Easy Fourth of July decorations

Last year, I started to get some cute Halloween decorations that I placed on my little desk in my entry way. I enjoyed the display so much that I decided to try to change it seasonally and use homemade decorations when I can. I always wanted to do something seasonal on my mantle but that is more daunting to me - I can handle this desk better.

This is my first time with an Independence Day display and I'm really happy with it. Here it is (click the image to see it bigger):

Yes, I know that light switch in the middle of the wall is awful but I just pretend it's not there. I've tried covering it with a decoration but that is the main switch we use in the kitchen/living room so covering it is more of a hassle. There are a few other places in the house where the builders did that and it drives me crazy!

The vase with the little flag and flowers were made last year as a last minute table decoration when we had hosted my husband's parents for a cookout. I cut those things with my Cricut Expression but I can't remember which cartridge (I've since sold the machine) - it's probably Graphically Speaking. The little silver sprigs in the vase were from my Christmas tree decorations and added for a bit of sparkle.

The Framed subway art is here from The Crafting Chicks. I looked all over for subway art and this was my favorite. I printed it at home on photo paper instead of cardstock so the colors would really pop.

The shadow box was sitting in my storage area so I took white 12x12 cardstock, added a few blue cardstock stripes and cut that large star out of pearly red paper using my Silhouette Cameo (I love that machine!). I realized as I was writing this that the star fell down - it was supposed to be in the middle of the shadow box but the glue dots must not have held. It doesn't bother me too much so I'm going to leave it alone.

I found the hanging sign while checking out Pinterest. I would link directly to the site where I printed it but the site seems to be down as I write this - just click the Pinterest link in the previous sentence and pin it for yourself for later. We didn't have any dowels but my brilliant husband came up with the idea of using a tube from a pants hanger. He's so smart! I covered it with washi tape and used red liner tape instead of a glue gun as the directions suggested to adhere it. I had it printed at OfficeMax for only $1.25. I love how it turned out!

And there you have my Fourth of July display. I'm sure I will add to it or change something next year but since it was all inexpensive paper that I already had on hand, I won't feel guilty about it. I'll probably keep it up until the end of July and then change my display...but I have no idea what theme to go with next. Any suggestions?

Have you made any festive decorations? I would love to see it, leave a link in the comments.

It's a...Spray Paint Party

My hubby has had this ugly hand-me-down secretary desk for years, including in college, so it has been beaten up. One of the drawer pulls was broken, it had several scratches plus I hated the color. However, it was functional and since I haven't found the right piece of furniture (in my hubby's budget), it will have to do. I've been wanting to spray paint it for months but finally got around to it this past weekend.

A little of this (at Walmart)

and some new drawer pulls and this is what we have.

Holy Wow! Why didn't I do this sooner??

It looks SO much better and the paint even hides most of the scratches that my hubby wasn't able to sand out.

I got a little spray paint happy this weekend and also painted this little antique desk (with a water stain on it) that I bought cheap many years ago as well as a little clock in our bathroom that was very ugly (it was a gift) but again, functional. Actually, the clock was the first thing I painted...a guinea pig, if you will.

What do you think? Have you ever given new life to old furniture?

Bedroom Wall Art

For the longest time, the wall above my bed sat empty because I didn't know what I wanted there...I'm talking a long time...like 5 years. I had seen this idea and this idea on Pinterest and knew they would be perfect for my bedroom plus it gave me a chance to finally make some homemade decor. I love how it turned out.

 

The letters came from Hobby Lobby on a week when they were half off so they didn't cost much (they were over near the baskets at my store). They were a brass color so a quick coat of spray paint fixed that. The paper was from my stash and I used a Martha Stewart scoring board to score strips every 1/2". The strips varied in size to make different size paper flowers. To give you an idea, the largest flower used four 6x12 strips. You could even use a border punch to dress up the edge but I wanted to keep this simple since I had several patterns. Then I used a glue gun to adhere them to 3" circles that I cut out with my Cameo. Then I attached everything to my wall with 3M command strips.

Let me know if you have any questions or need a tutorial on how to make these flowers and I'll see what I can do. Have you made any home decor? I would love to see some more ideas.  

Supplies used: 
Martha Stewart Scoring Board 
Silhouette Cameo  
letters from Hobby Lobby
various scrapbook paper and coordinating cardstock
hot glue gun
ink - for around the edge of the small circles
spray paint