Have you ever noticed how sometimes inspiration strikes you when you least expect it?  I had that happen last fall when my husband and I took a trip to Spain.  I love all the Moorish details, cedar beams, and bright colors so it’s no surprise I snapped quite a few “inspiration photos”.  Photos that were meant to remind me of projects I wanted to attempt to make from them when we returned home.  Sadly, most of those inspiration photos are still sitting in a file on my computer waiting for me to do something with them.

Then, last week as I was wandering around Goodwill after dropping off a load of items we’ve finally cleaned from our closets I noticed a gold oval shaped frame.  It had icky dried flowers inside, but it still reminded me of one of my Spanish inspiration photos, and so for only 99 cents it came home with me.

While in Granada we stayed at the lovely Hotel Casa 1800, where lovely wooden & golden finishes were in abundance.

Outside each door, the room number was displayed in a lovely golden, oval shaped frame with a golden numeral on a dark background.  I thought they would make lovely take numbers, and took a quick photo to remind me.   So, with the icky dried flowers removed from my frame I quickly gathered up the supplies I would need to duplicate it.

Using my 99 cent frame, an xacto knife, glue stick and some leftover scrapbook paper I quickly threw together the following elegant table numbers.  I think these would look lovely leaned against a soft floral arrangement or sitting alone in a stand.  I also couldn’t resist the urge to switch out the black paper for pink to how romantic it would look.

These are super easy to make and just like the table numbers we used for our wedding, it doesn’t damage the frames.  This means you can reuse them later, maybe add photos from the event and gift to the special people who helped make the day happen.

1. Carefully remove the back, and then the glass from your frame.
2. Place the glass and your background paper on a cutting mat, and carefully cut around the edge of the glass with your knife.
3. Place the cut background paper into your frame, then add the glass, and finally the frame backing.
4. Place a printout of your number and the gold paper on your cutting mat, and carefully cut around the edges of your number.  You could also use an electronic cutter or even house numbers from the hardware store.
5. Apply glue with a glue-stick to the back of your number and apply to the middle of the oval.

Enjoy!  These are so easy to make, and could be a lovely, yet low cost solution for your table numbers.

What do you think?  Do you snap inspiration photos when you travel?

Yesterday I used the larger stickers from my dollar spot container to make heart shaped cupcake toppers.  When I was finished I had a handful of the smaller stickers left over and knew I needed to do something with them!  A quick glance through the craft stash box yielded some red embroidery floss and I realized that a mini heart bunting could be really cute.

If you’d like to quickly make you own:

With my leftover stickers I was able to make over 6 feet of the bunting…which combined with the cupcake toppers is quite a bit of Valentine’s goodness for an expenditure of $1.07 (including tax)!   I’ve seen bags of rainbow foam heart stickers at my local dollar store this could be a fun birthday party decoration as well…one which your kiddos could help you assemble!

I’ve made these before…but when I ran across these cute heart stickers in the Target Dollar Spot I knew I had to repeat this Easter project.

In case you missed the Easter egg ones, the process is super cheap & easy.

And repeat until you end up with these cute little guys!

I picked up the container of stickers in the Target dollar section but I’ve also seen large bags of these in rainbow colors at my local dollar store in the craft section.  The fun thing about the Target container was that after making cupcake toppers with the larger stickers, I still had a large amount of the smaller ones left over.  This means I have another project lined up tomorrow with the leftovers and rumor has it I’ll give them both away next week

Anyone else out there throwing together last minute Valentines ideas?  I’d love to see them so share those links!

Since Easter is just around the corner, I decided to create a one-stop post featuring all my previous year’s related napkin wraps!  Also, I’ll be adding links to the new ones I plan to post here later this week.  To access the post with printable template simply click on the napkin wrap images below:

All templates above use Monterey BT font which is free to download from SoFontes.  New to Napkin Wraps?  No worries, visit this post for step-by-step instructions on how to use my napkin wrap templates!

Can you believe it’s December already?  Wasn’t it just June?  I remember thinking the saying “time flies” was just one of those things older adults said. Much like walking to school in the snow, up hill both ways.  Sadly now I completely understand what they meant…this year has flown by!

Last year on a last minute, right before Christmas trip to Pike Nursery I noticed  their fun outdoor decorations.  They had these large peppermint patties.  It took me a minute but then it hit me…they made them.  So I snapped a photo thinking I should give it a try this year.

