How about a little bus scroll in your life?

It has come to my attention I may just be a little wordy in some of my posts.  Just a little.  And as one who lurks through a bunch of other blogs, I know that I always like to look at the pictures and then I read all of the information.  So what I’m going to do for today is make this how-to as direct and simple as I can make it!

First we start with… you guessed it, Hobby Lobby.  (No, I don’t live there.  I swear!)  This time we are in the poster section over by the frames, and I find, more often than not, they are usually all on the flyer for 50% off, so it ends up being about $6.  I chose a classic bus scroll style, but you could use any posters for this little project.

Next you go to your local hardware store.  Which, if you’re anything like me, you’re there almost every day anyway.  In the trim there are pieces that are about $6 for a 7′ piece.  Mine are about 1″ wide, but you could really choose any small trim, as long as it is flat on the back.  Here is the profile of mine (Yes, I know, the poster hangs over a little on the bottom.  But if anyone is getting this close to my walls, they have bigger issues than my short cuts!):

Measure across the top of your poster.  This will be the length of all four pieces of your trim; two on the top, two on the bottom.  After you cut those, the rest is a nice and easy craft job.  Grab a glass of wine and pull out the hot glue gun!  I put a line of glue on the back of the poster and pushed one of the trim pieces to it on both ends.  Then, do the same thing to the pieces for the front, except extend your glue so it covers the entire trim area so the both stick together.  Just don’t use too much glue because you don’t want it to squish out when you sandwich them together.  I always forget that part.

I have to apologize once again for doing the whole project and THEN taking pictures, but it is always so crazy busy around here, which means there is also a million projects to get to and another million messes to clean up.  Come on, ladies, I know you know what I’m talking about.

So you can see that I added two eye hooks to the top and some thin jewelry twine to hang the scroll.  I did pre-drill the eye hook holes about an inch in on each side to make it easier.  And the weight of the trim hooked to the bottom of the poster has seemed to keep it pretty flat even through this darn humidity lately!

Now you have a fancy bus scroll sign for less than $15.  Which sounds pretty dandy to my ears (and it’s not just the wine from earlier)!

$15 DIY Moss Topiary… What What!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we are doing some redecorating around this little love nest of ours.  And one of the things I have realized is that there is really no living decoration anywhere!  Which is kind of super sad.  Now let me just reiterate; plants and I do not get along all that well.  I try, I swear.  But, let’s be honest, plants are expensive, especially when you’re replacing them all of the time.  Which is why I recently have discovered I need to be a little more choosy with exactly what type of plant I put in the house.  I mean, seriously, this is what happens when Nate leaves for just two days:

 Oh, boy.  Poor plants.

Now, in the jewelry I am making lately, I have been playing with different types of moss.  Which, honestly, I find their green earthiness just gorgeous.  From using it in my adorably unique cabochon necklaces (It’s not just because I’m bias!  Check ’em out:  sovdesign.etsy.com), I know that the moss is preserved and, therefore, doesn’t need to be watered or have specific sunlight and all that fancy stuff.  All right.  Well, maybe just fancy to me.  ha!

Did you ever notice that, if you’re a hardcore crafter creationist, you don’t just walk around and look at the pretty things at Hobby Lobby anymore?  Instead, you know where all the nooks and crannies are of the weird stuff that other people never think about.  Excuse my geekout, but it’s kind of exciting!  So, as I was in one of those areas with all of the moss (you know, over by the faux flowers), I found these cool “hanging balls” they call them.  Which are really quite beautiful.  As soon as I saw them, I knew what I wanted to do; of course, a beautiful topiary that I don’t have to do anything to but stare and admire!  And, thankfully, they were in the flyer for 50% off that week.  I picked up the 4″ (http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/4-green-moss-ball-744425/) and the 6″ (http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/6-green-moss-ball-744482/) for $2.00 and $3.50.

                 

After that, I took a trip to Walmart and purchased a 6″ terra cotta pot with the bottom for $6, a 1/2″ diameter dowel for $0.57, and a sheet of Spanish moss for $3.14 (something like this http://www.walmart.com/ip/Preserved-Spanish-Moss-108.5-Cubic-Inches-Apple-Green/32857810).  From there, it takes about a half hour from start to finish to put it together.  I started by just whitewashing the pot, because I like some depth and for things to always be just a little different.

