wooden wall letters

Current projects will be wrapping up soon just in time for a special on banners I'll be rolling out for the month of March. The special is going to be for a great cause and save you money too. Stay tuned for more info on that soon.

I wanted to show you my latest wall letters. This was my first attempt at something boyish, and I'm in love with how it turned out. To be extra cheesy, I think they're so *dreamy*. :) I can't wait to create more items for sweet little boys, especially my soon-to-be nephew. I have some fun little ideas for him after I complete my current Etsy orders.

I'd love to create a new statement piece for your living room, kitchen, bedroom, or nursery. Visit my Etsy shop if you're interested in purchasing wall letters.

DIY photo frame menu

Ready for a craft so simple your kids could do it? If you don't even have a tiny crafty bone in your body, this one's for you!

I'm sure you've already seen these all over the web, but if you've never actually made one, stop what you're doing right now and go do it. Seriously. It'll take you five minutes. I didn't take step-by-step photos because, let's face it, it's too simple for that.

I've been wanting to make a dry erase board using a photo frame for some time, so I finally did it last night. How much was this project? $0. Yep, that's Z-E-R-O. I already had everything around the house, and whether you're a crafter or not, I'm sure you have what you need as well (with the exception of a dry-erase marker, maybe).

Round up a photo frame, a piece of scrapbook paper or cardstock (and if you don't have that, wrapping paper or even newspaper would work fine too), scissors (preferably a cutting board if you have that), an embellishment of some sort (unless you want it extra simple), and a dry-erase marker. My embellishment was the perfect way to use felt flowers and leaves I recently tried making. I may add these flowers to my Etsy shop later on.

Simply cut your paper to size, insert it in the frame, attach an embellishment somewhere on the front of the frame, and write on it. Now you have the answer to that constant, nagging question from your hubby and/or kids, "What's for dinner?" Just point to the menu.

Of course, you can use it for other purposes. Things on your to-do list, a party sign, etc. You can change out the paper inside depending on the holidays or seasons. Whatever you want. Just be sure and make one!

If you try this out, take pictures and share them.

felt flower hair clip tutorial

As promised, here's my tutorial on the felt flower hair clip. I love pictures, so this post is picture-heavy despite the easiness of the project.

The main tool you'll need that might not be in your arsenal already is the Cuttlebug Die-cut & Embossing Machine. One of the first cardstock-type crafts I became interested in was card making, and the Cuttlebug is an excellent item for stepping it up a notch with homemade cards. It was only more recently that I paid attention the "die-cut" part of the name and found yet another use for this machine. And that brings me to one of my favorite hair clips ...

Here's what you'll need:

- Cuttlebug with cutting mats

- flower die-cut set

- felt

- needle and thread

- alligator hair clip

- ribbon

- button or other embellishment

- scissors

- glue (I used super glue, hot glue is fine too)

 I like to assemble the hair clip first since it's the base. Cut a strand of ribbon long enough to cover the top and bottom of your alligator clip (leave enough to wrap over the edges). Glue the ribbon to the top half of the clip, wrapping some over the edge. I used the tip of the glue bottle to help hold the two sides apart to keep them from gluing together.

Aaaaand I forgot to leave some extra. (See, I told you I wouldn't sugarcoat my mistakes!) It's ok to leave the bottom like this, but I prefer it completely covered. It just looks bare otherwise! Anyway, glue the rest of the ribbon down to the back of the clip and the bottom, wrapping the end around the edge of the bottom (unless you didn't make your strand long enough).

And I also got a little carried away with the glue. So after this, I started over since I was giving this one away. If it was for little N, I would have just kept going with this.

Now that the clip is ready, you can move on to the felt. Here's where the Cuttlebug comes in. I won't explain how to use the Cuttlebug, since you most likely know how to already if you have one. Place your felt under each die-cutter (I used pink and red) and put them between the B cutting mats and run it through. Voila!

This was the first time I'd used die-cuts with the Cuttlebug, but I found out that it leaves indentions on the B cutting mats. From what I read online, they'll eventually need to be replaced after using it over and over again like this. I'm assuming it leaves these permanent indentions with any die-cuts and not just the flower ones. Replacements are rather cheap on Amazon.com though.

I didn't take any photos of the flower's assembly, because, well .... it's difficult to sew and take a photo at the same time. Just stack the flower shapes together, add your button (or other embellishment) on top, and hand sew starting from under the bottom flower through the top of the button. You can stitch it up anyway you like depending on your button holes. I didn't think that far ahead (go figure!) and wish I would have threaded mine differently. There's always next time! Keep going through the entire flower and button with your thread several times. This will hold it all together nicely. You could glue all the pieces together if you prefer, but that's just too messy for my liking. It's much quicker to sew it. Here's what it looks like after you sew it. (Can you tell I like taking photos with my new camera?)

Once you're through sewing it together, you're ready to attach it to the hair clip. I used more super glue for this. You can place it however you like. For the rainbow colored clip, I placed it closer to the end of the clip, so the clip is only visible from one end. (You'll see the clip I'm talking about in the last picture.) And that's it! See, I told you it was easy. Here's the finished product:

And here's the rainbow hair clip in my little N's hair. She was being a good sport for this photo because she doesn't like things in her hair. (Yes, a huge container of bows is sitting in her closet waiting for the day she may decide to like them.) They're small, but really cute! If you just want a hair clip to hold bangs to the side, or don't like really big bows (but still want a little something girly in your daughter's hair), this is the perfect one for you.

