A Christmas Craft

Since I'm a sucker for cute wrapping/packaging, this year I decided I wanted to put a "crafty" touch on our gifts. I still love the "natural" color mixed with traditional red and green; and lately I've been loving all things silver and gold so I decided to mix all these to make these simple gift tags. To get me in the mood I put some Christmas pandora on...nothing like some Mariah to get you in the spirit, right?



I cut out the circles, then embellished with some stamps, and silver, gold and green stamp pads. You have to look closely but I embossed a few, but since the stamp designs are so small with not much space in between the lines it's difficult to emboss and keep the detail (if you've ever embossed you know what I'm talkin bout!)

Now I just need some gifts to wrap...

Fallin' for Pumpkins!

Despite the "heat wave" we have been experiencing over the past week or so, we successfully completed our first [hopefully of many] Fall craft days (from our inspiration here)! We pumped the AC, and picked up some pumpkin flavored treats to help get us in the mood.  I decided to tackle the burlap pumpkins I've had my eye on for the past month. I had seen a couple different ways to do them, but decided to use a variation of a couple of them, and put my own twist ...partly because of the lack of supplies, but I ended up loving how these came out and am so glad we can enjoy them all season long!

Supplies:

Orange, Cream & Natural Burlap

Various Sizes Circular Templates

Neutral Threading Floss

Polyfil

Green Pipecleaners

Hot Glue Gun

Needle

Scissors 

Twine

Step 1: Trace your circle templates onto burlap, and cut each out. Side note: You can really use whatever circle size you want, depending on the pumpkin size you want. I used a paper plate, then some other plastic larger serving dishes we had

Step 2: Thread your floss in the needle (and knot at the beginning so it doesn't pull itself thru the burlap), and start free stitching around the perimeter. You want to do the stitches close enough so when you pull it to bunch up it works nicely, but not too close together. Also make sure you do it away from the edge enough that it doesn't fray itself and undo your stitch. I found about between 1/4-1/2" inch worked well. 

Step 3: Once you've stitched all the way around, holding the part of the circle where you began your stitch,  carefully pull the other end of the thread (with the needle on it) so that the circle becomes bunched up into a pumpkin shape. Once you have the shape, open it back up a bit at the top and grab some polyfil and stuff your pumpkin to the "plumpness" you like. 

Step 4: Sew up the top of your pumpkin. This step may be different for you, depending on what you do for your toppers. Since I was putting a piece of burlap on top, I just did a messy stitch up top to make sure it was tightly closed. Then I glued a piece of burlap on top, and also created a little stem with a pipecleaner. Then just for a little extra detail, I decided to start at the bottom of the pumpkin and create seams on the sides. To do this, I came up from the bottom and went over the top, back to the bottom and up a different side. Once you start, you'll get the hang of it.

The Finished Pumpkins!

The yummy Fall snacks!

Fall Crafting

As I've heard from any girl who is married or is in the process of planning, I think it'll be important to make sure wedding planning doesn't consume my every moment over the next year [although I'm so excited to get my plan on!]. So, my sister [ThingsToBeStroudOf] had an awesome idea to have a Fall crafting day soon. We always see such cute things to DIY for Fall decor, but by the time we get around to them Fall is half way over, so we figure why not get a head start so we can enjoy all season long [even though its 85+ outside still...perhaps we'll blast the AC and have some hot cocoa to get in the mood!]

These are a few of the DIY things that caught my eye:

L to R: via/via/via/via/via/via

Of course I'll probably pick one of these and make some modifications! Will you be doing any Fall crafting? 

Summer Sprucing

So last time my mama was over she mentioned that I needed to update my front door wreath (because it had Tulips on it, as you can see here and everyone knows Tulips are Spring not Summer, albeit they are my favorite so I think they should be a year round flower!).

I kept up with using the same wreath I used for the Fall, Holidays, Spring and now Summer. I wanted to do something simple that I could keep all Summer and not get sick of it. I decided to stick with simple a patriotic style-- so I purchased a few supplies from Joannes. I found these cute burlap flag stickers, wrote on them with a Sharpie, threw them on twine and tah-dah!

