The Family Room re-do: Decoupaged large chipboard letters

Even though the new aqua paint in my family room has been dry for a few weeks, I'm still working on putting the finishing touches on the room. This week I got things back up on the walls, and one of the projects I did was something I intended to do a long time ago, but now I'm glad I waited.

I purchased these large chipboard letters at Hobby Lobby over a year ago, and always intended to paint them or cover them with maps or old book pages or sheet music or some other type of ephemera. I never could decide exactly what I wanted, however, so I've left them raw all this time.

Inspiration finally struck in the form of a thrifted piece of fabric that I had purchased a long time ago and tucked away in a drawer. I rediscovered it last week and realized that it is perfect for my new family room! I had originally planned to use it in my front room but now that I have aqua walls instead of navy, I can use it in my family room. It's perfect for bringing in the brown and blue colors of my new rug, and brings in the red so I won't have to change my red window valances.

I picked four coordinating sheets of paper from my scrapbook stash and decoupaged the paper onto the chipboard letters--easy as pie! I used a sanding block on the edges to remove the excess paper and to give a nice little distressed edge. If I did letters like this again I'd do that part before putting on the top coat of decoupage medium--it would have required a lot less sanding!

I even had enough scraps left over that to make a little matching pennant banner to hang on the vintage chalkboard that hangs on another wall of the room. I simply cut out triangles and glued them to a piece of red and white baker's twine.

I'm happy with the way the letters look and for another way to bring the red & green into the rest of the room. I'm hoping to get started on sewing some new pillows this weekend. I think I have enough of that fabric to make two pillows if I use a coordinating color for the backs. I'm so close to being done--hopefully I can show you all a Before & After post next week!

Do you have any DIY plans for the long weekend?

Vintage hankie cuff bracelet

How weird..I know that yesterday's post about the vintage tablecloth & glass beads posted at one point, because Rebecca commented on it--but then it disappeared and went back to being scheduled! I know Blogger was acting up for many people yesterday and I suppose I must be one of them.

I had high hopes to finally FINISH my painting project during today's naptime, but my hopes were dashed when the paint roller left hundreds of tiny pieces of fuzz in my wet paint. Grrr! I've been washing and reusing the same roller all week and apparently the limit on number of times you can successfully do that is three. The baby is asleep so I couldn't just run out and get another roller cover, so I'll have to pick one up after school and finish during tomorrow's naptime. I just want this darn project to be over!

I did go through the entire gallon of Sherwin-Williams Super Paint just doing the first coat, and purchased another gallon of custom-matched Behr to act as the top coat. The color match is pretty spot-on, but I'm really surprised at how thin the Behr paint is compared to the S-W Super Paint. It's like the difference between chocolate milk and a chocolate milkshake. And now I really want a chocolate milkshake! Yum. Also, the Behr paint is much stinkier than the Sherwin-Williams was, even though the Super Paint is not marketed as low-odor or low-VOC.

I found some old project photos I never shared, so I thought I'd throw those up today so you have something pretty to look at. I don't know how I got the idea, but I wanted to turn a vintage printed hankie into a cuff bracelet.

I used a hankie with a pretty floral design and ironed it onto a piece of stiffener to give it some body. Then I cut out along the edges of the flowers and leaves and used prong-set rhinestones to add some sparkle to the flower centers. (sidenote--I had no idea how difficult it would be to find glass, prong-set rhinestones anymore. I could only find them at Michael's and only in one or two sizes, and only in clear.)

For the cuff I used a wide piece of vintage lace and sewed a straight line down each side of the flower piece to tack it down. I hand-sewed a pair of large snaps to keep it closed, and it was finished! It's a fun little piece (although I don't think I've ever worn it!) and a fun way to repurpose a vintage hankie.

What are your plans this weekend? I think you know what mine involve...

Mother's Day gifts: antique canning jar soap pumps

Now that I'm sure that my mom and MIL have received their gifts, I wanted to share with you what I did for Mother's Day for them this year. A few months ago I came across this pin on Pinterest (do you Pin? That needs to be another post entirely) and was determined to make one for myself.

http://theblissfullycontentlife.blogspot.com/2010/08/homemade-christmas-canning-jar-soap.html

I realized that they would make fun Mother's Day gifts, so I've been on the hunt for antique pint-sized blue glass canning jars. I know that the quart-size jars are usually pretty plentiful at antique stores, and I figured that the smaller ones would be easy to find as well. Boy, was I wrong! I went to one antique mall, one consignment store, and about six other antique stores with ZERO luck before I threw in the towel and went to my go-to giant antique mall on the other side of town. Even there, I really had to search for them, and they were more expensive than the larger quart jars!

For the pump portion, I purchased two bottles of Suave lotion because although they have a plastic pump, it's a nice matte silver color and I like how it looks with the zinc lid. I did look at Michael's to see if they sold pumps with the soap-making supplies, but they didn't have anything. I imagine you could also purchase a soap container from a thrift store or yard sale and just harvest the pump mechanism, but I was in a hurry so I went with what I knew would be easily available.

From there, it was easy! I traced the top of the lid on paper and cut out the circle, then folded it into fourths to determine the center. Using a hammer, I tapped a nail into the top of the lid to make a mark for the center.

The zinc lids for these old jars have a white glass insert that you have to remove so you can put the pump through. I flipped the lid so the inside was facing up, then put a paper napkin over the glass insert and gave it a gentle tap with my hammer. The insert broke, and I used a pair of needle-nose pliers to pull out the pieces and discard them.

I enlarged my pilot hole from the nail by using a Philips head screwdriver and my hammer; I just tapped the screwdriver gently until it went all the way through. I thought that would be big enough to slip the pump through, but then I looked closer at the pump and realized that the portion that needs to fit through the lid is wider than the stem. It's the part the pencil is pointing to in this photo:

To make the hole bigger, I used my needle-nose pliers again and basically jammed them through the hole and twisted. I don't have a photo of this very scientific and precise maneuver because I needed both hands to perform it, but it was easy. The metal lids are really soft and it only took a few twists to make the hole just big enough to fit the pump through. I wanted a snug fit so it would stand up straight, but I'm sure you could use some glue to stabilize the whole thing as well.


The last step was that I needed to trim the plastic stem, because the pint jars were shorter than the original lotion bottles. I just eyeballed the length and cut them with a regular pair of scissors. And then I was done! It honestly took me maybe 20 minutes, and that was because I had to figure out how to do it. I could make one in about 5 minutes now that I know what I'm doing. The hardest thing about the whole project was finding the darn jars!

To complete the gift, I used a pair of darling embroidered vintage flour sack towels that I found at an estate sale last summer. I rolled up each towel so that the embroidered picture was showing and tied it with pretty ribbon.  I searched and found this cute little poem called My Mother's Hands (which I admit I altered very slightly to make it more appropriate from a grown child's perspective). I printed it out on colored cardstock and slipped it around the dishtowel under the ribbon, and tied matching ribbons around the jar lids. I'm very happy with how they turned out; I know it's a gift I'd be tickled to receive!

I definitely want to make one (or more) of these for my own home, so I'll either have to get lucky and find more pint jars or break down and use the quart size. If you want to purchase your soap dispenser lid instead of MacGyvering one like I did, both Post Road Vintage and Midwest Finds are Etsy sellers who carry them. Now, wish me luck finding those pint jars!

Spool decor

Some cute ideas for making your own vintage-style spool decor with real and faux spools:

Check Kristine's website for the free download to make the giant spool label.

Valentine vintage window decor

I love decorating for each holiday, but because I like to make things hard on myself  like new decorating challenges, I usually change things up each year. Here's what my Valentine decor looked like last year:

I really liked how it all looked, but I got tired of the mercury glass candlesticks and gave them all away, and the little vignette on my bench is out of the question this year because of a certain little Master of Disaster so I need to do something different this year.

Changing up my decorations each year means that it takes me a little while to get it all put together and tweaked until it's just right. I don't have this year's decor done so I don't have a photo yet, but I did make something new to be the centerpiece of my display.

I used an old window I bought several years ago at a garage sale. I decorated it for Christmas too but I never got around to showing it on my blog though I suppose now's as good a time as any:

For Christmas, I made a banner using my die-cutting machines. I cut the cute scalloped bases out of old sheet music with my Sizzix Big Shot and edged them with vintage silver glitter. I cut the letters out of red cardstock using my new Cricut machine, and clipped them onto strings of red and white baker's twine using tiny clothespins. The twine was attached to the frame using tiny clear 3M Command hooks.

For my Valentine display I knew I wanted to use my window again and even purchased some pink vinyl to use with my Cricut machine, but I changed my mind at the last minute and used cardstock instead. I've seen a few things around Etsy and blogland using this little phrase and since I'm a big-time Beatles fan, decided I'd use it too.

To get my words all straight and evenly spaced, I used a ruler to divide the window into equal sections, then used a dry-erase marker and drew lines on the back side of the window. From there it was easy to cut out, arrange and adhere my letters in nice straight lines, and then I just used a spritz of Windex to clean the lines off the back of the glass when I was done!

I put my photo background board behind the window so I could get a better picture of it, but I actually really like how it looks and I think I'll make one the correct size to place behind the window for my display. Now I just need to put the rest of the display together...

More Ornament wreaths

May I present vintage ornament wreaths no. 2

and 3:

 I was able to dig into my stash come up with enough pink ornaments to squeeze out a third wreath, though I had to mix them with silver to have enough for the whole thing.

I love them! I think I'll sell at least two of them next year, as I don't really need three pink ornament wreaths in my house (which has NO pink in it other than Maren's bedroom). Now I just need to find a way to keep them safely stored until next year--these things are fragile!

Vintage ornament wreath #1

Confession #1: my Christmas tree is still up and decorated, and about half of my other Christmas decorations are still out. It's now the middle of January.

Confession #2: I don't even care!

I've never before left my Christmas decorations up so late but they're not bugging me, so I've ignored them. Part of the reason I haven't boxed them up is that I'm still doing Christmas crafts, so there are some things that I can't put away because I'm using them! All of my boxes have to fit neatly into a small space so I have to have them all ready to go and put them all in at once to make it work--it's like Christmas box Tetris.

Last night I made my first vintage ornament wreath. I've wanted to make one since, well, since I started collecting vintage ornaments about six years ago. But as with the other crafts I've shown this week, December gets crazy for me (schedule-wise and mentally) so I can't seem to get one done before the holiday. Now I'm early for next year!

I didn't hit the post-Christmas sales at Target this year because 1) I don't need anything and am trying to declutter and 2) I was lazy. :) But I did have to go to Target last week for something else and decided to wander by the Christmas aisle to see if anything was left. It was already 90% off so pickins' were slim, but I did find some colored tinsel wreaths in silver, pink, blue and green. Original price was $2.50, so I figured I couldn't go too wrong for a quarter apiece and bought the silver and the three pinks that were left on the shelf.

I used one of the pink wreaths as my base and glued on the outside ring of larger solid colored ornaments first, then filled in the middle with the fancy stuff. I wondered if maybe I ought to use a different color than my precious pink vintage beauties in case I messed up my first attempt, but luckily it worked out and I couldn't be more pleased with the final product!

I still have two pink wreaths and a silver left, which is a good thing because now I'm addicted! I've already started a pink and turquoise wreath, and I'm trying to decide what color scheme to use on the silver. I bent the remaining pink wreath into a heart shape and I'm going to see if I can't come up with something for Valentine's Day. I'll have used up all of my pink ornaments though, so that one will have to be mostly red and perhaps silver.

I'm giving myself one more week to get the Christmas crafting wrapped up and put away--just in time for all of the Valentine's decorations to come out! Guess I don't have to worry about that whole post-Christmas emptiness in my decor, right?

More Christmas crafting: vintage-style hanging glass bead ornaments

Still working on the post- (or pre-, depending how you look at it) Christmas crafting. This project was easy, I just didn't ever have the time to sit down and actually do it before Christmas!

Earlier this summer I bought this vintage Christmas wreath-thingy (I really don't know what to call it) at an estate sale. It's made of glass beads and the top is shaped into a wreath, with four long dangles hanging down, and each long dangle has a small glass ornament at the bottom.

