Wine Bottle Light

Sorry its been a couple of days.  We are dealing with car problems and then there is always school on top of whatever else is going on.  Plus I've been spending a lot of my free internet time on Facebook looking at pictures that boyfriend and I had taken by a college friend of mine.  We LOVE the ones we've seen so far, and that's saying something because I usually hate having my picture taken.  If you are in Kansas City and need some affordable and adorable pictures taken, I definitely recommend her.  If you want contact information, let me know.  Here's a couple of our favorites so far:

This one is boyfriends favorite (its his Facebook profile picture and the background on his phone lol).  I love the KC skyline in the background.

I like this one a lot too!  If you are from KS or MO, you'll probably understand better why it's funny.

Anyway, onto today's project.  I made this years ago, but it is one of the few things that has stayed up.  All I did was take a strand of Christmas lights and stick them in a blue wine bottle, but it looks very cute. 

Thanks for looking!

Halloween!

Even though I've lived in this apartment for a couple of years now, I've never really decorated much for any holiday.  I put up a Christmas tree last year, but that was about it.  I loved both of my roommates that I've had in this apartment, but now that my boyfriend has moved in, it is finally feeling like a home.  That combined with how inspiring and creative you all are, got me all excited to decorate for Halloween.  I'm working on a budget of just over nothing, but I think I've done pretty well for myself.

When you walk into the apartment, the first thing you see is a wall with a window cut in it that separates the kitchen from the dining area.  That is all fine and well but my apartment manager had to cut a hole in said wall a while back to get to the pipes.  When he repainted the wall after he patched it, he didn't use the same color paint as the rest of the wall.  Luckily I had this table from the parents to put in front of the oddly colored patch.   I decided that it would be the perfect staging ground for my festive decor

Please excuse the internet cord.  I have tried a million ways to make it not be there, but its the only option.

This is my Dollar Tree foam pumpkin that I painted white and stamped with "Happy Halloween."  Normally I would hate how smudgy the stamps are, but I think they work.

This is my vase of happy accidents.  Basically there were a project that didn't work out, but then I decided I liked how they looked and made more.  :)

I bought this frame at Target thinking I would use it to make a birthday present for a friend, only to remember once I got it home, that I already made her a birthday present.  I can't decide what I am going to do with it, so for now, I stuck a piece of paper from my Halloween scrapbook pad in it and leaned a paper rosette on it.

My original vision for this project was to put the candle in a big hurricane vase and surround it with candy corn but when I went the Dollar Tree, they didn't have the vase anymore.  I got a clear bowl instead (it was in the wedding section) and put the candle (which I already had) in it with candy corn.  I love it because it is cute and tasty!

  I loved this idea from Lil' Luna's guest post at eighteen25, so I had to try it myself.  I put the rosettes on skewers and then stuck them in a vase filled with rice.  My mom and I found the vase a while back at a second hand store and I love it.

I also copy-catted these pumpkins from Make Mind Lime.  I only used one layer of paper, but I put small battery powered candles from the Dollar Tree in them, so they can glow like real jack-o-lanterns.

My final piece (so far) is another copy-cat from when A Glimpse Inside did a blog sway with Mandy's Yellow Corner.  I only did pumpkins, no apples.  Boyfriend is now under strict instructions to never throw out any empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls.

 Here's a couple more close-ups because I just love it.  I also added a few mini pumpkins from the farmer's market.  Well, homework is calling my name, so I've got to go be a good student, but I hope you enjoyed my Halloween display!

Linked to:  

Todays Creative Blog

My Craftie Life

I'm Topsy Turvy

Seven Thirty Three

Someday Crafts

Dragonfly Designs

Wedding Gift

I know I promised a post a couple of days ago, but life got in the way.  I can't even blame it all on law school this time.  But I'm back and I have a whole bunch of projects to share!

One of my sorority sisters got married last night.  It was a beautiful event even with some gross weather that forced things to move inside.  When I am getting wedding gifts, I try to personalize it even if I am just getting something off the registry.  I decided to make something this time around instead of getting something off the registry.  I made a set of coasters with her new initial (H) on them but I thought I needed something else.  I have been wanting to try etching glass for a while now, and this seemed like a great opportunity.  I found some wine glasses at the Dollar Tree.  I actually like them better than the wine glasses I have because they are heavy glass and they are big.  Sorry, there aren't any pictures of the process--I didn't really know what I was doing and it was pretty much just trial and error.  I made them a set, Mr and Mrs.

