Silhouette Craft Cutter Giveaway!

Thrifty Decor Chick is giving away a Silhouette Craft Cutter next week!  On Tuesday 6/29, in fact!  Be sure to check out her giveaway here http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2010/06/silhouette-craft-cutter-giveaway.html .

Have you seen one of these things in action? Have you seen what the Silhouette can do?  It is SO COOL!  Not to mention, they are kinda spendy, so giving one away for free is awesome! 

Have a great weekend,
Halle

Lollipop Ghosts

Somebody Stop Me! I just can't stop making stuff for Halloween.  This morning, I made these for the extra special costumed trick or treaters. 

Supplies:

1. Tootsie Pops

2. Kleenex (preferrably unused..hahahah! I kid, I kid)

3. string

4. black marker

Wrap the single kleenex around the tootsie pop:

Tie the string around the ghosts "neck".

Draw a simple face on the kleenex.  I use 2 black dots for the eyes and one for the mouth.

I plan on passing these out the the best costumes tonight!

Ok, I am DONE with Halloween.  Seriously!

Have a GREAT night!

Happy Halle-Ween!

I did one last little "HalleWeen" project, and just in the nick of time. 

I bought the oval plaques at the dollar store. Painted them warm white, added a coat of crackle medium, then painted them black.   I LOVE the crackle medium!

Hubby helped me get the letters on the plaque.  My homeade stencil was too hard to cut out with an exacto knife, so he free handed the outline of the letter.  I like the effect because the letter looks less perfect. I'm lovin' the hand drawn effect.

Finally, I added some black glitter to the edges of all the plaques.  Then hung 3 different patterned black and white ribbons.  Voila!

I love how it turned out.

Love!! 

Hope you have a happy Halle-Ween!

Curtains!

Curtains, I tell ya, CURTAINS! 

We've been very busy with the leaking pipe issues in the last week.  2 appraisals and OMG expensive.

Soooo, I thought I would write a post about something I care about...I made curtains and I didn't sew a stitch!

I bought some fabric (half off!) at the fabric store and used iron on fusable webbing to hem all the edges.  It was very easy, compared to actually sewing.  The fusable webbing works and holds up so well.  

I knew I would never need to close these curtains, so I bought 2 of the shortest curtain rods I could find and that is what I used on each side of the windows. I hung them with little curtain hanging rings. 

At first they were just hanging there and I thought they would look better bunched up and tied. 

To achieve this "bunched up" effect on each curtain panel, I took some burgandy ribbon and a small cup hook (screwed into the wall behind each panel).  I tied the ribbon tight around the curtain panel, then hung the ribbon onto the cup hook. Then fluffed.

This fabric is sooooo lovely.

I love it!!!  I don't usually do burgandy, but I'm starting to become fond of it. 

I think I will have to change everything else in the room to go with these curtains!  I love them.  And the fact that I made them myself makes me really happy.

One more thing I did to give them a lil' something special...I thought the tops needed some ooomph. So I stuffed the curtain rod pocket area with tissue paper.  Now they are fluffy and perky at the top. Love!!

If you have been contimplating doing some home made curtains, I totally think you should GO FOR IT!  It was super easy.  Iron on fuseable webbing was so simple!

Have a great day!

Housecapated!

We found out we have ANOTHER leak in the main water supply line that runs from the outside meter to our house. 

What does this mean? Every house has a main water supply pipe that runs from your water meter to your house, underground. This is the one and only supply line that brings water into your house.  I noticed that our water bill had doubled in the last 2 months, so we knew we had a problem. 

It was easy to diagnose, because this happened to us just last year.

We shut off the master water valve in the crawlspace, then checked the meter outside...the happy little arrows on the meter were still spinning away.  That means...yahoo....another leak. 

Last year when this happened, we had to dig a huge hole through our driveway, dig down 4 feet, replace the leaking pipe section, then fill the hole back up and replace the concrete.  VERY labor intensive.  Hubby did all the work with his dad and uncle, poor guys. 

