Showing posts with label crafting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafting. Show all posts

Handmade Christmas Cards

This year I made my Christmas cards. I have done this before, and I love to do it, but you have to have some time on your side. I have over 50 cards that I send out! So doing the same card 50 times was just not an option for me. I knew I would get bored fast.

I found my cards at Hobby Lobby and loved that they had some chevron prints in the mix. I can never get enough chevron in my day! Then I used a mix of Cricut cartridges and cuts on Sure Cuts a Lot to make the pieces of my cards. 


Here are all the cards I made. I hope you get some inspiration from them! 













Merry Christmas!!!

Wine Bottles

Anyone that knows me, knows I like a good glass of wine! So I usually have an empty bottle or two sitting around. I received a chalkboard painted bottle for a gift from a friend. I keep it in my wine themed kitchen on the counter and love to write messages on my bottle. At Christmas I wrote Ho! Ho! Ho! at Easter a Happy Easter wish and when it is a family members birthday I write a birthday wish on it. There were many times I wish I had two more bottles to split the message up on 3 bottles. That's when I began to collect the empty bottles over the winter. As spring was approaching I got my bottles ready by removing all the labels.



I soaked them in hot water and used a razor blade to scrape off the all paper. Any left over residue I used a little Goo Gone to clean the bottles off. I then set them aside to dry and wait for warmer weather to spray paint them.


Here in Chicago we had a slow go from winter temps to spring temps. Actually I think summer is hear now but we had some unseasonable low temps. When the weather finally warmed up a bit to paint we had terrible winds. No good for spray painting! Finally I had a nice, warm, non-windy day and got all the bottles primed and painted! 

I added two extra bottles to my existing one on the counter and plan to make a count down till our Florida vacation on it. 


The next thing I wanted to do with the bottles was add some to my upper cabinet for wine decor in my kitchen. I first thought I would write one letter on each bottle of our last name. Well that would take 7 bottles and really who thinks our last name is decor let alone fits in my wine themed kitchen! So I decided with 4 bottles each one spelling out Vino. Much better!! I first tried to write with my chalk pen but did not like the results. I then tried with regular chalk and decided it is just my handwriting that I am not happy with. So I had to come up with another way to spell out vino on the bottles. I was cleaning up my scrap room and came across my vinyl.......light bulb! I immediately pulled out my cricket, found a font I liked and cut my letters out.



I loved how they came out! I gave them a home on top of my cabinet and can't wait to add some lighting!


Do you have any interesting things you have made with wine bottles? I would love to see them. Please leave me a link in the comments!

Organizing the Boy Bathroom - Reveal

Wow this week is went by fast but I made great progress in the boys bathroom. You can see my before pictures here. I had a mess to deal with but after sorting out everything and getting rid of items I didn't need, I was ready to start. I found some liner for the boys drawers because my boys are messy. I love the Chevron look right now!


I then added organizers and made tags to help the boys put items back were they belong. 





Under one sink I used a storage drawer and baskets that I picked up at the Dollar Store to organized items.



Under the second sink the boys share some space with me. I have neatly tucked away my curling irons and created a space to store extra toilet paper.


The boys are very into laundry right now so I am riding that wave! I have labeled their linen closet to help them put towels and linens where they belong. I then used zip ties to hold them in place.


At the bottom of the linen closet I added some buckets to hold our suntan lotions and aloe products.


The space is wonderful now and the boys are already putting items back where they belong instead of leaving them on the counter. 


Have you liked Casual Fridays on Facebook yet, followed Casual Fridays on Twitter,  or followed my organizational board on Pinterest yet? 

Banner For The Bedroom

I have been loving all the banners people have posted on Pinterest, and was trying to figure out where I could put one. I decided on our bedroom.

In our old house we had a bench with bins and a matching shelf with pegs. This is were the kids backpacks, jackets and shoes all lived. I loved it!


In our new house we had this amazing built-in put in and the kids backpacks, coats and shoes have a new place to live.


I no longer need the bench and shelf but I love to re-purpose items and hated to get rid of them. The bench now sits at the foot of our bed and I am in the process of finding new bins to match our color scheme as well as a new cushion for the bench. 


I had my husband hang the shelf on the wall. I began going through my decor trying to find pieces I already had to decorate with, and then it dawned on me this would be the perfect place for a banner. I knew I would also be able to bring my pop of yellow that I wanted in the room in the banner and in the decor for the shelf.


Wa-la! Because all the spring items are in the stores right now I was able to score on the yellow flower arrangement. The plate and candle stick holders I had. On a trip to Hobby Lobby I came across the candles and knew I had to have them since they matched my bed. The grey and black bin is part of the linen collection that I won from Office Depot (still not sure what treasures I will keep in there) and I added the greenery as fillers for now. All that is missing is the paint on the wall - I'm trying to be patient about that and wait to paint after our year walk thru when they come back in to patch all the cracks and nail pops.


For the banner I created a template for the flag and traced it onto black cardstock. I added my favorite Washi tape at the top. I then bi-folded 2.5 inch strips (2 strips per flower) and hot glued them together. I punched a 2.5 flower for the yellow flower and hot glued that to the grey flower. I also punched a 2.5 flower for the back of the grey flower so it would be easier to attach to the black flag. I then used my Cricut to cut the letters and since love is only four words I decided to add a flag in the middle with a heart as I always decorate in odd numbers. I grabbed some sheer black ribbon I had on hand and strung it up. When I walk into my bedroom 
I truly "LOVE" how this project turned out!