Spring Crafting and Decorating

In honor of spring, National Craft Month, and my March Goals, I had some fun last weekend!

I've had this little picket fence box for a year and decided it was time to give it a makeover. I wanted to make it classic white but also look authentic with some scuffs, crackles, etc.

After the first (dark) coat dries, then you apply the Martha Stewart crackle medium. I brushed it on more on the lighter side because the packaging said the heavier you put it on the bigger the cracks. Well, those fence posts are not that big so I didn't want the crackles to take over. If I could do it again, I would put more of the crackle medium on because I didn't get much of an effect.

Close up of the crackle. This one fence post is the only good one. The other side of the little planter didn't show ANY crackle. It's not as good as I hoped it would turn out, but it does look more rustic than if I had just done white.

Next craft task--I saw this tutorial for a pinwheel wreath and knew right away that I wanted to make it. Thanks to Sabrina at Neverland Nook for the easy-to-follow tutorial with pictures and directions. I've had my eye on this stack of yummylicious paper at JoAnn's for over a month now. I didn't have a specific use for it so kept telling myself not to buy it so it would just sit in my craft pile with so many other things that I haven't gotten around too. But then, Sabrina's pinwheel wreath tutorial provided the PERFECT reason to make this paper mine.

The lighting isn't the best for these pictures. It was nighttime when I was crafting so I had to use flash. But don't these papers just make you smile!?! I want this to be a fabric line so that when I have a little girl (someday) I can ask my mom to make a quilt out of this fabric!

According to her directions, first cut the paper into 5"x5" squares.

Then glue two different patterns together to make it double-sided.

I didn't take any pictures of making the pinwheels because I was having too much fun. The fact that I needed all my hands to hold the 4 corners may have been a factor as well. :) But Sabrina took pictures and gives great directions how to make the pinwheels so definitely go check out her blog.

Aren't they so fun and whimsical?

Here's the finished project!

I'm in love with it and so glad I made it!

After my crafting was complete, I got to putting it all together for my spring decor. I found the birdcage, frame, and key in the $1-$3 section at Michael's. The key came in a variety pack of 5. I made the blue jar 3 years ago and the wooden birch slice is from my wedding. You can find the spring subway art printable here.

Can you believe after living in our house for 9 months this canvas was the first thing we FINALLY hung on the walls last weekend. Good grief! My mom gave it to me when she was moving a year ago. It fits along perfectly with my latest bird obsession.

Not much on the calendar this month but the few items that are there are big: spring! March Madness! Ireland!

Then we were on a roll and decided to hang something else! I knew I wanted this canvas when I saw it at Hobby Lobby, but I had no idea where it would go that would be just perfect. Hubby held it against various walls so I could look and then he thought of this wall above our stairs. I love it there!

I think it fills the space so nicely and I get to see it multiple times a day!

The end of our bar needed a little spring lovin. I made the button cross last year when I was crafting and decorating for our spring mantel.

This year's spring mantle!

This nest basket (also from my mom) was perfect to go along with my birdie silhouette and some wooden eggs.

I followed some tips from Bird's Party Blog to give my wooden eggs a speckled effect.

I don't consider myself an artist by a long shot so I was pretty proud of myself when my chalkboard turned out this good! My inspiration was this pin whose source I cannot find but it may have been inspired by this chalkboard. I went with a mushroom instead of a bunny or chick because animals are definitely not something I can draw.

The last touch is this little bicycle I found at JoAnn's. I want to find a mini succulent to put in the holder but a candle will do for now.

Have you done anything crafty this month? Do you decorate for spring or only holidays?
Have you used the Martha Stewart crackle medium before? How did it work for you?

It's Better When...

Monday, Monday

Today was a good Monday.

You know those typical Mondays when you dread going to work, when you get there it's hectic, when you have a huge to-do list for the week, and when you are already looking forward to Friday afternoon?  Well today was kinda not one of those days.

Yes, I still groaned when my husband's (super loud) alarm went off 3 times. Yes, I still made a mile-long list to hopefully tackle this week, and yes I am looking forward to Friday already and our plans for the coming weekend.

BUT....this Monday was better than most because....

...getting out of bed is better when you make a hazelnut latte!

