Holiday Plaques {The Wood Connection}

I love how the wood connections allows you to let your creativity sour. The raw wood that you get to make your own, and bring your creativity into your home is so fun. I am happy every time I go and leave with much more than I planned on. My kids also love it and love coming home with a little craft for themselves to bring home and work on with mommy. 

I loved my Valentines plaque so much that I created from the Wood Connection goodies that I just had to share with you my St. Patricks and Easter versions. They are so simple, easy to put together, cheap, and so fun to be able to put up during the holidays on your mantel, the wall or a little side table. All three versions I used the same technique and the supplies are from the Wood Connection.

Supplies Needed

-Small Wooden Plaque
-Small character wood pieces
-Paint
-Paint brushes
-Glitter
-Wood glue
-Sand block
-vinyl
-painters tape

***All of these items can be found and were purchased at the WOOD CONNECTION

What I did

For the St. Patricks plaque First I just painted the plaque gold. Then once it was dry I placed the vinyl on the wood plaque and painted over it with the ivory white.  I did two coats letting it dry completely between each coat and that was plenty of coverage.

Then Once the white was dry I peeled off the vinyl so that you could see the gold "Lucky" underneath.

On the easter plaque I simply painted the whole thing a pale yellow. I did two coats letting it dry completely between each coat. Then once it was dry I taped off stripes with painters tape and painted the middle of the plaque a light blue. Two coats letting it dry completely between each coat and then once dry peeling off the painters tape

Then on both the plaques once all the paint was dry I sanded down the edges to make it look a little worn. I feel like this makes it look more finished. 

Next it was time to paint the little wood character pieces. For the pot of gold I simply painted the top gold and the bottom black, then once it was dry I sanded down the edges and then painted on wood glue and put on the glitter. For the clover I painted it green and added glitter and she horseshoe is gold with glitter.  Once those were all dry I glued them to the plaque with wood glue and your all done.

With the easter one I did an egg that I plainted pink and added glitter, a bunny just white and sanded down and a carrot with orange and green glitter for the top. Attached with wood glue.

This was my valentines version I created last month. You can find the tutorial for this one HERE.

All three and I am sure I will keep on with this tradition and make one for every season and holiday I am excited to make more. Thank you to The wood connection for having me and providing me with these awesome products. Now go and get your craft on!!!

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Wood Chalkboard Banner {The Wood Connection} & a GIVEAWAY

Happy Monday friends I am excited to be starting out the week with a fun tutorial that I think anyone can make and anyone will love in their home. It can go with just about any style, holiday or occasion. Have you heard of the Wood Connection?  I love it , the cutest store, the fun little play house for the kids, the projects and supplies, and all the cute girls that work there, it is the best and you have to go! I am there often and especially love all of their holiday goodness. You can check out my other guest posts that I have done for them HERE and HERE.

As you can tell from my other posts I am kinda obsessed with banners, so yes today it is another banner but this one is my favorite because it is so easy and you can keep it up all year round and use it anywhere and for all sorts of occasions. It is a Wood chalkboard scalloped banner! Make as many or as little as you want, add and take pieces away depending on what you want it to say and dress it up for each holiday or party. The best part is it is so easy, cheap and FAST!!!

{Supplies I Used}

-Any amount of scalloped wood banner pieces {Wood connection}- I painted 12 so I can use as any or as little as I want depending on the holiday or occasion.
-Primer
-Chalkboard paint {They sell this at the wood connection}
-Sponge brush
-Bakers twine
-Chalk
-Rag

 {How I made it}

First I primed the banner pieces with a light coat of the spray primer this is so the chalk paint bonds better to the wood and you don't have to use as much of the chalk paint. A little goes a longer way. Let that dry completely. It only takes about 30  minutes to dry.

Once dry, next comes the chalkboard paint. First paint all the edges and then go back and paint the surface.

I did four coats of the chalk paint just to make sure it will with hold any bumps or moving it around or my boys little hands, letting it dry completely between each coat. 

Next before you can write on the surfaces you are going to want to prep the new chalkboards. This technique is so that when you write on the surface it will not leave a ghost or shadow behind when you erase. Do not skip this step, it is important to keep the chalkboard looking nice and reusable. Take a piece of chalk, turn it on its side and rub down the whole thing with the chalk until it is completely covered. Then you will just simply wipe it off with a rag and then you are ready to write on it.

Once all of your banner pieces are prepped it is time to string them together. First, ask yourself,  where are you putting it? what do you want it to say? I was putting mine in my front room and I wanted it to say Gobble for thanksgiving so I used 6 of my 12 pieces for this month. Then I strung them together with some yellow and white bakers twine {Also available at the Wood connection}. For Christmas I will simply exchange out the number that I need for the Christmas word I choose to use, then for winter, valentines day, birthdays and so on. I am going to keep this up all year round and I am so excited about it.

Lastly you are going to write your saying. I wanted to keep this first one simple because my thanksgiving decor is very simple, clean and fresh and this just fits right in.

You can dress it up with some different handwriting styles {I like to look on pinterest for inspiration on their fonts pages}, you can add borders, drawings, doodles and even use some fun colored chalk. I am excited to try something new each month and share it with you all.

Fun right! Now go make yourself one in time to decorate for all the Christmas decor bliss!!! And now my friends from the wood connection are giving away a $25 gift certificate to use at their store!!! So now you have no excuse to go and make your own. Hello it is Chalkboard that is a good enough reason right there. They also have the CUTEST holiday stuff out right now you will die!  Simply fill out the rafflecopter below to enter. GOOD LUCK!

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Happy Crafting 

and 

Happy Thanksgiving

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Holden's First Birthday {Circus Theme}

As my sweet baby Holden's first birthday quickly approached us I was walking through the Wood connection on just one of my way to frequent trips, and saw the adorable wood elephants, and some wood mustaches and other goodies and I knew just what I wanted baby H's birthday theme to be . A circus theme, how adorable would that be?! I didn't want it to be too stressful but of course wanted it to be cute and fun for our guests and so this is what I came up with.

First off the weather was beautiful,lLove summer birthdays, so we had the whole event outside and it was perfect. At one point the sun was beating down on us so we just slid into the garage and all was well.

Chalkboards are always a must at a party am I right? I adore chalkboards and think they are perfect for all decor. This one is actually port of my home decor and I just took it right off the wall for the party. I just got this one at hobby lobby and painted the edges red to match my kitchen. It was also super cheap especially with a coupon so that is always a plus.

I love the striped paper straws for parties especially the really thick high quality ones that don't go as soggy as fast. We all like cute but no one wants a soggy straw. I have had these in my stash for a while now but I originally got them from Orson Gygi and I simply used some fun Washi tape I already had from Pick Your Plum and taped little pieces to the top making little flags. These make it cute and go with the theme but they are also to write your name on so you can keep track of your drink in the sea of cups at a party.

The cake was so so simple but I absolutely love the way it turned out. I have been loving the simple layered cakes with a banner as decor lately so I went with it.  I used two cake mixes for a four layer cake. I made them just like THIS POST. But before I baked them I split the batter into fourths in separate bowls then I added food coloring to each bowl, red, green, blue and yellow. Then each colored batter was baked in its own circle pan for the time suggested on the box. Once they were cool I wrapped them in seran wrap and then in foil and put them in the freezer. This is such a great cake decorating tip, because then it is much easier to frost when the cake is hard and frozen. I just hate when I am trying to frost a cake and it is all crumbly. Also putting it in the freezer makes them so much more moist. mmmm.

On party day about two hours before the party you can go ahead and make your homemade frosting from THIS POST, and then start frosting them frozen making sure to frost in between each layer. once they are all stacked and glued together with the frosting then you will frost the whole outside. I just used a plan white frosting, a cute banner and then when you cut into the cake it is a colorful surprise of goodness!!

Like I said I simply topped the cake off with a little banner I crafted up the night before. I just took some colored paper and cut them into one by 8 inch strips then cut the strips in half so they were about 4X1. Then I folded them over and cut some into a triangle shape and others into a pendant shape and then glued them onto some red bakers twine. Then I used some cute letter stickers I had in my craft stash to spell out "HOLDEN IS ONE.} Then I tied the little banners to some paper straws. Then to get the banner to stick up nice and sturdy I poked some wood scewers into the cake on each side and then slid the straws over top of them. Then I added some cute little clown candles I found at Orson Gygi and the cake was complete. And can I just say sooooo delicious.

Holden's little special smash cake was just a mini version of the big cake I made. I just used a little bit of each of the colors of batter and baked them in 4 different cupcake tins and then used half of each cupcake and layered them using frosting between each layer, then frosting the outside and put a polka dot colorful one candle on top.

These little adorable guys came from the wood connection and I just painted them with some craft paint I already had. They are what inspired this whole theme. I will be using them as decor in my boys room now that the party is over.

I think that displaying photos at a birthday party is the best part. So everyone can oo and aww over how cute they are. I displayed some pictures of him on a couple tables in some 99 cent IKEA frames {love these}, one in a fun wood connection frame, and of course I had to make a picture banner of each month of his little life so far. 

Why yes of course I took some embarrassing pictures of this adorable boy in a clown suit just for some pics for the tables! I am so that mom. But seriously I have never seen a cuter clown in my life.

The month to month banner was super easy and it will be fun to display over his crib in his room now that the party is over. I just printed out some pictures that I had of the little bug from the day he was born, each month until his 12 months. Then I punched two wholes in each picture at the top and then just strung through some bakers twine and it is done. How fun is that to see how much he changed and grew in just one little year.

 

For food we had hot dogs and chips keeping up the circus theme and then some of our friends and family brought some salads and fruit to eat as well.

We had two circus tents for the kids to play in while they were there. The one pictured above is my mother in laws from IKEA and then other one is a DIY A frame tent my cute Ty and I made together for one of Holden's presents. Tutorial coming soon!

Another fun thing we had going on throughout the whole party was a little photo booth set up for the kids to be silly, have fun and get their pictures taken with some fun circus theme props.  You can see more about the photo booth and how I made the props from THIS POST.

Check out this post for some photo booth ideas. 

 

The party turned out perfect, it was so much fun and our sweet little Holden is loved by so many people. Thank you to all of our friends and family who came and made it such a success and so much fun for our little bug!

Tutorial coming soon. Holden's birthday present made by yours truly including the fabric. EEEK its exciting I can't wait to share.

 

I know everyone says this but really I can't believe my baby is already one. The second baby seems to grow up even faster than the first. Happy Birthday Holdy bug we love you to the moon and back plus infinity.

 

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