Fun Re-Covering

Hi Folks ~ I'm Back! ( gone too long)
I have been out of the writing mood for a while but now I'm back and have a few DIY projects to post.

This is a little project that I had put off because the first time I had a headache when I tried to start it and having to do strenuous work didn't agree with the pounding in my head :(
So back at it again yesterday for a Sunday Funday!

This is a reupholster DIY! 
I wanted a fun chair to put in our new basement bathroom. A place where you could place clothing when getting ready, and to just somewhat fill the space. I had asked anyone if they had a old junk chair laying around that I could have or buy to recover for the space. So my co-worker and friend Angie delivered big time! This chair was more than I expected, was different than what I was envisioning, but it was perfect and turned out just awesome!
Here is a before pic of the chair.

I wanted to have the new chair have that high-end feel without going out and purchasing a chair with a great print. So I decided to find a great print and re-cover it myself.  Here is the chair stripped down to the batting.

Naked chair

Step by Step~

First I removed the material on the underside of the chair. This material hides the inside of the chair. Then I proceeded to (try) pull out all the staples holding the existing fabric down. This process was not an easy one! I ended up probably leaving about 50% of the staples in.

After I had removed all the fabric I used a seam ripper and separated the pieces and labeled it as it was on the chair.

Once all the pieces were separated I laid out my new fabric and placed the old pieces on top-pinned them together and trimmed out about 1/4 - 3/8th of an inch away from the pinned fabric. Note* I did place the fabric centered on the pattern as to have a nice center line when the new fabric would be on the chair.

All the smaller pieces like the front and sides of the seat along with the sides of the back were placed as close to where the larger corresponding parts were cut from.

tracing old to new

After I had cut around I took a light blue sharpie and traced where the actual materials would have to be sewn in order to fit the chair as the previous fabric had.

Next was assembly time!

So I started with the seat portion of the chair sewing the front and sides to it.

Then I started to sew the side piece to the front/back long piece of fabric. This went well until I reached the top of the chair. The curve made this part of the job a little tedious and I ended up sewing it by hand.

Sewing it up!

Making sure it's all coming together

After I had the pieces were complete in assembly it was time to sew the back and seat sections together. This was just a small area on the lower sides and where the materials were slid through the chair and stapled down.

Once I had all the pieced sewn together I fit it over the back, tucked in the seat/bottom of back area through the crack of the back and bottom of the chair and stapled it down.

After it was stapled down I stapled the four sides of the chair under chair.

Now I thought I had kept the original black fabric that covered the inside of the bottom of the chair but I didn't so currently the chair does not have anything covering it up. 

Last step was to trim any access string that would be showing - put the chair in the basement bathroom and take a couple photos.

Finished~

The chair looks great in the space. The colorfulness of the chair really adds to the room. Now there is a space to place clothes when showering - somewhere to sit and hang if the girls are getting ready. I have to say that this project went smoother than I expected and I'm really happy about the final product! 

All it takes is initiative, a complete thought process, some dough and you can create an amazing project too!

Happy DIY-ing!

Project Cost:

Chair: Free (thanks again Angie ;)

Staple gun: Already had

Sewing machine: Already had

Thread: Had

2 yards of fabric: $42.00 (only probably had to buy 1.5 but didn't want to risk it)

Stevie's Pad

Once upon a time...
I thought my dog, Stevie, would like it if he had a place to get out of the heat, rain, snow, etc if he were tied outside, so being the loving fur mommy I am I built him a dog house! This also was my first DIY building project. It was fun, creative and was little to no headaches.

Stevie Ray

Photo: Adam Shea Photography

Past helping the future!

I was lucky enough to have experience as a graphic designer at a sign company so thinking about how a sign was to be built was part of the daily designing experience. This helped with knowing measurements such as deducting the width of the sides from my front piece, otherwise I'd be cutting it twice! Or worse yet, be short!

Here we go!
Step 1: Make the plans
So on a piece of paper I drew out a scaled version of the dog house. This way I would know exact cuts and the exact amount of material I would need without under buying or over buying. I had to also think about how I was going to attach everything together and the finishing touches.
I would need:
2 pieces of 4 x 8 ply-wood
3 angled brackets (for the roof)
Caulk to seal the edges
Roofing nails
Shingles
Paint
U-bracket (to anchor Stevie's lead to)
And lastly, a paper pattern for the door entrance, paw prints, "Stevie's Pad", and house numbers. (My husband was kind enough to print these for me!

Tools needed:
Jig saw
Drill
Hammer
Caulk gun
Sand papaer

Step 2: 
Get to building!
I built Stevie's house the size because he is a corgi - long and short! The house's opening is 14" tall so he can walk in easily and long so he could stretch out if he needed to. The overall dimensions of this house are 48" deep, 30" wide, and about 30" tall.

Here is a very interesting photo! Top side of the roof~

Dog house mostly assembled with the next step being paint and bracket attachment.

Here is the house just about fully assembled and in the process of being painted. The bracket has been installed on the lower right hand-front of the dog house so we have a place to attach the dogs lead. Next step is to paint the inside the beige color and the kelly green for the accent color.

Here is the house finished!

Shot from the second side~

Stevie prefers to sunbathe! 

The dog house was build about 3 years ago and little did I know, he would never actually use it. So it sits in our back yard as a place to anchor his lead to.

Let Freedom Ring

A Little History~
In 1776, Congress declared that there was a new, independent nation, the United States of America.

In honor of our countries independence I have created a freedom wreath! This wreath is both easy to assemble and somewhat inexpensive. On Etsy.com, a comparable wreath would be priced between $50 and $130.00. I find solace in knowing I can accomplish the same effect if not better at a fraction of that price. Between the in-store sales and my coupons for Joann's, I saved about $25.00 and the overall cost of this wreath was $25.15. No... not the most inexpensive wreath, however, it will hang on my door every year when celebrating our independence!

First Things First~
I first did a little Pinterest searching for creative inspiration and pinned the wreaths that I wanted to take my inspiration from. Next I grabbed my coupons, wallet, and headed to Joann's in search of the perfect materials.

Red~
First I walked around the store to see what materials I could utilize for my Red, White and then the Blue. I searched first in the flower section for my red. Unfortunately, the flowers were not on sale so I had to be choosy about what I selected but would still make an impact. I found the red African Daisy in the clearance area and they looked like a bursting firework to me so I snagged it up.. and then I luckily found a second one! At $1.79 each I couldn't go wrong.  

White~
Next I searched for some white flowers. There is always a big selection of white or white-ish flowers. So I searched them over looking for a great pairing flower for my red firework flowe And for one that the price was reasonable as well. r. I found the Dahlia flower at $5.99 each (plus one was 60% off and the second was 30% off!). Now we're at 6.59 for the two white flowers.

Blue~
I found this awesome blue metal star that had the same diameter as the center of the wreath and was in the holiday clearance area! Perfect! The star was originally $14.99 down to$4.49. I love when things just come together. 

A Strong Base~
I really like using the grapevine wreaths so I knew I would go with it again. A grapevine wreath is only $4.99 at Joann's and is a great option for just about any wreath design. The trimmed flower stems secure nicely in the branches with a little help from the hot glue. Also it gives it a nice neutral background that you don't have to worry about covering every square inch for a nice finished look.

All Together Now!
The last piece of my wreath was the American flag. I didn't want to just have the red, white, and blue on my wreath. I wanted to have our flag as well - the ultimate symbol of our freedom! Joann's was selling American flags as well and I found the 12" x 18" flag to be a perfect fit for the size of the wreath. The cost of the flag was $2.49.

Fill Me In~
Burlap is really in for decor and I knew I wanted to have some accenting my wreath. I looked at the spooled burlap and the price just was more than I would like to typically pay. So I continued looking through the isles and found these 4" x 4" burlap squares that I could thread through or hot glue them in place. The filler squares were $4.99 for the stack and I only used about 1/3 of them. In the end I used about $1.66 worth of squares.

All my supplies~

Just Right~
First I take the flowers and trim all the metal stems to be about three inches in length.This makes them just long enough to weave through the wreath, but not stick out the back. Then I took some thick ivory thread and tied the blue star in the center of the wreath. I typically don't secure anything until I know the placement is perfect, but this part of the process would not change. Next I did a test run and arrange everything, with the exception of the burlap filler, and tweak till it's just right.
Now we're ready for the hot glue! Next step is just putting some hot glue down on the flowers and replace them where they were. After the flowers were in place I took the leaves that came on the white Dahlia's and hot glued them in place throughout the wreath.

The next step was placing the burlap squares. I folded the squares diagonal and then diagonal again and glued them in place.

