How to make a super cute sign.. two ways!

So, way back when I blogged regularly (I know..I know, we'll get to that.) I said I'd write about how I made this sign.

Into this sign.

It's seriously the most simple process ever if you can eyeball lettering..or easier if you can trace.. OR if you're super lucky and have a Shillouette it's the easiest project ever. (How many times can I say easy in one post?!) But I don't and I didn't have any paper for my printer to trace so, eyeballing it it is. But, first things first.

You saw it on our Christmas mantel, and I adored the rustic vibe it had going on and the faux aluminum letters. But, as much as I loved it we have a small house so things need to have a home or say goodbye. (For the most part) a sign this size fits into that category.

Luckily I applied the letters with hot glue which peels off with little to no effort. And was left with a perfectly good wood planked sign. A blank canvas if you will.


Now, I eyeballed my fonts straight from dafont.com and just went for it with a pencil. If you're more of a tracer you could write it out on the computer, print it and trace it on your sign and it'd probably be a lot less shaky like mine and more precise. I like to skip steps personally and I'm okay with a little imperfection. It's supposed to look worn right? Sure, I'll keep telling myself that. Ha! Or, you could go a step further and use a fancy silhouette and smack some vinyl on it and it'd be gorgeous. It really just depends on your comfort zone with imperfections and straight lines. :)

As Jami would say, Pray about it. 

Once I wrote it all down with a pencil and decided that it was good enough for my liking I used a sharpie paint pen and went to town. Little by little. What's nice about the paint pen is that anyone who can color can do this. Then that's it.

In photos you can totally see the color strokes and uneven-ness so I should probably go over it with some real paint just to even it up. Or I might not. So far it hasn't drove me crazy. ;) Maybe when the whole room gets done. But either way, It's a fun sign that was cheap to make the first time around for Christmas and free the second time around.

Now, I've been the BIGGEST fan of these signs for the longest time. I've seen them floating around Pinterest for ever along with seeing them on a few blogs and such. Nester was the one I believe who found the original artist. Woohoo! However, unfortunately I can't afford one of her's right now, so I'm not trying to say "hey, why buy her gorgeous signs when you can make them at home." I'm not. At..All! Because it's no where NEAR as good as this artists but, until I can afford hers I'll rock my little knock off version for the time being. I think she has some amazing talent and her work is definitely worth the cost of such a beautiful painting. Just giving credit where credit is due. If you can afford to buy "legit" haha, then I'd highly recommend it I'm such a supporter of buying handmade and when I can save my pennies to buy the lake painting, consider it mine! But if you're like me and would love to rock some handmade art and want to try it yourself, I thought I'd share how I made mine. Got it? Everyone agree? Yes. The wide world of blogging is tricky like that. I want to be inspired but not take. That was a lot of rambling and I hope it came out with grace.. HA HA.

Master Bedroom Faux Wallpaper

Whew! I'm back with a lil' somthin somthin for the bedroom. Thanks so much for the kind words y'all. It's definitely still a project that is taking forever, I could finish it quicker but I'm a little slowly but steadily going on this one.. Here's my latest sneak peek (A long with the sign you saw on our Valentine's day Mantel. Love that sucker! I'll do a tutorial soon if you want? Maybe?)

It most definitely wasn't my genius idea.. You can thank Ms. Emily for that! She completed the whole ROOM! Whoa.

That girl has some willpower. I started to cuss about half way through my one tiny wall. :)

Anyway, you can check out her tutorial here since she did such a great job of explaining it I wont steal that thunder. But a few tips I learned along the way with mine..

Don't draw so dark with the pencil. You'll be happier later for lighter lines to cover, less coats. :)

For the first coat I used some old cheap paint we had lying around and it would have been much easier and quicker to use a better quality paint. Even though it's a small amount that you use, the thickness was something I didn't account for. Cheaper thinner paint = more coats = frustrated Rachelle. The second coat I used better paint and you could tell the difference. Oh well, live and learn.

DON'T QUIT. Seriously, when you're so close to being done and just over the whole thing, keep on chugging. It's like exercising for me, I'm all ready to go at first then over it within a week. But, it's worth it in the end. :) Or at least I'm telling myself that, give me another hour and it'll be DONE-ZO.

Bedroom Inspiration

So I'm a little over our last bedroom makeover. Not to mention I went a little bleach-happy on our Target bedding and it ate a hole in the bottom corner of it.

Laundry foul I know, but what can I say? I love the smell of freshly bleached bedding. Ahh.

Anyway, because of that and because we had a real life marriage compromise in the works, I get to do a make over..he gets a T.V (With cable) in the bedroom. Who says romance is dead?

Ha.

But either way, I'm excited. I'm excited to do it on a budget is there any other way? Not around these parts I'm excited to still keep the feminine meets masculine and has a baby named neutral theme. AND I'm excited to sleep in a big puffy bed. You know all those pictures on the internet (Intranets to Jami) and the bed looks so freaking comfortable you just want to cuddle in it? That's what I'm pumped about. Even if we'll be cuddling watching Hillbilly handfishing...... Wait what?


So I've been pinning like a mad woman rooms that inspire me. This is what I know I want..

Wood..Dark wood.
Mixed metals.
White. Not cold white.. Creamy warm white.
Sparkles. (Did I lose you? Trust me, now.)
Manly twead..ticking..and linen.

Love.

Can you picture it? You will. It'll make sense soon! Until then let's enjoy some pretties.

Source

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 Source

Well.. do you get it?

It's going to be glorious.

Bedroom built-ins

We have these awesome built-ins in the girls bedroom that have been a blessing for adding a little more floor space in the room. Which is a must in a tiny room with two twin beds! They're pretty plain jane but I wanted to snazz them up a bit. Enter-- Vinyl lady Dawn. She seriously rocks my socks. I emailed her and told her what I wanted and in a few days it was on my doorstep and ready to go. 

Shhhwweet! 

I'm hoping that the words help with the girls reading, not to mention where things go! Everything else like shirts and dresses go in their closet, which is actually a good size considering the year the house was built. :)

I also plan to change out the pulls on them and put some pretty knobs on the two top drawers. I'm thinking these from Target. But, at 10.99 for two.. Eight drawers.. Whew. :) It may be a minute. But it'll sure be pretty!

Wall art for the girls room

On my quest to find something cute, colorful, and fun for the girls new bedroom I had a thousand and two different ideas but for this certain project I wanted it to have a dual purpose. Pretty and functional. I like that.

It started with a frame that was once spray painted black, then in a high gloss white. Gotta love that white. Looks stunning against the blue we picked for the wall color. Which I might add is the perfect feminine blue color, and I know you're going to ask me what color it is and silly me wrote this post without looking at the can.

Okay okay, so we have a pretty white frame, a chipped one I might add but it was a markdown at Hobby Lobby and I can't say no to a good frame. Although our definitions of good may be different, chipped is not a biggy to me.

Time to get a bunch of different bright colored lovely ribbons. LOVE each and everyone one of these, love them I say! I threw in a little purple and pink for good measure, since those were a few of the requirements for a new bedroom.

Cut to length and glue your little hearts out! If I could find my staple gun I would have stapled it, it probably would have been faster and helped it to be as tight as possible, but alas no such luck. Trusty glue gun it is.

Don't forget to figure out a pretty pattern, that's important too. Even in a rainbow of colors and patterns there's always a theme hiding in there. Always.

Hang 'er back up and fall in love.

One thing I learned? Wire ribbon will not look tight no matter what you do. It waves and I'm okay with that, you'll see why.

See? Can't even tell! A pretty little ribbon holder for some pretty little girls.

Linking up with

Funky polkadot Giraffe
DIY Show Off

Little girls bedroom makeover

How do you like my title? Think google can handle that? ;)

Remember my 2010 to do list? The one I'm close to finishing? Well, the clock is tick-ticking! And, the house isn't selling-- nor are we magically coming up with more room. So, it's time for them to share a room. Most of the time they end up sleeping together anyway, depending on who sneaks out of bed and which bed they end up in, or ours. :) Silly little girls and their musical chairs beds. Out with the polka dot and in with the... It's a secret. Bwahaha.

 Sorry, dark photo, new mac and I'm lost at how to edit photos right now.

  You may already know if you search through my recent posts and see my little sneak peek. It was hard to convince my children that it would look good. My oldest decided recently her new favorite color is purple, and gave permission to my youngest that her's can be pink now. Because, we all know that no two sisters can have the same favorite color. Ahem. But they're slowly but surely starting to agree with me, I think. 

So.. I have to tie their likes in, try and keep the bright plastic toys out and make it "Little girl lives here, and a five year old who thinks shes 13" While keeping it easy to transition if we choose to continue to live here...dun dun dun.. Forever. Do you know what else this means? I'm also transforming the nursery into a playroom. Double decorating duty! I'm thinking of it this way though, making these two rooms work for us is a lot cheaper than our closing costs would be! :)

 Good bye horrible messy pile of books. See you in your new organized home!

At least they're reading right?

Right.

Can't wait to show you what I have in mind! If you have your children share rooms, how's it going? Do you love it, hate it. Is it nice to keep all the toys out of the room and have a designated room for them? Or is it just going to make me go insane because toys will just end up everywhere.

Bedroom Deets

Hi ya'll (Yep, I just went there--again!) Thanks so much for your lovely comments about my bedroom make over! So glad you liked it! We here at Casa Fingerprints LOVE it. The man says its like sleeping in a nice hotel room from our honeymoon in Mexico. I'd say I did pretty good then if he's okay with kissing pleat bedding something very girly in my mind! :) Everything was done on a super tight budget-- think slim pickins. So I've got the rundown for you!

{Bedroom redo '10}

Bedding: Target 89.00  

This was the most expensive thing that was purchased :) a splurge for comfort. 

Lamp: Goodwill, it's from Target though. 15.00

Shade: Walmart 14.00 

Is it sad I paid almost the same for the shade as I did the whole lamp?

Blinds: Home Depot 16.00 pc.

They had a ton of different sizes too, so if you think that you can't have fabulous blinds for your windows because they're a funky measurement they might just have them! They're rolled up, and called Miranda I think. 

Curtains: Walmart! Yup, just plain ol' fabric from Walmart. Under 3.00 a yard.

Empty Frames & Candle sticks: Hobby Lobby 80% off 

I didn't pay anything more than 6.00 a pc for those frames. FABULOUS time to get frames. Look how thick and chunky that black one is, I have big plans for it once I fill that space with something else! 

Potted plants: Ikea 3ish dollars

White pot: Ikea Cheap? Under 5.00

Tin antrho #4 Pot: TJ max 3.99! Score!

Well that's it folks! For under 300.00 I changed the entire feel of this room! I couldn't be happier! A lot of people think that the bedroom is the last room to redo which is how I felt too, but now I wish I did it when we first moved in! It's so nice to calm down in there, listen to whats going on outside, feel the fan. Ah, loves it. I even started making my bed when I get up in the morning, for some reason when the bed is made, I subconsciously pick up the floor and tidy up the top of the dresser. It's like it WANTS me to clean it. :) Just to enjoy it more.

There's my spiel.

Bedroom Makeover Reveal

Remember when I asked you 100 years ago what room should be next in my ultimate take over? You picked bedroom, I picked procrastinate. Awesome.

Well,  I'm back and ready to show you the brand new, amazingly comfortable bedroom that I'm proud to call my own. And, yes it's still the size of a shoe box. :) I'm okay with that, we'll now refer to it as cozy.

It started with this dresser makeover. Beat up, white washed, sanded, glazed. Love. Now when I bump it with the door, because of the size of the.. cozy.. room, it's okay-- it looks like it's supposed to be there.

The walls got a lovely coat of Natural Choice by Sherwin Williams (Color matched and mixed at Home Depot) It really, REALLY opened up the space. A million times better than the blue. Billion.

Next up, windows! Since the room is 10 feet away from my sidewalk I added two sets of blinds to keep from freaks looking in my window.

See.. Caught them.

Better put the shades down.

*Sigh*

Much better.

:)

New kissing pleat bedding and cream ticking.

Side tables filled with junk. I'm missing a lamp so I substituted some candles and empty frames to fill the space. Speaking of side tables I'd love some chippy old worn trunks but I've found zip, zero, nada here in my town. Boo.

There's a couple more things that I plan on adding to the room-- in due time.

The trunk for the end of the bed, we have zero storage in this house and this will be PERFECT.

Frames for the art that I already purchased.

Another matching lamp.
A headboard. 

Throw pillows, red will most definitely not be my accent color, however I couldn't NOT put something there! :)

Ready for the before and after? 

Me too. 

(Before.)

 

(After.)

Ta-da! :) 

Loves it!  

Next up, where I got everything! See you then!

Linking up to these great parties!

&
Before and After Party