Fabric Tassels

Tweet

 I have wanted to do fabric tassels for some time now. I have done paper tassels but I like the longevity aspect of the fabric ones. While staring at the gold faux wood grain wall in the playroom, I decided that fabric tassels would be the finishing touch. They are super easy and I finished them in two days during Priscilla's nap.

You will need:
Scissors
Fabric
Twine (rope or string)

That's all! If you wanted to get super fancy you could use a cutting mat and a rotary cutter, I didn't. Although, that does remind me that I DO need a rotary cutter asap!

I bought a yard of four different fabrics. You definitely want to get fabric that is the same on both sides, or at least not too different. The one fabric I bought was not, and those do not look as good as the rest of them. Lightweight to medium weight work the best for this one.

-Start off by cutting the fabric 18x24 (I got about three tassels per yard, but I am super wasteful and sloppy. You could probably get 4, haa!)

-Once the fabric pieces are cut, fold the fabric in half.

-Start cutting the fringe. Cut almost to the top, leave 1 to 2 inches uncut.

-Once you are finished cutting the fringe, open the fabric up and untangle any tangled fringe.

-Start rolling the fabric.

-Once it is rolled, fold in half.
-Once it is folded in half tie fabric around the loop. I used scrapes of fabric, and I'm not going to lie, for about two I just cut a fringe off of the tassel and used it.

-Do this about 10 times! I found it to be quite tedious. so I split it up over two days during Priscilla's nap.

Urbanwalls Decals

Tweet

 I was super excited for my mail day yesterday!! I ended up picking the flower decal for my bedroom. I REALLY wanted the heart decals, I am not going to lie….but, we have a ton of heart stuff going on around here. I also really wanted a decal for Annabella's room, but her walls are awkward. We are moving in a few months, so I will definitely get them for the girl's new room!!! Eek!!

I have these decals.

Check our some of there other designs on their Etsy store!

Here are some of my favorites:

Ikea Expedit Hack

Tweet

 Wow. Who knew? We have had this old, beat up Expedit thing forever. Actually, we have had a few. I think we gave our other one to our babysitter a few years ago. Even though we are moving in a few months, I haven't stopped refurbishing,decorating,etc. I mean, it's less I have to do when we move right??

 For the past few weeks I have been redoing the "playroom". I say "playroom" because it is really just an oddly shaped room off of our living room that is supposed to be a dining area…because we have outgrown this house, there is no dining in that room! It is just over packed with toys. So here I am trying to make the best of a small, oddly shaped house with too much stuff! Anyway, the Expedit was about to go OUT THE DOOR but I was like, hmm…let's paint it. And we did. And it's AWESOME. I really wish I would have taken a photo of the before! It was so so so sad. It had smashed shelves, falling off shelves, scuffs, it was a hottt mess. We started out by fixing the shelves and then went from there.

You need:

An expedit shelf
Primer
Paint (I recommend satin. I used eggshell, and I have to put a top coat on because it's too flat)
Small legs (wood section of hardware store)
Straight top plate (to connect the legs)
Plywood
Drill

-If it is the dark/brown ikea color you have, you need to prime it and prime it WELL. I would recommend three coats of primer. I did two (because I'm lazy) and I ended up having to use three coats of actual paint on some spots. Which is obviously way more expensive than just sucking it up and doing a third coat of primer.

-While you have your primer out, you might as well prime the legs if you are adding them. And prime the plywood.
-Once your primer is dry, apply paint of you choice. I used Olympic Polka Pink. It's a BEAUTIFUL pink and I am in love with it. As I recommended earlier, I would go with a satin finish.
-At this point I then spray painted the primed legs and plywood gold. Metallic spray paint is hands down my favorite spray paint to use. It dries fast and looks amazing.
-Once everything is dry, turn the shelf upside down and add the legs. You simply drill the plates onto the corners, then add the legs to the plates. (I'm not gonna lie, Patrick helped me with this,ha! So if you aren't handy with a drill, or just aren't comfortable because you are scared of messing up…which you very well could at this step, get a girlfriend,boyfriend,dad,mom…basically anyone besides you that is confident with a drill)

-Next the plywood was mounted to the back of the shelf drilling at each corner and in the middle.

-If you have this exact size shelf you can go to Lowes or Home Depot and have them cut a piece of plywood. I had them cut it 30x58 and it's perfect ;)

-All of that and you have yourself a new, fancy piece of furniture.

