Easter time!

This isn’t so much a craft as a technique you can use for SO many things.  You need some decorations for Easter? Consider it done. You have an empty space on a wall that could use some prettying up? Don’t give it another thought.  You’re going to blow your own mind once you see how easy it is to transfer an image onto wood using your printer and a sheet of plastic, and after you recover you’re going to want to keep coming up with projects to do (coasters? printing on canvas? one large panel with multiple images? Anything goes!!) because it’s super easy and fun.

What you’ll need:
transparency film or printable plastic sheets
inkjet printer
wood panel or pieces (check wood projects section at your craft store)
rubber brayer (aka small solid rubber roller, also available in craft stores)
clear coat spray

Before you get started: You can use transparency film for overhead projectors, but in stores near me those cost $15-$20 a pack … so instead I used these plastic sheets which were much cheaper. You can reuse the sheets so you just need a few.

image prep

1. The first thing you need is an image that’s as high resolution as you can get.  I happen to have a CD-ROM of high res vintage labels and ads which works perfectly, but there are also a ton of resources online.  I  love the huge variety of vintage files they have at vintagerio.com, but some of them are scans of greeting cards and are pretty low resolution … which is fine, so long as you print it out small! For the Easter images you see here, I used this pack I bought for $1. There are some classic super weird cards included (looking at you, illustration of a baby chick with two long braids of blonde hair) but there were enough cute ones to make it worthwhile. The best thing to do is print out tests on plain paper (use black and white on a draft setting so you don’t burn through your color ink!) and figure out what size looks good without being blurry.

Important: Use Photoshop or other photo editing software to reverse the image before you print onto your plastic, otherwise the text will be backwards when you transfer it and you will say lots of cuss words.

2. If your wood panel is larger than your image, use one of your test print outs as a guide to make small pencil marks to help you with placement.

3. Print out your image on the plastic film, making sure to print on the shiny side, and use whatever setting will give you the nicest quality but QUICKEST printout.  The first time around I chose a super high quality setting and it took so long to print that the ink was practically dry when it was finished.  The key is a quick printout so you have plenty of ink to transfer.

Quickly and carefully position onto your wood surface and hold tightly in place — don’t let it slip– and use the rubber brayer to smooth over the entire image.  Be very thorough and press down evenly.

4. When you think you’ve gotten all the ink you can onto the wood, carefully remove the plastic and give the transfer time to dry.

Pro tip: You can use a damp paper towel to wipe away any remaining ink on the plastic sheet so you can reuse it!

5. Once transferred, the ink will not be waterproof, so spray a few layers of clear coat over it to protect it.  Let that dry and it’s ready to hang!  I found those adhesive velcro hangers to be perfect for the job.

no raking needed

I don’t know about you, but I’m completely shocked to find myself in November!  I just moved, so I’ve basically been in a mental coma for over a month now, and all of a sudden I woke up to find myself well into fall with just a few weeks to go ’till turkey day. What! Anyway, I needed to get my new place looking seasonal, so I used some fake leaves I got at Michael’s for $1 and some ribbon I had on hand to bring the fall indoors.  It’s cheap, it’s simple, and it’s a way to preserve the look of the beautiful leaves that stay on the trees for such a short time.  My favorite part about fall crafts is that you can keep them up for the entire season, so keep it in storage for next year and pop it up on September 1st!

What you’ll need:
Fake leaves
Ribbon or twine
Xacto knife
tapestry needle (optional)

slicing and dicing

1. First, measure the space where you’re going to place the garland so you have an idea of how long to make it.  Next, use the xacto knife to make two slits about the same size as the width of your ribbon, about 1/4 of an inch apart.

threaded through

3. Thread the ribbon onto a tapestry needle if you have one, or tie a knot in the end and carefully begin to thread through the slits in the leaves. Alternate colors, shapes, and sizes for a nice diverse look — and make sure to keep the ribbon from twisting in between leaves.

feeling loopy

4. Leave several inches on each end and tie a loop.

And it’s ready to hang! Put it up now and enjoy through Thanksgiving …

occupy the mantel

fireside

Junk yard!

We’re getting into a new season. For me, summer is the best time to garden. I realize I get distracted by all the vegetables popping up and only want to focus on that rather than taking care of the rest of our space. The other day I walked out our back door and realized how little I’ve put into maintaining my supply area.

