Monogrammed Door Mat

Lately I've been looking for a doormat for my front door. Yes, I have to admit that we've been in our house for over a year and I've yet to put a doormat on my front porch. I am the polar opposite of a compulsive shopper and therefore don't but anything unless I absolutely LOVE it. Plus, I'm a cheapskate ;) I don't buy anything unless I get the absolute best price. Well, maybe not everything...excluding shoes, purses and designer jeans ;) Back to the door mat.... Here are some I've been eyeing

I really like the monogrammed look but then I saw the price tag!! Starting prices of $29.99?? Seriously, we're wiping our feet on it! After a little research... aka a trip to walmart, I realized this is something I could make for about a 1/3 the cost. Below is the tutorial for my monogrammed mat.

Monogrammed doormat tutorial:
supplies-
$6.97 doormat from walmart
Capital D stencil (found in my craft armoire)
Frog tape(or any painting tape)
$1.97 black acrylic paint
large and small paint brushes(raided the kids' paint bucket)

 

Once you've centered your stencil, tape it down to
secure it. Press the center of the stencil down as you paint around. The paint does not bleed past the edges so stencil bond isn't needed. After you've painted your first coat, remove the stencil. Apply a 2nd and 3rd coat of paint with the small brush, applying a thick coat of paint and finishing your edges.



The Final Product!



Candy Corn Wreath

Fall is here and this weekend my goal is to get my front porch decorated. The candy corn wreath was my first project for my porch. The inspiration for this wreath came from here.  However, I opted to have all my candy corn head in the same direction( I'm a little too OCD for opposite directions) LOL.
 Here is my finished wreath

It's supposed to cool down a bit this weekend so I'll be able to actually hang this outside my front door!

No Sew Window Treatments

The before picture...

I snagged these sea foam window panels at Target. They were too good of a deal to pass up even though I knew the length was a little short... $6.97 each!!  I've seen a few different "no-sew" window treatment projects on other blogs and decided to give it a try. I picked up some iron on adhesive when I bought my fabric for the bottom.

This stuff is AMAZING!! Easy to use, cheap and super strong. I highly recommend it. With just a hot iron t0 seam the edges it really gave a professional looking finish to the curtains.

Here is the finished product!

 I fell in love with this paisley print. It went perfectly with the panels and I'm excited to make a coordinating table runner for my dining room table. Plus, it was on sale for $5 a yard!(I only used 1 yd) This means that I basically ended up with custom panels for less than $10 a panel!! Yay me ;)

Valentine Door Decor

My front door is a bore so I decided it needed a little love. While looking for fabric at Joann's for my never ending window treatments I couldn't help but notice that all of their Valentine's decorations and such were 40% off. This girl can't resist a good sale!

I purchased a large heart hanging thingy...I apologize for the lack of vocab on this one. Whatever it's called it was cute and therefore mine!. I also grabbed some cute xoxoxo ribbon and fancy shmancy scrapbook stickers that were 30% off.

I used my BFF( the hot glue gun) to adhere the Bliss sticker to the center. Next I tied a cute little bow and glued that to the upper right hand corner. Here's my finished door hanger thingy..

This is obviously the inside of my front door. After I slip on my Ugg's I'll brave the cold and hang this bad boy up!

Valentine Topiary

I've officially been bitten by the Valentine's decorating love bug!

 With all my favorite blogs being full of Valentines inspirations it's no surprise that my to-craft list has grown with each passing day.  This week I decided to attempt some of these ideas starting with a Valentine's inspired topiary. The instructions to make the felt rosette balls can be found HERE. I purchased the base ( a red flower pot), pins, foam insert ( for stabilization), and the foam ball, as well as the pink/red felt at my local Wal Mart.

I used the inner circle of a roll of masking tape as my guide to trace the circles. Then I used my fabric scissors to cut them out and got to sticking. Here's a shot of the project 3/4 of the way done.

This was a very easy  project and came together quickly. Once the foam ball was covered I painted the wooden dowel pink. Then I inserted it into the foam insert I had placed into the pot. I adjusted it to the height I wanted and then covered the foam in sparkly basket fill. This is the end result.

I LOVE how it turned out and have become a topiary junkie. I already have ideas for St. Patrick's Day and Easter!