populaR

Filed Under: cute, decor, design, diy, easy, family, populaR, tutorial · Tagged: cheap, family, photo, print

Mar 1, 2012

Flower bun with woven ribbon tutorial

By Connie · 53 Comments

To everyone coming over from Blogelina,

Grab a comfy chair and have a look around. I would love it if you would sign up for my rss feed, subscribe by email or follow me so you don’t miss out on anything. You can find all the ways to keep updated in my sidebar.

Today I am excited to show you one of my favorite hair dos. I do this on my girls all the time {or at least I did before they both chopped their hair} and Ialways get stopped by people. This one everyone seems to love. I call it the Flower bun with weaved ribbon.

It’s very easy to do and super cute. You’ll want to start out with slightly damp hair. I just sprayed it using my leave in conditioner.

Click on the video below for the tutorial.

Thanks for reading!!

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Filed Under: cute, girls, hair, populaR, tutorial · Tagged: cute, easy, hair, hairdo, tutorial

Jan 10, 2012

Free Printable…Valentines

By Connie · 7 Comments

It seems like forever since I have done a free printable. {really it’s only been since before Christmas but that seems like forever ago} And since they are my absolute FAVORITE things to create, I just had to do one for Valentines day.
Yes, I know it is a little bit early. But this printable is a good thing for everyday and I had to give you some time to get it printed and framed etc. I hope you enjoy it!!

Click the image above to download your high quality copy.

It is sized to 8×10 but I can do different sizes if you need. Just let me know. I hope you will want to display this in your homes. It is a saying that is near and dear to my heart and something I want to be reminded of daily.

Here is where it went in my home:

I know my mantle is a little sparse but I kinda love it. The surfboard and turtle is from our last trip to Hawaii so they have sentimental value and the figurines were given to me by my hubby. The little girl to represent my girls and the man and woman hugging with the baby He gave to me when I had our last baby. They all mean a lot to me. And I totally LOVE it!!

P.S. Want to keep up on new printables from me? Did you know you can follow me on scribd?? Well you can if you want to. Click here for more info.

Thanks for reading!!

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Quirky Tip of the Day…removing sticky finisher

Filed Under: populaR, printable · Tagged: chevron, cute, decor, decorating, love, love is spoken here, pink, printable, valentine's day

Dec 27, 2011

Most popular posts of 2011

By Connie · 3 Comments

Last year, before I started my blog I was an avid blog reader. Still am. One of my favorite posts was where bloggers listed their most popular posts for the year. It was fun to see some things I had missed and some I didn’t remember. So I am jumping on board and here are my most popular posts for 2011. I hope you enjoy!!

#10–

how to clean varnish from hands

#9–

photo blocks

It’s a crafty Christmas…Photo Blocks

#8–

Star Hair in time for the 4th of July

#7–

step 9

T shirt headband

#6–

pray

Printable…best quote ever

#5–

Spring is in the air…crochet flower pattern

#4–

images

Quirky tip of the day…Make your own leave in conditioner

#3–

cute easy hair bun

Easy Bun

#2–

draw on dishes

It’s a crafty Christmas…Good Morning Cereal Bowls

And the #1 Most popular post on Measured by the heart is:

simple elegant hair tutorial

Hair Tutorial…A surprise twist

Thank you to everyone who has been with me on this blogging journey this year!! I truly appreciate you all. In case you haven’t heard, I am doing a New Year…New Blog series in January. I will be posting a lot of great blog tutorials. If there is something you would like to learn how to do, please leave me a comment. As part of this series, I am making some changes on this blog. I would love to have your input so I have posted a poll on my side bar at the very top. I would appreciate it if you could take a moment and vote for what you like about this blog. Thanks in advance!!

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Filed Under: blog, populaR · Tagged: crochet, hair, popular, printable

Dec 7, 2011

It’s a crafty Christmas…lifesaver necklaces

By Connie · 4 Comments

We are making these cute little necklaces for my nieces and the girls friends. It seems every time someone comes over to play and they see them sitting out, they gravitate toward them and make cute exclamations like “oh how cute” or “ooh I like that”. So I think it is a winner for girls.

You start out with a standard washer in a bigger size.

My hubbs brought me home a whole box of these. Wasn’t that nice?? I think they would look awesome in even bigger sizes too. I used some scrap book paper I had around and just traced the washer onto the paper and then cut it out.

The next step is to glue it onto the washer. I have used both modge podge and spray adhesive for this. Both work. The modge podge takes longer to dry but other than that they were pretty similar. Don’t use things like hot glue because it will add lumps of glue under the paper and you want something that will let it lay really flat. Also, make sure you glue it on so it sticks well. You don’t want to make these all up and then have them peeling off.

After you glue it on, turn it over to the backside. You will see some paper over lap where it is bigger than the washer.

