Valentine's Mantle Display

I love decorating for the holidays. And Valentine's has to be one of my favorites. 

I love red and I love hearts and I love chocolate!

To see last years mantle display head over here. I added a couple things this year 

(and I've got a new house and new mantle).

I created the "Oh How He Loves US and the B + C (that's Ben plus Chessa!) 

with my Silhouette on an 8 x 10 canvas that I painted. 

I bought hollow cardboard L O V E letters and spray painted them silver.

I just adore these little arrows!

  I cut out hearts and arrows from red and white felt.

Grabbed some sticks from the backyard.

 And hot glued the felt on each side.

Super simple. And it only took me a couple minutes.

 Aren't they so cute?!

 This could be a great craft for kids too!

 I also cut some little felt hearts and glue them to sticks (also found in my backyard). 

For the DIY on my sweater vase go here. 

I love this Subway art created by Diana at Project Inspire. You can find it here.

Make sure to head back next week, I've got another mantle to share and 

my very own Valentines Subway Art I created and I'd like to share! 

Paint Stick Mirror

I'm super excited about my Did-it-Myself Paint Stick Mirror!

It's so easy and I know you're going to want to make one too!

First of all you're going to need to collect about 40 paint sticks.

(I did not get them all at the same time! 

But I think most places are willing to give you a hand-full with a purchase.)

 With my mirror upside down I penciled off the mirror into pie shaped sections 

to help me arrange the paint sticks a little more "orderly." 

 I used Gorilla glue to adhere the paint sticks to the back of the mirror. As you can see I stained the sticks almost all the way to the top. 

No need to do the whole thing when you won't see all of it anyway.

 (and it makes it eaiser to stain when you can hold part of the stick!)

I marked off each stick 3" from the end. I wanted to make sure I positioned them all equally.

After applying a little dap of the Gorilla Glue (not too much, it expands!) 

I put some weight on the ends of my sticks to keep everything in place.

 I also glued a picture hanger right to the back of the mirror.

 It's so light weight!

So simple!

And so very affordable. My mirror was $5.99 and I used a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby. 

Paint sticks were FREE. I had the stain and Gorilla Glue. Can't beat it!

Square Bean Bag Chair

Check out my DIY Square Bean Bag Chair!

It's the perfect addition to my little girls room.

We needed a little reading nook for Katelyn's room and

 I looked all over for something. I couldn't find anything I loved,
so I decided to create something myself!

Here's how I did it:

I started with four cotton fabrics.

AND

White Duck

2 long zippers (about 25" long)

2 1/2 bags of Bean Bag Filler (found them here at Wal-mart).

First I made a plain square out of white duck for the inside layer. I wanted it to be thick and durable. 

I made the square like this (I sketched it out for you!)

The square measuring roughly 30 x 15 for the four sides 

and 30 x 30 for the top and bottom. 

I sewed all the pieces together (making a big square).

Adding the zipper to one of the sides. 

When I was all done I had two squares, one in the duck the other in my printed fabrics.

Wait until you are completely done to add the bean bag filler (I made this mistake and it was really hard to get the cover over the inside square that was full of the little beans!)

It also doubles as a dog bed! I find Ginger taking naps here.

I used some of the left over fabric and re-created the bunting 

on this canopy Katelyn grabbed at a yard sale.

Lot's of reading to be done here.

And a little snuggling with the pooch.

Sweater Vases

Snuggling up in your favorite sweater by the fire inspired by new mantle display!

My latest creation had me working on

"up-cycling" sweaters by wrapping them around glass containers.

 I bought a total of three sweaters at three different thrift shops. 

(I was washing two of them when I took this picture).

I grabbed some vases, glass containers and a couple jars and starting playing around.

 For the majority of them I just cut the sleeve off and 

used doubled sided tape on the bottoms and inside to keep the sweaters in place. 

I love this idea because it's not permanent. I can take the sweaters off when I'm tired of this look.

 I used some dried flowers to fill one vase. A candle in another. 

And wrapped a couple books with some white linen paper and tied it up with some string.

 After I wrapped all my glass containers, I decided to make a couple pillows!

I'm lovin' this warm cozy look for winter!