5 Minute DIY Mason Jar Make-up Brush Holder

I love my makeup brush holder.  It even made the cut to move into the new house. The sweet little patterned jelly jars are some leftovers from my mason jar chandelier and I believe at one point I got them to make homemade jelly. I still haven't made homemade jelly or jam or preserves. Someday.

I choose an antique white spray paint that I already had, oh my am I cheap.  I sprayed the inside and top first and let it dry.  Then I turned it upside down and did 2 good coats.  After that was dry I did a little touch up spray on the rim just to be safe.  That's it.  Took maybe 5 minutes of actual work, my kind of DIY! I ordered some mirror effect spray paint and I can't wait to use it...I just have to finish the whole moving thing. 

Mason Jar Makeup Brush Holder DIY

I did this project over three years ago, so I can say with conviction that it lasts. I didn't used to wear makeup consistently, especially when I was staying at home with my kiddos. Now that I have been in the workforce and I'm getting older I almost always wear something. This was one of the easiest little projects. Antique white spray paint + little jelly mason jar = fabulous makeup brush holder. You could spray it with any color and I am sure it would be just as fab. I sprayed the inside and the outside. I have since added a cute little tie.

This would make a really cute gift for a tween or teen! Makeup brushes and a cute little holder along with some new makeup. Okay maybe it would make a cute gift for an adult...I love mine.

Without the tie. I love the texture of the jelly jars.

With the tie. I like that you can change it up!

Lacy Burlap Fall Wreath

I really think that making wreaths is one of the most satisfying crafts ever. When you finish it you put it on your door and present your masterpiece. Perhaps that's a bit dramatic but I always feel accomplished putting up a great wreath. I have been using this same twig wreath for forever. I've definitely gotten my 7 bucks worth. I reused my sparkle corn cobs, feathers, leaves and beaded twigs from last year. I added some lacy burlap wire ribbon, my gold J and some gold pine cones, which I found in the Christmas section. Took about 10 minutes and I think it looks pretty fabulous.

Mickey Cupcakes and Smash Cake

My bestie's baby just turned 3 and to celebrate she had a Mickey Mouse party. She asked me to make his cupcakes and a smash cake. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and ended up mixing all of the ideas into what worked for me. You can find my board here. I am not a fondant expert yet so I chose to go with what I know, butter cream. I love a good vanilla butter cream with a little cream cheese kick, whipped and whipped so that it is fluffy and silky smooth. My chocolate cupcake recipe is the bomb, super moist and just enough chocolate that you feel like you are indulging but it isn't over kill. Seriously they are so good! I found out the hard way that melting chocolate does not work with food coloring. My husband and kids kept sneaking those little discs...so I think we will be able to use up that giant bag I purchased! Lesson learned. So I made up some sugar cookie icing and double dipped my Oreos to make these. Super easy, super fun and they looked really cute. I will say though, with cookies (especially with Oreos) they need to be the last thing you put on if you want them to stay crunchy. If you put them on a cake or cupcake the night before they will be soft, still really yummy, but soft and not crunchy. It really only took me about 10 minutes to assemble 3 dozen after they had been double dipped, so it's economical from a time stand point to add them right before your guests come. For the smash cake I found a super cute Mickey sticker set at Hobby Lobby and I just stuck it to a red and white striped straw. I made a washi tape banner using two more straws and some twine. Easy peasy!! I mimicked Disney's lettering for his name, which to me made all the difference! Super fun smash cake!

If you are in the Tulsa area, you can order your own Mickey Mouse cupcakes from my store, Three Magee Cupcakes. I deliver!

Super Easy Fall Wreath

I think I maybe spent $5 making this wreath and its my favorite so far.  I am still super frugal and cheap when it comes to wreaths. This is the only wreath I've ever owned, I just keep dressing and redressing it.  I think I only paid $6 for it too!  I got everything from Hobby Lobby, the corn on the cobs, glittery leaves, berry beads, feathery leaves and the letter.  I have also used the same "J" I just keep spray painting it.  No hot glue, I just stuck it in or tied it on.  I spent about 20 minutes getting all put together while the kids took a cold swim in the pool.  There was no way I was getting in there, but they had a blast filling up ziploc bags and splashing each other while I got my craft on.  Who needs toys, right?

