4th of July Mantel

Happy Independence Day! I have really gotten into the spirit of this holiday this year. I'm so grateful to have been born in and to live in this magnificent country. How truly thankful I am! My son has really gotten into learning the 50 states lately, so it's been fun to teach him about our amazing country for this special holiday! I've honestly never decorated for the 4th of July before, but I was just totally feeling it this year! (Check out my 4th of July pinterest board...I'm just loving all of it!)

 

So say hello to my 4th of July Mantel. I love, love, love it!

 Once again I found about a million amazing printables from some super talented ladies, and I was SO excited to use some of them for this mantel! I'll walk you through each one and give these ladies the proper credit!

The gorgeous blue Shining Sea printable is from Bettijo over at Paging Supermom! A big thanks to her - I adore this part of the mantel! :)

I so love this God Bless America print from Melanie over at The Crafty Cupboard. Her 4th of July mantel is beyond adorable! I absolutely love everything about it! Thanks to Melanie for sharing this beautiful print! :)

The absolutely darling centerpiece of the mantel, the Map Silhouette, along with the equally adorable Statue of Liberty Silhouette, are both from Kensie Kate. This is the first time I came across Kensie's blog, and I went on a pinning spree! She designs the cutest quotes and I added quite a few pins to my Inspiration board on pinterest. I'm so glad I found Kensie's blog, and a big thank you to her for sharing her amazing work! Her Map Silhouette is just so perfect as the centerpiece and I can't help but smile when I see it. :)

 And now to talk about my darling little pom pom garland. Isn't it so sweet?! I tell you, I can't get past this craze of mine for pom pom trim! (And I don't really want to get past it!:) It is SO fun to design with! There are so many options for colors and sizes that it really can be hard to commit to which ones I finally decide to use together (like for my spring mantel garland). I'm so happy with how this one turned out though!

 I got the large white pom pom trim at the Hob Lob. I feel like this trim would be perfect for a winter mantel - you know, snow and all that wintery stuff. Some of the super adorable winter mantels out there, like this one from Landeelu, almost make me want to decorate a winter mantel in between Christmas and Valentine's Day next year. But the fact that I loathe and detest the cold weather and snow just doesn't add up with decorating a mantel dedicated to snow and cold weather. So someone pelase go buy this chunky white trim at Hobby Lobby and do something amazing with it this winter! :)

 The teeny tiny red pom pom trip is from JoAnn's. It's just too sweet! I think I have an especial weakness for the tiny pom pom trim. :) And the dark navy blue I found at Wal-Mart. Thank you Wal-Mart! (It sounds weird to say that). Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's had no sign of navy blue pom pom trim. I was pretty disappointed. And then I found this perfect trim at Wal-Mart! Yay! :)

 I made a few more felt rosette balls to go with our 4th of July décor this year. Love this little white one and the navy blue! (I used the same method that Amy at Idea Room uses for both her heart wreath and rosette balls. Tutorial here! :)

 The kids were loving some Wonder Pets time while I was snapping pictures of the mantel. Gotta love that Ming Ming! "This. Is. Sewious". :)

 I found this sweet little wooden USA, along with the wooden American flag on the right side of the mantel, at the beloved Dollar Spot at Target. YAY! 

There you have it. A happy little 4th of July mantel for a happy little 4th of July. :)

We started our festivities last night at my in-law's neighborhood party - fireworks, BBQ, and music! The kids had such a blast! Tonight was a BBQ with friends, and ANOTHER BBQ tomorrow night! You can never have too many barbecues in one weekend. I just love this holiday!

 

Happy Independence Day 2015!!!

Spring Mantel

Spring is here! Definitely one of my most favorite times of the year. Usually, after a long, cold, dark winter, I am just bursting with the anticipation of spring to finally arrive! This winter has actually been super mild (YAY!) so I haven't been quite as desperate for the warmer weather and sunshine. But I am still so happy that it is officially spring! And with that comes my new springy mantel set up. I kind of love it - a lot!

 

So much bright cheeriness. :)



This darling pom pom garland...I'd been dreaming of making it for weeks, and I think it pretty much makes this mantel! 

