Valentine's Day Craft-Boxwood Wreaths

Boxwood wreaths are all the rage these days!  They are not only beautiful, but transitional as well.  As I was walking around Michael's to collect supplies for my XOXO letters, I happened upon these cute little vine wreaths that were left out of place in the basket aisle.  I was compelled to pick them up, and within seconds knew what I wanted to do with them.  Make mini boxwood wreaths! 

 

 

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Mini vine wreath(s)

Boxwood Garland

String/Twine

Valentine's Day Tags

Scissors

Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

 

Take your garland of boxwood and remove the leaves.  You will find that they come off in a bunch.  I chose to cut them apart, and place each sprig individually onto the vine wreath.  This allowed me to create a more realistic looking wreath.



You will then take your piece of boxwood and glue it to the wreath.  This vine came with thicker leaves as well as thinner budding leaves.  I found that using the thicker leaves around the outer rim of the wreath created volume.  I also placed them in random spots on the front of the wreath.  I then glued the thinner leaves throughout to fill in the negative space.

 

Once you have your leaves glued down, take your twine or string and thread it through the V-day tags.  Pick a place you'd like to tie it to and let it hang on the inside of the wreath.

 



 

And that's it!  You can choose to display these in a number of ways.  I am planning on using these at the dining table in February, but I like the outcome so much that I am making plans to use them around the house year round.  The tags are easily removed so this wont be an issue.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial!  As always, I'd love to know if you attempt this tutorial.  Let me know below in the comments, or on Instagram (@IrisNacole).  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day!

Linking up at the following sites:

http://www.craftberrybush.com/2015/01/inspiration-gallery.html

http://2beesinapod.com/2015/01/26/link-party/

 

HALLOWEEN MANTEL DECOR

Halloween is coming, and I've been decorating, decorating, decorating.  I've also been crafting a lot.  I want to save as much money as I can this year, because we have some big projects coming up here at home, so even if that means just a few dollars, I'm happy.  Because of that, I can say that I had a lot of fun this morning, cutting out paper bats, for our mantle display.  Okay, honestly, it was fun for about 10 minutes, and then I was tired of tracing, and cutting, and managing Rordan all at the same time.  I think he knows when I need to do something, because those are the exact times he decides that I'm the center of his world, and he must sit on me.  LOL!  No worries though, I love holding him, it just makes for a longer project.  Luckily, the final outcome proves to me that it was worth my time.  I'm loving the way it looks!
Also, to give credit where credit is due, about three of the bats are actually Martha Stewart paper bats, that I purchased at Michael's last year.  The package had quite a few, but I must have thrown away the ones I used last year, so I didn't have enough to complete the look I wanted for the mantle.  I ended up using the original to create a pattern, and cut the rest out of black card stock.  I used a hole punch for the eyes, and folded them according to the original pattern.  I think they came out pretty nice, so I'm patting myself of the back for that.  I hope you like the photos! 

DIY Paper Bats, Martha Stewart Paper Bats, Target Dollar Spot Halloween Banner & Trick or Treat Sign, & Jack-O-Lantern Votives, Haunted House Tour sign is from ROSS, and all other décor is from either existing items, or Hobby Lobby.

I added a throw from Target, and a pillow from Ikea to bring in the accents of black and white, I wanted.

Here is an overall look at the area, all decorated up!  The gold and black pumpkins are from Target, as well as the pumpkins in the tray.  I've had the owl for quite a few years, and think he will be keeping this spot this year. 

I'm so glad you took a moment to stop by and see the updates!  I'll have more photos to share in the near future, of our outdoor Halloween décor, so check back for those. 

DIY Outdoor Skull Garland

 

 

Thanks for joining me today for the reveal of this outdoor skull garland!  This project is so simple that it consists of  only three steps to make.  

 

 

Supplies Needed:

Rope, Drill, Scissors, Skulls  (mine are from the Dollar Tree), and not pictured, Tape

                                                     

 

First you will take your skull and drill two holes, one on each side.  Make sure that the hole is large enough to run your rope through.  I used the scissors to enlarge the hole after drilling if I ran into any problems.

