Wall Decor on a VERY SMALL BUDGET

Hello!  I know it's been forever since I've posted any projects on here, and I'm sorry for that.  My day job just kept getting in the way.  :)  Today though I have a really cool project to show you.  I just switched jobs and have a much larger office than my last one, which means MORE DECORATING!!  Well I have this one wall that is too thin to put a nail or a screw in, but it needed something.  This is what I came up with and I must say I just LOVE IT!

Now lets talk supplies:

1.  Picture Frames-I went to Michaels Crafts and just got these unpainted frames for $1.99/piece for the big ones and $1.99/2 small ones.  They were on clearance yesterday.  You can also just go to the dollar store and get some frames or another craft store and get unpainted or painted frames.  I recommend getting a few different shapes/designs and sizes.

2.  Scrapbook Paper-However many frames you decide to do, get that many pieces of scrapbook paper and make sure they somewhat go together.  Cost:  at the most .20/piece

3.  Scissors

4.  Rubber Cement-Pick up at any craft store.  Cost:  $4/bottle, but you won't use anywhere near the whole bottle and this stuff is handy to have around.

5.  Optional:  Paint and Paint Brushes-whatever color paint you want to paint the frames.  Costs:  $1/bottle and $1/brush

Now that you have everything you need lets get started!  The first thing I did was paint the frames.  They only needed one coat of paint!  This is a picture of before the paint.

After you get them painted and they have dried the next step is cutting out the scrapbook pages to fit the frames.

After you have the paper cut to fit the frame, then the next step is cementing the paper to the frame.  Now, if you use traditional frames that have glass or a backing, then you do not need to do this next step.  My frames were just frames with no back so I had to glue the paper on.  I simply brushed the rubber cement onto the back of the frame and then carefully placed the paper onto the frame.  Make sure you go little by little to avoid any bubbles.

Now you've made your first piece of wall art!  Continue repeating those same steps until you have all the frames you want to do.  HELPFUL HINT:  If you have a frame that is larger than just one 12x12 piece of paper.  Simply combine two identical pieces of scrapbook paper together, line them up and clue them together.  I did this on two of them and you can't even tell!

Another HELPFUL HINT:  I had two little frames that I just found in the dollar bins and Michaels and thought they were cute.  They were actual frames with a thick plastic to protect the picture (instead of glass, hey it was the dollar bin!) and I cut that out because I really like the look without the glare of shine from any glass or plastic.  You might consider doing that too even if you use real frames, but of course that's up to you!  make it your own!

After you have finished making all your frames, now it's time to hang them.  Remember, don't be a perfectionist with this.  They are supposed to be hung at different levels and areas.  I would recommend placing them on the floor first and figuring out a pattern you like.  After you have done that, start hanging.  You can just hang with nails, or if your wall is one like mine that you can't put nails in, then I just used those sticky Velcro strips I got at Target for like $9/12 sets and I put those on the back.  And here was my finished product....

My final thoughts:  I just loved this project and was able to finish 8 frames (including  painting, drying, cutting, mounting) in just a couple hours.  It was so easy and it really does look cool in my office.  Plus if you get bored with the colors you choose after a couple weeks/months, pull off that scrapbook paper and add on a different one.  There are so many different things you can do with this, from choosing a different style of frame, to different colors of scrapbook paper, etc.  It was so easy and literally cost me about $10 to complete the whole thing (I already had the rubber cement at the house).

Overall DIY Grade:  A+ this was such an easy and inexpensive project and I really think it looks great in my office by bringing in some color.

Good Luck DIYers. And don't forget, post comments, questions, and pictures of how your projects turned out! Also, feel free to request a project you have seen somewhere and wondered how easy/hard it was. I would love to try it!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Welcome back DIYers! This week's edition is a great project is a cool way to display photos, especially in hallways and living rooms. I actually gave this to Shawn as a present for Christmas and it wasn't until a few weeks after Christmas that he realized I had made it, haha. Let's get started!

Supplies:

1. Pictures frames: Need one for every photo you want to display. I had seven. I got the frames for $1/piece at the Dollar Tree.

2. Curtain Rod: These were the pricey part of the project. The cheapest one I found at Target was $18, but it had a cool design on the ends! NOTE: Target is the only place I looked, so they could be cheaper at Wal-Mart and they may even carry them at Dollar General.

