"Life is Better in Flip Flops" Decor Sign

Ah... flip flops. One of the things I look forward to the most out here in Canada when the warm weather comes! Back when I lived in California I could pretty much wear them all year long! But... here in Canada, .. ya, not so much. So I really wear the heck out of my flip flops during the few short warm months we have! 

To further express my love for flip flops I made a cute little sign to decorate my living room. Yes, I painted another piece of scrap wood! If you didn't see the first one I made a couple weeks ago, you can see it here. 

This time I took photos while I crafted this one. So I thought I'd do another tutorial cause, well, let's be honest, tutorials are so much more exciting when there are photos to go along with the instructions.

I first sanded all the edges, corners, and the top surface real smooth. With a sponge brush, I painted the top and sides with a layer of watered down brown acrylic craft paint and a drop of black craft paint mixed with that to make a darker shade of brown. Then I wanted to give it some sort of aged or sanded sketchy look, so I watered down (not too much) some white craft paint and did two to three coats of that. I like how the dark shows through the white a little bit. Looks kind of beachy like... which is perfect for this quote! 

Okay, now some photos! 

I free handed the words on my last wooden sign, but this time I created a Word document, making sure to size everything to fit. I got my ideas for the layout from searching that quote on Pinterest. 

Flipping the printed paper over, I rubbed a piece of chalk all over where the words were placed on the other side. Because my board was painted with white, I used a bolder/brighter color.

After making sure all the backs of the words are covered in chalk, I flipped my piece of paper back over, placing it where I wanted it on the board, the words now facing up. I used some painter's tape to keep it in place. 

Now you are ready to trace all the words! 

Just grab a pen and trace and outline all of the letters.

Once you're done tracing and you remove the paper, you get this! 

Chalk lines on your board that are now ready to be filled in with paint! Super easy and neato trick for transferring words or shapes onto something for painting!

I found all my skinny little paint brushes at the dollar store! They work great! 

And now I have an adorable new summer decor sign! 

The perfect craft for a lazy Saturday afternoon. I actually find these painting projects very relaxing. 

The mustard yellow is a little hard to see until you come closer. But it looks great in the photos! And at least it will make me happy since I sit near this spot often!

Hmmm.. I have one more piece of scrap wood.. what should I paint next?!

Hand Painted Wooden Sign Decor

HELLO HELLO! My goodness, it's been ages since I've hung out at my blog! The last time I blogged was in December! I miss the days when I used to blog about everything I did.. I've gotten a bit lazy I guess. Well guess what?! I was feeling crafty last weekend and went browsing through my Decor board on Pinterest to see if there was anything pretty I could make. I found this pretty hand painted wooden sign that I'd pinned forever ago and decided since I had a piece of scrap wood I'd give it a try! 

And here it is!

Didn't it turn out lovely?!

I decided to put it up on a small wall to the side of our couch, right next to the balcony doors. I was never sure about what to put in that spot, or if I should put anything there at all.. in case it looked too crowed with having my photo wall above my couch. But that's where I put it up! Along with a cutie little vintage bicycle decor piece that I got from my Grampa (I begged him for it), who got it from my mom a few years ago haha! I always wanted to put the little bicycle up somewhere but I'm just not creative when it comes to adding wall decor in an attractive way. I take waaaaay too long thinking about stuff first, and then I just get tired thinking so I forget about it!

  

I think it looks GREAT! I'm in love with it! And I can't stop looking at it whenever I come into my living room. It makes me smile and say, "Awwwee..."

As difficult as it was to get a hold of my husband's attention while he was grossly and intensely watching his favorite hockey team play in the playoffs, I was able to get him to hang my new decorations up on commercial breaks! ...

Check out those sunburns!

