B o o-tiful pumpkins!

I saw this idea last year when looking at HGTV's Fall decor postings, and I just couldn't pass it up this year...I HAD to make these! I mean who doesn't want some adorable, plastic-but-look-so-real pumpkins with the letters 'B', 'O', 'O' carefully cut out?! HGTV showed them being placed outside, however, with the crazy wind we have here because of the beach, I was afraid they would blow away...or some wild animal would walk away with my work of art in its mouth---so they are my inside decorations for now!

These were fairly simple to make and pretty cheap (would have been cheaper if I just waited until after Halloween for the sales like I kept telling myself...but I couldn't resist!). I bought these medium sized plastic pumpkins at Michael's. They were on sale for $5.99 each, but I also had the lovely 50% off coupon, so not bad at all!

I came home and picked the font on the computer. I chose one of my favorite fonts, 'Monterey'. Now, I know you can print out the font and trace it, but I just eye-balled it and drew on the pumpkins with a pen. Two HUGE things to keep in mind (that I didn't even think of until cutting) is to make sure you make the letters have enough support and that you make sure you draw the letters in a way that you aren't cutting out the centers of the B and O's...if that makes sense. You can see one of my O's has support at the bottom of the letter instead of it being 1 piece like the other O...I learned my lesson.

Cutting is the trickiest part. I started by cutting a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin for the lights to go in. I then took the small knife and started cutting. I tried all sorts of methods and I can't tell you which is the best...I did the sawing method, the puncture method and I then even resorted to scissors--all were challenging. I do have to say I feel it was pretty similar to cutting a pumpkin though--you have the harder outside and the foamy/squishy inside, so very similar.

I then placed these on top of our hutch with some rope light weaving in and out of it. I know you can also get those fake tealights if you wanted to set them outside. I am REALLY happy with how they came out and thrilled beyond words I get to use them next year!

Oh, and these pictures do not do these cute pumpkins justice at all! They are much cuter in person.

Bored with your headboard?

OK...so I guess I wasn't bored with my headboard because my guest room doesn't actually have a headboard...but I was bored with staring at a blank wall behind the bed where the headboard should be. The guest room needed something more, but I wasn't about to go and buy a bed frame and headboard--and I also didn't have the funds for some huge inspiring art piece. Instead, I scavenged around the house looking for anything I could reuse to fill that blank space.

While digging through boxes of things and pondering what to do, I came across the small 6" x 6" mirrors used as center pieces for my wedding. I had a ton of these and they were begging to be reused! Taking a handful of these mirrors, I walked in the guest room and stared at the blank wall for what seemed like hours...we were definitely having a stare down and the blank wall was winning...

Finally, it came to me! I was going to create a contemporary geometric pattern above the bed, where normally a headboard would go. I had decided to create 8" x 8" black squares and place the mirror circles in the middle, and hang on the wall. This could act as a piece of artwork and fill the space temporarily until I had an actual headboard.

I really should have waited for small 8" x 8" wood pieces to be cut, but I had an idea and like normal, I wanted it done right then and there...so I made do with what I had. Grabbing extra cardboard boxes, I started vigorously cutting the 12 8" x 8" squares. I then grabbed my paintbrushes and black paint and got to work. JD, of course walked in the living room to see this huge mess I had created and could only laugh and let me continue my crazy work.

Once the paint dried, I attached the mirrors in the center and hung (as straight as possible) each of these pieces. Finally, the room was coming together and life was being brought into the room! The best thing about this project is it cost absolutely nothing but my time. Surprisingly, I do get a lot of complements on the pieces and my guests never realize it is cardboard until I point it out! Amazing what the eyes see...but even more amazing what you items you can reuse in your house!

Diaper Cake Creation

There is definitely something in the water here! Everywhere I turn, I'm finding out my friends are pregnant! What a wonderful blessing and I couldn't be happier for them. I do have some friends who have been through a long journey to get to that point, so to see them with smiles on their faces again because of their growing miracle is so special to me.

Along with crafting and creating, a huge passion of mine is decorating and planning events! Recently my work hosted a shower for 2 of my coworkers who are pregnant and due shortly. I of course, did the decorating and loved every second of it. This was my first baby shower I helped with and it was great practice for the many others I'll be throwing. When finding out I would be decorating, all I could focus on was how to make a diaper cake! How perfect would that be for the shower? I remember seeing them in specialty stores and baby boutiques and them costing $75-$100, and I made a mental note that the first baby shower I helped with I was making one! Well, I am proud to say, I followed through and below are my successful efforts!


How did I make them you may ask? I bought a pack of 96 diapers, stage 3. Learn from my mistake and be sure to get white only! This being my first cake, lesson learned! You then need to take a round pizza can and place a soup can in the middle. Next simply start wrapping the diapers around the soup can, overlapping as you go. There is math involved in this, if you are making a 3 tier cake, be sure to keep it to a 3:2:1 ratio on the diapers. So depending on the quantity you have, just calculate accordingly. Once you have the diapers wrapped, take a piece of string to secure it. You can then remove the soup can and fill the middle with remaining diapers for that tier. Follow those same steps for the other 2 tiers. Finally, you can stack the tiers and secure with a stick. I secured my tiers with the flower topper (it had a long stem, so worked out perfectly). Finally, the fun part! Accessorizing the cake! I kept it simple by just securing some colorful ribbon. I did use 2 different types of ribbon here: a thick white and colorful. You can probably just use the colored ribbon as the white was just used to make up for my mistake of grabbing patterned diapers!

I know for a fact I will be creating 2 more of these, probably larger, so I'll be sure to post these new ones in the future! In the mean time, enjoy my first attempt. Remember, this decoration is perfect for a visual point of view and also for a practical one. The mother's get to take these home and actually use them in the future! If you buy the later stage diapers it works out better because then the mother's can enjoy the craftsmanship a little longer before needing to use the diapers.