Candy Heart Sign

Remember how I said I was determined to be on top of my holiday decorating this year? Well, guess who has their Valentine's Day mantel done?!

Yep, it's me!

I'm quite happy with it. Especially with the way candy hearts came out. I was inspired by this pin and couldn't wait to make it.

I bought the hearts each for 99¢ at Michael's but had everything else laying around the apartment. Here's a visual.

How are you decorating for Valentine's Day?

The instructions feature the following font: Connected. I used a picture from this website: Candy Hearts

She's Crafty - Ring Box

Earlier this week I posted a blog about emptying my jewelry stand and putting it onto a board hanging on my bedroom wall. Well, that covered necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, but a girl has rings right? To go with my awesome new jewelry board, I made a ring box for all those rings I have floating around. I think it looks pretty damn awesome, a definite HIT. I'm really glad I worked on these two projects. It's the little things that just make me feel like this apartment is a little bit more like home. 

I used a gift box, seat cushion foam, and scrap material from my old bedskirt to make this, along with an exacto knife, scissors, ruler, and some glue. 

Here's how I did it:

Step 1. Cut the foam to fit your box or container. I used the scissors to get the desired size. I fit it to the exact dimensions (not leaving any room for the cloth) of the box.

Step 2. Score the foam almost to the bottom of the piece. I used the ruler to keep my cuts straight. Each cut was about 3/4" apart.

Step 3. This was the hardest step for me. I cut a piece of cloth about four inches wider than the foam and six inches longer. In hindsight I would give it more room to save myself from redoing it five times. Lay the cloth about an inch over the side of the foam. Working away from the edge, separate the foam on your cut lines and work the cloth in. The ruler is really helpful in doing this. Holding your newly stuffed cloth, work your way to the end of your foam. 

Step 4. Layer some glue in the bottom of your box and carefully put your foam in. Use your ruler to shove excessive cloth down on the sides. 

Step 5. Find a small book to fit in between the foam and the top of your container. Then grab the largest books you can find and pile them on. You want to make sure you have a great seal with the glue. Luckily, I have some personal taxation and fraud examination books laying around from college. I knew they'd come in handy again!

Step 6. Let dry for the prescribed amount of time - I left mine for six hours. Then, load it up! I love the way it came out and I'm happy to display my rings in it.

I had a lot of these things on hand, so it didn't cost much. Just the price of the foam which, from Walmart, was just $6.98. I still have plenty left over for other future projects. I might even make more of these and give them out at presents!

She's Crafty - Jewelry Board Frame

In my peruse of pinterest, I've stumbled upon a few different pins about putting your jewelry on display like this one and this one. Since then, I haven't been able to get the idea out of my head. To be able to see all my jewelry! Then I wouldn't be stuck with wearing the same pieces day after day. I would be able to check out my choices. Daily. I was bouncing with joy as I started this project. A month ago...

I already had some of the supplies I needed. Small frame for earring holder? Check. Paint? Check. Pegboard, big frame, pegs, chicken wire? UNCHECK. It also took me a few days to convince the hubbs that these were necessary items for my latest crafting idea. Somehow, he just doesn't see the pictures in my head. Weird, right? I bought the pegboard and hardware cloth at Home Depot, pegs from Walmart, and frame from the Albany ReStore.

After spending what was probably too much money, I started out making the small frame for earrings. I actually have had this one done for a while. I used two coats of the silver finish and two coats of gloss clear coat. Because the frame had slots where plexiglass fit in, I was able to slide the hardware cloth right in and not use staples to keep it there.

The one part that took the longest to get was definitely the frame. I had to find or make the perfect one. After searching a lot of goodwill, salvation army, and thrift stores I found what I was looking for at a reasonable price. I wiped it down, coated it with two layers of a white base, then painted three layers of silver coat on top of it. Followed by a layer of clear coat, I just had to get the pegboard fitted.

