I first saw the Umbra Wallflowers on Young House Love here and here, but at $20 for the pack plus apartment walls that are not mine to put 25 holes in or paint with magnetic paint, I opted for an easier route….
Umbra Wallflowers from casa.com :
My living room with paper flowers:
Here’s how to do it the free route:
Put ’em up with some tape or sticky tack and voila…
…free and easy paper wall flowers.
Filed under DIY
I’ve heard about the wife who discovers her husband has another family on the side complete with 2.5 kids, a white picket fence and a yellow lab named Skippy.
I’ve actually known the mousey little HR-by-day girl who no one would ever suspect of being naughty, yet there she is every weekend naked on stage at The Circus sticking dollar bills in places they don’t belong for an addition on her house.
I’ve heard of the child who is a quiet, reserved, sweet little thing with smiles and manners and “yes, ma’am”s at school who goes home and tortures small animals in his backyard.
I’ve seen Trading Places, The Parent Trap and Undercover Princes.
Double lives happen, I know this, I just never thought it would happen to my family. Yet there I was the other night, browsing the Pinterest homepage after unsuccessfully trying 10 times to verify my blog to my Pin profile and inevitably locking myself out, when I saw a cute little ‘Make Your Own Board Book’ pin.
I decided to click on it and check out the tutorial and that’s when I realized that fate had put that pin on my homepage for a reason. Because when I scrolled through, I saw her. With another family. A mom. A dad. A baby named Boo and a brother named Bub. Grandparents. Aunts. Uncles. A whole other family that I never knew existed! My brain started swimming with questions – the when’s, the how’s, the why would she do that to me’s?
And I think the hardest part was that she just looked so… happy.
So easy it’s ridiculous.
1. Get a bunch of $0.99 frames from Michaels. These are the same square ones I used for my colorful butterfly frames. I’m loving these frames lately.
2. Paint them. I used CraftSmart acrylic paint in Vanilla from Michaels and a 2 oz bottle was plenty for 2 coats on 9 frames.
3. Cut a piece of paper the same size as the cardboard insert that came in the frame. I used good old-fashioned white copy paper. Poke a hole in the middle of the cut out. Doesn’t have to be perfect, I just eyeballed it and poked the tip of a pen through.
4. Grab a fake flower, push the plastic end on the back of it through the hole in the paper, and poke a paper clip through to secure. You could also glue it but I was too lazy to go digging for my glue gun.
5. Figure out how you want to hang your frames since they don’t come with hardware. I ended up putting a staple in the back with a staple gun, then prying it out a little with pliers so I had a lip to hang it from a nail.
6. Stuff your frames with the flower paper, then put the cardboard cutout that came with the frame on the very back for extra support.
8. Figure out a layout.
7. Hang ’em proud!
Frames: $9
3 stems of flowers ($2.99 each): $9
2 oz bottle of paint: $0.41
Total project: $18.41 + tax
For other tutorials, visit my diy page.
9 framed pieces cost me $17 to make, but you could make just 1 for as little as $1.40. Pretty art for pretty cheap….ready?
1. Go to Michaels and get a bunch of ArtMinds Laser Cut Frames for $0.99 each. I found them in the same aisle as the unfinished wooden letters, bird houses and jewelry boxes and they come in square, rectangular, oval, heart-shaped, and both small and large decorative scroll-y ones. None of the frames come with glass so they are open in the front which gave me the idea to make something that popped out of them.
Bottom layer:
2. Cut something colorful for your bottom layer to the size and shape of the window in the frame. I used leftover paper from my butterfly wall, but you could also use fabric, colored post-its, construction paper, or maybe decorate a piece of paper with glitter, markers, or perhaps the mac n cheese stuck to the wall from last night’s dinner. The world is your oyster, my friends. Instead of measuring, I used the cardboard insert that came with the frame as a template.
Top layer:
3. Decide on a shape and print it out or trace it onto white paper making sure it will fit in the frame.
And because sharing is caring, here are my templates in Word for the 3 different Michael’s frames that I used (frame outline and butterflies included):
4. Cut your shape, though you don’t want to cut it completely out, leave it attached to the white paper square somewhere somehow. For mine, instead of cutting out a full butterfly, I only cut the 2 wings and kept it attached at the neck and the butt.
I used a box cutter because I don’t own an x-acto knife and the paper kept getting soggy when I tried using my teeth. It worked much better.
Frames (in hindsight, spray painting them would have been MUCH faster):
5. Prime:
6. Paint: I used cheapo brushes I found at Michaels and Craftsmart acrylic paint ($0.41 for a 2 oz bottle).
Colors in the picture above from top left: Spearmint, Hot Pink, Fuchsia, Bright Yellow, and Aqua (although they look a little different in person). P.S. The fuchsia SUCKED with coverage and streakiness and I gave up after the 5th coat.
7. Get husband drunk and make him do the second coat.
8. Figure out your layout ahead of time so you know what side of the frame to attach the hardware to.
Hardware:
8. The frames come with these clear plastic hooks they used to hang them in the store display that you could technically use to hang with…
But I wasn’t a big fan and instead felt the need to maim my frames with a staple remover and brute force.
No hardware means you have to decide on a hanging plan. I was originally going to drill a hole in the top corners of each and string ribbons through them, but I decided to go the easier sawtooth hanger route (6 pack for $1.99 at the hardware store). Just tap in a few nails and you’re good to go.
Note: These were the smallest I could find at my local hardware store and didn’t feel like running around looking for smaller ones. The problem is that the little nails are longer than the frames are thick, so I didn’t hammer the nails all the way flat for fear of them poking through the front.
Yep, I went too far anyway.
Now back to your paper goods….
9. Loosely fold your shape out. Make sure to put the side that had the original print-out face down so you won’t see any ink once it’s hung.
10. Stuff your frames and you’re ready to hang!
And if you decide to use the plastic loop attached to the frames to hang, and paper and a paint brush you may already have, each one of these will cost you a whopping $1.40 to make. Now that is the kind of art I like.
Our house has a bunch of floors and stairs and while there are technically 4 half-floors, if you put them together they would equal 2 full stories, or I guess perhaps more accurately a 1 story house with a full finished basement.
So the basement…Scott is not a fan because there maybe might have been a little bitty drop of water dribbling down the wall from the window well twice in the last 2 years, and to him, water+basement=mold. I, on the other hand, will happily hang out down there because I think it’s cozy and colorful and if I don’t smell nothin’ funky, don’t see nothin’ furry, and don’t feel nothin’ dewey, it must be safe.
Why thank you, I do pride myself on my ridiculously high standards.
So over the last year the basement has been slowly morphing into a Summer-friendly play zone – an alphabet mat here, an exersaucer there, a wet-vac over yonder and most recently I got some real plastic food for Summer’s real plastic kitchen and she loves the little ice cream cone despite the fact that the ice cream part pops off the cone every 2 seconds. Though I can’t for the life of me figure out why she prefers the plastic ice cream cone over the big plastic steak.
Yes, yes, ’tis a mystery.
Anywho, I made another addition to the playroom this weekend playing off of I Love Beer and Babies’ flock of birds. I drew my own butterfly pattern, threw it away because it looked like the moth on the cover of Silence of the Lambs, made another, took a good long look at it before shaking my head in approval, traced and cut it out a few million times, threw in a few dozen wall stickers from Dollar Tree and we now have a very pretty basement wall.
*Edit – I revamped the wall later, images can be found in this post.
P.S. Fun fact of the day: Apparently a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope, a flutter and a rabble. And look at that, I done went and learned something new.
And here I thought I was finished when I made Summer’s baptism dress.
