5.27.2015

DIY Magnetic Chalkboard


DIY Magnetic Chalkboard


If you're not a fan of a messy fridge and you have
a blank wall just begging to be beautified, a DIY 
magnetic chalkboard just might be in order.

My dear hubs doesn't like clutter (which is why
we are a perfect match) and so, to drive this DIY to
the finish line...I started to "clutter" up the space where
I wanted the magnetic chalkboard to go, by taping
the kids artwork and school papers to the wall with
Washi Tape...it worked!

DIY Magnetic Chalkboard


Shopping List:

2-1X4 Pine Fence Boards
3X2' Sheet of 1/4" thick Aluminum
Black Chalkboard Paint
(Leftover) White Paint

DIY Magnetic Chalkboard

He started by cutting the fence boards down to size 
and adding angles for the corners. Clamped it all 
together and then painted the metal board with several
layers of Chalkboard Paint. The frame was painted 
white with some leftover paint. The magnetic
chalkboard is held behind the frame with metal 
brackets on  each corner and he also taped around the 
board, so the back would be smooth. Heavy duty metal
hangers hang this heavy duty project straight into
the studs. We had the metal filing baskets and added 
them to the wall for extra school papers.

The frame size is 42-3/4" X 31" but you can
customize it to fit your space.

The perfect way to organize all the papers and crap 
from collecting on the counter, yipee!

DIY Magnetic Chalkboard

5.12.2015

DIY Raised Garden Box


DIY Raised Garden Box

Our little chicks have been begging for a garden
to grow our own wonderful yum for the table and
thankfully they love veggies just as much as their 
Mama does! So my handy hubby tackled yet another
amazing project a few weekends ago and we are
proud to announce...
the green beans, peas and cucumbers have sprouted!

On his shopping list:
3 pieces of 2X12" Pressure Treated Lumber
1 roll of landscape fabric
Scrap wood for corner stakes
1- 8X2 foot trellis
Several bags of Organic Raised Bed Soil

DIY Raised Garden Box

He built the box on our driveway since it is 
more level. Cut one of the boards in half, 
making our garden box 8X4 feet.

Some grunt work digging out a bit of the hill
and then staking it into place, reinforcing the 
corners with screws. We had leftover stain from
our master bathroom project and he enlisted the
help of our seven year old to "paint" the box.

DIY Raised Garden Box


This is how it's done Daniel Son...

DIY Raised Garden Box

He lined the bottom of the box and stapled it in, 
adding the bags of soil. 

DIY Raised Garden Box

Next the trellis...cut in half, zip tied together and
buried into the soil. It'll be fun to watch the 
beans curl up the sides.

DIY Raised Garden Box

Confession: Yes, I grew up on a farm but I don't
have a green thumb, I am however 
willing to try. Since we were a little late planting,
we picked up plants that were already started, minus
the beans and cucumbers. I'm not sure how 
huge everything will get, so we are playing it safe
this summer with just a few items. 

Three tomato plants on the left and all sorts of
glorious smelling spices on the right. We added
rosemary and marigolds around the edges to help
keep away any animals that might want to take a nibble.
One yellow pepper plant, and a pouch of snow peas,
green beans and cucumbers.

DIY Raised Garden Box

The kids have enjoyed watching the tomatoes blossom
and love watering the plants...fingers crossed
we will have something yummy to show for our 
hard work!

DIY Raised Garden Box

How does your garden grow?
Feel free to link your post in the comments!

5.10.2015

Mother's Day Gift Idea and Card


Mother's Day Gift Idea & Card

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mama's out there!
Whether you're currently a Mom, Grandmother, 
have a baby in heaven, adopted your child, or are 
currently preggers....you are all 
Mother's and deserve a day for everyone to just
say, Thank You!

I found the sweet little grey wooden saying
at TJ Maxx and was on the hunt for something
fun to go with it...lavender is such an uplifting 
aroma, a bottle of lotion from Scotland
and a fancy wrapped bar of soap, set the tone
for the purple card. The box smelled divine
once I had everything packaged up as well!
Of course, nothing says Thank you like 
chocolate, I know it's always be appreciated 
by my Mom.

Mother's Day Gift Idea & Card

If you have a plethora of stamp supplies and machines,
then you probably know what the Big Shot is. I use mine
pretty much every time I'm in my craft room and love the 
diversity of cutting tools that you can use with the machine.

