Craft Archives • Page 4 of 14 • diy mama

by Shelly on November 7, 2017 Leave a Comment

Spreading Holiday Cheer with Basic Invite Holiday Cards

A huge thank you to Basic Invite for sponsoring this post, and for making all of my holiday card dreams come true!

Growing up I loved running to the mailbox during December to see what Christmas cards we’d received each day. We’d string them happily in our dining room and be surrounded by smiling faces of friends and family all month long.

As an adult I still love receiving holiday cards. I’ve even begun turning them into books each year when the season is over, by punching a hole in them and fastening them together with a large binder ring. They’re such a fun keepsake to have, and my daughter loves to look back through everyone’s photos from previous years. It’s also helpful to remember who to send cards to the following year.

As much as I love to receive holiday cards from others, I love to send them too! Which is why I was so excited to partner with Basic Invite this year to create the perfect cards to send out to all of our loved ones.

Basic Invite Holiday Cards

Basic Invite has become my favorite one-stop shop for purchasing cards for every occasion. Not only do they always have an amazing selection of designs, but you can literally choose your cards, get personalized postage, and import your address book so that they will address your cards for you… when you take advantage of all that they have to offer, literally all that’s left to do is stuff the envelopes and stick them in the mail.

This was my first year using Basic Invite and I was amazed by the quality and beauty of the holiday cards we received. This year we chose the You and Yours Photo Holiday Cards design, in Luxe Velvet paper, along with the free white envelopes. I’m big into how something feels in your hands and I wanted these cards to feel special to my friends and family.

Honestly though, it was tough to select just one design to go with, because there are over 250 beautiful holiday cards to choose from! It was a little addicting designing my holiday cards because the website makes it so easy to customize your cards. I designed five different versions and had them sent as samples to my home. Basic Invite is one of the few websites that allows customers the ability to order a printed sample of their actual invitation so you can see exactly how it will print as well as feel the paper quality before you ever have to place their final order. TIP: order each sample in a different paper type so you’re able to feel the different finishes. Get your family involved if you’re having a hard time choosing. I laid out all five and had our daughter and my husband choose their favorites. Luckily, they both chose the same one which happened to be my favorite as well!

I’m excited for another favorite tradition: signing of the Holiday cards with hot coco and Christmas music. We’re getting our cards in the mail December 1st so they’ll be up all month long! Basic Invite offers an address capturing service that allows you to simply share a link on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other form of social media to request your friends and family’s addresses which will be stored in your account and can then be selected during the design process. Basic Invite offers recipient address printing at no cost on all Christmas card orders.

I also wanted to let you in on a little secret. This photo was taken by myself in front of our shed in the back yard. You don’t need to spend a ton on a photographer to get a good photo of your family. The idea is to send something nice showing your friends and family you’re thinking of them during the holidays.

If you still haven’t ordered your own cards, you’re not too late. Basic Invite is currently offering 30% off through with the code: HOLI30 along with 15% off everything else using code: 15FF51. Be sure to check them out for your discount holiday party invitations and work Christmas party invitations!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

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by Shelly on October 3, 2017 9 Comments

Halloween Street Sign

Hello to all you people itching to decorate for Halloween! I started early this year, by a week, and my husband was NOT happy. I had to though because our October weekends are already full and I really wanted to make a Halloween street sign! I’d seen street signs like this for weddings and have always thought they were cool but didn’t know when I’d ever use one…until now!

I loved making this sign because I could put our personalities into it. We made a list of scary/Halloween places and narrowed it down to our top 7 favorites. Unfortunately, the Shrieking Shack did not make the cut but I’m pretty happy with the ones that made it on the sign. Obviously to represent #teamEdward, I had to have Forks, WA. I also had a few nods to Disney with Jeffrey’s favorite Disney movie, Nightmare Before Christmas (as well as Monstropolis and The Haunted Mansion.) I’ve been told Crystal Lake and Elm St. are from popular scary movies of which I will never watch. I’m pretty sure everybody, young or old, knows the tale of The Headless Horseman so we threw Sleepy Hallow on as well. For us, this project was 100% free because we had every item on hand, but it would still be a fairly cheap project if you were looking to buy the materials. Check out the scrap wood pile at your local hardware store for free wood.

Materials Needed:

7 ft 4×4
Several 1×3, 1×4, 1×5 or 1×6 boards cut at varied lengths
8ft 2×4
Miter or Hand Saw
Chisel (optional)
Wood Stain
Brush and Rag for Stain
Screws
2 Bolts & 2 Nuts
Acrylic Paint & Brushes
Letter Stencils
Polyurethane Spray

The first step is to wear the proper clothing. Flip flops are not the proper protection when working with large lumber and a saw but I can’t wear shoes because of my broken toe. Your husband’s jeans are the other piece of attire that you will want to wear, as you will get sawdust and stain on your clothes (don’t forget to ask first.)

Jeffrey had the great idea to have some of the boards angled, so he used the miter saw to cut the corners off the 4×4 and finished them off with a chisel to make the angles longer. This step is optional.

As you cut boards, lay them on the sign to see how you like them spaced. By laying them out we decided which ones we wanted to have points on the end and made sure we didn’t have too many that looked the same. (Please forgive the photo as it was dark when we were building.)

For the base, Jeffrey used nuts and bolts to attach two 2ft 2x4s and screwed two 2ft 2x4s perpendicular on the ends of those boards, making an H.

I stained the wood pieces according to the directions on the can. I stained them by the motion detective security light that constantly was turning off. Mistake number two (the first was wearing flip flops.) Thankfully, I didn’t mind if the stain was uneven and having some boards darker than others, because I wanted them to look different, as if they were added at different times. I also liked that we had several types of wood so the stain ended up being varying shades of brown.

I was not meticulous on my hand writing or the evenness of the paint. Not sure why, but in my mind, the people who would write the signs didn’t really care that they looked nice? Not sure where I got that, but I feel since it is for Halloween, it can be a bit sloppy. I used a round tip brush for the cursive signs.

For one sign, I did a sloppy job of painting an alphabet stencil. My husband suggested I use Sophie’s hand in red paint to smear on the sign. I thought using a baby’s hand print would be too creepy. Also, by adding another element on top of the words, I’d probably mess up the sign and make them too hard to read.

Once I wrote on all of the signs, we sprayed a clear polyurethane on the front of the boards. See the bottom right area where it’s sprayed white? I had the wrong can of spray paint and used white instead of clear! Mistake 3. I mimicked the white spray paint up in the top left to even it out and didn’t worry about it. Mistakes happen!

We attached the boards by pre-drilling a hole in each sign and then screwing it to the 4×4. We used only one screw in each board so we could adjust them once they were all added to the post.

Tada! Our sign up in the yard! I still want to do quite a bit more decorating on the porch for Halloween (the leaves are just fall decor.)

I’m going to add tomb stones around the base and light everything with can lights. I may add a few skulls or bone or spiderwebs as well. What do you do to decorate for Halloween? Do you decorate outside too? Are you the playful Halloween decor type person or a gruesome decor type person? Sorry, neighbors, for being ‘that neighbor’ who puts their Halloween stuff up in September!

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Fall Leaf Garland

by Shelly on September 17, 2017 9 Comments

Fall Decor Ideas

I’m staying warm inside today because it’s definitely fall according to the cold dark rainy day outside. I am staying very busy with crafts and I have my favorite pink nail polish with pink glitter on to keep me happy. I’ve seen so many roundups of fall decor this year but they’re very country/burlap/twine. I think that style is cute but it isn’t what I’m loving right now. I wanted to do a roundup of a few of my favorite modern/fun/whimsical fall decor ideas. I currently have a few sets of mums and some leaf garland on the craftsman posts on the porch but I’d love to incorporate these into the interior of my home!

