Chevron Fun

We are on the move and planning to finish up the basement, meaning the playroom and my craft room! YEAH!!!   With a number of projects on my list I have started to work on some of the small ones bit by bit. One that I have been wanting to do is chevron initials for the playroom. I have a current color scheme going of yellow, red, turquoise, and lime green. So I got my supplies and got started!!  

Supplies:

craft paint

canvas (I used 11x14)

wooden letters

painters tape

foam brush

pencil

ruler

 

To start I measured off 3 horizonal lines each 3.5" apart. That was where the bottom of my chevron hit, this kept them evenly spaced and pretty staright.

I then taped my chevron...this wasn't easy, but wasn't too bad once I got going. Once I got the first row of chevron, I then drew a vertical line from the tip of each down point (sorry, you can't see the pencil lines) this helped me to make sure that all my zig zags were even.

 

Once I had it completely taped I then painted using my craft paint. I didn't completely cover the tape, and also made sure to keep the paint off the sides of the canvas...I plan to go back and paint this one of the other accent colors.

While my canvas was drying I took that time to paint my letters. For the letters I used another bold color to make them stand out. When all the paint was dry I pulled the tape off and then hot glued the letter right in the middle.

 

Here is what the finished product looks like:

 

And I can't wait to hang this up!! This one is of course Jake's, Emmah's is turquoise and green...they are going to look great!!

Study Time

Since moving into this house I have had some fun ideas that I have been just waiting to put into place in the basement. I actually had a friend come over, who by the way is a great decorator, to help with what to do with the basement. And just when we thought we might get things started, we got water....   Well now that things have all dried up, it only took 3 years! We have done the work, with that I needed to have an area to put the computer, and even a work area for the kids to draw, color, or even do homework.   With the suggestion of using a door, I knew it would be perfect! Here's how I did it:

1. To start I went to the local Habitat for Humanity Restore and purchased a door. I chose a smooth interior door, that measured 24" across. I wanted it to be wide enough for work room and for the computer.
    
2. Next, I took was sanding it, I wanted to make sure the surface wasn't too smooth so the paint wouldn't adhere.
3. Then, I painted it black. I only painted what I was using for the top, one long edge, and one short edge (only the ones that would be showing) I ended up doing 2 coats to make sure I had a nice even coat of paint. *what you need to paint will depend on what all you need to paint
4. Once it dried my husband and I attached the table legs that I purchased at Lowes. I painted those black as well. I put both legs on one end, and am using my file cabinet on the other end for the legs.
 

Here is what the final project looks like:  

{Please excuse all the cords...the hubby is working on that!!}   It has truly been perfect!! We have a nice desk to work at as well as keep our items filed and in a proper place. I LOVE how it is working out and will soon be adding a cork/magnet board above it as well.

Basement Transformation

Although this is still a work in progress, we have made some HUGE strides over the last week! Here are some updated pictures to share with you:  There will definitely be more to come as we have added outlets, switches and a new couch!! I just LOVE the pop of color we added and am having LOADS of fun working on the final details. (Many of which have been pinned on my Pinterest board for months....YEAH!)I am looking forward to making the desk this week using a door as well as revamping my yucky file cabinet. Those are next on the list, and don't worry I'll have tutorials posted for both!! 

Upcycled Pillows

**In case you missed my guest post, here is the fun project I did!! It was pretty easy and super fun!! Jake is already requesting more!!**



T-shirts always seem to wear out around our house...and with a husband that wears them everyday, we go through A LOT!! 

Well, my hubby has a few that bring back some special memories or are just plain cool, but he has, well let's just say made them not as attractive to wear anymore. So I have been looking for a cool way to use these t-shirts. I've heard of the quilts, but they don't quite fit so when I saw some t-shirt pillows I knew that it was the PERFECT idea!! My son's room is baseball themed and since most of the t-shirts I had to work with were baseball/sport related they would be a great addition to his room! So I got to work!

Supplies: 

• old or new t-shirts
• stuffing (higher polyfil the better, or you can use a pillow form)
• pins
• rotary cutter and cutting mat
• lightweight fusible interfacing

Now let's get started:

First off decide what part of the shirt you are going to use.

Using your rotary cutter and mat line the shirt up and cut you will want your image to be centered so cut accordingly. Cut through both layers of the shirt.

Now cut your interfacing to the same size as your pieces. You will want to iron this onto both sides of the pillow, it helps to keep the shirt from stretching and tearing after you sew.

Next, pin right sides together and then sew around the outside leaving 3-4 inch opening for you to stuff.

 

Trim corners and then turn rightside out, and STUFF! Then finish off with an invisible stitch.

Display with JOY and ADMIRATION!!

The smile on my son's face is enough for me to know that it's a job well done!

Wall Art

For awhile now I have been working to complete rooms in my house, make them my own, add fun details and ORGANIZE! I stress the orgainze part because well....let's face it this is where I lack! I try without much success to keep myself organized and while many people always comment on how orgainized I am, I put on a good show!! Well you know my addiction to Pinterest so of course I looked on there to find some inspiration. To begin I have been looking for somthing to do in my Master Bedroom as I don't feel like it is complete or what I want it to look like. (This is an ongoing battle since my hubby always says "WHO CARES, you sleep there and your eyes are CLOSED!") I care!!With that I found this cool wall stencil idea on Pinterest and got right to work!I used Nannygoat who got her inspiration, and template, from jones design company.I did mine slightly different, first off cause I didn't read all the tutorial before I started, and secondly cause I didn't want to go back and change it! (Read LAZY!)Here is what it looked like as I stenciled the wall:

 

 And here is the finished product!!

 I am so SUPER EXCITED in how this turned out and am contemplating doing another one in my living room with a different design in the small built in nook! I hope that you will try one of you own. It was a little time consuming, but so worth it!! 

Family Rules

Being a crafty girl I follow A LOT of sites, blogs, etc. always looking for the next BIG idea or crafty project! About a month ago or so on GroopDealz they had a really cool family rules sign. I wanted one, but wasn't sure I wanted to pay the shipping (it was kinda high just for one item). Lucky for me a friend of mine posted something on facebook about ordering so as a group of 3 we ordered and saved. It arrived the other day and I LOVE it!! It fits perfectly with my gallery wall and forced a little rearranging.Here is my new sign:

 Funny that in the last couple of days as my kids have been fighting I quickly remind them of our family rules!!

Gallery Wall 2

As I am sure that many of you saw in my gallery wall I combined a lot of different ideas and meshed them together. I thought it might be a great idea to share what I did for each of the items on my gallery wall so that you can create one of you own!!

1. An adorable photo of Jake!
2. A wooden quote (bought this when we first moved in.)
3. Wreath, basically I took a small wreath hung it from ribbon and framed it.
4. Date Art which I found on Pinterest from Andrea at a.steed's.life. I just printed mine.
5. Mirror from IKEA, totally free! (Plan to add some rope flowers on it too!)
6. Clock from Target, this was my splurge item.
7. Quote from the girls at Eighteen25, color options available.
8. Family picture
9. A piece of scrapbook paper framed.
10. A beautiful picture of Emmah!
11. Eventually these will be wooden blocks, with either photos or paper....can't decide.

That's what I have so far, but there are a couple more items I may add, but don't worry I'll fill you in when I add them!! I have some curtains to get to!!

  

My Gallery

Forever I have seen Wonderful gallery walls and have always wanted one of my own. Great idea....hard project! I mean you not only have to decide color, but what to include.  I thought about this long and hard and searched for LOTS of inspiration like this from Young House Love, which gave me some great ideas of what to include in my frames, and this one (which has a few ideas that I will be eventually adding to my wall!  Here is my first run at it: 

I left up the paper models for a day or so just to get the feel and make sure that I like the look and feel of the arrangement.

 I will be switching out some of the photos soon, as we just had some new pictures of the kids done.I definitely have some additions and want to add them soon, so I can take a little time to just look at it for awhile. We'll have to wait and see if there is any movement....

A new opening...

I don't know about everyone else but I am sucker for a new fun project and work best under pressure!!I am super excited to finally get some real guests that will be staying at our house this summer, my sister Mary and my neice and nephew Shelby and Ethan!! YEAH!!

Since I will have guests this means that my list of To Do projects not only got longer, but was put into hyperdrive in order to get it complete before their visit!One thing that has been on my list for awhile is painting the front and side door, they are a bright green. I HATE the color, but when they were painted, it wasn't my house so I didn't have a say.

Well the house is mine now, and we went for a new color!! I really wanted to go with a RED but promptly got the NO WAY from the hubby. So I went with black to match the shutters, and am really hoping to convience the hubby that next year we should paint the brink along the front a subtle gray...

 

Here is the new look!! I can't wait to add my new 4th of July wreath!!