If you have an questions, feel free to ask! I try and make my posts as understandable as possible, but I also kind of write them the exact way I speak…so I am not sure how clear that is for ya'll!
I am also going to blog the wood grain wall very soon and next week blog the girls rooms for nursery/little girl room ideas ;)

DIY No Sew Curtains

Tweet

 I haven't had curtains in the living room of the house we rent for YEARS. I had been thinking about sewing my own, but I no longer have a sewing machine. (I used to have two fantastic vintage Singer machines, one was pink and cream and the other was turquoise and cream. AND a serger, but I no longer have them :/) Pat bought me a new machine last year for Mother's Day and I took it back that day! Poor Pat! Don't get me wrong I would LOVE to sew again, but I don't have the room in this house and especially last year with a new baby, I didn't have the TIME. So back it went! I definitely need a craft room in our next home!

(Fast Kelly fact: I used to make see through/clear plastic-y and furry dresses for drag queens and sell them on eBay in the early 2000's! Ha! That was interesting) 

 Anyway, I just haven't found curtain panels I like and when I did they were outrageously priced. So I started researching no sew curtains. These are so easy I am not even going to post step by step- that's how easy they are. 

You need:

- fabric

- scissors

- iron 

- Iron on heat bond 

- drapery clips

- curtain rod

- tape measure 

I ordered my fabric from Warhouse Fabrics Inc.

I bought this blue and off white damask print, in medium weight 

I used coupons and got my drapery clips and rods from Hobby Lobby really cheap.   I also bought the adhesive there, Joann's has it to. 

Drapery Clips look like this, in case you have never seen them

I measured my windows width and length before I ordered and then ordered the appropriate amount. I needed 12 yards all together. I put curtains on two skinnier windows and two large windows. With a coupon the total was $60 (it made 6 panels). I paid under $100 for everything!

*Once your fabric arrives/is purchased, re measure your windows before you cut. Cut the appropriate amount, but remember to leave a few inches for the "hem". Around an inch would be the perfect hem amount on top and bottom, mine were more like 2 inches each. (because I was too lazy to cut them fabric again, ha!) They still look great!
*I folder the fabric and ironed my hem first, and then inserted the bond into the hem, and ironed again. (Instructions are also on the back of the bond packaging)

I really wish I could have gotten a better picture, but I have learned that taking pictures of curtains is indeed difficult! Especially when it's gloomy a lot. So here is the best I could get today! 

Christmas Light Canvas

Tweet

While back in Philly for Thanksgiving, me, my husband, my brother, his girlfriend KJ, and my dad went to the movies. We took our dad to see "Bad Grandpa" If you haven't seen this movie yet, let me start this blog entry advising you to NEVER take your father to see this movie. Now I had anticipated it being a little raunchy and over the top, but OMG. Sitting next to my very religious father during this movie was a little too much for me to handle! My husband and I just kept looking at each other with eyes wide open and an "OMGGGGG" look on our faces. I very badly wanted to switch seats with my brother the entire movie, who got off the hook and was many seats away! Jerk!
 But anyway, before the movie, my brother's girlfriend KJ and I were sorting through pics on our phones showing off our newest holiday crafts…and there was this. Or something very similar to this. Having just bought a ton of christmas lights for the marquee letters, I decided to be a copycat :)
 I had Patrick help me with the script. If you aren't good at lettering (I have the WORST handwriting), or don't have anyone to help, you can simply use a stencil to paint them on. If I didn't have Pat around that happens to kill it in the handwriting department, that's what I would have done.

You need:
~ Canvas (I used a larger one. 18x24 I believe)
~ Paint pen(s)
~ Christmas lights (I used  two mini packs of 20)
~ Glue gun

That's all! Very simple, and pretty cheap.

Start by figuring out the set up you want. Looking back, I would have made the phrase a bit smaller, because I couldn't fit the star pattern I wanted. Once the phrase, or word is on, with a pencil mark where you want to poke your lights through. Once that is finished, poke your lights through and secure with a dab of hot glue. I used two different strands of lights because I really really hate dealing with tangled stuff. If that doesn't bother you, then you can use just one strand with more lights on it!

And that's it! My living room is VERY well lit this year with all of the Christmas light crafts!!!

DIY Deer Silhouette

Tweet

I am so so so in love with this!!I think this was the cheapest craft I have EVER done as well! Michael's (as of yesterday) is having a 50% off sale on two packs of canvas. Now, they obviously aren't the most amazing canvas's you have ever used, but they get the job done. I also didn't want to buy a more expensive one in case I messed up! (which I did a little bit) So this was my first "practice" one. I plan on making a few more and acing them! And also not drinking two cups of coffee before I attempt the next so my hands aren't shaky!
 So what made this craft extra fun is that I had my husband draw the deer on. Having an artist for a husband does come in handy sometimes! If you cannot draw it yourself you can just google "deer silhouette"and print it out and trace it onto your canvas. I printed this one out so my husband knew what I wanted.

You need:
~ canvas (I used 9x16)
~ modge podge
~ paint brushes
~ glitter (I use martha stewart glitter)
~ q tips
~ spray sealant

After you have the silhouette drawn or traced, use a small brush start to outline the deer with modge podge. I broke up my glueing into about 6 or 7 sections. So I would outline a small area with the finer tip brush, the fill the small area in with the a wider brush, then glitter. And repeated that until I was finished. Again, I had WAY too much coffee and was a little shaky. If you mess up, just quickly use a qtip, or a tooth pic would work as well. Once you have finished and it is dry, apply spray sealant. My can was clogged so I used hair spray.

Since I already had glitter, modge podge, and everything but the canvas this ended up being a $5.00 craft! $5.00?!! Best $5.00 I have spent!!
You can probably see that this deer is a little splotchy. Again, it was my first attempt, I can't wait to make more!

Wall decals

Tweet

 We have a small house. Before Priscilla was born, Annabella had a superrrrr cute playroom. When I became pregnant again, we moved Annabella into our room, which is the biggest room, made the baby's room Annabella's old room, and we took the playroom. This leaves us with the problem of not having ANYWHERE to put the disgusting amount toys we have. Right now we have a lot of the toys in the "dining room" which isn't really a dining room at all. This month we are going to rearrange it, and paint it (it is painted an ugly flat beige we rent and our landlord obviously really likes cheap gross paint)…and although I would loveeee to do the stripes we had in the old playroom, and in AB's room, we don't plan on staying here that much longer. So decals it is!

I found a ton of cute ones here and here

I am debating between the dogs, hearts or cute clouds raining hearts <3>

DIY Bottle Brush Trees

Tweet

 This is my all time new favorite winter/holiday craft. I am actually going to the craft store today to get more trees so that every room has some of these awesomely retro trees in them!!

 It's surprisingly easy as well. You can can bottle brush trees at the dollar store, or any craft store. I have purchased them from like five different places, but if you get the 40% off Michaels's coupon, it's best to get the bag, in my opinion. 

 Once you have your trees, fill a bucket or sink with bleach and water.

Put the trees inside. I let mine in for a few hours until white. 

Once they were the color white I wanted, I put gloves on and took them out. I places them onto newspaper on my kitchen table and let them dry over night, this is def a two to three day project. 

Once the trees are dry you can now color them the colors of your choice. I left a few white as well. 

I used rit petal pink and aqua. 

The amount of rit to use depends on what shade you want your trees to be. This took me a few times to perfect. I seemed to like an inch of rit at the bottom of the bucket and the rest filled with water. It doesn't take long to color them, I just kept an eye on them and took them out when they looked the way I wanted them to. 

I let them sit overnight and then glittered them the next day.

To glitter them, I used modge podge and a foam paint brush. I started at the top of the tree and just brushed to the bottom, continuing until I had all of the tree modge podges. I then poured glitter all over and let them dry AGAIN overnight ;) 

So you need:

-bottle brush trees

- bleach

- bucket or sink

- rit dye

- mode podge

- foam brush 

- clear/iridescent or white glitter 

- you may also use little ball ornaments to decorate ;) 

Good luck! 

Glitter houses

Tweet

Welp, this is what crazy people do right here. I have become completely obsessed with brush bottle trees and glitter houses. Like out of my mind crazy. I just want to keep making more and more and more but I really don't think my house needs anymore deer or trees.... I'll just have to make room then I guess! I can't believe I never knew about coloring the trees until now!? Mind=blown. 

 This glitter house itself was not made by me. It was made by hobby lobby. I bought just a plain, brown cardboard house and decorated it the way I wanted to so it would match Priscilla's room. I AM however going to make my own. I have had the templates printed out for like a week now, but haven't had the chance to put it all together. I became impatient and just bought an already assembled one... I am glad I did it this way tho, because now I know how to paint them and what's best to use. Because if I took the time to hand craft a house and messed up the paint- there woulda been some DRAMA in this house! Ha! 

You can find instructions to make your own "putz" or "glitter house" here:

http://www.littleglitterhouses.com/paul/howard_how_to.htm

Or here:

http://www.marthastewart.com/264225/winter-village-how-to-build-a-house

To decorate this house I needed:

- a glue gun

- acrylic paint

- primer (I used white spray paint)

- paint brushes

- a wood platform to glue it all on

- deer

- bottle brush trees (making  a how to blog next)

- modge podge  

- clear/iridescent glitter

- cotton ball for the smoke

- a fence 

- fake snow

- any other decorations you would like ;) 

- I also have led lights to put inside. (Optional. But very cute)