Tag Archives: rustic

Pottery Barn Hack – DIY Jumbo Advent Calendar

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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

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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.

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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!

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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 Valentine’s Day Wreath

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Okay, so I know I’ve been skipping around a lot as far as my posts go and I’m doing my best to finish up those featuring Baby P’s First Birthday Bash so that I can finally share that with you. However,  in the meantime I want to share a cute little Valentine’s Day inspired wreath I whipped up last week because believe it or not, just because I don’t post my holiday décor in correct holiday order doesn’t mean that I am not actually decorating in a timely fashion, lol. This wreath is similar to my DIY Mini-Pennant Banner Wreath that I made last spring and is super easy to create! Since we were headed up to DC to visit friends for MLK weekend I wanted to go ahead and get my Valentine’s Day stoop all set up before we left and wanted to stick to what I knew when it came to my décor and keep it simple. Here is a quick little tutorial for my Valentine’s Day wreath just in time for Valentine’s Day, it’s so quick and easy that you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy it even though the 14th is just a few short weeks away 🙂

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Valentine’s Day stoop with my sweet little frog photo-bombing! Like my GIANT “XOXO” sign? You can find the tutorial on how to make your own for $9 here!

SUPPLIES

  • 18″ Styrofoam wreath frame (available at local craft stores)
  • 2″ wide ribbon of your choice – I went with a red and beige chevron which I found at Hobby Lobby. This wreath required about 2 1/4 spools of ribbon but it may be more or less depending on the ribbon you choose.
  • 2-3″ wired burlap ribbon
  • twine
  • scrap fabric – the amount will depend on how many fabric roses you want on your wreath
  • glue gun & hot glue
  • small stencils
  • black acrylic paint
  • paint brush
  • scissors

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1: Begin by wrapping your ribbon around your Styrofoam wreath, securing with little lines of hot glue along the way.

Step 2: Once your wreath is covered cut small pennants using your wired burlap ribbon. NOTE: you can also use regular burlap if you have that on hand, I have just found that the wired burlap holds up better to the elements for me as I do not have a storm door. Next, using your small stencils and acrylic paint, paint each letter of L-O-V-E individually onto each of your pieces and allow to dry.

Step 3: In the mean time, create your fabric flowers, for a detailed tutorial on these adorable flowers check out this post. Once you have the amount of flowers that you desire use hot glue to secure them to the bottom right quadrant of your wreath (or wherever you’d like, this is just how I placed them). NOTE: If you do not have the time or will to create your own flowers you can buy ready made fabric flowers from your local craft store but PLEASE try making them yourself, I promise it is super easy!

Step 4: Since your pennants should be dry by now, use hot glue to attach them carefully to your piece of twine then securing your mini pennant banner to the upper left area of your wreath by wrapping the ends of the twine around the body of the wreath then securing it with a tiny dot of hot glue on the back (or just knotting it in back).

Step 5: This is optional, but if you’re so inclined go ahead and fashion a bow out of any left over ribbon and attach it to the bottom center of your wreath using hot glue. Just adds a little extra somethin’ 🙂

THAT’S IT! There are so many ways to customize this by changing up the colors or saying. I look forward to coming back to this wreath for future holidays and simply changing up the theme!

A picture of our new doormat - just for funsies :)

A picture of our new doormat – just for funsies 🙂

DIY Rustic Burlap Pennant Banners

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As usual last night I was up way too late crafting, but I was excited to get these done and off of my to-do list. I have a few parties coming up and I knew these burlap pennant banners would add a little extra something to the table displays and make for a great piece of decor to have on hand for future events. There is nothing too special about these and as I’m sure you’ve seen on Pinterest they are extremely popular, lol. However, since I used cheap store bought stencils for my project, I thought my tutorial would be worth sharing as I noticed that a lot of tutorials as that you create your own stencils which is just way too time consuming for my lazy butt. I would say more but there isn’t much else to say, just easy breezy party decor at it’s finest! Hope this tutorial comes in handy for your next shindig, I will be posting pics of how I use them at each event at a later date! Happy Memorial Day everyone, thank you to those who have served, past and present and of course, to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Squishy baby says thank you to our troops!

Squishy baby says thank you to our troops!

 

DIY RUSTIC BURLAP PENNANT BANNERS

NOTE: If you’re interested in making these with a different fabric check out my post on DIY fabric pennant banners, great for parties or photo backdrops!

