Boxwood Clippings

On my last trip to Ikea I spied a few items to use this idea for Kimberly’s baby shower.

candlestick + hot glue + plate = very cute cake stand

Large Cake Stand: $15 ($9.99 candlestick, $4.99 plate)

Small Cake Stand: $7 ($4.99 candlestick base, $1.99 plate)

These cakestands look great and cost a lot less than buying a comparible sized cake stand. I also bought extra plates to use as magnetic boards on our plate wall. Love Ikea! Have you been loving anything from Ikea recently?

I have been dying to get some things up on the walls around here and saw these cute salad plates at Crate + Barrel that caught my fancy. I decided to try making them for our family room wall.

I bought a few different sized plates from the thrift store, sat down in front of the tv and got to work. I outlined my designs in pencil and then went over my design with a black sharpie.

This was super quick and easy and if I didn’t like the way it turned out I cleaned the plate with all-purpose cleaner and paper towel and started over.

I read on Pinterest you can bake the design at 350 for 30 mins, but I decided to skip this step so I can wipe off, and change the designs without buying new plates.

I used my handy-dandy command strips to attach the plates to the wall, so I can change the arrangement around without marking up the wall.

Fast, inexpensive and easy, it’s amazing what you can get done while watching tv! I think this would be a great project to do with kids this summer. Have you given sharpie plates a try get?

Today we’d like to share how to make these super simple bulletin boards that we’ve had great success with.

Here’s What You’ll Will Need:

Picture Frame

Cork Board/ Sound Choice Board

Fabric

Batting

Staple Gun

Scissors, Ruler, Exacto knife

Directions:

1. Measure frame and cut board to fit (if the frame has a backing you can trace that size). We buy the 4′ x 8′ sound choice board from the hardware store or cork boards from the thrift store for our board.

2. Make sure the board fits in frame after cut, not too snug because the fabric will need to wrap over the board and take up a little space.

3. Use cut board to measure how much padding you’ll need. Cut to same size.

It should look like this:

4. Staple padding onto board.

5. Use your board to measure and cut fabric allowing about 1 1/2 inches on each side.

6. Start with a long side and staple back fabric. One staple about every 2 inches.

7. Next, staple the opposite side. Be sure to pull it so there’s no wrinkles.

8. Now for the edges. Follow these photos…

They should look something like this:

When you’ve stapled all around your board should look something like this:

9. To finish, simply staple to the frame so it’s secure.

Playing around with size, fabric choices and nailhead trim to get the exact look and function you want for your space is great. We especially love them in our offices and by our by our entryways. Check out Sarah’s HERE.

We hope you enjoy creating your own boards and loving them as much as we do!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

We hope you’re having a relaxing day will those you love! Today we’re sharing an easy peasy project that you could whip up in no time.

When we were cleaning up from making the patriotic napkins, we thought our scrap paper looked kinda cute. So we made a simple banner by just hanging them on twine with mini cloths pegs.

The black and white is a modern twist on patriotic decorations, but still feels festive with the stars and stripes.

Oh how I love easy free projects! This would be a fun to involve kids too. :)

We had so much fun last week making these star and stripe napkins. A patriotic summer is about to begin next week with Memorial Day and we thought this would be a perfect craft to embrace the months ahead. It’s so easy it could be a perfect activity to do once the kiddos are out of school.

You Will Need:

A Potato

Fabric Paint

Foam Craft Brush

Plain Napkins

Painter’s Tape

Scrap Paper

Directions:

We used this clip art and printed it to use as a template for our potato stamp.

We then cut the potato in half and cut around the template to create a potato stamp.

Next, we painted the stamp with our fabric paint using a foam brush.

After applying paint to the potato we tested it onto a piece of paper. We found we liked to do an initial stamp on paper and then stamp the remaining ink onto the fabric napkin until we needed to apply more paint for an overall uneven look.

(By the time we were done stamping our star napkins we had lots of stamped scrap paper. Stay tuned for another project using this scrap!)

Next up was the striped napkins. We applied painters tape to make our stripes and then painted in between the tape. Again, we didn’t want a totally uniformed look so we roughly painted our stripes.