When I purchased it, two of the green ornaments were broken, but I was sure that I had something in my stash that I could use to replace them. While I was doing the repairs, I realized how simple the construction was and thought maybe I'd try to make one myself.

The supplies were minimal: glass beads in two sizes, feather-tree size ornaments for the dangles, two foil leaves and a piece of ribbon. I didn't have any vintage foil leaves in the right shape, but I did have some very similar silver holly leaves made by a scrapbooking company called Prima. I used Zip Dry glue to adhere a length of thin floral wire to the back of each one.

A word about the mercury glass beads: finding strands of these is one of my top 10, possibly even top 5 thrills while junking. I LOVE them! I've found about a dozen strands over the past few years, but here's the thing--I've never really done anything with them. They don't display well on aluminum Christmas trees, and I plum forgot to put any on my green tree this year. I could put them in a big jar like beautiful glass bead spaghetti, but I just don't have a place for that and they get tangled really easily. When I decided to attempt to make this ornament, that was the push I needed to finally DO something with them. I cut apart the strands, removed all of the broken bits and now I have a jar full of glass beads that I can actually use. Sometimes the thought of using my vintage (and therefore difficult to replace) treasures is scary, but I have never regretted it when I actually do!

The construction of the ornament is simple. I don't have photos of all the steps because it was late at night and I made it up as I went along. The colors of my ornaments were constrained by the fact that I only have a few of the larger size strands of beads needed to make the wreath: red, turquoise and royal blue. My first attempt was the royal blue. Using the green ornament as my size guide, I cut a piece of wire roughly the same size as wreath and strung on blue beads, then twisted the ends to secure.

Next, I made the little bead clusters that sit in front of the leaves. I can make a tutorial for these if anyone is interested--leave a comment and let me know! I didn't have any small blue beads for this part so I improvised and used red. Then I twisted the tails of the clusters and the wires of the leaves together. One thing I wish I'd done differently is make the wreath portion bigger. The blue beads were smaller than the green beads, but the leaves I used were larger than the originals, so I think the proportion is a bit off.

The original dangles were strung on heavy thread or string, so I used three strands of embroidery floss to make mine. I again used the original as a size guide and strung the same number of beads. When I got to the bottom, I looped through the wire of the ornament, then went back through the beads again and out the top to make each dangle. When I had all four completed, I pulled the threads through a large silver bead and tied the threads in a knot. Here again I think the proportion is just a bit off: the silver beads I used were just slightly larger than the originals, and using the same number as the original resulted in longer strands. I used two red balls to bring in the color from the clusters, but I don't know if I like how it looks and I may remove those in favor of more blue.

To put it all together, I tied the threads around the bottom of the wreath (where the wires were twisted), cut the threads close to the knot and applied a drop of glue to keep the knot from coming loose. Next I twisted the wire from the leaves/clusters around the same place. Then I made a small bow, twisted a piece of wire around the middle and attached another glass bead, then twisted the ends around the same place as the leaves. It's not as clean on the back as I'd like, but honestly the original is a bit messy in that area as well.

I liked the next ones I made better, because I figured out my proportion problems so I think they look more balanced. I made the red one with gold dangles because of the gold leaves.

My favorite is definitely the turquoise one! I wish the holly leaves were smaller, but I worked with what I had and I made the bow out of wider ribbon to try to balance them.

I'm not sure what I'll do with these--perhaps they'll end up in my etsy shop next year. I also think it would be interesting to make a smaller version, better sized to be an actual Christmas tree ornament, using some of my really tiny feather tree ornaments at the bottom of the dangles. I'm not sure what I'd use for the leaves, but I have 10 months to figure something out!

Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

This past weekend I spent working on crafty stuff--Christmas crafts, to be precise. Now, you might think that I'm about three weeks late, but I prefer to think of myself as 50 weeks early for next Christmas!

One of the projects that I did was this muffin tin advent calendar. I've wanted to make a cookie sheet advent calendar for years, ever since I first saw Teresa McFayden's fabulous creation years ago. Every year I'd plan to make one, and then every year it would be December 1 before I knew it and too late. 2010 was no exception, but this year Teresa had a new advent calendar in the Christmas issue of Inspired Ideas (the same e-magazine where I got the inspiration to make my glittery cookie cutter ornaments). Teresa's article is on pages 40-44 if you want to go check it out.

I bought my Wilton mini muffin tin at JoAnn's so that I could use a 40% off coupon, but Wilton pans frequently go on sale both there and Michael's as well. I haven't painted it or drilled the holes in the top yet, but that task may have to wait until I pull it out next year--though I ought to just get it done now, right?

I don't have the 2 1/2" or 2 5/8" scalloped circle punch that Teresa suggested, but I do have one that is 2 3/8" from Stampin' Up. It fits, but just barely covers the muffin wells, so I knew that attaching magnets to the back of cardstock circles probably wouldn't work well. I opted for another method: I purchased magnetic sheets at JoAnn's (with a coupon, of course! I'm too cheap to pay full price for anything there) and because they're thin, was able to use my punch to cut out 24 circles. I also punched scalloped circles out of some of my favorite hoarded Daisy D's vintage Christmas scrapbook paper, and ran them through my Xyron to apply adhesive to the backs. Then I simply applied one scrapbook paper circle to the top of each magnetic circle.

The most fun part of the project was definitely picking through all of my little bits o' junk to make all of the numbers. I used stuff from my scrapbooking stash (brads, metal numbers, rub-ons, chipboard, stickers, tags, metal shapes) and vintage junk as well (a domino, a checker, bingo numbers, game card, milk bottle cap, buttons, tickets, price signs). I glued it all together with my favorite Zip Dry craft glue, and I accented some of the numbers with another of my favorite crafting products, Stickles glitter glue.

If I didn't think the candy would go bad (and possibly attract bugs), I'd go ahead and fill the wells now so it would be all ready to go on December 1, 2011 when I pull it out of the box! I'm glad to finally get this project done after literally years of having it on my mind (another one out of my system)!

Crafty stuff: Glittery vintage cookie cutter ornaments

One type of item I see frequently at thrift stores, estate sales and antique malls is aluminum cookie cutters.

 

Every housewife at some point in the 1940s-70s must have had some in her kitchen, so they're usually easy to find and inexpensive. I've picked up quite a few, but stopped myself from bringing home more when I realized that other than putting them all in a big jar, I couldn't think of anything else I could actually do with them.

I did make these Christmas cookie cutter garlands a few years ago, using a combination of new reproduction cutters and vintage cutters from my collection. To make the garlands you need to use cutters with two holes in the front so they can be strung on the ribbon.

Most of the cutters in my collection are the ordinary type without the wooden handle and the accompanying pair of holes, therefore unsuitable for garland-making so they've still been sitting in their jar, patiently waiting to be turned into something fun.

Enter the Christmas issue of Inspired Ideas! If you're not yet familiar with Inspired Ideas, it's a wonderful online magazine put together by the fabulous and charming Amy Powers. In my opinion, the 2010 Christmas issue is the best yet! There are 170+ pages of yummy eye-candy and crafting and decorating inspiration, all for free! The feature about cookie cutters that caught my eye is on pages 157-159, by Heidi Woodruff, who has an appropriately-named blog called Everyday Cookies. Heidi used doll-sized vintage aluminum cookie cutters to make cute charms, but the suggestion that got my wheels turning was to cover cookie cutters in glitter and make them into Christmas tree ornaments.

Since I needed more ornaments for the Jolly Green Giant tree anyway, this was the perfect solution! And it was simple enough that Maren could help, so it would also fulfill the requirement of keeping her busy while she's been on her school break. (12 days and counting...)

I used Heidi's instructions from the magazine article, so I won't give a tutorial here. I chose the Christmas-themed cutters from my collection and used a Cropadile to make holes in the tops for hanging. I had originally intended to use coarse silver German glass glitter. Maren used pink and red glass glitter on her two ornaments (the pink flower and red heart) and the coverage wasn't great, so for mine I switched to Martha Stewart glitter. I tried the tree and a heart in Tourmaline, a lovely aqua color, but by far my favorite was the Antique Silver. It looked like the original color of the aluminum cutters, but sparklier! For glue I used a bottle of Martha Stewart Glittering Glue that I had in my stash. The bottle lid had an attached brush that was very handy for painting the glue all over the cookie cutters.

