posh baby banner

For my friend's shower on Saturday, I wanted to spice up the decor with a little banner. I wanted to make something that could be used multiple times for either a boy or girl...so I thought black and white would be cute and trendy! This is what I came up with....I love the look of raw edges and I saw the scallop border on a banner at a quilting store and that thought was a cute touch!
I used my fattest and tightest zig-zag sitch for the letters and just drew with pencils first. And then did a wider zig-zag to piece the triangles together.

presents.

I saw this cute garland here and had to make it. All it took was one smallish sized packing box, packing tape, scrapbooking paper and ribbon! I LOVE how it turned out and the best part about it is that it was free to make! Also, you can make it as long or as short as you need depending on where you put it!

step 1-cut pieces from packing box and use packing tape to tape together.

step 2-cover with paper as you would wrap a present. (and I just used the packing tape for that too.)

step3-wrap with ribbon and string with twine...and Whala! You've got a cute holiday decoration!

Get Festive

Since I already have my Halloween decor out, I found some places I wanted to add to, so this is what I created for my kitchen.

The details:

"TRICK"-2"wide 7x9inch squares. spray painted black with sanded edges. I drew all of the letters free hand and mod podged them on.

"or" - used pressure treated wood. 4x4inch block. I used a distress ink pad like it was paper on all of the edges. mod-podged the letters on. (I did not use paint)

"TREAT" I used a 2x4 and cut it 4 3/4" blocks. After painting them orange and green, I distressed them with my distress ink pad and them mod-podged the letters on.

"TRICK" is in different heights because I proped three of the letters up so you can see them better. All of the blocks are the same size.

Decorative Pillows

My friend and I came up with these cuties. We appliqued the brown flowers and the "k" on with a zig-zag stitch. And added the yo-yos to give it some dimention. I love the ball tassel trim! She made this cute matching doll from a pattern found here. The pillows are 20" and 14".

Cutest paper on the block{s}

I LOVE these blocks...the young women were doing them in my old ward and my craft buddy and I have been talking about making them for months!

• I bought a 4x4 thing of wood (which isn't a true 4x4...its actually 3 3/4...lame)
• Cut them to be true squares
• Sand all the edges and corners (an electric sander is faster)
• Paint all of them edges and corners brown (or whatever color you prefer)
• Mod-Podge paper with a sponge brush on all sides and there you go! (Less mod-podge is better...then that prevents bubbles on the paper surface
• the letters I traced and cut out and then mod-podged on!
  

Wall Art

My friend and I made this wall art with scrapbooking paper. We cut out all of the pieces, sanded the edges and then glued them on. We totally copied these from some wall art found at Anthropolgie for $104 a piece. And we made them for next to nothing. Besides the cost of the paper, I bought MDF board at Home Depot and them cut two 12 x 12 squares and them mod-podged the paper on and mounted it on the wall! I love how they turned out and it was fun to copy someone elses idea to chang things up!

Step 3: Details

Like I said before, it's all in the details. Before the actual party I mapped out the backyard into sections and made sure that there was something going on in every party of the yard to maximize the space. Some of the areas we had included: obviously the tables, we also had a cotton candy machine (a great gathering location), a fire pit where I displayed my parents wedding photos, the outdoor kitchen that had water and butter mints along the bar, and a deck with seating on it as well. Here is what I did for the centerpieces. Lots of candles, buckets with sand and tons of sea shells! Totally simple and cheap! The buckets I got for a dollar each and I got the sea shells at the dollar store and the candles my aunt already had! What a deal! The serongs were also a great way to incorporate color and my aunt already had them. It was very elegant and romanic!
The outdoor kitchen area. (That's my husband BBQing the chicken for the party dinner!)
I hung serongs not only to give some more color, but to hide their yard stuff. It was as great way to stick with the theme and to hide things! And to the left is the cotton candy machine.

We borrowed some surf boards from a friend to really give that beach luau feel! It was a fun touch to add!

Step 2: Signs and favors

I made these signs with the intention that my mom can scrapbook them later. One of my goals with this party was to have it run itself. This helps a lot when you have the proper signage. No one had to stand at the door to answer it because the sign did it for us! Two commonalities in all of these signs:

1. They all are framed with layers of paper in different colors

2. I distress EVERYTHING!!!! This Aloha sign is made from two 12 x 12 sheets of paper. I first made a pattern no scatch paper and then traced it onto the real paper. And as you can see I did layers. It always looks so much better when you frame what you are doing. The letters for Aloha I designed on scratch paper first and then cut out each letter in two different colors to shadow.
I am totally loving my handwritting after reading that handwritting book. It's so fun to play and see what I can come up with.
I love this sign. It took a long time to make, but it was worth it. The letters are from stamps and the 25 is my desing. I used eyelets to lace the three pieces together.

I made a place where I hung pictures of my parents wedding for people to look at! And the other sign went above the guest sign in table.
I placed this sign above the favors as people were leaving.
I love these favors. Chocolate covered raisins. And the "k" is for Kenning(my parents last name). These were so fun to make and cheap too!

make ordinary extra-ordinary...

I went to my aunt's recently and noticed an array of colorful flowers on her work desk. I asked her what the occassion was, and she replyed, "I'm sick of my boys taking all of my pens and never putting them back!" I just laughed! What a great idea! I have the same problem--I'm always loosing my pens. This not only makes them a little more noticable, it also gives a little color and uniqueness to them! I held the flower stem as I wrapped floral tape all the way down the pen and there you go, a beautiful pen! I love them and they make me happy just looking at them on my desk! My husband also enjoys them...hehe!

Evie's Room Decor

Well, this is my attempt to decorate Evie's room. I didn't really get to choose the colors, because we inherited the bedroom set from Paul's sister. Not that I'm complaining, it is super cute pottery barn! So pink and green it was...

I just got a frame and mod-podged strips of paper all around the borders. The paper strips coordinate with the...

...square wood plaques with her name. Again, I used the matching paper and ribbons.

And lastly, i covered some cute flower and butterfly hooks with the same paper.

Variations

I discovered a new love...Taking an item, in this instance wood squares, and making different, but similar gifts with it! Mod-Podge is so much fun. That is how I put the paper and letters on the wood.
I had one extra block that was a little bit of an odd shape, so I made a little wall hanging. I took rub-ons, one of my scrapbooking favorites, and added some inspiring words!

Lizzy

This gift is for my little niece who's turning two. I wanted to do something easy and cheap. I found the frame at our local annual scrapbook expo for $.50 and the "e" was $1.29...I already had the paper and ribbon...I'm all about good deals...So for less than two dollars, I created something original and cute! I painted the frame and "e" white and then sanded them to give it that distressed look. I glued ribbon on the back instead of using a claw hook. I had left over paper, so I made a matching card. I think that when gifts match, they always look more put together and complete!