We felt like little girls again stamping with our potato stamps and now we’re ready for summer barbecues with these summery napkins. Fun and easy are always our favorite crafts!

Good morning everyone, we hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Today we’re sharing this project over at Lil Luna, diy wooden flags…

See you over there!

We’ve had some major gifting around here lately, so we got together to make some basic craft bags a little more interesting…

First, we used a pencil to draw our message and then used India Ink and a flat paint brush to paint over our pencil guide. The India ink makes the writing extra shiny and smooth, but you could just use regular craft paint for a similar look.

We’re all about really simple ways to make gift-giving a little more personal. What are your favorite tips?

Good morning friends!

Today we’ll be over at 6th Street Design School, sharing this little project with you from Em’s new living room.

Come join us HERE!

Watercolor is all the range around the bloggy world these days, and why not? It’s flippin’ amazing!

This watercolor card is a so simple and can be used for any occasion, and the best part is you can make it while you’re having art time with the kids. Just pull out those Crayola paints and save yourself a pretty penny on your upcoming  events.

 What You’ll Need:

Water color paper (I use this one)

Watercolors

Cup of Water

Paintbrush

Thin Black Pen (in love with this!)

Stack of Magazines or a heavy item.

s

Instructions:

1. Fold your paper in half

2. Lightly wet your paintbrush and get a good amount of paint on it

 3. Glide your paint in a line across the top of the card

 4. Next, lightly dip the brush in water and make another line touching your first.

5. Repeat again!

 6. Do the same but starting at the bottom of card. I like to use another color too.

7. Wait a few moments until it’s dried off then set it under a heavy stack of books or magazines. Place some white paper on top of it to protect it.

8. I like to leave mine a couple of hours or overnight, then when it is completely dried and pressed write a saying in your own penmanship.

I hope you find this little tutorial helpful, and your inspired to create your won little works of art. :)

Good morning everyone!

Today we’re excited to announce we’ll also be contributing to one of our favorite blogs 6th Street Design School. Be sure to go and check out our post today where we’ll be sharing this fun DIY!

 See you over there!

This week my friend Brooke’s twin girls turned one. Naturally she wanted a girly celebration, so one afternoon we threw together this garland (with lots of help from Katie).

s

HOW TO:

First, we printed off the letters we needed and cut them in circles. Next we glued the edges and dipped them in glitter. While they were drying we cut out bigger circles out of card stock and folded them in half, again and again until we had this accordion look. Then we simply hot glued the letters onto the folded card stock, and then them onto ribbon.

Pretty darn cute, don’t you think!

Last year I loved my Valentines decorations in my downstairs bath. In fact they ended up being in there wayyy longer than valentines. So this year I decided to stick with the soft pink and just add some white a silver to cool things up a bit.

A couple of easy DIY’s were involved in this:

First the spray painted cinnamon sticks in arranged around the candle.

Second the pink artwork, I simply splashed some craft paint on canvas and played around a bit.

Finally the feathered wreath on mirror, I just hot glued a bunch of feathers on a styrofoam wreath layering as I went.

Other than that, all the decorations are 100% Christmas clearance items. Boy do I love making deals look pretty! What are you’re decorations looking like? Email us a pic we’d love to see!

I always get so sad taking down my Christmas decorations, so this year I went straight to decorating for Valentines.

The fairy lights in our dinning area really cozy up the place, so they’re officially staying till spring. I made these little hearts to dress them up for the season. They’re not only cute, but free to make and very easy!

If you’d like to make your own, all you’ll need is: 

Fairy lights (I use icicle, currently on mega sale everywhere!)

A pair of scissors

An old newspaper or magazine

Marker or pencil

Simply draw your heart shape on newspaper, and cut. I like to do a few pages at a time to make it super fast. Then punch over lights, the paper rips easily since it’s so thin.

This is all I had the energy for on my sick day, hope you guys aren’t feeling yucks! Look after yourselves x.

We can’t tell you how thrilled we were when our friends over at Lonny called and asked us to share some gift wrap ideas with them.

Our brains instantly exploded with ideas that we can’t wait to share with you. But first up, we knew another ‘cozy look’ was in order since we had such a great response from last year’s version. Tell me, have you ever seen an old sweater look so cute?!

