His and Hers Valentine's Swag

Oh my goodness, what's a girl gotta do to get a little creative time???  I've been creating this swag in my mind for weeks.  I'm happy to say I finally have something to show for it.  And I am giddy with how it turned out.  Hope you will be too...

I got these little white buckets in the $1 aisle at Target last year.  Knew I could do something with them, but not sure what.  Eventually the idea of some sort of swag or advent thing came to mind.  But advent calendars are so overdone... by myself included!  Plus, I only had 7 of them.  As I began decorating them though I had an a-ha moment - I could make his and hers buckets!

Loving the mustache craze right now - so I knew I had to put those on the boys' buckets (3 boys - my 2 sons and my hubby).  But for girls it took a while to come up with something gender-specific.  I was playing around with cupcake liners along the inside of the buckets when it occurred to me that I could use the liners as skirts on the BOTTOMS of the buckets.  So clever am I, no? ;) So I made 3 of those too (one for each daughter, and myself).

Materials:
felt stickers (on sale right now at Hobby Lobby - red heart shapes)
felt heart outlines (not stickers, I just glued them on)
miniature buckets (I've seen them at various places!!! and if you can't find a color conducive to V-Day, mod podge them or spray paint them!)
cupcake liners
sharpie (for the stache)
tissue paper
ribbon

Really the trickiest part of this little project was tying on the buckets - getting them evenly spaced and to all face forward was tedious.  But I'll take you through the previous steps as well.

First I stuck my heart-shaped velvet stickers and outlines on... front and center of each bucket.  Then I used double stick tape to attach a cupcake liner to the bottom of the girly ones.  And I took a marker to the boy ones and drew on various versions of mustaches (below the felt hearts).  Next I tied the buckets to one long piece of ribbon.  Double tie each one to be sure it stays in place!  Last I stuffed each bucket with some natural-colored tissue paper.  This will hide whatever goody I put in there on Valentine's Eve. ;)

I added a few extra strands of ribbon above my swag, and tied on a few scraps at the end.  To take the gender specificity a but further I tied a short piece of black tulle to either side of the boy buckets (they look kinda like bow ties to me - would be cute tied to the top, too), and a pink ribbon/white ric rac duo to the top of each of the girl buckets.  Perfectly frilly and handsome - each one!

Enjoy!!!

PS - See me HERE today!

Linking up!

Fit for a princess...

Well, I'm back.  My house is coming back together.  Finally.  We made some new paint choices and even rearranged the furniture, to make the most of a terrible situation!  It helped. :)  I'll show off some of the new look soon!

For today though, I'm sharing a fun project for that little girl of yours.  I've wanted some sort of plaque above Sasha's bed for some time now.  And like most 4 year olds she is very much into princesses right now.  I love the architectural crowns I see everywhere - like in Ballard Designs.  Hobby Lobby is my go to place for those kinds of knock-offs, and my trip there to find inspiration for this project did not diasppoint! {But the again, does Hobby Lobby EVER disappoint?}

So I found a red metallic tray in the clearance section, that had the lovliest shape.  And I found a crown in the religious aisle(?)...   Together they gave me exactly what I was looking for.

I don't have a before picture of the tray, but I spray painted it ballet slipper pink (Krylon!).  And I spray painted the crown glossy white... little tip here, I've learned {the hard way, I'm afraid} that when it comes to white, always, always go with glossy.  Flat and sometimes satin are just bad, bad... as in they look bad.  More of a gray white and chalky.  Blech.

I glued the crown to the tray - gorilla glue works, even hot glue maybe?  And voila!  A beautiful plaque, fit for a princess.

Now I just need some ideas as to HOW to hang it... probably above the bed in place of her "4".  Do they make plate hangers that big??? Or should I try something else?  Ideas please!!!

out of the office...

Hello friends!  We had another major flood this week (some of you may remember a similar occurance a year ago last summer). So no blogging for a bit I'm afraid.  I don't even know where my hot glue gun is right now! *cries*  Hopefully I'll be posting again soon.  Pray for us!!!

Crafting with the Stars - As for me and my house project!

