Tag: diy (page 9 of 12)

DIY Painted Halloween Village

Hello Everyone!

Halloween is fast approaching, and of course I get it in my head that I want to do some new Halloween decor.  At least this year I am getting it done before Halloween and not after, haha.

I saw a Halloween Village at the Dollar Store and thought it would be perfect to paint for Halloween

finished-village

Materials:

  • Ceramic houses (I found mine at the Dollar Store, but there are a lot of options out there. You could even use Christmas houses)
  • Metallic Paint
  • Gesso
  • Brushes, Stucco, Beads

Instructions:

When I saw these houses I thought that they were very cute, but the colors were not great. I didn’t think that they went together very well and the figurines were terrible.

before-house-2

before-houses

before-up-close

Before the painting fun I had to prep the houses. I cleaned them then added a layer of Stucco to the roofs and anywhere there needed to be a rough detail. Then I added some beads to the grass area.

 

stucco-and-beads

add-stucco-and-micro-beads

After the texture was dry I added a layer of black gesso. This gave me a blank canvas to work on. I did have to go back and touch up areas that I missed.

add-gesso

After the gesso was dry it was time for the fun painting! I used metallic acrylic paint and I mixed some Mica Powder with soft gloss gel for the green. I just dry brushed the colors onto the housed, adding and blending as I went. Once I was happy with the look I went on to the next house, until I was finished with the project.

paint-colors

keep-painting

start-painting

Here is an up close picture of the detail of one of the houses and the bridge.

up-close-detail

And here it is on display in my home. I really liked this project, it was fun to watch the housed change right before my eyes. Good thing I bought more houses from the Dollar Store, now I can create even more villages, haha

finished-houses-in-my-home

 

DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

Hello Everyone!

Have you ever wandered around a fabric store and see some fabric that just jumps out at you and demands that you buy it? No, is that just me?

Well that is what happened with this Star Wars fabric, it demanded to go home with me and to be made into something awesome. I think I did the fabric justice by making a no sew tablet cover.

DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

Materials:

~ Fabric I used this awesome Darth Vader fabric for the outside and I used sweatshirt fabric for the inside to help protect my tablet and provide a little cushion

~ Ribbon

~ Hot Glue and Velcro

Instructions:

~ I laid out the 2 fabrics with wrong sides together and cut out how much I needed. There wasn’t any measuring just make sure you have a little room on the sides and enough on the length to create a flap. I left a little extra on the side (but not too much) so I had somewhere to put my stylus pen.DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

~ Hot glue the fabric together around the edges. I did a little at a time and used a popsicle stick to help smooth out the edges with out burning my fingers.

DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

~Once you have the edges glued then fold up the fabric, make sure you have your tablet to measure what you want the pocket to end. Then glue the edges together.

DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

~ Then hot glue ribbon around the edges. My ribbon was not wide enough to wrap around the edge of the fabric so I glue some on the front and the back of the fabric. Glue ribbon every where that you see a raw edge.

DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

~ Then glue on Velcro to the flap to close your cover and you are done.

DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

I am in love with the fabric, I think I need to go back and get more to make a circle skirt.

In a upcoming post I will show you how to make a sew version of a tablet cover.

 

DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

DIY Star Wars No Sew Tablet Cover

How to Reupholster an Office Chair

Hello everyone!

An office chair has got to be one of the most pieces of furniture that a person can own. You spend a ton of time in your chair so it should be comfortable and good looking. I had a chair that was wonderful, it worked great and I had it a long time. But it broke. So I had to search for a new one. After searching high and low I found one at a surplus store. It was in great condition and for only $15, I thought it was a steal. The only problem was the green fabric covering it. The color was ok, a dark green, but it was itchy and that was not ok. So I decided to recover so it didn’t drive me crazy sitting on it for 8 hours a day.

How to Reupholster an Office Chair

I think it turned out very cute. I found the fabric at Who Gives a Scrap. I talked about this awesome donation center last week. You can revisit that post here. They had this great upholstery fabric for only $2. Can’t beat that price. Here is how I went about recovering the chair.

Materials:

~Chair (this one wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for the itchy fabric. Now I know why they had it for sale at the surplus store.)

