DIY Chalkboard from the Dollar Store

Don't you just LOVE The Dollar Store? I do. Every time I go there, I find something that I know I can make into something better. It's the times I go not looking for anything in particular that I actually come home with lots of fun things.

This dollar store project is a fun chalk board! 

*note* I had previously made this, but only put one coat on the chalk board. It eventually scratched because I used a piece of chalk that wasn't rounded. So These pictures are BEFORE I re did it. Now its great!*

You will need: 

Chalk Board Paint

Sponge Brush

Serving platters from the dollar store (the aluminum ones) 

I got my chalk board paint at Hobby Lobby in the paint section. I think it was only 2 or 3 dollars. 

Paint the serving platter like normal. Let it dry between coats. You will need a good 3 coats. 

Round out your chalk before you use it. If it's new just take off the straight edges. 

It says to let it dry over night, but you could get away with a few hours. The longer you dry it the better it will be before you write on it. Before you write anything, scribble all over the board and wipe clean to sort of 'condition' it.  I just did something simple. The possibilities are endless. 

I loved this project. It was really easy and only cost me a total of $4. 

What have you been making lately?

Valentines Day Nails

Oh goodness, I love Valentines Day.

In my home growing up my mom would make us handmade valentines. She would stick candy bars to a big cut out heart that said something clever. She also would do heart shaped pancakes. She just made it a special day for us. Now when I got older it wasn't as fun.. Single Awareness Day!

But now that I have my husband and two kids, its fun again! Of course I dont think Valentines Day is the only day of the year you should do special things for your loved ones or share your feelings. Do those every day. But it is fun to over-do it once a year! ;)

Something I love about Valentines Day is all the fun nails!! I recently started working at a Salon and will be doing nails as well. I have been looking at pinterest the last few days at some cute Valentines Day nails to get ideas on how to do my nails. Here are a few of my favorites:

source:http://allforfashiondesign.com/16-sweet-and-lovely-valentines-day-nail-art-design-ideas/

source: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/502292164661921416/

source: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/165859198749183531/

I think these would be my favorite. I am LOVING gold and red right now!

source: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/224335625162937816/

source: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/224335625162937816/

What's your favorite? 

xoxo Dollar Store decor- Tutorial

Valentines Day is just around the corner. What are your plans?
My hubby and I scheduled a babysitter so we could get some grub and have some alone time. No idea what he has planned.. I have some fun things planned but I can't share till after. I don't want him peeking on here ;)

On Instagram a little while ago I posted that I would be sharing a tutorial on how to make this super cute Valentines frame. I apologize I haven't shared this sooner. Both my kids have fevers, coughs, runny noses, one just got 4 shots at his 6 month appt, and the other has a double ear infection. No fun! So I have been spending my time with my kids trying to get them better. They are sleeping- and now I get to do a little blogging and DIY!

Without further ado...
This is REALLY easy to make.
You will need:
Dollar Store WOODEN frame
 Acrylic Paint
Ribbon/fabric trim
chip board letters/stickers
Scrapbook Paper
Glue Gun

I first painted my frame and then distressed it.
I then chose a piece of scrapbook paper and glued my lace to the edges. I got my lace at Walmart by all the trimmings/ribbons in the sewing section. Then, the last thing I did was glue on my letters!
It really was that easy. You could use the words LOVE, KISS, BE MINE, etc. 

I love easy projects- and this one kinda tops them all!
Have fun making it! 

DIY Cork Board Transformation

I love me some thrift shopping. Don't you?? I don't always find something- but when I do, I get really excited. Here in Utah we don't have Goodwill (at least we don't by me) so D.I. or Savers is the best option. I usually find more at D.I. though. 

While shopping there not too long ago, I found this pretty banged up cork board. I think I only paid $1 for it.

 I knew this little beauty had potential. It even had a hook on the back so I didn't have to put one on myself. I had all kinds of ideas for it. Here is the before: 

What I chose to do is take out the cork and cover it with fabric. I used hot glue to glue the fabric on it. If the cork board was in worse condition, I could have gotten some cork at Hobby Lobby to replace it. Just FYI incase you ever need to replace yours.

 I decided to keep the color since I had some cute fabric that perfectly patched. I sanded it up a bit to add a distressed/vintage look to it since it would match the fabric better. 

This literally took me only 10 minutes. I love finding things like this. How cute would this be in a little girls room with some pictures pinned to it?! 

Thanks for following along! Get craftin'! 

Photoshoot with Anna Killian and Bret Mortimer

I don't have a tutorial or anything extra special to share today. Just some fun pictures! I LOVE to do makeup and hair for photo shoots. I was recently asked by Anna Killian, (a BYU photography major) to do hair and makeup for her model for a shoot. I was extremely blessed to have a gorgeous model with perfect hair and skin! I had to share a few of the pictures. And of course, these pictures were taken by Anna Killian. 

For her hair, I used a medium size barrel curling iron and loosely wrapped the hair around it. I didn't let it stay on long because I didn't want the curls too tight. I randomly curled pieces of her hair to not make it look uniform. As for the makeup, she has blue eyes so we wanted to do a gold/brown smoky eye to help them stand out. I used a nude lip, and lined her brows to help them stand out a little more. Other than that, she is just naturally beautiful! Thanks for being a great model Bret! 

P.s. Don't you LOVE her outfit?!

Valentines Day Printables- FREE

Good morning! 

Today I have some super cute Valentines Day printables for you. FREE- from yours truly :)

They are meant to be printed as an 8x10. 

You are welcome to print them and share them, but please do not take credit or resell. Give credit where credit is do. Thanks! 

Print them out and then use them to decorate. Share your pictures, I'd love to see how you use them! 

linking up to these lovlies: http://handmadebygill.blogspot.com/p/link-parties.html

DIY Beach Wave Hairspray

Today I have a really fun post to share. I have been wanting to share it since I started the blog but then the computer broke.. and la de da. So, today was the day! 

I have naturally curly hair. But its really not the best curl. Some spots are curly, some are straight. And pretty much all of it is a frizz ball. Because of that, I hardly ever do it curly anymore. I did some research though and made a really easy homemade beach wave spray to help enhance my curls. 

Before I jump into the tutorial just know this- 

when I get in the shower, I take my brush with me. I wash my hair, and condition it. When the conditioner is in, I use my brush to brush my hair out. I let the conditioner sit on while I wash the rest of my body and then I rinse it all out. After the shower, I put my hair in a towel and DO NOT BRUSH IT AGAIN.  I only do it this way when I want to do it wavy like this. Moving on...

Here is what it looked like after the shower. Its best to let your hair dry half way before you actually put the spray on (in my opinion.)t

You will need 1 tsp of each of these:

some sort of gel (I got mine at Sally's a long time ago.) 

Coconut Oil (melt it in the microwave) 

Salt

And some sort of leave in conditioner/frizz control product. I used Paul Mitchell's Full Circle Leave In Treatment for curls. It's amazing! 

You will also need:

1 cup of hot water

a spray bottle (I got mine in the dollar section at Target by the beauty)

A bowl to mix it all in

A wisk

First off, you will take some sort of brush (boar bristle is best) and brush ONLY the top part of your hair. In the picture it demonstrates about how far down you should go. Doing this just makes the top smoother and lay better. 

Then, you will measure out a teaspoon of each of your ingredients. I actually ended up putting about a teaspoon and a half of salt though instead of a teaspoon. Wisk your ingredients in your bowl. Then, pour into hot water. Wisk again. After it's nice and mixed, pour it into your spray bottle. (Make sure you label it Beach Spray!)

Once it's in the bottle, shake it up really good. Then, spray on the part of your hair you didn't brush. (So all of your hair but the top.) Do not drench your hair with it. 

Now you have two options. If your hair is naturally curly, I would recommend just scrunching it with your own hands. If it is not naturally curly, use a diffuser. This one should work just fine. 

After you scrunch or diffuse it, let it dry. 

After it dries...

You should have something like this!

It's so easy, so cheap to make, and REALLY enhances curls you already have. I have yet to try this on someone who doesn't have curly hair already, but I promise you I will. When I do, I will update this post. Or, leave a comment after you use it and tell me how it went! 

Thanks for following along, 

Happy Beach Hair! 

(oh how I wish I was at the beach...)

linking up to these lovelies:

http://handmadebygill.blogspot.com/p/link-parties.html

-gillian

Recycling Soup Cans Part 1: Pencil Holders

You guys. I.LOVE.SOUP.CANS. 

They seriously have become my favorite thing to reuse! There are so many fun things you can do with them so I decided to do a series of tutorials on how to use them. 

For this tutorial, you will need:

scrapbook paper

a paper cutter

recycled soup cans, washed, and paper removed (you can use goo be gone to get off all the sticky stuff)

hot glue gun

pen

The paper I chose is from American Crafts. They are having this huge warehouse sale not too far from my house, and I have to ban myself from going anymore. Anyway, I chose to make three pencil holders so I chose three coordinating papers. 

First you want to measure out where to cut the paper. 

Make a mark where the can hits, then take your paper cutter and cut. 

Now you will have the right width. Now you will use the hot glue gun. Put hot glue on one end of the paper and stick it on the can (easy enough right?!) Make sure you put it on straight not crooked because if its the least bit crooked it will roll up uneven on the can. 

After you have rolled it to the end, glue the end on. 

Of course my daughter had to be right by me. She colored while I crafted. I love how much she likes to color! 

This is how they look when then are done. SO simple, yet functional. Its a perfect way to display all the colors easily for my daughter. You can dress these up with a monogram on the front, some ribbons, twine, etc.. But I just kept it simple. Sometimes less is more, and because I love this paper I felt it was ok to leave them this way. 

And thats IT! Easiest tutorial ever, right?! 

Leave a comment below with a link to one of your recycled can projects. I'd love to see! 

Part two coming soon.. {recycled cans into plant holders}

linking up to these lovelies: http://handmadebygill.blogspot.com/p/link-parties.html

True Love Blocks tutorial- {& how to cut letters without a Silhouette}

I'm BAAAACK!
Man, that was a long week. Our DC jack on our laptop melted... literally. So we have been out of a computer all week. It has been driving me insane. I was so disappointed that it all had to happen right after the launch of this blog. But, back to things! Here is a super easy tutorial in honor of love day coming up. Enjoy!

A few years ago, I made this tutorial for my personal blog. I'm now sharing it on here so if you've already seen this, forgive me! It was back before I had a Silhouette or Cricut- so I had to get a little creative. So this is a great tutorial for someone who doesn't have one of those to cut out words. I know there are still a lot of you who don't own a cutting machine such as above, so here is a way to get around it.

Let's start with the tutorial!

I used these two paints from Roberts Crafts.

Sorry it's blurry, but here is a 4x4 block

I printed this off of google images somewhere, I can't remember where.. but I'm sure if you googled it, you will find it. I found it on the first page I think. I printed it off on white cardstock. I cut it to be a little smaller than 4 inches by 4 inches. 

I got this heart at Roberts Crafts a long time ago for like 70 cents I think.. maybe cheaper?

Since I didn't have a cricut or silhouette at the time, I got on Microsoft word and wrote "true" with the font smiley monster from kevinandamanda.com. I printed it on white cardstock, and carefully cut it out. Don't look too close, I didn't do that good of a job. You could use scissors like I did, or do it much better with an xacto knife!

Here are all the supplies you need again (I forgot to add modpodge in this picture, but you need that as well.)

I then painted the heart red, and the block black. I didn't paint the back of them because I knew they wouldn't be seen. 

After a few minutes, I took some sandpaper and distressed them. 

I then modpodged the scrapbook paper on the block. Be careful not to put too much modpodge on there because it will make the paper get bubbles in it if you get too much. I mostly just put the most modpodge on the corners. I put a thin layer on top after it was glued on too. 

I then put a good layer of modpodge on the back of the heart, and stuck it on the block. 

I was going to keep the letters white, but I decided on painting them black. I should have just printed them out black because the paint kind of made them a little soggy. I then modpodged them to the heart, and took a thin layer of modpodge to the whole block once more. The red paint got on the brush and mixed with the modpodge so it kind of made the whole block have a pinkish/redish/vintage look, but I liked it so I kept going. 

After it dried, I put it in our room with a picture frame on the shelf. I will probably put a different picture of my husband and I in there, I couldn't find a black and white one that I had printed besides that one.

How do you like it? I love how it turned out! Super easy and fun. 

I decided I wanted to make one more. I painted this block pink, and brushed a little brown on it. I then distressed it a lot to make the brown not stand out as much.

I had a scrapbook page from the brand pebbles that had all these cute little punch out cards on it. I loooove that brand. It's by far my favorite scrapbook brand. Anyway, this was my inspiration, and why I chose pink and brown for the block. I took a thin layer of modpodge to it, and that was it! Super easy. I will probably add some buttons or ribbon later. 

So, that's it! All ya'll get craftin! Go make some cute blocks. :)
linking up to these lovely ladies: http://handmadebygill.blogspot.com/p/link-parties.html

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