I love this time of the year.
It’s the end of the school year and the whole Summer is open. The possibilities are endless.
I love decorating for Summer and for the 4th of July. In Utah we also have a big 24th of July celebration, so we can keep our Patriotic decorations up the whole month which is super fun.
And my family room/kitchen is really the heart of my home. So decorating that space really gets me in the Summer mood. Here are my recently redone Summer Kitchen Open Shelves.
Last week I got inspired with Memorial Day coming up to change up my mantel for Summer. I wanted to keep it simple and bold. So I went with the traditional RED, WHITE and BLUE theme. And to put a little whimsy in the area I made some GIANT Lollies, along with some smaller ones AND a framed US Map Applique.
Here’s what I did:
I took my Spring door that I hung up and flipped it over to the other side, which happened to be RED from Christmas and Valentine’s Day. SO convenient!!
Then I created some Lollies. I took some paper fans from The Dollar Store, and then I added some printable lollies and stars that I created. I will be sharing those as FREE printables in the next couple of weeks. I just printed them out and attached them to the Dollar Store medallions with packing tape. I then attached the Dollar Store lollies to crepe paper medallion fans that I had left over from my Christmas Party Mantle. Super easy and inexpensive!!
Then I made some smaller paper lollies and put them in a little burlap vase.
- To make the smaller lollies, I took a piece of 12×12 scrapbook paper (these papers are from American Crafts) and I cut them in quarters – 3 inches high by 12 inches wide, lengthwise and then I folded them up accordian-style. I then hot glued the edges together, creating one long line of folded paper and then I attached the ends together. This creates a round lolly. Then I attached a strip of packing tape to the back of the lolly, flipped it over and put some hot glue in the middle of the lolly to hold the shape in place. Once that was cool, I attached a printable star to the center with hot glue and a stripy straw to the back of the lolly.
To create the applque US Flag, I used my Silhouette machine. I downloaded a US map image from the Silhouette online library, and used Silhouette’s fabric medium to cut it out on fabric.
- I took the piece of material I wanted to cut the US map out on and ironed a piece of Silhouette’s Fabric medium to the fabric, with the bumpy side down.
- Once that was ironed on, I peeled off the backside of the fabric medium.
- Then I put the medium onto my cutting mat, with the top side facing up.
- I adjusted my Silhouette blade according to the instructions my machine gave me.
- Then I cut the US map out on the fabric, I also used the double-cut feature to make sure the blade went through the thick material. There were a few places where I used my scissors to smooth the edges out on the map outline.
- Once the US map was cut out, I peeled it off of the Silhouette mat and then put it on the fabric that I was going to display it on, with the tacky side down, the map right-side up.
- I them ironed the map onto the background fabric.
- And then I put the fabric in the frame and put it on my mantle.
- And the last thing I did was I sewed along the edges of the map with my machine to give it a little more depth and adhere it even better to the fabric.
- Now I have a festive, graphic and simple Patriotic Mantle.
I love it!!
And I also made a few pillows to go along with the mantle.
YAY!
I am SO excited for Summer!!
My kids get out in a week.
What about YOU??
Are your kids out yet??
What are YOU looking forward to doing this Summer??
Let me know in the comments – I would love to hear!
Have a FESTIVE day!!
xoxo
So cute! Love this!
Love your blog and this project – so creative and festive! Just wanted to let you know I featured it in my roundup of my very favorite July 4th projects here. Feel free to check it out if you want and hope you like it! : )
-Mel the Crafty Scientist
I LOVE your fireplace mantel and all the pieces you created for it! Gorgeous!!!
Thought I’d pass along that I just read about a Home Decor “state” project on today’s post on the Silhouette blog. Silhouette has a shape bundle on sale for $1.99 until July 6…There are six pieces in the bundle: the whole United States as one piece and also marked into shapes, a “city marker,” a heart, the word “home,” and a house. I tried searching for it in the online store, but it wouldn’t show up. The only way I could find it was by going to their blog post and there’s a link near the end. I wasn’t sure if I could leave their address or not.
Thanks for sharing your colorful inspiration! Where did you get the white whimsical frame? Sorry, if I missed a past post about it.
good one!
I see you picked up the same things I did at World Market! They have some extra cute stuff out right now. 🙂
O.K., never mind re: fabric for the bicycle pillow . . . just read the comments and I see it’s from Home Goods. What a great find!
This is so pretty and festive, what a great look. Thank you for the inspiration, Jen. (Love that bicycle fabric, too — I’ve not seen it before and it really says “summer”.)
So Cute! My kids have a week to go, too! Looking forward to a summer of fun!
I LOVE your mantel, especially your framed map. I have not yet used the Sihluette to cut fabric but am excited to try it!
Love this Jen! You always use the most fabulous colour combinations and patterns! Angie xo
Super cute!
You have the most amazing mantel every holiday! I love your inspiration!
The lollies are adorable, especially because of how you styled them!
Oh yes- I just adore the colors of this time of year. I was just telling my hubs that I would love to do a house in just Americana themed colors.
I love your patriotic mantel! I only have a few patriotic decorations, maybe I’ll get more done this year!
Oh I love how you made the lollies! I love using scrapbook paper for all kinds of crafts. I need to get my Patriotic mantel up soon. Great ideas!
I love the bicycle fabric…so cute! Looks like I’m not the only one who wants to know where you found it. 🙂
Hi Lisa!
The biycle fabric is actually a pillow I found at Home Goods. It’s cute!
xoxo
Cute bicycle fabric on the pillow. Where can I find it?
Hi Daniela!!
The bicycle fabric is a pillow I found at Home Goods the other day. I love the bikes along with the red white and blue. Kind of whimsical and fun 🙂
xxo
Where did you get the bicycle fabric? Love it!
Hi Megan!
That is actually a pillow I found at Home Goods the other day. Isn’t it fun? I love the bikes and the red white and blue together 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Have a wonderful day!
xoxox
I just bought a bunch of those lollies from the Dollar Tree this weekend! I can’t wait to spruce them up!
Oh yay!! I was so excited when I saw them there. There are so many ways you can embellish them! Let me know what you do – I would love to see!!
xxoxo