‘Hello Spring’ – door decor [PEEPS® inspired]

It’s finally, officially SPRING!! After throwing a few ideas around in my head for a spring inspired front door, I finally decided to go with a fun & colorful ‘Hello Spring’ door!! [inspired by PEEPS®]

I was contacted by PEEPS® and offered a chance to try out and use their products for my crafting ventures this spring. PEEPS® has a bunch of new flavors & designs out this spring. Here are a few that I’m intrigued by, but you can find all of their new spring/Easter products HERE.

 
[*I’ve tried the mystery chicks & the party cake chicks, both of which they sent me. Party cake takes the cake ;)
But the mystery chicks were fun…we still have no idea what that flavor is!]

Like I said, PEEPS® contacted me, asked if I would put my creativity to work and come up with something “crafty” using PEEPS® this spring. They were ever so kind and sent me a huge box fun of the marshmallowy treats.

I’ll admit, we had to do some taste testing first!! My boys couldn’t decide between the Blue Raspberry and the mystery chicks, so we tried both of those first. I think the Blue Raspberry was a winner with them! (watch out…turns the whole mouth blue!!).

  

Then I got to work with my front door decor. I started with the ‘Hello Spring’ sign. It is 10”, and painted purple with metallic gold lettering.

Next came the PEEPS® part of the project, and I used their pink, yellow, green & blue chicks for this creation.

I pulled out the hot glue gun, along with some yarn and cardstock. I cut little pieces of cardstock that the yarn & the marshmallow treat were glued to.

And on to the door it went. A super easy, yet fun & colorful spring PEEPS® banner!! It was the perfect touch to my ‘Hello Spring’ door!

Now I’m on to more projects with my PEEPS®! You can find more creative inspiration for using PEEPS® on their website, HERE.

**Disclosure: The PEEPS ^® product, information and gift have been provided
by Just Born Quality Confections. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

• PEEPS® Website • PEEPS® Facebook • PEEPS® Instagram • PEEPS® Pinterest • PEEPS® Twitter • #PEEPSONALITY •

Plates for Santa’s cookies {family tradition}

This is a family tradition (started last year!) and I love it. When little G was 2 1/2 he made his first plate for Santa’s cookies, so there are lots of scribbles and cute little things to remember him by. We set the plate out with homemade Christmas cookies and in the morning, little G was impressed to see Santa came and ate his cookies!

Then the plates from previous years can be used as Christmas decorations, ours go on display on top of the cupboards. Adorable & extremely personalized decorations. Just my style!

(never mind the dead plant!!)
Also pictured-->family silhouette cut-out

{HOW TO}

First you need a plate (or more if you like to be prepared!). I bought our plates at the dollar store!

You’ll also need some ceramic paint pens &/or sharpies (the ones I used are actually just paint pens, “ideal for wood, glass, plastic, & metal”). I tried the “sharpie technique” but it wasn’t working…at all. Maybe I didn’t wait long enough for it to dry, or bake, or cool. Whatever it was, the sharpies washed off pretty easy. But, since we are just using them for decoration after the one night of cookies for Santa, I decided it didn’t really matter if they wash off easy or not!

Let the kiddos have at it! With our first plate (2012), my boys were too little to write, but now that little G is learning how to write, he can write ‘Santa’ and ‘Thanks’ along with some crazy, creative drawings by him and his brother.

 

Bake it if you want to try that. I haven’t had success with it, so I just leave it as is. Again, they are only used one night and then become decorations year after year. Pretty fun tradition!

  

Rubber Band Blocks

A super easy and entertaining toy for the little ones. All you need is a piece of wood (scraps in our shop!), some finish nails, a hammer and some rubber bands.

  

It’s only a matter of nailing in all the nails, spread out enough that they can get rubber bands around a few of them at a time.

[already well used, as you can see from the juice stains]

You can also be brave and let your kids hammer for a while. My boys didn’t really hit them in, they just hit them. Good practice aiming

 

Super easy! And makes for hours of entertainment!

My boys love them. I might even need to make another one that is a little bit larger, they put so many rubber bands on them that they run out of room after a little while of playing with them!

These are especially perfect when the weather is less than par and we don’t want to go outside to play (like these days when it’s in the negatives with lots of ice and snow on the ground).

    {what you need}

block of wood
finish nails
hammer
rubber bands

Ornament & Christmas Card Tree display

This project is inspired by this ornament tree from Crate & Barrel. I changed up the design a bit, added some color and turned it into a Christmas card holder as well!

I started with a 2” thick piece of wood from this pile of lumber [milled by Grant]--

I used the table saw to cut 3/8” wide strips. If you don’t have an awesome husband like mine, that mills his own lumber, then you can get a 2” thick board or 2” wide molding or something similar.

 

I rigged up a little jig on the miter saw (aka chop saw) so that I could cut the crazy angles of the triangles. That only lasted for the first tree and it didn’t even work right. I probably could have spent some time and used my brain to do the math and figure out the actual angles, but I wasn’t up for that! The second tree I just laid the tree out, drew the angles and guessed on the cut. I’m precise like that , and it actually turned out a little better.

 

I drilled holes in the sides for the wire, then glued and stapled them together. I painted the big tree a light blue and the smaller tree a green with a little white over the top.

Next I stapled the small/green tree to the big/blue tree and sanded them to give them the rustic look. The tops of the trees weren’t very pretty, as in they didn’t match up like they should have had an engineer made them. So to cover that mistake up I added some hand cut stars that I drew up and nailed on. Can’t even tell how horribly I cut the angles!

 

Then I added the wire. I kept it simple by wrapping the extra wire around the back of the tree and then again around the wire itself. Nothin fancy.

 

Once the wire was on I used some E6000 and O rings (both can be found at Michaels, Joanns, or any other craft store). I had 11 small ornaments, so that is how many O rings I glued on randomly to the wires.

 

I added the little ornaments (from the Dollar Store and Wal-Mart) and mini clothes pins (at Wal-Mart) to hand up Christmas cards as we receive them.

  

    {what I used}

2” x 3/8” strips (length and amount depends on how big you want your trees)
Table Saw, Chop Saw, Scroll Saw
Wood glue, staples, 2 nails
Drill
Spray paint (colors you want the trees and stars – I used sky blue & green apple Rustoleum)
Sander (sand paper!)
Wire & wire cutters
E6000 and O rings
Little ornaments & mini clothes pins

 

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