Side Note: I know technically the left flag is upside down, I didn't intend for that but couldn't figure out another way to do it! Recommendations welcome...

And since our humble abode cottage isn't large enough for a big flag, I threw one in one of my pots!

Makin' An Old Thing New

Months ago when we moved into our first apartment, we were faced with the "problem" of not having any furniture to fill it. Lucky for us, we live close to my family and they are oh so generous. It just so happened that my brother and SIL had moved into their first home a few months earlier and had some "hand me down" furniture to give us. Although I felt incredibly blessed they gave us 2 bookcases, 2 end tables and a coffee table--they didn't quite go with our grey + yellow theme that I had my mind set on. So...we got our DIYer caps on and transformed them...we used an electric sander to take off the previous paint/finish then used a gray paint and laquer to finish them off so they wouldn't ruin easily. I was and still am so happy with the end result!

Coffee Table Tray

For the past few months I have been on the hunt for the *perfect* coffee table tray. Unfortunately I didn't find one that I loved, or if I did it was out of my budget. So...I did what any other lover of all things creative would do and made my own. I didn't use a whole lot of supplies in creating this tray, and luckily I had most of it on hand already which meant I only had to spend about $10!

I knew this tray was going to live on our gray coffee table, so despite my first ambition, I could not paint the entire thing gray. Instead, I incorporated the yellow color that we have in our living room, and also added some burlap to get the more rustic look. To harden the burlap and make it stick, I used modge podge [a whole lot of it].

Design Design!

Although I've always had a passion for graphic design & creativity, I've recently been even more excited to create (partly because I've treated myself to my amazing new iMac). I've really been enjoying playing around and making some new designs, so recently, I've been contemplating selling some invites/cards/announcement designs on Etsy or the like. I don't expect to make a killing off of it (i know there is a lot of competition out there!) , but I love working with different photography and color styles, so I think why not solicit my passion for this to others?

Although I've been working on many more lately, over the past few months I've had the pleasure of designing a few different cards, thanks to my wonderful older sissy who has been so nice to ask me to create some for her and her cute little fam, here's a quick snap shot of some of them:

Family Christmas Card (I also took these photos...think I just got lucky with how cute they came out!):

Easton's First Valentine:

Hopefully I'll have more to share with you soon, pending how busy I get with my "day job"!

Spring Craftery

Over the past week I have been "Spring-izing" our place. Living in small quarters only allows for a touch of decorating, but I still get so excited for every holiday.

Easter Eggs: I was at Michael's last week and stumbled upon these paper mache plain eggs and for some reason HAD to buy them. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to use them for, but I found a purpose during my sister (see her fun projects over at Things to be Stroud of) this past weekend! I painted some designs on them, added a little burlap and modge podge and threw them in a Mason Jar with some burlap on top.

Wreath [this is the 3rd season of using my twig wreath-I decorated the same one for Fall and Christmas]: I really wanted to incorporate my favorite flowers [Tulips], and I wish I could use real ones but that is just not practical! So, I was able to find some pretty real looking silk ones, and a pop of pink to add some color and I recycled the burlap I had from previous crafts for the bow.

I had bought a silk bouquet of the flowers, so I snipped them to be individual so I could place them around the wreath, then cut portions of the pink bouquet to place in between. I then just used tacky-glue to put the bow on and voilà!

A little touch of St. Patty's day with one of my favorite Irish blessings on the chalkboard and some miscellaneous Spring items I'm loving in my small space!

Chalkboard Canisters

These days chalkboards are all the rage, and along with everyone else I'm a huge fan of the look and the fun they add to simple things. So, when I was at Cost Plus World Market and saw these for $3.99, I couldn't pass them up!

At the time of purchase I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to use them for, but sure enough I found the perfect place for them. Remember the white canisters in the kitchen?

Well since I always forget which is the flour and which is the sugar, I thought it was the perfect place for these labels.

