Thrifty Wall Art #1: Nature is Free

I have a thing for peacock feathers. 

Also, my roommates say that I'm a wannabe ESFr.

In this case, I'm not sure which is more prevalent.

Such wonderful colors!


I needed SOMETHING to fill in this huge space on my wall in my new bedroom at school. I was also on a tight budget, being a college student and all.



T was wonderful and got me some peacock feathers from the Zoo, and the wheels started spinning. This was the end result:

I used a beautiful picture that my friend painted for me for my Birthday, framed it and placed it center-stage. A few dollars got me a pretty frame at Hobby Lobby!

I used some of the leftover ribbon from my Reed Letter project and tied some of the feathers together. 

About a week later a friend showed me how you could braid willow branches. While we were at the park, I got some willow branches and made a big long "swag" of them. I hung them on my wall and let them dry. The leaves curled and are beautiful!

Lastly I dried a rose that T gave me and tied everything together next to the painting.

I made sure to stab myself on the rose a couple times before I managed to get it tied.

Those things have prickers, ya know... 

Why do I like this so much?

-It was nearly free to make.

-It has some sentimental value.

-It took advantage of things I already had.

-It's nature, so it's "disposable" if I don't have room to pack it up at the end of the year. That's a really tough thing about being a student. You have to pick up and move at the end of the year. Doing crafts like these allow me to make it seem "home-y" while not weighing you down with 4 extra boxes of decorations.

Hope you took some nuggets away from that!


Also, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter. I leave you with a picture that my friend Meghan (@mcokeefe1) sent me over the weekend. Apparently this is how Massachusetts does Easter.

What an awesome bunny. I've done Santa Bread, but never bunny bread. He is simply adorable! Looks like I'm going to Massachusetts someday. Apparently it is a hotbed of delicious carbohydrates. Yum!




He is RISEN!

Blessings,
Shelbylicious
(SL)

Crafty Monograms #2- Reeds!

To continue on about how I'm in love with monograms, I'll show you another monogram I've made. This one is my monogram and it's currently in my room at school.

Honestly, here's how it happened: I finished T's moss monogram and said "Self, if you were to make a monogram representative of YOU, what would be on it?"

After deciding that covering my monograms with gummi bears and Reese's would be a bad idea, I was left with the only other thing I could think of: Bassoon reeds.

Bassoon reeds? What's a Bassoon? Isn't that the Oboe?



Ahh, let me show you.


I graduated from high school essentially a self-taught bassoonist. After finding a teacher who would give me a chance, I headed off to college to become a music educator.

That's me. And my bassoon-not-oboe. (You'd be shocked at how many think it's an oboe!)

So here's a bassoon (not oboe, friends...) reed:

Long story short(er,) they're two little teeny weeny pieces of cane, shaved and tied together in a very specific way to make everything vibrate and "speak" and such. 

How do you know if your reed works right? 

You "crow" them! You basically blow into them and see what kind of sound they make. 

Exciting stuff! 

Anywho.... back to the monogram.

There was no online inspiration for this monogram, so I relied on my own ingenuity to get the job done.

How-To:

1.) Scour the craft stores for wooden letters. This was more difficult than I thought, because typical wooden letters are A) small and B) expensive. I wanted neither. 

2.) Find a letter at Hobby Lobby and rejoice when it's on sale.

3.) Come home to discover a website that allows you to make any font/size/thickness of letter you want and shed a tear.

4.) Buy some snazzy ribbon. I got mine at the Dollar Store, actually. They had a pretty turquoise and a pretty bright pink!

5.) Rule of thumb: If you're covering the letter in something solid, you don't have to paint the letter. However if you're going to cover it with bassoon reeds, peanut butter cups or gummi bears, you're going to need to paint it. I recommend a bright, happy color. I chose some lime green paint that I already had on hand. 

6.) Rinse your bassoon reeds in a hydrogen peroxide-water solution to get them germ-free. No one wants germy reeds on the wall!

7.) Attach your reeds to the letter with hot glue.

8.) Rip the reeds off of the letter because they're not all at the same angle. Then re-glue the reeds.

9.) Burn your fingers on hot glue as you rip the reeds off the letter once again. Make sure you've planned out how everything is going to look BEFORE you glue it. You'll save your fingers this way!

10.) Attach a ribbon to the back with a staple gun or hot glue.

Or, if you're me, both.

11.) Run your fingers under cold water and take celebratory pictures!

The different color threads make this reed letter so fun! The possibilities are LIMITLESS with what you can attach to a letter. 

Here are some of my other favorites:

Yarn-Wrapped Letters

Glue-Designed Letters

Pearl-y Letters

There are more crafty posts to come!

Until next week, friends.

-Shelbylicious

SL

Crafty Monograms #1- Moss

Okay, I'll admit it.

I fell for a trend. I'm absolutely sold on monograms.


I'm not sure why, either. Maybe it's because I think my first initial is cool? Nah, probably not. Maybe it's because Pinterest has shown me that the world of wall-hanging monograms is a vast one; you can make your monogram as fun or as timeless as you like!

I'm going to show you two monogram letters that are currently hanging in my room. There have been many, many more that I've made, but I'll start with these two beauties for today.


Let me start off by saying this: When I first started dating T, a majority of our time on dates (usually walking through the park) was spent ogling trees, flowers, and moss. But mostly moss.

I learned SO much about moss that year!


For example.....

Look! A Club Moss!

A Bryophyte? Who knows. Anywho....

I took the inspiration for T's moss monogram from this blog. 

I simply love this idea! I would post the step-by-step, but they already did so I'll recommend that you go there and try it! 

I have some tips though: 

1) They really DO have sheets of moss with webbing on the back at the DOLLAR STORE! This truly is a remarkable discovery! We have a Dollar Tree here and they had the sheet moss readily available. 

2) A little goes a long way! I had a 10" letter and I used 2 packages of moss with a bunch left over.

3) If you want a more "unkempt" look, you should try the loose Spanish Moss that can also be found at the Dollar Store! It'll make a mess, but spraying hairspray on the finished product will help hold the moss in place. 

Here's the finished product!

Stay tuned for Crafty Monogram #2!

Lotsa Love,

Shelbylicious

(SL)

A Brave Walnut's Journey

I'd like to tell you a story!

Here goes...

Our Freshman year, T would always bring me sweet bundles of wildflowers from his Biology labs in the woods.

Fields.

Bogs.

Mountains.

Lakes. Come to think of it, I'm not exactly sure where his labs were.

Anywho... One day, he brought me half of a black walnut shell instead of a bundle of flowers. 

He sure is sweet!! Just look at him! 

I stared at the walnut shell for a couple of days and excitedly told T my idea: 

Let's take advantage of the fact that this walnut shell looks like a heart, dye it red and hang it around my neck!

After showing him an online example, he was on board and we began to ponder the concept. How do you take something so rough (and dirty... and rough.... and did I say dirty?!?) and make it wear-able while maintaining that "rustic" ESF-y feel? 

That's a good question. 

We've got it down to a science now! Here's the short-of-the-long of how we do it:

Step 1:

Don your "Shelbylicious" apron that your boyfriend's mom and Grandmom made for you.

Step 2:  

Use your extra toothbrush and scrub all of the dirt out of the inside of the walnuts.... making them squeaky-clean for step 3!

Step 3: 

Put your walnuts in the microwave to dry them out... But that's another story for another day. Don't try it at home, I'm pretty sure that I just got lucky that time!

Step 4: 

Burn your fingers on the hot (but now dry!) walnuts. Hand them over to the ESFr who is eagerly waiting to use his shiny Dremel tool. 

Step 5:  

Use your shiny Dremel tool to sand the roughness off of the face of the walnut, revealing the beautiful patterns in the shell of the nut. 

Step 6: 

Pretend your Dremel tool is a light saber. 

Step 7:

Switch your sand-y Dremel to a drill-y Dremel and do some kind of angled thing that allows you make it necklace-y. This is the hard part: The Lord doesn't make every walnut the same thickness, so most of the time they splinter off and break. 

Which makes T and I want to cry. 

And by T and I, I mean just me.

Step 8: 

If it broke- cry. If it didn't- take celebratory pictures!

Step 9: 

Do some things to make it colorful, sealed/protected, and hang-y (I can't reveal ALL of my secrets!)

Step 10:

Ta-Da! We did it! Make T cookies to celebrate the success (might as well while you have your apron on...)

There it is, in all of its glory! Want one? Check out our Etsy Shop for more information. 100% of profits go to a good cause! More on who the proceeds go to will be posted soon!

'Till then,

Shelbylicious

(SL)

Improvised Initial Canvases

Don't you hate it when you get to a Baby/Bridal Shower and, after having paid careful attention to the Registry procedure, find that you and three other people have gotten the Mom/Bride the same item? I sure do.  That's why when my mom and I found out my aunt was going to have a baby, we searched Pinterest for inspiration for a homemade Baby Shower present.

Here was our inspiration: These cute button canvas monograms on Etsy.

I couldn't figure out how they wrapped the canvas in print, so that meant it was time to improvise.
Here's the finished product for baby Jacob's Adirondack-Themed Nursery canvases, with the tutorial to follow:

Supplies List:

-Square Canvases (As many as you want for however many initials you want) [Hobby Lobby]
-Buttons- (Whatever colors you want- I ended up buying multi-color packs and spray painting them green) [WalMart]
-Spray Paint (For the edges and sides of the canvases)
-Square Scrapbook Paper Sheets (One sheet for each canvas you're using) [Hobby Lobby]
-Craft Glue/Elmers Glue
-Mod Podge (I used Matte Mod Podge) Substition: If you don't have Mod Podge on hand, save yourself the heartache over the price tag and make some using this tutorial.
-Printing Capabilities
-Lighter/Candle/Paper-Burning Apparatus (If you desire to have burned edges like I did!)
Scissors

Step 1: Take the pretty white canvases outside and spray paint the sides and top edges. Dry according to manufacturer's instructions.
Step 2: Cut Scrapbooking paper down to the correct size: You can either make the paper line up flush with the sides of the canvas or cut it smaller to reveal the spray paint underneath. (Personally, I couldn't take the pressure of not cutting the lines straight, so I went with the smaller dimensions and burned edges.)
Step 3: If you desire the paper to have burned/torn edges, do so now. See the end of this post for edge-burning tips.
Step 4: Attach the scrapbooking paper to the top of the canvas using a liberal amount of tacky glue, especially on the edges of the paper. Allow to dry completely.
Step 5: Apply two coats of Mod Podge over the entire canvas- top, edges, sides, etc. Allow to dry completely. Tip: Is your scrapbooking paper bubbling up? Don't panic! Let it get semi-dry and begin to press the paper down with one hand on top of the canvas and the other hand behind the canvas.
Step 6: Go to your computer and find a font that you like for your monogram.  Make it as large as is appropriate for your canvas and hit print.  Cut out the letter and trace the outline onto your canvas.
Step 7: Cover the outline and middle with buttons. Here's two different techniques you could try:



Layered........................................................ or  Not.

Glue them down and allow to dry completely.
Step 8: Cover with another layer of Mod Podge if you wish!

There you have it!

Once again, here's an okay-picture of the finished project. Just imagine the possibilities! We used natural backgrounds, black spray paint and green buttons to go with the baby's Adirondack-themed room, but any of the elements can be customized to allow for endless possibilities! The canvases allow for easy hanging (with a thumb tack if you're in a dorm room!) and a different font could give you a different' "feel" altogether!

Enjoy, friends!

Triple Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

As an "I'm-Sorry-You-Will-Have-To-Hear-My-Footsteps-Above-You-All-Year" good will present, our apartment decided to bake the lovely girls downstairs some brownies.  But who wants to give someone "just" plain brownies?!

Here's what you'll need for these kicked-up brownies:

Triple Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

-1 Box of Brownies (We used Double Chocolate Chunk Brownie Mix, whatever you have on hand is fine.)
-Monin Raspberry Syrup (To taste) Side Note: Okay. I know not everyone has a bottle of flavoring syrup lying around your house. I also know that they're expensive! I acquired several various flavors from my aunt. Substitution: Raspberry Extract (To taste-I haven't tried it so I don't know if it will work the same!)
-Chocolate Syrup or Hot Fudge
-Optional: Chocolate Chips

Mix Brownie batter according to package instructions and pour into a 9x9 pan. In a separate bowl, mix together the hot fudge and the raspberry syrup. (I did it this way to be safer- I wasn't crazy about the idea of pouring the strong syrup directly into the batter!) It doesn't really matter how much of this mixture you use... However, don't go overboard or the added liquid will mess with the cooking time! Swirl the raspberry/hot fudge mixture in to your already poured brownie batter.  Bake at manufacturer's recommendations.  Top with any combination of the following:

-More of the raspberry/hot fudge mixture
-Plain hot fudge/chocolate syrup
-Chocolate sprinkles/chocolate chips

Sorry I don't have a picture... Once again, they were gone before I could take a pic!
Enjoy!

Sweet 'N Salty Peanut Butter Brownies

This past Sunday I was hosting my church's Leadership Team at my house for dinner.  All of the food was being brought to my house, so there wasn't really anything for me to "bring" to the table! I decided that I should make dessert... But all I had in my arsenal was an ordinary box of brownies! Surely there was something I could do to turn these ordinary brownies into something that would wow my guests!

After scouring the internet, I found confirmation here of what I wanted to do. I'll give you the short-and-sweet version below.

What you will need (for my version of this recipe):

Sweet 'n Salty Peanut Butter Brownies

-1 Box of Brownie Mix 

- 1/2 of an 18 oz. Jar of Peanut Butter: Crunchy/Creamy/Reduced Fat/Whatever you have on hand (probably not natural though...Too oily for this recipe!)

-Pretzels (I used the square ones in the plastic bin, but anything will work) Substitution: Whatever else you want to top these guys with. I think Heath pieces would make a great partner to the crushed up pretzels.

Mix brownies according to package instructions and bake in a 9x9 pan. While they're still hot, melt 1/2 a can of peanut butter in the microwave and pour over the brownies. Top brownies with crushed pretzel pieces and allow to cool. The peanut butter sets up and creates a lovely fudgey topping!! My guests absolutely RAVED about these brownies!!! 

They were eaten SO fast that I did not have time to take a picture... But you can go here to see something similar. 

 Total cost? 

$1.25 brownie mix + 

$1.50 1/2 can of peanut butter + 

a couple cents for the preztels= 

~$2.75 for something that is sure to please a crowd! :)

Enjoy!