Monogrammed Wreath

I made one of these over the holidays for my sister, and have been wanting to do one for our home ever since.  I don't share the last name yet, but figured close enough, I don't feel like waiting! 

 They are ridiculously easy to make.  I got the wreath at Joanns for $3.  I spray painted it black because I really liked the way it looked when I did Lizzie's.  I was purposely sloppy about it so some brown showed thru.   I made a bunch of fabric flowers (and managed to burn the crap out of my finger on the very last one thank you very much), and added some shells I had on hand.  I got the V (again, from Joanns) for $1, and painted it a deep plum color that I love.  Attached some ribbon and thats it!

Canvas Art

For the longest time our bedroom was in a very sad state. I always ended up spending the time on all the other rooms in the house. It managed to fall into this room of just a bed and a dresser and a place to stash a pile of clutter here and there when unexpected company showed up. Little by little we have been adding things and making more of our space... I'm loving the process! It's funny how new linens can make you just want to sink into bed for 5 minutes longer each morning and the chore of making your bed not so bad for a while. I noticed the other day we had absolutely nothing on the walls, except for some lovely art work from Kali. ;) More on that another time.

I've been on the "little birdie" popular band wagon for a while now.. so after seeing a few similar ideas on line, I decided to try painting a tree branch on canvas and adding a few touches.

Here's how it turned out:

I painted the canvas a light blue that I liked and added some white streaks just because it seemed like a good idea. Now, for the next part, I totally admit I cheated. I found an image I liked, and then I used a projector to trace the image, and painted off of that. Crafty I am, an artist I am not!

I knew I wanted to add birdies, and the image seemed a little flat. So I decided to cut the birds out using my silhouette. I love how they turned out! I didn't take a close up shot, but I purposely printed on plain white card stock and then painted them to add a little texture. in person you really see it.

I'm so pleased at how they turned out!! As usual I was anxious to get the girls' approval and ego-boosting ooohs and ahhs... however, since just Kenzie was here last week, her response was a little lackluster (she's still got that little kid brutal honesty), so I'm happily awaiting Kali's return on Friday to see what she thinks. ;)

On the birdie route, here was something else I picked up at Michaels. They were half off! So cute! I decided to add the mason jar and flowers for good measure. I love the little touch of spring it brings to our room.

Now I need to tackle curtains!  Wish me luck!

Sisters, Sisters...

So many projects, so little time.  I have so much stuff I want to share but barely have a moment it seems to even pull pictures off my camera.  So shhh, I'm taking a mini break at work and using an iphone pic!  Life has just been crazy busy, and this last week was no exception - although nothing that we thought it would be.

Last week was Spring Break for the girls, and we were supposed to pick them up Wednesday around lunch time and have them thru Sunday.  We had big plans.. one is still top secret because it is post poned, and the other was a surprise overnight trip to Disneyland.  Josh and I have been waiting forever to do this and were so excited we could barely see straight.

Then Monday afternoon we got a horrible phone call.  Kali took a nasty spill on her bike and broke her leg. Not just a horrible afternoon at the doctor and get a cast kind of break either... she was in the hospital until Wednesday night.  Talk about a flurry of emotions.  I am happy to report that she is doing great today, and did not need surgery.  She broke her leg in 2 places and will need a full leg cast, that she'll hopefully get today assuming the swelling has gone down enough.   

Poor Mackenzie has just been beside herself.  She and Kali are so close, she really leans on Kali for just about everything - down to what shirt to wear and what snack to have.  So we were a bit surprised when Kenzie said she still wanted to spend the week with us, without Kali.   She was a trooper and we managed to have some fun on our own. :)

Kenzie asked if we could make Kali something.... so here you go, those who made it thru my long winded intro:  our craft project for Kali.

Kenzie chose this picture from a recent hiking trip we took.  She painted a board hot pink (of course!) and we thought of a bunch of cute sister-duo sayings to cut out of vinyl on my Silhouette.  Drilled some holes, hung some wire, and we were good to go.  Kenzie brought it back to her mom's house and reported that Kali loved it.

Linking to Christina's Adventures

Cost Break Down:

Wooden plaque from Joann's $3.99 (with 50% off coupon)
Pink paint $.59
Vinyl lettering - used Silhouette, already had vinyl
Wire to hang - already had on hand
Picture - $.20 to print

Total cost:  $4.78

More Burlap Signs.... requested by the girls!

After I had made my first burlap sign in the spirit of St. Patty's Day... I quickly received requests from the girls to make them signs of their own. I asked what they wanted after some pondering I got the request from Kali to do a "family" sign, and predictably, Kenzie said "surprise me"... lol that girl will do anything to avoid making a decision.

For Kali's I printed out the letters, broke out the exacto knife and what felt like years later was ready to use it as a stencil.

This is where I will now gush and tell you that I USED MY NEW SILHOUETTE (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to make Kenzie's. I can't even begin to describe how excited I am to have it and will refrain because it will take over this posting. Just know, I'm in love.

Kenzie has an extreme love of horses, so I found the image online, imported that bad boy in.. and cut it out, using the negative space on the paper as a stencil. I can't wait for them to see tonight when they get home, they'll love em!

Old School Silhouettes

In my many adventures getting lost in blog land I've seen the classic silhouette pictures (that admittedly sometimes look creepy) come back around again. The girls are growing so fast, I'm always interested in ways to preserve their cute tiny little girlness while we can! So I thought this would be a fun rainy day project to try this weekend. (ended up being the only area in SoCal to have clear sunny skies this weekend!)

This was so super easy. I took pictures of the girl's profiles, and printed them out on cardstock. I carefully cut them out with an exacto knife, and painted the paper black. I found some cute scrapbook paper at Michael's to use as a background, and framed the whole thing. I had the oval frames already.

Whatdya' think?? The girls loved it!

P.S. Thats Kali up at the top, and Kenzie down here below.

Linking to Christina's Adventures

Cost break down:  Frames, already had but saw at Walmart for $4 each

Carstock at Michaels:  $1.50

Scrapbook paper for background:  $2

Paint: on hand

St Patty's Day Burlap Decoration

I have seen different variations of these burlap signs for a while and have been wanting to try one.  When I happened to see a frame I knew would be a perfect size, I finally went for it. 

I don't have any St. Patrick's Day decorations really so I thought this was a good holiday to start with.  I found a font I liked and printed out the word "lucky".  Then I sat for what felt like an eternity and painstakingly used an exacto knife to cut out a stencil.  You can be pretty certain a few muttered comments about how a Cricut (or as Josh calls it, a Grasshopper) would have made this MUCH easier, and nicer!

After I (finally) cut it all out, I just used it as a stencil and painted away.  It's not perfect, but I like it that way.  Once it was dry, I used some dark green cardstock for the back, secured it with some brads, and there you have it!

Necklace Holder

So… Ok. I really need to get better about taking pictures. Phew. We got that out of the way.


A few weeks (ok like several) ago Katie (sister) challenged me with a craft project. She needed a necklace holder. I immediately had a few ideas.I ended up going with a necklace/earring combo. I started with a 12 inch square frame I had for a project that never happened, and painted that brown.

 Next I went to Joanns and got this fabric… I looooove this fabric and can’t wait to find an excuse to use it somewhere in my house. The only downside was choosing a fabric with a symmetric pattern kinda backfired. I can tell it’s not lined up just right. Anyway, I lined it with some quilters batting, then hot glued it all to the back of the cardboard that came in the frame.

The last thing I did was drill have Josh drill holes so I could screw in some hooks, and I was good to go!

Yep. That’s a pic in my bathroom. Sigh.  Katie swears she loves it!  Kali already asked if we could make ehr one, too. :) 

More Valentine's Decorations

In my defense, no I did not just do these 2 days before Valentine's Day.  We did these last weekend, I just haven't had a minute to pull pictures off my camera until now!

I have been wanting to make one of these banners since the very first day I discovered craft-blog land and fell in love.   The simpleness and kind of 'eh' -ness (even my sister said she only kinda liked it.. gotta love her honesty!) is another indicator of how not into Valentine's day I am. BUT as I said, it's not for me, its for the girls, and the gasps and awwww's I got made it totally worth doing.  So here is my nothing spectacular, but never-the-less, Valentine's banner. 

(We have the coolest huge fireplace, but I long for a mantle! This looks kinda random! lol)

I should note that the entire time I was slaving over trying to get the letters to look half way decent I was able to list off about 50 reasons to Josh as to why I need a cricut or silhouette.  He matched that with about 50 eye rolls. I'm breaking him down though, I can tell!!

I actually made the next project a few weekends ago.  I've seen different versions of these popping up in blogville... so I copied a few different variations.  I had this super duper cute red fabric on hand, and I got plant foam squares at the dollar store.  Wrap like a present, pin in place and you are good to go.  I don't have any stencils so I decided to just free-hand letters on.  The girls have had fun stacking them in different ways.  I'm tempted to make a bunch for every day decoration so they can spell out different things.  I didn't think they'd have such a good time messing with them! 

Valentine's Day Wreath

If you know me, you know that I'm not a foofoo lovey dovey person. I call Josh by his name 90% of the time, not "babe" or "hun" or "sweetie"... our terms of endearment fall more into the category of "hey stinky" stuff like that.  What can I say, we are weird.  :)   So Valentine's Day decor is not top of my list of things to do.  However, the girls will be with us on Valentines Day, so I'm making an effort. 

I had to go to Costco Sunday night and SCHUCKS... Michael's is right next door.  So after getting the Costco trip done (ugh it was packed) I rewarded myself with a trip into Michaels.  I saw a cute heart wreath and decided to go with it and see what I came up with.

A few fabric flowers later....

The little cardboard cut out of "True Love" was also a great find at Michaels.  They had a few different v-day sayings... $1 each!  I would have probably preferred to attach a pink or red ribbon at the top but alas I didn't have any. So I decided to go with the earthy feel of the wreath and used up some left over jute I had. 

In case you are curious here is the cost breakdown:
Wreath $3.99
True Love Emblem: $1.00
I used left over fabric scraps to make the flowers, and had the jute on hand. 

Total Cost around $4.99!

When crafting goes wrong.... Sigh.

I've mentioned before that one of the hurdles I got over that allowed me to enjoying crafting so much more... was realizing it doesn't have to be perfect.  Getting over that mental road block has allowed me to really get into crafting and have a lot of fun.  But sometimes, it's just a fail, and thats that!

I have been wanting to make a magnetic recipe board for a while.  I wanted to make it specifically as a gift to Pattie.  She's always talking about how she hates leaving a recipe on the counter because its never at the right angle to glance at easily.  (truth be told she's come up with a smart solution, resting the recipe card between two knobs on her upper kitchen cabinets, pretty smart!) Anyway, I started seeing lots of these popping up on blog world.. here's an example from From Glitter to GumDrops :

Cute, right?? I was kind of stumped on where to buy metal from. I mean, I know I'd go to Home Depot but I'd have to ask for help, which would mean actually finding an employee there... and thats where you loose me. 

So when I was at Michaels, with a gift card burning a hole in my pocket (Thanks Dad and Pattie!)  I stumbled on the cutest scrapbook paper. I should pause to say that with all my crafting, I've never really been inspired to make a full on scrapbook.  I dunno, just doesn't do anything for me.  There are so many options and so much potential, but all the power to you, it's not my thing.  But when I come across cute paper I have to grab it, knowing I will find a way to use it.  So as I was walking around Michaels, paper in hand, I decided to just wing it and make my own menu boards.  I quickly stumbled on a roll of magnet sheeting... magnet on one side, paintable white surface on the other. PERFECT! 

So I thought.

I started with painting my boards, and then cutting out the pieces of paper I wanted to use, and mod-poding them on. Easy enough, and it looks just like I thought it would.  But then when I open up the magnet roll, the white, paintable (a.k.a. prettier) side is not magnetic.  If I want to be able to slap a recipe card with a magnet on this I'm going to have to use the dark side.  Then I used hot glue to adhere the magnet sheet to the board, and you can see the outline of the glue thru the magnet. 

I made two, one intended to be my trial one I'd keep, and one that I planned to give to Pattie.  They now are sitting in my living room with no home, and no plans for me to use them.  I'm posting this not to show you my bad sides.. but just out of curiosity to hear what you would have tried to do differently?  Go to Home Depot and scrounge for an employee?  Do you have another idea for what might have been a better product to use?

Whatdya' think?

Christmas Gift Revealed - Monogrammed Wreath

The 3rd gift I made was for my sister, Lizzie.  I guess I lied earlier, because I was nervous to give her this, too!  But while I was disappointed in the one I gave Katie, I was super excited with out this one turned out.  I have actually wanted to do one of these for us ever since I saw it on The Bird's Papaya.  However, we don't all have the same last name yet (nudge nudge, Josh!) so alas I will have to wait. 

I knew I wanted to make something for Lizzie, but I didn't know what.  She moved into her now, husband's home, so it still is very bachelor pad-y.  She is definitely itching to add her flare.  So she told me the direction she wanted to go in was dark blues, purples and blacks, but still with a beachy feel.  For some reason, this wreath popped into my head! So I got started. 

First I got a wreath at Michaels, and spray painted it black.  I did a few coats, but didn't go nuts, I didn't mind some of the brown sneaking thru.

Next, I took a stab at making fabric flowers.  I have seen these tutorials popping up everywhere.  The basic principle can be applied.  Take a strip of fabric, tie a knot at one end, hot glue it to a piece of felt, and then twist and glue your way into a flower.  For some reason, when I was walking around Joanns, burlap kept popping into my head, so I went with it.  They are super easy to make, just be careful pushing the fabric into glue.  Hot glue gun=hot!  (DUH!)

I also made some in plain white fabric I had on hand.  To add a more beachy feel I added a shells.  The neat story behind these, is that they are actually decorations we used for Lizzie's bridal shower 2 years ago.  I had held on to them knowing I'd find a use, and well, here you go! 

Lastly, I added some ribbon to hold the C in place, and it was good to go!!  This is the picture Lizzie sent me, of the wreath hanging on her front door. I'm so thrilled she likes it!!





First Christmas gift, revealed! { finally! }

Wow... Dec 10th was my last post.. whoops!  I learned a valuable lesson these last few weeks.  It was Jack's first Christmas, and things were chaotic.  I had this great idea of making a handful of my gifts this year, which I am so glad that I did, I just wish I was a little more proactive about it.  We ended up having to jam pack so much in (also in prep for getting the girls xmas morning) that I didn't take a minute to just breathe.  The day after Christmas I was so disappointed in myself for missing moments I could have had with Jack, making his first Christmas special.  Josh rationalized that he's 5 months old, he doesn't know any different.. but we never even got a picture of the kids in front of the tree.  It was a valuable lesson for me to keep in mind going forward to stay true to what is important to us, and realize the rest will find its way to work itself out. 

Now that I got that off my chest, I can finally reveal a bunch of things I was working on!  I don't think anyone that I made gifts for read my blog (I only have 6 followers, lets be honest!) but I didn't want to risk it. 

I was most nervous about my gift to my oldest sister, Katie.  She moved up to Northern CA a few years ago, and I'll admit the distance makes it harder to know what to get her for a gift.  We don't have those day to day interactions where you catch her eyeing a cute top at at store, or saying she needs something for the house.   One thing I know about Katie, and her husband, Devin, is that they LOVE The Beatles.  A few months ago I stumbled on a ton of subway art ideas.  I really love the look.  One day the idea came to me to make a subway art, Beatle themed.  Then I took it one step further that I wanted the background to be a faded black and white version of the famous "Abbey Road" picture. 

Sigh, if only it was all that easy. I could give you a long winded excuse for why it went from this grand idea in my head to something of a much smaller scale... but I'll save you the details.  The bottom line is, Katie swears she loves it... I hope so!!  In our mad dash frenzy to get everything done in time, I completely forgot to take a picture! So Katie was kind enough to snap one and send it over.  Here it is:

It's mounted on a piece of MDF board, painted black.  My days with subway art definitely aren't over.  I'm on a mission now! 

Babies!

I think I've made it pretty clear how head over heels in love I am with Jack, and being a mom.  It is seriously the best thing that ever happened to me, and I LOVE talking about it!  So when my friend Michelle told me she was pregnant (while I was still prego, too) I was so excited for her.  After having Jack, I was even more excited for her.  I think she was honestly sick of me towards the end there of jumping around with excitement everytime I saw her, exclaiming "I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU! IT'S GONNA BE SO GREAT!"... she's a good sport.

So I've been trying my best to not be a pest (haha that rhymed) and not asking her every day if shes having contractions.  So I stalked her Facebook page instead.  Ok now I just sound creepy, I wasn't sitting there hitting the refresh button all day, but I did check a few times, once I knew she was at the hospital!  Then once I knew little Emerson Rose had entered the world I literally had to sit on my hands and wait patiently before writing to her to ask when I could come visit.   2 days after she was born I couldn't resist and my fingers feverishly sent her a text, and we set up a time that was good for her. 

Of course I couldn't go empty handed, so I made a little something.  I started with a mish mash of goodies from my craft supply:

 And added some decals from this project... and made this!

I left the hair and eye color blank because I wanted to wait until I saw her and could be sure!

She is just precious and I am so thrilled to see my friend have that mom-glow that I promised her was on it's way and made all that end-of-pregnancy-awfullness worth it! Welcome to the world, little Emerson Rose!

Glass Magnets

As soon as I saw this idea on Christina's Adventures I couldn't wait to go get the supplies and try it out.   I was telling my sister, Amy, about it and she wanted to give it a shot, too.  So Sunday afternoon we set off for supplies and got to work.  As usual I forgot to take pictures as we went... and I feel even more silly because I had an extra set of hands, so taking pictures would have been a sinch!  Oh well! We varied from Christina's suggestions a little here and there.

Here is what we did:

We decided on a portion of the scrap book paper we wanted to use and cut out a piece a little bigger than the stones.  Then we mod podged the stone, slid the paper on to where we wanted it to show thru and let them dry.  Once they were dry we carefully cut the excess paper off (easier than you think) and hot glued a magnet to the back.  We saved that part for the end and did all the magnets at once, placing a heavy book on top while they set.  Christina used gorilla glue.. which I've never used before.  I'm guessing it's more heavy duty, so if you are worried about them separating, you may want to use that instead.  We decided to take a walk on the wild side and risk it. 

Aren't they cute?  Like typical girls, I was jealous of the cute cartoon character ones Amy did, and she liked the way mine looked. 

Brittany, I put this picture in just for you, see the owls????

This was way fun, and way easy!  I think these will be great office xmas presents considering I just joined a new group and don't know anyone.  Who doesn't use magnets?   Plus it was so fun to have someone to craft with.  Not that I don't appreciate Josh pretending like he is as excited about something as I am when it comes to crafts... but having someone to chat with and get new ideas from was nice!

My first furniture redo!!

Ok, so it's not monumental... I didn't find this beat up gem of a way super cool dresser for $5 in the back of some store and make it into the most beautiful thing ever... but it's a start!

There is a thrift store a few blocks from work so I've stopped in a few times just to see what they had. It's not the best thrift store, in my opinion it tends to be a little over priced but I still go in, hopefully every time anyway. Well finally it paid off. I was scanning the shelves over the typical things and I spotted this little guy:

(Yay for being lazy and using my phone to take pictures.... Hi Gismo!)

Admittedly, I think it's cute as is. But alas, I don't live in a cabin in the woods, so it really doesn't match our decor. The best part: sticker price $5.99 WOOHOO! I was so excited I could have skipped to my car - even I saw my inner nerd shining thru.

I decided this piece was going to go into our room. Let me just take a minute to say, our bedroom is the most neglected room in the house. There is no design, no anything. It's a functional room with a bed, dresser and nightstand. But it becomes the dumping storing grounds for all the things in our house that don't have a home. There are piles in every corner. I've managed to keep them somewhat neat at least, but I walk in the room and just sigh. I actually have an official plan of what I want to do (an inspiration post is in my near future) I just need the money fairy to come visit our house first. So I'm hoping if I start on the smaller, less expensive things and make them into the future color scheme it will annoy me enough to just suck it up and do it all!!

Back to my project. Once the kiddos were asleep I got to work. I gave it a light sanding and wiped it down, and then taped in the inside because I definitely don't have a steady hand when it comes to edges! First I did a few coats of black, then painted the back panel white. Pretty simple!!

I was impatient and wanted to take a picture so a few more touch ups have happened since. I'd love to have it all on the wall with cute things on it but I'll just have to save that picture for when the whole room is done.

Stockings & Quilts

This weekend, the Joanns flyer came in the mail (swoon!).... with allll of their black Friday sales and coupons to boot. By the third "look at this!" to Josh I had received enough eye rolls to know the excitement was limited to my side of the room. Besides a personal Cricut getting marked down to $69.95 (seriously?!) and all their holiday items 50% off (woohoo!) the biggest sale for what I already need is on fabric. Kali really wants to make a rag quilt which uses flannels. To give you an idea of the deep sale... regular price on all flannels is $5.99 and up. This weekend all flannels are $1.29 a yard! Are you for real? So I think I'm going to put a "kit" together for her so she can make one. I am so excited!

I'll also need to pick out some super cute Christmas fabric to make these babies:

I was so excited when I just "ran" into Joanns for a "minute" last night and all the McCalls patterns were on sale for $1.99 (regular price $15.95... I LOVE a good sale!) and they still had the Christmas one I wanted with the super cute stockings. Now, patterns scare me. I am still such a beginner that I get confused. Just ask me about the curtains I am making for Jack. My biggest downfall is cutting. The whole measure twice cut once thing, should be measure about 50 times, have someone else check it... ask if they are sure.. again.. and then make them be the ones to cut, for me. So hopefully these are a success! The nerd in me is SO excited for our family to have matching stockings! Is it weird to buy enough fabric for another one in case Jack ever gets another sibling? (Josh turned white when I asked this, hahahahaha!)

So I think Joanns is just about the only place I am going to brave Friday morning.. I just can't pass up those fabric sales!!

I'll keep you posted.

Halloween Candy Jars

As Halloween got closer I knew I wanted to do something small for the people I work with. Nothing major, just something fun to make them stop and smile for a second. I saw this idea for Halloween candy Jars on the Sassy Sanctuary blog. I changed it up a little to meet my needs, but the concept was the same!

This was such a simple project. I just bought mini mason jars, and some glass paint. Here's where I pulled a "megan" and goofed. It was a last minute decision to get the glass paint so I grabbed what I thought was black and headed for the line at Joanns. Once I got home, I realized I picked up "pewter" instead! I was able to come up with a quick fix: once the glass paint dried I just went over it all with black acrylic paint. No one will ever know!

I traced the discs from the lids on the back of some left over fabric scraps I had from this project and "mod-podged" them to the lids.

Next I painted the outside of the lids black. This is when I realized it would have been totally worth it to invest in a can of spray paint (if I recall, the tutorial I pulled this from made the same comment!).... 50 coats of acrylic (ok maybe like 5) paint later, there were still some spots showing through. I tied a ribbon around it and called it a day!

(Yay for finally remembering to use my camera!)

Sneak Peak of Projects This Week

So there are 2 main projects I am working on this week and they aren't done but I'm itching to share. The first project is top secret and I feel like I'm running of risk of even sharing but I'm about 99.9% sure the intended recipient doesn't read this blog so I think I'm good! I will hold off on revealing the full details until she's seen it. But... here's a tiny little clue!

The colors are a bit distorted (that bottom left fabric is extremely pink, not orangish as it appears here) but thats because I keep being lazy and using my iPhone to take pictures instead of getting my big girl camera out. Maybe some day I'll get with it! I can't wait to see how this turns out!

I am much more excited about the first project, but my 2nd project is fun, too...and its for Halloween so I've spent the last 2 nights working on it instead of the first. Here's a peak... I'll do a full post on the finished product once I actually finish!

I have a few other projects that I plan to do that I haven't even started yet. This includes curtains for Jack that I got the fabric for, cut the wrong length and had a minor melt down over, recovering Grandma Tino's patio chairs, and my good friend Chrissy has asked if I can recover her patio chair cushions as well! If only weekends were more than 2 days!!

Pretty Flower Wall Art

I'm starting to wonder if I'm creating a Friday night ritual. I spend all week finding crafts I want to try that come Friday afternoon I'm bursting at the seams and the Joanns & Michaels coupons I get each week are burning holes in my wallet. So Friday night off I went... first to get supplies for a top secret project I will be able to share after November 14th! Second, I got the goodies to make this cute flower wall art I found the tutorial for on Christina's Adventures. I will admit, it looks very home made, and I coincidentally wish it would have turned out more the color of the tutorials, because it would have matched our new bathroom much better! But all in all, I am pleased, and Kali telling me repeatedly how much she just loved it and it was so beautiful sure made my head large enough to keep it! Plus, it was so inexpensive to make, I could easily try for a new color.. maybe once I get a cricut. (in my dreams!)

Just for Brittany... here are my step by step (sorta) photos!

First I just painted a piece of thin plywood I got at Joanns.

Next I made a stencil heart with construction paper and traced it onto the back of some cute scrapbook paper I found, and cut them all out. My hand was killing me by the time I was finished. Oh how I long for a cricut...

Next I determined where the center of the board was and used a clear bowl to trace a circle around it so I could use it as a sort of guideline on where to start gluing the hearts down.

Then I got busy gluing. It's worth it to use a hot glue gun because the glue allows the hearts to stick up a little bit making it not so two dimensional.

Tada! I love the shimmer to the paper... I just wish the purple was a bit more muted. I picked out a fun button at Joanns and plopped it in the middle to finish her off.

All in all it came together in under an hour, fun Friday night project!