DIY Halloween Decor

A simple craft project is the perfect way to kick-off our "back-to-basics" year! My office is hosting a Halloween cubicle decorating contest, so I decided to DIY all of my décor (because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, and also I’m hoping the "DIY" factor helps me beat the competition!). My mom helped me find a banner design to create on the Silhouette, and I raided her Halloween scrapbook paper stash.

While I’ve participated in Silhouette crafting before, it’s time I fully disclose the fact that my mom does ALL of the work with the computer and the machine. I just sit there and cheer her on. :) My mom used this banner project as an opportunity to teach me the ropes of this magic craft machine!

 

First, I chose the scrapbook paper patterns for my Halloween banner.

After synching the Silhouette to the laptop, my mom helped me design the shape for my banner flags. The Silhouette gives you some pre-set templates to choose from, which is helpful!

Once the design is set on the laptop, it's time to print. Using a special sticky board, you feed the scrapbook paper into the Silhouette. It works similar to a printer, but instead of printing ink, it uses a tiny blade to cut out the exact shape that was created on the computer program.

When the cutting is complete, the machine will spit the paper and board back out, and then I used a scraping tool to pop the paper banner flags out.

My mom added two tiny circles to the tops of the flags BEFORE printing. This was great because it meant I didn't need to hole punch a spot for my banner string. The Silhouette cut out the holes for us! I wasn't sure how many flags I would need, so I printed out 12 flags from seven different scrapbook paper prints just to be prepared.

The Silhouette is amazing because it only took about 30 minutes to print and cut all of the flags I needed. Could you imagine how long it would take if I cut them out and hole punched them by hand?! Not to mention the fact that there would be crooked cuts everywhere. So in about 45 minutes time, I was ready to string my banners together. 

The Girls Team LOVES bakers twine, so I dug into our collection for simple, spooky black and white. Then I strung it through the holes, behind the flag. After stringing all of my flags together, I had four separate banners. I measured my cubicle before working on this, but wasn't quite sure how much flare I'd really want at my desk. I brought all four banners to work, but ended up only needed three of them to give my cubicle the holiday spirit it needed. 

Using push pins, I strung the banners both inside and outside of my cubicle.

DIY Desk Décor!

A few Target dollar bin finds completed my festive decorating.

 

I love how my DIY Halloween banners turned out! Halloween is my favorite holiday, but considering what our apartment looks like post-wedding, I haven't even taken out any Halloween décor at home this year. I love that I can at least get my spooky spirit on at work, and the competitor in me hopes that when the votes are cast on Halloween, I will be the lucky winner!

 

 

And, although I'm not brave enough to use the Silhouette machine solo just yet, I'm glad my mom taught me how to use it for this basic crafting project. I'm sure with the holidays coming up, I'll get plenty more chances to become a Silhouette expert crafter like my Girls Team partner already is!

 

Wishing you a fun and frightening Halloween from MIHM! 

MIHM Turns FOUR!

In October of 2011, my mom and I were looking for a way to get more creative and add some excitement to, at the time, our dull work lives. So we started Make It Happen Mondays, a blog that challenged us to learn new recipes and crafting techniques, satisfied our creative minds, and served as an excuse to hang out every Monday night. We've come a long way since 2011 (check out our first post) and I don't think either one of us expected this little blog to be a years long adventure. We've cooked and crafted and constructed. We've gotten little more relaxed with our blog "rules" but a little more strict about our quality of projects (a.k.a. we've caught on to the Pinterest Fails projects and can now spot them from a mile away). And despite a few creative differences at times, we've had so much fun together.

This last year was unique as the blog was hijacked by a wedding. But we also were able to feature a few of our talented friends as guest bloggers, which we thought was pretty cool. And, whether they liked it or not, MIHM became a family affair as my brother started his garden with the help of my Girls Team partner, and my dad wasn't allowed out of the garage until construction based projects were complete. :)

As we start our FOURTH (!!!) year of MIHM, we want to take the blog back to the basics. This week we went to dinner to celebrate making it happen on Mondays for three whole years, and brainstormed enough ideas to fill this little notebook up with some great plans for the next year of MIHM. We plan to focus a bit more on cooking and baking, and revisit some old skills with new projects to freshen up our talents.

We don't do MIHM for anyone but ourselves, but always appreciate our readers, so we hope you'll stick around for the fourth year of Girls Team fun. :)

P. S. Join us next week for some crafty Halloween décor!

Wrapping Up the Wedding

As our most loyal MIHM readers know, the past 10 months have been packed with wedding planning and the blog definitely reflected that. Well, the day came and went, and no amount of words on a blog will ever be able to express how awesome, special and FUN 9.13.14 was for us and for our families. So without further ado, welcome to the final MIHM wedding post!