Here is a picture for your viewing pleasure

I'm Back

Hi Bloggy friends!  Sorry I've been MIA for a few days.  I had a paper that required my attention (law school getting in the way again :) ) and picked up a semi-nasty cold from somewhere.  I have quite a few projects to share with you after I get my camera out.  I promise I'll be back tomorrow with something fun!

Halloween Banner

I've got all the stuff to make this project last weekend, but didn't actually get around to it until last night.  See I have this pesky little thing in my life called law school and for some reason it thinks that it deserves all of my time.  Ugh.  Good news is that I only have approximately 233 days until graduation (not that I'm counting or anything).  Well last night boyfriend and I got our homework done (he's doing his MBA) with enough time left over to do something fun.  He played video games and I whipped this little baby up.  I love it!  We have this window-ish space between our kitchen and dining space, which is where I wanted to hang this, so I made mine double sided.  If you're doing this, make sure you don't make one side backwards like I did.  But it was super easy and fast because I made two in about an hour and a half!  I got all of the supplies from Micheal's and used cookie cutters to cut out the letters.

Tea Towel Cake

Awhile back, I found this awesomely cute idea from Aly & Ash.  I bookmarked it and have been waiting until my mother needed a gift.  My parents are seriously the hardest people in the world to buy gifts for.  For Christmas, half of my dad's gifts are things he bought for himself but my mom takes and wraps because you aren't allowed to buy yourself a bunch of stuff right before Christmas, and at least this way we know he will like it.  So anyway, my mom's birthday was last week and I knew this was perfect for her.  Check out the link for the tutorial, but I'll show you the pictures of mine!

I used three tea towels from Harry and David.  I used plain cardboard for the bottom and just covered it in scrapbook paper.  The Happy Birthday sign is make of scrapbook paper that I hot glued on a ribbon and then I used some sparkly stickers. I would suggest that you not get over excited like I did and make your form after you get your towels--I feel like it is probably easier to get the cardboard to fit the towels than the other way around.  You can't see the back, but I just pinned my towel together with safety pins because that is all that I had.  Thanks Aly & Ash for the great idea!

Menu Board

Boyfriend and I are on a pretty tight budget and so to save money, we try to cook a lot of meals instead of going out to eat. We have been also trying to do most of our grocery shopping from what is on sale. To help us plan out our meals I decided to make a menu board. I took a frame I already had but wasn't using and whipped out the Cricut and some scrapbook paper. It's super useful for us because it keeps us on track and it makes it easy for me to know what to pull out of the freezer on my way out the door for school.

Its pretty big, but that lets us write a lot next to each day.  Plus that's the only frame I had.  It's plastic not glass, which makes it hard to wipe the marker off--I found that nail polish remover works.  If I had to do it again, I would use a frame with glass instead.  I also attached two clips on the bottom for a grocery list.  I thought that it needed to be cute too, so I added some scrapbook paper to it too.  Couldn't help myself.  :)  It hangs next to our kitchen so we always know what is for dinner.  This was last week's menu.  I'll be honest, it doesn't always get followed--taco pizza got turned into barbecue chicken pizza because the tacos on Monday were such a big hit.  We also decided to go out Friday night instead so Friday's sweet potato fries because Saturday's appetizer.  Overall it has been a huge help!

Scrapbook Sunday

Here are the last few pages of the graduation mini-album!

Scrapbook Saturday

Here are some more pages from my graduation mini-album. 

Here's another fun page. B and I were pretty close and this page is a little crazy like her!

The background of this page is wrapping paper--I wrinkled it up then smoothed it back out.  I cut the swirls out of patterned paper and used various stickers.

The graduate silhouette is made of foam--I think it came from Michael's but my roommate glued it onto a gift bag that my graduation gift came in.

I'll post a few more pages tomorrow!

Tile Coasters

This is one of my favorite projects that I have done recently because it is (1) cheap, (2) easy and (3) practical.  They make great gifts too!  Pretty much all you have to do i Mod Podge scrapbook paper onto tiles then spray it with a clear sealant.  I finish mine by hot gluing craft foam on the bottom so they don't scratch up the table, but you could use cork or felt too.  The tiles are just plain white ones--I got some at Home Depot for like $.12 each and my mom got me some for even cheaper at our local Habitat ReStore.  Here are some pictures of coasters I have made for myself and for others.

To gift them, I simply wrapped them with some ribbon.  It couldn't be easier!

Tutu in Action

I had extra tutu onesies that I had made for the baby shower a few weeks ago, so I have one to my friend for her baby girl.  They took her six-month pictures a few days ago and she wore the onesie!  I just had to share a picture with you.  Excuse the proofing marks, I couldn't figure out how to purchase a digital copy of the picture from the website, so I had to borrow the proof.  I love it when I see my projects being put to good use!

Dollar Store Vases

I thought I would show you the other half of my dresser today.  These were one of the easiest projects I've ever made.  The glass pieces are from the Dollar Tree and all I did was glue the little vase thingies to the candle sticks.  I used some clear silicon glue that I had in my craft supplies (I have no idea when/why I bought it).  After letting them dry, I tied some ribbon around it and filled them with red crystal vase filler that i got on clearance at Target.  Very cute, very easy and very cheap!

Photo Frame Upgrade

I love to decorate with photographs.  My whole apartment is full of pictures of the people and places that I love.  I rarely buy a picture frame at full price though, so some of them need a bit of an upgrade before they are display worthy.  My favorite place to buy frames is the clearance section of Target (well actually the clearance section of Target is my favorite place to by anything).  Here are a couple of frames I got this summer.  They sit on my dresser and the colors of my bedroom are black and white with jewel-tone accents. 

This frame is actually brown and the word "Love" is printed on the glass.  The mat was white with gold writing on it.  I think it was sayings or quotes about love, but the problem was that there was so little white space that they couldn't even really fit full words on there.  All I did was spray paint the mat pink.  It took a couple of coats to cover all the words, but I like the way it looks now a lot more.

Here is the second one.  This one took a bit more work, but not much.  What is now pink was originally white with gold crowns printed on it.  I liked it but it wasn't really my style.  Where the flower is on top was a big bow made out of ribbon but as it was in the clearance section, it had seen better days.  The bow was screwed it but I pulled it off and removed the screw.  I then had a hole to cover, so I made a flower out of ribbon using these instructions from Martha.  The button in the middle came was an extra that came with a shirt.  I figure if I ever happen to lose the button on the shirt, I will just replace the one on the frame with something else.  I used hot glue to put the flower on the frame.  Next I moved to the mat  It was actually two pieces that were glued together but came apart easily.  I painted the outer part with the same pink spray paint and then just glued them back together after they were dry.

Both frames were super cheap and easy and I love how they are now personalized and match my decor!

Thanks for looking!

Scrapbook Sunday

More graduation pages!

I wanted to be able to journal a little about the ceremony, but didn't have a whole lot of pictures to use.  This picture is of me as I was walking into the gym where graduation was held.  I don't usually end up scrapbooking events right after they happen (I'll admit it--I'm a procrastinator), but it works out well because most people will put themed stickers on sale a while after the event.  So I collected graduation stickers while they were on sale and held on to them until I got around to making the album.

One of my friends who was sitting in the front row (we were in alphabetical order, and her last name started with B) took her camera and got pictures of us while we were walking across the stage.  Here I am accepting my diploma (cover) from the President of the college.

I was on the committee that headed our senior giving campaign (where the graduating class pledges to give back to the college after graduation).  Our theme was iGive and when people pledged, they got to sign a banner that hung in the Union.  The college was so excited we go so many pledges that they left the banner up for graduation.  The graphic at the bottom is one of the postcards we sent out for the campaign and the apple sticker came with my iPod.

The next few pages are pictures of me with some of my favorite college friends who graduated with me.  On each page, I journaled about our relationship.

I used the little notebook, which came in a sticker set, for journaling on this one because I had a lot to say.

I'll post the other half of the album next weekend!