vol.25

DIY Painted Curtain Panels

This weekend was CRAZY busy. We had the windows put in on Friday. The window installers had taken down the mini blinds, and I told them not to worry about installing the brackets back because I was going to be buying something to replace the mini blinds. Well, that meant I needed SOMETHING up for privacy that evening... so I knew I had to get my rear in gear and start/finish painting the curtain panels I bought from Target a few weeks back.

This was one of those DIY projects that I started and ALMOST quit several times throughout the course of the project. It wasnt really that difficult to do, but it was time consuming and took patience, and Friday turned out to be super hectic. I started on the curtains probably around 4:00, I already had roast cooking in the crockpot (this YUMMY recipe) for dinner, so I thought I had the time to start and finish my little project in PLENTY of time before dinner. I had pushed the table to the side of the kitchen, and laid a new plastic shower curtain on the floor, it wasnt big enough so I had to add more plastic to the floor, so I could use my roller off the edges of the curtain without painting the floor. :) I pretty much followed this tutorial, except I added a little bit of textile medium to my paint, the curtains still dried stiff, but I think it helped some.

Taping off the stripes took much longer then I thought it would. I had 3 panels to do, and although I tried to keep them the same straight 6" apart as the tutorial, I ended up gettin lazy and my lines were definitely off a little. After taping all 3 curtains I started painting.

and realized I had painted two sections in a row! Ugh. I was so frustrated... I had two choices, either finish painting the entire curtain pretty much... or scrap it and use the extra panel I had, this meant I would have to tape off more stripes. I went ahead and just finished painting the curtain, it would look differently and take much longer then the others, but oh well. :) So long as the two hanging side by side matched I figured I was okay, but at this point I was seriously considering purchasing something different and scrapping the idea altogether. I was grumpy and totally not into the project at this point. I had thoughts of starting a blog where people could post they're failed diy attempts, and I could share my sob story with others who would really understand. Turns out (and I'm not surprised) that there is already a blog for that purpose... 

But, I kept plugging along... during that time there was a knock at the door ( living in town means salespeople drop by on a regular basis ) and there was a man selling (somewhat of a promotional offer) home security systems. Because of the nature of my business/hobby I've been wanting to install a simple home security system, but the cost has always kept Jaydon and I from taking the leap and doing so. I did ask him to come back when Jaydon got off work, and I went back to my painting.

What felt like years later (that may be a slight exaggeration) I finished painting the panel, and impatiently waited for it to dry. Because it was in the middle of my kitchen floor I had to make sure the girls didnt accidentally walk on it. When it finally dried enough I started peeling the tape off... and I couldnt believe how much I loved it. Instantly I had the energy to do the other two.

But I had to figure out a way of getting the finished panel hung and off the floor so I could start on the other panel. So I ended up taking down some curtains in the house so the finished panel could hang in they're place and finish drying. I started on the second panel and things went quite a bit faster, I did two thick coats this time, and it was taking forever to dry! Jaydon got home at this time, and went outside to get some yard work done before dinner. I only had one curtain left to finish painting but it was taking FOREVER to dry! :) I finally decided to try and very carefully hang it so it could finish drying and I could get started on the last panel. Well the security guy came back when I was transporting the wet curtain. I had Trin answer the door and I am sure he thought I was nuts when I told him I had a wet painted curtain panel in my hands, but Jaydon was around back and he could go find him.

He said "No problem" and went out to find him. Well I was just getting ready to start on the last panel when Jaydon and the security guy came inside to talk details. I was surprised Jaydon was interested, and this meant I needed to stop so I could listen as well. If you know my husband you know he could probably carry on a coversation with a brick wall. I love him to pieces, but there is no such thing as a quick conversation with my husband... To make a really long story a little shorter, we ended up getting a security system installed, that night! It was super hectic, and Jaydon and I didnt eat the yummy roast  until around 9:30 that night. I snuck into the kitchen to feed the girls around 6:30... they ate Cereal. Am I a bad mother for publicly recording that online? I was really in a time pinch, and since they beg for cereal at dinner time I didnt feel too terribly awful giving in this time. 

