Love You More burlap pillow with felt lettering – includes print out!

DIY “Love You More” Burlap Pillow with felt lettering!

Let me start out by saying that I DO have a sewing machine, however I always gravitate to projects that are easy and don’t require a sewing machine. So if you know how to use scissors, trace something, and can do an easy basic hand stitch (we’re talking 6th grade home economics level), you can make this pillow!

Here is what you will need:

A burlap pillow cover (mine is from IKEA for $10)

A pillow insert (from IKEA as well for $4)

A piece of white felt (23 cents at Walmart)

A piece of fabric or a burlap bandana, which is what I purchased from Hobby Lobby. (You get a large bandana for $1.99, or $1.00 when they are on sale which seems to be every other week.)

Fabric Glue

A fabric pen or other marker

A needle

Button Thread

If you want to do my exact pillow you will want to download and print these files:

LOVEYOUMORE

LOVEYOUMOREreversed

Ready to get started?

First you want to print out the files above, or your own designed words from your computer and put them on a window with painters tape while you still have adequate lighting outside.

 

Now you cut out an area of your bandana that will fit the wording and a heart at the bottom with at least a half inch margin for the stitch. I just eyed mine. The pillow has a hand made look so I didn’t want the lines to be perfectly straight.

Put the piece of fabric over the lettering and trace lightly. You can use any type of pen to trace. Since my fabric was dark I used a fine tip white paint pen to lightly outline the letters.

Here is how it looked when I was done:

Then you want to use the reversed version for the felt. I trace it in reverse so that the pen doesn’t show on any of my felt letters.

Here is how it should look after tracing:

Then you want to very carefully cut out your felt letters and fabric glue them to the other fabric piece you traced the lettering on. The traced area will help you place the letters perfectly on the fabric. The fabric glue will also hold the letters in place when you stitch them to the fabric.

At this time you’ll also want to cut out a felt heart with your scraps. I drew mine by hand then cut it out so it looked hand made and not computerized.  Glue the heart underneath the lettering, or wherever you choose.

Then you get to stitching. Simply stitch around all your letters and the heart. I just stitched right in the middle of all of mine with a gray/tan button thread.

 

Once you have your piece stitched, fabric glue it in the middle of your burlap pillow cover. Then stitch around the whole piece with more basic 6th grade home ec skills.

Stuff your cover with the pillow insert and you’re done! This project only takes a couple of hours but it has a wonderful hand made look and adds great texture to a chair or couch.

DIY “Love You More” Burlap Pillow with felt lettering!

 

 

 

Barnwood and Beachwood staining tutorial

Barnwood and Beachwood are pretty popular these days. You can find furniture and other home goods with these finishes just about everywhere. When I first saw this look surface, I was trying to think of a way to recreate it. I ended up stumbling upon this method by accident and then eventually refining it.

Here is what you’ll need:

Rust-oleum small stain jars. Driftwood, Kona and Weathered Gray.

You’ll also need a stain brush, paper towels, some light grit sand paper and a bare wood surface.

This method is so easy, that I don’t even need to really include pictures of the process because it’s fairly straight forward and there isn’t really a wrong way to do it.

I start with the Weathered Gray stain and cover my piece then rub it in well with a paper towel.

Next I make some random brush strokes over the surface with the Kona color. Some of these I rub in, and others I keep the brush marks more obvious.

Finally, I do some light random strokes with the Driftwood stain and do not rub these in. I want it to almost appear like lighter wood grains.

And lastly, after the stain has dried, I sand my piece almost like I would if I were distressing a painted piece.

Here are some pictures of some pieces I have used this technique on:

 

I made the shelf have a barnwood feel.

 

The shutters now have a nice rustic vibe. They were originally pine.

This shelf was oak. I only used Driftwood and Kona for this piece to make it feel more beachy. Forego the Weathered Gray if you want more of a Beachwood look and start with Driftwood then rub in some Kona to make the color more rich.

This was a wood frame I sanded and stained with the barnwood look.

I want to add that you can’t really go wrong with this method. Just play around and use your sand paper if you need to soften any areas. But most of all have fun!

 

Decorative Vintage Drawer

I’m back from a very long hiatus and I have a lot to blog about! In short, we went to China in June to bring home our new daughter! She’s been home with us about 3 months now and I am finally getting back into the groove. She and my oldest daughter are keeping me pretty preoccupied, however I make sure to make time to do some projects now and then.

I thought I would start off with one of my more simple projects just to get things rolling again.  I’m excited for all the things I have in store for this blog so please stay tuned. Thank you for your patience as I slowly add more projects that I have completed as time allows.

This project was simple and fun. I found a lone vintage drawer at our local thrift store. It was sitting underneath another piece of furniture without a price tag. I asked the staff if it was for sale, and after they searched the store and their back room and didn’t find a home for it, it became mine for $4.24. A real steal, in my opinion!

A lone vintage sewing machine drawer. How could I resist?

I loved the detail on it and it had a slit at the very top front that I knew I could make use of. I used some left over Annie Sloan Pure White chalk paint, however acrylic paint would’ve worked just fine as well. I also had some wooden tags left over from another project that I sprayed with chalkboard paint. They just happened to be a perfect fit for the slit:

I added a little bit of twine to the tag and pushed it in the slit, then filled the drawer with pine cones. Most of the pine cones were found around my neighborhood. I painted a few of them with white tips for a seasonal touch.

Decorative drawers are a perfect addition to a coffee table, or side table. They are so charming and each is unique.

In the coming weeks I am going to show you how we did budget wainscoting in our living room to really give it an elegant look, and how to make some really inexpensive palette-looking wall art. I’m excited!

Crazy for Clothes Pins – $10 Projects

I love clothes pins because they can be such a cool design element but they are also so cheap. Here are a couple of projects I did this weekend using clothes pins. I’ll explain below how I did them below:

Clothes Pin Picture Holder using a cabinet door

Clothes Pin Picture Holder using second hand frame and twine.

Both of these projects were easy, quick and fun and they add punches of color and interest to any room!

The first project is similar to my “LOVE” sign that I blogged about a few weeks ago. Just like the “LOVE” sign, I used a cabinet door from IKEA’s “As is” section. I love it when they have the skinny cabinet doors because you can do so much with them. This particular door was $1.99.

Hobby Lobby decorative wood filigree spray painted dark brown and glued with wood glue to the cabinet door.

The wooden filigree from Hobby Lobby was about $1.99. I spray painted it dark brown so that when I distressed the piece it would match the color of the rest of the door.

Painted and distressed cabinet door with filigree glued in the middle.

Then I took some wooden craft clothes pins (you can find these for cheap at Wal-Mart in their craft area), and painted them with some acrylic paint I had on hand and then simply hot glued them to the door since they would only hold light weight pictures.

Add some cute scrapbook paper cut outs and stamp them, or display family photos or greeting cards.

Add some hanging hardware in back and you have an adorable decorative accent for a child’s room/nursery, office etc.

This second project is pretty simple as well. Using the same idea as the IKEA cabinet door, I instead used a secondhand frame, painted and distressed it, then painted 4 clothes pins and hot glued them to the sides of the frame:

Another cute way to display your photos, greeting cards, etc.

I cut a couple of pieces of twine and clipped them into the clothes pins, then used mini clothes pins to secure the cards and pictures to the twine.

There are endless possibilities here. Play around and create something fun for your own home!

 

 

 

 

“LOVE” decorative sign with hooks

As promised, I am going to show you how I created the “LOVE” sign I made for our mudroom. I had a really fun time with this project!

Decorative “LOVE” hook rack/ wall hanging.

This project came out of 2 different ideas I saw, so I combined them. The first idea, I don’t have a picture of, but I saw someone use a cabinet door (like the one I did), and they glued wooden letters on it to create a sign. Then I saw this at Hobby Lobby:

Adorable Hobby Lobby Wall Chalkboard with hooks

I seriously loved this so much. However, it was priced at $100. I wanted to get a similar look but for much cheaper.

To create my sign I used the following items:

1. A cabinet door from IKEA’s “As is” section. They have TONS of random cabinet doors. The one I purchased was only $2.99.

2. Wooden letters from Hobby Lobby. These were just over $1 a piece. I measured the space of my cabinet front and took those dimensions with me to see what word I could fit within this area.

3. Wooden decorative pieces for the top of the board. These were also from Hobby Lobby and are found in the same aisle as the letters. I found 2 of the same decorative pieces to mirror that were only a couple of dollars for both.

