Easiest ever coasters

One of my cousins that is like a sister to me is getting married soon. Today I got to attend her bridal shower. I had an amazing time. It was a kitchen theme shower. The bride got so many kitchen things. Sweet!

For my gift to her, I had to make it (because I've been wanting to craft)! I came across this simple tutorial on making felt coasters HERE on Better Homes and Garden's site.

I took my own little spin on it....

These were even easier than the Better Homes and Garden's take. Yipee!

Materials for a set of 4:
1 sheet adhesive backed felt
1 sheet felt (the kind with designs are fun!)
1 pack adhesive gemstones (my pack had enough for more than 8 coasters)
White pencil
ruler
scissors

Instructions:

• Remove backing on the adhesive backed felt
• Place normal felt on the adhesive felt sheet
• Mark out 4 inch squares on felt and cut *make sure your squares are about the same size (I used one as a guide to trim up the others)
• Place gemstones on the outer edge of the felt squares

LOVE how they turned out! Plus....shhh, they were super cheap...about $6. $1 for each adhesive backed sheet of felt, $.50 for each sheet of designed felt, and $3 for the gemstones. Everything else I had on hand. My sister in law also helped me create these and she had the wonderful suggestion for the placement of the gemstones.

I made 8 coasters and also gave 8 cups to go with them.

Kids hair cuts, free!!

I just had to post this on my blog. In August, JCPenny is giving free hair cuts to kids in grades K-6. Sweet! It runs all month long, so give the JCP salon a call and set up an appointment.


I've already got my kids 'on the books'! Hurry and get yours in.

USA Sign

I'm all about painting. I love it. I was so excited to realize that 4th of July was coming up (somehow June just got away from me)...it meant I could make another sign for outside my front door.


I'm so excited with how well it turned out and the fact that it was super easy.

I've had some planks of wood hanging around for a while, so I took one and painted it red, white, and blue separating it with painters tape.

After the paint was dry, I used E6000 to glue some USA floral ribbon on to the sides. Just make sure you  press down firmly and get the glue to spread out. I left it alone for a while, and it stays just fine.

It was looking awesome! I love how the ribbon turned out.

Last step...I cut out letters in vinyl with my Silhouette. Thankfully, I had red vinyl on hand. If I didn't, I could have painted it on using the vinyl as a stencil.

I LOVE how it tuned out! I couldn't be happier. When 4th of July is over, this awesome sign will go in my kitchen that has the whole Americana theme.

Cute spin on a magnet board

Last year, my amazing friend, Whitney, showed a bunch of ladies at Church how to make these cute magnet boards. Adorable. Check it out HERE. I made one, and it was such a hit with everyone I showed, that I made a few more. For all the details check out Whitney's blog. You have to buy the wood in a big 10 foot section. So, when I did this project on my own, I had Lowes cut it....apparently it was slightly longer than 10 feet and one board had a little extra length to it. IDEA! 

I made the magnet board as per Whitney's instructions...but then I got a basket from the $1 store and nailed it on to the bottom.

We love it! If you couldn't tell, we are using the magnet board for all of my girls Littlest pet shop animals. Sadly, they stopped putting magnets in the bottom of the feet, but no worries because we have a basket! NOW...to make the girls keep the animals on the board :)

Quick, easy, cute bday card

A few months ago, my sister in law had a birthday. I was still on a kick about what I could do with my Silhouette. For $10 (minus a 40% off coupon) I got a pack of 40 cards and envelopes at Joanns. The cards are adorable! I also had some adhesive backed card stock on hand. All I had to do was cut out "Happy Birthday" and stick them on the card. Super easy and so cute! I could spruce it up by cutting out a little flower next time. I love how easy it was to create an adorable card...and it was fairly cheap too. 

Note. I used my Silhouette to cut the letters. I used the 'heavy cardstock (89lb)' setting. The 'medium cardstock (65lb)' setting didn't cut through all the way.

Fix up those old earrings

I have a few favorite pairs of earrings. Sadly, one of them was just nasty looking. My cool spiral metal earrings were in sad shape. One of the earrings was missing the fish hook finding and the other's was not silver anymore...no way I was going to put that in my ear. 

Who knew it could be so easy to make my awesome earrings usable again? 

Supplies needed:

• Sad earrings that need their fish hook finding replaced (FYI: 'findings' are the little components that make jewelry).
• a pack of fish hook earring findings (I got this pack at Joanns, but Micheals and Hobby Lobby have them too). 
• Pliers (I got these at Hobby Lobby in the Jewelry section).

Step 1: Hold the fish hook with your fingers and hold the little loop with the pliers. (notice, I am not holding it with my fingers...I needed to take the picture). 

Step 2: Slowly pull the loop apart until there is enough space for the earring to come off. (Yes, I had my amazing husband take a picture of this, since I don't have 3 hands).

Step 3: Take the earring off the old nasty fish hook finding.

Step 4: Repeat step 1 & 2 for the new fish hook finding.

Step 5: Slip earring on and close it up the loop by carefully moving the wire back into place.

I repeated steps 4 & 5 for the earring that was missing the finding.

I'm so thrilled with how they turned out and that I can wear these neat looking earrings again. Yippee! You can also do this with other style of earrings! Go look in your jewelry box and see what you can revitalize!

Spicing up our fish tank.

I did this project back in December, and thought it was high time I posted it. For Christmas, two of my girls were given fish tanks. They were SO excited!!  I was happy for them. If you know me, you know that I like things matching. I'm obsessed that everything in my kitchen is red, white, and/or blue. As excited as everyone was about getting fish, I wasn't too excited to have these tanks sitting on my counters. It isn't just the tank, there is a mess of wires and tubes also. Ugg. I HATE wires too. Here is my neat little fix for my frustrations with the tanks. 

What an awesome idea...I put scrapbook paper on the back of the tank! I had some red, white, and blue paper left over from a project, so I pulled that out and got to work.

I laid the paper on the back of the fish tank and folded it around the corners and made the best crease I could.

I then cut along the crease and taped it to the back of the tank.

Super easy, and the paper helped so much. The tanks now match my kitchen theme AND they hide the wires and tubes behind the tank...for the most part.

The fish tanks came with the blue rocks...perfect, it matches! They also came with the plants too. I'm not loving the plants because they don't match the color scheme, it drives me crazy, I just haven't looked for different plants. 

Note for the future. These lasted about two months...until my two year old started playing with the water in the tank and got the paper wet...and killed the fish. Lesson learned. Next time, I will try gluing them down with Mod Podge or something similar, so they are sealed somewhat.