April and May in Review

Happy Friday to all of you! I missed my April in Review post so I thought I would include it with my May in Review post. By the way, where did the month of May go? Seriously, I blinked and it is now June. It has been raining cats and dogs here this week but I am thankful because I don't have to water the plants and flowers I just planted. 

April in Review

Upcycled Yardstick

Organizing a Toddler's Closet

Featured on:  Serenity Now & Hometalk & Cristina from Remodelando La Casa clipped my closet to her Hometalk board "30 Great Looking Storage Solutions". 

Mason Jar Solar Lights

Featured on:  Hometalk, Someday Crafts & Pink When, Commona My House

I was also so very excited to find out that my Mason Jar Solar Lights were one of the top 10 projects in April. You should really go check out Hometalk if you have never visited. It's full of so much inspiration and DIY tips!

Board and Batten Reveal

Featured on: Serenity Now

Tips for Updating Dollar Store Frames

Featured on: Coastal Charm

May in Review

Mother's Day Picture Frame

Library Book Sign Wall and Painted Sign Tutorial

Minnie Mouse Topiary

Washi Tape Ideas

I love looking back and seeing what things I have accomplished! My blog definitely holds me accountable for finishing projects. Although I still have lots of projects just hanging out waiting for me to get to them at least I can mark a few things off my list. :)

I hope you all have a great weekend! 

What I Wore Wedndesday

Hello and welcome back to another edition of What I Wore Wednesday! I hope you are all having a great week. It has been a rainy week here. A little depressing because I love going for walks in the evening. I can't complain though because I haven't had to water my flowers and bushes that I recently planted.

Here is what I wore:

T-Shirt: Target

Cardigan: Old Navy

Hydraulic Jeans: Carsons

Shoes: Goodwill

I am linking to:

The Pleated Poppy

Washi Tape Ideas

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend! I took a little break from DIY projects this weekend to focus on spending time with my family. I feel so rested and ready for the new week. However, I did take a little time to do a quick craft that I wanted to share with all of you. I am sure most of you have heard of washi tape. I have seen so many washi tape ideas on Pinterest and blogs that I was curious to what the stuff was. I found some tape at my local Wal-Mart and absolutely love it! It is so easy to work with and it is another one of those things that won't break the budget.

Here is the tape that started my washi tape obsession!

I saw this idea on Pinterest and love how I can now tell my iPad and iPhone charger apart from my husband's. It makes me so happy when I go to charge my devices at night. 

I saw my daughter's dollar store sunglasses laying on the counter top and knew that they were destined for the washi tape. They look ADORABLE on her! 

I also thought it would be cute to create a little office set that was matchy-matchy. Also, these are things that I can throw in my purse that won't cramp my style. It's all about style my friends!

I also am losing my hair ties constantly! I am a mom on the go and sometimes I need to put my hair up in a pony tail. The clothes pins are perfect for my hair ties. I am thinking I might keep a clothes pin in the diaper bag. 

And finally I leave you with this last idea! I used this mason jar with washi tape as part of my daughter's birthday party decorations. 

I know now that I must get my hands on more washi tape colors because this stuff is Ahhhmazing! It is so easy and versatile to work with and did I say that it is cheap and I still have a lot of the tape left on the roll. I hope I inspired you today and you will also find your love for washi tape!

I am linking to:

What I Wore Wednesday

Welcome back to another edition of what I wore Wednesday! I hope you are all having a good week. I am sure looking forward to Friday and enjoying a three day weekend!

Here is what I wore:

Bicycle Shirt (one of my favorites): Target from a few years ago

Cardigan: Old Navy

Jeans: Underground Soul from Thrift Shop

Shoes: Target

I am linking to:

The Pleated Poppy

Minnie Mouse Inspired Topiary

Hello friends and thank you for visiting today! I hope you all had a good weekend. This past weekend we celebrated my little girl's second birthday.  I can't believe she is turning two..sniff..sniff...tear...tear.  In honor of the birthday girl and her love for Minnie Mouse, I thought it would be cute to have a Minnie Mouse party. One of things that I made for the party was a Minnie Mouse topiary. I really wish I could share all of the crafts I did for the party but I haven't had a chance to edit my pictures.