A few weeks ago we had our baptism class, and by we, I mean me, Scott and Summer, and Julie, Ben and the twins. Oh, and I think there maybe might have been one other couple with a little 3-month-old peanut there. And by class, I mean a get together where we blew into a stranger’s house like a tornado, crawled all over their furniture, stuck fingers in their VCR, screamed high pitched screams at them for no reason and ate all of their food while the other couple and their little bebe sat quietly in the corner stunned and frozen as they got a brief glance at their near future. Muah ah ah. They looked scared. The couple that hosted the class was awesome, had a few grown children of their own, and had a plan for how the hour would go… a plan that was blown to smithereens the moment we all arrived. At one point, the wife pulled something out of one of the packets of info we all were given and started…
Her: “So I’m gonna…”
Caleb: “AAAAAAAAEEEEEEEHHHHHH YAYAYAYA!”
Her: “…read through the…”
Ethan: “RRRRRRRAAAAAA EE EE EE EE”
Her: “…ceremony and…”
Summer: “LALALALALALALALALALALA SQQQQUUEEAL!”
Her: “…um…”
Caleb: “EEEEEEEEEEE WWWWAAAAAAAAAA!”
Her: “…yeah, how ’bout you guys read through this when you get home, I don’t really have to read it to you….”
Smart move, lady.
So also in this packet of info is the baptismal candle that we have to bring with us to the ceremony, and a smock/bib type thing that needs to be decorated. It totally brought back memories of decorating my First Communion banner and Confirmation sash with big felt letters and random crosses and doves and stuff. So I decided for Summer’s bib I wanted to make it pretty and sparkly and something that I could put in a frame after the ceremony. Only, the bib they gave us is kinda, erm, meh?
Don’t get me wrong, I completely 100% appreciate the fact that the church gave this to us. My problem with it is that, well, doesn’t it kinda resemble one of those tissue paper toilet seat covers they provide in public bathrooms? Yeah, I’d rather not have that association while this thing is placed around my baby’s neck and the deacon is trickling water on her like a stream of pee. A baptism is supposed to be cleansing, people. During our class, the wife did mention that we could use these ones or we could make/buy/bring our own, so I’m just gonna take that initiative and make a different one and bring this one back so they can give it to someone else that might want to use it. So I’m thinking a simple shape like this…
or this….
I have my supplies all ready…
rhinestone glue that dries clear
rhinestones, pretty sparkly rhinestones that I can’t stop staring at
pretty pendant that will be the middle focal point
lots of backup sparklies in case I run out
backup colorful sparklies in case I want to add some color
And I’ve made a few mockups in Photoshop of what I’m picturing in my head since I pretty much only get one shot at this. Well, unless I do actually screw it up so bad that I have to start over from scratch. That would suck. I’m just gonna go ahead and pretend that can’t happen. Ideas:
or maybe something like this without the pendant…
Hopefully this weekend I’ll have some good sparkle time, wish me luck that I only have to do this once…
Filed under DIY
Life has a funny way of speeding up and then slowing down, up and down, fast and slow, yet all the while always actually moving at the same pace. So many things going on, all of them like little flashes of light that flicker quick and then are gone, leaving memories in their shadow.
We had a beautiful weekend and a pretty breezy Easter day which came and went so quickly, though I tried my hardest to soak it all in. Scott headed out to his first Cubs game of the season while Summer and I got all dressed up in our pretty flowy floral prints and went to church with my dad where hundreds of others followed suit, overflowing the church to standing room only. We stood in the back with lots of other families with kids and I was so proud of my perfectly quiet girl who was content eating puffs, watching the people, and literally humming along to the songs which was the prettiest little sound I’ve ever heard. After church, we went and hung out with Nanna for a bit where there was a little lamb waiting for my little monkey…
Then, given the fact that we had beautiful weather and nowhere to be, Summer and I walked around the lake by our house where we saw a snake that stopped me dead in my tracks for a moment, we quacked at some ducks, and because I didn’t come prepared, we fed the geese some banana flavored puffs that I had shoved in my pockets after they fell on the floor at church a few hours earlier. Luckily, the geese didn’t seem to mind.
Once my pockets were empty, we continued on the path and eventually came to a pier that stretched out over the lake, turned under a covered bridge and then looped back around on the other side to dry land. I thought it would be fun to take the pier path with the stroller but after getting far enough to where it wouldn’t make sense to turn around but not far enough to be able to see the end, I quickly decided that nope, no sir, it wasn’t fun in the slightest. All of a sudden without warning, my hair began whipping wildly and stinging me in the eyes as the air screamed in my ears and my flowy floral shirt threatened to fly over my head because for some unforseen reason the wind was 3,000 mph stronger on the pier. It took all my strength to stay upright and keep the stroller moving forward while practically pushing my entire body against it backwards and I’m really glad strollers have straps to keep baby in because she probably would have gone flying across the lake otherwise. I know we must have looked absolutely ridiculous to anyone on the land path considering there was barely a light breeze over there and we were wrestling with an invisible wind storm 20 feet away. And once we made it to the other end, for me, someone who likes to get lost just to discover new places and find my way back, my lesson that day had been learned – sometimes it’s actually better stay on the beaten path. Who knew?
Once we made it all the way around the lake and back to the car, Summer and I hit home to relax the rest of the afternoon away in the backyard on a soft blanket in the sun. This little one definitely inherited my love for adventure and curiosity of new things – you stick her in the middle of a boring old blanket and she’ll insist on making her way to the fun stuff…
It was one of those perfectly unplanned, wing-it kinda days with nowhere to be and no agendas to follow and it was so great just spending it however we chose, just me and my girl. That is, of course, until she tried to stick a dandelion in her mouth and I went to grab it from her, missed, and BINK! I accidentally poked her in the eye. There were lots of tears. She might have cried a little, too, though I can’t be certain because I couldn’t actually hear anything above my own sobbing.
I’m sorry, punkin, I’m so so sorry. 😦 Although she’s forgotten all about it by now, you can just call me Mama Bruiser. Or Big Mama FAIL. Sigh, while I know I definitely have it slightly better than the guy I work with who was playing with his son and throwing him up into the air onto the bed and broke his own son’s arm, I think it’s safe to say that this time around I’m definitely not winning mother of the year. I’m sorry punkin, I’m so so so so sorry.
Her baptism dress is coming along slowly. The shell that I posted before has been cut up, revamped, and discarded already, though it definitely helped me figure out a thing or two about making an actual wearable dress. This is as far as I got with this one before deciding to scrap it and start over…
I ended up buying a backup dress from Children’s Place just in case (I’m obviously not dead-set on her wearing all white)….
And I hit up Joann yesterday for new fabric, bias tape, satin ribbon and a zipper to start fresh on a whole new dress after measuring between armpits and across her chest. I drew up my own pattern modeled somewhere between the backup dress and another beautiful one I saw at a children’s formal wear store I walked through last weekend that I can’t stop thinking about. And during this whole process, I’ve learned that I sew like I cook. I can follow a recipe, I can follow a pattern, but if you ask me to just kind throw stuff together and make it work? Fuggedaboutit. So last night I got started on dress #2…or would it be dress #3 by now? Either way, I cut my pattern and I cut my pieces.
And that’s it so far. And this dress. It will happen. It may happen 7 different ways before the baptism. But it will happen. And I apologize to any future boys that I may give birth to because after having the option of buying 10 dresses by now but insisting on doing this my way, oh ya, I will make all of my future children wear this dress to their baptisms, too.
No luck on the job front for Scott yet, though he has found interesting ways to keep himself occupied in the meantime. I spy with my little eye a very handsome Nacho playing basketball…
My honey’s done gone and become famous or something. 🙂
Jaime
rabit stew 