DIY HOLIDAY: WASHI TAPE CARDS

 WAIT.

Before you go all "LAURA IT'S NOT EVEN THANKSGIVING WHY ARE YOU DOING HOLIDAY CARDS!?"

1. I said HOLIDAY, not Christmas

2. Hanukkah is in a week, and that is one of these cards.

Thus, I bring to you, washi tape holiday cards!

For your tree cards:

Step 1:  Bust out all your washi tape. Most of mine is from Loollipop, but I have some rolls from Coscto & Target too!

Step 2: Layer different patterns & colors of green washi tape & cut into triangles

Step 3: Layer on your card, and write a cheery greeting!

Get creative with your cards! I made sure to cover Hanukkah, Christmas, aaaand New Years. I may have gone a little washi crazy and made a few too many. Oops.

The best part about washi tape is that is peels right back off of the cards- so if you screw up or don't love your design- you change it!

Have you made any great holiday crafts yet?

Share a link in the comments- I'd love to see them!

xo, lp

$4 DIY JEWELRY HANGER!

I think if I had a dollar for every blog post I've done mentioning jewelry I'd have enough money...to..well... buy myself some more jewelry. 

Last year when we lived in Virginia we had the perfect wall to create a jewelry tree for all of my necklaces. And by we I mean while Michael was at work I painted a tree and banged about 40 nails on the wall. Without telling him.

Woops.

He even spackled every one of the holes when we moved out. What a guy!

Well, I decided to not be a jerk and do that to him again, so this time around I created a jewelry display that only required two holes in the wall. Amazing! 

This project is really simple, and really cheap.

You'll need:

- Level

- Hammer

- Gold Spray Paint

- 2 basic nails

- 1/2 x 48 dowel

- 2 gold cup hooks (  5/8 or 3/4 inch )

All of these can be found at your local hardware store! Dowels run under $1.00, cup hooks around about $0.50 each. The spray paint was about $2, making this whole project around $4. Amazing!

 Here's how to make it happen:

 Easy, right?

Honestly, the only thing that took a long time in this project was hanging up all the necklaces. Yup.

Quick, cheap, and awesome.

 A few things I will say about this project:

1. Don't go thinner than a 1/2 inch dowel. It'll bend like crazy. Mine bends slightly in the middle-but not to the point it's going to break. 

2. If you DO get a bigger dowel, remember to get bigger cup hooks & ones that stick out further from the wall! Otherwise you won't be able to hang your necklaces up because the dowel will be too close to the wall.

 Oh, and keep your most worn necklaces on the ends!
*** Update: I should specify- for the necklaces in the middle you just open the clasp to get them off! - Although it doesn't look like it, there is space between the dowel and the wall- you don't need to remove the dowel from the hooks every time you need a necklace in the middle!!! ****

There you have it!

Although it may not be as creative as the jewelry tree, it is super functional and will a lot easier to clean up come moving time!

How do you store/display your jewelry?

I might have to take your ideas for next time :)

xo, lp


For more B&B-find me on instagram! @lpodlich

10 MINUTE DIY HEART ART!

Last year I was all about decorating for Valentine's Day. I had flowers and garlands and tacky candles galore.

This year? Well, this is about all I came up with. I could pretend it was some super fancy process that takes skill, but let's be real. It took about 10 minutes and could probably be done by a kid.

Eh, I love it anyway.

Try it, friends:

All you need:

- Contact paper

- Red acrylic paint

- Sponge brush

- Scissors

- Thick cardstock or painters paper

- Vinyl letters (I used 2" Helvetica from Office Depot)

Make it happen:

I don't think a step by step is needed here, right?

Just one tip: Contact paper doesn't always stick suuuper well, so paint going from the outside of the heart into the center to keep a crisp outline!

There she is. Framed in all her glory. 

 (yup, those are a couple of the flowers from the V-day tradition I shared last year)

How are you decorating for Valentine's?

Don't have any ideas or any time? Try this 10 minute DIY!

xo, lp 

THANKS JAR STRIKES AGAIN

Normally on Tuesdays I share a recipe, but today is a special day my friends. Today is the Young House Love Pinterest Challenge! 

  I'm sure you all know about Sherry and John's blog, right? Sure you do. Their blog is the first one I ever started following, and is always a fun source of inspiration. I even got to meet them when Michael and I lived in Richmond (yes, I freaked out slightly), and have their new book pre-ordered. Total YHL nerd over here, people. 

