Decorating Tips and Ideas + HM #228

It’s National Decorating Month! Find awesome decorating tips and ideas. Plus, link up at Home Matters. #DecoratingTips #DecoratingIdeas #HomeMattersParty

Decorating Tips and Ideas + HM #228

It’s National Decorating Month! And, no matter your style, here are some helpful tips and ideas to creating a beautiful atmosphere in your home. The gals of Home Matters have a fabulous roundup all about decorating this week, so be sure to check it out!

12 Common Decorating Mistakes and How To Avoid Them from Lauren @ Bless’er House

5 Tips for Mixing Fabric Patterns from Ann @ On Sutton Place

Decorating 101: How To Style Vignettes from Lauren @ Bless’er House

12 Tips on Choosing the Right Paint Colors from Lorelai @ Life With Lorelai

Decorating Tips and Ideas Blog Hop

Click through all the Hosts and Co-hosts blogs to see the complete Themed Roundup!

A Home Matters Themed Roundup

Last Week’s Theme: Easter Dinner, Decor, and Games

Next Week’s Theme: National Pecan Month

Welcome to the weekly Home Matters Linky Party. A great place to come, share your blog posts, and make new friends.

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Each week, we like to feature some of the awesome posts shared at last week’s party. We hope you will be inspired by these creative and talented bloggers who share their best recipes, DIY projects, crafts, home decor, organization ideas, and more. Enjoy!

Check out this week’s features below.

Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots from Jen @ Cincy Shopper

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Mango Pineapple Smoothie Bowl from Nicole @ Mama of Many Blessings

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DIY Tiered Raised Garden Bed from Anika @ Anika’s DIY Life

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Classic Ambrosia Salad from Tracey @ The Kitchen is My Playground

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Tiered Tray Decorated for Easter from Lori @ Dining Delight

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Thank you to all who linked up at last week’s party. We look forward to seeing what you will be sharing with us this week!

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Please link up no more than THREE posts each week–try to make sure that they are new links that you have not shared here previously. (Exception: Holiday/Seasonal specific posts may be shared once per year.)

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Halloween Ideas for Fun and Fright + HM #205

Fun, fright, and spooktacular Halloween ideas! Plus, link-up at Home Matters with recipes, crafts, diy. #Halloween #HalloweenIdeas #HomeMattersParty

Halloween Ideas for Fun and Fright + HM #205

Halloween, that spookily frightful, and delightful time of year — I love it! You’ll have to check out my Pumpkin Carving Page as well as the many tips and tricks to awesome pumpkin carvings from lighting, to storage, to designs and carving. I also have some fun Halloween DIY and decor ideas like my Haunted Mirror, DIY Trick-or-Treat Lanterns, and more. Search the blog for Halloween… You’ll find all sorts of Halloween Ideas. Be sure to take a look at what the gals of Home Matters have put together in our Halloween roundup!

Halloween Mason Jar Crafts from Stephanie @ MomDot

Chicken Boo-dle Soup from Morgan @ Morgan Manages Mommyhood

Halloween Cocktails Your Guests Will Love from Skye @ Midlife Boulevard

Vampire Brownies Fightfully Fun Halloween Treat from Lorelai @ Life With Lorelai

Halloween Ideas for Fun and Fright Blog Hop

Click through all the Hosts and Co-hosts blogs to see the complete Themed Roundup!

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A Home Matters Themed Roundup

Last Week’s Theme: Breast Cancer Awareness

Next Week’s Theme: Pumpkin Ideas for Everything!

Welcome to the weekly Home Matters Linky Party. A great place to come, share your blog posts, and make new friends.

We would love to have you visit our blogs and follow us on social media!

Hosts

Lorelai @ Life With Lorelai — Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Kristen @ The Road to Domestication — Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Co-hosts

Sahana @ Vikalpah — Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Nicole @ Mom Always Finds Out — Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Emily @ Domestic Deadline — Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Donna @ Modern On Monticello — Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Nina @ Vintage Mama’s Cottage — Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Ashley @ Sweetpea Lifestyle — Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Check out more posts from the Hosts and Co-Hosts on our
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Check out this week’s features below.

