Valentine Catch Up

I promised a craft a day and while I have mostly stuck to it on Instagram, life this week was a little crazy. I missed a couple days, but here are days 5,6,8 and 9.

I picked this fantastic rustic heart up at World Market while I was home for Christmas. You can't really tell in the photo, but it is lightly dusted with glitter, which I think just adds that special something to this fun piece.

I originally got this idea from Brooke over at Silver Lining . I thought it was so cute I had to recreate it. 

This cute XOXO set is another Wood Connection craft. I decided to change mine up a bit, their display was mainly pink and grey, but I wanted mine to focus more on red. 

Also another Wood Connection craft. I love the book "I Love You This Much" and could not resist picking up this vinyl sign last time I was at the Wood Connection store. I used red and cream paint to get the antiqued look. The jar is from JoAnns and I added the chalkboard label to it. 

Mini Cake Stand

How cute is this cake stand?! Hurry on over to Jo Ann Fabrics and pick yourself up one or two or three. I have this cute pink one and a red one to go a long with it!

DIY Heart Wreath

I made this wreath the first year I was married and it is still one of my favorite crafts! It is a little time consuming, but makes a great Sunday afternoon or evening craft!

I originally shared this tutorial over at The Pingrees but, I love it so much I wanted to share it with all of you here!

Growing up my mom always went all out for every holiday when it came to decorations. One of my favorite things when I was younger was helping her decorate. Let's be honest, I still love helping her decorate when I am at home! Thanks to my mom I am always looking for fun holiday decorations and since I am a poor married student I love holiday DIY crafts! While on Pinterest, I came across the best wreath idea and decided to try it out for Valentine's Day.

What you'll need:

1 1/2 yard of fabric

Scissors

A hot glue gun

Foam heart wreath 

Long pins - I would suggest getting them in the color of your fabric

Now that you have all of your materials you are ready to go!

I didn't take pictures of the first couple steps when I made mine, so we are going to use some from my inspiration at kellyhicksdesign.com 

1. Cut a strip of fabric 1 1/2 -2 inches wide the length of the fabric or whichever side is the longest. 

Take one end of the fabric and hot glue it to your wreath. 

Then wrap it all the way around your wreath.

Now that your wreath is covered let's move on to the ruffles. 

To make your ruffles cut your fabric the short way in strips of 1 1/2 - 2 in wide. You can experiment with the length of your strips, but I tried to keep mine a medium length for maximum fluff. 

The width of your fabric is totally up to you. The skinnier your strip, the smaller your ruffles, the wider your strip the bigger your ruffle. 

To make your ruffle take the strip at one end and fold it over and layer it. 

Continue folding it over until you get a half circle. Then take your pin and stick it in the middle.

Just one more picture from Kelly Hicks
Pin your ruffle onto your wreath.

Continue pinning your ruffles overlaying them as you go until your wreath looks like this

Then find the perfect spot in your home to hang it!

What is one of your favorite Valentine's decorations? 

February

Can you believe it is February already? February is one of my favorite months so I have decided to post a DIY Valentine's decoration each day leading up to Valentine's Day. I have been neglecting this blog lately and I thought this would be the perfect way to get back into things and find a rythym. After Valentine's I am going to go through my Pinterest and pick some of my top crafts and do tutorials on them, but I will talk more about that later!

My first DIY craft comes from the Wood Connection, which is my favorite wood craft store! You can find the store display here. I immediately fell in love with it when I saw it. When I went to get my papers I found another paper that I love even more (the bicycle hearts) and decided to change mine up a bit. I painted all of my hearts and then attached the paper using modge podge. To finish them off I sanded the egdes and added the notes using bakers twine.

Be sure and check out my pinterest Jessica Helms and my Instagram @masonjarsandlemonbars for more!! 

DIY Pallet Board Horse Sign

While I was on Pinterest looking for baby shower ideas I ran across a pallet board that had a horse on it and since my sister-in-law loves horses I knew it would be the perfect decoration for the shower and gift. I wasn't sure where I was going to get a pallet from, but I found a pallet crate at a used furniture store and thought it was worth a shot. 

