Double-Sided Holiday Blocks

Remember my "Give Thanks" blocks here and my "Spooky" blocks here?

Well... although I described the fact that they were double sided, I never posted adequate pictures... so since the season is upon us and I had them back out of storage anyway, I decided to snap a few photos to better explain how totally rad they really are.

So here goes...

Here are the blocks and then how they look from behind

The "Give" block is the only one that doesn't have something on the back. I suppose you could put an exclamation point on it to read "Spooky!" if you wanted to utilize it. 

Wait, I know! You could also make two different words out of it like "Boo!" and "Eek" or maybe since Halloween is over you could turn the back of the Thanksgiving blocks into Christmas sayings like "Noel" and "Joy".

The possibilities are endless. What will your new reversible blocks say?

Tutorial: How To Make A Tufted Fabric Headboard

 So as you know there are a lot of DIY headboards out there. But this one is a bit different.

 He was originally inspired by Ikea's Bekkestua Headboard:

Then as I set out to find a tutorial online I decided I liked this beautiful headboard on Jenna Sue Design better because of the curve:

But my guy has a secret... he's made out of cardboard instead of plywood! Shhh! Don't tell! He was cheaper, lighter and easier to cut so that's why I chose him. 

Now I must tell you that although this is how I chose to do it, I would still recommend you use plywood over cardboard any day. But if you really want that curved edge and have no tools then cardboard would be the way to go. If I did it over though, I would use plywood and just leave the top edge straight. In fact I may still do that so be prepared to see that on my website in the future!

Anyway, all I did was cut the cardboard from a box we got a new table in, into the shape I liked. I wanted the bottom of the headboard to hit the top of my mattress so I just eyeballed where I thought I wanted it above my bed then measured. Taping the wall off with painters tape first is probably a better idea though. That way you can really see if that's the size you want. You also have to consider the width of your fabric when determining the height of your headboard.

There wasn't any prep work on the cardboard for the button holes (like drilling holes ahead of time) so I just layered the foam, batting and fabric over the top of the cardboard. I used some spray glue to hold down the foam but that was pretty pointless so don't bother. Then I stapled the batting and the fabric to the back of the cardboard (I had to get some longer staples for my gun as the short ones weren't cutting it). Then I covered my buttons with the leftover fabric and used a chunky needle to attach them to the headboard where I wanted them. I used a regular button on the back to hold the thread in place. Once it was ready I poked two holes in the cardboard for hanging the headboard with a couple of 3M hooks!

I will mention that the buttons were a bit harder to cover than they would have been with a thinner fabric, like my ottoman slipcover. In fact my husband had to do this part for me. I also found that because of the weave on the fabric, when I take a picture with a flash at just the right angle, I can see the metal shine through. You could remedy this by using a marker of the same color on the silver metal button before covering. Take a look at the shine...

And that's all folks. So what do you think? Straight or curved? Cardboard or plywood? Tufting before or after stapling the fabric on? I do like the look of this deep tufting from Involving the Senses where they added the buttons before stapling:

There's just something so cozy about a fabric headboard that I love. Resting your head against it while you read a book or watch a show just can't be beat. 

Tutorial: How To Make A Dry Erase Calendar

Isn't she a beauty? I was inspired by this one. But at $120 shipped I decided to do it DIY style. 

I made these as gifts or I'd show you one hanging on the wall out of the package!

Here's how to make your own...

I started off in my digital scrapbook software, My Memories (see my post on them here):

Print it and frame it:

And fill it in with a dry erase marker on the glass and you're done!

Cute huh?

If you would like to purchase my printable blank calendar just visit my Etsy shop here!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Spooky Blocks

I got a little lazy and didn't bother painting these blocks. I simply mod podged the paper on and used dye on the edges. I really love using my Make The Cut software! So glad I got it before it stopped being compatible with Cricut! 

Have a spooky Halloween!

Witch's Brooms

I thought these brooms were a cute little Halloween decoration even though they're actually meant to be goodie bags with treats inside. I saw them in a magazine at the dentist and later looked them up online and found them here. I couldn't find a stick laying around outside so I just used wooden dowels instead.

Stay tuned for another spooky Halloween decor idea coming up soon!

Tutorial: How To Make Curtain Rod

I'm not sure if this is really worthy of a post or even if this can be called a tutorial but here's an easy project for someone looking for a wood curtain rod like I was.

All the furniture in my kids' room is natural wood and so I wanted their curtain rod to match but the only one I found locally was really expensive so I made my own. I found the rod at Home Depot for $8 after cutting it to the size I needed (price will vary depending on how much you cut) and the two balls were a buck each at Michaels with my coupon. I gave in and bought the set of brackets from Home Depot for $9 (and they do match although in the picture you wouldn't know it) so all in all it cost a total of $19 which isn't amazingly cheap but still decent.

All you have to do is drill holes in the ends of the rod and in each ball then wood glue a little dowel to attach them. Done :)

Faux Vinyl Tile

Looking for a cute home decor item you can make with items you probably have on hand?

