Cardboard Yes, Expensive No

I am absolutely positively head over heels for family trees.I think they are a great way to add some meaning to your decor. The best part is that there are so many ways to make one on the cheap. So when I got my Bed Bath and Beyond ad in the mail the other day and saw this: 

Wallverbs Family Tree 11-piece Fames and Plaque Set  

Drooling began.

I was ready to take my 20% off coupon and head to the store when reality sank in. $40? Coupon or not coupon it's not gonna happen. At first, I asked my hubby if he would cut some shapes like these out if I drew them for him. He said he would! Then again he has been promising to build me a strawberry planter for over a year now, which turned out to be a good thing because now I have decided to make one out of recycled tires instead! Like the strawberry planter, with a little time, I can come up with a million ways to make something for free. 

So I was browsing around blog land at Funky Junk Interiors last linky party when I saw this: 

DIY Toilet Paper Roll Wall Art from Bon Temps Beignet

The wheels started turning my friends! I already have like a million little black frames. I already had a large stash of toilet paper rolls...uh, huh, yeah, that's right. I have totally got this! Out came the paintbrush and the toilet paper roll stash!

I started by cutting my toilet paper rolls into little sections, nothing scientific, I just eyeballed it. I also cut out a few branches from paper towel rolls.

I tried painting one whole, believe me it's easier to paint each little section.

I watered down my paint a little and painted the inside and outsides black. They got a little soggy but they stiffened back up as they dried.

See why I don't bother trying to make this table look pretty?

When they were dry I took them to my wall and hung them up using sticky tack.

I LOVE it. Eventually, I'll actually get some pictures taken of the whole family, not just the girls. 

The total cost of this project was 1/4 of a bottle of paint, so about 50 cents. Gotta love that!

I linked to

I LOVE Birthdays!

This weekend my family had a mass birthday party. My daughter, my brother, my sister in law, and myself all have birthdays within just a few weeks of each other so to simplify it all we just have one big family party. It's great for now, I'll let you know how that all goes over once my kids are old enough to actually want a party of their own:) For now I'm going to show you what I made for my sister in law. 

Since I was giving this to someone I used primer and I sanded my cabinet door down just a little. Normally I am too lazy to do something like this for myself. 

After the primer dried I filled in the cracks with joint compound just to give it a more finished look. As you can see this little project began running into lunch time:)  

After all of the compound is dry I gave it a couple coats of paint. I love wet paint, don't you!

I made vinyl letters and decals using my Cricut. 

I mixed just a little bit of brown acrylic paint and some clear glaze.

This is what it looked like after I brushed it on.

Then, I used an old shirt to white off any extras. It came off so well that I even dry brushed a little of the glaze on to keep it from looking so new.

After all was said and done I sprayed it with a flat coat of sealant and it's done!  

The total cost for this project wasn't much. Just the cost for the cabinet door, which I got at Habitat for Humanity. Everything else I had on hand!

A Little Bit of Spring

 I found this cute little stencil for daffodils while searching through blogs. I expected to be able to link back to their original post to show you what they did  but, I can't find their post. They used these little beauties as flowers in real grass with little chocolate eggs. It was so stink'n cute! If you know what I'm talking about let me know so I can give them credit!

 I took this template, opened it in InkScape to make in an SVG and t hen opened the SVG in my SCAL 2 software to make my own template so I could cut out multiple sets with my Cricut.  It sound really confusing but it's really not. I use You Tube to look up all of my crafting questions. They have a tutorial for EVERYTHING!!!

I used scraps of scrap-booking paper to cut the flowers using my Cricut.

Pair them together as you like.

Separate them, the bottom one with stay flat. The other ones get folded.

This close-up shows how where to fold your flower. I scored my heavier papers before folding it to make it easy.

This is how it should look when you are done folding it.

Layer all of your flowers together in whatever order you'd like. I used my Crop-A-Dile to  punch a hole through all the layers.

Add a little brad for the center to keep it all together and you're done!

What a sweet little idea! I can't wait to show you what I used them for!