Just A Little DIY with the Mama

When Becky posted about a monthly DIY I got all giddy inside. I love being crafty, but often don't put the necessary pressure on myself to get it done, so a deadline and theme (provided by Becky) was the perfect mix for me to spend too much money at go toddler free to Hobby Lobby, grab some materials, and get crafty.

The afternoon would only have been better with my Pito Ali (whose birthday it was by the way) and a drive-thru daiquiri (ahem--Pink Panty Dropper--scandalous!), but I had a wonderful Saturday afternoon starting some projects while the hubs caught up on 40-odd something episodes of The Wire. Good luck with that. For the gamblers, let's take bets on who finished our respective "projects" first. I've only got a few things done, but it's enough to share. Baby steps. Baby steps.

One project I really wanted to finish was a DIY "I love you because.." frame that's floating around Pinterest. It's not enough for me to use the printout and a regular frame. Nope, not going to settle.
I bought all of the necessary materials and now (Monday afternoon) am all armed with my spray paint and embellishments and (in my best Sawyer from Lost voice) Sonofabitch! The dang frame doesn't have glass which defeats the purpose just a tad right? Guess who needs another trip to Michaels and free weekend afternoon?

Moving on to some success.  I had to make the most of my time so I got my craft face on for some DIY LOVE!

I first went for some pizzazz provided by Every Creative Endeavor. The finished product is below. I love it, but I'm just not sure where I want to put it year after year. I think we need a couple of Valentine mailboxes to put on the shelf as well as seen here for sweet notes to each other. Or perhaps someone will bring home roses or chocolates or candles or maybe just a heartfelt card.... ahem. Kidding husband. I'm not so much into the whole flower thing, so diamonds will be just fine. ;)

The original site has great play-by-play instructions, but here are mine:

I grabbed these letters from Hobby Lobby for 1.99 a piece (I think. They might have been cheaper.). I placed the letters touching each other and sealed them with hot glue. 

However, they aren't too stable that way. ECE used a short staple gun to connect, but apparently the one at our home only houses large staples and when I asked the hubs if we had a smaller one, he said, "We have a stapler." Thank hon. So I improvised with lots of hot glue. This may or may not last very long!

And then I took the kids outside to play.  Oh hi Glitter Blast fun! 

As directed, I applied a red coat first to hide any brown. The glitter spray is pretty awesome, but you might want to do a test pass over some cardboard first to get in a groove. It came out pretty quickly and my coats are a bit uneven. 

And here they are all finished and with my other endeavor:

How sweet is this tiny banner! I'm a terrible blogger because I can't find the site where I found them! If anyone is interested, let me know and I can search some more.

The pictures aren't the best, but I can't wait for our little Valentine's nook to grow!

In other news, I FINALLY took on some of our growing collection of corks and made monogram for our front shelf or really anywhere I can find a place for it.

Juts a few of the corks we have. 

 I bought an extra "L" when I purchased those for the L-O-V-E sign and lined up my corks and went to work with the hot glue gun. So simple.

And there you have it.

 I cannot wait to see everyone's craft! I better carve out some blog hopping time for Tuesday night! Go check it out!