Oversized Pallet Wood USA Sign (And a GIVEAWAY)

It's always a good day at Two It Yourself when I have an awesome and easy knockoff project for you AND a giveaway!  Let's get straight to business...basically because I just can't wait any longer to show you how easy the DIY version is to make thanks to the BLACK+DECKER AutoSense drill.

DIY Outdoor Pillows: The 15 Minute Tablecloth and Plastic Bag Method

A few weeks back I shared my ideas for a backyard patio mini makeover.  Well, I'm happy to say they're finally coming along.  I'll be sharing more on the full progress in another post, but today I want to talk about pillows and pops of color.

DIY Monogrammed Burlap Garden Flag and Stake

In case you haven't noticed I've been happily doing outdoor projects recently - ahem, my vinyl window garage door makeover and my patio makeover is coming together...finally.   Today I'm going to share another outdoor project, this one not nearly as involved...or as much of a commitment.  I made this flower pot garden flag using nothing more than a scrap of burlap, a piece of freezer paper, my inkjet printer and some craft paint.

Usually when I want a design on burlap, I just print it onto the burlap...but since I plan to keep this outside I wanted to make sure the ink wouldn't run so I used paint instead of ink.  I did, however, use my printer for the first part of the process.  I started by designing my flag in PicMonkey.  It's a free photo and editing site that is just full of awesomeness. It's easy to use, free and has tons of font and designs to pick from.

Since I have to cut out the design to make it a stencil, I tried to keep it pretty simple.  To make the circle I first made a black circle, then made a smaller white circle, placed the white circle on top and then added the 'V'.  Once the design was ready, I saved it.  I like to bring my designs into PowerPoint to size them since each slide is the size of a piece of printer paper and I can get a better idea of how big my design actually is.

Link It or Lump It Link Party #40 (Plus Features)

Welcome to the 40th Link It or Lump It Link Party!   I can tell it's summer finally by all the amazingly colorful projects and outdoor DIYs you've been linking up and I LOVE IT!

Before we get to the features, here's what we've been working on at Two It Yourself recently...

End of the Year Class Fingerprints Teacher Gift

How to Hull Strawberries with a Straw

And now for those amazing features I promised you...

How to Hull Strawberries With a Straw

Over the Memorial Day Weekend we took the kids strawberry picking for the first time. They loved it and I'm pretty sure they picked their weight in strawberries.  

Since I've been busy passing out strawberry snacks for what is going on five days now...I thought I'd share a really easy and fast way I discovered to hull strawberries.

DIY End of the Year Teacher Gifts (Fingerprint Art)

It's that time of year again...the end of the school year. Yes...already!  For my son's pre-school teachers I organized a little craft to give each of them from all of the kids.  It's extra special because it includes each of the children's finger prints.

What you want to do is first print the sentiment out on a piece of cardstock.   I couldn't decide which phrase I liked better so decided I would make them a little different for each teacher so I could use both!

If you're going to make the flower pot picture, use some pretty scrapbook paper to cut out a flower pot.  If you're not the best free-hand cutter (no worries, I am not either!) find a  flower pot printable on google images, cut it out and then trace around it.

Then cut out long strips for the stems in different lengths so that you have enough for each child to make a fingerprint flower.  It's best to stagger the height of the stems if you have a lot of children so you can fit them all.  You can also cut out some leaves.   Another option is to paint these.  Again, I'm not the best painter...

I printed some little tags with info about the class and used a glue stick to mount them on top of the flower pot or on the clouds. Then we had each student dip their finger in craft paint and make 5 fingerprints around to make a flower.

I just used a black pen to label the flowers so the teachers remembered what a great class they had!  Once all the paint and glue was dry I picked up the white 8x10 frames at the craft store and framed them.  The teachers really seemed to like them.

Thanks for stopping by 2IY! If you like what you see, we'd love for you to pin it!

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Link It Or Lump It Link Party #39 {Plus Features}

Welcome to the 39th Link It or Lump It Link Party! Well you all just continue to impress me.   Again, some really awesome projects linked up making it tough to pick just four features.

Before we get to this week's features, here's a quick look at what we've been up to here at Two It Yourself!

How to Make DIY Icing Decorations (When You Have No Cake Decorating Skills)

My New Secret Weapon in the Kitchen

DIY Personalized Superhero Tags

And now for those amazing features I promised you...

How to Make DIY Icing Decorations (When You Have No Cake Decorating Skills)

Last week my superhero-loving son had a birthday.   He wanted a batman cake.  After spending a month's blogging salary on his party, I wasn't about to dish out even more on a cake.  I searched and searched for a way to make him a DIY batman cake.

Ohhhh emmmm gee I found the answer at Brass Tacks and Basics!  If you have a printer or a coloring book page you can do this. I promise you - you can do it!   If I can do it, you can do definitely do it and you don't have to do Batman you can pick any design you want.   I may be able to make a mean burlap banner or flip a thrift store dresser, but decorating cakes isn't part of my wheelhouse, I assure you! (Just look at the white icing job...whatevs).

Are you ready to have your mind blown?  Start by making a box cake. Hahha...told you!  Then get out your store-bought icing to ice the cake like you normally would (told you, again!).   Now you're going work on making the DIY icing decorations.  In my case, I was making a big batman logo for the center of the cake.  You can make these any size and any color.  But first things first...

Make a batch of butter cream icing. The recipe I used was from Taste of Home and it froze nicely which is key.

My New Secret Weapon in the Kitchen!

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Rubbermaid, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #RMDishRack  http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

So something happened a few weeks ago that hasn't happened in nine years of wedded bliss....we used our china.  Ya know, the thousands of dollars worth of plates, glasses, gravy boats, serving spoons, and silverware that has sat for display only since before our wedding in 2005....yeah, I finally broke it out.  Unfortunately, I also broke a glass...hence the whole one of the reasons I don't like to use it! 

DIY Personalized Superhero Cape Party Favor Tags

I am in full on Super hero birthday planning mode. My little guy turns three this week and he loves nothing more than super heroes!    We are have the party at a moon bounce house so there's not much I need to do in the way of decorations or food, but I did want to add a little DIY superhero flare where I could!

Personally, I prefer to give party favors other than candy and treats. Is that just me? This year I bought water bottles at the dollar store for a buck each.  I quickly personalized them with each child's initial in the Super Man logo style and then added the super hero cape tags.

I found a whole group of Super Hero cape tags on Pinterest originally posted on Cuor Home, although unfortunately I can't find the direct link to them now.  This made the project super easy although I did want to personalize them a little and PicMonkey made doing that super easy!