TUTORIAL: Washi Tape Love Art

Happy Friday Everyone!  Here's another super easy Valentine's craft for y'all.  I really needed some more fun happy heart decor on my mantle...maybe you do too? ;-)

This craft takes only a few inexpensive items you can find at your local craft store and less then 10 minutes of your time, easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Washi Tape 'Love' Art

4 mini wooden easels

4-2.75"x 3.5" mini canvas (or an size similar!) 

washi tape

scissors

heart shaped punch (optional)

scrapbook or construction paper

hot glue gun & glue sticks or glue dots

Grab your crafty items of fun...heart punch, fun washi tape (I bought this cute heart washi through Pick Your Plum...love them!) scissors, scrapbook paper.

Then cut strips of your washi tape to make the letters L, V, E and use your heart punch, or free hand it baby, to make the 'O'.  Hot glue or use glue dots to adhere the heart to the canvas.

Simple and Pretty!

Thanks for stopping by today!

 XOXO,

TUTORIAL: How to Make a Cornice Board

Today let's talk DIY Cornice Boards today, shall we?  These are seriously so easy to make and install...I know! I always assumed these were so hard to make...but they're not, trust me! 

I have seen lots of them made all crazy weird using plywood or MDF but the way I decided to make these takes the cake (my secret ingredient?  Styrofoam panels!)  so they are nice and lightweight and it's a breeze to take them down to change the color of your fabric when you want a new look!

You will remember (from this post here) I made the cornice boards/valances in my girls' room as well as Noah's bedroom too (seen here).  In this stage of my life, I am really loving cornice boards over curtains to spice up windows.  It seems my little ones love to use curtains as napkins and tarzan-like swinging ropes. So this way I can get pretty color infused into our decor without the insanity of someone pulling a curtain rod on top of their head. Oh, and we have room darkening roller shades underneath the cornice boards for those of you who are wondering just how we cover our windows at night!

DIY Cornice Boards (for one window covering)

One 3/4"x14"x48" panel of Styrofoam (cellofoam poly panel brand)

1 yard of fabric

bread knife

hot glue

straight pins

trim nails

hammer

This is the brand of styrofoam paneling I bought for this project.  I found them at Home Depot as a package of 6 for less than $10.  You can also use them as insulation between studs apparently ;-) 

First thing you need to do is measure your window from one outer edge of the trim to the other.  Cut your paneling, using your bread knife as a saw, to this measurement.  I found that using a bread knife made cutting the styrofoam so much less messy, I hardly had any weird styrofoam static ball thingys thanks to my good 'ol bread knife, who knew! 

Cut two more smaller pieces of the styrofoam panel for the sides of your cornice board.  This measurement will depend on how far you would like your cornice board to come out from the wall, I cut mine to be about 5 inches wide. Then hot glue the outer short edges of your long piece and press the shorter pieces to it like in the picture above!

Then grab your trim nails...these are what mine looked like!

Push a few trim nails into the edge of the styrofoam panels where you just hot glued the two pieces together to doubly secure the cornice board sides into place.

Easy, right!  You can just push them in with your fingers.

Now it's time to cover the cornice board with fabric.  Lay the cornice board over top of the wrong side of the fabric (pictured above) If you have a patterned piece you may want to cut your yard of fabric in half lengthwise so it is less bulky and the folded layer of fabric doesn't show through.  If your fabric is one color you may want to leave it doubled up if you feel it is pretty sheer. 

PS. Make sure you iron your fabric first so you don't have any odd lines on the front of your finished cornice board.

Grab your straight pins...

And fold up one side, pin it, and then do the next, making sure you have nice and tight edges the whole way through.

The sides are a bit tricky but if you go slowly and fold tightly they work themselves out :-)  I used a lot of pins in those corners!

And Voila! Here is what the backside of my cornice board looks like.

To hang it up, you will need two people.  One to hold the cornice board in the correct position and the other to hammer the trim nails into the trim.  Since these styrofoam cornice boards are so light we only used two nails per side...easy peasy!

And there you have it...an easy DIY project to give a nice pop of color to your windows!

Let me know if you have any questions about these cornice boards and I will answer them in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

How to Recover a Lampshade-TUTORIAL

So y'all know how I am redoing our guest bedroom and turning it into Noah's big boy room, right?  Well, I wanted to share a pretty darn easy project from the room makeover with you, recovering lampshades! 

I bought these super plain and simple lampshades at Ikea for just a few bucks and wanted to coordinate them with the room decor.  I did this by using one of the fabrics I used in his new room, what a great pop of color it gave to the usual boring nightstand.  Want to see how easy it is to do?  You will definitely want to give this a try if you have a room in your house that could use a little spicing up, such a simple project can really give a room a fresh new look :-)

Supplies List

fabric (will depend on the size of the lampshade and if there is a directional pattern on the fabric)

freezer paper, craft paper, or tissue paper for pattern making

marker or pencil

ruler or straight edge

scissors

rotary cutter and mat

spray adhesive 

binder clips or clothespins

The first thing you need to do is lay out your craft paper so that you can draft a pattern of the lampshade.  Starting at one end of the paper, near the top, slowly roll the lampshade over the paper with one hand while you trace one edge of the shade with the other hand.  Then, carefully roll the shade back to your starting position and trace the opposite edge of the lampshade.  Grab a ruler and connect the two lines to make your pattern complete. 

You will end up with a curved pattern like the one above if your lampshade is bell-shaped like mine.
Cut your pattern out with a pair of scissors.

Wrap your pattern around your lampshade to make sure it fits.  If you need to trim it down a bit it is better to do it now than with your actual fabric!

Grab your fabric and place your pattern over top.  Using a rotary cutter and mat, cut out your pattern.
I used Jac-Cyn Designs for Birch Fabrics, Mod Basics, Organic in Abacus Pool from my wonderful blog sponsor, Fabricworm.

For the next step you have a choice.  Take your spray adhesive and either 1) spray the lampshade or 2) spray the wrong side of your fabric.  I tend to spray the lampshade since I find the fabric often sticks to itself if I spray it causing it to wrinkle!

Then ever so carefully cover your lampshade starting at the seam, smoothing out the fabric as you go round.  I like to use binder clips or clothespins to help hold it in place while the adhesive dries.

And there you have it!  A simple and easy way to add a pretty pop of color to any room.  The perfect way to work some fun fabrics into your decor or pull different pieces of a room together with a more coordinated look.  

I can't wait to show you the rest of his room, it turned out great.  He is already loving it, yahoo!

XOXO,

Sherwin Williams Perfect Palette Room ReDo and Giveaway

With the arrival of our fourth child just recently, our house seems to constantly be in full-time organizational and rearranging mode these days.  Or maybe that is just me?  My poor husband, what a good sport he is about all of my nesting.  We need to change up the kids' bedrooms as our house will be maxed out with the addition of Oliver.  So far we have both decided that the room shift will occur like so: 

1. Baby to go into nursery. Since baby is a boy, we'll need to paint and redecorate once baby is moved into this room (which is currently in a very girlie state of being) which for us is usually around 6 months or so, since our babies camp out with us until then.

2. Eloise will move out of the nursery and into "Noah's room," which is currently shared by Noah and Penelope but still decorated as a boy's room in shades of green.  Eloise and Penelope will share this room and it will need to be redecorated to fit the girls' personalities.  Yay!  I am getting so sick of the green color we picked out when we moved in to our house 5 years ago.

3. Noah will move into our guest bedroom/office/catchall room, which means no more guest bedroom. Yikes! We will be at maximum capacity in our house!  This room is a major disaster.  Floral wallpaper everywhere!!!!!  Anyone want to come over and strip it for me?

Right now my focus has been redecorating Noah's new bedroom first.  It seems the easiest one to tackle right now, since once the wallpaper is gone it will be more or less an empty slate (once we get all the odds and ends out), and we can move furniture around and into it as we see fit.  Plus, since he won't really move into it until the baby is around 6 months old, it will be nice to have a newly decorated guest room for my family to stay in while they visit and not the hodgepodge of a guest room it is currently.

