Fake Calligraphy

How to create fake calligraphy...We've all seen this gem floating around on Pinterest:

It's gorgeous.  It's exciting.  FINALLY, I can write all pretty like the rest of the amazing DIYers out there.  Wrong.  I'm skeptical, and I'll tell you why.  It sounds easy, and the original tutorial was great.  It explained everything better than I ever could so I suggest clicking over there if this is something you're interested in.  Essentially all you do is write what you want, and then go back and fill in your downstrokes.  The reason I'm not thrilled with this one is you need great handwriting to begin with!  Emily over at JDC has beautiful handwriting, and her fake calligraphy is ideal.  I gave it a go, but I'm not thrilled mostly because I'm not particularly fond of my cursive or handwriting.  It's also a decent amount of work and concentration.

Not bad, not great.  If you love your handwriting and are looking to dress it up a little bit for invitations or something, do this.  If not, skip it.  My vote? Buy her font and print it on your envelopes.  It'll save time and probably look better in the long run.

Let me know if you have better luck!

xo

Earring Storage

Yesterday's big project was one of those lace-earring holders.  I saw this one on Pinterest, but I read that the lace sagged a lot when you do it that way.  So I tried it my own way!

Original (top) and mine (bottom):

Like it?  Read on!

Materials

• Frame (mine was from Marshals)
• Adhesive spray (found at JoAnne's or Michael's)
• Fabric (I found mine in the scrap bin at JoAnne's)
• Lace (JoAnne's...Micheal's didn't have any)
• Cardboard

Alrighty, the first step is to cut your cardboard.  I traced the glass and cut it out, easy enough! Next you have to cut and iron your fabric.  I wanted mine doubled over because it was so thin.  Cut the fabric so it's about an inch or two bigger than the cardboard.

Spray the cardboard with your adhesive spray following the directions on the can.  I just went at it, I wasn't trying to keep it really even or anything like that.  My only tip here is to be careful not to spray it too far...I did and my paper ended up getting stuck to my table outside haha!  Ok next you're going to fold the fabric over the back.  To avoid bulky corners I cut pieces out of the fabric like I was extending the lines of the cardboard.  Hopefully that made sense, if not here's a picture to help.

Then you use the spray again and fold the edges of the fabric over the back of the cardboard.

Mine is a far cry from perfect.  I think you could even use staples, tape, a glue stick, or hot glue if you don't have spray adhesive.  I just wanted mine to lay nice and flat.  You can skip the next step too, this is me being extra cautious that it won't fall apart.  I used the frame insert and sprayed the back of the cardboard (the side that you can still see the cardboard) and put the insert on the back.  I did this so that the folded parts wouldn't come undone and so that I could move the lace if I wanted to later.

After that it was time to add the lace!  I picked two different patterns, one for hanging earrings and one for studs.  This step is probably the trickiest.  You want the lace pretty tight so that it won't sag, but you want it loose enough so that you can get the earrings on and off.  I tied the lace around the cardboard so I didn't have to use one hand to hold it while I taped, then I cut the knot off so it wasn't bulky when I put everything back in the frame.

After that I was done!! I put everything back in the frame (including the glass so that it wasn't loose) and voila! I'm pleased with it.  I don't have earrings though, I made this for my sister so I'll keep you posted on how the lace holds up with the earrings on it. 

I would definitely recommend doing this!  It was cheap, fast and easy.  Not sure how it holds up but I'll update you as soon as I know.

xo

Easter Treats

I wanted to get the kids I babysit something cute for Easter, but let's be honest I wasn't about to spend a ton of money making adorable, extravagant baskets. So instead I poked around on Pinterest and found this:

Sold. Looked super cute, yummy, quick, and most importantly cheap! So I melted some chocolate chips on the stove (you can use the microwave I just always burn it). Side note: don't use your plastic spoon to stir the chocolate...it WILL melt and that's just gross. Then I dipped Baskin Robbins spoons in the melted chocolate, I thought the bright pink would make it a little more fun! I put the spoons down on some waxed paper so I could peel them off easier and I put a couple Jordan almonds on each one. Then I sprinkled some chocolate sprinkled around the Jordan almonds and I was done! To make travel easier I put some plastic wrap around it and tied it with some ribbon. They turned out great and the kids LOVED them. I'd call this one a success!

xo

Paint Chip Calendar!

I saw this on Pinterest:

and decided to try for myself!  

What I used:

• 35 paint swatches (free!)
• An old picture frame (with a GLASS front)
• White board markers
• Poster board ($0.99)

First I needed my colors.  I decided to go for yellow (my walls are blue).  I took my sheets (also yellow) to Lowe’s and used their paint-matcher to find the closest one.  Then my sister had the brilliant idea to use the three colors on either side that way I knew they matched and I could have one color for each day of the week.  Here’s what I came up with:
The colors I chose were WV31007-WV31013

• Breath of Blue
• Morning Mist
• Maine Shore
• Golden Rod
• Lemon
• White Pine
• Honey Pot

**Note: be sure to pick paint samples that are big enough to cut the words off of and still have a square.  I used Valspar samples because they’re huge.  

Next I had to decide what layout I wanted to use—random or uniform.  I went for uniform, but here were the layouts I played with before cutting my samples

The cutting took forever, especially since I messed up and cut the square out of the wrong corner a few times which meant I had words on my square.  Luckily I thought ahead and grabbed a few extras from Lowe’s.  When I finally finished cutting it was time to start gluing.  I chose a frame from IKEA (11 3/4 x 15 3/4).  I had originally planned on using the back of the photo insert to paste my squares onto, but being IKEA the hanging directions were on the back of the insert.  So I just cut some poster paper to fit the frame.  I wanted to make sure the spacing was even and the frame didn’t cover any of the squares so I reassembled the frame so my poster board was in front of the glass and just glued my squares on that way.

I used scrapbook tape to stick them on…you don’t need much, just a quick slide in the center.  In order to keep the spacing right (I just eyeballed it) I laid out the top and left sides then worked my way down and right.

When I finished (it took maybe 10 minutes) I put the frame back together and put my numbers on.

All in all I think it turned out pretty good.  Not to mention how easy and cheap it was.  I just paid the 99 cents for the poster board since I had the empty frame lying around and I had my own white board markers.  I recommend this one for sure!

xo