Ninna Lu

DIY | Stencilled Pillow | Dot & Bo Love You To The Moon Pillow Inspiration

 

 

I fell in love with Dot & Bo's Love You To The Moon pillow below. So I got inspired to make my own version. 

 

I thought it would be a perfect addition to the new vintage entryway bench I got at the Sacramento Antique Faire a couple weeks ago.  It would also follow the theme of my framed love poems along the entryway wall. Read about that DIY here. 

 

I choose a vintage linen light gold fabric that looks like burlap to create as a pillow cover. To make your own pillow cover, here is a super simple sewing tutorial for a 14" x 14" pillow from A Curiously Chic Life. I bought an oversized throw pillow insert which is a 20" x 20". To cut the fabric, cut 21" wide and 46" in length.

Materials for the Pillow Cover:

fabric of your choice, scissors, pins, measuring tape, and thread

 

 

Here is my pillow cover final result (inside out pic):

 

To add the text "To The Moon & Back" to the pillow, I needed a stencil that almost matched the Dot & Bo pillow. I ordered my letter stencil stick-on from Craft Cuts. I was able to design my own through their website. The font I used for the text is Arial Black Stencil. Since my pillow size is a 20" x 20", I choose the height of my stencil to be 3" which equals to 9" total. Make sure that when you order, the height and the width of the stencil is less than the size of your actual pillow. For the fabric paint, I used Simply Spray in black from Michael's. Below are steps to adding stencil art to your pillow cover:

1) When you receive your stencil order from Craft Cuts, peel off the thick backing. Apply the stencil onto your fabric surface. Make sure it is centered. This is an important step: make sure to smooth out the stencil onto your fabric surface, using your finger or a spatula. To prevent the paint from bleeding through, make sure to also smooth out the vinyl around the letters.

2) Carefully and slowly peel off the transfer tape from the front of the stencil. I would smooth the vinyl out again. Important step: Use wax paper or parchment paper to put inside of the pillow cover to prevent the paint from bleeding all over the back of your pillow.

3) Find a piece of cardboard to paint your pillow cover. Make sure to cover the parts of the pillow where there is no stencil to prevent overspray. 

4) I sprayed the paint onto the fabric with Simply Spray. I followed the instructions on the package. Spray 6 to 8 inches away from your project in a circular motion. The paint comes out in a thick stream so be careful not to overpaint like I did. I waited overnight for the paint to dry. I carefully removed the stick-on stencil from the pillow and removed the parchment paper from inside the pillow. You can make the paint fade by washing the pillow, but you will need to wait 72 hours from the end of your project. If you have any questions regarding this DIY, please feel free to email me at ninnalublog@gmail.com.

"Home is where the heart is" and love should be all year round. If you can't get enough decorative pillows that send the message of love, check out the Love Mix & Match pillow from thestore.com. 

Thanks so much for reading! ~ marissa

 

 

 

 

A Year of Birthday Surprises

  

 

   For my birthday this year, I indulged a bit on subscription boxes from fashion, lifestyle, beauty and stationery. Subscription boxes are these monthly goodies that come delightfully packaged and arrive once a month when you subscribe to it, which for some you can cancel anytime. I've been obviously unaware of the many subscription boxes out in the market. I only knew of Birchbox and that was it. So I did some researching and conducted some serious shopping. 

Here are some article links you can peruse so that you can choose according to your monthly budget. 

1) For a directory of subscription boxes and box reviews, visit the Mommy Splurge Blog. She has done all the research for you from monthly pricing, coupon codes and even organized the directory into categories from women, men, kids, lifestyle, crafts, etc. 

2) Business News Daily, BuzzFeed and Real Simple are just some of the many articles out on the web that lists their top choices. 

3) Instagram has so many subscription box subscribers that post their monthly surprises. One account to follow is @mysubscriptionaddiction. She subscribes to about 50 boxes and also provides reviews, a directory, coupons, deals, and a swap section for your unwanted products. 

4) Funny but if you need to justify your splurge, here is another article from Real Simple on How To Splurge Wisely. 

So are you ready to subscribe? I did! So which ones did I pick? Here they are below.

A) POPSUGAR Must Have Box - For $35 a month, I receive an item from each one of these categories: fashion, beauty, home, fitness, and many more. This lifestyle box contains items that women love which are hand selected by POPSUGAR's editor and team. So instead of subscribing to one product category, this box covers it all.

The next two covers the beauty department.

B) Ipsy Glam Bag - For $10 a month, I receive 4 to 5 beauty samples in a glam bag each month. When you join, you must follow their instructions on how to get off the waitlist. If you are still on the waitlist after you've followed all the steps, contact Ipsy Care. That's what I did and I was immediately off the waitlist. 

C) Walmart Beauty Box - It's free! But just pay $5 for shipping. This happens quarterly. Each new season (summer, winter, fall and spring), you get to sample beauty essentials sold at Walmart or Walmart.com. 

And lastly, this is my ultimate favorite. I have a fascination for pretty paper goods or stationery.

D) A Beautiful Mess Happy Mail - For $15 a month (you have to commit to a year), you receive $5o in retail value of colorfully printed cards, gift tags, stickers and more. Pictured below are some of what I received for the month of January. AND of course, I LOVE the dachshund card!!!

 

Follow @ninnalu on Instagram for my monthly reveals.

Thank you so much for reading!

~marissa

 

Visit thestore.com for fashion, home decor and tech gadgets!

 

A Vintage Travel Theme Birthday Soiree

 

   The last three weeks has been very busy as my sister and I carefully planned for my Mom's 60th Birthday Soiree. With all of the ideas we had in our minds, it's awesome to finally see it all fall into place. The theme was all about travel and we added in a few well thought out vintage inspired props or party decor utilizing maps, suitcases, a globe, binoculars and many more. Pinterest was also a great resource for inspirational ideas!

   A vintage inspired vanity table was set up to store all the birthday cards and gifts. Decorated with a globe, open vintage suitcase that stores the party favors, binoculars, my mother's picture and the invitation. We cut up a map and spelled out my mother's name to add a great personal touch.

The party favors with the travel theme tag idea consisted of cut out map circles, a red or blue airplane to match the invitation and added my Mom's initials.

 

 Vivian had a great idea of making paper airplanes out of maps hanging from the ceiling above the table of gifts. With the paper airplanes hung at different heights and angles, I thought it also added a great touch to the party decor.

   Our mother is a seasoned world traveler of all sorts. For as long as I've known my mother, she has always been a hardworking nurse, and traveling with her friends or "barcada" (in Tagalog) was her escape from it all. So to go along with the theme of the party, I gathered maps of Northern Europe, The Carribean, and Asia (places that she has traveled) and attached her travel pictures to those maps. It makes a great conversation piece for guests.

 

   My plan for a birthday banner was to take a vintage map and cut out large triangular shapes. I then pasted one letter to each spelling out "Happy" and "Birthday". I ran the five yards of black ribbon through my sewing machine to create a vintage travel birthday banner as pictured below.

   The homemade dessert bar consisted of berries, a three tier cake, chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes and whoopie pies. My vintage inspired cupcake toppers consisted of a 3 inch kraft circle cardstock background, 2 inch cut out circles of vintage maps, 60 numbered stickers, and glued on lollipop sticks.

 

 

Judy created a lovely three tiered cake! The flowers with crystals were added to the birthday cake from Flowers De Amor. Thank you Judy for all your help!

 

 

DJMB Entertainment provided great musical entertainment for the party. The photo booth was a hit with the guests!

Pictured are Owners: Mike and Nola Bowns 

 

 

 

 

Family, close friends and the pups enjoyed the birthday soiree!

 

 

New Year Intentions

   Happy New Year! So this is the beginning of my 365 page story and I'm starting a blank page with a good one! Instead of filling my page with unpractical, unrealistic resolutions, I have compiled 12 intentions for the year 2015. Here's to the beginning of my story!

1: I need to find more time to volunteer and lend a helping hand. 

 

2: Read more books.

 

3: Learn How to Ride a Motorcycle

 

4: Be fearless. (related to number 3)

 

5: Be driven. Find time for creativity.

 

6: Enhance my sewing skills.

 

7: Travel more.

 

8: Have a better body, mind and spirit.

 

9: Write more. 

 

10: Strive to be a great cook.

 

11: Be more one with nature.

 

12: Learn a new skill.

 

All photos used were from my @ninnalu Instagram account. Hopefully the photos will inspire me each time I look back to this post and remind myself of my 2015 intentions. What resolutions might you have and have contemplated about? Feel free to share them in the comments below.

Thanks so much for reading.

~ marissa