Door Bell Sign

I've been wanting some kind of sign to hang by or on the front door to keep the UPS man from ringing the door bell. D works at night and sleeps during the day & when the UPS man rings the doorbell Coco goes crazy and wakes him up. I don't want to have the same situation with Denver when we get home with him. While playing around on Pinterest the other day I saw the most adorable sign to hang by the front door (made by Amy).

I read her tutorial (which now I can't find to link to) & decided to make one like it. I started with a pre-cut, thin wooden sign in the unfinished wood section at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents. I got D to drill a small hole on each side of the sign so that I could run ribbon through it and hang it when I got finished. I spray painted it heirloom white and decided that I didn't like it so then I spray painted it Italian Olive (two coats).

I brought it in and it looked liked this.

Then I took a small piece of 400 grit sandpaper and sanded down the entire front and spent a little extra time on the edges so that the white would come through.

Then I got out some antiquing medium. I had some issues paying $2.99 for that bottle but I used SO little, that it should practically last me forever which makes it easier to swallow.

I put a small amount on a paper towel and rubbed it in circular motions all over the sign and spent a little extra time on the edges to make it a little darker there.

I put a little more on the paper towel and "blotted" it onto the sign in a couple of places and then set it to the side to let it dry.

While it was drying, I made the words in brown vinyl on my Silhouette. I cut the words out seperately because I was undecided on the layout that I wanted, so I wanted to be able to play around with it a little. The fonts I used were "Mr and Mrs Popsicle", "Cheri" and "Clingy".

This is what it looked like when finished.

Then I just took some brown ribbon that I already had and folded it over and ran it through the back to the front on the left side. I knotted it and then took the access and brought it through the back to the front on the right side. I lined it up so that the ribbon would be even and tied my knot on the right side. I cut off all the extra ribbon and then used a lighter to heat seal the ends.

I decided that the bottom left corner was too bare, so I played around with my Silhouette software until I found a moon and stars that I liked, to add to it. I cut it out with the same brown vinyl and added it to the corner.

And this is my final product! Isn't it adorable? I'm really please with how it turned out and I can't wait to hang it up.

Hospital Door Hanger

I bought a little door hanger at Hobby Lobby for 79 cents and decided to make something for the door at the hospital. In case you haven't noticed, I've had a bit of energy lately I took it outside and spray painted it Heirloom White and then just made another scalloped piece to match the jar, wreath, etc that I've been making. I used the last tiny bit of ribbon I had to make a bow. I just glued the bow to the top of the hanger and then used Elmer's spray adhesive to glue the scalloped piece to the hanger.


Because the wreath says "Oh Joy, It's a Boy" I didn't want something else on the door that said that so I put "Welcome Denver" instead.


Here's what it looks like hanging on a door. I can't wait for (someone) to get pictures of everything up at the hospital.

Wreath for Hospital door

My sister-in-law made a wreath for us to take to the hospital but I hung it up in Denver's room and was worried that the trip to the hospital and back might damage it some (while we're trying to lug everything else around) so I decided to make another one that would be cute but I wouldn't be heart broken if something happened to it. So, I sat down with some rubber bands, a styrofoam wreath base, a package of size 1 diapers (I used about 25), a hot glue gun and some ribbon.


Diapers and rubber bands. At least one end of the diapers should be white unless you don't mind seeing the decorations on them. These are Pampers.


Lay the diapers out flat and start rolling them from the open side first towards the closed (bottom) side of the diaper.


The key (I learned the hard way) is to roll the diaper in a slight cone shape.


It should look something like this - not a noticeable size different from the top to the bottom but it makes a big difference when you're attaching all of the diapers to the wreath. Just trust me on that one!


Then just secure them with a rubber band.


Then I started laying them out around the wreath frame to see how many I would need. In hindsight, I would wrap the wreath frame with ribbon. You can't see it once it's hung up but it does look a bit unfinished when you're just holding it.


I forgot to take pictures of putting the ribbon on. I just wrapped it around one diaper to see how much I needed then used that cut piece of ribbon as a template for all the other pieces I needed to cut. I cut them all out and then just wrapped it around the diapers and hot glued them on. Just pull the ribbon tight and put the hot glue only on the ribbon and you won't mess up the diapers (you especially want to do this if you're making this for a gift). Then I tied ribbon around the wreath base to use as a hanger and then I went around the wreath and hot glued all the diapers on.


I bought a little wooden sign at Hobby Lobby and spray painted it antique white. I knew that I wanted the wreath to match the "Oh Joy, It's a Boy" stuff I had been making so I decided to make the same thing I had made for the nurses' gift jar. I used Elmer's Spray Adhesive to secure it to the sign and then just ran baby blue ribbon through it to tie to the wreath. I hot glued it to the back of the wreath and then just made a simple bow and hot glued it to the top of the wreath.


And here it is all done! I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I'm not going to lie - it was much harder than I thought it would be and took me about 4 hours. Will probably be the last time I make one!

Oh Joy, It's a Boy Nurses' Gift Jar

A couple of weeks ago I saw this picture online of a little gift jar to give someone when they have a baby (boy). I had been looking for something to do for the nurses when we go to the hospital, and so I really liked this idea. It's very similar to the Turkey Toes I made for Thanksgiving so I knew it would be quick and easy to put together.

I went to Hobby Lobby and got a large jar (not the mason jar kind) with a screw on lid. I couldn't find any blue and white polka dotted ribbon, so I got a white ribbon with blue and green polka dots.

I just put a line of hot glue down the seam of the jar, made sure I had enough ribbon to cover the lip of the jar, and then pressed it down.

I was able to find a light blue ribbon that I liked, that was smaller than I needed so I decided I'd use the larger white ribbon as a base and layer the blue ribbon over it. I just put a dot of hot glue at the top and one at the bottom and pressed it down.

Then I made a label on my computer, in Word and printed it, cut it out and then measured it. Then I went to my Silhouette machine and made a scalloped shape just slightly larger than the circle I had just cut out. I used light blue card stock and cut away! I used Elmer's Spray Adhesive to attach the label to the cardstock and then the cardstock piece to the jar.

Here it is attached. I made one for each side of the jar and for the top of the lid. I attached them all the same way.

Then I took the light blue ribbon and hot glued it around the lid and made a bow with the larger white ribbon. I just hot glued the bow at the seam of the blue ribbon, so it would hide it.

I cut the ends of the ribbon and heat sealed them with a lighter and it's all done! I haven't decided what exactly I'm going to put in it yet (something that doesn't melt if D leaves it in the car until after the baby is here).

But I thought that was a cute, easy way to say "thank you" to all of the nurses that help us at the hospital. I'm thinking it will be cute on their nurses' station!

Cheap Bathroom Update

I've been meaning to do a little something to our guest bathroom. I don't have any decor in there because I'm not sure that I want to stick with the color scheme that I have in there (brown, gold, tan, and cream), but I'm not sure what I want to do so I don't want to spend money on things that I'm just going to turn around and get rid of.

So, on a trip to Wal-Mart I picked up two 88 cent soap dispensers (I have two sinks in that bathroom), and decided to come home and spray paint them Espresso. I figured it would add a little color to the white countertop.

Then, I found some leftover beige vinyl and decided I'd cut out a couple of pieces to put on each one of them.

I dug around in a drawer and found some leftover gold ribbon to tie around them.

And this is what I wound up with. Not too shabby for 88 cent soap and a bunch of leftover craft pieces.

The next day, while I was out, I stopped by the Goodwill store and found a canister for $2.99 and two candle holders for $1.99 each.

I came home and cut another piece of vinyl for the canister.

Here it is.

I got a couple of candles at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and stuck those on the candle holders, put everything else out and here it is.

Don't mind me and the broom in the background - I'm nesting - lots of cleaning going on around here these days. But here is the countertop now. Not too shabby for spending less than $20 total. It's a little something to make it feel "homey" until I can figure out what I really want to go with in there.

Pantry Canister Labels

Since I've been in the kitchen cooking so much, I wanted to make my life a little easier and labels the canisters I keep flour, sugar, brown sugar, etc in. After all - just sitting on the shelf flour, sugar and powdered sugar look a lot alike in the pantry next to each other. I used black vinyl and my Silhouette machine to make some labels for each jar.


They look nice, were inexpensive and quick to make and it's so much easier to see what I have now!

Owl Treat Bags

I wanted to make a little "thank you" for the hostesses at Denver and my baby shower but was really unsure of what to make until I saw the cutest little owl treat bag online. Isn't this adorable? Of course, I wanted to make just a regular (boy) owl since it's or a boy shower. I bought a package of construction paper and a pack of brown lunch sacks - both from the dollar store. Then I pulled up my Silhouette program and started making shapes to match the girly Owl bag. I started with eyes. Then I moved to the chest area. It's easy to just make the first shape and copy & paste so that each bag is exactly alike. Then I moved on to cutting little owl "feet". The Silhouette just cuts the paper, you remove the blank space and are left with the shapes you cut. Then I made lots of triangles for the beak and the ears. I made them all the same size. Then I took out a glue stick and started going to work. First the chest, then feet, then eyes and so on. And this is "him" all put together. Isn't he adorable? I just folded over the top so that I could tape it closed. Tomorrow I'll share what I put in them!

Personalized Hand Sanitizer

Because the school is full of germs, I wanted Mer to have some hand sanitizer on her desk, that would look cute with the rest of her stuff.

So, I went to the dollar store, got a bottle and came home and scraped the label off. Then I got out some black vinyl and the remainder of the red ribbon that I had used on her other projects. I got on my Silhouette software and made something up really quick. I just measured the bottle first to make sure that I had enough room to put what I wanted. I used the same font as I have for all of her projects (Andrea Karime downloaded from dafont.com)

The process was the same as adhering vinyl in all of the other projects I have done. Then I tied a small bow around the top to give it a little color. I thought it needed something else so I loaded up some white vinyl and started playing around.

I wound up just making brackets for each side of the font. Just to add a little white, and to mimic the shape that I used on the classroom jars. All in all, this project was SUPER cheap and took less than 10 minutes to make. I think it will be a cute (and useful) addition to her desk.

Custom Classroom Jars

Meredith asked me to make some jars for her bookshelf in her classroom, so that she could clearly (and cutely) organize some supplies for her kiddos. She picked up some jars at Hobby Lobby and some scrapbook paper and away I went...

These are the jars that we started with.

I found a shape on my Silhouette machine that I just loved, so I picked out some scrapbook paper and cut out one of these for each jar. I used Elmer's spray adhesive to attach them to the jars.

Then I got some black cardstock and made 4 more of the same shape, just a bit smaller.

I cut out (of white vinyl) all of the labels that she wanted for the jar, put them on transfer paper and then applied them to the black cardstock.

I decided to add white eyelets to the sides of each black cardstock label (to run ribbon through).

Then I cut 3" strips of ribbon to run through each eyelet and I just tied them into knots. I used the leftover ribbon from the name plate so that they would all match.

Then I used more Elmer's adhesive to spray the backs of them and attach them to the black and white scrapbook paper that I already had on the jar. I just held it down for about 30 seconds (especially close to the ribbon) to make sure that it dried and everything was stuck down well.

I was able to find a set of 10 pencils for $1.44 at Wal-Mart that matched her decor, so I picked up two packages. Don't they look adorable in this jar? Plus, when she "loans" out pencils to students - it'll be easy to identify which ones need to be returned.

She'll fill this one with those big pink erasers. I wish we could find other colors, but the pink ones were on sale, so those are the ones that she bought!

She found rulers on sale too, so she'll have plenty to fill this jar up.

And for when the kids are good and deserve a treat, she has a candy jar! I told her that she was only allowed to give out tootsie rolls because those match her jars! :)

And all of the jars done! I'm really pleased with them. I think they came out really well and I can't wait to see them in her classroom.