End of season clutter

I tend to keep most things, and really believe in making use of old rather than buying new. Unfortunately, this philosophy can make for a sloppy environment. Luckily, we have been doing some makeovers in our kitchen so I had this shelf at my disposal.

Shelf to repurpose

This was a shelf that I got for super cheap so I didn’t mind repurposing it for the garden. It was holding some cookbooks, knives, and other miscellaneous kitchen items. It worked well for a few years, but now we’re starting to baby proof and this was way too rickety for a small child to pull up on.

Much better!

The shelf works much better for lighter materials outside. It’s also great to have things higher off the ground so I’m not crouched down all the time. Now that I’ve cleared some space with the shelf I can use the old cluttered area to plant in!

Use for light sun

This was a burlap sack that a friend Laura made me for my birthday. It has 6 pockets that you can use for planting or storage, and I’ve been meaning to hang it for months now. This area gets light sun so it will work great. If you’re interested in a burlap sack Laura is going to start selling so look to LaceandLeaf for the progress.

For starters

It was best to put some tools and gloves in the top so the water doesn’t trickle down. I decided to use this for starters. Seeds won’t burn or be bothered here so once the seedlings start to grow and strengthen I’ll transplant into a larger area. It feels so good to have some cleaning done!

ready for a fall feast

Fall is in the air! Well, to be honest, it’s not really in the air here in Los Angeles.  The leaves haven’t fallen and the temperature is still a little too hot to pull out the sweaters and boots just yet (sorry, Midwesterners!).  But I refuse to let that stop me from jumping into the comforting, crock pot-laden arms of fall crafting.  I found a pack of neutral cloth napkins on clearance at TJ Maxx for $3, and got inspired to deck them out with some painted autumn leaves.  Instead of stenciling, I used an easy (and cheap!) block printing technique.  The end result is a set of lovely napkins I can use when I invite people over for chili or meatloaf before playing games in front of a crackling fire. I like my fall times to be idyllic, guys!  And these leafy stamps are step one.

What you need:
adhesive-backed foam sheet
scissors
xacto knife
acrylic block or glass from a small picture frame
fabric paint in various fall colors (or acrylic paint + textile medium)
paintbrushes
fabric napkins, placemats or anything else you want to stamp

Before you begin: I own one acrylic block and it was too small for the stamps I cut, so I came up with the idea to use the glass from small cheap photo frames.  Obviously these require a little more care than plastic … but you can still reuse them if you’d like to keep your stamps! If you want to keep them, just wipe them off with a damp sponge when you’re done.

leaf it to me

1. Trace your pattern onto the foam sheet.  I actually just traced around some fake leaves I purchased at Michael’s … you can print out this template I made here, OR just go grab the real thing from your backyard to use as a template! After tracing,  cut them out as neatly as possible.

cut it out!

2. Use an xacto knife to cut out details from the middle of your leaves and clean up any stray bits from the edges.

yes, I did get a new cutting mat, thanks for asking

3. Peel off the sticky backing of the foam and carefully stick it to the acrylic or glass you’re using as a base.

brush off

4. Pour a small amount of paint into a paper plate or cup, and brush lightly onto the stamp.  You want it to evenly cover the foam without any excess blobs anywhere — it’s better to err on the side of it being too light than saturating your fabric.  I’d recommend testing the stamp on a piece of paper before committing to the fabric.

stamped out

5. Press evenly onto your fabric and remove.  If there are any little blobs of paint you can quickly dab those away with a paper towel.  Sometimes the stamp will be too light on one side — if that happens, just paint again and carefully restamp!  If you want to do multiple leaves in the same color across all of your napkins/placemats/whatever, then keep working in that color.

a touch o' gold

6. You can play with layering colors … I brushed some streaks of gold and did another layer for some of my leaves, or did a layer of brown, stamped it, then did a layer of yellow over top.  Just like in nature, no two leaves have to look the same!

drying time

7. Follow the instructions on your paint regarding drying time — mine specified drying flat for 24 hours.  Follow the care instructions as well when it comes to washing.  Time to bust out that crock pot and invite some people over!

let's eat

potluck, anyone?

Good Morning!

For starters – congratulations! Having a baby is the most exciting time! When Rachel asked me to start a baby blog I had so many ideas. Our baby boy just turned five months old. It’s amazing what the learning curve is like on your first child. We really knew nothing going into parenthood. Now, there are so many things I want everyone to know because they were so helpful to us. I realize you’re probably getting bombarded with advice, so take what you like from this and leave the rest behind. This is all based on one person’s experience and everyone’s situation is different– do what works best in your home and in your space.

Getting started

If you’re going thru your pregnancy now I’m sure you thinking of how to set up your baby’s room. There are so many cute ideas that sometimes it can be hard to get started. We already had a room in the house painted light blue so we decided to use that as the baby room. It was also the quietest from street noise and the darkest – all things to consider if you have an option. My husband and I were both so excited, but weren’t quite sure where to begin. These are a few pieces that we used as starting points when we designed the room.

Stand out piece

This is a clock designed by my sister-in-law’s company called Dust Furniture. I love the idea of having a unique piece with more unconventional colors.

Special gifts

A few weeks later our good friends brought us this mobile from Rwanda. It was something I had to put up right away. Babies love contrast and we found without movement or music this was very soothing to him when we laid him to sleep. If you have a mobile that comes without an arm,  Pottery Barn Kids sells them – just a side note because I searched all over.

Simple solutions

These flags were a shower decoration.They weren’t made with the intention of going in the room, but I figured – why not? They’re cute and can add some color behind the white drapes!

Create your own

If you start searching online and see things you like, it’s possible to make your own. My husband found this idea, and went to town. I think it’s really special to have handmade items in the room. I could really go on and on, but these were just a few ideas to keep you going in your search. I know there are lots of emotions at this time and some things can feel overwhelming, but what you get to experience is such a joy. You’re going to be amazed at how much love you can have for someone you just met!

ring ring

Wall clings are pretty popular these days, and it’s easy to see why–they allow you to transform a wall without painting it, and to step outside of traditional framed art. The one I purchased was kind of expensive and looked great for a short time until an edge started peeling up and kept on going.  This was probably the fault of my own shoddy application, but it got me thinking about how to make a customized version for a fraction of the cost.  I used black contact paper to get a silhouette effect, but you could use any color or pattern you wish.  Since the paper comes on a roll, you can make things as tall or wide as you want, so the possibilities are wide open … I made a few items that could be used on an end table, then started thinking about how easy it would be to cut out a small end table! You can probably find contact paper at the dollar store, so the fear of making mistakes is very minimal — if you mess up, you’re only costing yourself your own precious time.  Keep it on the wall for a while, peel it off when you get sick of it, and do something else!

What you need:
contact paper
scissors
xacto knife
tape
pencil
image to trace

Before you begin: Consider carefully what image you’d like to use– something with too much detail is going to be really difficult. For example, the camera you see in these photos was easy to cut out but SUPER frustrating to stick on because of all the cut out parts. You can search for stencils to use, or better yet, find something with a solid outline to use. For the lamp I used in this tutorial, I found a photo of a lamp I liked online and used my Photoshop knockoff to adjust the threshold setting and make it into a silhouette.

cut and run

1. Print out your image and tape it to the contact paper. Use scissors to cut out anything you can, making sure to keep your paper template in place.

xactomundo

2. If there are any details to cut out, use an xacto knife to carefully remove them. Reserve any pieces that need to be added back to the completed image, because if you accidentally throw them away with other scraps, you will be sad.

pencil me in

3. Clean and dry the surface you’re going to decorate, then mark the placement you want lightly with a pencil to use as a guide when you’re doing the sticky part.

peel away

4. Using the xacto knife, pry the paper backing away from the contact paper and peel away.  This part can be a little tricky if you’ve ignored my suggestion and cut out something really complicated, so you might want to have another person around for this step if that’s the case.

smooth move

5. Starting on one end, lightly stick the contact paper to the wall, making sure it aligns with your pencil marks.  If anything is crooked, you can peel up and redo, but try not to overdo it or the paper will lose stickiness. When you’re satisfied with the placement, carefully smooth out any air bubbles and press hard to make sure everything’s sticking evenly.  Optional step: you can use something with a plastic straight edge, like a credit card, to really make sure the contact paper is good and stuck on your wall.  My walls are plaster and a bit bumpy, so I was worried that I’d end up scraping a hole into mine.

I love lamp

say cheese

they'll never die

This craft is so simple, I did it while I was on VACATION! That’s right, I’m writing this on location in beautiful Lakeside, Michigan.  Thanks to my sister Jessie–a super crafter in her own right–who provided the raw materials, the inspiration, and the adorable vases, being thousands of miles away from my own craft closet was no obstacle to bringing you a DIY Not? that’s as easy as it is elegant.  All this to say, you have no excuses not to make these, so grab some yarn and let’s go!

What you need:
yarn of your choice
fabric wrapped wire stems (available in the floral section of any craft store)
sharp fabric scissors
hot glue or tacky glue (optional)

Before you begin: If you don’t already have yarn on hand, you should get a couple of different textures/fibers (cotton, wool, polyester, etc.). The contrasts look great with your finished flowers!

let's wrap

1. Start wrapping the yarn around your fingers.  You can use two or even three different yarns together for some more unique-looking flowers — just hold the strands together and proceed as normal.  If you wanted to make an enormous pom pom, you could wrap around more fingers, but for our purposes two should be fine. Hold two fingers slightly apart and don’t wrap tight enough to cut off your circulation — there’s no need for pain with this craft!  The amount of times you wrap depends on your yarn and how fluffy you want the pom pom … I recommend making a test run to see what your yarn will do.  Less fluffy yarn will require more, fluffier less.

tied off

2. Snip the yarn when you’ve got the size you want, then cut a 6 inch piece of yarn and carefully thread it through the center of the ball where your fingers were.  Tie a tight knot.

cutting edge

3. Turn the ball over and cut through the center. You don’t have to be precise — just stick the scissors into the middle and go.

trimming

4. Fluff up the pom pom and start trimming to make it rounder and smaller.  This is totally up to your taste — how big you want it to be and how even the yarn ends … or if you want the flower to look floppier vs. fluffier.  The good news is these are so easy to make it’s really not a big deal if you mess one up.

ready for stemming

5. If you want to keep your flowers around for a while, put a dab of glue on the stem and stick into the center of the pom pom.  I didn’t use glue because I’m fickle and will probably want to change flowers at some point … they actually stay put just fine if you simply stick your wire stem right into the center of the yarn ball.  Fold the ends of the stems up to get different lengths, and they’re ready for vases and bottles!

white and blue

picture perfect

bottle it up

Sometimes my craft ideas come out of sheer stubborn unwillingness to pay for something I think I could make.  I saw an adorable garland made out of glass bottles and wire for sale online, and instantly wanted to own it … but I kept my credit card in my wallet and set out to find a way to make it myself!  This garland is so cute and versatile, and could be used to adorn a tree at a garden party or a wall in your house.  Half the fun is in figuring out what to put inside the bottles — who doesn’t love filling tiny glass containers with wee treasures?

What you need:

small glass bottles
galvanized wire
needlenose pliers
wire cutters
misc. stuff to put in the bottles
measuring tape

a bottle for your thoughts

Before you begin: I got a set of ten bottles from a seller on Etsy, and they’re 2″ tall.  If you want to use bigger bottles, I would consider using a heavier wire.  I used a thin wire since my bottles were so small and light.

measure it out

1. Measure out your wire.  My finished garland is five feet long, and I measured out eight feet of wire to get to that.  However long you’d like your finished garland to be, add a few feet on to that to be safe.

loopy

2. Take about eight inches at the end and fold it in half to make a loop– the loop should be about the width of a quarter.

twist and turn

3.  Start twisting the end of the wire around.

twisted and ready

5.  When you get to the last inch or so of wire, use the needlenose pliers to wrap the end very tightly around.  Snip off any sharp ends and push the end in to make sure there isn’t anything that could scratch you later.

it begins

6. I decided to space my bottles about five inches apart, and start them a foot from the loop I tied–you may choose something differently for yours!  Take the first bottle and position the wire behind the neck.

wrapping ...

7. Take the wire in your right hand and cross it under the wire in your left.

keep on wrappin'

8. Pull the wire back over the top of the wire in your left hand.

on and on and on

9. Repeat this for each bottle.  It will get a little harder as you add more bottles — just keep an eye on the distance between your bottles to make sure it’s even, and keep wrapping the wire as shown.

loop me in

10. After you’ve wrapped your last bottle, measure the same distance between your first bottle and the first loop and then repeat the loop-making process.  Try to make them look the same!

lovely

11. Now comes the fun part … filling the bottles.  I used all natural things — dried lavender and wild flowers, sprigs of pink peppercorn from my yard, beach sand from Hawaii, tiny shells, twigs, and fake moss.  You could use tiny cut flowers, but putting water in the bottles (and keeping it there!) would be very difficult, so keep that in mind if you go that route.  Once you’ve filled the bottles, you’re ready to hang it up …

mirror image

Here is the kitchen as of this morning. The walls are up, the floors are done (though covered with paper for protection) and we’re ready for cabinets which allegedly come in next week.

