Showing posts with label Spring 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spring 2011. Show all posts

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Linky Party Features... The Easter Edition!

Holy cow, Easter is literally 2 weeks away!! Where has the time gone??

Ok, let's get real. There are just TOO many cute Easter posts happening right now in blog land. I personally love them all... Easter was always one of my favorite times as a kiddo. Probably all the bright colors, pretty dresses and candy! In any case, I wanted to take a moment to share some fun posts from the past couple of Tutorial Tuesday Linky Parties that are inspired by... you guessed it! EASTER!








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Such festive decor!! Thank you all for linking up, and I may just do another Easter post
if you guys keep showering our link party with such awesome ideas!

Feel free to grab yourself a button if you were featured!


Have a great week!


XOXO

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Tutorial Tuesday & Linky Party - Bamboo Silk Spring Wreath

Goooooooooood morning bloggers! It is a crisp, cool, BEAUTIFUL morning here in Texas, and I am fully enjoying the sun streaming in the windows as I write this. :)

I am so excited to finally share this one with you all. About a week ago I finally took down my Valentine's Day wreath {yeah... I know...} and replaced it with my new Spring Wreath!! What do you think?


I LOVE it! I had been rolling around several ideas in my head about what my spring wreath was going to look like for awhile, but nothing was really calling to me. I'm not a big fan of the egg-inspired style, as I'm not planning on taking this one down for awhile, and also not really a huge fan of silk flowers and greenery etc. just... because. Haha!

So here we have landed on a little more "modern" look to a fresh, bright spring wreath, and I couldn't be happier about it! It makes my front door look so friendly! And guess what? It was super easy to make...

Here's what you need:


Foam wreath form 
{any size will do}
Choice of yarn 
{or even twine!
I used Paton's Silk Bamboo... mostly because I'm in love with bamboo products right now, but also because the texture is oh, so yummy, and the color is perfect for spring. And I had it in my stash, haha!
Scissors
Glue Gun
Straight Pins 
{preferably with colored heads, as you can see, mine are metallic}

aaaaaaand... the secret ingredient: 
a TOILET PAPER ROLL!

YAY for working with fun, new mediums! Now, let's get started...


First, wrap your foam form completely with your yarn or twine. 
{don't you just love the sheen of the bamboo silk?? yum!}
I cut strips of yarn to make wrapping the form easier. 
Just be sure to wrap it tightly so it stays put, and overlaps the end pieces completely. 


Next, we're going to make the flowers using our TP roll.
Flatten your roll for easier cutting. Cut 12 pieces each about 1/2" wide {keeping the circle intact}. 
I used my crappy scissors since we're cutting cardboard here.

For the large flower, we'll glue 5 flattened circles together using a dot of glue between each.
I used an extra cut circle, rolled very tightly, and wedged in the center to make it look more substantial.

Then take your remaining circles, fold flat in half, and glue together to make the small flowers.
The flatter they are to start with, the easier they are to work with. You can always "fluff" them later.
Put a little dot of glue in the fold to help them hold their "petal" shape.
Put a tiny dot of glue between each folded set to hold it all together.

Now it's time to paint!!
In hindsight, I would not use "Fusion"... takes quite a few coats to work on cardboard.
But... I didn't have any other spray paint that would work, so I made do with what I had.
Antique White Krylon Fusion.

Once your paint is dry, grab your wrapped foam, your straight pins, and get ready for the next step.
Use your pins to attach your flowers to the foam. The longer your pins, the better!
I used the purple metallic straight pins, because hey- I love purple! 
Plus it makes a pretty perfect pairing with the spring-y green of the yarn.
I used 4 for each small flower, and 6 for the large one. 
You could probably get away with only using one per flower, but I wanted a noticeable pop of color.

Once my flowers were in place, I decided I needed more purple. 
{Can you ever really have too much purple?}

So I added some purple satin ribbon that just happened to match my pins almost perfectly!
TA-DA!

Now I am finally and completely finished with my Spring decor, and have to say I am pretty proud of myself. It's good to have goals, haha! ;)

Now it's time for YOU to link up!

But first...
Have you entered this week's giveaway?
If not, go NOW!

OceanBelle Etsy Shop is giving away a beautiful Tree of Hope made with the most spectacular natural stones, and brilliant Swarovski crystals. It's okay, I'll wait while you go check it out...

