52 Weeks Project I Love You to the Stars! We had a joint Earth and Stars birthday party for Lauren and Jacob last Saturday. Lauren told everyone that she had to share her party with Jacob because he doesn't have any friends of his own. It made me so sad. I think perhaps I need to join a "MOPs" group right away! Anyway, we had a great afternoon with all our friends. The kids were so much fun. My neighbor Hiedi and I put together this star mobile. Inspired by Miniature Rhino, I made gift bags for all of the kids and embroidered the constellations on the front. Each of the wee ones also received another little gift in their bag; glittered star bobby pins for the girls... And gloves for the guys with stars stenciled on the palms. I made a little picture for the front door using wood, chalkboard paint, wooden stars, and craft rings. For crafts, the kids painted the stars on small canvases. They also painted Earth balls. Miss Caroline was shimmering in her dress. Lauren and her best buddy, Maycee. Jacob was chowing on the fruit skewers.
How To Paint Particleboard / Laminate Furniture Remember these sturdy Broyhill bookcases I got on Craigslist for our schoolroom? Well, they were hiding a little secret.... While the front and the drawers were made out of real wood, the sides, shelves and backs were made out of what I like to call the fake stuff. Yup, there was particleboard all over the place! After seeing this inspiring image.... I decided that painting those babies white and putting them on either side of the window was just the thing to do. Here they are after eight months of daily use, nary a scratch to be seen.... I was so impressed that I recently painted our dining room table using the same process even though it is made out of solid wood. Before After Here is the scoop on how I did it: First I cleaned the bookcases thoroughly with a damp cloth. This oil based primer is key! This primer dries quickly, in about 2 hours, but I waited 12 hours between coats as a precaution. I used the brand Varathane recommended by the talented Holly from Life in the Fun Lane .
I guess About Me is a more aptly named title! I suppose it is about time I fill in this page, nearly a year after it arrived on my header! The main reason that is has been a vacant spot for so long is that it kind of feels like a weird first day of school assignment to write the obligatory "About Me" essay, specially at my age. What age would that be exactly? Well, I guess that would be a good place to start. I am a 29 year young wife and mom of an awfully sweet 4 year old (that would be Wren, the real star of this blog). my little buddy. Some popular adjectives I use to describe myself are busy, creative, outgoing, ambitious, friendly and smart. You may notice that things change regularly around our house, and the main reason for that is that I used to own and run a local furniture refurbishing business named WhiteBerry Reinvented. So where exactly is home? Our humble, evolving abode. And that is the long and short of it my friends! As always, enjoy whatever it is you are doing ...in the fun lane. Holly
Baking Soda Clay Here's another homemade modeling compound that good for both kids and adult artisans. Compared to the homemade polymer clay I presented a few weeks ago, it's non-elastic when wet and much "softer" when dry---that is, easy to sand smooth or to reshape, to add etchings, and possibly even to carve (I haven't tried). I've used it to make a variety of small items, particularly small bowls and candle holders (shown below in order of finished-ness). It takes paint well but I would finish painted pieces with a coat of varnish. Sanded nice and smooth! Materials 1 cup corn starch2 cups baking soda1.25 cups cold waterNon-stick potWooden spoonMed-large bowl (not pictured)Damp cloth, lid or plate (not pictured) Steps Combine ingredients in pot and stir until smooth. Cook over low-medium flame, stirring constantly, until the mixture resembles mashed potatoes. Remove from heat and let cool in a separate container either covered with a damp towel or mostly covered with a plate or lid. Sculpt. Enjoy! Materials
Faux Tin Tiles Tutorial Recycled crafts are one of my specialties. Embossing disposable cookie sheets is an easy technique and creates amazing art. Beautiful faux tin tiles! This is my second recycled craft idea using disposable cookie sheets!. For this project I used: 2 disposable aluminum cookie sheetsFree patterns from my pattern page* A knitting needle Paintbrush Various metallic acrylic paintsSpray primer A cork bulletin board Thumb tacks Are you new to the Sitcom? Begin by measuring out and cutting (3 ea.) 7″ squares from each cookie sheet. Use the scissors to clip a notch in each corner. I then drew out some patterns on paper. Here the metal tile is shown with the pattern scored into it. Once the piece is indented to your satisfaction, it is time to paint it. Once all the indentions were painted, I added a base color to the raised areas. I used the same color scheme for each tile, so that they all worked together. There are many ways to display your finished tiles. Signing you up!
Memorable Gifts for Mother's Day By poppytalk | I’ve been loving photo-inspired products lately from big wall murals, images on pillows to a dresser IKEA hack I just posted yesterday; the mediums are endless and inspiring. Coincidentally I’ve come across a few really good photo project ideas that would be perfect for Mother’s Day recently and thought I’d share some of my finds with you to make your mom something memorable this year. nggallery id=’122665′ Mother’s Day Memory Jars Kate Riley of Censational Girl makes these clever Mother's Day Memory Jars for West Elm.Get the how-to at blog.westelm.com. Photo Canvas Prints Using transparencies and a gel medium, personalize a photo canvas print for Mom.Get the how-to at bhg.com. A Memory Candle A pretty gift idea using black and white photocopies and transparent contact paper.Get the how-to at Inspired Ideas. Read my other posts on Babble here!
Tutorial: Vintage-looking painted sign from salvaged wood Today I have a little tutorial for you. I'm going to show you how to (easily!) make these sweet wooden signs. I promise- they're a cinch, they don't take long at all to make and cost pretty much nothing. You will need: piece of salvaged wood upholstery tacks or short nails (optional) hammer acrylic paint (background color) black acrylic paint (or other color to fill in letters) large paint brush small paint brushink jet printer twine Sharpie Marker or other dull, rounded tool This project started with a pile of cedar fence pieces that we've had sitting in our backyard for ages. I loved how grey and weathered they had become from sitting outside. Next, distress the wood to your liking. Next, choose your paint. (I wasn't really sure if I was going to be doing a tutorial for this or not until I was finished, so I'm afraid I'm missing a few photos for some of the steps. Once you're happy with the paint, put the wood aside to dry and head to your computer. P.S.
Living Savvy: Spray Painters Anonymous {meeting #3} new blog series Welcome to my new blog series Spray Painters Anonymous. It is no secret that I am addicted to spray paint!! I am continually amazed by what can be done with a can of spray paint, and what other creative types can do with it. So I thought why not ask some of my blogger friends to share with me and my readers some of their projects at a weekly "inspirational meeting." {See meeting 1 & meeting 2}. This post is a guest post and is not a project of Living Savvy! To see this project in it's entirety please visit Janell's amazing post HERE. Now on with the meeting... Hello, my name is Janell, and I'm a Spray-Paint-Addict...and for good reason! Finding a great pair of new lamps for the Master Bedroom Redesign was a necessity, as I recently broke one that was in the room. So off to HomeGoods I went...and just look at what I found for the target price of $39.00 each! Next the lamps were sprayed with Rust-Oleum's White Primer. Oh my...seriously. ** Thank you Janell for sharing!!
The Rocky Bucket A few weeks ago I was asked by Home Depot to shop their store and come up with a few new ideas for planters (you’ve seen the other two here and here). I had this idea in my head that I wanted to wrap a metal bucket in river rocks to turn it into a coastal inspired planter with crazy cool texture. I wasn’t 100% sure the idea would work but it actually did. Here’s the quick play by play on how I made this rock covered bucket! Basic ingredients for a rock covered bucket: strong (not flimsy!) If you want to make it a planter, punch a few holes in the bottom with a hammer and a thick nail first for drainage. I found it helped to turn the bucket upside down using the top rim as the base to hold the mesh tile to the bucket and allow the thin set mortar to dry. The next evening I mixed up some grout, added it with a putty knife, then removed excess with a sponge. *all supplies for this project courtesy of the Home Depot. Tags: river rock bucket, rocky bucket
Afton's Afghan ---Revised--- Jan. 8 2013 I made a video tutorial and posted it on Youtube It's my first video tutorial so be patient :) ----Revised---- Aug 28 2012 This is the Blanket Grandma Turner (Tyson's Grandma) made for Afton when she was born. Yes, it would have been easier to just ask for the pattern but it was fun trying to figure it out on my own. Well, I finally did it so I thought I would share because it really is one of the neatest patterns I have ever seen. So I kind of came up with a pattern but it was kind of hard to explain so I decided to do a picture tutorial. This is the actual pattern I came up with: Here's the revised version to try and make it easier to follow Grandma's 3D Baby Afghan Hook Size H Lion Brand Pound of Love: pastel Pink Row 2: ch 3 (does NOT count as dc), 3 dc in next dc. Repeat row three until desired length Last row: ch 3, (dc in next 3 dc, dc in ch 3 sp ) repeat to the end of the row. Photo Tutorial: Ch 3.
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