The flag was a little tricky to get it folded just the right way to look as if it is waving. I trimmed the flag staff and stuck it in the wreath at the bottom. Then I secured the top half down by using the burlap string that was holding all the squares together by weaving it through the wreath and tying it to the top of the flag staff. I then made some folds to give the flag the appearance of blowing in the wind. And Viola!

Laid out how I would like to assemble~

And the last piece of the project was just filling in more burlap to really get the wreath to have a full feeling!
Here is the final project! Hope you enjoy and enjoy your 4th of July Holiday weekend!
God Bless~

Easiest Shelves Ever!

Easiest Shelves EVER!

Perusing Pinterest I came across the perfect shelving solution to our big-long wall problem. Here is the link to my (P)inspiration: http://www.tysonandjanessaparker.blogspot.com/2013/10/diy-picture-ledges.html - You'll notice in her directions she does say that you should purchase a higher grade wood to have less sanding and warping, in other words less headaches! I heeded this advice and it made my job so easy!

Before shot~Boring wall... and don't mind the stingray!

Material Girl~
Materials you'll need to make 2 • 3' shelves and 2 • 5' shelves (2 • 8' shelves cut down) is as follows:

Purchased Select Pine Board from Home Depot

2 • 1" x 2" x 8' boards for front lip 

2 • 1" x 3" x 8' board for bottom

2 • 1" x 4" x 8' board for back 

nail gun

paintable caulk

paint

screws

level

stud finder

screwdriver and necessary bits

Steps for Production:

Cut all pieces down at a 3' mark. Now you'll have a 3' piece and a 5' piece of each width of wood. Nail the 3" strip to the 4" strip making an L shape (back and bottom).Then nail the front 2" strip to the assembled "L" piece for a front lip. This will secure your items on the shelf.

This is what it will look like:

one of these is different than the others... lol

Next step is to caulk over the indents from the nail gun. Once this has dried I lightly sand and paint white for a smooth finish. I did two coats on the tops and sides in one day with about an hour in between for drying time. The next day I painted two coats on the bottoms, again with about an hour in between for drying time.
Literal time frame for this project was 3 days, however one could complete it in the same day if you had the time. I did the cutting and assembly on day one (Wednesday after work). Day two I sanded and painted (Thursday after work). Day three I finished up by painting the bottoms and hung (Friday after work).
That's it!

Hang it Man~
After everything was painted I then went to the wall where it would be installed and roughly drew marks where I wanted them. I held the shelf up to the wall and asked my hubster what he thought of the placement. Once we had good placement, (distance from the top and bottom of the T.V. with enough space in the middle for the art pieces) I took our 6' level and drew a straight line. On that line I marked out my studs using my stud finder. Then I held up my shelves to the wall and drew a faint mark at each point that there would be a stud and pre-drilled a hole. Then I just started the screws in their hole till they were flush with the backside of the shelves, then held it up and simply screwed it in.

Once the shelves were all up I took a small paint brush and the same white paint and painted over the screws. Contrary to my P'inspiration link, I did this because I didn't put a ton of art on the shelves and you would be able to see the screws.

Viola!

Here is the finished product! I think this was the easiest shelf project that I've ever done and pretty cheap! Total project cost: $26.62 (not including tax). This cost is just for the wood. We had all other materials necessary to complete this cool project!

Panned out for you! (don't mind the clutter after all, we do live here ;)

It is so inexpensive and adds an outstanding look!

Have fun with your DIY project and don't be afraid to be creative!

All because two people fell in love~

Let me think this over...
Here was a project that I contemplated for months. I had an idea of what I wanted but not sure exactly how to collaborate a substrate and design. I wanted to somehow have a custom piece of art that had years of importance in our lives but didn't want to do the long horizontal piece of wood with just the month, date, and year, I wanted it to be truly unique.Then after a long time of browsing Pinterest (of course!) I saw my inspiration! Here is the link to it: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/563724078333211396/

Instead of the letters I will use numbers. Those numbers are to represent the important years in my and my husband's lives. The years are; my husband's birth year, my birth year, the year we started dating, the year we were engaged, the year we were married, the year we had our son, and the year we had our daughter, with two blank ones for a symmetric look. On top of having the years I also put the month, time (Dating 07' and Engagement 09's times are approximations) and what street each event took place on.