When I was thinking of what kind of banner or garland I wanted to make for the spring mantel, I just kind of imagined something made up mainly of different colors of pom pom trim. I seriously adore pom pom trim. Every time I see it I want to buy it in every color and size, even before knowing what kind of project I'd do with it. It tempts me every time! :)

 

 I decided to do a pinterest search to see if anyone had done anything similar to what I was dreaming about. I found this darling pom pom garland tutorial at Lolly Jane and immediately pinned it - SO cute, and along the lines of what I knew I wanted to go for! I think maybe a bit of subconscious inspiration also came from this super cute Halloween garland I saw on pinterest this past fall. It's actually from Desirée at The 36th Avenue, who is also the super talented person who designed and shared the mint printable below! I remember now that I had wanted to create a garland like Desirée's for Halloween, but never got around to it. Maybe next year! And at least it helped inspire this cute spring garland. :)

 

When I finally decided to get going on making my garland, I searched all of my favorite craft stores for the perfect pom pom trims, and I finally hit the jackpot at JoAnn's! (As I've mentioned before, I just cannot bring myself to drop the "'s" off of JoAnn. It's just so wrong to simply say JoAnn...even if that is the actual name. Lol!) I found the pink pom pom trim, the tiny, sweet white pom pom trim, and the pleated yellow trim there. The yellow just spoke to me! It wasn't anything I was planning to get or have even worked with before, which isn't surprising since I don't do much sewing or crafting with ribbon or trim (besides pom pom:) at all! But I just knew it would go perfectly with the pom pom trim!

 

When I got all of my cute trim home, I actually didn't do anything with it for a couple of weeks. It still made me smile though just to look at my pile of colorful trim and envision what I would make out of it. A few weeks ago I finally started hanging up the trims and playing around with how they looked together. I got them all pinned up on the mantel just how I liked it, and I was so happy with how the pink, white and yellow looked together!

 

I had also come across some darling mint trim at Wal-Mart and snagged it right away, but I kept debating back and forth with whether or not I wanted to add it to the garland. Jared helped me by taking pics of me holding the mint up to the garland so I could see how it would look when hung. I finally decided to add it, and I'm so glad I did! I hot glued the mint to the yellow. I LOVE how it all looks together! Yay!

I was searching and searching online for the perfect printable about the Savior, to bring Easter into this mantel, since Easter is a BIG part of Spring, and every day. :) One Sunday night I came across the beautiful print by Desirée, over at  The 36th Avenue, that you see below. It says "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives...Job 19:25". I absolutely love it! She made it in several different colors, and it was tough for me to decide which to use! But since I have a thing for mint, I went with that one. Thanks to Desirée for creating and sharing such beautiful prints that speak of the Savior. I find such hope in His love for me, and I know that He lives. :)

Oh this little pink bird. It's just too sweet for words! Not too mention my sweet  baby girl in the picture behind it. I love that fun pic of our family! It's an oldie but a goodie. :)

The white and pink tissue balls are actually a part of my Valentine's decor, but I think they work perfectly for spring as well! I followed Amy's tutorial over at The Idea Room to make them. I've followed Amy's blog for years - love her and her blog!

 I am so loving this bright and fun "Hello, Spring!"printable by Heidi over at Happiness is Homemade. Isn't is so cute? I saw it on pinterest and knew it would be perfect up on the mantel for spring! Thanks to Heidi for sharing this adorable print!

Seriously, these two prints are just so lovely!

I love this picture of my Savior, which is one of the many beautiful pictures that can be downloaded for free at LDS.org. I love how His arms are outstretched, ready to receive us, to receive me. I love my Savior more than words can express. The link to this picture is here and also, here is a link to the entire Gospel Art collection.



Can I just say again how this sweet mantel makes me smile? :) It is so fun to create, in whatever form that may be. I guess for me, in this case, it was taking random things and putting them all together to make something bright and beautiful. Love it.

 

I can't end this post without a little word about Easter. We celebrated in such a special way this year by following along with Mercy River's observance of Holy Week, doing the activities and reading the scriptures that talk about how Christ spent each day of His final week on earth. It made the whole week, and especially Easter Sunday, that much more meaningful! I want to share my testimony that Jesus Christ lives. He overcame death, and because of Him, we and each of our loved ones will also overcome death. I think of those in my life who have passed on that I miss so dearly. And what comfort to know that they, all of us, will overcome death because of our loving Savior! And we'll be together again. Spring is new beginnings - new life. Happy spring and Happy Easter! :)

Gray Fabric Headboard

First of all, my mom is amazing. She can do anything. Like, for real. If there is a project she wants to do, a piece of furniture she wants to paint, fix, build or sell, she does it. And she does it well. And those are only the beginning of her all-around major skills. Well, my pretty awesome mom came to visit a few times after I gave birth to our second baby (she lives out of state), as I've mentioned before. She flew to my rescue and was literally a lifesaver for me. LITERALLY. She was there when I needed her, and I can't thank her enough. But besides being there and caring for our family, she also got her craft on while at our house both times she visited. The first time making those gorgeous yellow pillows, and the second time making this beautiful gray headboard.

For months previous I'd been telling her all about the kind of headboard I envisioned for our bedroom. It started off in my mind looking kind of like this, but morphed over the months. As we chatted over the phone many times before she came for her visit, I pitched the idea to her that the next time she came to visit we could to try and tackle this project together, because there is absolutely no way on earth I would ever attempt a project of such magnitude on my own.

Mom came for her visit and we ventured out to find all of the supplies at Home Depot and JoAnn's (I know it's not technically "JoAnn's", but I can't bring myself to simply say "JoAnn"...it sounds so weird), and we got to work! But really, it was 99% my creative mom. I was there to help and learn from her, and I'm amazed at her ability to build such a thing!

And here it is.

Ahhh, I just love it!

 Oh, do I love this headboard. It is so gorgeous!! I absolutely love the fabric we chose. At first we wanted to put brass tacks all the way around the border, because we both loved that look. But we didn't find what we were looking for and decided to save that for a later date. I've decided that I like the simple, clean look of the gray fabric without the tacks, so at least for now, I won't be adding any. But adding tacks would be an easy way to totally switch up the look of this headboard if I'm feeling it later on.

So as far as a tutorial...this will not be in depth. At all. It really isn't a tutorial. But you can look here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here for some really helpful headboard tutorials! That's a lot of tutorials, but you can never have enough inspiration, right?!

 First step when making a headboard:

Put the babies down for a nap. This step is pretty important. :) 

 I'm not going to number the rest of the steps. But here's what we did next. We ironed the gorgeous gray fabric that we bought from JoAnn Fabrics.

 We sprayed adhesive to our plywood board and placed the foam egg carton mattress over it.

 Mom did some trimming...

 Then we flipped over the board and stapled the egg foam to the back.

Next we placed our layer of batting over the foam and stapled that down as well.

 Then for the fabric. The most important and nit-picky part!!

 Jared is the handy man who attached the legs to the headboard, having to do it several times until we got just the right height. Thanks, babe!

And now, over a year and one move later, I have decorated my room enough to where I think it deserves a few pictures! So here is the pretty headboard that my mom made for us, along with the stunning pillows. :) (Larger pillows and pillow cases ordered off of Amazon here and here).

And we actually  just moved, again, last month! So these pictures are now outdated...awesome. The master bedroom in our new place has grayish-blue walls that the headboard and Sunburst Mirror clash with. So I've got my work cut out for me to figure out what to do...probably just a quick paint job! That will make a world of difference. But until then, I'll just stare back at this beautiful room and sigh! I really wanted our bedroom to become a place of relaxation where I could steal away to read a book, or two or three. :) I hope to create that again in our new home!

I also have to add how in love I am with this Sunburst Mirror!! I think it looks so pretty above our bed. I followed Linda's tutorial (here) over at Craftaholic's Anonymous - one of my very favorite blogs! :)

LOVE!

About a million thanks go to my amazing Mom for this beautiful gift of a headboard! You are the best, Mom, and for an incredible amount of reasons. Love you, Mama!