Take your scissors and trim around the outside. Don’t worry about the over lap in the center hole.

When you get it all trimmed up and it is securely affixed on and all dry, you need to grab your Dimensional Magic. It comes in a bottle and looks like this:

You can do so many things with it, and it lasts FoReVeR. You will put a thinish layer on the top of your paper.

It goes on a bit cloudy but dries clear. You want to make sure and pop any bubbles you may get so they don’t harden. Then you just let it sit and dry.

Once it’s dry, thread your string through the middle and there you have it. Lifesaver necklaces!!

Hope your girls enjoy!! Thanks for reading!!

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Filed Under: christmas, diy, girls, jewelry, populaR · Tagged: christmas, gift, girls, jewelry

Dec 1, 2011

It’s a crafty Christmas…

By Connie · 14 Comments

Every year, we have 32 people to buy presents for NOT including us and our children. That’s A LOT!! We end up with 8 family parties scattered through out December. It makes Christmas a month long event for us and we wouldn’t have it any other way!! But buying for SO many people can be tricky. Especially this year. {Did you read my sob story?}

I am such a cheap thrifty person that I just cannot bring myself to run to the mall and buy buy buy for everyone. But I don’t want them to get the “homemade” present. I don’t want us to be the “oh great they got my name” family. And I know Christmas isn’t about the presents, but I also know the reality is that it does matter to a lot of people. And I do want them to have something nice from us.

So, Long story not so short, I had a “super Saturday” of sorts and made a whole bunch of things that I hope will be nice presents for people but also were very inexpensive.

This month, I will be sharing them with you so you can make them for the people on your list too!! {what a long intro, I seem to be a rambler lately}

Our very first ever Christmas Craft is:

Good Morning Cereal Bowls

These are so easy to make. You just need to find these markers:

I looked first at Wally world. No go. Then I went to Hobby Lobby. They either didn’t carry these or they didn’t know where they were. So I went on a last ditch effort to Michaels. Not only did they have them but the people were super nice. At first she didn’t know exactly where they were, but she didn’t give up and just say sorry we don’t have it {unlike someone at a different store} she got on her walkie talkie, asked where they were and walked me to them. I will be shopping at Michaels more often for sure!!

They are called Porcelaine 150. They have Porcelaine 160 which is supposed to be frosted. I’m excited to try them. But for this project I wanted a strong readable line. They come in all sorts of colors {I got three different colors and the projects with them are coming up}. They do run about $4 for one. Normally I wouldn’t pay $4 for a marker but these are so worth it. They go a long long way. We made at least 20 different projects with one pen.

I got my dishes at the dollar store. Then it’s just write on them.

The one tip I have is…Try not to go over your writing again. It builds up the paint from the marker and isn’t as clean and nice.

I’m considering having my kids draw a little picture on the bottom of the bowl.

That way when people eat their cereal they will uncover the picture. I’m undecided. As a mom I would LOVE that pic from my kids while they are young. But there is also something to be said for simple. What do you think?

The last thing to do is bake your dishes. Put them in the oven while it is still cool. Then heat it up to 350. Let it bake for 30 mins. Turn the oven off and let them cool inside. Then pull them out and use them. This will make them food safe and dishwasher safe. I have used and washed mine and they were just fine.

I hope you enjoy these cereal bowl gift ideas. Let me know if you decide to make some yourself.

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Filed Under: christmas, gift, paint, populaR, tutorial · Tagged: christmas, craft, cute, gift, tutorial

Nov 7, 2011

Thrifted Desk Redo

By Connie · 8 Comments

As promised here is the tutorial for my red desk. I love how it came out. Here is what I started with:

I got this desk at the thrift store for $20. Score!! But I didn’t love the yellowy wood. So I started with a black base coat.

I didn’t worry too much about getting a very solid coat because I knew it was just the base coat. But I wanted to be able to sand and have the black show through. I wanted it chippy and worn looking. I have used candle wax before but this time I tried soap. I just got a regular bar of soap. I rubbed it all over the edges and everywhere I thought I would want to sand and have the black show through.

You can see I rubbed it on pretty thick. I wanted a very distressed look. You can go lighter depending on what you want the finished look to be. I liked the soap so much better than using wax. The wax left little wax particles and it made the finish bumpy and not smooth. The soap was also easier to sand. And the look was better too. I will use soap again and not wax.

I spray painted my top coat in Burgundy by Krylon.

Ok so that is cute enough, but I didn’t do the black and soap steps for nothing. Just get out your sandpaper and sand down all the spots where you put the soap. It comes off easily. If you see a powdery substance, that is the dried soap. Just keep sanding past it to the black. And then you get this:

And here’s a close-up so you can see the awesome chippiness:

See how using the soap distresses differently than regular sanding? I LOVE it. I will be using this method again!!

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