Supplies Needed:

• Tape
• Scissors
• Red (or any color)  cellophane wrap
• Ribbon or twine
• Clear Plastic Flower Pot Saucers (mine are 6 inch)

Instructions:

1. Cut your cellophane into pieces larger than your saucers.  I doubled the diameter of my saucer, so 12 inches square for each 6 inch saucer.  Don’t worry if you have too much on the sides you can trim that later.
2. Lay your first saucer in the middle of one of your pre-cut cellophane pieces, open side up.
3. Pull the bottom half of the cellophane up and over the top of the open saucer.  Secure it with tape.
4. Pull the top half of the cellophane down and hold closed with a tiny piece of tape.
5. Now carefully gather one of the ends and tie with a small piece of twine.  You could also just use your decorative ribbon but since they will be outside I wanted to tie them with something a bit stronger.  Don’t worry if your ends are a bit long, you can always trim them when they are finished.
   
6. Repeat the gathering and tying process on the remaining side.
7. Now, cut pieces of your decorative ribbon, and tie over the twine to decorate your candy.

Want to make your candy into an extra large bunting to hang along your front porch?

Easy, just add your bunting twine or robe in behind your ribbon ties, hang, and enjoy!

Total Cost:

All of the supplies listed above were found at my local dollar store!  I spent a total of $3.00 which would make over 6 of these large candy pieces which supplies left over for a couple other projects you’ll see very soon
$1 and up

Like these candy decorations?
Then stick around…I’ll have additional ones later this week & next!

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This post is linking up to the following sites:

Today I would like to dedicate some craftiness to one of my all-time favorite fall activities…football!  While I tend to gravitate towards college football, this craft could just as easily apply for the pros.  Regardless of what your favorite tailgate beverage might be, I can assure you it will look much more festive when sipped casually through one of these cuties.

Ready to make some of your very own?

Supplies Needed:

• Cardstock in your favorite team’s colors
• Straws, also in your favorite team’s colors
• Glue or Glue Stick
• Helmet Punch (or die cuts from your favorite machine, you will need two helmets for each straw)

Instructions:

1. Punch out your helmets.  For this version of this process I used my Silhouette to quickly cut out my helmets using some cardstock I had left over from another project.   You will need two helmets for each straw you want to make.
2. Using your glue cover the back of one helmet. I use a glue stick when I want to whip these up really quickly, but choose to use paper glue for the ones I sell in my store).



3. Carefully layer the second helmet onto the first, taking care to line up the edges all the way around. Make sure you press to seal the pieces together around the straw.



4. Repeat for the remainder of your straws

Wouldn’t these look fun for a sport themed birthday party as well?

Total Cost: $1 and up

See quick, easy…and cute! Will you decorate for your tailgate area this year? Can you guess who my team of choice is based on these colors?

War Eagle!

Like these but have no time to make your own?
Check out my shop and message me about creating a set custom for you!

I’ve been making these quick bow ties for years.  They are great for quick dress-up items and even Halloween costumes and had originally put this quick & easy tutorial together as a set of images to share with a certain tall, super artistic bride.  The day before her wedding she was looking for some last minute bow ties for photobooth props and not finding anything to her liking.  So, I snapped a few photos to get her started and then she rocked them out in her true artistic fashion.    Below is the quick and dirty tutorial to whip up your own photobooth or next impromptu costume.

Supplies Needed:

• 1 piece of felt (or other fabric) for each bow tie.
• elastic headband or wooden dowel
• scissors
• hot glue

Instructions:

1. Start by cutting off the piece that will become the center of your tie.  If using a standard size piece of craft felt, just cut down one edge vertically and approximately 2 inches wide.
   
2. Fold each of the edges of the larger piece of felt to the inside.  Hot dog style. I leave a small opening in the center to make it a small bit larger, but this is not necessary.

1. Take the long skinny piece of felt, and fold in half.
   
   
2. Take the large piece from step 3 and squish it to the center (from both the top and bottom) to create the “bow” shape.
   
3. Use the skinny piece to wrap around the center of the bow to hold it together.  Secure the piece to the back of the bow with hot glue and then trim the excess length off with scissors. If you are using an elastic headband for your bow tie secure it underneath this center piece as well.
   
4. Ready to wear…either as a bow tie or a large bow headband.  Or if you are using for a photobooth attach a wooden dowel to the back as perfectly demonstrated by the Über creative Lauren (go ahead, link over and check out her super fun photobooth photos while you are at it)




So, there you have it a no sew fun bow tie in less than 5 minutes!  Try them out, you’ll have fun I promise   How will you use your no sew bow ties?  Wedding photobooth props?  Halloween costume?

I received an email over the weekend from a bride-to-be working on ways to keep costs down for her upcoming 400 person wedding.  Her request was a simple napkin wrap template…no graphics, just elegant text.  So, Meredith this one is for you, and the possibilities of ways to use this wrap are endless!

Click to Download:  picklepicnic_textonlywrap

The template above use the Monterey BT font which is free to download from Sofontes.  New to Napkin Wraps?  No worries, visit this post for step-by-step instructions on how to use my napkin wrap templates!

