DIY Letter Decor

I've longed to make letter decor for awhile now, and the perfect opportunity arose when I threw my coworker and friend B a baby shower! I love it when my friends announce their baby name ahead of time because it enables me to go all-out in personalizing their baby gifts and baby shower decor. B chose the name Luke for her baby boy. 

It took Andrew a long while to guess what I made these letters from....cereal boxes! We kind of have a problem in our household, AKA consuming mass quantities of cereal--Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini Wheats, and our favorite, Honey Bunches of Oats. In college I used to eat cereal for breakfast, afternoon snacks, and midnight snacks. Basically, we have tons of cereal boxes, and I finally found a way to upcycle them!

Read on for the full tutorial!

Gardening tool organizer from upcycled door

One year ago my husband and I moved into our townhouse in North Carolina after driving all the way from Saint Louis, MO. We miss Saint Louis and our friends there dearly but have been adjusting well to life in beautiful NC. One of the perks of living in a townhome community where the builders just recently finished constructing the last row of houses is that they have extra unwanted leftover pieces of wood, like this pantry door which has a crack through the side (not pictured below). 

My poor husband had to endure this old door sitting around in our garage for several months before I finally came up with a way to upcycle it: organizer for our gardening and grilling tools! We now store this garden organizer in the patio for easy access to all the tools we need.

Father's Day Card

Father's Day is coming up and I wanted to make a card for my father-in-law that included his love of maps. We recently traveled to Europe with them and I'd saved several of the city maps and decided to upcycle one of them! 

                            

Tutorial is below for a simple Father's day card for the globetrotting father!

DIY Wooden Bicycle Sign with Brushlettering

Time for another collab with Karmomo! This collaboration includes brushlettering calligraphy + upcycling hardwood flooring.

Bicycling is one of the few ways of exercising that my husband and I never get tired of. We used to live by Forest Park in St. Louis and really miss being able to bike directly into the park from our apartment and the scenic trails (with live horses, huge fountains, and free museums!).

So it only made sense that I jump on the bicycle-art-trend and feature a bicycle somewhere in our living room, which is sadly lacking in art. My fireplace mantel has been looking empty since we moved in, and we decided that a DIY wood (pallet-esque) sign would fit perfectly. It just so happens that we have a few pieces of hardwood floor left over from our new hardwood floors. I love upcycling! And not having to stain wood ourselves!

Sneak peek of K's beautiful calligraphy!

Read on for the tutorial! 

DIY Tutorial: Personalized wedding dress hanger

It's June, which means wedding season has begun! I love making bridal shower gifts and one of my favorites is this personalized wedding dress wire hanger. Pictured below is the first one that I made a few years ago.

        

Read on for the tutorial!

Framed quilling and brushlettering: Jeremiah 29:11

One of my best friends happens to create stunning brushlettering calligraphy, and now that we live in the same city, we finally pulled together some collaborations. For instance, this framed Bible verse with quilling that we recently gifted to a bride-to-be at her bridal shower. Here's the 7-day storyline of this project!

Framed quilling: Golden Gate Bridge

Quilling: a type of ornamental craftwork involving the shaping of paper, fabric, or glass into delicate pleats or folds.

I started quilling in college when a friend introduced me to it to embellish handmade greeting cards. The first thing I ever quilled was a tiny heart for a Valentine's Day card for my now-husband. Since then, I've borrowed books from the library and perused many a blog on how to quill different shapes and grown to love it! I previously used a thumbtack (yes. a thumbtack. ) to roll the strips of paper, but have now progressed to using a professional quilling tool that speeds things up. 

I love quilling because it's calming. I have to sit and think about my next move between each strip of paper I roll, because I do not usually draw out the final design. I also love that quilling paper is relatively inexpensive and I often make my own quilling paper by cutting strips of 8x11 sheets, even though it means that the height of each strip is sometimes inconsistent. And finally, I love quilling because it transforms paper into 3-dimensional, tangible designs with depth and shadows. 

Here is one of my most recent framed quilling pieces that I gifted to my sister for her birthday! I found the shadowbox frame on the Michaels clearance rack (now out of stock) for $6.