Monogram Storage Boxes

Remember this post about these inexpensive and cute boxes I made?
Also, these really cute magnets?

Well Megan and her sisters @ 4 sisters different hobbies decided to try these projects during a craft night they had. They turned out wonderful! The couldn't buy the same boxes I bought at Walmart, but they used shoe boxes instead! Creative! Great job girls! I love how the boxes and magnets turned out!

Here are the newest boxes I made using the same techniques but with larger boxes. The first box I made for a teacher I worked with, Mrs. Flanagan. She teaches half day kindergarten. She is a great teacher and she is so nice. I was so comfortable being around her it seemed I had known her for the longest time! Even though I have only known her for 2 weeks. I also made her a cute matching round magnet for her classroom. Hope she likes them!

This "S" box was a custom order for a baby's room. I love the way they turned out! I think they are perfect to hold small photo albums but really they can be used to hold anything. I will be making 3 more boxes to decorate my new shelf in my craft room!

If you have tried any of my projects, please let me know! I would love to post about it! Thanks!

Super Cute Project

Its busy around here. There is so much going on. This is the last week of school and I am actually sad. I am going to miss the kids. The students graduate this Wednesday! YAY! I am excited for them and the parents.

Well we had the team crisis from the District come to our class. It was nice having them. We did have a few students asking and mentioning about their teacher and they did well handling the situation. The teacher was diagnosed with Leukemia. She passed away Friday morning. I still can't believe it. I am still in shock. I will keep the family in my prayers.

One more week of school and I promise I will share more projects. Just a quick picture of our master bedroom bathroom makeover. What do you think about the color? Nice.. I love how they are turning out. Next weekend we will start painting and I really want to do something with the mirror. More pictures coming soon.

I am making some cute gifts for 2 of the teachers I work with and I want to share them with you. They are super easy and they turned out really cute.
I bought a plain frame, scrapbook paper and a frame mat.

I painted the frame, glued the scrapbook paper on the mat and... here you go! It turned out so cute. I added a cute pink flower as a final touch.

So I will be making cute picture frames and a matching magnetic board. I will be making some more tomorrow and I will share with you. Right now, I am tired and I need some sleep. Good night! Enjoy.

Naturally Home Decor

Remember this post?
Well I know I needed to create something else using the same items to give it that natural home decor.
I bought this beautiful tall vase at a yard sale for $1. Yeah I know, too plain right? Well not anymore!

Here are the items I used. I had a roll of jute cord, leftover coffee beans and lima beans from last project and my glue gun.

I did not plan my design before hand. I just started gluing and everything came together.
First, I glued the end of the jute cord and started wrapping around the glass vase. I kind of gave it that V shape in the front.

I had about 1 1/2in of jute cord glued, when I started gluing lima beans around. From here, you can do anything you want! You can add 2 layers of lima beans, 3 layers etc... Its up to you! Be creative! I only glued 2 layers of lima beans, then one layer of jute cord and one layer of coffee beans.

Here is a close up of the final project. Doesn't it look beautiful? I love the colors and texture!

I placed the "not so plain glass vase" in my entry table and added a few extra decorations.

So.. what do you think? Lovely isn't it! Its a very simple project, but you do need a lot of patience! It takes some time gluing bean by bean! I promise you will love final results. I dare you to try this! Very simple, inexpensive and so cute!

Really..... $1 floor lamp???

You are not going to believe this! I went to Kirkland's earlier today looking for a floor lamp for the seating area in our room. Remember I told you I didn't want the T.V in our room and instead I wanted a seating area? Well its coming a long great! The floor lamps are beautiful at Kirkland's but the prices are not right for me at these moments. I was hoping to find a good deal, but the deal was not there. I was a little disappointed but I knew I would find something quick.

Oh boy oh boy... did it come quick! I took a trip to the Goodwill store and look what I found! This not so beautiful lamp with a lot of potential. I immediately thought " I could paint it, and cover the lamp shade with a pretty fabric etc... In matter of seconds I had everything planned out how I wanted it. So I check the price, and guess what.... the price was right! It was originally $7.99 / Week 14 tag. Today all week 14 tags were .99 cents! I quickly put it in the shopping cart. My husband was laughing at how funny it looked "driving" a shopping cart with a 5 1/2 tall lamp! ha.. I laughed at myself too!

I also found this pretty fabric (1 1/2 yd) for 1.99. It is beautiful!

How to cover lampshade:

I measured the lampshade and cut the fabric according to size.
I used spray adhesive (it works great)
I adhered the fabric to the lampshade and smoothed it out as much as I could. The fabric is kind of wrinkly!
I hot glued the fabric to the top and bottom of the lampshade.. and shazammm.. I had a beautiful elegant lampshade.

Its very simple! You should try it!

I took the lamp outside and gave it a little makeover with spray paint! I love spray paint! I choose "Espresso" color. Its like a rich chocolate color.

The middle part of the lamp started bubbling and I did not like how it was turning out as it dried. So I cut a long strip of the same fabric as the lampshade and glued it down.

Here is a close up of the lampshade. Isn't it beautiful? I love it!

Here is the final piece! So.. what do you think? Its amazing that spray paint and fabric can do so much! It looks like a brand new lamp!

I am still not done with the seating area but I just couldn't wait to show you how great it is looking.
Thanks for visiting! You are more than welcome to leave comments!
Thanks!

Unique Candle Holder

I absolutely love candle holders! Especially pillar candle holders. I have many around the house and they look lovely.

I found this website where they sell beautiful home decor. I love it! The problem is, its a little expensive. Would you pay $150 - $400 for a set of candle holders? I don't know about you but I certainly cant!

I tried a little experiment of making my own candle holder and guess what? I loved it! Scroll down to read more. :)

So here is the candle holder I made. I wanted to use items I had at home, but too bad for me I couldn't find anything. I had to go to the store and buy some items. By looking at the picture, can you guess what its made out of? Could you?

Call me crazy but I made this out of coffee beans, Lima beans, Styrofoam and a thick plastic plate! It turned out so cute! I have all ready placed it on my entry way table and dining table to see how it looks; it looks fabulous! You really cant even tell what its made out of! It looks just as great as an expensive store bought candle holder. I am thinking of making some more candle holders (different heights) to decorate my entryway table! Pictures coming soon!

Mmmm.. wake up and smell the coffee! It really does smell great! Hazelnut.. yummy!

Testing, testing... 1 , 2... haha.. just giving myself an idea of how great they will look on my dining table.

Testing on my entryway table.

Here is a close up of the candle holder. If you want a unique handmade decor, you gotta try this! I dare you to try it! So simple, inexpensive and beautiful! Please share pictures if you decide to try this! :)
Take Care!
Martha

I'm back..

Whew.. those were the longest 3 days ever! Food poisoning, awful! I was 3 days in bed! Thanks to all of you who prayed for me, and that left me sweet comments to get better! I really appreciate it! I'm back to my old self! My mom and brother were so sweet, they came on Thursday to take care of me. What would you do without family? I love them so much. My mom was worried, she brought me medicine, chicken soup ( it was delicious) and Gatorade's. They stayed with me mostly all day Thursday. My brother was so sweet, he got a wet towel to put on my forehead for the fever. He was sitting right next to me. Later on, my sister came to visit. I love my family!

So today, we took our 1 year anniversary pictures in Scottsdale, AZ. It was really fun! Lydene, our photographer was great! We will get to see our pictures in about a week. I cant wait to see them! Lydene was really fun and had great ideas! Thanks Lydene!

Lydene's Blog

So I decided to go with a puffy hair look for the pictures. To my luck, it was so windy my hair was super puffy! I like the look though! I kept telling Lydene, I feel like a model with a big fan blowing my hair! ha.. I had two different outfits. One formal and the other more casual. Pictures coming soon!

Saturday was the first night I went out after being in bed for so long. We went to Dave & Buster's with our family. Oh.. we had the greatest time! My cousin Sara and her boyfriend came from Tucson to visit and they had a great time also. I was just like a kid in a candy store! I was playing , looking around just having the greatest time ever. There I am in the middle!

Here are some of the custom orders I sent out a while ago. I never posted pictures. I think they came out really cute!

This is a project I tried today. I bought 3 paper mache eggs and I decoupaged them using paper from an old novel. I am still not done with them. I want to add some embellishment. I will post pictures soon!

I finally made the laundry detergent! :) It took me so long to make because I couldn't find Washing Soda. I bought it yesterday at Frys. Pink laundry detergent! Isn't this cool? I used a pink bar soap. Wish me luck with this detergent!

Thats all for tonight. Thanks again for your prayers!
Take Care!

Spring Napkin Holders

Before I tell you about the contest, I want to share with you these pictures and a short story. I invited my mom, sister, brother and niece to eat breakfast this morning. We had a great time. Here is my niece. Isn't she beautiful!? She is 6 months old. I love her. I bought her the headband yesterday. She loves playing with her shoes. Toys? she doesn't need toys. She prefers to play with her shoes than any toys.