 

                                                

Second, run your rope through the skull, left to right , skull facing you.  I had success getting the rope through easily by taping off the end of the rope.  It's something I discovered after taking my supplies photo so that's why you don't see it.

                                                

 

The third step is to tie a knot at each end if the skull.  Depending on the length you are going for, and how many skulls you are using, calculate the space to the next skull.  Tie another knot, and add another skull to the rope.  Repeat this process until you have reached the desired length.  

That's it!  Again, so easy, and cheap, and yet, you end up with an awesome outdoor Halloween prop.  I hope you are inspired to recreate this yourself!  If so, please share a link here with me.  I'd love to see it! 

Cheap DIY Apothecary Jars for Halloween

If you are like me, you are decorating on a budget for the season.  Thankfully I've found some awesome items for Halloween at the Dollar Store, as well as the Dollar Spot at Target.  As luck would have it, I came across a jar with a cork top that I felt would work perfectly as a creepy apothecary jar, while browsing Target's Dollar Spot.  Here is a quick tutorial on how I made these.

Here is the label on the jar.

 

 

 

 

Supplies Needed

Target Jar

Printed Labels (Find on my Pinterest Board)

Double Sided Tape

Scissors

 

 

 

 You are going to take the labels, and cut them out.  This didn't take long, and honestly is the longest part of this whole process.

 

.

 Flip the label over, and apply the double sided tape.

Once you are done, just paste it onto your jar.

 

That's it!  Easy peasy, and only cost me $4!  Can't beat that!  I hope you use this idea in your Halloween decorating this year.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

Fall Porch Tour Pt.1

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm glad you found us.  Today I'm sharing Pt.1 of my front porch tour.  Having almost completed our Fall décor inside our home, I felt like it was time to focus on the outside.  Of course, all of the home tours on the net have been a driving factor as well.  So many beautiful spaces, making me want to do my own!  You ladies, and gentlemen are so talented!  One thing you should know about me, is that once I get excited about something, it's hard for me to wait to do it.  Luckily this weekend I have been able to pull some old thrifted items out of the garage, with help from John, as well as random things from around the house, and some DIY projects, to make up the décor for the porch.
My vision required that the porch look like a pumpkin patch, so I knew I would need a lot of orange pumpkins.  I don't think John and I have had just regular old orange pumpkins on our porch for Fall, since we've been married!  We've always loved Fairy Tale pumpkins, and that's what we've always had, but I had a vision, and I just had to keep to it.  Since it's still in the 90's here in TX it's hard to come across pumpkins so early in the season.  Luckily we found that our local grocery stores had already stocked pumpkins so we picked up some a bunch.  I honestly really love the look of all the orange. 
This section of the porch is where our bench sits.  Since we usually hang out on our back porch or the balcony, I felt like taking over this space wouldn't be too much of a loss, to accomplish what I was thinking.  I'm really excited about the outcome, and I hope you like it as much as I do.  I can't wait to take pictures of Rordan here!
I still need to decorate the door, and down the steps, so I plan to share that here on the blog in pt.2 of the porch tour.  Then, stay tuned for Halloween additions!  So many holiday's, in such a small span of time!  I'm ready for them all though!



You know the saying, "Go big, or go home!"?  Well why not go big at home?!? 

The burlap bags on the bench are actually old coffee bags I got for under $1 each at our local Habitat For Humanity store.  Also, I have to give credit to John for picking out the plants, and planting them in these awesome tubs.

Some of you that follow me on Instagram  might have seen a post about crafting about a week ago.  This is one of those projects.  I wanted it to feel
as hand made as possible, so since I had some wood leftover from the Entertainment Center project, I used that,and some paint I picked up from Hobby Lobby.  I found the font online, created the layout in Photoshop, and then hand drew it on the board.  That's why the lettering is all over the place.  I didn't draw any guide lines to follow, just let it sit where it sat so to speak.  Even though I'm a perfectionist, and this bothered me to no end before, I kind of like the "hand made" look now. 

 

This little box is actually an old drawer that I picked up at Habitat For Humanity for $2!  I've had it for almost a year, just waiting for the right time to use it.  I love that I finally got to, and how good it looks.