3. Hot glue gun and glue: You can purchase a hot glue gone for $5 at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart, etc. They are actually pretty inexpensive and almost everywhere carries them. You should always have one of these around the house anyway because they come in handy!

4. Ribbon: I choose to use two different colors, but that's not required. I waited until the ribbon was on sale and got it for $1.50/piece.

5. Construction Paper: OPTIONAL. I decided I wanted to add a border to my pictures so I used construction paper. Cost: pack of paper for $1 at Dollar Tree.

Now that we have our supplies lets get started! The first thing I did was decide what pictures I wanted. Last year for Christmas I gave Shawn a scrapbook that I had started that had a page for every single date we had been on so far with a promise to continue that for our entire first year of dating. Well I did as promised, but it was VERY time consuming! So this year I wanted to be able to document something that was important in our relationship, but also do something different than a scrapbook. Back in September we had celebrated our 1 year anniversary by taking a trip to New York and Shawn had taken some AMAZING pictures. Seriously, they looked like postcards, he's pretty fantastic. So I picked out 7 of my favorites from the different places were visited during our trip and decided that would be my theme.

The next thing I did was choose the color of construction paper I wanted to use as the background. This is optional. I just wanted to add a little extra color to it so I used 4x6 pictures but got 5x7 frames so there would be extra space. Then I cut out the construction paper to fit the frame and used double sided tape to put the picture in the middle of the paper. (SEE above picture to see exactly what I'm talking about).

After I got all seven pictures ready in their frames it came time to work. I decided I didn't want them all to be in an even row, I wanted to mix up the heights of where the pictures were. So I played around with it for a bit. I put the curtain rod on the ground to get an idea how long the project could be and then I just started putting the pictures down. Some were close to the rod, some were far away.

Once I got to a mix I liked then came time to cut the ribbon. I cut the ribbon, making sure it was long enough to get to the frame AND also had about 1 1/2 extra to wrap it around the rod.

Once I cut the ribbon then I put some of the glue from the hot glue gun on the 1 1/2 extra ribbon that I put around the rod.

Then I pressed the portion of the ribbon with the glue to the other side of the ribbon so that it would be held up by the rod.

After I got the ribbon secured to the curtain rod then I put glue on the other end to secure it to the back of the picture frame.

After the first one, I just repeated that process until all seven of them were secured to the curtain rod. NOTE: I did not glue mine directly to the curtain rod, so they will move around. Shawn has had his hanging in his wall since around Christmas and once we hung it, that they have not moved. Here's the finished project before I gave it to Shawn....

My final thoughts: This project has so many ways to make it your own. For example, choice of ribbon, choice of curtain rod, choice of frames. I would love to do this again, but use a variety of vintage frames that all have a character of their own. You can also use different size picture frames. NOTE: one thing to consider when choosing a frame is how heavy it is. These are being held up by ribbon and glue, so they cannot be too heavy. Give it a try and be creative!!

Overall DIY Grade: A This turned out awesome and was VERY easy.

Good Luck DIYers. And don't forget, post comments, questions, and pictures of how your projects turned out! Also, feel free to request a project you have seen somewhere and wondered how easy/hard it was. I would love to try it!

Better Frame than window? Yes!

Hello DIYers. I know I have been MIA for awhile, but the Holidays and start of a New Year was a little time consuming. I was doing projects though so for the next few weeks I will be posting about the projects I did over the last couple of months. The first one I want to show you we actually gave to Shawn's mom for Christmas.

Lets first talk supplies:

1. Window Frame: We found ours at an Estate sale for $2.00!

2. Pictures for each window panel. You will need to measure the panel to see what size picture to order. We used 8 8x10 pictures. This was the expensive part because the pictures cost almost $30.00

3. Tape-We just used regular scotch tape and you can't even see it. Cost: $1.00

4. White paint. Just used regular white paint from Michael's. Cost: approximately $2.00/bottle

5. Crackle Effect Paint. Used to make it have that antique look. Cost: approximately $5.00/bottle

6. Paint Brush. Cost: $1 at the Dollar Store.

**REMEMBER: To watch the craft store sales and also to print off the coupon they have for 40-50% off one regular priced item!

Let's get started! Now the original color of my window was already an off-white color, so I did not need to put on a base coat. You may need to put one on for the crackle effect to work. If you do decide to put on a base coat then it needs to be a different color from the top coat for the antique look of the crackle paint to work. Since I didn't need a base coat I just put a layer of the crackle paint on first. NOTE: Before I began painting I had to deep clean this thing because it had clearly been hanging out in someone's garage for a few years. Make sure your frame is clean before you start painting anything!

You can make this as thick of a coat as you want. The thicker the coat the more crackle you will get. I did a medium thickness layer, so that you could clearly see that it was on there, but it was clumpy. Wait for this to dry before you put on the top coat of paint!

After the crackle paint has dried, I then painted the frame white. Again, depending on your preference and how you want it to look, you can do multiple coats or just keep it at one. I just kept it at one count because I thought it made it look older.

When it dries it will look like this:

After your frame is dry then you simply tape the pictures on the back and hang the frame wherever you wish!

NOTE: The finished picture is clearly not the white antique looking one that I have been showing you. Actually, the other side of this frame is the side that is painting white, but when we got it to her house we realized this color actually went better with her decorations than white. So you may not even need the crackle paint or any paint at all. This way though, she can always turn it over and have a white one if she ever redecorates!

My final thoughts: I LOVED this project and it was SUPER easy. Anyone can do this project. It turned out so cool. The only downside is that it is not always so easy to find a window to do this project. Believe me, there were quite a few other people on my Christmas list that I think would have loved this too, but I simply didn't have any more windows. The pictures were also expensive, but I think if I wouldn't have waited so close to Christmas I could have gotten better deals. Overall DIY Grade: A- (the - is only because of the difficulty finding a window and the cost of the pictures) Good luck and please feel free to post your finished project and ask any questions or comments! Happy Do It Yourselfing

Neat DIY gift for that special someone....

Hello friends! I'm so sorry I have been MIA, but the holidays plus a few of my best friends getting engaged has kept me busy, busy, busy. Anyway, a couple weeks ago was Shawn's birthday and although I got him a traditional gift, I also wanted to do something a little more special and from the heart. I got this idea to take some ordinary things, put a cute not on them and then hide them around so that all day he was finding a little present here and a little present there. It actually was really fun just thinking of cute little phrases to go with things you see at the store. So here are your supplies.....

1. small little gifts (I used bandaids, almond joy, soda,reeses pieces, goldfish, smarties, gummy bears, rice krispie treats, nuts, and animal crackers)

2. notecards

3. markers

4. scissors

5. tape

I'm going to do this post a little bit different than the and just show you all of the gifts/phrases one at a time. What I did with each one is write the phrase on the notecard and then cut around the edges of the notecard with different shaped scissors. Then I taped the card onto the gift and hid them in different places I knew he was likely to get into throughout the day....

1. The first one was band aids and the phrase said "I'm 'stuck' on you!"

2. Almond Joy- "It's a 'joy' being with you"

3. Soda- "I 'soda' think you are amazing"

4. Reeses Pieces- "You stole a 'piece' of my heart"

5. Goldfish- "You o'fish'ally have my heart"

6. Smarties- "I know I'm a 'smartie' because I'm dating you"

7. Gummy bears- "Life would be....un'bear'able without you"

8. Rice Krispie Treat- "You put the 'snap, crackle, and pop' in my life"

9. Nuts- "Just wanted you to know I'm 'nuts' for you!"

10. Animal Crackers- "I know our lives might be a 'circus' at times, but I'm glad we share it together"

My final thoughts: This was a great way to show Shawn how much he means to me in a personal way and it was fun and not difficult. The only things that really cost money (other than the $1 for the notecards) were the little gifts, and you can decide what to get and how many to make it cost more or less depending on your budget. Also, Shawn really enjoyed the treasure hunt factor of it

Overall DIY Grade: A

Good luck and please feel free to post your finished project and ask any questions or comments! Happy Do It Yourselfing

DIY Fall Wall Decor

Welcome back DIYers! I bet you thought I forgot this past week, but I didn't! I will be doing two this week to make up for it. Last week was just crazy town. Anyway, last week's DIY project is a fun one and easy one that you can even get the kids to participate in. It is a flower that is made of paper lunch bags. Lets first start out with what materials we will need....

1. Paper Lunch Bags-I got mine for $1.99 at Walgreens. At first I thought I would just use either large grocery bags or paper wrapping paper, but you really need the lunch bags, you'll see later on why.

