Tuesday, February 28, 2012

DIY Sunday: Easy Wall Art

Hello Everyone!

I spent all weekend being very focused on craft projects and my daughter. My husband was busy studying, and I was on baby duty. We had a blast playing around with her new potty and toy vanity. While she was sleeping, I did this art project for my office wall. I found the tutorial on Young House Love.  (Via Pinterest) That blog that has exploded over the last year...with good reason. It's fantastic!

I decided to use a dark purple and two different shades of blue. The entire project was super affordable. I got the canvas for only 12$ at Hobby Lobby with a 40% coupon. The paint is only 3 little tubes for 60 cents with a large white bottle to dilute. So the entire project was around $15.00! My office wall is a dark purple, and I am making chair covers that have some blue. I'm really excited for the way it turned out. I kinda want to keep it home with me. :)

The painting at home.

Painting hanging in my office.

 
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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Show & Tell: U--S--D..COYOTES WOO WOO!

Hello There!

I have a really really fun project to show. I graduated from University of South Dakota for both my undergrad and law degree. While I was at USD, I was also a cheerleader, so I have a special place in my heart for the Coyotes. Our rival is the SDSU Jackrabbits. When I was in school, I got to experience the last games we played against them since they went D1. Our school followed suit a few years later and the rivalry has been renewed. Our school put a billboard up in their college town saying "Have an old friend over for dinner" with a coyote chasing a jackrabbit and then listed the date of our first rivalry football game in years. When State would come to town, there was many t-shirts, but one of the most popular ones was, "Hate State" on the front and on the back "**** the bunnies" on the back. Not really appropriate, but that's college students for you. I decided to make my daughter a shirt that was appropriate, but supported the 'yotes. So, using my Silhouette and heat transfer, I made her a shirt tonight. I'm really excited with the way it turned out!

The front of the shirt.
 
 The back of the shirt.

Go Yotes!

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Saturday, February 18, 2012

DIY Sunday: MOPS Handprint tree

Hello Everyone!

A couple of weeks ago, the moms at our local MOPS got together and did a really fun craft. I have been stalking this project on Pinterest for a while, and it was really fun to do it with a group of girls.

The tutorial for the project is by Naptime Decorator. Our group did a few things differently. We didn't use paint markers. We used vinyl on the glass of frame I cut from my Silhouette. The rationale behind this change is when you have another child and need to do a new tree, you don't have to rewrite the quote. The quote is a bit different (mostly because my Silhouette screwed it up, and this is what I got.) We used poster board for the backing, brown paper for the tree (I found a tree Silhouette online to use as a stencil) and acrylic paint for the hands. So in short, we didn't need the paint markers at all.

I spray painted my frame white, and I really like the place I found to hang it.

Enjoy!

The picture works perfect above our little important things nick-nack shelf. There's our unity candle, our cross we got for joining our church here, sand from our honeymoon and a pair of Koren kissing ducks I got from a friend. (Noses are together so we're a happy couple!)

My daughter has the little glittery purple one at the top. :) If I do another one, I might change the background color to a light blue or something.

 
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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Chalkboard Mayhem (Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!)

Hello.

Hopefully you read the title of the post as it was intended: in a monster truck announcer voice. Last week was one of "those" weeks. It wasn't particularly bad per se, but it did seem like I was down on my luck in the stupidest ways. First of all, my external hard drive where pretty much my entire life exists has become corrupt. I should blame either a) my new Mac...but we are still in the honeymoon phase, and that beautiful machine can do no wrong, or (b) my blatant disregard to the constant warnings to eject my hard drive properly. What can I say? I'm one bad arse.

Either way, all my videos, pictures and documents are gone..including my daughter's birth, first years of life, and all those pesky job applications and resumes I had so dearly written and slaved over during my 85 applications. At least I am a Facebook-aholic and most of my pictures are saved on my profile. Thank goodness for addictions! ;) I just imagine my Mac saying, "I told you so" about the hard drive. Oh Mac, you are so mean to me, but I still love you.

After that hard drive fiasco, my husband had his first "bad" test (I use quotations because we have very different views of "bad"...I view failing as "bad" where he views less than an A as "bad". I actually really view failing as a "well that sucks but I can't do anything about it now, so I'm going to enjoy this glass of wine." but I digress.) On Wednesday, my alarm decided not to go off, Thursday, the baby wasn't feeling good and Friday we found out she has an ear infection, and then I had an "incident" with chalkboard paint on Saturday.

Ah. Chalkboard paint. I have a love-hate relationship with it. First of all, I love the look of it. It's so 90's "coffee shop" (and I had many fond memories of coffee shops in the 90's...although I've had more with bars in the 2000's). But unfortunately, it involves chalk. I hate chalk. I hate the feel of it. I hate cleaning it. I hate having the dust everywhere (but it's only marginally better than those dry erase boards. I can't stand that static-like shavings that come off)

Here's a bit of chalkboard paint humor:

So, I gave into the trend and  bought some chalkboard spray paint the other day. It's kinda expensive, but I had all these wonderful beautiful ideas pinned, and I was just waiting for a marginally warm day to create them.

On Saturday, my husband had to study, the baby was down for a nap, I had prepped the surface and it wasn't ten below. It was like all the planets aligned and were like "USE YOUR CHALKBOARD PAINT PRONTO!"

