Spending Freeze Baby Gift

Friends of ours had a baby a few weeks ago and we're going over to meet the new little man this afternoon. While I gave them a gift off the registry prior to the baby's birth, I didn't want to show up empty handed today. Since I'm still on a spending freeze (5 weeks until we get real paychecks again, wahoo!) I needed to get creative. You know I love personalized art, and since the baby's name is Ryan, this is what I came up with. Pretty adorable, right?

I've had this really cute yellow scrapbook paper for a few months now and I've just been waiting for the perfect project to use it. Its double sided, so I used about half of it for this piece and the other half for another project that I'll show you at a later date. Here are the details on it in case anyone's interested. Oh, I think I got it at Micheal's.

 In order to get the perfect initial, I cheated a little by typing "R" into a word document and playing around with the font and size until I found one I liked. I ended up going with the Euphorigenic font in size 600. I then went to the font settings and chose to outline the letter. Once I printed that out, I folded the printed letter over the edges the scrapbook paper and cut the two papers together. I used an exacto knife to cut out the middle of the R.

For the background, I went to my stash of card stock and grabbed gray and white sheets. I measured and cut out one inch strips of the white paper and then glued them onto the gray sheet. Instant stripes! If only painting stripes was that easy! (See where I've painted stripes here and here)

Of course, the next step is to use the glue stick to secure the R onto the newly striped background and pop the whole thing into a frame. You may think I had to spend money on the frame, but you must not know about my frame cemetery :)

I love the final outcome, and while I fully intend for this to go in the baby's nursery I can see something like this hanging in a photo gallery wall.  Good thing our last initial isn't R so I'm not tempted to keep it!

I hope the parents like it! How could they not, right?

I'm also thinking that this could be nice in my classroom - my brain keeps going to decorating my classroom. I better get in there next week and get to work!
So, did you think I could pull off another free piece of art? What have you created with initials before? Any other frame or scrapbook paper hoarders out there? I can't be the only one!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

You can find me showing off this project at:

TGIF Linky Party

Simply Designing             Shabbilicious Friday               

How Great Thou Art

Free, personalized art that is! It's not a secret that I'm a fan of anything free. Well not maybe not anything, but if it can decorate a wall in my home then I'm a fan. Since I put myself on a spending freeze, I've been thinking a lot about how I can use what I already own to make pretty things.

A few years ago, I bought a few canvases to try my hand at painting. Let me just get this out there - an artist I am not - but I can create things that involve structure. Hand me painters tape and I'm good to go. So I gathered up a canvas, two different sizes of painters tape, some scrap book letters and spray paint.

I laid out the letters on the canvas first. I have to admit that I thought it was pretty cute at this stage and I may have inspired a future project!

Needless to say, I pressed the letters on in the (approximate) center of the canvas. I basically just eye ball the placement of things like this. Then I took out my tape and played around until I found a placement that I was happy with.

At this point I was ready for spray paint. I laid the canvas out on some newspaper outside and got my spray on. I did a few light coats, waiting about 15 minutes in between coats.

Of course Simon was waiting for me in the window!


{are you done yet? I just want to lay on the couch with you!}

 About 15 minutes after the last coat of spray paint, I peeled off the tape and letters. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous. I was scared that the paint would seep under the tape or the letters would look crooked. Much to my relief, I had this:

The paint did leak a little bit around the letters, but I actually don't mind it. The letters were a little old and were a mix from a few different packages, so it just looks handmade. And I'm fine with that!

I'm sure you're wondering where I found room to hang this since the walls in my house are pretty full. There is actually the perfect little wall in the hall leading into our master bedroom. I get to see it every night before bed and right when I get up. I even smiled this morning looking at it when I had to get up early for a day full of student learning objectives. (Consider yourself lucky if you don't have to deal with those!)

Forgive the photo, it was getting dark when I took this one and the lighting in our bedroom isn't that great.

Ten points if you spotted Simon!

So that's my latest no cost project, although it would still be pretty cheap even if you didn't have all of the supplies on hand. And its personalized and meaningful to Bill and I. Score!

What have you spray painted lately? I can't be the only one amazed by its awesomeness!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

Linked Up at: Eclectically Vintage
Elizabeth and Co.

Great Eye-dea

Sometimes the puns just come too easily.

We have a pretty generously sized master bathroom and a small linen closet is tucked into the corner of the room. Last summer, I got my organization on and whipped the closet into shape. I even used my label maker. I wear my dork title proudly!

The only thing that didn't get done at that time was a way to organize/display all of my necklaces. They were in a box and were constantly getting tangled. Plus, since I could not see them, I really didn't wear them very often.

I looked around on Pinterest for ideas, but nothing struck my fancy. Then one day I was in Bill's workshop looking for stuff to hang a picture and came across eye hooks. A light went on in my brain and about 20 minutes later, I had this:

 It's really hard to get a picture of this in such a small space, but I tried!

As you can see, there were pieces of wood already in the closet as shelf supports. All I did was drill small holes about two inches apart and then screwed in the eye hooks. Each hook is strong enough to hold a few necklaces. There's enough space from the bottom hooks to hang the longer necklaces there.

