DIY Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Banner

We're hosting a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Halloween party this year.

I wasn't feeling like I wanted to do excessive crafting for this party and while looking for decorations,

I found a plain skull garland. 

So I decided to jazz it up a bit for our party. 

Keep reading for the details or just enjoy the pictures!

Y O U  W I L L  N E E D //

+ paper skull garland

I found this same banner/garland at Target and Wal-Mart. 

Other options would be to print out skills and cut around them 

or if you have a cutting machine-use that to cut out skull shapes.

+ brightly colored paint

+ papers

to make paper flowers-other options would be making felt flowers 

or purchasing flowers from the dollar store

+ various embellishments

Definitely an optional part. 

Just use whatever you've got lying around the house!

S I M P L E  I N S T R U C T I O N S //

Use a q-tip to add paint then hot glue embellishments and flowers.

To make my paper flowers I just googled "paper flowers" and followed the pictures.

I just wanted to make this easy and quick.

There you have it!

xo_lauryn

♥

Fake Screen Printing//Easy DIY Quote Tee

Easy easy DIY Quote Tee Tutorial for you... 

All you do is use this fabulous paint!!

Yes, I know its a super simple post tonight..

but when I found this stuff I couldn't help but share.

This Tulip Soft Matte Fabric Paint is no ordinary type of fabric paint! 

It literally dries up and looks like it has been screen printed.

I just hand drew mine, but you could easily do any stencil or print and trace a cute font. 

I recommend using multiple coats. To make mine look super solid I used about 3 or 4 coats of paint. 

I'm in love with this stuff. Try your hand at it... You're gonna LOVE it.

Goodnight friends!

xo_lauryn

♥

thank you from the bottom of my toes

A little bit ago we celebrated my little babe's first birthday.

I wanted to send out thank you cards from him. Not me.

So I came up with a little "personalization" from my sweet boy...

Teeny foot prints!

I just bought blank kraft paper cards 

(you can get them at any craft store, mine are from hobby lobby)

then painted my little boy's foot white and stamped it on the cards....

and yes, 

as you can imagine many feet looked a little distorted, but they are still such cute little toesies!

I waited for the paint to dry then just wrote on top with my handy prismacolor brush pen.

Easy peasy, and perfect way to personalize a thank you card for littles who can't write...

let alone talk much. ;)

'til next time!

xo_lauryn

♥ ♥ ♥

Baby Boy Easter Basket

+happy easter everyone+

(well, tomorrow!)

I've been busy playing Easter Bunny and finally got his basket together!

The basket itself is a beach pail with a shovel and has in it:

+peeps

+easter eggs full of gerber puff snacks

+a handmade painted shirt

+a bunny ears beanie from hobby lobby

and

+the cutest woody itty bitty from hallmark!

I also handmade this little hipster bunny for my sweet baby.

(A post on that is coming later!)

and I bought these brand new shoes for my little mover from wal-mart 

for his easter outfit.

(a post coming tomorrow!)

 This is my teeny's first Easter and I am so excited for him to see 

what the Easter Bunny has in store for him tomorrow morning! 

xo__lauryn

♥

vintage circus wedding: ring toss banner with fabric letters

a carnival wedding MUST have carnival games, right?

at little sissy's wedding, there will be a ring toss.

i made a banner for the ring toss and got stuck on how i was going to write "RING TOSS"

i wanted the letters to stand out.

i thought of drawing them but that wouldn't show up on the yellow paper.

i thought about cutting out paper, but i felt like it would have looked unprofessional.

as i was thinking, i saw a piece of burnt orange fabric and an idea sparked!

twisted fabric letters!!

i will be able to get a picture of the full banner at the actual wedding.

we have wedding stuff scattered around the house, so i couldn't find a pretty clutter-free photo area.

i also made a chain link out of fun scrapbook paper. 

i will be hanging this up around the reception room.

wedding planning has been fun, but i'm SO excited to have it over with.

this has been such a CRAZY busy time for us!

have a loverrly day.

vintage circus wedding: cupcakes display

hola!

if you are confused about the link party, see below

no need to read this fine print if you just want to see today's post.

+++++++++++

ok guys.

we have got some link party mess going on.

for all of you that come to the blog for link parties, 

i am sorry for not posting this past weekend's spread the love party.

i had homework drama and had to focus on that. (argh..)

but then i noticed our last spread the love party was still getting submissions. what!

yes, somehow i left the weekend party open for quite the amount of time.

i think like 20 days are still left to submit, yikes!

anyone know how to fix this but keep the links that are already there?

the upcoming parties will stay as normal, 

they will open on friday morning and close on monday morning.

i don't know how the past one went all crazy.

probably because that is my life right now. hrmph. 

here's my word: you can count on a NORMAL spread the love link party on friday :)

+++++++++++

& for the real post content:

the announcements came in on friday!!

yaay. yaay. yaay.

i will be posting pictures later this week!

little sissy's wedding planning is coming along quite nicely.

she is having a lot of great carnival style food at the wedding.

popcorn, cotton candy, lemonade..yum!

& there will also be cupcakes from the amazing cocoa bean

they have the greatest named flavors so i decided to make labels for them.

i made the labels using greeting cards, a sharpie, and my bwain!

we gathered various platters & made some of our own to display the cupcakes.

easy peasy.

i am excited to show the pictures from the wedding when there are actually cupcakes on these beauties!

happy monday!

let's all just cross our fingers for a stress free week this week. 

please oh please.

lot's of love!

♥

vintage circus wedding: smashbook wedding guestbook

as promised, 

a piece of the wedding right here for you!

if you don't know already, 

little sissy is getting married soon so i am doing a TON of wedding planning.

sissy get's two guestbooks (seems weird, i know)

one is a fingerprint sign in & 

we wanted everyone to get a chance to write a message if they wish.

so, i turned to a smashbook.

decorated the cover, and had and instant, inexpensive guestbook!

it's pretty fun, wouldn't you say!

happy wednesday :)

wooden photo blocks

this summer i salvaged some wooden block remnants from grandpa's firewood stash.

i knew something good could come out of them.

after having them in my car for a few weeks, 

i brought them inside.

after staring at blank blocks for a good few days,

i nailed it.

i decided i was going to make wooden blocks saying "LOVE"

well...

here they are.

turns out i didn't want to do "LOVE" blocks.

i kinda just messed around until i came out with these picture blocks.

i had a beautiful paper pack.

i cut each of the papers to the size of the blocks and spray glued them on.

i antiqued the edges with a chalk stamp pad & mod podged the top.

the elements (rose, ticket, etc.) were also part of the scrapbook pack.

darling stuff i tell ya.

the clothes pins are hot glued to the block.

i added a strip of paper to cover the pin.

the pictures are interchangeable because of the clothes pins.

saweet!

here i wrapped the block with yarn.. just a simple embellishment.

although i imagined something different, 

i am glad with how the blocks turned out!

they are a great way to use up your cute scrapbook paper..

ya know the kind you are saving because you know you want it displayed, 

you just don't know how to display it!

(i could be the only crazy person who does that...)

have a great day!

schools are starting for me today.

back at the university tomorrow, 

and welcoming the little preschoolers to their first day of school.

a crazy, but exciting day for me!

also, 

little sissy is getting MARRIED! 

& i am in charge of planning.

so thank you for being understanding & patient with me

during this fast paced time of life.

{love} lauryn

no sew lace pocket jeans

so i had this pair of seriously boring pants.

they really had just nothing going for them.

so i thought if i updated the pockets i might wear them more.

i decided to add some lace and i LOVE the pants.

i will wear them all the time now!

i have to say,

this is such an awkward post.

i have been putting it off because, 

let's face it...

i had to take pictures of my behind.

yikes.

but i finally buckled down and had the little sissy snap some pics:

like them?

here's the tutorial:

the instructions below match the numbered photos

1. you will need 

fabric glue

(i used jones tones and it worked awesome)

lace

& scissors.

that's it!

2. cut the lace to the size of the pockets

3. squirt a couple stripes of glue where you are going to lay the lace

4. spread out the glue (i just used my fingers) and lay the lace.

then let it dry for 24 hours and you're done!

pretty excited about my "new" pants!

have a great day!

diy quote on canvas

this is my absolute favorite quote.

it's from the movie the perfect man...

which is really not a popular movie.

hilary duff in her prime baby.

and i LOVE the movie.

i decided i wanted this quite in my home to remind me, 

every day holds the potential for beauty.

so inspiring to me &

a great reminder to be positive and find beauty in every moment of life.

& making it was super easy!

after this, i got on my computer and chose a font i liked.

i wanted to choose a thick/bold font because i knew i would be cutting it out.

i cut out each letter...tedious, but easy

and arranged them on the board.

when you have arranged your letters, mod podge them on top of the canvas

WARNING... be VERY sure that every word fits across evenly.

i had glued on the word "potential" got to the last "a" and had ZERO space for the "l"

crap.

so i added some buttons & smudges of ink pads to cover my mistakes.

i wasn't to happy about it... i really just wanted it to be simple, 

but hey... it works!

if you are looking for some easy diy home decor, 

this will do the trick!

have a lovely day!