The difficult part of this DIY project was what substrate to use. The inspired-from art piece is made up of old subway signs and are metal. I may have had access to sheet metal and a way to cut/bend it but I did not really want to work with metal. My luck, I would cut myself in the process.
So I decided to use wood! I love wood! Wood is inexpensive, easy to work with, and can be manipulated as far as the finish.

Pre-planning~
Before I really got ahead of myself I also needed to figure out how I was going to get the numbers on the wood. I found a great technique on... yup you guessed it, Pinterest! https://www.pinterest.com/pin/563724078333182295/
From the Pin I went to the person's blog to read the step by step instructions on painting and waxing for a weathered finish. On the blog she talks about how to do the old/distressed look but doesn't really go into the depth that I, a first timer, needed. Because of this lack of information I do what I do best, improvise! I went to Joann Fabric and asked if they had wax, and they did not. Keep in mind that I thought the wax that was used was a colored wax... I was directed to Hobby Lobby for wax. When searching in the store I asked an associate to point me in the direction of wax and she brought me to an isle of large blocks of wax and colored shavings. Not what I was looking for at all. As we were discussing what I was looking for we talked about the project, my expectation for an outcome and so on. And, what to my surprise, I was talking to a self proclaimed distress-er! She informed me that I would use paint but the wax is used to coat the wood so the paint doesn't stick in certain areas, then you simply scrape off the wax and that scrapes off the paint. Thank goodness for a little divine intervention :)
So now I know I have an old candle at home all I needed was some great paint colors and wood.
I purchased three colors from Hobby lobby; Desert Turquoise, Spiced Pumpkin Orange, and Tuscan Red. I added additional colors from home navy blue. All very trendy and Americana brand paint.

Wood ya know~
To start off I went to Homedepot and found 1" x 12" x 10' common board which I had cut down in ten equal pieces. With the cuts from the blades (1/8") the last piece was shorter than 12" but that was just fine because I only needed nine pieces. Now that I have my wood I needed to stain it to prep it for my paint/wax. I still had some left over stain from numerous other project, many in the basement, so I just used more up.

Do I look familiar or what?

Ouch my hand hurts!
I had printed each art template and taped each one onto each board. Then with a pen I traced the words and numbers on each piece of wood. This way I could see the light indentation on the panel after I had done the painting. After one of these my hand was seriously cramping, but I shake it off and forge ahead. I am the type of person who likes to see instant results so instead of tracing all nine, I decided to complete the first panel.

Here is the Technique~
The technique that I gathered between the blog and the associate at Hobby Lobby goes as follows.

1st: rub wax where you don't want paint (I take the taper candle and randomly rub it over the front surface of my square)

2nd: Paint brush strokes over the entire surface with your multiple colors, not to overlap and make purple or brown everywhere. After the paint was freshly dry I took an old wash cloth and rubbed down the entire front surface. This removed most of the paint where the wax was and blended the paint in some areas. However, I did not scrape off all the wax. You can do what ever you want to do, for my project I was ok with the wax remaining on the surface because it was clear enough.

3rd: Paint on the wording and numbers in a different color. I had a small sample of a bright green left over from my dog house project, so this is what I used. Plus the green went well in the basement with it being a color in our new throw pillows and ottomans.

4th: Rub down with Murphy's Oil Soap. This step was taken from the blog. I'm unsure if it made that much of a difference but the colors sure did pop once rubbed down. I also don't know if it has any preservation qualities but thought, what the heck!

Wall before~... Boring!

But before you hang~
I wanted the installing of the wood be as trouble free as possible so I took a piece of cardboard and made a template, a small hole in the upper corner. This hole would be my pre-drill hold. Next I pre-drilled all my squares and hand screwed in screws so then when it came to installation I wouldn't have to deal with splitting wood or the placement of the boards shifting because of having to get through the wood first. I flipped the cardboard upside down for the opposite corner as to have uniform holes on all my pieces.

Installation~
Last part of the big project was installing the installation! I had contemplated on how to hang these squares perfectly level and all an equal distance apart. I had scored a large piece of paper from a box of frames that I purchased, but drawing the lines on it to hang on the wall proved to be pretty difficult with a toddler walking or crawling on the paper, and it not being quite big enough.

My next "bright" idea was to ask my husband to print out a template of all the squares and I would hang that on the wall. Unfortunately, this is just another dilemma I ran into. The printer he has access to is only 36" wide, and I need at least 40". So my brain finally kicks into high gear and I come up with a brilliant idea. I simply went on Illustrator and made a document that was the size of my wall and put in the squares at the distance I wanted them apart, 3", and then made measurements from the wall and ceiling to each row, and viola, I had all my measurements.

Next step in the installation was to draw small hash marks in from the wall at the distance my illustrator document shows, and with a six foot level that doubled as a straight edge I drew a grid.
The moment I've (and you've) been waiting for... this was almost too easy! Since I had my straight/level edge and my squares pre-drilled with screws already in place I just had to get on the ladder and screw them into the wall.

Here is the final product! 
I have to say that the look wasn't exactly what I had in mind going into the project but I really love the way this turned out! The final touch was to go back with some paint and cover up the lines that were showing after my pieces were installed.

Here's the skinny on the cost...
1" x 12" x 10' Wood: $10.99
Stain: Free
Background paint: 1.79 each x 3 = $5.66
Additional background paint: Free
Green wording paint: Free
Screws: Free (used some old drywall screws)
Murphy's Oil Soap: $4.18
Wax (candle): Free
TOTAL PROJECT COST (including tax):  $20.83
Having a custom piece of art that you created: (cheesy) Priceless!

All Dresser-ed Up-

All Dresser-ed Up!
Refinishing an old dresser is easier than you think!

Ever since I first saw this old beat up dresser in the basement of my "boyfriends" house I had big plans for it! When we were married the plans became reinforced... and then when we were expecting our second child the dream was going to become a reality-we were going to have a little girl! You see, this dresser was curvy and therefore in my eyes it was feminine. The dresser was shabby, water stained and colored on, and, was in need of some lov'in.

Step by Step~
First I had to sand the dresser down. I started to do this by hand and seemed to be taking a really long time. So I looked at my power tools and decided to try out our oscillating tool that came with a sanding attachment. This worked like a charm! The only tiny draw back is that there is some areas where it looks like the sander scratched the wood. But, on the plus side of that the stain I chose was pretty dark and with the wood grain the scratches are hardly noticeable.

Once I was done with sanding the next step was removing all dust residue from the dresser and the drawer faces. I used HDX tack cloths to accomplish this ($2.68 for a 3 pack). All you do is simply wipe down all surfaces to be stained and discard the cloth. After all the dust was gone I proceeded to stain. I wanted to accomplish a nice dark finish with a hint of red, so the stain I chose was Minwax Red Mahogany to try and match our daughter's crib. For my tools I used an old cotton running event t-shirt, and rubber gloves. I dipped the cloth in the stain, and wiped it on the dresser starting with the top, then sides, front, and then moved to the drawer fronts. I repeated this step approximately three times, each time I wiped on stain I would wipe it off one to three minutes later. The longer you leave stain sit on the raw wood the deeper the color you will achieve, and I wanted it to get as dark as possible with out using black stain. Here is the stain I used.

HomeDepot $6.48/qt.

After I stained I did use a polyurethane clear coat just because I wanted the finished product to be clean and durable since it would be used in a child's room.  I picked up Minwax clear satin poly from HomeDepot. To apply the stain I bought some foam paint brushes which were about .57 cents each. When applying clear coat you have to be careful not to shake the can to avoid bubbles in your clear coat. I applied three coats of poly with a day in between each coat. I probably could have done two of the three coats in the same day but I didn't have enough time. After the first coat I sanded with a fine grit sand paper, used the tack cloth again to remove dust. Repeat on the second coat. Third coat I used a brown paper bag to do a super fine sanding. (tip from a youtube video)

HomeDepot: $10.77/qt

Next step was replacing the bottoms of each dresser drawer. The condition of the drawer bottoms were old, dusty, and had black spots which may have been mold. I purchased three pieces of Hickory project panels from HomeDepot at $14.30 each. The sheets were 24" x 48" and 1/4" thick. I took out the drawer bottoms which took a little tlc. There were little tack nails and glue keeping them in. I did end up breaking part off two drawer bottoms to get them out (which I fixed by pre-drilling tiny holes, then tapping in new tack nails, and wood glue in the middle to help reinforce).Once I had the bottoms out I traced an outline on the new pieces, and cut them out with a jigsaw. Then I slid the new bottoms in and tacked in at an angle on the under-back side.

Last step in finishing the dresser was to replace the drawer pulls. I found these knobs at Hobbylobby.com. They were on sale on their website for $1.99 each plus shipping ($18.89). I chose purple because her room is painted a light purple and no where else in her room had purple.

~Finished Product~ 
Unfortunately, I can not find any of my before photos, so close your eyes and imagine a fawn colored dresser with light purple crayon on the front of the drawers and water marks on the top... otherwise you can't get the jest of how far it came.

Cost break down:
Foam Brushes: $1.77
Drawer pulls: $19.89
Tack Cloth: $2.49
Drawer bottoms: $42.90
Clear Polyurethane: $10.77
Stain: $6.48

Total project cost: $84.30 ~Way cheaper than buying a new solid oak dresser or a moderately priced-cheaply made dresser!

Zoom Zoom!

A little Boy's Dream Room~
Creating the perfect bedroom for your little guy or gal is very important. I know that when I was a kid I would have L-O-V-E-D a fun room! My husband and I were on a mission to have a fun room for our toddler when it was time to switch him to a "big-boy" bed because we needed the crib for our soon-to-arrive little girl.
With Jackson loving Cars we wanted to give him a Cars' themed room. We searched high and low and wide for a car bed and found something that would work just right for him on Craigslist.

It all adds up~
We found the blue Little Tykes car bed on Craigslist for $80.00. The woman who was selling included the mattress and the support board, then we bought Cars' bedding for $34.99 from Amazon to give his bed the Cars feeling with out actually purchasing a $300.00 Lightning McQueen bed.
Next step was to search on Pinterest to find some more inspiration for his room and saw some pretty cool painted hubcaps. I then thought about how I could accomplish this, so I searched on Amazon for some rims and found a set of four for $26.00. Then when I received the hubcaps I spray painted each with the colors of a stop light. The next little details were the mini street signs. The Yield sign was purchased at a flea market for five bucks, and the Stop and Route 66 signs were found on Amazon for a little over $16.00. So we are up to 161.99. We also have a Cars toy box that I found on a mom's selling site on Facebook for $10.00. And lastly was the car rug which every little boy should have, my husband got for Jackson for one of his Christmas gifts, so therefore we don't count that as a cost for redecorating his room. All in all his little room make over was $171.99! Not bad considering I could have spent a lot more had I not been thrifty and crafty!!

No additional bucks~
There are other little details in the room that helped the whole look come together. First was his name sign that is above his bed. I actually made this before he was born for his nursery and that is some canvases, jean fabric, ribbon, wood letters that were painted, a staple gun, a hot glue gun and a couple nails! The room was already blue, so check that off the list! The Car's Lightning McQueen pillow pet was a Christmas gift, And lastly the smaller picture frames were also done before Jackson was here. Those were cheap frames from Walmart that I just spray painted blue and chalk painted the glass. Cheap and easy! A girlfriend and myself made the curtains for his room which I wouldn't do again... This is the only thing that I've ever DIY-ed that was truly not cost effective.

Book It~
I do have to admit that I have a shelf project to get going for his room. The boy has so many books that we need to get them organized on a nice big shelf. But that's another weekend and another trip to Homedepot!

Strike a pose~

Spring is in the air~

Happy First Day of Spring!
Here is a very easy DIY tutorial on a new spring wreath. This project is cheaper than purchasing a wreath that is custom and takes maybe an hour or two to complete. I know some of my followers will have seen the final product from this post because it is a wreath that I have had for a bit.

Necessary tools and supplies
For this project you'll need tools like a wire cutter to cut down the floral stems, a hot glue gun, small paint brush, and a plastic paint pallet or a paper plate. The supplies that you will need for this project are a grapevine wreath, wooden letter, flowers, and paint. I choose to shop most frequently at Joann's for all my supplies usually because they have such a vast selection of all necessary supplies for all types of DIY projects.

I've got a coupon for that~

Whenever I buy supplies for a DIY project I make sure that I have coupons at hand. If you DIY and don't receive coupons via email or snail mail from places like Joann's, Michaels, or Hancock, I highly suggest getting on their mailing list. The grapevine wreath was $4.99. The 9.5" wooden letter was $2.99. The paint I already had, I just mixed some red and blue to make my purple. And lastly, for four hydrangea spray's I paid about $24.00, however, prices do vary widely. When it comes to flowers at Joann's, they usually have sales on their flowers so prices are changing regularly. I can't say what my actual total was at the register because like I said, I always have coupons or I buy when things are on sale! I do know that I paid less than $32.00.