 

The wreath is one that I made up years ago for our first home.  I had been sitting collecting dust in the garage until yesterday.  I love being able to use things that I already have.  Save, save, save!

Have a lantern that doesn't work anymore?  Use it for décor!  Why not right?  Those things can cost a pretty penny!

The "welcome" banner was made from burlap ribbon from Hobby Lobby, and some rope I picked up at Lowes a while back.  It took me less than an hour to make.  I'll call it a "Nap Time" craft.  Check back for a tutorial on how I made it.

 

The wooden flower pot was an awesome find from a trip to visit my Mom in Iowa.  I really wish I could go back and visit the little shop where I found it.  When I do, I'll be prepared with a bigger vehicle to bring things back in.

They Are Here!

They are here!  They are here!  The cabinet doors are here!  After what felt like forever, only because of our own delay in ordering them, our cabinet doors are finally here.  Of course, we still have to paint them, add hardware, and install them, but the point is, they are here!  Can you tell I am excited about this?  Haha!  I have some family responsibilities that I am primarily focusing on this weekend, but if I get a chance, I am going to be working on these babies.  I'll be sure to give an update as soon as I have something to update about.  Oh, and by the way, I would, on any day, recommend Barker Door as a go to company for unfinished doors.  I think I'll do a review on it all once I have completed the process but for now, I am very satisfied with what I have seen.  I hope you all have a wonderful day!   Until next time!

DIY Entertainment Center-Bookcase Styling

Hello!  I hope everyone is having a good day today.  So far so good here!  I've been itching to post about the bookshelves on the entertainment center I built, for a while now.  I was going to save it for when the doors were on, but I'm up early this morning, and the lighting in the room is so beautiful that I was inspired to do this post today.  I've always loved the look of a styled bookshelf, but I've also loved shelves styled without any books on it at all.  More of a display shelf, if you will.  Over the past few months, I acquired quite the collection of random items from mini shopping trips to HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, and Target.  You know, that, "I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this, but I have to have it!", kind of shopping?  Well, it all worked out, because after a few different versions, I've settled on this setup.  I'd say it falls into the "coastal eclectic" category, which pretty much sums up my aesthetic this summer.  I don't have plans to change it up with the seasons either.  I feel like coastal décor can work year round, and honestly, since the beach is my favorite place to be, it gives me a nice claiming vibe when I see it.  Lord knows I need that most days. I'm only sharing the left bookcase today.  I haven't completed the right side just yet.  So here we go!

Here is the bottom shelf.  I chose to display the only books you will see throughout the bookcase, on this shelf.  They are all photo books of Rordan, and I can easily say they are my favorite books ever.  I chose to stack some decorative bowls on top of a beautiful storage box.  In the picture frame you can see a tiny bit of yellow.  It's just some DIY abstract digital art.  I wanted to add more color to the shelves, and I didn't want to spend anymore money, so I chose to go that rout.  

 

Moving on up to the second shelf.  The ball on the left is made up of tiny shells.  I had my eye on that one for a long time. Finally, one day it was on sale and I snatched it up before anyone else saw it.  I picked the vase up because of its color.  I knew I wanted this room to have a pop of coral.  It's actually almost red, but just coral enough for me.  The large shell on the left is either from Ross, or another HomeGoods find.  They have the best selection out of the three stores, so most of this stuff came from their.

 

I played with these three items for a while to come up with this look.  It looks simple enough, but as anyone that's styled a bookshelf knows, it's not.  I liked the irony of the large sculptural sphere on top of the small little box, so I kept it that way.

The top shelf houses a display of blue, green, and aqua vases.  I couldn't pass any of these up and in the end I'm glad I didn't.  They look great together!  

 

And here is the whole thing!  I chose to use the triangle/zig zag method of styling.  You can see, if you follow the tallest objects on the shelf and move to the next, you will follow it in a triangle/ zig zag pattern.  It was a helpful tip I picked up from Pinterest!  

In the end, it was a lot of fun to play around with, and I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome.  I hope you have found some helpful tips in this post!  Thanks for stopping by! 

Playroom Reveal!

 

Rordan's playroom is done!  I actually hadn't planned on changing up the house layout, but once I created my first playroom mood board, I think I was hooked.  I ended up making three different mood boards (MB2 & MB3).  I drew inspiration from each to come up with the final product.  We wanted this room to double as a playroom, and a guest room, since the existing guest room is now the catch all room/exercise room.  We searched for a couch that would fold out into a bed, and luckily the one we found is not only awesome looking, but very comfortable. We don't get many guests, so the fact that it's only a twin shouldn't be a problem.  If anything, someone can sleep on the couch.  Sorry future guests!

We hit up Ikea, and Target for many of the items you see in the room, as well as our own items.  I'll probably source the items if anyone is interested in knowing what they are or where they are from, or if I find the time this weekend.  LOL!  Ultimately, I think we ended up with a nice looking, functional, and fun playroom.  My main goal was to keep in mind Rordan's interests, and have all the things he loves up here in this room.  So far, he seems to be having a blast playing in it.  It's not usually this tidy, but thankfully, it's actually very easy to clean up, thanks to all the storage!  Oh, I didn't mention it, but the couch bottom lifts up to hold items as well.  Very clever, and functional!  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I made all the artwork in the room.  I drew inspiration from quotes I've seen on the internet, and one Land of Nod picture in particular. I bet you can spot it!  I ended up creating the image on Photoshop, and having it blow up into a poster at our local office supplies store.  I think I saved about $80 doing it this way.  I love graphic art, so this was a fun little project for me. Okay, well here are the pictures of the room.  This room was so hard to photograph, by the way!  The lighting is wonderful, but I just couldn't find the "perfect" setting on my camera to capture things as clearly as I needed.  I hate when that happens to me.  Guess I should brush up on my camera setting skills.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I hope y'all enjoyed the reveal!  Rordan is our first child, and we waited so long to actually have a child so we could do things just like this for him.  I thank the good Lord that we are fortunate enough to be able to do this sort of thing for him.

 

 

 

 

 Hello!  Today I'm sharing a little project I finished this morning.  Since the entertainment center is almost done, I have been attempting to style to shelves, and at one point thought I'd like to have a magazine holder on one of them.  Since I was going to Target to purchase other things for the house I figured I'd stop by the office supplies and see what they have to offer.  I was planning on purchasing the Threshold Rustic Wire Magazine Holder, seen below, but once I was walking down the aisle I saw the clear plastic magazine holder, and quickly chose those over the Threshold holder.  It was an easy choice for two reasons.  One, it was half the price of the Threshold holder, and two, I knew I could figure something out to glam them up a bit.

Threshold Rustic Wire Magazine Holder

 

I ended up purchasing two of the clear plastic holders.  I figured I'd probably need two, and I've found that if I don't get what I need originally, I'm probably not going to get the chance to get another one.  I assume stock moves fast in this area.

 



 

While shopping around I came up with a plan.  I have this tube of Run-N-Buff in Antique Gold that I have been using for other projects around the house.  I liked the idea of just adding the gold to the outer rim of the holder.  I've had success using a cotton swab to apply the Rub-N-Buff on other items, so I planned to do that for this one to save my fingers from being painted.  Well, that worked but I didn't get the coverage I was looking for, so I started to use my finger.  So for this, I guess it is all up to what you prefer.

 

I completed both in about 10 min.  I was careful to wipe off any excess, and smudges that I caused using my fingers.  A simple paper towel, and some elbow grease did the trick, and I had a cleaned up look.  So here is the final outcome.

 

 

I attempted to find the holders online, so that I could share the link with you, but I wasn't able to.  I say, if this interests you, run to your local Target, or office supply store and see if they have some.  It's a fun project, and the result looks much more expensive than it actually is.  Since the office is going to be getting a bit of a face lift soon, these may end up in the office as opposed to the original plan of having them on the entertainment center.  We will see.  I'm just excited with how nice they look, and how easy it was.  I just might have to glam up some other existing office supplies in the near future! 

 

Thanks for stopping by!