Wedding Anniversary Mantle

Happy March!

I know it's almost over and this post is overdue, but I just had to share with you my Wedding Anniversary Mantle!  I had so much fun pulling out all of my Wedding stuff and displaying it.  Unfortunately, March this year also means St Patrick's Day and Easter, so I won't get to put up those mantles, but it is worth it!

This is a picture of our wedding party.  You can also see some of our bubble wedding favors here.

This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding! Us praying after taking Communion for the first time as Husband and Wife.  Our Ring Pillow was made out of my mother's wedding dress.  It's very vintage and I used the lace to create the details.  You can also see P's boutonniere.

These are our actual wedding chalices.  You can't see very well, but they are engraved with "Mr. Smith" and "Mrs. Smith" and our wedding date.  P looked like Mr. Monopoly with his top hat and cane.  So dashing!

This was displayed by P's Groom's Cake.

 

 

This was our wedding cake topper.  You can also see some of our "guest book." in this picture.  We framed one of our engagement photos and had everyone sign the mats instead of a book.  This way we can always see who came. :)

Our Unity Candle.  I made the design with a little hot glue and beads.  It's fallen apart throughout the years.

 

Our wedding album and anniversary album.  It has the first 10 years of celebrations in it along with a photo so that we can see how we've changed.

 

His top hat, my veil and crown.  This is also a silk replica of my bouquet that I used as a display the day of our wedding.

This is an anniversary present that P got me this year!!  We celebrated 9 years and the traditional gifts are pottery and willow.  I think he did a great job!

I made this banner this year because the mantle just wasn't complete. It's our anniversary.  9 years!!  I got the template for the banner here.  She has all the letters, numbers and some fun shapes to print for FREE!  It was really easy to print out and then I glued it to some blue and yellow card stock to match our wedding colors.  It is displayed with clothespins attaching to some white tulle.  Very weddingy. :)

 

I hope you enjoyed my Wedding Mantle! I love it and it's very personal. After this month it will all go back in the box and we'll pull it out again next year!

Necklace Display

So I have this tiny little jewelry box and all these amazing necklaces. They definitely don't work well together.  I have been brainstorming on how to make it work and thought about this!

It's just a tension spring rod "installed" in the top of our dresser.  I used some shower S hooks to hang the necklaces on! Brilliant, I know!  Now I can look at my beautiful jewelry every day and it's much easier to see what I have!

Transferable Ruler Growth Chart

I'm so excited to show you my newest project! A Ruler Growth Chart -

Our boys are growing so fast that I really wanted to get their heights recorded!  Since we own our home now, you'd think that we'd just draw on the door frame, but I had some concerns about this.  What happens if we move? What happens if I need to repaint?  How am I going to clean it without wiping all the marks off? 

So I heard of an idea.  One of my friends had just a board that they drew on.  That way they could take it with them whenever they moved!  Of course I couldn't just have a board...so Pinterest it was. :)  All good ideas come from Pinterest!  While I was there I found this ruler from 517 Creations.  I loved the aged look and we did have an extra random piece of plywood in our basement from the previous owner!  Bonus! Another FREE project!! :)

So here's how I did it...

I started with this random piece of plywood in our basement. It's 6' tall and about 4" or 5" wide. 

Now it was basically the color of plywood and that wouldn't do for something that was going to go in my house so I had to stain it.  The only stain I have is the one that matches our floor, and I didn't want it to exactly match, so I again got an Pinterest to see about how to make wood stain.  I came across this post from Kara Paslay Designs on how to make your own wood stain from Vinegar and Steel wool.  Here's how mine turned out -

So, after a few days of waiting for the stain to get ready I went to work on my wood.  I only put about one GOOD heavy coat on my wood.  Here you can tell the difference between the stain and the non stained wood.

And here's the finished product:

I'm really impressed with how it turned out.  After it dried it became more of a uniform color and I really wanted it to look aged or antique so I had to get a little more creative.  I pulled out my ink from my scrapbooking stuff (brown and black) and decided to "age" the wood a bit.  I rubbed the ink all around the edges and kinda splotched it all over the front of the wood as well.  Now it looks like this!

Then I took out my measuring tape, a pencil, a ball point pen and a sharpie.  I measured off every inch.  I started at 1 foot so that I could end at 7 ft.  I know that's kinda tall, but this is going to be something I want to use when my boys are into their teens and I didn't want to risk not having enough space.  Besides, they were both born longer than a foot, so I can even start from birth! :)  I made each foot marker 3 inches long, the quarter markers 2 inches long and the eighth markers 1 inch long.  Here's a better photo:

To make the numbers I followed the advice from 517 Creations and printed out the numbers 2 through 7 in 200 pt font.  I used Century font because it looked good and that's what she used.  Then I rubbed pencil on the back of the paper covering each number. I then turned it around and traced the outside of the numbers in ball point pen onto the wood, therefore transferring a pencil outline onto the wood.  Then I took my black sharpie and drew the numbers and colored them in.  I think it looks pretty good!

 

Then I'm sitting here with a completed ruler and no way to get it on the wall. I figured that if I drilled a hole in the back of it I could hang it with a nail. So that's what I did.  I used a medium sized drill bit, drilled a hole about halfway into the wood and the made sure the nail would fit in the hole.  To put it on the wall I measured up to 2 feet on the wall and matched that measurement with my ruler.  I measured where my drilled hole was from the top of my ruler and nailed it in the wall at that measurement.  It took about 3 tries to get it right, but it was worth it. 

 

After it was on the wall however I was a little worried that 1 little nail wouldn't be very stable with the boys always up against it and all.  So I remembered that we had some Command picture hanging strips left over from something! They are designed to hold up to 9 lbs, so surely it would hold this! I took a couple of those, put one in the middle of the ruler and at the bottom to keep it from swinging and attached it to the wall with them also.  It is still hanging by the nail, but the strips are "keeping it in place."

We've already tried it out! The boys love it and I'm excited that if I need to, I can take it with me and it will be something I will always treasure as my boys grow bigger and bigger!

The best part? When my husband came home, he saw it and said, "Wow! Where'd you get that?!"  Ha, he didn't even know I made it.  Said it looked like it came from Pottery Barn or something!!  AWESOME!! :)