DIY Sand Craft and Mod Podge Frame

DIY-frame-ikea-craft-sand-seashells-tropical-plant

It’s almost Spring Break time, and we don’t know about you, but we’re dreaming about sand between our toes, salty beach hair and cocktails at sunset. We’re also like our mom on most vacations, and try to get all those special moments on film, or in our case, digital jpg files. But, when we return home most of our photos remain on our computer, and the sand remains far away on the beach.

This DIY Mod Podge and sand frame merges those wonderful photo memories with colorful sand, so it’s one happy and colorful display. Plus, with the base of the frame being an Ikea GRUNTDAL, it can be displayed on anything metal or magnetic.

Get all the how-to details at Momtastic.

And, if you’re headed somewhere warm for vacay, have fun (and stop to take those photos that you will always cherish…no matter how much your children whine).

diy-sand-art-and-ikea-magnet-photo-frames

Design a Beautiful Nursery on a Budget

baby-girl-nursery-pink-ombre-baskets-white-ikea-gold-crib-nursery-gold-animal

Babies are expensive, but that doesn’t mean their room has to be, too. We love the nursery Mila Mae, the newest {and beautiful} addition to our large Italian family, calls home. Sweet Mila has a lovely, special place to call her own, and her mom is sharing the details with us. Kerri designed a pretty room for Mila, without maxing out the credit card. Win, win!

Her nursery is clean and white with touches of pink…and we love it.

Here’s how you can do it, too.

1. Shop at Ikea.
We all love the affordability and chic design to be found in the never-ending aisles at Ikea. Kerr’s ombré baskets are from Ikea. They are functional because they hold toys, book and stuffed animals, but they also add the perfect pop of color for a princess’s room. The little white flower-pot tins on the dresser are also from Ikea. They help Kerri organize everything! On the dresser, she holds hand sanitizer, diaper ointment, baby powder, etc. in them.
baby-girl-nursery-pink-ombre-baskets-white-ikea-gold-crib-nursery-gold-animal

baby-girl-nursery-pink-ombre-baskets-white-ikea-gold-crib-nursery-gold-animal

2. Incorporate family heirlooms.
Kerri incorporated her grandma’s dresser in Mila’s room, which holds sentimental value for her. She updated it with several coats of white paint, and painted the knobs gold. Another special touch is the dress hanging from the gold hanger next to the crib. It’s Kerri’s mothers dress she wore when she was a baby. A piece of 3 generations of women from the same family lives inside those 4 walls! The ultra-glam gold sequins hanger is from The Golden Gurl via Etsy.

baby-girl-nursery-pink-ombre-baskets-white-ikea-gold-crib-nursery-gold-animal

3. Add DIY details.
We love DIY details, and although Kerri said she is not a big DIYer, she did manage to spray paint dollar store animals with gold spray paint. Animals are a favorite for little kids, so with the DIY gold animals, Kerri added a childhood favorite with a touch of glam.
baby-girl-nursery-pink-ombre-baskets-white-ikea-gold-crib-nursery-gold-animal

4. Buy handmade items from Etsy.
Handmade items add warmth and authenticity to a nursery, plus it’s always great to support small shops. The driftwood wall hanging with tissue paper tassels is from Fleur Lux and the beautiful gold pillows in the crib are from Kerri’s talented friend at Bright July.
baby-girl-nursery-pink-ombre-baskets-white-ikea-gold-crib-nursery-gold-animal

baby-girl-nursery-pink-ombre-baskets-white-ikea-gold-crib-nursery-gold-animal

5. Incorporate color, texture and culture from travels. 
The world is a grand and beautiful place with bright colors and a vast array of textures, so it’s nice to bring memorabilia from various cultures home. Plus, its unique decor that can’t be found anywhere else. The authentic Mexican blanket hanging from the side of the crib was a gift Kerri’s parents brought back from Mexico. The impact is big, but the price tag was little – the blanket was just $5.

Thanks for sharing your room with us today, Kerri {Marco and Mila, too}. We love you.

 

ikea hacks

So, they are called Ikea Hacks. When a talented individual sees potential with a low-priced item from Ikea, they purchase, customize with a fabulous embellishment or full transformation with their DIY ideas – and that’s an Ikea Hack. Yes, there is even a site dedicated to Ikea Hacks – Ikea Hackers. Definitely check it out.

When I see some transformations – and I mean these are some transformations – from Ikea furniture, I am amazed, and blown away by people’s talent and creativity. I’m beyond impressed with the projects below that make the price tag for their furniture look high-end and unique.

The Ikea Malm Dresser {there are many variations and sizes} makes for a perfect blank slate and with O’verlays, the creativity is endless. Check out all the O’verlays here.

Ikea Lack Table
Lacquer and Linen made a beautiful transformation. For tutorial, visit here.

Little Green Notebook turned Ikea’s Vika Table into a glamorous white and gold workspace. Tutorial can be found at White and Gold Design.

Centsational Girl always amazes me with her keen eye for home style and she totally impressed me with this upgrade of the Besta, Billy and Brass Bookcases from Ikea.

Ikea Hackers featured the Expedit Bookshelf in a unique and rustic way. Directions here.

House and Home Ikea Tarva Dresser makeover is bright, colorful and we love the ombre effect.

{images via Laquer and Linen, Little Green Notebook, Ikea, Centsational Girl, Ikea Hackers, House and Home and O’verlays}

dinosaurs and divas

Dinosaur and Diva – two simple d-words that sum up my children’s interests at this point in their lives PERFECTLY. My son does not do anything throughout the day without a dinosaur in hand, and my daughter has a purse hung on her shoulder, glasses on her head and sparkly shoes on her feet all hours of the day.

Being 9 months preggo made this year’s party planning more exhausting than most years, but I LOVE parties, details and DIY projects, and swollen feet and Braxton Hicks contractions weren’t going to stop me from throwing a cute and fun party.

I was on a budget as always, but with some creativity, the help of good ole’ Pinterest, hot glue, friends and family and food and drink, the party was a success.

ON THE MENU
Apps
Mexican 7 layer dip
Artichoke dip with chips and veggies
Queso and chips

Dinner
Taco bar
Fruit skewers
Smothered burritos

Dessert
Homemade dinosaur and flower shortbread cookies partly covered with Ghiradelli chocolate
Candy bar with my kids favorite candy: Red vines, Cinnamon bears, DumDum suckers, Starburst and Ring Pops
Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes topped off with toy dinosaurs and tiaras

DIY PROJECTS
{All DIY tutorials to follow in the coming weeks}

Turquoise-dyed Coffee filter #2
I wanted to create a fun background for the dessert table. Something different, affordable and eye-catching. I’ve seen coffee filters added to lamp shades, and they looked great with their ruffly effect. So, I tried color dying coffee filters for the first time, and creating an ombre, floral-esque #2 for my daughter}. Check back in for the DIY tutorial…

{p.s. if your interested in purchasing the #2 made of coffee filters or the #4 made of twigs below, please email me at trejsorelle@gmail.com…I no longer need and will sell for cheap}.

Tree branch #4
While playing outside with the kiddos and noticing a lot of dead branches on a nearby bush, I broke off about 50 branches from the bush with the creation of a #4 in mind. With a foam board, burlap, wire and hot glue, here’s how my #4 turned out.  

Dinosaur eggs made of yarn
I saw a lot of yarn eggs around Easter time, so I decided to use the same idea, only to create dinosaur eggs in green and orange. Stay tuned for a DIY tutorial…

Paint chip place cards
I gathered paint chips that coordinated with party colors from my local Home Depot, and within 10 minutes, I had place cards. I used Microsoft Word to type the names of the kids friends, and manually fed the paint chips into the printer. Once all names were printed, I used a blade to cut a slit above and below the names to create the perfect napkin holder.

Plate and utensil place setting
I used Kraft paper as a table linen, and used a sharpie marker to trace the kids’ place settings. This was a great linen for the kids table because they could get it dirty and once they were done with it I could throw it away, they could draw on it and it was affordable. 
For the rest of the kids table, I spray painted terra-cotta pots orange and filled with plants made to look like trees, and I spray painted olive oil glass containers pink for the white hydrangeas….something for the boys, and something for the girls! Each child had a mason jar with a curly and colorful straw too!

For the adults table, I kept it simple. I bought tiny twig wreaths {to appear like a dino nest} from Wal-Mart for $2, and put a mason jar and hydrangea in it. Then, for a more rustic touch, I lined up the three mason jars along a 6 ft antique piece of wood.

Another notably cute table setting was Jameson’s drink and volcano table because for a unique and free table setting, I used extra grass turf sitting in the garage from my parents putting green in their backyard.

Dumdum tree for candy bar
Living in the mountains, my staples for DIY projects, like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby are not an option, so good ole’ Walmart had to do. But….no styrafoam balls! What? Who doesn’t carry those? So, my dreams and love for a Dum Dum topiary will be made a reality at the next party maybe.

Plan B…a Dum Dum tree. Walmart had adorable turquoise and pink striped buckets and a florists green tree-shaped Styrofoam, so I went with it…

Volcano
I remember building a volcano for a grade school science project, so my mom, Jameson and I went to work on creating one for his big party. Stay tuned for a tutorial…


D
uct tape water bottle label
My sister {also my own personal graphic designer} just had a baby, so instead of adding another thing to her already busy plate of running an adorable boutique and being an awesome momma, I tried to find another creative water bottle labels not requiring graphic design}. I removed the labels and added pink and orange duct tape around the water bottles. Then, while playing outside with the kiddos I found small twigs that were damp and easy to bend, which made for the perfect J for Jameson’s initial, then I found .29 cents turquoise necklaces from Party City that I cut and shaped into a G, and glued to water bottle.


Dinosaur and girl footprints
I found online photos of dinosaur footprints and toddler size footprints, print copies on color paper on my computer, printed and tape to the floor.

ACTIVITIES
Dino-fabulous egg hunt: the boys hunted for eggs in  the backyard filled with dinosaurs and the girls hunted for eggs filled with rings, bracelets and candy. The kids used their Ikea favor bags as baskets for their hunt.

Erupting volcano

Manicure and pedicure station and Dress-Up Station
The girls could dress like divas from head to toe, and get their nails painted to match their dress-up outfits.

FAVORS
Ikea bags {orange for boys and pink for girls…75 cents each} at each place setting with custom thank you labels filled with: dinosaur noses, dinosaur egg gumballs and dinosaur figurines for the boys and comb and mirror set, white sunglasses, mini-size nail polish and chapstick rings for the girls.
 
Invites and Labels
Done by none other than my fabulous sister at Fleur de Lis, a paperie, Jenna.
The invite is now available in our etsy shop, click here.
VENDOR LOVE

Cupcakes: Mountain Cupcakes, Vail, Colorado
Photography: Meredith Moran Photography
Frames: Ikea
Favor Bags: Ikea
Invitation and paper accessories: Fleur de Lis, a paperie {online Etsy store available here}

summer, summer, summertime…

time to sit back and unwind.
~ lyrics courtesy of Will Smith’s Summertime song…you knew it, huh? 

As I was creating my lust-list for Damsel in Dior’s Follow Fridays last week, I found myself lusting over and over again for summer entertaining items. Since I wasn’t able to share all of them with you then, I’m sharing them with you now.

Take a look…don’t you just love and want them too? I know they would look perfect on my antique wood picnic bench on the back porch.

Happy Memorial Weekend everyone. Hope you entertain in style this weekend. And, most importantly let us all take the time to remember loved ones we’ve lost, and particularly honor and remember those in the military service who have died serving our great country. We are forever grateful.

Blue Striped Table Cloth, Terrain {$98}
Galvanized Metal Rectangular Tray, Pottery Barn {$39.50} 
Wildflower Collection in Burlap Bags {for favors}, Terrain {$25}
Mason Jar Shakers, Terrain {$16}
RÅSKOG Kitchen Cart, Ikea {$49.99}
Smith and Hawken Metal Cage String Lights, Target
Striped Sea Grass Carafe, Terrain {$24}
Marimekko Unikko Green and Blue Melamine Plate, Crate and Barrel {$4.95}
Andros Blue Melamine Dinner Plate, Crate and Barrel {$4.95}
Wire Utility Basket, Terrain {$16}
Mason Jar Drink Dispenser, Pottery Barn, {$69}
Hammered Acrylic Drinkware Lime, Pier1 {$4.60}

 {images via Terrain, Party-Tales, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Target, Pier1, Ikea}