about this on Pinterest and thought, duh, why haven’t I done this yet? Emden is not old enough to play with Barbies but my two boys like to get them out occasionally and play with some of my old ones. I have to admit feel a bit awkward when I walk into the room and there are naked Barbies laying around, but then I look at Rylan’s face and he doesn’t seem to even notice their bareness as they wait for their new wardrobes. Regardless, there will come a time when he will notice, as well as my daughter Emden, and since Barbie’s figure is so unrealistic I felt it best to try to cover her lady parts as much as possible. Plus, in the future I plan on teaching Emden about dressing modestly, so it would be more congruent with my teaching for her Barbies to also be modeling our values. I chose to give all of our Barbies one piece swimsuits and I made them all strapless, not because of modesty, but because I didn’t want lines to show if the outfit was strapless or spaghetti strapped. Of course, Barbie’s swimwear is totally up to you so you can give her a bikini or halter top if you prefer, I just thought I would mention the line thing because it might be something you wouldn’t think about! Anyway, this is probably the easiest project ever and only took a few minutes from start to finish. I had fun making different swimsuits, but I must admit I felt a bit wrong while coloring Barbie’s private parts–AWKWARD! Anyway, as much as I felt awkward coloring on her suits, I didn’t feel awkward at all leaving them lying around technically naked. They look totally clothed all the time and that’s a good thing. Plus, they’re always ready for a swim party and I didn’t spend any money on their new clothes!
Supplies:
Game Plan:1. Using a permanent marker of fingernail polish, draw on swimsuits in desired fashions. I liked the two methods equally. The fingernail polish can cover more at a time, but it requires more coats. You can actually do both sides with fingernail polish and then position Barbie with her but up and head down for her to dry…I thought I would have to do one side at a time, but then figured out I didn’t have to.
 BEFORE: Inappropriate  I hope she likes the color red!  Basic suit completed  Finishing details put on  AFTER: Appropriately dressed for a pool party
 I think they are loving their new suits!  BEFORE  This is how I positioned the Barbies to let the fingernail polish dry  AFTER  The two on the outside are done with fingernail polish and the one in the middle is done with a Sharpie June 3rd, 2013 | 2 comments
In case you were busy this May and missed all the postings, I had a hair accessory focus this month and here are five tutorials you’ll want to make sure to take a look at!
3. Twine Letter Wreath with Felt Flowers
4. Satin Daisy
5. Velvet Backed No-Slip Headbands
Other Favorite Posts Lists: 2013 2012 2011 May 31st, 2013 | Leave a comment
DIY. SAVE MONEY.These tulle bows are about as you can get to make. They would match perfectly with my no-sew fairy skirt or ballerina skirt. What little girl wouldn’t want of these outfits and they’re all so simple to make!
Supplies:
Game Plan:1. Cut tulle to size of bow you want and then cinch together in the middle.
 Cinch together the tulle in the middle using your fingers 2. Wrap ribbon around the center of the tulle and tie at the back of the bow.
3. Attach the ribbon to a headband or barrette simply by tying the ribbon ends around it and forming a knot. If you just tie the bow to the headband or clip instead of using a hot glue gun, you’ll be able to switch the bows out as you wish.
Check out some of my other hair accessory posts:
Picture Frame Bow & Headband Holder
May 30th, 2013 | Leave a comment
DIY. SAVE MONEY.This is seriously one of the simplest hair accessories to make. If you can cut neatly, then you can do it! I love these happy little flowers and they just look adorable on my little girl Emden!
Supplies:
Game Plan:1. Draw a daisy in two different sizes, or print them off of the computer after doing a Google search for daisy template, or I just used some cookie cutters I had and traced them onto cardstock to make a template. 2. Cut out each daisy in different colors of felt.
3. If you want, you can light a candle and put the edges of the flower close to the flame to get rid of fly away strands and to seal the felt. It is pretty hard to get into the crevices however. 4. Use a needle and thread to sew a bead(s) in the middle of your daisy.
5. Glue the daisy to a hair clip or headband. 6. Cut a piece of felt and glue it to the backside of the hair clip or headband for extra strength and reinforcement.
Here are some of my other posts for making hair accessories:
Picture Frame Bow & Headband Holder
Strawberry Polka Dot Bow Tutorial
Pom Pom Flower Headband Tutorial
May 28th, 2013 | Leave a comment
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