First I stamped two different stamps on white cardstock
and then using the magnetic platform (amazing!) placed my
framelits die on top of where I wanted to cut. One quick
roll through the machine and perfection, I tell ya! 
The nice thing about Framelits is that they come in
multiple sizes, so you can frame your projects with 
a different color to add more dimension to your projects.

Mother's Day Gift Idea & Card

The Big Shot is also capable of using the dry embossing
folders with it but I have the Texture Boutique for just 
those, instead. I placed just the front of my lavender
cardstock inside the folder, rolled it through the machine
and out came this beautiful scrollwork.

Mother's Day Gift Idea & Card

A bit of bakers twine, some foam pop dots and 
a thoughtful card for a wonderful Mother!
Happy Mother's Day Mama's!!


 "Behind every good kid is a great Mom!"


Furniture Makeover - Summer Porch Yellow


Furniture Makeover YELLOW Before & After


Warm weather means that I can paint again, yippee!
I've been wanting to give this piece of furniture
a facelift since we moved to VA last year. 
A bit banged up and scratched with moving
but it's still a great piece that sits nicely on 
our stairway landing.

Our walls are grey (darker in the main part of the
house, the photos were taken in our sunroom) and
the yellow pop on the stairway will be a nice addition
to our family sunflower canvas.

I found this scrumptious yellow at AC Moore, it's 
called Summer Porch, by FolkArt Home Decor Chalk.
I used about half of the bottle with two coats for this
project. I'm not the best painter but I like to tackle
projects and get them done and am very happy
with the end result of this one!

Furniture Makeover YELLOW Before & After

Two coats with two different brushes...
I waited a day in between coats since I painted
during nap time but the paint was very quick to dry.

Furniture Makeover YELLOW Before & After

A different day, I pulled the sander out and quickly
edged up my piece, letting the brown pop through
in various places.

Furniture Makeover YELLOW Before & After

Next the Polycrylic, this was very easy to apply
but you need to make sure you don't put too much
on your brush or you'll get unwanted drips
(which can be sanded off, thankfully, oops!)

Furniture Makeover YELLOW Before & After

Two coats of Poly, in two days...again at naptime.

Black Chalkboard SprayPaint

I wanted to paint the drawer pull black but only
had chalkboard paint on hand...I used two nails 
poked through a piece of cardboard to hold my drawer
pull away from any surfaces. The bottom two
photos are what it looked like before. The top pic 
is right after I sprayed, still wet...

Furniture Makeover YELLOW Before & After

Next the drawer, I didn't paint the bottom, since I
knew I was going to line it with something. Found 
this super cute, inexpensive grey and white chevron
drawer liner at Target. 

I unrolled it and folded it over in the corner to create
a cutting crease, pulled it out and slid my scissors
up the folded line. Before taking off the backing,
I made sure it fit inside. Just two small trims, peeled
off the back and stuck it inside. 

Furniture Makeover YELLOW Before & After - Chevron

I'm in love with my little yellow table, 
isn't it sweet?...

Furniture Makeover YELLOW Before & After




5.08.2015

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 5

Day 5, the last day of Teacher Appreciation Week. 
I've enjoyed putting together these small tokens
of appreciation for the teachers who continue to 
nurture my children's brains and lives throughout
the school year. With the weekend coming up and
hopefully some leisure time for teachers...a nice
end to the week, something homemade!

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation

I thought I had those handy little throw away
mini pans in the cupboard but no...and since my 
youngest two were napping when I started baking,
I had to use a larger pan and cut the loaf in half.
Hope they don't mind, it still is mouth watering
delish!

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation - Banana Bread

I wrapped each loaf in saran wrap and then a pretty
cheerful yellow towel (I picked up a set on sale at 
Home Goods) a bit of bakers twine to hold everything
together and a fun tag, isn't that tiny airstream cute?

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation - Gift Tag

Hope you enjoyed this week of Teacher Gift Ideas
and gathered some inspiration for next year or any
day, just because! It's always nice to receive a gift
unexpectedly and it's good for the soul to be a giver.

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation

Just to backtrack...

5.07.2015

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 4

Day 4 today..I hope the teachers have enjoyed their gifts!
This seems a bit of a duplicate from yesterday's gift
BUT I just couldn't help myself, this Tommy Bahama
notebook was just too cool to leave at Home Goods!

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation

I picked up two fun pens from AC Moore, swung
by Starbucks for a gift card and attached those 
to the notebook, with Washi Tape and Bakers Twine.

