Memories Shadow Box Anniversary Gift

My husband and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary at the beginning of this month.  It's hard to believe that 10 years have gone by so quickly!  Since we just had our third baby a couple of months ago, we are going on our anniversary trip next year.  But I still wanted to give my husband something to commemorate the last 10 years together.  A friend of mine shared the idea of using a shadow box to write down memories or moments we've had together.  I found some really cute and simple white shadow boxes at Target with some little wood hearts included that were perfect.  The whole project only took me about an hour total, but the end result was exactly what I hoped for.

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5-Minute DIY Magnetic Glitter Clips

This post originally appeared on Design Dazzle on December 6, 2017 written by me as part of the 2017 Christmas Wonderful series.  I have received permission to repost it to Sunshine & Munchkins in its entirety.

Every year since my husband and I got married, we’ve been sending out Christmas cards to family and friends.  It’s such a fun time of year and I love going out to my mailbox and seeing a Christmas card.  We display them in our home all month (and sometimes into January) and I figure that many of you do the same, so I’m sharing these sweet and simple DIY magnetic glitter clips with you today!

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Rustic Paint Stick Snowflakes

When my husband and I got married, we were still in college and so we lived in a handful of apartments before we graduated and settled down into our home.  My decorations were really more of a collection of things that had been given to me or that I'd made or picked up from the dollar store and didn't really have any kind of cohesiveness.  So a few years ago, I started sifting through my Christmas and winter decorations and getting rid of anything that I didn't love, which was actually quite a bit.  I love decorating for different holidays and seasons but it can get a little tiresome to only have pieces up for a month or so before taking them down and starting all over again.  That's why I'm totally in love with these rustic snowflakes I made!  I can keep them up all winter long, plus they match the style of my regular home decor.

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DIY Box Frame Sign

Two days ago, I messaged my husband a picture and asked him how hard he thought it would be to make the frame pictured.  "Not hard," he told me.  "Good," I said.  "Can we make 5 of them tonight?"  And that's what's led to me spending pockets of time working on said frames over the last two days in between getting the kids to school, running errands, cleaning up the house and every other thing on my to-do list for the week.  But I absolutely love how they turned out!  Box frames are simple, classic and versatile.  Their clean lines make them perfect for framing both pictures, quotes and images.  They are modern and traditional.  Combine all this together and it's easy to see why they've become so popular in recent years.  With a little help from my husband, I was able to make five of them for less than $1 per frame!  As Christmas approaches, I'm always on the lookout for simple DIY gifts I can give family and friends and these box frame signs definitely fit the bill!

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Embroidery Hoop Pumpkins

About a week ago, I woke up early in the morning and the thought that popped into my head: pom poms.  Why pom poms?  Well I'd been trying to decide how to finish off my most recent project and the solution had eluded me until early that morning.  This is literally what goes through my brain sometimes when I'm working on a project that I've been thinking about a lot.  And you know what?  Pom poms were the perfect finishing touch. *wink*

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Thrift Store Makeover: Message Board

I walked into the thrift store with a purpose: find a piece I could makeover into something practical for our family.  At any given moment I have 3 or 4 projects in progress, but that doesn't stop me from looking out for future projects, especially when I go to the thrift store. *wink*  I picked up one piece in particular that I thought was kind of ugly, but looked a little closer and found that it had some really great features and I knew what I wanted to do with it: a mini message board.

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DIY Laundry Room Sign

The summer after my husband and I got married, we drove out to Buffalo, NY, where he sold security systems.  Towards the end of the summer, his office got moved to Philadelphia, PA.  Thankfully, there were many wives who were out with their husbands so we became good friends and did some sightseeing here and there.  While in Philadelphia, we decided to drive out to a little amish town and do some exploring.  In one of the little shops we visited, I found a laundry room sign.  This sign has been with us for almost 9 years and when I first bought it, I thought it was the cutest thing, but as I've grown into my own personal style of decorating, I found that it just wasn't working anymore.  So I decided to do a little DIY laundry room sign makeover and share this easy tutorial with you!

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Rainbow String Art Tutorial

When it comes to crafting, I like to try everything.  I have an entire craft room full of all sorts of supplies for everything from vinyl, embroidery, scrapbooking, acrylic paints, a million brads, felt, adhesives...phew!  And that's not even close to everything.  Something I've been wanting to try my hand at is string art.  I've seen it all over and there are so many shops that sell it.  My friend Sarah over at Making Joy and Pretty Things recently did a cute string art heart for her daughter's nursery.  I commented on her post and told her I'd been wanting to try it out myself and she suggested I do one for St. Patrick's Day.  So I did.  *wink*

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DIY Hanging Necklace Holder

When my husband and I first moved into our house almost 6 years ago, we had our first shared closet since we'd been married 3 years before.  Up until that point, we'd always lived in apartments and all of them had small closets.  Or maybe they just seemed small to me considering all of my clothes fit into one closet with no room leftover for my husband...  My poor hubby always had to use the closet in the second bedroom for his clothes in each of the places we lived.  So when we moved into our home, we had a bigger closet, which was great.  But there wasn't any room for me to put my jewelry.  I don't like keeping it out on my dresser and prefer to have it out of reach of little hands.  So what to do?

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DIY Elf Door

I'm always trying to think of new traditions for my family to incorporate during the holidays.  Right now, we just have a handful of Christmas traditions but I've been wanting to add another one.  In August I got an email from Jane.com with a cute little elf door.  What at fun idea! I thought to myself as I clicked on the link.  As cute as it was, I didn't want to pay $24 for the door plus the other accessories (fence, lights, etc) and then pay for shipping.  I knew I could do it for cheaper myself and starting looking around online.

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Hallway Table Makeover

Before I had my daughter, I worked for a digital scrapbooking company in their home office.  Below the main office, there was a warehouse that was rented out by a furniture store to hold their stock.  Occasionally they would have a sale on pieces that were slightly damaged or missing parts and they would invite us to come and take a look.  It was during one of these sales that I found a cute little wood table for about $20.  It had a couple of tiny scratches on the top but was otherwise in perfect condition.  So I bought it and brought it home to my husband who looked at me like I'd bought the ugliest thing in the world.

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Cabinet Door Makeover

A few months ago while I was browsing around a store, I found this awesome serving plate that had all the colors that I wanted to decorate my kitchen in.  The design was fun, the colors were bright and I think it cost me about $6.  Done and done.  Since buying that plate and putting it above my kitchen cabinets, I've slowly started filling in the space.  However, I've run into a few snags because of the way our ceiling slopes above the cabinets so the height varies a lot.

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How To Stain Wood

About a month or so ago I was wandering around one of my favorite home decor stores (The Wood Connection) and I saw a cute shadow box with the patriotic decor that had been stained.  The result was a more antique look to the wood since you could see the grain.  Now, up to this point, I'd never stained anything.  Paint is my go-to and wood stain was totally foreign to me.  I decided it was time to add it to my skill set and took it up to the front to pay for it, along with the shadow box.  I talked to the ladies up front and got a couple of tips and went on my way.

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Summer Mantle Inspiration

Summer is in full swing here in Utah, complete with 100+ degree days.  So. Hot.  My poor kids, who love being outside, come in by 10am with red cheeks and requests for popsicles to try and beat the heat.  Crazy stuff.

Since summer got here, we've been busy enjoying the nice weather and playing as much as possible.  As a result, my spring decorations never really got put away and my only summer decoration was the cute pallet art I made a couple months ago.

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Summer Pallet Art

I was looking at my spring mantle this week and realizing that it was time to start thinking about summer decor.  So I looked through my summer decorations and noticed a serious lack of summer-y-ness (totally a word) in my collection.  A few months ago I picked up a 12x12 unfinished pallet board at Walmart without knowing exactly what I wanted to do with it but thought it would come in handy one day.  (This is a habit that drives my husband crazy, but sometimes I just can't help myself.  *wink*)

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How to Distress Wood {using Petroleum Jelly}

Every once in a while you find the perfect little piece for your house.  It's not necessarily big or fancy, but it's just what you've been looking for.  I was browsing through the store the other day and found just a piece: a small, wall-mountable coat rack.  I knew the second I saw it where I wanted it to go: on the wall behind our front door so people would have somewhere to put their coats and jackets.  The only problem: it was the wrong color.  A brownish-gray and the metal hooks were almost the same color.  Kind of blah.  But color is a fairly easy thing to change, especially when you're dealing with smaller pieces. So I bought it and brought it home for a little DIY action.

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