A Magical Inspired Christmas Tree

I'm typically a one-tree type of person. We've always had our one big family tree in the living room covered with handmade and collected ornaments. I add a few things to 'pretty' it up a bit but it's always been the family tree. 

This year, I had it in my head to create a stand alone, pretty tree separate from our family one so I could get creative with it! And my mind immediately jumped to Harry Potter & Hogwarts. If you know me in real life at all, you know my love of the magical world of Harry Potter is big. I thought it would be so fun to channel that love into a creative and magical tree. 

I've been planning it out in my head all year so it's been so fun collecting the right pieces & seeing it come to life! I'll add details below and won't make you wait. But here is my 2020 Harry Potter inspired magical tree!!

Bohemian Teen Bedroom Makeover

So last I shared was our back porch makeover and, little did you know. we've done SO many makeovers to various rooms in the house in the past few months.

Both of my teens asked to have a room revamp and with momma needing projects, I gave in. 

Emily was the first to request a room makeover during our extended break and I was so sad to transform her room at first because it was the first room we had redone when we moved in. She had outgrown the bright colors and younger decor and wanted something a bit more grown up. She had a hard time putting into words what she wanted so I took her to Hobby Lobby to start pointing out things that she liked. Immediately, she gravitated towards all things boho, earthy and plant-related.

We found a piece of pottery that she LOVED and our entire room design became inspired by it. She chose a periwinkle purple for the feature wall based on the colors from the pottery and we are obsessed! I'm pretty sure it's now my most favorite room in the house. I was so hesitant about redoing a room that we already loved but I'm so glad she talked me into it. 

You may remember her coral room from the post a few years about it. You can read about it here. 

The piece of pottery that inspired the room is this pretty little guy from Hobby Lobby: 

Black & White Patio Transformation

I'm so excited to finally get this post up because it's been a long time coming!

We started working on our back patio about two  years ago when we decided we needed to make it a place that we actually enjoyed being. 

We had several issues going against us and it's taken us some time to come up with solutions for all of them and cultivate our dream space. 

The main issues: 

1. Our patio area isn't completely covered. Meaning parts of it still gets rain/full sun and the full impact of Arkansas weather. We needed things that could 'weather' all of that pretty well. 

2. We have two outdoor dogs that were constantly bringing mud, dirt, hair and all that fun stuff up into that area. It was constantly dirty & dusty and it made my head spin. 

3. We live on a sloped lot. BONUS with there being virtually no trees so leaves weren't a huge issue. But water, dust, and any yard debris inevitably ends up on the patio. Cue head spinning again. 

So. We had to come up with some creative solutions. The main one being how to create a more closed off space without spending wayyy too much money and still keeping it aesthetically pleasing. 

I don't have the best before/after photos because I was a horrible blogger during the process but let's use this one to show the crazy transformation it went through: 

I'm sure I purposefully didn't take pictures of the yard side before because it was such a disaster but the top gives you a good idea of what we were working with. 

Faux Canvas & Floral Door Hanging

If you're anything like me, you tire quickly of having the same things hanging day to day.

I tend to have areas in the house that I don't rearrange very often but our front door is certainly not one of them. 

My wreath styles have changed a LOT in the past years and this spring I decided to go with something a bit more non-traditional than a typical round wreath. Although my wreath from last summer was round, I still consider it a bit non-traditional too. You can see my cute snow-cone wreath from last year here. 

This year, I went with something a bit more neutral that could withstand spring & summer if I wanted it too. And my choice of flowers tend to nod towards Fall too which was a happy accident. 

I actually created the fabric/wood hanging last fall for my fall mantle but decided it was lightweight enough to hang on the door as well! 

DIY Ombre Wooden Spring Sign

Is ombre still even a thing?? 

It seemed like it was all the rage last year. 

I love the subtle light to dark that ombre provides and thought it would be fun to do it with my favorite aqua color. 

This super easy sign is the perfect thing if you don't like to commit to one thing (like me) and change your decor up constantly. 

This thing is sturdy enough that it can stand on it's own or prop against other items for a layered look. 

I created the actually wooden base of the sign a couple years ago and it's floated around to various set-ups and parties. 

I originally created it to be left blank and just added a simple nail to the middle to hang wreaths & smaller signs from. 

You can see it being used as a 'wreath' holder of sorts in my valentine mantle here. 

I decided to risk it a bit and added my letters on this one with a touch of hot glue. But it'll be easy enough to pop them off and sand it down a bit to use as a blank canvas again if I want. 

It's easy enough to create. Here's what you need: 

*1x4s (cut these to your desired width)

*Trim pieces (or more 1x4x or even 1x2s)

-Nail gun/screws

-Blank letters (mine are here) 

-Paint 

-Pom garland (mine is here) 

-Scrap Burlap

-Vinyl 

First, create your base. 

I cut my boards to my desired width and used other scrap pieces to screw along the backs to hold them together. I had some scrap thin pieces of trim left from a roadside haul and used those to trim out around my sign using my nail gun and a few screws. Imperfect is ok here :) 

I painted my inside boards white & distressed. 

For the letters, my sweet 13 year old painted them in an ombre blue finish and I'm obsessed with how they turned out. I used a touch of hot glue to fix them to the sign. 

The 'hello' banner was made with scrap burlap cut into triangles and ironed and then glued to twine. I used white vinyl for my wording. 

For some added fun, I strung a cute felt ball garland above the banner. I love the texture & interest it gives it! 

I wasn't going for a seaside vibe but I'm definitely getting hints of it with this little project. I'm loving having some beach-inspire hues & texture to welcome spring in. I'm actually kinda sad that it'll be coming down soon for summer. 

I'll show you the whole spring mantle in just a couple days. I went full force with a gathered/beachy vibe and it's been so calming to have up during these crazy quarantine days. 

Have a wonderful weekend, I'll be back with the full set-up soon!!! 

Winter to Valentine Mantle Update

After Christmas ended and decor started filtering back to 'normal', I decided I wanted to keep my mantle still on the cozy/winter side of things. 

Since most of the Christmas mantle, (you can see more about it here) was filled with neutrals and then pops of Christmas trees & red, I figured it would be somewhat easy to add a few pieces to transform it from festive to cozy. 

And since I'm terrible at blogging lately, I full on forgot to take a photo of the 'winter' version but really only one thing changed. 

So let's chat a cozy, wintery, Valentine mantle, shall we? 

So for a Valentin-y, cozy feel, the two sides of the mantle were changed. 

Down came the reindeer & trees and up went stacks of aged books, brass candlesticks and a few metallic pieces. 

DIY Preschool Valentines {You Color My Heart Happy}

How is it time to already be talking about Valentines?! 

I wanted to pop on and share our DIY valentines for this year, preschool version :) 

Christmas Tour 2019

I honestly can't even believe it's time to start talking about Christmas decor...

much less already have it up, photographed and ready to share. 

I can't believe tomorrow marks the beginning of December. 

But I have been soaking up the glorious feeling of having the house decorated and being able to enjoy the lights, the colors and the fun Christmas memories already happening. 

We finished shopping this past week and, for once, I don't have a huge 'to do' list in the upcoming weeks leading to Christmas. 

And I am so ok with that. 

If you are new here, one of my big ventures this past year has been really digging into product photography and I have had the crazy pleasure of meeting and working with so many amazing shop owners. When taking pictures of Christmas this year, I realized how many amazing pieces are from some of these gorgeous shops. I'll share the love below in case you'd like to snag a few pieces yourself as well as finding out some easy DIY options for decor. 

Hope you enjoy my Christmas tour this year- it's definitely topping as my favorite yet! 

DIY Brick & Wood Pumpkin Sign

I posted last week about our neutral, pumpkin filled Fall mantle we did this year and wanted to follow up on the huge Pumpkin sign I made for it. 

It was super simple and packed a big punch.

If you didn't get a chance to see the whole mantle, check out my post here. 

 When we redid the kids bathroom a few months ago, we ended up with several scrap pieces of the faux brick panels leftover. 

Fall Decor & Mantle

Fall is my favorite. 

It's my favorite weather, my favorite smells, my favorite scenery outside. 

And all of that translates into my favorite decor. 

I love pulling out my boxes of pumpkins and sifting through vintage finds that I've tucked away each year that just scream 'fall' to me. I love wheat stalks and my dried okra pieces that my dad gave me. I love pumpkins most of all. 

