Double Duty Valentine’s Day Sign

Posted on January 5, 2012 by admin

I made a sign for Valentine’s Day!!! Do you remember my CHRISTmas sign?

I reused the sign, really I used the back so I still have my CHRISTmas sign for next year!! YAY!! love reused and making things double duty!!

So I took the sign which was unpainted on the back and spray painted red just like the front. Then I needed to cover the partial cut that is at the bottom left side of the sign. I cut out strips of hearts from some left over Christmas cardstock, I just flipped over and used the white. I cut the hearts with my brand new Silhouette machine!! I won her at Skip to My Lou in November (trust me, if you say oh I never win, start entering giveaways on blogs!!!) So I got the Silhouette right before Christmas and I just had not had time to use her, so I was super excited when I finally was able to!! After cutting the strips of hears I used modpodge to attach the hearts along the bottom of the sign.

Then I used my Silhouette and contact paper to cut out be my valentine stencil. I then used some of my red and white paint left over from Christmas craft projects to mix up a nice pink and painted the letters! The contact paper did not stick as well as I would like but that is ok, I like the feathered look of the letters. As soon as I painted the letters I pulled the contact paper stencil up so that it would not shift and smear the paint. And there you have a sign!!

and the other side

Are you working on Valentine’s Day crafts yet?

I am linking up here! Come check out the great link parties!!

Capri Sun Zipper Pouch

Posted on January 3, 2012 by admin

Yup jumping on the drink pouch upcycle to a bag bandwagon! Oh wait, you mean to tell me I am over a year late to this party! Oh well, my oldest son asked for one! He came home one day saying that he had to take all of the Capri Sun Drink pouches to school so they could be recycled and made into bags. I then explained to him that we could do that but to get a bag we would have to buy the bag and I told him that if he saved his Capri Sun pouch and brought it home to me I could make him one, he thought that was the best!

Fast forward four months and I had a stack of pouches but had not made a bag, my son had a birthday coming up so I thought perfect time to get busy! I used Allison at House of Hepworth tutorial on Capri Sun Pouch Bags as a starting point. I made mine different than hers but Allison had great tips included how to wash the pouches. Side note – if you do not know Allison over at House of Hepworth, stop right now and go to her blog, you can come back and thank me! She is just AWESOME!!!

Onto my Capri Sun Zipper Pouch, mine is very simple just three pouches sewn together, a second set of three sewn together. Then I sewed the zipper at the top of each three pouch then sewed the sides and bottom together. It is the perfect size for pencils!

Quick and easy! My son loves his Capri Sun Pouch! I have a second zipper to make a second one for my younger son, we will see when I get to that! (Yes, my name is Karie and I am a procrastinator!) Haha my secret is out!! Shhh, you won’t tell anyone, right?

I am linking to these great link parties!! Check them out and come party!!

Translucent Painted Mason Jar

Posted on January 2, 2012 by admin

I love my painted mason jars! They are great for vases however candles do not work as well as the paint makes them opaque. Enter a wonderful Pinterest find!! Momtastic painted the inside of mason jars with Mod Podge and food coloring! Making a beautifully tinted, translucent, Mason Jar! Perfect for a vase or CANDLES!!!!!!!!

Really it was that easy! We received a cookie mix in a jar for Christmas, we made the cookies, they were wonderful and I thought, empty mason jar, I know what I am doing with you!!! I rinsed and dried the jar, poured a good amount of Mod Podge and added about 20 drops of food coloring, swirled around and coated the entire jar. Then set the jar upside down ontop of a paper plate and let drain. Flip over and allow to dry overnight. You can see how it goes from a milky pink when wet to a beautiful translucent pink when dry! LOVE!!! I will be using this for my Valentine’s Day Mantel!! And a perfect Thrifty Craft, cost $0, I had it all on hand!!!

I am linking to these great link parties! Check them out for inspiration!!

Wedding Invitation Ornament

Posted on December 31, 2011 by admin

One last post for 2011! This makes a nice even 50 post for my first year of blogging (well my first 4 months!) I saw this idea a while back on From Glitter to Gumdrops! I pinned the idea as soon as I saw it and knew exactly when and where I would make this wedding invitation ornament!