For a how-to on this gift, and a peek at our other faves, be sure to check us out HERE.

Thanks again Lonny, we sure had fun :)

Paper bows are always one of those things we can’t resist once they go on clearance, but we rarely end up using them on gifts.

Since most things look better grouped together we thought we’d try adding a whole cluster of bows to a foam wreath. We were surprised how lovely, modern and clean it looked.

To make the wreath you’ll need:

A foam wreath.

Some pins.

A thimble.

About 70-100 bows (depending on size of wreath and bows).

This really is the easiest project, because all you do is pin the bows into place. The hardest part is punching the pin through the paper on the bow, that’s why the thimble comes in handy. :)

What do you guys think? Will you be making one?

Good morning everyone!

Yesterday I was looking through our last week of posts, and I was inspired by Em’s roundup of Thankgiving tables to think of an even easier name card that you could put together in a matter of minutes, just before the guests arrive. :) This is what I came up with:

It can’t get any easier than this. Plus, I like how it sets the tone for games once the meal is over…my perfect way to digest and relax!

(In the Faubus family we have to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation that night, and after 8 years I still can’t see why everyone thinks it’s funny. :( Oh well, I guess there are worse family traditions!)

Thanksgiving is a holiday I’ve come to truly love. Not only is the gateway to Christmas, but a time when we get to reflect upon our many blessings and celebrate with family, friends and food :)

It’s a pure and simple holiday, and so I made this no fuss banner to cheer on the season:

The saying “grateful prayer and a thankful heart” is from a song in the Mupets Christmas Carol, but I thought it was an appropriate line for Thanksgiving too.

If you want to make this, or a simliar banner all you’ll need is:

3 sheets of cardstock

sissors

hole punch

twine

computer + printer (to type out saying)

Simply type out your letters (leave a comment if you want mine), cut them out in a flag shape, punch 2 holes per letter and thread them on some twine. Ta dah, it’ll be done in well under an hour and cost next to nothing…holler!

PS. See those sad little pumpkins? That’s our WHOLE harvest this year, not as successful as we’d hoped :(

I have been making a few changes to transition the apartment into the winter months and had a craving to make something with felt to cozy things up for the season.

As I usually have zero tolerance for crafts as my DIY’s usually result in a less than desirable result, I didn’t want to waste any time so I tried to keep it as simple as possible.

I used what I had: Brown felt, brass fasteners and twine and simply cut the sheet of felt into 4 pieces with a flag edge, folded the felt over the twine and secured in place with the brass fasteners.

It is simple and looks great on the stairs, but best of all took no time or money whatsoever. The felt is usually around $.20/sheet at a craft store, and the fasteners are less that $2 at any grocery store. I like it so much, I’m planning on a gold + cream version for Christmas. Well worth a few minutes, don’t you think?!

About a week ago I hung my fall pine cone garlands outside in hopes to spur on the Autumn chill. It seems to have worked, and today I managed to wear a scarf without passing out!

I made these garlands about 6 years ago, and still hang them every year. Because they are so easy and cute I thought I’d share a quick tutorial so you can make your own (if you so wish)!

c

All you’ll need is some ribbon, twine, and pine cones:

s

Then, just tie a knot around the base of the pine cone with the ribbon.

Last, tie that ribbon onto a longer piece of twine and ta dah, you’re done!

The more you add, the fuller your garland will be. It’s also fun to add other bits of nature, try twigs or large acorns.

More than anything else in the home, I struggle with wall space. I rarely find art work that I like and am always looking for ways to make the walls more interesting.

One day while browsing through Pinterest, I saw a great idea of using thumb tacks on canvases to create personalized art:

flickr.com

I had a pack of small canvases laying around and I picked up a pack of thumb tacks from the dollar store to give it a try..

I roughly measured and drew my letters on to the canvases with pencil and then followed along the pencil lines with thumb tacks.

Not exactly perfect, but super easy. If you accidentally pin wrong, you can simply adjust the tack as the tack head is usually large enough cover your mistake.

One more reason to love Pinterest, and a fun way to add a personal touch to your home.