Front Door Guests are Best

You know how much I love to junk…and collect it too, right?  Well this time I took advantage of my addiction and decided to put it to use, instead of under the bed.  (Mighty big bed, lol!).  So here’s what I’ve got going at my front door.  I bought the wagon about a month back and it’s in one of my posts.  I got the bird cage at an estate sale in California in May and was practically (notice I said, practically) given the green tool box!  I put them all on my front porch then I added some festive fans, some shooting rockets (not the paper ones featured earlier here in my blog, for sprinkler reasons) and a silk geranium plant.  I tried the real geranium last year, yea, his life was over in about 3 weeks.  I suppose it would help if I actually watered it regularly in the 100+ heat.  Pretty much not going to happen.  Lastly, I added the sign I made.  Super easy to create.  The quickie “how-to’s” are further down.

The number “4” is from the party supply section of Hobby Lobby and the horns were of course, from Goodwill, brand new.

To make this sign, all I did was buy some thin wood at Home Depot.  If you start with their pre-made chalkboard-painted wood, all you need to do is paint over it with the navy blue.  Next I wrote the sentiment with a chalk marker.  Now, if you are nervous about this, you can always print out the sentiment you want on the computer, trace the image onto the board using graphite paper and then go over it with the chalk marker.  If you want to try your hand at writing, you can always buy a watercolor pencil.  If you mess up, you can just wipe it off.  You can do that with the marker too, however, you will need to keep the wipe or washcloth clean after each wipe off to prevent the residual from going back onto the board.  Whatever is easiest for you will work.  Now here is the fun part.  I bought this Seth Apter stencil by Stencilgirl because I loved the shape of the star.

Lay the stencil down flat, tape it in place and simply color over it with the chalk marker.  If you have not used stencils before you may want to consider spraying the back with a stencil adhesive. This prevents the stencil from moving while coloring.  Peel up when you are done.  Now, I went back and added some little doodles and dots because after all, that is what art is all about :).  When everything is the way you want it and it’s dry, I sprayed a clear acrylic sealer over the top to keep it locked in.

Here is another picture of this all decked out with my patriotic tissue paper flowers.  The how-to’s  for the flowers can be found here, the die for creating them are found here (Pocketful of Posies by Debi Adams for Spellbinders) or for an up close shot of them, look here.

Hoping I brought you lots of great ideas for your upcoming celebration. Would love to have you join me for my table decor later this week.

XO,

Debi