We've documented our DIY wedding signs throughout the process and this week, we're here with the final products. They are AMAZING. These signs were truly a team effort between the Girls Team, my dad the construction guru, and my friend Kathy the talented artist.

Just to refresh your memory...First, my dad and I went to Home Depot and the construction of the signs was underway. Then, I painted the signs with chalkboard paint. Lastly, I handed them over to Kathy who worked her artistic magic. Voilà! The signs were complete. (Click the photo to enlarge.)

These frames might look familiar. :)

I wish I had more time that day to appreciate all of the décor and signage as it was set up at our venue, but a big thank you to my friend and fellow blogger Megan for these great photos.

Although the signs are just a peek into our beautiful and awesome wedding, they are also a reflection of the talent, creativity and love we are lucky enough to have in our friends and family.

And just like that we are back to real life, which means back to real MIHM blogging. Recipe books here we come!

Coppola Coasters: Wino DIY Gifts

In keeping with the DIY bachelorette theme, this week's post will cover my affordable, cute bachelorette party favors. Many of my friends traveled from far and wide to Healdsburg, and I wanted to give them a DIY favor as a token of my appreciation! Because our weekend was focused mostly on wine, I decided to give each of the girls a set of coasters (to enjoy wine back home without the coffee table stain) and a plastic wine glass (to enjoy wine that weekend by the pool). 

The coaster project is one of my favorites we have done for MIHM because although it's a bit time consuming, it's so easy and very fun. I used the same technique back when I made my Harry Potter coasters for my apartment. 

I bought tiles from Lowe's. This was the most expensive aspect of the project. A box is only about $5, but I was making 64 coasters!

Favorite supply alert! Good ol' Mod Podge and sponge brushes.

Coppola wine labels, sized 4x4 for the coasters. Printed on regular white paper, cut with a paper cutter to size. 

(Behind the scenes fun fact: Our big fancy bachelorette dinner was at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery restaurant, Rustic. On a scouting trip earlier this year, my maid of honor Margo and I decided we'd need to drink 64 bottles of Coppola wine to get labels off of them for the coasters. Thank GOD my artist genius friend Megan was with us. She's a graphic designer and quickly reminded us she could easily get us a perfectly sized label from the internet and send it our way. Our livers are grateful, Megan!) 

So while working on 64 coasters, I got a little lazy with the picture taking, so if you'd like a step-by-step lesson, visit the link to the Harry Potter coasters above. Essentially, you use the sponge brush to paint a layer of Mod Podge on the tile, place the image onto the tile, use a popsicle stick to flatten any bubbles, and then add one top coat of Mod Podge. Let this dry, then do a second top coat of Mod Podge for extra seal. 

As the coasters dried, I organized them by the color combo I thought each matched each of my friends and their personal style!

The next day, after letting the coasters dry for about 24 hours, I sprayed a coat of acrylic gloss over each coaster. This adds a nice shine for a finished look, and also waterproofs the coasters against any spills or wine drips.

While the coasters were drying in the garage, I cut felt squares out in 3.5x3.5 shapes. The felt serves as the backing to each coaster so the tiles don't scratch tables.

My Girls Team partner has the BEST tools. This was so much easier than cutting with scissors!

Once the coaster sets were dry, I glued the felt to the back and packaged them up with baker's twine. SO CUTE! 

Full disclosure, I also made a set for myself, my Girls Team partner and my friend Megan who couldn't come to the bachelorette party, but was instrumental in this project all the way from Seattle! I was so happy with how to coasters turned out. Like I said earlier, they are SO simple to make. The only catch is to allow at least three days to work on them to allow for proper drying in between steps. And, at the rate I was going with 64 coasters, I felt like I was in an Etsy sweatshop...I probably could have broken the project up into a few weekends if I was really organized. But instead I crammed it into one weekend. :)

Once the coasters were complete, I moved on to the plastic wine glass gifts which were much simpler and took about 15 minutes to make. Back on our same scouting trip to Francis Ford Coppola, we bought plastic wine glasses. If there is anything Margo and I know how to prepare for, it's drinking by a pool. 

The cups were cute enough themselves, but with 13 of us, we'd need some way to distinguish our glasses. I bought chalkboard stickers at Michael's and used a chalk paint pen to write each girl's name on one glass. Took 5 minutes, plus drying time. Boom! Cuteness overload! 

Coppola logo was pre-printed on the glass, chalkboard sticker added by me.

I was so excited to hop in the car and head to Healdsburg that I forgot to take a picture of the gift all wrapped up and ready to go. Whoops. All of my friends loved their gifts and took full advantage of the plastic wine glasses by the pool. ;-) The weekend was so wonderful and filled with everything I love: friends, sunshine by the pool, wine and DIY crafts.

DIY Tumblers, Bachelorette Style!

Hi everyone! Exciting news, guest blogger Leah  is back with us this week teaching us how to make both a thoughtful and useful DIY project! 

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I’m baaa-aaaack!  As promised, I had a little something up my sleeve for the Bride’s bachelorette party.  The Bride and twelve of her nearest and dearest spent a lovely weekend in Healdsburg, California.  After an amazing day of wine tasting (well, let’s face it, wine DRINKING), we were in need of lazy day by the pool.  And what better pool partner than a personalized plastic tumbler for staying hydrated?  So, here it is! 

I shopped online for a good buy on plastic tumblers before landing on these gems-turquoise with a touch of bling.  I purchased them in bulk and they arrived unscathed within days.  Before personalizing them, I cleaned them in simple soap and water and let them air dry.

After the tumblers were dried, I took letters that I had printed, and placed them inside the cup.  You can use stencils or vinyl letters, but printing from my computer allowed me a few more font options.

  

With the letter placed firmly against the inside of the cup, I used white enamel paint to paint on the first letter of each bachelorette partier’s name.  In the event of repeat letters, I used a different font.

As the paint dried, it tended to bunch a bit…gravity at work.  To avoid too much clumping, I rotated the cups and turned them upside down to even out the paint.  After the first coat dried, I applied a second coat.  This made the letter more opaque and cleaned up some of the brush strokes.

  

Once I had all of the letters painted, it was time to add some pop to the presentation.  A local store was having a great sale on reusable ice cubes.  I stocked up and loaded each tumbler with about a dozen ice cubes.

Then, I printed out five super delicious wine drink recipes.  As we would be in wine country, I thought this seemed appropriate.  I tried to match the drinks to our Bride (Emerald Isle for her Irish roots, a Spanish mixed drink for her time in Spain, etc), but a yummy drink is a yummy drink. 

I cut out each recipe and punched a hole in the top.  I lined these up with a name-tag made for each girl and tied them around the top of the cup. 

The cups traveled to Healdsburg from San Diego via Folsom, so I was very nervous as I opened the box at our rented house; but, they all made it in one piece and complemented the weekend nicely.  As the sister-to-be, it was fun to be a part of the bachelorette weekend—meeting friends, drinking wine, lounging by the pool, and…of course, staying hydrated. 

Thanks for letting me “Make It Happen Monday” as the fiance’s sister.  Can’t wait until the next time I MIHM as an official Girls Team Sister-In-Law!

Birthday Sign - DIY Gift

Last week, my Girls Team partner was off enjoying vacation while I was panicking about what to get my dad for his birthday. My dad is hard to shop for because he never wants anything, and I feel like I get him a rotation of the same gifts every few years...books, golf balls, something for the pool. Repeat. But this year, I wanted to do something different and clever. My dad has been working so hard to help with all the wedding planning over the last 8 months. He has been so supportive, from acting as a psychiatrist to master carpenter. So, I wanted to get him a thoughtful gift related to this. 

As our loyal MIHM readers know, my dad has been spending a lot of time in the garage, a.k.a. the MIHM Wood Shop, making signs and more signs. I decided I would make him a gift to thank him for this, but also to show him I've learned a thing or too from hanging out in the wood shop with him! So I settled on a sign for the garage. 

I went to Michaels and bought a wood plaque, wood letters, glue and orange paint. Then I went to Lowe's to buy mini tools to spray paint. I was able to use the last of the chalkboard paint and gold spray paint we already had in the MIHM wood shop. 

Chalk paint pens, orange acrylic paint, new brushes, all-surface glue. Not pictured: Chalkboard paint and gold spray paint.

How cool are these wooden letters from Michael's? $1.29 each, very affordable. The only downside is that Michael's staples the price tag to the back of each letter, so if you plan to work with these, set aside about 20 minutes to remove the heavy duty staples. Blurg.

Mini tools from Lowe's, ready for my favorite product: GOLD SPRAY PAINT. :)

First I painted the wooden plaque with chalkboard paint. If you're a regular reader, you know I can do this in my sleep by now. Also, since I wasn't actually going to be using chalk or chalk paint pens on this piece, I skipped the primer.

While the plaque was drying, I painted the letters orange. 

I did two coats for a more solid look. (I chose orange for the Giants, obviously.)

Then I spray painted the tools. Unfortunately the hammer was too big for the wood plaque, so I didn't end up needing that item.

I let everything dry for 24 hours. Then, I used a special all-surface glue from Elmer's to glue the letters and tools to the board. I was worried about the glue not bonding to the chalkboard paint. So after I glued everything, I put a sheet of wax paper over the plaque, and weighted it down with some heavy blocks. I let this sit overnight with the pressure bonding the letters and mini tools to the plaque. When I came back the next day, everything was set and solid!

I was so excited to give my dad his new sign to decorate the garage - MIHM Wood Shop - and he was very impressed with my work! Now he is just deciding where to hang it in the garage. Happy birthday to my dad, our MIHM construction guru!