A Girly Birthday Mantle

Today is my first born's 5th birthday. The hubs and I stayed up late hanging streamers from her door, banners through the kitchen, blowing up lots of balloons, wrapping her chair at the table, and wrapping all of the presents. When she woke up this morning she was giddy with excitement at all of the birthday decorations. I put up her birthday mantle a few days ago so we could enjoy it a bit longer. I never tire of looking at pictures of my sweet girl through the years.

There is a picture of her as a baby and then at each of her birthdays. I added a cute birthday printable that I got from Eighteen25. 

Then I used one of my blocks to make a cute little number 5 decoration. (I have a big stack of unfinished blocks in my garage that I cut from a 2x4- they are ready for whenever I want to paint up a quick project.) I simply painted it, distressed it and used distressing ink to darken the edges, stuck a number 5 sticker on it, and finished by mod podging over everything. 

You'll notice a little pink and purple pony. My girl is such a cowgirl at heart and insisted on a My Little Pony theme, so I painted her a little pony figurine.

I also made her a cute little birthday hat out of fabric, heavy interfacing, a fabric ruffle, yarn pompom, and stretchy lace. She loves it and insisted to put it on when she woke up!

I am so looking forward to celebrating and spoiling her all day long. We are celebrating with family on the weekend, and I can't wait to make her cake!! More pictures to come.

A Patriotic Mantle

I've been having a little too much fun lately with crafting projects. I have crafting injuries to prove it: hammered my thumb and got a nice blood blister, cut my finger on a tin can, burned my thumb while vigorously hand sanding a project, and when I was getting ready for bed, I noticed I had paint on my ear. All of these projects (and injuries) have paid off and lots of spaces and walls are getting decorated. I finished my Fourth of July mantle display and it's pretty fun and festive. I have one other element that might get added to it if I can make up my mind . . .

It's pretty simple, but we love looking at it and it gets us excited for Fourth of July festivities.

I made the patriotic bunting last year using scraps of red & blue fabric sewed together with binding. 

I made USA wood blocks using a 2x4 that I cut into 4x4 blocks. I painted them red, white, and blue, mod podged coordinating scrapbooking paper to the front side, distressed the edges, then stamped USA using craft paint.

The United States outline print is available for free download HERE.

I got the Pledge of Allegiance printable from eighteen25 HERE.

I made some pinwheels with scrapbook paper, glued them to lollipop sticks, and stuck them in tin cans.

Easter

I pulled down the Easter stuff from the attic last week. All two of them: one lone plastic Easter pail and a bag of mismatched Easter eggs. Pretty sad. The kids had fun matching the egg halves up with their proper partners, but that got the home no more festive than before. After pulling a few things from around the house and making a few printable paper crafts, we now have a mantle that is kid-approved to be ready for Easter.

I got the vintage bunny print via Funkytime.

The Easter banner was inspired by this Spring Banner Printable, but I designed my own circle letters because I wanted mine to say Easter, and I just used scrapbook paper for my accordion circles. I Heart Nap Time has both a bright and pastel version to print for free.