Clipboard Love Note and Temple Silhouette Art

Clipboards are one of my favorite decorating secret weapons. Clipboards are easy to find and they are really cheap. You can paint them. You can add a simple photograph. They can hang on the wall. They can sit on a shelf.

Seriously, clipboards are the best. They aren't just for taking notes anymore.

They are for leaving notes too. Love notes to be exact.

Love notes quoting the ever-dreamy Mr. Darcy to be more exact.

Just the best love note ever. This love note is simply clipped onto the clipboard. The great thing about this love note is that it is actually a photograph.

I made this love note photograph using PicMonkey. I scanned a piece of regular notebook paper into my computer. Then I opened it up in PicMonkey and used one of my favorite handwriting fonts to "write" up one of my favorite romantic lines ever. Then I just printed if off at a photo center as an 8x10.

right click on the image and save to your computer

The smaller sized clipboards are so cute. I just had to create something with one of them too.

The Hubs and I got married in the Salt Lake City Temple. I thought it would be nice to add a silhouette image of the the Salt Lake City Temple to a clipboard.

I cut out a stencil of the silhouette of the Salt Lake City Temple using my Silhouette machine. I stuck the vinyl stencil on to the clipboard. Then I used painters tape to cover all the parts of the clipboard I didn't want painted. I left a small boarder around the edge.

Then I spray-painted until the coverage was how I wanted. The last thing you need to do is let it dry for a bit and then slowly remove the painters tape and vinyl stencil.

With my clipboard art in hand, I can start decorating with it.

So much love and cuteness in the air I can barely stand it.

These clipboards would also look super cute in a wall collage...which just might be where they end up...hint, hint. Coming soon.

Now off I go to watch Pride and Prejudice for the 1,000th time.

Follow along with Just Another Day in Paradise

Instagram        Facebook        Pinterest        Twitter

Pillowcase Heart Envelope Throwpillow

What? Is it only a couple days from Valentine's Day? Seriously?

Yeah, okay, so I know this. This was one of those posts that, although it has been done and even photographed for ages--like AGES, I tell you--I just didn't whip out a post.

So today, I am sharing the how-to on these sweet, very simple Pillowcase Throw Pillows.

The good news is that hearts (and bows) are not just for Valentine's Day. The other good news, yep there is more, is that this simple throw pillow how-to can be altered and changed for other seasons or for general decoration.

The possibilities for this Pillowcase Throw Pillow how-to is endless.

Between the heart stencil on the front and these adorable felt bows on the back, you are sure to make your sofa really happy with the addition of these lovely pillows.

These pillows are practically sew free. They are so very easy to whip up.

What you need:

standard pillow cases
freezer paper
fabric paint
felt, cut into 4"x20" and 2"x6" rectangles
velcro, cut into 2- 4" strips
hot glue
thread
18x18 pillow form

Take out the pillow cases and iron all the lines out of them. Fold the top over so the flap is 10". Iron the fold in place.

Trace a heart, or whatever shape you would like, on to the non-shiny side of sheets of freezer paper. Cut out the shape with an exacto knife.

Iron the freezer paper onto the non-flap side of the pillowcase. Once the freezer paper is securely ironed on, place a piece of cardboard in the pillow case so the paint does not bleed through. Next, apply craft paint in a thin coat with a craft brush. Apply more coats as needed. Make sure not to get too heavy handed around the edges.

Allow to dry for several hours, or cheat by drying the paint with a blow dryer. Remove the freezer paper.

Sew the velcro in place at the top middle of the inside of the pillow case, so that it has a closure.

Once the velcro is in place, it is time to make the bow.

Fold the larger rectangle so the ends overlap. The bow should measure about 9" wide once folded. Sew up the middle. Fold the smaller piece in half and just sew up the outside edge.

Turn the middle piece out so the seam is on the inside.

Fold the large piece a little to put it through the turned out smaller piece.

Arrange the bow and mold into bow shape. Make sure the seam for the smaller piece is in the back.

Attach the bow to the flap side, on the front, bottom, middle of the flap itself. Basically just over the stitches from the velcro you applied to the inside.

Once the glue dries, insert the pillow form. The weight of the felt bow will help the envelope flap stay down so there is no additional closure needed.

You can arrange the pillow heart out, bow out, or one of each.

My favorite part of these pillows, just after the ease of the project of course, is that BOW. Eek. Swoon. I love that bow.

Now I am trying decide in a house full of boys where else I am allowed to put bows!

Hope you find this tutorial useful for more than just Valentine's decor or that you pin it for next Valentine's Day. Gotta love Pinterest.

Follow along with Just Another Day in Paradise

Instagram        Facebook        Pinterest        Twitter

Homemade Hand Lotion

 

I have really dry skin, especially in the winter. Add living in a super dry climate, and well my hands can become quite the hot mess. It is not pretty...all cracked and craggy.

So I am always looking out for good lotions. I have had lots of recommendations over the years. I have tried lots too. Lots of them are really good, but they still don't completely soften or heal all the crackiness. At least not long term.

The Hubs feels my plight, quite literally, every time he holds my hand. Being all great and everything, he researched it out to see what he could come up with.

The result.

Dreamy, rich Homemade Hand Lotion that makes my hands feel softer than soft.

A softer than soft that lasts, and it lasts all the live long day. Day after day in fact.

Oh my hands are so very happy.

This lotion is SO easy to make and it only takes three really easy to find ingredients.

To make the lotion you need--

Johnson's Shea & Cocoa Butter Baby Lotion
Vitamin E Creme
Vasaline

Whip together the entire bottle of the baby lotion (15 oz), 8 oz of the Vitamin E Creme, and 8 oz of Vasaline. Make sure to whip it long enough that all three ingredients are completely incorporated.

Transfer the lotion to a lotion pump or another storage container. The recipe makes quite a lot. I put half of the mixture in a mason jar (you know how I love mason jars) and the rest I put into this adorable green glass vintage looking pump from Target.

Eek! Now not only do I have lusciously soft hands, but I also have a super cute lotion pump too.

This lotion will not disappoint your winter dry hands! Give it a try.

Follow along with Just Another Day in Paradise

Instagram        Facebook        Pinterest        Twitter

DIY Photo Wrapping Paper

Here is a quick and fun DIY Photo Wrapping Paper. Some homemade wrapping paper perfect for all those Project Handmade Christmas Presents.

The perfect wrapping paper for gifts for those doting, cheek-pinching grandparents. The only problem arises in them not wanting to tear the paper to open the presents.

This paper is so much fun AND it is unbelievably easy to make.

I used PicMonkey to create my main image.

Once you are in PicMonkey, you hover over the Design menu at the top. All of these canvas options will open up.

I used the 8x10 canvas.

Then I used my very "favoritist" (totally a word) feature in PicMonkey. The "Your Own" overlay options. Here you can overlay your own photos and images. I used this feature all the time. Last year I used it to make a grandparent gift. I made the grandmas Personalized Notepads.

I opened photo after photo. I changed sizes on some. I changed angles. I basically just slapped them all on there in collage type fashion.

Then I saved it to the computer. After I saved it, I opened it once again in PicMonkey. Then I changed the photo from color to black and white.

Once the image was saved, I saved it to a thumb drive and took myself over to Staples. I got an engineer print in 24"x36" for under $4.00.

Your wrapping paper will look a little something like this...with your own babies sweet faces all over it.

All that is left is to wrap up those grandparent presents up.

Then wait for the squeals of "oohs and ahhs". They will come. I promise.

Project Homemade Christmas: Welcome Home Gift

Just over a week until Christmas. Eek. I promised myself I would wrap up all my Christmas projects by the 15th of December...

I am oh-so-close. I still have some super hero jammie pants to sew and my neighbor gifts to put together.

Are you guys all done with Christmas present getting/making? Do you need any last minute gifts? I am kind of loving this Welcome Home one.

I have a few brothers who just bought their first homes. So I thought it might be a good idea to give them a house related present.

Make a plain old wooden spoon and fork a little fancier with some paint.

I paired the new fancified serving utensils with some ever-so-lovely washrags from my very favorite store, Target. I can't handle how gorgeous their Threshold line is.

Then I went and swooned over this chunky knit pot holder. Sigh. Die. Love it.

Tied it all together with a scrap of lace and then added a hand-written tag. I wrote Wecome Home, but Merry Christmas would have worked too.

This doesn't have to be a gift just for a new home owner. This would be a lovely gift for any Goddess of the Kitchen...

...by the way, I totally think I should be called that from this day and all the days ever after (oh, oh name the movie...we haven't played that game in awhile).

Merry Christmas and happy present giving.

Follow along with Just Another Day in Paradise

Instagram        Facebook        Pinterest        Twitter

Painted Clothes Pin Magnets

A Pinteresting Wednesday is here. A little Pinterest love...okay a lot of Pinterest love. One of umpteen million projects get crossed off the list.

Today I am sharing a simple, super functional, and quite lovely little project.

Painted Clothes Pin Magnets.

The original project I pinned was DIY Picture Clips for bulletin boards by Dotcoms For Moms. I pinned it onto my Projects to Do board.

Since I had clothes pins and paint, I busted this out the same day I pinned it. However, I don't have a bulletin board, so I decided to glue itty bitty magnets on instead.

I pulled out my amazing Martha Stewart craft paints...could you die over these colors. LUHVE.

I followed her instructions for the painting. Then I glued magnets on instead of thumbtacks. Make sure that the magnets you use are strong. Some little ones are not very strong. If you can't find any little ones, then you can cut magnet tape to the right size.

Now I can prettily display all my lovelies on my little magnet board...or better yet on my fridge!

Thanks Pinterest I love you.

Follow me on Pinterest for more fun!

A Pinteresting Wednesday: Homemade Fabric Softener

I pretty much dislike, okay I strongly dislike doing laundry.

The only thing that keeps me doing it even in my intense dislike of the chore...

...well I dislike smelliness even more.

I think the reason that I am not a fan of laundry is because it truly is never EVER done. I can complete four loads of laundry and by the time I am done folding that load there is a whole other load.

Boo.

A new washer and dryer has helped. Delightful smelling detergent has also helped. Another thing I have started having a fondness for is fresh and lovely smelling fabric softener.

Unfortunately, the best stuff...you know the stuff that smells to.die.for...isn't always in our budget.

We ran out of softener quite awhile ago and I was just going without.

Then the other day I came across THIS post at One Good Thing. Remembering that I was fabric softener deficient, I pinned it right away on my Tips, Tricks, and Good to Know board.

I had everything on hand to make it AND it was laundry day, so I figured I would give it a go and see if Homemade Fabric Softener was worth the hype.

Her original recipe makes 1 gallon of fabric softener.

She mixes 6 cups of water, 3 cups of white vinegar, and 2 cups hair conditioner (it can be the cheap stuff). Since I was just testing it out, I actually halved my mixture and just did 3 cups water, 1 1/2 cups vinegar, and 1 cup conditioner.

I mixed the conditioner and vinegar together first.

Then I mixed in the water.

When everything was all combined, I poured it into a half gallon empty, and clean, milk container. I figured the chocolate milk residue wouldn't so much help my softener.

I poured some of it in a pretty little container. Yeah I am pretty sure I didn't need to, but sometimes I like surrounding myself with unnecessary but pretty things. I stored the rest.

To use, I just added about 1/4 cup of the softener in my fabric softener container of my HE washer and ran it like normal. In the first load, which was larger, I didn't notice the "ocean" smell as much. In smaller loads I did notice the smell. I actually washed a blanket and it was lovely and oceany fresh.

I am not sure it can really compete with the really good store-bought stuff, but it is cheap, still works, and I will be making my own fabric softener again for sure.

Happy Pinning!

A Pinteresting Wednesday: The Power of Dawn

Today for my A Pinteresting Wednesday I decided to go to my "tips, tricks, good to know" board. There were a couple of DIY cleaning tips that I wanted to try.

I was probably drawn to the first tip because my favorite white shirt was only wearable if I put a jacket or sweater over it. The super embarrassing and yucky underarms made me sad. Was I ever going to be able to wear my oh-so-lovely summer shirt again?

When I remembered that I had pinned a way to fix that underarm yellow stain I kind of jumped up for joy.

 source

The idea seemed easy enough. Could it really fix my shirt?

I know it is hard to see the yellow, but trust

me it is there. It was super gross.

All I needed to do was mix 1 part Dawn liquid dish detergent to 2 parts hydrogen peroxide. Then I added some baking soda.

After I combined the cleaning mixture, I took a laundry scrub brush and really let those stains have it.

I will tell you what, even right after I scrubbed them I could tell a difference.

Then once I washed and dried my shirt, I was sold. My shirt was so sparkling clean. Buh-bye ugly yellow underarms.

Now it can be safely worn all by itself with no shame to me. Yipee!

Now Dawn seems to have even more magical qualities. I also came across this pin to clean jewelry.

source 

With a simple mixture of only a couple ingredients, it claims to clean pretty much any of your nice jewelry.

I will let you in on a secret...

I don't own nice jewelry. I pretty much stick to jewelry from forever21, target, hand-me-downs, and so on.

The nicest thing I own is, and probably will always be, my wedding ring. I am just not a fancy girl. Besides my ring, jewelry does not float my boat.

Now because this jewelry is also something I wear 24/7 it is pretty gosh darn filthy. I thought I owed it to my one piece of sparkly to clean it.

So I used this DIY jewelry cleaning solution. Just looky what it did...

 Pretty awesome, right?

I thought so, AND it was super easy.

Dawn was involved again.

1. Heat 1 cup of water for 2 minutes in the microwave.

2. Prepare 1 TBS salt, 1 TBS Dawn, and 1 TBS baking soda

3. Put a little piece of aluminum foil in the bottom of the hot water

4. Add the salt, Dawn, and baking soda

5. Immerse the ring and let it set for 10-15 minutes

6. Remove jewelry from the mixture, rinse off with cold water. Then 

gently wipe off with a soft rag.

BAM. Clean and sparkly jewelry once again.

Who knew Dawn was so extra awesome? I certainly did not.

Here are some other Dawn DIY tricks that I found and thought I would share:

DIY Dawn Shower Cleaner

DIY Ice Packs

DIY Window Wash

Gardner's Hand Scrub

Go check out the power of Dawn for yourself!

Thought I would mention that Dawn is not paying me to sing their 

praises. I am doing this of my own little free will. In fact,

 I would wager a bet that Dawn doesn't even know my name. 

Lucky for me though, I know theirs!