DIY Irish Blessing Sign

We've recently "revamped" our family room a bit....(aka I finally repainted after the color I chose a year ago was NOT what I wanted!) I'm working towards putting in some finishing touches with decorative accents, and decided to DIY a few of course!

I thought I would DIY a "home" related sign and went in search of a nice quote to use.  I settled on an Irish Blessing - both my husband and I have a good amount of Irish in our blood and so I felt like I had a bit of a connection to the quote:

May you always have 

walls for the winds

and a roof for the rain,

Laughter to cheer you

and those you love near you

Here's how I put it on my sign:

I did this sign quick and easy with supplies on hand - no pre-planning involved :)

First thing was to paint an art canvas with some craft paint. 

Next, I typed the quote out into my Silhouette Studio and cut out my text using white vinyl

I used transfer paper to grab the letters of the vinyl:

And then laid it down on my canvas and smoothed it out with a credit card and VERY SLOWLY pulled the transfer paper off while pushing with the credit card to keep the letters on the canvas.

Voila! The base paint is kind of shiny so it was a little hard to photograph.

It's currently displayed on one of the book shelves in our family room.  I might tweak things a bit as I fill up the cases but here it is for now:

A cute little saying and certainly applicable after we received some unexpected news this week. My husband may be laid off but we still have our home and each other and wonderful friends and family.

A nice reminder when I'm in a not-so-nice mood lately and a cute project to display.  The fact that it's Irish like we are and that I made it makes it so much more special than anything I could have bought!

I'll be linking up to these parties:

Monday: CraftOManiac Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Market Yourself Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up,, Made By You Mondays,  Making the World Cuter

Tuesdays:  Take-a-Look Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, Get Your Craft On, Homework

Wednesdays: Your Whims Wednesday, Creative Share Wednesday, We did it Wednesday, Sugar and Spice, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Show & Share,Lil Luna, The 36th Avenue 

Thursdays: Strut Your Stuff, Hookin Up With House of Hepworths, Catch a Glimpse

Friday: Friday Favs on Naptime Crafters, Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Frugal Friday, Show and Share Day, Weekend Bloggy Reading

Saturdays: Whatcha Got Weekend, Saturday Night Special, Show and Tell Saturdays,  Positively Splendid

Sundays: Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sundays 

Fancy Scroll Frame Wall Art

While wandering around Michaels one time I found the base frame for this project.  I forget exactly how much it was, but it was under 15 bucks and I knew I could use it to make some statement wall art for our bedroom! 

Side note: after I picked this up I decided I needed to stop aimlessly wandering around the craft store or I would go broke...

Here's how I used it:

Fancy Frame Wall Art (Cheap & Easy Way)

 The frame came a natural wood color and I painted it black using craft paint.  I bought the frame on a whim but LUCKILY the insert was a common picture size.  I uploaded one of my wedding photos to Walmart online and got this print for about $6.  I mounted it onto a black poster board using rubber cement to be able to attach it to the frame.

I trimmed it down to be jusssst enough extra on each side to attach to the frame.

I just hot glued it down to the back side of the frame. Nothing easier than a little hot gluing :)

To hang it up, hubby just hammered a nail in the wall and hung the frame from the top scroll.  The frame is super light so there is not much weight to hold! Yeah, I'm a crafter, NOT a super great DIYer. I still have my hubby hammer my nails for me ;)

 We hung this on the front wall of our bedroom in between my new shelves. It looks a little lonely up there....but don't worry I already have some wall scones bought to add to the display. Scones? just kidding. That would be weird. Sconces. Man does that word look funny. nowiwannascone.