...doing your hair is better when you have a brand new cut and style that you love and feels heatlthy! (and getting many compliments throughout the day doesn't hurt either)

...an outfit is better when you include coral, such as adorable wedges and super fun dangly earrings both gifted from your great mom (not to mention the teal scarf as well!)

 

...teaching is better when you get to collaborate with your awesome team.


...driving home is better when you can roll your window down and open the sunroof!


...folding laundry is better when you watch "Friends" :)



....a house is better when it has a roof!

...working out is better when you have brand new, cute, work-out clothes to make you at least feel like you are fit and athletic when you really are gasping for breath and have terrible foot cramps

...biking for 7 miles at the gym is better when your husband encourages you and pushes you to finish strong during the last 5 minutes.

...chicken is better when you add garlic (a little brown sugar doesn't hurt either!)

...dealing with the politics of teaching is better when you have a husband that gives great inspirational speeches to make you feel better.

...and blogging is better when you have readers and comments!

So tell me, what are a few things that can instantly make YOUR day better?

These are a few of my favorite things!

The first day of April and the first day of spring break!

I started my day by diving into the 3rd and 4th grade math curriculum, standards, and lessons. Oi vey, I was overwhelmed. No clue where to start. No idea what these students know. My brain was spinning. So I left the house to run some errands and give my brain a break. This little interlude was just the thing I needed. During my escape, I realized I was getting to experience several of my favorite things!

 warm weather

driving with the sun-roof open

 

coffee

wearing flip-flops, my Rainbows especially

oh, and painted toes! 

 math

while it was causing my headache earlier, I do enjoy lesson planning and I do love math

my husband!

and doing fun things with him, like building a rocket! 

All of these wonderful things helped me get my brain back to normal and ready to tackle the lesson plans again! Maria VonTrapp had it right,  "I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad!"

Are any of my favorites also a favorite of yours?

A Blessed Week

What a week! Last Saturday, I blogged about making a dishwasher-safe Sharpie mug. I linked up to 10 parties and was then invited to link up at 3 more. This post became a record for my blog! 21 comments and 234 views is BY FAR the most my humble little blog has ever seen! I feel so blessed in this small thing. On top of the popularity of the post in those numbers, my post was chosen as a favorite from two of the parties. Thank you to the following blogs that featured my DIY project!

 

While this blog excitement has definitely been a highlight in my week, I have been blessed in several other ways!

On Sunday, we had some wonderful friends over for the first grilling of the season! The weather has started warming up and we all thought a little grilling would not only be fun but might coax summer to come sooner. We decided kabobs would be fun and then we could build our own. I prepped red onion, cherry tomatoes, green bell pepper, pineapple chunks, potatoes, kielbasa sausage, pork, and chicken and then we skewered away. Don't they look so summery?!

On Monday, we had a shocking surprise, which I will blog about this weekend! :)

Tuesday was my last day of school before spring break. We celebrated Easter by writing from the perspective of a bunny and sorting jelly beans! It was a fun day but also a little bit crazy as spring break is very much needed for all of us. That night, I tried a new recipe. I saw this pizza that looked so delicious! I adapted the recipe a bit for time and diet reasons. I used Pillsbury pizza dough from the can instead of making my own dough. I also cooked the pizza in the oven instead of a skillet. Finally, I did not use cheese as I don't really care for cheese and my husband is allergic to dairy. I did sprinkle just a bit of parmesan since it didn't seem like pizza without cheese but it didn't need it.

When it came out of the oven, my hubby was shocked at how good it looked. Then, after one bite, he said "you can make this again!" I love cooking and like to try new recipes. I feel so blessed because he both enjoys and supports this. He is fun to cook for and I love it when he loves the food. We both got to take some leftovers for lunch the next day. I had several other teachers eyeing it, asking if it was homemade, and asking for the recipe! Pizza success :)

Tuesday ended with an extra blessing in the form of a very TALL person---my "little" brother. He was driving from school to my parent's house and texted me after 10pm to see if I was still up as he was driving by and wanted to know if I wanted a hug. Isn't he so great? Of course I wanted a hug! I climbed out of bed, and tiptoed to the front door. My brother is 6'8" and gives wonderful bear hugs! He is 2 1/2 years younger than I am and we are very close. Because he goes to school six hours away, we don't get to see each other very often so a late night hug and 3 minute catch-up chat was awesome!

