Creating Boho Bedroom Decor with the Cricut Explore Air 2

This post is brought to you by Cricut. All opinions are 100% my own.
We are in a transition phase of our life where we have more bedrooms that are empty than full. We've got young adults who are moving out on their own {and even buying their own houses!} and while I've had a few naysayers tell me to save room because "they'll be back," I'm pretty sure the only time the big kids of mine will be back is to visit. I recently transformed one of the kids' bedrooms into a boho guest room using my Cricut Explore Air 2, and it's slowly becoming my favorite room of the house. I didn't have a huge budget to work with, but it's easy to DIY on the cheap making something custom you love using the Cricut.

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How to Make Stickers Using the Cricut Joy

Just a few days into quarantine, my Cricut Joy got delivered to my front steps and I'm telling ya, that's one of the only things keeping me sane these days. I've had fun crafting and creating with it and learning how to use it. It's actually not hard to use the Joy. In fact, I find the Cricut products to be so much more user-friendly than the Silhouette products.  {read more about which one I think is better, the Cricut or the Silhouette} Because the Joy is the smallest cutting machine out there, it's got its own selection of smart materials that go with it. I'm trying out a new one and making stickers using the Cricut Joy. Come see how I do it!

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Stop Ignoring Twitter! How Bloggers and Small Businesses Can Grow a Relevant and Engaged Audience on Twitter

I don't talk a lot about the background of what I do as a blogger, but over the 14 years that I've been blogging, I've grown my blog from a place to share family photos to a small business that helps to provide for our family. What was once a hobby blog, is now an LLC that has been created to help share content to followers all over the world! When I was in college, there was no career out there that involved blogging or social media marketing degrees. The internet barely existed! I've seen blogging evolve and change over time, and we've seen the start of social media in our lifetime. Social media will forever change our world and we've had a front seat to it all! It's crazy!

My blog started to evolve and change. Maybe you've been along for the ride since the beginning. If so, thank you! If you are new here, welcome! I really want this to be a place where I can share real people, real projects and real life. The internet and social media are full of enough fake and curated content, I want to be the girlfriend you can trust who will help you along the way.

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DIY Metallic Mirrored End Table

I've been slowly putting together my teen daughters room. She loves metallics and silver and all things glam. I've shared several DIY projects from the room from the wallpaper to the tufted headboard to the painted bench at the end of her bed, but now I'm going to show you the metallic mirrored inlay end table I just made this week. She's been loving all of the mirrored dressers and tables we see but they are a little out of the budget. I finally found a solution and managed to make a similar mirrored table for a fraction of the price {under $20 to be exact!}.  It was an easy DIY project that I completed in a day and you can too! Come check out how I did it!

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DIY Faux Hand-Lettered Holiday Scroll Wall Hanging

I know this isn't a new confession if you are a long-time blog reader, but Christmas music is not my favorite. There are few songs that make the short list of allowable holiday songs, but O Holy Night is one of them. Every year it seems a different line of that song sticks out to me as one to focus on and this year, the line "and the soul felt its worth" is that line I can't shake. What a powerful line! So much so, that I wanted to hang it in my home somewhere. I was shopping at a holiday market and saw some beautiful kraft paper scrolls and knew that I could replicate it quite easily for a fraction of the price using a line that was meaningful to me. So with packaging paper from the dollar store and a few supplies I had on hand, I made a DIY hand-lettered sign minus the hand lettering. 

As much as I try, I can't seem to make my writing produce the beautiful script, and I revisited a chalkboard hack I shared with you years ago to create this faux hand-lettered scroll wall hanging. See how I created this large holiday wall hanging for around $1!

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Easy DIY Christmas Tree Basket Stand

Growing up my uncle had a Christmas tree farm. One of my favorite childhood memories was going up to the farm to pick out two live Christmas trees every year. While my parents were setting up the trees in their various locations around the house, the kids had an artificial flocked Christmas tree we used to set up in the hallway upstairs. We would surround it with our stuffed animals and it was something we could easily decorate on our own, unlike the 12-foot-tall trees we got for the other parts of the house. I loved that we had a tree that was all our own. 

I can't seem to shake the feeling that it isn't Christmas if I don't have more than one tree decorating the house. I picked up a small artificial tree this past summer at a garage sale for $2 and I decided that it was the perfect tree to work some magic on. I loved the idea of our old flocked Christmas tree, so I did a little DIY flocking. {more on that tomorrow! You aren't going to want to miss that tutorial.} All of the supplies were from the dollar store and it was so fun and easy.

Another recent trend that I'm loving is using baskets as a base. I saw a few Christmas tree collars lining the shelves at the store, but I was pretty sure that I could DIY a basket for a similar look. And I did. I just love how it turned out. Read along for the full tutorial on how to create your own Christmas tree stand basket.

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DIY Rosemary Place-card Wreath

I don't host Thanksgiving. We normally have around 50 of us around a table, so decorating and doing fancy little touches like these DIY rosemary place card wreaths, just isn't possible, but that doesn't mean it's not any less fun to play around with them this time of year and put together some fun tablescapes. But maybe you do. And maybe you are looking for a fun way to add a little festive touch to your holiday table. These DIY rosemary wreaths would be perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas. They will last up to 4 or 5 days so you can make them ahead of time for your next holiday party. I've got the full tutorial. It's easy!

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DIY Agate Look Ceramic Tile Coasters with Gold Edge Made with Alcohol Ink

I don't want to say I'm a craft supply hoarder but I kind of am. My husband has been asking that I get rid of this box of tiles I've had in my garage for nearly two years but I just couldn't. I knew there was a perfect project waiting for them, it just hadn't come to me yet. Inspiration finally struck and I had everything I needed to create a fun project. I made these easy DIY Agate stone looking coasters and finished them off with a gold edge. It was my first time using alcohol ink and it was so much fun! My son joined me because it involved lighting things on fire! Don't be afraid, it's super easy and the end result is really pretty cool. Come get the full tutorial on how you can make your own.

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DIY Personalized Wedding Gift Tray

The invitations have already started arriving in my mailbox for this summer. It's wedding season! I love creating fun easy personalized gifts for the bride and groom. The trick is to make something they are going to actually use too, not just something that will take up space. When I saw this blank tray at my local Goodwill, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it! Come see how I took this boring tray and created a fun personalized wedding gift that the couple is sure to enjoy.

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How to Bell Train Your Dog to Go Outside

How to Bell Train Your Dog to Go Outside

When we first adopted Sophie, I had several friends suggest that we bell train our dog. I had never heard of bell training before so of course, I had a lot of questions.

What is bell training? 

 Bell training consists of teaching your dog how to ring a bell whenever they need to go outside.

Why should you bell train your dog? 

Because with bell training, you will be able to hear when you dog needs to go out. I used sign language with my babies before they could talk, this seems very similar to me...the ability to communicate with your dog.

How do you bell train your dog? 

We started by hanging a single bell on a string by the door. Every time we would take Sophie out, we would ring the bell and head outside. During our house training phase we were going outside every hour on the hour and she was getting a treat every time she would come back in. 

How long does it take to bell train your dog?

 I think it depends on the dog. Within the first two days, Sophie was dinging the bell on her own. Definitely after a week, she knew that if she would ding the bell we would take her out. Sometimes she would even ding it if she knew there were kids outside that she wanted to play with!

UPDATE: we bell trained a rescue dog in less than 48 hours using these same techniques. It's easy!

How to make your own Dog Training Bells for your Door

Start with your materials:

You will need four large bells. I got mine at JoAnn's two for $1.

keychains-mine were from the dollar store-you will need four

7/8" grosgrain ribbon

The key chains came like this. I unwound the extra chains so I was left with just the ring. Then take the ring, and put one bell on each ring.

I cut about 30" of ribbon. This will all depend on how long you want it to hang. When Sophie was smaller, the string we started with was too short. So make sure it hangs down low enough for the dog to be able to nose it.

Thread through the bells and starting eying the placement. You want two hanging at the bottom and two about five inches up from the bottom.

You form a loop that the bells rest in and sew the ribbon together making sure the bells hang how you want them to.

Make sure you also form a loop for the door handle. Again, taking into consideration the height of your handle and the height of your dog.

That's it! As always with training, consistency is key. Have you bell trained your dog? I want to hear about your experience.

 

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Sheet music wreath

Easy to Make Sheet Music Wreath Tutorial

On Monday, I shared with you how I made my sheet music Christmas trees.

Today, I will be sharing with you how I made my rolled sheet music wreath.

Isn't it beautiful?!

I started with a large piece of sheet music.

Roll the sheet music lengthwise.

I always knew I had a good roll when I would end up with a triangle in the middle of my cone.

Glue the end of the paper in place with your glue gun.

I used a Styrofoam circle from the Dollar Store.

You all know how much I love the Dollar Store!

I marked the center with a dot, but I don't think it really matters one way or another.

Once I rolled a fair amount of cones, I was ready to start gluing them on to the Styrofoam circle.

I made a large cone pattern to start off with,

then slowly starting to fill in the spaces as equally as possible.

Once I finished gluing the cones on as full as I could, this is what it looks like from the front.

I did the same thing to the front of the wreath filling in the Styrofoam with cones until I was pleased with the fullness of it.  The center needed to be finished off with something, so I decided to attempt to make a sheet music fan for the center.

I took 3 sheets of 2 inch wide paper for the big fan

and one sheet of one inch wide paper for the small fan

Small fan tutorial

1. fold the small paper accordion style

2. glue one end to the other end and place on it's side

3. carefully gather and pinch the end pushing down in the center to make a flower.  Place a small piece of glue in the center to hold it together.

Large fan tutorial 

1. fold the three sheets accordion style

2. glue each end to one another

3. form a circle with the paper

4. pinch and glue the inside together 

 I glued the big fan and the small fan together, and then glued it to the center of the wreath.

You could also glitter the edges of the fan if you wanted to.

 That's it!

Glue a ribbon to the back and hang your wreath in your favorite spot!

As you can see, I really love sheet music. Have you made anything beautiful with sheet music?

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Easy chalkboard typography art tutorial

Easy chalkboard typography art tutorial

Remember this summer when I told you about how I met a new friend in the construction business?

Jose was gutting a house a few doors down and had piles of vintage windows in the trash pile.

I salvaged them and made some into chalkboards to sell at a local craft bazaar.

I didn't want to just sell the window plain, so I jumped on the chalkboard typography bandwagon and spruced them up a bit before I listed them for sale.

I had been thinking of borrowing a friends overhead transparency projector but didn't get around to asking her in time, so I went with plan B.  Which was much easier than I expected.

Here's the tutorial for you because I hate to keep a good thing to myself.

First, find an image that you want to use.

I googled images and found a few that I liked then cut and pasted them in word.

I enlarged this one and printed it off.

This one was larger than the others and needed to be taped together.

 Next, chalk the heck out of the back of the page.

Rub the whole thing down doing your best to not miss any spots.

Also be aware of where your hand is when you rub the chalk down. 

You don't want your hand to take away chalk that you rubbed on.

Turn your image over and place it where you want it on your chalkboard.

Use a sharp pencil and trace over your image.

When you have traced the entire image, remove the paper.

This is what it will look like.

Now use your chalk and fill in the image.

Blow off the extra chalk dust and wipe around the image to remove as much of the extra chalk as you can.

I sprayed my chalk art with hairspray to help it stay in place.

Then I printed off even more images and used this technique on every chalked surface I could find!

It was that easy!

At the craft bazaar it was something that would draw people in to look in my booth. It was so much easier than I thought it would be and made such a big impact. Think you will try it?

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Sweet as Pie Printable Gift Tag

Did you know that Walmart has these little boxes of mini pies in their bakery for fifty cents? Seriously, this has got to be one of the best buys out there right now. Can you imagine having these as favors at a wedding or a fall party? You could even give them as gifts to your friends. I decided that to make them an even better gift to give, you need a printable gift tag to go with them. I've got one for you, plus, if you want to design your own gift tag, I'm telling you step by step how I did it in PicMonkey  {one of my favorite design softwares} and then cut it on my Silhouette Cameo.

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DIY Lighted Fall Canvas

There is something special and magical about twinkling lights. It's one of my favorite things about Christmas, but why let that holiday have all the fun? Lights are the perfect addition to an inexpensive canvas that I found while doing my weekly shopping at Walmart where I always walk out with a cart full of things that weren't on my list! If you love inexpensive home decor projects that you can DIY, this lighted canvas is something you can create in about an hour. I've got the full tutorial for you so read on!

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DIY Spray Painted Coffee Tumblers

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of The J.M. Smucker Company. The opinions and text are all mine.

I've got two things that will sum up my summer so far...iced coffee and a good book. I simply cannot get enough. Last summer, I found some double walled tumblers at my local Walmart and I am obsessed with spray painting them and adding vinyl. Not only do I love personalizing them, I love that they keep cold things cold {like my current favorite, Folgers Simply Gourmet Natural Caramel coffee} and hot things hot. Plus, you can pick up all the supplies you need to make them, including all four great flavors {chocolate, caramel, vanilla and cinnamon} of Folgers new Simply Gourmet coffee while shopping at Walmart. I get compliments all the time on my spray painted coffee tumblers and people are always amazed when I tell them that I made them. Don't miss out, I'm going to show you how you can make your own!

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