DIY Artwork

Got some beadboard, paint and wooden letters to create this beached-look sign. Only $20!

Halloween Cupcakes

Pumpkins and Frankenstein cupcakes! Happy Halloween!

DIY dining table

This is just progress - we still need to sand & stain the table & benches...

Total cost $150.

DIY laundry detergent

Found on Pinterest.
Borax, baking soda, washing soda & Fels Naptha = home made laundry detergent

Cupcake table

With creative help from my sister-in-law, Anna, we created this cute dessert table at our other sister-in-law's baby shower. Theme: Forrest animals. Owl cupcakes on log cakes & owl cookies.

Anniversary Project

Five year anniversary - tradition gift: wood. Modern gift: Silverware. Although there is a silverware set I would LOVE to have, it's almost $400. So I came across this wood frame and an idea for a gift both of us could enjoy.
I've seen this project done a couple different ways. Where we met, where we married & where we live. Well... our life is a little more complicated than that. We met & married in the same city. We're on our second home, and we haven't bought our first house together yet. Home is where our love is... so I decided to do mine like this.
"From the places we have been... to the places we will go... with all of my heart... I love you so."
Where we met & married, Our first place, Our five-year condo, Our first home. Although we're looking for our first home, we haven't found it yet - so there's just a placeholder where that map would go.
Here are the pictures:

                                                            

The lighting of the pictures is a little off, but I think it turned out pretty nice, and the colors will match our new bedroom wall color.

Art

I'm going to be painting our bedroom in a few weeks and there's this art work that I wanted to copy. They're about $529 a piece at Ethan Allen. I made two of these for only $30. Each frame was purchased at Michaels with a 40% coupon - $11 each. The scrapbook lace paper I used was $1.99 a sheet, using 4 total - $8.

The art I was trying to imitate is made of handmade paper. I found a place that sells it by the roll, but they've been sold out for a while. I decided to try and imitate it with scrapbook paper instead.

Click HERE to see the Ethan Allen art...

Here is a picture of mine. I made two of them to hang over our nightstands. With a Charcoal Grey wall... the eggplant/white art and all our white furniture... I'm excited to get it finished and post pictures.

Oreo Cookie Dough Brownie Cake

The most amazing thing ever. Cookie Dough Oreo Brownie Cake. Cookie dough, layered with oreos and then brownie batter poured over it. 350 degrees for 45 minutes. YUM!

Homemade Coasters

For 16 cents a piece, I got 4 ceramic tiles from Home Depot. I cut down some scrapbook paper to ModgePodge in the center of the tile. After the ModgePodge dried, I sprayed an acrylic sealer to water proof the paper portion of the tile.
Coasters for under $2!

- Laura

Magnet Makeup Board

Another Pinterest inspired project. Up until today I had all of my makeup crammed into a narrow drawer in the bathroom. Rummaging through everything to get to a specific product has become a part of my daily routine. Annoyingly so, because that's how product gets smashed and broken.
Solution: All the basic products that are used daily have magnets hot glued to their backs and mounted on this metal sheet covered with scrapbook paper.

Ideally I would have a 12X12 frame to finish it, but until I get one, I'm just going to command strip the back of the metal sheet to the bathroom wall.
Everything is now at reach and will stay neat & clean.

- Laura

Cookie Sheet Magnet Board

Also found on Pinterest, all supplies purchased at the dollar store (besides the scrapbook paper)... project total is $4.
All you need is:
Ribbon
Cookie Sheet
Craft Paint
Scrapbook Paper
Round Magnets

On Pinterest they say to ModgePodge the scrapbook paper to the cookie sheet, but it didn't quite work out for me, so I ended up hot gluing the edges down. Cut the scrapbook paper to size needed, cut little circles out of paper to cover the magnets with, and paint the edges of the cookie sheet. I kind of wish I would have skipped that step, because even with metal craft paint, it still chips a little bit.

Drill holes in the top of the pan for the ribbon... and you're done!
I went a step further and painted a wood letter and glued that to the board. This item is a gift, so the B obviously doesn't represent myself.

- Laura

Hairstyle

I found this style on Pinterest... Emma's hair was a little frizzy today, but I think it was still cute. Next time I might add some more sections for a more dramatic effect.

First Project

Ever since I became addicted to Pinterest.com I've come up with a list of DIY projects I want to try. I started with Reindeer feet to display at Christmas. Made with the help of Emma's feet...

My first finished project!

It's a blank canvas, some paint, foot prints & you have reindeer! Before I display next Christmas, I'm going to add red ribbon around the edges so you don't see the canvas folds.

I have a few projects that I'm working on as gifts... as soon as they're given to their recipients, I'll post pictures.

- Laura