It's been like this for a few months now and I'm really happy with how it's working. I can easily see and get to all of my necklaces. Best of all, since the wood was already in the closet and we already owned the eye hooks, this was a free solution! Love that!

On a different note, yesterday I got to babysit my adorable nephew. He's almost 2 and so fun and fearless. I brought him to my house for a bit and he got to meet Simon. Simon was a little unsure at first - check out this side-eye!

But he grew to love him!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

I Painted a Shower Curtain?!

Say the title of this post like Baby said, "I carried a watermelon?!" in Dirty Dancing. That's about the astonishment I'm looking for.

At this point, you know that we've been renovating our guest bathroom. When I last left you, it looked like this:

It was coming along, but still lacked a few necessities - like a shower curtain. I've been eying a certain striped West Elm shower curtain, but when I went to order it the curtain was back-ordered for almost a month. There was no way that I could wait that long, so I starting looking on Pinterest for diy shower curtain tutorials. I was lucky enough to happen upon this blog and her awesome tutorial.

I headed to the store where I bought a white twin flat sheet and fabric paint. I wanted to have gray stripes, but unfortunately the world of fabric paint isn't on the gray bandwagon yet. Thank goodness for elementary school art class, because I quickly realized I could just mix black and white paint. Problem solved. I bought two tubes of each and was on my way.

When I got home, I hemmed the sheet so that it would be the perfect length for our shower. I also snipped an opening in both ends of the factory-made hem so I could put the shower rod through the top of the sheet. There was no way I was going to attempt to make button holes!

My shower curtain conveniently ended up being 77 inches long, so I made seven 11 inch stripes. Taping out the stripes on the fabric was definitely more of a pain that measuring on the walls, but I ended up with this:

Next, I mixed together the paint until I ended up with a shade of gray that I liked. I used two tubes of white paint and just one tube of black.

Painting the stripes took about an hour and a half, again it was much more difficult than painting the wall. I was in the icky basement too, so I think that made it feel like it was taking forever!

I pulled the tape immediately and then left it to dry in the basement overnight. I hung it in the bathroom today, and I am so happy with the results!

After a few tries, I finally found a bath mat that I liked. It breaks up all of the geometric patterns and adds a little feminine touch. It came from Target, of course!

The framed geometric print came from Home Goods. (I was there returning one of the failed bath mats!) I love how just a few things have added so much vibrancy to the room. I finally added a towel bar and a robe hook that we'll use for the hand towel for now.

I'm still on the hunt for some sort of storage piece to fill the corner next to the vanity, but it's certainly really close to being complete. It feels amazing to have a bathroom that we designed completely and that really reflects our style. I love it :)

I hope everyone enjoys their 4th of July! We saw The Amazing Spider-Man this morning and I must admit that it was really good. I'm heading to the pool in a little bit. What is everyone else up to? Any house projects or just enjoying the day with family and friends? Whatever you do - enjoy!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

Wired Weddings

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted. The final month of school is always chaotic and this year as no different. Now that I'm finally on summer vacation, I'll be able to share much more regularly!

As I've shared before, my sister recently got married. You can see details from her bridal shower and shower gifts (in progress & completed). Those weren't the only things I contributed to her wedding. Thanks to pinterest, Kristen had a lot of great details included in her wedding. She asked me if I could help out with one - her cake topper. She had seen something on Pinterest and asked me if I could try and recreate it. My sister is in marketing, so when I say that she asked me if I could do it, I mean that she sent me this email that could have been an infomercial. I was convinced that I had to try!

The cake topper that she showed me had the couples names formed from wire and placed inside a heart, also made of wire.

Here's what I came up with for Kristen and Ryan:

I was surprised how easy it was to make and I was so happy that Kristen loved it!

I attended another bridal shower this morning for a friend/co-worker who is getting married in August. I wanted to give her something hand-made in addition to the traditional gift from her registry. I had leftover wire that I had purchased before making the cake topper, so I whipped up a cute "Bride" hanger that she can use for her wedding dress on her big day.

It was hard to get a good picture of it, since I'm still learning how to use my (not so) new camera. The wire I used for the Bride was a thicker, flatter wire than the cake topper.

I also created a little tag for the hanger since this was a "green" shower and we didn't need to wrap the gifts. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE that idea? I truly do!) I punched a hole in the tag and attached it with some ribbon. I think its a cute touch!

I'm so grateful to my sister for getting me involved with her cake topper. I never would have considered projects using wire before, but now I keep thinking of more things that I could create with wire. I'll keep you posted on what else I come up with!

I'm also starting to consider starting an etsy shop to sell some of these items. I haven't looked into it at all, but I thought it would be a nice way to make some extra cash over the summer. Does anyone have any experience selling things online like that? I'd love to hear any pros and cons. For now, if anyone is interested in purchasing either a personalized cake topper or special occasion hanger you can contact me here by leaving a comment.

Update: I have opened up an etsy shop. Find it here. 