First things first~

For starters I laid out some newspaper on our dining room table to catch all the little leaves and twigs that can fall off of the wreath while working with it. (The wreath doesn't shed while hanging, only when being handled.) I used my wire cutters to cut down the stems to approximately a 2-3 inch length to intertwine in the wreath. Then I painted the wooden letter with my made up purple paint. Just one coat is plenty as long as you are covering every inch on the front and sides. Before glueing every piece in its place you should do a trial placement to make sure there is balance in the wreath, to make sure that it looks nice, not lopsided. So last thing is to heat up your gun and glue away! Gluing down the letter was the trickiest because of the amount of surface area that the solid surfaced letter touches versus the rather lumpy wreath.

Variations~
You can customize your wreath in so many different ways from color themes, seasonal themes, holidays, and different flowers/accents. But not only that, you can also do your house numbers versus your last name initial. The possibilities are endless. My inspiration was of course on Pinterest

Tada!
Here is the finished product! Keep in mind that for the amount of time and money it takes you to accomplish this you're saving greatly compared to buying one off of etsy.com (Prices vary from $45 to over $100). For my next wreath I am going to step it up a notch with adding some burlap and different colors, and maybe making it specific for a holiday!

  

Typography Birth Signs

It's all in the Details~
I designed these signs in Illustrator CS6. The blue frame for Jackson's sign was repurposed and the white frame for Savannah's birth sign was found at Gordmans for $19.99 (with the mat!)!  So virtually, these two signs cost only $19.99 plus tax.

Inspiration~
This was a fun lil' project that I did for both my children and I got my inspiration from Pinterest. I pretty much mimicked the Pinterest layout to a T with two differences, I omitted the zodiac sign, and the colors. Then with a little rearranging of that lower portion, I just put in Jackson's birth information. And a few short years later I did the same with Savannah's birth information. The beauty of having a degree in graphic design is having gained knowledge in Adobe Illustrator with years of experience using it is that I feel free with my designs. I can manipulate the designs and layouts just about any way that I want. Plus, I love typography and having fun with fonts, so it was a fun project for me!

Minor problems~
There were two issues I ran into. The first was that I put the wrong length in for Jackson's sign. For some reason couldn't get it out of my head that he was 19.5" long when in reality he was only 19". Another issue I had was being anxious to get Savannah's done before she was even here! When my husband and I finally decided on her name we were a third of the way there! Then there was the matter of deciding her middle name! Ok-decided... 2/3rds there! Now we just needed a baby!
After Savannah's arrival it took a few weeks for the printing to commence but we had it completed and up on her wall by Christmas.
I was able to make a birth sign for a good friend as well and I think she really loved it! (I won't be posting a photo of theirs to respect their privacy)

Here is my inspiration:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/156262219/digital-custom-birth-stats-pdf-only-8x10?ref=sr_gallery_10&ga_ref=unav_listing&ga_filters=art+-supplies+nursery&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

And the final projects!

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Grab a beer, this may take a while~
Alright folks, Here is a feature post that really uses those power tools, a dash of creativity, and skill that I have developed over my DIY career! This post is about the... you guessed it, bar! My husband and I recently finished our basement to add a family loungy room, bedroom, bathroom, and a bar! I could envision in my mind what I wanted the bar to look like but then I needed hard numbers and an actual design. So the next step was to design the layout in Adobe Illustrator. I just scaled up the page to 1/4" = 1' and designed away! The next step in the design was to figure out a bar front-the end look. And that inspiration came as an off-shoot of my friend April's bar in their finished basement.

The very beginning before anything was started~

Walls are framed~

Where to start...
The original bar design in my head was a half circle for a unique look and for functional conversations. However wonderful that idea was, it was impractical for a first time bar builder to take on such a project. I had to bring it down a couple notches, so that's how I end up with an "L" shaped bar, which is still as beautiful with the special finishing touches. I started by framing the bar like you would frame a wall, 2x4 stud across the top and bottom with 2 x 4's running vertical every 16 inches on center. I built this part with a rather large but thankfully lightweight nail gun. I looked into how high different bar stools sat and how high bar tops were in comparison to different stool height to find my wall height. Once the "L" shape had been built I made sure it was in the appropriate position by squaring it with the adjacent wall. After the wall was squared I nailed it in to our cement floor with a wonderful tool called a Ramset ($25.98 at Homedepot). This tool uses pins (nails) and .22 caliber single shot powder loads (think of a bullet). Once that was all nailed down I proceeded to build a frame for the foot rest. This was done in a similar fashion, 2 x 4's nailed together to form an "L" shape and I then used the nail gun to attach it to my framed wall bar.

So now the bones of the bar are in place and the next step was to have the inside drywalled and plywood attached to the front side. We hired a company to drywall and plaster the entire basement, so I had them drywall the inside portion of the framed bar wall. I then painted the drywalled side because this part of the bar would still be visible after cabinets and counter tops were installed. To make things easy on myself I cut down two pieces of plywood and nailed it to the front sides of the bar. With plywood on the front I wouldn't have to find studs every time I was attaching something to it.

Cabinetry and such~
My husband and I took turns laying the tile floor and then had some time away from the bar area to let it all cure. We purchased our cabinetry brought it home and installed it. So we placed the cabinets roughly in their final home. The next part was simply leveling, marking where the studs were on the adjacent wall and the bar wall, screwing in the cabinets, and hanging the wall cabinets.

Bar all ready for front design elements~

AND BREATH... 
So now I nailed down the vertical strips of wood to the front of the bar. I had 1" x 3"'s on the outer most part of both sides and then nailed down 1" x 5" pieces in the centers. These were purchased in their current width but cut down on a miter saw for the correct height, then stained and attached. The next part was fairly simple. I found some PVC decorative tiles on Amazon.com that were about $8 and change each. These were fairly easy to attach because they could be cut with a scissors and adhered with liquid nails.

Rest your feet~
So the next part of the build was covering the foot rest. I bought the same kind of wood that I stained for the front of the bar, just wider pieces that would match up and could be nailed down right to the mini "L" shape studs. I was able to use the tops at their store bought width, but had to have the fronts ripped down by an inch to fit under the tops perfectly. My father-in-law, Kevin, helped me with ripping the wood since he has a table saw, and quite a few of the other wonderful tools that we utilized for our basement finish. If I would have thought this through a little better I would have build the studs of the foot rest to be the perfect height and depth for pre-cut wood. It would have just been easier in the long run.

Bar after front design pieces were added~

Top me off~
So I'm not going to lie, figuring out the counter tops was a little trickier than one would think. Thank goodness for the ladies in the kitchen department at Homedepot who have such wonderful software for DIY'ers like myself. The counter tops were all pretty easy except when it came to the bar top portion. There was a funky notch next to the door (see photo) and then figuring out if we had overhang on the other end cap... and overhang on the inside part! Enough to pull your hair out, regroup, and go back. So now that the counter tops were ordered there was no going back. If they didn't fit it would be on us since we didn't have someone come out and measure. Luckily all the measurements were spot on and the counter tops fit like a gem! To install the counter tops we had to screw down some boards that were approximately 5/8" thick to the top of the bar and cabinets. This gave enough of a raise that all cabinet doors could open. The final step in the counter top installation was to screw them in place. I just made sure that I bought screws that were short enough not to pierce the counter tops.

Counter tops are on!

The tiny details that are still missing...
We are still trying to figure out exactly how to do the door trim for that storage space, and we are working on our packer shelf that is going to be in between the upper cabinetry. but that will come with a little more time and finding just the right pieces. One more little thing that I really want to do in the space is put a back splash. I want to put it on the six inch portion of the inside of the bar, and do a matching strip on the back counter as well just up to the bottom of the outlet and pendant light switch. But that will be in my (near) future!

Finished!
So here is a picture of the final product. The last step that I just completed this weekend was tacking on the kick boards under the cabinets and hanging the wine and beer photos. I found some great photos on google, and since they were for personal use I simply downloaded and printed. Overall cost of this project... I couldn't tell ya!

Beer sign: Gordmans $19.99 • Black frames: Walmart $13.00 • Photo prints: $4.00

Wine sign: Gordmans $19.99 • Black frames: Walmart $13.00 • Photo prints: $4.00

I think this bar turned out so spectacular and I'm pretty impressed with myself that it did on the first go round! The key to this project was taking my time and really utilizing the carpenters old adage: "Measure twice, cut once".