Sending Happy Mail!

Today I am sending some Happy Mail...

Image courtesy of Wild Olive.

 Some Happy Birthday Mail that is!

(Happy Valentine's Day Mail coming soon)!

:o)

Happy Tuesday!

An Instant Peep Hole Frame

Good Morning, and Happy Monday!

How was your weekend? 

Mine was great!

I had one of those weekends where I felt accomplished, which was nice for a change. :o)

I did a little work, cleaned my house, finished a couple of items on my never ending to-do list, and put up some more of my Valentine's Day decor...which I hope to show you later this week.

Today, however, I have something else to show you.

Yay!

Random Question?

On the TV show FRIENDS, did any of you ever notice the frame around the peep hole in Monica and Rachel's apartment?

Hey, I told you it was a random question. 

Well, if you haven't, this is what I am talking about.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but you get the general idea.

You see, I have been in LOVE with this idea forever, and ever since we installed our peep hole I have wanted to frame it. 

Unfortunately, I have never been able to find the right frame. 

However, this weekend while I was playing around with my Silhouette CAMEO I found a whole bunch of ornate frame images...and had a random idea. 

On a whim I grabbed some red vinyl that I had in my stash, and started cutting. 

TA-DA!

Instant Peep Hole Frame!

 

I think it turned out pretty cute! 

It's not exactly what I had in mind, but I like it!

Oh, and since its vinyl, I can easily take it down whenever I want. 

You know, just in case one day I find that covetable frame. :o)

Happy Monday!

Valentine's Day Pillows

Let's start with Happy Friday! :o)

Are you sick of all the Valentine's Day stuff yet?

Well, I sure hope not because I have a couple of more projects for you. :o)

Starting with this one...

Valentine's Day Pillows!

Random Not So Fun Fact: I have 2 very ugly pillows in my home.

Ugly, huh.

Well, the other day I had finally had enough of their ugliness, and decided to make some cute slip covers for them.

Yay! 

I got the idea HERE, and just kind of ran with it.

I grabbed some scraps of fleece that I had left over from another project, and just started sewing.

The red ruffled one was kind of an afterthought...

 I basically just started piecing parts together, and this was the result.

 
Pretty cute for an afterthought though. :o)

For this one I did a little more planning.

I sewed the little pink hearts on by hand, but you could easily use your sewing machine to do this.

They are a little crooked, but hey, let's just call that character! :o)

NOTE: These are a great project for beginning sewers...like me (ok, I am not a beginning sewer...I am just not a very talented one). :o)

Remember, fleece is forgiving, which is a BIG plus.

Well, I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

What do you think?


Happy Friday!

Oh, and Have Wonderful Weekend!

Happy Mail!

Do you ever get Happy Mail? 

You know, mail that makes you happy! 

Well, not to brag, but I got some the other day. :o)

From where?

From here:

I seriously love this shop!

Just look at what I bought...

Awesome product, but not an awesome photo. Sorry.

Cute, huh!

And look...

It's a mirror! 

Hello!

I also bought some buttons.

Again, sorry about the photo.

Seriously, aren't they cute!

Pretty sure this one is my favorite. :o)

Now I just have to decide what to do with all of them...hmm.

Any Ideas?  :o)

Happy Thursday!

An Etched Valentine's Day Candle Holder

Have you ever used etching cream before?

Well, just an FYI, it's kind of awesome! 

I used it the other night for the first time, and let me tell you what, we became fast friends. :o)

See, I found these the other day at Tai Pan Trading for about $5.00 each.

I just figured that I would put some candles in them and call it good, but they just looked too plain. 

Then I remember an etched glass Tutorial I saw over at I AM Momma Hear Me Roar. 

So, I went out and bought some etching cream and some removable contact paper...

and started etching. :o) 

I found the word Love in fancy writing, and used my Silhouette CAMEO to cut it out. 

I applied the contact paper to one of my candle holders. 
 

Then applied the etching cream...

let it sit, washed it off, and peeled away the contact paper...and that was it!

Ta-Da! 

Instant Etched Glass!
 

I think it turned out pretty cute! However, there were a few spots that didn't etch very well. I think that next time I either need to add more cream (it says to apply it generously) or leave it on just a little bit longer.
 

Now just add a candle and you're all set!

 
I only ended up using one of the candle holders, so I think I am going to save the other one for another holiday...maybe a Shamrock for St. Patrick's Day...or maybe even something for Easter... :o)  

Anyway...

Happy Wednesday!

 

Just A Couple of Cute Thank You Note Ideas

As part of my "Just Be More Grateful" resolution I have been trying to write Thank You cards for just about everything.

In the beginning I thought that writing the actually Thank You note would be the hard part...but I was wrong.

For me, the hard part about writing a Thank You note is trying to keep it from looking too generic.

 So, to remedy this I have been all over the internet the last few weeks trying to find fun and unique ways to say Thank You, and since I found a couple of cute ideas I thought I would share. :o) 

Let's start with the basics.

I normally write my Thank You notes on blank note cards.

I usually buy mine at Michael's, but you can pick them up just about anywhere that sells greeting cards.

 The best part about blank note cards is that they are cheap. The ones above only cost me a $1.00 each at Michael's, and you can usually find some cute ones on clearance at Target and Wal-Mart. 

Also, since blank note cards are blank you can use them for just about anything.

 Thank You, Birthday, Congratulations, Get Well Soon, you name it. 

