Glitter and Ribbon Matting

Matting, not mating. Not that I wrote mating the first time around or anything.

I found a great hemisphere map at my favorite paper goods store – in my favorite blues and greens – and needed a frame large enough for it. My husband volunteered a frame he had, which was the perfect size, except the mat color didn’t really go with my map.

I had also purchased gold glitter wrap paper and decided to tape it over the existing map. This frame does not have glass so it’s just the backing, the map, and the mat over it.

The strips were cut wide enough to go a little beyond the original mat:

As a finishing touch, I added teal ribbon from my sewing stash:

The finished product:



The wedding picture you see above is also matted with lovely wrapping paper, in a music note pattern.

I hope you like this craft, it was an inexpensive way to use something we have and give it the exact look I wanted. Now the frame coordinates with the map print and has a bit of glam, which my office can always use ;D

Fall accent craft


Recently I decided to make a little something something for the bathroom — I was walking around Daiso and saw plain wood boxes, so I grabbed one and decided to fall-ify it a bit.


Two coats of dark brown paint later — this was the bit that took the longest, waiting for the paint to dry — I added a lovely dark orange bit of ribbon I have had for a while. I used yellow ribbon to make a little flower accent and added the year in a cardstock circle.


I had leftover brown cardstock so I made a little tag and added glittery chipboard letters to spell out “autumn”. The filler apples, scented cinnamon sticks and candle were also in part of our fall decor bin, so this was a super cheap craft, I paid less than $2 for the little box and everything else I already had.

So there you have it, a little piece of fall for not much money — hope you have a wonderful week!

Fall craft: Cinnamon candle

I’ve seen cinnamon sticks wrapped around a candle throughout blogland, and decided it was the perfect accent for a little vignette.
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For my version, I chose a vanilla-scented candle, then wrapped a rubber band around it. I stuck cinnamon sticks between the rubber band and candle, then added a festive bow as a final touch.

Super easy, super cheap, and super scented! The candle was .99, the ribbon was a leftover piece from my fall wreath, and the cinnamon sticks came to $3.

Here is the candle on my little tray with a favorite fall picture of one of my boys and a blingy votive holder:
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Hope you enjoyed my craft! I will be linking up to the It’s Fall Y’all craft linky party!
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Fall Wreath for $5 and change

I got the idea for a wreath with my last name initial on it from my friend L at Challenging Martha – she made a super cool fall wreath and I had $5 in my pocket, so I hit up the dollar store and dug out some leftover scrapbook paper I had from a project I will share with you tomorrow.
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I started with a wreath form, some greenery/flowers in fall shades, ribbon, and brown leaf forms – there went my $5.
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I played around with the “ingredients” and the floral wire I had leftover from the lavender wreath I made this past summer.

I have to admit I preferred the wreath form from Walmart because it was fuller, but it was a little more $ and I wouldn’t have been able to get the rest of the stuff for my fall wreath, so I made do with the skinnier, and lighter-in-color wreath form from the dollar store.

I made a letter B from orange scrapbook paper, and glued it onto black cardstock that was glued onto an oatmeal lid, for stability. Then I punched a hole through the paper and lid, and used more floral wire to hang it from the bow I made with the ribbon:
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Notice how the wreath blends in really well with my door. I kinda don’t like that. I think a dark chocolate brown door would be more awesome, but that’s a project down the list for now.
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I love my fall-toned wreath – the lavender wreath now resides between the windows that face onto the front yard, and looks lovely there with the window boxes and more lavender below. Now it is this beauty’s turn to grace our front door, and I am very happy with the result.
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I hope you liked this little project – I had lots of fun making it, although stuff kept coming up and I started it over three weeks ago!

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