Good thing I have strong men who have and know how to use power tools...namely a table saw. Us poor women are just so lucky to have them around. (Please read the heavy sarcasm layered in there) But man, they are nice to have around. 

the hubbs and my dad

With four coats of my favorite color paint on the pegboard followed by what seemed like seven layers of clear coat - I couldn't seem to get the even gloss - the pegboard was ready to go into the frame! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was for this moment! I kept running back and forth looking at the wall, looking at my frame, trying to figure out what else I had to do to get this on the wall. Securing the board in with teeny tiny nails, this bad boy was ready. Note that I did take off the hanging wire and loops from the back and used just the saw tooth hanger on top to mount it.

It was a little difficult to get the frame straight at first because you can't just hang it straight on. It's heavy towards the one side. Then you add on your jewelry and it slips the other way. I unloaded EVERY SINGLE PIECE of jewelry that I own from my standing jewelry chest and placed all necklaces, dangle earrings, and bracelets I had. I also got the chance to go through it all and ask myself if I really wanted it. I have a nice little baggie awaiting the yard sale I plan to have this summer. 

I am incredibly happy with how this turned out and it's definitely a HIT. What do you think? Ready to tackle your own?

She's Crafty - Spring Bottles

I have a plethora of bottles and jars hanging around. They are from around the world (truly - there's some from Argentina and Mexico) and I keep them so that I can do crafty things with them. Like this project.

Easter's right around the corner. Since St. Patty's is already over I've started decorating for Spring. Bright pastel colored bottles were just the thing. 

I bought three colors of matte Rustoleum spray paint, pastels of purple, yellow, and blue. Funny thing. I painted yellow and blue two bottles each. Then I got to purple and this happened...

There was no paint cap on it to spray paint. So I just changed one from another color to this one. After a few coats of paint these bottles were looking pretty nice. Of course, after I figured out how to spray paint evenly. I'm still working on that one.

Along with the garland I made before, I think they tie the whole mantel piece together. This project was definitely a HIT.

She's Crafty - Holiday Garland

I mentioned a month ago an amazing hole punch I bought from Michael's with a 50% off coupon. Since I got that I have been going hole punch crazy. My husband thinks I've gone crazy too. Mainly because I make him help me. 

I've probably mentioned that I love Pinterest. Of course, I was pinspired to make a garland for the upcoming Easter holiday. Here's what I used for my Easter one:

6 Sheets of 12" x 12" Paper

3 1/2" Hole Punch

1/8" Hole Punch

Hobby Lobby had a paper crafting sale and I snagged this scrapbooking bundle for half price. It had adorable Easter paper with bunnies and chevrons. I had a few other pieces that fit right in with the color scheme.

After hole punching nine 3 1/2" holes in each 12" x 12" sheet, and I punched two teeny holes on either end. Then, I enlisted my handsome husband to help me string these bad boys with some hemp twine. This is the hard part. You string in the front and then out the back. The string would run up the back of each punch. 

Literally, stringing these bad boys all together takes FOREVER. But once it's done, it looks pretty damn cool. And it's one more part of my Easter mantel. Make sure you have a handsome helper on hand. 

I love the way this looks on my mantel right now. I'd say it's a HIT. Now, all the teeny hole punches I've made make me want to keep it all and make some confetti. That would be a project and a half - making all that confetti...I feel an idea coming on. 

She's Crafty - Toothpick Jar

As much as I love to bake, I do not have a nice toothpick holder. It's been a box for the past two years. And whenever I want a toothpick the box decides to give me twenty. It could be that the box isn't really conducive to upright storage, but hey, I have next to zero kitchen storage. Here's the offender...

I had stumbled upon an awesome pin for matchstick storage and thought it would work perfectly for my toothpick problem. I gathered up the following stuff to start off my project...