Check out The Hybrid Chick's great tutorial here to make your own tile

A few tips:

Home Depot will cut your tile for free even if you don't buy it there

If you don't have Photoshop just use funky fonts in Paint or Word

Don't be stingy with the Mod Podge when adhering the paper to the tile

Wood Blocks

I had a bit of fun with my Cricut for the holidays :) I bought this great program called Make The Cut that makes it so you don't have to buy and use cartridges. You can create whatever you want on your computer then cut it with your Cricut.


I mostly just used it to cut out letters using my favorite font but I did find this soccer ball image:


The other great thing about it is you can overlap the letters to cut a word as one piece instead of individual letters:


And I guess I forgot to take a picture of the gift I made for my mom using a block the same size as the "Believe" block; it said "Grandma" and underneath that word it said "Established 2007" since that's when my son, her first grandchild, was born.

Cute. Ness.

Oh and one little thing I found was to wrap the sets that have many blocks using cellophane (that clear wrapping paper) so they stay together the way you want them displayed and the person opening it won't have to unwrap it in order to see what it looks like. If you're mailing it though, do what my friend did for me when she gave me a set and take a picture of them set up then include that in the box.

BTW all of these were made with letters cut from paper, not vinyl. I'm still a little gun shy about cutting my precious vinyl for the first time! lol

EDITED TO ADD: In this original post I never explained how I made the blocks because when I gave these gifts to my cousins, one said to her 7-year-old niece "Did you see what Star made? I don't know how she did it!" and her reply was "It's pretty obvious." lol It was awesome.

But for those of who don't find it obvious ;) all you do is buy the wood (2x4s or whatever you like) at Home Depot, mark them to the size you want, saw them, sand them, paint them, cut paper, distress edges of paper with Distress Ink, Mod Podge paper to the block, let dry then Mod Podge over the paper and stick on the letter you cut with your Cricut, then after it dries Mod Podge once more. The end.

Birthday Party Ideas

Note that parts of this are Spiderman themed and others are not... it wasn't intended to be themed but it came together that way more and more as we prepared it all.

First project made with my new $59 Cricut!! Thank you Black Friday! I even laminated them :)

The hubs gets credit for this awesome web made out of streamers:

How cool is this thing?!

I made him re-create it for the party that weekend - look in the back corner at the big one. Awesome!

Here's the little "practice cake" we gave him on his actual birthday:

Here's the big cake for his party. I ordered a plain white cake from Costco and decorated it myself.


I originally made these cool recycled envelope bags using this tutorial from What About Orange. Then I put a sticky hand in each once and the oil from it made it look like a greasy fast food bag :(

So when I saw these on It Is What It Is, I knew what I had to do. I used my circle cutter to cut out the "D" and I cut out a blue background with my scrapbook scissors. I glued them onto paper bags and tied with a cute ribbon. Ta-da.

Now that my gift bags were 10 times bigger they looked empty so I made these simple party favors. I used this Pinwheel tutorial from City Cradle Design for the paper part but I didn't have any dowels and every other tutorial said to use a push pin and a pencil. I wanted them more toddler-friendly so I used a bendy straw with a pom-pom hot-glued to the front. After playing with it post-party, I found they work better when you flatten the paper. Oh well.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Birthday Banner

Hi! Remember me?!

It's been a while I know.

So here is another goodie from a while ago since I don't have anything new to share! Thanks to Darling Darleen for sharing this easy, free, personalized happy birthday banner that I've used twice already (btw you must check out her friggin sweet monster truck costumes she made for the party out of cardboard boxes). I had the first banner saved on my computer so the second time around I simply changed the font color, child's name and added "1st". I also tied on some leftover tulle that you can barely see in the pic. Here is my original document in case you don't want to bother choosing fonts and colors. Enjoy!

Tutorial: How To Make A Cupcake Stand (CHEAP!)

I should change my blog name to "Cheap and Easy" LOL

Tutorial: How To Make A Fabric Covered Canvas

Do you ever look at something you have owned for a while and go, "What the crap"?

I do all the time.

Case in point:

So I got some fabric and found my husband's staple gun.

I know it's been done before. By everyone and their dog.

But I finally did it myself and took some pics to help explain how to do the corners.

Hopefully it's helpful to someone out there!

You can use a canvas like I did or make your own frame.

Here's how you do it...

Staple it all around the back except on the corners. Just leave those alone for now.
Then fold fabric so the back corner of the canvas is mitered leaving the rest loose.
Then you take what was left and pull it taught, placing another staple on the back of the canvas.
Repeat with each corner then add the hangy thingy and you're done.

Tutorial: How To Make A Rag Rug

This is a great little project that I plan to do again one day. It's a rag rug that I made using a big ol' crochet hook and some strips of fabric. You just cut long strips out of whatever fabric you want and connect them together by cutting a slit in each end so you can make a slipknot. Treat it like yarn and crochet whatever shape rug you want with the fattest hook you can find. I just made a chain and crocheted row after row of single crochet stitches til it was the size I wanted. I then worked around the edges to give it a finished look.

My hands KILLED as I did this... I think it was because my fabric was heavier AND I cut my strips too wide for the hook I had. Do what feels good to you. It shouldn't hurt your hands like it did for me :) I'd love to see yours!