During the wedding planning for my brother's wedding, one thing that the lovebirds knew that they wanted were slices of wood for their centerpiece. Unfortunately - finding slices of wood locally proved to be impossible. Although we found them on Etsy they were pretty expensive to ship to Canada. I kept racking my brain trying to figure out how we could do our own. It wasn't until I was at our cottage - a few weeks before the wedding that it hit me - We have a TON of wood stumps on our property and all I needed was someone to slice them. (It seems obvious I know, but really it was the slicing part that was stumping* me)

The "ah-ha" moment was the realization that a man who works at one of my favourite cottage antique spots always was wood working outside the shop, and it hit me that if anyone knew how to slice the stumps, he would. I decided to try my luck and see if he would be able to help me. And he said yes! He informed me all we needed was a chainsaw. Well, we needed a chainsaw and someone comfortable enough to use it. That's where Andy came in.

Meet Andy. :) A few bucks later, my car was full of slabs. But they were a little "rough" so I brought them home and proceeded to sand them.

I have a little mouse sander but it wasn't working as much as I'd like it on these. The Home Depot heard I was doing this project back in September and sent me this awesome gadget....

A Ridgid Heavy Duty Belt Sander. Whoooooo!!! If there is one thing I love as much as I love vacuums it is power tools that I can use like power sanders. If you don't have one in your home then I highly, highly recommend one. Although the mouse would likely be the most used in most DIY toolboxes this belt sander is pretty awesome for heavy duty sanding. Although I'm showing it in use for this wedding craft - I actually got more use out of it in some other projects I'm working on - which are coming up. But back to the wedding crafting for this post....

The sander arrived when my brother was there - so we actually got to do this project together which was pretty darn fun. (Although my brother looks pretty grumpy, but I assure you he was happy). It was ridiculously easy to use. The cool thing with this sander is that it has a bag on the end to collect the sawdust - a great plus if you're doing something indoors (which I did do later, and although it doesn't suck up ALL the dust, it's pretty significant how much it does)

The thing that I discovered was that the belt sander was actually too powerful for the little slabs of wood that I initially wanted to use it for. It kept throwing the slabs at me because the rotary part means that the sandpaper well, rotates vs. staying in one place. Even though it kept chucking the wood slices at me (cue a few screams from me, and hysterical laughter of those watching) it worked really well on planks (you can see me sanding a plank above). So if you're sanding small items, stick with a mouse. Bigger items like planks of wood or big furniture pieces - the belt sander is sooooo much fun.

With the leftover slices that weren't even enough for resting a vase on - I painted chalk board paint on them to be used throughout the wedding venue to write things on. :)

It was pretty darn cute. Ps., Oscar snuck into the picture above.

The birch wood slices sanded the easiest. So if you're hunting some piles of wood - go for the birch. :)

In terms of sanders, the mouse still is my favourite but this Belt Sander is a welcomed addition to my DIY toolbox for bigger projects. :) You should also check out this pretty helpful page: Sander Buying Guide 

Belt Sander.......Ridgid Heavy-Duty Belt Sander via The Home Depot
Wood Tree Stumps .......... My cottage. :)
Wood Cutting ................ A friendly neighbour at the cottage, Andy
Mouse Sander ............... My own, but you can get it at The Home Depot

The Home Depot provided me with the rotary sander to help me accomplish this project. Thank you!!

*Pun Intended. :)

I was inspired to do some crafting when I saw a roundup of clay tags by Stefanie at Brooking Limestone.  These are super easy and just involves Sculpey + a stamp.  My favourite tag is the bark one - the original bark stamp is via Live. Laugh. Rowe.  I decided to make circle bark tags like she did, but also did a rectangular one (shown above)

I used a straw to punch holes in the top of each tag. Some clay pieces I left without holes and made them into seals, like the one in the last photo. Simply hot glue gun onto a parcel!

Anyhow, this project is kind of last minute fun for the holidays. Enjoy!

xo Linds

Where to buy:
Star Tag, Star stamp via Penny Paper Co. 
P seal - I used a toy wooden block as a stamp
S Tag - Custom Initial Stamp via Penny Paper Co.
Bark Tag - I made my own, but you can buy a similar one off Amazon 
Twine: Red + Pink Twine via Penny Paper Co. 

By now you may have noticed the paper magnolia wreath that has appeared in some photographs on my blog over last month. I'm in love with this wreath and is possibly my favourite holiday item in our house.  The reason why no "how to" on this wreath was ever posted was because this project actually happened without much thought - and therefore, without much effort in documenting (via photos) how I did it. I was actually in the middle of doing another craft project (paper macheing a a tunnel Oscar's train set) when I suddenly felt inspired to make this wreath.  I did take some iphone shots during the project, which I've put together with a lot of details. Should you like to know how to make your own, the long list of instructions is after the jump. :) Good luck! xo Lindsay

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A few weeks ago I ordered some magnets from Zulily. I bought a whole bunch with the intention of making some ornaments for Oscar. This is the easiest project - the hardest part is finding the right pieces. I was inspired by this a project on Creature Comforts. Originally I intended to do what she did - drill a hole through the pieces - but after some consideration I decided to just glue some string to the pieces instead of drilling - which saved me some time and it didn't ruin any part of the magnet.

I originally tried a glue gun but the glue wouldn't stick to the magnet  So I pulled out the heavy duty stuff - Gorilla Glue. It looks horrible when it dries (it puffs up and looks super weird) but it does the trick.

Ta-da! Honestly, I'm in LOVE with these ornaments especially if you have a "Kids" tree like I've made for Oscar this year. I did a lot of ones that played into Oscar's interests like Sea Animals and Trains (not pictured) Oscar loves to sit in front of the tree and we play "I Spy" and spot all of the animals. It's super cute. Anyhow, just some DIY fun from our house to yours that doesn't require a lot of pre-planning, tools or effort. But the results are pretty sweet. :)

WHERE TO BUY: Magnets, Although I bought on Zulily.com you can also find them on Amazon.com. Twine: My shop (Although you can also just use plain string, it looks just as cute)

Ps., The tree is courtesy of Treetopia. It's a 4 foot white Christmas tree that comes pre-lit. Honestly it is SO CUTE. It is officially Oscar's tree that one day he can even have in his room. (I grew up having a mini tree in my room that was also white - so I feel a little sentimental with this white tree in our house)

In 2010 I came across this DIY Advent Bag Project that captured my heart and a year later I attempted to replicate it. Unfortunately the project totally failed. I think the problem was that the bags were way too big. I couldn't find a spot to hang them all and secondly, the bags were so big that little treats got lost. In the end I felt that the size of the bag was the issue.  So this year I've tackled new advent bags using small mini drawstring cotton bags. Much more manageable.  The size makes it way easier to find a spot to hang them and you can fit little itty bitty treats in.

If you'd like to make your own you can download and print off your own numbers. I've created a free printable for you. There are two pages - one with candy colour numbers (shown above) and then a second page with more classic colours. Follow the instructions that come with the iron on transfer paper packaging, but don't forget to select mirror when you're printing the page. If you just print it "as is" it will be backwards when you iron it on.

DOWNLOAD: Get the free download of 24 numbers (2 Pages)
Bags available in my shop here. Enter SAVE15 to get 15% off your order until this Friday. 

*Artwork is not for resale. If you've read my blog for awhile, you'll know why I have to stress this. ;)

Although it seems ridiculously early to post Halloween stuff, when it comes to DIY projects it I think the earlier the better. This is a little bit of a recycled post from last year but it's too cute not to share year after year. Download this free font - EVILZ. I used the font last year to make some cute bags for Oscar's friends (shown below). Ps., Instead of candy we filled the fun little bags with toy bats.

 

Also, Jennifer blogged about a free template you can download to do a similar project. Super cute.

 

Ps., Bags available in my shop.

Last year I posted this DIY project on my modern approach to the Easter Egg and I loved seeing everyone be inspired to do it. [It was even on Craft.com] But like many of you, I get inspired to do holiday carfts, maybe um, the week of the holiday, so it doesn't leave much time to do the project and post it for inspiration for others. I'm seeing Easter projects pop up everywhere so I felt like I could respost it now ahead of time for you to try. I think it's a pretty fun thing to do with kids. All you need are some rocks + paint. It's that simple. But if you want to see the original project, click here.

I've successfully ironed on 24 numbers onto Oscar's Advent Bags. I was fully inspired by Kai Ethier for House & Home Magazine who did these. And, it only took me a full YEAR to do it. I'm not kidding you, I actually started this last year. But I suck at iron on transfers, maybe trying to peel them back too soon, and 1/2 of the project was a disaster. With December 1st creeping on me way too quickly, I managed to perfect my skills at ironing on, letting them cool off and peeling back. Like my numbers? Because freebies are fun, click here to download my design of 1 - 24 so you can do your own. Now I just have to figure out 1. what to fill them with and 2. where to hang them. :)

Image credit: Oh Happy Day

I'm working away on my advent calendar/bag project still - ALMOST done! But when I woke up this morning and read this post on Oh Happy Day, with my morning coffee, I thought it was soo good not to share. You can download the free template from Jordans site when you visit the post, and these are actually the exact same bags you can buy in my little shop. Oh, the uses of bags - the only limitations are your creativity. :) xo Linds

I see a lot of people pinning our Holiday crafts that we've done, or, in the case of #3, blogged about (I'm almost done making my own version!) Since last Christmas my little blog has new readers who may have missed these - so I thought I'd just do a quick roundup of the popular ones for you.

1. An acorn tree that my Mom made me
2. Simple Candy Cane bark wrapped up in celophane or, maybe a pretty bag make great inexpensive gifts
3. DIY Advent Calendar by Kai Ethier that I adored - I'm in the process of making now for Oscar (stay tuned) and
4. Easy ornaments, perfect for babies first Christmas - I plan on doing this for Oscar many, many years to come. [Blogged here]

xo Lindsay

Oscar loves trains. When you go to places like MastermindToys they have an awesome train table by their Thomas section. As much as those tables rock, they are problematic for us. 1. A train table is expensive (A few hundred dollars for just the table) 2. It is also HUGE - It takes up a lot of room and 3. I don't like the look of the tables that they sell. They are really decorated and branded, and not really to my taste. Part of me thinks many times, simpler is, better.

Taking a trip back in time, when we were young, my Dad had actually made the nicest train board for us. It is still is around and Oscar plays on it every week when I visit my family. The minute he is in the door, he bolts to the living room, to where my brother has set it up for Oscars visit. It's SO cute.

The reason why this is awesome vs. a table is that you can slide it under a couch, or, store it somewhere easily compared to a table. Having a party? Pick that board up, and hide it in the furnace room. Aubrey and I spent the last few weeks constructing Oscar his very own board. The board itself is very inexpensive, the expense is all in the track + accessories. And, in terms of time - the most time you will also spend on it, is figuring out a train layout. (I think Aubrey spent a few hours trying to figure out exactly the pattern of the track) You can see the finished product below...

For full instructions, and to see the original that my Dad make, click to see more after the jump...

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