Blanket ladder

It was chilly on the prairie this morning! Once the sun was up and the kids were getting ready for school the feels like temperature read 43*! We had turned the furnace before heading to bed last night so in the night I was awakened to the smell of the furnace warming up for the first time of the season. Knowing that cooler weather was rolling in I wanted to geet my latest DIY project finished. We like to use a blanket in the evenings, we can have up to three blankets in use at one time. I have never had our blankets organized but really wanted a ladder to hang them on when not in use.
 Hubby cut the lumber and assembled my ladder and I gave it a coat of dark Walnut stain.

 I wanted the rungs of my ladder attached on top of the side rails, that looks more rustic and reminds me of old ladders going up to the hay loft in old barns. I love the imperfect finish of the deep, dark stain. Natural Oak or Early Americana are my usual go to wood finishs but I am loving the Dark Walnut stain on this piece!

Buffalo plaid blankets are perfect for fall and winter. The 2 red blankets and the printed blanket at the bottom were gifts, I made the black and white blanket. Now we are ready for the crisp nights fall will bring!!
Now that the kids are back in school and baby girls has started Preschool I am hoping to get back into my hobbies!!
Thanks for stopping by~
Until later!

March Painted Door Hanger

I love the start of a new month! I get to change out my door hangers! I know, I am silly, but it is fun! For March I chose a 4 leaf clover for good luck.  This was my first time painting a chevron patteren. I decided to use a fancy border and add a huge intial. I added a jute rope for hanging and called it done. I am loving the green in the midst of all the white we have every where, it reminds me that spring will come.....eventually!! Maybe. (The weathermen are predicting up to 19" of snow in the next couple of days!!) I hope you are having sunny, warm days!
Thanks for stopping by!
Until later~

November painted wood door hangers

 I am slowly but surly painting door hangers to have a couple for each month. I began painting these two last October and finally finished them this October!!
 The ground has been covered with snow since just after Halloween and I really struggled hanging my November hangers and not skipping straight ahead to Christmas! But, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and fall is my favorite season and I am not quite ready to let them go just yet!

I want to apologize because I have to cover our 2 littlest ones' names. I can't share those.
For my hanger I started with a very large pumpkin cutout but I wanted more than one pumpkin. So, I used various shades of orange to add the smaller pumpkins, it turned out so cute!! And because I now have a little experience painting these hangers I did not hesitate one bit free-handing my lettering. I added a leather hanger and a hand tied bow before hanging it on my door. All of the kids love this one, they like seeing their names!

I am so glad that old pick up trucks are "in" now!! My dad had a thing for old trucks and they remind me of him. I am so happy to have this one!! I love my little truck!! I decided to not add any lettering or a bow to this one, I didn't thin it needed it, besides my dad would have preferred it this way!

Thanks for stopping by!
Until later~

New Pantry Makeover

One thing I wish I had in our home is a walk in Pantry. I have extra stuff I need to store that I don't have room for in my kitchen. I had been using the small linen closet, but it is small, on the opposite end of the house (so not easy to access while cooking) and the shelves are spaced very far apart. I constantly had to organize and rearrange to make it work. And when the kids helped put groceries away it got to be a huge mess- in a short amount of time.
Sadly this is the what I ended up with...

 Huge mess!! Not practical! Not working for me!!

We have a larger closet that held spare coats, my bread maker and one end houses the hot water tank. So, wheels began turning and ideas started flying. Hubby was all for it, so the work began. 

 Before

I cleared out the closet, took some measurements and headed to Home Depot! I decided to go easy and bought the Closet Maid shelving system. The top shelf (not pictured) is the full length of the closet 68". It is now the new home to my empty canning jars.

My next set of shelves are 48" long to leave room to access the hot water heater. 

I found those cute baskets to organize my canned goods at the Dollar Tree! The littles helped move stuff from the old pantry to the new one. I will be donating a lot of baby food to our local food pantry.

After

I was able to store my bread maker here, moved in my Kitchenaid Mixer from the kitchen counter (it's under that pretty cover) and my Instant Pot now has a home in there too!!
Hubby installed a hook to hang that mini-step ladder. (Handy for reaching those canning jars!) I had the Sterlite drawers in another area, but they will work here to store potatoes, paper towels and other items.

I ran into Home Depot to grab something for another project and saw those Pantry Packet holders. I picked up 2, I currently have rice mixes in them but I will move them and use these for smaller packets and drink mix packets.
I love that now everything is handy and the new pantry works for our family. It should be easier for the kids to put groceries away and I can quickly see what needs to be added to my grocery list!