What a crazy busy day... I finally started the last panel about 10:00. I was suuper tired, but really needed to get it finished, I'm glad I did... because the next day when Jaydon hung the curtains, it was compeltely worth all the stress and hectic-ness. :) If you are debating on painting your own curtains you should totally try it. Jaydon really was skeptical at how it was going to look, but really LOVED how they turned out. I just say plan to have more then enough time, and I would probably tape one day and paint the next if you are short on time! :)

I'll have to give you an update on the security system after we've used it for a bit. So far we are really liking it. The install guy had to come back a couple of times to finish the job, so it wasnt completely in when these pictures were taken. It is pretty neat though. We can arm and disarm the system with our cell phones, and there are some other really neat things I'm amazed about. :) I dont feel like we live in a bad neighborhood, but I am always worried about closing my shop down for vacations and it being so obvious that we are away. This system will help me feel better about leaving our house. The installer accidentally triggered the silent alarm while he was tweaking something... and we had 2 cop cars pull up at our house within minutes! It was somewhat reassuring. :) Best part, if we move... they will re-install at our new house for free! :) Cant beat that, because we've definitely been thinking about moving again. :) Do you have a security system installed? If so, do you like it?

handmade with love for baby....

I'm an aunt again! It's been official for a couple of months now, but I haven't gotten around to blogging about this big news yet. In some ways it really doesnt seem official to me. My new nephew was born in OK, and we still havent made a trip out there to see the little guy... and although pictures have confirmed he is cute as a button, until I can actually cuddle with him it still seems somewhat surreal.

Anyhow, I made a few things for him and snapped pictures so that I could one day share them wih you. :)

I bought a pack of baby Onesies... in Newborn as well as 12 months sizes, then designed some super cute illustrations in photoshop. I printed them on some super high quality iron on transfer paper, cut the images, whipped out my iron, made sure to use NO steam.... and voila customized baby gear for the new little man in our lives.

I also had a couple tote bags lying around, so I created  a coordinating design and applied it the same way.

I hear that baby loved his goodies... and I felt all warm and fuzzy inside knowing I was sending something that I personally had a hand in creating. :) Using the iron on transfer sheets was a breeze... I actually ordered some high quality stuff online. I'll have to try and dig up the name brand. I've purchased the stuff from wal-mart, but am not consistently happy with the results I get.

How about you? Do you have any adventures with iron on fabric sheets? :)

LOVE this diy letter light

I seen this post on designsponge today, and HAD to share! :) I've admired these vintage looking signs for quite awhile now, but couldnt justify the huge price tag that usually accompanies them. :) You can imaging JUST how thrilled I was when I seen that curbly had written a diy post on how to make one of these guys yourself. :) It sounds like a fun project that my husband just might want to get involved in... it does after all require the use of a power tool. ;)

Do you think you are brave enough in the diy department to tackle this job? If you do take it on, you HAVE To share pictures!! :)

My diy posted on freckled nest

hello everyone! I have a giveaway and diy posted on freckled nest's blog... so be sure and leap over there for a fun cheery super simple project. Anyone can do it. :) Here is a little teaser... you'll use these items:

  to make these cute little candle holder wraps.... :)

I bought some glasses from my thrift store in varying sizes to recover them... and help add a little more yellow to a corner in our living room. The owl on the top shelf and the bird in the bottom right corner were both purchased that same thrifting trip. :) .50 cents a piece! I did respray the owl. He originally looked like this.

still super cute, but a little dark for my shelf. :) By the looks of him, I imagine he was probably excited for a makeover. :)

I have some really exciting news to post about this week... and if you are one of the people who wanted your name' added to the waiting list for the larger canvas paper... you will be excited to hear that a huge shipment should be arriving on my doorstep in the next couple of days! :) I'm LOWERING the price from 35.00 to 30.00 a print. Buying from the manufacturer was a HUGE initial expense but allows me to sell the paper cheaper in the end. :) You can bet I will keep you updated the moment it arrives!

interior design inspiration- wall murals

While searching flickr's explored photos I came across the above photo from Kim's flickr stream. :) I am totally loving the idea, and would be SO thrilled to try a similar idea on my own walls. Unfortunately every room in my house except the textured wall in the bathroom, and the unfinished utility room are mortar. So they are a bumpy uneven far from perfect surface. But, I can still dream right? In fact, Kim mentions using foam core to attach the wallpaper to, then suspending it from the ceiling or leaning it against the wall, that might have just as much of a dramatic affect... and would totally work if you were renting, and wanted to take it with you when you left. :)

The company Kim ordered her mural from ( design your wall ) also allows you to upload your own image, and I totally LOVE that. It would be really neat to design a mural with a 2 part process. Like say for instance you have a background, but then you also have a bed headboard mural that could be cut out and applied to the wall mural... so you could position it to fit in your room according to room size etc. It would probably be totally complicated to do so in that manner though.... :)

 

{Image Credit: The Ivory Tower}
while they were alot more expensive The Ivory Tower had some really awesome shots of they're mural paper in use......

