Fun Food Facts A-Z is a little different this week! When trying to think of food that started with the letter D all I could think of was donuts, duck and dragon fruit. While all those foods are great, none of them inspired me to want to write a post.

So what to do..........Decoupage starts with the letter D! Oh but, it is not a food :( Well if you are like me then you know when inspiration strikes you have to go with it! So for this week Fun Food Facts A-Z has been temporally changed to, Fun Craft Facts A-Z! I will share some fun tips, instructions and some decoupage projects that will make you want to try it yourself this weekend!

1. So what does decoupage mean?

•  The technique of decorating a surface with cutouts, as of paper.
•  A creation produced by this technique.                  

                    ( Definition from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/decorating)    

2. Don't have a surplus of pretty card stock paper lying around?!?!?!?! You can use almost anything to decoupage! Try cutting pictures out of magazines, old books, old cards, wrapping paper or dried flowers! You can even print out a free image from Google!

3. It can get very messy! Protect the surface you are working on and keep a damp cloth nearby!

4. If you are going to print a photo to decoupage, DON'T use an inkjet printer. The ink will smudge when you apply your glue. :(

5. When using white glue try adding equal parts water and glue. It will help the glue spread easier and more evenly.

6.  I love modge podge! The best thing about using modge podge for your decoupage projects, is that it comes in different finishes! Oh and I've recently been seeing small bottles of modge podge in my local dollar stores!

7. Decoupaging can be the easiest way to upcycle something! You can use almost any medium you can think of! My last decoupage upcycle project was my, canvas makeover! It turned out so well for trying decoupage for the first time.

8. Patients are the key to decoupaging. Allowing each coat to dry completely before starting the next, results in better looking projects.

9. How to decoupage:

•  Decide what your medium is going to be. It can be anything; wood, furniture, glass, canvas, etc.
• Grab up all your supplies; glue or modge podge, your cutouts or photos, your medium paint brush, something to smooth on your cutouts (I like to use Popsicle sticks) and a damp cloth.
• Before you start gluing place your cutouts where you want them to go. Measure or sketch your idea out on the medium. Make sure everything lines up just they way you want it. It does not work well if you try to peel something off!
• Coat your medium and back of cutouts. Place there where you want them and smooth down your cutouts.
• Once all the cutouts are in place, coat the whole project. Allow to completely dry.
• Coat again until desired look, allowing it to dry between coats.

10. These decoupage project below are amazing! Which one is your favorite? They are all my favorite!!

        

1. DIY Fabric Covered Spoons|Alice & Lois

2 DIY Decoupage Dr. Seuss Read Sign for Children's Book Nook|Money Saving Sisters

3. Spring Mason Jars|Dwelling Happiness

4. Styrofoam Apples Decoupage with Fabric for Rosh Ha Shanna|Creative Jewish Mother

5. $5 Thrifty French Paper Decoupage Table Makeover|Artsy Chicks Rule

Do you have any awesome decoupage projects? If so I wanna hear about them!

Did you miss letters A-C? Don't worry I got ya covered.....just click below!

Fun Food Facts A-Z| A is for.....Artichoke

Fun Food Facts A-Z| B is for....Broccoli 

Fun Food Facts A-Z| C is for ....Cantaloupe

Motivate ME Monday!~ 7 Things to Enjoy about the Easter Holiday

*Please note that this post contains affiliated links.*

When it comes to the Easter Holiday I always seem to be running late. My holiday projects never seem to get done and I seem to always be out shopping for basket treats or my brunch menu at the last minute. This year I said it was going to be different! I was going to be prepared and able to relax and enjoy the holiday! With Easter a week away, I am totally unprepared! No basket treats! Still have unfinished craft projects and I haven't even thought of what to have on my Easter brunch menu. 
 Even though I am always racing to finish up my Easter planning, I always have an enjoyable day.  As I was attempting to get on track with Easter, I came up with: 7 Thing to Enjoy about the Easter Holiday! This roundup will show you some traditional Easter favorites and some of my family's traditional Easter favorites! Enjoy!

1. Easter pictures~ Okay, this one is just a personal favorite of mine. It might be a little weird, but I love those roundups of funny pictures of kids with the Easter bunny. It always makes me laugh when I see the older pictures of kids in the 80's!  Buzzfeed has a ton of funny roundups! The roundup, "31 Kids who had their lives ruined by the Easter bunny" has everything I like about these photos. If I need a laugh I am sure to find it in one of Buzzfeed's holiday and kids roundups! 

2. Dying Easter Eggs~ Growing up dying Easter eggs was not a big deal in my house. Now that I have my own baby girl, I am super excited to make dying Easter eggs a yearly tradition. There are so many awesome ways to dye eggs! These 3 are my top favorite that I want to try!

A. Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs from Your Homebased Mom

B. Silk Dyed Eggs from Foxflat's Blog

C. How to Dye Easter Eggs with Shaving Cream from A Thrifty Mom

I've pinned these all to my Holiday Pinterest Board!Come take a look at them and all the other fun holiday projects that I can't wait to do. 

3. Cherry Blossom Season~ I went to college in Philadelphia and every year the start of Easter would mean the start of cherry blossom season. Cherry blossoms smell so sweet and they are very pretty.  There is always a cherry blossom festival. During the festival there would be awesome demonstrations like origami, tea ceremonies, and calligraphy. If you never been to a cherry blossom festival you should look one up! They are are always around Easter so start checking to see if there is one in your area!

4. Projects~ This year I wanted to try so many different projects! I really wanted to try to deco-podge eggs. I have bought the paper mache eggs and even have some inspiration pinned to my Holiday Pinterest board, but yeah like I said way behind. I did finish one project! My Spring Basket Wreath! I love making wreaths, they always seem to be the project that I complete first! (You can also check out the wreath I made last year, a DIY Felt Easter Wreath)

5. New Swim Suits~ This was one of my family's tradition growing up! Right before Easter we would all go out shopping for new swim suits! Then our new swim suits would be in our Easter baskets. ( they were from the "Easter Bunny" lol) I love the beach and was always excited (and still am) when I get to go swim suit shopping! 

Swim suits can be very expensive! But this year I have a secret weapon; Zulily! I just signed up to be a member. It does not cost anything to be a member and you get great deals on anything from clothes for your whole family to household decor! And the prices are unbeatable! The designers are no joke, too! I found a very cute Kenneth Cole skirted bikini bottom for only $9.99!!!! You have to go over and sign up! 

6. Basket hiding instead of hiding eggs~ So my family didn't do the whole Easter egg hunt thing. We might of done it a few times as kids at church, but my parent's did not hide eggs! Instead they hid our Easter baskets! It was always fun trying to find our baskets. If you found one of your siblings you were allowed to re-hide it. Sometimes they were hidden inside and out. And just because my sister's was inside the house did not mean my parents hid all of ours inside. I plan on keeping this tradition with my baby girl, but adding a twist! A twist like you have to find a few eggs first to get clues to  where your basket is at! (oh I need to remember that twist lol)

7. Big Dinner~ We always had dinner at my Grammy's on Easter! She always said that Easter was a good enough reason to buy the good stuff and cook a big dinner! Last year for Easter I did a brunch for me and the hubby. oh and I did go out and buy the good stuff!  One of my favorite parts about all holidays is that I get to cook BIG! I was hopping that this year my menu would of been done already so I could do a post about Easter menu planning. Last year I remember being at Whole Food on the Saturday night before Easter. (It was crazy in there) That will be me again this year! LOL!

For me these are the most 7 enjoyable things about Easter! What do YOU enjoy most about the Easter holiday?

Motivate ME Monday!~Spring Basket Wreath

For us the first day of spring was a bust! The weather was cold and rainy :( I was really hoping that the first day of spring would bring warm weather and a sunny day! So what better to do on a crappy day....Craft!

I made a felt Easter wreath last year. Don't worry if you missed that post just, click here! So this year I wanted something totally different. During Easter I always have a few decorated, filled baskets as decor. While shopping for something different to put in my baskets this year I envisioned this Spring Basket hanging on my door!

I bought a cheap basket from the dollar store and the embellishments at Micheal's. I put a little hot glue on the inside around the handle and the seam right before where I cut it. I also hot glued a little piece of cardboard to the back to keep the grass contained. The only downside is that the handle is not straight. But I still love it! It came out super cute! It also only took me about an hour from start to finish( I did have a bit of help from the Hubby, lol). This Spring Basket is just what my front door needed!

Do you have a BIG spring projects planned? What's your favorite spring crafting trend?

Motivate ME Monday!~ DeerDad: Free Printable!!

Yay! It is the second Monday of Motivate ME Monday! This means that I have stuck to my guns for two weeks in a row! I know its not a huge victory, its only been two weeks, but I love to give myself praise for the little things.( it helps keep me motivated!)

For the past week I've had so many ideas of what to do for my second post. It was hard at first to contain all my excitement, every thing I saw I wanted to make! But this project DeerDad was something that I came out of nowhere! 

While playing around on Photoshop Elements13 I created this printable for my dad. He is a huge deer hunting and I know will love this! 

After going back and forth between a few tutorials and Googling questions about Photoshop, I think it came out AWESOME! The deer graphic I had downloaded a little while back is from We Lived Happily Ever After.  I love Hannah's blog. She has so many great designs and DIYs! You have to check her out! For the camo background I googled "free camo background." So once I had one made for my dad, I realized how easy it was to create something in Photoshop Elements13 that I had to create more! 

I am proud of myself for two reasons; 1. I learned something new in Photoshop and 2. I stuck my goal of Motivate ME Monday! Oh and me learning something paid off for YOU too! A FREE PRINTABLE! I 've made six different backgrounds. Some for guys and girls! So please take your pick! Enjoy!

Click HERE to download one or all six!!

oh and a little help if you please....stop on over to the Always Savory Facebook page and give it a like!

How to create your own Menu Bar

When I first starting blogging, I had no idea how to make my menu bar or how to make it linkable. I really understand how frustrating it can be when first starting your own blog. I wanted things to work and to work right away. It was a good deal of late nights and doing things over and over again until I figure it out. Luckily though there is a fellow blogger right next door that was able to help me along when I got really stumped! (check out her blog too, Happy Go Lucky , she has a lot of great tutorials!) Not everyone has a fellow blogger right next door. So what do you do when you are really stumped? You search the internet for how to... or tutorials! Recently I have needed a challenge. ( and to update my blog a bit) I have never created a step by step how to. Creating a post like that, with screen shots (lol getting them in order took me more than one try!) was just the challenge I was looking for. I knew that it would need to look good and be really thought out. It was also a great way for me to show and archive what I have learned. The best thing about accomplishing this post was I was able to challenge myself and create my new menu bar! So here it goes........ How to create your own Menu Bar Step by Step

Step 1

In blogger create a page for each one of your categories that will be in your menu bar. For example Recipes could be a category. Makes your categories relate to what you are posting on your blog. 

Step 2 

Once you have created your pages, now you can design your menu bar. There are many free online photo editors out there. I like to use PicMonkey when creating something new.  It is easy to use and has a lot of awesome overlays. It is free to use, but you can sign up for Royal and get even cooler overlays and fonts. oh and I have found that when using PicMonkey the back button can be your best friend!

The one thing that always seems to frustrate me is the font size when I am transferring my picture onto my blog. It can be trial by error, but I have found that font size 24 worked in my menu bar!

Wondering why my background is checker? That is because it is set to transparent. I tried with different color backgrounds, and didn't like them. The transparent background made my menu bar easier to read on my blog.

Once you have constructed your menu bar save it!

Step 3

Once you are happy with your menu bar, now you need to link it to the pages you made in step 1. Load your image on to a image mapping tool. I like to use Image-Maps.com. The first time I used it, I was so surprised at how easy it was (and it is free).

Right click over your first category in your menu bar. Now draw a rectangle over the category and place the page URL. To find your page URL, go into your blogger pages dashboard and hit view. Just copy the URL and paste it into the image map tool. Do this for each one of your categories. Once you are finished linking your pages each category should be in red. Right click again and hit Get Code. Copy the HTML code.

Step 4

The next step is to get your new link menu bar onto your blog. Go to your blogger dashboard and open up the layout section. Under the header of your blog create a HTML gadget. Paste the HTML code from the image map into the gadget. Preview your blog before you click save arrangements to make sure everything is the way you like it!

And voila, you have created your own menu bar!

Building your own menu bar can be frustrating, but I hope this how to can get you over that stump. And besides doing something like this for your blog is always gratifying!

So how did I do creating my first step by step how to?

Want a few more tips on building a menu bar? Here are a few other things I learned along the way!

If you want your menu bar center in your blog add <center> to the beginning of the HTML.

It took me three tries to link up my email to the ASK category. The : was what I was missing! 
mailto:your@emailhere

Social media is key to any blog! Over at DesignCrazed they have a post of 130 Best Free Social Media Icons! 

And don't forget I am always here for ya! Have any questions about building a menu bar? Just shoot me an email!

Canvas Makeover

I know that I have not been blogging lately, but life has been very busy here in Virginia Beach. My daughter just turned one and learned how to walk! It has taken me a few months to learn how to manage my time between my baby and everyday life. With a busy,busy life finding things and times to relax can be challenging. Working on my recipes, crafts and sipping some great wine is what I find relaxing. This DIY canvas makeover is one of the many projects that I've been wanting to work on.

 Recently, I have been clearing out Cora's closet of everything that does not fit anymore (oh man is it a lot of clothes and shoes) and I found this owl canvas. I received it at my baby shower over a year ago. I thought it was cute, but it didn't fit the color scheme for Cora's room. I completely forgot that I had this, so when I found it I was super excited to do a makeover.

