Tar-jay {sophisticated for Target) carries the most darnest things sometimes. It takes a lot of will power to walk in there and purchase only what's on my list. Never a small bill, for sure. So when I saw this Shabby Chick Black Frame Decal set on clearance for $4.32, I just had to pick it up {insert happy dance}.
I debated what to do with it...exactly where to place it for the best impact. And not being able to figure it out, and having guests over, I slid it under the bed to be forgotten for months. Until the craft armoire project that is. That's when I took everything out of the armoire and under the bed, nooks and crannies in my bedroom to work on it. So that's when I saw it. It's like finding a $20 bill in a coat that's been put away for the summer and suddenly taken back out for the fall. I couldn't deal with it at the time, craft armoire project on hand, so I left it there to be found again once I cleaned the mess back up and into the armoire.
And so, I found it again. First I thought I'd use it as a headboard in my bedroom, since I don't currently have one. Here it is as I contemplated putting the shabby chic frame decals, similar to these, up as a headboard.
I thought it might actually work. But something in the pit of my stomach tells me, maybe not so much. These have been taped on the wall for about two weeks now, winking at me and waiting for the ultimate approval...the final sealing process. But that hasn't quite happened. My walls scream of apartment rental (white). Bedspread and sheet sets are light khaki and white (in this picture you see one set. The pillows shown in the picture will go once I decide on a final color pallette. I'm thinking gray (to go with the craft armoire I just painted gray and is in the same room), and turquoise for a splash of color, along with the neutrals khaki and white. That swing lamp (new project!) will have it's brown hardware painted white, and the lampshade will be covered in a cool, modern fabric, preferably gray...I'm thinking a light gray zebra stripe I saw online, like this one.
Again, please keep in mind these will look jet black once the liner is removed.
Your vote?
Here's a recipe for a yummy cupcake card. Made this for my cousin, so I wanted a bit of a grown up pattern, but still sweet so as to not forget the child inside.
- 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" light pink CTMH cardstock, folded in half
- 3" x 4 1/4" black and white Hollywood & Vine Swingtime paper (from Michael's), glued to top portion on front of card
- 2" x 4 1/4" tinted rose stripe by g.c.d. studios designer paper, glued to bottom portion of front of card, overlapping the b&w paper.
- 4 1/4" Black Jumbo Rick Rack 5/8 Inch
by Wrights glued over the overlap line of above papers.
- Cupcake diecut using my Cricut Expression Cutter
and the following papers:
- light blue Mom's Diner Salt paper (from Michael's)
- pink medallions by g.c.d. studios designer paper (I used the back for the solid pink)
- Pink glitter cardstock (for the heart) I picked up at Target.
- The cupcake was assembled and glued onto card with foam tape, doubled for a super 3D effect.
Inside the card, I used the same light blue and pink medallions paper to die cut MAKE A WISH with the Cricut Expression Cutter.
Voila! I'm liking this do-something-creative-daily goal of mine. I feel like I really take the time to do something that fulfills me and helps me relax. It's my hobbie and it makes me smile.
Now if my cell phone just took decent pictures!! Camera still broken...I keep waking up everyday, nudging it a little to see if it decided to roll over, overnight. But that hasn't happened. I guess I better call the warranty company or get a new one.
This year I decided to leave the Christmas tree up for a while. And by a while I mean at least through Valentine's. We are creating our very first Valentine's tree. I put all the Christmas decor away early January and kept the tree. Now it has sat mostly bare this whole time, the poor thing. I've been searching for red twinkle lights, very much like the white ones at Christmas, but red. For some odd reason I thought these would be easy to find, but I was wrong. The only ones I've come across are these red heart-shaped plastic lights, string of 10 for $10 at Target. To saturate this tree in red lights, I'm going to need at least 5 of these string lights and I'm not about to fork out $50 for red lights. So it will have to do with the white lights left over from Christmas.
As you can see, the tree sits on a corner by the windows. I don't want the neighbors to think I'm THAT crazy, and I figured red lights would let passerbys know "Hey, I'm not crazy, just celebrating Valentine's". So I guess I'm gonna have to settle for crazy this year.
I know I can order them online here
, but I need to decorate this tree now before Valentine's has come and gone AND I really don't want to spend money on this crazy idea of mine.
With the help of my trusty Cricut Expressions like the one found here, I got to work and whipped out these adorable Valentine's ornaments. They are so easy and add so much whimsy to the room. I first picked up several sheets of scrapbook paper at Michael's and Target. Mostly pinks, reds, some black &white, and lots of glitter and sparkles. Also picked up a couple of rolls of Valentine ribbon that looks something like this,
at Michael's for $0.50 a roll and at Target in the dollar section, for a whole buckaroo. My coworker was kind enough to let me borrow her Cricut Jukebox and oh what a treat! Take a look at one here
. It holds a total of 6 Cricut cartridges at a time. You hook up the Jukebox to the Cricut Expressions, and rather than inserting a new cartridge everytime you want to switch, you simply press the corresponding button on the jukebox to access the one you want. She has several Valentine-y cartridges I don't have and so I borrowed them from her. Anywho. Here are the cute Valentine ornaments I whipped up last night.
For these I used the Designer's Calendar Cricut cartridge seen here
to cut out the large hearts. Then simply matted one with the square cardstock, shaping the edge of the square one with Fiskar's paper edgers. Then used this
Ek Success Paper Shaper folk heart punch to punch the 3 small hearts and adhered them with foam tape for a 3D effect. Hole punched some holes and strung the ribbon/tulle through them.
These hearts were cut using the George & Basic Shapes Cricut Cartridge, seen here
. The owl and birdie were cutout with Winter Frolic Cricut cartridge seen here
, heart punch for the 3 little hearts in each ornament, punched holes and slid the ribbon through them. The owl and birdie were adhered to the heart ornaments with foam tape for a 3D effect.
The scalloped heart, filigree heart and the LOVE sign and scalloped box were cut using Wedding Cricut cartridge seen here
. I used glittery paper for these and I love the effect. Filigree was simply glued right onto the scalloped heart, hole punched at the top and ribbon slid through.
The LOVE sign was foam taped, for a 3D effect, to the scalloped box. Then I stapled the ribbon to the back using fucshia colored staples with my Close To My Heart stapler.
And here they are on the tree!
I'll make a few more ornaments to fill in some gaps and I'll call it a day for this year. Next year, we'll do more. My 9 year old, was very excited to see the tree this morning and declared to be happy that we're a funky family that loves celebrating, well, love.
Note: please forgive the quality of the pictures. My camera has broken on me and I'm taking these pictures with my not-so-great-quality-picture-taking cell phone.
