Inexpensive Halloween 'wreath'

I just made this for my door this year to replace my harvest theme wreath that I used to hang from September through thanksgiving. I made this from very inexpensive materials and most of them I had on hand already.

I always say that I wish I was one of those people that could look at something and say "I could turn this into a.....". Sadly, I am not. I usually get my ideas from other people who can do that.

 But, not today!

I went looking at my local Dollar Tree for some inspiration and found an orange halloween platter with jack-o-lanterns all around the edge. I then picked up this sparkly 'Boo' decoration at Walmart for $1.97 (I eventually removed the pumpkin piece from the letters to be used elsewhere in the project)

 I found these really cute pieces at Christmas Tree Shops for $1 each!! I knew I could turn them into something around my house. I got three-the one I used in the wreath isn't in the photo...oops :) Those ribbons are actually about three feet long-I cut them off for the wreath and re-used them in another capacity but I am still thinking of where these two could go with ribbons intact.

 Add some scrapbook paper and here's my wreath:

 

 

I love it! I had never made the paper pinwheel things before but once I figured it out it was simple and I am so happy with it. I used three pieces of twine (tied together for extra support) as the hanger....just hot glued to the back of the platter. Those ribbons are the ones I cut off of the $1 ghost decoration in the center of the big pinwheel. The pumpkin in the other pinwheel is the one I cut off of the 'Boo' sign. Because I had the twine and paper already in my supplies I only spent $3 on my wreath.

Now, go to your local dollar store, thrift store, wherever you like to shop and find your own inspiration and turn it into something other than what it was intended for! :)

I'm participating in this week's challenge!

 

 

 

Candy Arrangement

I made this for Father's Day but in reality it could be given for any type of occasion.

I wanted to give my husband something on the actual day of Father's day. I told him about his big gift a week prior since he began talking about it. I only had one idea for a gift and I didn't want to disappoint him if he wanted to pick something out for himself. So, I told him we would go to the store together and he could choose a new radio for our boat. He was pretty excited.

Still I wanted something for our daughter to give him on the morning of his day. I went to the Dollar Store and came home with the makings of an inexpensive gift.

My husband doesn't like many sweets but I got him some stuff that I've seen him munch on before. I also bought a bag of shredded paper filler. Yes, you could make this part yourself but I didn't want to! I already had the flower pot, styrofoam and those are wooden skewers I use for shish kebabs down at the bottom of the picture.

With a little bit of hot glue I attached the skewers to the candy (after measuring and cutting the skewers); the jolly ranchers and lemonheads got two skewers each. Stick them into the styrofoam, fill in with the shredded paper, add a sentiment or message and there you have it. Very inexpensive and incredibly fun!

Valentine Door Decor

Ok, so I am cutting this really close. I was going to blog about this weeks ago but this mom of two thing still gets the best of me sometimes :)

Anyhow, just stash this away for next year. It would be fitting since I made this last year and it took me a year to post about it.

I found this online somewhere and I swear saved the link to it but can't find it anywhere. So, I do not take credit for this one. Someone else thought it up and I followed their instructions. I just can't give them the proper credit. Sorry, I'll keep looking for the blog....

In the meantime here is my door 'wreath' for the month of February.

I cut the letters out of an old diaper box first. You just need any thick cardboard but I have an overabundance of diaper boxes usually. I cut strips of red felt and ruffled them with my sewing machine and then hot glued them onto the cardboard. The heart I painted red first since you would be able to see it through the moss-which I bought at Dollar Tree. I glued all the pieces to a long piece of ribbon that I also got at Dollar Tree. The hanger is made from a piece of ribbon that I had laying around. All in all this was a very inexpensive project.

Plus it looks great :)

Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

Our little girl turned 2 this past weekend. I started planning for her party last summer. Knowing I would give birth a week before Christmas and 5 weeks before her birthday I wanted enough time!

For months I collected anything and everything I could find. Anything that was red, black, polka dot or Minnie Mouse and was on sale or a great deal came home with me. I had so much red and white polka dot ribbon to work with I didn't even use it all!

It was all worth it and the party was a success :)

I started by making my own invitations. I found the idea and the instructions here. Except I had a Mickey Mouse paper punch for the ears. I watched for scrapbook supplies to go on sale at JoAnn's and also used one of my % off total purchase coupons so it wasn't as pricey. So many people told me how great they thought they were!

I found ideas via Pinterest too and ran with them. This one was really easy to figure out and cheap too! I bought the wreaths at Dollar Tree and used wire to connect them and then added some hot glue for good measure. I wrapped it with a bit of polka dot ribbon and was sure to cover the wire with it. I made the little pennant myself with the leftover paper from the invites and attached it with white ribbon. I actually free-handed the two, backwards on the back of the page and cut it out. I was impressed with myself!

I also found the supplies for this one at Dollar Tree and filled in with some other things I had at home. I spray painted the styrofoam balls blacka after I glued them together. I made a bow with some more ribbon and attached that too. I had bought a set of graduated boxes to make a card box long ago and had the two smallest ones leftover. I took the smallest one and wrapped some tissue paper around it and glued Minnie to it. It was the perfect touch on one of our tables.

Those were the most I did in terms of decorating. I bought plain red tablecovers at Dollar Tree, red and black plates and napkins too! I found polka dot balloons at Hobby Lobby way back in the summer on redline markdown and they were PERFECT! I put the birthday banner I made last year out once more and I found a huge Minnie at a garage sale for $1 last summer and it looked great as decor. 

Along with the balloons I found cupcake wrappers that were red polkadot and since I always make cupcakes instead of a big cake I was in luck. I used a white cake mix so the color would soak through them and ruin the look and frosted them with chocolate icing and stuck two mint cookies in for ears and the kids loved them. I made half my cupcakes that way and the rest I frosted and topped with white pearl sprinkles. 

I also made these cute Oreo Pops. I found them over at The Idea Room. They were very time consuming but worth it in the end. I put them in treat bags and tied them with some more ribbon. I put them all in a bucket that I found at Michaels and it completed the dessert table.

Of course I made the birthday girl a set of ears too, but she refused to wear them. She doesn't let me do much with her hair! I bought an inexpensive black headband and glued the ears to that. I cut four circles out of an old file folder and glued two together to make it really stiff. Then I sandwiched that between two pieces of felt and had my ears. I made my own bow and glued that to the center. I wore them for the party and will be holding onto them for a future trip to Disney World. :)

I found Mickey Mouse ears at the party store and got 8 of them. Since this was a Minnie Party and I had yards and yards of ribbon i turned half of them into Minnie ears myself and the kids loved them. \

Of course, the birthday girl had to dress the part as well. I found a Minnie Mouse costume from the Disney Store at a mom2mom sale for $3 and it was perfect for her to run around in at her party. Everyone thought she was the cutest!

And, because I am growing to despise thank you notes I made her help me this time. I found a Minnie Mouse coloring page and sized it down to fit under my WordArt and put four on a sheet. I let her have at it with every red and pink crayon she owns and then cut it out and glued it to a piece of red cardstock. I wrote the sentiment on the back and they are ready for mailing!

Dollar Store Magic!

Ok, enough time for one more post today. I hate posting twice in one day (I'm just weird that way) but I couldn't resist.

I found this little guy at the Dollar Tree last year:

It's a clear plastic Santa if you couldn't tell from my awesome picture taking skills :)

It's amazing what a little spray paint can do....

I like him much better this way! And, he looks like I spent a bit more than a dollar on him now!

These are my sconces on the wall in my living room. They usually have tall ivory candles on them. Again, two red Dollar Tree candles and one package of stars (they were 2 to a pack-score!) from the same store and they are all festive now. For only $3!!

Christmas Topiary

It seems all fall long I couldn't wait to show off my Christmas projectsI made last year. I go ALL OUT to decorate my house and last year I took pictures of what I did in every room. Yes, that's right...I decorate every room. Even my bathroom :)

Sadly this year I haven't put out nearly half of my things! The basment has NOTHING in it this year.