Here is my inspiration for the space

Pretty Kitchen

This is vaguely the inspiration for the kitchen except the island counter top will be butcher block.

Man Cave

Wood Paneling Galore!

This is the den as it was originally (don’t think I showed you this one before). We moved the wall back a bit further and removed the wood paneling.

We also added in wood floors to match those in the rest of the house. Here’s how it looks today.

The large wire coming out of the wall is for the flat panel TV that will live inside the built in bookshelves on the far wall. The TV room will be in here, I want the “formal” living room strictly for entertaining… much to Dave’s chagrin.

In Living Color

Speaking of the living room, the floors are sanded and ready for stain. The holes are in the ceiling for can lights and the new mantel for the fire place has been ordered.

Remember the dining room before?? Well here’s where we’re at today…

Furniture!!

It still needs a light fixture hung, and drapes but the fact that my table is no longer living on the patio is a HUGE step in the right direction.

Master Bathroom

Here’s the master bathroom from last time

Much Cleaner

And the master closet from last time

Yowza!

And with fabulous cabinets installed!!

Coming Out of the Closet

The guest room has also come a LONG way since the beginning…

Guest Room

Guest Room

I still need to find my bedding but I’m SO happy with the way the window treatments turned out! I was inspired by this photo

Also, the guest room bathroom has really come together nicely as well, especially when compared with the “before”

YeeHaw!!

I love the sink!!

So that’s where we’re at today. As I type this several different vendors are beating on the walls, sanding the floors and hammering nails right into the area of my brain where migraines come from. But every day we get a little bit closer and it starts to feel a bit more like home.

how are you?

If you’re anything like me, you purchased some furniture nails at Home Depot eight months ago and patiently waited for some project to use them on.  Everybody’s done that, right?  No?  OK, fine.  Just me, then, but don’t judge!  I turned them into a cool decor project perfect for an empty wall or table space.  You can spell out anything you want — I chose something short because these use a lot of nails, so keep that in mind before you buy all of the letters you need to spell “Memories” or “Sassafras” or some other lengthy word.

What you need:
Paper machè letters
Furniture nails
Paint (spray or regular acrylic)
Picture hangers (optional)

Before you begin: I tried to find paper mache letters locally, but came up empty — I had to buy them at joann.com.  You can find furniture tacks at any hardware store … how many you need will depend on the size of your letters and how covered you want the surfaces to be.  For my two 12″ letters, I used five packs of 25 nails in two different designs.

spraytastic

1. Spray your letters in a well-ventilated area.  Or, if you prefer, you can just paint them with regular acrylic paint.  Just because I am having an ongoing love affair with spray paint doesn’t mean you have to! Whichever paint you choose, just make sure to do even coats to get thorough coverage.  Let dry completely.

so tacky

2. Get some idea of what kind of design you want to make with your furniture nails. I had three boxes of one style and two of the other, so I took that into consideration in terms of planning what I wanted to do on each letter.

a pressing matter

3. Start pressing the nails into the letters.  If you want to get super technical and exact about it, you could draw up a grid on a piece of paper or use a ruler to make your placements.  I just freestyled it, because I roll that way (and because I’m lazy …).  I started at the edges and worked in, placing a nail in the center of a row to figure out how to space the remaining nails.

leveled out

4. A piece of paper makes a quick leveling tool if you’re trying to make a straight line in your pattern.  You could do diagonal rows, an outline, straight rows, or just an all-over pattern.  Time to get creative!

Que?

5. That’s all there is to it!  This is a pretty forgiving project … if you slightly misplace a nail, you can pry it out and do it again, provided the nail head can cover your mistake.

hang it up

6.  I’m planning to stand my letters up, but if you’d like to hang yours on the wall, you can insert some picture hangers with teeth right into the back of the letter.  Or, you could simply poke a hole in the back with a nail.  OK? OK!!!

making a stand