Fall is in the air...

Not really - it was 105 here today (ugh!).  But I wish it was in the air, and maybe if I do enough fall crafting, it'll bring on the cooler weather ;)  I can't wait to wear my flannel pj pants around the house.  What a fashionista I am, eh??  During a trip to Michael's (dangerous!) I saw these sweet glass votives on sale for $2 apiece, which meant at least 3 were coming home with me...

 
I also stumbled upon these, which smelled dee-lightful...

So, here I go with my well-titled tutorial: How to Make A Super Easy And Very Cheap Fall Centerpiece That Looks Good and Also Smells Pretty Good Too.

Step one: Fill glass votives with pinecones...

Step 2: Grab you some fall-themed ribbon, preferably from the dollar bin at the craft store...

Step 3: Cut reasonable length of ribbon (second hardest part of the project - not like it took me three tires or anything....) and tie a bow around your glass votive at the skinnier bit.  Try to make the bow look neat (now THIS is the hardest part.  Am I the ONLY terrible bow-tier out there?)...

Step 4: Repeat steps 1 - 3 until you have the desired number of festive fragrant fall votives (how much do I wish "votives" began with an "f?"  What a sweet alliteration it would have been!)...

Yay for easy!  Yay for cheap!  Yay for fall!  Here's what I spent...

$6.43 - glass votives
$1.09 - fall themed sparkly ribbon
$4.00 - pack of smelly (in a good way) pinecones
TOTAL = $11.52 and five minutes of my time.  I did it while I was ironing.
** Special bouns points to anyone who noticed my white ironing board legs showing off their "x" shape in the background of almost every picture in this post.  Bravo, friend.  You are observant!**

I love the way they make the table smell like autumn, even if it still feels like July 4th around here.  *Sigh*  Have you been working on anything fall themed lately?  Do share!

Also, if you love reading great blogs, and you liked my Chevron Lazy Susan project, get excited!  My wonderful friend "Skinnie" from Skinny Piggie, is hosting...

















... starting on Monday!  She's hosting a giveaway every day, and on Tuesday, you can enter to win a Lazy Susan just like mine in the colors of your choice. =) Even if you don't love giveaways (do people like this exist?!), you should pop over to celebrate along with us.  I've known "Skinnie" for years, and she's a wonderful friend, dedicated military spouse, and a fab blogger to boot.  Plan on heading over to show her some love!

And with that, have a very happy Thursday, friends!

Linking to: Creative Bloggers Party Hop, House of Hepworths, Thrifty 101, Centsational Girl, Just a Girl, Home Stories A to Z, Somewhat Simple, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Coastal Charm, Decor to Adore, Tip Me Tuesday, and

Baby Project

What this is not: a creative way for me to announce that Eric and I have decided to procreate.  Again, like I said here, I am NOT pregnant.  What this is: the first of my Pinterest-inspired projects for the week!  Yay!  Some close friends recently had a baby boy and I was inspired to take on this little beauty...

...that I pinned a few weeks ago.

I started with a 12x12 canvass, and some printable transfer sheets (and a dream, ha!).  First I had to pick a font.  This. Was. Hard!  There are SO MANY fonts in Word!  I don't think I ever knew or cared, but now, well, now I know.  Once I finally settled on a font, I started tweaking the size of things, printing them out (killed more trees than I would like to admit), and trying to get an idea of the placement...

My carpet is such a great backdrop ;)

Then I had to get the color juuuuuust right.  I decided to stray from the original pin by adding in green to the color scheme, since I knew it would match the nursery.

You can see the 12x12 canvas lying behind the print-outs.  Now that everything was sized just right, it was time to print..... CRAP.  Insert much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.  I realized after about 2 hours (embarrassingly enough!) of work, that all of my text needed to be MIRRORED to print onto the iron-on transfer sheets.  UGH!  Luckily, the hubby stepped in and worked a Photoshop miracle involving PDF's, much googling, and some Charlie Sheen-approved unicorn blood. 

Finally!  Printer is going!  Wait... why didn't it print???  Oh yeah, because I'm a stinking idiot and forgot our printer is LASER and the transfer sheets only work with INK JET printers.  Double fail!  Enter fantastic roommate who's awesome dad had the foresight (he must have seen this day coming, obviously) to buy her an ink jet printer.  A few tense minutes and a sprinkle of pixie dust later and we were in the printing business.

Looking through the back side of the prints to make sure everything is just right (this is where I start to panic, trying to mkae sure I've not made any horrendous misspellings or gotten any info incorrect).  Double and triple check the stats and spellings and we're off to heat up the iron!

The 12x12 canvases, although fabric, were not the best material with which to use iron-on transfer sheets.  They're really meant for t-shirts, hats, and very unfortunate doggie sweaters (yes, I DID see this idea suggested on the outside of the packaging).  I knew it probably wouldn't work perfectly, and it didn't....

After peeling up the non-permanent side of the transfer sheets I still had a wrinkly mess that reminded me of my elementary school Elmer's glue-drowned crafts.  Welp, bummer.  On to my "fix-it" idea...

Yep, every crafters go-to.  Except I'm not a crafter and I barely know what the heck I'm talking about when it comes to being in the craft store.  And I certainly didn't know there would be roughly 27 million varieties of modpodge, for crying out loud.  I contemplated which to buy for longer than anyone should ever contemplate any sort of glue substance.  I settled on the small size of the matte finish in the the name brand.  Yep, I'm a brand elitist and I'm a woman on the crafting-edge, so don't mess with my head! *stay AWAY from the crazy blogger on aisle 12!*

After two thin and even coats what looked exactly like Elmer's glue just more expensive and decidedly more confusing, here's what I had...

Wahoo!!  I am totally in LOVE with how it looks!  What do you guys think? Would you hang something similar on the walls of your child's nursery?  Our friends were so pleased with the gift, and it was nice to give something so personal instead of more baby socks (seriously, those things are like crack to me - they so freaking adorable! Anything in miniature makes me do the weird, girly laugh/squeal).

 So here's another look at the pin...

 
And my version...

Yay for actually using Pinterest as an agent for good instead of a giant time-suck!  Have a happy Wednesday, friends!

Linking to: Creative Bloggers Party Hop, Just A Girl, Tip me Tuesday, Tell Me Tuesday, Home Stories A to Z, Tuesday's Treasures, Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, Oh How Pinteresting, House of Hepworths, Somewhat Simple, and Decor to Adore.