But, with our biggest project in the making planning on arriving very soon I made the decision to cut back this year. I figure everything I take out I will have to put away too. And, I don't want that big of a job with a newborn and 2 year old to handle too!

This project is one of my biggest ones and I am so proud of it. I saw a picture online somewhere last year and couldn't wait to try it myself.

If you buy your ornaments out of the dollar bins at Target like I did you shouldn't have to spend much either. I think I ended up using altogether 6 tubes of ornaments in a mix of large and teeny tiny sizes. And, I have a few little ones left over.

I spray painted the styrofoam ball red before I started sticking the ornaments in since I knew I would have the smallest little spots left uncovered. I did and you can see some of them in the picture. I also covered the top of the ornament with hot glue before smashing it into the ball. I also painted and glued the dowel too. I didn't want it shifting too much or too far into the foam on either end so I put hot glue on each end before inserting it into both the ball and the foam in the flower pot.

I painted the flower pot (one I had on hand) myself and didn't even try to make it straight or even...which you can also tell! I like the way it looks that way much better :) I filled the bottome with some stones before stuffing floral foam in it. This is SO top heavy so I needed to balance it out.

I put a few dollar store gift packages underneath it and it makes a cute little picture!

Halloween in my kitchen

I think I finally feel ready to post some of my Halloween crafts!

I made all of these last year when I really got back into the crafting thing. I had been dabbling in little things since my daughter had been born in January but there were so many cute and spooky crafts out there that I jumped in with both feet so to speak. Plus, now I had a kid who could enjoy it and I wouldn't look so crazy for going hog wild over Halloween as an adult :)

The first thing I would like to show off is my dining room table. My dining room is part of my kitchen with an island separating the two so I don't even know if it qualifies as a 'dining room' but that's what I call it. I don't really do much in the kitchen/eating are but I am slowly spreading out around the house for Halloween.

I saw a similar ceramic pumpkin last year at Hobby Lobby for $30 and thought to myself....I can do this. I went to Jo-Ann's and got one of those 'fun-kins' when they were already 50% off so I got it for $5. I also picked up a black paint pen, thick tip for this project for sure. I found a 'B' in Word that I liked, enlarged and bolded it and printed it out. Using an exacto knife I cut out the letter from the paper so I had a stencil. As carefully as I could I taped it to my pumpkin...not so easy to do on a sphere! I traced the 'B' with a pencil, took the paper off and filled it in with my paint pen. I added a few crystals from my scrapbook stash to bling it up :) I love it and keep it out even past Halloween. For Halloween it sits in a wreath I made in college out of fabric dipped in starch and tied to a wire hanger wreath form. I pull that out after Halloween but it is old and kind of crummy looking so it looks much better on the table than on my door :)All in all it's much better and cheaper than the Hobby Lobby version.

The other pumpkins that surround it are Dollar Tree or Big Lots pumpkins that are cheap-o. The glitter ones I probably don't have to explain but glue+glitter=fabulous! The bigger ones are just spray painted and the white one has graduated stick on bling in the natural creases of the pumpkin. I keep these out with the center one much past Halloween as well since they are more fall than spooky.

The last thing for today is in the corner of my dining room. I have this plant stand in the corner that used to have a big fake plant on it before I moved in. It wasn't very pretty so I got rid of it but love the stand and haven't figured out what exactly to do with it so most of the time it stands empty. I bought this container to use in a candy buffet for a shower I hosted. I think it was $7 at Marshalls and I think it's beautiful. I had the fillings already. I used to put this stuff in containers or on countertops all throughout my house. I put it all in the vase with the leftover leaves from my wreath and topped it off with another glitter pumpking and I was qutie pleased. Again, this will also probably stay out through Thanksgiving too. Fall is definitely in the air and now it's throughout my house too :)

Fall is on the way...

and I have spent most of the summer not updating my blog :)

To be totally honest though I haven't done that much crafting. I've been vacationing and getting ready for a baby and dealing with a whole bunch of little complications with this pregnancy while chasing after a toddler who seems to be growing up SO fast. I have done a few things to get back on the bandwagon recently but dont' have pictures of them yet. Or, the project is still in progress and thus unfinished.

