Spoon Vase Video

Another week, another YouTube video :) I think it is safe to say I am on a roll. I don't quite have the written tutorial done yet for those of you who like the written instructions, but here is the video. Tell me what you think. And definitely subscribe to me on YouTube, it would mean the world to me.

So next weeks video is already planned. I am actually going to start filming soon because I am excited about it. Valentine's Day is just around the corner and we all need some decorations for it right?!? Maybe not, but my house does. This is the first house we have had with a fireplace, which means a mantle to decorate and that makes me happy! So decorate it I will!

Anyways, I really hope you guys enjoy this video! I know I loved making it.... So much that I am probably going to make a few more :)

lovelovelove

LanaLou

Fall Wreath

Fall may not be in the air quite yet, but I am very ready for it. Fall projects have been all over Pinterest lately. Making this wreath has me in the mood for fall.... Plus, the Febreeze fall and winter scents probably aren't helping. My house officially smells like cranberry downstairs. But I digress, here is the link to my inspiration for my wreath below.

See I told you I am all ready.

For this project you will need:

- An MDF wreath frame: I found mine at Michael's in the floral section.

- Twigs: you can either find these outside or purchase them. Michael's has them in their floral section for fairly cheap.

- Burlap (or just plain fabric): I found the burlap at JoAnn's for $3.99 a yard and they had a huge selection. Pick whatever colors appeal to you. I got a quarter yard of each color.

- Hot glue gun and A LOT of hot glue: I'm serious, this whole wreath is held together by the hot glue so make sure to stock up.

- Any other embellishments you would like.

I started by breaking (or cutting) my twigs into pieces about 6 inches long. Glue all of these around the MDF frame. I found it was easiest to put some glue onto the frame and then put sticks on. Space these as you would like.

Put your twig wreath to the side because now comes the fun part... Making the rosettes.

First you will need to cut circles out of some scrap fabric. However big you cut your circle is how big your rosette will be. Cut your burlap into sections about 1 inch thick and 24 inches long. Again, use your judgement on this depending on how you want your flowers to look.

Step 1- tie a knot on one end of the burlap. Glue this to the center of your circle.

Step 2- begin twisting the fabric and spiralling it around the knot. Use glue every now and then to hold it in place.

Step 3- continue the twist and spiral process until you have covered your whole circle and only have a small piece of burlap left. The tighter you twist the burlap the tighter the rose will be. So, if you want a rose with more "fluff" to it, don't twist it as tight.

Step 4- flip the rose over and glue the end of the burlap down.

Voila, you have one rosette. Continue this process until you have enough roses to go around the whole MDF frame.

At this point go ahead and grab your twig wreath again. Make sure that you have as many twigs as you want glued down. I added some fake white flower/ball type things I found at Michael's. Begin gluing the flowers down around the frame, placing them how you would like.

After about 15-20 glue sticks to should now be done... I told you it was a lot of glue. But, I do have to say I am really proud of this wreath. I love the way it turned out and the burlap and twigs are perfect for fall.

Tomorrow (or this week) I am going to post some more fall and Halloween decorations I am working on... I did mention I was obsessed with both of those things right now right? But anyways, more decorating and tutorials later :)

 

 

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Happy Birthday To Me!

23. Man oh man.

Let me tell you about my epic birthday cake!

One box Devil's Food

One roll cookie dough

One quart ice cream

Fluffy vanilla frosting

Sprinkles

Delicious.

I baked the Devil's food according to the package. You'll need two layers, mine were 9".

While those are cooling, press the package of cookie dough into the cake pan. For mine, I baked it for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Pop that it of the pan onto a cooling rack.

Allow all layers to cool completely. Now, from my error, put the cookie layer on the bottom.... It's the heaviest and when it freezes the hardest to cut. So you have your cookie layer, then do a layer of ice cream. I used chocolate chip cookie dough. Then I did a layer of cake followed by ice cream and the last layer of cake. I covered it in fluffy white frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

It was epic deliciousness. Luckily it's birthday cake, so calories don't count :)

 

On another note, the day before my birthday is kind of sad. My aunt was born on July 12th. Sadly she passed away a few years ago and now her birthday is another one of those sad reminders. I miss her terribly. It was awesome having our birthdays so close. I remember one year She was complaining about getting old, so I went and bought her a huge, and I mean huge, cow balloon that said over the hill. She laughed so hard when I brought it to her. It was one of the greatest reactions ever. I still have the birthday card from that year too. I can remember it so clearly and I am pretty sure it is my last birthday with her.

Sorry this week has been very little posting. It's been a very busy birthday week! This weekend might be a little slow too... I'm going to be camping. Oh, fingers crossed and prayers for Richard on Monday, he goes in for surgery Monday morning.

Until next time.

Lovelovelove

 

 

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Mother's Day Crafting with Lexie

Hey everyone. Yesterday was a huge day for the hubby and I. We got a new car :) a 2007 Nissan Altima. It is gorgeous. After that he had a VA appointment so we were out in Hillsboro. We decided to go out to my sister Megan's house so I could do some crafts with the kids and have a little BBQ.... We are having great weather for that finally! Below is a quick tutorial for the crafts Lexie and I did, plus a video tutorial because I didn't get a lot of pictures.

First project is painted candles. For this you will need:

A pillar candle

Wax or parchment paper

Hair dryer

White tissue paper

Acrylic paint

And a cute little kid, like Lexie... Obviously this one is optional because an adult could do this as well.

Begin by laying out some parchment paper, this craft can get a wee bit messy. Then, cut a piece of tissue paper slightly smaller than your candle. This will be your painting surface. I gave Lexie about four colors to choose from and let her paint however she wanted. Now, Lex is two so her painting wasn't more than dots really. Anyways, I let her paint and after she was done I added some finishing touches. You'll see those below in the finished picture.

Once your kiddo is done painting, and you've added your finishing touches, wrap the tissue paper around the candle, paint side out. This part is a little tricky since you don't want to smear the paint, so just be patient and take your time.

Next, wrap the parchment paper around your candle and tissue paper. This will be a handle for you to hold onto while you use the blow dryer. Now you should find a comfy spot next to a outlet and plug in your dryer. Sit down, hold onto the parchment paper, turn the dryer on high, and start blowing the candle. Soon, you will start to see the tissue paper disappear and the colors become brighter, and don't worry, you can take the parchment paper off while drying too and check. Basically, your candle should feel like wax again and not tissue paper. Below you can see the finished products, one for mom and one for grandma.

Another cute project we did was footprint animals. These are a cute way to remember feet at different ages, and makes a great gift from little babies like Avery. You can see ours below.

I love the way all these projects turned out :) I hope you all enjoy doing some Mother's day crafting and I know all the mom's out there will love these crafts.

 

Enjoy the crafting :)

 

Pinterest Interest

Pinterest constantly takes over my life. Here are my latest Pinterest loves.

Let me warn you before you make these.... They are HIGHLY addictive. Peanut butter chocolate chip shortbread cookies. We loved them, honestly it was more like obsessed. These are melt in your mouth deliciousness.

If anyone knows me, this little quote may be the most true thing ever.

I just love everything about this onsie. It's fairly cheap, $13, but could easily be reproduced. Maybe this will be a tutorial soon.. I think baby Avery needs one :)

I love these little sock monkeys. Seriously, they are so cute. Every baby born in my family from here on out will be getting a sock monkey. Totally fun and cute. I'll be doing my tutorial on this soon with a video.

For some reason, I love this whole room. Every single thing about it is amazing. I need to find some time to do interior decorating.

 

 

These little shells are delicious. It's like hamburger helper on crack. Taco seasoned ground beef, taco sauce, salsa, shells, and cheese... Lots of cheese. Let's just say these are keepers.

 

 

 

 

So there you have it, my addiction to Pinterest :)

Follow me on Twitter.

As always, follow me on YouTube and help me get a new camera :)

 

Crazy Fun Spoon Mirror Tutorial

Hey everyone, after a busy weekend I was finally able to get a tutorial done. This one was really fun to do; we were playing around cutting the spoons, but it took some patience... And a lot of glue.

Materials- sorry I didn't get the picture of all this

Plastic spoons- the flimsy white kind, I used almost six packs of 48 spoons

Small round mirror

MDF wreath frame 18"- this can be found at Michaels in the floral section

Poster board

Hot glue gun and glue, also wood glue

Paint in your colors of choosing- I used three reds to do a slight fade from dark to light though you can't see it in the pictures

To begin, use your MDF frame to trace and cut out a circle from your poster board. This will be the base for the mirror.

I traced a few different sized circles onto one side of my poster board to use as reference points when gluing on the spoons. The largest is the inside of the wreath, the middle is a plate, and the inner is the mirror. Next, I glued the wreath frame on the opposite side of the poster board. Use whatever glue you would like on this part.

While the base is drying cut all the spoons handles off. I used probably close to five boxes of the spoons, but I would have six on hand. I found that these spoons are just flimsy enough that you can cut through them with regular scissors.

You want to cut as close to the rounded part as possible, but I found that leaving a little piece of handle on some of them came in handy.

I also recommend sanding down the edges of the spoons that will be used for the smallest circle. This will be about 23 spoons. Do this so that if any of the edges are seen around the mirror they look clean instead of jagged.

Next comes the gluing. Plug in your hot glue gun and let it get nice and hot.

Start on the smallest circle that you traced, the outline of the mirror, and glue the spoons on. Try to keep them right on that circle. You can overlap them a little depending on the look you want.

Continue gluing the spoons on in circles going outward. Tuck the bottom of each new layer underneath the layer on top of it so it is hidden well.

The next step is painting. I wanted to have a slight fading effect in my colors so I used three different shades of red that were very close together. You can do any sort of painting effect that you would like.

I started painting from the inside to the out, using my darkest color on the inside and moving to my lightest color.

You can't really see the color change in the picture because it is so minimal but here is what my final painting looked like. The husband picked red because it is his favorite color and also one of our main accent colors downstairs.

 

The final step is gluing the mirror into the middle. I had to be a little creative in this part because mine didn't sit flush against the base, so I used a paper plate the same size as the mirror to give a little more room to glue. Use whatever kind of glue you feel comfortable with here. Then, secure some string onto the back for hanging or just put some nails in the wall and use the MDF frame to hang, either way, do it how you like it done :)

 

 

There you have it, a fun mirror made out of spoons that I would say cost about $15 :) I love it and hope you guys do too.

 

 

YouTube.com/lanaloulittle

 

Spring Branches Tutorial plus Extras :)

Hey guys. The weather has been AWESOME the last few days here. I have loved it. Here's a new tutorial for you guys. It was really simple and cheap.

The quick run through is this : grab some branches from your backyard, scrapbook paper, florist wire, scissors, and glue. Cut out some leaf shapes and glue them back to back with wire in between. Wrap the wire around the branches and voila... Decorative spring branches :)

For the more detailed explanation see my video below. Plus, it is always nice to see things done for you in video form.

 

Now, for the extras. I found a clear iPhone case on Amazon for super cheap and ordered it. Then, I took some scrapbook paper and other stuff and made some cute backings... Now I have a completely customizable case for my phone. Genius, I know. :) Everyone should do it; really easy and worth it. Just be careful with the thickness of what you want for your design.

Anyways, thank you to all my awesome readers and YouTube viewers. I really do appreciate you all.

 

YouTube Video

Hey guys, it's not a new tutorial for my readers but I put my iPad case tutorial into a video. Check it out. Oh and later this week I will have a new tutorial up and a new video on storage for all my crafting things :)

 

Lovelovelove

Book Storage Tutorial

Hey guys, I've got a great new tutorial for you:) I love going to the craft stores and finding things to make. Sometimes though, you walk in there and see all these great things but have no idea what to do with them. Well, one thing I found last time I was in there was this cardboard book. I've always wanted a fake book to it on a shelf or table to store stuff in. Finally I was able to do it without destroying one of the books that I love.

Materials-

Cardboard Book- found at Michael's or another craft store

Painters Tape

Assorted Sizes of Paintbrushes

Stencils of you're choosing- or anything else you want to decorate your book with

Paint in however many colors you'd like

 

 

 

First, tape off any areas on the book that you do not want to be your base color. For me, this was the stripes on the spine of the book and what would be considered the pages.

Once you have the book taped start painting. I used a sponge brush to paint the bulk of it. The sponge brushes leave less streaks in my opinion and I like the look that leaves. The paint will soak into the cardboard so you may need more paint than you think.

Once the base color is dry, peel of the tape you have already put on the book. Next, tape the outsides of where you took off the tape. This will make it so you can paint the smaller areas in the color of your choice.

I had to paint over some of my base color, so the red needed a few coats. Let each coat dry between a new coat.

 

 

 

Using a really small paintbrush, make any touch-ups that are needed. I mostly needed mine along the spine where I had done the red painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the spine was dry I opened it up and taped off the bottom part of the book. I used yellow to paint the book where the pages would go and also the inside of the book. For this part I painted with a thicker paintbrush and that allowed for some streaks to be left in the yellow paint, which just happened to make them look like there was pages :)

 

 

 

 

Once the inside is all dry, close the book up. Grab your stencil and place it on the book how you would like.

I used Martha Stewart stencils that I found at Michaels. I know I use a lot of her products, but I like the quality of them the most. They last well and the paint works on everything, literally everything! I love it so that is why I recommend everyone use it to :)

Anyways, back to the book. Use different sized brushes to paint the different parts of the stencil if you are doing it like I am. I used red for the flowers to match the spine and green for the leaves.

There is my final product. Now I can put it on my craft shelf to store all my little knick-knacks in. Perfect right?

Go out and craft! If you make a book storage take a picture and send it to me :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out my YouTube channel too!

Lovelovelove.

Quick Craft: Sunburst/Flower Painting Tutorial

 

Cute right? Well, this is my first quick craft and it's a great way to add some color to a room. Perfect for spring :) They are really simple to make; I'm pretty sure it only took me about 15 minutes to complete the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

Materials:

Canvas- bought at Michaels for about $5

Spray Adhesive- I use the Elmer's brand

Acrylic Paint- I recommend Martha Stewart Brand

Paper Petal Cutouts- about 42

Foam Paintbrush

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using your paint color of choice, paint the entire canvas. Let that dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the spray adhesive, thoroughly coat the backs of the petals. Do this one or two at a time so they don't dry before they are placed on the canvas.

Place them on the canvas so they begin to form a flower. For the innermost part I use 8 petals. Then on the second rotation around, place a new petal in between every two of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And below, you will see my beginning placements of the petals and then my final project. I loved the way that it turned out and it looks great in our living room.

Here's my video tutorial as well. Check it out. Leave some comments. Click on some ads. Surf the net. But, whatever you do come back to my blog and video :)

LoveLoveLove.

 

Silk Dyed Easter Eggs

Since Easter is coming up I have been all about dying eggs. The only real problem with that is we don't eat a lot of eggs. After doing some Internet research I found ideas for different things to do with eggs. One of the coolest things I found was blown eggs. Below you'll find my tutorial for Silk Dyed Blown Easter Eggs.

Materials:
Dozen eggs
Vinegar
Silk ties- they must be 100% silk
Cotton squares
Baby snot sucker- its there a real name for these things?
Scissors
Push pin, screw, paper clip
Small rubber bands
Pot to boil the eggs in

Egg Blowing:

This is going to get rid of everything inside the egg so we just have a shell. If you want, you can skip this part and move to the silk dying so that you have hard boiled eggs.

Start by poking a hole into both ends of the egg with a push pin. Then, choose one side of the egg to make the hole bigger. Do this by gently using the screw. Once you have a larger hole unfold your paper clip. Insert this into the larger hole and move it around. Basically, you want the inside to be scrambled as best as possible so that it easily comes out of the shell.

Next, use the baby snot sucker to blow air through the smaller hole. This should make the egg insides come out the other end. If you want, blow the egg into a bowl so that you can use the egg for other purposes. Make sure everything comes out of the eggs. I usually run a little water through the egg as well just to clean it out some more.

Silk Dying:

First is to take the tie apart. It needs to be deconstructed so that you are left with a flat piece of silk that can be cut into smaller pieces. Begin by cutting off all tags on the scarf. Then, cut up the back middle seam. Remove the inside lining From the tie. Cut the tie into pieces that will fit around your eggs. I did six of each color since I had two ties.

Place the tie face up, the color side needs to be facing the egg shell. That will be the design that is on the egg. Try to get the silk as close and cleanly pressed onto the side of the egg that will be showing as possible. Wrap this all with a cotton piece and then close with a rubber band.
When you have the eggs wrapped up put them in the pot with about 1/4 cup of vinegar and water so that they will be covered. If you blew the eggs out they will float so you will have to be creative and figure out a way to keep them submerged. One way is to use a strainer turned upside down on them or even use some smaller lids to hold them down; it doesn't matter how you do it along as they stay under water.
Let those boil for about 15-20 minutes, or longer if you are doing hard boiled eggs. I recommend doing about 3-4 eggs at a time since the cloth takes up extra space in the pot. After they have boiled place them in a strainer in the sink. Allow the eggs to cool before you cut the rubber band and remove the silk and cotton.


When you take the silk and cotton off you will be left with some very petty eggs. The silk can be used again to dye more eggs. You will find through doing this more that some ties make really pretty eggs and some do not transfer as well. It's really just a hit or miss kind of thing but I have found the uglier tied make better eggs.

Ideas For Use:
I filled some eggs with melted chocolate for my neices and nephews for Easter. I also used some in a vase with some Easter grass. Another idea is to use some for a Easter wreath. Basically, just be creative and have fun :)
Below is my first YouTube tutorial. I'm still getting the hang of it, but I hope you enjoy. Check out my YouTube channel for more video tutorials weekly and subscribe to me there.