I posted a picture of this project early in December and promised a tutorial.  After Christmas passed, I thought it would be pointless to go back to it.  But Crafting with the Stars Round 2 has begun, so I'm submitting this project there. :)

I was inspired to do this project by something I saw in Hobby Lobby.  I really had to think this one through, especially to "make it mine".  How was I going to apply the lettering?  Directly on the fabric would have been difficult - since there are so many words the lettering has to be small, and I thought that writing or painting or whatever on the fabric might not be legible (although the original HL version I believe had paint stamped letters... and I just couldn't imagine either making that many tiny stamps, or the cost of buying them!)  Then it occured to me that I could write around the edge of the frame with a paint pen.  Vinyl was also an option, but fonting is a hobby of mine and I don't own a Silhouette, so I just don't use vinyl much.   I just about went that route (with writing on the frame itself) when the idea came to me that I could just write on the glass.  Problem solved. 

Next issue, would the key fit under the glass?  Well I just happened to find a deep set frame that was perfect.  Each of these frames (found at Hobby Lobby) is sold with 2 pieces of glass!  Yah!  So by taking one out I had a little room for the raised key.  AND I had an extra piece of glass should I make a mistake with my lettering. 

The key fits very nicely.  I have the perfect canvas for my lettering.  And all is right with the world.  Well, my world anyway. :)

Materials:

deep set frame (love the 50% off sales at Hobby Lobby!)

fine tip paint pen

keys (I found a ring of 4 of them at Hobby Lobby, at 50% off of course!)

fabric

hot glue

Instructions:

Mount your fabric to a solid backing.  These frames came with a styrofoam insert, so I used that.  The drawback - hot glue melts through styroam very quickly.  So I would recommend using another product like Gorilla Glue if you go looking for these particular frames.  I just tend to try hot glue with everything first because it's so cheap.  If you use another kind of frame, cardboard would work great for your backing.  I routinely save boxes to hack up for this kind of thing. You can a) mod podge your fabric tot he cardboard or b) stretch around the edges and hot glue to the back of your cardboard.  I did "b" with my styrofoam and as long as I applied the hot glue to the fabric and waited a few seconds before pressing to the styrofoam, it didn't melt it away. **Make sure as you are mounting your fabric, that if you use a print such as checkers or stripes, that you mount it so those rows lay straight and not slanted.

Mount your key where you want it in onto your fabric covered backing with a thin line hot glue (so it's not visible).

Place the glass over your key/backing to determine placement for writing.  Mark some margins with a dry erase marker.  Write or trace your lettering onto the glass.  I love to freehand but this project needs precision, so I traced.  I used the "zapfino" font on my Mac.  Print out your phrase of choice ("A house of order" also works for this project and would work well for a smaller frame.  My frames are 5x7 in.)  Lay the printed wording underneath your glass (make sure it's centered and straight first!) and trace with your paint pen.  Once dry, lightly rub off your dry eraser marked margin markings

Insert backing and glass into frame and voila!  You're done.

Really not a complicated project at all, it just took some figuring out!

Linking up!

Best of 2010 - photography edition

Hey peeps!  I've entered a photo in I Heart Faces "Best Photo of 2010".  PLEASE go vote for me... you can vote for up to 5 photos, but only once per photo per IP address.  So, I wouldn't be averse to you spreading the word for me. ;)

Here's the photo I entered, a real kicker, huh?  This little cutie was a hoot.  Never stop shooting - that is my motto.  Because you just never know what you're going to get, and I say this photo is priceless!

HERE is the link to the contest.  Find me (I'm around #827 at the moment) and click VOTE below my thumbnail.  THANKS!!!

Also, I put together a video collage of all my favorite portraits of 2010 for my photography blog. It was so fun (and time consuming) to put together, I thought I'd show it off here too!  It definitely fits the creative bill for the week.  BUT you have to visit my facebook page to view it... shameless self promotion here, I know!  A girls' gotta do what a girl's gotta do!  Click over and then "like" my page if you enjoy the video (I know you will...)

Have a wonderful day!!!