This is my youngest brother Daniel. He is 11 years old. He decided to stay with me today. He loves spending the night here! He got his craftiness from me! He loves painting, drawing, and doing any type of craft. While I was doing my project, he decided he wanted to join in. He was painting here.


Daniel is diabetic. In February 2008, we got the scare of our lives. My parents went on a church retreat and Daniel stayed with us. Friday afternoon he was doing fine. Then on Friday evening, we started noticing he wasn't behaving how he normally behaves. He was not doing good. He was not eating, he didnt want to play, he was constantly going to the bathroom without drinking liquids, he lost 18 pounds in a week, he was not laughing and he was just not being how he normally is. He is a very happy boy, and his behavior scared us. Saturday went by, still not doing good. Sunday, I gave him medicine and it seemed he was doing better. My parents picked him up Sunday night, still not good. I told my dad he needed to go to the doctor. He had no energy and was constantly going to the bathroom. Monday morning, he gets sent back from school. He was in bed with a high fever. My mom took him to urgent care. The doctor immediately did test and it came back with 457. His sugar was high! We had to take him to the emergency room. We took him just in time. The doctor was telling us, that if his sugar level would have been over 500, he could have died or been on a diabetic comma. He was in the hospital for a little over a week. It was scary.

He is doing so good! I am amazed at how wonderful he is doing. There is a whole group of people praying for him to get cured. God is amazing! God does amazing things!

He has been doing so good now, he is at the point where he needs almost no insulin! His body is producing insulin. Even his doctor is amazed at the little insulin he now needs. I love my brother so much, and its very hard seeing at his young age what he goes through every day. We had to be very strong and have faith.
At the beginning it was really hard for us. Now, we have all learned to live with it. Daniel counts his carbs, injects himself and knows how to take care of himself. He is such a good kid. I love him!

He has been telling me he wants to make something to sell and donate half to "Find a diabetes cure foundation" and the other half to help his parents pay for his medicine. How adorable is that! He is a great kid. His medicine is expensive and he knows my parents are having a hard time paying. Especially now that they lowered my dads pay. Its been tough!
Im sorry, I was going to make it a short story and made it too long. Just wanted to share his story. I just love him so much!

Okay.. moving on.. wiping tears..

Katie @ Katies Nesting Spot send me a message about a great spring contest from Mod Podge. Thanks Katie! I am very interested and started Mod Podge'in like crazy! Those of you who are Mod Podge lovers, you should sign up!

Read about contest rules here.
If you sign up, please let me know! I would love to see what you create!

I Mod Podge like crazy! I love it! Ive done, decoupage letters, wooden blocks, coasters, collages, frames and more! Today, I came up with something different. I came up with beautiful spring napkin holders!

It all started when we took a trip to Home Depot. While my husband was looking for some tools, I decided to take a little trip down PVC aisle. Why the PVC aisle? I don't know! I just did. :)
Its funny! This is how it went down at Home Depot:

Martha: Uuuuuhhh... what is this?

I read the info sheet on the price sheet.

Martha: I know I could use this for something else! Only .20 cents! Thats pretty good!
What could I use this for, what could I use this for!! mmmmm...mmmmm...mmmmm..

While I am talking to myself, (in a low voice & people might think Im crazy hahaha..) you will see me with that one piece turning it upside down, holding it in the air, walking back and forth thinking, and even sometimes sitting down. This is my creative thinking process! ha..

Martha: Ohhhhhhh.. I know!!! I could use this as a napkin holder! ( I might say this just a little louder) I get really excited!

I start thinking immediately how I could do it, what papers, what colors, embellishment etc..

Of course, when my husband finds me, I tell him my idea. He always thinks they are great!

So here is a little tutorial of how to create these beautiful spring napkin holders. I will be sending this idea for the Spring Mod Podge Contest. What do you think? Cute?

Materials Needed:

Mod Podge
Embellishmetn (ribbon, flowers, beads)
Scrapbook Paper
Scissors
Glue Gun
PVC pipes


1. Measure the PVC pipes.
2. Cut the same length in paper to decoupage each PVC pipe.

3. Using your Mod Podge, lightly cover a PVC pipe. Glue one end of paper and start decoupaging.
In the middle of my projects, I used my hands to finish gluing the paper. Careful, it will get messy! :)



4. Using your glue gun, glue some ribbon around each pipe. Be creative! I went with green and pink.
I added a beautiful pink flower with a green bead in the middle.

This is how they turned out! Wouldn't these look great in your table this spring!?
I dare you to try it! It is super simple, inexpensive and so cute! Please share pictures if you try this!