Halloween Ruffled Burlap Wreath

I saw this wreath tutorial back in July and thought it was fantastic! I wanted to make one, but didn't ever get around to it. I was at JoAnn's buying some tulle to make a different wreath for Halloween, when I saw orange burlap! I remembered the 4th of July burlap wreath and immediately ditched the tulle. They had black burlap too, so I invited my sister over and we each made a Halloween Ruffled Burlap Wreath.

Now let me warn you. This was not a fast project! I don't know if we were doing it the wrong way or what. But we both ended up working on our own during the evening to finish it. It was worth it though! I love it! I did figure out a few things as I went a long to speed up the process. I did not wrap the straw wreath with ribbon. I didn't have any and I didn't want to go buy some.
You can't tell. I used wide gross grained orange ribbon and black ric rac to hang it from the door. I just hammered a thumb tack into the top of my door to hold it. Worked like a charm. I bought the crow from the Dollar Tree.

We thought about making a Christmas one, but we'll see in a month if we've forgotten the pain this one was. Because right now, neither of us want to anymore!! If you have any tips, let me know. :) Maybe the Christmas one will go quicker since we now have some experience. I also highly recommend a 44 oz Dr. Pepper, treats, and a really good movie (or three) to go along with this project.

I'm linking up to the Shabby Nest: Frugal Friday

and Tatertots and Jello: Wrap up Party!

Itsy Bitsy Paper: Wickedly Creative Halloween Ideas



Tutorials and Tips Link Party:




Saved from the Dump and a Toy Room in Progress

After I found the blog All Things Thrifty, I started looking at things in a whole new way. I've always been one for projects and saving money. Their blog was right up my alley! This was my first big revamp. My father-in-law gave us this old cubby from a closed elementary school years ago. We've just been packing it from house to house. I almost sold it at a garage sale, but then a couple people said if I was getting rid of it then they wanted it. So I decided to keep it and figured it would come in handy one day.
The day finally came. My father-in-law was going to take this old medicine cabinet from a doctor's office to the dump. My dear mother-in-law told him that I might want it. She knows me well. My plan was to set the cabinet part on top of the cubby. My hubby and I sanded them down as best as we could. I'm thinking paint stripper would've been a better choice at this point. They had so many layers of paint! I finally called it good afters hours and hours of sanding.Before I decided on paint color, I had to decide where it was going. Oh the possibilities! I finally decided to put it in the toy room for storage. I chose Krylon Ivy Leaf for the color. After 6 spray cans of paint, I decided to brush the insides of the cubbies and cabinet. I just grabbed a can of white paint at Walmart and went to it. After I was done, I realized I could have had them paint match it so it would all be green. Duh! Oh well. You live and learn by being a diy-selfer. Is that a word? I didn't think so. I also distressed it and stained the corners with some leftover stain I had. Then I used a polyurethane to try and protect it from the kiddos.

After many more hours than I had planned, it's done! I found the blue baskets at a dollar store. They fit perfectly and only cost $10. We used L-brackets to attach the cabinet to the cubby and for added safety, attached more L-brackets to studs in the wall. I left the doors off for now. I was worried about the glass being in a toy room with kids. You just never know! I am trying to decide how to make the doors kid safe because I think they are cute and I would like to put them back on. But for now it works! The yellow paint on the walls was a $5 can of oops paint and the alphabet is from Eeboo. They are 8x10 cards and I love them. The pictures are so cute. I hung them up with squares of sticky Velcro so that I could take them down if I wanted to use them in teaching the kids the alphabet. Plus, I didn't want 26 holes in the wall. I think I'm going to paint stripes on the top and bottom of them. For the tree, I saw this and decided to do the same thing. I bought some embroidery hoops at the D.I. and at Hobby Lobby. I only used the hoops without the little metals things. I painted them colors to match the valances and then stuck them to the wall with glu dots. I can't believe how strong those little things are!

I'm linking up to Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest!

Earring Organizers

I make earrings and sell them. I needed a way to display them. I had this frame from when we got married that has just been sitting in our basement. I forgot to take a before picture, but it was brown wood with black metal scrolls. I removed the glass and painted it with Krylon Ocean Breeze. Then I bought a roll of window screen from the hardward store. I cut the screen to fit in the frames and superglued it to the back. It worked perfectly! I also made some smaller ones for Bunco and birthday gifts. On the smaller ones, I covered the back with paper and fabric. I also bought stuff called hardware cloth. It has bigger squares then the window screen. I ended up liking it better.