How to Reupholster an Office Chair

~ Fabric (The stripped patter is cute and for only $2 I could pass that up.)

How to Reupholster an Office Chair

~ Staple gun, screw driver, glue gun, ribbon for edging

Instructions:

~ The first thing I did was take off the arm rests with the screw driver. I could have taken the whole chair apart and this might have made the process easier, but I decided to work around everything except the arm rests.

How to Reupholster an Office Chair

~ Then I measure the fabric and started stapling it on. The way this chair is constructed is a little weird. It has a plastic back and the original cover was Velcroed on, but I didn’t want to go that trouble so I decided to staple over everything.

How to Reupholster an Office Chair     How to Reupholster an Office Chair

~ I got the top part done then I went to town on the seat of the chair. The stripes made it easy to match the top to the bottom. I stapled everywhere then I went back and added more. I wanted to make sure everything held.

How to Reupholster an Office Chair     How to Reupholster an Office Chair

~ Once everything was secure and stapled on I hot glued on a tan ribbon that coordinated with the fabric. Then I put the arms back on that that was it. It took me a couple of hours to complete but it was worth it to not have an itchy chair.

How to Reupholster an Office Chair     How to Reupholster an Office Chair

Once I finished my son loved it so much he has asked me to do a chair for him. But if my chair is ever missing I know who to took it. Smile

How to Reupholster an Office Chair

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

Hello Everyone!

I found this fantastic store in town, it is call Who Gives A Scrap. (BTW I love the name!) Anyway, this store is so awesome it has all kinds of craft supply donations that are up for sale. The stock is always changing so you never know what you will find. If you follow me on Instagram you already saw my haul, but this what I scored yesterday for about $25! The item I am most excited about is the bead loom. I have tons of pins on Pinterest for the bead loom and now that I have one I am excited to learn how to use it. Does anyone have any experience or tips on how to use a bead loom? Please share if you do.

So many new things to play with and to use for my crafts and DIY projects. Even our cat, Starlight, approves. haha.

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

 

The other day my sister and I were having a Craftersation on Pinterest. (A Craftersation  is a craft conversation between pinners on Pinterest.) She has the best Pinterest boards and I think she has pinned just about everything on the internet, haha. You can follow her here.

Anyway she pinned this really cute cell phone case made from an old tie so I pinned a different version of the same thing. And on it went for while. We have a lot of Craftersations, it is a fun way to stay connected and see what each other is interested in even though we live almost a thousand miles apart.

When I was at Who Gives a Scrap I saw that they had some old ties that would be perfect to make a cell phone case out of. After I got home yesterday I made my version of what I saw on Pinterest.

Here it is all done. I am in love with it!

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

Materials:

~Old Tie

~ Needle and thread, or sewing machine

~ Button or snap

Instructions:

This is one of the ties that I picked up yesterday. Isn’t it wonderful? I fell in love with it on the spot. For this project the wider the tie the better. Skinny ties from the 80s won’t work, but those ties can be use for different projects.

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

Next just measure how much space you need for your phone. The pointed part will be the flap, so factor that in. You will have to pick out the stitched that keep the flaps together so you can slide your phone in.

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

For this step I glued the ends together and the center flap closed using Fabric Fusion. I used clothes pins to hold it together while the glue dried. The glue worked just fine, but when I do this project again I think I will sew it all instead of using glue, I think it will be stronger and it will look better. You can hand stitch or use a machine.

 

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie      DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

Next I hand stitched on these buttons I had in my stash. They are so cute, I got them from Patterns of Time. They have so many great items on their website, when I ordered last it was hard to narrow down the items in my shopping cart to a reasonable amount, haha.

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

The case was all complete I thought it was very cute just the way it was but I decided that it should become a purse instead of just a case. This Tie Purse is perfect for me when I go out for an evening and my skirt doesn’t have pockets and I need to carry a phone and my ID and a credit card and some cash, it will all fit into this cute purse.

To add the straps all you do is hand sew the remaining part of the tie onto the sides of the case. And that is it.

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

Have you made one of these before? I would love to see it if you have. Stay tuned for more projects made from items I got from Who Gives A Scrap, that place rocks!!

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old TieDIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

There are no affiliate links in this post. All opinions are my own.

Mixed Media Angel

Hello Everyone!

I am excited to show you this new project that I just finished. A little while ago I went on a girls retreat to Mojito Creek. This is a wonderful cabin in Colorado that was the perfect place to craft and recharge and relax! While I was there Tanya from Free Heart taught a mixed media class. Tanya teaches Finnabair inspired mixed media techniques. Tanya is a awesome teacher! I was so much and I was so inspired from the class that I went home and started painting everything! I can’t wait to take another class and learn more techniques!

Mixed Media Angel

This is the angel that I just finished. She looks great on my mantle and I already have more ideas on what to do next.

Here is how I created this mixed media angel

Materials:

~ Angel (I found mine at the dollar store. Look for something that you like the overall look of, not necessary the colors because you will cover everything up)

Mixed Media Angel

~ Black gesso

Mixed Media Angel

~ 3D Gloss Gel, Soft Gloss Gel, Mica Powder (I am using Art Basics from Prima Marketing, which is amazing!)

Mixed Media AngelMixed Media AngelMixed Media Angel

~ Paint brushes, cheese cloth, micro beads, wire, rhinestones, and anything else you want to use as texture

Instructions:

~ The first thing you do is paint the angel with gesso. This will cover her and get her ready for paint. Then I added cheese cloth to her body as a dress. I adhered it to her with 3D Gloss Gel.

Mixed Media AngelMixed Media Angel

~ Then I decided that her wings were too smooth and plain so I mixed micro beads with 3D Gloss Gel and sponged it on to the wings. This added a wonderful texture that looks great on the wings.

Mixed Media Angel

~ Then I added rhinestones to the skirt for more texture and dimension, and I made a halo with some left over wire that I had lying around.

Mixed Media Angel

~ Once I had her all glued and textured  she was ready for more gesso. I added about 1000 layers of black gesso. Just kidding, but I did add a lot of layers until everything was covered with black and ready for paint.

Mixed Media AngelMixed Media Angel

~ Once she was dry I started to paint her. This is the fun part, this is where all your hard work pays off. I mixed mica power with the soft gloss gel and went to town. I layered the paint and mixed colors until I liked the the look. For the star that she is holding I sponged on some glitter eye shadow.

20160727_164430

~ Once I was happy with the look and she was dry I took her outside and sprayed a layer of a clear gloss coat.

Mixed Media AngelMixed Media AngelMixed Media Angel

When I took her outside to put the clear coat on and I noticed how she looked different in the sunlight. I love how the mica powder is amazing and so versatile.

Mixed Media Angel

This was tons of fun! I have already started on a different angel, I can’t wait to see how she will turn out!

Mixed Media Angel

 

Please note there are no affiliate links in this post. All the links are for your reference.

TBT Handmade dollhouse from my childhood

Hello everyone!

Come with me as I take a small walk down memory lane.

Don’t you just love finding things from your childhood? Because I do! When my sister was in town the other day she helped my mom with some cleaning and when ever there is cleaning there are discoveries to be made. The great discovery of the day (at least to me) was when  my sister found this doll house that my mom made for me when I was a child. There were some other crafting discoveries made that day that I will share with you on another day.

TBT Handmade dollhouse

I loved this doll house! My mom made this from a pattern for my small dolls, I think they were called Glamour Dolls. I took this with me when we went to Utah to see family and I played with it all the time at home.  You can tell that it was well loved by how dirty it is (I could blame it on it being in storage for so long, but that is not were all the dirt came from…)

TBT Handmade dollhouse

The dolls’ hair is a little crazy, and again I can’t blame that all on the storage. I was rough on dolls’ hair, I loved to cut  and dye and style my dolls’ hair. By the time I was done with them they looked fabulous, haha! And because I was my mom’s favorite child (haha) she even made clothes for my tiny dolls (which I am sure there were not easy to make). I am not quite sure why my dolls are all in sleeping clothes, maybe it is because pajamas are my favorite clothes…

TBT Handmade dollhouse

 

This doll house was great! The sides zip up and down and the roof is Velcroed on so everything is self contained. My mom made it with plastic canvas on the inside which helped it hold its structure, but over time the plastic has begun to disintegrate so the house is no longer holding its shape. But that is ok, I think it still looks cute. The inside has a bed, couch, and chair. The furniture is easy to move around, but this arrangement was how I liked it best. The detail that my mom put into this house is wonderful, there are ruffles around the bed and the pillow even has ruffles, you can’t see it but the inside of the windows have lace curtains on them, there is detailing on the front door and there are shutters on the window. Now that I am older I can really appreciate the time and hard work my mom spent on making this doll house.

TBT Handmade dollhouse

 

I remember playing with this for hours and my My Little Ponies would come by and play with the girls and my Barbie’s would stop by as well (I am sure that my Barbie’s felt like they were visiting a Hobbit house, but they came by any way) I played and pretended with this house for hours and it was so exciting to see it again.

IMG_0119

TBT Handmade dollhouse

TBT Handmade dollhouse

Thank you for taking this trip with me down memory lane. What toy did you have from your childhood that you played with all the time?

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

Hello Everyone!

As many of you already know I was working a project for a Mental Health Awareness charity auction. We were all repurposing and painting old windows. Here you can see my post about creating a shabby chic message board. Today I am going to walk you through how I made this chalkboard with an old window.

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

 

Materials:

~Old window. This window had pealing paint and a crack in the Plexiglas, so it was perfect for this project.

~ Cleaning supplies and sandpaper

~ Paint, brushes, and tape for the frame

~ Primer, chalkboard paint, and brushes for the chalkboard part.

 

Instructions;

~ The first step is to prep the window. Not the most fun, but it is necessary for a successful project. I sanded all the edges until they were smooth and ready to paint. This took a while because the window was so rough.

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

~ Then you paint the frame. I did tape off the Plexiglas because I am not the neatest painter. I used Artist’s Loft in Metallic Cobalt Blue, I love the iridescent quality of the blue paint.

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

~ Paint away. Kitty help is essential to the success of any craft project Smile Starlight is my favorite kind of help, lol.

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

I did 2 coats of the blue

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard.

~ After the frame had dried for a day I taped off the frame part and prepped the Plexiglas. First I lightly sanded the glass so that the paint would adhere. Then I put a coat of primer on according to the directions. I used Kilz primer.

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

~ Once the primer was dry I painted 4 coats of chalkboard paint on according to the directions. I used Rustoleum Chalkboard paint. Once it was dry and cured for 3 days I conditioned the chalkboard according to the directions.

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

~ Once it was completely dry and conditioned I took a stencil and painted a design in the corners and added some flowers and that is it. A new chalkboard for an old window

Repurpose an old window into a Chalkboard

Have you painted and or repurposed an old window? How did it turn out? I would love to see pictures!

Re-purpose an old window into a shabby chic message board

If you follow my Instagram (taketimetocreate) then I am sure you have already seen the reveal of this repurposed window. For those of you who don’t follow me there here the shabby chic message board!

repurpose window to shabby chic message board

I have to say I do love the way it turned out! This all started when my friend asked me to paint a window for a silent auction for mental health awareness. At first I wasn’t too interested, not because I didn’t believe in the cause (because this is one cause I totally support) it was because I wasn’t sure I had a design that would work. Most everyone else did a more traditional painted window with flowers on the glass and things like that. Well of course I didn’t follow the crowd. So I did my own thing and hopefully it will bring in a lot of money for the charity!

Here is how I did the repurposing.

Materials:
~ old window (for this to work you for magnets you will need one with a metal screen)
~ sandpaper, tape, cleaning supplies
~ paint and brush
~ cork
~ flowers, magnets, tacks, and clothes pins
~ ribbon and burlap

Instructions:
~ The first thing you will need to do is sand down all the rough edges and smooth it out. Once you like the feel of the window then give it a good cleaning.

window

~ Now you are ready to paint. I taped around the edges to help cut down on how much paint went on the screen, and this seemed to help.
Paint a couple coats until you get it to how you like it. I used this white acrylic paint that I had on hand.

white acrylic paint

~ Cut your cork down to size and glue it on to the screen. I just glued the edges with a metal glue and that seems to hold it pretty well.

add cork to window

~Then I went to work decorating the edge. Shabby chic is all about layers so that is what I did. I put down a layer of burlap, the layered on a layer of crochet ribbon that I had in my stash.

add ribbon and burlap

That looked good, but I felt like it was missing something, so I added a ribbon on top and flowers in the corners.

add more ribbon

Then I added ribbon to the bottom of the screen and to the bottom of the window. Once that was done it was time to add the flower decorations.