2. Scissors

3. Pen/Pencil

4. Glue

Note that the glue is not shown in the picture because I had to run to the store and get it in the middle. I just used a glue stick. After you have your mate

rials the first thing you need to do is take four of the bags and cut off the bottom flap just a little but above the crease.

After you have this done on four bags it is time to start making your pedals. What I did was cut the first one and then use that as a template for the other three bags. You can make them as wide and as tall as you want. HINT: Make sure that one end of the pedal is flat and the other one is pointed and make the flat end the end of the bag that has the half circle indention on one side.

One bag will make two pedals, but there will also be two pieces that come out of it. KEEP THOSE PIECES, you will need them later.

Do this for all four bags. You will end up with 8 pedals and 8 pieces. Now it's time to start taking your 8 pedals and layer them like a flower and glueing the flat ends together. HINT: Before you glue them make a crease in the fold line in order for it to have the 3-D affect. Then do not glue the ends make them flat, but make sure there is still a crease.

I used all 8 pedals to make the big flower. After you have made the flower with the pedals it is time to get your 8 pieces together and do the exact same thing with them. Make a separate flower and glue them together in a flower formation, making sure to leave a crease for the 3-D affect. You should have one larger flower and one smaller one by the end.

Now that you have both, glue the small one on top of the larger one and you have your finished product!!

The good news is that this is really hard to mess up. It doesn't even matter whether the folds are facing up or down, I did 5 different flowers and mixed it up. Some of them had the bottom flower pointed down with the smaller flower pointed up and some had both folded down, etc. No matter which way I did it, they turned out great!

My final thoughts: This was such an easy and low cost project. The final cost was only $1.99 and I have A LOT of bags left over for lots more flowers. I also thought it would be fun if you let the kids color the bags first and then cut the pedals out of their creations and make the flowers from that. It would give it more color and would be an easy at home craft to do as a family! I really enjoyed this project and it only took me about 15 minutes are less per flower.

Overall DIY Grade: A-

Good luck and please feel free to post your finished project and ask any questions or comments! Happy Do It Yourselfing

LeTeRs- SUPER CUTE!

Hello again friends! I'm VERY excited about this week's DIY project because it turned out so darn cute! Shawn and I have decided we are going to be doing a DIY Christmas this year to save money (and also because I think he is worried that all of my DIY projects are going to be stacking up around the house). And this week's project is a Christmas gift for someone and I just LOVE it! Ok let's get started with the list of materials:

1. Wooden letters- I waited until the were 50% off at Hobby Lobby at got mine. It ended up costing me less than $1.50/letter. Regular price they are anywhere from $1.99-3.99/letter depending on the style you choose. But they go on sale regularly, so I would just watch the ads!!

2. Scrapbook paper- usually it is around .50-$1.00/sheet, but what I did was again wait until the books of scrapbook paper went 50% off and got like 150 pages for $9.99. The benefit to this, besides it being a way better deal for the money, is the the books usually have a theme to them, so all the pages will match each other if you decide to do what I did and make each letter a different pattern.

3. Mod Podge- you should have some lying around if you did my first week's project, but if not it is around $4.99 for a jar of it and it lasts quite a while. (Reminder: Michaels always has a 40% off coupon each week and this would be a good thing to get with that coupon!)

4. Scissors

5. Paint brush for the Mod Podge (Remember, I wouldn't recommend using a sponge brush on the Mod Podge, it is better to use a brush with bristles). Cost: $1 or less

Now that we have our materials lets get started!! The first thing I did was figure out which pattern I want for each letter. Then I took the first letter and piece of paper and traced the letter onto the paper. HINT: Turn both the letter and the piece of paper upside down or else you will end up tracing it backwards.

After you have the letter traced onto the paper then cut the letter out. Now, on the first letter I did I was going for perfection and realized that is not going to work. The reason is that if the paper is cut to match the letter exactly, then there is no way to mod podge it onto the letter. Plus, it just didn't look very good. So, what I found looked the best was to cut out the letter smaller than what I traced. It actually looks really good not being perfect. HINT: my letters were already white and I'm not sure if it would look as good if it were just the wood color. So, something to consider if you have just the wood color letters is possibly painting them before you put the scrapbook paper on.

After you have your letter cut out place it on the wooden letter to make sure that it looks good. If not, you mat need to cut a little more off here and there. After you have your paper letter looking the way you want it, then set the paper letter to the side and brush mod podge all over the front of the wooden letter.

