Comin' at ya again... real quick!

Okay. So I haven't posted in a while... I am a slacker, what can I say?! But I have been working hard and just want to share what I am doing.

P.s. Hint for you: Dollar tree has 15 ft. pine garland right now. It's simple and not great but I am really impressed with how it looks up in my house. I will post pictures soon, but go check out their Christmas stuff. They've got some good things!!!

Onto other news. You remember that funny blue table? Well. I have been working my patootie off trying to get my dining area nice.

'Cept I need your advice... but I'll get to that in a minute.
First I want to brag a little!!

LOOOOOOOOK! Isn't it pretty?! Much better than the chandy-gone-bland-y that I tried to make :(. Love it?! 20$ 20$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just bought some fab LED flame less votive candles and whatnot from Costco so those will work perfectly! I am in love.

Look at this. Superior to the blue, no?! Bad picture, but trust me... it's gorgeous and lovely and classy in real life.

But I need to confess. I am struggling! I bought some spray stripper. I thought it was this fab thing that was new and wonderful. After THREE coats of it there was still a ton of blue on the table and after two coats the chairs were still coated in varnish. None of it came off.
Do any of you refinish furniture? I need your advice.
I got fed up and thought I'd try to just make it work as it was. So I coated it all in stain anyway. It looks really pretty and distressed and old having the stain over the old paint. I coated all of it in varnish because after drying for days it still felt tacky. It's doing okay but the stain is chipping.
 :(
What would you do?
I mostly think someday I will break down and buy a table I love from the beginning and then I won't make silly mistakes!

Have a great day and happy crafting!

Makeover Monday

A little late, but technically it is still Monday! And that is good enough for me.

I will apologize in advance, bloggy friends for the disaster in the background. I dumped my craft tub looking for just the right embellishments. Another word for embelishments: additives. Isn't it funny that we really are quite against additives in our food as a general rule, but additives in crafts just make everything... more yummy?! They make food more yummy, but we know the down side to putting them  in our bodies. I don't think there is a down side to additives in our crafts! But I digress.

So. I found this cute sign and in reality was pretty fine on its own.

But we aren't satisfied with fine, are we ladies?!

So makeover Monday this Monday is making something new even better and more delicious with additives. We'll veer away from my traditional course of taking something old and making it better. We're going to personalize one of those cute, but run-of-the-mill signs we see everywhere so that it really is something special.

Using various sizes and textures of rick-rack and cloth ribbon I added some framing to the sign.

I used MIGHTYMENDIT! and glued the ribbons to the back of the sign on the top and bottom with a dot of MIGHTYMENDIT! in the middle too. I liked the contrast of the black and cream and I felt it really stood out from the dark  with dark lettering.

Then even though the sign came with hangers on the back I felt like it was just one more opportunity to add somet extra special. I found some cute cream with blak dots ribbon and tied it to the hangers. Then I tied little bows to the bottoms of each side to a.cover up the little tail of ribbon that hung off when I tied the ribbon to the sign and b. I thought it looked really cute.

Voila. You probably won't have the same sign as me, but I hope this inspires you to take something that was cute but generic and really make it your own. Happy Monday!

Re-vamping a lamp 3

I always loved this lamp I bought from Target. The shape was great but the colors I bought didn't ever go with anything I tried to design. Go figure. So I decided that I would help it along and make it fit into my new room idea.
Tutorial Here for re-vamping a lamp.
We'll do some quick steps here but for more in-depth steps click above.

Trace and cut from seam to seam. Spray adhesive and carefully wrap your old lampshade in your fabric of choice.

Cut slits in the fabric up to the shade. Hot glue or Tacky glue them under for a finished edge.
Take large rick rack and glue along the bottom and top. Leave it hanging on the bottom for a lacy feel. Fold over on the top for a finished look that doesn't look funky. I tried leaving the top but it looked REALLY weird so I folded it over, glued it and it looked a lot better.
Oh. At first I spray painted my lamp base heirloom white from Rustoleum. It used to have a dark bronze finish.

Voila. A plain, ill-fitting lamp to just what I needed to amp-up the romance and serenity of my room.

Re-vamping a lamp 2!

I got this lamp at Target a few years ago and always thought it was really plain. Today I decided to do something about that. I bought various sizes and textures of black ribbon and rick-rack and glued it on! Easy, simple, and yet... it makes a world of difference.

