Coaster Garland

This is a little post that a put together a few weeks ago,
and shared with the readers over at 
Luxe Boulevard.


If you visited Stephanie earlier in the month,
thanks for sharing the love.


If not . . . 

Today, I have a quick and simple tutorial 

for all of you wonderful ladies.


Over in my part of Blogland I craft 
and create for my home and my boys.
Today's tutorial is a home based tutorial.

Summer is nearly here,

and this means it is time to start 

shifting around decor.

My "regular" decor;
stuff like what you see here;

The Cuban Cowboy bought my the Kitchen Fairy for my birthday.
He loves my macaroni and cheese, so it is fitting.

is essentially my Summer decor

because it is up after Easter,

 which is typically earlier than this year,

until the first of October when I bring out Halloween.

I like the calm that this decorating season brings

because my social life is hectic in the summer,

as I am sure is true for many of you.

Okay, so let's get started on our 

first Summer project.

I am sure it will only be one of many that 

is completed over the next few weeks.

This project was actually inspired by 

ad different set of coasters 

that I purchased with the intention of making the garland,

but I couldn't find them when I went to get started.

I have NO clue where they went.

I had already told Stephanie what I would be doing,

so I was frantic.

Then, I remembered that I had these strawberries coasters 

from a few years back.

Phew! Relief.

Here's what you are going to need.

• Cardboard Coaster (Michael's often has various varieties in their $1 spot ~now $1.50 spot at mine)
• Twine/jute
• Hot Glue Gun/Glue Sticks
• Scrap Felt
• Vinyl or Stickers

This is SUPER DUPER simple. Promise.

First, you are going to cut your twine, err on the side of excess.

Then fold the twine in half to find the center.

Like so.

Now, I had 7 coasters, so I adhered 
the first one at this center point.

If you have an even number

 then use the center as a reference point for

adhering the first two coasters on either side.

I adhered the coasters by running a thin line of hot glue about 1/2 inch down from the top. 

I then laid the twine across the glue.

Next, I took a piece of scrap felt cut 

from this FAILED Easter jacket.

I added a little more hot glue on top of the twine 

and adhered the felt for stability.

To keep accurate distance between each coaster,

I laid the first coaster to one side of my hot glue gun plate;

I always use a paper plate to glue on top of.

I then laid the next coaster in the center of the plate.

I kept this up for each coaster.

After I had added three to one side of the initial coaster,

I switched the oh so scientific method of measurement 

to the other side of the plate and repeated until 

all coasters were in place.

Now we are ready for our letters.

Since I own a Cricut

I cut my word out using white vinyl.

However, if you do not own a Cricut or Silhouette, you can use ABC Letter Stickers. I would choose these 

awesome Creative Memories ones.

They are such a great size and font for projects like this.

I chose the word Summer,

and I used the Cricut font Cuttin Up 

on the Serif setting.

I cut at 2 1/2 inches because the coasters are 

about 4 inches in diameter.

Since I was short one letter, 

I used my Cricut Indie Art Cartridge to cut out a Strawberry.

Strawberries are my FAVORITE,

they were the print of the coasters I used,

and they are essentially the theme of my kitchen.

I adhered each letter to the center of a coaster.

Voila!

It was now ready to hang.

I am pleased as punch with the result.


Here's a little look at where and how 
I actually hung it in my kitchen.


I just used little white finishing nails.

And it looks like this.

I hope that you are able to create something as fun and simple for your kitchen or other room this Summer.

I would love to see it if you did.

Valentine's Gift for the MAN

Valentine's Day is such a girly day.

I really like buying stuff for the whosband, but it usually just ends up being for me.

That is until last year when I bought him an XOXO coffee mug from Pier1. 

He loved it! 

He drinks an abundant amount of coffee, so this is just the perfect gift for him.

I wanted to do something similar this year, but I just didn't know what it was I was exactly going to do.

Then I found this coffee mug tree at the thrift store.

Do you see the two price tags? 

That's right discounted at the thrift store.

So I paid my 99 cents, but I knew it wasn't so cute.

Red is the color of Valentine's Day. 

It is also the color of my oh so retro kitchen.

So I knew I had to run and get some red spray paint. 

I picked up Krylon Chili Pepper.

I also grabbed a clear coat because it is going in the kitchen.

This is what it looked like after some paint.

I knew that I didn't want to just stop there.

Then I was doing some cleaning in my office one night and found this wine stopper. 

My mom brought it home as a wedding favor. 

She thought I'd like it.

Well, we don't drink a ton of wine so it's been sitting in my office.

I figured I take it to the kitchen and put it in the drawer. 

As I was about to do this I saw the painted mug tree and thought,

"Darn this cute heart can't go on top. It'd be the perfect V-Day addition."

Then I realized that the heart was removable.

SWELL!!!!

All I needed to do was drill a hole in the top and screw it in.

So here's the hole.

I still wasn't done yet.

I knew that I wanted to go ahead and take a stab at using vinyl. 

I recently bought some for my Cricut using a gift card that I had.

All I needed was a saying that was about both coffee and love.

To the computer I went.

I typed in "coffee quotes" on google and the first one that came up was:

Coffee and love are best served hot

Seriously, it was that easy. 

All I needed to do now was to cut the vinyl. 

First I cut the words out on paper to make sure that they fit.

After I had an arrangement I got out the vinyl, took a deep breath, and I went for it.

VOILA!!!! 

Fonts used: Hello Kitty font/love word & heart from New Arrival cartridge

Do you love it? 

I do. The "v" on love got a little wonky, but I am overall satisfied with the outcome.

Okay. Now for the full reveal.

Oh yes, and doesn't it look even better with this AMAZING mug I picked up for him the other day at Anthropologie. 

It was only $6. It may be the least expensive thing in the entire store. 

I know that he will love both pieces.

(He's actually seen the tree, except for the typography. That's a surprise.)

Okay, so what "manly" gifts are you going to give?

Creativity has made this years V-Day way more fun!!!

I am specially linking this post to the CSI project!!!