Super Easy Two-Tier Halloween Cake from Bird @ Bird’s Party

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Streusel Pumpkin Pie from Jen @ Cincy Shopper

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Rae Dunn Inspired Fall & Halloween Signs from Kippi @ Kippi At Home

PIN here.

Homemade Poop Emoji Costume for Kids from Tanya @ 5 Minutes for Mom

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15 Easy Recipes using Maple Syrup from Kristy @ Kristy Still

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Thank you to all who linked up at last week’s party. We look forward to seeing what you will be sharing with us this week!

Remember that every feature is shared on all Host’s and Co-Host’s blogs, as well as on the Home Matters Linky Party Pinterest Board! Don’t forget to follow…

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We at Home Matters love meeting new people and discovering new blogs. Help us grow this party by sharing a link on your post or grabbing our party button for your sidebar or party page.

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Please link up no more than THREE posts each week–try to make sure that they are new links that you have not shared here previously. (Exception: Holiday/Seasonal specific posts may be shared once per year.)

Please take some time to poke around and visit some of the other links.

Please take some time to check out your hosts and co-hosts on social media.

We appreciate the variety of blogs on the www; however, the Home Matters Party is for links on matters of the HOME. Please link accordingly.

We ask that you do not add other Linky Parties, Blog Hops, or Giveaways–unless you begin the party with a new project, recipe or post.

On the same note, please do not add links of an extremist, political or strong controversial nature. (The hosts and co-hosts read each and every blog post linked and will contact you directly if you have linked something that does not fit into the realm of the party.)

With your help, we can continue to grow the Home Matters Party! Thank you!

Fun, fright, and spooktacular Halloween ideas! Plus, link-up at Home Matters with recipes, crafts, diy. #Halloween #HalloweenIdeas #HomeMattersParty Click To Tweet

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Halloween Glow For Decor Or Treat

Make your Halloween Glow in your decor and the treats you pass out for trick-or-treat. Be part of the Teal Pumpkin Project® with food-free options. #Halloween #GlowSticks #TealPumpkin

Thanks to Oriental Trading for providing some of these products to make our Halloween vamptastic!

Halloween Glow For Decor Or Treat

An Apothecary Vignette with an Eerie Glow

You may not like things that go bump in the night, but who doesn’t love a little spooky glow on Halloween night? Glow sticks can be fun to decorate with and kids are always enthralled with them. Choose items that glow for some food-free fun to pass out for trick-or-treat this Halloween.

Create your own eerie apothecary vignette to dazzle your guest for a Halloween party or trick-or-treat. We just added glow sticks to different items in the apothecary to make them glow. They are also great when you tuck them into mason jars and use them as path lights. Super simple, right?

Look at that spooky Spider Web Candelabra. Isn’t it fun? I used it as part of my Halloween Mantel Decor. I decorated the candles with spiders to make them extra creepy. Check out this DIY to make your own Spider Candles.

Oriental Trading has lots of glow options available that make a perfect food-free option for trick-or-treaters or classroom parties. We picked up the Halloween Glow Bracelets with Card and the Large Beam Flashlight Keychains. The cute and cheerful Halloween card has holes to attach the glow bracelet and the flashlights come in a variety of six different colors.

Make #Halloween Glow w/ @OrientalTrading – Food-free options 4 #TealPumpkin trick-or-treaters. #ad

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If you are looking for fun ideas for Trick-or-Treat this year, Oriental Trading has you covered for all things Halloween. The Halloween Glow, toys, games, and more are perfect for those supporting the Teal Pumpkin Project® and providing food-free options for kids with food allergies.

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Haunted Mirror – An Eerie Halloween DIY Decor

If you are looking for Halloween decor that gives a big fright with little bite then the Haunted Mirror is the DIY project for you — easy and eerie!

Haunted Mirror

A Hauntingly Spooktacular Halloween DIY Decor

Today, I have something really fun for you. If you have hung around here for any time at all, you know that I love Halloween. So, I am thrilled to bring you this eerie craft idea for Halloween decor.

This DIY Halloween project is really very easy to create.

Big Fright for little Bite! The Haunted Mirror – easy, eerie #Halloween #DIY #decor #HauntedMirror

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Haunted Mirror DIY

Here’s what you need:

1 Can – Krylon Looking Glass Silver Spray Paint
Tape
1 – 8″ x 10″ Picture Frame
1 – Image to fit an 8″ x 10″ Frame

How to Make the Haunted Mirror:

Choose your Image

Scan Image and create an Inverse Image

Print out two copies – 1 Original Image, and 1 Inverse Image

Take Glass out of picture frame. Clean Glass very well.

Tape the Inverse Image to the front or outside of the glass (image side facing the glass). This allows you to see exactly where your image will be once it is in the frame, and will help you during the spray painting.

Place glass image side down on your spraying surface. You can see the image through the glass.

Shake Krylon spray paint vigorously

Spray the entire glass with a fine mist of paint

Then add more paint in small spurts, especially to the areas around your image. You want there to be enough paint to create a mirror, but with a lighter spraying of paint on top of the image so that it shows through.

Let the paint dry for at least one hour

Remove the Inverse image from the front of the glass and clean glass carefully.

Place glass back into the frame–Glass side out, Painted side to the inside.

Load the Original Image into the frame

Time for some Tips

Clean the glass, then wipe it down with alcohol. Any fingerprints or oils will interfere with the paint sticking properly.
Blushing: If you get blushing with your spray paint, don’t worry. The Krylon Looking Glass washes right off easily with a little soap and water. (What is Blushing? Blushing occurs when there is high humidity in the air. The moisture settles on the not cured paint and causes a milky whiteness or flat white look in the paint. This happened to me on my first attempt, because I did the spraying after the marine layer came in from the ocean–silly me.)
Tips for your Image:
- Areas not showing up well – I had a large white area on my image over about half the face. So, I used colored pencil to draw it in better.
- White is showing up to bright – Again, this was the case for me, so I sprayed a light coating of the Looking Glass spray paint directly onto my image to tone it down. This worked great, and also gave the image another dimension.
- Be sure that you have enough paint around your image to make the glass really look like a mirror. That way your image will appear to be coming through the mirror–a very spooky effect. (You can clearly see the apple in the reflection.)
So, just play around with it, until you reach your desired effect.

Being that this project is making a mirror, it is difficult to photograph (at least for me anyway). But I think I managed to get some pretty cool shots of the Haunted Mirror–take a look…

Notice the reflections in the mirror…

The reflection here is a hutch. It almost looks like the lady is pushing her way through the wood.

Look at her reaching for that apple–Who is the fairest of them all…

Imagine catching that face out of the corner of your eye…spine-chilling.

Spine-chilling Halloween #Decor. Make your own Haunted Mirror. #DIY #Halloween #craft #spooky

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I hope you have enjoyed our little Haunted Mirror Halloween DIY project. We had a blast making this for you — now, make you own. Have a Hauntingly Spooktacular Halloween!.

Halloween Inspiration

Looking for more Halloween inspiration? Check out these post:

Halloween Mantel Decor Orange, Black, and Purple

Bewitched Halloween and DIY Trick-or-Treat Lantern

Pumpkin Carving Page

Check out and Follow my Halloween Crafts / Decor Pinterest Board

How do you like to decorate for Halloween?

Do you have any Halloween DIY projects planned?

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Halloween Mantel Decor Orange, Black, And Purple

I love this time of year — all the holidays inspire me. So, enjoy my Halloween Mantel Decor including a quick, easy, and spooky DIY project you’ll love! #Halloween #HalloweenDecor #HalloweenCraft

Halloween Mantel Decor

Plus a Quick, Easy, and Spooky DIY Project

It’s my favorite time of year! I absolutely love this season of holidays. From the rich colors to the heavenly aromas, to the yummy foods, and wonderful family memories in the making, I find it all heartwarming.

So, I’m kicking off the last quarter of the year by sharing my Halloween Mantel Decor. I have to tell you, I am in love with how this mantel turned out. Thanks to Oriental Trading for providing some of the decor items, and to Luke who made my dreams come true with the Mantel Makeover last year.

And, bonus, this little viewing comes with a spooktacular DIY project that is fun and creepy.

So, let’s get started…

Halloween Mantel Decor

Since Halloween is possibly my favorite holiday, I wanted to have something fun and festive with a simple elegance. And, I decided to stick with the traditional colors of orange and black with an added splash of purple.

