Make your own Table Numbers!

My sister's wedding is coming up FAST and she needed some help putting together table numbers. Shes doing really tall arrangements so she wanted something big so that they aren't dwarfed by the centerpieces. She said she found something she liked for a total of $150 on Etsy.....I told her I would save her some money and put something together for her for MUCH cheaper.

She said she wanted tables numbers in frames so I went to the dollar tree and lucked out. I found these 11x14 picture frames which were the perfect size and I knew exactly what I wanted to do right away. The theme of her wedding is "winter wonderland" so I picked out some snazzy white glitter scrapbooking paper (that looks like snow) at my favorite store (Hobby Lobby) and got to work.

Things you will need:
- Dollar store frame (your choice of size)
- Scrapbooking paper of your choice
- Posterboard (optional)
- Cardstock
-Spray Paint
- 3M 150 grit sandpaper
- Scissors
- Computer
- Printer
- xacto knife
- Double sided tape

Step 1: Before you do anything else if you dont like the color of the photo frame, you'll need to spray paint it. If you're going to spray it you have to sand it a little bit first. You have to rough up the surface so that the paint will stick really well. (Be careful though, you dont want to scuff it up so much that you can see the scratches through the paint. This is why I used #150 sandpaper....its not really gritty and won't scratch too much.)

Then you can lay out your frames and spray them. Here are some tips to get a nice, even coat...
#1 Hold the tip of the can at least 6 inches away from the object your spraying

#2 Hold the tip down and spray as you move your hand fairly quickly across the object once. When you get to the end of the object stop the spray, repeat 2 or 3 times but not too many. You dont want to glob too much paint on too soon, thats when you get nasty drips or peeling....you'll have to do at least 2 coats so just be patient.

#3 Dont hold the tigger for too long over one spot, it gets drippy and looks terrible.... this is why they call it spray paint not drip-all-over-the-place-because-you're-too-lazy-to-do-two-coats paint

Step 2: While the first coat of your paint is drying take your scrapbook paper and size it to your frame. My frames were 11x14 and standard scrapbooking paper is 12x12 so I cut my paper to 11x12 and then cut an additional strip to tape to the bottom to cover the whole frame......

....Let me save you OCD people some trouble.... if you do it this way there will be a line and it will bother you and make your eye twitch.....

I know you can't realy see it SUPER well but right under the 2 there's a line.... and it drove me crazy.... so I changed my design up a little bit to compensate. Now if you're using like an 8x10 or 5x 7 frame this is a moot point, since you can just cut your scrapbook paper down to size with an xacto knife...(I highly suggest using a ruler and really measuring the right way to save hassle in the future)

If you want a big frame then you can solve this problem by getting some posterboard and creating a matting in the background. I cut an 11x14 piece of gray posterboard and cut my scrapbook paper to 7x10 to leave about  a two inch border all the way around.

Tip: I would definitely suggest that you do enough of each step for all the tables at the same time. I made a total of 8 table numbers so I cut 8 pieces of poster to 11x14. Then I cut 8 scrapbook pages to the right size. Then you're going to cut 8 numbers (see next step). This way you can just assemble everything all at once.

Once you've done some cutting go outside and spray another coat of paint on your frames you multi-tasker you!

Step 3: Find a font that you like and size your table numbers to fit on your scrapbook paper (I did 6x8 letters). Then print them out. Then transfer the numbers to the cardstock you want to use. If you're not sure how to do that go here and find out how!

Step 4: Cut out the numbers carefully!

Step 5: Assemble everything. Put your scrapbooking paper in the middle of the posterboard (I highly suggest that you use a ruler and MEASURE where the middle actually is....) and adhere. I used double sided tape on each corner. Remember this is going in the frame so it doesnt have to be cemented on there, it just has to stay in place. If you have a smaller frame and don't want to use matting you can skip this step all together.

Step 6: Put double sided tape on the back of your numbers (you'll probably need to cut the tape to fit) and place these in the center of your scrapbook paper (I didnt measure this, I just eyeballed it).

Step 7: Go grab your frames once they're good and dry, put the glass in, add your table number, put on the back, and shazam you've got yourself a table number.

I spent a grand total of $2.36 per table number. You can't beat that!

So take your wedding theme, find a scrapbook paper that fits with your colors and design, and go to town! Use a posterboard backing or don't, do whatever looks good for you! I'm of the belief that there's no need to spend all kinds of crazy money on stuff that's going to sit on a table for one night of your life. And...now you have frames to keep afterwards and put all your wedding pictures in afterwards!

Paint the Town Red Bachelorette Party Favors

This was a super easy, cute little favor I put together for the favor bags for the girls coming to my sister's bachelorette party. They took no time at all.

Things you will need:
-Hot glue gun and glue
- Tulle
- Nail Polish (one for each person)
- small tags
- small ribbon
- Fine point Sharpie or paint

Step 1: Peel the labels off of your nail polish. If there's sticky stuff on the outsides of the bottle rub it off with alcohol and a paper towel.

Step 2: Take your tags and write on them however you want. You can use fun fonts, you can do it free hand, you can experiment with color, its up to you! My tags were wood and when I tried to write on them the fine tipped sharpies I used bled all over them, so I used a coat of paint to help.

Step 4: Use the ribbon to tie the tag onto the nail polish, tie a nice cute bow :)

Step 5: Cut your tulle and layer it to the thickness you want it at (I folded mine in half and used two pieces, so it was 4 sheets).

Step 6: Put a few dots of hot glue on top of your nail polish. Start at one end of the tulle and scrunch it up, laying it in the glue as you go. It should end up scrunched up tight at the top, only covering about half of the top of the polish.

Thats it! Wipe away any hot glue spiderwebs, trim the tulle if you think you need to and you have a super simple, easy, and cute favor for your girls!

 

Make a Solo Cup Wreath!

I saw this super cute solo cup wreath idea on Pinterest and, since Halloween is fast approaching I found such great deals on all holiday decor at the craft stores on Friday, I decided to try my hand.

There were no directions attached, it was just a picture, so I tried my best and it turned out...... ok. It actually turned out really really good at first.....then I dropped it and it broke and it did not come out as well after its second round of gluing.....

Anyways.... I said I would share the good, the bad, and the ugly and while my Halloween wreath isn't ugly its a little bit wonky, which I'm just going to pretend is part of its charm.

Anyhow..... here is what you'll need:

- Orange and Black colored Solo cups (I learned the hard way DON'T get the ones with the square bottoms, get the ones with the circular round bottoms. I think those will be more flexible and easier to shape)
- Hot glue gun
- LOTS of glue sticks for your glue gun
- Double sided tape (I didn't use a whole lot of this but it was pretty handy)
- Wide Ribbon (optional)
- Decorations to glue to your wreath

Step 1: You're going to have to play around with the cups a little bit because I have a feeling its going to be different with different kinds of cups. Take one of each color cup and arrange them so that it is shorter on one side and longer on the other so that, with enough cups, you'll get a curving shape.

 Step 2: After playing around a bit with how you would like to arrange the cups get your glue gun ready, figure out where the cups are touching and put LOTS of hot glue on there. I would put it on the top where they touch as well as allllll along the bottom, so that it will get a good stick. Remember, these are plastic cups so if you put too much on one area it will melt the cup, the trick is to use thin layers of glue but cover a large area!

Step 3: Keep going. Make sure that as you go you're constantly bending and shaping the cups, stretch them out, because you're going to have to really bend them a lot to get it into a circle. ALSO you should probably note that it makes a LOT of noise! Grizley Adams was trying to watch football in the living room so I eventually moved into the bedroom since it wasn't too messy of a project. (It's laundry day on Saturdays, excuse the mess at the bottom of the bed).

Step 4: Keep gluing and stretching, you'll have to eyeball it when you're getting close. If you think you can close the circle try to shove the front cup into the back. You're really going to have to bend and push, don't be afraid to really stretch them, you're going to have to in order to get the circular shape.

Step 5: This is what I skipped that I really wish I hadn't. After you have the circle together and you're standing back, admiring your handiwork thinking about how awesome you are and how bad your fingertips hurt from burning yourself with hot glue...You might think you're done. You aren't. Go back and put hot glue/double sided tape in all the cracks and crevices where the cups touch. You really want to cement those bad boys together now that you've got your circle shape all finished. I didn't do this the first time and I definitely ended up regretting it.

Step 6: Get whatever decorations you want to put on your wreath together. I found a super cute wooden ghost on sale for $1.00 at Hobby Lobby, so I used that. After I removed the wire (it was supposed to hang on its own) I painted it and let it dry.

Step 7: Glue your decorations to the wreath. Again make sure you really get them on there REALLY well.

This was my beautiful wreath after I finished. All I had left to do was add a ribbon and hang it! (Please note how pretty and circular it is!)

I tied my ribbon and got ready to add it to the top. Then tragedy struck....I dropped it too hard on the table and it flew apart.......because I didn't use enough hot glue. I glued it back together but it WOULD NOT cooperate and go back into it's perfect circle! So I said screw it, added the bow, and hung my wonky wreath on the outside of our house.

I think it's still cute but I can be a perfectionist and looking at it makes my eye twitch a little bit.

So what would I do differently? Use circular rather than square bottomed cups, use a BOATLOAD more glue after I had my wreath shape, and I would also have used bigger ribbon for my bow.

But hey its still cute and it cost me about $5.99 to make total.

Good luck! And if you do make one yourself I would really love to see how it turns out!

Do It Yourself T Shirt

I've been so busy the last week I have had zero time to make anything new. Last weekend Grizley Adams and I went to Orlando to help some friends from college paint their beautiful new first home! We painted 6 ish rooms in 2 days and it was exhausting, but fun... ish (I always forget how terrible painting is until I have to do it again)!

Grizley Adams actually paints houses professionally so at some point I'll post some tips, tricks, and pointers on painting your house all professional like!

Anyways, I CAN'T believe its already almost halfway into October! My sister's bachelorette party is in November and my cousin (who is a fellow bridesmaid) and I realized we need to get the ball rolling on all the little details for the weekend. We're going to Epcot's food and wine festival at Disney in Orlando so, while we don't need to make decorations and a bunch of food and games, we do need to get together favors and a few other things.

Last night I spent about 3 hours in Hobby Lobby, Joann's, and Target after work, getting ideas and supplies for my crafty weekend.I wanted to have t shirts made for the weekend, but after pricing them out I decided to try and make them myself. There's only 7 girls going (including myself) so its not totally impossible.

I went into the T Shirt making aisle at Hobby Lobby and found this little gem

Which definitely made my life easier! It keeps the paint from bleeding through to the other side, keeps it straight, and gives you an idea of where you want your words/graphics to be located. It was $1.99 and worth every penny! (On a side note all holiday decorations are 40% off right now at Hobby Lobby....don't judge me but I definitely bought some Christmas decorations for my desk at work)

Things you'll need for this project:
-A T-Shirt of your choice (I got mine at target because I wanted cute low cut V necks)
- Puffy Paints in the colors of your choice WITH the tips attached (they sell Tshirt paint that you can squeeze out like regular paint but you don't want that kind)
- Chalk
- Ballpoint pen
- Computer
- Printer
- T Shirt form (optional, but really... splurge on one of these bad boys)

Step 1: Make your design in a program like publisher. Play around with fonts, clipart, whatever curls your toes. Once you have it how you like, print it out in the size that you want. I decided to use a landscape 8.5" X 11" regular piece of paper. Keep in mind you can always cut out the elements and space them how you'd like on the shirt.

Step 2: Cut out your wording and cover the back with chalk. Blow off the excess dust, smear it a little with your finger, really get it allllllll over the wording. The idea is that you want as little as possible to rub off on the T Shirt, so  your outline shows clearly.

Step 3: Take your ball point pen and trace the lettering. Make sure you push down fairly hard but try not to rip through the paper. You also want to avoid moving the paper around as much as possible. Remember, you don't want all your chalk rubbing off on the shirt to the point where you cant see the outline.

Step 4: Carefully lift up your template and put it to the side (you'll want to look at it as you go, especially in places where the outline is too faint to see). Then blow as much of the excess chalk dust away from the shirt as you can.

Step 5: Use your paint to slowly and carefully trace over your outline. Its obviously not going to look EXACTLY like the font you're using but it looks way better than free handing and its still got a nice look to it.

Step 6: Keep going! I know your hand probably hurts but those are just good Diet Coke/HGTV breaks! If your hand starts to get shaky from all that squeezing take a break! Sadly puffy paint on a T Shirt is not as easily fixable as paint on a glass or canvas. It will show up and its not easily scraped off or covered so take your time and watch what you're doing! Don't let your finger smudge a letter and then accidently get it all over the shirt like I did I've heard that sometimes happens. 

Let your shirt dry over night and then repeat on the back if you want something on the back. Keep in mind that the puffy paint will go down a little after it dries so don't be afraid to make it look really bold, if you go too thin it might not look great after it dries. 

Tomorrow I'll do the back (we're going to each have our names on it and the number of years we've known the bride) and update with some pictures.

So look on Pinterest or Etsy for some cute T Shirt ideas and make your very own puffy paint T!

Make a name mug!

I know its a ways off but I've been keeping Christmas in the back of my mind while searching Pinterest lately. I'm all for cute, fun, cheap ideas for gifts and, though I love them, I've kind of worn out the whole hand painted wine glass thing over the last couple of years.

I came across this fun idea and I feel like it will be perfect for gifts for coworkers and friends.

When I was little I could never find my name (or even anything close) on those little personalized trinkets in gift shops and so this makes up for it a little bit!

Things you'll need:
-A mug (I got mine from the dollar tree...because I'm thrifty)
-Colored (or not) Sharpie
-Alphabet stickers
-An oven

Step 1: Clean your mug well before you start, you don't want the marker to rub off because its dusty! Place your stickers however you want them. I didn't want it to have to be perfect so I made them kind of slanted and uneven on purpose (I'm a little lazy super creative).

Step 2: Take your Sharpie and start making dots!!!

Step 3: Once you're satisfied with your dott-ing, remove the sticker.

Its a REALLY easy project, but I thought up some tips I think you should consider before you start...

Tip 1) Try to keep your marker straight up and down, and after you push down make sure you pull all the way up before you move on to the next dot...if you don't you get smeared dots which I don't think are as nice.

Tip 2) Don't do what I did and start really heavy and layer the dots thickly near the letters (see picture above), that makes it harder to blend it and make the dots appear fewer as you work outward. You'll want to start with a light layer of dots and work from the outside IN toward the letters. You can always add more dots, but you can't take them away!

Tip 3) I would take your marker and outline the letters with little tiny dots before you really get going with the thicker layers. This will make sure that you have a good outline for when you peel the stickers away. 

Here are both sides of my final product!

 
Step 4: Put your mug in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. When you take it out make sure you don't touch the marker, it will smear a little bit. Let it dry for about 2 hours and then it should be fine! I wouldn't recommend putting it in the dishwasher, but then again it might be fine, I just don't want to try it!

It didn't take long and it took very, very little effort. Something I really liked about this idea was that you can do so many variations. You can find so many different alphabet sticker fonts at any craft store like Hobby Lobby (Grizley Adams hates that store so much because I can spend hours there), Joann's, or Michaels. You can use different colors.  You can use different mugs. Maybe instead of little dots you can do stripes or starbursts or big polka dots. I can make this same gift for lots of different people and have it look different every time. And it only costs $1 plus the price of the stickers to make!

Make your own book pumpkin!

Fall is getting closer and along with pumpkin lattes and Oktoberfest beer with a cinnamon sugar rimmed glass (yum!) comes fall crafts! I saw this super cute pumpkin on Pinterest and I wanted to try my hand at it for my desk area at work.

Things you will need:
-A piece of paper
-Pencil
-An old book you don't want to read ever again
-Hot glue gun
-(Optional) acrylic paint
-Xacto knife

I used an old Nicholas Sparks book that I read once and didn't love, so I figured I would put it to good use!

 

Step 1: Carefully peel the cover off of the book, make sure the paper binding on the spine stays intact (that will be your stem.

Step 2: Create a pumpkin shape that will appropriately fit on the size book you are destroying using. Make sure that the bottom is pretty flat so it will sit flat on the table.

Step 3:Use your knife to trace around the pattern. Make sure when you cut you hold the knife flat on the page (bottom picture), don't try to use just the point to cut (top picture), because it will cause the pages to rip a little rather than cut smoothly.

Step 4: As you go you'll want to rip the pages one by one from the binding. Again you want to make sure that the glue stays on the binding because that will be the stem (see photo 4 above).

Step 5: Once you have all of the pages cut out you want to use your hot glue gun and glue the binding together so it starts your circular shape. The pages won't evenly distribute right away, you'll need to "fluff" them. Also use your glue gun and arrange the stem the way you'd like it as well.

Step 6: (optional) The original picture just left the pumpkin plain, I decided to spice mine up a little. I put some water in a bowl and put a LITTLE bit of orange acrylic paint in it so it was really soupy. Then I pulled all the pages together and brushed the color over the edges to give it a little pop. Then I painted the stem brown.

Step 7: In order to "fluff" your pumpkin up go through and crinkle every single one of the pages. Its kind of tedious but A) it keeps the paint from making the pages stick together and B) it makes it look full.

Step 8: Keep fluffing and add a little bit of your own style. I decided I wanted more color so I cut out a little leaf, painted it green and attached it to the stem. Maybe you want to make a tag like the original picture, maybe you want to tie dye your pumpkin, maybe you want to bedazzle the stem... its yours so do whatever you want!

Here's my final pumpkin! Obviously I have some more fluffing to do but I was tired and wanted to get to bed!

I also asked my boyfriend to help me take a picture while I was ripping the pages out.... and while uploading these pictures I found this super angry selfie of my Grizly Adams.

My next post very well might be "how to shave your hairy boyfriend while he sleeps"! Just sayin....