Farmhouse Bathroom Sign + Free Cut File!

This farmhouse-style wooden sign is perfect for your bathroom!

Earlier this week I showed you our basement bathroom makeover.  While I still have some decorating to do, I did get this farmhouse-style bathroom sign finished and wanted to share it with you.  

Unfortunately, I made this sign while I wasn't blogging last year, so I don't have any process pictures.  So I'll do my best to explain how I made it.  It's really pretty easy.

Patriotic Round-up!

I hope you all are about to have a wonderful weekend of celebrating our country and spending time with friends and family! I get to spend it with my immediate family tonight, and then head up to see my mom, brother and Valerie! Yay! I don't get to see Valerie very often so any chance I get is awesome. If you have some time off of work it may just be the perfect time to throw together a last minute craft.  A lot of the patriotic supplies are on sale so it's a great time to get your craft on! You could do this easy burlap star banner to complete your mantle!

Try this patriotic wreath with necklaces from the dollar store!

Wooden blocks always open up the possibilities for great decorations.

Do you have one of these stars on your house? Here's a way to spruce it up!

Whatever your plans are this weekend, be safe and make memories! Connect with us! You can find us here:

DIY Patriotic Sign!

I don't have very many patriotic decorations. I made this wreath last year, and that's pretty much it! Considering my husband has been in the Army 7 years now, you'd think I'd have a little more of that around the house. 
I found this blank board at Michael's and knew it would be perfect to fit one of my favorite patriotic phrases on, and and hang on my new door post

This isn't a full tutorial, but I will share the basic steps for making something like this too. You will need:

• Some sort of electronic cutter like a Silhouette or Cricut 
• Wood to place your phrase on
• Vinyl
• Transfer tape/contact paper
• Paint
• Painters tape
• Stars
• Glitter!
• Twine

I also found this fun type of glitter. Have you used this before? Tiny little metallic beads! It's messy, but created a really fun metal finish for my sign!

 

I measured my board and cut vinyl lettering to use as a stencil. I painted the board white since I wanted the lettering to end up white. By placing vinyl letters over the white paint, and then painting red and blue over the vinyl it would leave the areas under the vinyl white!Then I don't have to worry about vinyl peeling off in the outdoors, and it creates a nice smooth finish.

I'm looking forward to this Fourth of July because not only do I get to hear my husband play with the band (1812 overture with artillery!), but my sister is coming into town to visit that weekend too! Love summer! Connect with us! You can find us here:

HOME Interchangeable Letters

I have a slight fear of power tools, one I really need to get over!  I make my husband cut my wood for me.  But we still don't own a scroll saw, or jig saw, or whatever they are called.  We don't have anything to make shaped cut-outs.  So, I order mine instead!

One website I love is Fingersnapper- they have fun projects for a big discount a few times a week.  One of their ongoing projects are unfinished "HME" letters, with different shapes for all the seasons and holidays to use in place of the "O".

I have been meaning to buy them for awhile, and finally ordered them, plus an unfinished ladybug for summer.

I painted my letters with DecoArt's new Americana Decor Chalky Finish paint in Relic, which is a really dark gray.  I love it!  It went on with great coverage, so smoothly, and then I sanded the edges slightly.

Then I Mod-Podged some cute Bazzil dotted cardstock on the body of the ladybug, and finished up with this cute Ladybug paper for the wings.  Ladybugs on the ladybug- is that too cheesy?  I think it looks so cute!

This has a place on my mantel for the summer.  I can't wait to pick up another cute shape for fall!
Do you have a favorite place to order projects from?  Let me know in the comments!

Connect with us! You can find us here:

DIY Window Treatments!

I know I've been talking about making cornices for my windows for awhile now, but I finally finished it! I pretty much followed this tutorial from Brooke at All Things Thrifty, except she used paintable wall paper and I used batting and fabric. I also picked a lighter wood than MDF. 

I had my wood cut at Home Depot. The gentleman was very helpful and I felt so grown up going in and knowing what I needed and coming out with everything to get this project going.

This is what my wood looked like. It didn't need to be super smooth or fancy since it was getting covered. It just needed to but sturdy yet light. One of my windows is quite large so I joined two pieces together with these brackets.

I could not have done this project without my dear friend Jana. She loves working with wood and doing house projects like this. She helped me put it all together and do all the measuring. We had to make sure the cornices went into studs, and the brackets had to go on the walls first, so very precise measuring is necessary.

Here's the inside of one of the cornices. L Brackets hold two pieces together, and a simple pole pocket set holds a wooden dowel to act as a curtain rod.

Here's what it looked like before going up on the wall. 

And here's a good look of how all the hardware looks once it's assembled. 

I also recovered my piano bench. It had a country floral fabric on it which no longer did the room any favors. Here's a before and during shot.

Now here it is ALL DONE! It makes the room look so much better!

Here's a close up of the fabric. It's perfect!

We also took the opportunity during the redecoration phase (and a free quart of paint from ACE hardware), to paint our accent wall and bring the kitchen and living room together.

Before...

After!

What do you think of the results? We are just in love with this room even more and can't wait to have lots of guests here to see it in the next few weeks!

Connect with us! You can find us here:

Bring Spring Inside: Spring Subway Art

I bet most of you are anxiously awaiting spring.  Warmer weather.  Clear roads.  No more snow days.  Playing outside.  Sunshine and budding flowers.

Living in Phoenix, I've been enjoying that since about Thanksgiving.  For me, spring means baseball, tourists, allergies, and encroaching heat.  By the end of March it may be 100 degrees.  Boo.
Still, I love spring and the theme of "rebirth".  I love pulling out my decorations each year.  And of course, I love finding new things to make.
I was walking around Michaels the other day, and I found these beautiful laser-cut wooden plaques.  I knew it would be perfect for some sort of word art, so I used my 40% off coupon (making it around $5!), and got to work.

I purchased this subway art shape from the Silhouette Store and got to work.  This project is super simple and you can make one in just a few steps.
1.  Paint your plaque (if desired).  I just put a few coats of "vanilla" craft paint, then let it dry.  While drying, I cut my vinyl.

2.Size the shape in Silhouette Studio to the desired size.  This plaque is just slightly over 11x14, so I stretched it to that size.
3.  Cut each phrase in the appropriate color of vinyl.  I had the perfect pack of colors that I bought from Pick Your Plum last year.  
4.  Adhere vinyl one phrase at a time using transfer tape.  I pretty much just eyeballed it, because you all know I am a lazy crafter.  But if you need perfection, you can draw light lines with a pencil and ruler.

I love the bright colors!  It makes a huge impact on my room.  And I picked up the perfect wreath hanger at Rod Works to use (since my little guy can't hold it forever!) :)

I'm linking this up to The Link Party Palooza (see my party page for details) and other parties this week, including the Spring Thing Linky at Lolly Jane,   Come party with me!  
P.S.  This was a featured project at Monday Funday!


Connect with us! You can find us here:

DIY Door Post!

As a dog owner, I end up walking around our neighborhood more frequently than most. This gives me a chance to secretly spy on my neighbor's decorations and steal them (the ideas!) for myself. One house I passed had a simple post with a hook on it, and she would change what was hanging on the hook to reflect the seasons. I knew I just had to make one for myself. 

To get it started my mom found this post at the thrift store for $4!

All I had to do was sand it, stain it (or paint it if you want), and get it a base to stand on. My friend helped me make a few cuts on the wood and cut out a base for me.
While the stain was drying I got to work on a sign to hang from the hook I picked up at Lowe's. I might eventually have something for each little holiday/season, but I started with something that will work all year round and can be used right away; a welcome sign! I picked up this wood sign at the thrift store for $2. It may be a cute saying, but definitely not my style. I sanded the paint (and sharpie!) off, cut off the hearts, and spray painted it white. Once it was white, I had a clean slate to work with. I've been a bit obsessed with Herringbone, and thought this was my opportunity to make a cute stencil out of vinyl. Never mind the pink, it's just a scrap of vinyl I had, and it just covered the areas that I wanted to remain white. I painted the rest of the sign gray, let it dry, peeled off the pink vinyl, slapped on WELCOME in black, and voila! Cutest sign ever! Much improved over the original :) Now all that was left to do was put everything together. Maybe someday drills and I will become friends, but the work was worth the outcome!  What kind of things would you hang on a post like this? I linked this up at The Link Party Palooza at Tatertots and Jello!

Connect with us! You can find us here:

Counting My Blessings: A Stenciled Subway Art Sign

Life is beautiful.  Despite all the challenges I've faced in my life, I know that I have everything I need and more.    This project, which I made for last year's So You Think You're Crafty, helps me keep a reminder of those blessings up close and personal all year round, though it certainly helps add to my family's fall/Thanksgiving decor.

I know what you're thinking-- subway art.  I've never seen that before!  (Said no "crafter", ever!)  However, two things make this a special project.  First of all, I made this really inexpensively.  The whole project, including all supplies, cost less that $10.  I helped save money by using adhesive contact paper (like the kind you line your shelves with) for a stencil.  I designed the layout of the words using my Silhouette, then ran the contact paper through the machine just like vinyl.  I adhered the words to a painted wooded plaque (painted vanilla white, since that's what I wanted my text to be).  Then I painted over the letters with my brown paint, let it dry, and peeled off the contact paper for a hand-painted look.

The second thing that makes this subway art special is the fact that it's personal.  You are probably grateful for many of the same things I am- but, you probably have some different ones as well.  These things are specific to my family, and speak to the things we've learned to appreciate more through each experience and challenge along the way.

There's nothing I love more than a fun project that also means something.  My Stenciled Blessings Subway Art is both for me, and I hope for you too!  What would you add to your "blessings" board?

I linked this up to 30 Handmade Days' Pity Party!

Connect With Us!