The 1850 Mile Pinterest Challenge of 2012

A few months back, my sister Tamara and I were reading Young House Love (a blog devoted to doing home renovations on the cheap) when they were doing a Pinterest challenge. They invited others to participate and it sounded like fun. Life got complicated though and we never participated. So, we made a new due date (which I missed twice by the way) and we decided to share what we made based on an image we saw on Pinterest. We are calling it The 1850 Mile Pinterest Challenge since that is how far apart we live. We will be doing a new project every month so get ready for some serious crafty business!

As an aside...

Does everyone know what Pinterest is? Pinterest is when you 'pin' photos onto virtual boards of items that are of interest to you {Pin + Interest = Pinterest} If you've never gone to their site, well, be careful, it can be very addictive and fun. You can check out my Pinterest boards here, if you'd like.

Now onto my project...

I have a lot of old silver ware. All of it has some sort of significance - old baby spoons, forks, etc. and for years it has sat collecting dust. These are items that you don't want to throw away but what do you do with them...

Well, off to IKEA I went (loving the new IKEA) and bought some shadow boxes - 4 for $40.

I also went and bought 4 pieces of scrap paper for 0.59 each.

After I got home, I got out the silver and asked my mom who was visiting at the time to clean all the silver. Good to have Mom around!

Then I got my Mom to wash the glass on the frames.

While Mom was busy doing her parts, I set to work taping the scrapbook paper into the frame backs using small loops of tape.

All these tasks took about 20 minutes. I then hot glued my silver to the scrapbook paper. But, when I put the frames back together, the silver was too heavy and the glue didn't hold. So, Matt got out his drill and drilled some tiny holes for me straight through the paper and backing. I got out my needle and baker's twine and secured the silver ware using that instead. It worked like a charm!

And now for the big reveal...

I (we, since I had a ton of help) made four because their are four people in this family all with baby silverware to share. Matt wrote our names on the backs and our birth years in case they are ever passed down the family line.

We decided to hang our new art in the dining room above the window.

Here are some close ups.

More art for the dining room and this time it was less than $50! Pretty good I think!

(If you liked this post and want to join our challenge, let us know! The more the merrier!)

New Stamps

I want to tell you about some new stamps I found on Etsy. They are amazing! They are made by TweetyJill and they are so sweet.

I wanted to make some vintage inspired Valentine and St. Patrick's Day garlands but I had no stamps that fit the bill. So, off to shop I went. I found these amazing collections on Amazon and decided that I had to go look on Etsy to see if maybe, just maybe, someone was selling them used.

What luck! Someone was selling them used. Carol from yesteryearnotions. She is selling many of her craft supplies due to horrible life circumstances that I won't go into here. Carol is so sweet and nice and she shipped my stamps lickety split! I received them right after the holidays in perfect condition and they are as amazing in person as they are in the pictures. I have been having so much fun stamping my days away.

Here are the stamp sets that I bought:

And here are some of the items, I have made for the shop using my amazing stamps:

Valentine's Day garland

Valentine envelope seals

St. Patrick's Day stickers

So, if you're in the market for new stamps, check out TweetyJill and pop in to say hi to Carol. You won't be disappointed!

Valentine Day Garlands

Well, I didn't win the contest but I renewed my old blog and for now that's good enough for me!

Moving on...

I have been so busy with Valentine Day garlands! They have been selling well and it's still early January which is fabulous! Here are my two heart garlands that I hope sell out at lightening speed:

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These garlands are super inexpensive and super cute! They look amazing draped across pretty much everything!

And, of course, let's not forget an old favorite which is also the most popular item in my store:

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I also decided that we all need a little luck at the beginning of the new year, so I made this pretty garland:

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So cute! Maybe, just maybe I might have to have a giveaway for these lovelies. Any thoughts?!