Now, I didn't take any photos during the creation, because I didn't think about blogging! But it was pretty easy. First, to get the stained look, I watered down some brown acrylic craft paint with water and covered the board a couple of times till it was a shade I liked. When dry, I began on the words. I drew my words on a piece of paper while looking at the pinned inspiration photo for a guide. I did "Love" first and when I had it all drawn up how I wanted it, I took a piece of chalk and rubbed the back of the paper all over where the word was. Then I gently placed the paper where I wanted it on the piece of wood, with the chalked side facing down onto the wood. Taking a pen, I traced over the letters. When I lifted the paper off, the word was drawn onto the wood with the chalk!! Super easy for transferring! So then I just filled it all in with craft paint! (I'm in love with that color these days!) And I just repeated that same process with the rest of the words on the sign. The rest was a little tougher for me though, because I can't seem to write nicely.. After that was all finished and dried I covered the whole board with a clear varathane finish. That's it! 

Feels nice to share something on my blog again! : )

Mason Jar Stamped Gift Tags

Eeek! I've always wanted a mason jar stamp and finally I found one at Michael's on sale! ... and I think it was the only one left! YEAH! I've been making gift tags with them! They're so CUTE! 

P.S.. I posted them on my Facebook page first, before adding them to my shop! So if you see a set you like hurry over and leave me your paypal email address!!

Fall Specimen Art

The other day I came across this pumpkin specimen art from My Blessed Nest and thought it was so super cute! I wanted to make my own, but I don't have a pumpkin punch. But I just purchased a large heart punch on Ebay, so when it came in the mail the other day I had my first project for it all figured out!

Months ago a neighbor gave me a huuuge stack of magazines when she moved, and I've had that stack just sitting around under one of our side tables. 

Because I didn't have any cute scrapbook paper, I flipped through the magazines looking for designs and images I could punch out. There's TONS of pretty designs and images you could use from magazines! So before you throw them out make sure you get all the prettiness punched out of them!

I bought my cheapo frame from the dollar store and hot glued some burlap material to the back of the frame, glued my tiles on, then picked out 12 hearts I wanted to use and lightly glued them down. I didn't use the glass piece at all. I'll just throw it away.. or something. With a crafter nothing is trash, right? :) 

I couldn't be more pleased! 

So cute! 

And I decorated my piano last night all Fall-ish. I don't have a mantel to decorate, so I use my piano! But I'll share that later on. I'm still finishing up on it. 

DIY Acorn Necklace

Call me a nut, but I'm in love with acorns! 

I've been collecting them from my husband's grandparent's yard every Sunday and I plan to use them in my Fall decorating. They are just so cute! I also saw some beautiful handmade necklaces on Etsy that I completely fell in love with! {here, here, and here.} Then I was thinking about making my own.. I was looking around for some cheap supplies, then I bumped into this post on how to make your own necklace from a real acorn! So I jumped off the couch and picked out the cutest acorn in my collection!

I started by gently removing the cap

Next I wanted to gut my little acorn, so I took my corn on the cob prongy holder thing and poked holes around the circle on the top of the acorn. Then I used my knife to cut out the circle, and then used one side of my scissors to dig the nutty stuff out and hollow out my nut.. that's alot of nutty goodness inside one little acorn!

After the acorn was hollowed out I pulled apart a cotton ball into a bunch of tiny shreds, squirt a drop of hot glue inside the acorn, then squished in a couple pieces of the cotton with my prong-y cob holder. I did this a couple of times till I got the hollowness filled. I'm not really sure why I did this part.. Maybe it will keep it from getting gross inside.. haha.. don't know.

Now I wanted to paint my acorn! 

I thought a pretty bronze-y shimmer would be pretty, and I have this glittery shimmer eyeshadow I found at the dollar store. I never use it because the color doesn't look good on me. At first I dry brushed on the eyeshadow, but when I brushed on mod podge after that, the shimmer kind of wiped away and disappeared. So I did it again and tried spraying Krylon's clear spray instead of brushing, but it kind of blew all the shimmer off! ... Needed another plan!

I mixed the shimmer eyeshadow with some clear nail polish and used my little paint brush to apply it to the acorn. Had to work quickly because the polish was drying fast!

It worked! 

