Hanging Name Plates for Children's Wall

I got the idea for this craft at Michaels. I was wandering through the aisles looking for yet another misplaced item, and I saw wooden plaques with names on them. Yes! Finally something cute I can do myself to fill up the wall space in my kiddos room! Probably the hardest part was traveling to a few different Michaels looking for all the letters I needed. Here is the finished products!

You will need:

2 wooden plaques, Michales has quite a few shapes to chose from
Ribbon in any color
Wooden letters of the names you are spelling
Acrylic paint
Hot glue gun
Optional- glitter glue, wooden decorations (same aisle as the wooden items) 

1. First, paint the plaque and letters with acrylic paint. For a good visual, try contrasting colors on the color wheel. I used pink/green and blue/yellow.

2. Next, when these are dry, hot glue the letters down so they spell your child's name. I am not a fan of anything straight, so I put my letters are various angles.

3. Next hot glue your extras, such as wooden lady bugs or palm trees, and add your glitter glue. Michaels has a good assortment in the same aisle as the letters.

4. When all of this is dry, cut off about 15 inches of ribbon. This will be used to hang your plaques on the wall. Find how long you want them and cut it to size. Take the ends and hot glue them to the back of the plaque. Let dry completely.

5. Hang on your child's wall and enjoy!

Bow and Hair Clip Holder

Having a baby girl, and being a girl myself, I know we come with a lot of accessories. Hats, hair ties, hair bows, hair clips, and this is just Piper! She doesn't have 5 different kinds of boots and a rainbow assortment of scarves yet. The big dilemma comes when you try to find a place to put it all! I am not one to just throw them all in a shoebox and stuff them in a drawer either. Then they get pushed aside and never used. So, I had to find a way to organize them all. Enter Pinterest, my new obsession. I found something similar to this, and thought it was cute so decided to give it a try. Here is what you need:

1 picture frame
1 can of spray paint, any color. I used pink.
1 spool of ribbon
10 of those little half circle nails
optional- some kind of embellishment, I used 2 silk flowers from Michaels

First, you will need to take the half circle screws and screw them into the bottom of the frame. In the picture above my wonderful husband has already done this step. You can do as many as you want, but it is worth the extra effort to measure and space them evenly.

Next you will spray paint the whole frame. If you got a wooden frame this will be  easy. I was silly and got a plastic frame, and apparently no spray paint sticks to plastic. I almost gave up hope and bought a wooden frame when I stumbled upon Martha Stewart's line of paints. It actually sticks to everything! So $2.99 later I came home and painted the whole thing. Spray paint will probably take 2-3 hours to completely dry, the acrylic longer. I ended up waiting overnight since I applied many coats to cover the black color of the frame.

Next, take your ribbon and cut into strips. These will be stretched the height of the frame. I used 5 strips. Take a staple gun and secure the ends, being sure not to fray the ends.

Now. take a hot glue gun and glue your flower to the frame. I decided to use both flowers that came in the package I bought. And viola! Homemade hair bow and  clip holder:

Pretty nifty huh? And all under $10 too!

Gingerbread cupcakes with cinnamon frosting

So, I have been on a real baking kick lately. I normally love to bake, but my baking muse must be following me around because I am finding holiday inspiration everywhere! One of the absolute easiest I have made lately is my gingerbread cupcakes with cinnamon frosting. It involves taking boxed mix and a tub of frosting, and a splash of cinnamon:

1. Prepare the gingerbread cake mix as directed on the box. Line cupcake pans with cupcake wrappers, and bake them for 25 minutes.

2. In the meantime, put the frosting in a bowl. I used whipped buttercream frosting, but vanilla works as well. Add about 2 tablespoons of cinnamon and whisk well. Add more to your tasting.

3. After the cupcakes have cooled, frost with the frosting. Enjoy  :)

Here is my final product, with some red sprinkles added for festivity:

See? So easy and so yummy!

Projects finally done!

Sorry for the delay in posts. I have been hard at work on my bow holder and name plaques, and it seemed as though the forces did not want me to finish! I have been to Micheal's no less than four times in the last week, which would not be so bad if I wasn't going back to fix mistakes. Once, I bought the wrong ribbon, twice the cashier did not put the ribbon in my bag! Grrrrrr!!! Oh well, I am back :) please check out how they came out in my following blogs!