Burlap Wedding Shower

 Last weekend we hosted my sister's wedding shower. Since my sister wanted a joint shower with both sides of her future family we decided to have it at a restaurant! After the insane April we have had, it was a great decision! My youngest sister put together this cute towel wedding cake display for our sister. We used burlap circles to decorate the "cake" and a rhinestone hair pin on the top for a little extra bling.

 Since we used burlap on the invites (and I am sort of obsessed with it at the moment) I made a burlap banner. ( I wish I would have hung this a bit higher, but oh well it still looks cute!!)

This was so simple to make. I simply cut out 4 - 5.5 x 5 inch burlap squares. I then made a stencil with my Silhouette (you could easily buy something, or free hand if you like) and used my trusty black acrylic paint to fill in my stencil. Once dried I used my sewing machine to sew the squares together onto a piece of jute. So simple and so cute!!!

 Then I made the Bride and Groom initial canvas artwork for them to use as they wish! I found these great linen canvases at a local craft store. I LOVE the color and love how they are not white but already have that great linen texture!! (I bought 4 more for myself for TBD projects!!! I love them THAT much!!!)

I again used my Silhouette to create a stencil for the letters. (Again you could use other options to achieve this looks!) Again used my acrylic black paint (that's what the label said!!) and created this cute simple artwork!

The last project I created for this shower was the favor. You can't have a shower without a favor!!! I ran to Home Depot and picked up a few packages of Gladiolas bulbs. We then cut and wrapped them in burlap. (See how to cut burlap)  I used a stamp set to stamp the phrase "Let love grow" onto a piece of card stock and included basic planting directions (we didn't want anyone to think it was something to eat.....) and there we have a simple but cute favor to match our burlap themed wedding shower!

The best part about using Gladiolas bulbs is this was my grandpa's favorite flowers. He used to grow these flowers and they really remind me of him!

The whole look!!!

I've been MIA and enjoying it!

I've been MIA and enjoying it! Last week I was enjoying a sunny, warm vacation in Arizona. We took the red eye home and got back Friday at 7 am. Saturday was Little Man's big second birthday party (where someone may or may not have gone over board....) then it was Easter and now I am enjoying catching up on sleep and relaxing! I hired a photographer for the birthday party and didn't take a single picture! So I will post the birthday party soon! Since Little Man's party was the day before Easter I did not do a single Easter / Spring project (and was very jealous of all of the cute projects out there!!!) But I did not think that Jesus and Cars mixed all that well. So maybe next year!!!! 

I found myself relieved to not have any craft projects to do today.... so we will see how long that lasts... I give it until tomorrow afternoon!!! After all I do have my sister's wedding shower this weekend so I am sure there will be some fabulous burlap projects I have to do for that!!! 

For now, a picture of the Grand Canyon! 

DIY Burlap Wedding Shower Invite

Check out these wedding shower invites I created. I saw the concept of "tying the knot" online (I am sorry I don't remember where) but took my own twist on it by using a DIY burlap ribbon. After this project I am annoyed with burlap. It's messy, smelly and very messy!!! We had a major craft fail cutting the ribbon stripes, but luckily I figured it out!! See my How to Cut Burlap post.

Silhouette Craft Fail

I don't have a lot of craft fails with my Silhouette Cameo when I use paper.... but this time that was not the case... This was my fault in that I did not press the paper down enough onto the craft mat. One more run in and my project cut just fine!

Kitchen Bar Stools Upholstered

One of my most FABULOUS and AWESOME Craig's List finds were 4 brand new bar stools that were un-assembled for ONLY $50!! For all 4! (Seriously might be my best CL deal so far!!!) Target sells ONE similar chair for $70! And these were from a furniture store, but the original owner only wanted the table and it came as a set. So lucky me I am the owner of the 4 new chairs!

When I first bought them I knew I was going to upholster them (they came with a hard wooden seat) and originally I was going to paint them black. I decided not to paint them and am very glad I did not, I like the color as is - plus less work!

Once I had the chairs assembled, I had the very difficult choice of picking which fabric to use! I was debating between 3 fabulous patterns I got while in New York at Mood! (Seriously I want to go back to New York just to go to Mood!!! Such a fun store!!!!) I decided on the pretty grey fabric (the others will be around at some point... just need to figure out one what!!!)

I purchased 2 inch foam square cushions from Joann Fabrics. I debated on the 1 inch but thought that seemed too thin and ended up with the 2 inch. At first it looked like 2 inches was going to be too thick, but I think they turned out great.

I used one square per chair and had some help cutting them out!

Little man had to make sure they were going to be comfortable enough... it is important to test out your hard work before you put in all of the hard work!!

I traced around the seat with a sharpie and used a fabulous orange handled scissors to cut right through the 2 inch foam.

The most important step I did (I don't have a picture of) was to cut a small amount off of the top of the foam at an angle so the seat was not so square looking when covered. I was not neat about it and once the fabric was on and stapled down you could not tell that I was not neat, but it does help to make the upholstery look like it was meant to be there and not something I added on at the last minute! (You can see the curved edge in the final pictures!)

I then found my staple gun and stapled the fabric to the chair pulling the fabric tight without stretching the fabric "pattern." I also had help on this step! But this time little man thought it was fun to jump off of the chair seat.... I guess the extra foam gave him more lift...

I made sure to do my front corner the same on each chair so they would look consistent - the back on mine did not matter as much because that part was screwed into the base!

Then I screwed the seat to the base and we have fabulous new bar stools!

I love how they turned out and the fabric I decided to use! We have used these stools every day for the past 3 plus months and they still look just as good as they did when I made them.

DIY Train Table

For Christmas Little Man got a homemade train table made by grandpa. My dad made Little Man this train table based on the directions from Ana White. I know he made a few tweaks, but I don't know what they were.... I made the mistake of letting Little Man play with the table before it was painted and I was not sure how I would ever be able to get the time to paint it without disrupting play time.... but I found the time! And Little Man was even more excited to get back his table!!

The pouf I made for the table works great! The navy bins my mom purchased from Pottery Barn Kids. My dad was going to make the wooden bins, but my mom found these on sale so we just got them instead.

I love the knock off of this table and Little Man loves LOVES LOVES the train table "ba pa" made him!

Happy Birthday and Birthday Printable

Happy second birthday Little Man!!! I can't believe my little man is 2!!!! It's been an awesome fabulous 2 years, but its gone SOOO fast!!!!

In honor of little man's second birthday here are 2 birthday printables for your enjoyment!

They are both 8x10 but set up on a 8.5 x 11 paper (just cut once printed)!

Right click on the image to save it!!!

This is the one I made for Little Man's party.

And in case you want it for someone NOT turning two :) here is a generic version!! Enjoy!