And I just clear coated the top with a brush on clear paint I had.

Then I glued a jump ring to the acorn cap. I used a dab of E6000 and a dab of hot glue.. The hot glue to hold up while the E6000 dried. I thought E6000 would be stronger. I plan on painting the glue spot brown to match the cap so it's not very visible.

And now I have my own handmade Fall time acorn necklace! 

We took a walk last night and bumped into a couple with a wagon full of puppies, and they were the SWEETEST puppies ever! They were a mix of Shihtzu and Poodle, making them Shihpoodles! I held a couple of them and one tried to eat my acorn necklace! haha!{I'm definitely getting a Shihpoodle puppy when we're able to have a pet!}

Such a fun little craft and would be perfect for gifts! And how cool that I had everything I needed on hand! Love when I find those kinds of projects!!

Happy Almost Fall Time!!!!

Ladybug Yard Decor from Croquet Balls

So while I was in California for my Grandpa's surgery I introduced my mom to the world of Pinterest. She immediately was hooked! And one night while we were up browsing fun ideas we came across a super cute yard decoration idea for painting bowling balls into ladybugs! What a darling idea! .. But we didn't have any bowling balls lying around. The next day though, we bumped into some ancient croquet balls while looking for something in my Grandpa's shed (he's living with my parents now). He said, "Hey, use those for your ladybug project!" So we did! 

After giving them a good wipe down we spray painted them all red with what spray paint my mom had in her cupboard.. it's more like a burdundy, but it worked fine for a base coat to cover up the colors because we ended up buying some acrylic craft paints at Walmart and painting over them with red.

After painting them red, we painted little faces and dots on them. That was kind of hard because of the ridges on the sides of the balls. But I actually figured out that Q-tips worked great for working with the ridges! Just kind of dabbing the paint on. My mom used to paint really cute faces on wooden animals my Grandpa used to make. She likes painting faces on rocks around her property : ) She's so cute, I love her!

Mom sprayed a clear protective spray over them once they all had faces and dots.

Now they needed antenna... 

My Grandpa went rummaging through his shed and came out with these little prong stick looking things. He wasn't sure what they were, but he had a whole bunch of them and said we could use them for the antenna. They're so perfect!

So he brought out his drill gun and then this nifty little tool that punctures a dent on the spot you want to drill a hole. Super cool! I want one of these things! 

Of course I wanted to do the drill by myself!..  and grunting like Tim Taylor from Home Improvement, "More Power! Oohhhoooo Owoooohoo!" ... ehem, something like that anyway.. 

And then I hammered in the little spikey things

.. but that didn't secure them in well enough, so my mom had some super glue and we used a couple drops down the holes and pressed the spikes back in. So much better. 

And here are all the "ladies" to model for you!

(#2 looks like Bob the tomato from Veggie Tales! ha! ha!)

This is the ladybug I brought home with me. It was the first one I started painting on and loved it! {Mom just had to paint a nose onto hers! Isn't it sweet?!}

When I was packing my little ladybug into my luggage before going home, I thought, "Oh no, I wonder if at the airport they will see my ladybug through the x-ray scanner and think it's a bomb and take it out of my bag and throw it away!..?" .. Then when I got home, I opened my luggage to show my Hubby the ladybug and it wasn't in the spot I put it! I said, "NO, they took it!" .. I was so sad. But then I found it. It had shifted to another spot when I took something else out earlier!! So then I explained to my husband the bomb thought I had and he basically said, "You weirdo, bombs don't really look like that!" ... I guess I've watched too many cartoons in my life.. 

My little ladybug is enjoying herself in the shade of my cherry tomato plants, which grew like CRAZY while I was away! There are so many little baby tomato balls.. and couple are now starting to turn orange!

I just love it! It was so much fun doing this project with my mom and my Grandpa. We needed a fun little time like that with all the stress and busyness we all had been through before and after my Grandpa's surgery. 

I'd still love to try a bowling ball next .. but I'll save that for when I have a yard someday!