Valentine Mantle

I thought I would show you all today the simple Valentines mantle I put together. Now usually I am not one to decorate for a small holiday like Valentines day. My husband and I don't even usually celebrate it, or if we do, we celebrate it on a different day that week to avoid all the craziness. So needless to say when I got the hankerin' (yes that's totally a word) to do something crafty I decided to dress up my somewhat sad looking mantle. This was quite the challenge for me seeing as how I don't own any pink or red decor, and nothing with hearts! I was also determined to do this without spending any money. gulp.

 

So my little mind went to work and I started scouring Pinterest for DIY ideas. I knew from the beginning I didn't want to go too Valentiney (I have a tendency to make up my own words) with the all pink and little cupids, especially since I didn't have any red or pink decor to start with. So I started on the heart garland.

 

 

I hand cut all the hearts from some red and pink scrapbook paper as well as some old book pages. The book pages totally gives it a more vintage/neutral look. It was pretty time consuming but ended up being my favorite part of the whole mantle!

 

I had some left over hearts so I used those on my candles for my "height" section of the vignette. I cut out slightly larger hearts from book pages to outline the red hearts and to add a little more of my vintage love. I taped them to each other and then to the candle. Then secure them with a little bit of jute twine.

 

 

Next I started working on the XOXO canvas. I took a blank canvas I had in my stash and started covering it with more book pages. I then used my Cricut to cut out the X's and O's and taped them on. I wrapped some coordinating twine to match the candles.

 

 

A few nights previously my husband went to Michaels to get some craft paint and he spotted some little wooden signs. So he bought me a few of them, one being this little Love sign. If that isn't love I don't know what is!! So I painted it red, and put it front and center. I stacked it on a craft paper covered book and the only little pink book I had that just so happens to be about cupcakes. That's Valentiney right?

 

 

 

I might add a few things here and there as the week goes on. My Camellia bush is just starting to bloom in the front yard so hopefully I can add of few of its white blooms soon. But overall I'm pretty happy with it, especially since I used only what I had around the house. That's the beauty though of being a DIYer at heart, your up for the challenge of making things out of nothing!

 

 

 I added a few more things to the coffee table and brought out my pink pillow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I fell in love with this pillow from TJ Maxx a while ago and bought it even though it doesn't match anything else I own. he he Maybe it will be useful down the road if we have a little girl in the house, but for now it fits right in with the Valentines Decor. :)

 

 Linked at:
 

DIY Sunburst Mirror

Not too long ago I found a wonderful tutorial here on Centsational Girl's blog showing how she made a DIY Sunburst mirror out of paint sticks! So I just had to give it a go. When I bought paint for our bedroom and guest room, I sheepishly asked the lady who was helping me if I could have about 50 paint sticks. She was more than happy to give them to me and just kept handing me handfuls and handfuls of the things.

Stuff you will need:

• Around 45-50 paint sticks
• A 7" round mirror (I got my at Michael's for around $3)
• A 7" wood or plastic embroidery hoop
• Craft paint (2 different colors of your choice)
• A paint brush
• Caulking
• A square piece of wood about 9"x 9"
• A picture hanger
I chose for mine to do a grey and a lighter grey. So I ended up just using the bottled grey and then for my top layer mixing the grey with the white to make it a little lighter. I also happened to have on hand this metallic paint that I mixed in to make it have a little bit of a shimmer. It didn't make a huge difference, but I liked it that way.

So the first step is to cut off the curved part of the paint stick. Then you want to take your mirror and lay your sticks around it to see how many you will need for each layer. For the top layer we chose to cut off a few inches so it would give the mirror more texture. The sticks that would be for the top layer I painted the lighter grey.

You will want to paint your embroidery hoop to whichever color you want. Then glue it to your mirror. While that is drying screw your picture hanger on to the back of your 9"x 9" piece of wood. Then glue your mirror centered in your 9"x 9" board.

Start with your back layer and hot glue (or gorilla glue) to the board. Now the end of your stick is square and your gluing to a circle, so just try to put the center of your stick against the circle with the corners touching each other. I used  some of the extra paint sticks to hold up the ends of my sticks so they would sit flush on the board.

Next start adding the second layer. Just center the sticks over the joints of the lower layer. When your finished you can caulk any gaps that show, then paint over the caulking. And your done!!

I love that this project is so cheap, and can be made in any color you need to fit your decor.

It also worked out perfect for this wall in our master bedroom. To the left of the mirror are french doors that I love to have open. So I knew I needed something that would sit flush against the wall so it wouldn't hit the door.

Yes I know that my curtains are too short, they were all we had on hand. So that will have to be one of my next projects ;)

Ive linked this project up to The Shabby Nest.

Britna's Baby Shower

These last few weeks my mother in law and I have had so much fun planning my sister in laws baby shower. She has had so much going on in her life, with the building of a new house and preparation for moving, that we wanted to give her a day to relax and who doesnt love looking at that cute baby belly? They are wainting to find out the gender of the baby so we decided to use some of the colors she is doing in her nursery, which is white and grey. But we just had to throw a little color in there!

We went with the "nesting" theme which turned out so cute! We incorporated polka dots as well, since the mother to be really likes them (and they're gender neutral).

Janean made these adorable shadow boxes of the parents to be when they were babies, and from the looks of it, this new baby is bound to be the cutest thing ever!

Anyone who knows Brina knows she is the queen of baking. Her chocolate chip cookies are soooo irresistable, so naturally we had to make the party favors cookies in a jar.

We played some really fun games, like the string game. We asked each person to guess how much string it would take to fit around Britna and her belly. And what a confidence booster that was for Britna seeing as how every guest was at least 6 inches too long! It also gave every guest the opportunity to spend time with Britnas adorable baby bump.

 Next we did the "Who's That Baby?" game. On the invitation we asked every guest to bring a baby picture of themselves. After they all arrived I put them up on this bulletin board for all the guests to come on up and guess who was who. This game was hard! Well for everyone but our Aunt Jan who guessed 8 out of 9! And the only one she missed, she was only one sibling off! It was so cute to see everyones adorable baby face. 

Next was the presents! There were tiny onsies, and fuzzy home-made hats, little hooded towels, and baby shampoo. Below Margaret made her the blanket of her dreams. All of the presents were straight from the heart, and will be so helpful in preparing for this baby. They say it takes a village to raise a baby, but even more so it takes a village to fill a nursery!

 We had cupcakes that looked like little nests with jelly bean eggs, and the most delicious tea sandwiches.

  

 Here is three generations of wonderful women!

Here we are, the party planners! We are quite the team! 

 We are so grateful for everyone who was able to make it. You all made it such a special day. Now if only March 12th could get here a little faster! Come on baby we cant wait to meet you already!

The Crepe Paper Rose Ball

On this Inspiration page, you will find me linking to some of my favorite posts. Some ideas will be big decorating projects, and some will small accents.  I hope that maybe some ideas I post can be an inspiration to you as well.


Lately I have been working on a smaller project called a Rose Ball. I loved the soft look of them and I plan to make a few. I found the tutorial Here at the House of Smith's blog. This blog has come to be one of my very favorites. I'm sure you will be seeing a lot of links to her blog, as well as a lot of her ideas around my house.

The Rose Ball has been so simple to make, yet a little time consuming. I love that it is made with something ordinary and easy to find like crepe paper. I cant wait to see what fun colors I can find. So far I have started out with white (since its my favorite color.) This is what my Rose Ball looks like so far...

I love that the roses don't have to be perfect, because no rose is.

Things you will need to make these:

• Crepe Paper
• Hot glue
• Styrofoam ball
• a lot of patience  :)

And that's it!!