Recently my daughter was invited to a Harry Potter themed sleep over birthday and wanted a fun bag to bring her stuff. I’ve been working on a cross stitch design featuring all the Harry Potter icons and knew it would be easy to convert the original file into an SVG and that is exactly what I did!

I love how it turned out, and any individual element would be cute, but combined into a heart is perfection.

This year’s hot summer trend looks to be pineapples.  They are popping up everywhere, from Anthropologie and Nordstrom to Target and Pottery Barn.

Originally a Victorian symbol of hospitality, the pineapple has recently gotten a glamourous makeover.  No longer relegated to pool floats and luau decor, the pineapple is all grown up.

 I can’t wait to share 20 fabulous gold guided versions that you may want to welcome into your home!

By now I’m sure you know a Cricut machine is good for personalizing things, from furniture and cups to shirts and tote bags. You also know it is great for paper crafts and home decor. In fact, this month’s Craft and Create challenge is filled with a huge assortment of home decor ideas for the Cricut:

Buffalo Check Wooden Pumpkin from Weekend Craft • Inspirational Candles from Happy Go Lucky • Rustic Wooden Sign from Refresh Restyle • Paper Pumpkins from Create & Babble • Charting Embroidery with the Cricut from The Kim Six Fix • Rainbow Bookends from SeeLINDSAY • Dollar Tree Sign Upcycled For Fall from Daily DIY Life • Coco Inspired Pillows from Upright and Caffeinated • Pumpkin Spice Latte Towel with the Cricut EasyPress from Cookies, Coffee and Crafts • Fall Inspired Sign from Every's Creations • Quick and Easy Home Decor with Your Cricut: One Cricut SVG File 12 Ways! from Happily Ever After, Etc • DIY Clipboard Wall Art from Real Girls Realm • Welcome Fall Cricut Shadow Box from the Inspiration Vault • Fall Wreath from Our Crafty Mom

But did you know you Cricut can be handy in the world of HAND EMBROIDERY?  Oh yes..  It is like there aren’t many crafts that a Cricut can’t crack.   Check out my recent embroidery project, all done with the help of my Cricut Maker! 

If you have been on Instagram for more than a nano second you know that marquee light boxes and letter boards are all the rage right now. These lighted boxes with slide in letters let you express yourself!

I confess.. I’ve used them.. I love mine!  I have a huge collection!

But one of the problems I have is that I don’t always have enough letter (or enough space) to actually say what I want to say.

Let’s just be honest here.. The lovely Heidi Swapp is never going to make a “cuss words” expansion pack!  I have A LOT of letter sets, but I still struggle with being able to spell out exactly what I want to say.

Don’t you love it when a hare-brained idea just happens to work out? You know what I mean: you get that vision in your head and you aren’t sure it is going to work, but when it does, it is AWESOME!  Well, that is how I feel about the simple project I’m sharing today: These Plexiglass and Sheet Metal DIY Floating Frames. 

I have always wanted to make some floating frames, but I didn’t want them to be completely transparent, I wanted them to have some sort of detail, and that is exactly what I got by adding a sheet of perforated sheet metal to the mix.

I love that you still get that district “framed” feel to your art, but it is still transparent, so you can see the wall color behind it, and you still get the floating frame vibe. 
Of course, a plain sheet metal and plexiglass floating frame is can be quite industrial looking, so to soften it up more for my aesthetic, I mounted one inside of an old wooden mail tray I had, and I suddenly had the perfect yin and yang of industrial and rustic.

And once the frame was mounted inside of the tray, I no longer needed a way to display it.  DESKTOP FLOATING FRAMES! I love it! I am pretty sure I’m going to find a home for them in my sewing room.



I am so thrilled with just how great this project turned out, especially for as easy as it was.
DIY Floating Frames Supply List:
- 11x14 Sheet of plexiglass or framing plastic
I purchased anti-glare plaskolite sheets from Home Depot, but there are lots of options available online, including thicker, less flexible plexiglass sheets. 
- 30 mm Standoff Hardware
 -M-D Perforated Metal Sheets (12x24)M-D Hobby & Craft have a bajillion designs and metal choices. I used the the Aluminum Union Jack pattern for this since it matched the chrome finish of the standoff hardware.  The 12 inch sheets are EXACTLY 11 inches wide when you cut off the border, which is perfect for the 11x14 sheet of plexiglass.
-Craft Tin Snips You may also want to wear leather gloves since the cut metal can be sharp.
- Course Sanding Block
- Drill or Drill Press
- 3/8th inch Forstner bit
-Artwork to display (if you need ideas, I have TONS of printables that would be perfect!)
-Wall Mounting hardware
The standoff hardware is designed to be hung on the wall with screws. But I actually hung mine with heavy duty mounting squares so it could be permanent or removable.