These felt leaves have been circling the internet for a few years and I always think they are so darling. I love the chunky yarn used to string the leaves together. Felt always reminds me of the weather getting colder so I think it’s the perfect material for a fall garland.

I’m in love with this Fall themed chalk wall Andrea made for her family! She changes the wall according to the fun activities they want to do during that season. I think it’d be a great way to check off and remember some of the fun that you’ve had with your family! Also, if the weather is looking beautiful you can just look at the wall to figure out what to do that day!

I love how Meeha Meeha painted these sleepy pumpkins! They’re such a darling little family. It’d be fun to have each member of your family paint their own. When I was younger we’d hollow out gords, paint them and put a shellac over it so we could use them year after year.

I’d stumbled upon Alisa’s blog and fell in love with her style! I think this painted leaf garland is super crafty/bohemian and could be painted to match your decor. It’d even be fun to have your kids help you collect leaves and paint with you! Keeping this one pinned for when Sophie’s older!

Since I’m a bit obsessed with all things confetti and sprinkles, I fell head over heels for this push pin confetti pumpkin Victoria made. I love the happy dots on the white pumpkin. I’m a fan of using colors other than red, orange, yellow and brown for decorating during the fall so this pumpkin would be a happy addition. You could even do gold brads on a white pumpkin to chic it up a bit!

Adding some fresh cut flowers in a styrofoam pumpkin is one of my favorite centerpieces for the Fall season! This Fall Floral Arrangement is also one of the cheapest an easiest ways to make a themed arrangement that is good from September through November!

Are you a fall decorator or do you just wait until Halloween and go all out? What about your style? Traditional or do you like to add a bit of whimsy and DiY to your holiday decorating? What should I make first? I’d really like to make one of these while Sophie’s gone this week. Happy Fall!

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by Shelly on September 11, 2017 2 Comments

Fall Pumpkin Flower Arrangement

I’ve wanted to make a fall pumpkin flower arrangement for the past several years. A few years back I carved a real pumpkin and planted mums in it for the front porch. I’d seen them all over town and thought it would be a fun project. I was so wrong. It was difficult to find the correct size and shaped pumpkin that would fit the mums I had. Dirt got all over the deck when we planted it and it ended up being eaten by squirrels before the weekend was over. It’s been several years since that debacle and I’m back for round two!

This time around I wanted to up the scale a little bit. I wanted to be able to re-use the pumpkin vase every year and add real or silk flowers to match my fall color scheme. This year I went through ProFlowers because they have the most beautiful flower arrangements that are delivered fresh and last forever. I fell in love with their Fall Harvest bouquet and although it wasn’t exactly as the photo online, I liked it even more because of the happy red tipped roses.

Fall Pumpkin Flower Arrangement

Materials Needed:

Medium sized styrofoam pumpkin
Knife (I used a box cutter but any sharp knife will work)
Vase (I used a OXO storage container but an empty tin can or glass vase would work)
Fresh or silk flowers

The Styrofoam is thin, making it easy to cut through the pumpkin. I found using a stabbing motion worked better than a sawing motion. Place your vase inside and fill with a measuring glass. I attempted to fill the vase with water first before placing it in the pumpkin and was seriously unsuccessful. Trim down your flowers and arrange as desired.

I love the look of the white pumpkin because it lends to being able to use any color palate of flowers. I plan on using this pumpkin vase at Thanksgiving as well and adding a few smaller squash and candles down the center of the table. I like the simplicity of my current fall pumpkin flower arrangement because I have so many other decorations up for Halloween.

What do you use as your centerpiece during fall? Do you only decorate for bigger holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas or do you go all out through fall? Jeffrey thinks we need less decorations but there’s no way I can let go of them! Now I’ve got Sophie on my side as well because she digs the decorations.

Halloween Ghost Toddler Shirt

This DIY Halloween Ghost Toddler Shirt was so fun to make but I highly suggest having more than one adult help with the process so you do not have little black painted foot prints around your house!