The Black Metal Lanterns (above) are so pretty and how cute are they filled with candy corn? A variety of mini pumpkins on multi-level candle holders and lacy tin buckets in orange and black, and a glittery black cat to add some sparkle. Don’t you love the way the Halloween Mantel Decor turned out?

Black cats and pumpkins inspired me to make a printable for my mantel frame using a quote (source unknown) that I have loved for years.

“When Black Cats prowl and Pumpkins gleam,
May luck be yours on Halloween.”

Now, check out this Spider Web Candelabra! Isn’t it adorable? With all the spiders crawling on the candelabra, I knew I wanted to have some spidery candles. So, I decided to makeover some old candles that I had stored away — you know those ones you’ve used but there is a lot of candle leftover, and you know you’ll use them again sometime but you never do. Here is your chance!

DIY Spider Candles for Halloween

What You’ll Need:

Grab your used candles (or new ones if you must — LOL)
A Permanent Marker ( I used black for the white candles and silver for the purple candles)

How To:

Draw a spider web at the flame tip of the candle.
Draw a squiggly line down the candle and draw a black dot at the end. The black dot is your spider body.
Add eight legs to your spider body.
Create the look you want by adding more webs and/or spiders.

NOTE – For Halloween, using the old, perhaps discolored, candles make for a perfect creepy look. I had one that had a lot of candle wax dripped down the side, awesome. Also, with Halloween, you do not need to have your candles standing perfectly straight. So, if they teeter a bit in the candle holder or have a little curve to them makes it all the more spooky and eerie.

I hung my Halloween wreath above the mantel. It’s a piece I’ve had for years and is always fun to unearth each year.

Then, tying all the decor together is the amazing black Gauze Garland String Lights with purple bulbs — love it!

I draped the lights over and under the fireplace mantel and hung my Happy Halloween sign from the hidden hook beneath my mantel. It provided the perfect spooky touch to finish off my Halloween Mantel Decor.

Halloween Mantel Decor including a quick, easy, and spooky DIY project you’ll love! #Halloween

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I hope you have enjoyed this peek into my Halloween Mantel Decor, and wish you a spooky and fun Halloween!

Be sure to check out Oriental Trading for all your Halloween shopping.

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Rustic Woodwork Decor – How To Make Your Own

Bring a little texture and nature to you decorating style and learn how to make your own Rustic Woodwork Decor. A welcoming and cozy way to decorate and DIY.

How To Make Your Rustic Woodwork Decor

Bring natural textures to your decor style

Home decor is already a huge feature of our homes. Both regarding expense and the amount of time spent thinking about how o decorate the space. You design and redesign the layout in your head a dozen times over. Couple that with the countless hours spent wandering through stores to find the perfect item pictured in your mind and it truly is a process to create your perfect home.

However, what if there was a means to add further customization to your home and lower your budget? And get the further benefit of learning a new skill? Well, such a path does exist. Luckily, woodwork is an easy way to transfer your style, needs, and wants into a creation that perfectly fits your home.

A little bit of rustic decor

For those who have missed out on the design trends, rustic decor can be described as a decorating style with an emphasis on nature and other natural elements. These elements are all inspired by textures that can be found outdoors in nature. Think beach wood benches and luxurious faux-fur throws. The style further relies on natural colors that are typically earthy in tone.

If you are worried about how to achieve such a look in the middle of suburbia, one of the easiest ways is to incorporate ‘raw’ elements. These can be unfinished pieces of wood, a river-washed pebble mat, coral you collected on your last trip to the beach. The more unfinished and closer to its natural state the better the finished product will look.

DIY ideas

An emphasis on natural elements is required to achieve the rustic decor look. Wood especially is a great place to start. As always, when embarking on any project involving dangerous tools or supplies, it is important to be completely aware of the directions. Get the job done and practice good safety habits, such as wearing protective gear.

A good place to start with your interior is to fashion a rustic headboard out of pallets and other wood. The great thing is you can choose to use recycled pieces such as old wood from barns or leftover pieces from previous projects to add to the rustic charm of the piece.