Now, if you are looking for something a little more structured try a Thank You note template.

I found a ton of free printables by just Googling it, but here are a few of my favorites for the kids:

Printable Fill-in-the-Blank Thank You Notes by Lil Blue Boo. 

Kids Simple Christmas Thank You Cards: Download by A Lemon Squeezy Home.  

Kids Generic Birthday Thanks: Download by A Lemon Squeezy Home. 

Oh, and if you are looking for some really fun and unique ways to say Thank You check out some of Katy's ideas over at No Big Dill.

Thrilling Thank Yous Tutorial by No Big Dill. 

Advent Thank You Card Tutorial by No Big Dill.

I mean seriously, who wouldn't love to get a Thank You card wallet.

Ok, your turn. :o)

Do you have any fun, cute, or unique ways to say Thank You? 

Happy Tuesday!

Valentine's Day Coffee Filter Wreath

 

So...remember how I told you I was kind of obsessed with wreaths. 

Well, guess what?

I am still very much obsessed! 

My newest obsession is with coffee filter wreaths. I love their texture, but am not crazy about the limited number of colors they come in. 

Anyway, the other day while browsing in Krumpets (A local home decor store that I am also obsessed with) I found this...

Sorry for the bad phone photo!

Isn't it AMAZING! 

I instantly fell in love...and then I saw the price tag. $49.99!

Yep, they want $50.00 for what is basically a pink coffee filter wreath with a few embellishments.

As N8dogg would say, "Not Cool Man. Not Cool." 

So, since there is no way in...Ahem... that I am ever going to spend $50 on a wreath I decided to make my own. :o)

Now the concept of a coffee filter wreath is pretty simple. Get some coffee filters, a wreath frame, and start hot gluing. The problem with making a pink or colored coffee filter wreath is the colored part... 

See, as far as I know coffee filters only come in white or brown. So, to solve this problem I decided that I would just dye some coffee filter pink. Simple right...well, yes and no. 

See, when you dye a coffee filter it ends up losing its coffee filterness, which means you basically end up with a nice pink circle.

Can you say coffee filter FAIL!

 Now don't get me wrong, pink circles are nice, but when you make a coffee filter wreath the purpose of using coffee filters is for the little scalloped edges...there are no little scalloped edges on a circle.

So, in order to solve this problem I had to get creative, and there was most definitely some trial and error involved. 

So, if you know of a much better, much easier, and much faster way of dying coffee filters please laugh at my stupidity and then let me know how it is done! :o) 

Again, sorry about the photo quality.

Anyway, let's start with the dye. I decided to get really sophisticated (cough, cough), and used food coloring. I got a bowl of water and added 14 drops of red food coloring and 4 drops of blue to get "dusty rose" (it's the pink color on the back of the box). 

Next, I prepped my coffee filters. I used a pack of 200 8 - 12 cup coffee filters broken up into four tiers. 

I took each tier and dipped the scalloped edges into my bowl of pink water. Then, I took a spoon and spooned a little of the pink water in the middle of the coffee filters. 

 I put an elastic band around the tier to help keep them from flattening while they dried.

Note: you may have to break your tiers in half in order to get the color to go all the way through.

Now, it's time to wait. 

Random Fun Fact: coffee filters take an abnormally long time to dry if they are sittings in tiers.

So, if you have some time just set them aside, and wait until they're dry. If you are impatient, like me, you can do what I did and bust out the blow dryer!  

 Note: I have also heard that you can put them in the oven on low, but the oven and I are not friends, so I didn't want to take any chances. :o) 

I divided each tier into 4 separate sections, then placed each individual section into a bowl (the cup on your coffee machine works extremely well for this also), and used my blow dryer to speed up the drying process.

There are too many filters in this picture, but you get the idea.

However, even though using the blow dryer sped up the drying process it was still not the fastest process in the world. It took me probably about 5 minutes per section...maybe even longer, so just be warned. 

Oh, Blow Dryer = Fluffiness. (BTW I seriously think my camera is broken)!

Ok, so after my coffee filters were nice and dry (scalloped edges still intact) I started my wreath assembly.

First, I separated my filters (the blow dryer is also very useful for that).

They really are pink, I promise.

I used an 18" floral wreath frame that I picked up at JoAnn's for about $3.00.

 Since there isn't a lot of gluing surface on a floral wreath frame I sandwiched some filters around the perimeter.

 The actual assembly process went much faster than I thought I would.

I took each filter and pulled it into a loose point.

 Then I put a dab of hot glue on the end, and pushed it onto my wreath.

 
 Now it's time to start adding...

 And adding...

Until you're happy. :o)

 And there you have it!

A Pink Coffee Filter Wreath perfect for Valentine's Day. 

LOVE!

A couple of quick notes:

I used all 200 filters to make this wreath.

 

You can use more or less depending on how fluffy you want it to be.
 

Also, if you notice above in my inspiration photo you can see that there are a couple of flowers and some feathers embellishing the wreath. In the beginning I had every intention of embellishing my wreath in the same way. However, after I rolled a couple of paper flowers and added some feathers the wreath just didn't look right. Maybe it was my embellishments or maybe it was a proportion thing, but whatever it was it just didn't look right.

So, in the end I just decided to leave it plain, but there are definite possibilities there. :o)  

Well, that's it!

Thanks for following along with my uber long tutorial!

I hope you liked it.

 

Now what are you waiting for, go make one! :o)

Happy Monday!