Fall Banner with a Thrifted Book.

Recently, and finally, I've been in a crafting mood.  You don't realize how much you didn't do until you spent three months not doing it.  Now, there will be an overload of goodness. 

When we first moved in I'd make a new banner for every season, then take it down hang it in my craft room and get going on the next one.  

But I went to the craft store to look at the clearance Halloween stuff and found a steal of a deal for some fall decor.  Came with 150 pieces of sticky foam shapes and was $2.50.  So far, I've made this banner and then hung some up for Aiko's room...which I'm not quite done with, it seems a little empty, so we will continue searching for more items to add. 

But, as always, I made this because it would go up fast and I'd be done in 10 minutes. 

I ripped out some pages of a thrifted book I had (which, felt rather rebellious, and sad, because, I love books)  then I chopped them up using some good scissors.  I also don't feel the need for rulers most of the time.  I kind of eye balled this based on the center of the book page and counting lines up. 

Got some jute string, folded the tops over and taped.  Added my foam things and some leaves from outside and then taped it all together.  

Thank goodness for tape. 

i may have a little time on my hands

i do actually.  see, i have this baby, who sleeps all the time.  

all. the. time. 

she still takes 3-4 naps a day.   when she is awake, it's only for an hour at a time. yes, and she sleeps through the night.  she must be related to my sister, who loved to sleep as a baby and as an adult loves her naps.   i was telling my friend about my baby's sleeping schedule as she replied "do you miss her?!"  

i never thought of it that way, but yes, yes i do.  i was worried about her not seeing her dad enough... when in reality....I hardly see her!  anyways, but the whole reason this came about is because i've been filling my time prepping for this baby shower. 

little miss avy jane is going to debut anytime.  you guys, her brothers have the biggest blue eyes i've ever seen.  i'm always looking for excuses to make something fun! plus getting together with family and friends is also good.

so we thought we would welcome her with some delicious foods.

why yes, that is bacon on a stick.  in this light, even i think it looks delicious. like tracey said "everything is cuter on a stick."

we had some berry parfaits

made some paper flowers

a lot.

i also believe everything is cuter when put as a bunting

so below is my prepping and end results of my bunting.  when i decide to make something, i usually make it in mass amounts.  i believe in mass production.  i originally saw these flowers on Pinterest and planned on making them for the mother's in my life...then i realized i scheduled this baby shower the day before and why not have a fun party favor to boot! 

i don't have a color printer at home but then i saw a plethora of diy paper flowers from ellidesignstudio!!  so i printed out the patterns and starting cutting! thus starting my mass floral business.

so many hot glue gun burns.

my mom once told me that i don't have the patience for little details.

i feel like i prove her wrong all the time. 

but mothers generally know best.

as you can see, i may have gone a little overboard.

 

but once i started making them, i couldn't help myself.  they were so pretty!

well, my mom is right actually.  maybe it's that i like things to be efficient and easy. so with bunting...i had cousin tracey cut out the little flags (i'm good at delegating)...in mass production again, which is why some of them started looking less like triangles...but that's how we roll.  see the letters?  well, to make these easy, i went to my auntie's school.  there they have di-cuts. LOTS of them.  take a couple staples to the letters and BAM!  easy do it yourself banners.

to make the flowers easy to attach, i hot glued some pins that i had already (apparently, i had a lot on hand...hoarder here.) to the burlap and then we were almost done! my last step included the stapler once again. 

i wanted to be able to use the flags for various occasions, so if it takes some extra time to pull out (or not pull out is the more likely option) the staples i'll be okay with that.

so there you have it.  i may or may not have a little time on my hands...but i like to keep myself busy!  you guys should try out these flowers!  so fun! so pretty. 

little late valentine's day

i was feeling the need to create something quick and festive for valentine's day.  i've been working on a couple crafting projects that are long ones and i needed to feel like i could actually finish something!  

i used the following:

some of the heart ornaments i made last year (using salt dough, cookie cutters and stamps) 

african beads hali brought back from ghana

sisal (from the dollar store that i already had)

pretty dang quick.

this is one of the lovely flowers auntie mitsie gave me!