Once they were dry, I used Heidi's method for making beaded hangers. I used long head pins from my jewelry making supplies and glass beads cut from vintage beaded Christmas garlands.

The glittery ornaments are incredibly sparkly in real life and look so pretty on my tree! I was sad that I ran out of Christmas-themed cutters before I could make more. I've scoured the thrifts looking for bags of cookie cutters, but haven't been able to find any (figures--the rest of the year they're plentiful, but I need them for a project and they disappear.) I saw tons at the antique mall last weekend, but didn't want to pay antique-booth markup when I know how much they cost at the thrift stores! I'll have to keep my eye out this coming year and stash away a few to make more ornaments next Christmas.

Photo swiped from Rebecca at Thrifty Goodness

I knew that I wanted to make these for our yearly Goodness Girl ornament swap, but as I was out of Christmas-themed cutters, I used hearts instead. For these ornaments I punched a hole in the bottom of the heart as well as the top, and used more glass garland beads and a piece of a chandelier crystal to make a little dangle. I've yet to find anything that didn't benefit from even more sparkle. :) I packaged them in little muslin bags stamped with the year.

I've always wanted to have a "kitchen" tree, and I think these would be darling on one, hung from a piece of polka-dot ribbon. Thanks to Heidi Woodruff for the cute cookie cutter inspiration, and be sure to check out Inspired Ideas if you haven't already!

Mermaid Palace from No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids

Since Maren is STILL out of school (25 days until she goes back and counting**), I figured this was a perfect time to try our hand at one of the houses in No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids. I let Maren choose which house we'd make first, and she chose the Mermaid Palace--no surprise there from my girly girl!

Once the Master of Disaster was in bed for his afternoon nap, we set to work. I used meringue powder to make my royal icing, per Lisa's tip in our interview. I had a can leftover from a Wilton Cake Decorating class I took a while back, but it can be readily purchased in the Wilton aisle at both Michael's and JoAnn's (don't forget your 40% off coupon!) The Mermaid Palace uses stacks of vanilla Oreos and ice cream cones to construct the towers, so we glued them all together and let them dry for a bit--not long, because royal icing dries out very quickly.

Once they were dry and secure, we got to do the fun part--the decorating! We mostly followed the picture in Lisa's book, though Maren chose blue icing for the walls instead of seafoam green. I piped on the frosting and Maren helped me smooth it out with a frosting knife.

For decoration, we used Smarties (leftover from Halloween!) and some tiny pink sugar pearls that I had in my cupcake decorating supplies; every Mermaid's Palace needs a little bling, right? Lisa's Mermaid Palace in the book looks like rests on a sandy seafloor made of graham cracker crumbs. I don't have any graham crackers right now, so we improvised and used breadcrumbs, which look just the same! I simply squirted royal icing all over the cardboard base, smoothed it out with a knife and we dumped the crumbs on.

My local Walgreen's was sold out of the green sour straws so we had to forgo the seaweed, but we did add sour gummy worm sea anemone to wave in the underwater currents. Maren loved how it turned out and had such fun making it! The whole thing was incredibly easy; the hardest thing for her was being patient while the icing dried. Being able to use store bought, pre-made items for the structure of the tower was such a huge mess- and time-saver for me!

I think next up we'll try the Cozy Cabin from Lisa's book. Maren and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie series and when she saw it she said, "Look, it's Mary and Laura's cabin!" so that would be a fun way to tie into our reading. The fact that the cabin is constructed from Pirouette cookies, which just happen to be one of my all-time favorites, has nothing whatsoever to do with it. ;) And Pirouettes are on sale right now anyway, so it's economical!

You have a few more hours to leave a comment here and enter to win your own signed copy of No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids! The giveaway closes at noon MST!

**(disclaimer: I love my daughter and I enjoy spending time with her. However, I also enjoy the precious 2.75 hours of "alone" time I get per day when she's at kindergarten and the baby is napping. It keeps me sane and allows me to get a lot done. Maren truly loves school, and is bored without it. Six weeks out of school in the middle of winter when it is too cold to go outside and run around gives us all cabin fever.)