This time, we are going to have to replace the entire water supply line.  Can you tell how happy I am about this?  NOT!

We have a guy coming out tomorrow to give us a quote on the cost to replace the entire line. (Please be a quote that doesn't make me pass out, please oh please oh please!).   

I think replacing the entire water line is the only way to go so that this whole situation does not become an annual repair-a-thon. 

I know this is a boring subject...but this is the type of stuff that I really detest when it comes to home ownership.  I know all homes have repairs, but REALLY the MAIN water supply line that runs under our DRIVEWAY?!  Let me remind you that this house is only 21 years old.  Let me also remind you that we have only been here for 3 of those 21.  3 years and 2 leaks in the main water supply line....Really?!

All I want to do is paint, and decorate and paint some more.  It really buggers me when the fun projects get totally sidelined by boring and expensive ones....I'm feeling Housecapated!!

Thanks for bearing with me.

UPDATE:  $3500 before tax.  They replaced the line in 1 day.  After the all was said and done, almost $4000 for one afternoon of work.  At least its done now.  Hope this house doesnt have anything major break for a while now. 

Halloween Wreath

I made a Halloween Wreath this week.  I used a styrofoam wreath, black paint and tons of ribbon. I have a lot of ribbon laying around. I kinda have a "problem" with ribbon. Especially grosgrain...I love it!

First, I bought a 10 inch styrofoam wreath at the dollar store and painted it black (I've seen these same hard styrofoam wreaths at the craft store for $5.  I only paid ONE dollar for mine at The Dollar Tree).

Do you like my fancy dancy paper plate palette?

Wreath during painting process.

Next I cut 14 inch long sections of ribbon:

Then I started tying the ribbon on using a double knot. 

I alternated the ribbon colors, making a pattern. You just tie and tie and TIE ribbon all the way around.  When that was done, I cut all the ribbon ends in a slant:

To prevent the ribbons from fraying, I "heat sealed" the ends.  This was just a matter of taking a lighter and getting the flame almost touching the ribbon end...only do this for 1 or 2 seconds.  BE CAREFUL, I managed to burn only one finger.  Bonus!

Then I hung one long ribbon to the top and took a pic:

I wasn't totally loving it, so I added a little wooden sign that I have had for years.

Here she is!!

The photos really don't do it justice. It's super cute in person.  I think I will hang it on my front door!

I might still do some adjusting to it.  I think that I might add a few more swiss dot black ribbon pieces...that is, if I can find it!  I could only do the lower half of the wreath because I ran out and I can't find it at the fabric store.  I haven't checked Michael's yet...hope they have some.  OR, I will just take the 7 strips that are on there already, and rearrange them to be more spaced out??!  Well, not tonight. Im all tuckered out!

Have a great day!

Monogram Craft

I love these, and I love that I made them myself!

First,  I bought a pack of hard, flat canvas panels at the craft store.

Next, I painted them dark brown with Burnt Umber acrylic paint:

For the "W" canvas, I took my craft store plastic stencil and 'Rich Espresso Metallic/ craft paint, and with my handy dandy Spouncer I painted the background for the "W":

Next, I printed out a "W" using Word and then cut it out with an exacto knife. I don't have a picture of the "W" stencil I made, but here is a pic of other monogram stencils I have made:

Just a little advice: I have made the stencils out of regular printer paper and I have made them with white card stock. I think both work fine.  Sometimes printer paper is better because it is flexible to work with a curved or an (new word alert) un-flat (??) surface.

  Next, I taped the "W" onto the canvas and filled in the W with a creamy white. I used white craft paint with a tiny dab of the Rich Espresso craft paint mixed in to get the perfect off-white color.

As seen above, here is the finished "W" monogram:

For the Fleur de Lis, I used the same process.  I painted the entire canvas with burnt umber, then took a pre-made craft store stencil, Rich Espresso Metallic craft paint, and spouncer.

That's it! It really was very easy to do and I have since made one for my friend. I think they make great gifts and add a special touch to your home.

Have a great Monday!!