Chalkboard Gift Tags

Back again to link my Pinterest projects up with AP for her Monday link-up!

I saw these chalkboard gift tags via Etsy; I thought they were adorable and would add a little something extra to our Christmas packages this year.

I showed them to a couple of my girlfriends, and we decided to have a little paint party while the guys were working yesterday. I found my tags at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas crafts section. They have holes in them already and are meant to be ornaments for kids to craft. I got snowflakes and Christmas trees :)

Only an iPhone pic, so it's terrible quality...FAIL. Sorry.

We just painted a couple coats of black chalkboard paint on them...seriously the easiest project ever, but so cute! The best part is that they be used over and over!

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I also made a few recipes from Pinterest this week; some hits and some misses in my opinion. My thoughts:

*One Dish Chicken & Veggie Bake-this was incredibly easy to make and pretty good considering the effort. Certainly not the BEST thing I've ever made, but I'll definitely do it again if I need something quick & easy.

*Crockpot Cheesy Chicken & Rice-about the same as above. GREAT for the amount of effort that went into it and tasty!

*Spicy Thai Peanut Noodles-these were yummy! Rob loved them. We had them with a honey-soy salmon thing that I made up with what we had on hand.

*Copy-cat Pumpkin Spice Latte-this was DELISH! I'll definitely do this one again. Talk about a money (and calorie) saver!

*Honey Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas-one word: GROSS! Won't make them again. Probably the only place garbanzo beans & I will meet again is in hummus. 

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One last thing: I have a fun little giveaway coming up tomorrow, I'd love if you came back and checked it out! Hoping it won't be a complete bust ;)

Happy (?) Monday!

birth stats subway art

I had so much fun linking up with AP for Project Pinterest last week that I thought I'd jump in again this week. Thanks for all the love on the yarn wreath last time!

This week I decided to tackle a project that I've been needing to do for approximately six months ;) Jaqs has had these empty canvases sitting on a shelf in her nursery, and I've gone through several ideas of what to do with them, but I finally landed on the perfect one. For one of them anyway. The other one shall remain unfinished for now. Maybe that will be next week's project!

Anyway here's the inspiration pin/tutorial:

Essentially, I just followed the directions that were posted and used Power Point to create my subway art. I downloaded several free fonts that I liked from the web. I had a lot of fun with it! The only thing I added was her birthplace. I saved the file as a JPEG then took that to Office Max and had them print it on card stock for me on standard paper size.

The canvas (12x15) itself used to have some bright red poppies on it, so I decided to "upcycle" it. It got a couple coats of antique white spray paint to start, then I painted the larger polka dots using THIS method (genius!). I used the wine cork itself to do the smaller polka dots. I then put a gray stripe along the sides to give it a finished look. Next, I mod-podged the print onto the canvas. I covered it twice to make sure the card stock didn't pull away or anything.

I am so happy with the way this little gem turned out! I think it's the perfect addition to Jaqsy girl's nursery! Now, any ideas for that second canvas??

the 'original'

I had so much fun making the first one that I decided to make a print of a different variety for my sister-in-law for her birthday. I saw this on Pinterest as well, but I didn't pin the original link. Whoopsy! I did this one the exact same way and mod-podged it onto an 8x10 canvas then striped the sides of the canvas as well. I think she liked it! :)

Thanks for popping over! Hope you like it!

Yarn Wreath

Pinterest and I go through peaks and valleys...sometimes I can't pin enough and others I don't think about it at all. With Fall here and the holiday season a-comin, we're at a peak.

When I saw that AP at ILYMTC was hosting a weekly link-up to share the Pinterest projects you've made, I knew I wanted to join in the fun! This is my first time to link-up, but I'm sure it won't be my last...this is such a great idea!

I have been loving yarn wreaths lately, so I decided my front door needed one. I chose to combine two of my pins to create my fall-ish yarn wreath!

via

via

The supplies are pretty simple: straw wreath WITH plastic left on, yarn, felt for embellishments (1/4 yd is more than enough), and any other add-ons you might like. You'll also need scissors (duh) and a hot glue gun (double duh).

I'm awful at taking pictures when I'm in the process of making something, so let me just tell you...it's easy! Tie the end of the yarn around the wreath and just start wrapping it around the wreath. No gluing necessary. I would advise you to keep the yarn pretty taut or it will start to slide around a bit. You can try to keep it all perfectly aligned if you wish, but I didn't mind mine overlapping. This process gets a little tedious, but it really doesn't take too terribly long.

As for the felt blooms, I followed the tutorial above to a "T', and it worked beautifully! I really like the way they look, and they are incredibly simple to make. 

I had burlap left over from this project, so I used that to tie it up on my door.

Here's the finish product...

All in all, this wreath took about 2 hours to complete, and it only cost about $10 with supplies leftover to make more! I made another for my mom already, and I'm working on two more :) I'd call this one a success!