Bloom

In case you didn't see, I'm participating in Three Item Thursday (read about it in this post), and the three items that should be featured are paint chips, twine, and a cereal box. So here's what I started with... and here's the end product...

(I really need a better camera/learn how to take better pictures)

The only other items I used were hot glue, branches, a sharpie, 2 pieces of white copy paper, and a flower hole punch, so this project cost me nothing extra than things I had already bought and were around the house. I just gathered some branches from outside, ripped the top 1/3 of the cereal box off, then covered it in copy paper. Then I hot glued each line of twine onto the box, and, after I punched out flowers from the paint chips, the flowers to the branches. I glued a row of flowers above the twine, wrote "bloom" in a black Sharpie, and now it's Spring decor in my bonus room. Thanks for hosting Me and My Thrifty Ideas and The Tattered Tag; I had fun! Also linking up to the zero dollar party

Three ItemThursday

I'm linking up to this on Thursday

Here are my supplies (twine left over from this project, a Special K box, and some paint chips from Lowes)
I also used a black sharpie, a hot glue gun, 2 pieces of white copy paper, and 2 secret items that will be obvious on my reveal Thursday! At no extra cost to me (other than a couple of hot glue burns), I have a pretty cute craft. Get excited...and get crafting if you haven't already made something for this party! Can't wait to see all the creative ideas!

A Spring Stroll

I had another canvas from the painting project gone bad (mentioned here) and really liked the way the book pages covered up all my mistakes! I covered my canvas and then it sat around for a couple days with no ideas. I saw this on pinterest and that became my inspiration! I was originally going to make it an Easter decoration (add a bunny maybe some basket and eggs) but when I was working on it I decided the scale I had cut it all off was wrong, and I just wasn't happy with it anyway. I completely changed my idea, but I love the way this turned out so much better! It's a family portrait of sorts (me, my hubbster, and our two dogs)


All of this was cut with just a regular pair of scissors, and took about 2 1/2 hours! I so wish I had a Silhouette machine! :)

Oh The Places You Will Go...

I decided to try my hand at painting a while back...and decided I am awful! I'll spare you the pictures of the canvas, but believe me, it wasn't pretty! So I've had a couple canvases sitting around painted, and wondering what to do with them so they didn't go to waste. Then I came across this project on Jones Design Company's website. I've had the idea for a while now, just had to find the time to do it...like today while the baby I watch was napping! :) I used an old British Literature textbook and cut out random pages. On the inspirations project she put all her pages the same way, but I kind of like the look of them going in different directions. I modge podged the pages onto the canvas, and then put a layer of modge podge on top when I was done. Then I used some stickers from (yet again) the Dollar Tree, and placed them on the canvas in a pattern I liked.
That's it...simple project! I think it'll look good in a nursery. Some other things that might look good if you want a collection of this kind of art are this Ballard Design knockoff, make the silohette (similar to this idea), paint on a monogram similar to this, or cut out an image of whatever the theme of the room/nursery is! It might even be cute to cut out some branches, then make some tissue paper flowers like this to add a great pop of color! To go in a completely different direction with the book pages, you could make these cute hanging balls!

Spring Wreath

My front door currently has a "cupcakes" hanger on it,
...that was super cute for Valentines Day, but it's time for it to go away until next year.
While I was browsing the isles of one of my favorite stores, the Dollar Tree, I decided to try to make a version of the cute wreaths I've seen popping up on other blogs. I bought the supplies and was out $3.23 poorer. I started with a styrofoam floral wreath, a ball of twine, and a bundle of silk dahlia bush flowers... A couple (ok, several) hot glue gun dots and about 45 minutes later I have a new front door decor!

up close :(please excuse the poor pictures...all I had on me was a camera phone)

At first I wasn't a fan of the twine because it was frayed, but now that it's finished I like it; it adds character!
However, the more I looked at it though, the more I felt like it just needed something else. I used some of the twine left over and spiraled it and hot glued it to the center of the flower.

Much better!

Love! :D

My Latest Addiction

Follow me on Pinterest.
I've been doing this type of thing for years by bookmarking and/or emailing myself links, but now it's all there in one place. You can follow other peoples pins too, and get all kinds of inspiration about everything! Fantastic! Totally my favorite new site! I'm warning you though...it's addictive! Let me know if you need an invite, and if I'm all out by the time you get to me, you can just sign up for one and get on the waitlist.

"Following" and Other Cool Blogger Features...and An Introduction

So I've been reading a ton of awesome design blogs for a long time and read them all through Google Reader! I decided blogging might be fun, so I started this one on a whim not too long ago. I finally started getting some viewership after linking up to some parties of the awesome blogs I read, and even some comments (squeeel! how exciting!) Well a really cool reader left a comment (Erin at Where Beauty Meets Function) saying she wanted to "Follow" me but there wasn't a way too (wasn't sure what follow is but it sounded cool and I wanted it to happen). So I researched it (thanks google) and got it up and running. So now I'm slowly but surly going through and "following" all the blogs that I've been reading and getting inspiration from. Yay! :D Feel free to follow me too if you want!

