Pinterest Challenge-Fall 1012 Edition

I knew I wanted to do a season related project and decided to go with making a Thanksgiving banner. I pinned one I liked a while ago and used it as my inspiration.

My inspiration came from It's The Little Things That Make A House A Home. I really liked the simplicity of her letter banner that can be found here.

Her banner was very simple and I knew I wanted to glam mine up a bit, so this is what I came up with. My whole goal was to make something sparkly to hang on the barn door in our living room. I think I accomplished my goal!

Unfortunately, there were a few spots where the Mod Podge dried before I got the glitter added, but you really can't tell unless you're close up like this. I kind of think it adds a little rusticness to it anyway. Is that a word, rusticness?! I'm going with it.

This project ended up being totally free!

Everything I used, I already had on hand.

Supplies:

white card stock

Martha Stewart smoky quartz glitter

Mod Podge

paint brush

twine

hot glue gun

Directions:

I did this the hard way and simply printed out the letters in the different fonts I wanted to use onto card stock and then cut them out using scissors. (I printed them in a soft gray color so that it wouldn't show through the glitter) I could've used my Silhouette machine, but didn't think of it until after I started cutting by hand.

After they were all cut out, I just used my paint brush to apply Mod Podge to one letter at a time and then sprinkled it with the glitter.

Once the letters were all glittered, I used my hot glue gun to apply small dots of glue to the backs of the letters and lightly pressed the twine into place.

SO easy!

I really like how they turned out. You can't really see how pretty the glitter is in these photos, but it looks fantastic in person!

Don't forget to check out It's The Little Things That Make A House A Home to see my inspiration!

Happy Halloween!

We went to the pumpkin patch two weeks ago and the kids had the best time. There is a huge pumpkin patch here in Omaha called Vala's that gets somewhere around one million visitors a season, which is crazy because the pumpkin season only lasts one month!! (If you're ever in Omaha during pumpkin season it's definitely worth a visit!) It's huge and a lot of fun, however, this year we decided to hit up a much smaller patch with a bunch of little kid friendly activities. I'm so glad we did too, because it was much less busy and a lot more enjoyable with small kids; not to mention much cheaper! Here's a little photo recap for ya!

I loved this display. What I wouldn't give to have it in my house!

The corn box was by far the favorite activity of the day!

This was my favorite part! I adore horses.

I hope you have a very Happy Halloween filled with lots of sweet treats!

It's Kind of Spooky In Here

I finished getting all of our Halloween decorations up this weekend. This year I decided to go glittery with my decorations. I already had a glittery skull, so I picked up some glittery spiders and an owl. I like the idea of collecting decorations over time, mixing and matching, so I'm still working on my collection. Here is a little photo tour of our decorations.

I got this awesome barn door at Junk Stock here in Omaha over the summer and finally just got it hung up in our living room. I love the way it looks with the spider web! And I can't wait to decorate it for Christmas!!

As I've mentioned before, we don't have a fireplace, so no matel for me to decorate. Hopefully in our next house! I do always try to decorate these shelves that hang above our tv. This is what I did this year so far. I'd like to add a few more glittery items though.

These cool votives were a gift from my mom a few years ago. I'm pretty certain they came from Kirkland's.

This owl came from the dollar section of Target, but I think it was $2.50, not $1.00. I wish I would have bought 2 of them and now they're gone. Bummer.

That's pretty much all of the decorating inside. I put up some orange and purple lights outside, some pumpkins and a couple of cute Halloween signs. I still want to make a wreath for the front door at some point, but I may just settle for a Fall wreath instead of a Halloween wreath.

I Want My Own Mummies

I love Halloween. It's always been my favorite holiday, until recently replaced by Christmas since having kids. Maybe it's because I have so many great memories from my childhood Halloweens. Whatever the reason, I also love to decorate for Halloween. I don't have much that I really love at the moment, but I'm slowly getting there.

I wanted to make a few decorations this year and I found a great tutorial for mummies made out of glass jars on Pinterest. You can find the original post for the mummies pictured below here. These were made by the girls at Crafts reDesigned:

My inspiration

My mummies!

The glittery spider came in a package of 8 from a local store here in Omaha. I have plans for the rest of them that I'll share later.

Aren't they so cute?! I love how they turned out!