Alright. Enough blabbing. So last year I tried to be cool and replicate Sherry's Thanks Glassing Project, and well... it didn't turn out so hot...so this year I gave it a facelift:

Oh, wait. 

I should probably explain.

So, every day of November (or earlier) until Thanksgiving you (and your spouse/partner/family/kids/etc) write something on a slip of paper you're thankful for and put it in the Thanks Jar. Then, on Thanksgiving you read them all! 

WAIT. Before you go judging and thinking this sounds a little goofy- let me assure you that it is not only sweet, but also HILARIOUS. Last year both Michael and I individually wrote cheese and whiskey on one. Class acts. 

Well, besides being ugly, the problem with last year's Thanks Jar was that you could see right into it, which means any nosy Nelly could check out what was on the slips ahead of time. No good. Thus, this year I decided to upgrade it....by painting it GOLD:

All you need:

Gold spray paint

Spray Adhesive (regular glue works too)

Mod Podge

Glitter

 After painting your jar gold, just spray some spray adhesive on in lines and layer your glitter on in whatever manner you so choose. I went with gold & copper tones from Martha Stewart, but clearly it doesn't need to be an fall color scheme! If you'd rather do a Thanks Jar for the holidays, blue & gold or red & green would be fun too!

We had so much fun with it last year, we actually started a month early. We've been writing one a day since the beginning of October and the jar is getting mighty full!!

If you want to have a Thanks Jar this year, get your butt in gear - you have 2 days!!!

Have another holiday tradition to share?

I'm a sucker for that stuff...so let me know!

xo, lp

DIY Ombre Tray

As you all saw yesterday, LPF Mag is now live! Lauren was sweet enough to let me contribute an article, and it wasn't hard to choose the topic I wanted to focus on. In case you haven't gathered by previous projects like my Kate Spade Gold Dotted Tray or Kelly Green Bookends, I love me some good old fashioned thriftin'. Yep, I'm glamorous like that. 

I won't go into too much detail about the project- I'll let ya check out LPF Mag for that, but I will say that I fully support checking out your local thrift stores for possible DIY projects!

Here's what I started out with: 

 And here's what I ended up with:

 This tray is perfect for a coffee table tray, or for displaying jewelry!!

What great thrift store DIYs have you done?

Make sure you check out LPF mag to see more on the tray!

xo, lp

BOOK IT

These bookends rock.

Especially when you consider the fact they started out looking like this: 

I found these babies at a thrift store in Richmond, and with a $2 price tag, there was no way I was leaving them behind. 

I know some people are too cool for thrift stores, but really- it's all about going into it with an open mind. I always imagine everything in there with a fresh coat of white paint, and suddenly it all seems better. The best part about thrifting items is that you can change the look of them as many times as you want and don't need to feel bad about ruining an expensive piece! (I'm looking at you, $78 Pottery Barn Bookends)

So what did I do?

Sanded 'em

Painted 'em white (acrylic paint)

Painted 'em green. (spray paint)

Rocket science here, people.

 Look what I was left with! Pretty green guys that add a nice little pop of color to the room!

 Total cost of this project: $4.50

I can get down with that.

Have you ever scored any great thrift store/garage sale finds?

If you've made them over & shared on your blog, leave the link below!

xo, lp

-----------------------------------------

For those of you wondering, these are a few of my favorite books (and one of Michael's):

* East of Eden:: John  Steinbeck (Classic.)

* The Passion:: Jeanette Winterston (Not to be confused with The Passion Of the Christ. TOTALLY different.)

* Team of Rivals :: Doris Kearns Goodwin (this is one of M's. Abe Lincoln loving nerd)

* Shantaram :: Gregory David Roberts (Long, but worth it.)

MONOGRAM RECIPE BOX

Here's the deal. In case you live under a rock, I love to cook & bake. Evidenced here.  

Growing up, my mom had old wood recipe boxes overflowing with carefully written out recipes categorized with little index tabs. Controlled chaos, if you will. I know it's easier nowadays to just keep recipes digitally, but there's something sacred about written out cards. 

I decided to make a simple monogrammed wood recipe box and have begun to write out all my favorite recipes, edged with colorful paper.

For a long time I was going to print the monogram out from offline, but thought it would be more personal (&imperfect) to write it out myself. So here you have it:

I started with a plain wood recipe box from Michael's (about $4 after a coupon):

I sanded that baby down, and started sketching out my monogram. I went with an almost-black navy acrylic paint for the letters & circle. A quick seal of polyurethane later the paint finished fully matte!

