Yippee Skipee!

I am so excited about this post!!! Karl and I did this mural over the weekend for my cousin Deanna's new home. It's in her baby's (Reese) room. (Just imagine the crib in front of it!)



Sorry for the bad pictures. The lighting wasn't the best.

Karl free handed the shapes and I helped shade in the colors. Here is a close up of the super cute little birdie:



At the last moment we decided to add the owl at the top...here is Karl contemplating where to put it:



And here I am working on the branches:



We are also working on her son's (Garrett) race car room...pics to come later!!

I'll be uploading this to all of my favorite linky parties! Go to the link at the top to check all of them out!

Awesome Giveaway @ Blue Cricket Design!

Hey everybody!! There is an awesome giveaway going on at Blue Cricket Design!!

Becca @ Blue Cricket has teamed up with Dot and Line - an awesome home accessory company - for an amazing giveaway!

They make really really cool designer lampshades and coffee sleeves that I just adore!! Each shade is handmade, created from scratch (not just fabric glued to a lampshade!!) I am already in love with there stuff and can't wait to order some!! (especially the blue, white, and cream lotus shade!)

Check these out:





They are giving away $50 plus free shipping to the Dot and Line site!!

Head over to Blue Cricket to enter the giveaway!

yummy in my tummy...Garlic Cheese Beer Biscuits

If you like all things bread like I do you will love how easy and delicious this recipe is!



Garlic Cheese Beer Biscuits

3 cups of bisquick
1 can of cold beer
3 T sugar
1 cup cheese ( I use Sharp Cheddar)
1 T garlic powder ( or more if you are like me and love garlic just as much as bread)
1 tsp salt

Just mix all of it together and spoon into a muffin pan.

Bake at 350 for about 20 min

It makes 24 biscuits that will knock your socks off!!!

Blog Swap: Sumo's Sweet Stuff!!

Yay!! I am so excited that today is my first blog swap!! I'm even more excited that it is with Summer @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff!! So...here she is:

Hello Stephie fans!

I'm so excited to be here today!

I'm Summer, or Sumo as my husband lovingly calls me. (And now consequently has all of my family calling me. Doesn't Aunt Sumo have a nice ring to it?)

I'm the blogger from Sumo's Sweet Stuff!

I use my blog to share my projects, tutorials, recipes, host giveaways, and shamelessly promote my etsy shop!

I AM:
- married to my best friend

- mother to the most beautiful little girl (and a baby girl on the way!)
- daughter and sister to the best family ever
- friend to some of the greatest people out there

I LOVE TO:
- play piano
- sing

- read
- craft
- go on walks

- spend time with my family
- drink Diet Coke
- bake/cook
- exercise (well, sometimes)
- crochet

SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS:
- Diet Coke
- popcorn
- chips and salsa
- anything that involves peanut butter and chocolate
- public library
- fall
- craft stores
- black and green
- Christmas
- historical fiction
- cats

Stephie and I decided to share a tutorial with each other's readers today, so here we go!

Reece (my one year old) got two different Leapfrog magnet sets for Christmas. I love these toys, and wanted to make sure she had access to both. But I also absolutely hate having her under my feet while I'm trying to cook and do things in the kitchen! So I decided that I would keep one on the fridge - the smaller of the sets - and make up a magnet board to hang in her room so that she would have easy access. I got this one at Robert's, using a 50% off coupon.

At first, I was thinking about glittering up the edges of the magnet board, but then I realized that a one year old + glitter = messy and not such a great idea (although it would have looked smashing!) I had a bunch of leftover fabric scraps from when I made flowers for my curtains, and from making some other flowers for my etsy shop, as well as some fun ribbon, so I decided that I would modge podge the fabric and ribbon around the edges.

Here we go....

What you need:

- magnet board or any sort of wood frame

- Modge Podge

- fabric scraps

- foam brushes

- hot glue/gun

- paint (optional)

You'll need to take the magnet board part out of the frame while you are working.

I decided to paint the top and bottom of my frame so that I didn't have to worry about trying to get ribbon or fabric over those parts. Your call!

Then I just measured the first ribbon I was going to use, allowing for wrapping it around to the back, cut and glued it down!

You may want to make sure that your various sizes of ribbon and fabric strips will fit so that you aren't left with some funky sized space when you get down to the hole part of the frame.

Just continue doing this all the way down the frame! I used a mix of hot glue and mod podge, depending on what type of material I was working with. This is about halfway down.

And all finished!

Add your magnet board magnets and you are good to go!

I was going to put some ribbon on the back to hang it with, but this is really heavy, so for now, it is just leaning against the wall in Reece's room. Eventually - maybe not even until we get to a different house - I'll probably just have my husband hang it on nails! Might be more secure with little hands grabbing on it all the time!