1 Crystal Jelly Mason Jar with Band

1 Scrap of Paper

3 1/2" Hole Punch

1/8" Hole Punch (not pictured)

Toothpicks

Scissors

Pencil

Now, I recently had a 50% off coupon for Michael's and I used it on that huge hole punch here. It was originally $24.99 but with that coupon I stole it for $12.50. I freaking love coupons. Seriously, I don't shop at Hobby Lobby without pulling their always-available 40%-off-one-item coupon. If you have a Hobby Lobby around you, I strongly urge you to pull up that bad boy.

Onto the good stuff...

Step 1. I took my awesome new hole punch and made one. It's freaking huge! Unfortunately, the punch was too big for the jar so I took my pencil and the jar lid to trace the size on the other side and then used my scissors to trim it down to size.

Step 2. I packed the most toothpicks I could into that tiny jar. I'm guessing I got a couple hundred jammed in there. (Ha ha. Get it? "Jammed" in there? Because it's a jam jar? Man, I crack myself up.)

Step 3. I used my 1/8" hole punch to make a hole right in the middle of a flower.

Step 4. Screw the band on the jar and find yourself with a toothpick jar. 

Overall, I think this project was a definite HIT. It looks awesome and now my baking tool drawer isn't full of wayward toothpicks. Think you might tackle this one? What other small stuff could you store in those jars?

What can I craft this Tuesday? Pallet Wood Memory Frame

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away somewhere in the millions pins on pinterest, I found the perfect gift for my father. The problem was it's $75. Not that I'm not willing spend that much on my dad, it's just that I could make something like it myself for much cheaper. That's what I set out to do this Christmas. 

My first step was to find free pallets. You can generally find them on Craigslist or behind a store. I went to my normal store and picked up three snow covered ones. Then the hubbs and I deconstructed them. We use our circular saw to cut along the edges and then see-saw it off the center nails. It's not a fast going process but it's not as slow as it could be.

Half the time we pulled the boards off the center pallet support the nails came with it. Make sure you a handsome husband around to pound out those rusty things.

Make sure he's also around to use the power tools. God forbid us women folk use them...

From one large pallet we got a pretty decent pile of wood boards. For my dad's sign, I used three pieces of wood that were 25" long and between 4.5" and 6" wide. The final product was 17"x25". 

Next, I took the boards I was going to use and sanded the crap out of them. The only bad thing about pallets is that they're so roughly cut. It takes forever to get the natural grain back out. Here's a before and after picture.

I wiped them down to get most of the excess dust off and left them overnight to dry. Back at it the next day I used mending plates with #8x1/2" sheet metal screws to connect the boards. I used three instead of the four boards I sanded. It looked best with the frame I picked out. 

Then I white washed the boards all together and left it to dry overnight - mainly because I'm lazy I had other to do. While it was drying, I worked on the wording and fonts I wanted to use for the frame. I ended up using Aquarelle and KG Hard Candy Solid for the words. I used a lead pencil to shade in the back of the page so that I could transfer the words onto the wood. Using a pencil I traced the outside of the words so that I could painstakingly paint the words on. The things I do for those I love. I tell ya. Here's my process:

I took my frame - which was an stand up frame - and took off the kick stand (what do you even call that thing?). I then put in a saw tooth hanger on the frame so that I could mount it on the base. With two more sheet metal screws attached it's ready for mounting. 

Fast forward a week...Ryan finally decided to work on his "honey do" list. Which included getting an 8"x10" print from our wedding. In the mean time, I put in two D-ring hangers (attached with sheet metal screws) to the back of the base.

Armed with the right picture, I finally finished it! I'm almost positive this is going to go over well Saturday when my dad opens it. By the way, good luck finding a box to fix this...

I spend $5 for the picture, pennies for the screws (if you think about per piece), let's say $2.50 for a three pack of D-ring hangers (so $1.67 for the pair), about $3.25 for the mending plates, and finally $12.50 for the 8"x10" frame. Add that all up and it's about $25 for materials (including tax). That's a steal compared to what you would've paid for just the frame. All in all, I say win. 

What do you guys think? Something easy you could do? Who would you make one for and what would it say?