DiY Painted Burlap Door Hangers

If you’ve looked around at Hallmark or a few other specialty shops you have probably seen the painted burlap door hangers. They are super cute but very expensive. So I set out to make a few for gifts at a much lower cost. After a search on the internet and Pinterest I found quite a few pics of these cute door hangers but not a single tutorial. Through trial and error I worked my way through and came up with what I felt was the best process. 

Here is the process you should follow, not the one I started with but the one I found to be most effective, efficient and least messy after all was said and done! Check out the notes and tips at the bottom of the post before beginning your project.

You will need:
Burlap - size will vary according to project
Acrylic paints
Paint Brushes
Markers
Chalk
Sewing Machine with Strong Needle
Iron
Picture Hanging Wire
Clear Coat Finishing Spray Paint
Tissue Paper/Newspaper/or other stuffing agent
Scissors

1.       Take a piece of burlap folded in half and draw or trace the outline of your hanger. (make sure you iron out any wrinkles before you sew the two pieces together).

2.       Before you cut the pieces out sew three sides or around the hanger leaving a large enough gap for stuffing and your hand to fit inside the hanger. Do not cut off the excess at this point.

3.       Draw the hanger shape/picture/etc onto the burlap (if you will be doing a base coat you will only need the main outline).

4.       Paint the entire back of the burlap piece with your base coat color. Do thick coats to provide full coverage and fill the holes in the burlap. Let dry completely.

5.       Once the back is dry, flip and paint the base coat on the front (for some projects the entire piece will not have a base coat and for others it will-more on this later). Again, make sure the coat is thick and the holes are filled (this may actually take more than one coat). Make sure if the entire piece has a base coat that it dries completely first.

6.       After the base coat has dried cut the excess burlap around the outside.

7.       Use a fine tip marker or chalk to draw any images, shapes, designs you will be adding.

8.       Paint the added images. Let dry.

9.       Stuff your piece. This can be done with any number of things, grocery sacks, newspaper, tissue paper, etc. I used all of the above but most prefer the tissue paper. Stuff till the piece is full. 

10.   Sew shut the open space.

11.   Cut a piece of wire to the desired length. Take your wire and bend it to create a hanger.

12.   Use a sharp fine tip object to poke a hole through the top of the burlap and stick the wire through. Make sure you turn up the edges of the wire to create a good hold.

13.   If you’d like you can add a bow or additional decoration to the wire

14.   Spray paint a clear coat over the entire piece.

Here are a few pics of some of the finished projects:

Notes: I recommend starting with a simple shape first. I started with the basketball which was a great starter. Once you get your feet wet you can step it up to some really fun projects and start personalizing with teams on  a football or a name on a stocking, etc. 

Tip: For the basketball I only painted the black around the outside because I didn’t want the orange to be too dark from a black basecoat. For the crosses I painted the full piece with the base coat and then simply painted the designs on it after the base coat had dried completely.

Tip: Make sure you are working in a well covered area because the process can be very messy and you will also need to let the piece sit for a while to dry so don’t use your kitchen table that you’ll need in an hour for dinner (yes I did that). Once the piece has dried for a while hanging it up assists in shorter dry times.

Tip: You can use a stamp or stencil to create designs on items like the crosses.

Tip: You can use acrylic paint for the entire project but you will need A LOT for a full base coat so be prepared.

Tip: To create depth and the worn look (a bit more realistic then flat color) on something like the basketball use darker and lighter shades of the same color.

Tip: When you stuff your piece wear a glove (I just used a cheap stretch cotton glove) because the painted burlap is very rough and will tear up your knuckles.

Let me know how your door hangers turn out,
Daspri

Sock Monkey Birthday Party & A Winner

I am still in shock that my baby is now 2 years old. I am not sure how that happened, but I have mixed emotions about it. Thankfully, he is a super cuddly little boy so I still have lots of time to hold and squeeze him!
We celebrated with just a few family members on the evening of his birthday. We had cake and ice cream, sang, and watched him delight in his little celebration. It was a good night.

 We celebrated Sock Monkey style for our little man. For some reason, I have always loved monkey's for him so this was the perfect fit.
I don't like to over do theme's when it comes to parties or decorating for that matter. As a general rule, I think less is more.  So, I used little touches of sock monkey decor around the room, but focused mainly on the colors; light brown, chocolate brown, and red. I also put emphasis on shapes and texture; pulling in the stripes, polka dots and burlap.

I

I wanted a large 2 on the wall with his banner but I wasn't able to make it out again to buy a chip board 2 so I made use of what I had lying around, which is what I would prefer to do anyway.
I grabbed a scrap piece of foam board (from another project) and drew my number 2 with a pencil.

Then, I grabbed my exacto knife and began carefully cutting it out.
Next, I followed the same technique in Daspri's wreath tutorial by wrapping a strip of burlap around the 2.
The burlap banner was actually a banner that a friend made for my baby shower for this same sweet little 2 year old! She had painted "baby boy" on the banner so I cut more triangles out of burlap and adhered them on top of the existing banner using stitch witchery and a hot iron.
Then, I hand wrote letters spelling "Happy Day" (which is something my children have always said on birthdays) onto natural card stock, ran my brown ink pad around the edges and stuck them to the banner using double sided craft tape squares.

I am kind of addicted to the paper circle garland. Next, I think I will try different shapes, but I just love the stitching on them and the whimsy that they add to a celebration.
All you need is a circle hole punch (mine is 1 1/2 inch), paper of choice (I used sock money printed paper, polka dots and stripes), and your sewing machine.
Once your circles are cut, you simply run them, one by one, through your sewing machine. Sound daunting?  Well, it's not! It is super easy and goes really fast.

 

I chose to make a really little cake for the little man and cupcakes for everyone. I kind of love cupcakes too, even more now!

I also love cupcake toppers and learned a couple of years ago that I could easily make them myself rather than searching all over to find exactly what I wanted and/or paying for them.

You need: a circle hole punch, paper of choice, tooth picks and a glue gun.
I cut two circles per topper and stamped a 2 on one side of each. You will simply lay your toothpick on the backside of one circle, add a dab of glue on the toothpick and a thin line around the edges of the circle, and then place your second circle on top. Press down and allow to dry.

 Another little thing that adds a lot of "punch" to a celebration are label cards. I love having these for food and beverages. They are informative and festive! That's my kind of decor-practical and fun!

There's a sock monkey!

 

A simple dollar store red table cloth is dressed up with a runner of burlap. I strung red streamers and the paper circle garland from the light above the table.

And we can't forget the party favors!
I always try and make these simple, but fun. In each brown paper lunch sack is a small notebook (with their name written on the polka dot paper and glued to front), a package of curious george fruit snacks and some twizzlers. I simply glued a circle of the sock monkey paper to the front of the bags and wrote their names.

Now, let's talk cake for a minute.

I really wanted to make a banana cake because my little man loves bananas and it is a monkey party! 

I looked at several recipes online and intended on making it from scratch. However, we had plumbing disaster hit our house all last week, which meant that I needed simple after all of that.

So, I found this recipe that uses a yellow cake mix.  While I prefer a cake from scratch, this was super easy and served it's purpose well.

Next, I wanted a peanut butter icing. We love peanut butter and banana as a snack and a sandwich around here and I thought this would be fun.

I ran across this on one of my favorite blogs and was super excited to give it a try!

However, once again, I was going for simple and fast. So,whereas that recipe called for homemade buttercream icing, I used store bought. I wasn't sure if it would work but thought it was worth a try.

It worked like a charm! It actually made the icing thicker and easier to work with, not to mention, more delicious!

I mixed about 1/2 cup of peanut butter in a bowl with the icing. Then, I transferred it into a ziplock bag, cut the tip off and began piping on the icing. I topped each cupcake with a light sprinkling of mini chocolate chips and a cute topper.

The cake/cupcakes and icing got rave reviews!

My curiosity got the best of me and I couldn't stand it any longer, so today, I tried a small bite of it and it IS good!

 Happy Birthday little man! You have been such a joy and blessing in our lives. I am so thankful that I get to be your mommy.

-Jenny

WINNER of Daspri's Birthday Giveaway is.........

...................................TABITHA!!!!!!

DiY Table Runner Arrangement

We celebrated this weekend and it was a great time with family and friends. We had a little party at the house thrown together last minute (because after Keylee’s bday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and getting back in the swing of things I usually fail to plan my own birthday party). My husband is such a sweetheart and wants to make sure I celebrate but doesn’t “do that stuff very well” (his words). So I threw together a few yummy snacks and a quick table runner/centerpiece (above) and celebrate we did. Here are a few fun pics from the evening.

I wanted an actual strip of burlap or material as the table runner but since it was last minute - I was doing this at 5 when the part was at 6 - I improvised.

All you need is a few trays, some random vases or jars, and flowers.

1.       Arrange the trays in a line down the center of the table (much like a runner).   

2.       Select the vases/jars you will use for each tray.

3.       Add water to each and then cut flowers to length and add to each vase/jar.

That’s it! Oh and don’t forget to PARTY!

Stay warm,

Daspri


Visit the giveaway, it closes tonight!

Recipe to try:

Sugar Cookies
The sugar cookies pictured above are AMAZING. I found the recipe about 6 months ago and I try not to make them very often because they are so soft and delicious I want to eat the whole batch. Here is the recipe, you've been warned!

DiY Natural Scented Lotion

I am super excited to share this with you, mainly because I am super excited about it and it's pretty cool too.
A little while ago, my brother and his wife decided they would dabble in making their own natural lotion.  So, they did their research and ordered some really good quality natural lotion bases and essential oils. They whipped up some really great lotions so I was sad when they decided they were done with it.
Until......they decided they would offer their supplies to me!  Yay for me!
I was so excited to finally make time to sit down with all of this.

