DIY – Page 3 – Mom Life in the PNW

Jenn

First Sale on Etsy After 2.5 Months

After 2 and a half months of getting our Jenn Makes it Cute etsy shop up, I am happy to say we got our first etsy sale. Yay!

And it was my seahawks inspired paper mobile for a nursery, kids room or wherever you see fit.

It has been a little discouraging to know that etsy is basically like a blog and it requires a lil more work than just posting your items and hoping you get a sale. You need to keyword your titles and descriptions and the more favorites/views you get, the better your listing will rank in the search.

I hope this means my work is paying off and that many more sales are to come.

Thank you for looking and possibly even buying. Just remember we can do custom orders as well.

Jenn Makes it Cute

Jenn

DIY Crafty Designs – We Have An Etsy Shop Called Make it Cute!

So whenever I have a little free time, I have been using it to put together these paper mobiles with a friend of mine who’s also “Jenn”. I originally started one for my sisters baby shower since I thought it was creative and cute. The first one took forever since we were just starting out, but now that we got another method down it doesn’t take too long once we get into rhythm and keep baby occupied at the same time (thank god for gigglebellies on youtube)

We don’t just make paper mobiles though, we do button animals/shapes/letters on canvas, banners for birthdays, baby showers, weddings, kids rooms/nurseries, paper cupcake toppers, typography on photo paper and more. If we can think of it, we’ll probably do it.

I have so many DIY crafty designs running through my head, but don’t want to get too ahead of myself here until we start making some sells since there’s no point in having all of these items sit around with no one to buy them.

Which is why I am posting and sharing here. We need to get our name out there, if you’d like, please go give us a favorite on Etsy, we’d really appreciate it.

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We can do custom designs as well, so if you have something in mind and want to work with us, let us know in the comments or you can send us a message over on our Make it Cute Facebook page. Once we reach 100 likes on Facebook we’ll have a fan discount.

Jenn

Nesting is a Real Symptom

Out of all of the pregnancy symptoms, nesting has been the one that’s most true, for me anyways.

Today the computer room disgusted me so I had to clean it up and organize it a bit. It’s still not to my liking but it’s better than it was before. I’ve been browsing Pinterest (very very dangerous by the way) and have been daydreaming of all the DIY home decor. Obviously these peoples homes are way nicer than ours but if we put forth the effort to spruce up ours, it could look just as nice, but damn, who has time for all of that?

My husband has a book shelf in our office with so many books on it that it’s overflowing and becoming an eye sore. I hate it, but there’s nothing I can do about it other than buy or create another book shelf. The hard part would be getting the same color wood as the original which is an ugly oak color and doesn’t even match his desk which is cherry BTW. I hate mismatching furniture. Yes, this has somehow become a hate post… No really, I just think it’s tacky when it doesn’t match and I am sure you all would agree.

Follow Jenny’s board For the Home on Pinterest.

On my For the Home Pinterest board, I spotted this no sew table cloth canopy that I want to do over the bed to make the room look a little more nice to go with our super nice master bathroom, which I thought would look great draping down behind our sleigh bed.

See how awesomely adorable this is?

Then above our night stands, I’d like to create 2 of these sunburst mirrors. Apparently you can go to Home Depot or Lowes and grab some of their paint sticks for free and do it, but instead of taking all of their sticks since I’d probably need about 75, I’d just order them off of Amazon.

photo copyright: shelterness.com

Even if I only do these 2 things, I think it would add that touch I am looking for in our master bedroom, but perhaps I shall wait until we get a King bed so I can make sure the wall hangings will be accurate, because my husband hates unnecessary holes in the walls.

For my home office, I am dreaming of this… but that’s all it will be, a dream, because I am not that talented and I doubt I’d find a desk that looks like this that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

photo copyright: pinklittlenotebook.com

Look at how glamorous that would be. It’s so inviting and would make me actually want to come into the room instead of leave it. I’d get so much more blogging work done if I had an office like this.

Maybe one day, maybe…

but then my half would look nice and my husbands half would look horrid. Perhaps I can have him put a curtain up to separate half the room and to disguise what’s behind it. 😉

What DIY home decor have you found that you’d love to do?

Jenn

DIY Paper Mobile for Nursery!

I of course didn’t come up with this myself, Pinterest had a little bit to do with it, okay A LOT to do with it. I was needing ideas to spruce up our nursery after de-cluttering it and getting it ready for baby girl and this DIY Paper Mobile caught my eye. I showed my sister and she of course wanted me to make her one in exchange for her making me a rag rug, so I did it in Oregon Duck colors like they wanted. *puke* not a college football fan, especially the Ducks since everyone and their grandma rides their coat tails around here.

So, I decided to borrow my sisters newly purchased Cricut Explore to do this tedious task. I didn’t realize how many circles I would need or how time consuming this would be. If I decide to start on one for baby girls room, I think I will do less because this one turned out long. I imagine it’s because I didn’t make the circles super close together to create a fuller look as you can see on the middle ring below.

In the instructions, the original poster used a giant hole punch. I figure to lessen the costs, I’d just set it to however big I wanted the circles on the Cricut and rinse and repeat. I made about 20 circles on an 11×8 stock card piece of paper in the colors I chose, and divided up the amount of circles for each string in the 4 different colors (dark green, regular green, yellow, light yellow). There were also images on the Cricut explore to make the paper mobile more football oriented so I selected the football and the duck feet which are both on the middle-inner ring to go with my Oregon Duck football theme.

Overall, I think it turned out cute, the most frustrating part was stringing all of the circles because I couldn’t get the sewing string to double knot in the same spot so it wouldn’t fall through after poking it with a needle. After a day or two of fiddling with that, I finally got it down and it made it go a lot faster.

For step by step instructions, please check out the original posters tutorial on the DIY Paper Mobile.

My final outcome.

Sorry about the crappy photo, hopefully my sister will hang it up soon so I can have her take a better picture.

Jenn

10 Frugal Wedding Decorations

If you haven’t already gathered by the numerous wedding invitations you have received; summer is wedding season. We have 2 to go to and one happening this weekend, so it seemed fitting that I do a post on frugal wedding decorations, you know, for the slackers who wait til the last minute to get their wedding decor figured out.

Frugal Wedding Decorations: Pom Poms

These are the easiest, cheapest things you could make to decorate your wedding, depending on what color you need, how many you plan on making, and what size. You can get a packet of tissue paper at the Dollar Store which is as cheap as you’re going to get it, but unfortunately, there are limited color options. But white always goes with everything and it gives it a classic and elegant look. Head on over to the Exclusively Weddings Blog for a step-by-step tutorial.

Photo copyright: Exclusively Weddings

Frugal Wedding Decorations: Submerged Flowers in Vases

We all know flowers aren’t cheap. You could potentially use fake flowers at any craft store or dollar tree and get it looking pretty darn close to the real thing. Look for the 40% off coupon at JoAnn’s for maximum savings or purchase your flowers at a local grocery store; usually, they will clearance them down after they’ve been sitting a little while. Buy the clear vases, votives, and beads at the Dollar Tree. You’ll have yourself a pretty, yet inexpensive table setting. Add food coloring to the water in your choice of color if you want to skip the flowers.

Photo copyright: Chloe Atnip photography

Frugal Wedding Decorations: Paper Rosettes

These are another simple and cute idea that makes pretty inexpensive decor, especially if you already have construction or scrap paper lying around that will go with the theme. Broke-Ass Bride provides an easy step-by-step tutorial over on her blog, go check it out.

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photo copyright: luminaire images

Frugal Wedding Decorations: DIY Cakestand

You probably wouldn’t guess you could make this for $2, would you? That’s right, only $2! You’ll probably pay around $20+ for this at any department store. An Exercise in Frugality shows you how she created this by purchasing the 2 items at the dollar tree.

photo copyright: TonySouPhotography

Frugal Wedding Decorations: DIY Cake Crown Topper & Paper Towel Garland

If you want to get super creative with paper towels and tissue paper again, head on over to Wedding Chicks and check out their tutorial. This would probably work best for those having an early 1900s themed wedding.

photo copyright: weddingchicks

Frugal Wedding Decorations: Bride & Groom Chair Sign

WeddingChicks have another great decor piece for the back of the bride and groom’s chair, AND it is 100% free! You can even change the colors to match the ones similar to your color scheme. Download and print on to card stock or photo paper, your choice!

photo copyright: weddingchicks

Frugal Wedding Decorations: Chalkboard Sign

Have an old frame laying around the house that you have no purpose for? Buy some chalk spray paint (around $4 a can) and spray the glass. You’ll have your very own unique entrance piece. Photo from TheSavannahWeddingPlanner.

Frugal Wedding Decorations: DIY Photo Backdrop Stand

You’ve probably seen these at your friend’s/families wedding at one point or another and thought it was a good idea. Well, how about I tell you that you can make this PVC pipe photo backdrop for only $10. Use a white sheet you have at home or any other inexpensive fabric and wa-la, your very own photography stand to take goofy photos in front of. You could probably find a decent amount of props at the Dollar Tree or even at Target in the 1 dollar bins. Go check it out over at Happiness is Homemade.

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photo copyright: happiness is homemade

Frugal Wedding Decorations: Funny Comic Bubble Photo Props

These are on Etsy for $13.95 for a pack of 16 for the image files, which may or may not be worth it to you. But don’t worry, you can easily make these over at PicMonkey with your creativity, and print the images on 8×10 card stock paper or print them on regular paper and glue them onto thicker paper. After that is all done, attach some sticks or foam board to them.

photo copyright: redline studio wedding designs

Frugal Wedding Decorations: Wedding Favor: For Richer, For Poorer

How cute is this idea of having a card with a coin attached and a lottery ticket inserted? And it’s not too expensive depending upon however many guests you have.

photo credit: Laurel McConell Photography, post by MyWedding

And if you need creative templates or mockups that you can design and do yourself for decorations, check out pixelied.com.

Plus, you can even create a wedding quote, print it off, and stick it in a fancy frame and the couple will love it! I did that for quite a few weddings using the pixelied website.

There you have it guys, 10 Frugal Wedding Decorations to help make your day super special. I hope at least some of these ideas have helped steer you in the right direction or gave you some inspiration.

If you have any other ideas you’d like to recommend or share, leave us a comment below and if you liked this post, share the wealth. Thanks! 🙂