Alphabet Banner- Guest posting for The Wood Connection and a GIVEAWAY!

Hey everyone!  I'm over at The Wood Connection today sharing the alphabet banner I made for the baby's room!

Last time I guest posted I was 22 weeks pregnant and on an organization kick,  now I am 33 weeks and its crunch time getting the baby's room done.  I headed over to The Wood Connection knowing I wanted to make something cute for the nursery.  I was immediately drawn to their cute pennants for banners.  The only problem is that this baby doesn't have a name yet.  (We are having a really hard time in the name department this go around!)  So what else can you have a banner say?  The alphabet!  I collected 26 of their pennants and headed home to get to work.

Wanna see how it turned out?

So much fun!

And now, thanks to The Wood Connection, I have the first corner of the nursery officially done!

For more details head on over to The Wood Connection and check it out!

But that's not all!!!

 GIVEAWAY  TIME

This giveaway is now closed.

The Wood Connection has so kindly offered to give one of YOU a $25 gift certificate to their store! They are located in Salt Lake City, Utah so whoever wins will have to be able to get to their store to use it. They have some of the cutest wood craft kits and everything is all ready to go, making it super fun and easy to spit out some cute creations!

 To Enter Leave me a comment on this post! 

 (that's it, super easy right?!)

 Extra Entries

 (leave a comment here for each one you do)

 -Visit The Wood Connection Blog, look around, and let me know one of their crafts that you would love to make.

 -Be a public follower of Sassy Sanctuary

 -"Like" Sassy Sanctuary on Facebook. 

 Good Luck!!!

Remember to Pray- free printable!

Okay guys, I'm going to get a little personal here.

When I sit down and make my goals for the year, one that always makes the list is "build my relationship with my Heavenly Father and Savior."  Its something I feel that always can use improving upon.  Last year I made making it to my church meetings more regularly my priority.  This year its saying my personal prayers.

I will admit that I have become horribly lax in saying my prayers.   I know that personal prayer is the key to having a close relationship with God and I am determined to do better.  But because I'm out of habit, it is really easy for me to simple forget to pray.  Lets face it, I forget to EAT some days and I have a belly that growls at me!

So my solution was to make a not so subtle reminder to sit next to my bed. 

I made a simple print telling me to remember to pray.  I also included a favorite scripture quote.  It reads "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you...." which pretty much sums up what I want.   I want to feel close to the Lord.

The frame is a cheap dollar store frame that I gave new life to with a crackle finish.

I have been having a lot of fun with crackle lately and it is really simple to do.  Just take a frame, give it a base coat and let dry.  Then paint a layer of craft glue, let that begin to setup but not dry completely, and then add a top coat of paint in a different color.  Then just sit back and watch the magic happen!

If anyone else needs a reminder to pray anywhere in their home, here is the graphic I used.  Just click, save, and print.  The image is made at 5x7 but you are welcome to resize however works for you.

So what things are you working on this year?

(In case anyone is wondering, I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and you can learn more about what we believe HERE)

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

Frame Christmas Card Holder

When I got my Pottery Barn and Ballard Design Christmas catalogs in the mail, I immediately started scouring them for knock-off ideas.  I got a bunch of great ideas from both that you will see more of, but one was this awesome Frame Card Holder.  The best part, it was only $199.00! (gasp, choke, cough)

All it is is a frame with some wire strung across it, good grief! I love having a place to display all the cute cards we get each year (and actually keep all my old cards) so I knew this would be the perfect knock-off.  And guess what, mine was FREE!  (you saw a sneak peek when I showed off my mantle display)

Pretty cute!  Now, I did change things up from how pottery barn did theirs but that just makes it all the better right?!?

Here's what I did.  It all started with this picture I got for free at an antique store. A girl friend and I were scouting for frames for another project (more on that later) and the shop owner gave us two of these bad boys for free. Ahhh, love nice people!

Ain't she a beauty! 

All I did was remove the picture and paint the frame.  I did a red base coat, then a coat of white, then sanded that down to expose a bunch of the red.  Lived with it for a day and decided I hated it. (tell me you guys do that too!) So I decided to crackle it.  I painted a layer of Elmer's Glue on it, let that sit up till it was tacky, but not all the way dry, and then did a coat of blue.  Once everything dried I ended up with this lovely finish.  Love it!

I then took that same lovely picture I removed, turned it over and painted the back side a dark brown.  Once that was dry, I took some yarn and wrapped the board, taping it on the back to secure like so....

Then just pop it back in the frame, and there you have it!  You can either slide the cards between the strings like I did, or you could get little clips.  Either way its a super cute and fun way to display those Christmas cards!

These are actually cards form last year.  That's my adorable little nephew.  I can't believe how much he has grown from last year!

Well, there you have it! A frame Christmas card holder.

Take that Pottery Barn!

Linking to THESE parties and events:

Family Rules

For my next gift idea I'm going to show you guys my version of a family rules print, subway art style.  There are all kinds of subway art prints and family rules prints out there.  I think subway art is a lot of fun because you can really personalize it to fit whatever occasion and it's really graphic.  I had recently downloaded a bunch of new fonts and was inspired to make this as a way to try them all out.  I just LOVE how it turned out!  What a fun way to display all our family rules, now if only I could get my kids to follow them....

What mom wouldn't love getting one of these for Christmas?  And its very affordable too.  The print itself is a 12x12 so you can have it printed anywhere that prints scrapbook pages.  I had mine printed at Scrapping Simply and it cost about $6.00, most of that shipping.  If you have a local resource you could do it a lot cheaper. 

The frame was an unfinished scrapbook page frame from Micheal's and cost $7 (without any coupons).  To finish it I painted it blue with craft paint, distressed it, and then put a coat of wood stain over the top.  All of which I had on hand.  Isn't the finish dreamy?  (I have a dresser in the garage waiting for some love and I thinks its going to get this same finish.)

And then because I felt like it needed a little extra something, I added a few ribbon roses.



So for under $15, I have this adorable piece of art for my home.  Can't beat that! I'm not sure where its going to live yet, but I'll find somewhere perfect... and visible... we need all the reminders we can get!

So do you want one?  You can either make your own family rules sign to fit your family, or you can have mine! Because I love you all so much, I made up a bunch with different background colors.  All you have to do is click on the one you like, save it, and then have it printed as a 12 x 12 somewhere, frame and you are done.

      

 
Enjoy! 
 
If anyone decides to use one of these, I'd love to see a picture!

Linking to these parties and events: