Decorate your TV

Wow I have been MIA!  With the start of school we've been getting used to a new schedule and with a full calendar on top of that, I haven't had time to do many projects.  The good news is, things are falling into place and I should be able to get back to business soon. While I have been busy, I have found time to sneak a few things in and here's one of them.

Here's my inspiration:

Originally found at Home Decor Online

I really like those metal scroll designs and always seen them at my local Kirkland's I just didn't know what to do with them.  But this gave me an idea...so I went to Kirkland's and picked one up for $14.99 (total steal!).

Here's what I did with mine:

The wall my TV hangs on is a bit bare so I added the metal scroll art to dress it up.   It just added a little something but I was happy with the way it came out.  Adding metal scroll art to fill in blank wall space...PIN!

Coming soon...Halloween inspired by Pinterest.  

DIY Wall Art - You Are My Sunshine

It's been a while but I am back!  The Easter holiday had me busy, busy!  With Spring on the way, hopefully, I thought it would be a good time to share a project I did with my son last year at this time.  Since he was a baby, I have sang "You Are My Sunshine" to him.  My Grandma sang it to me and I've always loved the song, so when I came across this DIY wall art idea, I had to do it.  

Originally found at The Polka Dot Pavilion's Facebook Page

This was another project that was done before Pin or Pass so I don't have any before photos, but I went to the craft store and got a blank canvas and paint in royal blue, red and yellow.  I had coupons and everything was on sale so I probably spent around $10.  

I wanted this to be a project my son and I did together so I let him take his hands, dip them in the royal blue paint and smear it all over the canvas to create the background.  I let it dry for several hours, then I dipped my hands in yellow pant and made hand prints in a circle.  Then he dipped his hands in the yellow and I helped him fill in the areas I missed with his hand prints.  From there, I took a medium sized paint brush and wrote You Are My Sunshine on the picture.

Here's our end result:

It's cute but I am a bit of a perfectionist.  I like DIY projects that don't LOOK like DIY projects.  I should have used a lighter color for the background and I would have gotten a little more meticulous in terms of the background application, maybe adding in a little white as well.  I also would have done the letters differently, I'm not sure how but I feel like mine look a little sloppy.  

Like I said, overall I think the picture is ok and he had fun making it so that is worth it alone but if I had to do it over again, I would do a lot differently and I'm still not sure it would have come out to the point where I'd be really happy with it.  This pin gets a PASS from me but only because I'm nutty and like things to look a certain way!  

What do you think about this one?  PIN or PASS?

A Baby Girl Nursery - Pinterest Style Part 3

Welcome to the last of my 3 part series, a baby girl nursery, Pinterest style!  In today's post I am going to cover the last two major projects I did for her room, a dresser makeover and a tutu table.  Let's start with my inspiration:

Originally found at Real Simple

Originally found at Good Bye House, Hello Home

Let's start with the dresser.  Now, I will tell you up front, much like our fireplace makeover I didn't have much to do with the manual labor on this project, I was the Visionary :) and Chris (my husband) did the hard stuff!  The dresser we got was handed down from his Mom.  It was a very high quality piece of furniture but it was a blonde stain.  Not going to work with our color scheme at all, so Chris started sanding!  He sanded it down quite a bit to get all the lacquer off.  From there, we primed it using regular paint primer.  Then he went over with 4 (or 5 I lost track) coats of white paint.  We spray painted the handles hot pink to match everything else in the room and after a lot of dry time, here is our end result!

I am very happy with the way it came out.  Since the dresser was free, the only thing we had to buy was paint so it was inexpensive to do this dresser makeover.  To dress it up a bit more, I took the left over scrapbook paper I had from the DIY wall art project and made a mat to put underneath the glass on top.  Here's a the finished product. 

I love the end result of this project.  I think it looks really cute and she'll be able to use it as she grows.  Plus if she ever wants to change the color scheme in her room the handles are easy enough to repaint.  If I had to do all the manual labor on this, it would probably be getting a PASS because he put a lot of time into doing all the coats, but since I didn't :-)  this project gets a PIN!

Onto the tutu table...I LOVE the tutu table.  Who am I kidding, I love all things tutu.  I'd put her in one everyday if I could!  When I saw the idea to make one out of a table I had to do it.  I got a $20 white table from Ikea and sprayed it...you guessed it, hot pink.  Then I got black tulle and lime green trim to accent the edges with.  My originally thought was I was going to hot glue the tulle along the inside lip of the table top.  Well when I sat down to put it together I quickly realized that wasn't going to work.  The tulle wouldn't stick to the table that well and it wouldn't bunch up nicely, so I had to enlist the help of none other than my Grandma D.  Now, a quick side note on Grandma D...she is the Craft Queen.  She can do it all, knit, crochet, paint, create, you name it, she can do it.  So when ever I have a project emergency, I go to her for help.  

Anyway, I took all my supplies to her and she used some elastic to string the tulle together.  Then she sewed the trim along the top of the tulle so it almost looked like a Hula skirt made from tulle.  From there, we hot glued the skirt to the edge of the table.  Here's the end result.

I don't love it.  In fact, I don't even really like it, but it's fine for now.  I needed way more tulle to make the skirt fuller.  I should have either went a little shorter or took the tulle all the way to the floor because I feel like this length looks awkward.  I like the lime green edging but it doesn't stay well on the table.  Since the table is metal, it is hard to get things to stick to it.  If I had to do over again, I would have found an old wood table, repainted it and stapled the tulle to the inside making the changes to length that I just mentioned.  Not including the cost of the table itself, I spent over $20 in supplies using coupons.  I think using a wood table and using more tulle would have made the outcome better but then it would have been even more expensive so while it breaks my heart to say it, the tutu table gets a PASS!

I had a lot of fun doing her nursery!  I think everything came out really well with the exception of a few projects I'd pass on, if I had to do it again.  Here's a a few overall photos, hope you enjoyed my baby girl nursery, Pinterest style series!

A Baby Girl Nursery, Pinterest Style - Part 2

In today's post I am going to focus on two things I did for the walls in my daugther's room, who which by the way is of course waking up from her nap early because I sat down to write a post :-)  I think they have radar.  Anyway, aside from the collage above her crib which I featured in my first post, I didn't have any thing for her walls so I turned to Pinterest to find some things to make.

Here was my inspiration:

Original from It's doable...Crafts, food and life.

Originally from Literally Inspired

Let's start with the flower project on top.  I thought this looked really cool and I also liked it because you can choose what ever color scrapbook paper you want so it was really easy to customize to the room.  Again, this project was done pre-Pin or Pass so I don't have before photos, but I went to the craft store and bought a canvas and about 10 sheets of scrapbook paper.  After coupons and sales I probably spent about $10 on this and I didn't need all that scrapbook paper, probably only about 5 sheets total.

I followed the instructions the original Pinner provided and I started by painting my canvas with a silver background color.  While it dried, I cut all the leaves out.  Once the leaves were cut I laid them out in the pattern to get an idea of where to place them.  From there, I used craft glue to glue the leaves on.  This is where I went wrong.  The glue was a little too heavy and some of the leaves didn't lay as flat as they should have.  Once all the leaves were on and dry, I went over it with a coat of Matte finish Modge Podge.  This made the bumps in the leaves from the glue stick out even more!  You can't see it when it's hanging on the wall, but if you look closely you can see them.

Here's my end result:

 
If you look closely, you can see what I am talking about with some of the leaves being bumpy.  I also wasn't really happy with the way the flower itself came together.  The original Pinner got her leaves in a much tighter pattern and I think it looked nicer.  While this project was easy and inexpensive, I don't LOVE my end result, so if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't!  I give this pin a PASS.

My second DIY wall art project was much more successful.  For this one, I took another canvas and photo of Julianna.  I got a poster size print from Walmart for $5!  I got it about an inch or two larger than the canvas all the way around the perimeter of the picture.  I painted the edges of the canvas hot pink (of course!) and used some craft glue to glue the picture down.  The graft glue worked fine for this project because photo paper is a lot heavier than scrapbook paper.  I glued the photo to the canvas and used an exacto knife to trim the excess off around the edges.  I used a sanding block to smooth the edges.  I know I thought it sounded crazy too but that's what the original Pinner said to do to clean up the edges so I tried it and it worked!  From there, I used Modge Podge on top to give it a textured look.  The original Pinner recommended another product to go over top, but Modge Podge worked fine for me.  Here my end result:

I was happy with the way this one came out!  Of course it doesn't hurt that she's a doll :-)  For less than $10 this project was complete.  It was easy and came out as expected, this one gets a PIN!

Up next...in the final part of my baby girl nursery series, I'll review her dresser re-do and her tutu table!  Stay tuned.

Tell me, what do you think so far?

A Baby Girl Nursery, Pinterest Style - Part 1

When I found out my second child was a girl, I was SO happy!  Don't get me wrong, I love having a little boy too.  Although I will admit, when I first found out he was going to be a boy I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure what do with a boy.  You can't paint their nails or get their ears pierced or buy them tutus!  But, it turns out boys are pretty cool too and I wouldn't trade him for the world!  I digress, regardless of how cool he turned out to be, boy stuff is not as fun as girl stuff.  There isn't as many options and everything looks the same so when I found out Julianna was on the way, I couldn't wait to get started on a baby girl nursery inspired by Pinterest!

I had just really gotten the Pinterest bug when I started planning.  Pin or Pass wasn't even a thought yet so unfortunately I don't have any before and after photos, just finished products.  Getting started I knew I wanted something different.  I didn't want the typical pale pink with butterflies kind of thing.  That theme for a baby girl nursery is very cute, just not me.  I'm more of a animal print/hot pink kind of person :-).

Over the course of a few posts, I will go over all the projects I did for her room.  Let's get started with the focal point of her room, the crib with a collage above it.  Here's my inspiration.

Originally found at Project Nursery

Originally found at Lilly Cakes

Original site is no longer available

Originally found at Small Chic Home

So after seeing all of these I selected a color scheme.  I chose hot pink, lime green and Zebra print.  I know, I know, I'm sure that seems a bit unusual for a baby's room, but once you see the comforter I found you'll understand and hopefully agree that it looks cute.  Plus I figured it would be something she could grow with for a few years.  Here's my end result:

My favorite part of the collage over her crib is the black frame with the "J' in it.  I got that on clearance at Hobby Lobby and I believe it was less than $10.  The sign hanging by the pink ribbon is also from Hobby Lobby and I bought scrapbook stickers that say "It's All About Me" on them, which are tough to see in this picture.  The picture with the words on it is from Walmart, $5!  The three items along the right side I made.  The top pink circle is just a piece of craft wood with her picture Modge Podged to it.  The middle piece is a canvas wrapped in zebra cloth.  The word Princess is made in wood and bought from the craft store for a few dollars.  I spray painted it hot pink to match.  Last but not least, our butterfly foot print.  I took her feet and dipped them in paint, then put them on the canvas.  

Everything in the collage is a PIN except for the wood with the picture and the butterfly print, those two items get a PASS!  The wood with the photo only gets a PASS because of the way it came together based on what I used.  I should have either cut the picture into a circle or bought a square piece of wood.  I think it just looks a bit awkward the way it is now.  

The butterfly picture while adorable was nearly impossible to do.  It took 3 tries before I got it to this and I'm still not totally satisfied with the end result.  The second I would put the paint on her feet she would squish them up because it was cold, so it made it impossible to get a good foot print.  As soon as I'd push them on the canvas she'd inevitably squish her toes again and ruin the print.  Cute idea for an older child, but not practical for a newborn, so PASS on this one.  

So that's the focal point of her room, the crib and the collage above it.  Stay tuned for my next post...DIY wall art for a baby girl nursery.

 

DIY Key Holder

A quick little project on this Sunday afternoon...I made a new key holder for our front door.  I found inspiration for this project at an Etsy shop that was selling this item.

I liked this idea because it was different than your traditional key holder, the standard piece of wood with some hooks.  I took a piece of craft wood from the craft store and covered it with fabric.  From there I went online and downloaded a free template to create the picture in the middle.  The design was downloaded then I added the words myself in Publisher.  I printed it on photo paper to give it a richer look.  I bought the wooden frame, which I love, at Michael's for $2!  I taped the picture to the frame and used a hot glue gun to glue the frame to the fabric covered wood.  I used mug hooks for the key hooks.  My husband drilled the holes for them first, them screwed them in.

Here is my end result, a unique key holder!

For less than $10, I created my DIY key holder.  I added my own little twist by adding the wood frame,  which could have been painted to match anything.  This key holder actually looks more like a wall decor but it's hanging by our front door, waiting for it's first set of keys!  Covering wood is a great way to create a unique piece for your home that matches exactly what you need it to.  Overall this project gets a PIN from me.

DIY Wall Art - What a Difference A Day Makes

Everything I do from Pinterest is mainly for my family in some way shape or form even though they may not realize it when it comes in the form of a DIY wall art project :-).  When I saw this project I thought it was a really cute way to showcase the history and making of our family as it is today.  I found the original idea on Sweet Little Loving's.

Now, I am by no means a graphic designer but I used Microsoft Publisher to lay my picture out.  I could be wrong but I think creating this in a simple Word document might be difficult as you really need to make sure that things line up properly.  Any way, in Publisher I turned on the grid and ruler function.  I selected three fonts, Castellar for the numbers, Clipper Script for the names and Modern No. 20 for the sentence at the bottom.  

Although I really like the lines she used on each side of her names, I couldn't get mine to look as nice so I left them off.  I also couldn't turn my writing the way she did with the word "day" in the last sentence so I just made it blue to highlight it a bit.  From there, I put a border around the entire thing and printed it on resume paper.  

Here's my end result!

 If I had to do over again, I'd twist the leg of one of my graphic designer friends and have them help me lay this out so I could have the lines the way the original poster did next to everyone's names.  I'd also add the detail to the word "day" as the original poster did.  But for just having basic graphic design skills and it just being a quick DIY project, I'm ok with the way it came out.

As for supplies, I had the resume paper and the frame was on sale at Michael's for $6.  So, I did this whole project for $6, it was relatively easy and not too time consuming.  Best of all, it gave me another piece of inexpensive DIY wall art to add to my living room so this project gets a PIN.  

And now that you all know my birthday, I'll be expecting gifts :-)  Just kidding...up next, Spring cleaning is just around the corner so I'm going to tackle my Microfiber couch and try to get the stains out with DIY cleaning post I found on Pinterest. Organizing with Pinterest ideas is upcoming too so stay tuned!  If you haven't already please subscribe to Pin or Pass so you don't miss any of my posts!   

A Fun Way to Hang Your Picture Frames

If you're anything like me, I have a million pictures all around my house.  I LOVE pictures!  So when I saw this idea originally from Pottery Barn, I had to give it a try.

Now, Pottery Barn sells these for $24.00 each!  No way was I paying that, so I went to Hobby Lobby, with my 40% off coupon in hand and found my own.  I picked two distinctly different knobs just to jazz it up a bit but you could use two of the same if you don't want to mix it up.  If you don't have a Hobby Lobby, most home improvement centers have knobs you could use.

I bought two picture frames from Michael's that had the ribbon already attached.  They were on sale for 40 or 50% off so they were only a few dollars each.  It would be easy to attach your own rope, ribbon or chain if you had picture frames already that you wanted to use.

I had to enlist the help of my husband to install these.  I was thinking you'd just screw them in the wall and be done with it, but no.  If you are hanging your pictures on a part of your wall that doesn't have a stud behind it, you'll need to use a toggle hook to put these up.  If you have specific questions about how to do that, email me and I can ask Chris (my husband).

Here's the end result, two beauties hanging in my bathroom!

The door knobs were around $7 with coupons and the frames were under $10 for both.  They were relatively easy to install if you have someone that knows how to use a toggle hook :-) so this project gets a PIN for being easy, inexpensive and producing a good final product!

DIY - Jumbo Ruler Growth Chart

Original Pin from
Emily A. Clark

Many families have a spot in their house where they chart their kid's growth on the wall.  I've seen it done in the garage, by doors and in archways.  The only problem is, if you move, all those measurements stay with the house.  So when I came across the idea for a movable growth chart you could take with you, I had to do it!

This idea has made an appearance in multiple posts on Pinterest.  I've seen it come to life in several ways but the one I liked best came from Emily A. Clark.  I call it the jumbo ruler growth chart!  I really liked the way the original pinner's looked so in planning to create mine, I planned not to change much.

I asked my husband to get me a 2 x 6 which cost $5 at our local lumber store.  From there, he gave it a light standing and stained it using stain we had on hand from a previous project.  I bought a package of reusable number stencils from the craft store for $5.  I used a plain old black Sharpie to draw the lines and stencil the numbers.

I used a small ruler and measured out the lines using a pencil to mark the spots.  Then I went back over them with the Sharpie.  Lastly, I taped the number stencils down and colored them in with the Sharpie.  I gave the marker a few minutes to dry before I pulled the stencil off and I was done!

One note, I did find that the Sharpie bled a little.  So, just be careful not to saturate the lines too much by going over them multiple times.  Same with the number stencils.

Here's the end result...    



I was really happy with the way it came out.  We hung it on an awkward wall in our kitchen that leads into our family room so it has sort of become wall art too.  For $10 I got a movable jumbo ruler growth chart that can come with our family where ever we go.  My son gets a kick out of getting measured.  I think he feels like he's getting to write on something that he shouldn't be allowed to write on.  A definite PIN!

Up next...a guest post from a friend of mine who likes to use Pinterest for it's recipes.  We'll see what Shauna B. is cooking up and whether it gets a PIN or PASS.  Pin or Pass is also on Facebook now, so please follow me there too!

Easy DIY Wall Art - Recycled Wood and Some Fabric

Several posts ago I shared a pin that I gave a big PASS to, called DIY wall art with your welcome mat.  If you missed that post, check it out but here's a quick reminder of the end result...yikes!

DIY wall art gone bad!

As I mentioned in the original post, I spent more than I would have liked to on the supplies for this project so when it came out terrible I started looking through my pins to see how I could recycle the supplies.  I found several pins that I got inspiration from so I incorporated pieces of each to come up with my latest project.

Home Design Pins

The New England Southerner

The original pins came from two sites, Home Design Pins and The New England Southerner.  Here are the pictures of my inspiration. I think both of these pins look great so I went out and got some fabric to cover the wood from my DIY wall art project that bombed!

For $8 from Joann Fabrics, I got enough fabric to cover both pieces of wood.  I ironed the fabric, placed the wood on it and stapled it into place.  If you've never covered anything before, it is fairly easy you just need to make sure that you don't have any bumps in the fabric and then wrap what ever you are covering similar to a present!  That may not be the "right" way to do it, but that's how I do and it works just fine, LOL!

Here's how it came out.  At first I debated about whether or not to add photos so I hung up the covered pieces without photos and lived with it for a few days.  You can see what I decided and I have to say, I love it!

So for $8 I revived my dead project, recycled some materials and created something I really like.  It was quick and easy and gave me a great place to highlight my kids' pictures.  I think putting the photos on the fabric really helps them pop and stand out as a focal point of the room.  Both of these original pins get a big PIN from me!

Now, last but not least...should I put lights over them like Home Design Pins did?  Tell me what you think!

Up next...a jumbo ruler growth chart!

DIY Wall Art With Your Welcome Mat

Since moving into our new home just a little over a year ago, I've been going room by room focusing on painting, decorating and improving our space.  Anyone who has ever bought a new house knows how expensive those first few years can be so I turned to Pinterest for some DIY inspiration.

I found this pin from Our Family Four and I was IN LOVE with the original pinner's end result.  It looked unique and it fit perfectly with the room I was focused on.  The pin had fairly detailed instructions so I thought it would be an easy project.   

Photo from Our Family Four's blog post

I bought a mat from Target on clearance for $7,  two pieces of wood from Lowe's for around $30 and then I used stain and spray paint we already had at home.  So I it was roughly $40 to start.  A little more than I'd typically spend on a DIY stuff but I loved the project so much I didn't mind. 

My husband stained the wood and taped off the edges for me.  Then I placed the mat in the middle and sprayed away!  I let it dry in between each coat and did 4 coats total. I was so excited to pull the mat back and see the end result...imagine my disappointment when it look TERRIBLE!  

The lines were not clean, the paint had smudged in places and overall the pattern of the mat just wasn't has nice as the original pinner's.  I sited heavy coats of paint and my mat pattern as the problem in my first stab at this project.

Determined to have this in my living room, I invested in a new mat, another $20 at Target.  I flipped the boards over and taped them off again.  Before starting, I went back to the original blog and read the directions again.  In my first attempt, I missed that the original pinner had taken an exacto knife and cleaned up the mat.  If you take a close look at your rubber mats you'll see that there is excess plastic throughout the lines of the design and it is jagged in places. When using it as a stencil it would make the lines less clean.  

I sat down with an exacto knife and trimmed all the excess plastic!  I can't even tell you how long this took...let's just say it's hours off of my life that I am never getting back LOL!  Anyway, again, I was vested in making this come to life so I went at it again.

This time, I did four light coats of spray paint and allowed more drying time in between.  I let it dry over night before I removed the mat.  I pulled back the mat and was yet again disappointed.  It was better than the first attempt but still not good enough for my living room wall. 

You can see even after all my exacto work, the lines still weren't overly clean and despite the added drying time, paint still smudged. Overall it just didn't look that impressive. I spent a lot of time and money on this project.  It was time consuming and after two failed attempts, I was out of wood and had to give up. So, even though I absolutely LOVED the original pinner's end result, I have to give this pin a PASS.  

In future posts, I'll recycle the wood and mat into other projects I seen on Pinterest.  Stay tuned!

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!