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?

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!   

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!