My very first BLOG SWAP with Angela from Love Sweet Love!

Woohoo for my first time blog swapping!!!  Does that mean I officially have a blog someone else would want to be featured on?!?!??  Ohhh man that makes me super super excited!

I am SO so SO so excited to have you "meet"
  Angela from Love Sweet Love!
She is simply said, the best.  I adore her, her blog and her friendship!  Although we are only bloggin friends I am sure that we could be amazing real life friends too!  What I wouldn't do for a crafty friend like her here in Wisconsin!

Anyways ENJOY her amazing tutorial!  Show her some Crafty Scrappy Happy LOVE and stop by and check out some of her other amazing crafts!!!
And please stop by her blog to see what I did with this glass bottle!!!

And if you are a huge Angela fan stopping over to see her project HI!!!!!  I am so so excited you stopped by!  She is just great isn't she?!?  But you already know that!

Be sure to enter my giveaway if you are interested----a coffee sack is up for grabs because I think my blogging friends and followers are amazing.  Anddd along with the sack comes a chance to be featured on my little blog :o)
head over here to get all entered!
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HELLO Crafty, Scrappy, Happy readers!!! I am Angela, the voice behind Love Sweet Love, and I am beyond thrilled to be blog swapping with the incredible Jaime today! She has inspired me in so many ways and it is such a privilege for me to be making an appearance on one of my all-time FaVoRiTe blogs!

I use my little corner of the blogging universe to share my creative ideas that involve easy DIY projects for the home, craft ideas for kids, thrift store makeovers, and holiday decorating (the reason I started blogging!). My life is over-flowing with Sweet Love and I needed a place to share it!!

Through Jaime's blog, I have been SO inspired to create meaningful decorations for my home. The very first post of Crafty, Scrappy, Happy's I ever read she said something along the lines of...Why pay money for something that means nothing to you, when you could make something for less that means everything? It was then that I knew we'd be fast friends. So in an effort to thank Jaime for that motivation, I wanted to do something super-duper special for her readers and create a project that was meaningful, from the heart, and easy to do so you could join in on the fun too! So today I will be sharing a tutorial for a DIY
Declaration of Independence.

Holidays are everything to me and I just can't help but go all out! As my 2 little ones get older, it has been fun to begin explaining the meaning behind the holidays so I thought this decoration would be a perfect way to give a little meaning to my July 4th mantle. I came across this idea while scouting for July 4th decorations online.


Want to make one with me?! There are just 4 easy steps:
1. print a copy of the Declaration onto paper
2. soak it in tea
3. let it dry
4. burn the edges

If your a details person here's a step-by-step tutorial!!

I started by using THIS copy of the Declaration of Independence and copying into a word document. I chose the Alison font in size 12 for the body text. The same font was used for the title but for the date I used size 28.

• For my own twist, I selected the words Land...of...the...free throughout the text, starting at the top and moving towards the bottom, and put them in a different font and size. For that I used the font Scriptoria Small Caps SSi in size 26.

I changed the page orientation to Landscape, the margins to narrow (.5), while keeping the size of the paper at 8.5x11.

I also used an idea given on the website I found to add the name of each member of our family on the bottom and have us sign it to make it more personal.

When I had the document the way I liked it I printed it out and it came out to be 2 full pages.


Next I made a little cup of black tea...


...and poured the entire cup over the paper (I just did one sheet at a time).


I let each sheet soak for about 20 min.


And then laid it out to dry on paper towels.


I was
too impatient
really excited to see the results so I thought I'd speed the drying process along by using my blow dryer. I dried it on low first, just so that it wasn't soaking wet, and then sprayed the entire paper with a couple coats of hair spray so that it would stiffen the paper a bit. After the hair spray was applied I used the hair dryer on high until it was completely dry. It worked great and I got the exact outcome I wanted. I love how the edges of the paper naturally curled up and the paper bubbled in spots from the heat and hair spray mixture.


Next, I burned the edges of each of the papers individually using a lighter, and then glued them together using a glue stick.


CAUTION: Hairspray is flammable! The paper will burn a little more easily because of that so watch your flame. Oops!


Here's our new page :). Document signed by the family and ready to go! (Kylee had a little help from her older brother)


And that's it!


Your very own, personalized, July 4th decoration!







I love how the words Land Of The Free stick out, but I think it would look awesome if they were in a different color font...maybe red??


I am so in love with the way it turned out and for $2 (the cost of a box of tea), it's a great way to decorate on the cheap! :)

Thank you SO much to Jaime for blog swappin' with me today and a thanks to YOU Crafty, Scrappy, Happy readers for reading along with me! You are welcome anytime over at Love Sweet Love, it would mean the world to me to have you pop over for a visit! Have a HaPpY and safe 4th of July!