{Image Credit: The Ivory Tower}

{Image Credit: The Ivory Tower}

  {Image Credit: The Ivory Tower}

{Image Credit: The Ivory Tower}

You can even apply wallpaper to a plain door to dress it up some. :) Wouldnt it be neat to make a wallpaper that made your door look like a vintage door with architectural detail like these seen on apartment therapy? 

Oh- and while you are checking out that link at AT take a peek at this post they also did on wallpaper murals...

Do you have a photo/image you would like to see on your wall? I noticed that designyourwall has a pretty large group of designers designing for them.... how fun would that be!? :)

felt star garland

Hello everybody! Can you believe there is only 3 more days until Christmas? So crazily unbelievable! I'm heading over to my parent's for the day. Hoping to help with some wrapping she still has to do, and we are going to try and get as much baking done today as possible. We have vowed to keep Christmas day as free from baking as we can. :) I just despise cooking in the kitchen on Christmas day. We're going to cook a turkey the day before, and have turkey sandwiches on Christmas. There will be lots of snacking involved too. I'm making sweet and sour meatballs in my crockpot. They are super easy and equally yummy! I'm trying a new recipe this year, but the ones I have used in the past have always been good! We also have homemade salmon dip, jalapeno poppers, (delicous but somewhat of a job to make!) and a vegetable tray. Not to mention pumpkin pie, usually pumpkin rolls too, hawaiin salad, and waay too much Christmas candy. :) Every year mom says "we'll keep it simple this time"  and every year her list grows in leaps and bounds. We usually have enough food to feed an army.

....ANYHOW... I'm really just popping in to share pictures of my star garland. I finished it last night! I dont have a tutorial wrote up, but its SUPER easy.

 

Basically I cut out 7 stars. I drew one on copy paper and used it as my template. Traced the star onto ordinary white felt (stiff felt would have worked better, but I couldnt locate any) with a pencil, then cut them all out. I cut the center out of the center one, and kind of regretted it. :) It was much too flimsy afterwords.
 

I stitched the points together to form the chain. After I knew it was the right width I used a really large needle and stitched a piece of white twine to each end, and tied it in a loop. This allowed me to attach the garland to the bed posts. :)

They didnt seem to contrast enough for me, so I sprayed them with some silver spray paint we had. I also spray each star with some glitter spray I had picked up at wal-mart.

I'm looking forward to seeing how I can improve on the same idea next year. I also finished up a cupcake liner garland, but am NOT happy with how it turned out. Not sure any pictures will make it to the blog. ;)

Well, I had better run! I hope your enjoying the season and not stressing too much. :)

handmade holiday ornaments

Hello! I am sorry to have kept everyone waiting for my handmade ornament post. It has been so busy around here, I still havent even gotten the newsletters out yet. Hopefully in the next couple of days. :)

So.... here is what I whipped up using a very simple salt and flour recipe.

Recipe and text courtesy of Sunday school idea's website

Ingredients

• 1 c. salt
• 1 c. warm water
• 2 c. flour

Note: use only plain all-purpose flour – don’t use bread flour or self-rising flour

Preparation

Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Slowly add ½ the water while stirring with a fork. Slowly add more water, spoonful at a time and continuing to mix with fork, until it creates a ball of dough that is firm and just soft enough to knead. (The exact amount of water will depend on the moisture content of the flour as well as the general humidity in your home as you prepare the recipe.) Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.

If used for play, dough will keep indefinitely if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. However, if you want to create hard-baked designs, remember that the dough will begin to lose its ability to hold fine detail after about an hour. Detailed designs, such as ornaments made for sale, are best modeled right after the dough has been kneaded.

Note: Although all the ingredients are edible, this dough is not food. The salt content is very high, and young children should be strongly discouraged from eating it. Also, keep out of reach of pets: I've read online that dogs that ate the stuff have gotten sick, even died, due to the high salt content of home-made play dough. .

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Be sure and check out this link. There are quite a few other helpful ideas on their website.

we (my sister in-law and I) used a star cookie cutter, and I ended up free handing the birds, candy canes, and a few hearts. I cut the dough with a knife. :) We used acrylic paints, and the foam brushes really worked well to get a base white coat on each ornament. Oh- one other important thing to remember. Poke holes before you bake. We used a straw.

A few of the stars Shaela (my sister in law) painted. I thought they turned out great with the silver.

Here are the birds after painting...

and some hearts. It is amazing how the red and white theme seemed to take on different styles. The stars and stripes reminded me of the fourth of july... and I didnt really want that effect. :)

Here is the tree and a peak at the star garland I created with paper.

 another angle...

and a close up of my favorite star. :) These really were fun to make, and it kept us busy allll day. We started early in the day and were still painting into the evening. Of course we had a few "baby Journey" interruptions but nothing too extensive. :)

The star garland was easy, and I still have quite a few stars cut out that need to be strung. I also painted my first holiday sign on wood, and am planning to paint another sign for a family member. Similar... but different then mine. I'll be sure and share when I feel like I can. ;) Well, I am making gifts for my nieces this year and I had best get back to it. I wanted to make time to get this post in. Hopefully it will inspire you to make some of your own handmade ornaments. I have some really good memories of my mom making ornaments when I was younger. Although at the time she was making them because we couldnt afford otherwise. :) She made snowmen out of socks and felt, angels out of scrap material and halos out of tin foil. Several years later she came across the salt dough recipe and we all had another batch of handmade ornaments. This next set were made with cookie cutters and we decorated them with fabric paint. The kind in the little tubes that allow you to make a dot super easy? :) hmmm.... such good memories.

DIY: Roadtrip Journal

My very first DIY post. One of the many featured columns I plan to introduce to my super new blog!  This is something I hope to incorporate on a slighty regular basis. :) I guess we will see how regular it does in fact turn out to be.

* You should be able to click the pictures to enlarge them in a seperate window.*

Some of you may have read my post last week about just getting back from a week and half long road trip. One of my traveling companions was this road trip journal purchased from my local Craft Warehouse. My husbands family lives in Oklahoma and I started my first roadtrip journal 2 years ago when we took our first roadtrip. I decided then and there to keep up the tradition. I know years from now my 3 year old will appreciate having one of these records for every time we visited her cousins/aunts/grandparents.

My book was a Maya Road 8x8 chipboard book. You can find it online here. Although you can use just about anything. Just remember to keep it somewhat small for portability sake. This project is SO worth the little bit of time it takes on the trip. When your back from your trip, it will be completely finished, no more unfinished scrap books!

I took out the chipboard pages, to make way for this natural kraft brown #80 pound cardstock. I cut several pieces down to size with my paper cutter, and then hole punched each page. I did plently to insure I wouldnt run out, and fortunately I had extra unused pages when we returned.

I chose a color theme (GREEN surprise!) before leaving and made sure I had a couple stamp pads in that particular color. I also decorated  the front and back. It was much more enjoyable using a covered journal. People like to take a peek at it, so its nice to  have something done with it already... but use your imagination. Maybe you want your husband to purposely spill his coffee on it as your driving down the road? Pass it back to your children with some crayons and let them have some fun in the car? Well, maybe nothing that extreme... but dont panic when/if it gets dirty. It will just add to your book. A year later it may finally be funny to laugh at the memory that comes to mind when you see that coffee stain?

My favorite and most used supplies were:

my mini stapler:

mini scissors:

self inking stamp:

stamp pads:

baggie of baby wipes (for cleaning my stamp pads):

glue stick:

polaroid camera:

double sided tombo sticky tape (for my polaroids):

pens in various point sizes for interest:

corner rounder:

Those were my favorites, but you may have a few different ideas. Use what makes you happy! But remember... the point is to not bring your scrapbook stash with you. Collect things from the trip, to make it a little more special.

I inked the sides of every page, I have no idea why... it just seems something I tend to do every time I keep a roadtrip journal. I also used a sheet of paper to make my straight lines. No ruler needed.

Be creative when you make any stops. I asked for take out menus at resteraunts. Often times they will have pictures, logos or text you can cut up for your book. Nutrition menus should also be available upon request. I asked for one at a startbucks, and very nearly regretted it. I would advise stapling that one shut! ;)  I saved food wrappers from fast food places. Believe you me, I always have at least one person think I am a little nuts. BUT... it is so worth it when we get home, and I can look through the book, and relive the trip. I hope your planning a road trip journal this year. If so, try this out! You will not be dissapointed, it really helped pass some of the 60 hours traveling the country. :)

*Oh it should also be noted that I originally heard of this idea from an old issue of Creating Keepsakes. Would like to say it was all mine, but alas... it was that super creative Ali Edwards that first introduced me to the idea. :)