Signs...SIGNS...everywhere!

I was in the mood to make something and wasn't at the same time.

I also didn't feel like doing something complicated...I go back and forth.

Know what I mean?

Do you guys do that too??

When I finally decided on something to make...after probably FOREVER of just looking at things on my laptop. I decided I wanted a couple new signs.

First one.

I wanted a sign to go with our "Art Gallery" in our apartment. Its what everyone calls it....so...I thought it needed a sign to make it more....official...and cool. =D

So...simple sign.

Painted it black....cut white vinyl from my Cricut (the best invention everrrrr).

Sanded the edges and added hangy thingys on the back.

I think it looks pretty neato.

Check it out!

 

The next sign, I decided to make was this one. I went about this one a little differently.

No vinyl....just a sharpie. Nothing fancy...but its still cute.

When I get tired of it, I can paint over it.

The saying comes from "Big Bang Theory"

Does you guys watch that show?!

Its so FUNNY!

I love Sheldon!

So...this is his little song he likes to have sung to him at bedtime.

Plus.....if anyone knows me....you know I love animals

and especially my kitties!

 

"Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of Fur.

Happy Kitty, Sleepy Kitty, Purr, Purr, Purr...."

 Oh LOOK!

Its one of my sleepy kitties...Rem!

 Have a great day!

 

Linking to These Parties!

My Headboard!

Looky, looky!

I made a headboard for my new King sized bed!!

I have been wanted a headboard foreverrrr! There isn't much choices around here in the very few furniture stores that we have.

So I stumbled across this tutorial for a headboard, 

at Don't Disturb This Groove.

Check it out!

(Sorry I haven't posted for a while...I know, I know...I say this all the time,

but I have been so busy with work) 

So here are a couple photos of my headboard. I'll explain what I did below.

(Excuse my non-matching pillows. Most of my bedroom is hand-me-downs and miss-matched) 

 

I pretty much did the same thing as the tutorial, except a few minor differences.

I went to Lowes the other day with the my bed measurements and looked and looked and looked....and well, looked some more. 

Finally I settled on a piece of wood that was 6 feet long, and about 2 feet-ish wide for about $14-15.

(I don't remember exactly off the top of my head).

I used a piece of wood because I didnt have any cardboard big enough.

I kind of wish I used cardboard or thinner wood, because this piece made it heavy...but its still standing, so it must be okay!

 I also walked up and down the molding aisle....over and over.

I was kind of looking for something close to 2 inches wide...so I could add an extra 2 inches on all sides.

I finally found a 5 pack of 7 foot molding that was 2 inches wide and primed white...for like...$12!! Shyeaaah!

I bought some liquid nails and the caulking gun thingy.

Then while I was at Walmart, I noticed in the paint section, they had little bottle samples of Glidden paint! For like...$2 something! Saaaaweeeeet!

So I bought a bottle in Bittersweet Chocolate. I wanted something in brown...so it can just match with whatever. Then I looked around for fabric with my mom, and couldn't find anything I really wanted.

So I decided to stick with a fabric I had a lot of at home already...

I didnt really want a pattern...or funky colors...I wanted something kind of neutral that will match with a lot of things. So the fabric I used is sort of like canvas and its a taupe-olive color. It goes well with everything!

Then I followed the tutorial. Since my headboard wasn't as high as Don't Disturb This Grooves was, I added molding all the way around. My husband helped me some. I couldnt do anything too fancy, since, again.....I am in an apartment with no access to a garage or workbench or even a little outside area (plus its winter). So we cut the molding by hand in my kitchen/living room-room....since its one big huge room.

I put a little batting on my big piece of wood and then covered it in fabric and stapled it on the back. Pretty simple.

(I still think its needs a little something something...maybe some furniture tacks or something to add more decoration to it, hmmm.....)

The gluing process was tricky. Very very tricky. Clamps work good to hold the corners of the molding together while it dries. And be prepared to sit on the floor and hold the rest of the molding in place for a bit. Then find all kinds of heavy things in the house to put on top of it and hold things in place.

I let it sit overnight. I wasn't able to work on it the next day, since I had to work, but I worked on it the day after. I needed more stability on the back....so I glued some foam board all over the back. 

Then I painted all the molding with my paint sample. I did 3 quick coats and still had a tiny bit left in the bottle! WOW!

Then when it was all dry, I brought it into my bedroom and propped it against the wall behind my bed, and pushed my bed into it. Thats it.

Thats IT! thats it...crazy huh?

It wasn't that hard at all.

Would of been a little easier if I had a miter box and put foam board on the back from the beginning and used clamps from the beginning to hold things, instead of listening to my husband say nooo...we need to sit here and hold this in place. haha.

But ya....not too shabby.

It ended up costing just under $30 with everything I picked up!

So that was my latest project.

What until you see what I have in store to post next week.

Just you wait!

 

Parties that I am linking to:

Coffee Table Makeover!

This was my coffee table.

I was getting SO tired of it. It’s a hand-me-down. Its huge, square, and collected EVERYTHING!

Its got paint spots on it…and its chipping here and there….

See………..EVERYTHING!

This is everything that was on the bottom. Scary, I know!

I was on the hunt for a new-to-me coffee table, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. So I decided to break down and give this one a makeover. Now I LOVE it!

This is it now!
(I need to get some better photos of it in action! with some natural light too)

After a paint job! And little curtain thingys.

I did this today, so I haven’t yet gotten around to going through everything that was under it and putting it back, so it is currently empty.

(which my cats like, they think its something new to play in)

 A quick explanation of what I did and some tips for painting a coffee table:

I started out by sanding the top and legs a little bit just to get some of the shine off. Then I started applying some regular ole black craft paint. I used only 2 and a half little bottles! Crazy!

I started using a big bristle brush, but switched over to a foam brush. I like foam brushes much better for these things, except I only had 1 inch sized ones, but it worked.

I painted two coats of black. I did not paint the bottom inside…I did around the bottom outside…you can kind of see through the glass how it is still brown underneath. I left it like that because I wasn’t sure how I would prefer it….and I think for now, I like it left brown. One reason is…when I look “inside” for something, it isnt as dark. 

Anyway…..I left my ceiling fan on while painting, so it dried quickly. I then applied a coat of Matte Mod Podge that I thinned a little with water, all over. I wanted to do some sort of top coat, and that’s all I had at the moment. I still would like to give it another real top coat sometime…but for now it works. With the way I did my brush strokes, criss-crosses, the paint looks like it has a suede like texture. Kinda neat!

Then I decided I wanted some sort of curtain thingy around 3 sides, to camouflage the crap that might accumulate under it. I used some Olivey-Taupe Canvas-like material. I hemmed up the sides. Then I attached them with some black furniture tacks. 

Everything I used, was stuff I already had.

Ahhhh, it looks SOOO much better. It took me about 3 hours from start to finish. I like how, our laptops (which are black) blend right in when we have them on top….(which is where they are constantly) (and no, they are not in the photos “blending in”, haha!)

It so much more aesthetically pleasing to my eyes!

The only thing I am not sure if I want to do yet or not…..is…..should I distress the edges?? Or not?

Its not like its solid wood, I believe it has wood veneer on it…or whatever you call it, because it was chipping in spots. Hmmm…..

(Oh ya, has anyone used  Windows Live Writer in Windows 7 to write & post your blogs? I can't seem to quite get the hang of it yet)

Linking to these Parties:

 Handmade Tuesdays @ Ladybug Blessings

Pillow & Coffee Sign

I know I know, I need to post more often! The thing is, I work on things, and then take photos of them, it just takes me forEVER to get around to writing a post for it. I know, I'm a slacker.

But as least I am posting!

So here is what I got new....

 

Here is a pillow I made for a friend/client of mine. She cleaned out her craft room and had given me a bunch of fabric, plus she let me borrow quite a few of her Cricut Cartridges (which is really awesome of her!). So I wanted to make her a little something.

I made her this little FAMILY pillow.

I love the colors I used. It turned out pretty cute I think. Another friend of mine had done a lot of the embroidery pillows as Christmas gifts this past year, and so I wanted to try it.

Another project I worked on was a Coffee Sign. I kept seeing these simple cheap Coffee Signs at different stores....and I kept wanting to buy one, but then I would tell myself....

"Nah...you have stuff to make something like that and it'll be free!" 

See...I sorta, kinda like to shop...and I like just about any excuse to buy something fun. But...if its something that I could make, I am trying to make an effort, to just try and make it and not waste my money. SOooo.....thats what I did!

My mom had given me a bunch of craft supplies, and in it were a few of these wooden plaques. 

So I painted the top a beigey kind of color. Painted the border reddish, and used a black sharpie (!) for the actual edge. Then I went on my Cricut and looked for a coffee mug. I cut that with brown vinyl, and cut the word Coffee in black vinyl. I am still having a hard time gauging actual size of things...I kinda of wanted the Coffee word a little bigger, but it works. Then it needed something else...so I painted some swirls, which made it MUCH better! Then I hot glued a wire loop on the back to hang it. 

This was a pretty quick project. =) 

(My kind of project!)

 

Wooden Alphbet Blocks!

Last weekend I had a First Birthday part to attend. 

I had wanted to make him a gift, especially since Christmas has come and gone and his mom (my friend) said he had plenty of toys and didn't really need anything. Now...knowing that my friend is the natural, recycling, organic type, I thought making a gift that would last...out of say, wood...as opposed to something plastic. 

So I decided on some Wooden Alphabet Blocks!

If I had kids, I would totally want something like this!

So I spent some time off and on within a week to work on these. I might of got them done faster if it weren't for all the trial and error I went through.

 

I used a 2X2 piece of work from Lowes. I had my husband cut it into 26 blocks.

(We live in an appt and all we can really use is a hand saw. I cut one and that was the end of that!

He did the rest.)

Before he cut the blocks, I thought I was smart and pretcut all the colored paper squares (scrapbook paper) on my Cricut 2inches. Well...........make sure you double check the measurments because, even though the wood was labeled 2"X2".......it was def. 1 1/2"X1 1/2"........the label lied! 

So all the paper squares were too big! So I had to cut each one smaller......rrrghhh.

Anyway....I also cut my letters and shapes earlier too....but those still fit, barely...but they fit. 

So after everything was cut, I sanded the blocks then I just Mod Podged everything onto them, and sanded the edges again and did another coat of Mod Podge.

Originally I wanted to make a fabric basket....but you know how when you want to work on something on your sewing machine and its late at night and it needs to be done for the next afternoon and you sewing machine just wanted to keep jamming the thread....yaaaa.....thats what kept happening. Lots of unappropriate words were coming out of my mouth. Sooooo.....I ended up just putting it in a basket. I used a little fabric to kind of line it...and of course, since I couldn't sew anything, I used Stich Wictchery stuff and irons the edged and used some grommets to tie it all together.

Phew.

Done.

 

Here they are! All piled up!

Not too shabby. Pretty cute actually.

They also seemed to be a hit at the Birthday Party. Just the right size to grab, throw, crawl with and stack.

 

Linking to these Parties: