DIY Colorful Summer Wreath

We don't have many holiday or seasonal decorations for our house yet. We've only been here one year so far and stuff like that just costs so much money! I guess it's the type of thing you have to gather over the years before you have a lot of it. 

Our front door needed something colorful on it for the summer. Of course, summer is almost over now but I haven't had a chance to get to making this project until now. I love how it turned out and the bright colors. I even saw a floor mat at Lowe's the other day that would match perfectly...I think we should buy it and put it out on our front entry to go with this colorful wreath!

Here is what I used to make my wreath:

• Black picture frame
• 2 colors of ribbon
• 4 felt flowers
• "Smile" wooden cutout
• Hot glue gun
• 2 picture hangers w/nails
• Hammer
• Ribbon to hang it
• Paint for the wooden cutout
• Paintbrush

I wanted to put a different word instead of "smile" but I looked at two different stores and couldn't find anything else to work. Even the individual letters that would fit, didn't have all the right letters available. It always seems to work out that way! 

The felt flowers were pre-made and in the clearance aisle. If I hadn't found these I would have used normal silk flowers but I really like how these felt ones turned out! The back of the frame looked a little messy after I glued the ribbons on, so I covered it up by gluing a strip of the green ribbon around the entire back side, since my front door is glass and you would be able to see the back of it from the inside. 

I wasn't sure how I was going to hang it, it is rather heavy and I didn't want it to fall down. I finally decided to nail two picture hangers to the back, one on each corner and use those to tie the ribbon hanger to. So far it's been holding up nicely on our front door! 

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How To: Latch Board for Toddlers

 I've had this idea for awhile now, to make little man a latch/sensory board. I've seen many different ones on Pinterest, so I decided to just make it this weekend. It would also give me something to do while I wait for Wednesday to get here. 

It was more expensive than I expected it to be, but little man will love it. He already wanted to try it out while I was working on it. We are going to be mounting it on the wall in the hallway for him to play with. I couldn't find too many different latches, so I added a mirror and a felt board to fill in some of the empty space. 

I spray painted the board first and then had my husband screw everything in place. I then added the letters for his name on top and used glued the felt board and mirror on. I put little reflective buttons on the edges for decoration as well. For now I just cut out simple felt shapes, but later on I will probably make some other felt items as well. 

I think little man will really enjoy playing with it once we get it up on the wall. Hopefully we can do that in the next couple of days here. So far the mirror and the wheel are his favorite parts.

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DIY Cake Banner

I've seen these cake banners all over Pinterest so I decided to try to make one for Little Man's birthday cake. If you saw my post on Monday with pictures from his party, you probably already saw the cake that I made. It was pretty easy to make these cute little banners, I printed them out from the computer but you could easily just cut out triangles from colored cardstock instead. If you like the red and yellow banners I used, I have a link to download them or just make your own! I made mine 1.5 inches wide.

Here is what you will need before making these banners:

• Printout of triangles or colored cardstock
• Push pin
• String
• 2 bamboo skewers
• Scissors

1. Cut out the triangles you printed or make a pattern to trace onto the cardstock and cut out as many triangles as you need.

2. Use the push pin to make holes in each corner of the triangles.
Wiggle it around so that the holes are big enough for the string to fit through.

3. Cut a length of string that will be long enough and thread through the triangles from front to back.

4. Tie each end of the string of triangles to a bamboo skewer. Trim the excess string with scissors.

5. Stick the skewers into the cake and enjoy how awesome your cake looks!

Here is the link to download the red and yellow Happy Birthday triangles I used.

(Linking to some of these lovely parties)

DIY Hanging Baby Mobile

Since my two little peanuts are going to be sharing a room with little man for awhile, it was already decorated and everything. I wanted to make something for them though, and little man never had a mobile in there, so that would be the perfect project! I found inspiration from Gretchen @ Boxy Colonial. She used a circle cutout with hers and I honestly was going to as well, but accidentally bought the square one instead. I still think they turned out nicely with a different shape. I made two of them, one for each crib. They look great hanging above the cribs!

Here is what I used to make mine:

• embroidery hoop
• ribbon to hang it with
• white string 
• double sided tape
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• paint for the embroidery hoop
• paintbrush
• square paper punch
• 4 colors of cardstock

How I made them:

1. I punched out all the squares first. I ended up punching out way too many but I wasn't sure how many I would need at first. You probably will need about 200 all together for one mobile. I had 16 strings with 6 double-sided squares on each.

2. Then I decided how many squares I wanted on each string and measured out how long the strings would need to be. You can make them as long as you want, but I made them 6 squares long. Then I cut all my strings the same length.


3. Starting at the bottom, lay out your shapes and use double sided

tape to fasten them together with the string in between. I had a pattern I was following so I made 4 strings of each pattern, but you can do it randomly if desired.

4. Paint the embroidery hoop, you will only be using the inside hoop. Let it dry. Then tie your strings around the hoop. Once you are done tying them, use a little hot glue on the inside of the hoop to keep them in place.

5. Decide how far you want your mobile to hang down and cut two pieces of ribbon the same length. Use the hot glue gun to attach them to the hoop. Your lovely new baby mobile is now done! You could also use a different ribbon and attach it around the outside of the hoop if you wanted to hide the strings, I will probably end up doing that to mine eventually.

(Linking to some of these lovely parties)