The surface I was going to paint (well the first one...I had big plans for this little can of paint) was from this desk: 


I got this desk for free on a chilly dark night in an alley. Well kinda. I actually found a listing for a desk on Craigslist and after agreeing to get the desk, I found out it was at a frat. The giver also alluded to "having to help him move it." I arrived in the dark alley behind the frat (said a little prayer to myself about not getting abducted) and soon found out that "helping him move it" really meant moving a solid wood desk down four floors in a decrepit frat house with unrecognizable stains and sticky substances abound. With much sweat and cursing, I got the desk to my car. I tried to put it on my porch but it was so big, and it looked plain silly. I found a replacement desk on a dark corner last week (apparently most my furniture hunting is done at that time) and this big one was out. But there was no WAY I was just tossing the frat desk after the work it took to get it. It had to have a bright future somewhere. Enter Chalkboard paint.

So, I had my surface on a drop cloth ready to be painted. I was trying to get the spray paint lid off with a screwdriver (it had one of those stupid tops you have to pry off) and what do you know, I punctured the spray paint can.

If you know me, I don't deal well with surprise situations. When my daughter decided to empty oil primer on to her face and try to eat it, I panicked and threw her in the shower. When she ate something out of the trash she shouldn't have, I took the water I was drinking and threw it at her. When my parent's house was on fire and I was in it, I kinda just stood there staring at the flames on the roof until my husband told me what to do. So, when I punctured the paint can, I didn't grab a rag to stop the spraying. I ran with it.

I'm sure all of those with simple logic can deduce what happened when one runs with a paint can spraying paint. It gets everywhere. I was very focused on my mission, and got to the board I had all ready. As the paint sprayed out the can in all directions, I attempted to save some of the chalkboard paint by letting it spray all over the board. After it coated the board thoroughly, I threw the can on the lawn. And by that I mean, I actually threw a can of compressed paint instead of walking it to the lawn. The can continued to spray in the air like a sprinkler. My lawn is officially a chalkboard.

After I threw the paint can, I looked around to see the damage. I had gotten some on the ground. I mostly got it on me. I was wearing my husband's new heavy coat. It was coated. My glasses? Completely covered in paint specks. My shoes were ruined. My pants, which were once white, are now this paint speck I venture was very popular in the 80's or during a 90's homecoming. My hands were black...including my engagement and wedding band. My tools were also sprayed.

What about that board I had prepped? My haphazard coat ended up not working, and I had to scrap that project.

After all that, I realize that the entire time, I could have just made my own chalkboard paint. I bought all the supplies for it at the beginning of the summer for these chalkboard windows.



So, I went to work making my own paint. (Here's the recipe in case you haven't seen it pinned one million times on Pinterest) And to just show that the chalkboard paint it wouldn't beat me, I made a ton of it and ended up making like ten chalkboards in my house. Take that chalkboard paint! You will not conquer me!

I'm sitting on the couch feeling pretty dang good about my chalkboard adventure when my husband comes home. He looks straight me with a look of concern, "What is all over your face?!?" I had no idea what he was talking about. I go to the mirror, and I have black specks all over my face. I had chalkboard freckles! Compared to the other damage, they weren't that bad, but I had been walking around in public with black freckles all over my face. I got them off along with a couple of layers of skin. I think my various chalkboards turned out pretty good considering the collateral damage that came along with it.



The board I had planned on turning into a chalkboard. It looks like it would work. Then I tried to write on it and all the paint came off.


I now have a chalkboard hammer.



I was walking around with chalkboard freckles and didn't know it.


New desk with chalkboard on it.



Chalkboard drawer from other desk. Will be used as a planter this spring.



My chalkboard after making my own chalkboard paint and painting over the black. I'm going to change the words or drawing based on the season. This one was for Valentine's Day and said, "What I love best about my home is who I share it with."


My painted glass jars. They will eventually have flowers or something in them. I have been dressing up that tree with seasonal stuff. I meant to put some heart ornaments on it, but I'm going to move on to Easter themed.

 
During the chalkboard paint craze, I painted this mirror with blue chalkboard paint. My daughter found it very amusing to color.







 
It did say, before my daughter's drawings, "Peace begins with a Smile."



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Sunday, February 12, 2012

DIY Sunday: Headboard

Hello Everyone!

I got this headboard in the fall and I've just now finished it. Not only was I not motivated to get it done (or motivated to do anything for that matter), but I ended up putting three coats of paint on it before I found the color I loved.

This is the "before" of the headboard. It was free from a friend that was moving. Nice heavy wood, but I was less than impressed with the color of the wood.


My first coat was done with the create your own spray paint at a local hardware store. It didn't turn out good. It came out all chunky, and it wasn't even the right blue color. Not to mention it was super expensive.

Next I tried a Rustoleum spray paint. The spray paint turned out okay except for the fact it was a color that didn't match anything I owned.

My final paint choice was based off these awesome pillow case covers a friend made & gave me for Christmas. I went to Ace Hardware and had them mix me some aqua paint. The color turned out great and is being used on another desk (I'll post the desk this week!), and I also mixed it with some grout to make chalkboard paint that I used on a mirror. 

  
I do love the headboard. It works with the purple walls I was stuck with when I moved in (I'm really not motivated to paint this large room.) I still need to do something with the box spring, bedspread and nightstands. I am also going to put something on the walls eventually.

 

 

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