Made it Monday: Bat-tastic Par-tay!

So, I've been MIA for a while from the blog! Sorry! I have been busy stocking up my supply of Remnants items as I had a craft show last weekend and another one coming up in December. Here is a quick peek at my table from the craft show this weekend. I was also selling scarves and necklaces my mom makes.

 

 

 

 

 

But now, back to Made it Monday! In this post I talked about the Batman themed 1st birthday party my sister and I were throwing for my nephew. Well, the party happened and it was BAT-TASTIC! We had such a fun time and everything turned out so cute! Warning: tons of pictures today!!!

 

The Big Picture

 

Joker Juice and Batman Bombs

 

Batmobile Wheels, Mini Baterangs, and Catwoman Tails

 



My sister made the cake while I decorated. I cut out the symbol with my cricut for her to trace.

 

 

Reserved for Batman.

 

Balloon decor- I wanted to have balloons on the buffet with the food, but small town=no helium.

 

Two Face Tacos

 

The Birthday Boy himself! He's sporting his Batman Birthday Boy onesie with cape.

Happy Birthday!

 

The proud big sister in her batman shirt.

The other proud sister who wished she had a batman shirt.

 

Myself and the birthday boy.

 

I found superhero tatoos and stickers on clearance for a quarter so I picked them up for the big kids at the party. It was a tough choice for cousin Cambria.

 

Present time!

 

Cousin Kynslee thought the food was delish, as you can tell by her face.



 

I used my cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot program to cut out all the Batman symbols for the banner, decorations, and onesie. I was very fortunate that the bridal showers I hosted this summer/fall had color schemes that when put together made up the Batman colors!! I had saved all the ruffled crepe paper from the showers and was able to reuse it as well as the blue and white poms.

Hope you made it through all the pics today! I'll share the cape and cake tutorials later on.

Have a great week!

Lexi

Made it Monday: Batman!

In just a couple of weeks my sweet little nephew, Trig, will be turning ONE! Time goes so fast! Usually our family isn't much into throwing big birthday parties, but I love throwing parties, so here we are. My nieces wanted to have a Batman party for him, and after talking with my sister, we decided we could make this really cute. The party will be this weekend, so I'm busy making decorations for it. The first thing I decided to make was this cute sign:

 

 

The process to make this was quite simple:

 

First, I found this scrap piece of wood from a previous project. It was a little smaller than I wanted, but by using it, I didn't have to go buy more.

 

 

 

Then I painted it yellow with some craft paint. Technically, I probably should have primed it, but I was being lazy.

 

Next, I cut out the image with my cricut. I found the image and font online. I transfered it to the piece of wood.

 

 

 

Finally, I spray painted the whole thing black. Once it dried, I took off the vinyl.







 

 

I love how it turned out and it will be a great piece for the party. Best part about it is that it was free because I had all the supplies on hand!

 

Lexi

 

Made it Monday: Personalized Doormat

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I had a couple of friends getting married over the last few months. I wanted to do a DIY wedding gift along with something off of their registry. As I was thinking what I could make, I remembered something I had seen in a Ballard Designs catalog a while back- monogrammed doormats (I believe they also sell personalized doormats). These bad boys run for about $90.

I was pretty sure I could make one of these for significantly less. So, I started my hunt. It was a little tricky finding plain doormats,but I found one at Home Depot for $7. I bought two and set out to make the personalized mats.

 

 



Once I got home, I cut out the couples' last names out of vinyl with my cricut. Using the vinyl as a stencil, I laid it out on the doormat. It was not sticking. I tried setting heavy objects on top of the vinyl to get it to stick, but it didn't work. So, I decided to take back the mats and look for something the vinyl might adhere better to.

 

I scoured a few stores, then tried good ol' google. I found a nice mat at Crate and Barrel for $15 that I thought may work a little better.



 

Luckily these shipped quite quickly and I gave it another try. The vinyl stuck a little better, but still wasn't great. I decided to just give it a try.

 

 

I stuck on my stencil and spray painted it black. On the first attempt, I put newspaper around the edges that the stencil didn't cover, to protect them from getting spray painted, but the spray paint blew the edges up a bit. This left a few minor black spots.

 

**One important thing I learned from the first mat to the second: Put sticky vinyl around the outer edges of the doormat as well so the spray paint doesn't get on the edges of your mat.**

 

I spray painted two coats of black paint on each mat and once completely dry, removed my stencil.

 

The mats were not completely perfect for my perfectionist self, but they turned out pretty well. They did turn out to be more work than I thought (mainly because the vinyl wouldn't stick), but if you want a personalized door mat and want to save a bunch of money, this is the way to go.

 

I think another option would be to use craft paint instead of spray paint, but I wasn't sure how that would hold up outside in all the Minnesota elements. Here is how one turned out in the end. I thought I had a picture of the other, but apparently I don't. I did a script font on the other doormat.

 

 



 

 

Have a great Monday!

 

Lexi





Made it Monday: Glass Etched Casserole Dishes

Happy Monday! This week, I'm going to share a fast project with you. One of my really good friends is getting married soon. Her friend threw a shower for her that was themed "fill the house room to room," where each guest was assigned a room to buy for. I got kitchen-perfect for me to try out glass etching casserole dishes! 

The process is quite easy, but I did forget to take pictures, so you'll just have to bear with my explanation. 

I cut out the bride's soon-to-be new last name in vinyl with my cricut to make a stencil. I put the vinyl stencil on the glass (the vinyl is sticky on the back). Then I applied glass etching cream to the part that said "Newland." I apply it with a small paintbrush or a foam brush. The cream can be pricey, but use a coupon at your local craft store and it makes it quite reasonable, especially when this bad boy will last you a really long time.

Here are the finished dishes:

This is a great way to never lose your dishes! I have also glass etched numerous drinking glasses, glass blocks, and champagne glasses for a wedding. Its a great way to add that little extra flare!

Lexi

Made it Monday: Barnwood Art

You know me...I love a good thrifty find, so when my brother asked me if I wanted any free (yes, I said free) old barnwood, I jumped at the chance. All I had to do was go with him to help pick it out. So I got myself a few boards with ideas floating through my head.

I had seen a few things on pinterest that I wanted to make with barnwood, like this and this and this. After thinking on it for a while, I finally decided to use part of the chorus from one of my favorite songs.

Here is how I made it...

After I recovered my barnwood that I stored at my parents, I was just going to cut it down to size. But then I got to thinking...this wood has been outside, at a farm, for a long time. Which means bugs could be living in it. I consulted with my wise, old dad about my options...he said I could either bake the wood to get bugs out or use some paint thinner (paint it on the wood). I opted for the paint thinner. So I brushed it down with a wire brush, blew off all the gunk with an air compressor, and painted it with paint thinner.

Once the paint thinner dried I cut the wood down to size. Then I pieced them together (they fit together perfectly since each peice had a groove on top and lip on bottom). They just needed a little reinforcement to help them to stay together, so my dad and I added some scrap thin strips of wood along the back and nailed them on.

Once I got back to my place with the assembled piece, I broke out the cricut to make some stencils. I cut my lyrics out of vinyl and stuck the stencil onto the wood.

I used some cream paint that I had on hand to paint on the lyrics. Once it was dry, I removed the vinyl and nailed a good old pop tab to the back so I could hang it on the wall. That made the total project cost...FREE!

I hung it in my spare room above the bed. Yes, the picture is off center, but I just hung it on an existing nail. I'll get around to fixing that soon.

Also, check out For King and Country, their song Proof of Your Love is where these lyrics came from. This band has some great music! Here is a link to the song.

Lexi

linking to: www.iheartnaptime.net

Made It Monday: Land of the Free

Wow! Can you believe it is June already? Where has the year gone? It is beginning to feel more and more like summer each day around here. I have a lot going on this month, so bear with me as my posts may be sporadic! I have a lot of fun projects I want to post, but a few need some finishing touches, and I’m not sure if they are going to get done anytime soon:( I will try my best though!

Today’s Made it Monday feature is a button flag picture I made for my Memorial Day/Independence Day seasonal table.

I had the idea to do this and it turned out to be fast, cheap, and simple. I started out by grabbing a few packs of buttons from JoAnn Fabrics, since my button jar did not contain that many red, white and blue buttons. My St. Patrick’s Day rainbow art depleted my button collection (which apparently, I never revealed that canvas on the blog, because I was going to link to it and can’t find it!). I think I spent a total of $3 on buttons, and that is all I spent on this entire project, everything else I had on hand. Not too shabby!

The first step was laying out all the buttons to make sure the final product would resemble a flag. This took the most time, since I had to redo it a couple of times because it was off center (my frame already had the fabric in it—it would have been easier had I done it on a new piece of fabric that I could just center in the frame after I had glued the buttons on). Once I was happy with the look, I hot glued those bad boys on.

I’m not going to lie—the picture stayed this way for a while. I ran out of time to finish it that day, but I wanted to add a saying. At first was going to put on “God Bless America,” until I realized that right below the picture I have something that says the same thing. Then I thought about how the flag symbolizes freedom and rather than just putting “free” or “freedom,” I decided on “land of the free.” I cut out “land of the free” on vinyl with my cricut to create a stencil.

I used transfer tape (contact paper actually) to put the vinyl on the picture. The transfer tape helps keep all the middles of the letters in the right spot.

Then I painted it with a red craft paint that I had on hand.

I removed the vinyl and had myself a lovely $3 new piece of art!

Lexi

Made it Monday: Reserved Signs

A couple of weeks ago, my friend called me and asked if I could help her come up with an idea for reserved signs for some tables at her wedding. I told her I’d come up with something and here is how they turned out:

I made two of each background. They were really simple, but looked really nice on the tables (too bad I didn’t take a picture!). Here are the close ups:

Lexi

Linking to:

www.iheartnaptime.net

Made it Monday: Canvas Print

After a little hiatus, I am finally back with another post! For today’s Made it Monday, I am going to share a canvas print I made for my mom’s church. They were revamping the ladies bathroom and asked if I could make some sort of canvas wall art. Once my brain got off of vacation mode and into creative mode, I came up with this:

This is how I made it:

I started out by cutting two of the same image out of vinyl with my Cricut. I cut one image out at eleven inches and one at nine inches. After removing all the scrap vinyl, I transferred the image onto the canvas.

I like to use either transfer paper or contact paper to transfer my images, especially when it is a large image. By using the transfer tape, I am able to line the image up easily. It was a little tricky removing the transfer tape since the vinyl doesn’t stick extremely well to the canvas. I had to pull the transfer tape back very slowly.

Once both of the images were on the canvas, I painted over the whole canvas.

After the paint was done drying, I peeled off the vinyl images. So easy and cute! Now, I am trying to figure out a spot where I could put one in my place.

Hope you like it!

Lexi

Linking to:

www.iheartnaptime.net

www.sweetlittlegals.com