Painting a Brick Fireplace

We purchased our current home back in August and are finally getting around to really making it our own between my current project of re-designing and decorating our back/family room area and my husband getting to work on the landscaping. I felt it was best to start the major decorating and painting in the room that we spend the most time in. It's important to feel comfortable in your space and this is a great place to start!

To get started with my project, it was necessary to tackle our fireplace. It's a huge focal point in the room because it actually runs the entire width of the room. This room had no lighting in it and gets very little sunlight because it only has our sliding doors and with the way our house faces we don't get direct sunlight from that angle. So aside from knocking holes in walls to add windows I needed to use paint to brighten up the space.

This is a photo of the room before we bought our house. As you can tell the walls are currently all neutral throughout the space and definitely the first thing to catch your eye is the fireplace.

This particular picture doesn't really show the true color of the brick. I would classify them more as an orange color than a true red. If they were a nice deep red, I would probably just clean them up and keep them as is but the color just didn't work for the color palette I picked out for the room.

Here are my before and afters on the fireplace. 

The paint I used is Cool Gray by Valspar. It took about a gallon and a half to get full coverage since brick is such a porous material and just absorbed the paint. I think it just makes the room so much brighter all ready. I highly recommend using a semi-gloss on a fireplace since it will make it easier to wipe down if you actually use your fireplace. Check back for more room updates and this project moves forward!

Personalized Tote Bags

These personalized totes feature a very popular chevron pattern which is perfect for carrying around now that spring has sprung!

Choose the color of your choice and we will embroider any name of your choice on the bag! Each bag is $12.00 plus $4.95 shipping. The totes are a poly canvas bag that is fully lined with an inner pocket. The bag itself measures 16w x 14h x 5d and has a complete zipper enclosure and double shoulder straps.

Available colors include:

Black with Fuchsia Trim

Gray with Fuchsia Trim

Gray with Aqua Trim

Lime

Purple

Red

Fuchsia with Lime Trim

Fuchsia

Black 

Aqua

These bags will available on our Etsy store very soon but if you'd like to order one today just email theconfettigirls@gmail.com and we'll send you an invoice via PayPal!

Fuchsia with Lime Trim

Lime

Aqua

Personalized Stuffed Animals

We are delighted to debut one of our first products available from The Confetti Girls! These are the most adorable personalized stuffed animals! They are great for a gift for pretty much any holiday or as a baby shower gift or birthday present for kids of all ages! They will be available in a variety of choices, we have five samples below and soon we'll have a sample of a birth announcement animal as well which we are very excited about.

Each stuffed animal is $29.00 which includes one name personalization or $34.00 for a full birth announcement plus $8.00 for shipping. Please allow 2-3 weeks turnaround time from when your order is placed. 

These animals will be listed on our under construction Etsy site very shortly but if you can't wait to place your order you can do so by sending us an email at theconfettigirls@gmail.com and we'll send you an invoice through PayPal.

**Please note the Giraffe and Frog are currently unavailable

Grandma Present

Coming up with the best present is always a personal goal of mine. I love to come up with something thoughtful that will make the recipient smile. 

Such is the case with my mom. So I set off on a Pinterest/Etsy search for days to figure out exactly what would do that. I had seen a lot of things for grandma's but nothing really screamed my mom's name until I came across a couple things that I decided to mash together and came up with this...

All the pictures and the centerpiece are created on canvas frames and sealed to keep them protected for a long time. Super cute, personalized and ready to make grandma smile everytime she sees it! 

Winter Pinterest Projects

We just finished one of the coldest and longest winters I can ever remember. As a result, there were quite a few projects/Pinterest swipes that I did along the way. Most of them happened before Christmas, and were a great addition to our home during the holiday season. I keep it very simple at holiday time because my boys will just destroy things (not really-- but kind of). However, these added a simple touch of holiday fun and simplicity. 

This Merry Mail card holder was simple to put together and was a much needed item to add to my Christmas decor. I usually throw the cards we receive in a basket (or plastic bowl) and never really look at them again. But this allowed us the chance to look at them all season long. I added a few clothes pins along the ribbons in order to attach them. 

This tray was actually made for a gift exchange. I bought a simple unfinished tray at the craft store, added the background paper and wording. I then made the jar to put on it with a candle inside.  It shimmers through the snowflake cutout and adds a soft glow on the tray. 

Paint Chip Art

I am a huge fan of any project that I can do during naptime. Especially one that doesn't cost me a single penny! Ever since I purchased my first home almost five years ago, I've been obsessed with reading DIY home blogs to find inexpensive and thrifty ways to add design and function to my home.

Hands down, the blog I frequent the most for inspiration and ideas is Young House Love. I absolutely love their style and the ideas and projects they present are very doable by the average person. What I love most about their blog is that they do all of their projects on a budget and extremely reasonably.

I was inspired to create this piece of artwork from reading their new book and coming up with ideas for my "art wall" I'm going to be adding to my family room as I start to redesign it. Their book has so many great ideas for creating art work using items you probably have around your house already. Reading their book just inspired me to create this piece. If you want to add about a million things to your project to do list, I highly recommend picking up their new book here.

I went to Lowe's the other day to pick up some paint swatches for my family room. What I love about Lowe's is not only is their paint awesome since it is low odor, low VOC which is what you want when you have a 13 month old cruising around but they also always have free palettes you can pick up for their new line of colors they have out. 

I picked up their new Spring palette (love all their colors!) and instead of throwing it out once I picked my colors I got to work making a piece of art. I took my 2" punch and cut out circles of each color. Then I used a piece of 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock and just randomly spread the circles out and glued them down with craft glue. I let it dry with a heavy book on top of it for about a half hour before I stuck it in a frame I already had hanging on my way and voila! Instant art. 

I love that it will add just a punch of color to my walls and mostly that it took me about less than 20 minutes to create!!

Cowgirl Birthday Board

After Laura's first birthday party for her daughter, I volunteered to make another birthday board for her friend who was visiting from Texas.  Damaris sent me a link to this board that she liked.  So, I created this for her...

It certainly is more "homemade" because the original was a digital file.  But Damaris is excited about it, and that's what matters.  Hopefully, the birthday girl loves it too! ;)

Birthday Board

Birthday boards are becoming quite popular on Etsy and across Pinterest.  A quick search for first birthday pictures will turn up quite a few of these in various forms.  This is one that was created for Laura's daughter's first birthday.  It was fun to create based off a couple different examples we found.  Find one that you like, and Melissa will create it.  It will be a little more "homemade" in looks compared to some of the computer generated ones that you may see online.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new The Confetti Girls blog.  My daughters and I are lifelong creators of things we want, but are just too cheap to buy.  For me, it started when I was young and taught by my grandma the basics of sewing, knitting and crocheting.  Over time, I have figured out how to make just about everything decorative, wearable and playable I set my mind too.  I am the proud grandma of five beautiful grandchildren, and love making them things that make them special.   Until now, my biggest barrier has been too many projects and not enough time.   In June, I am going to retire from over 30 years as work as a nurse, nurse manager, and healthcare process engineer from the major university in Ann Arbor, MI…go blue!  I am looking forward to recycling myself to focus on expanding  my creativity and my Etsy businesses.

A few years ago, I decided to try my hand at jewelry making.  I quickly got bored with the big box store selection and started buying vintage jewelry on Ebay.  At first, I tore the old pieces apart to use for supplies.  I quickly identified that many of the pieces were way too nice to destroy, and set me mind to restoring them to their original beauty.  I started B. Ellen Designs Jewelry on Etsy a few years back with the goal to refresh, renew and redesign vintage jewelry.   I also sell made to order wedding jewelry at very affordable prices. 

Since then, I have had 8,000 sales and have shipped to almost every part of the world.   You can find my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/shop/bellendesigns.    I plan to expand B. Ellen Designs into fashion accessories and include both vintage and new bags and scarfs.  Watch for these upcoming additions. 

My daughters and I are about to launch a new Etsy store called The Confetti Girls.  The store will be filled with affordable items that focus on personalization.  The store will be eclectic (thus the Confetti) and contain baby items, children clothes and toys, bags, boards, greeting cards and invites, party décor and supplies, home décor and a variety of other items.

Check back to our blog often as we are going to share our money saving secrets, newest items and advice for building an Etsy or other online business.