Home Blocks with Holiday "O"

Home blocks with changable "O"... I like decor that is more "permanent," plus these have a little holiday flavor! Small and easy to store (double sided pictures) and cheap as anything. Lovely!

Fabric Wreath

What to do with an old crappy wreath that you got for free? This, I guess! I was THIS close to giving it away, but my friend gave me some leftover green spray paint, so I felt the urge to spray it and see what would happen. I love this green!

While poking around, I saw this stinking amazing ruffly wreath HERE and really wanted to attempt it... BUT, I didn't have nearly enough fabric laying around that would match. I am uber cheap so I decided to attempt it later when I find a rockin remnant sale. However, I did have some leftover cheapy duck fabric and some tan and brown pieces leftover after cropping some pants (yes, I even save those pieces) and decided to make some roses. It evolved into this!

Each piece was pretty simple to make. The blog linked above has a tutorial to make the roses and I just made up some other little things to fill it in. Everything is sewn messily by hand or tied with fabric pieces. The fabric on the top is just wrapped and everything is hot glued on. Simple. This took me only a few evening hours to complete and looks a heck of a lot better than it did before.

Best part of this project? It cost me absolutely NOTHING, except for the hot glue and a yard or two of thread. Perfect. I love recycling.

I think it might be fun to eventually cut a letter "R" monogram to hang in the center, or to add little house numbers to the side, what do you think?

Bloom Blocks

I love Virginia in May. It couldn't be more beautiful outside! I needed something for May in my house... Bloom blocks it is. That rose was kind of a pain since I had to point edit a lot of it, but I like that these turned out spring-y and bright and not too finished looking.

I love my cat in the background, by the way. I planted this little garden and he tries to sneak outside to eat it. Yay for May.

Friends Quote

My good friend (also visiting teach-ee) is moving this week (SAD day!) and I decided to make her this little plaque as a farewell present. This particular uber-crafty friend was the one that first introduced me to wood crafting and make me think it was awesome. She taught me how to pick wood and use various saws so I thought it appropriate to make her something with wood. I'll miss you Cami!

You Are My Sunshine Door Hanger

I LOVE summer. It makes me so happy. And how happy is this door hanger? I had a lot of fun designing it and cutting it and I thought that font for "Sunshine" was just perfect, eh? Also, this song has special meaning to me because my sweet grandma who passed away two years ago loved this song and sang it to my grandfather. I like simple rememberances.

"Most folks..." Quote Plaque

I randomly saw this quote during a visit to the gift shop at Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was shot. I have always believed that happiness is a choice so I decided to print up the quote onto a plaque and put it up in my house...

Easter Egg Blocks

I am still taking advantage of freebie wood... These cost me less than $1 to make!

Easter Stacker

I am proud of myself for getting my Easter crafts done before Easter... the day before is still before!

Young Women Names

I was released as the first counselor of the Young Women's Presidency of our church today. As a goodbye gift for our girls (yes, we have only four) I made these for them, each in their own favorite color. They were all supposed to have the thick lettering like the blue, but they work... I am still working out the kinks with my Silhouette!

Mirror Makeover

I have had this mirror up in my living room for a long time (and yes I do need to update my family pictures... sheesh). Before I knew about vinyl cutting machines I searched everywhere for some black letters to put our name on this mirror. I found some at the craft store and they did the job but looks so BORING. Now that I have a Sillhouette (blessed day, I love that thing) I remade the letters to be a bit fancier. I had to point-edit a lot of this font around, but I like how it turned out....

He is Risen Blocks

I wanted to make something to help us remember the reason for Easter and this is what I came up with. I had a different idea in mind before I made them but I think they turned out better than I had hoped! Happy Easter!

Clover Hanger

I made this a while back to hang on my door fence for St. Patrick's Day. I was so proud of myself for learning how to cut with a scroll saw! I should have appreciated 7th grade shop class more. See previous posts for door hangers for every month/ holiday of the year...

Valentine's Stacker

A little late for the holiday, I know. But here's my finished Valentine's stacker. I felt proud for finding this paint for $.19, the paper secondhand at Goodwill, and leftover dollar store ribbon. This wood was also given to me for free. I like that...

Lucky Blocks

Feeling lucky? St. Patrick's Day blocks and stacker...

Love Coaster Hanger

I went searching at Goodwill for some little plates for a Valentine's Day hanger but found these plain coasters for $2 instead... hmm, what would those look like hung on a wall? I slapped some easy vinyl on them and plan to staple them vertically to a ribbon to hang on the wall. Maybe some rafia, a bow, and presto. Super cheap Valentine's decor.

Wee basket...

A basket. A wee little basket. Made by me, with Jul's help. Never thought I'd make one of these!

Sign Boards: Bathroom, Laundry, Heaven

Simple sign boards- One for laundry, one for bathroom, and one for my sweet Grandpa who is missing his sweetheart...(my dad cut and stained that one).

A Toothy Cake

An extra special cake for my husband's birthday...I was pretty happy with how it turned out!

The best part about this cake is what is inside... his favorite cake is German chocolate cake with carmel drizzled all over inside, topped with butterscotch and whipped cream, with score bars crushed on top. I usually don't make fondant cakes for eating purposes, really they are just an fun art project for me, and my husband always complains about this. I decided to give him the best of both worlds... Inside I put three layers of German chocolate cake, layered with a butterscotch flavored buttercream frosting, with toffee bars crushed inside each layer. I then bought extra carmel sauce to drizzle on the top. Pretty sure it was the ultimate sugar high!

Child Ceramic Handprints

Glass Nativity Blocks

I designed and made these glass blocks for our ward's Super Saturday. I drew the pictures to use for the vinyl (I roughly based them off of other pictures I found). I am going to drill mine eventually to put lights in but I am not looking forward to that task- maybe this year they will just have lights behind.

 

Car Seat Blanket

I made this snuggly car seat blanket. Pretty sure this is the best invention ever and I had two of them (given to me for free) and never I knew what they were- dang! This tucks into the carseat so you can pull the straps through to buckle baby (so you don't have to move baby in and out), then baby is swaddled in the blanket all cozy like in the soft minky fabric. I made a little detachable hood for wintertime as well, but have never really needed to use it. After using the sucker for a while after baby was born I wish I had moved the slits up a bit closer to the top to make it fit around baby a little better, but otherwise it has been great!

Halloween Blocks and Hanger

These blocks have changed slightly since I made them... (bat is better and the blocks are wrapped in a big sparkly, purple bow)...

This was deisgned and cut by Cami for Super Saturday... put together by myself.

Frame Crazy

I had a lot of fun trying to fix up some of the old frames I had and made some new cheap crafty ones as well. It was fun to see what I could do to change them up with what I already had in the house!

I cut out pictures from the Ensign and made a "mat" around both documents. I have a white Proclamation that has a temple showing through to put in that one eventually.

 

I made these in an another attempt to boost the amount of religious art in my house...

I have also really wanted to get some folk dance pictures up so I used this big frame to make a collage of some pictures taken of us on stage...

I also FINALLY got some wedding pictures up...over six years later. I have always had some in little frames but nothing really substantial. You can't see it in this picture, but I took out the backs of these frames and put in some shimmery white fabric and then attached the pictures on top. I'm glad to have these pictures up!

For craft group a month or two ago we made these frames from cheap wooden craft frames. I painted them and glued paper and ribbons on to match the brown and green that is in my bathroom.

These are waiting for a new baby to be born... they are outside the girl's room (which is brown and pink with polka dots) and will have pictures of the kids in them eventually. I taped in this leftover fabric which matches the decor in their room for a mat.

The big wording above the frames below was not made by myself (but was a STEAL) and I wanted to make some frames to go underneath to fill in the wall of our bedroom a little better. Our room is sagey green, tan and blue so these match well. I tarnished and sanded the frames and made mats from scrapbook paper.

I had previously made the magnet board in the center below but wanted some other frames to add by it. I painted and glued paper and flowers to some super cheap craft frames, somehow managing to find paper identical to the magnet board I made two years previously. Hooray.

 

 

Nursing Cover

And another nursing cover... I pretty much destroyed the one I made for my oldest daughter and this one is longer around and shorter so I am not so much of a tent while nursing. I also skipped putting in boning around the neck because it is easier to fold up and keep nice without it, plus I never really needed to peek in with boning anyway. There is also also a big pocket on this one for burp cloths and such (you can't see that in this picture). Bring on the baby!

Farm Birthday Cake

For my older daughters birthday I decided to do a farm animal "theme," which really was just an excuse for me to make her a farm cake. I love making cakes like this because they are more like doing a fun craft than they are baking.  I must say that I am rather proud of how it turned out, mostly because I improved upon last year's cake a bit and didn't go totally crazy in the prep. Everything is edible again this year-The base is made of two easy funfetti type sheet cakes, layered with butter-cream frosting. The barn and silo are shaped out of rice krispie treats, covered with fondant, and the rest of the cake is covered with green fondant with all fondant animals with candy eyes. For her party I also prepared animal cupcakes- pigs, cows and chickens- made with frosting and candy.