Stay At Home Nation...: Spring

Showing posts with label Spring. Show all posts

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Giveaway # 27 eShakti Custom Clothing~NOW CLOSED

This giveaway is now closed.
Congratulations to our winner, Pinky Sade!
Thank you again to eShakti for sponsoring this giveaway.
Much Love
~Iffy~
Oh & don't miss my next fabulous giveaway, tomorrow from Pulse Yoga.

I have a special giveaway today for you from

If you haven't heard of eShakti then you should really check them out.

Especially if you have a hard time finding clothes that fit you right......

why do I say that you ask?

Well at eShakti you can customize every part of your clothing purchase, from the measurements

to the sleeves to the trim & the collar cut.

This clothing is custom made for YOU!

You know it's going to fit & it's going to fit perfect because you are in charge.

Let your inner Fashion Star out as you

design a dress or shirt to what you like best and to what will fit you.

Ruffle front poplin dress-check out the different colors it comes in here

I adore the color of this Passementarie trim poplin dress

You're sure to find the perfect little black dress too like this

Her fifties sundress

Which also comes in this nautical version-too cute!

Look at how fun the Bow front corset style dress looks

They have a ton of new fun printed dresses too in the Social Butterfly section

like this Gradient dots drape dress

& how about this pretty Rosette trimmed blooms dress

Now it's your turn to experience how great a custom fit dress looks and feels on your

unique body type.

eShakti is giving any one product of choice to ONE lucky reader of Stay At Home Nation

(so you must follow publicly through gfc)

Not only do they have fabulous styles & prints of dresses, but also tops, skirts, pants, purses, & more!

My 1 piece of advice for you is to send your exact measurement. I ordered bigger than I was because

I didn't want it too snug in certain areas. Don't do that, just send your exact measurements because

these dresses are true to size-trust me.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This prize is valued between $14-$80 depending on what you choose.

It is open to all U.S & Canada residents.

Winner will be selected June 1, 2012.

You can read my past review on eShakti Here

Good Luck

XoXo

~Iffy~

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Lovely House Rules on A Canvas ~ My Favorite Things Link PARTY

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Here is my latest creation

This was so simple to do and I absolutely adore how it turned out.
I know I'm a little late jumping on the subway art bandwagon,
but that's OK because I do things on my own time.
More so when I want to, not because everyone else is doing it. I had ordered a picture on canvas about 2 years ago, but when I received it, there was a bunched up area of protective coating. They replaced it with a perfect photo canvas & told me to keep the messed up one.
Since I knew I was not going to use the image that was on it, as I had a replacement & since this one was damaged.

I held onto it thinking maybe one day I could do something with it.

So today was that day.

First I carefully peeled the protective coating off of the canvas. This in turn lifted the photo along with the coating.

I then painted the whole canvas with 2 coats of white acrylic craft
paint,

letting it dry 3 hours between coats for good measure.

While the paint was drying, I typed up our house rules using different fonts and sizes for each.

I even put a few words in different colors to make them stand out.

I was inspired to do a subway art "rules" canvas by Stephanie over at Full of Great Ideas .
I printed my house rules directly onto
tissue paper(thanks Stephanie!).

I cut the tissue paper just shy of a piece
of 8.5" x 11" printer paper so it wouldn't
jam in the printer.
I folded the tissue paper over & taped it to
the back with a piece of
clear packing tape.

I then cut out my rules and paired them up as to
how I wanted them to read.

Next I arranged them on the canvas to get an idea of where
I wanted them placed.

I poured some Mod Podge into a small bowl and with a foam brush,

I painted a light layer of it onto my canvas working a section at a time.

Little by little I painted a row of Mod Podge, then (while still wet) I laid the first row of rules down.

I continued this until my canvas was covered in rules.
(Be sure to smooth the tissue paper down as you go)

I let this dry for about 20 minutes and then painted the canvas with

two top layers of Mod Podge
(letting it dry 30 minutes between each).

This helps protect your canvas from peeling up.

Be careful not to brush over the tissue paper too much, as it is delicate

and could tear & smear.....like mine.

Which I'm totally fine with as it adds a distressed look.

After the canvas was dry, I decided to add some ribbon around the edges.

I really love this sweet, romantic print on the ribbon.

I started at the bottom of the canvas, and glued the ribbon around the trim with my hot glue gun.

I glued a little at a time and laid the ribbon down then gently rubbed the ribbon to smooth it out.

I continued this until I made it back around to where I started.

Then I cut the ribbon and glued that down too.

I wanted to add a little something to the front of my canvas as it felt a little boring to me.

So, I cut some ribbon the width of my canvas, & added a bow to that.

I had never made a bow before so I just improvised (please don't critique my bow as I just made it on the spot & had no idea what I was doing)

It's not perfect but I like how it turned out, so I'm happy.

You can check out my tutorial on how I made the bow here..

So I then glued the bow to my ribbon with
hot glue and

then hot glued the ribbon across
the front of the canvas.

You could do this step first(before the ribbon along the trim)
to avoid the edges from being frayed.

Isn't it a nice little touch?

I also had some small white artificial flowers that have been sitting in my craft drawer,
so I cut off 3

& then hot glued them down onto my canvas.

I found that the closer you cut them to the base of the flower, the flatter they sit....I know common sense right? I thought I had cut them short enough until I stuck the first flower into the hot glue. See the one on the left is a little tipped?

I think the flowers add even more of a feminine feel to it.

With all the little imperfections from the wrinkles in the tissue paper,
to the fray of the ribbon,
I love it because it's one of a kind just like my family.

Just lovely, isn't it?

So now it's your turn, link up to My Favorite Things Party

Grab my button code below:

<a <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">href</span> ="http://<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">stayathomenation</span>.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">blogspot</span>.com/"   target="_blank"><<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">br</span> /> <<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">img</span> <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">src</span>="https://lh5.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">googleusercontent</span>.com/_s6_<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">yhANkOsU</span>/<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">TdlASWLyXEI</span>/<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">AAAAAAAAAyA</span>/<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">dIViXRVEoGg</span>/button.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">jpg</span>" alt="Stay at Home   Nation"/><<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">br</span> /> </a>

How to Join My Party:
1-Grab the code to my button above & paste it into your entry post
2-Show off your favorite things(crafts, recipes, DIY, anything you have posted on your blog-But
Keep It Clean!)
& Link up below (2 entries allowed)
3-Follow Me if you like my blog-not required but it would be nice =D
4-Leave me a quick comment just to say hi so I know who's partying with me this week
5-Check out at least 1 other entry & comment on their post & let them know you saw them at my party.
Entries will list in reverse order-
giving everyone a chance to shine at the #1 spot.

My party will be open all week, so tell your friends~
because the more the merrier!
Please help me spread the word about my blog as I will have some really great giveaways once a month, beginning in June, so be sure to check back often!
Thanks for stopping by!

~Iffy~

Partying with

Homemaker In Heels

Coastal Charm

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter/Spring Wreath-redo

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Happy Easter guys!!

I've had 2 children down with strep this week.....no fun at all, because it's both my girls.

Sydney got it Tuesday & missed 3 days of school & took Michaela to the Dr yesterday and yep now she has it too. I'm crossing my fingers that Jackson & Landon don't get it.

So Easter will be celebrated with Amoxil-poor guys.

Here is my latest crafty decor piece-finished before the sickness crept in the house

I wanted to quickly post my Easter/Spring Wreath before Easter is gone.
I saw a wreath I fell in love with over at the adventures of nick and jessica but there was no tutorial to go along with it so here is what I did:

First I started with a winter wreath from Target I've had for 3-4 years and
I wanted to update it for the Spring.

I used
an old wreath
plastic eggs
latex paint
foam brushes
paper plate
small paint brush
raffia

First I removed the berries & frosted sticks that were glued into the wreath.

So it looked like this

Then I took 3 oops paint samples(.50 each woohoo!) that I had purchased from Home Depot.
There was brown, blueish gray, & a cream color paint.

I painted 1 layer of solid color on each of the eggs with a foam brush & placed them on a paper plate to dry over night. You will get paint on your fingers btw.

Then I repeated that process again, touching up any spots that had dried to the plate & peeled away.

At this point I thought all of the paint would end up peeling off and revealing the colored, plastic eggs beneath.
I decided to keep going and just see how things turned out. I suppose if I had more colors of spray paint on hand I would've tried that as it would have eliminated the peeling of the latex paint.

Then I was ready for my accents,

all I did was dip the narrow, wood end of my thin paint brush into an opposite color and either put dots or

just swept back & forth over the egg, depending on the look I wanted.

I left a few solid, & some I even went back and put some more paint of the 3rd color in the same manner.

I really love how these were looking!

I took pieces of raffia and started weaving it through,

piece by piece into my wreath.

Once I achieved the look I imagined with the raffia, it was time to add some eggs!

I carefully opened the eggs and placed a piece of raffia at the hinge and snapped it back tightly.

I tied the raffia with the egg attached on to the wreath, spacing as desired.

I thought the opening of the wreath was a bit too open & bare, so I added a cluster of eggs.

I did this by attaching 1 egg to the raffia, as described above,
making sure it was in the center of the piece of raffia.

Then I crossed the raffia & added 2 more eggs in the same fashion. and tied that to the wreath, leaving some length in the raffia so it could hang freely.
I took the extra length of the raffia (after I tied each egg to the wreath)
and weaved that through the wreath as well.

Finally I took a bunch of raffia and just tied a bow at the bottom of the wreath

and
TaDa....

I was going to add some purple silk flowers but didn't have any on hand, then thought a purple bow but since I have not learned how to make a bow from ribbon yet
I opted for the raffia.

Very earthy and a completely different look from what I started with.
Before: