Create

Simple DIY Halloween Box

If your short on time or just want something simple to make, this project is for you! And the best part is that the box can be used in so many different ways. It’s the perfect statement piece for my coffee table. I love that I can use the box over and over! It’s nice because each holiday or season I can easily change out the decor to match. For this Halloween box, I found a couple pre-made, store bought pieces at Target in the infamous Dollar Spot section (that spot gets me in trouble every time 🙂 Who else can resist that section?) to make decorating a little bit easier when you have limited time to craft. The mummy is also super easy to make too!

 

Wood Box Supplies:

  • 3 – 1 x 6 Pieces of reclaimed wood or store bought wood boards cut down to 17″
  • 2 – 1 x 6 pieces of reclaimed wood or store bought wood boards cut down to 7″
  • Nail gun
  • Wood stain/paint (optional if using store bought boards)

Directions:

  1. First cut all of your 1 x 6 boards down to size.
  2. Using your nail gun nail each of the long pieces to the bottom piece and then nail small end pieces to the outside of the bottom and long side pieces.

 

Wood Mummy Supplies:

  • 2×4 piece of wood cut down to 9″ tall
  • Cream/off white spray paint
  • Cheese cloth
  • Wood circles 
  • White and black paint
  • Paint brush
  • New No. 2 pencil with eraser
  • Wood glue
  • Wood stain
  • Latex gloves
  • Hand staple gun 

Directions:

  1. Cut 2×4 down to 9″ tall.
  2. Spray paint and let dry.
  3. Paint wood circles with white paint and using the eraser, dip it into some black paint and dot your eyes. Set aside to dry.
  4. Cut cheese cloth into strips of varying widths.
  5. Put on your latex gloves and dip a couple of fingertips into your wood stain and brush it onto your cheese cloth to give it a spooky look.
  6. Glue eyes on with wood glue.
  7. Wrap strips around your wood piece alternating angles and directions to give it a more mummified look stapling the end pieces to the back of the mummy with a hand staple gun.

Other supplies:

  • Trick or treat sign–found in the Dollar Spot section at Target (last seasons Halloween decor)
  • Apothecary bottle–found in the Dollar Spot section at Target (current find)
  • White and black Pom Pom garlands–found in the Dollar Spot section at Target (current find)
  • Burlap

Assembly:

  1. I stuffed the bottom of my box with a couple packing bubbles and tissue paper and covered it with some burlap to hide it to prop up the mummy, sign, and bottle.
  2. Place your items into the box and then string the garlands around.

Fashion

Fall Fashion: This Friday’s Outfit

Casual Fall Friday got me like….
 
Essential white graphic tee that’s sure to bring good karma your way.
 
Perfectly cozy wine cardigan. I wanna buy ten.
 
Buffalo check scarf. Need i say more.
 
Black stainless steel and honey-brown leather watch.
 
Iconically weekend-worthy boyfriend jean.
 
My all-time favorite glasses. And they are only $15 (prescription lenses and all). Boom. You’re welcome.
 

Celebrate

Daniel Tiger Birthday Party

My little one is obsessed with Daniel Tiger, the children’s show on PBS, so I wasn’t surprised when she said she wanted a Daniel Tiger birthday party. Unfortunately, while party shopping, I learned there are not a lot of Daniel Tiger party items in stores or online. I had to get a little creative and come up with a few ideas myself. Take a look below to see how I pulled off a Daniel Tiger worthy party!

Invitations:
While scrolling through Pinterest, I saw the cutest invitations that looked like a trolley ticket from the show. I was so excited that I could buy the download and make these invitations in no time. Wrong. The link didn’t work and I couldn’t find this style of invitation anywhere. Of course it was stuck in my head so I had to have these invitations. I pulled out my computer and used some good old fashioned photoshop and made my own. They aren’t perfect but I think they turned out pretty cute! 

Daniel Tiger Invitation sweetlemonmade.com

 

Decorations
Since I couldn’t find decorations in the store, I decided to go to the PBS website and found a page dedicated to throwing a Daniel Tiger birthday party. They have some really cute DIY ideas and lots of printables. I used some of the printablse and put them around the house and on the front door. I also used balloons (lots and lots of balloons) to make the house look more festive.

 

Daniel Tiger Decorations Kitchen sweetlemonmade.com

Daniel Tiger Decorations Fireplace sweetlemonmade.com

Bounce House
Since the kids attending the party were different ages, ranging from one to seven, I decided the best way to keep everyone entertained and happy was to have a bounce house. I’ve never rented one before so I started looking online to see what options were available. Most places will deliver and set-up, but after looking at some bids, it started to become a little pricey. I decided to go with Supersonic in Bountiful and they were great to work with. We picked up the bounce house in the morning and brought it back that evening, giving Olivia more time to bounce to her hearts content after the party ended. By doing it ourselves, we saved around $100. I think we can count that as a win!

Bounce House sweetlemonmade.com

 

Piñata
Another fun way to include kids of all ages is to have a piñata. Everyone got a turn since we let the youngest kids go first and worked our way up to the oldest. I made sure to have paper bags for all of the kids to collect their loot and everyone ended up with some extra sugar to take home! Since I couldn’t find a Daniel Tiger themed Piñata, I decided to go with a colorful one that looked like a present. It was perfect.

Pinata sweetlemonmade.com 

Trolley
One way to incorporate more of Danielle Tiger into the party, I decided to build a trolley to use as a photo prop. I saw a couple ideas online and just happened to have an oversized cardboard box on hand. Using a knife and some paint, my husband and I were able to create our masterpiece. It was a perfect way to get the kids to take some pictures and looked super cute with the rest of the party decorations.

Daniel Tiger Decorations Trolley sweetlemonmade.com

 

Cake
My mom loves to make birthday cakes and does a really good job! She used to make all of mine growing up and I loved them. The one thing Olivia wanted more than anything at her party was a Danielle Tiger cake. Since we couldn’t find a Danielle Tiger cake pan, she made a couple round cakes and started decorating. She did such a good job and Olivia loved it. For her family party, my mom made another cake and incorporated Danielle Tiger figurines that stood around a trolley. It was really clever.

Daniel Tiger Cake sweetlemonmade.com

Daniel Tiger Trolley Cake sweetlemonmade.com

Favors
My mom is known for making chocolate suckers, I don’t think I’ve had a birthday party without them. I found these adorable Daniel Tiger sucker molds online for under $5. I printed out a cute card from the PBS website and attached everything to colorful bubble sticks. 

Daniel Tiger Favors sweetlemonmade.com

Sweet Picks

September Sweet Picks

September Sweet Picks sweetlemonmade.com

Quaker Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Instant Oatmeal: Fall is the time of year where we all get obsessed with the pumpkin craze, but how can you not? Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bagels, pumpkin EVERYTHING! In my opinion, it’s all amazing and I can’t get enough. I was in target the other day and noticed they have a whole pumpkin flavor section right when you walk in. It was fun to see all of the pumpkin flavors lined up and ripe for the picking. The one thing that caught my attention was the Pumpkin Quaker Instant Oatmeal. I was a little hesitant and honestly didn’t think it would taste great. But I bought it anyway! To my surprise it is my favorite flavor. It’s not too strong, just a hint of pumpkin. I love it. I highly recommend giving it a try!
Image Source: Amazon

Hot Iron Holster: I am the biggest sucker for Instagram giveaways and that is exactly where I discovered this little gem. I entered said Instagram giveaway more than a few times and then decided I just needed to buy the holster. I never win anything anyway. I try to convince myself that I am an organized person, but let’s be honest, my bathroom is one big hot tool mess. This is a game changer. Grab your curling wands, flat irons, and blow dryers and take them from hand to holster. You need this. I repeat, YOU NEED THIS! 
Image Source: Target

Anker 40 W 4-Port USB Wall Charger: 2016 and all it’s technological perks is a pretty sweet time to live in. I mean, there are apps for everything you could ever need, watches that tells us the time, how many steps we’ve taken and how long we slept last night, and FaceTime to connect us to people we love miles away, I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find myself working on my laptop, Pinterest-ing (yes, it’s a verb) from my iPad, and texting from my iPhone. Hashtag: technology addict. And no, this is not a post about how we should be spending less screen time and more real time. This is a shout out for the technology addicts that constantly find themselves searching for a free outlet to charge one of their many devices. I feel you! I travel a lot for work and was on Amazon one day to buy a new charger for my phone so that I could have one for my house and one for my travel bag, when I saw this magic little thing. I can charge ALL the things. AT ONCE. It’s perfect. This baby saves my life. I plug it in at night and by morning my iPhone, iPad, FitBit, and extra batter pack are all charged and ready to go! No more hunting for multiple outlets. No more forgetting my charging cord because I had to put it behind the couch because it was the only outlet left open, nope, none of that. It’s simple. It’s easy. And I love it. If you’ve got a litany of devices this baby is for you. Go buy it on Amazon now and thank me later. You’re welcome.
Image Source: Amazon

Ryobi   2 Amp 1/4 Sheet Sander; You are probably thinking what?!? A power tool? A favorite? Yes, that is right! You read that right. This Ryobi sander has become a favorite of mine. I never thought I would want my own power tool of any sort but, it would only be natural for me to have one amongst my other craft tools. Just ask my friends and family–they can attest to that statement. When it comes to craft tools and machines, I am the queen of them! Some might say that I get that from my Dad because if you were to go into his garage you would find tools on tools on tools. Whatever you need, I’m sure he’s got it! When my arsenal of tools just can’t get my craft projects done, I usually ask my Dad what power tool of his I can borrow to get it done. One day as I was raiding his garage looking for some extra coarse sand paper he asked what I needed it for and he enlightened me and reminded me that I shouldn’t waste my time and offered me his electric handheld sander. I thought to myself, duh! Why didn’t I ask for this thing earlier. My friend Taylor and I could have saved so much time sanding our wood crafts we had worked on for hours the week before. I ended up taking it over to her house and we just both laughed at the ease of this little machine. Never again will we sand our wood creations without this Ryobi sander. If you are anything like my friend Taylor and I, we love distressing our painted wood projects and if you get one of these sanders it will change your crafting game and you will be making statements like “I LOVE power tools!” when you thought you’d never say something like that! The Ryobi sander is so easy to use and is the best time saving power tool! 
Image Source: Home Depot

Celebrate Create

DIY: Birthday Banners and Decorations

Over here at Sweet LemonMADE this week has been full of celebrating—both Emily and Megan had birthdays this week! I love celebrating birthdays! Growing up my mom always made birthdays a big deal. On the morning of your birthday as you entered the kitchen/family room the kitchen table was always covered with birthday paraphernalia—birthday tablecloth, birthday cake, birthday presents, and sometimes even blown up pictures of you for an added celebratory touch.  My mom would stay up until the wee hours of the morning to ensure this spread was perfectly placed and the cake was perfectly frosted. And although this fantastic tradition was known to us all, my mom would wait until we went to bed before she started creating birthday magic. I’m kind a glad she did. I loved walking out into a celebratory explosion, each year with a slightly different cake and dĂ©cor.

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Naturally, I have become very fond of celebrating birthdays and as the years go on, I love putting on a celebration for those I love even more.  As a result I have a clear Rubbermaid packed to the brim with birthday supplies. I call it my birthday box. In here I keep on hand at all times, decorations, candles, crepe paper, banners, birthday plates, etc. Everything you need to pull together an impromptu b-day celebration at the drop of a hat. What? What? Party people in the house!

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This birthday box and my weird obsession for buying fabric (even though I only barely know how to sew and only sew maybe one project a year) came in handy as my friend, Shelley, and I decorated for Emily’s birthday in the wee hours of the morning before Em got up for work. Em is a classy gal that loves diet Coke and all things gold, so it was easy to know what to surprise her with. And you know what I found out? Shelley has a birthday box too. No wonder we are friends.

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As you can tell, we pulled some super simple elements together to make a fun, snazzy birthday background. Here’s some info on all the things:

  • Gold curtain
  • Reusable birthday banner
  • Fabric—intended for some other project, unhemmed, but fit most of the table 🙂
  • Balloons—no helium here so we just blew them up and tossed them around like confetti
  • Pitcher of flowers—Target for the pitcher and grocery store flowers (since they are the only flower shop open at 6am)
  • Donut cake—Dunford chocolate chocolate donuts stacked into a pyramid (easiest and tastiest birthday cake ever! Those donuts are AMAZING)

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Seeing how we were working from TWO birthday boxes we had multiple banners, so we hung this little guy in the living room! This homemade cardboard banner is simple, but one of my favorite b-day decorations. All you need is a cardboard box, some twine, and paint and you can create your very own birthday banner.

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Snazzy Cardboard Birthday Banner:

Supplies:

  • Cardboard box (may need a couple depending on size)
  • Pencil or marker
  • Box cutter (razor cutter)
  • Paint (spray paint or ceramic paint)
  • Twine (long enough to string all your letters on)

Directions:

  1. Find a piece(s) of cardboard to fit the size of letters you want to make and wipe with a dry towel to remove any particles or dust.
  2. Using a pen or pencil draw block letters (or use stencil, or trace letters printed from your computer if your junior high block letter skills have faded) on the cardboard. Make sure to leave about an inch between letters so you can cut them out easily without injuring a close by letter.
  3. Once letters are cut, determine how you want letters to hang on twine and poke two holes near the top of the letter for the twine to thread through. I used a combination of a box cutter and a ball point pen to stab my holes.
  4. Next, paint each of the letters and allow to dry completely. Use two coats of paint to ensure full coverage and vibrant color.
  5. Finally, to complete the banner take the full-length piece of twine and thread each letter through the string. At the beginning and ending of each word tie a not in the twine so the letters don’t’ slide and the words stay distinct. Once all the letters are threaded on the twine, loop the ends (so it can be hung on push pin or nail) and leave at least 6-12 inches of twine on the ends (helpful if you need to tie the banner sometimes rather than hook it on push pins).
  6. Ta Dah! HBD to all your people!

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