Floating Dot Garland [Tutorial]

Pretty Garland that appears to be Floating in thin air!

a tutorial by La La Bliss.

My little girl is almost 7 months old and I'm just getting around to finishing up her room. I started out not wanting a room too girly, but it is indeed very sweet and I love it. I'm addicted to green and I love the shade of green her room turned out to be. It's brighter than these pictures. 

I contemplated making a bunting to hang from the shelf above the daybed in her room but I wanted something lighter and whimsical. So this is what I came up with - a garland that appears to be floating.

I really like the way it came out and it was so simple and inexpensive since I had all of the supplies already. My garland is approx. 5 feet long with 25 floating circles, but you can always add more circles to make a longer garland.

Wanna make one? It's super simple and fast.

Here's what you'll need:

Natural Mosquito Repellent Recipe

Here in Florida, we have lots of mosquitoes. And those little suckers (literal suckers!) LOVE me. I don't know why but if there is one within 100 miles, it will find me and bite me 1,246 times. So imagine my fear Halloween 2010 when I head out to take my little man trick-or-treating (8 months preggers)and those mini vampires are out in full force. Here I am hugely pregnant, not able to use any bug repellent (or so I thought).

Off in the distance, I see one of my neighbors spraying some magic liquid on people outside her home. At first, I was totally mystified. What in the world is she doing? Putting on Halloween glitter or something? Nope! She was spraying people down with homemade, natural bug repellent. AHHHHHH YEEEEESSS! Guess what it was? A simple mixture of 1 part Gold Listerine and 3 parts water. Just mix in a spray bottle and spray on your entire body and clothing (except in your eyes...) She sprayed us down and it lasted for well over an hour. Awesome!

Keep reading for recipe...

The Giving Spirit [and Free Printables]

See those dollars? My little guy donated that :)

I remember reading an article after the holidays last year about holiday donating habits. The article mentioned that most people donate to the local food shelters and toy drives but Children's homes and Nursing homes can get overlooked.

This donation container was obviously super easy to make. We used an empty chocolate covered almond container (which btw probably added a good 5 lbs to my already fluffy body). I just stuck the printable on my container with the glue residue that was left over from the original label. My little guy decorated the lid with stickers - that gave him a sense of ownership and pride in the project.

keep reading for the printables...

A Salty Printable for You!

I love all the retro and vintage advertising art I see floating all over the web. So in typical Melissa-fashion, I had to make one. Then I thought maybe some of you fun chicks (or dudes - I ain't judging) would like this too. So here you go. From me to you! 

There's a string attached: Please become a follower of La La Bliss. I promise you, it will be worth it! And leave me a nice comment while you're at it!

For Personal Use Only :)

Please note, I do not own the copyright to this photo. I did however embellish the photo with my own verbiage. For personal use only. If you wish to incorporate this finished photo in your own personal projects, please credit me and include a link to my site. If you are kind enough to blog about this article, please feel free to use this finished photo as long as they are accompanied with a credit and link back to my site and/or this article. Thanks!

Word Art [Take a Picture, It'll Last Longer}

My hubby brought home a beautiful bouquet of flowers for our baby girl on her 6 month birthday (a few weeks ago). The flowers were special so I couldn't just throw them out, even though they were starting to wilt. So I decided to give them a second chance at beauty. I simply snipped off the stems and used the blooms to create words and letters on our lawn and photographed the letter creations. This way we can keep a reminder of that special bouquet and have some cute, girly art too.

Of course, I couldn't leave the little man out, so I took a few dozen of his toy cars and spelled out his name (his name is not "Boy", I made that one as an example for the blog). He thought it was so neat.

Linked up to these fun sites:


i heart naptime

Skip to My Lou

Ginger Snap Crafts

Running With Glitter 

Thirty Handmade Days

They All Can't Be Winners! [Craft Fail!]

Check out this beauty. I have made jeweled plant stakes before but I thought I'd try using a necklace I got at the thrift store instead of the normal string of glass seed beads. Um, no. This thing is pitiful. Between the big ball on the top, the glue not holding, the poor choice in paint color. Just so bad. If you get a plant from me with this beast poking out of it, it's because I don't like you very much.

Deadlines: Playroom "Re-purposed!"

A few months back, I put some sweat, tears and time into turning a very small 10x10 playroom into a multi-functioning space that could also house guests and serve as a second television room.

Before I re-purposed the room, my son never really went in there because it was always such a mess. It was too disorganized and cluttered. It was basically storage for toys and I felt like it was a waste of a perfectly good space.

Homemade Gummy People

 

In our house we love Gummy Bears, Gummy Worms, Swedish Fish - basically anything chewy and fruity. I myself can put away a bag of gummy bears or Swedish Fish in one sitting. They.are.addictive.

When I came across a recipe for gummies, I thought we HAVE to try this because we can make any flavor we want! I had a silicone gingerbread man mold that I purchased quite a few Christmas' ago. Every year during Christmas cookie baking season, I swear I'm gonna use it to make something, but it just never happens. This was the perfect mold and made a unique gummy shape.

4 Years of Birthday Cakes

My little-man is taking swimming lessons this week. Watching him act so bravely made me realize just how much he's grown.

The swim lessons are everyday so I doubt I will get much done in the way of crafting or sewing this week. Instead I thought I'd share a few of my past baking creations. I LOVE making birthday cakes. This year when I asked my son what type of cake he wanted for his birthday he told me, "Mommy, I want a rainbow cake and chocolate cupcakes." So I made it happen.

I've seen tons upon tons of rainbow cakes. Pretty - yes! Will I make a rainbow cake again? No way! It was tons of work and get this...my son didn't even eat a piece! In fact, he was upset that we made him take a 2 minute break from playing on his slip-n-slide to blow out his candles.

Plus, maybe I'm just over thinking it, but I swear I could taste the gel food coloring. I used no-taste red gel, but it still tasted sort of funky and chemical to me.

In all honesty, I'm sure I'll spend hours on his 5th Birthday cake but he better at least eat a piece next year!

Photo Message Plant Stakes [my first tutorial]

I made a version of this plant stake for my little guy to give to his teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week. We stuck it into a pretty, potted flowering plant. I thought I'd share this craft as my First Ever Tutorial. It's super easy to make and a great way to personalize a quick gift for someone.

Ingredients:
2x3 (or 2.5x3.5) Picture (*see my notes below)
Bamboo skewer (mine are 12 inches)
Acrylic Paint (I used Light Leaf Green)
Paint Brush
Scrapbook Paper (approx. 5x8)
Scissors
Embellishments (optional)
Pinking Shears (optional)
Hot Glue Gun

Stardust Cups

My little guy loves to take his toys and other fun stuff to bed at night. He's especially into light up things (like his light saber) and mini-flashlights. So when I came across the idea for glowing "Star Jars" from this crafty blog I just knew he'd love it!

Freezer Paper Stenciled T-Shirts

I love making gifts that are personalized...

My little guy is learning how to write...

btw the little man isn't mad, I caught him off guard :)

So naturally, as a gifted and efficient multi-tasker - I decided to combine the two!

I've made stencils from freezer paper before for random holiday shirts, but this version with my little guy's handwriting is classic... and adorable. What a special, personalized gift (not to mention a very inexpensive gift). The shirts were on sale for $3 and the puffy paint was less than a dollar. I used puffy paint because it made the art stand out and my son thought it was so neat.

For Sweet Marrian - A Very Special Gift

I made a few handmade gifts for a friend of mine. Her name is Marrian and sadly she is a quadriplegic. She is turning 5. She resides in a nursing home for children a few hours away from her family. I had to think hard about what to give/make her since she can't physically "play" with toys like most children her age. I also had to keep in mind her environment - a hospital-like setting. The first thing I came up with is a soft, bright, multi-textured, durable pillowcase with her name on it.

I picked soft flannel, fleece and minky fabrics to be extra gentle on her head and face. Marrian loves frogs, but I wanted to incorporate other bright colors to make the pillowcase more stimulating. She does have feeling from the neck up so hopefully she'll be able to get some sensation from the minky. I originally planned on appliqueing her name using the minky fabric but I quickly learned that minky can't be ironed (or the bumps flatten out) and I use HeatNBond to attach my applique before I sew the edges. Instead I used some coordinating super-soft blizzard fleece that I had from making my little girl's baby blanket.

My Favorite Acrylic Paint Colors

 

I have an amazing-ly huge collection of acrylic paints. But there are a few I seem to use most often. These three colors can work in any of the rooms in my home. 

My favorite is Ceramcoat Sea Foam. It's the perfect shade of blue. It's a light grey-blue so it doesn't look baby-blue whatsoever. 

I also adore Apple Barrel Light Leaf Green. Chartreuse is my favorite color and this comes close without being too neon or bright. It's nice and soft. 

I also get a ton of use out of the Folk Art Metallic Pearl White. I like to use this to layer on top of other colors.

What's your favorite acrylic paint colors?

My Sweet View When I Blog

So I'm pretty new to this whole blogging thing. My kids keep me pretty busy, so I usually blog while my son is napping and I have my daughter napping (most of the time she naps on yours truly). So this is my view and a pretty cute one I must confess.

I have every intention of giving myself a creative space, but it won't be a craft room. I'm working on a creative corner in my bedroom. I'm SO VERY excited to have some space. I once had a craft room/office but that was BK (before kids). Now 3 of our 4 bedrooms are designated to the kids and I'm perfectly thrilled with that.

Bathroom #2 Inspiration

I just read my friend Jen's post over at her blog Sunny Vanilla on bathroom inspiration. [It's a super cute blog with great projects and commentary - check it out...]

I have so many projects on my to-do list. It's almost overwhelming. Seriously, overwhelming. My goal is to make our cookie-cutter home something homey and full of character. We have a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home.

Okay so about the bath inspiration...The 2nd bath is the kids bathroom and it needs a lot of lovin'. I didn't want to make it too childish, but I still want it to be fun. We'll here's my inspiration. Lots of color and of coarse chevron (zig zag pattern)! I plan on adding bead boarding and some trim as well.