Summer in Tennessee?

I'm pretty sure it feels like Summer here in Tennessee.  But who am I kidding - it's only in the 90's, and it's not ridiculously humid yet.  Yep, still Spring.

Sooooooo - I'm kinda ADD - and I got tired of looking at my Spring wreath, even though it's still Spring! ;)

So I made a summer wreath, even though it's not Summer!  That's how I roll!

I started with the same wreath form as I did for my Spring wreath - $2.95 @ Joann Fabric!  I decided to coat this wreath in burlap.  I think it is $2.99/yard @ Joann Fabric, so I bought one yard just to make sure I would have enough.  I had almost half left over.

Get your wreath, about 6 2-2 1/2 inch strips of burlap, and one smaller strip of burlap for the tie.

I saw a nifty trick for neatly cutting burlap from Sharon @ Elizabeth & Co.  Locate a string at the width you want to cut your burlap.  Make a small cut on that string then pull it up.

Now just gently work the string out of the fabric.  Don't force it - if you do it will break the string.  As you gently pull on the string the fabric will bunch up. 

When the fabric bunches up like the picture above, gently pull the fabric above the bunch (the top part of the picture).  This will straighten out the fabric and remove the string.

You will be left with small spaces where the string was.  Now you can have evenly cut strips of burlap!

After I cut the strips out I pulled off a string from each side of the strip.  This makes it look more ruffled. Plus you can save the strings and use them for other projects (I used them on my Littles' Goodie Baskets).

I wanted to do this wreath fairly fast.  Even faster than hot glue.  So I used nails! =)  I bought a HUGE box of nails a long time ago - I use them for every thing.

I positioned the strip where I wanted it and put two nails in it.  Make sure the nails are on the under/backside where they won't be seen.

Wrap your strip around until it ends, then lay your next strip on top of it.  Put in two more nails (again, make sure they won't be seen) then continue until you have wrapped your entire wreath.

Now you can decorate it any way you want!

I love bright colors, so I used all the colors of the rainbow again.  I made a ton of rosettes in various sizes and color.  I played around with the location until they looked how I wanted them to.  I placed a few of them on the wreath using nails just to secure them.  I hot glued the rest of them.

I wrapped some of the fabric up in burlap to make a different design.

Then I ripped the "H" off my Spring wreath and glued it on this one!

Here it all is together...

I used the small burlap strip to make a small tie to hang off the hanger.

I love this one even more than the last one! And it doesn't shed! I am going to store the other wreath for next year!

Cheers!!

Linking to these awesome parties!

Eisy Morgan, Savvy Southern Style, Sisters of the Wild West

Something BIG for My Littles!

This Thursday the newest PA class starts at Trevecca (poor things)!  Each member of the class of 2012 (my class) gets assigned a "little" from the class of 2013 (the newbies).  Their class is a little larger than ours, so I was assigned two littles!

They have orientation all Thursday morning, then we come in all flashy in our white coats to give them some motivation and goodie baskets during lunch!  I couldn't wait to make something super cute for my two littles!  My "Big" is pretty much a rockstar, and I want my littles to think the same of me! =)

I started with these two baskets from Goodwill.

I painted them with Valspar's Sonic Plum, then taped them off to spray on chalkboard paint.

Now they're ready for some goodies!

I wanted these to look like a bouquet of school goodies.  So first I took bamboo skewers (the kind used for grilling) and cut them in half.  I painted them aqua and pink with acrylic paint.  Here they are sitting on wax paper to dry.

I then packed the inside of the baskets with that foamy green stuff used for floral arrangements.  P.S. - It stinks, and it crumbles, and I don't like how it feels under my nails.

Then I covered the top with the spanish moss I have from Hobby Lobby.  That $6 bag of moss has allowed me to do so many projects! I love it!

Now for the bouquet part.  For the past few nights I sat on the couch making fabric rosettes.  I glued one onto each basket, then made magnets out of the rest of them. On the above basket, only the small orange rosette is glued on.  The other two rosettes are magnets.

I took all of the items I wanted in the basket and either hot glued them to the painted skewers, or wrapped them onto the painted skewers with twine.  Then I shoved them into the green foamy stuff over and over until I had an arrangement I was pleased with!

I used a knife to sharpen my chalk to a point so I could write on the front of their goodie baskets.  I know the writing is kind of small.  They say the student's name, followed by Class of 2013.

Here is Ashley's.

The inside is filled with highlighters, pens, pencils, a mini stapler, post-it page tabs, notecards, rosette magnets, and note cards.  All the essentials for school!

And here is Jennifer's.

I can't wait to meet them this Thursday! I hope they love their goodies!

Cheers!

Linking to These Parties!

Sisters of the Wildwest, Savvy Southern Style. Eisy Morgan

Pink Stitches Winner!

Are you all dying to know who won?!  I know I was!!

The winner of this awesome bag is -

Christina from Christina's Adventures!  She said:

CONGRATULATIONS Christina!!

Shoot me an e-mail with your snail mail address so we can get you your prize! 

kharris08 {at} gmail {dot} com
Please contact me within 48 hours or I'll have to choose a new winner!

Thanks again to all of you awesome folks!! You rock my world!

Cheers!

Monkeying Around and A Giveaway Reminder!

DON'T FORGET!!

The Pink Stitches giveaway ends tomorrow @ Midnight!!

Don't miss your chance to win this awesome bag!!

Every Wednesday night the hubby and I have dinner @ the in-laws house with his Sister and her family.

I came across a cute idea of monkey cupcakes last month (I cannot for the life of me remember what blog it was)... I've been dying to make them ever since! So I did!

They are really easy to make and look adorable!  Just make your cupcakes like the box tells you and be sure to get chocolate icing.

While the cupcakes were baking I went ahead and cut up the vanilla wafers for the face and ears. 

For the face, you use 3/4 of a regular size vanilla wafer.  I used a serrated knife to kind of 'saw' off the 1/4 I didn't need.

Then I placed all the faces on wax paper and applied the mouth with red icing.

I used four different faces.  I love them!  Then I made two little dots above the mouth for the nose using black icing.  Here they are laid out with the faces on the right, and the ears on the left. 

The ears are mini vanilla wafers cut in 1/2.  Again, I cut them in a saw-like motion with a serrated knife.

After your cupcakes cool down ice those bad boys up!

After I frosted the cupcakes I started to build the face.  First I pressed the 'face' vanilla wafer in the bottom on the cupcake, then put the two 'ears' above and just next the face.  It helps if you push them into the cupcake... they look better and stick better!  Two dots for the eyes and you're done!

This shows the variety of faces.

These weren't really expensive to make, but because you had to buy the special colored icing and the two types of vailla wafers it added up.  It was roughly $13 to make 2 dozen.  But man they were cute and delicious!

Cheers!

Magnets - It's Science

It's science.  That's one of my favorite phrases.  When the hubby and I are trying to disprove each other that's our go-to phrase - It's science.  You can't argue science.

I don't know how that's related to my project, but I guess magnets make me think of science!

Anywho!  If you've been around for a little bit you've seen my magnetic chalkboard calender.  I didn't like the way my numbers looked and I got tired of rewriting them every month (I'm lazy like that). 

So when I saw Becky's calender magnet project I was sold.  I had to do this! It was easy and perfect!

Off I went to Michael's to gather my supplies!  I found a baggie full of assorted size wood circles.  Originally I was going to do 1" circles, but the 3/4" circle cutter thing was a lot cheaper, so I used the 3/4" wood circles.  One bag had enough circles for that size - had I used the 1" circles I would have needed two bags.

I used a hot pink acrylic paint color to paint the discs - I used one of my craft paint brushes too so I could just throw it away when I was done.

Here is the little circle paper cutter thing.

While my wood circles were drying I printed out my numbers.  I used French Script in size 52 font.  I just created a word document with the numbers 1-31 and spaced them out real well.  Then I printed them onto my cardstock.  I used the circle paper cutter thing to cut out all my numbers.

Here they are in order:

Now Michael's had a pack of heavy duty circular magnets for $6 - but for $1 I bought this magnet roll and just cut it up.  These magnets aren't as heavy duty, so I would not recommend them if you need a strong magnet - but for my lightweight wood numbers it was just fine.

I cut the magnet strips into pieces then pulled all the paper off.  I used my hot glue gun to glue them onto the wood chips (that still don't have the numbers glued on).

I purposefully glued the magnets on first so I would have something to grasp while glueing on the numbers.

I used a blob of modpodge to glue on the cardstock circles with the numbers.

Again, I used one of my craft brushes and just spread out the modpodge onto the wood, placed on the cardstock circle, then put another layer on top of the circle.

I put them on my chalkboard while they were drying.  The only step that Becky did that I did not do was apply the Modpodge dimensional magic glue on top of my numbers.  Honestly it's just because I couldn't remember what I needed while I was at Michaels.  I'll probably go back later and do this step. It really finishes them off nicely.

Here they are on my chalkboard! Much better looking, and so much easier to change each month!

I also updated to May finally (half-way through the month) and made some magnetic rosettes.  They are crazy difficult to photograph! One day I'll buy a pimptastic camera!

See this?! Only 92 (91 now) days until I start clinical rotations! That means no more class! This makes Katie VERY happy! =)

Before I liked my calender - now I LOVE it! =)

Project Cost:

Wood discs - $2.50

Paint - $1.25

Cardstock - $0.59

Magnet - $1.00

Everything else I had on hand!

Don't forget about my 300 followers giveaway! It's the bee's knees! =)

Cheers!

Linking to these fabulous parties!
Sisters of the Wild West, Wow Us Wednesdays, Eisy Morgan