If You Can’t Find What You Want, Make It.

I searched through several stores in town (Kohl’s, Walmart and Target) to find a Halloween shirt for Sophie and found zero in her size. I’d found one pair of PJs but knew in my heart that it would look like she was wearing PJs to school if I sent her in that shirt. It’s possible that there was a huge baby boom around Sophie’s birth date because I’ve always had a hard time finding her size in stores.

A friend suggested I make a shirt. After last year’s failed attempt, I knew I wanted a second shot at the ole ‘footprint character’ project. You know the one…where you turn a foot or hand into pretty much any object.

Halloween Ghost Toddler Shirt

Materials Needed (affiliate links included):

Tshirt (any color works but be sure to use a contrasting color for the paint)
Paint brush (any type of paint brush works, just use what you have on hand)
Matte fabric paint
Puffy Paint
Scrub brush
Dish with water (or nearby sink)
Tshirt Transfer Paper
Parchment paper
Iron
Cutting machine (I used a Cricut Explore but you could also print out the text on your printer or use a stencil to cut your text out of transfer paper)

Game Plan

With a water dish for clean up nearby, paint a thick, even coat of paint on the child’s hand or foot. We had Fiona (5) do it first so the little girls could watch the process. Once the foot is covered, have them hold on to a chair while you press their foot down evenly onto the shirt.

Pay attention to the direction of their foot. The heel should be at the neck of the tshirt. Make sure to leave room for your text. You could also put the foot lower and have them write a ‘BOO’ speech bubble from the ghost.

You Need a Helper

If you are doing this project with children under 5, I suggest having two people help the child. One person paints while the other holds their foot and places it on the tshirt. Once the footprint is on the shirt, the painter gets the dish and scrub brush ready to quickly transfer the child’s foot to the water. The fabric paint dries quickly and is difficult to clean if not addressed after a minute.

If your child, like mine, does not want to have paint on their feet, suggest their hand. It won’t look as much like a ghost but it’s still darling and will be a fun memory for you to share. We let the tshirts dry over night before adding the text and faces.

Cricut Cutting Machine

I created the BOO (YAH) text on my cutting machine and had it cut on leftover chalk board transfer paper from last year’s project. Use your transfer paper’s instructions on cutting (whether it should be a mirror image) and applying. The chalk board transfer paper isn’t recommended for this project only because it’s more expensive and won’t be used as a chalk board.

I urge you to read the instructions twice or even have a second pair of eyes read it over. My husband and I both read the instructions and I still did it wrong the first time.

Try Try Again

Once the text is applied and cooled you can add your ghost’s face using puffy paint. We wanted each of the girl’s shirts a bit different so I made the text and faces different on each shirt. I also put my hand in Fiona’s shirt when I was moving it to a better drying location. I simply touched it up with more puffy paint and it worked out fine!

It’s literally impossible for me to make a DIY project without messing up at least one thing. It never deters me from trying again.

I also found a white tea towel at the grocery to make a festive Halloween Kitchen Towel. I often make things for other people because it brings me the most joy, but I was happy to have a reminder of our craft day together that I’ll be able to pull out each year with my Halloween decorations.

Have you attempted the ‘foot character’ craft with your kids yet? Any epic fails like my smooshed spider shirt? I think this craft would be even more fun with older kids (5-10) at a Halloween party because they could do their own ghost faces and word bubbles. Will you attempt a Halloween ghost toddler shirt this year or will your child be wearing Halloween PJs to school (or maybe you’ve found the jackpot of Halloween shirts)!

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Spreading Holiday Cheer with Basic Invite Holiday Cards

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Halloween Street Sign

Materials Needed:

Fall Decor Ideas

Fall Pumpkin Flower Arrangement

Fall Pumpkin Flower Arrangement

Halloween Ghost Toddler Shirt

If You Can’t Find What You Want, Make It.

Halloween Ghost Toddler Shirt

Game Plan

You Need a Helper

Cricut Cutting Machine

Try Try Again

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