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 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?

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!