I kind of love how it's not a perfect circle, which is currently shocking the perfectionist inside of me...

 Not to sound like a cranky,senile old lady- but I think too much is getting "computerized" these days. Some things hold such good memories, and you need to be able to touch them sometimes- not just stare at them on a screen.Overall, I love it and cannot wait until it's like my mom's recipe boxes; bursting with inspiration and tasty food ideas!

You an old-school recipe box fan like I am?

Do tell what your's looks ( or will look) like. 

xo, lp

DIY Collage Coasters

I have an unnecessary amount of coasters.

No, really. 

Between the DIY scrabble drink coasters I made a while back and the Minnesota themed ones, I have enough coasters to have a small army over for a very condensation-free dinner party.

So what did I do while at the dollar store a while back? Well, pick up some tile coaster bases, naturally.

 Why not add to the coaster hoarding problem?

 I stashed them away and completely forgot about them, because my craft boxes are black holes...but found them a while back and decided to do something with them. Since we're moving, I decided it was finally time to cut up some old clothing catalogues we didn't need to bring with us (sorry J.Crew and Lands' End!). After longingly gazing at all the pretty clothes I'd missed out on, I cut out my favorite colors and patterns:

I cut them up into a ridiculous amount of squares and started separating them out by color, with the intention of making a gradating color pattern: 

After a quick dry-run to make sure I had cut the squares to evenly line up, I simply started using my trusty gluestick to adhere the squares. Difficult, right?

I decided to make one a more green-blue-purple, and one a yellow-orange-red-pink-purple, sealing both with a two layers of Mod Podge:

So here they are folks:

I happen to be madly in love with them. Yeah. Coasters. Madly in love. Deal with it. For some reason it makes me happy to recognize some of my favorite patterns (like the blue lobster seen above from a pair of preppy men's chinos). 

What do you think?

Anyone else a coaster hoarder? No? ::crickets:: Fine.

xo, lp

p.s it's my last day of work today (ah!).

Kate Spade Inspired DIY Jewelry Tray

I love Kate Spade. The flawless jewelry, the classic handbags, the stunning shoes- I love it all. 

Unfortunately... my budget doesn't love Kate Spade. Wop-wop. 

Thus, I made this:

I love the Ticker Tape Tidbit china, and thought a single plate would be fun as a jewelry dish. Although I have no doubt it's worth every penny- each plate comes up to $50. Again: Wop-wop. 

Someday when I make my millions or win the lottery I'll buy one of everything online-mark my words!

Until then, I'll have to DIY what I can.

Kate Spade Ticker Tape Tidbit China

I stopped by a local thrift store and picked up this glass tray for a whopping $3:

 After a good sanding and a couple layers of white acrylic paint I got everything I needed ready:

- Foam Brush -    -Painter's Tape-    -Scissors-     -Martha Stewart Glitter (yellow barite & copper)-  

-Index Card-     -Metallic Acrylic Paint ( Deco Art Splendid Gold)-      -Mod Podge-

Next I cut a small hole in the index card, reinforcing the card with some painters tape:

Slowly but surely I added gold dot after gold dot, stopping every 10 or so to allow time for them to dry without smearing. The best part about the Kate Spade design is that there are overlapping dots- so anytime I messed up I simply let it dry & painted another dot covering up my mistake! 

 Continual dot adding....

 A little bit of glitter just for good measure & some Mod Podge to seal it all off!

 The finished product!

 Of course, the best part was adding a little bit of my jewelry- just a few of my favorite gold pieces:

 Jewelry:

Cobalt Studs: Fornash

Red Studs: Marc by Marc Jacobs

Gold Leaf earrings: Thrifted (for $1!)

Watches & Bracelet: Charming Charlie

Tiny Gold Locket: c/o Hibiscusdays Jewelry

Gold Circle Diamond Necklace: Gorjana (c/o Shopbop)

I am THRILLED with how it turned out. It's shiny and glittery and completely wonderful. 

It may not be real Kate Spade, but I sure do love it. 

Would you keep your jewelry favorites on this DIY tray?

If not, what's your go-to jewelry storage?

xo, lp

Pssst: I know was all people could talk about a little while ago..but how perfect are Kate Spade watches?  Le Sigh.