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

I linked this post at:

Two-Faced, in a Good Way

I've been seeing a lot of pillows on pinterest and other blogs that have writing or designs on the front of them. While I was in Micheal's the other day, I picked up some black fabric paint so I could give this a try. I played around in Word until I found a font and symbol that I liked. Then I made the font huge, like 750 or something ridiculous, and printed it out. Here are my supplies, all ready to go:

Basically, I put the printed out symbol under my fabric and traced it with the paint. I used a cheap linen fabric so I wouldn't be heartbroken if it didn't work out well. Luckily, after about 15 minutes I was left with a nice looking hand-painted ampersand.

In order to make the pillow a little more interesting, I used a different fabric for the back side. I sewed the pillow just like I learned in middle school and then used some stuffing from the yucky pillows that came with the furniture to fill it. Lastly, I hand sewed the bottom shut. Ta Da!

Here's the front:

And the back:

I tried to get a picture where you could see both sides, but it was a little difficult. Here was my most successful attempt:

For now the pillow is living on the couch in our living room. The fabric is so versatile that it might make a move. Our guest room needs a little love, so maybe it'll go in there.

I never thought that I could hand paint something and it would be nice enough to display in our home. There was a little cheating involved since I was just tracing, but I'm still proud. File this one under another cheap and easy project! My sewing machine is getting a lot of use this week. Bill said that sewing machine Christmas sure beat yoga Christmas since I'm actually using the machine so much! Who else has projects going on this week? The weather is so gross out that we're only focused on the inside this week. We can't be the only ones!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

Linking Up at Making the World Cuter

No Sew Fail

My first ever project with fabric was this table runner. I just ironed over the edges and called it a day. It looked great on our dining room table and on the dresser in the kitchen. 

As part of my spring cleaning, I decided it was time to wash the runners. Suddenly my no-sew runners turned into a big fat fail. When I took them out of the washer, they were a tangled mess. The edges had frayed and they were ugly. I put them in the dryer and went to bed, ashamed of the turnout.

The next day, I took them out of the dryer and started trimming the frayed edges. I ironed them again and then sewed a quick seam on one of them and put it back on the dresser. It was a quick fix and now I can wash it without worrying about what will happen. Instead of just fixing the second one for the dining table, I decided to make place mats. I measured some place mats that we already had and realized that the runner could easily be cut into 4 place mats.

Each one was going to be 13" wide, before sewing the edges. I simply measured this and cut the fabric.

 
Once I had the 4 pieces cut, I ironed a hem around all 4 sides of each one. This was the most tedious part. Then I pinned down where I had ironed so I could sew them. I even clipped the corners so they'd be nice and neat.

It took about ten minutes to sew all four of the place mats. Now I have 4 pretty place mats that bring some pattern to the dining room table. We always use place mats on the table because I don't want to scratch or damage the table.

I'm looking forward to making more using different fabric for different seasons and occasions. It was such a simple project, especially if you have a sewing machine. I'm sure it wouldn't take that long to hand sew them either. I never really changed my decor with the seasons, except for Christmas, but I think that's going to change now that I have so many options! Do you change items in your house based on the time of year? Or do you only decorate for holidays?

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend

White walls bore me. I bought my first house because I was tired of looking at plain white walls in my apartment. As soon as I moved into that house I painted every room in it. My craft room is the only room in our current house that has white walls. I added chevrons to the short front wall, but the rest of the room is white with white trim. For a little while, I was enjoying the serenity of it.

After spending a few hours at my white craft table in my white craft room last weekend, it was time for a bit of a change.  I built the craft table several years ago from a pre-finished plank of wood and four plumbing pipes. I painted the top white, since I was unfamiliar with staining and then spray painted the legs black. Come to think of it, the legs of this table may just be the first thing I ever spray painted in the name of home decor!

 
Clearly, I enjoy geometric patterns. Chevrons, stripes, the stencil and even different fabrics I've used are all inspired by geometry. I brainstormed a bit and of course turned to pinterest to find some new ideas. I needed something that would be easy and quick. This couldn't turn into an all day project, just something to allow me to procrastinate grading papers. I started to think of different ways I could tape off a pattern on the table top and it suddenly hit me: diamonds!

This was a really easy project, especially since I had all of the materials on hand. I used green frog tape, a speed square and paint. I used the speed square to ensure the diamonds were all evenly spaced and equal in size.

Tape of the lines in both directions to create the diamond pattern. I actually liked the look of it just using the tape!

Make sure that the background color is the color that you want to create the lines on the desk. You should actually make sure of this before you start any of the taping. I wanted gray to be the predominant color of the desk, so I didn't need to paint the whole desk first. Ok, now that I've cleared that up...

I painted two thin coats using the same gray paint that I used for the chevrons.  As soon as the second coat was dry, I pulled up the tape. I was amazed at how crisp the lines were!

Once the paint was dry, I put my sewing machine and a basket back on the table top. I just love how it came out.

Here's a view looking right at the desk so you can see the whole pattern.

Since I used materials that I already had, add this to the free project list. It adds a little character to this side of the room.  I still think I might want to paint the walls. Maybe over April vacation? We'll see!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen I linked this post at: