Liam's Nursery

So you know how I had a baby?  Well that was over 18 months ago.  And he has a stinkin cute room that I never photographed or blogged about.  Because I suck.  But it got cleaned today so I decided to fix that.  It may only be iPhone pics, but whateves.

Liam's Little Lamb Nursery

I just love this shelf above the changing table.

Especially this little wooden lamb I made. I'm kinda proud of him.

But my favorite part is his newborn pics.

I have the cutest babies!

Valentines Garland

Yup, I jumped on the V-day garland bandwagon too. 

I love what it adds to my mantle. Plus it was so simple to make.

All I did was get a package of white paper heart doilies at a party supply store and a few sheets of card stock.  I used spray adhesive to glue the doilies to the card stock and then cut them out.  I used a hole punch to make a hole on each side and strung them up with ribbon.

It was so easy but I think it makes a big impact and is super sweet.  Love it!

As always I'm linking to these great parties and events:

Inspiration File

Oh, guys... this is a good one!  I have three projects to share and all three are must haves. 

First up, I just discovered the blog Cottage Hill and am so glad I did!  What a beautiful blog full of really wonderful ideas.  Her painting skills are amazing and my jaw dropped with her faux grandfather clock.  I seriously want one!  Isn't this the best idea and a flawless execution?!  I'm in love.

Then Crafty Sisters showed off the scalloped adore heart.  Isn't it beautiful?!  I thought I was going to make a Valentines wreath for my front door but now I'm thinking something along these lines would be SO much better.  I also love how they glittered some of the flower petals.  So beautiful!



And finally, Peppermint Plum made this adorable Valentines snowflake garland.  I think this is SO cute and a great way to decorate for Valentines while still respecting all your other winter decor.  She has a great tutorial on how to make the cute snowflakes and I'm totally going to copy her and make one for my mantle... today.  Love projects that are simple, inexpensive, and still completely adorable!

Thanks so much for the inspiration ladies! 

If you were featured feel free to grab a button from the sidebar.

Reversible Bunting Banner

Okay guys, I finally jumped on the bunting banner wagon and made myself an adorable trick-or-treat banner. 

Isn't it fun?! Now I know what your thinking, your thinking "uhh, Krystal, Halloween was yesterday so we really don't care about your trick-or-treat banner.  Yeah its cute, but that information would have been nice LAST WEEK!" Well, never fear.....this banner is reversible!

I love it so much! I'm over here doing the happy dance because I am REALLY proud of myself on this one! Its not your typical bunting either.  I wanted to make something with some substance that would hold up and use materials I felt comfortable working with.  That's why the typical paper (to weak) and fabric (I'm just not that talented of a seamstress) banner was out.  So this one is made with craft foam and scrapbook paper.
Do you want to see how its done? Okay fine, you twisted my arm.

Step 1: Prep.  Cut out 11 triangles from your craft foam.  I used 2 sheets of black.  I recommend making a pattern out of paper.  Cut out 11 more slightly smaller ones from various Halloween papers and 11 from various Fall/ Thanksgiving papers. Also cut out paper letters to say "TRICK or TREAT" and "GIVE THANKS" (see image A)  Note: the "or" will be on one pennant and there will be one blank pennant between give and thanks.

Step 2: Make an assembly line and modge podge a paper onto the foam.  Pick one side first and just go with it.  You can immediately add the letter and then set aside to dry.  (see images B and C)  When you set them aside, line them up as they would appear when hung.  This will keep you from getting confused. (see image D)

Step 3: Once that side is dry, you can begin the other side.  Repeat the same process but remember the first letter will be on the last pennant of the side you just finished.  So work from the back to the front. (See image E)

Step 4: Once everything is dry, take a hole punch and punch a hole into each top corner. (see image F) Then take a piece of ribbon about 6 inches long, thread thru the hole and tie a knot.  I trimmed the ribbon and seared the edge with a lighter to give it a finished look. (see image G) Then add a pennant to the ribbon and tie a second knot as far apart as you want your pennant. Finish that edge like you did before. (see images H and I)  You want to be sure that your knots all end up on the same side of the banner.  I did them on the "give thanks" side, but it doesn't really matter as long as you are consistent.  (see image J)  Do this for all the pennants leaving extra ribbon at the ends to hang with.  Enjoy!

Now, if you want to make a Thanksgiving and Christmas banner instead, you can still do "give thanks" on one side and "Christmas" on the other with the first and last pennant being blank...OR...wait for it..... the Christmas side can say "Let it Snow."  I know, I'm good.

Now for some more pictures of my adorable two-sided banner!

 

Now go make one! And if you do a Thanksgiving/Christmas one, promise to send me a link.  I'm dying to see one done!

I'm linking to these weekly parties and these events.

Sawdust and Paper Scraps

 

A haunted house, spider web, and window clings.

So do you remember when Crafty Sisters made the cutest little Halloween village out of bird houses? Well, I totally copied them.  I only made one house but still I think it turned out pretty cute and is a fun addition to my Halloween decor.

As always, I had to get a "front step shot" so I could get a good pic.  But I thought I'd show you what it actually looks like mixed into my "stuff" too.

All I did was paint a craft store birdhouse black and then "decorate" the back side of it with scrapbook paper and embellishments.  It was a fun project.

And since we are on the topic of coping my fellow bloggers, here is one more.   I was asking my husband the other day if he thought our front door Halloween decor (Say that 10 time fast!) was cute, and he said "Well, yeah but its a little boring."  We can't have that! So I totally copied Staci at Craftify It and made a yarn web in my front window. I then put up some fake cobwebs and a few more spiders and now it looks a lot more "done."  (We still need a few big pumpkins on the steps but we haven't made it to the pumpkin patch yet.  Were getting there!)

But I do have one original idea for you!  After making my haunted house, I had a bunch of adorable Halloween scrapbook embellishments left and I was determined to use them somehow.  I had heard that you could use hot glue to make window clings, so I grabbed a few, put a bunch of glue on the back, let them dry and stuck them to the window.  It worked great... until the sun went down.  As soon as that glass got cold they all fell off. (pout)  I'm not easily deterred though so after some research I found that there is actual "window cling" paint. So I got a bottle of this...

And did this...

And now I have this!

 

It worked perfect! Make sure your glue dries completely before putting them on the window, but since it dries clear, it looks cute from both sides. (my embellishments were two sided.) Oh, the possibilities are endless!

The (not so) Itsy Bitsy Spider

I really hate spiders.  Or at least I really hate real spiders.  But during Halloween I think spiders are a lot of fun to decorate with so I set off to create a big old spider to hang from the light by my front door.  He turned out SO cute too! I just love him! Wanna see?

Isn't he fun!?!  Here are a couple more close up.

And here is the front door so you can see it all together.  It really is big.  I would totally die if I saw a real spider that size, but he is too cute to be scary.

So, do you want to make your own? It was really easy and fun! Here's how.

You will need:

6" Styrofoam ball
black paint
black glitter paint (optional)
1 large puffy chenille pipe cleaner.  Not sure what they are really called, but I found it at Micheal's with the rest of the pipe cleaners.
3 googlie eyes. (that's the technical term) Or however many you want your spider to have.
hot glue
string or yarn

Step 1:  Paint the ball black and let dry.  This was the hardest part of the whole project because it took forever to dry and I'm not the most patient crafter.
Step2: Do a coat with black glitter paint.  While the glitter added a little, I'm not sure it made enough of a difference to be really worth the extra step.
Step 3: While that is drying, cute two 2-3 inch pieces off your pipe cleaner for the fangs.  Divide what it left into eight pieces for the legs.  I gave the fang pieces a little hair cut so they weren't to furry.
Step 4: Once the ball is dry, decide which side is the front and hot glue on a couple of eyes.  I started with two and later added the third.  Use a pencil or something to make a hole in the ball.  Add some hot glue into the hole and push the fang in place.  Do the same thing for the legs.  Shape the legs to look like legs by bending a the "knee" and giving a little foot.
Step 5.  Add another hole to the top.  Tie a big knot in your yarn and use the pencil to shove the yarn into the glue filled hole.  Add a little more glue on top for extra measure.
Step 6: Hang and enjoy your cute new friend!

Linking up to these parties and these events:

 

2x4 Pumpkins

So I was asked to come up with a project for the ladies at my church to do at an activity.  I was told to come up with something that would take 1-1 1/2 hours to make, and cost under $10.  Yikes! Pretty restrictive.  This is the first time I've been asked to come up with the craft and since its sorta my thing, I wanted to make something good.  So 2x4 pumpkins it was, cheap and easy yet super cute.  But of course I had to put my twist on them. Here is my version of the 2x4 pumpkin.

Pretty cute right? I love the pattern added with the scrapbook paper and the big bow.  I also found some paper cover floral wire and added curlies to the bow.  They remind me of the vines pumpkins sometimes have.  I also angled the corners so that the pumpkins would be a little more round.

Here are my two cents on making a 2x4 pumpkin.

Buy a 2x4.  They cost about $2 and you can get two pumpkins out of one.  I had my husband cut them down for me.  The short pumpkin has five 10 inch pieces and a 3 inch piece for the stem.  The short one has six 8 inch pieces and a 3 inch stem piece.  Cut the angles on two of the pieces per pumpkin.

Paint them orange (or brown for the stem) and then get out your palm sander and rough up all the edges.  You can do this by hand too. 

Apply a light coat of stain all over.  This is optional but it tones down the orange and I like the look. Then use modge podge to apply the strips of scrapbook paper.

Hot glue all the pieces together and top with a cute bow.  I made my bow by making two simple bows  and attaching them together and added a curly out of floral wire. And that's it, easy peasy!

Here are a few up close and personal pics of each of the pumpkins.

So what do you think?  I hope all the ladies in my ward like them and we'll have fun making them.  I'll show off pics of all the different combinations after we do them. 

Thanks for reading!

I will be linking to these weekly parties and these special event parties.