J & J van Leeuwen: DIY: Spring has Sprung!

So we are living in the bottom apartment of a ladies house. It is ours, but she has a door that comes into our place. It stays locked...unless she has a reason to come down :/ It's kinda weird, but we have just learned to deal with it. It's only 4 months right!? Anyways, she uses it for family parties, so it is all decorated. For that I am grateful, but it is her style. Ever since we moved her, I have slowly been hanging up a few things here and there, but it has NEVER felt like home to us. I kept telling myself it is just temporary, don't think about, etc. Well the flowers started blooming, the trees are turning colors, and it is beautiful outside! Plus, my mom finally booked her plane ticket to come visit!!!! So, I got a little decor hungry :) I have so much time on my hands, I have so badly been wanting to craft! However, we have a tiny car and a lot of stuff! It seemed silly to expand our belongings and risk having to either throw things away or pay to ship them home. That is until I gave in :) I just couldn't help it! I want my house to look like I live there when my mom comes, and who doesn't need a little spring fever floating around in their house right?? So I made a quick little diy and found some awesome pictures at... drum roll.... the dollar store! It was a pretty sweet find :) SO here is my step-by-step project, and the little bit of decor I just couldn't live without :)

So I had two DIY project ideas from Pinterest that I have been really wanting to make!

I decided to combine the two ideas and use the first layout, but steal the season/holiday idea from the second one!

I bought my supplies from Goodwill, the Dollar Store, Lowes and Walmart.

$0.48 dowel rod - Lowes

$3.00 3 gift boxes - Goodwill (also available at the Dollar Store) Pinterest suggested shoe box lids!

$1.00 ribbon - the Dollar Store (also available at

Walmart)

$1.50 3 paints - Walmart

$1.97 paintbrushes - Walmart

$0.98 sponge brushes - Walmart

$2.00 tissue paper - the Dollar store

$10.93 total .... but really the paints, paintbrushes, ribbon and leftover tissue paper are worth more than half of that!

(I ended up not using the cute butterfly & flower, but they were only $0.58/ea. at Walmart)

I would paint the box and quickly set it on the tissue paper while it was still wet. (I could have used modge podge or glue, but I wanted the paint to show through the tissue paper a little)

Once I had all of the painting/tissue paper wrapping done... I painted the dowel rod. The paint dried really fast, so I held it vertical to paint & dry.

Next I painted on all of the letters. I just free handed it by doing a thin line as a guide and then painting in the edges. It is not perfect! (I won't let anyone get close enough to inspect ;)

Cut 6 strips of ribbon (they don't have to be exact lengths) ....

Use a hole punch (or have your husband use his knife ;) and thread it through.

Use command hooks to hang your dowel rod...

And voila! Spring has sprung!

This literally took me 45 minutes start to finish! It is not perfect by any means, but it sure was fun to get crafty :) Plus it brightens up my life just a little bit more! :)

Here are my other awesome decor items... not so girly... a little more "homey"!