I learned this trick from one of my high school friend’s mom years ago.  She is the quintessential southern mom and entertainer, so each time I have the opportunity to attend a shower,tea, or coffee that she is coordinating I make sure to take notes.  Want to see why….

This was from the Wedding Coffee they threw in my honor last Spring.  She just whips this up in a matter of moments.  It’s pretty amazing to watch!

I’m horrible at arranging live flowers.  It’s like I try to cram everything in the same place and end up with one side really over-weighing the other one…but using this little trick it’s a breeze to make sure you have things evenly placed.  It makes me *almost* look like I know what I’m doing….

Ignore the flowers in these photos, I used some leftover flowers my hubby gave me to get a bit more life out of them before they went into the trash and mixed in some of the knock-out roses & greenery from right outside our front door.

Supplies Needed:

• Container to use for arrangement.
• Floral Tape (or other waterproof tape)
• Flowers & Greenery for arrangement
• Snips or Scissors

Instructions:

1. Take out your container and place it on a solid surface.  I like to use our milk glass leftover from the wedding, but a simple glass square from Dollar Tree would also work great.  Try to choose something with a wider opening so you can build your arrangement out with a bit more space.
2. Use scissors to cut strips of your floral tape that stretch the width of your container opening.  If floral tape is wider you might need to snip it in half width wise for ease of arrangement.
3. Starting at one edge of the opening carefully place tape strips across the mouth of the container making sure to evenly space them apart all the way to the other side of the container.
4. Turn the container and repeat this process going the other direction to create yourself a grid of sorts.
   
5. Trim the stems of your flowers to be the depth of your container.  Make sure to leave a couple that are a bit longer to use in the middle.
   
6. Starting in the center, using slightly longer stemmed flowers, carefully insert one flower stem into one open square of your tape grid.
7. Carefully add flowers to the grid working from the center to each edge to help create a rounded type of arrangement.
8. Once finished with your flowers, feel free to go back and insert bits of greenery into the arrangement to fill it out a bit more.
9. Display!

What about you, have you picked up any entertaining tips from your friend’s parents in your younger years that stuck with you?  If so, by all means share…

PS.  I just realized this was my 100th post!! 

In honor of Earth Day & my April Stash Bust endeavors I decided to try my luck at reusing several TP(toilet paper) rolls because I’m not sure about your household but we seem to have an abundance of empty cardboard rolls.  I’m really loving bunting right now, so I set out to make some sweet candy bunting from my trash & stash…and this is what I ended up with:

What do you think?  I’m thinking it’s quite cute…and so easy to make that you could even have you kids help you with this project.  It could be fun for a child’s birthday party or even dressed up a bit more to hang behind a candy buffet.

Supplies Needed:

• Toilet or Paper Towel cardboard rolls (1 TP roll averages 9 pieces of candy, or 4 feet)
• Tissue Paper (you could also use fabric)
• Curling Ribbon
• Twine (Ribbon or Yarn would also work)
• Hole Punch
• Rickrack Scissors
• Craft Knife or Scissors
• Double-Sided Tape (optional)

Instructions:

1. Using your craft knife or scissors carefully cut your cardboard rolls into 1/2 inch pieces.  (If you are doing this project with small children this is a step an adult should complete ahead of time.)
   
2. Using a standard hand-held hole punch punch two holes across the tube from each other.  Repeat this process for each of your 1/2 inch pieces.
   
3. Cut bunting twine to your desired finished length.
4. Cut your tissue paper (or fabric) into 5 inch square pieces using pinking sheers. (If doing this project with children this is another step that could be completed by an adult ahead of time.)
5. Carefully thread one piece of cardboard onto the twine. (hint: To make this easier I actually taped one end of the twine to my table.  This helped keep one end stationary while I was threading from the opposite end.)
   
6. Take a piece of tissue paper and place it under your threaded circle and fold it over to overlap in the front.  (hint:  You might find using a small piece of double-sided tape helpful to hold everything in place, but it isn’t necessary.)
   
7. Using 4 inch pieces of curling ribbon, tie off each side of your “candy” with a hard knot.
   
8. Using scissors curl the ribbons to make a decorative tie.  (If you are doing this project with small children this is a step an adult should complete once the stringing process is completed.)
   
9. Repeat the length of your twine.
10. You can move the pieces slightly along the finished product to help evenly space them.
11. Hang and Enjoy!

See…quick, easy, and a fun way to turn a common household trash item into something fun & decorative!

And if you have extra “pieces of candy” left over you could always glue them to place cards or signage for a sweet look.

Price Breakdown: Free from my trash & craft stash!
However, if you wanted to create these with no supplies on hand you could do so entirely from your local dollar store!

What crafty fun will you reuse trash & stash items for this week?