4. Hooks from Hobby Lobby. Make sure you buy them when they are 50% off, or use your HL 40% off coupon.

5. Acryllic paint from Wal-Mart. I used the “Patina” color for the main color. I used a white and coral for the hooks and clothes pins. Wal-Mart has really cheap acryllic paint less than $1 each.

6. Wooden craft clothes pins from Wal-Mart.

7. Sand Paper

8. Hanging hardware

9. Polyurethane to seal the paint on the hooks (optional).

10. Wood glue

I started by figuring out where to place the letters and decorative wooden pieces on the cabinet door. I measured carefully to make sure everything was centered and evenly spaced. After I got each piece where I wanted it, I traced it with a pen so when I glued each piece down I knew exactly where to put it.

I used wood glue to adhere the letters and decorative pieces to the cabinet door.

Using wood glue, I covered the bottoms of each piece and put glue within the traced areas on the cabinet. After that I set a bunch of heavy books on top until the glue set. Then I made a mistake that I am hoping to spare you from making. I left on a date with my hubby and was not around to check on the glue situation. So while the glue set, it oozed out around the letters. It wasn’t a make or break situation but if I make another one I will check it periodically to wipe away any glue oozing, or gloozing, as I like to call it. (Wah wah…)

Once the glue was completely dry, I painted everything with my “Patina” acrylic paint. I think I needed about 2 coats.

I wanted it to still see some brush strokes because of the style of the piece so I only did 2 coats.

Once the paint was completed dry, I lightly sanded the piece.

Here is the piece after it was sanded. I also used some dark brown paint and a fine brush to give more of a distressed look to the letters since they were a light wood color.

You also want to paint the hardware/hooks (if you choose to). I just used acrylic paint to paint those as well. You can seal them with a polyurethane, however I did not because our sign is just decorative and won’t actually be used to hang coats.

Painted hooks and clothespins.

The last steps are to find out exactly where you want the hooks/clothespins/hardware to be placed, to secure those items onto your board and then to add hanging hardware of your choice in the back. I screwed the hooks in and used wood glue for the clothespins. We used a wire in back secured on each side to hang our sign so that we could secure it to the wall in a way that our kids would not be able to yank it down and hurt themselves.

Figure out where you want all of your hardware and then adhere or fasten it to the board.

You can take this idea and do whatever you want with it, whether it means using the space where I placed the letters to make into a chalkboard similar to the Hobby Lobby inspiration piece, or you can do a vertical sign with a special date (2 numbers for each row). The possibilities really are endless. There are so many fun color combinations you could do and so many fun hooks that you could mess around with to create something truly unique.

This piece cost me about $25-$30 to create. You could make it as cheap as you want depending on what you want to include and what items you already have on hand. Then hang it up and enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Closet turned mudroom

This is a project I’ve wanted to do for a long time. We have a closet in the garage entry way that has always simply stored junk. It used to be the home of our cat’s litterbox, and after that it just stored whatever it was that we didn’t have a place for elsewhere.

One day I was flipping through a magazine that my mom had on her coffee table that showed a lady who had converted a closet much like ours into a mudroom. Brilliant! I immediately knew that’s what I wanted to do.

With kids coming in and out with muddy and wet boots (especially during the winter months), I wanted a place where they could sit and take off and store boots, shoes, gloves, coats, etc.

Here is the transformed space.

We held off for awhile because originally I wanted to have bead board lining the mudroom but it was just going to end up costing too much. I finally decided that painting the inner walls with a paint color we already had on hand was the way to go. I really like the way it turned out.

It’s super simple too. We just removed the closet doors, painted the interior, put in a bench and installed a couple of hooks.

To add some light we got some of those puck lights that plug into an outlet and stuck them on the bottom of the top shelf. Then we put one single piece of molding across so that the lights weren’t visible.

I will be following this post within the next few weeks with a few other DIY projects that were included in this project.

I’ll show you how I made this:

Decorative “LOVE” hook rack/ wall hanging.

And these:

Rustic shoe baskets.

Here is the view of our new mudroom from the hallway:

The transformation makes a much more spacious entry way from the garage and creates a much more practical place for children to remove shoes before they walk all over my hardwoods!

More to come in the next few weeks!

 

 

Thrifty and Original Light Features

Whenever the time changes and it starts to get dark earlier in the evening, I start trying to add additional light to my home. I just love lights and the warmth they give off. They provide excellent ambiance during the holiday season and create a cozy and homey feeling.

This year, I have 2 light features I’m especially thrilled with. Both are created from secondhand items and they provide a unique look.

Vintage metal birdcage with pendant light and antique-style light bulb.

This is a vintage metal birdcage that I’ve hung a decorative pendant light in. I chose one with a crystal-like shade because I wanted the light to reflect in all different directions, like a chandelier. Originally I wanted to use a small chandelier but I couldn’t find one that would fit inside nicely. I think I still achieved the same effect though. Although they are kind of pricey, I splurged and purchased one of the antique-style light bulbs from Lowes. I really love the way it turned out and how warm the light is.

Vintage metal birdcage with pendant light and antique-style light bulb.

The second light feature I recently made, was really simple. I found a wooden case of an old clock from the early 1900’s at the Goodwill. The clock pieces weren’t all there anymore, but the case itself and the woodwork was beautiful, so I had to get it!

Antique germanic clock case, turned upside to set on a mantel. Secondhand mason jar with bulb lights inside.

Look at the beautiful domed and beveled glass! They wanted $30 for this solid piece and I thought it was totally worth it. I added a secondhand mason jar that I got for .29 cents and put battery operated bulb lights inside (Big Lots). I love that you see the glowing jar centered through the antique domed glass. So pretty!

Both of these projects were relatively simple but add so much character to my antique buffet and family room mantel. And best of all? They are the only ones of their kind. Mission accomplished!

 

The art of upcycling

I’ve been busy keeping my Etsy shop stocked over the last month and have been having so much fun finding new treasures to rescue, upcycle and sell. And with all of these projects I have forgotten 99% of the time to take before and after photos. The following item is the 1%.

I thought I’d write a post that explains what I look for in an item, and how I transform it from a piece of junk on its way to the dumpster, to become something that others want to actually have and display in their home. It’s really neat to give an item a complete make-over and a second chance. There is so much potential in many of these forgotten pieces. It takes vision, creativity and time, but the end product is worth it.

The item I’ve chosen to use as an example is this old sewing/craft box:

I found it for $1.49. I liked that it was made of solid wood. I also liked the general shape of it. What I didn’t like was the nasty mustard yellow felt lining that had seen better days, The chips on each corner of the bottom drawer, the scuffs/dings/scratches, and the awful pin cushion fabric. But all the things I didn’t like about it could be changed. The doors on top still functioned just fine, the pulls were intact, the lines were cute, and the solid wood was a huge plus. I knew when painted it would feel higher quality.

I wanted to get rid of the yellow felt and replace it with something else. I also wanted to cover the old fabric with something cuter, and I wanted to paint the entire box a different color to give it new life. All of these things were totally doable and didn’t take much time.

It was easy to rip off the top pin cushions. They were just hot glued on so they peeled off. I just covered those and used a stapler underneath to secure the new fabric.

While I had the pin cushions off, I painted the entire box and Aqua color (acrylic paint), distressed it and waxed it with a protective coat with Annie Sloan’s clear wax.

After that I attempted to get rid of the felt. The yellow felt peeled right off. I measured those areas and cut scrap paper to size, then glued them back in.

The scrapbook paper made a huge difference!

Ahh… much better!

Since I already made this look shabby, it was no big deal that there were chips in the drawer.

I just distressed these areas to make it look more intentional. It still functions the way it needs to.

Projects like these are rewarding because the material cost is very low. In this case I used 1/2 small bottle of aqua acrylic paint, 2 scraps of fabric and some scrapbook paper. Since I already had the vision, it only took about 2 hours to complete the project and it was fun to do!

Here are some other projects I’ve done recently that don’t have before pictures but hopefully they can still be inspiring:

Owl bookends made out of 2 secondhand mini wall shelves.

Earring organizer made out of a vintage weather barometer, some chicken wire, and scrapbook paper.

Cake stand made from a secondhand candle holder, plate and glass dome.

As always, if you want to support our upcoming adoption efforts or get ideas for more DIY projects, please visit my Etsy shop to see more items I’ve created from secondhand pieces.

My first experience with Annie Sloan’s Chalkpaint (and Furniture Refinisher)

I’d heard a lot about Chalk Paint and seen tons of things on Pinterest related to painting old furniture with this “miracle” paint, so I decided it was time for me to take the plunge and try it out. To be honest, I was nervous. I guess the special brushes and the pricey-ness of the paint itself along with the whole wax thing made me feel a little intimidated.

What really encouraged me in this direction is when I found a Chippendale-style dining set at my local thrift store for only $75. The finish was not good though. The top was majorly scratched and dinged and the chairs were covered with a dingy old fabric. But, the table was a nice size, with a leaf included, and there were 5 chairs.

Thrift store Chippendale-style dining set. $75.

I wanted the top to be durable, so I googled a bunch of different ideas. The one I liked best, suggested using an antique furniture refinisher to rub off the old stain on top with steel wool. I ended up using Fromby’s Furniture Refinisher:

Awesome stuff, but plan on using multiple cans of it if you’re stripping a large surface!

I found this YouTube tutorial that I mainly followed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7OW60YncY4

Here are a few things that I learned from this process.

1) DO NOT BUY LATEX GLOVES. Don’t even buy just regular rubber gloves. You need to buy the gloves that say they are made for working with strong chemicals. And even when I used those, eventually they would eat through after enough use. You may have to buy several pairs of gloves (2-3)

2) You will most likely end up going through a lot of refinisher if you’re stripping a large area. I ended up having to buy 3 jugs of refinisher.

3) I think I used an entire package of the steel wool when all was said and done.

4) You also need a metal bucket to put the refinisher in. I found using 2 metal buckets was best, because each time you dip your steel wool back in to get more refinisher on it, you end up dirtying the rest of the refinisher. It was best to have refinisher in 2 buckets. One for rinsing and squeezing out as much old stain as I could, and the other for getting some cleaner refinisher to go back to the table with. If the second bucket started getting too gross I would add it to the first bucket and add some clean refinisher to the 2nd again.

Once I finished this process, this beautiful underlying wood was revealed:

The stain had darkened so much and was so dinged and scratched that I didn’t even know the wood had a pattern in it until I stripped it!

I used Minwax Polyshades to stain the top of the table. I chose Bombay Mahogany in the gloss for the shade.

There is a dark cherry quality to this stain. I love the way it classed up the top of the table.

The YouTube tutorial above does a good job explaining the kind of brush you need. Usually you’ll only need one coat of this since the protective agent is mixed into the stain. We only used one coat and were happy with it. If you want it darker you can add another coat after 6 hours. Make sure to lightly sand between coats.

After taking care of the stain, I tackled the chairs, and base of the table with my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I chose the white color since all of our molding is true white. The nice thing about it is you don’t have to do any prep work whatsoever. I lightly dusted all of the chairs and the table legs, but no sanding is necessary. This makes the process a lot quicker and easier.

Because I chose the only paint that doesn’t have any pigmentation to it, it required 2 coats of paint to get the chairs how I wanted them. But since I wanted them to look distressed, I was satisfied with the results. If I had wanted them to be more opaque and smooth, I would’ve probably done a 3rd coat. Here are a few things I learned in the process:

1) The paint dries super quickly. That means that once you finish your first coat, you can usually start immediately on a second coat.

2) You don’t have to purchase the special brushes. You’ll want a good quality brush, but it doesn’t have to be an Annie Sloan one. I used a nice Purdy brush and it worked beautifully.

3) The chalk paint washes easily out of the brushes. Even after having a blonde moment and forgetting to wash my brush one evening, I was able to easily wash it out almost completely in the morning.

4) You can pretty much finish a painting project within 30-40 minutes since the paint dries fast and as soon as you sand/distress (if you desire), you can start the waxing process immeditately.

5) You can use an old t-shirt to rub the wax into the piece.

6) The paint goes a long way. With pieces that I’ve painted that have more pigmentation, I’ve only had to use 1 coat.

7) There are TONS of tutorials on using Annie Sloan wax on YouTube, so take advantage of this! I watched several before starting this project and I recommend you do too.

To recover the chairs, I used some fabric and plastic covering for the seats along with a staple gun, just like I did with my pub set. My goal with this table was to have a very elegant looking table to was also practical for having children.

I utilized the fabric in a way that I could get 2 seats covered from one yard. If it hadn’t been so darn economical, I would’ve probably turned the pattern 90 degrees CCW. But frugal-ness won… again.

I also opted for the distressed look because it is sure to be dinged up and damaged by my 3 year old and our soon-to-be adopted daughter.

So I have to admit, I haven’t quite finished this set yet, because I have to work within my monthly budget and I can’t buy more fabric until the 10th, but it’s a good start:

You’ll notice that I’ve included that antique chair I repainted and recovered for now, until I sell it (or don’t).

And since this project I’ve done several more, but all with the intention of selling them to make money for our adoption. It will be hard to part with these pieces, because they were so fun to make!

Charming curio cabinet with original antique key. Painted Duck Egg Blue. I love the patina on all the brass hardware!

Adorable antique Dixie night stand/end table. Painted Duck Egg Blue.

Chalkboard created from a thrift store mirror. Painted with Annie Sloan’s White chalk paint.

DIY New Home or Wall Decor Door – Shabby Chic Style

I have a fun new project that is pretty easy and fairly inexpensive. I love to rummage through the IKEA “as is” section just to see what treasures I may find. Sometimes I find great linens with cute patterns to use as fabric. Other times it’s a slightly damaged picture frame that can either be repaired or painted. In this case, I came across their cabinet doors. They are all random shapes and sizes and usually are only a few bucks. I found a cute long skinny one I wanted to use to make this project:

Perfect for a housewarming gift, wedding gift, or just a cute wall piece to add to your existing home.

The cabinet door I chose was 1.99. I don’t have pictures for step by step directions but the directions are pretty self explanatory so I will list them in order and if you have any questions let me know!

1. The first thing I did was clean it. Obviously it’s a good idea to clean the object before painting it.

2. I used a dark brown flat paint to sort of “prime” the piece. The main reason I did this though was to create a dark layer under the white paint to show through when I distressed it.

3. After that dried I used vaseline in the areas I wanted to distress.

4. I sprayed a white satin spray paint over the entire piece and let that dry.

5. Then I rubbed off the vaseline areas with a paper towel once the white paint had completely dried, to reveal the distressed areas.

6. There will already be a hole drilled in the cabinet for some hardware, so all you have to do is find a knob you love to add to it. I love the knobs at Hobby Lobby, and they are ALWAYS on sale, so I found one that looked like a mini antique door knob. I think it ended up being about $3? They also have adorable crystal knobs too. I would just take a look and try not to be overwhelmed!

7. Finally, to get the text on, I opened a document in Illustrator that was the same size as the top and bottom panels of the door. My panels were 2″ x 6″. I’m sure you could use a word processing program as well. Or you could draw a rectangle in any program the size of the top and bottom panel just to give you a reference, then select the type size and style to fit within the panels. The dimensions just help you choose the right size of text so that it fits perfectly on your door.

8. Print this text out and hold the paper up to a window and flip the paper over so you can see the text through the paper. Then you want to take a pencil and lead the entire back of the text. This is a similar method to when I did the chalkboard clock, only you’re using lead instead of chalk.

9. Flip the paper back over to the correct side and center the paper and text onto the panels and secure the paper in place with some tape so it doesn’t slip. Then you want to carefully trace all the letters onto the top and bottom panels. You can use a pen or pencil for this.

10. Once you remove the sheet of paper you’ll see the traced lettering onto the door.

11. You want to use a thin paint pen (color of your choice) to go over and fill in the letters.

12. You can add some sort of hanging hardware on the back if you want it to hang on the wall, or it looks good on a shelf just resting as well. I will say though, that if you decide to hang it on the wall, you’ll need to cut off some of the screw in the back to help it lay flush with the wall.

Makes a cute addition to a mantel!

And there you go! I hope the directions made sense. I have been busy working on my Etsy shop to raise funds for our adoption so some of the projects I post may not always have pictures to accompany every project but I will try to do better!

And if you are a) too busy to make any of the future posted projects or b) want to support our adoption fund, visit my Etsy shop at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PinkPoppyPress and you will be able to purchase most of the items I blog about here from now on. I would be eternally grateful! All profits will go toward us getting our little girl home!