Notebooks and Stones

Hello Blog world!

"You'll find your passion in what inspires you the most." -Anonymous

Yes we are starting this blog with a quote. Why because its been an inspirational kind of week. 

As I was browsing pinterest I found some cool idea's for inspiration and of course I found them worthy enough to share with you. 

The first one is one of the projects I wanted to do last week for the "dollar tree blog" But, my printer and I were having a disagreement. I thought it should print when I hit the print button. It thought it should not... So after a long night of battling we decided to take some time apart and think about our differences. On Monday we sat down and had a nice long chat while I took out its screws and pointed out to it that it was indeed a printer and printers are suppose to print. It finally agreed with me now we are on good terms again. 

After all that Let me show you what I did! 

First I will show you my inspirational stones

          Ok so I know the picture doesn't do it justice. I have nothing to blame but me and my lack of photography skills

There, now you get a better idea. 

This was so easy (once the printer cooperated) and it was only 2.00!

Bought these and the heart shape dish at dollar tree

Printed out some sappy words. Make them short, or the font small either way you can do as many as you want. 

The original project was "diy conversation hearts" where they made them all pink and had sappy says like "too cute" or "kiss" buuut I didn't want that so I just did the normal Love, Believe, and Dream. I had Happiness...but it was too long. 

After printing them out I mod podged them to the back. 

The mod podge dries clear allowing you to see the words you put. 

I don't know if you can tell in the picture but I also did some colored paper ones to. Just blue and green. Just to add some extra color to the mix. 

Simple.

Next project I did was what I am calling my inspiration notebook. 

I plan using it for some of my favorite quotes, sayings or just things that inspire me. Why not right?

I found this project on pinterest as well (Seriously they should pay me for as much as I am on there!)

Now with this project it was a notebook tutorial which I thought would be a great idea since I am a writer and writers need notebooks. However. I am thinking that maybe half of this project should just go bye-bye and we should just focus on making a cover for a binder or an existing notebook. But I will show you how I did this and you can decide if you want to do the whole project or not. 

First I went on pinterest and searched things I liked. 

Sunsets

Green

Quotes about writing

My favorite James Dean quote

Flowers

My haunted house I want to buy

Moons.

You get the point. 

I copied and pasted these pictures in a new document. I used Paint.net which is what I use for all my photoshopping needs. 

(Its free by the way)

I set the document to be 8 1/2 inches wide and 11 inches long which you can change in your basic settings. 

Filled the white spaces with my pictures. Printed it out. BAM! Awesome cover 

After I printed the picture I got the rest of my supplies together. 

Loose leaf paper

Binder clips

Mod podge

Card stock paper.

Now in the original tutorial it said to use construction paper for the binding part but I used Washi Tape. 

I will explain why in a minute. 

So once you got all of your supplies together First thing you are going to do is determine how thick you want your notebook. This is important because I used the whole stack of loose leaf paper that was in the package...I think this is where I ran into problems. 

Once you figure that out you are going to clip the ends of the paper. Make sure its all nice and even like

 I was dumb and didn't take a picture of where I had the binder clips first 

but I put them on the other ends and along the sides I put glue (mod podge) This was where I put the clips to keep it together better while it dried. 

While that was drying I worked on the cover page. 

I did have to cut it down so it was so much bigger than the loose leaf paper and for me that was a slight problem.

I can't cut a straight line for the life of me but I tried. 

Always have your kitty supervise you while you are doing DIY projects. 

After I cut the front cover to the size I wanted I glued it on to card stock to make it a little thicker. 

Place under a heavy book to make sure it doesn't curl up. 

It will anyways but this is what they told me to do...

Now the next part SUCKED! Trying to get it all together...Was a bit of a challenge. I suggest you get about eight more hands and maybe it will work. 

The way the girl did it in the video..flawless!

I just don't understand. I was a fumbling mess. That's why I can't make videos. You all would commit me if you saw what I did to make these projects work. 

So anyways the tutorial said to use construction paper. Well when I did that it didn't really work as well as I wanted it to, this lead me to try Washi tape, Which ended up having the same problem...

It separates too much....

  The paper stuck together great! But its the binding that I am having a problem with. 

I don't know... the notebook isn't the most sturdy so its not a throw in your bag in a rush kind of notebook. But to sit on your desk and look pretty..Sure!

The boyfriend said "Looks like something you would buy in the stores" 

Yay! I like that compliment. 

Like I said before if you want to use the first part and just make an awesome book cover, I encourage that. I don't know How I feel about the second part though. I feel like the book is going to fall apart every time I open it. 

So there you have it. Two cheap easy projects. 

Which of course makes them...

But like I said...Mostly for the cover not so much the book part. 

I hope you enjoyed tonight's projects! If you want to see more subscribe by putting your email in the email box!

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Got any projects for me? Let me know! 

I do these to show you if they are possible or just crazy!

Home Office Decor

Hello blog world! How are we doing tonight? Me I am doing great! 

Its going to be another short one, I have spent a lot of my spare time working on a bigger project with my brother so I haven't had time to do any little projects. But I always find something! I figured I would do three mini projects for you but...My printer has decided it hates me. So You only get two out of the three!

I recently experience desk claustrophobia. Doesn't sound like a real thing? Well in a Casey world it is very real! And it can't be ignored! I hate my desk to have any sort of clutter on it. I really should just have a plan desk with nothing on it and I will be happier but I need some stuff to brighten up my area. So I cleaned it up a little and cleared the top of my hutch thing on my desk. Go I rearranged some pictures in my office and was pretty satisfied. Until the boyfriend said that I needed something to brighten it up. Like flowers or something. You know its pretty blah if the man of the house says it needs flowers! So I went on pinterest and looked up desk decorating ideas. Found a lot of cool projects that I wanted to do but only found the stuff to do these. All of my supplies I bought at Dollar Tree. I spent under 10.00 on these things and used some stuff I already had. 

My two projects working as one!

So firsts talk about the picture with the green paper. 

Its not really a picture...Its actually a message board. You just have to look really hard and use your imagination! 

But seriously Throw some pretty paper in an 8X10 frame (That's what this is) And bam! You have a message board! You can use it for to do lists, Inspirational quotes. Whatever ya want! I bought some dry erase markers and it works great! 

Total for that one:

2.00

You can buy construction paper at the dollar store also...Just saying. 

The next one is my flowers. I know I picked white. Ugh I wanted to do green but I already have green flowers around my office so I figured the white with the green would look kind of cool. 

Is it the best bouquet I have done? No not really. Does it brighten up my desk. A little. 

This was easy 

Vase

Flowers

Grassy stuff (If you haven't learned by now I don't use regular "adult" words)

All at the dollar tree!

3.00.

Bam.

Flowers!

The other thing I did with this was separate them. You don't have to do this but I like to pretend I know what I am doing when it comes to arranging flowers. 

Use wire cutters and cute them so they are individual flowers. 

Pretty easy. 

Yes that is my cat. 

He was supervising. 

So there you have two awesome ideas for a low price! Sounds like my kind of project. 

I hope you enjoyed tonights project. 

Hope to see you next Thursday...Don't worry I will have something awesome to share with ya!

I love showing you how to do budget friendly projects but sometimes buying crafts isn't in my budget so I have to sort of wing it!

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Box with Letters

Hello Blog World! 

I need a new routine. Tonight has been crazy, I am trying to do tooo much before a certain time. Its stressful. The boyfriend has a new schedule and I am trying to be a good girlfriend and try to change my schedule to help him out. Day two: already finding it hard. 

So anyways! Tonight's project was a simple one. I found a wooden box and I needed to make it pretty. I was originally going to stain it but thought my laundry room needed some color. I am in the process of trying to make my laundry room look as cool as the ones on pinterest do...So far I am not succeeding but I am heading in the right direction. The boyfriend even said it looks better now. But I secretly pay him to say those things. 

Any who! 

So this is going to be a quick blog because like I said I have a ton to do still!

Uck my Laundry room looks sad in this picture. Anyways so there is my pretty new box. It says Wash Not Mash...I promise! 

Of course you can see the King made an appearance in here. Hehehe

Here is the before. See it was probably nicer this way but I didn't like it. 

I have no idea what the purpose of this box was. My parents were going to throw it out and I said "Gimme!" I swear I don't have a problem. 

First I found some of these letters. 

Picking the color I wanted the letters to be in I painted the front of the box that color first

The paints I used were actually given to me but they were just paint samples. You can get a little jar/can whatever you want to call it for around 2.00. Didn't need a lot for this box in fact I still have some left over and they weren't even full to begin with. 

After I painted the front I had to cut out the letters. I didn't want rectangle shapes I wanted letter shapes.

I stuck the letters where I wanted them. I was worried they would peel paint with them when I would take them off but they didn't. I know they are crooked do not point out my mistakes! I do that on my own. ha-ha

Once you have all your letters where they need to be than I picked a darker color and painted over top of them. 

This was after the first coat. I did a few more just to make sure it was all nice and solid. 

I let it dry over night. 

I know you are so shocked that I was patient enough to wait all night and all day to finish something. 

Well I did and it actually worked out well. Because once it dried and I carefully pulled the letters off 

(use tweezers if you don't have nails!)

My result was this. 

I had to touch up a few spots where I messed up. mostly the "A" because well the center was kind of hard to cut into. 

So there you have! Your own customized box. 

The possibilities are endless. All you need is some sticker letters and some paint! If you don't want to put a word you can use painters tape and make cool designs. 

The size of letters that I had and the size of the box I used I was limited. But turned out better than I thought. 

I really thought the stickers were going to peel the paint or it would look like a hot mess. I know I know I doubt myself to much! 

Well I hope you enjoyed tonight's project! 

this was 

I hope to see you guys next week! I finally started working on some of my bigger projects again with my brother so keep an eye out for that!

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If you have already liked it...YOU DON"T HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN! :D 

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