Oh, and since people are actually looking at my stuff (no clue that would happen!), then I thought maybe I could introduce myself a little. My name is Jessica Lauren and I've lived in North Carolina my whole life. I graduated from NC State with a degree in Communication Disorders and in Elementary Education, and now I spend my time working with kids with autism and loving it! I also dream of being a stay at home mom (no kids yet but coming soon hopefully) and full time crafter, but I'm going to have to keep practicing on that one! I'm married to a guy who doesn't get my crafting addiction but supports me just the same when I ask him to go with me to the craft store for the millionth time that week! :D
I am also the proud mommy to two fur babies...and like a proud mama have to show them off :D
Here's our oldest one - Ziggy (lab boxer mix) at 2 months old when we first got him
and at 2 1/2 years (and about 75 pounds heavier) in the snow last year
and our other dog Zoie (american bull dog, english springer spaniel mix from our best guess), who we adopted from the SPCA last year
Thanks for checking out my blog, and I'd love to hear from you all about any tips you have about blogging, increasing readership, or just about you! New project coming tomorrow if I can get it done in time!

Bare to Beautiful...oh yeah!

...say that "oh yeah!" in the title like to Kool-Aid man to get the full effect. Go ahead...I'll wait a minute! :D

Alright, so I started with these wooden frames from Michaels ($1 each), and the little black frame from the Dollar Tree (also $1)
Then I just used stuff I had around the house to decorate them and then made the for Valentines Day decorations (as pictured). First I found some scrapbook paper I liked, traced around the frames and cut it out. Then I just put some ModgePodge on the wooden frame, put the paper on top, and used an old gift card to smooth out the bubbles. To seal it off and make it a little glossy I put another layer of ModgePodge on top of the paper.



You can see these have Valentine's quotes/embellishments on them. These pictures are a little old, but luckily I attached the hearts with a glue dot so they can be changed out with the season and I can use the frames year round (they're currently waiting to be decorated for Spring...yes, I know I'm a bit behind :D)!

Copy Cat Craft : PB Kids Spring Plaque

I know several people who are expecting babies soon! Some still don't know the sex of their kid, but I took the chance one would be a girl after looking through the PB Kids catalog and seeing these cute pictures, then remembering seeing similar stuff at the Dollar Tree! I bought the supplies a couple weeks ago and have been waiting for time to make it. Today was a sick day for me (ugh!) but that meant I had plenty of time to spend in bed and the perfect spot to try out my craft! I started with decals and a canvas ($4 + tax total), and pictures of the inspiration pulled up on my computer screen...

I applied the decals and rearranged them until I liked them...


Then added some sticker letters I already had with a cute quote I found...
And here's the original (on the bottom right)...http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/romantic-spring-plaques/popup/more-views.html

I'm happy with how it turned out, and it cost me about 10% of what PB Kids is selling it for! Yay!

Baby Cakes

I made my first attempt at a diaper cake today for my husbands' best friends' wife (that's not a long description or anything)! It's not perfect but I think it's pretty good for a first try! The best thing was I was able to complete it in just about an hour while the baby I watch was napping!

Supplies:

• 42 Size 2 diaper ($8)
• 2 empty graduate cheese puff containers (already had those on hand thanks to baby mentioned before, but if not, they're about the size of a full toilet paper roll)
• 2 Pacifiers ($1)
• Ribbon ($2.50, still have some left over)
• Fabric glue ($2.50, still have TONS left)
• Silk Flowers ($1)
• Johnson's Travel Pack, included travel size baby shampoo, body wash, lotion, baby powder, and diaper rash cream ($2.50)
• Stuffed Animal ($1)
• Pizza Pan ($1)
• Baby Blanket ($1)
• Rubber Bands ($1)

The pizza pan was for a sturdy base for the cake, and I wrapped the baby blanket around it to cover it. It's a 3 tier cake, the bottom using about 20 diapers (rolled up and secured individually with rubber bands), wrapped around the cheese puff containers to create/hold the shape. I think maybe next time I would use actual gifts for the center too, but I didn't have any on hand and I wanted to make the cake now!!! The top tier is 7 diapers so that means the center tier must be 15 diapers. I then played around with the flowers and gifts until I liked the way it looked. TAH-DAH...

Not too shabby if I do say so myself, especially for only about $20! I also have a 31 Bags thermal tote with the baby's initial monogramed on it (I thought it could be used as a diaper bag, or be placed in a diaper bag with ice pack to keep formula and food cold) and a pack of diaper wipes to go along with it, but they overpower the cake so I'll just wrap those seperately I think. So what do you think? Anything you can think of to make it better or tips you more experienced diaper cakers out there have?