The Tack Attack!

A while back I found this image on Pinterest:

{From here}

It is Styrofoam balls covered in thumb tacks and spray painted. So cheap and so chic! I got everything I needed to do this project at Dollar Tree and spent $4. Now, I haven't painted them yet (because as I mentioned in this post I can't decide what color to do in that entry way) but I have them finished and in a vase on the table! Here's what they look like right now:

The how-to is pretty straight forward....Get some Styrofoam balls...

And some thumbtacks:

And just stick those puppies in a line (preferably with a movie...it gets less boring that way) until you have something like this:

I started at the bottom and moved up, but the girl that thought of this idea has also done it starting in the middle; so try it out and see how you like it! In the mean time, what color do you think I should paint these? I think white would not bring in enough color, so maybe some kind of red? I love the color that the original person used (that blue and green are to kill for!) but that doesn't really match anything in my house sooo....I guess I shouldn't do that! What do you think? What color?

A Pinterest Paper Portal of Phosphorescence

I may or may not have just looked up synonyms of the word lantern to try to find one that started with a P...What can I say? I love alliteration! :) I told you guys yesterday that I would give you the deets on this little cutie!

It's no secret that these are all over the blogosphere not to mention Pinterest but I wanted a little something to go in our entry way that would bring some color in and I needed to do it on like a zero dollar amount budget. So this was the perfect project! And I didn't want to put something cheap, cute, and decor related up in my house without sharing it with the world!!! (okay, so it's a small world whatevs! I'm gonna dream big! Because it's Thursday and that's a good day to dream!) ;)

I just got a paper lantern from the Dollar Tree (for only a buck!) and I got red tissue paper from Wal-Mart (also for a buck!).

Here's the original paper lantern (this was pre-new flash and is terribly blurry! Sorry!)

Then I just cut the tissue paper into circles/teardrop shapes (because I can't cut a circle to save my life) and then taped them around the little rings of the paper lantern!

I haven't hung it up yet. Partly because I'm not sure how to do that, and partly because I'm not sold on the red...it just looks a little...blah. It matches our living room and stuff, I'm just not sure it's right for the first thing that I see every time I walk in our house....Idk! But when I decide I'll of course let you guys know!!

What do y'all think? A little blah? Or do you think it's just right? Maybe if I change the color of the paper I'll like it better....any ideas?


**Btw, I had some setting on my blog checked that only allowed comments from other blogger users! Sorry about that!! So, if you want to comment do try! And if it doesn't work....text me/facebook me/email me! (Don't call, because I am notorious for not answering the phone...it's a phobia. Not really, I'm just a pansy. lol Love you guys!)**

The Method To My Chocolatey Madness

I did it! I made those super cute graduation caps from Wednesday's post! It took a little longer than I expected (an hour and 15 minutes), but I think if I did them today I could do them in about 45 minutes now that I have a method down. As a recap, my youth group had a party celebrating the graduating seniors this past Wednesday and I wanted to make something cute, and I found these on Pinterest:

Here's how mine turned out:

I used the method from Bakerella but instead of Godiva chocolate squares (which are a bit too expensive for my taste) I used Hershey's snack size bars and barbecue skewers from the Dollar Tree instead of lollipop sticks! Okay, I'll start from the beginning!

First I stuck my mini-reese's in the refrigerator to try to not have gross sides. But it didn't work...I think it's because they kind of melted on the way home in my car because it is sooo hot these days! See what I'm talking about?

Oh well! Didn't bother me! But I emptied the bag of mini-reese's that I got at Wal-Mart for $2.50, wrapperless on some wax paper, like so:

Then I got my skewers out. They were quite a bit too long, so I "cut" them by making a mark with a pen, making an indention with scissors, and breaking the stick. I got pictures to illustrate! So exciting, right?

Okay, this is the actual length of the skewers...perfect for shishkabobs, but waaay too long for what I'm doing!

So, I made a mark with a pen (all at one time...I layed the skewers out in a line so that I didn't have to mark each one individually and take foooorever), then I made that indentation with some scissors (they couldn't cut all the way through the stick...pansies).

 Then I broke them with my bare hands (I'm such a beast, I know) and put the non-usable side in a pile to go in the trash (I couldn't use them because my reese's were falling apart when I tried to put in the non-pointy side of the skewer...but Bakerella's version uses lollipop sticks that aren't pointy so I must've been doing something wrong)

And put the super awesome pointy ones in the pile to be used (btw, disregard my disgusting cutting board...kool-aid is such a jerk sometimes! But not to worry, it's all clean now!)

Then I stuck the pointy side of the skewer into the flat side of the reese's mini. Then I moved onto the top part of the hat!

I cut broke at the middle seam the snack size hershey's bar so that there were two sections to one hat, like this:

Then I flipped them over and used some yellow cake icing that I got from WalMart in the ready-to-squeeze bag. Well actually, I started out trying to use it without a tip (because I'm a cheapo and didn't want to buy icing tips for one project!). I tried making a straight line with a toothpick, my fingers, everything and nothing worked! Then I got a bag and cut a tiny hole in the corner and that worked like a charm!!

See all the cute little graduation hat toppers! Way to go Mr. Plastic Baggy! :) Also, see that chocolate almond bark in the background of that picture above? That was my glue!

I put one square in a little bowl along with some milk and microwaved it for 30 seconds; stirred, 15 seconds; stirred and scooped some extra into another tiny bowl I had on hand.  Then I used the end of that spoon I used to scoop the extra, to scoop the melted almond bark onto the small side of the reese's mini and stuck the little hats on top of the reese's!

Then I stuck all of them into some packing styrofoam Blake had in the office and let them cool! Which is that picture that you saw above!

And once they cooled, I put them in those red soho cups to be transported.

Then I thought about the hour long drive we were about to make in the 90 degree weather and thought...these aren't going to make it. So I got a big pot and put some lunch freezer blocks in the bottom and put the soho cups in as well. And they made it all the way there in the backseat of my car! Well, actually there were two that didn't make it, but church members were happy to take those off my hands anyway :)

And the party was a success! Everyone liked these little thingies, and told me they tasted good (I don't really like chocolate other than reese's cups, so I didn't try one).

Here's some pics from the par-tay!

Mmmm....Pizza!

Yay! Congrats Grads!! :)

Super cute right?? And I didn't even know the red soho cup would match the decor! Yippee!

Action shot! ;)

Stacy and I manning  womanning the nachos and drinks in the kitchen! (Isn't she stinkin gorgeous?!? LOVE HER!) :)

 And I also made these little guys as presents for the graduates (they're page corner bookmarks!) (tutorial available here!)

Blake made the little beaks made of money on the car ride to the church, aren't they super cute?! Love love them! :)

So that's the story! It was super fun making all that stuff (although I had a bit of a time constraint which made it more stressful that it should've been, but that's my fault) :)

How were your May festivities? Have any graduation parties of note? Or was it all quiet on the western front (or whatever front you're in...like I'm in the southeastern front...okay I'll stop now ;) )? Hope y'all's week has been fantastic and your weekend will be even better! :)

The Awesomeness of Dollar Tree!

I have discovered the awesomeness of the Dollar Tree! Before being introduced to the DIYers of the blogosphere, I was less than impressed with the Dollar Tree, because I was looking for things that didn't need any work. I was looking for something that looked great and was quality and just generally awesome in a store that sold things for a dollar! What was I thinking! But now that I follow a bunch of blogs that take something that is less than great and make it something awesome (with usually not much more than a can of spray paint) I went into the dollar tree this weekend with fresh eyes! And I found some good stuff! One of those things was the non-slip drawer liners. I had no idea they sold drawer liners at the dollar store! And I had no idea the difference they would make!

Our master bathroom drawers are full of stuff that we use everyday! I actually organized them a couple of weeks ago to cut down on the clutter and hopefully make the drawers look like civilized people used them, but when we would open or close the drawer, the stuff would move everywhere and mess up the organization that I worked so hard on! Here's what they looked like:

They don't really look like someone took an hour and a half out of their day to organize them do they? **sigh** But not to worry! Enter these lovely dollar tree finds!

Those little white bowls are so cute and perfect! I thought I was going to have to get some tiny pot holders (six for a dollar at Dollar Tree!) but then I found these! They were a dollar a piece, but I wouldn't have to spray paint them and they have cute little designs around the rim!

So with about 20 minutes of taking everything out of the drawers, cutting the drawer liner to size, and deciding where to put everything back in the drawers, I had bathroom drawers that don't make me cringe when I open them! YAY! Here's how they look now!

As you can see, I only had use of two of those cute white bowls, so I have three left over to do some more organizing with! Yay!

And I had a little bit left over in my drawer liner roll, so I put it to good use! My kitchen drawer, which I organized with a shoe organizer was also having some problems with stuff moving around when I would open it. I didn't have enough liner left to cover the whole kitchen drawer, but I had enough to do what I needed! Here's the before and after :)

Before:

After!

I'm now realizing that the drawer liner is not centered on the rolling pin (funny how you notice things in pictures that you don't notice in real life), so I will be fixing that momentarily (yes, I am that OCD lol).

So how about you guys? Have y'all hit up the dollar store lately and found stuff that you loved? Or have y'all spent hours on organizing drawers only to have them look hideous as soon as you open and close them like twice?