If you don't have the equipment (or time!) to make these clips, you can check out my Etsy shop for a custom made one!

Giveaway winner!

The giveaway deadline has approached so it's time to announce the winner! First though, I want to thank all of you for participating and for supporting me as I attempt to get my little Etsy shop started. I'm looking forward to celebrating my first sale in the (hopefully) not too far away future as I work on listing more items.

Just as a reminder, here's what the winner of the giveaway will receive:

Now to the fun stuff. I numbered the six entries in order of appearance (excluding my comment replying to April). I used random.org to select a winner randomly.

The winner of my first giveaway is ... Entry #3

# 3 April is the winner!

April, please send me your mailing address via Facebook, and your hair clip will be sent to you. Congratulations! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

And please stay tuned for more giveaways and crazy crafty fun.

first giveaway!

Can I tell you how much I love Etsy? Oh, how I love it so! I've been a buyer for a few years now, but nearly a year ago, I opened up my own shop. I've never listed any items, until now! So to help me step up to the plate and get my shop (and blog) jump started with some exposure, I'm hosting a giveaway.

Here's what you have the chance to win:

This adorable hair accessory is a perfect addition to your sweet little cutie's Valentine attire. It's made of layered felt flowers, hand-sewn together with a button on a ribbon covered alligator clip. Too cute! And if you don't win, stay tuned for an upcoming tutorial (or stop by my Etsy shop to have one custom made in your choice of colors).

You have several options for chances to win:

1. Comment on this blog post (only one comment per person counts!)

2. Follow this blog

3. Click "Add shop to favorites" on my Etsy shop (CraftyDaysLikeThis)

4. Click "Like" on my Facebook page (Facebook page for CraftyDaysLikeThis)

5. Be an encourager to someone else today and leave a brief comment saying if you did this.

6. Place an order in my Etsy shop for a hair clip (this counts as five entries!)

There you have it. A potential for 10 entries per person! Please leave a separate comment below for each entry you choose. For example, if you want to both leave a comment and follow my blog, post two separate comments below to submit two entries. I'll choose a winner by random number based on the order of comments posted.

Contest ends on Sunday, January 15, 2012, at 11:00 p.m.!

first post and countdown to motherhood (not for me!)

Everything is a song in my little family, and fittingly so is the name of this blog. When it comes to me and crafting, there are always "days like this." First things first -- don't expect to see some mind boggling crafts here. Cheap, crafty, and crazy. That's what I stick to. (Crazy because I'm a procrastinator, so crafts have to get done in record speed before they're needed.)

With that said, if you're like me, and most of your craft projects have to go to Plan B (or in my case, Plan H), this blog is for you. If you watch HGTV and think, "wow, that doesn't look too bad." Then you attempt to do the same thing, and it's a disaster, this blog is for you. If you can relate to the picture on the left, then you're in the right place!

I love being crafty, but the good Lord just didn't see fit to make me as crafty as I'd like to be. So there will be plenty of "days like this," and I won't sugarcoat things. If you see a project on this blog, you CAN repeat the same craft without failing. This is the no-fail blog, because trust me, if there's a way to mess up the craft, I'd find it.

Also, the big time crafty bloggers seem to update their blogs everyday or nearly every day, I can guarantee you won't find that here. I'm a mommy of N, my assertive one-year-old who loves her playtime, so craft time is highly limited.

Ok! Now let the crafting begin. First up, I put together a pregnancy countdown for my lovely sister-in-law who's expecting her first baby. Honestly, I wasn't too sure how this would turn out, so I didn't take any photos until I was done, but E-A-S-Y.

Here's what you need:
- brown paper mache box (I used one about 3.5 inches wide)
- mod podge
- craft paint brush
- craft paint
- scrapbook paper
- cutting board (or scissors, if you can cut better than I can)
- two square wooden blocks (I bought a pack of them, around 1.5 inches)
- letter and number stickers
- glue

Making your pregnancy countdown:

1. Paint all the edges of the paper mache box with a color that coordinates with your scrapbook paper. This will help non-perfect cuts blend in better.

A box like the little one on top of this stack.

2. Determine the size of paper you need to fit each side of the box, and cut the appropriate sizes. I didn't add paper to the bottom of my box because I flipped it upside down and glued the box lid to it (so the top of the lid is glued to the bottom of the box, if that makes sense).

3. Use mod podge to attach the appropriate sizes of paper to each part of the box.

4. Add wording using stickers (or nice handwriting ... which I definitely don't have!) to one side of the box. Use mod podge over the letters and entire box to seal everything up.

5. Glue lid and box together.

6. Paint wooden blocks and attach number stickers (or write them with a permanent marker) to each side. I didn't do this part correctly because I was thinking about the days in a month instead of weeks of pregnancy. (That's where the "crazy" comes in.) But here's what I figured out from my mistake: You need to have two zeros if you want your blocks to say "09" "08", etc. Otherwise, you can just remove one of the blocks when you get down to nine weeks and not have a zero. To have two zeros, you'd have to use a 6 and 9 that are interchangeable and can work for both numbers to free up a number on one side of a block. Also, you have to repeat numbers 1 and 2. The countdown can only start at 32 or lower, but 32 weeks until the due date is around the time when most women have their first OB appointment, so by the time you're aware of the pregnancy and make this, they'll probably already have 32 or less weeks to go.

7. Once you figure out the number fiasco, use mod podge over all the sides, and BOOM! You're done. Easy enough?

This would be a fun gift for any expecting mom-to-be in your life, or even yourself! Let me know if you try it out.