Friday, April 6, 2012

Easter Decorations 2012

This holiday I had a great time using a lot of what decor I already had on hand!  Of course I used my fun new Easter Egg Decor which I listed a tutorial about in this post but I also had a lot of things already in my holiday decor that I was able to re-use.
Here's a peak:
Welcome!  The fabric strips, pillow and wreath are all new additions!
What a cheater!  I just took fabric and 'wrapped' the pillow I already had.  The ribbon and fabric flowers are PINNED on!  (If you want to sit here - do at your own risk!  You might get poked!!!)

I kind of hated this wreath at first... (I've never been a fan of that mustard/gold color) but it's grown on me!

A little decor on the sidebar.... baking cup garland (my new favorite way of decorating!), pink easter grass in a white planter, glittery eggs in a hurricane and other odds & ends

the odds and ends I was talking about!  :)
my mantle
painted birdhouse from Valentine's decor, yellow urn and Spring sign are from my decorations last year, another painted birdhouse that I did for this year and the white (what do you call this?) decorative item as seen before

green baking cup garland from St. Patrick's Day decor and felt egg garland from Target

my cute easter egg decorations and bunnies from Hobby Lobby


I LOVE these jars!  See the empty one there?  That's where the Cadbury Mini Eggs were...... obviously I like those particular candies!  :)


Happy Easter!  I hope you had fun decorating this year too!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Photo Of The Day - March Edition

Yep.... each month I feel like I'm getting better!  Maybe I'll be a professional Instagram Photographer by the end of this year!  :)
Enjoy:

Day 1:  Up
Day 2:  Fruit
Day 3:  My 'hood

Day 5:  Smile
Day 6:  5pm
Day 7:  Something I Wore (GO COUGS!)

Day 9:  Red
Day 10:  Loud (yep, got my label wrong!)
Day 11:  someone I talked to (my gorgeous friend Erin)
Day 12:  Fork (the Dora one - gets used the most in this house....)
Day 13:  a sign (my leg color matches the carpet - need to get some tanning lotion!)

Day 15:  my ride

Day 17:  green
Day 18:  a corner in my house (princess castle & dress up area)
Day 19:  just funny
Day 20
Day 21:  delicious (every morning's cup of coffee)
Day 22:  kitchen sink (I'm ALWAYS doing dishes!!!)
Day 23:  moon (made out of cheese)
Day 24:  (my) animal
Day 25:  MOPS breakfast (yum)

Day 27
Day 28:  Trash (y)
Day 29:  feet (yep, I painted those cute hearts ALL by myself!  I LOVE Nail Pens!)

and yes, I'm missing Day 31.  It's 'where you relax'.  I wandered around the house today trying to figure that out and couldn't.  I guess you could say the back patio but when I sit out there - I think about how I need to pick up the dog poop so my daughter doesn't step in it when she's running around.  I could take a pic of my bath tub but I've had time to take about three baths since we moved here a year ago.  SO.... let's pretend my 'quiet place to relax' is here:
Tropical Island
Source: http://www.islandvariety.net/tropical-island/
It's my own private island!  :)

Linking up to:

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Easter Egg Decorations

The Easter Egg Project
This project came about when I was wandering through Hobby Lobby one day.  Their 'ready made' decorations were great but still a bit more than I wanted to spend; even at 30% off.  So I picked up some paper mache eggs and some wooden candlesticks and decided to throw it all together.  What resulted was a super cute project that I'm VERY excited to display this coming month for the Easter holiday! 

Here are the directions on how to make your own:
Starting off we'll be doing the Mod Podge'ing.... I used these three paper mache eggs, matte finish Mod Podge, a foam sponge applicator and a whole lovely pile of fabric scraps - most are leftover from my bunting that I sell in my Etsy shop (Pursewna Etsy Shop).  I use Charm Squares for the garland so the resulting scraps are PERFECT for this project!  Any fabric scraps you have lying around would work great though!  You could also use scrapbooking paper or wrapping paper - get creative!

Using scissors - cut your scraps down into workable sized pieces


Get your Mod Podge all ready to go and go for it!
(a holiday themed paper plate makes a GREAT palette!)  

Coat a good sized area of the egg with Mod Podge, then adhere a scrap of fabric

Be sure to immediately put another coat of MP over this scrap since you'll most likely be layering another scrap of fabric over it at some point.... keep layering and MP'ing until you eventually have the entire egg covered!

Note:  this brush did NOT work well!  Bristles started sticking to my egg so I quickly switched it out for the foam applicator - worked MUCH better....

This is a VERY messy project!  It helps to have a wet/damp washcloth or rag nearby so you can wipe your fingers occassionally - I found my fingers sticking to the egg/fabric at different points....

See what I mean?  MESSY!!!!

One egg down, two to go!  (I used paper cups to set the eggs in to dry....)

Egg #2 coming along well!

Two eggs down, one to go!

The BIG egg!!

You can see the three eggs in varying forms of 'dryness' - the egg on the left I did first, egg in the middle second and obviously the large egg last - see how it looks the glossiest?  (is that a word even?  sorry!)

3.  Paint your candlesticks!  I used a bunch of different 'Springy' colors of craft paint... whatever I had on hand in my craft closet/cupboard.  Don't look too close at my paint job - it's not perfect but homemade generally isn't, right?  (That's what I tell myself at least....)

All finished and looking snazzy!

4.  Embellish to your heart's content!  I grabbed some different sized ric rack, ribbon and my trusty hot glue gun.  That pink mat?  It's part of this AWESOME glue gun kit that I bought on Etsy!  It has saved my fingers from LOTS of burns lately!  Check them out:  (link)

Start embellishing!  

I would figure out a starting point, put a spot of glue down then add the ric rack/ribbon and 'roll' the egg towards me onto the ric rack/ribbon - seen in the pic here:


then finish off at your starting point with another spot of glue 
and cut the embellishment as close to that spot as you can....

Again - not perfect but this part will be at the back of your egg so not too important!


Next - add a ribbon of glue around the top of the candlestick 
(I put mine on the metal insert where the candle normally goes in)

As carefully as possible, stick your finished egg onto the glue/candlestick - try to keep it straight!

The first time I did this I noticed how messy the glue then looked, so I added some ribbon to hide this area.  Just add MORE glue around the base of the egg/top of the candlestick and wind a length of ribbon around it - as seen here:



The finished project!  I think these are going to look GREAT on my mantle alongside some wooden birdhouses I painted and my other Easter decorations.  I'll be sure to post all of my decor soon!

I'll be linking this tutorial up to:
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