Thanksgiving Turkey Family Hands Craft

Last year we made a family turkey hand print.  It was such an easy craft to make!  I used ROY G. BIV to decide colors so there wouldn't be any squabbles.  No more babies in this house, so there won't be indigo or violet! I also wanted to use the same colors each year so that we can see the kids hand size progression.  I can't wait to get started on this years!  My husband was the exception.  He was brown for the base of the turkey and ol Roy doesn't have an appreciation for turkey color.  After it dried I drew a face on him, the turkey not my husband, and we put each persons name, color and what they were thankful for on the back.  So much fun and I love looking back at how little everyone's hand was and what they were thankful for.  In just a few years we are going to have one fat turkey!

Join me over the next three weeks for my yearly Thankful Thursdays in November.  I am really grateful for so many people this year and I love the time for reflection.

Football Wreath

It's Friday and in Oklahoma a Fall Friday night means one thing, Football.  Tonight is the big Game against Union and while there is no way I'm venturing out anywhere near where the game is (no way I'm messing with that traffic) here is my team spirit, wreath style.  Ellie is a cheerleader this year (ugh, I am really trying to embrace it) so we are going to lots of little football games.  So I decided to make a fun tiger football wreath with some stuff I already had on hand.

By now you may have figured out that I'm cheap thrifty.  I've been using the same twig wreath from Hobby Lobby since last year and I've re-spray painted the letter to match at least 3 times.  Why not right?  So this $6 wreath, that I got with a coupon too, has served me really well.

Let's Make It!

I took leftover golden yellow tulle from a game day tutu I made for Regan and wrapped it around the wreath.  I made a bow from tulle and wide black satin ribbon.  Next I cut 6 inch (approximately) strips of yellow and black ric-rac and tied the pieces on.  I attached a stuffed beanie baby tiger I had (from high school) with ribbon.  I picked up a stuffed football from the dollar store and hot glued a pipe cleaner to the back to attach it to the wreath.  I spray painted my trusty letter J gold and hung it in the middle of the wreath with a gold ribbon. Took me about 10 minutes from start to finish!  Happy Friday everyone!

Rain Boot Planters

These are my favorite garden accessory other than a Tinkerbell stepping stone that Regan made.  I wish I could say I had a flourishing, lush garden, but it's been 110+ here and my garden looks dead and pathetic.  I'm one of those people that listens to the voluntary water restrictions that the city issued and as a result my lawn and garden look like Fall came early and there are dead leaves everywhere! Nonetheless I still have these cute little planters.  Regan outgrew her Barbie rain boots and since they weren't quite the color for Jack and pretty faded from her leaving them outside they were my pick.  It was nice to be able to re-purpose them as well since no one could wear them anymore.

Here's how I made them over.  I took the inserts out of the boots and drilled holes in the bottoms so that the water could drain out.  Then I spray painted them pink.  Not any special kind of spray paint just general outdoor/indoor.  It took about 3 good coats of the pink and then I did one coat of clear.  Then I filled them up with dirt and some flowers after letting them dry for 24 hours.  They looked really cute with live flowers (and of course I didn't get a picture of that!) but that that ship has sailed!  They have been out for a good four months and held up beautifully through some thunderstorms and blistering heat.  I've seen some cute Pinterest posts with rain boots but my experience with Regan's fading from leaving them outside made me weary of leaving them untouched and I am so glad I painted them, it really made all the difference!

Happy Gardening!

After their first coat of pink.

Here they are after enduring the end of Spring and the long hot Summer!

Elmo Birthday Party

This year I whipped out the Elmo cake pan.  Ethan and Ellie both had Elmo parties for their second birthday, and I know that Regan will either be grateful or resentful that hers wasn't.  I was Elmo'd out at that point.  I probably could have done any boy theme and Jack would have loved it.  If it moves he likes it!  When they are little I keep it really low key and just family.  It's easier on me and they don't really know anyways.  There were a few things I knew I wanted and I just went from there.

For decorations I wanted things to be simple and easy to clean up.  For the birthday banner I printed off flag templates at Martha Stewart and decorated them like Elmo's World with loops, yellow scribbles and blue letters.  I let go of my perfection and let Ellie color the yellow background and cut them out.  I did the loops at the top and wrote the letters.  We tried having her do the loops, but hers ended up crooked and after 3 or 4 tries and we both wanted them straight across so she let me do that part.  She was really just looking forward to the cutting part.  I used orange curling ribbon to hang it.  I went to the pet store and got a plastic (yay for plastic!) round fish bowl, rocks and "Dorothy" for the table.  I put a glitter covered "2" in her bowl, just like on Elmo's World.  Jack loved Dorothy.  It was less than $15 which is pretty cheap for a center piece!  I printed out Elmo coloring pages and out those out with a jar full of new crayons.  I also had goldfish crackers in a round bowl to snack on.  I found an Elmo shirt on clearance at Wal-Mart (I know I caved) for $5 in the junior section and  used it on the birthday chair.  I had intended to turn it into a pillow but I have been finding it harder to sew lately.  I used a red tablecloth, balloons and cups with orange plates as big "Elmo noses".

Since it was also Father's Day we made a lunch out of it with hot dogs and bratwurst.  I know I won't be able to combine the celebrations forever so I figure I better do it while I can.  Sorry for the poor picture quality, these were not my best!

Dorothy seemed really interested in Elmo.  The 2 candle will float if you try to
just stick it in, so my husband shoved some wire into the bottom of it in the
shape of an "s" so it would stay down and be covered by the rocks.

Printables, crayons and goldfish- the kids loved it!

I watched A LOT of Elmo's World to get those colors right, LOL!

His new Ferrari, here is the tutorial!

Fire Ellie! 

They had to hold him back so he wouldn't blow it out until after the song, he
had already blown it out once!

That's all!  Simple, fun and the kids had so much fun making his day special.  The big kids had made gifts for him and took such pride in giving.  Jack lighted up with his "surprise" face with every gift and each grandparent.  Love my not so little family and watching them grow!


This week:
Cozy Coupe Ferrari Tutorial
Summer Fun and the Outdoor Pirate Ship
Things I learned at The Color Run

Father's Day Photo Gift

I searched and searched for the original picture that inspired this gift but I could not find it.  I could swear that I pinned it!  So if it's yours, you are awesome and leave me a comment so I can link to your awesomeness!!! Update:  I found it!  Go to Freckle PhotoBlog tp see the original!  She has some really cute ideas.  This really only took me about 10 minutes to complete.  I gathered the kids and wrote on their feet, this is the easy part.  Snapped some pics as fast as I could, until I thought I had enough to work with.  It is a little bit difficult getting 4 kids to sit still, with their feet up and their faces looking at the camera at the same time but definitely not impossible.  The shot I used they aren't all looking at the camera but it reflects their personalities the best and their ages (and their feet are up) so that's why I chose it.  I think Dale will love it.  Print out an 8x10 and frame it!  Your cost is about $10!!

This one was the winner.

Not quite.

I love the other kids smiles.  

Feet Jack feet!!

Feet, hands, Ahhhh!

And we're done.  

How to take a Photo Frame from Drab to Fab in 5 minutes!

This 5 minute DIY has taken me a ridiculous amount of time to finish.  Jack will be 2 in June and I'm just now finishing his 1 year old birthday photo frame.   I will say that I didn't get the Sheriff badge with his name on it until September of last year when we last went to Silver Dollar City, although I'm pretty sure you could find them online or in a craft or novelty store.  So the tutorial.

Take any cheap frame and put your special photo in it.
Hot glue something cute and relevant.
Really that's all it takes.

I got the frame at Wal-Mart (last year before I made that New Year's Resolution to not shop there) for about $2.  The cowboy boot was $.69 from Hobby Lobby and I used it here at his birthday party on the high chair.  The Sheriff badge was $4.99 at Silver Dollar City.  I'm not going to lie I'm having some Wal-Mart withdrawals.

Drab to Fab in 5 minutes!

Just not as cute.  Well Jack is :)

Snow White Birthday Party, Regan turns 3!

I love this little girl.  When asked how old she is her reply is "28."  Which fits her personality.  She had flip flopped on what party theme she wanted but this was the main request so that's what we did.  I love celebrating with my family and friends.  Regan gave quite a birthday girl performance smiling and posing for the camera, what can I say she takes after her mother.

I made the cutest little apple cupcakes.  While they were a bit more time consuming than say frosting a cake, they were totally worth it and easy too.  I found the idea on Pinterest and a cute little blog Design Dazzle.  Seriously the best ideas.  The day before her party was Dr. Seuss's Birthday and a local bakery happened to be giving away free cupcakes to kids that told them what their favorite Seuss book was.  So I picked up some cake doughnuts to make the apple cupcakes with and birthday breakfast, making it easier on myself for the next day.

