Burlap Banner Tutorial

Hey there!!

Recently I took you guys on a little tour of my cheaply inexpensively decorated fall home.  One of the stops was my fall mantel.  It really makes me happy every time I walk in our family room.  Even when the pumpkins I so artfully set up are scattered all over the floor.  Can you tell I live with little people?

The banner that I added was super easy to make.  All I needed was a good movie, and what better movie to get me in the fall/Halloween mood than Hocus Pocus?!? Love Love Love that movie!!!

This was way easy to make.  So it hardly needs a tutorial, but I'll show you the steps I took to make mine anyway.

You'll need:

1 Burlap.  I bought 2 yards at Walmart.  1yd is enough, but I have plans for my leftover.

2. Some pretty ribbon to hold your pennants together.

3. Stop Fraying (I'm pretty sure glue would work too)

Things I already had on hand: Card stock, Marker for tracing, acrylic paint, hot glue gun

I started by printing my word.  One letter per page on card stock.  Sorry, I can not for the life of me remember the size, but I used Century Schoolbook for the font.

Next, I created a card stock template for tracing pennants.  Mine was 8 inches across the top and 12 inches down each slanted side.  I had to play around with sizing to be sure my letters fit.  Next I traced a pennant for each letter.  I chose autumn because I feel like fall wouldn't have been long enough for the size of my mantel.

Once the pennants were all traced, I cut each one out.  Be ready for some serious sweeping and vacuuming, as there will be strands and burlap particles all over.

Then, I immediately applied this Stop Fraying solution.   I used this entire bottle.

TIP: I used a paint brush to help spread it along the edges.

While I waited for the Stop Fraying to dry I cut out each of my letters.  I wish I had one of those awesome Silhouette cutting machines, but I don't.  So very carefully I cut out each letter, be very sure to keep the surrounding paper in tact.  I laid my letters out on my pennants one last time to ensure they all fit nicely.

I used double sided tape to hold my letter templates down while I sponged on my brown acrylic paint.

Mostly I only had to do one coat, but there were a few I went back over.

Once they were all painted,  I lined them up.  I left about a fingertip's worth of space between each one.  

Last I used my hot glue gun to glue on a pretty crocheted ribbon I picked up from Hobby Lobby.

I have since fixed my rose, that appears to be unraveling. 

After I had hung my banner I decided it needed a little something, so I made cute little ribbon roses.  I hot glued them on, then added a small brown pearl accent to the tips of each pennant.  I had those in my stash.

I finished a little before the movie went off, but missed the ending due to the fact I was staring blissfully at my new banner.  Sigh... I'm in love.

Balloon Wreath Tutorial

Okay so remember Munchkin's Awesome Disney Cars party.  Well as promised here is the first tutorial from that party.  When I was in my party planning stage, I was scouring the web for anything cool and these wreaths kept popping up (no pun intended).  See for yourself... do a google image search for balloon wreath.  Anyway... this is how I made mine.

 Things I used:

300 Floral pins  (I got mine from Walmart) You may want more or less depending on how puffy you want it, or if you want to add any extra fun things.  (Note.. I did not put balloons all the way around.. just the front and sides.)

Balloons (I suppose close to 300)

14in Straw Wreath.. I had intended to get a bigger one but that was the only size at Joann's (that day?) I am so glad I didn't go bigger... I'd have never finished.

Pipe Cleaners (or chenille stems for you fancy folks)

Here's What To Do:

Put the kids to sleep and turn on your favorite show.

Then use the pins to push the balloons into the wreath.  So this is the first time I've worked with straw wreaths and I began to take the plastic off and it started falling apart so... learn from my mistake if your a newby... DON'T TAKE THE PLASTIC OFF!!

Repeat this step until your thumb hurts... put it away, start again tomorrow.

Continue.. until the kids wake up.. Put it away.

Take it out for the third time and finally finish.  I suppose you could be all super mom and do it in one day... but I didn't... hehehe.

Please note... this is not finished... lol.

To complete add fun spirally pipe cleaners.   To make those just wrap around a pen or pencil... 

slide it off...

bend it in half and voila'... Stick them where ever! 

TA-DAAAAA!!!!!!

After I finished I thought of other fun things to do.. like adding some of the theme characters or small numbers for age.  You could get really creative with this.  By the way, I threw that bow together.. and couldn't do it again if I tried.

Hang in on the birthday honorees door for the week leading up to their birthday for a fun tradition.  Munchkin loved waking up to find it hanging there.

Homemade Sugar Scrub

Hey all!! Sorry I missed you on Friday (lol, you may not have noticed I didn't post a Friday Five).  The boys were in rare form, and I had a serious case of writers block?!?  Anyway, I can't wait to show you what I did this weekend.  

So in my last Friday Five, I explained how I'd like to take care of me a little better.  Give myself a bit of pampering here and there.  Well a side from giving myself a full Mary Kay  Miracle Set treatment here and there, I also decided to get back to giving myself spa treatments.  You know foot soaks, and all.  Well I happened to be searching for race car party ideas (the Munchkin is turning 3, more on that later...), anyway I found this on one of my bloggy friend Latoya's Page.  

Pinterest via The Scott's Crib

I am easily distracted so while it had nothing to do with race car parties, I decided to take a closer look.

Your very own salt scrub?!!?! I have got to try that... and I did!!

Years ago I used to get this scrub from Bath & Body Works.  It was a lavender scented sugar scrub, and it used to make my skin feel so smooth and smell delish!! Problem... it was $20 a jar.  Also these days hubby and I share a car, so trips to the mall during the week don't happen, and honestly... taking an almost 3 year old and a 16 month old are hardly my idea at a fun trip to the mall.

Anyway... here's what I did.  During my trip to the super market I bought the following: Raw sugar (I was trying to imitate my fav from BBW), Grape seed oil (okay in the original pin it says olive oil, but I forgot and figured I just pic any kind).  The Sugar was $2.99, and the oil was 4.99.  You see where I'm going with this???

When I got home and re-read the pin I saw that you could use almond oil or olive oil, as luck would have it, I actually had a bottle of a body oil mix (almond, olive, peanut... and Vitamin E).  I grabbed this bottle, my bottle of lavender essential oil, my new purchases, and a random glass jar that I had just sitting around waiting to be used.

Sorry the pic qualities aren't so great... I did this at night.

I bought the Almond mixture from a natural health food store, I think it was around $7, I typically add this to bath water (I get really dry skin in the winter).  The essential oil came from the same store for $9.99 (I know because the price sticker is still there), yes sounds like a lot for such a small bottle (it's the little dark brown one).. but you really only use a few drops at a time.  I've been using drops like crazy: in the bath tub if I take a soak, in shampoos and conditioners, lotions.. you get the idea.. I love the smell of lavender and the bottle is still filled to near the top.

I added equal parts of the almond oil, and grape seed oil.  Notice the jar isn't even half full?  If I was to do it again I'd start with less oil.  Possibly 1/4 cups of each oil (or you could just do 1/2 cup olive oil).

Then I added about 5 drops of essential oil.

Then I started pouring my sugar in.  Not sure how much... maybe a cup and a half (maybe 2?).  I just kept pouring until it was at the top.

And that's it.  Voila' !!! I tried it right away on my hands, and could not stop rubbing them together and smelling them (sounds crazy right?).  Later on in the shower I gave myself the spa like scrub my dry skin has been needing.  OMG!!  I am so excited to have found this.  I will never go back to store bought scrubs.  This was so simple and inexpensive to do.

If you count what I spent at the grocery store it cost me $7.98, compared to $20 for a smaller jar!!!  If you add in the other oils I used the total is $24.99... but I have so much leftover I could make this at least three more times... and still have PLENTY of essential oil left!!! I may start getting creative and add some aloe, or maybe combine some other kind of essential oils for different scents.

Hope you enjoyed!! I really encourage you to try this! I can't wait to get in the shower again ; ).

Linking To:

Playroom Update: Reading Rack

Okay, I've stuck to my plan.  I've been doing laundry like it's my job... wait it is my job (lol).  I've gotten most of the Christmas Decor put away, and have slowly been reclaiming my messy home after my holiday break.

Yesterday I finally added the rain gutter reading rack that I've been wanting to do for a long time.  

Ta-Daaa!!!

Lol.. I made a few mistakes along the way, like I didn't realize the brackets should be attached to the gutter before attaching them to the wall (I thought I'd be able to just hook the gutter in once they were screwed in... oh well, I've never claimed to be a professional).  After I fixed my initial mistake of screwing the brackets in first, it was quite simple.  

Here's a quick run down of what I did. 

First, I measured and marked where I wanted my rack to go.

Next, I used a stud finder to mark where I'd screw the brackets.

Last, after removing the brackets that I'd screwed into the wall, I slid them onto the gutter, and reattached each bracket to the wall.  Confused yet?

If you need more detailed instructions, check out this blog. She did a great job of listing needed supplies and capturing pics during her process.

I know what your thinking... what happend to the magnetic center, (okay maybe you're not... but I'll tell you anyway)  They were only attached with hook and loop command strips, so it was really easy to relocate them to another wall.  You'll get an update on those possibly next week.

Finally I let the little ones get to work.  Munchkin almost immediately put is foot onto the gutter as if he was going to climb it (of course), he was uh nicely reminded that, that is not cool (perhaps not those words exactly).  Anyway, his next move was to pull up a chair and start reading... SCORE!!!  I do have a cute picture, but we are still potty training and he tends to be naked from the waste down most mornings.  So, I'll be saving that pic for when he's older and has a girlfriend.

 Oh yeah, notice the new reading tent.  Santa brought that for the boys.   I'm so excited the playroom is really coming along and turning into the child friendly dream space I've always the boys want.

Thanks for reading!!

How To: Make Your Own Field Guide

In yesterday's post I showed off our new A - Z field guide.  I kind of got the idea from Go Diego Go.  Munchkin is really into that show.  He was not into talking about animals until I told him we should make a field guide like Diego.  Anyway this is all we did.

 Gather your supplies, and definitely involve your little one.  We used a $1 notebook, brown paper bag, glue (in the picture you'll see a glue stick... it didn't work), scissors.

Trim your paper down to size.  Cut the bottom and handles off.  

Next let your munchkin crumble the bag.  He had a lot of fun doing this.  It's not often I actually want him to crumble paper.

Smooth your brown cover over and measure to be sure you have enough to cover the front and back.  I didn't really measure.  I just laid the book over the paper and folded it down to size.  Be sure to do this while your notebook is closed, otherwise you'll be a little short.

Then I let Munchkin go crazy with the glue stick (as I mentioned before... this didn't work, so I ended up going back over it with regular white glue.  Be careful not to get glue on the pages or the spirals.

Last I closed the field guide and let it dry.  I did have to use clothes pins to hold the bag cover to the book.  This also helps to keep the cover off the pages while it dries.

Last decorate your guide.  I found these movable stickers at the Dollar Tree.  Be sure to let your little one in on the decorating!!  I do have to admit.. Munchkin was having a two year old moment when it came time to decorate the cover... so he chose not to participate.  Have Fun!!