I am spending time with my mom this week to help her out. She had surgery last week and can't do much on her own. We have the windows open today! The weather is sunny but we have a great cool, crisp breeze blowing through. It's a big difference from the chilly, wet weather we had yesterday. It really is starting to feel like fall is on the way :) I love fall; it's my favorite time of year. I go all out and decorate my whole house and do all sorts of fall related things.

I always hate finding a project I would like to make two weeks (or less) before the holiday actually gets here. I'm lucky if I can find the time to get the supplies together much less get it done in time. So, I am jumping the gun with this one because I am excited about the change of season approaching :) I made this last year and it was able to hang on my door from September until I took it down at Thanksgiving to put a Christmas decoration up.

This is entirely a dollar store project. I got the wreath form, the leaves, the fall floral pics and the Harvest sign all at dollar tree. For $4  and my handy glue gun I had a cute piece of decor.

I can't wait to start hanging this stuff around the house and showing off my Halloween decor too!

Bathroom Decor

This is another project that I did a few months ago. It took me about six months to pull it all together but it's been done for awhile.

The only room in the house that has a 'theme' going on in it other than the nursery is the downstairs bathroom. I don't know why I ended up putting all of our 'nautical' stuff in there but it's a 'oceany/beachside/boat-y' bathroom now. The crazy thing is that except for two things I put on the walls everything else was scattered throughout the home when it was a bachelor pad so I didn't have to do much.

The space I am showcasing today however is a piecs of HUGE space between the door and the sink. My husband used to have this small three tier shelf that was wire and wicker-ish but it was flimsy and totally NOT my style so it had to be replaced, plus it was much too small for the space.

We bought a cabinet at Garden Ridge. They were moving about a mile away from their location and the entire store was on sale. We scored big time with this one, it fit perfectly in the bathroom.

I made the cloche from a covered cheese dome and chunky candle holder I got at Salvation Army. This one cost me $3 to make. I sprayed it without even knowing where I would put it but when I thought of the bathroom it fit in quite well. I got the pieces inside of it at the Dollar Tree of all places! The little bird came from there as well and I had thought about spraying him too but when I put him in there I think I like him as is. The vase was exactly what I had envisioned in my head so I didn't mind paying $2.99 for it at T.J. Maxx. I had a stem of the flowers left ove from another project and thought they looked perfect so they are staying for now. I did this little bit of decor on the VERY cheap and I love it!

More Easter Decor

I finally found some spare time and crafted a few more things for Easter. Our house looks so festive and  spring-y now :) If only the weather on the outside would cooperate now.

I never host Easter dinner or brunch or anything. I never usually get to host any holidays really since my mom and sister 'claimed' them years before I had a house of my own. I'm not complaining though. I've hosted Thanksgiving ONE time and I don't ever need to do anything like that ever again. Still, I like to have festive touches here and there and especially on my dinin room table. I saw a picture of this online or in a magazine-somewhere. I did not come up with this all on my own. I've had this glass cube for ages and I love the versatility of it. I got the candy at Dollar Tree. One bag of jelly beans and two packs of Peeps (8 in a pack) and then added some of the million plastic eggs I had. I want to put real flowers in the middle but haven't gotten any yet so I stuck some silk ones in there. I like it :)

 This guy finally has some company...

I made the cloche from a covered cheese plate I foud at SA for $2 and glued it to a wooden candlestick also found at SA for $1. Glued them together and sprayed them...$3 of cuteness! I didn't make this one specifically for Easter. I'll keep it out in my kitchen all the time and just change up what's inside. It's the second one I've made for my house and I may be obessed with this one now...

I also made that nest in there. I bought two different kinds of moss at Dollar Tree and a three pack of small glass bowl as well. I covered the outside of one of the bowls with spray adhesive and stuck one kind of moss all over it. WARNING...this is SO messy! After it dried completely I flipped it right side up and sprayed the inside and stuck the other kind of moss on the inside. Again, $3 of cuteness! Not even since I didn't use all $3 worth of supplies! I removed the dowels from my last two egg picks and put them in there for now. I think I may keep this out after Easter and replace the Easter eggs with ones that look like true bird eggs.