While that is drying, take your exacto knife and shave off one end of the dowel so it is pointy.  Then decide how far you want it to stick out of the pot and cut it to that size.  I just stuck it down through the bottom hole until I was satisfied with the height, marked it, and then used the exacto knife to cut through it.

Here comes the exciting part; we can assemble the whole thing.  Now, I used dirt in the pot because it was what I had and it seems to be holding it just fine, but you could use a foam block from the dollar store.  Take your moss sheet and lay it on top.  Take the pointy end and stick it through the bigger 6″ moss hanging ball and slide it down to where you think looks good, then stick the 4″ ball on the top, but only so it goes about halfway through.  Make sure your preserved moss sheet is covering whatever you decided to put in the bottom of the pot, and take the bottom part of the dowel and just stick it down through the moss and into the pot.  Guess what!?  You are totally done.

I feel like I might have made this sound more confusing than it really is, but trust me, for a no maintenance, inexpensive topiary, totally worth the little bit of time it takes!

Reduce. Reuse. RePRETTY!

So I know, I know… it’s been a while.  But I have to tell you; I was almost giving up on the blog thing.  With trying to accomplish all of my other aspirations (oh, don’t worry, you’ll be hearing about them soon!), and trying to do the real life thing with work and family, I just wasn’t sure how to keep up with it all.  But then I got a wonderful little email from a sweet girl at Hometalk encouraging me to post on there.  Which totally gave me the kick in the behind I needed to try this once more.

Annnnnyyyyy-way, I have a couple little projects I have been doing around the house that I thought I would share this week and next.  Seeing as how we are staying in this tiny house for a while, we decided to do some improvements to make it something we absolutely do love.  But, like pretty much everyone else I know, we are on a shoestring budget.  Which, to tell you the truth, I really don’t mind when it comes to decorating.  I actually love how it forces me to be more creative.  So what do you do with your creative juices flowing and no mula?  Well, reuse what you already have, of course!

I have had these wall candle sconces for quite a while.  I’m sure they came from Walmart years ago.  But I like the scroll-y-ness (yup, that’s a word… now.  ha!), and they are a pretty heavy metal.  From the picture, you can see that, at some point, I hastily tried to spice up the candles in them.

So, as I was rearranging the living room for about the fifth time, and I saw these sconces, and all I could think about is how I have never even actually lit the candles.  Which is really kind of pointless if you ask me.  I like to aim for functional and pretty, not just one or the other.  But I couldn’t get rid of them.  They are too pretty to store down in the basement.  That’s when the epiphany hit me:  Oh.  em.  gee.  What if I switch the candles for plants?!  Ummm… yes!

I had some terra cotta pots left over that I had decorated for another project (I got to decorate a storefront window.  How cool is that!?) and I just thought they would be so darn adorable with the colors around the bottom for some pop against the white walls.  Which I just did by taping off the bottom and painting the lower half with some craft paint.  I chose some mini aloe plants that I got for $3.50 from Walmart for my greenery… because I just can’t seem to keep any other plants alive.  Something I am seriously working on around here.  *sigh*

Now all we have to do is set the pots on the part where the candles used to go and slide the glass tube around it.  Well, would ya just look at it!  So much more modern and colorful!  I love how one simple change can make a world of difference!

What simple re-use project have you done that made you just fall back in love with it all over again!?

Sailing the Sawyer Seas: A DIY whimsical sailboat mobile

Yesterday one of my very best friends, LJ, and her husband Dan welcomed their second beautiful baby boy to the world.  That was enough to kick my butt into gear for writing this post, seeing as how this project was for Sweet Baby Sawyer!  Okay, well, maybe his mama a little bit, because I doubt that he really cares too awful much about how his room is decorated.  Although I totally know babies aren’t accessories, but I’m kind of jealous of that nursery she put together!

So I started first with one of those quilting/cross stitch rings.  Unfortunately, I could only find the plastic ones at that point.  No problem!  We want to wrap it in rope for our nautical theme anyway.  I also gathered some wire cutters and metal wire.  The rope and wire both came from Walmart’s hardware section.