I love making new blogging friends, so come on over to Sumo's Sweet Stuff! You can find something different each day:

- Market Yourself Monday: I share my latest projects and invite you to link up yours!

- Tutorial Tuesday

- Mouth-Watering Wednesday

- Things to Try Thursday

- Feature Friday

Thanks to Stephie for letting me swap blogs with her! She is such a creative gal, and I'm so happy I get access to her creativity!

Have a good weekend!

Its going to be one fabulous friday!!

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day for me!! Lots of things are happening! As some of you know we are building an addition on to our home - a master bedroom to be exact. It should be ready for us to get in there and paint and put down flooring tomorrow!! I'll be posting photos later on!

I am also going to try and get some photos up of all of my recent thrift/junk store finds.

And - I am going to be a part of Feature Friday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff!!! It will be my first blog swap and I am super excited!!!! She will be here at Made By Stephie to give you an awesome tutorial and I will be at her blog doing the same!

So tomorrow go check it out:



Have a GREAT evening!

Cutie Pie Door Hangers

I'm putting together a house warming gift and needed something for the kids...so I decided to make something they could hang on their doors!





Here are the supplies I used:

Canvas, paper, chipboard letters, wood cut out of a race car and butterfly, Mod Podge, glue, acrylic paint and the usual tools:



First I covered the the letters with paper - while that was drying I covered the canvas with paper. I did both with Mod Podge.



After everything was dry I used my exacto knife to cut out the letter. The I glued the letter to the canvas and the wood cut out to the letter. The butterfly wasn't the right colors so I just used acrylic paint to change it up a little bit. For the G I used a little sandpaper to rough it up a little bit (it is for a little boy after all) and I didn't have the right color of brown paper so I painted the canvas.

Really easy and super cute!!

I'll be linking this to all of my favorite linky parties! Go the the tab above to check them out!!!

Fabric Covered Monogram Canvas!

I have been trying to get this canvas done for a while now...it's finally done!!



I couldn't find my staple gun so I used hot glue to attach the fabric to the canvas.
Here's how I tackled the corners:

Pinch the fabric:



Fold over the corner:



Then fold it over again:



Hot glue it down (or staple it) and your all finished!!


The canvas is a recycled one from a previous project that no longer matches my decor, I already had the fabric (a whole roll of upholstery fabric for free), and I got the chipboard H at hobby lobby for 50% off!!!

I'll be uploading this to all of my favorite linky parties!!! Check out the tab above and go and visit them!!

Love...

I made this rag garland and decorated this mantel for my grandma...hope you like it!



Here is a close up of the garland:



and one of the other goodies! ( I even made the hurricanes out of vases and candle holders and made the hearts out of scrapbook paper!!):



total cost: 3.00 for the candy!!!

Well read flowers

I am really loving all of the projects made out of books. I am also in love with all of the cute flowers made out of fabric/felt. I wanted to do something to combine the two and this is what I came up with:



They are super easy to make. All you need are book pages (I used newspaper that I sprayed with Archival mist), adhesive (I used hot glue), scissors, and something to embellish the middle.

First I drew the shape on to the paper and cut out 2 pieces.



Then I kind of pinched (both flower shapes) the paper and made creases so that the finished flower would have a little texture:



Then I hot glued the 2 shapes together and finished it off with a button:



This project cost me absolutely nada. I had everything just sitting around!

I'll be linking this up to all of my favorite linky parties...check out the linky party tab above to see all of them!!

Decoupaged Monogrammed Magnets

I am not the biggest fan of decoupage (I know I'm crazy). It all goes back to a color theory class in college and a failed attempt at a decoupaged assignment. BUT - I really love some of the things that I have seen around the blogging world that involve decoupage. So I decided to pull out the Mod Podge and give it another try.

I made these really cute monogrammed clothes pin magnets!!



Here are the materials that I used (forgot to photo the magnets):



First I cut my paper to fit the clothes pin and then I followed the instructions on the Mod Podge and attached the paper to the pin.



I was pretty satisfied with how they looked but I decided I wanted to add something to them. I dug through my letter drawer (yes I have a drawer full of letters) and found a size and shape that I liked - and decoupaged them in coordinating paper.



Then I used my hot glue gun to attach the letter to the pin!


Thats all - simple and really cute!



ps. I am going to use these as part of a housewarming gift...the person receiving this gift reads this blog so I guess I'm giving away part of a secret. (and I'm sure she can figure it out since the monograms are the first initials of her and her family...)


I'll be linking this to all of my favorite linky parties...check the Linky Party tab above for those parties and go and check them out!!!!