Next, you want to place the paper letter onto the wooden letter. HINT: Do this carefully or else your paper letter will have bubbles in it. What I found was best was to start at one corner and work my way down and to the right slowly. After you have placed the paper letter onto the wooden letter it is time to mod podge over the top. Do this gently because you are working with wet paper here and if you aren't careful you may end up ripping it. Make sure the ends of the paper letter are covered especially.

The final thing you want to do is use your finger and smooth out any wrinkles and make sure the mod podge is evenly spread throughout. HINT: There will likely be a wrinkle here or there, just press them down as much as possible but don't worry too much about them. They will dry smaller and it gives them character!! Plus, it really isn't all that noticeable. All of mine had at least one wrinkle in it, but I bet you can't find them in the finished pictures!!


After you are done, just set them to the side and let them dry! I can't show you all my final letters just in case the receiver of this gift is checking out these blogs, but here is a picture of some of the letters completed.

My final thoughts: This has been my favorite project so far. The total cost was around $20 (for seven letters), but I also have a lot of scrapbook paper left over to use in the future. I really think they turned out really good and I just hope the receiver of these loves them as much as I do! The only negative I have is that I couldn't figure out how to get all those wrinkles out. Now, they are very small and honestly you really can't even see them, but I'm a perfectionist so it really bothered me at first. It also really didn't take that much time. It maybe took me a little over an hour to do it and I was watching TV at the same time. I think this is a very doable project for anyone!

Overall DIY Grade: A-

Good luck and please feel free to post your finished project and ask any questions or comments! Happy Do It Yourselfing!

EaSy DIY Modern Art

Welcome back DIYers! So this week's project is the easiest DIY project I think I have ever done. It didn't turn out perfectly, but again I think the next time I try it, it will get better. Ok here are the materials you will need:

1. Canvas (any size you want, I used a smaller one for my first one since they are cheaper and I wasn't sure how this would turn out). Cost: $3.99-$25 (depending on size) Remember: Always look for sales, coupons, and bonus 2 for ones!

2. Paint: Whatever color you want. I went with Acrylic paint and it worked just fine. Cost: .59-$2.99.

3. Paint Brush: Whatever kind you prefer to work with. I just grabbed a package of 3 at the dollar store. Cost: $1-$10

4. Masking tape: Cost $1-$3. I got mine at the dollar store.

Now that you have your materials, you're ready to go! The first thing you need to do is take your canvas and place lines of tape on it in whatever design you prefer.

Make sure that the tape is stuck on very well and that the sides are not bubbling up or anything. HINT: When picking out tape to use, make sure you get something that is definitely sticky enough not to let the paint through, but not so sticky that it is going to mess up the canvas when you remove it. If you can't find masking tape, consider using painting tape (or whatever you call it when you line the baseboards and windows when you're painting walls). Also, make sure you get the tape on the sides of the canvas too, so the design is followed all the way through!

Now that you have your tape securely on, START PAINTING!!

HINT: Make sure you get all the corners and creases next to the tape! And make sure your brush strokes are all going in the same direction or else when it dries it will look funny.

Make sure you get the sides too! HINT: Make sure that after you paint the sides that you check the top to make sure there is not extra paint on the sides built up! You want the top to be nice and smooth!

After you have it all good and painted let it dry for a few hours. I let mine dry overnight just to be sure it was completely dry.

When your canvas is dry you simply peel off the tape and WOW you have a pretty cool art piece.

CAUTION: If you don't get the tape real secure than you are likely to have paint that crept under it and made it so the lines are a little messy. Now, Shawn said he liked this because it gave it "character" and honestly you really can't tell unless you look really closely. Next time though, I'm definitely going to try harder to make sure that tape is good and secure!

My final thoughts: The cost of this project was very minimal (most expensive is the canvas which I actually found on sale for $4 (regularly $7)). The total cost of this project for me was only $7.50! And even better it only took me about 10-15 minutes to complete and was very easy to clean up too. I really liked this project and I am happy with the finished project. It gave me another idea of something to do for a Christmas gift that I will share in a later blog (just in case the person getting the gift actually reads my blog). Needless to say though I am definitely doing this again! My only complaint is that the paint did bleed a little in some places, but again I think that with practice I will get better at that.

Overall DIY Grade: B+

Good luck and please feel free to post your finished project and ask any questions or comments! Happy Do It Yourselfing!