Easy Valentine Tissue Tassel Garland

Earlier this week I got a little bored during naptime, which is code for "I was procrastinating the laundry." I realized that I didn't have any Valentine decorations up on my mantle so I began feverishly googling an easy idea using stuff I had on hand. Thus I found myself trying my hand at tissue tassels.


Now previously this has been kind of a final frontier craft for me. I figured that there was no way I could get tassels looking exactly how I wanted them and would probably tear the tissue paper up in the process. I was only half wrong. The tassels weren't quite how I wanted them, but they were passable, and I did not tear up the paper. At least not the majority of it.

I used this tutorial from HGTV, written by The TomKat Studio, which is a really fun party blog, if you've never checked them out before.


I posted on Instagram (follow me here!) that this is one of those crafts I would heretofore rather pay someone else to make. Mostly because I couldn't feel my fingertips after from rolling all those little paper tassels up. It felt like I rubbed my fingerprints off.

That probably won't stop me though. Those red and white tassels are just begging for some dark blue friends to join them in cheering on our guys and girls in the Olympics starting tomorrow!

Super Easy Gnome Halloween Costume

It's October! Time to ready the costumes and try not to eat all the candy on the seasonal aisle. For some reason, Reese's peanut butter pumpkins are so much more enticing than Reese's any other time of the year for me.

Stop calling my name, Reese's pumpkins! I have baby weight to lose!

Last year at this time, I was working on a big project, commuting, mothering a 20-month-old, and 5 months pregnant. To say I was tired was a total understatement. Then I came down with shingles. It was a really nutso time in my life.

I really wanted to phone it in and buy a pre-made costume, but I couldn't find anything that I liked. And yeah, there is a fairly cute, pre-made gnome costume floating around the internet, but I wanted something more akin to David the Gnome (please tell me you watched that on Nickelodeon also) rather than the garden gnome variety.

So, naturally, I decided to make my own! You can too, with some strategic purchases that you'll re-wear for the rest of the year, along with some super easy cutting and stitching. You might even have these items in your little guy's wardrobe already.


I can't believe he was so small last year. It goes too fast, too fast.
I started with a pair of GAP cords that, after the fact, he wore to church all winter long. I then added a blue sweater that came from GAP, however I couldn't find one for you from there this year, so below there's a link to one from Zara, and it has elbow patches. So cute. I've had a Zara sweater for him before, and it's good quality. A blue sweater is totally re-wearable without looking like a gnome.

Those boots? $15 at Wal-mart and in all sizes. They're called "chore boots." Re-wearable!

As a matter of fact, I plan on buying the pants and boots all over again for Jack's fall wardrobe simply because they are closet staples, and he outgrew last year's.

(Links to these items are all below the collage.)

The hat is where you have to make any effort, as you can't just click "Add to shopping cart," followed by "Check out." A quick trip to Hobby Lobby yielded a yard of the stiffest red felt I could find, some fusible interfacing (don't be scared if you're not a seamstress!) to make it stiffer, and elastic. Mr. G stopped by our local costume warehouse and grabbed a white beard.

I followed this tutorial for the pattern of the hat. It tells you how to measure the head and all that technical stuff. After I cut out the felt, I ironed on the fusible interfacing (see, that's not scary), and hand stitched the hat together. The internet is so magical that I even found you a handstitching tutorial here. I then hand stitched the elastic on (it will look like a giant party hat) before tacking on the beard (more hand stitching.)

I had to trim the beard down a bit, but it was much easier than buying some fake fur or what not from Hobby Lobby. (Believe me, I tried. Don't be tempted. It was a mess.) I also cut the mustache off. We were dealing with a toddler, you understand.

I made the hat about 2 hours before we went to our church's fall festival. It took maybe 20 minutes. (Cleaning up the failed fake white fur mess took a bit longer.)

See? Super easy.

I hope this helps another crazy busy mama who's looking for a cute and unique costume!

The Proof is in the Pin {link up}

My internet friend Sarah at Life Sweet Life blog is hosting a link up today on Pinterest creations!


Our church is hosting a ladies' ministry craft day at the beginning of November. The idea is to invite our friends and neighbors out for a day of Pinterest crafts and sharing Christ with ladies outside our normal circles. I'm hosting one of many tables and was charged to come up with something fun to make.

As such, I perused Pinterest quite a bit "for the Lord," of course.

I like simplistic shabby chic-type crafts for the most part, and honestly I don't have the patience or time for things that take a long time. The crafts I came up with were so easy that I thought we'd make two at my table.

This first one is so easy that I thought we'd do a make one, take one. Each lady will make one for her own home and a second to give as a gift.

Original source: Life as a Thrifter

{I can't decide if I like this there, but for now, that is where it lives.}
18 inch quilting hoop with stretched burlap, stenciled. And I love it.

And for our second craft of the day, each lady will make one rustic banner with her choice of holiday phrase. I'll have give thanks, peace on earth, o holy night, and a few others from which to choose. I don't have a pin for this--I just like making banners for my mantle.



I made these up early so photos could be made for the sign-tables.
I'm excited--I love spending my Saturday socializing with a hot glue gun!

Easy Birthday Banner

Quick Note: Amy over at Total Tippins Takeover has a fun giveaway from Willow House. Go over there and win it!

As I was prepping my house on Friday afternoon for our company that evening, I realized the house was wanting in birthday decor. I love birthdays, so how could this be? I didn't have time to get the baby loaded and off to the party supply store, so I started racking my brain for ideas. In the age of Pinterest, none of us should have any shortage of ideas, amen? I headed to my little craft closet and took inventory. I have almost an entire bolt of burlap that my aunt gave me leftover from my cousin's rehearsal dinner last summer. I decided to put some of it to work.

I needed something simple - no time for the sewing machine! I always have to budget at least 30 minutes to wind the bobbin and thread the needle. I am sad in that respect. I made a quick little template from poster board that I very randomly keep hidden behind the hutch in my dining area. As for the template, I eyeballed it. Thinking that I would want to fold the top over whatever I used to string it together, I gave a little extra length.

Using my rotary cutter and self-healing mat, I made quick work of the banner flags. No one is more challenged than I am in the skill of using a rotary cutter. But usually even I get straighter lines than I do with scissors.


After my cuts were made and I had ironed my fold over at the top, I pulled out my faaaaaabulous Christmas present from my parents. A Silhouette Cameo!

(My cutting sheet is extremely dirty. I should work on that.)
One tip I found online for the Cameo: if your paper is tearing when you pull it off the sticky mat, blot it with a clean old t-shirt to lessen the stickiness. That worked for me.
With one sheet of card stock, I cut out 'happy birthday' to create a stencil. I just eyeballed the letter position on each flag and used silver glitter glue on the stencil because that's what I had on hand. After the letters were on, I grabbed some jute and spaced the flags to my liking, then hot glued the fold to create a little sleeve where I could adjust if needed.

When I hung it up on my mantle, I decided it needed a little color, so I ripped some scraps from my scrap bag and tied them on. In the end, a happy birthday banner in 30 minutes, made with things I had on hand.

A little hard to see the glitter in this light.

And where was little Jack during all this, you ask?

Rearranging the pantry, naturally.