march madness party

march madness party

March Madness is right around the corner people!  Selection Sunday is this weekend, and then it will be time to fill out those brackets!

Now, I know I sound super excited about all of this basketball that is about to take place. But really, I get more excited about competing in a fun bracket tournament challenges and planning parties!

My husband has a giant man room where all of the big sports parties happen at our house.   You might remember my post Fantasy Football Draft Party, where I helped plan a fun football themed get together.  The men don’t really seem to care about all of this fun party planning, but they sure do enjoy it once it is all set up.  Well, at the last minute, we are going to throw together a March Madness get together, so time to gather some party ideas!

March Madness Party Ideas

 

1.  Basketball Reese’s Cups

2. Basketball Cupcakes

3. Different Color Gatorade with Team Labels  – awesome!

4. Cheese Balls

5.Basketball Bun Sliders

6. Draw on Oranges (small Cuties) and place in plastic cup with net drawn – genius!

 

Don’t those little basketball cupcakes remind you of my football cupcakes?  Super easy!

Do you have any fun basketball party ideas to share?

Heather Johnson - The Creative Stack

 

 

metallic and mercury glass

metallic and mercury glass

With my wedding less than two months away, we are in full DIY mode!  Last week my friend, mom and I got together to do a little spray painting!

My style is very mix match.  If you walk in my house, I do not have a lot of things that are not thrifted… remember my post about decorating on a budget?

For my wedding, there will be a lot of the same styles.  Flowers, candles, vases of all metals and shapes and sizes!

We started out with some clear glass that my friend or my mom picked up at the thrift store.  These things are only $.50 to $2 each!

thrift store glass

And some spray paint.  I picked up metallic in gold and silver, some off-white and mercury glass spray.  My favorite is Krylon… It seems to spray most evenly!

spray paint

 

Mercury glass is actually looking glass spray that you use with a very specific technique. mixing spraying water and looking glass paint  I do about 4 coats (slight spritzes) of each, starting with water and then the spray.  Here is a great tutorial on how to do it with the technique we used.. to get the effect below.  This was after 4 times of water and spray, letting it dry about 15 minutes between coats.

DIY mercury glass

 

I am so happy with how everything turned out.  I did all kinds of combinations on the glass pieces…

  • off white background with gold or silver metallic
  • plain off white
  • plain silver or gold metallic
  • gold metallic with silver “dusting” or vice versa

We just let ourselves have fun and do whatever we thought would look good on the plain or textured glass.  I CAN’T WAIT to see what my florist, Springvine Design, comes up with to use these.  (please excuse the old table!)

mix and match vases

We purchased a few craft paper “B”s from Hobby Lobby to incorporate into the design.  Here we have it in metallic silver, but I plan to use it in all shades as well!

DIY wedding decor

 

What do you think?  Like all the colors?

Mandi Heilig - Dry Ink Designs

custom barn quilts

custom barn quilts

My dad has this amazing barn that holds all of his “man stuff”.   He is always out there working on something or nothing, but it is such a great space for him to have.   He had mentioned a few times that he likes the barn quilts that he sees driving through the mountains and down country roads.  Well, as a surprise for him this christmas, we decided to make one for him.  I designed out a custom quilt patch and we found an amazing lady to paint it for us!  It turned out SO great and I love that it is a one of a kind design just for our main man.

barn quilt

What are barn quilts?  Here is a link to tell you everything you would want to know, but basically it is a square piece of wood that is painted to look like a barn quilt.  Typically they are square in size 4×4, 6×6 or 8×8.   We went with 6×6.

This is a picture I pulled from a pinterest board to give you and idea of what I am talking about… how cool huh?

011514_barn quilts_pinterest

 

 

Our last name starts with the letter “H” so I used that as my inspiration.  Here you can see how I used a few “Hs” in the design.

custom barn quilt design

Once I had the design laid out, I sent over a PDF to Miracle Farms –  a local farm that is amazing at creating these quilts.  She takes the design, sketches it out on a grid paper and then starts taping it out to scale and begins to paint.  Here is a picture during the process – there are more here on her facebook page.

 

barn quilt production

 

 

My mom, The Mister and I drove out to their farm and picked it up Christmas Eve.  They were the sweetest family with such a sweet home (her workshop is her fathers original one room home from years and years ago that they have upgraded).  We got back home and surprised my dad with his new barn quilt!  I think that he was a bit surprised, but really liked it!   A few days later, it was up and on the barn for all to see!

barn quilt

 

I am so happy with it!  Such a wonderful custom piece of art made with such love!

Mandi Heilig - Dry Ink Designs