Supplies:

various sizes of glass jars (I used salsa jars)

1 roll of white gauze

scissors to cut the gauze

Mod Podge

paint brush

googly eyes

super glue or craft glue to attach the eyes

Directions:

Make sure your jars are clean. Then cut strips of gauze (any length you want) and then cut those strips in half the long way. Use your paint brush to apply Mod Podge directly to the jar and then start wrapping the gauze on top of the Mod Podge, repeating the process from the bottom to the top or visa versa. Then let it sit aside until it dries. After it's dry you can rough it up a bit by gently tugging at the gauze until you get the desired affect. Once that's done just use the glue to attach the eyes and you're finished! I added tea lights to mine, but haven't had the chance to light them yet. I also just stuck the spider on hoping it would stay without any glue and it worked!

This project only cost me $2.00, the price of the gauze. I had everything else on hand. I love inexpensive crafts!

Busy Planning

We've been staying pretty busy around here lately. We've had friends and family in town, our basement bathroom finally got finished (more on that later) and we've been trying to get out and about with the kids as much as possible given the terrible heat wave that hit us last week.

I've also been making some big plans involving the holidays. Yep, that's right, I'm already planning for Christmas. I'm starting early this year because it seemed like it was upon us so fast last year that I felt pressed for time. Now that I'm sewing, well maybe I should say learning to sew, I'm planning a few handmade Christmas gifts as well as some awesome pillow cases for the kids, which will probably take me at least 4 months to make! Ha! Anyway, I wanted to give you a sneak peak at a few of the things I'm planning to make.

Booster Seats

I am actually planning to make these before Christmas. I found some cute vinyl tablecloths on clearance for $2.50 at Target a few weeks ago, so this is my next project.

tutorial found here

 Coasters

I'm loving these diy coasters from Martha Stewart. The colors are awesome! I think these would make a great hostess gift!

tutorial found here

Hand Warmers 

I think these would be perfect for keeping little hands warm while playing outside. Hudson went sledding for the first time last winter and I know he'll be all over that again this year. I always worry that he won't tell us if he's too cold, but with a couple of these, at least his fingers will be warm!

 

tutorial found here

Painted Utensils

I love the colors on these utensils and think it's a great way to personalize and jazz up what is kind of a boring gift. I want some of these for myself, but I'll have to wait, because I know someone else who would like some too!

tutorial found here

Beauty Scrubs

I adore scrubs of any kind. Who knew they were so easy to make yourself?! I didn't until I found a little website call Pinterest where I came across a ton of different recipes! I think these will make great inexpensive gifts for my girlfriends.

 

tutorial found here

Quilted Christmas Pillowcases

And this is my BIG project that I've already started preparing to make for the kiddos! I think this is so beautiful! I have absolutely no idea how to quilt, but I'm willing to give it a try if this is the end product! I hope to have these finished by December 1st so that the kids can use them all month. Harper doesn't sleep with a pillow yet, but at least she can have one for the future.

 

original post here

I found all of these ideas on www.pinterest.com. LOVE that site so much!

I have a ton of other ideas floating around my head too. I was thinking a diy play kitchen for Harper and a desk for Hudson's room. Of course, I would need to get the hubby on board for helping with those projects, so we'll see what I can figure out!

Is anyone else thinking about Christmas already? It's kind of hard not to when so many of the blogs and online shops are hosting Christmas in July!

Are you planning any handmade gifts this year? I'd love to hear about them!

Easter Egg Garland

I've seen this garland over and over in blogland and love it. This version is from the ladies at eighteen25.

So, so very clever!

I finally got around to making one for myself. It didn't take more than 10 minutes and it was finished and hung! You gotta love a simple craft!

Here is my version:

I love it!

Lucky Us

I wanted a little sign to go along with my St. Patrick's Day banners. We had some small pieces of plywood leftover from some other projects, so I used a small piece of that.

I used some of Hudson's craft paint to paint the wood white. It actually looks sort of white washed because you can still see the wood grain through the paint. And I'm okay with that. I actually kind of like the way it looks.

Once that was dry, I used some of my acrylic paint to write Lucky Us across the sign.

Then all I did was embellish it a little with a few of the same foam shamrock stickers that I used on my banner and now I have a cute little sign!

It's not perfect, but I like that about it. My favorite part is what it says!