Father's day planters made from wooden pallets

So, I think it's been well over a year since I've posted anything. Well, better late than never. For Father's Day, we decided to build planters out of pallets. I knew we had a few laying around from when we had our pellets delivered. To my dismay, my oldest son informed me that my husband had burned them in his last big bonfire. :( I decided to buy some cheap supplies from Lowe's and call it a day. We bought all the needed supplies including the plants. Before we headed home, we had one more stop. THE DUMP. Sitting in a big pile were a whole bunch of pallets for the taking. I picked up two and was happy to return the wood we had just purchased. First, I had to destruct the pallets. This was a chore in itself. I used a plain hand saw but my hubby felt sorry for me and came over with his chainsaw and finished what would've taken me hours in a matter of minutes. Trying to figure out the proportions was the hardest part. Once, we had the first one done, the second one was a piece of cake. I dry brushed the box with an OOPs paint from Lowe's, making sure to do it haphazardly because then I used a dark stain to age it. I then printed off the words I wanted to use, marked up the back of the paper with pencil, laid it on the boxes and then traced the letters. This left me with a great stencil to paint the letters onto the box. I painted 2 coats of letters and once they were dry, I scruffed them up a little with the only sand paper I could find without going into hubby's workshop. LOL. A nail file. For G-Daddy, we planted a little spice garden. For Pop, we planted a tomato. These went over really well. I was a little sore the next day but it's definitely a project I will repeat.

The only handmade Christmas gift this year.

Usually, I have a ton of handmade items for gifts. This year not so much. School got the best of me and my time. I got the idea from The Adventures of One Crazy Lady and she made a pillow. LOVED IT! It got me thinking that I can do this. I had a ton of vintage buttons and the perfect fabric. This is super easy and makes a great personalized gift.



I started with the picture of this monogram. I cut it out and traced it onto a cloth napkin for me to use as a template for putting the buttons on.



It wasn't finished but my SIL was so excited about it that she wanted to take it and finish it on her own rather than wait for me to find the perfect frame. Now I want to make more since I love how this one turned out.

Getting Creative with Christmas gifts

So for most of the people that know me, I always look for a bargain or a way to save money before making a purchase. The past few years, I have done that with Shutterfly for my Christmas gifts. They have a great selection of present worthy items and usually offer discount codes for a % off or free shipping with a minimum purchase.

Some examples of gifts that I've given are photo calendars(people loved these), mouse pads and a custom poster for Daddy, to name a few. I have also done several photo books all throughout the year and by far this is the most appreciated and well received gifts that I've done. This year, I will be ordering my Christmas cards through them and the possibilities are endless. Here are a few links to check out.

Christmas cards
photo cards
Thank you cards
All of these are a great way to start making your own special Christmas cards.

Or you can start searching for your own personalized creative gifts. Here is a link to some great gift ideas.

photo gifts

**I am doing this as a promo to get 50 Christmas cards for free but honestly, I love working and ordering from Shutterfly and would be using them regardless of this promotion. Quality is great and shipping is fast. Can't beat that.

For a chance to enter for your own free cards use this link

Another Dump find

I picked this cutie up at the dump a few weeks ago. I originally listed it on Craigslist for $50 with a few bites but no sales. I relisted it for $35 and the hubby said the first person to make an offer takes it or it's going on freecycle. The first person to respond offered $20 and it was sold. Of course, I had more responses this time around and could've held out for the $35 but $20 is $20 and still more than what I paid for it.

A bigger boys room

My oldest has been begging for me to paint his room and the answer was always when I get done with my summer classes. Classes have been over since the 16th but the time just hadn't been found to make due on that promise. We made little strides along the way, such as picking out paints, colors and patterns. This week, we finally got around to starting.

Here is a pick of the boring semi before, blue tape was already in progress



Here is the little picture we made up in windows paint to give us an idea of what we were going for.



And here is the after but not quite done....



And here is why it's not quite done.....see all the little seep spots? I have a quart of metallic silver paint and I'm debating on using a small brush and making silver stripes over all the seeps. My son thinks I should fill all the white in with silver but we'll have to see.



What do you think?

BINGO

I am linking this project to the DIY party


The funny thing about this project is about a month ago when I planned it, I thought I was being original. Ha. That's a funny one. I saw 2 scrapbooking pages at Michael's and just knew they were destined to become my wall art. I just had to find the right item to mount them on. Not long after that day, I was looking through blogland, I saw someone had beat me to it with the two exact pages. AND this week, yet another person has used them.

However, mine is a little different, I finally found the perfect piece to mount one of them on and it was bigger then a 12x12. I love the results though. It was originally a black and white print of Audrey Hepburn dancing with someone and mounted to a piece of MDF. I spray painted the edges and put some antiquing mod podge all over it. Then I tried to get it as centered as possible and mod podged the whole thing with a few coats. Here is the end result......



Now I just need to find it a proper home. Oh and find something to mount the other page on. When it's complete it will go in my 2 younger boys rooms. I can't wait.

In need of a stress reduction... LOL

I feel like I need one of these at times.

I haven't been able to do much blogging this month. School is getting the best of me. I'm taking Biology A&P 2 and Microbiology, lecture and lab. These classes are a bit tough by themselves but taking them together and during the summer when they are condensed, is certainly a bit stressful to say the least. I have many projects that I need to finish, start or blog about.