Paper Flag Banner

A few days ago you saw my latest project with my home office and this cute little paper flag banner on my bulletin board. I've been so excited to put up this step-by-step project because I think everyone should make their own, because it's so fun and simple! My favorite part about it is that you can customize in just about every way to make it your own- I got a pack of "citrus" colored paper patterns from Joannes to create my flags, but you can pick from any type of paper, or even fabric, here are the supplies I used:

• Pinking Scissors
• Citrus Paper Pack (this was 4.5"x6.5" paper)
• Adhesive (anything will due, I used a double sided tape sticky thing, scientific, i know!)
• Ribbon 

1. Cut a square out of your desired colored paper

2. Fold that square in half (horizontally)

3. Take your pinking scissors and cut diagonally to create one side of your flag, then cut the other so yo you essentially have a really skinny diamond shape when you open it, or small diamond/flag when its folded over

4. Fold the flag over the ribbon (or whatever string type material you're using)

5. Open the paper up, so its a skinny diamond again, and put adhesive on both insides, then fold back and stick the sides together, and voila! 

TIP: If you're unsure how long you want your banner, you may want to cut out all flags first, then line them up on the ribbon and space them out evenly before putting the adhesive on, like so:

 6. Repeat with each desired paper color/design, until your banner is as long as you want it!

I chose to put my banner in my home office, but you can really use them in any location to spruce up your work space...or for a birthday, party decor, etc!

Home "Office" Makeover

A few months ago, I treated myself (aka spent my life savings, eek) to a new computer, and since then I've been wanting to create a special place for it. Since we don't exactly have room for an "office" here in our little cottage, I decided to make one. And by make one, I mean take over a section of our  counter/bar area that separates the kitchen and dining room. It has actually worked out quite well, but I wanted to do a few special things to make it more of "my" space (that Alex can use on occasion with permission, just kidding-kinda). Here's what I came up with:

The items are a collection of many different places, which makes it more special to me. Here's a run down of where I picked up these favorite knick-nacks, if you will:

-Jewel Case Calendar: This I purchased on our Girls Weekend 2012 trip in Cape Cod in a cute little boutique store, but the brand is Snow & Graham, and can be purchased many other places (like Pottery Barn)

-Chevron Mouse Pad: from an Etsy store (from Laa766 shop, found here)

-Bulletin Board: from Target

-Flag Banner on Bulletin Board: handmade, step-by-step instructions to come soon on this project :)

-Desk Organizer: Martha Stewart line at Staples...I could have purchased many more items but I controlled myself. The line is SO cute, I highly recommend going to check it out!

I'm very happy with how my home office space turned out, and plan to add/change things semi-often (i'm sure i'll get bored of a few of the items in a few months or so!)

Here's a quick snap shot of the before/after look:

Gettin' Crafty for the Kitchen

Since moving into our little humble abode, back in September, I have thoroughly enjoyed making it "our home". It has been so fun because this is the first time I [I mean, we ;) ] actually get to decorate our own place not just our one bedroom studio, if you will, at my sister's :). I can't wait for the day I get to conquer decorating a whole house...but for now the apartment is plenty. One of the places I've had the most trouble making feel homey is the kitchen. And by that I mean, I've been having trouble getting excited to cook and don't feel like it's my kitchen. I do love it because it's all white and easy to clean, but I wanted to add some color to make it more fun and add some personality. So, along came the "eat" frame project...

I've seen plenty of "eat" kitchen decor on Etsy that I love and could simply purchase-but what fun is that, right? I also get bored of things more quickly than most, so any time I can DIY and save some $, I'm all for it. So, I set out to Joannes to get my craft on & purchased the following [don't forget to use your Joanne's mobile app (nerd alert) I saved 50% on the frame, and 25% on my total purchase!]:

• white cardstock for the actual "art piece" (I got three pieces just in case my penmanship wasn't as perfect as I'd like to think)
• plain wooden frame
• paint (I purchased Martha's "pool" and "wet cement" colors, and was very happy with the way they came out)
• paint brushes

To complete this project, I painted the wooden frame with the Wet Cement paint color, then I just drew out the "eat" with a pencil on the cardstock, painted over it with the Pool color and voila:

In the "after" photo, you also see some new handy dandy dish towels I snagged during my last trip to Target for $4.99! 

There you have it, my speedy & simple kitchen craftery!