Happy Halloween & Some Super Excitement

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 

To All My Blogging Friends And Followers!!!

I hope everyone is having a fun day so far!! I am so excited to take my kids trick or treating tonight. This is Logan's first Halloween! I know miss Kaitlyn is ecstatic to go out and get some candy tonight!! I will post some pictures tomorrow of what they are going to be for Halloween!

Before I post my exciting news I want to give some back ground on this for those that don't know. Last November I had my second child. I had a C-Section with him so I had some long recovery time. In February I decided that it was time to lose some weight. I gained a lot with my first baby and tried losing weight after she was born, but only lost about 25 pounds. I didn't gain much with Logan, but I still had all the weight from Kaitlyn. So I started my journey on February 5 and as of last Saturday I have lost a total of 54 pounds!! 

I didn't take good before pictures which I am not happy about, but this is from family pictures we had done in January.

**Remember These Pants That I am Wearing!!**

Now for my super excitement that I wanted to share with you. I was getting ready on Saturday afternoon for my father in law's birthday party. When I got done figuring out what I was going to wear I decided that it would be fun to try on my "BIG" pants. These were the pants that I wore before I started my weight loss. They are the ones that I am wearing in the family picture above. When I pulled them out I was thinking that I was going to have to take my pants off to get them on. When I looked closer I realized that wasn't the case. I was able to put them on OVER the jeans that I was wearing!!! I had to pairs of pants on and they were sill HUGE on me!! Here is the picture...

I still can't believe I was that big! But I will NEVER be going back there!! I still am on my journey. I want to lose about another 30 pounds. But I am getting very close to being where I want to be!

Also, I want to remind you that this Thursday I am going to be having my First Guest Blogger. We are going to be having Danielle from Blissful & Domestic. I am very excited for what she is showing us!! You don't want to miss it! 

Fall Board Decor {Tutorial}

Since fall is halfway over I decided it was time to get my board done that I have had in my craft ideas book forever!! Ok, I would have had it done awhile ago, but my awesome handy man hubby has been crazy with school this semester and has had no time to cut out my leaves for me. I can to straight cuts, but do not dare to even attempt what he did for me!

{HERE IS THE TUTORIAL ON HOW TO MAKE IT}

What You Will Need To Make It:

-Wood Board 31 1/2"x5 1/2" (I know the size is completely weird. I just used a scrap board my hubby had laying in his pile of wood. You can make it bigger or smaller then that)

-2 Big leaves

-2 Little leaves

-Light brown paint

-Sand Paper

-Any color stain you wish (I used Early American)

-Fall Colored Paper

-Mod Podge

-Hot glue gun

-Brown Vinyl Lettering

How To Make This Board Sign:

Once you have your board, make sure the edges are sanded how you want them to be. Then you are going to paint it. I did two coats on mine.

After it is completely dry you are just going to touch up the edges with sandpaper. I am not too neat when I paint. I like to have some of the wood showing around the paint, but usually get paint where I don't want it, but that's why we have sand paper, right?!? He can fix all of mistakes on wood!

When you get that how you want it you are going to stain the whole board, back and front. You will also stain your wood leaves too. Let them dry completely. It will take a couple of hours.

After they are dry you will work on the leaves. I found some cute fall leaves paper at the craft store. I bought some other paper that matched it. When I cut it all out and put it on the leaves I did not like it. BUMMER deal:( But my awesome Mom came to the rescue with some orange paper. It had a pattern almost like a leaf does. It was perfect!

Once you have your paper selected you are going to trace the leaf and then cut it out. I traced it on the back of the paper. If you choose to do this also make sure you flip the leaf otherwise the back of the paper will be the front of your leaf! When you cut it out you will cut a little below your line. This way you can have some wood showing around the paper. 

 After you get them all cut out you are going to mod podge the paper onto the leaf. 

While the mod podge is drying you are going to work on your saying. I chose the saying "Fall...Fell" I thought it worked perfect with the leaves. I used the font Elise found here. I cut that out with my cricut using brown vinyl. I then centered and stuck it on the board. 

Lastly, I hot glued the leaves into place. Here is the finished picture again...

I am so excited about how it turned out!! What do you think?

