Tag: DIY decor

DIY Burlap Trees: A Quick Christmas Decor Project

On By SaraIn Art and Crafting, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner?! It’s such an exciting, yet busy time of year. Now, I don’t know about you, but I still have a bit of decorating to do. Ok, I still actually have a lot of decorating to do. It’s been a busy couple of weeks! So, if you still have a little decorating to do, or even if you don’t, you might enjoy this quick and easy Christmas DIY!

Materials not shown in the picture:

  • hot glue gun
  • scissors
  • red beads (or other decorations you may want to use)

Wrap the burlap strip around the capped -tree top-

Steps not show:

  1. I cut down two of the cones with a serrated kitchen knife, so the trees would be 3 different sizes.
  2. The cap for the tree was two squares of burlap glued on the top, overlapping.

Wrap the burlap strip around the capped -tree top- (1)

Wrap the burlap strip around the capped -tree top- (2)

Step not shown: Trim off any frayed parts that are sticking out more than you want them to. It’s burlap, so it’s going to have “unraveled” bits either way, but you can clean it up some once the tree is completely covered.

Wrap the burlap strip around the capped -tree top- (3)

After I had put on the silver garland, I decided I wasn’t a big fan of the ribbons I had originally thought to use. Instead, I added some red beads to imitate ornaments. I love how this turned out!

And that’s it! This project didn’t take much time at all to finish and is the perfect addition to my snowman collection!

Have you made any new decorations for Christmas? Are you all done decorating, or do you still have some left to do? I’d love to know your thoughts!

Sara (1)

Creating a Craft Room: DIY Upcycled Cabinets and Using What You Have

On By SaraIn Art and CraftingLeave a comment

I’m sure you have all seen beautiful, light-filled craft rooms on Pinterest and blogs, colorful and just waiting to inspire creativity. I have this dream craft room…second-story room, windows with a beautiful view, waist high island with lots of cubbies for storage, colorful and organized. Sadly that room is still a far off dream, but sometimes you have to make due with what you have!

For years I have hidden away materials, only dragging things out to the living room when I had a project (or five) that I was working on. I had a card table permanently overflowing with those materials…it was an eyesore. Finally, a few months back, I decided that was enough!

Now, our basement is not nice, or pretty. But it definitely will work for a craft space.

DSCN0618

I started off clearing out most of the stuff out of the back room and painting the walls. While these are not drywall or anything, the paint helped a lot! Then I upcycled a dresser for some extra storage. If you are interested in what I did for that and missed it, check out this post.

DSCN0743_picmonkeyed

I moved around some of the furniture and then started on these cabinets! My goal for this room was to use storage items that I already had around the house. Saving extra money is definitely something I’m aiming towards!

These cabinets have been hanging around the basement for YEARS….they were an ugly yellow color, beat up, stained and just overall icky.

DSCN0953

I wiped them down with a cleaning solution, lightly sanded them and painted them with primer. Then started on the white paint.

DSCN0957

DSCN0959

Once these were all painted white, doors included, I started on the design I wanted on the top cabinet doors. This is where I had….a bit of a learning experience.

DSCN1039

See these doors? These almost done doors with the pretty fleur de lis? These doors were a learning experience. When painting a design on cabinet doors, it is very important to check which way is up! These doors are upside down. I’m sure you can imagine my disappointment when I went to hang my finished doors and realized I painted them upside down. So on went the primer and the white paint again, followed by repainting the fleur de lis the CORRECT way! I may have triple checked that they were the right way before I started repainting them.

DSCN1249_picmonkeyed

Finally, the cabinets are finished!

DSCN1250_picmonkeyed

As for the rest of the room, here is how the dresser is looking now.

DSCN1254_picmonkeyed

Don’t get me wrong, I still have a lot of work to do in this room. But it is so much better than it was! I have a space that I can work in, all my materials easily accessible, and now that I’m in the basement I don’t have to worry about glass shards and puppy paws!

Where do you do your crafting? Do you have a dedicated space for it? If so, how did you put it together? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Spray Painted Tray: Adding a Pop of Color to Your Decor!

On By SaraIn Art and CraftingLeave a comment

Hey everyone! Do you like having a pretty display tray for your perfume, jewelry, or other such items? I know I do! I’ve had one tray for years for just that. I don’t remember where I got it, but I ended up putting it on top of my jewelry armoire and used it to corral my then-larger perfume collection. I’ve since pared that down quite a bit, but I still love that tray!

Well, mostly love that tray. I do love having a decorative glass tray, and the design of the tray is pretty. What I don’t love so much: the color. It’s this kinda off-gold, weird metal color.

DSCN0827_picmonkeyed

See!? Not the prettiest color, or at least not my preferred color. It looks silver-ish in some light, off-gold in others, but never very pretty. Anyone have any idea what color I could call this?

DSCN0832_picmonkeyed

DSCN0835_picmonkeyed

Not only am I not fond of the color, but it definitely doesn’t go with the planned colors for our closet remodel (currently underway)!

Enter spray paint! I seriously have a new-found love for spray paint and all of the awesome things it can do. In this case, purple spray paint! DSCN0860_picmonkeyed But I’m getting ahead of myself…

So before painting, it’s important to tape off any areas that you don’t want the spray paint to, well, paint. I wanted to make sure that I got a good seal on the glass right up to the edge, so I started off with the tape actually over the edge and pressed it into the edge.

DSCN0856_picmonkeyed

I then took an Exacto knife and cut off the excess tape.

DSCN0857_picmonkeyed

And we are caught back up! Ok, so now that both glass and base (not pictured) are taped off, it’s time to spray paint with that lovely purple color!

DSCN0860_picmonkeyed

Since the sides of the tray are angled outwards, I sprayed the inside edge first and let it dry. Then I flipped the tray over and painted the outer edge. And it’s done! This really is a quick and simple fix that made such a big impact!

DSCN0867_picmonkeyed

DSCN0873_picmonkeyed

I love it! The color is so fun and really adds that pop of color that I’m looking for! I can’t wait til I can show you the whole closet remodel, but I think it is going to look great!

What do you think? Have you used spray paint to change a liked item into a loved item? I would love to hear what neat projects you have used it on!

DIY Glass Etching: Personalizing Glass Candle Holders

On By SaraIn Art and Crafting, What I'm Learning2 Comments

Decorating the home can be difficult, trying to balance between bringing in your own personality and managing costs. One way I have found to do this is buying things that are basic and inexpensive and then adding my own personality to the item.

Now I am by no means a decorating guru! I am still feeling my way through this journey as my dad and I remodel this house, and this project is just one of the many steps on that journey!

This is not the first time I have done glass etching, but this is the first time that I have made my own stencils for it. At least, it’s the first time I have made them successfully 🙂 I am thrilled with the results!

DSCN0707_picmonkeyed

I couldn’t seem to get a very good picture of this, but hopefully you get the idea! I have actually had this candle holder for quite a long time, but I finally decided to play with it some and make it my own. I knew I wanted to do glass etching, but there are very few style options in pre-made stencils. So I decided to make my own! Using a roll of Magic Cover Clear Transparent vinyl (like this one), I sketched out a few designs. It took a few practice attempts before I had any success at transferring a stencil to glass, but it’s all part of the learning process! I will detail out some of the difficulties as we go.

As for the designs, I really like the flowing feeling of the scrollwork and wanted to mimic that in my designs for the glass holders. And you may have noticed that I enjoy floral, henna-inspired designs.

DSCN0745_picmonkeyed

DSCN0746_picmonkeyed

I only took pictures of two out of the five while they were in progress, but they all looked pretty similar. This is the part that I had some difficulty with is earlier practice pieces.

The first attempt was one a spare wine glass. After sketching out a simple floral design, I cut out the design and then tried to transfer it to the glass. It would not line up, no matter what I did! I figured it was the curve of the wine glass, called it a learning experience and moved on. I then tried another practice design on a straight glass and had the same problem.

Overall, both of these practice attempts showed that to successfully transfer the design, I had to apply the vinyl to the glass after I sketched it but before cutting it out. Once I learned this lesson, it worked much better!

After cutting out the design, I applied a coat of the Armour Etch with the paintbrush. While the directions on the bottle say 5 minutes for custom stencils, I found that leaving the Armour Etch for closer to 7 minutes seemed to work a little better.

DSCN0749_picmonkeyed

Once the 7 minutes was up, I washed the Armour Etch off, removed the vinyl and wiped down the glass with a paper towel.

DSCN0751_picmonkeyed

DSCN0822_picmonkeyed

DSCN0822_picmonkeyed (1)

DSCN0822_picmonkeyed (2)

DSCN0820_picmonkeyed

DSCN0817_picmonkeyed

I am really happy with how they turned out! I love being able to personalize the decor in our home!

What do you do to bring your personality into your home? Do you like adding your own touches and DIY decor projects?

DIY Painted Dresser: My First Time Painting Furniture!

On By SaraIn Art and Crafting2 Comments

Hey everyone! I am really excited to bring you this DIY project: a painted dresser for my basement art studio! I am currently working to pull together different pieces of furniture (mostly stored in my basement) and making them nicer for my in-progress studio. These pieces are mostly left over from old roommates and a lot of them were originally from thrift stores.

I could go on, but basically what I am trying to impress upon you is that these are not nice pieces of furniture 😛

DSCN0709_picmonkeyed DSCN0708_picmonkeyed

Beautiful, am I right?! 🙂

One of the reasons I picked this dresser is that I am trying to get my studio set up and need more storage. But probably the main reason I picked this for my first project learning to paint furniture is that it’s a pretty simple dresser. No carvings, straight lines, etc. It’s a good piece to learn on!

I started out by taking out the drawers and removing the handles. (What of the handles were left to be removed) As you can see, I have plenty of projects to work on after these are done too!

DSCN0729_picmonkeyed

I sanded down all of the surfaces I planned on painting, then moved on to filling in the original handle holes with wood filler.

DSCN0730_picmonkeyed

DSCN0733_picmonkeyed

Once the wood filler was set, I sanded the filled areas down, wiped down the dresser with a clean cloth and then painted it with primer.

DSCN0740_picmonkeyed

The day after the primer was painted, I painted the dresser a deep grey. I ended up putting on two layers, using a fine paint roller, with a paintbrush for the few tricky spots.

DSCN0741_picmonkeyed

DSCN0742_picmonkeyed

DSCN0743_picmonkeyed

While it still needs hardware, it ended up looking pretty nice! Not bad for my first project trying to paint furniture! It’s pretty plain, so I’m trying to find some colorful, fun hardware to install. Maybe a trip to Hobby Lobby is in order? 🙂

Do you have any projects you are thinking about trying that are new for you? Have you ever painted furniture? I still have a lot to learn about this and would love to hear some tips and tricks!

DIY Painted Lamps: Adventures in Spray Painting and Budget Remodels

On By SaraIn Art and CraftingLeave a comment

Hey everyone! This week is the first of hopefully many (but at least 4) weeks of DIY projects for the home! While I have always loved doing DIY projects, I have never taken much time to develop any real skills at them. At least ones that aren’t art-related.

Now I find myself really getting into them and wanted to learn some new skills as well. We have been working on remodeling our house for a few years now and I have started to get a little frustrated at the lack of cohesion in the decor. Most rooms are a mash-up of items from my childhood, ones given to me or left by past roommates, some art projects I’ve made and a few art pieces I’ve collected.

Continue reading “DIY Painted Lamps: Adventures in Spray Painting and Budget Remodels” →