Apple Cupcake How To:

You will need:  Red cupcake liners, cake mix, red frosting, red sugar, regular tootsie rolls, green fruit tootsie rolls and doughnuts (you need 1/2 doughnut per cupcake).  You will also need a cutting board, scissors and a toothpick.

Bake your cupcakes and once cool slice the top off.  Attempt to not eat all of the cupcake tops.  While they are baking you can cut your doughnuts in half, like how you would cut a bagel, mix your red frosting.  When cooled and cut dab a bit of frosting on the cupcake to hold the doughnut half.  Frost the doughnut and then cover with red sugar.  Once they are all frosted and sugared its time to make your stems and leaves.  For the stems take a pair of scissors and cut a piece of the tootsie roll off, lengthwise.  You can bend it, twist it, roll it to get a stem look.  For the leaves you will want to roll out the tootsie roll and then cut out a leaf shape.  Use a toothpick to make patterns on the leaf.


The Decor:

I decorated our wreath with tulle and a spray painted "R" tied on with red satin ribbon.  I made a bunting from scrap vintage red and blue fabric and vintage yellow bias tape, I love being able to use up fabric scraps and upcycle something.  I hung red, blue and yellow balloons from the ceiling using push pins and clear string.  We decorated the table with a plastic blue tablecloth and red ribbon.  I also did the birthday chair with the excess tablecloth and larger ribbon (I just hot glued that ribbon on to make it stay up!)  I got some dirt and sticks from outside and hot glued some little birds on the "branches."  That along with her Snow White doll and a stuffed deer we already had were the table decoration.

Snow White couldn't walk around in just anything so I made her a yellow tutu and embellished it with a red satin bow.  I dyed one of her shirts blue and sewed some tulle onto the arms, another way to upcycle and use something we already had.  I also make her a red head band to complete the look.  I used the same ribbon for her tutu and head band on the table, chair and wreath.  The tutu was so easy to make, it was my second one ever!  I'll be giving a tutorial later this week!

It wasn't the fanciest or poshest party but it was perfect for our family and for my sweet and feisty Regan.

The back view, I love this tutu!

The Apple Cupcakes!

The decor.

The wreath.

Such a happy girl!

The Upcycled Jean Pillows and a Pocket Pillow Tutorial

So yesterday I showed you my Upcycled Jean Quilt.  I had some extra soft material from the center cut of the blanket that I used for the pillow covers and I embellished with scraps leftover from the jeans and some vintage buttons.  If you are a real quilter please don't take offense to me using the term quilt and to my non-traditional methods.  My Grams was a real quilter and I sometimes wonder if she would just be happy that I'm sewing or if she is rolling over in her grave at my really non-traditional ways of doing things!

These are pocket backs, meaning the back is made to create a pocket for a pre-form pillow to go in.  I did measure these :).  First you need to decide what size pillow you want or have.  These require 3 pieces of material.  Alright we're going to do some math here, prepare your brain if necessary.

Say you want to make a a cover for a 12x12 inch pillow form.  For the front piece you will need to cut a square that is 13x13.  So for any front piece you need to add 1 inch to each side.  Now for the two back pieces.  Divide the longest side in half and add 3 inches (12/2)+3=9  So each side piece will be 13x9.

Here is another example using a rectangle.  You are making a cover for a pillow that is 16x12.  The front piece needs to be 17x13.  The back pieces need to be 11x13.  Got it?  Shoot me an email if you have any questions, math and sewing can be tricky.

Now if you want to add any embellishments you need to do it before you sew the front and back of the cover pieces together.  Trust me its really difficult if you don't.  I made jean "flowers"  by cutting out different size circles and stacking them together.  I sewed them down and then added brown vintage buttons.   For the striped pillow I took strips of denim and sewed them down.  Once washed they did they fray thing.

Once your embellishments are on its time to sew it up.  I got lucky and used the edges of the blanket for the back pieces so that I didn't have to hem them.  If I was making one from scratch I would hem the two back pieces along one of the longer sides, just a half inch hem will do.  If you don't have a serger (I don't) use a zigzag stitch.  Place your right sides together of the front piece and one back piece, pin and sew.  Make sure you back stitch when starting and stopping so you won't get any loose threads later on. Then place the second back piece on, making sure that it goes over the other back piece creating the pocket, pin and sew.  Trim your edges if necessary and clip the corners (careful don't clip your stitch) and turn your pillow cover out.  All done!

No perfect straight lines for me, I love the zigzag effect here.