I made the bows on the sides mainly to cover up where the rick-rack didn't meet nicely. Simply take a piece of ribbon and glue the ends together. glue the middle together. wrap one piece around the middle and then glue the whole thing on. Voila.

Charming...

Got the basics for this from my friend Candis... Amazing!

 

 Want to know how to make your own charming charms???

Read on.

Take some charms you don't care for but got on sale....

Take some paper you love.

Find a bit of your paper that has a design you like. I picked a little birdie since I am in the mood for spring.

Trace your charm. Cut and then cut down until your paper is in a little circle that fits just inside your charm. I left a little bit of the silver showing as a frame to my bird. There has to be another way to make this easier and better. Probably you could find a circle punch that is the same size as the inside of your charm, but oh well.

Mod Podge your paper circle into the center of the charm. I added a little rhinestone to the bird's wing to dress it up a little. Before any embellishments Mod Podge again and then add your embellishments.

Once the Mod Podge is dry coat it carefully with 'Glossy Accents' (can buy at your local craft store) Mine cost 8.99 but I had a 40% off coupon so it was less.

Let it dry until completely clear. It says 15-60 minutes but I had to leave mine much longer.

 

Once it is completely dry you are ready to string it on a chain, a ribbon, or anything else. You could add it to a bookmark or anything else you can think of!

I'll post soon about wire and ribbon bookmarks and we can highlight using a handmade charm to personalize it even more.

SUPER easy toy chest.

I have to admit I almost threw this box out, but decided (luckily) to save it a little longer. My hubby made this wooden box in scouts when he was younger. I was upholstered in BLUE VINYL, but I fixed that. ;)

So. I saw this cute saying on a vinyl cutting web-site and decided I love it but didn't want to pay the fee to have someone cut me some vinyl lettering, plus that would take WAY too long and I had to make this right away.

I picked a font I liked and studied the letters (you must be able to envision it to draw/paint something specific) and then drew light lines in pencil (measuring for height nd width of course) to block in the letters. I then drew (LIGHTLY!!!!!!!!!!!) the letters and then filled them in with paint. It looked a little plain when I was done so I used the end of my paintbrush, dipped it in paint, and then made dots.

A quick tutorial on VERY simple upholstering:

Detach whatever bit of the furniture you are going to re-upholster (mine was the top of the chest) remove any hardware, upholstery nails, staples, fabric etc. Get a piece of foam and cut it to size (I just used what was already on there since it was still in decent condition) glue it down to keep it in place (I would, but you don't have to I suppose). Pick and then cut fabric to cover. Make sure you have a couple of inches extra (you'll need it to go over the sides and wrap 'round part of the bottom). Lay your bit of furniture upside down and using a staple gun staple ONE side of the fabric just to get something to pull against. You must pull your fabric as tightly and smoothly as possible. I would start with the opposite side of the first side you stapled.  Stretching and smoothing staple one side at a time to the underside of your bit of furniture. I made a loop of ribbon and stapled it in the center of the front so there would be a little handle to lift the lid. If you are upholstering a seat cover you are probably done and can re-attach what you've upholstered. If, like me, you've done something where your staples are visible, you'll have another few steps. Find a carboard box or bit of wood. Cut to the size of your newly-upholstered furniture piece. Using hot glue cover much like you did the last piece with fabric. there should be one side completely smooth and covered and one side that has fabric pulled over the edges. Hot glue (or use your choice of gluing-medium) the thin, covered bit in place making sure all your staples and edges are covered. Voila! You have now re-upholstered something!

GOod luck. I make NO promises, but it worked for me! Leave your questions!

Safari/Explorer Room

SO, I originally planned to do a vintage baseball room for my Buck-a-roo, but after a move and never finding a way to do everything I wanted I settled on a completely different, but equally fun, room. Above are pictures of the pillows I made for his crib/floor pillows. My thinking: one spends so much time on the floor playing with baby, you might as well have a cushion under your bum. PLus, we all know pillows and babies don't mix, but pillows are a fast way to cozy up and personalize a room.

These are 18" pillow forms I bought and the covers are SUPER simple to make.

p.s. not paying 15 to 30 dollars for ONE pillow at the store and every pillow I have hand-stuffed turned out stupid and went flat within weeks.