To do this project I used the following: 

Wood crate - or a wood pallet 

Hammer 

Light Creme / White flat interior paint

Black wood stain 

Stencil 

Pink acrylic paint 

Wet wash cloth 

Paper towel or rag 

Sand paper 

I forgot to take a picture of the crate, but this is the crate reassembled into a pallet board. I used every piece from the original crate including the nails. I pulled the crate apart using a hammer and then lines the boards up and nailed them all back together. 

Front

Back

I wanted an old grey barn wood look to it, so I used a trick I found on a blog a few months ago. 

1. First take your black stain and lightly paint it on the wood. 

2. As soon as you paint it on take a paper towel or old rag and wipe the stain off. You can also rub it across places that got missed. Be sure and do this immediately after you apply the stain. 

3. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes, so it is mostly dry to the touch.

4. Take a paint brush and apply a light layer of light creme or white paint. I used flat interior paint. You could also use acrylic paint.

5. Using a wet wash cloth wipe the paint off / rub it around the board mixing it into the black stain. This is what will turn your wood a grey color. 

It is okay if you miss some spots. It will give it character! 

For the horse I created a stencile in Sillhouette. I used a light pink acrylic paint. Make sure your stencil is secured really well so you don't get paint outside of the stencil. I had a few spots that were funny so I took a pencil and dipped the eraser in paint and went around some of my edges. 

Let it dry and you now have a finished pallet board horse sign! After all of the paint had dried I took some sand paper and went over the board very lightly. I wanted to rough it up a little bit, but I didn't want it to be obvious that I took sand paper to it! 

It was the perfect centerpiece for our dessert table! 

I can't wait until I have a little girl of my own and I can make her one! 

Instagram

I finally got myself together and created an Instagram account for the blog. 

You can follow me @masonjarsandlemonbars.

DIY Chicken Wire Frame

Okay friends, this is one of the easiest DIY's ever! It does require some tools, but if once you have everything it is a great Saturday afternoon craft.

You will need the following supplies:

Frame - you can use any frame you want, antique, goodwill find, etc.
Chicken wire - Unless you are like my parents and have chicken wire sitting around you will probably have to make a trip to the local farm supply store to pick up some.
Staple gun - I used an easy hand staple gun. Confession, my dad did all of the stapling.
Putty - You might need this if you use an antique frame that has some holes that need filling in.
White paint -  If you are working with wood and white (or any other color) washing your frame then I would highly suggest using flat interior paint. You can pick up a sample at Home Depot or Lowes for about 2-3 dollars if you don't have any sitting around.
Wet wash cloth - if you are planning on white washing your frame like I did you will need a wash cloth to wipe paint off. If you are just painting your frame then you don't need to worry about this.
Wood Glue
Plyers

Directions:

I found frame at a used furniture store for $2. I know it looks pretty rough, but it was just what I had in mind for this upcycling project.

When I took the frame off of the back board I found out the frame wasn't put together and it didn't actually fit together on its own very well. After some nails, wood glue, and paint cans I was able to put the frame back together. 

I wanted an antique white washed effect so I brushed a light layer of paint and then took my wet wash cloth and wiped the paint off until I had the look I wanted. I left enough paint so it was white, but made sure you could see the wood showing through.

To fill in the uneven spots where the frame didn't fill well together I used putty and evened out all of the edges. After the putty dried I painted over it, wiping it down and blended it into the frame.

All done! 

Next I laid the frame down on top of the chicken wire and cut out with plyers. To attach it to the frame we flipped it face down and stretched the wire over the frame and then stapled it. Chicken wire is somewhat stretchy (?) and I didn't want the frame to have bumps, so we pulled it really tight as we stapled. I did have to go back over the puttied spots and paint because it shifted somewhat after attaching the chicken wire.

I forgot to take a picture of the frame with the chicken wire all by itself, sorry! When I get a chance I will take a photo and update the post. We used the frame to hold onesies for my SIL's baby shower. I love how it turned out and can't wait to use it for other events.