{Before Picture: Disaster of a Guest Bedroom. No laughing, please!}

I am slightly embarrassed to show you this picture, but it is what it is.  It's a guest bedroom only due to the fact that it has a bed in it!  We have used it as a guest bedroom/office in the past, but within the last month or so we moved the office to another area of the house so it's easier for my husband to do notes at night in preparation for baby, although there is still a printer and desk chair floating around in there.  I also use this room to store some of my partyware (left-hand corner), since I hate going down to our basement to get anything. 

Do you see that wallpaper?  It's so awful. I hate it, but since we've already taken down wallpaper in our family room, powder room, and one other bedroom, I have just been too sick of wallpaper to tackle this room too!  We did take the trim down around the window just to prep for the process, but that's about all we could handle. LOL!  

Need a close-up of that wallpaper mayhem?

I have been scrounging the internet and Pinterest late at night to look for various color schemes.  Oh, the choices there are for boys!  I knew right off the bat that I didn't want the typical dark blue/tan that many boy rooms are decorated in. Instead I wanted something more neutral, so if I ever have to redo this room in the future it will just be (hopefully) a matter of changing out decor.  I really want this room to grow with Noah and to be easy to add or take away decor as his tastes change.

I love light blues and light greys, as I think they are really calming colors, which will be nice for Noah as he will be starting kindergarten in the fall, and I think having cool, calming colors will be nice for focusing on reading, writing, and other homework fun. Noah loves orange and green, so my thoughts were along the lines of a light blue or grey wall color with pops of orange, green and blue in accent decor and bedding. Here are a couple of inspiration pictures that have caught my eye so far:

{image via}

I just love the color combos in this picture. It's right up my alley!  With this picture I used Sherwin-Williams's new Chip It! button, which lets you use any picture you find online and turns it into a perfect palette for inspiration.  It is seriously so cool. 

You can get the Chip It! button just like the Pin It button for Pinterest.  First you drag the Chip It! button below to your toolbar:

Whenever you spot a photo you like online, just click the Chip It! button and then click the photo itself.   And voila--you get the picture's paint colors.  So easy!  It's awesome.

I have been using the Chip It! button on every single inspiration picture I have found so far, and they are all easily saved into the program as a ChipBook called "Noah's Room."  That way all the color options are right there where I can easily access them and compare colors too.  Love it! 

{image via}

I love the wall color here (it is a bit darker than I usually go for, though...) and the splash of aqua blue and orange.  I showed this to Noah and he really liked it too. †He is a definite sucker for anything orange. :-)  

You've got to check out the Chip It! video and add the Chip It! button to your bookmarks bar now.  You will fall completely in love with what this new program does for your decorating mojo. 

Okay, so ya ready for the giveaway?

Chip the last image in this post and then guess which photo I'm going to use in my room makeover and you'll be entered for a chance to win a $1000 Visa gift card and a $200 Sherwin-Williams gift card!

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

Entries from all participating blogs will be pooled for winner selection; only two entries per household.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 6/18/2012 to 7/6/2012.

Be sure to visit the Sherwin-Williams brand page on†BlogHer.com, where you can read other bloggers reviews and find more chances to win!

XOXO,

How to Make: Mason Jar Frog Lids-TUTORIAL

Today we are throwing a little play date party for Noah, Penelope, and Eloise's little friends.  Hooray for Spring time fun!  We've got quite the spread ready for their little friends (and my sweet momma friends too!)...I love throwing parties!  Since we are throwing a "Yay Spring is Here!" party I wanted to add a bunch of fresh flowers to our buffet table, since what says Spring more than beautiful and colorful fresh flowers?  So I got out my trusty mason jar frog lids I use when I turn my mason jars into flower vases and thought I would share with you how to make them.  They are super easy peeps, for reals.  

'So what's a frog lid?' you might be asking yourself.  Well, if you've ever seen pretty flower arrangements bursting out of mason jars or similar lidded jars at a wedding or other party a frog lid helps keep the flower arrangement full and pretty.  It is just the ring component of the mason jar lid with a wire grid.  The grid allows you to place each stem exactly wear you want it making arranging your bouquet easy peasy!    

To make a frog lid you only need a few simple things, who knew!  

Are ya ready to make a few?

Mason Jar Frog Lids

Mason jar rings

12 or 14 gauge wire

Tin snips

E-6000

You can make your frog lids using regular or wide mouth mason jars rings...and they can fit the standard clear or the pretty vintage blue mason jars too, the possibilities for your mason jar vases are endless!

Just snip your wire into lengths that will fit the diameter of your ring, you will need 4 going in one direction and then an additional 4 in the opposite direction to form the grid.  The wire we had on hand was ridiculously strong which made it hard to straighten out in a nice line...no one will see the imperfections once the flowers are in there though so if you happen to use some pretty tough wire do not worry about not being able to straighten each piece out perfectly :-)

Slowly squeeze the E-6000 around the lip of the inside of the mason jar ring.  Place the cut lengths of wire in place and arrange into a grid.  Let the frog lids dry for a few hours up to one day.  

And there you have it, you are now ready to arrange all those pretty flowers just the way you want them in the mason jar of your choice :-)

I love my frog lids!!

Happy weekend to you and thanks for stopping by!

We'll talk soon!

XOXO,

Burlap Covered Letters-TUTORIAL

How's about some pretty and easy home decor?  I know that's right up my alley as I am full nesting mode these days.  I'm sure my husband thinks I'm nutso since I have been going crazy rearranging, reducing clutter, and adding in lots of organization to our house since the beginning of the year.  I LOVE it so much.  It is so nice to have pretty storage solutions that hide away the toys, book, games, and baby dolls when they are not in use.  And one of the best parts is the added bonus of coming up with inexpensive room decor to go with everything, ahh I love a fresh new look.

I love bold statement pieces in room decor, they just draw your eyes to them and are great focal points for any room.  I have been dying to add in the initial to our last name somewhere in our home for the past year but just couldn't put my finger on how I wanted it to be exactly...until now.  I bought one of those ginormous cardboard letters from Joann's and planned on spray painting it a bright, fun, cheery color when I realized what our family room really needed was some different textures added in to it.  The easiest way to add texture?  Burlap!  And so the Burlap Covered Letter was born :-)  I kept the letter simple in color to flow with our room's color scheme and added the burlap to bring in a whole different rustic vibe...I'm loving it!

Burlap Covered Letters

Cardboard letter, also called Paper Mache (another fun project using these letters is my Fabric Covered Letter tutorial seen here!)

Spray paint of your choice

Burlap

Marker to outline the letter

Scissors or Rotary cutter and mat

Spray adhesive 

This project is another easy one.  You just need the above items to make a fun, textured statement piece for you room decor!

First, grab a marker and outline your letter onto the burlap, make sure you outline just the outer or front of the letter as the burlap will only cover the front of it.  Cut it our with your rotary cutter or scissors.  Then head outside to spray paint your letter, front, back, and inside all those nooks and crannies.  I used Rustoleum's Heirloom White, it's one of my favorite colors to use in our house.  I also found a cream colored burlap which worked perfectly for me but you could always buy the plain 'ol brown kind and spray paint it the color of your choice as well since you won't be washing it anytime soon!

Baby bump alert!  This thing is getting hard to hide these days!

Once my letter was dry I sprayed my Adhesive Spray all over the front of the letter and then carefully laid my burlap 'B' over top.  I had to straighten out a few wrinkles here and there but didn't worry too much about it being perfect as I wanted more of a rustic, frayed look.

Let the adhesive spray dry for a few hours or up to one day if it smells strongly and there you have it...easy room decor!

I love how it looks in our family room :-)  

And my kids love saying 'hey, I have a B in my last name!'

PS.  Those are the fabric flowers from Dana's No Sew Flower tutorial here, I made them so long ago and still love them to this day!

Need a bold statement piece for your home?  Try this one and I bet you'll love it too!

Thanks for stopping by, we'll talk soon!

XOXO,