YOU WILL NEED:

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  • Burlap Fabric (the amount you need will depend on how many letters are in your words, I was able to get over 30 large squares out of 2.5 yards)
  • White Acrylic Paint
  • Paint Brush
  • Large Alphabet Reusable Stencils (available at Staples for about $7.00, I will be using these for several projects so it was a good investment, alternatively you could print your letters out on paper and use an X-acto knife to cut them out and create your own stencil)
  • Glue Gun
  • Twine or Ribbon

DIRECTIONS:

Step 1: Create a template for your pennants in whatever shape you would like, I chose a rectangle with an inverted point at the bottom. The measurements will depend on the size of your stencils but if you are using the large 5″ ones as I did, I found a good measurement to be 7.5X7.5 inches.

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Step 2: Using your pattern as a guide, cut out as many pieces of burlap as you need. NOTE: I did not care about fraying as I though it added to the rustic look, however, to keep your piece from fraying you can spray it with a bit of fabric stiffener or brush the edges with mod podge and allow to dry before going on to the next step.

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Step 3: Using your stencils, holding each steadily in place paint your letters onto the burlap and set aside to dry.

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soooo many letters! lol

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Step 4: Once letters are dry (I allowed mine to sit overnight), lay out a piece of twine long enough to accommodate the letters with slack on either end for tying the banner up for display.

Step 5: Apply a line of hot glue to the top of each burlap square and fold it onto itself, pressing down to create a firm seal. The spacing of the letters is up to you, I did not measure it out, just eyeballed it. Once you are finished your banner is ready for display!!! Check back to see how I display mine 🙂

Fun idea: If you want your letters to be interchangeable simply do not glue them to the twine but rather use a small hole punch to punch two holes along the top of each pennant and weave the twine through or use mini clothes pins to hold them to the twine!

 

 

Our Gender Reveal

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In February of 2013 we found out we were expecting our first little baby. Overcome with excitement, we knew from the very beginning that we wanted to know the gender. I, for one, can’t stand surprises (every year I try to get our family to open all of their gifts Christmas Eve lol) and couldn’t wait to plan out every detail of the nursery and the cute little outfits that baby Schulze would wear. Even though my hubby loves surprises, he was eager to know the gender as well, since in his opinion it would add to the excitement if he knew that he would be having a catch with his son one day or watching his daughter’s dance recitals. I hadn’t considered doing a gender reveal (and didn’t even know it was a thing) until good ‘ol Pinterest enlightened me. Not only did I think it was the cutest idea ever, but what better way to capture one of the best moments of your life? I sought out Sherry of Cool Breeze Photography of NC (check out her portfolio and her blog here, she is amazing!) for a mini-session to take place on June 1st (a whole 10 days after the anatomy ultrasound was to take place, people thought I was nuts for waiting but I’m glad, it was so worth it!). As planned, on May 22nd we went for our anatomy ultrasound and got to see our sweet, healthy baby sucking on it’s thumb (so cute, even cuter is that P still sucks his thumb) and the technician wrote the gender on a little piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope. Into my purse it went and there it would sit until the day of the reveal! Come June 1st we took our giant box to our local party store and had them fill it with pink or blue balloons while we waited in the car (I was TERRIFIED that somehow they were going to ruin the surprise for us but they came through big time!). After finishing at the party store we headed down to a cute little horse farm in Hampstead where our session was to take place, I remember us thinking how crazy it was that sitting in the back of the car was the answer to a question we had been asking for 21 weeks! There is no way to describe the feeling right before we opened that box, it was that kind of nervous excitement that makes you feel like you’re having an out of body experience, like right before you walk down the aisle at your wedding or when the roller coaster makes its ascent just before the crazy ride is about to begin. Call it mother’s intuition but I knew we were having a boy right from the start, I don’t know why, I just did. J swore that we were having a girl but says that right when we place the box in front of us to open it, he just knew it was a boy as well.

I am SO, SO glad we have these pictures as a memento of one of the most exciting days of our lives. If you’re planning on finding out the gender of your child anyway and aren’t super private people, I highly recommend doing a gender reveal of some sort (if you’ve been on Pinterest for even one millisecond I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of gender reveal ideas, lol). Also if you’d like to save money (which you should be since the journey of parenthood is an expensive one, haha) have a friend take the pictures or better yet, videotape it. Hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we did 🙂