Joining the following link parties:

Wood Candy Corns

First off I can't believe we are just ONE WEEK away from Halloween!! Crazy that this month flew by! I have been feeling a little behind with getting my crafts done that I wanted for Halloween but I finished my last one on Thursday which were the Glass Bottle Mummies. So I am feeling pretty good that I got them done at least a week before Halloween so I can enjoy them!!

**Now Onto Today's Post**

This is the second project that I came up with when my Mom, sisters and I got together last Monday. The other one we did was the Witches Boots. I was planning on doing this for myself and decided to see if any of my sisters wanted to do them as well. Some of them did! So that's why we ended up doing two projects this get together. They turned out so cute and were so easy to make!!

What You Will Need:

-3 different sizes wood "candy corn" shaped blocks 

-White, Orange and Yellow paint

-Blue paint tape

-Paint Brush 

-Sand paper

-Stain (Whatever color you like will work..I used Early American)

How To Make Them:

First, you are going to figure out how big you want each section to be on the candy corn and then you are going to tape it off with blue tape. Put the tape in the middle section. This is the best way to start. This was the hardest part for me. For the small candy corn I cut the blue tape down a little bit. The middle candy corn I used the width of the tape. For the biggest candy corn I used one strip of the tape and then put another on to add just a little more thickness on. I didn't take it up very much. 

**If you are more brave then I am you can totally do this freehand if you want!! I am just not very good at getting my lines straight so I need a guideline!!

After you get it taped you are going to paint the top white and the bottom yellow. I did 3 coats on mine. I didn't want to see the grain of the wood. I painted the front, back and sides- so the whole thing!

When that all dried I took the blue tape off and painted the middle orange. I didn't want to mess with the tape too much so I just put it on the front and back over the white and yellow and did the sides free hand. 

I do not have pictures of the next 2 steps. I am so sorry!! After they were all good and dry I sanded the edges down on both sides of each candy corn. Then I stained where I had sanded and put a little stain over the paint to give it an antiqued look!

Here Are The Candy Corns All Done:

Such Awesome Cuteness!!!

Here is a good picture of the size difference

The sizes on mine are based on: Height- Top point to the middle of the bottom. Width- The two points across the bottom. Biggest One: 5 1/2"x5 1/2" Middle One: 4 1/2"x4 1/2" Shortest One: 3 3/4"x3 1/2"

Joining the Following:

Mummified Glass Bottles

I wanted to make some cute Mummy's this year for Halloween. After reflecting on all the possibilities of what I could do I finally made my mind up and am so happy with the outcome!!! I used the glass bottles I got from my Mother-in-law a couple of months ago. 

Isn't he just so cute?!?

What You Need:

-3 glass bottles

-Cream fabric (I think I only ended up using like 1/4 yard, but I would get 1/2 yard just to be safe)

-Eyeballs (I got the actual looking eyeball at Hobby Lobby. There was 14 in the pkg and it was only $.99!) You could also use buttons.

-Hot glue gun

-6"x3" Wood block

-Cute Halloween paper

-Vinyl saying

-Mod podge

How To Make It:

To start off you will cut some strips of fabric. I cut mine about 1"wide and then the length of the fabric. I am guessing it is 42". I used 3-4 strips per bottle.

Then you will wrap this around the bottle. I started at the bottom. I put a big dab of hot glue on the bottle and then put the end of the fabric on that. Then you are going to twist and turn the fabric adding dabs of hot glue every few turns. It will stay in place better if you do that!

When I got to the top I went up high enough so you could not see the glass at all, but left it open because may be one year I might make them as vases! Who knows!! You could finish it off with the fabric if you wanted or add something else if you don't want to leave it open. 

After you get that wrapped all the way around the bottle, you will then do the eyes. I just hot glued my eyeballs on!! Easy as that!!

After I got the mummies all done I made a sign to go in front of them. 

I painted the wood block black.

After that dried I put some spider web paper on first, then I put some purple on. Then with silver vinyl I cut out "Find Your Mummy" with my cricut. I used the font His Name Is Honey found here. I mod podged all that onto the block. I mod podged the spider web paper first. Then put another coat over that and then put the purple paper on and put another coat over that. You need to make sure you put the vinyl on before you mod podge. If you wait to put the vinyl on until after you will have a hard time getting it to stick!!!

Here are the cute Mummy's all done...

These were seriously so easy to make. 

Joining These Link Parties: