Spring Mantel . . . Part Two

Last week I said that I would probably tweak my mantel after sharing it and tweak, I did!

Here’s how it looked when I posted last week.

I thought the daffodils were a bit tall in relation to the sheet moss banner, but I certainly didn’t anticipate this daffodil problem.

They were just following my instructions, though!

Oh well. My daffodil mishap turned out to be a great thing.

It led to a new project and made space for two adorable pots of mini daffodils housed in a pair of $1.99 buckets from HomeSense. As an added bonus, my planter box can sit on the fireplace hearth.

Here is Spring Mantel Version 2.0

My painted bottles and plant did a flip-flop.

Did you figure out what my sneak preview was?

Smartie Pants!

A tutorial for my newest sign will be posted later this week. I used a totally new (to me) technique and it was super easy.

Even though they’re not from my mantel, check out these three beauties. I am loving my garden (and bottles as vases) this year!

The blush-coloured tulip was the centrepiece for our Easter meal. It found a new home in my Crown jar after a squirrel ripped it out of my porch planter last week. Another happy accident.

One more thing before I go – our delicious Easter dessert, courtesy of Pinterest.

Chocolate chips, peanut butter, butterscotch chips, chow mein noodles and Cadbury mini eggs.

So good.

You will not regret it.

Happy Easter + a Sneak Preview

I should be cleaning, cooking etc. right now, but I wanted to pop in quickly to wish everyone a Happy Easter!  I hope you are enjoying time with your families this holiday weekend.

I haven’t posted much in a few days but that doesn’t mean I have not been creating. My Sister-in-Law was visiting from Wednesday to Saturday and while she was here my Silhouette got quite the workout!

For now, here’s a sneak preview of one of my upcoming posts – Love it!

See you next week!

My Spring Mantel

There will still be some tweaking, but, since the daffodils and tulips are blooming, here is my Spring mantel.

(Taken one day earlier . . . amazing how quickly flowers change!)

My favourites . . .

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

P.S. Find out more about my bloom sign here and my easy sheet moss banner here.

Easy Sheet Moss Banner

This was so easy thanks to a fabulous invention called adhesive-backed cardstock.

No spray adhesive, very little mess (because I did it outside on the patio). Easy.

Supplies:
One roll of sheet moss from Walmart, 2 sheets of adhesive-backed cardstock (you could use spray adhesive if you can’t find this), scissors.

The How-To:
I used my Silhouette to cut the same shape template as my any occasion paint chip banner. I was able to fit 6 pennants on one sheet.


Peel off one pennant.


Stick it onto the sheet moss.


Cut around the shape.


Repeat until you have enough for your banner.






Later today, I will attach it to some twine, hang it up and maybe I can call the mantel finished!

It’s going to look great with my planter box and bloom sign . . .

Linking up to these great Link Parties!

Thank you to all the hosts!

Update:  Here's the finished banner!  See more of my Spring mantel here.

The Many Lives of a 30 Cent Sign

On Sunday, I decided to make over a clearance sign that I bought at HomeSense last year.

The end result is exactly what I wanted, but it took me two attempts to get there.

Like the title implies, I bought the sign for 30 cents (I actually bought 3 because I knew I couldn’t cut my own for that price).

The original price on the sign was $3.99, so I think I got a pretty good deal. 

What I don’t understand is who they thought would buy this sign.

???

Anyway, last year at Winners I bought a wooden planter box with picket fence slats on it.

The colours used to weather the slats are so me.

This planter box will be the focal point of my mantel . . .  when I finally finish it, so I wanted to add a little sign to the front of it that incorporated a spring or garden-related word.

I bought two different shape downloads for my Silhouette and also played around with my fonts using the words Grow and Bloom.

I cut stencils from contact paper and got ready to paint (I sanded the design off it earlier in the week).

I painted on a layer of black paint, let it dry and then painted over the word GROW with the same green that I used for my Grocery sign. After peeling off the lettering, I was left with this (sorry for the glare):

I hated it.

I thought I might be able to salvage it by painting over everything with white paint and then distressing it until the black letters showed through.

Wrong!

The tip of the g sanded right off.

It looked like it said crow instead of grow.

So, I sanded as much off as I could and started all over again with a completely different approach and word.

Before I had a blog to call my own, I sent a photo to the bloggers at aka Design to thank them for the tutorial that I used to create Christmas presents for my family. Shannon ended up sharing my sign in a reader feature.

I used the same technique for my second attempt.

For all the details, check our their step-by-step.

Basically, the order was black paint, antique white paint, crackle medium, stencil the word “bloom” in black then sand to distress it.

I was impatient and used a heat gun after each step to speed up the process. Next time, I would wait longer for the crackle medium to dry because the heat gun made it bubble.

So.

Much.

Better.

To give it an even more aged look, I added black paint to the edges and then wiped and/or sanded most of it off.

Now, the 30 cent sign matches the age and character of the weathered wood on my planter box.

If only I could finish decorating my mantel . . .

Linking up to these great parties as well as those on my Link Parties page!

Thank you to all the hosts!