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Vinyl House Number Giveaway (because you asked for it!)

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Christy

Good morning! A few weeks ago, I took an unscientific poll on Facebook: would you like me to do a giveaway of vinyl house numbers, similar to what I have on my front door? The answer was pretty overwhelming, and of course it was YES!

Mine have been on my door for almost two years and look great still. If you change your mind, warming the vinyl with a hair dryer before slowly peeling it off works really well. I’ll probably have to take mine off to paint the front door (when it warms up!), but then I’ll put another set on–I get so many compliments on them!

They look good at Thanksgiving:

And at Christmas:

In the autumn:

Really any time of the year!

The porch decor may change with the seasons, but the numbers stay the same!

Here are the details of the giveaway: it will run until Monday, March 11th, at noon central time. If you win, I’ll make you a set of custom house numbers in white or black, similar to the style on my door (don’t stress me out by asking for fancy scrolly cursive or stuff like that–mkay? I’m strictly an amateur here!). I’ll have you measure to make sure they’re just the right size for your door. I might ask you to email us a picture when you put them up, so we can see how cute they are!

You can enter up to four times, by leaving up to four comments below. Leave a comment if you:

are an email subscriber (or sign up to be one–see the box at the right)
follow us on Facebook (box on right or below)
follow us on Pinterest or Twitter (box on right or below)
share the giveaway by pinning it, tweeting it, or sharing it on Facebook or your blog

That’s it–easy! Good luck to all of you, and thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in giveaways, Porches | Tagged black, custom, door, giveaway, house, numbers, vinyl, white | 81 Comments

Halloween Must-Have: Out of Treats Door Sign

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Christy

Despite careful forethought and planning, I have run out of Halloween candy three out of the last four years. (NO, it was not because I bought the candy prior to October 30th and ate it all–I would never do that!) The good news is that I ran out closer to the end of trick-or-treating than the beginning, but I figured I’d better A) buy more candy this year and B) come up with a contingency plan just in case. I decided to make a sign to hang on the door when the candy’s all gone–that way I won’t have to look the sad munchkins in the eye and tell them I’m a loser.

I copied the idea from my “We Can/Can’t Play” sign that I made this summer. You can read about it {here}–if you’re a mom whose doorbell rings frequently, this will change your life! You can thank me later…

We Can/ Can’t Play Door Sign–A Summer Necessity!

This was a cheap project because I already had what I needed. I assembled my materials: a wooden plaque/sign from the craft store ($0.80 full price, but I used a coupon!), orange and black ribbon, eye hooks, black paint, and glitter (just in case–I wound up not using it). Also used, but not shown was black paint, glue (duh), white vinyl and my Silhouette Cameo.

I sanded the rough spots on the sign (sometimes I skip that part) and painted it black with acrylic craft paint. Once it dried, I screwed the eye hook into the top–no drill needed, just use your fingers to screw it in–and printed out the frame and the letters on my Silhouette. I used the free font Boyz R Gross. Wait? You don’t have a vinyl cutter? Don’t despair! Paint your wooden sign with black chalkboard paint, and then just use a white chalk pen for all of this–they sell them at craft stores.

Here’s the white frame:

And now here’s the sign with the words in place:

I debated a bit on which ribbon to use, and finally just used orange and white striped ribbon (I think it was 2″):

We’re not really into “scary” Halloween stuff here, so I debated on whether or not to glue a black plastic spider on the bow. Here it is without the spider:

And with the spider:

Do you have a preference? Let me know!

So this will go up when the candy’s gone at my house. Well, perhaps I will fib a bit and hang this up on my door around 8:30pm, when all the cute little Jedi knights and princesses go home to sort their candy and watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” That’s when the teenagers come around to ring the bell, wearing a costume consisting of sagging blue jeans and a sweatshirt (how creative!), holding an empty pillowcase, and managing to NOT SAY A WORD TO ME as they hold their open pillowcases under my nose, expecting that I will just dump candy in there. Can you tell that I think there should be an age cut-off for trick or treating? I already warned my 11-year-old son that this is his last year! So the sign will either go up at 8:30, or I will hand out tofu and spinach to the surly teens!

Or if I get into the candy stash, the sign might have to go out much earlier!

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to:

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Posted in Autumn and Fall, Crafts, Halloween, Holidays | Tagged candy, chalkboard, door, goodies, Halloween, hanger, sign, treats, trick or treat, tutorial | 26 Comments

Easy, Sanity-Saving Craft Idea: We Can/Can’t Play Door Hanger

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Christy

{Enter our current giveaway for a printable party package HERE}

A few weeks ago, I went on a personal mission to find a cute door sign that would easily telegraph to the neighborhood kiddos whether my two were available (or not) to play. Some days it’s just easier to hang up the sign than to answer the door multiple times, right?

Remembering that I used to have a darling door sign when my kids were little that warned visitors away from ringing the doorbell while Baby was sleeping, I told Amy what I was looking for in regards to play time and asked her if we could put our heads together and create a cute sign. But, as sometimes happens, before we could get to work, I found the perfect sign at Positively Splendid and figured, why reinvent the wheel when I can just follow a tutorial? I loved what Amy (Positively Splendid’s Amy, not our Amy ) had done with the idea, as well as the colors she chose. Please head on over by clicking {here} and let her know that I sent you! Here’s what she came up with:

How cute is that? Don’t you just love the Tiffany blue paint combined with the black and white striped ribbon? Can you see why I chucked the idea of coming up with my own concept and just followed her easy tutorial? I got to work right away because I had everything I needed in the house already to make this project. Here’s what I did:

1. I painted wooden plaques I had from the craft store (they were 80 cents apiece). I used regular acrylic paint and did two in robin’s egg blue and one in light green. I’m going to do hot pink next time!

2. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out chalkboard contact paper for the sign. I used chalkboard contact paper because I had scraps of it left from my North Carolina pantry makeover. Silhouette makes chalkboard vinyl, which I’ll be buying and using from here on out, but the contact paper worked perfectly. I just used the cutting mat because I had only a few small scraps left. If you don’t have a Silhouette or other craft cutter, why not use chalkboard paint (spray or brush-on) to paint your sign? You can use tape to tape off the edges and do those in a bright color; or, chalkboard paint now comes in some gorgeous shades!

3. I screwed a small ring hanger on the back of each plaque (eye screws would work, too, but I just used what I had) to hold the ribbon.

4. Using the Silhouette again, I cut out the words “We” and “Play” from white vinyl. I used the free font “Boyz R Gross” and I love how playful it looks. I like Amy’s idea of using a white chalkboard marker (or chalk) to write “Can” or “Can’t” in the middle, but you could certainly write the entire message out with chalk, and that way you could use the sign for other things (like “We’re Around Back” or “Shh…Baby Sleeping!”).

5. I cut a length of 2″ ribbon and fashioned a loop and bow. I have a ribbon addiction so I had lots to choose from, but I just loved Amy’s black, white, and blue color combination so I made mine out of those shades. The green one I gave to a friend as a little birthday gift, and I gave another one to my neighbor (so my kids know when to stay away from her house, too!). So cute and easy–and inexpensive! Amy, thanks for the great idea–we all need one of these before summer!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Children's Activities, Crafts, Projects & Printables | Tagged can, can't, chalkboard, door, front, hanger, Kids, play, project, sign, tutorial | 4 Comments

Chicken Wire Display Frames–Farm Chic Decor!

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Christy

I love chicken wire…it just kind of fits with my whole flea market/thrift store vibe that I have going on in my house. I’ve seen all kinds of darling uses for it lately, too:

From CountryLiving.com

This is my own house--see that cute chicken wire basket in the background? TJ Maxx!

I’ve also seen so many cute display frames that other bloggers have made to show off photos, hair bows, holiday decor, and the like. I figured it would be easy enough to try my hand at making one, using a frame that I bought at the thrift store. I popped out the picture–which was actually a kind of cute and retro kids’ picture, so I mailed it to Amy in case she can use it in her little girl’s room–and kept the white, distressed frame exactly the way it was.

By the way, I bought my roll of chicken wire at Home Depot. It was in the same aisle as the chain link fencing. The smallest roll was about $8 and I only used a teensy bit, but I figure I’ll make something else with it one day. Or, I’ll build a chicken coop!

I didn’t buy tin snips (aka aviation shears) because I decided to use my pruning shears instead. They’re almost on their last legs, anyway. I simply cut out the chicken wire to fit the back side of my frame, using the shears, and then used my staple gun to secure it in place. Watch out for that chicken wire–it’ll scratch the heck out of you!

My picture frame came with the little screw-in hooks and a wire on the back for hanging, already, otherwise that’s exactly what I would’ve added to hang this one the wall.

I used tiny clothespins (I bought them at Hobby Lobby) to hang pictures, business cards, etc on my new frame. Much cuter than a bulletin board, I think!

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Now, here’s a cute alternative from my super-crafty friend, Megan. She let me photograph her new (old) home in 2010 when she hosted a Christmas open house. You can check out her awesome style HERE.

Meg found a great old window shutter at the Cameron antique fair in Cameron, NC, and decided to give it new life as a photo display in her daughter’s room. Here’s what she started out with:

And after a coat of spray paint, some pom pom trim, and a couple rows of wire, here’s what she wound up with:

How’s that for fun? And instead of using chicken wire, like I did, she used the screw in hooks and a couple of rows of wire, strung horizontally, to create a totally different look (see below). How cute and creative!