The "B" on My Wall

Using wood letters and monograms are very popular. You see them all over the internet. Hobby Lobby , Joanns and Michaels have a variety of sizes available and there are lots of places that custom cut letters and monograms for your wall decor. If I haven't told you, I love monograms. No, I am not trying to revive the LaVerne ( Oh come on , you remember LaVerne and Shirley) look, I just like monograms. I like them on a variety of things.  In fact , just about every graduate that has gotten a graduation going to college gift from me since 1996 has gotten monogrammed towel sets. Anyway, seeing all the letters that were being used in gallery walls made me want one too. I do have a couple of unusual monograms around my house...

This one sits in my dining room .

 




My office chair was a Goodwill Encore.






I saw lots of B's online, here are a few that I thought were really cool...

                                                                   via

                                                                                 via

                                                         (via Pinterest)

At first I thought I wanted to add a large B to my Family Gallery wall.
 But as time went on, I didn't see one that I liked or wanted to pay that much for .I wanted a B larger than I could get at Hobby Lobby and I wanted a different font.  So, here's what I did.  I found a font on my computer that I liked. In fact, I discovered that I really must like it because I used in when I embroidered the B that you see in the center of the silver tray in the above picture. I printed out the B and took it to FedEx and had it enlarged.  I can't remember how much it cost but I know it was less than $2.00.  I cut out the B , which was now 19" in height and 15.5" in width. I wanted cheap so, I used a couple of large cardboard boxes that I was going to throw away and cut out 4 B's. I then glued them together until I had a B that was 19"x15.5"x1". Cost, so far, less than $2.00. Now, I was getting somewhere.

My next wish was to add some texture to my B. I had this wonderful wrapping paper that I brought for $1.00 at a Salvation Army. The embossed texture was great

 . So, I cut out 2 B's ( remembered to turn the B over for the reverse). I then used my Loctite Spray adhesive to stick the embossed paper Bs to the cardboard B.  A slight mishap while purging pics from my camera so there are no pics of this process. I then sprayed it with silver paint.  To get a smooth edge I cut 1"strips of card stock and glued them around the edges to smooth it out.  But that still wasn't enough.  So I added Mardi Gras beads around all of the edges, spray painted them silver and .... I love it. Already had the beads and the paint, so I'm looking at a unique B in just the right size, etc for under $5.00.

Right now to  I have my B sitting inside a frame that I bought and painted. Not sure if I want to leave it there, or mount it  over my mantle .k? What do you think?

My New Obsession - Mardi Gras Beads

I know you are probably wondering , Mardi Gras beads, yes, Mardi Gras beads . I mean come on if you have a bunch, you've got to ask yourself what can I do with these?  I love these !! Here is the first project that I saw:




I saw this on Pinterest and knew I had to make one. I also had to visit the blogger that posted this, Amanda at The Ivy Cottage Blog. Cool stuff on her blog.  Well, this was the start of my,"I wonder what else I can do with these things". First of all, I didn't even think about Mardi Gras beads, after all I live in GA not a big Mardi Gras spot. But I figured I could use beaded garland left over from Christmas past. Little did I know that during the month of Feb. I would travel to Louisiana  2 times and Mobile ( where Mardi Gras began) . That means I came home with Mardi Gras beads!

I wanted a much smaller lamp for a  night stand and found one at a Goodwill in Mobile.  Sorry, I was in such a hurry to get started that I didn't take a pic of the lamp before I started. Mask the socket and the cord before you do any painting. I did spray paint the lamp with Krylon Chrome Spraypaint. I them started gluing the beads to the lamp using my hot glue gun.

 

I simply cut the bead necklaces creating a long strang of beads . I just kept wraping and glueing the beads on the lamp.

Easy, easy, easy. Just make sure you remove the many hot glue strings that can really be a pain. After I had covered the lamp in beads, I spray painted the whole thing.  Make sure you turn it upside down and give it a good coat of paint. I discovered that the first coat looks good, but after it dries you can see the original bead color.

This little beauty cost me less than $10.00 (including the paint).  So, I did say I love these beads, well
here's a teaser of another project using Mardi Gras beads.

 

 

 

 

May Arts Valentine

                               Let him Know He's Special

Hi all, thanks if you hopped over from the May Arts Ribonista Valentine's  Blog Hop. Make sure you leave comments as you hop along, there's a chance to win some great May Art ribbon . My post is designed to show you how to wrap that  Valentine's day gift for the special man in your life.  There are so many ideas suitable for wrapping a gift for a women ,but unless you default to a gift bag, wrapping for a man can sometimes be a challenge.

I love for the receipent of my gifts to know from the outside appearance  and presenatation of the gift just how special they are. This idea was a spin off from a conversation I had with my good friend Shelly over at ConfettiStyle. She was preparing to enter the 3M Most Gifted Wrapper Contest 2012 and mentioned the lack of ideas for wrapping a gift for a man. (By the way, she was the runner up in the contest, Way to Go Shelly). I thought I'd come up with something for a man. 

So here goes:

Using any appropriate size gift box ( I save really good boxes and reuse them)
scissors
glue
paper clips
ribbon  May Arts 364-25-10
paper brads
tape
black permanent marker
white gift wrapping paper
awl or ice pick


Tuxedo Shirt Box

1. Cut a peice of white  wrapping paer large enough to cover the box top with enough extra on the sides to wrap under the box top.

2. Fold a 5/8" wide pleat down the enter (from top to bottom) of the paper. This will be your from button placket on your shirt.

3. Lay the top facedown on the paper ( make sure your pleat is positioned srtaight) and fold sides, top and bottom in and tape or glue all sides down. You can use your paper clips to hold all of the sides down.



4. Next measure and cut two peices of May Arts  Black grosgrain the width of your box plus enough extra to allow you to fold it under the box top and secure. Fold a 1/2" "pleat horizontally on both peices of ribbon.

5. Attach the two rows of pleated ribbon across the bottom of the box as the cummerbund.  Use paper clips to hold inplace while glue dries( or use tape).



6. Create a bow as the bow tie on your "shirt".  Attach it using glue to the top , centered.

7. Next using your permenat marker, put a solid black dot on 4-5 paper brads. Leave a narrow gold edge on each brad so that you have a snazzy black and gold rimmed button for your tuxedo shirt.

8.Measure the distance between the cummerbund and the bow tie. Divide it  so that you can place buttons every 2".

9. Using an awl, carefully punch a small hole through the box top where you can then put each button.
Thats it !!

                     HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

Day 4 Valentine's Day Hop:

Alexcia Patterson-Schroll
Montina Burt - you're here
Kendra Wiggins
Jingle
Monica Edwards

Home Depot Cutie

I ran into Home Depot today to return some spray paint and look what I found.

 

 

 

 

 Now don't go rushing to HD asking what isle are the Maltipoo puppies in. They aren't selling these at HD, but a customer had her little lady prancing right pass me today and I just had to snapa pic. Her name is Sammi and she is just a couple of months old and was leading her owner out the door by way of a hot pink leash. She was already sitting on command, but she always faced her "mommie" when she did. I wish I had ignored the people trying to come in and took a few more pics.  Alas,  I found a few pics online of Maltipoo puppies that led to more awww.. moments.

                                                                  via google

Not at all what I expected to see coming out of HD. But hey, life's full of the unexpected.

Where there's a Deal, There's a Way!!

I must tell you what I just discovered recently. It goes back 30 + years to an attitude that I had, "how complicated could it be to make cardboard."  Okay, I just didn't get the folks on MSU's campus spending that kind of money and time to major in packaging!! Well, I owe everyone of them a big, I'm so sorry. I came to this apology after spending way too much time trying to create a packaging solution for myself.  It all started like this...

While out of town, I came across a cute little thrift store that I couldn't pass up.  Oh, come on, like you've never done that.  Anyway, I found two really great picture frames that I could already see wearing an encore creation.

 

The largest one is approx. 34 x 26

 

Ok, not bad you say, I've seen those before, you say. Well, so have I but not for $3 each.

I have seen frames like these for as much as $20-$30 each.  The sad part of this is that I knew that there was no way I could put them in my carry on luggage or even my checked bag.  So, I turned, dropped my head and headed out of the store.  But I couldn't stop thinking about them.

 Besides there are so many ideas for empty picture frames...

 

 

 

all via pinterest.com

 

 

The next day my travels took me past the same store. I decided to go for it, if I couldn't find a reasonable way to get them home I would donate them to a local Goodwill store. For $6.24 they were mine.

 

The next day as I travelled here and there I kept my eyes  open for a UPS store.  I spotted one and went in searching for a box.  They had one that was too big but could be cut down for the small price of $11.50!! No way. Next, I tried Best Buy hoping to find a large empty box that I could fold and tape to serve my purpose.  No luck. I did find two big boxes that I hauled into my hotel room along with packing tape and news papers from the front desk. Hence, the new found respect for packaging majors,  I spent way too much time trying to make those boxes work.  Finally I called the UHaul store that I could see outside my hotel room. Yes, they had just what I needed a mirror box for $4.25!!

 

So back in my hotel room I set to work cushioning and cutting Styrofoam cups ( who can think about a cup of coffee  at a  time like this) as support pieces inside the box as it was about 4 inches too big.  More respect for packaging engineers.  It also helps if you are on a solid surface like a table and not a queen sized bed! Oh, and scissors instead of a box cutter would have come in handy too.

       Laying on the floor between the beds while I crafted support and braces for inside the box.


 Next the cheap in me started to wonder about shipping costs. So off to the hotel lobby and their computer to check on prices.  While I did have the size of the box, I had to guess at the weight. I chose 12 lbs. It's amazing the prices that I got. They ranged from $171 to $17.75. Guess which cost I settled on? That put my total cost at about $30.00  Maybe not a super savings but it was the thrill of making it happen. And it gave me something to do besides sit in my hotel room and channel surf while eating junk from the vending machine!!  Keep a watch out for their encore creation.