First thing hung in our bedroom after a year living here. At this rate we'll be all decorated in like...6 more years. Please try to contain your excitement :)

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I'll be linking up to these parties:

Monday: CraftOManiac Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Market Yourself Monday, Motivate Me Monday. Craftastic Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up,, Made By You Mondays,  Making the World Cuter,  

Tuesdays: Tip Me Tuesday, Tutorial Tuesday, Take-a-Look Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, Talent Tuesday, Get Your Craft On, Homework

Wednesdays: Your Whims Wednesday, Creative Share Wednesday, We did it Wednesday, Sugar and Spice, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Show & Share,Lil Luna, The 36th Avenue 

Thursdays: Strut Your Stuff, 20 Below Thursdays, Hookin Up With House of Hepworths, Catch a Glimpse

Friday: Friday Favs on Naptime Crafters, Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Frugal Friday, Show and Share Day, Weekend Bloggy Reading

Saturdays: Whatcha Got Weekend, Saturday Night Special, Show and Tell Saturdays, Scraptastic Saturday,  Positively Splendid

Sundays: Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sundays 

Decorating our Bedroom with Staples!

Ok, if you read that title the wrong way it probably sounds a little funny :) We're not decorating our bedrooms with staples that you put in paper, but with the company Staples!

I recently had the opportunity to pick out something from the Staples site, and MAN was I surprised at how much stuff they have besides just plain old office supplies. They have a TON of furniture and a whole line of Martha Stewart organization products in super cute colors and patterns. And man, am I a sucker for cute organizational supplies!!

After lots of browsing I ordered this set of bookshelves to go in our bedroom:

Here they are set up in our home:

Hubby and I have been married a little over a year now, and we are still gradually adding furniture and completing decorating our new home. We put these shelves in our bedroom opposite of our bed and they are really helping to fill up our space! 

I like these shelves because they don't take up a ton of space width wise, but they are a good height with enough space to decorate and add some visual interest to the front of our bedroom. Before I got these shelves I had plans up just putting up a few floating shelves and maybe doing some type of gallery wall to decorate, but we had the room for more furniture still so these shelves just made things easier!

Plus, there still is room to hang some stuff up on the wall, and I already have an easy DIY project in the works to hang above the TV - stay tuned!!

I filled the shelves up with some decorative items I've slowwwwly been collecting. Wedding pictures, some fake flowers, and a few other things. I'm still searching for little black bins to stick on the two bottom shelves to use for a little extra storage.  The IKEA bins from the TV unit in the middle are just a little too tall, so I want to find something that won't clash with them (please let me know if you know any anything that could work!)

I'll eventually post a full reveal of our bedroom, but I still have a few projects to tackle first :) I've taken a very slow approach to decorating our home, to thank you Staples for the help!!

Disclosure: I was provided these shelves free of charge from Staples, but all opinions are my own!

Valentines Day Decorated Shelf

I'm in loooooooooove with my decorated shelf for Valentines Day this year!

The best part about this shelf is it really only took me $10 to decorate! Here are the details on everything:

The red heart on the window I got from the Dollar Tree and hung it up with some clear beading cord.

The little heart vase and heart "flowers" were from the Dollar Tree.

The cute little Conversation Hearts were my own DIY

The LOVE Embroidery I stitched myself

And lastly I made the little heart bunting out of heart doilies from the Dollar Tree and Bakers Twine. This is my favorite touch on the whole shelf - it's just so dainty and so dang cute!!

SO MANY HEARTS!!!!!!!!!!

My only problem wasn't I didn't have enough Valentine's decor to fill up my other two floating shelves...so they're just kinda chilling out bare. OH WELL! Something to work on for next year. 

Happy February 1st! Bring on the LOVE!

I'll be linking up to these parties:

Monday: CraftOManiac Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Market Yourself Monday, Motivate Me Monday. Craftastic Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up,, More the Merrier Monday, Made By You Mondays, Tutorials and TIps,  Making the World Cuter,  Make it Monday,

Tuesdays: Tip Me Tuesday, Tutorial Tuesday, Take-a-Look Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, Talent Tuesday, Get Your Craft On,Homework, Ta-da Tuesday

Wednesdays: Your Whims Wednesday, Creative Share Wednesday, We did it Wednesday, Sugar and Spice, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Show & Share,Lil Luna, The 36th Avenue 

Thursdays: A Crafty Soiree, Strut Your Stuff, 20 Below Thursdays, Hookin Up With House of Hepworths, Catch a Glimpse

Friday: Friday Favs on Naptime Crafters, Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Frugal Friday, Sassy Sites, Show and Share Day, Fantabulous Friday, Simply Creations Friday, Once Upon a Weekend, Weekend Bloggy Reading

Saturdays: Whatcha Got Weekend, Saturday Night Special, Show and Tell Saturdays, Scraptastic Saturday,  Positively Splendid

Sundays: Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sundays 

 

This post sponsored by:

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My Christmas Shelves

I've shown bits and pieces after I finished projects, but today I thought I would pop in and show my completely decorated floating shelves for Christmas!!

To complement my wall color, I decided a gold, white, and hints of red theme would work nice. Here they all are:

The focal point is the very pretty pearl wreath I just showed you all how to make yesterday!

I put the wreath on my decorative window. Side note: after I put the window up, later that night it slipped and fell off the shelf!! It fell onto a part of our couch below but one of the window panes broke :( I was so sad because I just bought it in the fall and really like it! Well, hubby was SO sweet and went out and bought new glass and replaced the pane for me. Even thought the window was only 20 bucks to begin with and it almost cost that much to replace the pane haha I am still very glad he fixed it :) That's why the snow is a little faded in the top right pane and why there's a mark on the bottom right one. I ran out of snow spray! But anyway. Before replacing it on the shelf I added some little rubber grips on the bottom so HOPEFULLY it stays put!

I decorated the rest of the shelf with gold glitter candles I got for sale at Michaels after fall (I think they look more like Christmas than fall anyway!) and three little red candles the in-laws got me from a Walmart black Friday special. Three votives and two big candles for 5 bucks!

The white Christmas trees I made with my Silhouette. Cheap, easy and cute decor!

This shelf has my gold mini Christmas trees. I also gathered up some sticks from my back yard and spray painted them (almost) white (I had some terrible luck with the can I bought for some reason???) and stuck them in a vase. The little glitter bell I picked up at the Dollar Tree.

The last little shelf has a cute little mini Christmas tree (Joanns on sale with a 40% coupon!) which I strung a little bell garland on from the Dollar Store. I think the garland looks a little sad...maybe next year I'll make some mini ornaments :)  The gold star was also from the Dollar Tree. I think it was supposed to be an ornament but I think it works great on a shelf too!

And that's all of them! Little things like pretty decorated Christmas shelves sure do make me happy!! Anyone else? :)

This post sponsored by:

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Winter Pearl Wreath

This winter pearl wreath I made for my family room HAS to be my favorite Christmas decor item this season! 

DIY Winter Pearl Wreath

It just looks so elegant hanging on my window on my floating shelves! It was easy to make but sure did take awhile!!! Here's how I made it:

I started with a mini Styrofoam wreath form and two bags of plastic pearl beads from walmart (8mm). I ended up going to AC Moore for 4mm pearls and 6mm pearls as well to mix up the sizes.

Then came the fun part...not. LOTS AND LOTS of hot gluing. I started by hot gluing the big pearls on all over the wreath and then went back and filled in with the smaller ones. This took many-a-episode of mad men to complete.But hey. What's a little manual labor for some festive Christmas decor :)

Since it did take forever I did not do the back of the wreath.  It was important to me to make sure the whole front was covered. I've seen some pearly wreaths that are left sparse on the front and it just looks so unfinished to me! So I made sure the front was covered but that was good enough for me!! I used a hair dryer at the end to blow off all the little hot glue gun strings. Very helpful!!

I knew I wanted to put this wreath on my window that my fall leaf wreath was on this fall. 

I thought it would be a nice touch though to winterize the window a bit with some frosted window panes!!  I just used a snow spray from the dollar store.

It will look a little harsh at first but it will fade to a more subtle effect in a day or so. 

I hung the wreath up on the window with some white ribbon...but hot glued a pretty little bow to add on as a decorative touch first. 

All attached and ready to go up on display!!!

 Here it is in my family room. The perfect touch for my "faux mantel" shelves.

Come back tomorrow for details on the decor on this shelf and my other two floating shelves! Merry Christmas!

I'll be linking up to these parties:

Monday: CraftOManiac Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Market Yourself Monday, Motivate Me Monday. Craftastic Monday, Your So Very Creative,  Just Something I Whipped Up, Inspire Me Mondays, More the Merrier Monday, Made By You Mondays, Tutorials and TIps,  Making the World Cuter,Weekend Warrior,  Make it Monday,

Tuesdays: Tip Me Tuesday, Tutorial Tuesday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Take-a-Look Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, Talent Tuesday, Get Your Craft On,Homework, Ta-da Tuesday

Wednesdays: Your Whims Wednesday, Creative Share Wednesday, We did it Wednesday, Sugar and Spice, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Show & Share,Lil Luna, The 36th Avenue 

Thursdays: A Crafty Soiree, Strut Your Stuff, 20 Below Thursdays, Crazy Cute Thursdays, Hookin Up With House of Hepworths, Catch a Glimpse

Friday: Friday Favs on Naptime Crafters, Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Frugal Friday, Sassy Sites, Show and Share Day, Fridays Unfolded, Fantabulous Friday, Simply Creations Friday, Once Upon a Weekend, Weekend Bloggy Reading

Saturdays: Whatcha Got Weekend, Saturday Night Special, Show and Tell Saturdays, Lovely Crafty Weekend, Saturday is Crafty Day ,Scraptastic Saturday, The 36th Avenue, Positively Splendid, Sweet Saturday,

Sundays: Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sundays 

 

This post sponsored by:

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DIY Gold Mini Christmas Trees

Man, Christmas is coming fast!!!! I still have not show you all my craft projects I've done! These Christmas trees were an easy little project to go up on the shelves in my family room.

I bought three different styrofoam cones from a craft store. You can also make them out of cardboard to save some money though!

For the largest tree I used this beaded garland that I always see in the clearance bins at craft stores but never know what it is for...still don't know what it's for but it looks good as a mini Christmas tree!!

My trees were not pointy at the very top so I hot glued a circle out of the beads like so:

And then hot glued it on the top and kept wrapping it around until I got to the bottom!

For the two smaller trees I used two different kinds of ribbon: one glitter ribbon and one thicker silk one

For the tree bottoms I bought candle holders from the dollar store and spray painted them a copper color that matches my wall color but also coordinates well with the gold! A bunch of hot glue was good enough to attach them.

Here's one of my completed shelves. The sticks I collected from woods near my house, spray painted white and stuck in an old vase. Bada bing, bada boom Christmas decor :) The little glitter bell is from the dollar store. The little Christmas trees are my favorite though :)

I'll show the rest of my shelves with one more Christmas wreath craft a little later this week!

I'll be linking up to these parties:

Monday: CraftOManiac Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Market Yourself Monday, Motivate Me Monday. Craftastic Monday, Your So Very Creative,  Just Something I Whipped Up, Inspire Me Mondays, More the Merrier Monday, Made By You Mondays, Tutorials and TIps,  Making the World Cuter,Weekend Warrior,  Make it Monday,

Tuesdays: Tip Me Tuesday, Tutorial Tuesday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Take-a-Look Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, Talent Tuesday, Get Your Craft On,Homework, Ta-da Tuesday

Wednesdays: Your Whims Wednesday, Creative Share Wednesday, We did it Wednesday, Sugar and Spice, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Show & Share,Lil Luna, The 36th Avenue 

Thursdays: A Crafty Soiree, Strut Your Stuff, 20 Below Thursdays, Crazy Cute Thursdays, Hookin Up With House of Hepworths, Catch a Glimpse

Friday: Friday Favs on Naptime Crafters, Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Frugal Friday, Sassy Sites, Show and Share Day, Fridays Unfolded, Fantabulous Friday, Simply Creations Friday, Once Upon a Weekend, Weekend Bloggy Reading

Saturdays: Whatcha Got Weekend, Saturday Night Special, Show and Tell Saturdays, Lovely Crafty Weekend, Saturday is Crafty Day ,Scraptastic Saturday, The 36th Avenue, Positively Splendid, Sweet Saturday,

Sundays: Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sundays 

This post sponsored by:

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