Personalized Picture Frames {with vinyl}

Happy Monday!  Did you all have a great Mother's Day??  I hope all of you spoiled your mom {or got spoiled yourself}!!

I had a fantastic Mother's Day.  My kids SLEPT IN until after 9am!!!!  We actually woke up before them {I still can't believe it}.  They are usually up before 7am, but not yesterday.  My hubby woke up, kissed me and said, "This was your first mother's day present - sleeping in - I arranged it with the girls last night" hahahahahaha, he's so funny.  I wish it was actually possible for him to convince our 2 & 3 yr old to sleep in.... 

The rest of they day was relaxing, delightful and filled with love.  My munchkins {with the help of my hubby} made me an herb garden for my kitchen window.  I just love it!  Gifts made with LOVE are so special and better than anything they could have bought me.

We then spent the entire afternoon down by the bay... picnic, park, sunshine & some wine = very happy momma!  I finished my day with ice cream and Game of Thrones {did any of you watch last night?? Soooo good - right?!?!}

Anyhow, enough about my weekend, on to today's craft!  These personalized picture frames are really easy and a fun way to spruce up any frame. 

1) Create Design 
2) Cut design out on pretty colorful vinyl {using Silhouette, Cricket or something of the sort}
3) Weed (remove all un-needed vinyl)
4) Transfer to Transfer paper
5) Place onto your frame

Look at the cute result! 

These doggie frames were already super cute, but I think the names add just a little something extra.

The best part was that this craft took maybe 30 min - perfect for a busy mom like me! :)

HAPPY CRAFTING!
(to see where I've linked up - click here!!)

Spring Decor & Easter Bunny Sign

My kids have been so excited for Easter all month!  When we decorated our front porch, my little ones thought that the Easter Bunny was coming the next day.... 

 

That was 2 weeks ago.  

So every morning we go through the same routine:  They wake up and ask "Did the Easter Bunny come?  Did he hide the eggs? " Then they proceed to look the window at the grass in the backyard.

We've tried to explain that Easter is in a "few weeks", but our 2 & 3 year old have no concept of real time.  They associate everything with, today, tomorrow or yesterday.  So it looks like it's gonna be Groundhog Day around here... until Easter Sunday finally arrives! {luckily we only have a few more days left. haha}

I wanted to make this Easter Bunny sign last year, but never got around to it.  So this year I was determined to make it.  It cost me nothing {since I had all the supplies on hand}, but even if you had to purchase them, it couldn't be more than $5-7 and it turned out super cute!

This is pretty easy to make, especially if you have a Silhouette or Cricket.  I created my design on my Silhouette and then cut everything out on vinyl.

 Got all my vinyl onto the transfer paper

Time to line everything up.  

I used a canvas {because there was a great sale at Michael's and I stocked up!}.  However, you could use poster board, a piece of wood or even cardstock.

 Tape everything down

Time to start pressing the vinyl onto the canvas.  I started upside down, so I could get into all the areas around the wood edges

For the top, I placed a thick book under, so while I was pushing, there was something hard underneath {since the wood edge creates a gap between the canvas & table}

Peel off the transfer paper

Next cover your letters in Mod Podge.  The reason is when you paint over the letters, the mod podge will create a barrier, so the paint won't bleed/leak under the vinyl.   You could bypass this step, but I recommend that you don't :)

Once it dries, get your paint out

Did you notice that I used an egg dying cup to paint my Easter sign? hehe.  Just trying to stay with the Easter theme :)

Start covering the canvas completely. 

Don't forget the sides {I used my thick book again to hold up the canvas so I could paint the sides} 

Now I forgot to take pics of this part... but once it's dry peel all the letters off carefully.

Here is how it will look!

 It was the perfect addition to my Front Porch Spring Decor! 

Don't you just LOVE that bunny vase?  My MIL gave it to me a few years ago and it's probably my favorite Spring/Easter decoration!

 

Having kids reminds me how magical holidays can be.  Believing in the Easter Bunny is such a fun tradition that I love getting to experience all over again with my kids!

HAPPY EASTER!
(to see where I've linked up - click here!!)

       

More Easter Ideas:

{free} Easter Printable

Easter Mimosa Bar

Easter Onesie - Boy 

Easter Onesie Girl

Jelly Bean Flowers & Candy filled Eggs

 Happy Easter Banner

 Egg {Pom Pom} Egg

 Spring Flower Wreath

Wine Cork Monogram Letter

I like to drink wine and I've saved all my corks.  Finally I've created something with all of them, okay, not all of them, I still have quite a few left... like I said, I like to drink wine - haha :)

Do you have TONS of wine corks sitting around your house?  Do you keep telling yourself, I'll do "something crafty" with them... just like me, you've probably seen this idea (and many more) everywhere!  I've seen it on Pinterest, Etsy, Google searches, in retail stores, etc...  so I thought it was finally time to make my own!

I was in Michael's (buying items for a different craft), when I saw these wooden letters for $1.99, so I figured it was a sign - time to get gluing!  I bought an "L" for our last name :)

This craft was SUPER cheap - the cost of the wooden letter and that's it! (assuming that you already have your collection of wine corks, so I guess it's a really expensive craft, seeing as the wine probably wasn't cheap... but at least you got wine out of the deal - right? haha) 

I placed all the corks on the "L" before I started gluing, so I knew how the rows would look and how many corks I'd need.

Then just start gluing! (I used my glue gun) For some of the corks on the edges, I glued the sides of 2 corks together, then glued the bottoms down, so they wouldn't fall off.

 

Then find a nice place to display it!

I think I want to go back and buy the letters W-I-N-E and then display it above my wine bar.  Of course I'll need A LOT more corks for that project... seeing as I'm currently pregnant, that craft will just have to wait.

Happy Crafting!

(to see where I've linked up - click here!)

Valentine's Mantel Ideas

 

I'm always seeing these fantastic decorated fireplace mantels and I decided that it was time for me to spruce up my mantel! 

I tried to keep it simple.  I found these great LOVE sayings, printed them out and put them in simple black frames.  You can download them for FREE here: The Girl Creative and here: 4shared.com

For the larger frame, I decided not to use a background, instead I glued a few felt roses (left over from my wreath) right onto the frame to add a little something.

For the smaller frame, I just printed my LOVE saying at 90% of the original size and taped it onto some pretty scrapbook paper I had - then popped it in the frame.

Next I hung up my Valentine's Wreath w/felt roses (tutorial here) on the mirror and added a few chocolates to my vase (along with two of my favorite pictures in pretty frames) and VOILA pretty decorated mantel!

I hope to make this a trend, redecorating the mantel for all the different holidays and occasions!