If you have read this blog long enough you know that I love buy most of my supplies at the Dollar Tree.

I found some stryofamo balls at the Dollar Tree and painted them with black craft paint.

I also put a styrofoam ball in the terracotta pot (also bought from the Dollar Tree) and then painted the pot white. 

Once the paint on the styrofoam was dry I hot glued the small styrofoam balls to the bigger ball to create Minnie's head and ears.

I added a little basket shred to cover up the styrofoam ball in the pot.  The basket shred can also be bought at the Dollar Tree. 

I really loved how they turned out and I think they were a cute addition to my two year old's party! 

I am linking to:

What I Wore Wednesday!

Hello again friends! I don't really have an exciting outfit this week. I am kind of a t-shirt and jeans kind of gal!

Here is what I wore this week:

Top: Old Navy

Silver Jeans: Carsons

Black Sandals: Reef 

Necklace: GroopDealz

I am linking to:

The Pleated Poppy

Library Book Sign Wall and Tutorial

I feel like I should rename my blog, "The Dollar Store Queen". I seriously love the dollar store as much as chocolate cake and I LOVE chocolate cake! I have been wanting to update this little awkward corner in my daughter's room into a little book nook before she was even born. I found the perfect sized wooden signs at the Dollar Tree. I wanted to do something book themed and thought it would be cool to have the name of the places of  books.

Here is what the signs from the Dollar Tree looked like before I painted them. I wish this house ran on island time. :) 

The first thing I did was sand the back of the sign and then spray painted. No need to do anything with the front of the sign because it is going on the back of the wall. I used several different colors for the sign and just used what I had on hand.

I wanted to make the signs look handmade but not too handmade. I looked at several tutorials on how to paint letters and I was really interested in using the chalk method to transfer the letters. Another thing that I wanted to use was font that was true to the book. I found several free fonts that I download to my computer and used in MS Works (it will work for MS Word as well).  Here is the list of fonts I used for each sign.

Paris = Tahoma (MS Works)

Neverland = Pieces of Eight Font (I was going for the pirate look)

Whoville = Grinched Font

Wonderland = Alicia Wonderland Font

Emerald City = PMingLiU-ExtB (MS Works)

Once you have downloaded the font you can install it to your computer. I created a shortcut on my desktop. You just need to right click on the zipped folder and create shortcut. Once the folder is on the desktop you can right click and you will see the option to install and there you go. You can then go to your word processing program and type up your signs.


How to paint the sign by hand: 

First let me start off by saying that this was my very first time painting letters. I am not a very good painter at all, so with that being said if I can do it anybody can do it. 

Step 1: After I determined what font I wanted to use I borrowed some black sidewalk chalk from my little babe and flipped my paper over and applied the chalk to the back.

Step 2: Once I had chalked the back I then centered and taped the paper to the wooden sign and began tracing the letters with an ink pen. You need to make sure you are pushing down hard enough or go around the letters a few times to make sure the letters transfer.

Step 3: After you have transferred the font to your sign you can begin painting. I used a smaller brush with kind of a tip to control my brush strokes and used craft paint for the letters. You can find craft paint brushes and paint just about anywhere. I usually get mine from Hobby Lobby or Wal-Mart

Step 4: I started off in a corner of the letter and realized that I needed to make sure my paint brush always had paint, not too much paint but enough to fill in the letter. You will know if you have too much paint because it is harder to control your brush strokes.

I think I painted the signs to look pretty close to what the font was. I was really worried that this was going to be one of my craft fails, but I think it turned out o.k.!

I used 3M Command strips to hang the wooden signs on the wall and I have a Stanley bubble level app on my iPhone to level my pictures. I love that app!

Awe, it makes me happy when I look at this wall! The best part is that this project only cost me $5.00 and some cents. I only had to buy the signs. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

I am linking to:

Debbie Doos: Seasonal Decorating with Dollar Tree Decor