Crafty Monday!

Hello friends!  I hope every one's week is starting out as good as mine is!  This morning I started the preparations for our upcoming Christmas vacation with getting my oil changed and reserving a uhaul so we could bring the king size mattress and box springs we are giving to my Mother in Law Alysa in exchange for Caden's "new" bedroom furniture!  We will be bringing back the bunk beds and dressers that Jeremy and his brothers shared as kids!  I'm really excited!  Of course Caden is still in his crib but when he's big enough he can move into the big boy bed.  And in the mean time we will have two extra beds for people when they visit! woo! 

My good friend Heather called me today to chat and after we decided to hang out for a little while this afternoon at mi casa I had to run to Hobby Lobby for supplies to make this Christmas present I have been wanting to make for her!!  I knew I wouldn't get the chance to see her before Christmas so this was just the motivation I needed to just get it done!  Do yall have lists of craft projects you would like to do and have every intention of doing them but just "not right now" ? Yeah I have TONS. 

This particular craft I've been thinking about doing since October.  I attended the Christmas in the South show for the first time and saw this item at one of the vendor's booths.  It was a chalkboard that said "___ days until Daddy's Home!!"   Basically the blank is where you write in how many days left before he (your child's dad) gets home!  I thought that was such a cute idea for military families!  And Heather's hubby is gone pretty often because of training and deployments so I thought she would appreciate it :) It was selling for something like $20 and I wanted to get it so badly for Heather!  But budgets don't always allow for on the spot purchasing.... and besides I knew I could make one for myself!!  And that makes it way more fun when you've made it yourself and your friends and family appreciate it that much more! 

So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought the chalkboard and a thing of white acrylic paint since I did not have any in white.  Total price....$5!!  what what!!  This is what it looked like after I painted it:

I simply painted the words in white and dotted the letters with red and blue to make it more patriotic.  I felt like it needed more though...  So I rummaged through my craft bins to find stickers or something to jazz it up!  I found some cute little star stickers and a red ribbon!  I'm all about saving ribbons from packages because you never know when you might need it! So this is the finished product:

do you like it?!  Heather really loved it.  I hot glued the ribbon and I think it turned out so adorable!  This is just my first one and of course I'm looking at all the little things I want to do differently but that's what makes it fun to make more!  They can all be unique!  And you could do this for anything!  Countdown to Christmas for example!  Or just decorate a nice border and put it on the fridge for random notes and messages. 

So feel free to make your own!  Or let me know and i would love to make one for you!