I made this for my brother and his new wife! (Hi Zac and Becca!!) I knew that my sister-in-law checks my blog so I did not want to post this till I could give them their ornament. They live in California so we did not see them till this past week when they made it back to Texas for the holidays.

This is a very easy ornament to make, I used an acrylic clear ornament because I knew the ornament would have to survive a flight back to CA and would need to be cat-proof! I took their wedding invitation and cut strips with my paper cutter. Then I used a pencil to curl the pieces of paper around, their invitation was made with a nice weight cardstock so when I twisted it around the pencil it held the curl. Then I just popped the top off and put the curlies into the ornament. Then put the top back on and done! So easy!!! A very personal 1st year ornament for a newly married couple!! Zac and Becca liked their ornament!

Sequin Ornament

Posted on December 26, 2011 by admin

I know it is the day after Christmas but better late than never right!! I participated in Eisy Morgan‘s Ornament Exchange! My partner was Melissa at Pineapple Lily. I just love the beautiful ornament Melissa sent me!! Thank you Melissa!!

Melissa posted the ornament I sent her and I wanted to share the tutorial on how I made it. I made a sequin ornament and it is very easy and a thrifty craft for sure!!

You need a styrofoam ball, sequins, push pins and some ribbon. Oh and time! This ornament did take some time but it is easy!!

1. I did not get a picture of this, but first take a piece of ribbon and make a loop and attach with pins to the top of your ornament.

2. Start placing the sequins onto the ball and secure with a push pin. For this ornament I used gold sequins that were 10mm the placed a 8mm silver sequin on top then secured with a pin. You do not have to nest sequins, you can do this with just one size and one color.

3. Continue place sequins onto the ball by just slightly overlapping the sequins making sure not to have any gaps between the sequins.

4. I found that I needed something to help push the push pin all the way down, a thimble would have worked but I did not know where mine was so I used the back of a marker.

5. For Melissa’s ornament I wanted to monogram with a M so I free handed a M onto the ball with a pen and used red sequins to make the M.

6. Hang on your tree and enjoy!! (or pin to pinterest so you can remember this for next year since I am posting this after Christmas!!!)

Side note – Sorry for the not so wonderful pictures, photographing sequins is hard, it reflects light from everywhere!!!

I am linking up to these amazing link parties, check them out for some great inspiration!!

FauxFlakes

Posted on December 13, 2011 by admin

If you missed my first time to guest post here is the post from last week! I shared this over at

Thank you so much Adrianne for letting me guest post!!

So now onto the project I have for y’all (yes I am from Texas) today! My boys just loved this quick and easy projected! We decorated our windows with some FauxFlakes, since we are in south Texas this will be the only snowflakes at The HoB!

To make the snowflakes on the window I cut out snowflake with my mother-in-law’s Cricut. I used contact paper to that I could stick the snowflakes to the window. You could use vinyl as well but I did not have any and I had the contact paper. I cut out a few five inch snowflakes and several three inch snowflakes. I did notice that the snowflakes without the really small details seemed to cut much better and were much easier to put on the windows.

Before I put the contact paper snowflakes on the windows, I did clean them and made sure the windows were dry. Then I placed the snowflakes along the bottom and up a little on each side of the window. Then we sprayed the Faux Snow onto the window!

Next I very carefully pulled off the contact paper. I found the best way was to find a corner and pull straight off, trying my best to not smear the faux snow. There were a few snowflakes that I had a hard time pulling off, so I used a pair of tweezers to pull the contact paper off the window.

And there you have FauxFlakes on your window! My boys were super excited to see the snowflakes when I pulled off the contact paper, their reaction was worth the whole project!!!

CHRISTmas Sign

Posted on December 6, 2011 by admin

I made this sign and it was super easy! So easy I did not even take pictures along the way. I need to do a better job of taking pictures as I am doing my projects, I will work on this!

So all I did was use a piece of leftover particle board from my pantry shelf redo. My amazing husband and father-in-law redid the shelves in our pantry a year ago, someday when I actually have a clean and organized pantry I might show y’all, but not today!

I took the rectangle piece of board and spray painted it red, it took about 3 coats to fully cover. Then after allowing it to dry for 48 hours, I cute out CHRISTmas with my mother-in-laws Cricut and placed the stencil on the board. Then I just used cheap acrylic craft paint to paint inside the stencil. I used a foam brush and purposefully left the white paint uneven. Once I painted inside the stencils I pulled the stencils away. There where a few spots my brush bumped outside the stencil but I was able to wipe the white paint away.

And that is it! The sign is simple and that is what I love about it!! Merry CHRISTmas!!

PS Check back tomorrow morning to see where I will be doing my first guest post and be sure to check back tomorrow afternoon when my very first giveaway goes live! It is a good one!!!

Christmas Advent – Only a day late!

Posted on December 2, 2011 by admin

So I like to do things last minute! No I don’t really like to do things last minute, that is just how it usually goes! So I did get my Advent Calendar up yesterday on the 1st!! I also took pictures and had every intent to write the post yesterday, it just did not happen. So here is our Advent Calendar for 2011.

I am reusing the mini-stockings from last year. I bought them at Michael’s the day after Thanksgiving, so they were way discounted, I think they ended up being about $.35/each. The circle numbers are from Amy at Living Locurto. The circles are part of her Personalized Christmas Advent Calendar, this is an amazing free printable! Thank you Amy!!! I printed out the circles and punched them with a 2″ punch. Then I used a safety pin to attach to the stocking. I then hung the stockings on the wall in a Christmas Tree shape. I cut the yellow star and added to the top.

Last year when I did the stockings I came up with 24 Christmas activities for the family to do together everyday. I looked at the calendar and tried to plan the activities accordingly but somehow almost every night the Hubs and I would be trying to change the activities around as something came up and we would not be able to go look at Christmas Lights or whatever the activity was. So this year we decided to only put in a few days at a time so I can make sure the activities are ones that fit into our lives for those days. I just put the little card with the activity in the night before I head to bed.

If you have not started your Advent Calendar, no worries, it is never to late, just start with the day we are on and go forward, set yours up for the 10th-24th and do a 2 week count down for Christmas. The kids love countdowns and getting ready for Christmas!

We are also doing a book advent countdown. I was pleasantly surprised to have 24 Christmas/winter books in my stash, so I wrapped them in plain brown paper bag wrapping and added the same circle numbers that I used for the stocking. I just printed the circles on a sticker sheet, punched and attached to each book. I covered a box in red wrapping paper and my two year old added some Christmas Stickers.

My boys are so excited to get to read their book before bed and I am so excited to share this special time of year with my family!!

Mini Ornament Garland

Posted on November 29, 2011 by admin

I have such a quick, easy and cheap little Christmas Decoration you can do in about 10 minutes. It is so quick and easy I do not even have a picture tutorial for you, just the finished product.

I found tubes of nonbreakable mini ornaments in the dollar section of Target and I grabbed one in each of the colors they had, red, green, gold and silver. I was not sure what I was going to do with them but for a dollar each I knew I would think of something. When I got home I found some red ribbon that was a bit wider than the opening at the top of the ornament. I threaded the ornaments through the ribbon until I had enough to stretch across the little half wall opening I have in my livingroom. Then I just tacked each end of the ribbon up with a tack and done! How easy, simple and cute is this!!!

This is all the Christmas Decoration we have up! I am very slow at getting out my decorations, I love Christmas but my oldest son’s birthday is next week and I do not want his birthday to get lost in Christmas. We usually put up a few things here and there until after his birthday. I am working on finishing my advent countdown for this year, as soon as it is done I will post. Nothing like waiting to the last minute!!

Thanksgiving Handprint Turkey Shirts

Posted on November 22, 2011 by admin

I saw this really cute Hand Turkey Shirt over at Polkadots on Parade. However I do not think my boys would be too happy with that shirt. So I pinned the shirt to Pinterest for someday when I have a little girl and thought of a boy friendly version to make.

Since the freezer stencil went well on the Thanksgiving Pillows, I decided to give freezer stenciling on t-shirts a try.I made the turkey with an outline of my younger son’s hand.

Then I made a second with my older son’s hand. The boys have not seen their shirts, it will be a surprise for them on Thanksgiving day, I hope they like them. I had fun making them!!

I think the shirts turned out well. Now I just need a Silhouette to cut out my stencils. Right now I am cutting the stencils by hand with an Exacto Knife and well that is not my most favorite nor can I do a lot of small details.

I am thankful for having my husband home for a week!!