Tag Archives: cheap

Quick and Easy Bar Sign Ideas – Made for around $8!

Posted on by

0

 

 

IMG_2951

Hello there! Little man P and I have just returned home from a nice long visit to family back home on the east coast. While I’m hesitant to call my trip a “vacation” because of all the running around we did pretty much the entire time, it was definitely a ton of fun and super productive – especially when it came to DIY-ing!

Since my Mom aka Nanny (Nanny is what P calls my Mom but for the purpose of this post it might as well be used in the vocational sense as well, haha) was more than willing to help out with my stinky frog I had a lot of time to devote to working on several projects, all of which I’m excited to share with you! I’ll start off by sharing these adorable bar signs that I whipped up using an $8.00 piece of wood. I actually ended up deviating from my original plan which was to attempt to create a DIY marquee bar sign but once I completed the painting part of the sign I chickened out on drilling the holes and inserting the lights because I thought it was super cute just the way it was (hopefully I can attempt the marquee sign soon though!) 🙂

phonto

As far as a tutorial goes I’ll share the fonts (usually I find fun fonts via dafont.com but these particular fonts are all available in current versions of Microsoft Word!) that I used for the signs but for an actual how-to hop over to my DIY Hand-Painted Sign post for a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a hand painted sign without a Silhouette or Cricut. These signs will also be available as a set in my Etsy shop if you’re looking to purchase something to spice up the look of your bar area or are in the market for a similar custom product (here is the link for this specific listing) 🙂

The original piece of wood (1’X4′)
completed “BAR” sign
My view while working on the second sign 🙂

 

PRODUCTS/FONTS USED:

wood – 1 4’X1′ piece cut in half // paint – “Ultra White” and “Front Door Red” by Valspar // stain – “Jacobean” by Minwax // font for “bar” sign – “Bernard MT Condensed” // font for “eat, drink & be merry” sign – “Bernard MT Condensed”, “Script MT Bold”, “Algerian”

 

 

 

Simple Valentine’s Day Wreath

Posted on by

0

IMG_0039

Another holiday is right around the corner and depending on your personality (or relationship status, ha) you either love or hate this one – love everywhere, prepping for a fun night out (or in, in my case), flowers, the color PINK, tiny candy hearts … as you may have guessed I’m in the “love it” camp on this one … Valentine’s Day!!! I’m a sucker for really any holiday and no, we shouldn’t need a special day to shower the one we love with affection and goodies but isn’t it so fun nonetheless? Mine and J’s personal couple tradition since before we were even married has been to dress up and have a fancy dinner at home (this year’s meal includes a special shrimp appetizer that is a Schulze original and as long as it isn’t a total bust I plan on sharing it on the blog next week!). We prefer sharing a few cocktails in the relaxed environment of our own home, cooking a super fancy meal together  and really enjoying each other’s company as opposed to spending our Valentine’s Day in a crowded restaurant. It’s the simple things, right? Which brings me to this wreath – a super simple way to have an eye-catching door all month long!

182734_10150413236975486_818742_n

A few years (and a few pounds *sigh* lol) ago in our old place having our traditional “fancy” night in.

I was originally inspired by a wreath I came across on Pinterest (pictured below). Since the only necessary components seemed to be a grape vine wreath, a wooden letter and an assortment of ribbon, this seemed to be an easy fix for my Valentine’s Day door! I have been super into grapevine wreaths lately and have quite a few posts about them on the backburner (here is a fun springtime wreath using a grapevine frame) but for now I will say that I love them for a few reasons but mostly because they’re super cheap (you can get one for under $5.00, however, I  always use a coupon so it will come in around $2.50 or so) and they are super easy to work with; the tightly wound vines allow things to be stuck into them easily and pretty much any adhesive bonds well with them so it is easy to adhere embellishments as well. This wreath is very reminiscent of my St. Patty’s Day Rag Wreath which utilized mostly left over crafting supplies to create and I applied that same idea here as most of my ribbon I had on hand or was able to find half off at Hobby Lobby. This is a great beginner’s wreath as it doesn’t require any particular skill so if you can tie a knot you can do it, I promise, lol! Check out the tutorial below and if you’re feeling adventurous hop on over to my other Valentine’s Day posts (an Oversized Porch Sign and another Valentine’s Day Wreath) for some more crafting inspiration in this month of love xoxo.

12741884_10156521467810486_1622838805484619586_n

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Schulzes to you!!!

 

 

7d4e043a9926a96046b45fe84e816c05

My “pinspiration” – follow the link to find this particular wreath for sale here on Etsy – http://www.etsy.com/listing/175318886

 

IMG_0316

My version!

SUPPLIES

  • 12″ grapevine wreath – available at any craft store or where crafting supplies are sold.
  • assortment of wired ribbon of varying sizes – it isn’t 100% necessary to use wired ribbon but the ribbon will look more poofy and have a bit more structure and ability to stand up to the elements this way. The amount of ribbon is totally up to you, I think I used about six.
  • wooden letter – I chose to paint mine white and then add some hearts using this method. You can always just draw hearts or polka dots using an oil based Sharpie paint pen as well.
  • paint (for wooden letter, optional) –  latex, spray paint, acrylic really anything will do. I chose to spray paint mine because I already had some on hand and it’s probably the easiest method.

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. If you plan to paint your wooden letter, do this first. With any luck it will be dry by the time you finish the rest of the wreath.
  2. Begin by cutting your ribbon into about 3-4 inch strips. Some can be longer or shorter and in fact it’s more fun if they are not all the same size so that it creates a less uniform look.
  3. Next, begin tying your ribbons randomly onto different areas of the half of the wreath you’ve chosen to decorate. Simply loop the ribbon under one of the vines and then tie – that’s it! Repeat in this fashion until you’ve achieved a dense look with little to no wreath base showing through.
  4. To attach your wooden letter either tie it on using ribbon or if you have access to a staple gun (which is what I did) staple a pipe cleaner or other wire to the back of the letter and tie it onto the wreath in this manner.
  5. At this point feel free to add any additional embellishments (like my little glittery Styrofoam hearts) – the dollar store is a great resource for little things like this!

That’s it! If you’re like me and measure units of time in “naptimes” then this should only take you about 3/4 of a naptime lol. 

vdaywreath2

Last year’s Valentine’s Day porch!

Coastal Chic Side Table Re-do – Blizzard Project #2

Posted on by

1

IMG_0556

Okay well I might be exaggerating about the “blizzard” part of this project a bit. The snow left just about as quickly as it came so “post-blizzard” project would probably be a more appropriate title :-p. However, since I had every intention of finishing this one up just as quickly as my first two-tone side table (an actual blizzard project that you can check out via the previous link), in the interest of not taking away from my sense of accomplishment I will still group it in with my other blizzard-inspired creations ;-).

Before pictures – this old girl definitely needed some help!

I had mentioned in my previous post that I’m constantly browsing the local online yard sale sites in hopes of coming across some perfectly-priced furniture treasures in need of a face lift. I’m so thankful for this method of seeking out pieces to re-do because while P is quite the well behaved little boy, thrift store hopping with a toddler in tow can present a wide array of challenges, haha. Additionally, cruising the online buy/sell/trade pieces has also helped me find some great furniture re-sale and consignment stores I might not have easily found otherwise and that is exactly how I came across this particular piece. Through her posts on our local area B/S/T page I was able to become connected with the home-based business Willow Tree Restorations (I have linked her Facebook business page just in case you are checking in from the NOVA area or simply want some inspiration, her work is fantastic!) where the owner, a woman after my own heart, finds and refinishes beautiful vintage pieces. While I love her refinished pieces oh-so much I especially love that most of the pieces she finds she will also offer up as-is so that DIY enthusiasts such as myself can try their handy work at making them their own.

How cute is sweet P helping to sand?! My little DIY-er in training. NOTE: I know a lot of people don’t bother sanding when using chalk paint but I always just give it a quick run over by hand with a sanding block or with the small electric sander on the larger surface areas of a piece.

As for the re-furb story behind this particular piece, I have been obsessing over the two-tone look lately (I’ve posted a few of my inspirational pieces below) and after my success with the last piece I knew I wanted to try it out with some color, especially because I knew that I didn’t have a place for this particular piece in my home and would probably be re-homing it, I could really get creative with a color scheme other than what I’ve been working with. While the beachy and “coastal-chic” color pallets have never had a place in my personal décor I’m loving blues, whites and aquas more and more as of late! The particular colors I mixed for this particular project (see this post for information on how I mix my own chalk paint) are “Patina Blue” by Valspar and “Antique White” by Valspar (a great white somewhere between true white and ivory that I use for a lot of projects). I mentioned in my previous post that I’ve been trying out some new products in an effort to go a natural route with my top coats and waxes as opposed to harsher products like Minwax so for this particular project I tried out Chalk Mountain Wax available on Amazon – I was very happy with how great the wax turned out and the pack of two waxes also come with a wax brush all for under $30.00 so definitely great value there. After lightly distressing the edges of the table I waxed the entire piece first with the clear wax followed by a single light coat of the dark, just to add some warmth. In the interest of giving the piece a complete facelift I picked up some new pulls from Hobby Lobby while they were 50% off (normally $4.99 each), I love how new pulls or knobs can really transform a piece and you definitely see that in the before and afters here, I suppose it was unnecessary but I can always reuse the original pulls on another piece in the future!

My little apprentice in action again! lol Thankfully I switched to that all natural wax. This little munch came right over and took the brush out of my hand and said “I’ll do it! I’ll do it!”.

IMG_0555

Wow – that was a long post for such a little side table, lol. I hope it inspires a little coastal-chic project of your own … or maybe even inspires a trip somewhere warm (can you tell I’m longing for summer over here? haha). Speaking of inspiration, two of the pictures below are linked to the online shops of friends of mine, so please check out and “like” their pages – they are super talented and even if you are not local to their areas to shop with them they are certainly a wealth of inspiration!

Here are a few pieces that inspired this project. Secretary desk: Shabby Chic Boutique Desk: The Handcrafted Life Dresser (found via Pinterest): Homeroad

Two-tone Side Table Re-do: Blizzard Project #1

Posted on by

0

phonto1.jpg

Personally being stuck in the house drives me crazy. Whether it’s running errands or just being outside with friends, little P and I are gone most of the day and I love it that way! Needless to say as winter storm Jonas approached and everyone began clearing out their local grocery stores and waiting on ridiculously long gas lines, I was headed to Lowes to pick up some DIY essentials (with only hours to spare, haha!) to ensure my sanity for the duration of our snow-bound adventure. Now rewind about a week – I’m always keeping my eye on local online yard sale sites on the lookout for fixer-upper treasures and hit the jackpot the last few weeks! For under $100 I was able to score FIVE amazing new pieces of furniture to re-do (and unbeknownst to me at the time, this storm was about to give me a great opportunity to get to work, haha). Hopefully even after the snow melts I can keep crankin’ out the rest of these pieces at my current pace but we’ll see ;-).

frog

Our last minute trip to Lowes. P was in all his crazy-haired, pajama-clad glory!

For now I’d like to share my first blizzard project – my two-tone side table. This piece was amazing and I couldn’t believe that the owner wanted to part with it (and for SO cheap), especially because it was so solid, it must weigh forty pounds if not more! Since I don’t have room for all of my creations I know that have to start selling things off here and there but I knew immediately that this is one that I would need to keep for myself. I loved the wood grain, which is why I chose to leave the drawers as is and loved the fact that the sides of the table actually had some noticeable splits in the wood which add to its character and vintage feel. I didn’t do anything special aside from try out a new wax which I plan to review in a separate post. I used my homemade chalk paint (see this post for the recipe and more information on mixing your own), distressed it a bit and then finished it using Dover’s Chalk Paint Wax – a new natural furniture wax I’m trying out in an attempt to get away from harsh chemical and VOC products like Minwax (although they have served me well to this point!). If you’re as in love with the color I used as I am, it’s “London Coach” by Valspar – doesn’t it just sound wintery and amazing!? I hope this project inspires a little snow day DIY on your end! xoxo

FullSizeRender

Finished product!

 

 

frogg

A little snippet of the fun that was had in all the snow!

 

 

 

Pottery Barn Hack – DIY Jumbo Advent Calendar

Posted on by

0

phonto

I don’t know about you but I’m currently in the final phases of what I like to call the holiday season “hangover” or the period immediately following the holidays when BAM – regular routine resumes. While you’re expected to just jump back into the swing of things it’s a little hard when you’re inevitably left with a house full of decorations in need of taking down (which you feel like you just put up), tons of cleaning that you’ve been putting off, a to-do list longer than Santa’s naughty list and if you’re anything like me, lets face it, probably an actual hangover haha. Needless to say the holidays are one heck of  a whirlwind but after a weekend of cleaning and de-Christmas-ing my home I can finally say that the Schulze household is almost back to normal.

As I was sadly packing up the last of my holiday decor I realized that I was yet to share one of my favorite DIY holiday projects with you – my DIY advent calendar! I don’t know about you but my favorite projects tend to be the ones that save me the most coin, I mean we all love saving money but to me saving money and creating something great is the ultimate win-win. That is how I feel about this advent calendar, mostly because when that holiday edition of the PB catalogue comes to my door and I already know before opening it that I can’t justify buying a single thing in it, it is SO nice to once in a while use their over priced items as inspiration for something I can create for a fraction of the cost! The original cost of this advent calendar was $149.00 plus shipping – INSANE. That is almost two weeks worth of groceries for us lol. After all was said and done my total cost came in at around $25.00 and about an hour and a half of my time! Now bear in mind that your version need not be this big, I know it’s hard to find a place for a five foot seasonal wall hanging (haha) but I hope this project can inspire a little DIY advent calendar project of your own and get you looking forward to next holiday season as I always am! xoxo

phonto1

My inspiration for this project!

 

DIY Jumbo Advent Calendar

SUPPLIES

*Note: these are the supplies that I used to create this particular project, you can adapt your version as you see fit (smaller board, different font, colors, clothespin size etc.).

  • 1 large wooden board – Mine measured 5′ X 10″ (I think the total length was 6′ at time of purchase but I had it cut down). I used a pine board because I wanted it to be a little more durable and less likely to warp should I ever have to store it in the garage or in a basement depending on where we live at the time. It was a little more expensive (only by a few dollars, but still). If I wanted to save some extra coin I would have used the same wood that I chose for my Jumbo Outdoor Holiday Signs, which runs about $8-ish for a 4 foot piece.
  • 25 standard wooden clothespins – available pretty much anywhere, I believe even Dollar Tree carries them!
  • 25 small canvas bags – here is the link to where I purchased them via Amazon.
  • small letter/number stencils – available at any craft store but here is a link to a similar product on Amazon.
  • painters tape
  • x-acto knife
  • measuring tape
  • 2 large D-rings
  • industrial strength wood glue or multi-purpose glue – I use E-6000 for most of my projects that require a heavy duty adhesive and it always works well for me.
  • paint brushes
  • latex paint – I used black, red and white
  • red acrylic paint – for the canvas bags
  • red spray paint – for the clothespins

INSTRUCTIONS

I began by sanding down my wooden board just to smooth it out a bid and then painting it with one coat of white latex paint. I wanted some of he wood grain to show through since I was going for the “rustic” look of my PB inspirational piece.

While the board was drying I spray painted my clothespins on all sides and left them  to dry. I also used my stencils and red acrylic paint to paint the numbers 1-25 on each of my small canvas baggies.

untitled1

finished product!

 

Once my large board had dried I distressed it a little using my electric sander (a hand sander would work also) then used my painters tape and x-acto knife method to paint “The Schulzes” and the numbers 1-25 onto the board. You can find a quick tutorial for this method here! Before painting the letters on I placed the clothespins on the board (without gluing them) just to get an idea of how I wanted everything spaced out. If you like the fonts I used for this project the script is “Austie Bost – rest of our lives” (available for free download via dafont.com) and I believe the standard font is just a variation of Times New Roman.

laying out the numbers
Gotta have SVU on while crafting! I wonder what episode it was! lol

 

After your paint has dried take a moment to screw the d-rings into the back of the board (this is easier to do prior to attaching the clothespins so that the board can still lay flat).

Finally, use the E-6000 glue to attach the clothespins below each of the numbers on the board. The glue dries clear and pretty fast so you should be ready to attach your little baggies in no time!

123

There you have it! One of my favorite holiday projects to date. I especially love that the bags are large enough to hold small toys and even little wooden trains so that we could fill them with surprises other than candy 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Skeleton Wreath

Posted on by

0

skel5

When it’s 90 degrees and humid as heck outside it’s hard to believe that fall is right around the corner, but as the stores are already reminding us (most have had Halloween stuff out since July – whaaaaat?!), fall is right around the corner! With that being said I want to get a jump start on sharing some of my fun DIY Halloween décor that I didn’t get around to sharing last year. Since I’m a little wreath obsessed, I want to begin by sharing this super simple but a bit unconventional Halloween skeleton wreath with you. It’s a little something I came up with when I was pressed for time (and cash!) last Halloween but still wanted to get a fun wreath up on the door. I hope this jumpstarts your Halloween creativity and inspires you to think outside the box when it comes to your front door décor!

SUPPLIES

  • 1 plastic skeleton – I purchased mine at Micheals in September and believe it or not it was already 60% off not even close to Halloween! It was originally about $11.99 but I was able to snag it for under $5. I don’t have the exact product escription or dimensions but something like this would work just fine and I’d imagine you could find the same one in Michaels or your other local craft store this year.

skel

  • Twine or fishing line – I thought that twine looked a little more spooky and haunted-house/pirate-like and I already had it on hand so that was my string of choice but in a pinch any weather-resistant string will do!

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1: Begin by separating your skeleton into pieces. Doing so at the joints will work best because you can just pop them out where they are attached. As you can see, I left the torso in tact and removed the head, legs, arms, feet and hands but the way you decide to break up ‘ol lazy bones is totally up to you!

skel2

Step 2: Form a rough circle using your torso, arms and legs, then tie them together using the twine (or string of choice). It may take a little manipulation and re-tying but eventually the skeleton will resemble somewhat of a circle.

skel3

Step 3: Lastly, tie your skull, hands and feet to the “wreath” wherever you see fit. You can also go a step further and add cobwebs, spiders or even splatter red paint to look like blood (eek!).

skel4

That’s it! Sometimes the clearance rack is a real gold mine when it comes to last-minute décor and in my case it got me to think outside the box when it came to an October wreath 🙂

10 Minute Burlap Wreath

Posted on by

0

10minwreat

Wow, it sure has been a while! I had high hopes for some more consistent blog updates over the past few months but apparently moving can really take a toll on one’s free time, lol. Good news is, we have arrived safely (and mostly sanely, ha) at our new home in Quantico and are so happy to be here! We just love our house and new community and I can’t wait to share all of the fun times and crafts that are sure to come at this new station :).

As usual, even though life has been completely crazy I have somehow still found time for lots of projects, one of which was this 10 minute burlap wreath! In trying to meet new people, one of my new neighbors was sweet enough to host a wreath making party and this is the simple design I chose to create for my August wreath. It’s a good thing this wreath only takes ten minutes because of the several hours we spent chatting and sipping wine, there was only a tiny portion of time actually spent making wreaths, haha. This particular design requires very few supplies and even less time, so it’s easy to throw together in a pinch and most importantly for my fellow mamas – you can create it during naptime and still have time for a nap yourself ;)!

10 MINUTE BURLAP WREATH

SUPPLIES

  • 12 inch wire frame wreath – available at your local craft store, I purchased mine at Michaels using a 40% off coupon.
  • 2 10-yard rolls of burlap – these usually run about $5-ish per roll at Michaels but if you hold out for a sale or coupon you can usually get them for 40% off. I purchased mine when they were on a 50% off sale so they only ran about $2 a piece!
  • Floral accents – the options for floral accents and greenery are endless so my suggestion would be to choose the ones that are on clearance, as mine were.
  • Plain wooden letter (optional) – while the letter is optional I think it adds a cute flair to the wreath. Mine was the only “S” left so it was on clearance for only $0.79!!! I hit it with a coat of white spray paint I had on hand and voila, done!

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1: Begin by unrolling your burlap garlands and secure the end of your burlap to the frame (sometimes this is done using wire but I simply cut a small slit length-wise to create two small tails on the end an then simply tie it to the frame). For weaving your burlap in and out there are a few different methods, one of them is detailed here in this YouTube tutorial, but another would be to cut it into long strips and weave it in and out in an “under-over-under” manner, making sure to “poof” and bunch your loops along the way. As I mentioned in similar tutorial for my 4th of July Wreath it’s a little hard to describe this method and much easier to learn it visually, that being said YouTube is an excellent resource to actually see this method in action.

Step 2: Once you have created the burlap portion of your wreath simply cut the stems of your floral and greenery accents to a manageable length (about 5-10 inches is good, just long enough to be able to wedge them into the frame) and stick them into the frame at your desired location. You should not need any wire to secure them, mine were able to fit tightly into the frame atop the burlap without issue.

Step 3: If you are using an initial or monogram accent, secure it to the opposing side of the wreath by using a decorative ribbon, twine or clear fishing line to secure it to the wire frame. Once this is done you may go back and manipulate any of the burlap loops and floral accents to your liking!

There you have it! Not much to it at all, huh?! It really does take about ten minutes and if you mind your sales and coupons this can be created for less than $10! Mine cost about $12 total 🙂

DIY Scrap Fabric Wreath – St. Patty’s Day

Posted on by

0

stpatt

After creating my very first DIY wreath last April (hey, I’ll have to pay it a special tribute this year for prompting twelve months worth of creative wreath making! lol), I was determined to try out a different style of wreath each month. Since I gear each wreath toward either the season or whatever holiday happens to fall within that month, I wanted this wreath to be St. Patrick’s Day themed. While browsing Pinterest for style inspiration I came across this adorable St. Patty’s Day Rag Wreath (pictured below) via The Magic of Ordinary Things blog. I immediately knew that this had to be my next wreath since scrap fabric banners are basically my favorite go-to party décor item of all time (check out my tutorial here). Additionally, I already had a ton of left over green fabric from the various DIY décor projects I had created for Baby P’s “Wild One” party so I was happy to put that to use and the rest of the fabric I found at my local fabric store on the sale rack and in the remnants bin. This wreath is now in my top three favorites (I’ll have to do a “wreath year in review” come April and rank them all, lol), mostly because it resembles my beloved scrap fabric banners but also because it is SUPER cost effective, coming in at just under $7.00!!! If you’re ready for a little more variety among your conventional DIY wreaths, this is super fun and different and can be customized to fit any holiday or color scheme, so dig into your scraps and give this one a try!

my inspiration via "the magic of ordinary things" blog

my inspiration via “the magic of ordinary things” blog

SUPPLIES

  • wire – since lovely home *eye roll* is the only one in the neighborhood without a storm door my wreaths need a fighting chance of standing up to the elements so I used about 3 feet of thick plastic covered wire that I found at Lowes (near the rope) this way the wire couldn’t rust and turn the color of the fabric, it cost about $0.30/ft. (so less than $1 to create a makeshift 12″ wreath frame). If you have a storm door or sheltered front door you can do what was done in the previously mentioned tutorial above and form a wire hanger into a circle.
  • fabric – the amount you need is entirely up to you and depends on how full you want your wreath to be and how many colors you would like to use. I used well over 100 strips, measuring about 1X6″ (as per the first tutorial).
  • duct tape

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Begin by forming your wire into a circle and securing it with duct tape (shipping or packing tape will also do). Mine was about 12″ in diameter.
  • Next, tie your fabric scraps around the wreath until it is completely covered and none of the wire is showing. You don’t even need to knot it, just a simple single tie will do! At this point you can embellish the wreath in any additional manner that you please. I added a mini St. Patrick’s Day sign that I found at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.
stpattt

Finished product!

stpattyboard2

Click on this photo to check out my post on how I created my giant reversible “lucky” sign!

Giant Reversible Holiday Sign – St. Patty’s Day Edition

Posted on by

1

stpattyboard

Eek! Time keeps on slippin’ and another month has came and went! I have been keeping busy with my not-so-tiny frogman (and of course a few projects in between!) and in some other exciting news we have been busy preparing for our next move which will be taking us to VA! We love the DC area and NOVA so we are super excited to see what this new assignment has in store for us.

Although most of my time recently has been spent trying to purge our useless items rather than take on new projects I did take a quick minute to spruce up our stoop for St. Patrick’s Day. Even though between my husband and myself there is zero Irish heritage that doesn’t mean we don’t love this fun holiday all the same, after all who doesn’t appreciate a little Irish cheer [insert infinite beer emojiis]? 😉 Additionally I appreciate any holiday that gives me the excuse to craft and ever since I created our giant “NOEL” porch sign for our outdoor Christmas display I’ve kind of done the idea to death in my head thinking of ways that I can transition the same idea into other holidays, first in the form of my “XOXO” board for Valentine’s Day and now a “LUCKY” one for St. Patty’s Day! I had mentioned in my Valentine’s Day board post that I had experienced a minor lapse in brain function when I didn’t simply paint the “XOXO” art onto the back of my “NOEL” board so that my holiday porch décor could double as Valentine’s décor by flipping it over once February arrived. With that being said I’m happy to report that I did remember to do that this month which is what makes this holiday sign “reversible” – my “LUCKY” board is actually the back of my Valentine’s Day board which makes this month’s porch sign FREE! I hope this inspires a little outdoor design creativity in you, with a little luck you might wind up with the most fun porch in the neighborhood! 😉

Our St. Patty's Day sign as it is displayed on our porch, with a little leprechaun photo-bombing of course <3

Our St. Patty’s Day sign as it is displayed on our porch, with a little leprechaun photo-bombing of course ❤

For a full length supply list and tutorial for this project check out my “XOXO” Valentine’s Day Sign, but if you would like to duplicate my “LUCKY” board exactly here are the details

vdaywreath2

Side #1 – Valentine’s Day

Side #2 - St. Patty's Day

Side #2 – St. Patty’s Day

FONT: “Christmas on Crack” available for free download via dafont.com. I used font size 970 just be sure to adjust your page margins so that it will fit.

COLOR: “Four Leaf Clover” by Valspar – funny thing, I didn’t actually pick this because of the name I just randomly grabbed a green color chip and that was the name, how fitting right!? lol I purchased a sample sized paint in this color for $2.98 – to learn more about my obsession with sample sized paints for projects check out this post.

CLIPART: For my four leaf clover silhouette I just copied a google-image four leave clover to a word document and enlarged it to my desired size before printing it out. Here is the link to the exact one that I used.

Flashback to St. Patty's Day last year - click on this picture to check out an adorable post about my little DIY St. Patty's Day photo with my little lucky charm <3

Flashback to St. Patty’s Day last year – click on this picture to check out an adorable post about my little DIY St. Patty’s Day photo with my little lucky charm ❤

“Where the Wild Things Are” Birthday Party Invitation

Posted on by

4

pinvite

So this post is going to be a little redundant if you’ve already checked out my DIY Invites & Greeting Cards without Photoshop post, but since Baby P’s invite was so stinkin’ cute and so special to me, I think it deserves it’s own post :). Additionally, this tutorial will highlight inserting a picture into your invite whereas my last post was text only. Perhaps most importantly (second only to Baby P’s cuteness, of course lol) is that these invitations cost about $8.00 for thirty (depending on where you choose to have them printed)! Talk about a steal, you can’t even get lame, fill-’em-in-yourself Target brand invites for $8.00 let alone an adorable, custom picture invitation. Please keep in mind, if you are interested in having a WTWTA themed birthday party and love this invitation design please contact me and I will sub in your child’s picture and send you the PDF for free 🙂

NOTE: I will reiterate what I said in my other DIY invitation post. It is legal for you to use copywrited images and characters for your own personal use as long as you are not profiting from that use, however, big corporate print stores like Staples and Office Max are weird about printing things with these types of images (like the WTWTA characters on my invite) and will not do it because technically it is trademark infringement on their part as they profit from your payment to them for printing. Some print stores, like my local Postal Anex are a lot more lax about this kind of thing so bear in mind that you will need to seek out one of these smaller establishments or print them yourself at home or at the library.

As mentioned above, the only difference between this invitation and the example in my DIY Invitations and Greeting Cards post is that this one contains a photograph (which is super easy to ad). For creating the text portion of the invite and adding the characters (which I found by doing a Google search for “Where the Wild Things Are characters”) I will refer you to the previously mentioned post. As for adding a picture simply select: INSERT>PICTURE and retrieve the picture from wherever you have it saved on your computer. Once you have added the photograph you may adjust the size and then select: FORMAT>PICTURE>OUTLINE if you wish to change the color or weight of the outline around the picture (I used a thick yellow outline to match the font). Like the font I used? It’s “Hello, Goodbye” available here via dafont.com, the same one I used when creating my DIY Hand-Painted Where the Wild Things Are Sign. Do you absolutely love my photo of Baby P in his wolf suit? Check out the my DIY Wolf Suit Costume tutorial!