This project made such a difference in how our home functions we have begun making over our laundry/mud room to make it more functional and prettier too!! And that old "pantry" will be made-over in the near future to something very useful!!

Thanks for stopping by!!
Until later~

St. Patrick's Day Door Hanger

How cute is this hat? When I bought the unfinished wood shape I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted a leprachaun hat or a Patriotic Uncle Sam hat, why pick when you can have both!! LOL I painted my hat with green acrylic paint, added a black band and golden yellow "buckle" drew a shamrock and added some vinyl lettering. Project St. Patrick's Day was done. Once I take it off of my door next month I will paint the back side red, white and blue for the 4th of July. Two holiday hangers one wood cutout.
 My door faces south and has a glass storm door, that has been causing my a ton of problems with my vinyl lettering staying on my wood. I have tried using a thicker font, I used a hot hair dryer to stick the vinyl good before hanging it and still have problems with the lettering coming off. If you have any ideas or tips please share them. 
 Thanks for stopping by!!
Until later~

Owl painted door hanger

This is what I started with, Two owls sitting on a branch. I immediately thought of hubby and me when I saw this and knew that I wanted to add our initials to the heart. The wood is different than the other hangers I have painted and soaked up the paint quite a bit. I just needed to use 2 coats of  some of the colors. This is what I ended up with-

Aren't we cute! LOL I think this hanger would be good for Valentine's Day but I am going to find a spot in the house to hang it once it comes off of the door.
I do have another Valentine Hanger to share next time, and I am working on wood cutouts for March.
Thank you for stopping by!
Until later~ 

Birthday Cupcake Door Hanger

I had the big idea to make another door hanger, one I could use for each of our birthdays. With 6 people in our family it would get lots of use, right? Well, I started painting it after the new year in hopes to get it done in time for our first birthday of the year on January 9th. I didn't have the vinyl I needed for the words, so it didn't make it to the door. (I really wasn't too disappointed because it was my birthday. LOL) Now that I have added my vinyl sentiment, my cupcake is hanging on our door to celebrate hubby's birthday this week. I know each of the kids will be so happy to see the cupcake for each of their birthdays!!
I found my unfinished wood blank on Ebay, at my favorite craft shop-> Unfinished Wood Cupcake 

Just getting started. Again I forgot to get a picture before I started painting.

Finished and hanging on our door-

I painted the wooden shape with acrylic paints. The "Happy Birthday" is from the Silhouette store, cut with my Cameo using outdoor vinyl. I used a staple gun to attach my ribbon for hanging.
Now I am working on the ones for next month! (Yes, I am loving wooden door hangers and painting them!)
Thanks for stopping by!
Until later~

Ohio State Buckeye door hangers

We may live in North Dakota but our roots run deep in Ohio, especially for my husband! He was born and raised as a Buckeye, graduated from The Ohio State University and was on staff there for 15 years!! To say he gets excited watching Buckeye football would be a HUGE understatement!! And yes, I believe he bleeds scarlet and gray, and will until the day he dies!!
Living so far way from Ohio the only way to get Buckeye gear is to order online or make it myself, and that is just what I did for our new door hangers. I bought my wood blanks from my new favorite shop on eBay and got down to business. First up was the football.

 I was going to take a before picture, but jumped the gun and started painting and then remembered the picture! :-) By the time hubby got home from work I had the entire football painted reddish brown and had drawn circles all over it. After all the kiddos were tucked into bed I painted all of my circles gray- that is when hubby took one look, rolled his eyes and said, "You must have a plan." Yes, yes I did have a plan.... I wanted polka dots, and some vinyl lettering, a bow and a ribbon hanger- if it is going on the door it is going to be "cute!"

And now my "plan" is hanging on our front door, which left the back door naked!  And seriously, the Buckeyes' helmets have got to be one of the easiest helmets to paint, so that was my next project.

 Ooops, I didn't learn from my past mistake and didn't get a clean before picture!
I had hubby mark my the face guard and strips for me. I was surprised how quickly this one was to finish. The sooner it is finished, the sooner it is hanging one the door, the sooner I can move on to another project! Win, win, win!

After the paint was all dried I added the buckeye helmet stickers. No bow for this one, but a little chevron ribbon hanger finished it off nicely. Are you ready for some football?? Go Bucks!!
Thanks for stopping by!
Until later~

Gone fishin' wood door hanger

Just when I think I will be posting here on a more regular schedule life throws a curve ball! Since my last post my husband's mother passed away and he went back to Ohio for a week, my vehicle blew up and I had to buy a new one, my computer crashed, we managed to get away for our first family camping trip, kids went back to school and all  those other busy life happenings.
I have found a few minutes to jump on this new kick of making aDOORaments for our home. So far they have all been super easy and very quick and inexpensive to make and a ton of fun!! Funny thing is I hung this one and we have not had  any time for fishing! haha Maybe soon! :-)

I order this wood blank from eBay-> Fishing Bobber. Because it is on my door and not out in the elements I just painted my bobber with cheap acrylic paints and then added some vinyl lettering cut with my Cameo. I added a wire hanger and a burlap and ribbon bow before hanging it on our door.
 I smile every time I pull into the driveway and see this cutie, I just can't help it!! I am anxious to paint the next one!

Thanks for stopping by!!
Until later~

Pallet American flag

If you have been on Pinterest much at all chances are good you have seen reused pallets used in creative ways. I asked hubby to bring home a few pallets for me, I used 3 to make a compost bin for my garden and had 3 left to play with. I love all things Americana, and and July seems to be all about red, white and blue and Old Glory so my plan was to make another piece for my deck to coordinate with my tulle flag wreath on our door. ( You can see my wreath HERE.) I had really hoped to have had this project finished and displayed last month, but that didn't happen.
After seeing several pallet flags online and around town I decided I wanted one, a rectangular flag.  My pallets are all square so I invested in an inexpensive jig saw which made short order of cutting through the wood on the back and sides of the pallet I also knew I wanted to begin and end with red stripes, just like on my wreath, I thought 5 boards would work best.
Sanding and painting was next up, and this is where I got very discouraged and walked away for a few weeks!! I used a small hand sander to get rid of most of the splinters, there is no way this low grade wood would ever sand out smooth! I used Antique White Rustoleum spray paint, and the wood soaked it all up, I don't even remember how many coats I used!! After several weeks I decided to try an exterior paint  applied it with a small foam roller, I was shocked that it worked!!
After I covered the entire thing with white paint, I used painters tape to mark my blue section and used my Silhouette to cut vinyl stars. I used the roller for the red stripes and then rolled over the stars with the bluein my taped off section. Once dry I peeled off the tape and vinyl and was very pleased with my new flag!! 
 I am happy with how quickly this all came together once I worked out the problem with the paint!
Now to figure out what to do with those 2 leftover pallets.......
Thanks for stopping by!
Until later~

Patriotic tulle wreath

While cruising around Pinterest I found the inspiration for my Memorial Day/4th of July wreath. It came together very fast and is super cute!!

I used a styrofoam wreath (mine was green haha), rolls of tulle (I bought 3  25 yds spools of each color and had a little of the blue  leftover) and some white glitter stars. I cut the tulle into 22" strips and then double knotted them onto my wreath. I started with the blue and used it on about 1/4 of the wreath. I then started on the strips using red first and alternated 3 strips of red and 3 strips of white until I had filled in the entire wreath. I ended with red- the top and bottom strips on an American flag are red- and then filled in the tiny space that was open with more of the blue. Tacky glue on the back of the stars hold them in place. I like the ratty edges so I left my strips untrimmed, and as you can see it pretty much covers my back door. You could trim the ends if you like.
My flag wreath has been on my door since May and the heat through the glass storm door causes the tulle to look a little messy at times, but I finger comb the tulle back into place and it looks good as new again.
 I love Americana decor and lean more toward navy, cream and burgundy but the traditional red, white and blue looks very stunning on our house. I will be sad to put it away in a couple of weeks!!
Thanks for stopping by!!
Until later~

Halloween Mantle Decor

So, I forgot to post these last fall. Hubby had some 2x4s left over from a project and I claimed them. After he was so kind to cut them to size for me, I sanded them down, gave them a quick coat of paint and cut  some vinyl. I think they all turned out really cute!

 This is my basic mantle. 

 2x4 cats and pumpkin and jack o lanterns. I found the ideas on Pinterest and the vinyl faces were a file I downloaded from a Silhouette Facebook page.

(I never did decide how I wanted to add a stem to my pumpkins. Next fall I will commit to a stem! LOL Still not sure if I want to use a branch cut to size or a square block of wood.)

 My FAVORITE piece! (The files for the vinyl faecs came from a Facebook Silhouette page.) I love the mummy, I think she is so cute! Frankie is pretty cute too! 

(Ha! Looks like the top of my (stemless) pumpkin is cut crooked. Funny it doesn't look like that in person.)

Here is a happy trio of jacks. (What do you think of adding large nails as stem for these cuties?) I used these for Thanksgiving simply by turning them around to the backsides which don't have faces.

I do have a couple more things I want to add next fall. I just need to remind myself to not wait until the last minute to make them!

