Table-Painted

Yesterday I decided to make a table out of some scrap wood my husband was getting ready to throw away. The wood has been sitting out in the barn for a couple of years just waiting for me to get motivated to make something out of it. Here is the table put together.



I have the first coat of black paint on, I think it is looking pretty darn good. Every time I look at this table I get happy. I love it! My kids are tired of me telling them how fabulous it is every time they walk by. I can't wait for it to be finished. Can't decide if I should leave it black. We have a Halloween party every year and black table with a great big pumpkin in the middle would look great!

Or maybe I should paint it a dark red to match my house. My house is gray with white trim, my doors and shutters are painted a dark red. I could leave it out on my patio all year and it would blend with the house. Plus the red would look really good at our 4th of July party.



This is my inspiration piece. Maybe I should crackle it and paint a coat of white over the top of the black. Decisions, Decisions!

Happy Fourth!!!

Wow, where has the time gone? It has been over 1 year since I last blogged. Hope everyone had a happy 4th of July! We did not have anything planned so we spent the afternoon building a table.

A couple of years ago we replaced the front porch. I knew that the post would be good for something, they have been gathering dust out in the barn for over 2 years.

I convinced Nick to help me. He wasn't too thrilled with the idea but went along with it. I measured, he cut.



Here are all the boards cut. We didn't have a plan. We just knew we needed so many boards for each length. When we found two that were pretty close, we went with that measurement. I would have like for the table to be a little longer, but wanted to use what we had and not spend any $$$$.


Next we screwed the side boards to the post. I think it looks great!! Jeff helped us put it together, the screws were a little hard to get through the wood.
And here it is with the top on.

Here is the after! Took us 3 hours from start to finish and I have $0 in it, just a bunch of old wood my husband wanted to throw away. Once the table is painted it is going to look FANTASTIC!!!< I'm thinking maybe I want to paint it black, that would look great at our Halloween party. Or maybe white and crackle it with black showing through.

Memo Boards

Have you seen the Memo Boards on all the blogs? They are cheap, easy and you can make one in less than 10 mins. Here is my first attempt.

I had a huge blank wall in my pantry. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to hang in there. I knew I did not want a big piece of art or a mirror. I was thinking about going to a thrift store and buying a neat old frame and painting it black and putting a cork board in the middle.

The other day I was reading Nester's Blog and came across her Easy Memo Board. I had everything on hand, except the ring hooks. I found them at Hobby Lobby for $5.99. Over all each board cost under $10.00 to make. When Hobby Lobby has their painter's canvas half off, I'm going back to get one more, maybe 2. I think 3 or 4 boards on the wall would look really nice.

Here's how I started.


First I started with painter's canvas, fabric, ring hooks, ribbon and staple gun.



Then lay your fabric on your canvas and staple to the back. Can't get any easier than that. at this point, you are 3/4 of the way done.


Next put a piece of ribbon through a ring hook and and staple to the back of the frame. You will want to put several hooks on. I stapled some across the top of the back. I also stapled a ribbon going across the board about half way and 3/4 of the way down. I slid my hooks on the ribbon and stapled going across the board. If you enlarge my first picture you might be able to see. (Sorry I don't have a photo of this).

Next find a big blank wall and hang it.

Vinyl Letters

Ok, I'm back. My post belows talks about how I bought jars at Wal-Mart. I organized my pantry and wanted to label my jars. After walking around Hobby Lobby, trying to find something amazing to use, I decided to use what I had on hand. My Silhouette maker would be perfect. So, I came home empty handed.

Here you can see, plain old jar. Not very exciting.

Next I cut out my letters..... then apply to jar.

Wow! Look at that. Completely changes the jar.

GOSH DARN IT! Cereal is not in that jar, it has Powdered Sugar in it. Hold on, I will be back.


Hopefully everything is labeled correctly. Wouldn't it be something if they ate bird seed instead of cereal?

If you would like to learn more about the Silhouette maker....go to Youtube and do a search for Quickutz Silhouette. Here are couple of ones that I like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TAtsMLeStA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei68tyyj7EQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyOjnn1Qr10

Boys' Bathroom- Frame the Mirror

Today I framed the mirror. My mirror is 4' x 3' and I have less than $40.00 in this project.

Here's the before, Boring!

And here is the after. I can't believe the difference. Oops, sorry about the white boards to the left of the picture, I should have moved them.

And here is how you frame your mirror. It is so simple you will want to frame every mirror you own. I buy the little, fancy squares so I don't have to do a lot of angle cutting. By using the squares you can make a straight cut.

Here you can see I have all of my boards cut the length I need. Next place your vel-cro to the back. You don't need much, this stuff will stick FOREVER! I have it in my master bath and tried to pull it off a couple of months ago to take a picture. I didn't think I would ever get it pulled off.

Then just stick it up. How simple is that?

And you end up with this.


The only things I have left to do in here is hang the new light fixture above the mirror and find some boards for my shelves. Check back Monday. I'm going to try and post it on Metamorphosis Monday.

After a long break from blogging, I'm back. I had a busy week, I worked at the office everyday, had a sick kid and made a trip to the emergency room. Don't worry my son is ok. He hurt his hand riding his motorcycle. Actually he hurt his thumb. I hated going to the emergency room for a thumb, but Zach kept telling me it was broken. I told him there was nothing they could do for a broken thumb. But he insisted on going. He said, "Just watch, they are going to come in and tell you it is broken and it is a good thing that you brought me". I said, "They are going to come in, take a look at your thumb and tell you to "man up and stop being a baby". I know, I'm such a loving mother. So anyways, no broken thumb, but he did mess up his ligaments so I guess it was a good thing that we went.

Now the reason for my post. Last summer we ripped off our front porch and put on a new one. I insisted on saving these columns. Everyone thought I was crazy for keeping them. But I knew there was a perfect project just waiting. So for the last year these ( I have 4 of them) have been out in the barn just waiting for something to happen with them.


And today I found the perfect project.
I can just see this table in my backyard, it is going to look FABULOUS!!!!

Easy Bookmark

This is so easy, I can't believe I never thought of it. I found this easy to make bookmark in the Martha Stewart Living Magazine. If I need a bookmark, I usually use post-it notes or use the subscription card out of a magazine. Isn't this prettier than using the subscription card?
You only need decorative scissors and an envelope. Martha used a pretty paper sack, this was all that I had. If you recycle, this would be great to do with envelopes you receive in the mail. I know I always get pretty envelopes with birthday cards, Christmas, etc. instead of throwing away the envelope, make bookmarks.
Just cut the corners off, simple!

Out of this world Valentine

I thought I would show you the Valentine box we made for my boys several years ago. It is on its last leg, we have used this box year after year. We have a bad habit of making things the night before we need them, and this is what we came up with. It was very simple to make. We used an oatmeal box wrapped with tissue paper that we cut to make to look like fringe, a funnel wrapped in foil for the top, and cardboard wrapped in foil for legs.
We used wire garland with stars, it is suppose to be smoke. The legs are cardboard, foil and stickers. We cut tissue paper in strips and then cut to look like fringe.
Instead of store bought cards, we made our own. The ones we handed out were similar to these but the space ship was red instead of blue. The inside reads, "Valentine, you are out of this world!" The stamps used were Close To My Heart.

We have our winners!!!

We have our winners for the "Welcome" wall words. Screaming MeMe and Julie. Email me your addresses, and I will get the "Welcome" in the mail. My email is wcollier1201@yahoo.com Several people asked about how I made them. I have a silhouette maker. I bought it from QVC several years ago. I think you can also check out www.quickutz.com to buy them. I buy all of my blades, vinyl paper, shapes etc. from them. This little machine is GREAT!!! It cuts out anything on your computer. Just type out what you want in the font you want it in, and hit cut. In a few short seconds, you have your image.
The cool thing about the silhouette maker, they have a website and you can go on and buy images. Here is just a few samples of what they have.
Here is a box that I purchased. You can make it small or large. Just use the arrows and make it the size you want. Load your paper and.....
a few short seconds later you have a box all cut out.
Fold and you have a cute little box. We are making these for the church Valentine's Party. 1 down, 79 to go.Tie with a ribbon and you have a nice little parting gift or a little something to place on each plate.

If you are interested in seeing how this machines works, I found these videos at youtube---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TAtsMLeStA&feature=related this one shows how it works,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyOjnn1Qr10 this one makes a projects.

Giveaway

During the night we got hit with ice. Today everyone is home, no school, no work, and we have nothing to do. So what better way to pass the time than to get out my silhouette maker and make "Wall Words".

Yesterday I posted my closet on the Metamorphosis Monday and just about every other comment mentioned the "His" and "Hers" on the doors. I wasn't even going to mention the "His" and "Her", I guess it was a good thing I did.

So today since I have nothing to do, and nothing to post about, I'm going to give 2 "Welcome" (like the one on my front door) to 2 different people.
They measure 14 1/2" x 2 3/4". All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what you like to do when the weather is bad and you can't get out of the house. I will draw 2 names on Thursday.

Floor Mat Part 2

Yesterday I had all of my dark beige painted. I let it dry for several hours and now I'm painting the light beige. A couple of people wanted to know what kind of paint I use. This is the beauty of this project. I use my left over wall paint. This way the floor mat will match my walls perfectly. The dark beige is the "Hopsack" on the upper part of my wall. The light beige is "Latte" that is on my ceiling. Remember yesterday when I said to paint the first coat the same color as the square next to it? You can see in this picture I painted this square dark beige, when it drys, I'll paint the square light beige.
Here's a close up. A lot of work, but so worth it. If you have ever had to go back and touch up lines, you will not mind the extra work.
Here it is done, look how sharp my lines are. I'm even a little amazed at how crisp they turned out. Yesterday while I was painting the guy doing my hall told me another trick. If you take caulking and rub a little on the seam of the tape, it keeps the paint from bleeding underneath also.
Here it is done!!!! Well, I still have to put a couple coats of NON-YELLOWING polyurethane on it, but this is the way it will look. Like I said above, the dark beige is my wall color, the light beige is the ceiling color. I'm doing black and white pictures in my hall so I thought the black stripe and the black circles would tie in with the frames.
Here's another tip, to get your circles nice. This is an easy way to do it. Take painters tape and stick it to some paper and use a hole punch and punch out a circle. The tape has to be stuck to paper first or the punch tears it up. Then just peel the tape off and stick to your project.

If anyone decides to make a mat, please let me see pictures.

Floor Mat Part 1

Yesterday I started on my new floor mat for the hall. I found a piece of linoleum at Home Depot. Doesn't matter what the front looks like, it can be ugly, you won't see it. I try to find something with lines or squares, I use that as my guide when cutting, and this stuff cuts super easy. The piece I found was a 6' x8' piece for $21.00. The first thing I did was cut it to the size I wanted. Now prime the back of the linoleum. Next I measured out my design. I can't draw, so I have to use shapes that I can measure.
Next I use painters tape and tape around the edges I'm going to paint.
Then I start painting. And this step is very important. For my first coat of paint, I paint it the color of the square that is next to it. This way if anything bleeds under the tape, you won't know it because it is the same color. After the first coat has dried I then paint the color I want the square to be. See how sharp my lines are? This is because my first coat of paint sealed the tape.
When the painted is good and dry, move on to the rest of the squares. This takes FOREVER!
Now all of my darker beige is done. At this point I have about 4 hours in this mat. I have to stop now because I used all of my painters tape. I will let this dry a day or so before I tape the squares next to it. Now I'm off to the store to get some more painters tape, I'll try to update later.