Summer is here! Time to start breaking out the patriotic decor. This burlap star board was the perfect addition to my living room.

I started with a 12x12 burlap board. I used 1 1/2 inch painters tape to tape off the stripes. I painted the red first with a sponge brush. Originally my plan was to paint white stripes too, but once I pulled off the tape I just loved the look of the red with the burlap, so I left it.

Next I made the star out of a cereal box the same way I made my cereal box star wreath and painted it. Then I used hot glue to attach it to the burlap.

Super easy, inexpensive, and I love how it turned out.

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As much as I love my cereal box star wreath, now that July is coming to an end it is time for a new wreath. Some of you may already be looking to fall wreaths, but we have another two good months of summer left, so I made a summer wreath. I found this summer wreath on pinterest and it took me to Living, Loving, Crafting. I loved it right away and set out to make my own. The funny thing is that I didn't realize how similar they turned out until I went back today to make sure to get the right link for this blog post. Great minds think alike, and pick out the same paint and ribbon. I think that's how the full saying goes.

Anyway, here is what you need to make this great summer wreath.
18 inch grapevine wreath- Micheal's had the best price by far. I found mine for $5.
Flowers- I got 2 bunches from the dollar store
Numbers for your address- I got mine at Joanns for $2 a piece, but I think I could have found them cheaper elsewhere.
Ribbon
Spray Paint- I used Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze, leftover from my soda bottles project, $3.50 at Walmart.
Hot Glue

Step 1- Sand down the edges of the numbers and spray paint them. I made sure to really cover the front and sides with paint, but I didn't worry too much about the backs, except for the 3 which I didn't notice until I was about ready to glue had been sprayed backwards.

Step 2- I pulled all of the flowers off of their stems and hot glued them to the wreath. It would have been nice to have a few more flowers, but I didn't want to make another trip to the dollar store. The nice thing was that even once they were glued on it was still pretty easy for me to pop them back off to rearrange them.

Step 3- I glued my numbers on and tied a simple bow on to top it all off.

Overall a very simple wreath. I love the bright colors. It just makes our front door look so happy and inviting.

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I have been seeing these spong balls everywhere and thought they looked like so much fun, especially since Sweet Girl loves to play with anything wet. They were really easy to make. I bought a couple 3-packs of sponges at the dollar store and cut each of them into 4 strips. Then I wrapped a rubber band around the middle and squished them around until they looked like a ball. Finished!

Sweet Girl had fun playing with them in the baby pool and in the sprinklers. Don't you just lover her little swimsuit?

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I am so excited about the way this project turned out. A few months ago I saw a picture on Pinterest of a star made out of a cereal box. It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to make with these stars, but I finally settled on a patriotic wreath.

Here's what you'll need:
Empty cereal boxes. (It used 3 boxes)
Paint
Ink for Distressing
Wreath
Hot Glue Gun

Luckily Husband goes through a lot of cereal, so I had plenty of empty cereal boxes for this project. I started by cutting out a star pattern with my Cricut, and then I traced that on the inside of the cereal box.

 

I cut out the stars and drew on the lines. Each line goes from the tip of the point, through the middle to the corner across from it. In the end I used about 15 stars.

I folded the star in half on each line and made sure to give it a hard crease.

 

After each line had been crease I kind of smushed it together so that it would take on a 3D look.

 

I spray painted the stars. I found that the white paint didn't stick very well. It kept soaking in. I was using cheap paint so that may have had something to do with it. In the end I finally just used a sponge brush to paint acrylic paint on the white ones. The red and blue stars turned out better. I did have to do a few coats. Again, I was using $1.50 cans of Walmart spray paint. If you have nicer spray paint it might go on a little better, but in the end I was happy with my cheap paint.

I also antiqued the edges by running them along a pad of black ink.

 

 Then I used hot glue to attach each star to my Dollar Store wreath.

 

I didn't really have a plan for how I overlapped them. I just started gluing. And finally after picking off all the leftover hot glue strings, I have my beautiful patriotic wreath!

 The only downside to this wreath is that if it gets rainy I'm afraid my stars will be ruined. I might have to look for a place inside to hang it.

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I am a slow crafter. I get really excited about a new craft, I get started, and then something inevitably goes wrong, I get frustrated and take a break. Most of the time I do end up finishing the project, but it does take awhile. I hope I'm not the only one like this. Here is a project I have been working on for a couple months.

I have always thought soda bottles looked so cool, and knew there was a cool project out there somewhere. Then one day inspiration struck. Thank heaven for Pinterest. It led me to Chicy Creations and her spray painted "Bloom" soda bottles. I took her basic idea and tweaked it a little bit.

I started off with Jones sodas. I love the cream soda and husband is all about the green apple. It was a pleasure to collect the needed bottles.

 

After the bottles were emptied and rinsed out I peeled off the labels and use Goo Gone to get off the sticky stuff.

 

Then I spray painted them with Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze spray paint that I bought at Walmart for around $3.50. This is the point where frustration struck. I kept trying to spray paint on windy days and I ended up with dried grass and newspaper getting stuck in my wet paint over and over. It was so annoying.

But, sometime a set back leads to even better things. I had to use sandpaper to sand off the ruined paint job. As I did this Husband pointed out how cool the distressed look was on my bottles, so I kept sanding. Sometimes distressing is can be a scary step. You don't want to do too much and have to repaint it. So start slow, but be brave and bold. I like the way it turned out.

I topped the bottles off with a piece of burlap and ribbon wrapped around the middle. I like the rough quality of the burlap combined with the distressing. I didn't worry too much about cutting the burlap straight or making sure they were all the same size. I thought it added to the overall rustic look. Then he ribbon around the middle kind of softened the whole look.

 

Husband helped me cut the flowers off to fit a little better in the bottles.

In the end I decided I didn't like so many bottles together, so I broke them up into two groups. I love the way they look on both my piano and my guest bathroom. So this project took a long time, but I am really excited about the way they turned out. 

 

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