Clever Nest

Birthday Bash: Fossil, Mary Kay, Scentsy Giveaway!

2013-05-15T15:25:00.005-07:00

It's my birthday, it's my birthday! Today I turn the ripe old age of 29, and what better way to celebrate than to have the BIGGEST giveaway in Clever Nest history!?

Here are the items in my Birthday Bash prize package:

Fossil Women's Watch in Bone limited edition, $125 value

Mary Kay certificate + free shipping, $20 value

Scentsy Fragrance certificate + free shipping, $20 value

Yes, that's $165 worth in prizes!

This giveaway is for the continental US only. I hope to offer more international giveaways soon! Entering is easy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That's it! You can easily find Clever Nest projects to pin here in my gallery, and here on my Pinterest board. Good luck, I can't wait to see who wins! And don't forget you can pin and tweet up to once per day!

Sharing Wednesday at We Like to Learn as we Go

Thursday My Repurposed Life, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, The 36th Avenue,
The Shabby Creek Cottage

Friday French Country Cottage, Happy Hour Projects, One Artsy Mama,

The Charm of Home

Easy Fabric Flower for Mother's Day

2013-05-09T16:09:00.002-07:00

A snappy little craft to kick your Mother's Day gift up a notch! And see the new line of fabric from HGTV!

Spicing up Yo' Mama's Wrappin'
I like wrapping up presents in a special way when I have the time. I'm no Martha. I've sent off many a present thrown into a Christmas gift bag, stuffed with shredded toilet paper and packing peanuts.
But this time, thankfully I had a few extra nap minutes* to make this beautiful fabric flower to put on top of my mom's gift!

*Nap Minute: n. A duration of time half as long as a regular minute, and five thousand times as precious.

Let there be Fabric, HGTV style!
Do you ever feel like fabric stores these days have nothing modern to choose from? I could get by with the tired selection of prints if I was making a granny quilt or pioneer woman outfit, but I hardly ever see something I'd consider covering my chair cushions with! Well ladies, we are in luck, because HGTV has heard our cries and partnered up with JoAnn Fabric to bring us a line of colorful, stylish, fashion forward prints!

Check out some of the beautiful designs!

I love all of them! And I think I can trust HGTV's style sense, 'cause they sort of know what they're doing. You can see the entire line HGTV's Home collection of indoor and outdoor fabrics here!

My First Review!
The nice people at JoAnn Fabric sent me a yard of HGTV's beautiful Urban Blossom print in Berry to see what I thought of it.

I love the bright colors, and fun print! I'm glad I got to use it for such a special purpose. :)

(You hold the) Flower Power
This craft is soooooo forgiving, guys, seriously. I could have done this blindfolded, on a rollercoaster, using only my feet and I bet it would have turned out just fine (although I may have poked my eye out).

If you've never done fabric flowers before, like I hadn't, never fear! This bloom pretty much made itself. I did some Pinteresearch*, and got the gist of how these things are put together.

*Pinteresearch: n. Going on Pinterest to find out how to make a craft. Spending 30 minutes drooling over salted caramel cupcakes in a mug.

I cut out big squares of the fabric, centering on those colorful flowers, then cut them into quarters leaving four 2 1/2 inch squares. I took 3-4 squares at a time (as many as my scissors would successfully cut) and scalloped the edges, very unsymmetrically.

(Do you like how I've OCD-ly written WINE in permanent marker on my scissors? Possessive much?)

Here are rough estimates of the sizes and number of petals I used.

I confess- I didn't measure. But if you do try this, you'll see that it really doesn't matter. Just don't make the petals like the size of your face or anything. Unless you want a blossom as big as your bottom. And who knows? You might.

So I hot glued the petals into quarters and stuck them on the round base in concentric circles.

Wherever I saw any gaps, I glued in one of the smaller petals. I wrapped up one last petal like a burrito and placed it in the center of the flower as the "bud".

I am stoked by how fast this went. This is a craft that could be used for all manner of things- hair bows, purse clips, bridal bouquet, or accenting a garment. Not to mention a totally reusable present topper.

I can't wait to give it to my mom! I hope she likes her gift of Christmas gift bags and packing peanuts that I put inside!! :)

What are you up to this Mother's Day? Celebrating your Mom? being celebrated yourself? We're having my family over to our place to spend the day on Sunday. I go to get off the computer now, and go clean a toilet.

I love to be stalked!
5 ways to stalk me right now, here! :)

Rocking a frame with Rocks

2013-05-03T15:15:00.002-07:00

A Rocky Relationship

Not me and my Sweetie! It's me and this craft. Aaand, maybe me and you after you read all the puns in this post!

You see last weekend me and Jason got to get away for the weekend with friends to a gloriously awesome beach house, with NO kiddos. It was wonderful! We lounged, we hopped in the spa, we walked the beach... aahhh. It was epic. :)

Thanks friends for an awesome weekend! And thanks Nana for watching Andrew for us!! It's a toss up who had more fun, Andrew or Nana :).

Rocky VII
On one of our beach walks, I collected a few (7) stones. I've never seen so many different colors in one place, and at one beach! Red, pink, yellow, white, blue, green, and purple. It's a rainbow :)

My instant collecction was so cool, I wanted to make some simple art to commemorate our weekend. Plus, make use of the free art supplies!

Perhaps the most entertaining partf of this craft was coming up with so many terrible puns to apply to this project of mine.

The Wet Look Works for Rocks too
I loved the way the rocks looked when they were wet in the sand at the beach. The colors stood out more vividly. I sprayed on a coat of clear gloss sealer to give them the wet look again, this time permanently. It was that or purchase them their own aquarium.

I gave the back sides a coat too and let them dry. This Krylon clear spray dries in 15 minutes, yay! Don't worry, I left no stone unturned during the process.

Caught between a Rock and a Picture Frame
I had been saving a shadow box frame I snagged on an after Christmas bargain hunting mission to Target in January. For $7 it was an awesome find, and I still have no idea how a plain silver frame qualifies as "Christmas" inventory that needs to be clearanced out. But you won't find me arguing with the 70% discount!!

I used hot glue to put the rocks in their place on a piece of white cardstock. Putting the mat in place helped me balance my arrangement and see how it would look when the frame was all put back together.

Now it's basically permanent, like set in stone. Rock solid. Stone cold.

Rock and Roll
And POOF! Instant memory/ souvenir/ cool art for the master bathroom!

You know what they say, rocks who live in glass houses... shouldn't.... um, throw.....picture frames... hmm. Looks like my little shadow box really got stoned. What, no? It says it was framed. Oh my!!

...

Getting Stoned in the Bathroom

The new home for my rockin' art is in our master bathroom. Our vanity is separate from the shower and toilet.

Once inside the door, the shower is at the back of the small room and the toilet is on the right.

Here I am inside the shower part, trying to take a picture. This is actually a really really good picture, considering how tight it is in there (size of two phone booths put together) plus I've got one leg in the shower, standing smooshed up against the toilet. Basically an attractive mental picture. Also the fact that this space has the lighting like that of a cave, during an eclipse, at night. Makes it hard, too.

So now we'll have something pretty to look at when we are visiting the loo. Everyone should have some good art in the bathroom, because, you know,

source

So now my bathroom is a little more forget-your-phone friendly, for when you can't reach the shampoo.

Ok, ok. Getting back on track.

Who has ADD? Raise your... HEY! look, ice cream!

Hitting Rock Bottom
Anyway, better slide to the finish line before this post erodes any further. I don't want things to get unbearubble for you!

How do you commemorate a vacation or trip?

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