Start with a square of your chosen fabric slightly larger than one of the sides of your pillow (gotta leave seam allowances, plus your pillows are fluffy not just flat !). Then have two more pieces one that measures about 3/4 the size of your pillow and the other measuring about half.

with the two smaller pieces make a small fold at one end. sew. fold over again. topstitch. You should have two peices of fabric with one nicely folded sew edge and three unfinished edges. lay these wrong-side-up (so your fold is visible) on top of the right side of the square of fabric making sure the two smaller bits overlap (I like the bigger to be on top once it is sewn together and flipped right side out). Pin and then sew all around your pillow going back and forth once or twice where the fold is. flip right side out, pick out your corners, topstich if you want, iron if you want, and then cover your pillow. Voila. If it is too big, you can always sew a little more!

If you have any questions, leave me a comment. Once everything was cut this took me 15 minutes at most per pillow. This was the first time I had ever made pillows that looked good and the first time I ever did it this way. I loved it because I love being able to wash them (by hand in the sink with cold water since I don't know what type of fabric it is or what the care instructions are) and I like being able to take them off and replace them easily!

One other thing I did was to make a smaller one (whatever size you like) to keep the jams in when baby's dressed for the day. I am lucky enough to have a mom with an embroidery machine so I commissioned her to embroider his name on a seperate piece of fabric (muslin) and then sew it on using a decorative stitch. I did it this way because inspiration for the embroidery came after the jam pillow was sewn.

I started making a map for the room by projecting and then tracing... it was taking FOREVER. SO I went to my local craft outlet store and by jove.... exactly the thing I had wanted but figured I ouldn't find without paying an exhorbitant fee.... so I bought it for $3!!!!!!!!!! It ended up being too big for my frame so I cut it down a little, using the cardboard backing of the frame as a stencil. This frame I got for %50 off at my local craft store (Robert's). It was white and since I am renting I can't paint the sterile-white walls so the frame got spray-painted instead! The map was perfect because it tied the explorer theme into the room and also the oranges and yellows in my fabric. The giraffe-print pillow is another pillow I made. The chair I got at IKEA and it came with that teeny little pillow and with the shape of the back of the chair it looked sad. Quick fix PLUS way more comfortable.

The stars are a. a tin blue star I also found at the craft outlet store and b. the orange star I found at the same place and hand-painted (as shown in an earlier blog post).

Still don't know how to feel these, but my landlord  some awful motel-style drapes up and I couldn't deal with it. The tan curtains I got at IKEA for $14 a set. CRAZY!! They come with an unfinished bottom and some no-sew iron on type stuff so you can hem them to whatever length you want. BRILLIANT, by the way. So, my mom and I sewed two flat pannels of some remnants of the striped fabric I picked out for a bed skirt, and sewed a loop for a curtain rod at the top. I got them home and they weren't long enough (naturally) I sewed three pannels of the blue fabric but then after a trial the hubby and I decided the one  e middle looked best. I thought it would look ky and ou may too, but I thought it wasn't too bad. We installed a curtain rod I had above the drapery rod and that covered up all the weird little attachments on the rod. A quick valance-type-thing and all wi left-over fabric.

Here's a picture of the paintings I did with the lamp I re-vamped. Now you can see how it all ties together!

Kind of a funky picture (ever notice how great something looks in a room in real life, but as soon as you take a picture it looks all stark and dis-jointed?), but I got a leaf canopy at IKEA for $14 (I love those netting canopies, but  hubby says it's too girlie). You're supposed to install it directly on the wall but I didn't have the right size screws, but I HAD to have it up immediately (you know how it is) so I covered a bar of the crib with muslin to protect the wood and then used those plastic zip ties (we used probably 12 to make sure it was secure) pulled as tight as possible and then trimmed off the ends. It worked wonderfully and I was able to place it exactly where I wanted to over the crib.

FAB!

All right, let me know if you have any questions!

Amazing things happen with a fresh coat of paint.

Spray paint is one of the most economical ways to change or update something and it takes relatively little work. Most of the time.
2 1/2 cans later my cute, but boring black bench got fifteen hundred times cuter.

The color is Summer Squash and I got it at Home Depot. Note: spray paint is less expensive at Home Depot (as compared to Wally World) and they have a WAY bigger selection.

I got this at JoAnn's. It was a bronze color but I had to paint it. I got this last year at about this time. The time of the year when I am DYING for spring and it just isn't coming fast enough and I have to do something around the house to usher it in.

Before

After

I loved the red star but it no longer matched the room it is in so now... it is orange.

I mixed orange with a little brown paint to make a color I wanted (I didn;t want it too bright) and then I used a dry brush with ome brown paint to make it look distressed by just swiping it lightly across the star all around it til I thought it looked good.