Painted Bulletin Board

Just like all summers this one has gone fast. I enjoyed our summer but I am now ready to get back into blogging and projects. I did a few projects over the summer but mostly I worked on my etsy shop and enjoyed my kids. My youngest started kindergarten and we are on week two and I am still waiting for it to get easier. It is going to get easier, right!?! She is doing way better than expected, she is my baby and I had nightmares I was going to be shoving a sobbing girl onto the bus. But she loves it, and has no compaints. Who is this girl? The mommas girl I had to peel off of me at preschool last year. One good thing is she loves the bus, so she gets to start and end her day with a favorite. But after rushing all morning getting the kids on the bus I return to a quiet still house and I hate it. It will get easier, right? I can't believe I still want to cry after putting all three on the bus every morning, I miss them so. I need to find my own routine again. It has been so long since I have had all day to myself. I guess this is MY new adventure too.

Getting back to projects will be a good start. Here is one of the projects I worked on over summer. I found this bulletin board at a garage sale for 75 cents, but of course it needed some sprucing up.



First I painted the frame with some leftover white paint.

Then I taped off a design with painters tape. I saw this design on Pinterest but couldn't find an original link. I love the diamond pattern and mostly eyeballed the lines. I did use a ruler some to try to keep the spaces relatively equal.

And after a little more white paint I ended up with this!

I love how it turned out and it was such a simple project. It is the perfect addition to my newly organized office (I will share that soon). The love sign was super easy to make too. I used my silhouette to cut out the love and the circle. I painted a piece of watercolor paper as the background with some orange, pink and yellow water colors.

The "S" is for my last name and the guy on the tractor is my Dad. He is loving his new (old) tractor he got just to pull the kids in a wagon.

I made some heart garland with pages from a book I got at Goodwill. I used a Martha Stewart heart punch and sewed them together. I have this garland for sale in my etsy shop. My girls are so cooperative for photo shoots. I miss them while they are at school I will have to find some other willing children to be models for my banners.

I love having this bulletin board in my office to display some of my favorite things and hopefully keep me organized. Not an easy task with all the school stuff that comes home and my plans for my day job:)

I know some of you have been back at school for a while but I hope everyone is adjusting to the busy year well. I need to adjust to my alone time and come up with my own schedule. I never expected this to be so hard. Alright I am done complaining!

Have a wonderful day!



Sharing over at: The Turquoise Home, The Life of Jennifer Dawn, Someday crafts, Lamberts Lately, Cherished Bliss, 733 Blog, Living Well Spending Less, Imparting Grace, Shabby Nest, Addicted to DIY, Migonis Home, The 36th Avenue, Nancherrow, Tatertots and Jello, Natasha in OZ, Remodelaholic

Painted Address Numbers

Our summer is flying by and I have not done a lot of projects around here, and I feel like I have been busy too. It is so much harder keeping up with the house when 3 three kids are constantly destroying it. Plus it is way more fun to play outside or go to the pool than clean and do laundry. I am sure it will all get done in September, right?

One project I did get done was my front door address. A few years ago I put our address on our front door with a vinyl sticker but because we don't have a covered porch the sun turned it brown and it peeled off... not pretty. So I am hoping this lasts longer.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the numbers but you could print it off your computer and cut them out with an x-acto knife. The font I used was already on my computer, it is Apple Myungjo. You will have to play with the size depending on your door. Mine are about 3 inches tall.

I taped my template to the door and traced it with a pencil. For my numbers 8,9 and 0 I taped the middle piece in place. I used a level to draw a few lines along the bottom to make sure I stayed level, especially since my numbers weren't lined up. Lining up your numbers might be a good idea before you start, I was doing it the hard way.

Here is how it looked traced. In the picture you can really see where the old numbers were, you can hardly tell in person.

I used a white latex paint I had on hand and a very small paint brush. It took two coats and in hind sight I should have made a vinyl template to paint over, it was a little more tedious than I was expecting.

I do love how it looks though, so crisp and white and I love the font. It was worth the effort. But maybe you can learn from my experience and make it easier on yourself.

I love mid summer when my flowers are doing so well!

I hope you are having a wonderful summer. I am trying not to think about the fact that it is half over. It is not easy avoiding all the school supplies in the stores already, I am not ready yet!


Linked up at: Living Well Spending Less, Imparting Grace, Craftberry Bush, Jennifer Rizzo, Remodelaholic, The Dedicated House, Nancherrow

Painted Basket

I always have a running list in my head (or on my phone) of things I am looking for at garage sales or thrift stores. A basket for under my couch table has been on my list for a LONG time. My table is only about 12 inches deep so I have had a hard time finding a basket that was big enough but not too wide.
Well, I finally found one and for the price I wanted to pay, $6.00.

I didn't love the color of the stripes but I knew a little paint could fix that.

I pulled out my plain white craft paint and painted away.

I did my best to get in between the pieces but I was not too concerned about it being perfect.

It is not a perfect paint job but I knew it was going on the floor and didn't have to be perfect.

It works perfect for storing extra pillows and blankets.

It is just what I needed to fill the space under the table. And my outdoor pillows fit just right in the basket when not in use.

This week is our first week of summer and I am determined to be more organized with chores and some school work. Plus we all have to get used to being together all. the. time. Which always takes some patience and time. Hope you are getting off to a great start this summer. I am looking forward to lazy days ahead, I still can't believe it is summer. It feels like a long weekend still.

Have a great day!



Sharing over at: Tiny Sidekick, Winthrop Chronicles, Not Just a Housewife, Lil Mrs. Tori, Just a Girl and her blog, the Turquoise Home, Cherished Bliss, The Life of Jennifer Dawn, 733 Blog, Someday Crafts, Homecoming MN, Living Well Spending Less, Remodelaholic

I needed a few more stripes!

It feels so good to have our garage sale done! Our neighborhood sale brings in lots of traffic so we got rid of so much stuff. The rest is bagged up ready to donate, I love taking empty bins back downstairs. I might need a few more days to get the garage back in order, but I am close.

Well, my latest project involves stripes, which I love and can't get enough of. I decided to make some art with a frame this time. I have been wanting to learn how to use power tools especially saws for wood working. So I picked a small project to start. I wanted to make something for above my laundry room cabinets. It has been raining for a week and my laundry room does not get great light so the pictures were not looking too good. So this piece is currently living above a bookshelf in my family room, it may get moved around a bit.

Ok, so I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of MDF and had them cut it so size. I also picked out a piece of 1x2.

First I painted my MDF white then went to my sample paint stash and picked out some colors. I choose a yellow, teal, gray and white.

I decided I wanted all different width stripes. My board is 19" wide so I planned out the size of each stripe. The sizes went 2", 3", 1.5", 4", 2", 3", 1.5" and 2". I taped off the first set of stripes then just free hand painted the second set. I was afraid if I taped over the newly painted areas it would pull off the paint. I didn't have any delicate painters tape. Also I am impatient and didn't want to wait for the paint to dry before starting the next colors.

I used my 3 colors but added white so I had a light and dark version of each color.

I had my hubby help me with the cutting since he has experience with the miter saw. I cut my 4 pieces then stained them. I was trying to use stain I already had but I didn't like how it turned out so I did end up going out to buy some Minwax stain in the color Walnut.

This is my first attempt at making a frame and is probably not the best way but it did work in the end. Plus I knew it was going up high so no one would be able to see it up close.
1. I glued two (out of 4) of the corners togethers 2. I wanted to elevate my MDF, plus I needed something to glue it to so I cut a 1/2" piece off the end of a 4x4, then cut that into 4 pieces. I glued those pieces into each corner. (I hope that makes sense, I forgot to take pictures of that) 3.  I glued the other two corners togethers and put glue on top of the square wood pieces. That way the MDF would be glued in place.

Here is a picture of the back with everything glued in place.

One of my corners was not perfect. I may have cut one piece too short. To make sure the whole piece was secure I did what any good wood worker would do, I pulled out the glue gun. My Dad is an amazing wood worker and I am pretty sure he is cringing right now.

The glue gun did work great though. I glued along the seam between the wood and MDF all the way around.

I love the colors and the stripes, it makes me want to make more with different designs. You can see the pretty big gap in the lower left corner. Oh well, I will do better next time.

I needed something that added color and height above my shelf and this works great! The project cost $12 for the materials not including the stain and I have two more pieces of MDF for future projects.

I hope you all had a great weekend. Our weather is supposed to get a little warmer this week and I can't wait. I will just be happy with some sunshine though. I need to get out in the gardens to clean things up.  My to do list is already piling up this week. Are you a list maker? I don't know what I would do without my lists.


Linking up at: Thrifty Decor Chick, Skip to my Lou, Mad in Crafts, Yesterday on Tuesday, Love Grows Wild, Home Stories A to Z, Tiny Sidekick, Winthrop Chronicles, Lil Mrs. Tori, Not Just a Housewife, A few miner adjustments, Just a Girl and her Blog, Oh my creative, DIY by Design, The Walker fireside chats, The Turquoise Home, The Life of Jennifer Dawn, 733 Blog, Someday Crafts, My Paper Craze, Cherished bliss, Lamberts Lately, Living Well spending less, Imparting Grace, Jennifer Rizzo, Liz Marie Blog, Addicted to DIY, 36th Avenue, Remodelaholic, Nancherrow

Master Gallery Wall

I can't get enough of gallery walls, big and small. Gallery walls and stripes, love them! This particular wall in my bedroom is constantly changing. I hang something but don't love it so it only stays a short time, then the wall is empty again. Or I make something and I like too much so I put it somewhere else in my house where I can see it more often. Like the abstract art I did a little while ago. That was moved to the office. So this wall has been blank for a few months now. My husband began asking what happen to the picture that was here? Not a good sign when he starts asking why walls are blank.

So, I decided it need to be finished with something that would stay. So I came up with this. The only thing I didn't already have was a canvas, so this wall cost me $2, perfect!

I knew I wanted some "love" art and I liked the idea of adding some gold. I decided to use my Silhouette and the "weld" feature. The weld feature allows you to take a script font (or any shape) and connect them to be one continuous word.

The day I wanted to work on this I didn't have any gold paper and had no plans in the next few days to make it to the store, so I made some. When I decide to work on something I want to do it now. Patience is not my strong suit. I grabbed some heavy duty white card stock and some craft paint and made my own gold paper.

I used Martha Stewart Metallic paint in Gold and light gold. (The white pile of paint is mother of pearl, but I didn't end up using any of that). I mixed the two together using just a small amount of light gold.

I wanted the brush marks to be seen so it wasn't a solid color.

I LOVE the way it turned out!! So simple. Exactly what I was looking for. I glued it onto a large piece of white paper and put it in a frame I already had.

Next up was some monogram art. Again I used my Silhouette, but you could easily print out letters on your computer in any size and font and cut them out.

I traced the letters and painted them with black craft paint.

I am so pleased with the results. It works perfect for our master bedroom and I have no plans of moving anything. It was kind of fun going through old wedding pictures too. Wow we both look so much younger, how time flies!

I am still toying with the idea of painting the big black frame gold. I tried white but didn't like that. My white spray paint did not match the mat and it looked funny. Maybe I need a different white. What are your thoughts? Keep the black or try gold? Or a different white spray paint?

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. I love seeing how excited the kids get for Easter morning, such fun memories.




Sharing over at: Skip to my Lou, Mad in Crafts, Yesterday on Tuesday, Love Grows Wild, Home Stories A to Z, Blackberry Vine, Coastal Charm, Tiny Sidekick, Winthrop Chronicles, Lil Mrs. Tori, DIY by Design, The Turquoise Home, Someday Crafts, Fearlessly Creative, 733 Blog, The life of Jennifer Dawn, Cherished bliss, Lamberts Lately, Living well spending less, imparting Grace, Jennifer Rizzo, Life in Velvet, liz Marie Blog, craftberry bush, The 36th Avenue, Remodelaholic, Nancherrow, Tatertots adn Jello, Be different act normal, Thrifty Decor Chick