Tutorial:
I first cut down the aluminum sheet to the exact size of the 11x14 sheet of plexiglass, and I used my sanding block to smooth off the sharp cut edges.  (The aluminum is pretty thin and will bend, so make sure you support the metal on a flat surface and only sand the very edge.)

Next I marked where I wanted my four standoffs (the hardware that holds the frame away from the wall) would be placed on my plexiglass sheet (make sure to leave enough room for your artwork in the middle!)
Tip: Don’t remove the protective sheet from the plexiglass until the VERY LAST STEP. 

Carefully supporting the plexiglass on a piece of scrap wood (otherwise it will bend and crack) drill through it on your four marks.
I drilled the plexiglass first and then used it those four holes as my template to drill through the metal.  I used clamps to keep the plastic and the metal sheet lined up exactly. The plastic helps hold the aluminum down.

The sheet metal wants to kick out since the drill bit doesn’t catch evenly, so be really careful on this step.

If you are really daring you could sandwich both the metal and plexiglass and drill through them both at the same time.
Luckily if the hole is a little ugly it won’t matter, there is a decent amount of overhand with the mounting hardware to cover up any rough edges.

Now it is time to sandwich your metal sheet, your artwork and the plexiglass and then push the screws on the standoffs through.

Tip: If you are mounting on the wall with screws, I would put all the hardware ON your artwork, put them up on the all, mark where each screw will go and then take them apart to attach them. Dont’ try to mount the hardware to the wall first and then line it up with your artwork.
I even tried mounting mine inside a wooden tray, and I loved it so much!

The whole process only took me about 20 minutes and it looks a lot more complicated than that.  Don’t you love it when that happens?

Ever since getting back from Haven last year I have been slightly obsessed with concrete.  There were these guys there from Buddy Rhodes and they did some of the most Ah-Maz-Ing concrete work. They specialized in countertops, but some of their art pieces and furniture were so fantastic I haven’ stopped thinking about it since then.

 I have done a little (mostly utilitarian) concrete work of my own, but nothing that was just for the sake of being pretty.

Until today.

Since I have (clearly) been on a plastic Easter Egg kick this week, it would not surprise anyone to know I used the plastic eggs a mold to create concrete easter eggs:
And I am so stoked with how this project came out, that I am definitely going to work with concrete more often. I LOVE it!

The process is a little messy, but really fun. And it goes surprisingly fast.

They say there are only two sure things in life: Death and Taxes, but I disagree.  In our house there are at least two more sure things: Love and Laundry.

If you have children in your household, you know the struggle that is laundry day.  It seems as though once you get through one load of laundry, the next is already sitting there waiting to be washed. In our house, the clean clothes don’t make it out of the laundry basket, let alone put away properly.

I love encouraging my kids to be creative and make things, which is one of the reasons I have the kids’ artwork gallery wall, to display all their fun artwork.

I recently took the free embroidery class on Craftsy and I wanted to try my hand at a quick project, but instead of using some stock embroidery pattern, I thought it would be fun to use my kids’ artwork.

Autumn provides so much inspiration for crafts and decorating, but fall can also be a fun excuse to get out to the woodshop.  Fall has so many great motifs, like pumpkins and leaves that can be turned into fast and easy woodworking projects.

 I've collected 15 creative and not to difficult projects for the beginning woodworker.  This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creative wood projects for fall, but it is great place to start!

I’m back with another fall sign project made of “reclaimed” lumber.  I will admit I’m using the term ‘reclaimed’ loosely, because this project could be made from old barn wood, or pallet wood or any old lumber, but mine is actually made from some fence boards I got in the cull lumber section of the hardware store.
I love using this type of wood since they are cheap, and I don’t have to spend hours taking apart pallets, pus they give the look of old wood.