So before fall even hinted within our weather, I decided boxes needed to come out and, a few weeks ago, fall graced our house :) 

I always seem to start with decorating the mantle. It's my go-to spot and I guess it's the centerpiece of the house so I always start with it. 

DIY Rainbow & Unicorn Felt Ball Backdrop

Hey friends! 

It's been a minute since I shared our last big party adventure -- we've had a crazy couple of weeks dealing with illness, keeping up with work and all the things that go into living life with 3 children. 

I wanted to stop in and give the how-to on how I created the backdrop for her rainbow/unicorn party! 

You won't believe how simple it was and they were the perfect punch of colorful impact I wanted. 

Here's the end result we ended up with: 

Rainbow & Unicorn Birthday Party

Party time has finally come & gone which means...

I finally get to share all the fun details and projects that went into it!!!

I LOVE decorating and designing parties for my kids... since the older two have nearly outgrown all the fun, creative DIY parties (although my oldest is wanting an 80's party for her 13th so there's still some fun involved!!), I love getting the chance to get creative for parties when I still can!!

Little miss turned 5 last week and while I'm still trying to figure out how that happened already... I wanted to share all the magical rainbow & unicorn goodness. 

When you ask Little Miss her favorite color... it's 'rainbow'. When people asked what she wanted for her birthday... she said 'anything girlie'. She's my girly-girl, all things magical & sparkly, rainbow loving girl. Which made it SO fun to decorate this year. 

I figured I'd show you the party in all of it's rainbow glory today and then break apart several of the smaller projects to share with you over the next week. 

We had some amazing shops send some fun things in & I'll be sharing those shops throughout the pictures and again in the source list at the bottom of this post. 

So if you need a direction in your party planning, they are great resources to start with!!

Let's dive in to all the party fun!

The main party table is my favorite to decorate. 

This year, we used fabrics I already had for the backdrop & tablecloths. 

I tried something new & attempted a balloon garland to drape across the top for 'clouds'. 

It was so much easier than I imagined to do and was the perfect finishing touch! 

The huge rainbow was a major labor of love- it was created with pool noodles, tons of yarn and lots of time! 

It ended up turning out so awesome, it replaced the main thing over her dresser in her room. So it was a two-fold win! 

The beautiful '5' banner is from Say It In Burlap and was such a fun piece to add to the centerpiece. 

I'll be sharing a tutorial later this week on how to make the beautiful unicorn/felt ball garlands. They were so fun & easy to do- adding a little extra to the backdrop! 

A Quick Pink Dresser Update

This will be a quick & dirty kinda post. 

Just to show you the power of paint and tweaking a couple things on the effect of a room. 

We have this gorgeous, super chunky, vintage style dresser in Little Miss' room and when we first did her nursery, we painted it a pretty dark pink color. 

Which worked with the colors we had at the time. 

Over the past couple years, we've softed a lot of her room and when we went full on big girl room, her new headboard was a very soft baby pink rather than hot pink. 

And little miss actually decided she wanted to change her dresser (she's a little bit nutty for pastel colors lately) so we took that on this summer. 

DIY Faux Polaroid Photos with Instax 'Duds'

Ever thought how cool it would be if some of your favorite photos looked a bit more vintage? Or looked like a Polaroid image. 

I feel like these have made a come back in a big way lately and who doesn't love the fun look of Instax/polaroid images? 

My two daughters are obsessed with their Instax camera and it's so fun seeing what they come up with. 

When we first gave it to my 12 year old, we let her explore and experiment with it. Which meant there were a handful of underexposed/black photos that didn't work out as intended. 

Luckily for me, she's a bit of a hoarder too and had kept them anyways. 

When hubby suggested I use Instax film to hang pictures in the rainbow frames I had made for my upcoming almost 5 year old's party, I thought it was a great idea! I decided to use our 'dud' photos and create the same Instax Polaroid look but with photos taken with my professional camera. 

I'll give you the quick rundown in case you have some dud photos :) 

The Plate Wall {Updated}

This post is so funny to me. 

Because little did I know that one of my most popular posts would end up being one of the simplest (I feel like, anyways!) 

Back in 2011, I posted some pretty awfully photographed photos of how I did a swirled plate wall in our old house. 

It has since been viewed almost 50,000 times and pinned a bajillion amount of times. 

