Monday, March 31, 2014

Baby Shower Bliss

In my previous post, I mentioned that the season of spring has sprung. Want to know what other season has sprung? Baby season! It seems like everyone we know has just had a baby, is about to have a baby, or has just found out that they are going to have a baby! Babies everywhere! 

I was honored to get to participate in planning a baby shower for my great friend Lindsey! Today I'm going to share the decoration I made. It looks like a piñata- and very well could be with a few simple modifications to the process! I was a little nervous to commit to making this because I wasn't sure how long it would take. But once I said it out loud and told the other girls what I was making, I had no choice but to carry on and hope it wasn't a major fail. 

There were a few piñata how-to's online that I got inspiration from. And for a brief moment I thought about making it a piñata... maybe full of airplane bottles for all of us guests who were not pregnant. But the thought of a flying bat, blindfolds, and pregnant women just didn't seem like a good idea! 

Here's what I did:

Step 1- Find big cardboard boxes that are in decent shape. I got mine at work and everyone was confused as to why I needed them. When I answered, "I'm making some baby shower decorations" they looked even more confused. 

Step 2- Search the entire town for baby pink crepe paper. Yeah, impossible. I gave up. 

Step 3- Settle for white crepe paper and buy 2 rolls of it... not 4. I always err on the side of having more rather than less. But now I have 3 1/2 rolls of crepe paper that I don't know what to do with. 

Step 4- Deconstruct your boxes carefully. 

Step 5- Trace the letter of choice onto a large piece of one of the boxes. My letter was an M. 

Step 6-Cut the M out. 


Step 7- Place the cut out M on top of another large piece of box and trace it. 

Step 8- Cut out the second M. 

**Note- if you'll be hanging this up, you may want to take this opportunity to poke some holes in the back and add a hanger of some sort. I poked two holes on each side of the back M and inserted a zip tie into each to make a loop. We hung the M on command hooks at the shower. Worked great!

Step 9- Cut 3-4" strips of cardboard that will act as the sides of the letter and will join each M together. 


Step 10- Tape away! I taped from the outside and the inside. I used masking tape, duct tape would probably be much stronger. 


Step 11- Keep taping!!! There is never too much tape! 



Step 12- Admire your creation and think about how beautiful it will look once it is covered up... because truthfully, it looks a little rough right now. 


Step 13- Cut a bazillion strips of crepe paper to cover every single part of the letter. You will take a piece, fold it in half lengthwise, and make multiple snips along it to create the frayed look. 

Step 14- Use Elmer's glue to glue each strip onto the letter, slightly overlapped so there are no spaces. Warning: this part takes forever!!! However long you think it is going to take... triple that. That's probably a more accurate guess. 




An the finished product (along with the beautiful mommy-to-be & company):


It was a beautiful and perfect day! 

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Spring Door Decor

Although the weather does not reflect the  new season, spring has sprung! The days are getting longer and the weather is, well, unpredictable to say the least. Hopefully it will become more consistent soon. Preferably consistently warm! 

In lieu of the new season, I decided to switch up my door decor. Thanks to one of my favorite websites- Jane.com- I got a great deal on this adorable bunny door hanger. It was only $12.99! The company that makes it (www.unfinishedwoodco.com) typically sells it for a little more but they were running a special through Jane.com. 


Isn't it cute?! As the name states, it arrives unfinished. This leaves the options wide open! I decided to use all supplies I had on hand. I didn't feel like buying anything special for it.

I taped off the monogram in the middle:


Next I spray painted it yellow:


Took off the tape:


Check out those crisp lines! ;) 


I decided to try and stain the monogram in the middle with my old stand-by, Restor-a-Finish:




Then I made a bow-type thing for the ear out of burlap:




There's something about it I'm not 100% satisfied with... is it the stain? I'm not sure. I'm going to have to leave it hanging for a few days before I can decide! I do think that the stained monogram will be difficult to see against our black door... I wasn't really thinking of that when I made it! Oops! I will update the post if I repaint. 

Thanks for reading!