I was featured...

Wow! What an honor to have my book page wreath featured here!

Go check out this blog...she has a bunch of super cute ideas and I love it!

male chauvinist book trashing~a wreath tutorial

I've seen all of these book page wreaths and I absolutely adore them so I decided to make my own Ginnie-fied version and share a tutorial so you can make your own. Honestly, it was a bit more work than I thought it would be....

You'll need:
a wreath form (mine was about 15 inches across at the widest point)
an old book (mine was over an inch thick and I used all the pages)
some patterned scrapbook paper and/or vintage images (check out The Graphics Fairy)
a hot glue gun and lots of glue sticks
burlap (about 4 yards of 4inch wide strips)
ribbon or seam binding(which is what I used, not sure how much)
Tim Holtz Distress Ink

First, you'll take your wreath and if it's like mine and you bought it for $1 at the thrift store (I seriously cannot believe anyone would think this was pretty! UGH!), you'll take all of the ugly junk off...

{click pictures to enlarge}

until it looks like this~

Next, you'll cut your burlap into 3-4inch strips (they don't have to be perfect or measured)

Using your glue gun, glue down the beginning end and start wrapping, overlapping as you go...

Overlap your strips and every so often put a little glue to keep it from sliding around. If your strip isn't long enough, just glue down another and start wrapping some more. This is not really going to show much.
Now you should have a wreath that looks like this...

Then you'll take your old school male chauvinist pig book...

and tear the crap out of it. It doesn't matter if they look "torn" when you tear them out (mine came out in neat sections), you can do that as you go...

When you start to make a roll for a bundle, take your Distress ink and 2 book pages or a book page and a piece of copied scrapbook paper (it's more pliable) or vintage image.

rub your stamp along the torn edges or you can use the neat page edges to age the paper

take your 2 pages and run a small line of hot glue (glue stick took too long to dry) along the top edge and stick them together. They don't have to be perfectly lined up and I actually prefer them to be uneven. It adds character :) Start rolling the paper into a loose roll.

When the paper is almost rolled up, run a line of glue so that the roll stays rolled up.

What you will have is this...

Again, take your ink pad and rub it on the end of the roll. You'll do this about 100 times!

Next, you'll begin combining random rolls together and tying them with your ribbon or seam binding. To make the best parts of the rolls show, I added a little glue to what would be the bottom side of the bundle.I made bundles of various numbers. I wrapped the seam binding around 2 or 3 times...

Begin gluing your bundles onto your wreath. If I did it again, I would probably glue single rolls around the whole wreath so there would be no gaps, then glue the bigger bundles on top. I wound up having to squish them in on the ends that were toward the center.

I wound up with spaces like this...

so I made some single rolls and cut them until they were the right length to fill in the space

and glued them into the space...

Keep making bundles and filling in the spaces....

until you have this! I love it's imperfect beauty~

you can see pieces of vintage ledger paper, french notes and labels...

I tried to give it an overall unifying neutral palette~

I love how the seam binding crinkles the more it's handled...

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and if you make one, I'd love to see pictures!

Edited: I'm linking this project up here!

Holy Cow!

Oh my goodness! I'm so excited to be two of the featured projects on The DIY Show Off! I love Roeshel's amazing blog, she has tons of great ideas and is kind enough to share others cool DIY projects. Go check it out!

let's hear it for the birds

I LOVE birds, nests, eggs, and birds and nests and eggs...

and I'm lovin' the spring goodies that Hobby Lobby is having right now!

look at these cute salt and pepper shakers I found!

they're what I had pictured in my head before I knew they existed :)

What can you do with a dollar store metal tray?

I wanted to make a little welcoming monogram to hang by the front door.

I was going to do a picture by picture tutorial but it didn't go exactly as I planned. I wanted to give it an aged look with some antiquing glaze but it wouldn't stay in the recesses on the flat tray part. so I took it outside and sprayed it very lightly with an off-white paint. that sort of gave it more texture for the glaze to stick to.

I then printed out the egg and birdie graphic that I had and glued them to the tray. using a font I liked I printed the monogram out and used a razor to cut it out and roughly trace it onto the tray. I painted it in using a charcoal grey paint. I mod podged over it all then used a little greyish blue paint around the edges in the recesses.

I broke out the hot glue gun and attached some burlap and satin-y ribbon bow to the front then about 2 feet of ribbon on the back to hang it with.

I love how it turned out! so spring-y and so me...

thrift store scores

I haven't done much thrifting for a while but I went for half-price day to

a couple of my favorite spots and scored some great finds so I thought I'd share!

look at this cute sleigh I found for $25! My heart skipped a beat...

I want to take off the cheesy greenery, I want a more vintage-y trim with

silver-y, off-white colors... ideas please??

I found the wreath for a $1! Don't you just love the beautiful poinsetta?! kidding...

Who on earth would seriously hang this thing in their house? I have plans for a makeover for it...

the giant hat box for my daughter's french bedroom, to be recovered, for $2.

some old books that have good, worn edges for vignette props that I'm going to cover and for my wreath project...

some cute clothes for my eldest daughter, the skirt of course, to be worn with shorts or as a swimsuit cover. she loves stores like Abercrappie so buying them used is no different than buying them new, they look used when they're new! all the pink tags were .99 cents!

for my youngest, some brand new Limited Too/Justice pants for $2!

cute summer tops for my youngest, all name brands (which I am not a brand snob but when you buy them used, the name brands like Gap or Gymboree are

in much better condition). all of them half of the price on the tag!

and for yours truly, a cute pair of Gap espadrilles for 1 dolla! Yowza!
they may have been worn once...I don't think they're the height of fashion right now but I don't care, I still like them...