Happy Halloween!
That’s it today. 
I’ve been busy with the little one and the hubs today so I don’t have any designer-y posts. I just want to thank you all for reading and to enjoy your Halloween weekend! Harper will be a witch! A nice witch, of course! xo, L.
Isn’t she a doll?
This is what pumpkin patches look like in Likely, ha!
I <3 Facebook
And I really love all of the little links that people post on Facebook so that I may discover lots of goodies that just make my day. Like this. Thanks for posting, Holly. 
I’ve never been to Paris, but thanks to Nichole and Evan of Little Brown Pen, I can pretend that I have and live through them vicariously through their video about the making of their ‘Perpetual Paris’ calendar (which is available in their Etsy shop and in their personal shop). I follow Nichole on Twitter, so I don’t know how I missed this.
.jpg "Paris Calendar")
What they sell is the images and the clear clips to assemble it. Assembled it’s about 3 ft. x 3 ft. and I love that it’s a calendar, but it doesn’t look like a lame little flip calendar. It’s art, and it changes every month! Wwwaaayyy too pretty to mark up with appointments. I think what I like about it is the story behind it (read about it here) and what a project it turned in to for the husband and wife team. Plus it’s a conversation piece that would never get old. And it’s $49 for years of images of Paris. Much cheaper than a plane ticket (but yes, I know it doesn’t have quite the same effect). Someday, right? Right.
I also got excited about this today. Raise your hand if you know who The Pioneer Woman is. She rocks, right? She posts a little status update on Facebook and 273 people will ‘Like’ and comment. She’s on a book tour right now for her cookbook, and in her PW Home and Garden section of the blog (it’s amazing to me how she can keep up with so many sections!) she’s hosting hotel tours of all the nice places she stays on her book tour. Sweet. She stays in places that look like this…
That’s a lot of chocolate-y goodness in one room. Not that I’d notice because I’d probably be asleep as soon as I walk through the door and hit the pillow. It’s the Hotel Ambassador in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve never been to Oklahoma, but if this is what they eat there, I just might have to go.
I’m a carbs kinda girl. And pass the butter.
Read More{Not So} Secret Giveaway!
I’m busy on client projects this morning, so I just wanted to post a quick little post offering a one-day-only giveaway! And this isn’t a random.org givewaway where only one person wins, today EVERYBODY WINS! Just leave a comment telling me which Print-At-Home PDF Halloween Party Set you’d like (by 8 AM PST tomorrow morning, October 29th I’m feeling generous so keep ‘em coming! I’d love to see my party set out there!! Happy Halloween!!) and I’ll e-mail it right over to you! Or you can buy it for $4 in my Etsy Shop. You choose, hehe…
Your choices are ‘Ghoulish Glam’
{Scrolling skulls, witches, spiders, bats, pumpkins and “Happy Halloween” graphics for grown-ups!}
Or ‘Little Monsters’!
{With cute little jack-o-lanterns, witches, monsters, aliens, spiders, skeletons, mummies, spiderwebs, and “Happy Halloween” graphics for the kiddies!}
And I’ll e-mail you the 5 page file that looks like this (without the watermarks, of course!):
My only request is that if you actually print it out and use it, then please send me pictures! Enjoy!! xo, L.
Read More{DIY} How to make cupcake toppers!
So you want to buy a PDF/Printable/Print-At-Home Party set off of Etsy but you’re not sure what to do with it? Fear not…I’m here to help! For example – how do you make cute cupcake toppers like this out of what a seller sends you?
Easy peasy. Actually, I’m not sure exactly what the packages look like from other sellers, but this is what I sell and this is how I make a ‘cupcake topper.’
Required/*Optional Tools:
- White cardstock (available at Wal-Mart, Target, Staples, etc.).
- A printer (you’re on your own here).
- Glue or tape (I use hot glue and double-stick tape)
- Lollipop sticks (4″ is a good size for food toppers)
- *Scissors or…
- *Craft Punches (I’ll go into details a little later on WHICH craft punches you need).
If you buy a PDF Print-At-Home Party Set from me, this is what you’ll get: 5 pages of instructions and patterns, all of which you can print over and over again and use however you want. Just don’t give the PDF file away or sell it. I worked hard on it…I’m sure you understand.
This is the instruction page – it gives you some tips on how to use the patterns:
These are my ‘Ghoulish Glam’ patterns that you can cut out with scissors or with a 1.5″ circle craft punch (see below). It’s much easier/faster/nicer looking with a craft punch.
These are the striped backgrounds, which I’ve made approximately 2.5″ wide. You can cut them out with scissors, or punch them out with a craft punch. I use a 2″ craft punch (a scalloped circle), but you can also punch out regular circles, squares, ovals, etc.
The same thing here with the solid backgrounds – I didn’t put the graphics directly on the backgrounds so that you can customize them however you’d like!
And this is the striped pattern that I’ve included as well! You can cut triangles out of it (3 per page – instructions are on my instruction page) to make a pennant banner, you can use craft punches to make gift tags, napkin rings, cupcake topper backgrounds, confetti, or print them on label paper to make wine bottle labels. You can also fold them to make place cards, Halloween cards or favor tags. Or use your imagination because the file is yours to use however you’d like!
Here are some examples that I made using the file!
These are my “Little Monsters” party set, which is the same as the “Ghoulish Glam” set, except the center graphics are different!
So what is a ‘craft punch’ and where do you get it? Most people would just head down to their local craft store and find them in the paper crafting section (Michael’s, JoAnn’s, etc.). If you live in Likely, nowhere near a Michael’s, you have to shop online. I like Scrapbooking Alley.com because they don’t charge tax and have free shipping! Then you can (usually) find what you need – they seem to be sold out of the 2″ scalloped circle punches right now but I’ll show you the different brands anyway!
- {Click here for a list of places that sell the Uchida of America Super Jumbo 2″ scalloped circle punch.
- And click here for a list of places to buy the EK Success XL 2″ scalloped circle punch.}
What you’ll need is something like this (this brand is EK Success Paper Shapers – but this link will take you to the 3″ size – you need the XL 2″):
There is also the Uchida of America brand (which is what I have – but this link will take you to the Mega size, which is 2.5″ – you need the Super Jumbo):
When buying the Uchida of America brand, they come in lots of shapes and sizes, and here is a handy guide to their sizes:
- Xtra Giga (Blue/green color) is 3.5″
- Giga (Purple) is 3″
- Mega (Pink) is 2.5″
- Super Jumbo (Blue) is 2″ (the perfect size for making cupcake toppers!)
- Extra Jumbo (Yellow) is 1.5″(the perfect size for the center circles for cupcake toppers or napkin rings, etc.)
- Jumbo (Green) is 1″
- Standard (Peach) is .5″
You can also buy punches from a Stampin’ Up demonstrator, if you happen to know one. Stampin’ Up sells the EK Success brand.
Now how to make a cupcake topper: If you haven’t figured it out yet, I simply punch out the background color (printed onto white cardstock) with a 2″ scalloped circle punch, punch out the center graphic with a 1.5″ circle punch and then tape them together with double-stick tape. To attach lollipop sticks to the back (I use 4″ and I buy them on eBay), I like to use hot glue. Easy peasy, right?
And don’t forget, that if you want someone else to make some for you (ahem…me!), then you can buy them from my Etsy shop (I always pay for the shipping)! My oven is finally fixed, which means that I can bake some cupcakes to photograph my new cupcake topper designs – be on the lookout for new holiday toppers — so cute!!
Happy Halloween!!
Read More{Likely Solution} Ugly Tile
So you’ve probably already figured it out…we didn’t finish painting this weekend. But we had a good excuse! Glenn’s sister has moved into a new rental and we were there most of the day Saturday helping her unpack and rearrange. Glenn started priming the exteriors of the windows on Sunday, which led him to working on all sorts of other outdoor chores. I was inside cleaning, taking care of the little one, and working on picking paint for a client. Excuses, excuses, right?
So what we did this weekend brings me to what I’ll talk about today: how to take care of ugly tile without a crowbar. I guess ugly is a matter of opinion, but please just take a look at my sister-in-law’s new rental and her {lovely} kitchen that she has to work around. She has free reign with painting and colors, but the kitchen is something that you just can’t ignore. The kitchen itself is nice and big and has nice cabinets, but there are a few interesting design choices that she just can’t change.
They had to do A LOT of cleaning prior to actually living here!
My first thought is something that I’ve seen all over the interwebs: tile tattoos. Heard of ‘em? They’re pretty much just a decal that sticks right over your tile. The brand I’ve seen comes in 4″ x 4″, 6″ x 6″ and 6″ x 3″ subway size to cover any standard tile sizes and they don’t leave a sticky residue when you try to remove them. Great for renters, right? You can find them with transparent backgrounds, so that the tile color shows through, or with opaque backgrounds to cover the entire tile. Which is what we’d need in this case!
Glenn cleaning the glass over the light above the sink. What a nice brother!
As you can see, there are some beautiful flowers painted onto their backsplash (I’m not quite sure if it’s painted on or if it’s how the tile came). Not so beautiful for the backsplashes, though…flowers belong in vases! The flower patterns are in increments of 3 or 6 tiles wide, so if we use these I think we’d just make stripes, but with these cute-as-a-button tile tattoo patterns I’ve found it would look great!
The most available brand online is called Mibo, and can be found at many online retailers such as 2Jane and Target and are sold in packs of 6 (all photos linked to shopping source!). They range from about $13/pack to $18/pack, depending on the size you need. Here are some of my favorite designs:
Chessel Black on White background (2Jane)
Loverstone Black on White Background (2Jane)
Ventor Red on White Background (2Jane)
Shanklin Taupe on White Background (2Jane)
Ventor Black on Clear Subway Size (2Jane)
I really love the retro designs, and they would be perfect for my sister-in-law’s taste and style. Just do a Google search for ’tile tattoos’ and you’ll find tons of places to snag some of these for your kitchen or bathroom. Or anywhere you need some waterproof decor!
I also found this set on Etsy {seller enna}, but that’s the only one I could see that were made for the purpose of sticking to tiles. The woodland creatures would be cute in a kids’ bathroom. Any screen printers out there? I bet these would be a big hit on Etsy! You can also request custom sizes and colors from other sellers, so that is another option as well.
The online store, 2Jane, where you can buy the entire Mibo line, also has a blog where they showcased a customer’s Mibo tile job, which is nice to see how it turned out for a customer (instead of just seeing the marketing photos). I think it turned out pretty cute!
{Before}
{After}
What do you think of Tile Tattoos? Yay? Nay? Are there any other brands out there that you can find?
My opinion is that if you own and can change up your tile then go for it (get something you really love), but this would be a good temporary option, or something you could do to customize your kitchen if you can’t change it! I’ll be sure to post pics if this is what my sister-in-law goes for!
Happy Monday and have a great week! xo, L.
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About Me
I'm an interior designer and a draftsperson, but I live in the country. I like it that way. I'm also a firefighter's wife, mom to 2 cute kids, and a homeowner and I like that even better. But right after that is a pretty and affordable space...and I mean a REALLY affordable space. Because I believe good design can be for EVERYONE!
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