A further idea is pallet shelves, or possibly a pallet bench and to ensure your best friend (your dog) doesn’t feel left out. Maybe even check out how to make a dog bed with old pallets. Everything is possible when it comes to DIY. For the pallet shelves, once you have finished pulling all the nails out and then cutting off the end pieces – these are shelf one and two, along with the center pieces for shelf three.

You then have the option to go even further. You can proceed to stain the shelves, to achieve a more rustic look. A darker color is advised for a more authentic image, while for a look more suited to a coastal interior theme, you could use a lighter, sandy color to stain the wood. Finally, screw them into the wall, and then they are ready to go.

More Rustic Woodwork Decor

Should you be seeking more inspiration for where exactly to start with your rustic decor mission, perhaps a wooden pallet wine rack is the avenue to which you should check out. You will similarly make the wooden pallet shelf as to the way you make shelf 1 and 2 (or the end pallet shelves) in the example above. Then, you only drill holes into the shelf so that the wine glasses have a space to hang.

If you only want to beautify an already wooden piece of your home, such as a backyard fence, then feel free to go to town with fresh flowers stacked in a tin-can garden, or if you are really into entertaining, why not consider putting a back-yard barbeque station attached to your garden fence?

Bring texture to your style – and DIY Rustic Woodwork Decor. #decor #style #DIY #wood #texture

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With so many ways to achieve a rustic decor look and DIY woodworking activities being one of the easier, more affordable ways to do it, the only question left to ask is which project are you going to undertake first? I know, the wooden pallet wine rack is extremely tempting.

Have you done any Rustic Woodwork Decor projects? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

I want to thank Sarah for sharing these rustic woodwork decor DIY projects with us today. I cannot wait to give some of these ideas a try!

Be sure to check out Sarah’s blog, The DIY Hammer.

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How-To Create A Christmas Topiary

A Holiday DIY Project from Regular Contributor, Michelle James

Well, we are smack in the middle of the holiday season. I am slowly getting my decorating done, and will probably finish on Christmas Eve. I have wanted an outdoor Christmas topiary for a while now; so, this year I finally decided to make one.

How-to Create A Christmas Topiary

We had almost all of the supplies on hand for this project. The only thing I purchased was the large ornament from a home improvement store on sale for $7.99 and the set of 35 lights.

Supplies needed:

Outdoor Pot – I used one I already had that wasn’t full of dirt.

Saucer – This is a plastic saucer for pots and it happened to fit into the pot so it worked out perfectly. It was white so it got a coat of paint to help match it up with the pot a little better.

Dowel – (or something similar) We had some PVC pipe left over from a lighting project and it was perfect.

Filler – This is to fill the pot. In Iowa it gets pretty windy so some rocks went in as well. We also have a ton of foam insulation so that is what we used.

Large Ornament

Small ornaments

Indoor/Outdoor Christmas Lights – I used a 35 pk.

Learn how-to create your own #ChristmasTopiary for your home. #Holiday #Decor

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I have to give credit where credit is due. Since my husband got his hours cut at work, he has been helping me A LOT with my projects. He actually got the first part of this done for me. He is a great guy and deserves the credit.

He removed the gold hanging element off the top of the large ornament so there would be a hole for the dowel/PVC pipe. I actually turned the ornament upside down so it would look like a tree.

He drilled a hole in the middle of the saucer and spray painted it brown to match the pot.

He used some rocks and some filler inside the pot around the dowel/PVC to help it stay upright along with the help of the saucer. Then placed the ornament onto the PVC.

It fit nicely. This is the saucer before he had it painted but I thought it was a genius idea. The lights and the ornaments had a nice place to sit now.

I placed the lights down first into the saucer and then placed the red ball ornaments on top of the lights around the large “tree”.

Then, all I had to do was plug it in. Doesn’t it look nice? And, it was super easy.

Use your #ChristmasTopiary by itself or in tandem for a spectacular #Holiday #Display

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I added some LED lights (not a huge fan of the bright white) around a metal “trellis” instead of a tomato cage for a second tree. Bright white aside…

I just love it! What type of décor do you use outside during the holidays?

I hope you will come back to see my “warm and cozy” throw blankets on December 29^th.

Enjoy your holiday!

Michelle

Visit Michelle at her blog, Michelle James Designs!

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Haunted Mirror – A Halloween DIY

Haunted Mirror

A Hauntingly Spooktacular Halloween DIY

Today, I have something really fun for you. If you have hung around here for any time at all, you know that I love Halloween. So, when Jason at Dealspotr.com asked me to collaborate with him on a Halloween post for their website, I was thrilled.

Dealspotr.com is the best community for finding and sharing deals. I used the resources on the Dealspotr website, and armed myself with great coupons for purchasing the supplies I would need. You can read more about that here–they helped me get a lot of Fright for very little Bite!

Big Fright for little Bite! The Haunted Mirror – an easy #Halloween #DIY project. #HauntedMirror

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This DIY Halloween project is really very easy to create.

Here’s what you need:

1 Can – Krylon Looking Glass Silver Spray Paint
1 – 8″ x 10″ Picture Frame
1 – Image to fit an 8″ x 10″ Frame
Scotch Tape

How to Make the Haunted Mirror:

Choose your Image
Scan Image and create an Inverse Image
Print out two copies – 1 Original Image, and 1 Inverse Image
Take Glass out of picture frame. Clean Glass very well.
Tape the Inverse Image to the front or outside of the glass (image side facing the glass). This allows you to see exactly where your image will be once it is in the frame, and will help you during the spray painting.
Place glass image side down on your spraying surface. You can see the image through the glass.
Shake Krylon spray paint vigorously
Spray the entire glass with a fine mist of paint
Then add more paint in small spurts, especially to the areas around your image. You want there to be enough paint to create a mirror, but lighter paint on top of the image so that it shows through.
Let the paint dry for at least one hour
Remove the Inverse image from the front of the glass and clean glass carefully.
Place glass back into the frame–Glass side out, Painted side to the inside.
Load the Original Image into the frame

Time for some Tips:

Clean the glass, then wipe it down with alcohol. Any fingerprints or oils will interfere with the paint sticking properly.
Blushing: If you get blushing with your spray paint, don’t worry. The Krylon Looking Glass washes right off easily with a little soap and water. (What is Blushing? Blushing occurs when there is high humidity in the air. The moisture settles on the not cured paint and causes a milky whiteness or flat white look in the paint. This happened to me on my first attempt, because I did the spraying after the marine layer came in from the ocean–silly me.)
Tips for your Image:
- Areas not showing up well – I had a large white area on my image over about half the face. So, I used colored pencil to draw it in better.
- White is showing up to bright – Again, this was the case for me, so I sprayed a light coating of the Looking Glass spray paint directly onto my image to tone it down. This worked great, and also gave the image another dimension.
- Be sure that you have enough paint around your image to make the glass really look like a mirror. That way your image will appear to be coming through the mirror–a very spooky effect. (You can clearly see the apple in the reflection.)
So, just play around with it, until you reach your desired effect.

Being that this project is making a mirror, it is difficult to photograph (at least for me any way). But I think I managed to get some pretty cool shots of the Haunted Mirror–take a look…

Notice the reflections in the mirror…

The reflection here is a hutch. It almost looks like the lady is pushing her way through the wood.

Look at her reaching for that apple–Who is the fairest of them all…

Imagine catching that face out of the corner of your eye…spine chilling.

I hope you have enjoyed our little Haunted Mirror Halloween DIY project. There was a lot of fun had while making it for you. Have a Hauntingly Spooktacular Halloween!

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Coming Up:

Jason from Dealspotr.com is writing a post that will publish here on Tuesday:
5 Up-cycling Ideas For Kids Room Decorations
Be sure to come by and check them out!

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How do you like to decorate for Halloween?

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Do you have any Halloween DIY projects planned?

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Leave me a comment… I’d love to hear from you!

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~Lorelai

Up To 40% Off At The Nordstrom End-of-summer Clearance Sale Through September 13!

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Vinyl Wall Art

An easy way to add some pizzazz to your home decor

We have been very busy trying to incorporate two houses and three lives into one little house. It has been a challenge, and is still an ongoing process. One of the things we have put a lot of time and effort into is Rory’s room, and vinyl wall art wound up on our to-do list.