~ For the flowers add a magnet the back of some and tack to the others. For the clothes pins I just added ribbon to a plain clothes pin I got from the dollar store.

glue magnets to flowers

And that is it. This is a very fun project that is easy to do and I loved using what I had on hand. I can’t wait for the auction and hopefully they will make a lot of money for their cause!

repurpose window to shabby chic message board

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

Hello Everyone!

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

I just had to make this clutch all because of this fantastic pair of shoes! (I think all great stories start with shoes)

 

Anyway, here is the story, my cousin is getting married on Sat (YAY) I am so happy for him. (His bride-to-be is wonderful and I think they will be very happy together. )

And since I have these great shoes that I never get to wear (they are a little impractical for work, haha) I decided to wear them to the wedding. Buuuut, I didn’t have a clutch to match. So I decided to make one.

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

Aren’t these shoes great?

Anyway here is how to make this DIY Rhinestone Clutch.

Material:

~ Fabric (I am using a faux leather that I had in my craft room, but any fabric that is slightly stiff will work. I did not line it, but you can if your fabric is not stiff enough)

~ zipper (I am using a plastic zipper that I had laying around, it is not the perfect red, but I think it works)

~ Sewing Machine, or needle and thread

~ Rhinestone and glue (I used Aleene’s jewel it glue)

~ Decoration for zipper if desired

 

Instructions:

~ First cut your clutch. I cut 2 pieces that were 10 inches x 6 inches. (this was big enough to put my lipstick, phone, gum, and blotting papers in)

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

~ Once your fabric is cut them measure your zipper. If it is too long then measure how long you want it, then place a few stitches there. Once it is secure then cut off the excess.

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

~ Next is place the fabric on the zipper and sew the fabric on the zipper. I held it together with tape since I didn’t want puncture holes in it from needles.

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

~ Do this step to both sides of the zipper

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

 

~ Turn your work so that right sides are together and stitch around the edges. Make sure you leave the zipper open so you can get your hand in to turn your work right side out.

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

~Once you have stitched all 3 sides turn your work right side out and there you have a really cute new clutch!

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

~ Ok by now you all know me well enough that you know I can leave anything that plain. I just knew it needed rhinestones. So I placed dots of glue in a swirl type pattern all over the clutch. Then I decided that wasn’t quite enough Smile so I added to wonderful broach that my mom gave me, with a little ribbon, I thought it was the perfect accent to the clutch.

 

 

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

There you have it. What do you think? Pretty easy right. Now on the the wedding celebration on Sat.

DIY Rhinestone Clutch

Turn an Ikea bookcase into a bench

Hello Everyone!

Isn’t Ikea one of the most wonderful places on Earth? I mean they have everything, all in one place!

Well a little while ago I was looking for the perfect bench to put in my kitchen, near the door. I couldn’t find anything that I liked, but I did see people on Pinterest turning an Ikea bookcase into a bench.

Turn an Ikea bookcase into a bench

It is very simple to do.

Materials:

~ bookcase the is strong enough to handle the weight when tipped on its side. I used the Ikea Expedit, but I don’t think they have that anymore. But check around they might have a suitable alternative.

~ Plywood for the top

~ Foam cushion

~ Fabric

~ Staple gun

Instructions:

~ First assemble the bookcase. They might take awhile and you might need help. If you want to raise the height now is the time to add legs to the bench. I didn’t want them, but you may want something different

~ For the cushion, cut the plywood the size of the bench top

~ Then  you make a sandwich of fabric on the bottom, ( I used a strip to help me keep it all in line. The fabric possibilities are endless) then the foam and lastly the plywood. Then stretch and staple all around.

Turn an Ikea bookcase into a benchTurn an Ikea bookcase into a bench

Turn an Ikea bookcase into a bench

I used this same technique when we redid the entry closet. You can see that transformation: here

Turn an Ikea bookcase into a bench

And that is it. A very easy way to transform a room and increase your storage.

Is there any Ikea transformations that you have done in your house?

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