DIY: Moss Covered Letters

When Rustyn and I were planning our wedding this past March I knew I wanted it to represent us. We were blessed to have a lot of help from our incredible wedding planner; we could not have made it happen without her and her team. They got together almost all of the decorations but I wanted some personal touches here and there. I was limited due to the fact that I was living in Tulsa and was getting married in Shreveport, LA. So I thought of some things I could make here and take there. 

One of my favorite personal touches was my moss covered letters.

Materials:

Wooden letters from Michael's

Mod Podge

Moss (can be bought in a bag at your local craft store)

Directions:

To cover my letters I simply worked in sections. I covered a small section in Mod Podge and then applied the moss, until the entire letter was covered. I did not cover the bottom of the letter because that would make it uneven and it would have been difficult to stand up. After the letter was covered I used scissors to trim the excess moss from the sides. 

If you make your own handle the letters gently because the moss does seem to shed and leave behind a trail of dirt if moved around. 

Our Initials

Photos by Soul Rebels Photography in Shreveport, LA

DIY: Crafty Key Holder

For some reason my husband and I lose our keys like nobody's business! They get left in pants pockets, in backpacks, on the table under papers, heck, even when I know they are in my purse it still takes me 5 minutes just to fish them out of that gargantuous bag! For this reason I decided to make a key holder to put up by the door. 

Materials Needed: 

A Piece of Wood (Michael's has some really cute shapes!)

Acrylic Paint (my Favorite kind is Liquitex Basics)

Scrabble letters (also found at Michael's, *Please don't go buy the game just for crafts like this one!!!*)

Nails (could use hooks but I like the homemade look)

Gorilla Glue

Wire

Directions:

First paint the wood. Be sure to wait for it to dry between coat, wood does a good job of soaking up the paint and requires 2-3 coats. I did 2 but I should have done one more! 

Next you will decided what you want your board to say. Place the letters on the board to make sure they will fit. Once they are arranged how you like them you can glue them down. 

Next you can hammer in a few nails or screw in a few hooks.

To finish my board I added two nails to the back and wrapped a wire around each so that I would have something to hang it on. 

And there you have it. Another DIY project in the bag.

I Should have added another coat of paint.  

DIY: Up-cycled Vintage Suitcase

When Rustyn and I went Garagin' I fell in love with a couple of old suit cases. I found the first one at an estate sale. I was so excited, it was marked at $20.00 but we arrived on the last day of the sale so everything was marked down 50%. Woohoo, $10.00!!! I thought I did so good. I was so excited. Then Lo and behold there it was at the next place we stopped an even cuter vintage case for only $2.00. Rustyn thought it was so funny but I didn't let this get me down, I just bought it to and said I got two cases for only $12.00, what a find! :) I knew when I bought the cases that I wanted to paint them. Here's how I did the first one.

Here is the original case. Great condition, boring color!

Materials: Case, Latex Colorstay Satin paint, brush, tape, Krylon Primer, and Diet Coke to help me along~ of course!

Taped off and ready for primer.

The first thing I did, after cleaning my case with Clorox, was tape off the metal parts. You could paint all of it but I wanted to keep the silver metal. After I taped all the metal parts off I headed outside to prime my case. I used a can of Krylon spray primer, otherwise I'd probably just do it inside. It's over 100 degrees here in OK and it September!!! 

Case primed and ready for painting!

After I primed my case I went back inside to the A/C! To start painting.

Bermuda Bay Colorplace Paint.

I chose a color called Bermuda Bay and I am thrilled with the way it turned out! I painted in stages, letting each side dry before flipping over to the other side. I ended up painting 3 coats. 2 would suffice but I wanted to make sure it was even. When I took the paint off I had to touch up around the metal. It took a lot of work but I am happy with the way it turned out.

I cut out the Tiffany's logo from a magazine. I'm kind of obsessed! Plus the case needed my name on it anyways :) 

DIY: Photo Collage

When my husband and I first moved into our apartment I was so excited about decorating; however, once I started shopping around and saw how expensive everything was I had to rethink my plans. If I were in a house I would not mind putting more money down on decorations but decorating an apartment that we plan to move out of within a couple of years seemed a little wasteful.

I stomached the boring, plain white walls for as long as I could. After a while I knew I had to get something up or I'd go crazy! So I did what every girl my age would do... I searched pinterest for a little inspiration! I knew two things, I love pictures and I love hearts! So I searched for heart photo collages. I found tons of variations. Collages made from frames, pictures all meshed together, spread out evenly, the options were endless.

Below is what I settled on:

Materials:
48 of my favorite pictures
1 large foam board from Hobby lobby
1 tube of Liquitex Basics Acrylic Paint, Naples Yellow Hue
Mod Podge
2 big foam paint brushes (one for paint and one for glue)
1 square coaster

Step-By-Step:
The first thing I did was paint my board. I painted two coats.
While my board was drying I cut each of my pictures into perfect squares, using the coaster as a guide.
Once the paint was dry and all 48 pictures were perfect squares, I began to create my collage. I started at the bottom and worked my way up.
Once I had a layout I was happy with I added Mod Poge to the back of every picture and glued them down.

Voila!!!

Super easy, really cheap, and lots of fun!!!