There's about a bajillion ways you can win, so go enter! 
Be sure to check out the rest of her amazing shop while you're at it!


Ok! If you're linking up, grab a button! I can't wait to see what you've been working on!



XOXO


Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Tutorial Tuesday & Linky Party - My Super Cheap Easter Mantle!!

Yay for Tuesday! Before I get all happy and excited to show off my Easter decor, I have to gripe a minute about my SD card. I think it hates me. I work so hard on all these projects, and diligently take pictures throughout the whole process, only to go in to download said pictures and find about 25% of them missing. Just gone. Poof! So... there are a few gaps here {again, sad face} but I'll do my best to fill in. Oh yeah, and I'm super late today because I was waiting around hoping for some good natural light to photograph in, but after 3 days of overcast weather... nada. So, missing pictures, check. Sucky pictures, check. Ok, done complaining, moving on!

I have never really been a holiday decorator. I mean, Christmas, yeah of course. But not much else. Hubby and I go all out in the outdoor foyer for Halloween, because it's fun for the trick-or-treaters, but this year I've been making an effort to step up my decorating. I'm hoping that by working on it now, building up some stock decorations, and holding myself accountable to show it off, that it will become 2nd nature to decorate for holidays by the time Baby A is big enough to enjoy it. :)

I have to admit, my Valentine's mantle was less than impressive, but I think I'm getting better now that Easter is rolling around...


What's extra fun about this mantle collection, is that I only spent about $5. YAY!

I found some more great stuff in the Target $1 bin:

Birdhouse: $1
{originally green and speckled}

Daisy Stakes: $1
{originally multi-colored}

Easter Egg Candle Holders:
Eggs: $.44
Wood Disks: 2/$1=$2
{originally unfinished wood}


Already had:

 Picture frame 
{was also from Target $1 like 2 years ago}

Russian Blown Glass Flower
{gift from a well-traveled friend! Love you Nessa!}

Rustic Chicken
{Hobby Lobby last season, if you want to get picky, he was $5 then, haha!}

Vintage Milk Bottle
{got from Mom's stash when she was cleaning out the house}

Felt Ruffle Wreath
{Christmas Project, 2010}

Flower Pot
{repurposed baby shower decoration}


So, I sort of have a bunch of mini-tutorials this week. :)

Flower Pot Topiary


Bird House - $1 Target find painted a robin's egg blue
Daisy Stakes - $1 Target find, painted yellow and white {was crazy multi-colored}
Flower Pot 2/$1 last summer @ Target, bought for baby shower, repurposed!
Moss - leftover from monogram project
Floral Foam cut to fit the flower pot
Ribbon scrap tied in a bow

So easy, and adds a little greenery too.

Easter Egg Candle Holders


I can't take credit for this idea. 
I saw this tutorial on The CSI Project, guest posted by Paula @ JC's Loft.
She has all kinds of pretty little Easter projects!


Ruffled Felt Wreath


You can see the original here in my Crafty Christmas post.
I just took this beauty, dressed it up with a little purple ribbon and added a silver monogram.
Perfect addition to the Easter Mantle!


No- Sew Spring Banner


This may have been the easiest part! 
All I did was take some bright fabric scraps, cut them into triangles 
with 6" tops and 7" sides, and hot glue them to some white, medium sized ric rac. 
Done!
P.S. I also hot glued them TO the brick. Easy to stick on, easy to take down, no mess!


So there you have it! I'm pretty proud of myself. I had no idea how much planning actually goes into getting all this stuff together to decorate with. But, it was worth it, and fun to boot!

What have YOU been working on? Any fun Spring crafts, or Easter inspired ideas? 
Link 'em up below and grab a button! 


I can't wait to see them. :) I'll be picking my favorite 5 to show off on Saturday.


XOXO


Thursday, March 17, 2011

Thankful Thursday - 3/17/11

~ Family Time. ~



A beautiful day at the park...


A blessed union of two lovely friends...
{and a very tired - but surprisingly well behaved - baby!}




And a fun new toy for our adventurous little monkey!
{who loves feeling the wind in that wild hair of hers!}



It was a perfect weekend, chock full of much needed family time.
I have so much to be thankful for. :)



XOXO

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