Vinyl is my new best friend

Hey yall! Happy Monday!

 

Its really happy for me, because we are headed to Savannah for a little R&R. Can't wait to put my toes in the water! You may not hear much from me this week as I enjoy some much needed beach time with my family :)

 

I'm linking up again with Tara today.

 

 

Last week, my sweet niece and I had a sleepover. She is visiting from Kentucky, so we only get to hang a couple times of year...I have to take advantage of the time I get!

 

We decided to have a sleepover, complete with pedicures, cookies, the Bachelorette, and crafting! It sure was fun :)

 

We decided to make those adorable bubble gum machines that have been floating around Pinterest. Here is how mine turned out.

 

 

All of the materials came from Wal-Mart (except for the raffia from Joann's and the wooden knob I stole off an old dresser at my mom's house) and cost me a whopping $5. There are lots of cute and colorful gumball machines on Pinterest, but I wanted to stick with the chalkboard to go with my classroom theme for next year. I made the vinyl letters on my mom's Cricut, which she's had since Christmas but had never used before this week.

 

It certainly got lots of use once she busted it out, because I fell in love with the vinyl letters! My sister helped show us how to work the machine and we cranked out a couple other things as well.

 

I made the 'welcome' below and put it on our front door.

 

 

 

I also made our last name and put it over the doorway leading to our dining room.

 

I really need some curtains in here!!!

Please ignore the mess on the table!

I already have tons of other ideas of where I can put vinyl lettering, so her machine is definitely going to be put to good use this summer!

 

I would love to hear some ideas from all of you, too! Leave me a comment below with an idea and your email. I will pick one winner tomorrow. The winner can pick any 3 items from my TPT shop.



Throwback Thursday: DIY Chevron Wall!

 Hey yall!

Can I tell you how much I love Ms. Carroll??? Seriously, she is just the BEST! And her weekly linky is making my summer life all kinds of simple...it's Throwback Thursday, yall!



Since chevron is all the rage right now, I decided to share a post with you from last summer. Now, this is not at all teaching related, but it is super cute! And who knows, maybe some of yall have schools that will let you paint the walls...

*****Originally posted Monday, July 23, 2012*****

Hey yall! Happy Monday!

I have been waiting for this day, because I am so excited to share my Monday Made It with you guys!

Sooo....when the hubs and I were discussing paint colors and such for the new house, I thought it would be really cool to do a big graphic design on one of the walls. And who doesn't love a good chevron, right?

This was my inspiration...

Totally awesome, right?

I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to pull this off, but I was definitely willing to give it a go!

I enlisted the help of my mom, aka queen of crafty, and we got busy!

First, we gathered all the supplies...

*paint (2 different colors)

*painter's tape (I used a 3 in. Scotch painter's tape)

*measuring stick

*pencil

*rollers

*chalk line tool

I painted the whole room a light gray color that matched our duvet perfectly. I chose a slightly darker shade of gray for the stripes. No, I didn't go all fifty shades..... :)

My mom did all the measuring for me. Here is how the wall looked after we painted it the light gray.

Here are the basics when painting chevron stripes. The distance between peak to peak and crest to crest should be the same. The crest should be exactly midway between the two peaks of each stripe. Does this make any sense? This is a video that we watched before hand, and it does a much better job of explaining...

Much better, right?

Okay, so next we decided to snap a chalk line to help us measure out the points. It's kinda hard to tell in these pictures, but that light blue line is the chalk.

We used some tool that my folks had...it looks like this.



Now comes the hard part! Using your painter's tape, tape off each stripe so that the tape is in the inside of the base color. If you take a close look at my stripes, it looks like they are not even, right? But trust me...it works out in the end.

Remember that it doesn't have to be perfect :) Imperfection is what makes it unique!

After you have your stripes taped off, go back over the edges and make sure they are pressed down really good. The video even suggests using the base paint to seal in the edges.

Then paint your stripes! This was the fun part :) We put about 2 coats of paint on each stripe, then let them dry for a few hours.

And here are the final results!

I love, love, LOVE my chevron wall! I think it turned out amazing, and it looks just perfect with our bedding! Now our bedroom is all kinds of romantic :)

I still have some styling to finish in there, but I was dying to share this with you guys.

What do you think?

Go link up with Tara for your Monday Made It!

Burlap + Chevron = Love!

Hey yall! Happy Monday!

 

I'm super excited to finally be linking up with Tara for her weekly party. Last summer, Mondays were my favorite day of the week! Can't wait to see everyone's craftiness this week.

 

Last week, my mom and I went to a fun wreath-making night at her church. I was super excited to finally learn how to make those adorable burlap wreaths that I had been eyeing.

 

First, we gathered our materials. Everything you see below came from Hobby Lobby. The burlap is 50% off right now {or was last week, anyways}, so I got it on the low! The roll below is 30 ft., which was definitely not enough. I ended up picking up another 30 ft. roll to finish off my wreath and still have probably three quarters of that roll left.

 

 

Then we started adding pipe cleaners around the wreath wire.

 

 

 

 

Those stinking pipe cleaners hurt, I tell ya! I kept poking myself with the wire, and before I knew it, I was bleeding!

 

Battle scar...

 

 

Once we got all the pipe cleaners spaced around the wreath wire, I started adding the burlap.

 

 

I scrunched up one side and tied it in. Then I made a loop and tied it in the next pipe cleaner.

 

 

It's up to you to decide how big you want your loops to be. I like mine to be relatively small, but some people were making theirs really big! Whatever floats your boat. Just make sure that you don't cut the burlap! You should just use one continuous strand until it's all gone.

 

 

I started on the inner ring and made my loops all the way around. Then I moved to the outer ring and made loops there.

 

 

Now, this is where I ran out of burlap, so I don't have pictures of what I did next. But I ended up putting in one more row of burlap loops right in the middle of the two I already had. This really fattened it up and gave it the fuller look I was going for.

 

Finally, add your ribbon and flower! I wish I could tell you how to make that cute ribbon, but my momma put it together for me. I can only learn one new thing at a time...

 

 

You like? I'm in LOVE!

 

Here is my mom's wreath. She decided not to do the burlap and instead made a patriotic wreath for the 4th.

 

 

 I wouldn't say that it was really easy or really hard, it just took lots of time and patience. I think overall it took me about 2 hours to get it all together, give or take.

 

Now I'm off to see what everyone else made! Go check out Tara and link up, yall!



Clipart Organization

Hey yall! Happy Sunday!

 

Isn't it glorious that the Sunday night blues are a thing of the past?

Summer lovin' :)

 

Today I wanted to share how I organize all that adorable clipart that I've purchased over the years. If you're anything like me, the collection has gotten quite large...I know I'm not the only clipart addict out there!

 



So here is the very simple way I organize my clipart:

 

All of my clipart is in a folder titled Clipart and Borders. In that folder, I have separate folders for each of the clipart artists that I purchase from. These are just a few of the files!

 

In each separate folder, I have all the files of the different clipart I've purchased from that person. I also keep a copy of their terms of use in that folder as well. I usually change the name of the file to something that will help me remember what type of clipart it is.

 

These are some of the clipart files I've purchased from Scrappin Doodles.

 

 

I also have a separate folder that has all the credit buttons. It is highly important to give credit where it's due, so these come in handy when I'm making my credits page. Every artist has different TOU, but most of them require some kind of credit.

 

 

So that's it! Simple, yet effective.

How do you organize your clipart???

 

 

Throwback Thursday: Crayon Wreath Tutorial

Hey yall!

 

Two posts in two days.

That must be some kind of record

 

But I can't really take credit, because sweet Cara gave me an out.

She is hosting a weekly linky party called Throwback Thursday. Its all about sharing some of those oldie {but goodie} posts that some new faces might appreciate.

 

Sign me up!

 

Now, this was a post that I actually wrote for when I was guest blogging and I think I may have also added it to Endless Pinabilities, but don't think I ever actually posted it here. So this may be new to some of yall familiar faces as well!

 

******Originally posted on May 27, 2012******



I'm not sure about you guys, but I am officially on summer break...yahoo! My goal for this summer is to create some of those awesome crafts I've been 'pinning.' It's going to be a crafty kind of summer, for sure!

How many of you have pinned the crayon wreaths?

It was one of the first things I pinned, and I desperately wanted to make one! So....I did!

It was really easy. Here are the materials needed:

*Crayons (I used a 64 pack of Crayolas)

*Hot glue

*2 different sized embroidery hoops. I can't remember the exact sizes I bought, but it doesn't really matter. You just need 2 different sized hoops, where one can fit inside the other.

*Ribbon

*Scissors
*White acrylic paint
*Paintbrush
*Wood letters
*Assorted colors acrylic paint

Ready for these easy steps???

1. Put the smaller hoop inside the larger hoop. Keep the spacing the same all the way around the hoop. I painted both of my hoops white, but you could definitely keep it the natural wood color.

2. Arrange the crayons on the hoop...have fun with it! I put mine all with the label facing up and did all the colors, but you could totally just pick your favorite colors or do some type of pattern.

3. Start gluing! Glue one crayon at a time, so that you can keep your spacing somewhat even. Also, don't use too much glue, or it will just melt the wax.

4. Wrap the ribbon around a couple of crayons at the top and glue.

5. Paint the wooden letters however you like, and glue them on.

Simple, right? I made these as gifts for a couple of teachers, and I love the way they turned out!

I used letters to represent their last names, and I found those little wooden apple cutouts at Hobby Lobby. I just painted them, then wrote their names inside with a sharpie.

Hope you guys are inspired to go make your own! I probably spent less than $20 on the materials for all 3 wreaths, so it was pretty inexpensive to make!

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