Tin Wall Tiles

I bought these tin wall squares at Hobby Lobby over a year ago. My intention was to put them in our guest room after a little bit of paint. And well... they sat, and sat, and sat, and then got packed up and moved to KY without ever getting paint or put on the wall. So I FINALLY decided it was time they got done. This was one of the 7 projects I was spray painting at the same time and losing millions of brain cells in the process. Luckily, this went super fast without any problems and it was the first project complete. And I am super happy with how they all turned out.

These were the tiles before. I love all the patterns but I wanted them brighter colors.

So I sanded them down slightly and out came Valspar primer. I just gave them each one coat of primer.

I then picked out these colors, one for each square.

Here they are on the wall. After I spray painted them I took some of my chalk/ink that I use for scrapbooking and rubbed it on all the high points to make all the details stand out.

Right now, we only have a futon in the guest room for a bed and since it is so low I wanted something to hang above it. So that is where they went. I now just need some colorful pillows for the bed.

I also bought this vinyl decal that says "always welcome here" from Shelley at Wonderfully Wordy. I thought it fit well since it is in our guest room. I want the guest to know they are always welcome, (just hope they don't over stay it- haha).

Pretty simple project but I am happy with the final result!

Linking up to these parties!

Tasty Tuesday

With 4th of July right around the corner I thought I'd share two awesome treats that would be great for any gathering that you have planned. Both of these recipes are from Kraft Food.

Firecracker Bites

Prep Time: 30 mins.
Total Time: 2 hrs. and 30 mins.
Makes: 14 servings

What You Need:
- 1 pkg. (8 oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
- 1 cup cold milk
- 1 pkg. (3.4 oz) JELL-O Vanilla Instant Pudding
- 1 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip whipped topping, divided
- 1 pkg. (12 oz) NILLA Wafers
- 1/2 cup mixed red, white, and blue sprinkles
- 42 pieces of red string licorice (1 inch)

Make It:
- Beat cream cheese in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Gradually add in milk. Add dry pudding mix- beat 2 mins. Whisk in 1 cup Cool whip.

- Spoon about 1 1/2 Tbsp. pudding mixture onto each half of the wafers. Cover with remaining wafers to make sandwiches. Freeze for 2 hrs. or until filling is firm.

-Spread tops of wafer sandwiches with remaining Cool Whip. Dip in sprinkles. Insert licorice piece in top of each for a fuse. Freeze until ready to serve.

How cute are those!! I bet they are just as yummy too!


And I am a bit of a cupcake lover so when I saw these, I knew I had to share! :)

Berry Patriotic Cupcakes

Prep Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 10 mins.
Makes: 1 dozen

What You Need:
- 12 chocolate cupcakes, (or any flavor you prefer), cooled
- 1 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping
- 12 small strawberries, stem removed, each cut into 5 slices
- 1/4 cup of blueberries

Make It:
- Spread cupcakes evenly with Cool Whip.

-Arrange 5 strawberries pieces on top of each cupcake to form a star.

- Fill center of star with blueberries. Store in refrigerator.

If you like those ideas also check out The Idea Room to see recipe for Patriotic Fruit Pizza. She also has other fantastic recipes that would be perfect for July 4th parties.

ENJOY!

Military Must-Have Mondays

I haven't posted a Military Must-Have Monday in a few weeks so I thought it was way past time to produce one again. Many of you are new followers, THANKS so much btw, so you may not know that I am part of the Homefront team on Etsy. This team is full of military spouses, family members, and even ex-service members. So here are some of my fellow Etsy Homefront Team Members who are also fabulous photographers. Hope you enjoy and remember to support the Homefront!


Creations Anew Photography


Autumn Letters Photography


Levans Photography



Jrzy Girl Photography


J.D. Fielder: Abstract Art and Photography

VOTE for Debbie! :)

Debbie is a fellow blogger over at DebbieDoos, and I like to think a new friend of mine, and she submitted a video to Oprah's search for a new TV star. How awesome is that?! Her video is awesome and she would have a fabulous show if she won. So head on over to Oprah's website to view Debbie's video. And while you are there- vote for her! BTW- voting ends July 3rd and you CAN vote more than once!

Good luck Debbie!

Yellow and White Shelf Redo

This project is FINALLY finished! Thank goodness! I was working on this shelf for at least two weeks. I thought I would have been a quick project but it proved me wrong- WAY wrong! In the process of working on this shelf, I was spray painting MANY other projects as well... and I am pretty sure I have lost MILLIONS of brain cells in the process. The spray paint section at Lowes has seen me many times. I'm surprised the cans didn't just start jumping into my hand as soon as they saw me.

Anyways, back to this project. I bought this shelf unit for $12.50 at Dixie Trading Post in Louisville. Once I started to work on the shelf, I probably shouldn't have paid that much but all well. When I saw it, it immediately screamed to me, "Take me to your craft room," and the paint job was just screaming for help!

The paint job before. OH MY! Bright green paint with white, yellow, and blue circles stamped on it.

So I sanded it down and primed it. And well... ended up having to sand it again and reprime it. I had the hardest time trying to sand the raised circles all the way down so you couldn't see them. So out came the belt sander- that did the trick for the most part but then also caused more problems for me. This would be the part that prevented this shelf from being an easy project! But after, more sanding, some spackle, and more primer- I finally got it looking like I wanted.

And I spray painted it this fun, sunny yellow. I used Valspar spray paint. Can't remember the color name. But I didn't want to leave it plain so...

Out came my trusty Cricut machine. I cut out a couple different shapes and decided what I wanted to put on the shelf. I then used it to make stencils to make it easier.

This is the stencil I made for the top- omitting the "E." The outside template ripped when I was pulling it out so I had to just trace the outside of the bird. The last picture is of it traced you just can't see it.

Next, came the sides of the shelf. I cut out two different templates and placed them on either side of the shelf.

Then, I took white acrylic paint to fill in the stencil. I pounced on the paint and then carefully smoothed it out so there wouldn't be any bumps... again. I took off the stencil and corrected any imperfections and let dry.

Once dry, I changed the stencils to the opposite sides and added another one to the bottom repeating the process.

I just used black paint to make little eyes and then mixed it with my white to make a gray to free hand little wings. These are the sides complete. I love how they came out!

Finished piece.

It is perfect for the storage of what I needed it for in my craft room too! :)

Love the transformation! It is SO MUCH better!



Linking up to these parties!

I WON!!!

I AM SO THRILLED!!!

I submitted my shutter wall decor to the CSI Project Challenge: Frames, Art, and Wall Decor and....

I WON!!!!!

OH MY GOODNESS, OH MY GOODNESS!!!
I can't believe it! :) I hoped that I would but I know there are SO MANY FABULOUS talented ladies out in blogland also submitting fabulous decor that I really didn't think I would win, top ten perhaps, it all. I just had to share my excitement with all of you.

Every time I look at my arrangement now, I get a big smile on my face. So happy that everyone else likes it as much as I do. Thanks to you all for your wonderful comments about it. :)


Also, yesterday Debbie over at Debbie Doos featured me as well. This was one hot project for me! haha

Krista @ Craving Some Creativity has also featured me today. :)

Have a WONDERFUL Friday everyone!

Win/ Winless Wednesday

I've been busy with work and other stuff all day today so I didn't have a chance to post this until now. And well... it is Thursday my time now but all well!

I am so excited for the USA men's soccer team! They won their game today in the last minutes of the game by FINALLY scoring. They have had some really bad calls called against them in more than one game but they are persevering. They took their group and are continuing on. Growing up, I played soccer for eight years, so it still holds a little piece of my heart. I haven't watched many of the games so far of the World Cup Tournament but I still enjoy it. So GO ALL THE WAY, USA!!!!

Also, did you hear about the Wimbledon Tennis Match that lasted for 10 hrs today and there STILL was no winner?! HOLY COW! I can barely run 10 minutes now-a-days, much less play multiple tennis matches for 10 hrs. They actually had to call the game because it got to dark and for the game to continue tomorrow. I can't even imagine how tired those players are! But good luck to those players, if they can get out of bed tomorrow, and may the best man win!

Crepe Paper Rose Wreath Tutorial

Hi everyone. I wanted to share a tutorial with you all for the wreath that I created to put on my shutters. I have seen something like this on a couple different blogs and thought it would be super cute to create for the shutters. I followed this tutorial on the House of Smith's Blog- Hanging Roses, on how to create the flowers. Believe it or not, they are made out of paper streamers!

(Note: For some reason blogger decided to flip some of my pictures and I have done everything to try to correct them and can't. So there are a few you will have to just turn your head to view the picture the correct way- SORRY!)



The How-To:
Here are my supplies:
-A glue gun- I used a low temp glue gun (so I didn't fry my fingers off!)
-Roll of streamers in your choice of color
-A wreath form
-And not picture- ribbon



To start:
Cut or tear the streamers into 24 in strips. I recommend tearing a bunch or a whole roll before you begin that way you have them all done already and won't have to keep going back to do it.



Next:
Crumple up the strips to add more texture to the roses. Then straighten them back out.



To Begin the Roses:
Roll one end of the strip 3 or 4 times. Add a small dot of glue to hold. I added just a little bit of glue near the edge right where my thumb is in this picture.
(TIP: I HIGHLY/STRONGLY recommend that you practice making your rose before you start gluing. It took me about 5 or 600 times of playing around for me to actually like what the rose looked like or even understood what to do. They will even get better as you go.)

(Turn your head here.)
I then just twisted the strip and placed it where I wanted the petal to be. Start off a little tighter than slowly loosen up the petals to be like a real rose. As I went, I would add a dot of glue to hold it all together.

(Turn head here)
This is just a picture to show how I twisted the strip.

(Turn your head again)
It is now coming together. Twist and place with one hand, while you hold it with the opposite. Again- glue as you go.

This is about halfway through my flower. Continue twisting, placing and gluing.

(Sorry-turn your head again for the next 2 pics)
As you go, a point will be created on the backside of your flower. As I made the petals, I worked my way down this point, like a stem.

View of the stem.

This picture is a little hard to tell what it is but it is a side view of the flower to show you the twists and how to work it way down the stem.

Backside of the flower.

This is my flower complete. I had some loose spots of paper when I was finished so I just added a few dots of glue where needed to clean it up a bit. But the stem will either disappear or you will have some of it still showing, depending on how loose you make your petals. You can leave the stem and just glue it down or carefully tear it off. Your preference, but I left mine.

Here is my completed flower.

I made a few flowers at a time before I started gluing them to my wreath form.

To hang, I just tied a ribbon around the wreath form before I began gluing the flowers down.

I then just glued the flowers directly over the ribbon to hide it.



Work your way gluing the roses around the wreath form. Be sure to glue them close enough to hide any gaps so your can't see the form between the roses.

I started at the top to hide my ribbon but then made rows starting in the center and working my way to the outside.

And here is an up close shot of my finished wreath. I actually sat it outside in the sun for a few minutes to let it fade a little because the blue was just a little to bright for the other colors I had in our living room.

And this is what I did with it. And LOVE it.





Good luck to you if you decide to make your own Crepe Paper Rose Wreath. Hope you can understand my directions! If you have any questions feel free to contact me. I'll be happy to help!



Linking to:
The Shabby Chic Cottage: Transformation Thursday
The Shabby Nest: Frugal Friday

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Beth @ Home is Where My Story Begins

Remodelaholic: Remodelaholic's Anonymous Meeting
Funky Junk Interiors: Saturday Night Special
Tatertots and Jello- Weekend Wrap up Party
My Romantic Home: Show and Tell Friday
Under the Table and Dreaming: Sunday Showcase Party
Trendy Treehouse: Creative Share
Blue Cricket Design: Show and Tell