The Upcycled Jean Quilt

I wanted something that was soft, warm, durable, washable and most important kid friendly.  Extra perks are green (this one was free and saved these jeans from the landfill or the goodwill) and stylish or cool.  I realize that style is personal so if this isn't yours I'm okay with that.  I saved a lot of jeans.  It helps if you drop a few pounds and can use your fat jeans, that means the quilt will double as a good reminder to get your heiney off the couch later.  I also had a big blanket that was still really soft on one side but not so soft on the other.  Sorry I did not take pictures during the process.  Forgive me?  I'll try and be extra clear on directions.

First cut out all your jeans, I used 5 adult pairs and 5 kid pairs.  I left the hems on mine (they will come in to play later) and tried to make them as straight as possible.  Once have all of the big pieces in one pile and the scraps in another decide how big and what shape you want to make.  Mine is a rectangle.  I wanted for us to be able to sit on the couch together and have it cover the length of the couch plus some and be wide enough to snuggle up in, but still go over our toes.  The only thing I used to measure with was my couch.  Because I'm a rogue sewer.

I laid all of my pieces out so that the hems were facing out making the border.  Next I trimmed and pinned.  You can do the next part one of two ways.  You can sew the pieces together with the edges facing out or right side up, which will give a really cool fraying effect that will get softer with each wash or you can sew them where they face down and will be on the inside of the blanket which will be smoother.  The choice is up to you, I wanted the fray!  Once you have sewn all of the pieces together now is the time to add any embellishments that you want.  I added a few pockets for fun.

Now for the backing with that other blanket.  I put the jean quilt top on the floor.  You could have made yours the same size as the blanket to begin with but I didn't.  I was out of jeans!  I made sure that the edges were lined up with the edges of the jean quilt.  I then cut out the middle and re-sewed the blanket up the middle.  This way the finished edges were all on the outside.  With wrong sides together I pinned the blanket bottom and jean quilt top together and sewed along the edges.  Because the edges were already finished it gave it a double layered look and it was a lot less work than a normal blanket or quilt.  Note:  It really helps to do this part during nap time, otherwise people will be driving you crazy helping you.

The verdict?  This is my families favorite blanket.  It is so big that we can all use it and it is so so so warm!  I've been working hard at saving all of my newly too big jeans as well.  It helps to have kids that are growing like weeds as well.  I want to make a more traditional quilt with jean blocks, but that one will probably take much longer to put together.  This one took about 3 hours total cutting, piecing and sewing.  Of course that 3 hours was divided up over about 2 days.

It spans the entire length of the couch- no complaining about not having enough!

Every time I wash it they fray gets better and softer.

Had to add some pockets!

The super soft side.

Here is a closer look at the edge.  

It also gets softer with every wash and its really warm!

I'll show you what I did with my scraps tomorrow.  A jean quilt needs some jean pillows right?

Easy Valentine Craft for Kindergartners

So with my last post I felt I was really slacking in the Valentine department but my boring craft was a hit.  Apparently glitter and stickers is the key to any Kindergartner's heart.  So if you find yourself in the position of entertaining 20 5-6 year olds, pull out the glitter and watch their eyes light up!

What you'll need:

Doilies- I found packs of 20 at Target for $1 in their bargain area
Glue Sticks- I was skeptical about the glue sticks working with the glitter, but it did
Glitter- it doesn't really matter what color but I used red, pink and white
Stickers- I got some great ones at Target in their bargain bin with cute little sayings, we also used the kids picture stickers from picture day.

What to do:

Give each kid a doily and their face sticker and have them put it wherever they want.  Have them put any other stickers they want on their doily.  Apply glue to the places they want their glitter.  Have the glitter in a container (plastic cupcake containers work really well) and have them put the doily in glue side down in the glitter, shake and voila!

I was worried that the boys wouldn't like the glitter, but they did in fact they loved it.  I think I've been spending too much time around a certain 8 year old :).

Now go find all this stuff on clearance for your Valentine craft for next year!

Easy Fabric Scrap Bunting

I love buntings and wanted to make one just because.  So I pulled a bunch of fabric scraps and cut them into strips, varying in width and length.  I sewed them onto some vintage seam binding making sure to leave enough on each end to use as a tie.  I decided to add some letters to it and put it in the mudroom as a welcome banner.  I think it would probably be cuter with fabric letters, but I love the versatility that the reusable vinyl letters have.  If I want to change the greeting I can!

Come on in!