You can check out my inspiration by following these links:

Halloween Characters

jack o lanterns

stacked pumpkins and black cats

Thanks for stopping by to see my Pintrest inspire Autumn mantle!

Until later~

Home decor Family sign

Our 13th wedding anniversary is coming up the end of this month. It is so cold here (-45* on Sunday) and the kids are back in school, so to pass a little time I made myself an anniversary gift. I had seen an image online of birds on a branch, I immediately fell in love. It reminds me of hubby and myself with our 2 little birds.

I traced and cut the image with my Cameo, but not before I added weeding lines. Oh my, adding the weeding lines made weeding that font a breeze!! Thank you Youtube!!
 I painted my 1x10x24 with some brown acrylic paint before applying my vinyl. The hardest and most time consuming part of the whole project was deciding on the font I wanted to use. (By the way, it is from a free font site and it is called Precious)
Right now my sign is sitting on my mantle, I still need to decide where I am going to display it.
Thanks for stopping by!!
Until later~

Jingle all the way frame

I have a super fast project to share, The biggest chunk of time (which was really just a couple of minutes) was spent weeding the vinyl. The  Keri Bradford file was cute from vinyl and applied to a 5x7 shadowbox. The bells were added before putting the designer paper into place. Less than 10 minutes total to resize image, cut and finish frame! You know I love fast easy projects!!

I hope you had a Blessed Christmas season!

Thanks for stopping by!

Until later~

4th of July Mantle Projects

Hailey helped make this canvas for the 4th of July for our mantle. She loves getting crafty, I love spending time with her while we work on various projects!! There is nothing better than being creative with little ones!! :-)

 Hailey used Buttermilk Acrylic paint to paint the canvas and once it dried we added our die cuts. Super easy and super cheap- under $5 total!!
(Tip: The parade silhouette was cut 14" long, my mat is 12x12. I used my software to place my image on a diagonal in the center of my mat, lower left corner to upper right corner to get a longer die cut.)

 I love this 3D paper banner!! The kids laughed when I drug out my hubby's cordless drill to "scrapbook!" The wooden beads would not work with my twine, I had to hold each bead with the vise gripes and drill the holes a little bigger, hey it worked!  LOL

 Looks like the mantle is all ready for the 4th!! I plan to add more crafty projects for next year!

Supplies-

Cut files- God Bless America, 3D star and bunting kit, It's a parade- Silhouette Online store

Paper - cardstock- black and kraft

Designer paper-Vintage Nation by Paper Studio

Misc- buttermilk acrylic paint, red mini brads, canvas, hot glue, twine, wooden beads, Tombow multi Mono glue, Distress ink and applicator, and a foam brush

Happy 4th of July!!

I would love to see your 4th of July home decor crafts, please leave a link in the comments!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Until later~

Valentines Project

Crazy, crazy I tell you!! That has been our life lately. I can not believe it has been almost a month since my last post! Well, I do have something cute to share with you today.
 While blog hopping I found some new blogs that are truly inspiring, this is one of them -> Craft Goodies
Wendy is so creative and talented!! She also has an Etsy shop (found HERE)  When I saw her Sweet "heart" I knew I had to have it. (Sorry, I do not see it in her shop now.)  She used  MDF to cut each piece. (I think I have developed a love affair with that stuff!! It is so easy to work with!!) By the way, I highly recommend buying from her, I received my stuff in a timely manner (despite the ice storm and power outages!!)  I am really impressed with the quality and I am sure I will be a repeat customer!! {Hmmm.... what to buy next....} She also provides detailed instructions for her projects.
This is how it arrived-

I painted to the pieces "Buttermilk" before adding some designer papers and ink to the edges. The heart shaped "cookie" was painted brown before the edges were inked. I then applied the "frosting" and seed bead sprinkles. This is what I ended up with-

How darling is that?!!? I am happy with the way it turned out, and because I bought them already pre-cut I had a beautiful  home decor project done in almost no time (even counting drying time and cutting my papers. LOL) So, even if things have been crazy busy I still had time to make something fun. Next year I may add some buttons and ribbon.
 Thanks for stopping by!!
Until next time~

Flower card

How about another card? I used some left over pieces from my last card to make the die-cut flower. I think that the coral (or is it Salmon??) colors look very striking when paired with black. Icicle stickles was added for a little sparkle. (Stickles is the off spring of glue and glitter. LOL Yep, glitter in a convenient little squeeze bottle.) After cutting my leaves, I inked the edges with Jardin Moss Pallette ink. I then finished off the leaves with the Scor-Pal and then adhered only half of each leaf to my card base for some dimension.

Until later~