After I had the cross in the middle, I went on to making my boats.  Now, I’m going to let you all in on a little secret:  If you’re a novice at sewing as I am, give yourself a large seam allowance for these boats.  I forgot to do that and had a heck of a time sewing the boats so they were not way too small.  I did cut a pattern so I could make all the boats the same and the pattern looked something like this (yes, that’s an old grody pizza box.  Reuse recycle, right!?):

 

As you can see, I made the sails (which I later got frustrated and just sewed them straight across) and boat bases separately so it would have more of a flow.  The sail material is drop cloth and the boats are of different but coordinating materials I picked up.

So after painstakingly sewing them (because of my newbie mistake of the seam allowance), I put some very thin twine you find in the jewelry department and strung it through a needle.  Then I stuck my needle right down through both the sail and then the base of the boat, making knots under each where I wanted them to stay.  As the twine got more towards the top, I wound differing amounts of wooden beads along it for some other texture.  Plus, she’s a natural kind of girl, and I knew she would appreciate the wood.  I just tied the top of the twine around the ring and secured it with a dot of glue.  Now, I wish I had take more photos of this… but I didn’t.  And I’m sorry.  But I hope my explanation for everything is making sense so far.

The next step I took was to cut twine at varying lengths and just string them in different places, including on the metal bar parts, and put a few blue iridescent beads at the bottom.  I also put one down the middle and made a little initial S and an anchor from the same wire that the bars are made of in the center.  Because it needed something a little more in my mind to make it softer like the rest of the mobile, I wrapped it in some grey yarn.  Ahh.. just right!

Finally, we take the rope from earlier and wrap it all around the ring.  I did do this in sections and made sure I used a lot of hot glue so it would stay in tact and match in at the starting and stopping points.

I left the twine hanging down still sort of curly from being on the spool, because I thought it gave this mobile a more whimsical look and more for the little darling to stare up at.  I was happy with it, and, more importantly, LJ seemed happy with it<3

That’s it!  Now I just can’t wait to meet the little babe.  And if he is anything like their first born, Atticus, he will be a little heart melter!

 

Faux Brick Faux Real!

Hello there, my loves!  This post, as well as some in the future, are little bits and pieces of a very large project I will be revealing at a later time.  But I love the idea of company along the way, so I am going to share everything I can on this crazy awesome journey.

Lucky for you, today is going to be explained with more pictures and less rambling.  I bet you’re sighing with relief right now.

I did this project for a friend to see if it could even be pulled off.  And I have to tell you, I’m pretty proud of it.  I think it turned out better than my inspiration picture, but we will let you be the true judges.  Let’s get into it!

I picked up one of those faux brick panels that is in just about every hardware shop.  Lowes is the closest to us, and that is where I got mine. I believe the price was right around twenty-five big ones.  Now, be warned, no matter how many seats you put down or how many attempts you make to shimmy it in sideways and slam the trunk, it is not fitting in a car or an SUV.  You need a truck for this baby.

Here is  our ugly duckling straight from the store:

I bought my three main colors for the brick from Home Depot because I do like Behr paint.  I chose these colors at random, and it was one of those miracle times they just worked out perfectly:

I got inexpensive brushes and just dry brushed the colors on in a random pattern, one at a time.  If you’re me, a little music and wine definitely helps with “random.”  I started with the red, the chocolate, and then the tan.  After that it needed something a little more, so I chose a black I already had and did the same thing.  Some bricks I left the brush marks, others I took a paper towel and wiped it immediately after I put the paint on, taking some of it back off and smearing the paint.  Now… there is a time in every project when you are going to step back, say, “What in the world have I done!?” and want to just quit and call it a loss.  This is that time.  But heck no are we letting the craft world win!

 

The grout is where our hard work all comes together.  I chose Anonymous in Behr paint, but had it made at Lowes so I could get it in a quart of the Super Flat.  It should last for all the panels I have to do (maybe five) and then some.

So this is the tedious part where you can just get a thin brush (I cut an angle on an old craft paint brush from Walmart), restart the music, and paint your little heart out.  Just about the time your mind wanders far enough out of boredom to begin contemplating the true meaning of life, you’re done!

But what’s this… that is some pretty stark grey!  A little too much in your face.  To blend it in with our “weathered” bricks, I dry brushed a little antique white craft paint throughout the grout, and then sanded it all with an 80 grit sand paper.

To get in the grout lines without sanding the brick parts as well, I took a foam brush, detached the foam part, and wrapped the sand paper around it.  Worked like a charm.

Now, step back and fall in love.  Ugly duckling?   Psh, more like beautiful swan!  And all the hard work was totally worth it!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Most Glittery Princess of Them All

For this project, I actually have pictures displaying most of the steps I took to complete this project.  Which, if we’re being completely honest, I would love to make a “big girl” version for myself out of maybe  a large armoire.  Hmmmm….

Because this was for a good friend, I did the whole trial and error right on the project, instead of testing it ahead of time.  It’s not something I suggest, but at least this way, as we go through it, I can tell you what not to do.

As always, I don’t have a full “before” picture (I swear I’m working on remembering).  But I did  stop after ripping all the drawers out and cutting the top two rails with a circular saw to take a quick picture because a little sweet voice came in my head that sounded just like my BFFR Mary that said, “Ugh.  Hello!  Didn’t you take any before pictures!?”  So here they are:

Now, what the poor lighting won’t really let you see (because who knows what time of night this is), is that the colors were green, gold, and more of a pepto pink.  Don’t get me wrong, I like those colors.  But it just was not matching up with the feet of this darling little dresser.  I was on a mission for all things girly:  White, pink, and — oh, yes — glitter.  (If only glitter were a color, right!?)

This is with two coats of my homemade white chalk paint, adorned with the curtains I made out of a pink satin (on clearance:  score!) and just secured it across the front with a silver tension rod.  You can get them out of the curtain rod section of walmart for about $2 to $4, depending on the length you need.  I was also trying out the crown to make sure it was the one I wanted:

Because this was right after Christmas, I found some of THE BEST wrapping paper on sale:  Gold Glitter!  Heck yes.  I lined the sides and back with it, and it was instant magic.  Here is one of those quick lessons though; modge podge is not what I would use for glitter paper.  It did keep the glitter more in tact and stopped it from really flaking off, but on the downside, it just really didn’t let the glitter shine in the light like you want it to.  So after I put the side pieces on with modge podge, I realized it just wasn’t what I was looking for.  The glitter was more matte, and it bubbled, which is another thing that scared me.  The bubbling issue may well have been my application due to my lack of experience with modge podge.  Either way, I reevaluated my adhesion strategy and decided to put the back piece on with spray glue (Scotch Super 77 Multi-Purpose Adehsive) and a layer of E6000 around the edges.  Worked like a charm I tell ya.  You can see the way the back reflects perfectly now, shining magnificently:

The very reason I made curtains in the first place was to hopefully be a little more munchkin friendly.  Swinging doors just didn’t seem like a good idea at face height.  I decided the best thing would be to secure some tiebacks with velcro on them.  I picked up some pink ribbon, cut about an 8 inch strip, and sewed velcro at both ends.  Because I know I am pretty rough on things myself, I figured I better reinforce the ribbon.  I cut another 2 inch piece of ribbon, folded it in half, and sewed it together.  Finally, I used two small screws (one each) to fasten them to the sides of the opening; the screw went into the reinforcement piece, then through the ribbon, and into the side of the dresser.  Easy peasy!

Remember the crown from earlier?  Well, I taped that sheet of paper down to the top of some contact paper and cut it out with an exacto knife.  Now, remember that when you’re cutting a stencil, you actually want to keep any of your overcuts in the black part of your image, that way, when you peel the insides out, your stencil itself is smooth and straight and the “guts” of it, so to speak, are the ones with any rough areas.  (I hope that makes sense.)  I peeled the back of the contact paper off and stuck it to the top of the dressser, just painting over it with black paint.  As you would with any other stencil, I recommend using a pouncer so the paint doesn’t bleed under the tape/contact paper.  It will save a lot of touch ups later.  Here are some that I like to use (and should have on this project to save some headache.  ha!): http://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewart-32243-Foam-Pouncers/dp/B007C7XPME.

Finally, the bottom drawer is the only one I kept, and for this dresser it was made to look like two drawers, so it was extra deep.  I thought shoes and jewelry might easily fit down there.  I painted the outside the most beautiful blush pink, while also dry brushing it on the details on the bottom legs; used the existing hardware; and then took scrap booking paper I already had and modge podged it to the inside (Get it: Princess!?):

I put another tension rod and hangers from the baby section (10 for $1) to hold clothes on the inside, including those adorable little tutus I made (that I will share instructions for in a later post).  I then finally finished the outside with a coat of wax.  And that, my friends, is basically it.  I would like to attach a mirror to the side, but I have to find one I fall in love with first.  If only it were as easy as kissing a frog.

