Halloween Mantel ... and More

I decorated the house up for Halloween this week, and as promised, here are pictures of my mantel. You can click on the pictures for a closer view.

I made the "Boo to You" plate, as well as the Chevron frame with button pumpkin (it was inspired by THIS post). I also made the Trick or Treat blocks that are in the top shelf of the left bookcase, and the painted jar that is in the middle shelf of the right bookcase.

I started doing some Glass Etching, and here is one of my first projects. It's not really Halloween, but it filled up some space that needed filling!

This year I decided to also decorate our dining room table:

I made the table runner out of the leftover fabric from the Chevron Frame project - I added some black velvet pom pom trim I found at Hobby Lobby. The runner and tablescape were inspired by THIS post. 

I can't wait to start decorating for Fall, as I found out I have lots more Fall decorations than I do Halloween ones. 

My Mantel

Unfortunately, our house did not come with a real fireplace, so we have an electric one instead. That is the area that I like to decorate and call my mantel. Here is what it looks like right now:

This week I will be changing it to my Halloween decor, so stay tuned. 

Some Recent Projects

Here are some of the things I've made in the last month or so:

Halloween Charger

Wood Sign I made for our dog's groomer

Wreath (inspired by wreath found HERE)

Christmas ornaments

Halloween glass jar

Make Your Own Dry Erase Board

The older I get, the more forgetful I am becoming! If I don't write things down, 9 out 10 times I will forget it. When I saw THIS dry erase board over at Two Twenty One, I knew it was a project I had to make ASAP.

Here is how mine turned out:

Since I spend the majority of my day in my craft room, I made mine the colors of the room (green and pink). I just used some green polka dot washi tape I had in my stash, and then hot glued on a cute raffia ribbon that I embellished with a pink and green button.  The frame started out black - I just spray painted it pink. 

Be sure to check out Chelsea's post that I linked to above, as she is also doing a giveaway for some Scotch Expressions masking tape.

Drab to Fab - Part 2

I turned some more drab items to fab items. I am really enjoying looking at things and trying to figure out what I can do with them. Sometimes it's good to think outside the box!

Here are my latest DTF's:

Wood sign I found on clearance at a Cracker Barrel

With some scrapbook paper, vinyl and some ribbon and tulle, I turned it into this.

Sign I found for 50% off at Hobby Lobby (I snagged it for $2.99 including the stand!)

I painted it with black paint, then a couple layers of Chalkboard paint. 

I don't have a before of this one, but it started out like the wood sign I showed you in my first Drab to Fab post. My niece was here visiting this past weekend and wanted a "Love Lives Here" sign to go on her gallery wall. I love how this turned out:

I absolutely adore the font she picked out - I love it so much I may go back and re-do my sign with the same font (Passions ConflictROB).

Next time you're out shopping, go through those Clearance or Sale items - there might be something that could be fabulous in there! 

From Drab to Fab

While shopping at Ross the other day, I came across this sign in the Clearance Section:

I wasn't thrilled with the wording on it, but for $2.99 I went ahead and bought it.  I knew I could turn it into something nice using my Silhouette Cameo and some vinyl.

I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to put on my sign, so I searched around and came across Mandy's tutorial for a sign she did on her blog. I was going to make mine just like hers, but then changed my mind and decided just to put a simple saying on it. (I may still make one like hers for my nephew and his wife who just moved into their first home.)

I started by sanding all the paint off using my palm sander. Once it was paint free, I stained it with several coats of a natural wood stain and left it to dry overnight.

Next I had to decide what I wanted the sign to say and what font it should be in. I finally decided that I wanted it to say "Love Lives Here". I printed that out in brown vinyl using the font "Dancing Script." BTW, my board is 17 1/2 X 4.

I wanted to cut it as one long piece, but since it was 14 inches long, I couldn't use my cutting mat (Mandy was so nice and helped me figure out how to change my settings in the Silhouette - thanks again Mandy). Even though I slowed the speed way down, had my piece of vinyl underneath the rollers, and chose "load media" on my settings, the vinyl was still sliding around on me. I decided just to cut each word out individually and hope that I could get them on the board straight.

With the help of my trusty ruler and pencil, I marked where I wanted the words to go, then just erased the marks after I was done applying the vinyl.

Here is the finished sign hanging over my bakers rack:

For my first attempt, I think it turned out pretty good!

I still need to practice with printing out longer/larger pieces of vinyl without the cutting mat. If anyone has any suggestions/tips, I would love to hear them!

Now I'm off to Ross to buy up the rest of the boards they had :)

Don't Throw Out Those Jars!!

Especially if you have a Silhouette machine! Now that I have discovered the wonder that is my Silhouette Cameo, I have been going a little vinyl crazy.

I had stashed a bunch of jars thinking that someday they would come in handy for a craft project, and I was right. I made this the other day:

I just found a font I liked (Sunshine Poppy) and printed out the word "treats" and applied it to my jar. For the lid, I mod-podged some scrapbook paper to it and that was it (for a great tutorial on how to do that, go here.) It was so easy and quick. This would make a great last-minute gift idea for someone - after all, who doesn't love treats?? If you don't have scrapbook paper, you could also just spray paint the lid of your jar.

Speaking of jars, I made this the other day for a friend of mine who is going to Disneyland in a couple of months:

I love how this turned out! I saw something similar to this on Pinterest. Most of the ones I saw they spray-painted Mickey black - I liked how he looked just as is (got him at Dollar Tree) so I just used my E-6000 glue and attached him to the lid of the jar. I found the cute jar at either Marshalls or Ross, can't remember which, for $3. The lid was brown, so I just spray-painted it black. 

The black vinyl was made using a font called "Minnie" (and yes, there is also a font called "Mickey".) I think my friend is going to go crazy over this!

I've done more projects with my Silhouette, including using heat transfer vinyl, so stay tuned!

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