Some Before & Afters

Here are some projects I've done that were simple transformations.

I found these frames at a garage sale for $1 each. I was ecstatic to get such a great price since they are really huge nice frames with a matte.

I used one in my living room with our family picture. I spray painted the frame black and the matte white. Turned out just like I wanted.

I also got a 16"x20" picture for free from Shutterfly. Some coupon for $20 that came with my girls' school pictures (that I didn't even buy). A huge picture and frame and the whole thing was a buck. Can't beat it!

The other large frame went in my bedroom. A honeymoon picture, when we wore matching clothes.

Love it...don't think we've done that since our honeymoon. You know, where every honeymooning couple in Hawaii is wearing their matching silky, floral patterned outfits.

I think this table is actually a plant stand, but it was the perfect size for the little corner in my entryway.

  

It had rings on the top and looked pretty rough, but nothing spray paint can't fix.

I was kind of concerned about how the top would turn out, but by just covering up the rings it works fine.  When you put stuff on top of it you don't really notice the paint since you can still see most of the marble top.
I really liked it until my toddling 8 month old decided to pull it over.  Very thankful it didn't hurt him, but moved it for now.

This was some random wall decoration that my Mom brought me. 
If you can see it amongst the mess it's laying on.  I had already started painting the left side.

 It was sitting in my garage sale pile because I didn't want it either, then it hit me.

I have been needing a Christmas card holder and thought this might work.

I spray painted the whole thing green and the flowers red.  Let me tell you, this thing was pretty ugly even spray painted...or just not my style.

 I also spray painted about 30 clothespins green.  I think you could skip this step, but I wanted them to really blend in.  I cut little strips of scrapbook paper I had and used Mod Podge to adhere them to the tops of the clothespins.

 This is what it looked like with my old Christmas cards on it, because I had to test it out before I ever got Christmas cards coming in this year.

 When I got cards this year, this was perfect.  I could even use the clothespins for multiple cards.
I like that we can see them all throughout Christmas time.
I love that people still actually send out cards!

One last makeover.
I found a couple of these sconces at Goodwill for about a dollar.

Gave them a couple coats of black glossy spray paint and now they hang on my wall.
 Not really sure what to do with them...but there they are for now.

Canvas Pictures

I can't remember how long I've been wanting to do these with my kids' pictures, but I finally did it.

One reason it took so long was because I needed some good pictures. I took some when we did family pics this Fall and really love them.

If you want to make your own, this is what you will need:

Canvases

Black paint (I used acrylic)

Pictures

Mod Podge - glossy

About the canvases...I used the 2 inch thick ones because that's what I like, but used the thinner ones for a set for the in laws. Both look nice, just depends on what you like. You can usually find canvases for at least 50% off at Michael's. I happened to get mine for 70% off during the holiday one day deals. You just want to make sure to get the canvases that are wrapped all the way around the edges and stapled on the back and not the sides. Try to get the canvas the same size as your pictures or maybe a little smaller.

I printed my 5x7 pictures at Sam's for 38 cents each.

I actually used real Mod Podge for these, since I wanted them to be nice. Usually I would use the homemade version of Mod Podge for things, but lately people have said on certain things it turns out looking milky on their projects. Of course I used my coupon and bought it for 40 or 50% off at Joanns.

Now on to how to make them. I painted all of the sides of my canvases and a little up and over the edge onto the front. This way if your picture isn't quite perfect, you won't really be able to tell. I ended up doing two coats.

While that dries you can trim your pictures to fit the canvas if you need to. Not all canvases are created equal so you may want to lay your picture down and check on every one.

Once the paint is dry, put a coat of Mod Podge on your canvas and then lay your picture on top. I went ahead and then did a coat on top of the picture also. Let that dry and then do another coat. I brushed the first coat vertical and the second horizontal.

 

I took this picture so you can see the texture a little bit.  It kind of gives it that canvas look on top of the picture. I also went ahead and put a thin coat around the edges since some had gotten on them. It was glossy Mod Podge so you could see on the sides where it didn't have any.

In the end I probably spent about $3 for each one, which includes the price of Mod Podge that I'll use for many more projects.

I really love how these turned out. Have fun making your own!

The CUTEST Wonder Woman EVER

I actually finished Halloween costumes early this year!  Amazing.

So I had to share.

My 4 little munchkins are all going as super heroes this year.  I only had to make 2 from scratch, so here is Wonder Woman.

I would say she's the absolute cutest Wonder Woman I've ever seen, just sayin'.

She's showing how Wonder Woman twirls and changes here.  We had to watch some old clips from the original show.  She loved it.

This ended up being so fun to make.

I used an old red t-shirt for the top.  I also made some little shorts to go under the tutu out of some old jersey type pants.  Those same pants are used for the Superman outfit I made my little man...that post will be coming soon.

What I did have to buy was 3 yards of blue tulle and the gold material, which I bought a whole 3 inches of it and had plenty.

My best friend for this Halloween has been heat n' bond iron on adhesive. I used it for the gold on the top and red stars on the crown and cuffs.

I do have one great before and after picture.

I needed red boots, but of course wasn't going to go buy some just for this costume.  So I took some old rain boots and spray painted them.

Here is what they looked like before.

And like you've already seen, here they are for Wonder Woman.

 

Now, why didn't I do that earlier?!  They look so much better.  I will remember this next time our rain boots start looking crummy.

Now we only have to wait a month to wear it...

Framed Wall Decor

Here are some framed things I did awhile back I thought I would share.  

In my oldest girls' room I'm putting lots of framed things above her bed, including this flower wall art.  Here are a couple other things.

Her name framed.

I painted a wood plaque and painted on her name.  I glued it to fabric covered cardboard and put it in a frame I had spray painted.

I read a great tip on transferring images somewhere on Pinterest (one of those things I read, but didn't pin).  Print off your design and put a piece of newspaper between it and your surface.  Make sure the newspaper part has a lot of words.  I used a picture portion of the paper since I didn't have much area to cover.  Then trace your words or design that you printed off with a sharp pencil and it will leave a faint line on your piece of wood.

Another fun thing for her wall, a silhouette.

I took a picture and printed it out the size I wanted and used it as a pattern to cut out of white fabric.  I glued it to the brown and white fabric with spray adhesive and framed it also.

I haven't used spray adhesive until recently when I inherited some, and I love the stuff.  It's so easy for lightweight things.

I had a couple of old frames that I spray painted for our master bedroom.  Here's the before.

After I spray painted them, they hung on my wall empty for awhile.  I finally filled them.

I tend to go ahead and hang them on my wall until I actually decide what I want in them...go figure.

 

Put a painted wooden letter on some fabric covered cardboard in a frame, and there ya go.

I also did the list of dates I've seen everywhere lately.  This was the format I used.

I printed mine out on cardstock and put it in the same brown frame as the monogram.

I also had this big bulky frame.  I think it weighs about 20 pounds.  It's not one of those new "looks like it's heavy" frames, it's the real deal.

Yes, I do love Jesus, but I had to replace this picture.

I spray painted the frame white and put in a picture from our honeymoon.  

I still have so many frames to fill it's ridiculous, but I feel like I'm making some headway at least.

Flower Wall Art

 I've seen these felt flowers all over the place.  I'm trying to find different things to fill frames above my little girls' bed and this was perfect.

I usually buy the individual sheets of felt, but didn't really know how much I would need for this project, so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought it by the yard.  Soooo much cheaper!  I bought 1/3 of a yard for about $1.25 with my coupon (which I figured was about 8 of those smaller individual pieces).

I didn't look at any tutorials (which I can figure out why I didn't think to), but just cut some triangles in different sizes.

I started out by sewing mine all in one long string to make them gather. 

 

 

I laid that string of petals down in a circle and just worked my way inwards with layers of petals.

I used hot glue to put it on my fabric covered cardboard, realizing it probably would have been easy to skip the sewing part.  Guess that's when the reading the tutorials beforehand would have been pretty helpful.

I did find some great tutorials after the fact.

This one has a little different shape to it.

I can't wait to make some pillows with the rest of my felt too.

Now to fill those other 5 frames...

Ruffled Apron

It was my sis-in-laws birthday, and I knew she was wanting a fun apron, so I put this together for her.

I wanted something colorful, and these tie-dyed t-shirts I already had were perfect.

For the main part of the apron I used a tablecloth that had a floral pattern on it.  I used another apron I already had for the pattern, but it's a pretty simple piece if you don't have one on hand.

I cut a couple of 4 inch strips from the bottom of each shirt and sewed them together to get enough for each ruffle.

I hemmed around the edge of the apron and then sewed on each ruffle, starting with the bottom one and then layering them on top of each other.

I added one ruffle at the top edge also.

For the straps I used the t-shirts strips sewn together too.  Best thing about the t-shirts is that you don't have to hem them.  Love that!

She seemed to like it.  It should make cooking so much more fun, right?

I left it long, but you could cut it shorter and it would probably look like a tutu. :)

DIY Magnetic Folders/Whiteboard

It's about that time to start receiving all of those random papers from school.  I never know where to keep them without losing them, but also turn them in on time.

Then one day I saw a lady say something about this thing she has hanging on her fridge for school papers.  This wasn't it exactly, but it looked something like this.

 

I thought that would be perfect, but didn't really want to spend $30 on it.  It also was a little bulky for me.

So I put something together that I think will work for me.  And it was free!  Well, I already had the folders that I bought for 20 cents a piece once upon a time, so that's about as close as you get to free.

I turned folders on their sides with the opening pointed upwards.  I stacked one folder on top of the other scooting it down a few inches and then taped the sides.  Stacked the next one on top and taped all of those sides together...and so on.  I turned them over and put some stick on magnets and that's it.

I stuck some papers in the folders to see how it worked and I think I'm going to like it.  We'll see pretty soon.

Then as I was hanging it on my fridge I got the idea that it might just work as a whiteboard too.  It does!

My folders were the really slick kind, so you would just have to test your own folders out to see if it works.

I already had a calendar on my fridge and thought I could put it on here instead.  I tested it out for a month and realized I liked being able to flip to the other months.  Now I use the front of the folders as a place for notes and randomness.  Either way, it's great!

Crate Seats

I have been looking for a craft table for my kids for awhile, and not just so I could make these seats...or maybe slightly because I wanted to make these seats.

I would give credit to someone, but I've seen so many people making these now that I don't know who to give it to.  Seriously, just Google it and you'll see what I mean.

I figured out the table (which I will show at a later date), and as soon as it was in place, I had to get these seats made.

I bought 6 to make.  I found my milk crates at Wal-Mart for about $3.50.  They had black, grey, red, blue, green, & hot pink.  I had to go with green to match the room I'm putting them in.  Although the pink was so pretty.

Next I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of plywood for $10.  They'll cut it for you, so I had measured mine at home and had them cut 6 pieces for me.  I also took the crate with me to make sure it fit.  I had a ton of plywood leftover.

I had found some new packages of foam at the Goodwill for 99 cents (which was incredible and don't expect that to happen again anytime soon), and cut it to the size of the plywood.  Then I cut my fabric big enough to wrap around it.  

Pull the fabric around the foam and plywood and staple in place.

Put it on your crate and voila.  I love these!  So do my kids.  They are actually the perfect height for my 7 year old and still works well for the little ones too.

 

Oh, and another great thing about these?

 Storage!  Who doesn't need another place to put all of the kids junk.