On Wednesday I had the majority of my parent/teacher conferences. I was blessed by several of my parents telling me how much their child loved being in school, loved learning, and enjoyed having me as a teacher. Those are the things a teacher needs to hear every so often to know it is worth it. :)

Thursday presented a new job opportunity for me! One of the 4th grade teachers at our school is not able to come back after break due to some personal reasons. They needed a long-term sub to take her class so they asked the ALP math teacher. That meant, there was no one to teach ALP math for 3rd and 4th grade in the afternoons. From previous conversations, my principal knew that I was interested in intermediate grades and that I loved math. Since I am a half-day AM Kindergarten teacher, she asked me if I would be interested in taking over those two math classes. While it does mean I have only 10 minutes to switch from Kindergarten to 4th grade math in a classroom at the other end of the school, no time for lunch, and giving up a good chunk of my spring break to develop lessons, I said "yes"! I do have interest in teaching an intermediate grade at some point. I think this is a great opportunity and  will give me a good experience to know if I do enjoy 3rd and 4th grade and teach some deeper math concepts. I think the hardest part for me right now is trying to transition my brain from adding and subtracting within 5 with my Kindergartners to very bright students. My frame of reference is a bit skewed as of now :)

I got to end Thursday with a great phone chat with my best friend. It has been a long time since we talked and it was so good to catch up. She has been my friend since we were 8 and no matter how long we go without seeing each other or talking, we pick up RIGHT where we left off and are laughing right away. She always has the best stories to tell. I am very blessed by her friendship and love the time we do get to spend together.

Today I was blessed by some quality time with my husband. We got to sleep in and get some much needed rest. Then we handled some business related to the surprise from Monday. :) We also went for a drive around the area. A little basketball filled the afternoon and evening although my bracket is totally dead now.

I am very much looking forward to this weekend and the following week of break. I hope to be productive and yet find time for relaxing as well.

Check back soon to find out what the surprise is :)

Spring Mantel

Soooo nice to blog again! I don't know how full-time Kindergarten teachers (2 half-day sessions that is) ever find time to blog! Let's just say I am glad to be back to half-day again :)

This past Friday, my mom came into town so that we could go to the Grand Opening of our new JoAnn's store together. HOORAY! We were content with the previous one but would have to go 30 min away to a bigger city for some products that our store did not carry. But no more. Our new store is bigger, better, and filled with so many great things that will keep us crafty and happy.

Using coupons and teacher discount, I bought some fun things and was then inspired to craft. Last weekend I put away the winter and Valentine's decor so everything was looking bare. Craft supplies + bare flat surfaces = new season decor!

Below are pictures, links to my inspiration, directions, and tips for everything I made yesterday!

I decided to start first with my little chalkboard. I was browsing my Craft board on Pinterest and saw a pin that immediately inspired me with what I would draw. My pin took me to a blog called i heart prints and patterns and I picked 3 of her cute trees to draw. If I had decided to draw trees on my own, they would have all looked the same and not very cute. So thankful for other people's creativity that I can copy. :) (my hubby was quite impressed with the middle tree and kept asking "how did you do that?")

My second project was inspired by a color, which has become my favorite color recently. I found this color contained in spray paint form at JoAnn's and I had to have it! (I used a 50% off coupon of course!)

The color: CORAL
Then I just had to find something to paint. A $1.00 (but only 50 cents for me, yay for coupons) wood birdhouse was the answer. I already had some blue paint that I thought would look great to pair with the coral.

 I used magazine pages and masking tape to cover the front, back, and sides of the birdhouse.

Then I took my little birdhouse outside and spray painted the roof and platform. 

I let it dry overnight and then peeled the paper and tape off.

 Next it was time to paint sides blue.

  My husband told me he loves to see me craft and how it makes me smile.

Ta-da! I love it!

 

Project #3: button art

I have long since wanted to create something with buttons but have not had/found any cute assortment of colors and sizes. New JoAnn's fixed my button dilemma. They had packages of 130 buttons in various color schemes and it was buy 1 get 1 free!!! I chose a pastel spring set and a patriotic set. I had an 8x10 canvas in my craft drawer that had yet been assigned to a cuter purpose so it became the backdrop for my button masterpiece.

I wasn't sure what method I would use to stick the buttons on so I grabbed my Zots, Tacky Glue, and Zig pen so that once I plopped down in front of a movie with my hubby I would not have to get back up. I tested with the Zots first on the back of the canvas. The button stuck very well. Easiest and cleanest option so I didn't even both trying the other two.

I had decided to make a cross for Easter. I tried one arrangement and took a picture. Then I asked my hubby to look at it and give me his expert opinion...he wasn't stoked about it. But...he did offer a better arrangement and a method to line it up perfectly for sticking so I am okay with his original craft criticism. :)

I layed all the buttons down as best I could. Then I used a ruler to line them up and space them out as perfectly as I could. I used a pencil to draw little dots through the button holes. I penciled a whole row at a time then I picked buttons up one at a time, stuck a Zot dot on the back and lined it back up with its pencil dots.
Two things I learned:
1--an 8x10 canvas is not truly 8x10 so my measurements were slightly off gah!
2--projects that require perfection are NOT the reason I do crafts. I am a perfectionist, if I can't do something perfectly that needs to be done perfectly, it stresses me out, therefore I choose crafts that are more forgiving hence I smile and enjoy what I am doing and it's actually an enjoyable outlet. This one was right on the fence so no more like that for me!
It turned out nicely though and I didn't have a craft meltdown (yes, it's happened before)

Final project: paint chip banner made with Silhouette!
I have literally thousands of paint chips (I'll explain later) and wanted to use some (5 did not make a big dent) for a project. I wondered if I could have my Silhouette cut paint chips, so I Bing'ed it. (just not as cool to say as Googled) I found this blog with directions and settings to cut paint chips!
I also copied her banner design. I made a rectangle, double clicked so I could alter the bottom edge and then added two small circle at the top for my baking twine to go through.

Then, I used the free flower that comes with the software (seen at top in image below). However, the petals are all separated and I wanted it to be one piece. In order to do that, I un-grouped the image, moved the petals so they overlapped in the middle, selected them all and clicked weld so that it became a one-piece flower as you can see in the second example.The third flower shows that I double-clicked so that I could manipulate the lines to make it cleaner and nicer looking. The bottom shows my final product!

I added the flower onto the banner. Following the settings from the blog I found, I set my Silhouette to
Speed: 3
Thickness: 33
Blade: 4
I changed my cutting mat dimensions to the same as a paint chip (4"x5") and lined up my image on the right hand side so that I wouldn't get the words of the colors. For some projects, I would want the words to show because they are so fun (sidenote...have you ever thought about the people who's job it is to name paint colors or OPI nail polish? fun right? or maybe hard? anyways...) but for this project I knew the bottom color would get cut off on the banner anyways so I just wanted to avoid and and all words. I tested on a not-so-pretty brown paint chip. It worked great! I chose 5 springy colors and got to cutting. I used the flower banner for 3 of the paint chips. I wanted a second image so that I could alternate. I looked through the Silhouette Online Store and found this cute bird. I downloaded it, and printed it on the other two paint chips. I did make a mirror image for the second one so that the birds would be facing each other on the banner.

3 of my paint chips!

Next time, I would move my image down to fit perfectly in the middle color. I didn't notice how un-centered it was until I was on my last one. 

"Don't you have thousands of paint chips to just do it over?" you might ask
Yes, but ironically I only had 1 yellow and 1 green in these wonderful spring colors so I just went with it. (Again, that whole perfection in crafting thing...I gotta let it go or else I will hate crafting)



After I cut all the paint chips with my Silhouette, I decided I wanted to back the cut-out with a darker color of the same shade just like the lady had down in her blog.

I used my Fiskars paper trimmer to cut the darker color I wanted for each paint chip.

  Then I used my E-Z Runner to put stickies on each side of the color chip.

I lined up the hole with the color card and voila!

Since I used a variety of colors for the banner, I wanted a neutral color for the string so I chose my light brown (can't think of its cute name off the top of my head!). And brown is a spring color anyways...think of all the mud and dirt!

And here are all the pieces put together to make my spring mantel!

What do you think? Have a favorite item? Have tips for me? Questions? How did you decorate for spring! Please comment as I would love to know you read my post!

I've linked up at the following linky parties:




 




http://cornerstoneconfessions.com/2013/03/t2t-linky-party-42.html

 http://diyshowoff.com/category/other/that-diy-party/