You may remember these posts, Guest Room Bedding Ideas and 12 Tips on Choosing the Right Paint Colors. Well, out of necessity, that guest room is an idea of the past… it’s now Rory’s room. We did paint the room with a lovely shade of yellow, Break of Day by Dunn Edwards. We laid a light hickory wood flooring, and added some beautiful white baseboards and trim around the window. Now, the room was set for her furniture and decorating.

Rory has wanted a Paris themed room for some time, so now, she’s getting it. We found some really amazing Paris decorating items at Hobby Lobby. Today, I’d like to share one of those items with you, an Eiffel Tower vinyl wall art piece.

Vinyl Wall Art – Easy #HomeDecor with pizzazz! #VinylWallArt #EiffelTower #Paris

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We were pleasantly surprised by how easy the vinyl wall art was to use. The design came in four separate pieces that we had to assemble on the wall to create a fluid Eiffel Tower. The vinyl wall art reminded me of the old Colorforms I played with as a kid–ah, the memories. The pieces were not flimsy, but not too stiff either. They clung to the walls very well, but were easy to peal, move, and re-affix to the wall as needed for perfect placement and adjustment.

And here is the finished Eiffel Tower vinyl wall art…

This entire project only took about 10 to 15 minutes to complete, and it looks great. A definite thumbs up from us on vinyl wall art!

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Looking for some Paris inspiration? Check out my Paris Themed Pinterest Board…

Follow Life With Lorelai Blog’s board Paris Themed on Pinterest.

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Have you ever used vinyl wall art?

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Leave me a comment… I’d love to hear from you!

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~Lorelai

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~Lorelai

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Contact Lorelai at Lorelai@LifeWithLorelai.com

Sidewalk Chalk Tutorial

An Easter Tradition

It has been a long-standing tradition at our house for the Easter Bunny to leave a chalk drawing in the driveway. The kids would find this surprise first thing Easter morning, as we left for church. That silly bunny always manages to hop through the drawing leaving his colored footprints behind, as he hops up to the house and away again.

I hadn’t done a drawing in years; but last year, Luke’s two grandnieces where coming for Easter dinner. That meant our tradition had to be resurrected–and this time I was recruiting some help. So, after everything was ready inside the house, Rory and I put on our figurative bunny ears and hopped on out to the driveway–armed and dangerous with sidewalk chalk.

Sidewalk Chalk Tutorial – Learn HOW TO Create your own Art… #SidewalkChalk #ChalkArt #Holiday

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Here are the Steps to Creating Your Own Chalk Art:

Decide on your Design.
I found my inspiration for the drawing online…

Photo found at Gainsville Apartment & Condo Guide Blog

Draw the basic Outline for your Design.
You can see that I used white chalk to draw my outline. You can use a different color, but be sure that you will be able to blend it into your design. Try to keep the outline as light as possible.

Draw in the Details for the specific area in which you are working.

Color in the Design.
Use lighter and darker colors to create shadows and depth to your drawing. Mix colors to make new colors.

Take your Chalk work from Drawing to Art.
This step will transform your drawing into a work of art! It will also give it some real lasting power. Use water and paint brush to wet down the chalk. Paint over the chalk, filling in any missing areas created from the rough canvas. Be careful NOT to mix your colors, unless you intend to do so. This will create a painted type of artwork versus the rough and grainy look of a regular sidewalk chalk drawing. As you paint over the chalk with water, your colors will darken and change, do not worry, they will dry and be beautiful.

Notice how vibrant and solid the colors of the painted bunny look.

Here are Some Additional Tips:

Wear Disposable Gloves while you work. This will keep your hands cleaner, and not dry out your skin. They also change easily when they get dirty.

A Kneeling Pad is your best friend!

Have a Towel or Rag for leaning your hand on. This will help keep you from getting “road rash” from leaning heavily on the concrete.

Paper Towels will come in handy.

Use different cups of water for differing colors, so you don’t muddy the colors of your creation.

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A couple of sample photos will show you the different types of sidewalk chalk art.. Be sure to notice the color layering for depth and interest, as well as the rough and smooth textures. One sample is a regular chalk drawing, while the other has been water painted.