So I thought it may be high time for me to give you an update on it since we've moved. 

I used the same technique as in the original post here. 

And the same hangers. 

But the configuration changed a smidge :) 

A Peek Into my Craft Room

I'm basically calling it a 'peek' because it's really not 100% finished. More like 90%. 

But I've put it off long enough and decided to just go ahead and share the process with you... and I'll update when I get the last few things I want for it. 

Sound ok? 

Because this room, out of all the rooms in the house, has gone through the most transformation. 

Here's a peek into my little space: 

I didn't clean up alll the way for you guys. 

Because that's not real life. 

It's usually messy, cluttered and full of ongoing projects. 

Which is the way I like it. 

But I spruced up a bit for you :) 

Summer Embroidery Hoop Wreath

I told you I'd be back :) 

I thought I'd throw a little color into the mix and share my new summer wreath. 

We needed something colorful & happy to match the happiness of summer starting a few weeks ago in our household. 

Enter this cutie...

It was so fun to put together and fairly easy! 

The longest part was creating those faux snow cones- but Little Miss and I had a blast doing them! 

Belle Inspired Birthday Party {Plus Free Printables}

I realized as I was going through and updating things that I had never posted Little Miss's 3rd birthday party and it's one of my absolute favorites!! 

She was Princess Belle obsessed (and still is, really!) and Mama was more than happy to oblige as Belle is my favorite too! 

There were so many fun pieces to this party and lots of easy projects to make it unique, gorgeous and budget-friendly. 

Faux Brick Bathroom Update

Have you guys noticed a little bit of a difference around here? 

I took a big plunge and decided to merge my IG/blog/FB accounts under one umbrella & rebrand a bit. 

If you've been around a while, I'll still be delivering Tattered and Inked DIY, painting, crafting content as well as starting to delve into behind the scenes photography, some of the fun product photography I've gotten into as well as sharing Therapeutic fun activities for you to do at home with your kiddos! 

Hopefully things are easy to navigate and find- please let me know if you experience any issues with the new site, I'm still working out a bunch of the kinks! 

While you're having a look around at the new look, let's talk my most current project. 

I've had this idea in the back of my mind for almost two years now. We bought several faux brick panels to hang in the garage for photo backdrops- which have worked amazingly and I always wanted to install one in our kids bathroom to add some texture and interest to the wall. 

So we finally did! 

Isn't it fun?! 

'We are the Luckiest' Free Printable

Hi Friends!!
I'm so excited to be here today! My name is Kelsey and my little blogging corner of the world is over on Tattered and Inked where I share all my favorite things- projects, furniture redos,  parties & printables!!

I'm so excited to be sharing my very first printable ever over here on Mine for the Making!!

St. Patrick's Day is always a fun time in our house- 

it's one of those random holidays we just love to celebrate!
We always have mischievous things happening around our house so I like to add just a few things to make the house happy for St. Patricks.

Printables are such an easy & fun way to change up your decor and it only takes a couple of minutes! 

I usually dedicate a couple different frames around the house for changing out printables whenever I'm in the mood for a change. 

This printable comes in three different colorways and are perfect for spreading a little extra St. Patrick's Day cheer around your home!!

Quick tips for printing in case you're a newbie...

1. Click the download link below for the print you'd like to get. Then follow the prompts to download and save to your computer. 

2. Print your printable as you would any regular picture. I like to print them on white cardstock or picture paper- they tend to print better and with more vibrant colors this way. 

3. These prints are sized to be printed as large as 8x10 and will look best printed as a 5x7 or 8x10 size. 

That's pretty much all there is to it.

So get at it...just click. print. frame!!

We Are The Luckiest- Green

We Are The Luckiest- Mint

We Are The Luckiest- Polka Dots

{Quick Disclaimer}

Printables are intended as gifts for Tattered and Inked/Mine for the Making readers only.

As with all my free printables,

these are for personal use ONLY.

Please do not claim them as your own or alter them.

Some other fun ideas for using your free printable are adding it to a fun St. Patricks' Day wreath, printing them out as a card or note to slip in your hunny's wallet or lunch or adding it to a fun 'happy' gift for a friend! 

I hope you enjoy your new free print & I can't wait to share some more printable fun with you soon!! 

Have a great week!! 

Kelsey