All in all, not nearly as hard of a project as I thought it was going to be, and was honestly a true joy to work on, being right up my alley.  Let’s take a final minute to “ooh, ahh” at her beauty!  *sigh*

Wine, Coffee, and a Tool Box Matchmaker

I am very excited!  This is my first post where I get to share an actual project.  See, the problem is my patience…. I have none.  And so, all the projects I have worked on recently are either completely done with only a before and after or they are the opposite; I’m only halfway through them and they do not look so appealing as of yet.  More like you would want to run for the hills.  Ha.

To put it simply, here is where I started:

When I laid eyes on this $8 handsome fella, I knew he would be mine, and already had an idea in my mind how I was going to dress him up.  I first had to clean it thoroughly.  Okay, kind of well.  Again, patience; none.  And then I whipped up some MMS in Ironstone, but made sure to add extra water to the mixture to get more of a translucent whitewash look than to actually paint it.  I just picked up one of my low grade brushes and kind of hit spots all over where I thought it should be, wiping paint that was too opaque off immediately with a paper towel.  It’s not really an art as much as a bunch of random mistakes gone right.

After that dried, I then went on to picking out images from thegraphicsfairy.com (whom I adore and couldn’t do half of my projects without).  I still wasn’t sure where I was going to put the Mister in our tiny house, but I knew I wanted him to also be “pretty” and displayed, so I also made up my own picture from various clip art I had saved previously for the inside as a little surprise.  I used the wax paper method, which you can find instructions for from a quick Pinterest search.

Here is what I came up with (Now, you will find soon enough that I can’t get enough of bicycle images.  Don’t ask me why.  I don’t even really care for riding bikes.  But anything vintage and bicycle, I am all over it).

I put a coat of wax on (I used Briwax), let it dry, and buffed that baby out.  You can see that the wax definitely darkened the paint, but I was okay with that.  Wax is a beautiful thing in my eyes, and I like to use it on basically every single one of my pieces instead of any other clear coat because of the cohesion it gives between the paint and the piece, like it’s been that way forever:

But wait, we’re not done (no, I am not going to give you second slap chop for free)!  He was all dressed up with nowhere to go, when all of a sudden I remembered we also were in the middle of a wine dilemma in our house from me rearranging furniture, and we no longer had room for the “bar” that was set up in the formal part of the living room.  I had nowhere to put my wine.  Which is a true travesty.  Then I looked at our coffee bar, which is already one of my favorite parts about this house, and thought:  Heck, coffee and wine together; I may never leave.  On a whim, I tried out the tool box there with what I consider the wine essentials (don’t mind the hideous yellow price tag), and voila!  It fit!  Aren’t  they just the perfect pair?  I don’t think I will be rearranging this area for a while now.

Take Me Away

I have a confession:  I am an addict.  I swear I would go to a rehab, but I just don’t think there is one out there yet for my illness.  Not even in Malibu.  Thankfully, my addiction doesn’t harm my health, just my pocket sometimes.  Hi, my name is Erica, and I.  Love.  Furniture.  And painting.  And designing.  And crafting.  And party planning.  I think that’s most of it.  Whew!  There, that’s the first step, right?

I know I’m not alone.  If I was, Pinterest would cease to exist.  Don’t the butterflies just flutter with fright at the thought!?  Because of pinning my heart out and following probably more boards than any one person should (no, of course I do not take my iPad to bed and surf the big P when my boyfriend is sleeping), I feel like I have so many long lost friends out there, I wanted to finally dive into my dream of joining the blogging community.  And let me tell you, it is not that easy.  Kudos to all of you who have even consistently blogged, let alone had a great amount of traffic.  It is truly very difficult.  My hat’s off to you!

So that is my promise to all of you to earn my way into your hearts:  I’m going to be consistent.  I’m going to share my experiences, and hopefully we can learn together along the way.  So be a part of my love story.  Like any true love, we will have oh so sweet highs and a few dismal lows (okay, probably not that bad, but I’m hooking you here).  Trust me.  It will all be worth it in the end.  It always is.