 Watching Cora's grow has been so exciting and I can't wait to see what else is to come! I know that the best is yet to come when it comes to raising Cora and the journey that is my life. This quote from Frank Sinatra's song," The best is yet to come" was perfect for my canvas makeover! 

To create a canvas makeover like this one you will need:
1 Canvas
Card Stock 
Mod Podge
Acrylic Paint
Sponge or paint brushes
Letters

The first step would be to decide on a color scheme and a quote. Think about where it will be placed in your house or use your favorite colors. The canvas I used was 12x12 and the card stock fit perfectly! Mod podge the card stock to the canvas. Next, once your canvas and card stock is dry you can paint the canvas like I did. I cut my letters out of card stock and arrange them on the canvas. I used mod podge to glue the letters on. And, WOW, just like that you have a canvas makeover.

I was really happy with the way my canvas turned out after a third try ( I can be a little bit of a perfectionist). I bought adhesive letters but had a really hard time peeling them off once it was painted. Also paint got underneath the letters. Each time I messed up I would just mod podge a clean piece of card stock over it. Third time the charm! 

I love doing makeovers with old items! What things have you done makeovers to?

DIY Felt Easter Wreath

YAY! Spring has arrived! 

I don't know about you, but I am so thrilled that winter is over. We had a long snowy winter here in VA Beach and spring could not get here fast enough for me. Spring colors are my favorite and the colors in my Easter wreath scream SPRING! I have become addicted to making wreaths, so I had to create one for Easter. And I am so pleased with how it turned out.

To create this Easter wreath you will need:

1. Straw wreath (still wrap in it's plastic)
2. 4 different colors of felt
3. Scissors
4. Crafting pins or sewing pins
5. Hot glue
6. Any embellishments that you love

I started out by cutting my felt into strips. Cutting the strips took me the longest. Once that was done I started wrapping my wreath. I started with my favorite color and criss crossed each color around my wreath. I secured the strips with my crafting pins. Wrapping it took no time at all, until I got back to where I started. I wanted it to look perfect, but could not get the criss cross pattern once I got back to beginning. That is where my cute embellishments came in. Embellishments are perfect for hiding spots that you don't like. I used my hot glue to add the letters, flowers and Easter eggs. 

Before you run off and make your own wreath tell me...What other creative fun crafts are you making for spring?

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Valentine's Day DIY Felt Wreath

Valentine's day has always been just another swamped work day for me. Try asking your chef if you can have off on Valentine's day to go out to eat with your hubby! In the restaurant business this is a huge, long weekend!

Now that I am a stay-at-home mom, I don't have to worry about a working a busy night at some restaurant. I never worked at a restaurant that really decorated for the holiday, but I get the image in my head of that scene in Sex in the City movie, where Carrie and Miranda are sitting in that crowed restaurant decorated for Valentine's day with all the balloons and streamers. 

I love decorating, but that was too much. I decided that I would add a V-day touch to my house. Anything that I can make myself is even better! I like to have a wreath at my door, but I hated all the pre-made ones at the stores. That was OK though, it gave me a reason to be crafty!

For this wreath I used felt. Felt is so easy to use! I cut the felt into scallop pattern shapes. It took 18 of each color for this wreath. Once you have your scallop patterns cut, wrap your wreath. I used little push pins to keep the felt in place. I used hot glue to hold the letters on. Once you have your patterns cut, it takes no time to finish this wreath!

What you will need:

1. 1 straw 18" wreath
2. 1 box of Push Pins
3. Scalloped-edge pattern
4. 3 different colors of felt ( I got my felt at Micheal's, so I used the sheets of felt. I used 6 of those sheets for one color)
5. Scissors
6. Hot glue
7. Some type of fun Valentine's Day lettering.

This wreath is just the start of my DIY Valentine's crafts. I am going to make a banner for across my fire place, something heartfelt for my holiday tree, and maybe even a special Valentine's card for the Hubby.

What fun projects are you creating for Valentine's Day?

PS. Please don't forget to like Always Savory on Facebook!

Free Printable Christmas Gift Tags

Who doesn't love Christmas & free printable?

I have seen some awesome free printables out there and I was super excited to try to create my own. When I first sat down to create my own printables I had a hard time coming up with something to make.

With Christmas fast approaching I knew that I wanted them to be Christmas themed. After going shopping for some presents, I knew that I had to make my own gift tags!

After working on them for seem to be like forever I finally created something I was proud of. Now that I know how to make my own printables I have so many ideas of things that I want to create. Making printables is so addicting!

So here is my very first set of free printables! I hope that you enjoy them to. If you would like to print them out then just click here! 

Do you like making free printables too? Have any great advice for a newbe? I would love to hear it!