Monogram Letters- August Craft Night

Last night we had our August Craft Night! It was so much fun! I decided on a really simple craft that would look great in any home...letters. To prep for the craft, I bought a letter for each person attending from AC Moore. Then, I gathered different materials as decorating possibilities: paper, fabric, buttons, moss, hemp,etc and with some modge podge and glue guns, we were ready to go.

Here we are with our letters BEFORE:

 Here are our AFTER pics:

Kara covered her "S" with some scrapbook paper that was a beautiful gray and white design. She also decorated a "C" for a friend, and covered it with buttons! They both turned out great!

Sarah covered her "E" with the song lyrics to her first dance with her hubby (isn't that so sweet?!). She just typed up the lyrics, printed them out and traced her letter onto the printed sheet, cut it out, and used ModgePodge to attach it to the letter.

My idea for my letter was completely stolen from a good friend's wedding decor. At her wedding, they had letters for their initials (T&B) and letters to spell out LOVE and they were all covered in torn book pages. I loved the look of them and decided to tear up the pages of an old book and used ModgePodge to put them on my "N". (Thanks Tay for the inspiration- I know you aren't surprised that I tried it myself!)

Erin started her letter by tearing different scrapbook paper styles into strips. She then "ModgePodged" (yes, that is now a verb) them on to her letter one at a time, each one slightly overlapping the previous. Once her entire "D" was covered (several hours later- haha) she Modgepodged over the entire thing.

We really enjoyed our second Craft Night, already thinking of ideas for next month! We may start exploring other ideas, like a photography night (we have two pros in the group) where we can learn photo taking tips and editing tips. Also thinking of going out of the house for a pottery night or a Wine and Design night! Do any of you have craft nights with your crafty friends? I would love to hear more ideas!!!

Welcome Baskets

Happy Sunday! Anyone having the Sunday evening blues?! I have a big week ahead so I am taking it easy with a glass of wine after my steak dinner that the hubs prepared. :)

I wanted to share a little something with ya this evening. This post was inspired by my weekend, which I spent with my family and just being around my mom I started thinking about all the things that I do JUST like she does. I have learned so much from my mom throughout the years and have mimicked so many things that she does in my own decor, lifestyle, and hosting habits. My mom loves to make welcome baskets for her guests that are waiting for them in the guest bedroom when they arrive. This is one of the many things that I have copied from her in our own home. I don't always have the time to pull them together but recently I have made a few and wanted to share them with you. I just love the idea have having little comforts for our guests when they come to visit!

When my family came to visit for the 4th of July, I made a little welcome basket for each person. I bought each element and the baskets from the dollar store which made it a very cost efficient gift. Each basket contained personalized candy choices, some fireworks and some silly little things....a coozie and chapstick for Kiley, lotion for mom, and smoke bombs for dad and Aaron.

Another recent welcome basket I did was for Jordan and Blair when they stayed with us recently for our Christmas in July celebration. I had made them a monogrammed tray at my girl's craft night and wanted to add some welcoming things to it.

We got them each a magazine that we knew they would enjoy and some candy as well!

Welcome baskets do not have to be expensive or time consuming to pull together. It could be as simple as travel size toiletries in case your guests forgot anything. I love little surprises and think welcome baskets are a welcoming touch to any visit!

Burlap Wreath

I have an obsession with Pinterest and have been pinning so many DIY ideas! Last week I tried out a wreath I found out in the Pinterest world. It was a beautiful Burlap Bubble Wreath from Today's Fabulous Finds-Tomorrow's Treasures. Her tutorial was so simple to follow you can see how to make the wreath here. Please check out her tutorial to see how to make it and where I got the idea for this wreath!

So here is my wreath:

I did a few things differently, I used a burlap coffee sack for my wreath, so some of the bubbles have the darker writing on them and others are plain.

I put mine on a straw wreath and left it in the wrapper. I used floral pins instead of straight sewing pins. I think the floral pins made my bubbles less bubbly (if that even makes sense!).

I also covered the back of my wreath with leftover burlap scraps I had from a previous project. I am hanging my wreath in a high profile spot in our house so I wanted it to look as finished as possible.

 This is the back covered in scraps...

Here it is hanging in the kitchen on our door to go outside. I love it!!!

 I followed the Today's Fabulous Finds Tomorrow's Treasures blog tutorial with a few difference that I listed above...If you try this out I would love to see it! It was really easy to make and I love the way it looks!

I just got here and I'm already awesome....

I recently made one of my favorite little people a onesie that is soo true.
"I just got here and I'm already awesome." I saw it on a onesie out on Pinterest....you can see the original here. They are for sale in TheOnesie's Etsy shop as well.

Because my embroidery machine wanted to eat the onesie I embroidered onto a piece of fabric and sewed it onto the onesie instead.

Isn't he so cute?!

Happy Hump Day!

Coffee Station and K-Cup Holder

I want to share one of my latest projects with you. I found this old wooden and glass box at a thrift store a month ago. It looked hand painted and as I started to take it apart I realized that the entire thing was handmade. I decided to give it a makeover and repurpose it's use for our house. I am not sure what it's original purpose was but it is now my K-Cup holder for my Keurig coffee maker!

Before:

 See the little pencil writing that marks the bottom of the case?

I started by painting it white, mainly to use as a primer but I also considered it as my final color as well...

I decided that it would look cute yellow so I did a yellow coat next...

But then the yellow was too bright for me so I took the white paint and started to smear it on top of the yellow. It made the yellow much lighter...

Then I used sandpaper to distress it a little bit...

I taped off the newly painted lid so that I could paint the glass with chalkboard paint to turn it into a chalkboard. I also lined the inside with sheets of cork (I had removed the red and white checkered paper and it was looking really unfinished on the inside!)

After:

You can the see the inside lined with cork and filled with K Cups:

Here it is as part of our little coffee station:

I made it out to Pier1 to buy my little mug set and stand that was on my wishlist! You can see how the made my teapot art from an older post here!

I am really happy with how it turned out! I really liked the box before and thought it was a sweet little find but really want to turn it into a chalkboard topped box and the yellow was a perfect fit for our kitchen!

Beachy Birthday Blogging

We are still on our vacation and we have been at the beach with my in-laws the past few days celebrating my mother in law's birthday. I just love the beach and never want to leave but I am excited for this weekend because we get to spend time with some of our favorites (Billy and Taylor!!!) and also see another one of our favorites off to Honduras for her next journey (L Wood!!!).

I wanted to share my homemade birthday gifts with you all now that I have given them to my mother in law...
First I have another vinyl project to show you. I found this awesome ice bucket at Carolina Pottery for $16 and I had a set of acrylic scoops so I tossed one of those in as well. I used my Silhouette to cut out a vinyl "N" with a cute little border.

I also made her a little pedestal candy dish....I made it by gluing a candy dish to a candle stick. The most exciting part of it was that I got to try out glass etching for the first time (tutorial coming soon!!).

 The "N" that I etched on is really subtle but more noticeable in person, it is hard to capture on camera. Glass etching is really easy to do, it is just a cream that you apply thickly to glass and it makes a permanent etching that is revealed after rinsing off the cream. The only part that requires work is creating your stencil for the cream to be applied within, I used my Silhouette but you could also make one by hand. Since this was my first attempt at it I did not take pictures of the process. I am going to do another etching soon and will post a tutorial with pictures when I do! Gotta go eat some seafood :) Happy Thursday!

Vinyl Makeover- Acryllic cups and pitcher

We recently had our first annual Nail Family Christmas in July (not instead of Christmas, just an excuse to get together and have a lot of fun)! It was a blast!!! My inlaws decorated their barn for our Christmas Luau...

We played dirty Santa with silly gifts, we were each given a special Christmas ornament (mine was a sewing machine!), and a stocking/sand bucket full of fun toys and candies....

We also each received a sweet gift. My gift was an awesome set of acrylic cups and a vase/pitcher to match. Diana knows my new found obsession with vinyl and thought I could jazz them up a bit. Here is the before shot (the set is from Wal-mart- $2.50 for the cups and $2.50 for the pitcher- a great deal!)...

I thought about what I wanted to put on these for a few days and eventually came up with this...

"Pour" on the vase...

"Chug","Sip","Drink",and "Slurp" on the cups...

I am really happy with them and so excited to use them soon! Thanks Diana and Jed for a great time and my awesome cups and pitcher!

Today is the first day of our staycation! I am hoping to try out some projects that have been on my waiting list! Happy Monday!