Now we just wait for the Easter Bunny!

First Easter Decorations

My brother and his wife are having a baby; the shower is this weekend and I am helping host it. I decided to make most of the things I am giving them so that has occupied most of my time lately. As soon as the shower is over I can post pictures of what I made them and move on to more fun crafts :)

I can't wait to decorate for Easter. Even if it isn't Spring outside, decorating for Easter at least allows spring to be inside. Again, once I have more time on my hands my Easter decor will begin to come together.

I hosted a Craft-In night with my sister and two girlfriends this weekend so I did get to work on some fun things for Easter then. I have so many things bookmarked to make it isn't even funny!

First, I found this guy for $1 at Salvation Army

I knew just what to do to make him ready for Easter. A whole bunch of primer, yellow spray paint and a few coats of Pearl Enamel and he is ready! As soon as I pull all of my other decorations out he will have some buddies. Until then, this is all I have to show for him:

Much better in my opinion!

I also threw this together after perusing Dollar Tree and coming up with an idea. I LOVE topiary's and saw these little picks and really liked them. I knew I could use them somehow! The pots came three to a pack so I was all set. I painted them white, added the ribbon (had on hand) around the top, put some styrofoam (had on hand) in each one, topped with Easter grass and I have a cute decoration for about $2!

They were supposed to be taller :( I liked them much better with the longer sticks but alas, I was a klutz. I do my crafts in an area of our basement and when I brought them upstairs I had too many things balanced between my two hands and one of the pots fell! It landed on the egg end and the stick cracked <tear>. The picks come 5 in a pack but the blue and purple ones (while my favorite colors) just weren't soft and spring-y looking enough for me. So I just cut down the other two picks and they are all short now. Still cute but I am considering going to find another pack and maybe redoing it but then I couldn't say it only cost me $2 to make :)

Can't wait to put all the Easter stuff around the house!



Going to the birds

My husband is an outdoors-y type of guy. We live on a lake and he fishes all summer. He used to go hunting every year too. He also points out every type of bird he sees wherever we go. He knows alot about nature, animals and all things outside. When I moved into this house after we got married every room had a outdoor-ish/nature vibe going on in it. Our main bathroom was no exception. On one wall was a framed painting of a polar bear. Cute, but it came down. On another wall was a painting of a soaring eagle. Nice and patriotic, but it came down. Above our toilet is a painting of two golden retrievers. Adorable and it is waiting to come down :) The shower curtain has a cabin/hunting/bear and moose theme to it and since it is the only tub in the house I let that one stay. For now.

I wanted something new and fresh and springy for the countertop near the sink. I used to have a candle with a hurricane over it but it was just too plain, simple and frankly boring for me. I tried keeping the hurricane and filling it with things but the shape it is made it too hard. Everything I tried to put in there looked odd unless I filled it all the way to the top. When I did that, something usually stuck slightly out of the top of the hurricane and got in the way of our mirror/medicine cabinet when you opened it. My husband got tired of forgetting about that hazard really quick.

I have seen so many bird statues and figurines out in stores lately and for some reason I am obsessed with them. The bright shiny colors, the sleek lines and shape. I don't know what it is. Since the bathroom already has an outdoor feel to it I decided to play on that but make it much more chic-er. I have seen birdhouses all over blogland lately but since I have that height restriction I couldn't just attach one to a candlestick or other such apparatus. I decided to make it all myself.

  The birdhouse was $4.99, the wooden square was .59 and the wooden spool was .79. Total cost was just over $6.

I found this little guy at the Dollar Tree and knew with the right spray paint he would look as wonderful as all of those other birdy decorations I have come to love. Plus, he wouldn't cost so much either!

I glued all three wooden pieces together, primed and then sprayed them in a light green. After they were dry I also roughed up all the edges and 'seams' to look a bit weathered. My bird friend got a lot priming and painting too. I also finished him off with a pearl enamel to make him shimmer.

I really like the new look in my bathroom :)