Planting Wheat Grass: aTutorial

By raise of hands: Who wants to plat some grass???

Only ME? ha!
I'm going to show you all anyway :)

Okey dokey, so Monday I posted about the grass I grew a few years ago for Mother's Day. Today I'm going to show you how easy it is to plant and grow it! (Even for someone like me that stinks at plant growing.) I did this in seriously 10 minutes when I went home on my lunch break. IT'S FAST! The longest part was deciding on the container.

Quick story tho: Danny and I went to Lowe's on Wed. to pick up a few hooks I needed for a project, I'll show you one day... anyway so we walked out through the garden center, not sure why, we never go that way, but I was happy because I secretly wanted a pretty potted flowery plant. So we are walking and I said to Danny, man, I want some pretty flowers. And he said, and I quote: "your not getting flowers, it's a waste of money, you know they will just die, you can't keep anything alive." And then we both laughed because we knew it was so true and I couldn't even argue that this time would be different and I wouldn't forget to water them and they would be beautiful and live forever because I knew I would probably forget about them after a few days and they would die and be a waste of 8 bucks. One day I'll do better, but we both knew today wasn't the day... hahaha

Okay so back to my easy grass: Here are what the seeds look like. This is the same package I purchased 2 years ago, you don't use very many seeds so it will pretty much last forever. Not bad for a, I think, 5 or 6 dollar investment. 

What you will need: (all of these are kind of obvious)

-Wheat Grass Seeds

-Dirt 

-Rocks

-a Container

-Water

Step 1: Get something to grow your grass in.

I decided to use this glass candle holder because I think it will be pretty.

Step 2: Put a few rocks in the bottom for drainage.

I don't actually know if you need to do this but again, I thought it would be pretty like those succulent terrariums you see all over the internets. Also, I didn't have any rocks so I used these marble rock things that I had. They are just the rocks for my fish bowl, these ones never lived with the fish if you were wondering.

Step 3: Throw some dirt in on top of the rocks.

The directions say to fill the dirt to an inch below the top of your container. I did mine a little less because I'll show you why in a sec.

Step 4: Add seeds!!

You just need an even layer of seeds across the top.

Kapone was super curious about those seeds, he almost spilled the whole thing over. Maybe I shouldn't have done this on a rocking chair??

**I would also like to point out that I liked chevron (and glitter/sequins) long before it was crazy popular on Pinterest. And before I even knew what chevron was besides the gas station on the corner...

The background on all of these pictures is a blanket I bought when I was in junior high. I thought it was the coolest thing and I still totally think it is! The color photographed pretty funny in these pictures its more red in some and more pink in others but the real color is purpleish/pinkish. The picture with me pouring seeds is pretty true to real life I think.

Anyway, I just wanted everyone to know I'm a total trend setter :) bwahahaha!

Step 4: Add some dirt on top of the seeds.

If you read those directions in that last photo, you can repeat steps 3 & 4. That is what I did because I haven't tried it before and I want it to be cute and thick! This is also why I didn't put more dirt in at the beginning.

Here is my 2nd layer of seeds:

Can you see my 2 layers of seeds here? I hope it looks cool when everything starts to grow! I can't wait.

Step 6: Now WATER that bad boy!

This part makes me nervous because I don't want to over water and drowned it but my dirt was super duper dry, basically like saw dust, so I wanted to make sure everything got plenty wet enough.

Step 7: Place in a sunny area and watch it grow!

Can you see the water in there? It was kind of fun watching the dirt soak it all up. 

Now it should grow pretty fast, they say results in 3-5 days, but Don't forget to keep watering it!! This is the part I am really bad at! If the dirt is dry I water it so it is damp. of course that is when I remember :)

If you follow me on Instagram I'm sure I will post pictures as it grows because I really do think it is super cute, so check there for updates along the way. 

I'm hoping this will be a really cute centerpiece for my table. I just hope I can fill that frame and that vase before my grass comes up! Wish me luck. :) Then when this is ready I'll blog about how cute my table looks!

I really didn't bother to clean up before I took these pictures. That is totally a sneak peek of another project hanging from that chair. It kind of looks like a fan. haha Totally isn't a fan, but wouldn't that be cool it I was awesome enough to build a fan?

womp womp

Are you planting anything fun? Do you have a hard time growing things too or do you have a green thumb? I'd love tips!

Feather Heart Wreath: a Tutorial

Okay, if you follow me on Instagram you have already seen this one. I first saw this boa heart idea last year when a friend of mine made one for a secret gift exchange we had at work. At the time I had never seen anything like it. It is so fun and fluffy and girly, just perfect for Valentine's Day. I asked her how she made it and it seemed pretty easy so a few weeks ago I thought I would finally give it a try. Seriously people, this will take no more than 30 minutes!

Supplies:
Cardboard
Utility knife
Feather boa - use a coopin if you can, this was way more expensive then I thought it would be.
Hot glue gun - with plenty of glue sticks
Ribbon
Scissors

Directions: 
1. Draw a heart on your cardboard and then draw another one about 1 1/2 inches bigger around the first one. I used a shoe box I had from a pair of boots I bought a couple months back but you can really use anything.

2. Cut out the heart shape. The thinner the cardboard is, like my shoe box or a cereal box, the easier it will be to cut out.

3. Glue the feather boa down to the cardboard heart using your hot glue gun. My heart was small enough for my boa to go around twice so it's nice and full. Depending on the size of your heart you may need more then one boa. I purchased 2 just in case.

4. Cut ribbon to length & hang. You can hot glue the ribbon to the back but because I wasn't hanging my wreath on a door hanger I wrapped my ribbon around the top of the heart, tied a knot at the end and taped it to my back door.

So what do you think? Do you want to make a Big Bird heart too? I giggle every time I see it.
Leave a comment if you do!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Valentine's Day Wreath: a Tutorial

I love Valentine's decorations they are so pretty! I have 2 heart wreaths and I love them both, they make me happy and my home looks so much more cheerful for Valentine's Day!

The first wreath I will show you how to make is a beautiful felt heart wreath, I absolutely LOVE it! I would keep it up all year round I love it so much! I had wanted to make this ever sense I saw it on eighteen25 in 2011. I tried to make one then but I couldn't for the life of me get a hold of a heart wreath form, they had been sold out the entire month of January and February at my local craft store and online. So I put it on the back burner until the summer when I knew there would be plenty of heart wreath forms to purchase. The Idea Room has a great tutorial that I followed to make my wreath. So I will just give you a quick run down of how I made mine.

Supplies:
Styrofoam heart wreath form
1 yard red felt
2 inch paper circle pattern
Fabric scissors - to cut felt
Package of straight pins
Ribbon - for hanging

Directions: 
1. Cut out a 2 inch circle. I traced a mason jar lid onto a piece of scrap paper and cut it out to use as my pattern. I figured it would be about the correct size I needed.
2. Then cut out a bajillion circles from the red felt using the pattern you just made. Do whatever is easiest for you. I traced a bunch of circles with a pen on the felt and then cut them all out, it went pretty fast after they were all traced. We called these pizza squares at my house.

3. Fold a pizza square in half and then in half again to create a point an the end.

4. Insert pin into the point of the folded pizza square and push into wreath form.
Repeat steps 3 & 4 until your entire heart is covered in pizza squares on 3 sides. Leave the back empty so it will hang flat.
5. Cut ribbon to length and pin to the back. You could also hot glue it if you wish.

6. Hang and admire your beautiful work!! I love how velvety and rich it is.

If you make this or have made a wreath like this I would love to see it,  post a link in the comments!

I'll be back a little later today to show you how I made my feather heart wreath! It's super easy and can be done in less then a 1/2 hour. I hope you join me!

Spiderweb Frame: a Tutorial

Yesterday I showed you my Halloween decorations and today I'm going to show you how I created the Spider Web Frame.
When I pulled out my Halloween decorations from last year I decided I didn't like the frame I had my Along Came a Spider print in. So I found a plain one I had in my craft supplies at home and transformed it.

It's a pretty color but I needed a BLACK frame to match my Halloween decorations. So it got a fresh coat of paint with black craft paint. (The before is the back because I forgot to take a picture of the front pre-paint.)

Then I put the print inside the frame so I could continue the spider web from it onto my frame. I just used a pencil and a ruler to extend the web lines and free handed the curved lines.

The pencil web matches up really nicely. I glittered the frame in sections. Using regular Elmer's Glue I traced the pencil web, then over a sheet of scrap paper I dumped white glitter on to of the glue. I let it dry for a second then pressed it lightly into the glue to adhere better. After letting it dry for about 15-20 minutes (I glittered on commercial breaks) I tapped off the excess glitter onto the paper then used the paper as a funnel to pour the glitter back into the container. Repeat for all 4 corners of the frame and it was done!

This was a quick project,  it took about 30-45 minutes while I watched TV.

When I added the glue and the glitter it made my web fatter so I really should fix it so it looks a bit better because some of the lines that went off the frame looked good in pencil but don't look as good with the glitter.

This was a fun and easy project and I think it makes my mantle look so much more Halloweenie!

Next I'll show you how I made my wreath!

Linking up at:
 

Personalized Door mat: a Tutorial

Whokay, so I'm back from a like year long hiatus :)

I got promoted at my work last December and sense then I have had little time to blog BUT part of a new year resolution is to make time to blog. I have several projects I did last year that I have wanted to post but never got around to it.

So to start the year off, I wanted to post a cool project I did for my uncle's wedding gift. Okay so don't laugh at me but now that I think of this I actually did this project in October of 2010. Wow so the time sure flies by pretty quick! 

My uncle was married on October 10th, 2010. On their invitation they had this cute little 10.X.10 thing so I really wanted to add it to the gift.

Supplies needed:

Door mat-Walmart like 10 bucks

Black paint

Stencil brush 

I searched Word for the perfect font for the T and this curvy one is what we liked best! My mom is really good at drawing and I knew I would totally screw it up so I had her draw the T onto the mat so I could fill it in with the paint. This would be a lot easier if you could print the letter and trace around it but at the time we did not have access to a printer, just the computer screen to copy from. We tried chalk first so the outline could easily be brushed off, it was a mess and was hard to see. I would suggest to go ahead and use a marker or pen, you will paint over it anyway.

Once we had the outline done it was easy to start filing it in with paint.

You need the stencil brushes to get the paint in all the cracks, using the largest brush made it so easy and very quick to complete.

Once we had the circle done around the letter we let it dry a bit before adding a second coat just to make sure it is nice and black.

Adding the little 10.X.10 symbol was really easy to free hand using a smaller size brush. After it was completely dry I rolled it up and attached the card. It really didn't take that long to dry, maybe a half an hour but if you have more time give it longer before you roll it up.

They loved it and I'm really glad I was able to give a personalized gift that is also very functional.

I'll be back soon with more really great projects I completed last year as well as new ones from this year!

I have a couple BIG projects this year and I can't wait to tackle them this spring!!!