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation - Starbucks Giftcard

The cute little lion was stamped in Black Momento
Ink, colored with Copic and attached to a strip
of orange cardstock. 

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation - Gift Tag

I folded the top over for a fun look, adding a piece 
of my go-to Double Sided Sticky Tape (some crafters
call it baloney tape, because the red part peels off) and 
then used my Crop-A-Dile to punch a hole through the
three layers. A piece of bakers twine and mission
complete! Aren't the colors fun?!

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation - Gift Tag

 If you need to backtrack, here are


5.06.2015

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 3

Happy Mittwoch (Wednesday) everyone! 
Onto Day 3 of our Teacher Appreciation Week
gift ideas. I'm always looking for a pad of paper
and pen to jot a note, crafty idea or write a list on.
If you've been to Target lately, you've probably seen
these fun bright colored pads of paper. 

To make them look a little more jazzy and put
together, just take off the packaging and tie them
together with some bakers twine. A bit of Washi
Tape doubled over and placed between each section,
will keep the books/pads from sliding around 
and keep your pens neatly on top.

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation

I used a scrap of paper, stamped it with three different 
stamps and punched the top with this very cool and easy to 
use punch from Stampin' Up! Colored the apple with
Copic Markers and added a piece of twine.

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation

Check out Day 1 and Day 2 

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation


5.05.2015

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 2

Today we have Day 2 of Teacher Appreciation Week.
Candles are always a nice gift. I found this bright sunny
one at Home Goods. With summer comes bugs, so a 
citronella candle is a nice way to help keep them away
from your favorite teacher!

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation

The fun little wooden "create your own sunshine" 
sign, I found at Michael's. I may or may not have 
hovered over the sweet lady stocking the shelves
when I saw exactly what she was unpacking!

My stamp collection is vast, so for this week, I've 
pulled everything from my shelves that has anything
to do with Thanks or Teachers. The mini card has
been stamped with two different stamps and 
my kids wrote a little note to their teacher inside.

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation

If you missed Day 1, you can view it here...

5.04.2015

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 1

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation - Pirate Banner

If you follow me on Instagram & Twitter, then a little birdie
told you that I'd be doing a week of Teacher 
Appreciation Gift ideas starting today...I made the banner
above for my kids school. They are doing a Pirate Theme 
this week but I had already purchased my kids gifts before
I knew that...oops!

Today we have Day 1:

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation

I love putting together themed gifts so always keep my 
eyes peeled for fun containers, or ideas. 

Since summer is right around the corner, what better
way to celebrate your favorite teacher than with a bit
of summer cheer?! 

I picked up the watering can from the Target $1-3 section
at the front of the store...the shredded paper I already had
on hand. A few packets of flower seeds (also from Target)
and I kept my eyes peeled for other items to fit into the 
watering can whenever I ran errands. A pair of gardening 
gloves from a grocery store, as well as a bottle of sunscreen.
The shovel I found at Tuesday Morning, they always have
fun items there...

I stamped the You're Amazing stamp onto white cardstock, 
cut it out and layered it onto a strip of designer paper. A
bit of washi tape adds a fun touch and won't leave sticky
residue on the can once it gets put to use.

Teacher Gift - Teacher Appreciation

Come back tomorrow to see another fun teacher
gift idea...


5.02.2015

DIY Wood Wall

DIY Wood Plank Wall

When my parents were here, my very handy hubby and 
woodworking Daddy slapped together this wood plank wall
in our Master Bathroom.

DIY Wood Plank Wall


Regular wood fence boards were picked up from Home Depot.
 The tops were cut off and the new router was put to work 
making rounded edges on each board. 
Next the staining...
I picked out two different stains but once they were
applied, they sort of looked the same, oops!

DIY Wood Plank Wall

Just one coat of stain was applied to each board 
and then a bit of drying time...and banging up each
board just a bit with a hammer.

DIY Wood Plank Wall
The guys hard at work

My hubby drew lines on the wall to mark out the studs.
He nailed the boards into place with the nail gun,
my Dad cut them all to our requested sizes and I was 
their runner up and down the stairs (my workout for
the day, whew!) 

We love it and I can't bear to hang anything on it yet
but we are dreaming of something 'Tahoe' style.
I have the paint picked out for the rest of the walls,
just waiting for the perfect day to paint!

DIY Wood Plank Wall