 

I set out to make a bottle as a birthday gift for Daspri and a couple of bottles to experiment with for our family too. 

Here is what I used:

-Natural Unscented Lotion Base with Pure Ingredients (Goat's Milk Base, Silk & Shea Butter Base, Green Tea & Tea Tree Base)

- Pure Essential Oils (you want to make sure and buy good, pure oils because these are going on your skin)

-Glass bottles with pump

-metal or plastic chopstick

Now, you could easily make your own scented lotion with a cheaper, unscented lotion from a local store. However, the ingredients in your lotion really do make a HUGE difference. The ingredients can either seriously harm your skin/body or actually improve the health of your skin.

This lotion has actually helped the little bumps on the back of mine and my children's arms. I could tell a difference within a few days of us using it.

I started out by choosing one lotion base, a few different oils and mixing them in a glass bowl. I started with just a small amount so I could get a feel for how the oil and lotion would mix together as well as the scent that my chosen oils would create.

Oh, and you'll want to wear an old shirt or an apron when working with the essential oils.

Next, I actually pumped the lotion base directly into the bottle. I filled the bottle about 1/4 with lotion base, then dropped about 5-6 drops of the first oil into the bottle. I grabbed my metal chopstick and began stirring it.  Then, I added a couple more pumps of lotion base and about 5-6 more drops of the second oil I had chosen and stirred some more. I continued with this process until the bottle was almost full.

Once I placed the lid on, I gave it a good shake to mix it some more.

 

Before, I moved on to mixing more lotion, I needed to clear my nose of all of the smells first. Coffee Beans work wonders for this! Keep a jar of coffee beans with your supplies and get a good whiff of them between mixing and creating different scents.

 

I ended up making three bottles with plans of making much more very soon. The end result:

Grapefruit Bergamot (Green Tea & Tea Tree Base)

A Little Peace (Lavender, Chamomile, Relaxing Oil; Goat's Milk Base)

Lemongrass Rosemary (Silk & Shea Butter Base)

*Once you are done creating your scented lotion, you will need to let it sit and wait 24 hours before using it. The oils are very potent so you want to wait before applying it to your skin. But after that, it is ready to gift or use and enjoy!

It was really and truly so much fun and once you have the supplies, too easy!

Denham's Natural - this is the base I used

Wellington Fragrance- this is where most of my oils came from

I'll be sharing about the fun glass bottles soon too! 

Oh, and don't forget to enter our GIVEAWAY!  You have until midnight Tuesday.

-Jenny

Celebrate.....

......good times, come on!

Just a little shout out to my blog buddy, sister-n-law, and friend.
You're a blessing.
-Jenny

Oh, and friends, don't forget to enter Daspri's birthday giveaway! It ends Tuesday. You can enter HERE.

Healthy & Delicious Peanut Butter Cookies

Today, I got to spend some much needed girl time with my favorite little girl. The boys were off in their room engaged in some game they made up, so out came the doll house!
After playing with her little bears (that used to be mine) and her doll house, we set off to whip up some cookies.
They were so easy and yummy that we just had to share them with you!

 This little girl could not have been more excited to bake cookies with me today. She actually said, "this is the best day ever!"
I love her so much.

I let her place two dark chocolate m&m's on some of the cookies as a special treat for her and her brothers.
But these cookies are really very yummy on their own.

They could be prettier but the dough is very gooey and I don't have a cookie scoop so we made do with a spoon.

I got this recipe from the Detoxinista.  She uses chocolate chips in hers but we are out of those right now. I think I will add some dark chocolate chips to them next time because you can't ever go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate!
The recipe calls for unsalted natural peanut butter. We used natural peanut butter but it is not unsalted and with the addition of the sea salt, they were a bit salty. They still taste great but I would suggest omitting the salt or decreasing the amount if you use peanut butter with salt.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup creamy peanut butter, unsalted (preferably organic)
1/3 cup honey
1 whole egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for about 10 minutes. They firm up as they cool.

*if you don't have parchment paper on hand, you can lightly grease your cookie sheet. I used coconut oil.

Enjoy some cookies this afternoon and go enter our giveaway!

-Jenny

Happy Birthday to Me ~ GIVEAWAY

January is a big birthday month around here. Me, my brother, his wife, and a myriad of friends share this month. My birthday is coming up on Sunday and I’ll be adding a tick mark to my 30s door post. In honor of all the celebrating I decided to have a giveaway. I made this fun wrap bracelet. This is the first leather wrap I've made and I really wanted to keep it myself but I love you all more, so I’m giving it away.

Here’s how you can win it:

To enter: you MUST leave a comment on this post. And for an additional entry share about the giveaway on Facebook (please leave a comment telling us you did so).

Each person can have up to 2 entries. Please leave a comment for each. The contest is open till Tuesday, January 15th at midnight. We will announce the winner in Wednesday's post!

Happy commenting and happy birthday to me...happy birthday to me...

Have a great weekend!
Daspri