Awesome Autumn Additions!

We had ourselves another fun little craft night for Fall Crafts. So I wanted to share all the great ideas with you all!

Diannah made this great witches boot. I love it. She paid so much attention to detail that really made this craft so fabulous! It is made out of pine. It is 4 separate wood pieces that she also routed to smooth off the edges giving the craft and overall chunky feel.

This spider on the star is super cute! And notice the ribbon is held on with a bead and knotted at the end. GREAT touch!

April gave us these cute tags! These dollar store sketetons are such a great addition to this vintage inspired tag. The great little details include the felt embellishment on the bottom of the tag and a key on the skeleton's arm! LOVE IT!

April also made this great BOO banner. Very simple, and VERY cute! It is just some scrap muslin fabric with a zig zag stitch with "BOO" stamped on them! A great finishing touch for any halloween decor!

Randi and Jeni made this great Trick or Treat banner! Jeni is our resident scrapbooker and her talents really came shining through on this craft. She always has a great attention to detail!

The banner is made from cardstock, scrapbook paper, ribbon, corrugated letters, and ribbon.

The little spiders added to random letters is such a fun detail!

Notice the ribbon that embellishes each of the pennants covering the scrapbook paper seam. The corregated letters are painted and then distressed. LOVE IT! And to protect the paper they laminated each of the pennents before they glued on the ribbon, letter and spiders. When all is said and done, punch 2 holes in the top and string with ribbon.

Traci made the lovely pumpkin flower arrangement. Pick your favorite fall flowers/folliage and arrange in a foam pumpkin. To do this glue in a floral foam block and arrange your flowers. Great way to soften up your home with fall colors!

Okay, April did go crazy this time around and also made us these fabric pumpkins. It is hard for a creative soul to sit still. And we are glad she shared that creativity with us! If you check back to earlier fall posts (click the fall post on the side bar) you will see her very detailed pumpkins as well. But these are great for a bench because your kids cannot hurt them. Puppies that's another story :) But I love them and they look perfect on my bench. They can really go anywhere.

Jill made this hanging leaf plaque. The leaves are very glittery and really add some bling to your house. Jill decoupaged the scrapbook paper on a routed, painted plaque and then glued on the leaves. The finished off hanging ribbon makes this a perfect decoration.

Teresa mad this great wall hanging. She also made this with pine and some misc. thinner wood for the embellishments. The berries and spanish moss area great addition to give the craft anadded touch. What a great fall craft!

Rachel made this Halloween Countdown that my kids love! It is so fun for them to keep track of the days until the great candy feast!!! :) This is made with the 4 X 4 blocks and 8" of 2 X 4. She then decoupaged on the different scrapbook papers and vinyl numbers/lettering. She got the craft idea from Poppy Seed Projects and ordered the kit. Awesome craft!! They have a great wesite that you can order crafts. Check it out!

All in all we had some great fall crafts this time around. Thanks ladies!!

Ode to Hobby Lobby!

(yes I am aware that I appear to be a little too excited in this picture, but I REALLY love Hobby Lobby!

And I got a great deal on these drawer knobs!)

I love Hobby Lobby! It is a little bit sentimental because they gave me my first job when I was 15 and thus released a beast of creativity! I have found what I needed there 98% of the time and I love the sales and prices. Just recently a friend of mine told me about their inspirational ideas on their website and wanted to share them with you too.! So I hope you find some inspiration as well.
Here is a fun little inspiration that they have on their website for fall! LOVE IT! Click Here to see their great fall ideas.

You can also check out their website to see other inspirational ideas by Clicking Here.

A Touch of Sentiment

My friend Robin at The Swanky Flea made me this cute little Fairy in a Jar.  She is making these cute little Fairies in a Jar for a show in Downtown Mesa on the 16th of May.  I had her make me one for me for my Mother's Day gift to my mom.  

My grandma, who died a couple of years ago, gave me a bunch of baby pics so I asked Robin to make my fairy with a copy of my grandma's baby pic.  This Mother's Day lands on my grandma's birthday so I thought this would be a great gift to give my mother.  Here is how it turned out:

You can contact Robin by clicking here to have her make your own custom fairy in a Jar.  Or if you want a pre-made Fairy in a Jar go check out all the fun stuff she will have at her show on the 16th.

Cabinets: To Paint, or Not To Paint?? Is it a question?

Painting your cabinets can be a big decision.  There is definately a lot to consider.  Painting over wood is pretty much permanent, unless you are up to stripping your cabinets, so that takes some serious consideration.  Also it is a time consuming process.  The best reason to paint your cabinets is plain and simple, cost!  It is the cheapest way to redo your kitchen.  When I first painted my kitchen it cost me $50.00 (including hardware).  For a growing family on a budget, that was doable.  In this post I will walk you through the basics of painting your cabinets.  

Here is my kitchen I lovingly refer to as my micro kitchen before I painted the cabinets.  I loved the red on the walls but the honey oak cabinets were just not doing it for me.  I was ready for my cottage kitchen.  

While looking through the paper one Sunday my inspiration hit me!  This is it!  This was what I wanted for my kitchen.  I loved these cabinets with the red walls and I LOVED the texture finish.  

So here is my finished product.  

(This picture was taken just before we did our addition so I had already taken down all of the decorations, but you get the idea, right?)

This sure was a upgrade for me from the cheap looking honey oak cabinets.  

Now that brings me to another point.  Cabinetry is very expensive to replace.  But if you live in a tract home and could not afford the upgrade you have very CHEAP cabinets.  If this is the case, then what have you go to lose?  Actually I think the cheap ones paint easier.

Here is a detail of the cabinet door.  I only did this finish on the upper cabinets.  It was very time consuming and I didn't feel like the bottom cabinets would be noticed enough to warrant my time with the faux finish.  I textured these with plain old joint compound using a stencil and sloppping it on real thick.  

So lets you get you started on getting your cabinets.

(note: this is an example of a recessed cabinet door)

Preparation: 

clean- get your cabinets good and clean.  Any dust or grime can make your paint not stick as well.  

remove cabinet doors and hardware-  now is the time to start to take everything apart.  Remove all hardware/hinges so you will not get paint on any of them.  If you are changing hardware you can putty holes now if you need to.  You may need to let it dry and then apply more to make sure there is no shrinkage of the putty.  You will want it to look smooth.

sand- your cabinet will have some type of finishing topcoat.  By using a fine grit sandpaper (150-180 grit)you will start to roughen up the cabinet.  Doing this will add some roughness for your paint to grip on your wood.  The sheen and thickness of your cabinet topcoat will determine how much sanding you will need to do.  You really don't need to do much sanding, you just need to roughen it up.  I recommend using a mouse sander for this.  The pointed design will help you get into corners.

remove dust- use a damp towel to remove the dust.  Make sure all of the dust is gone so the paint can adhere better to the surface.

Add some moulding???-  if you would like to add some crown or some squares to flat cabinets now is the time to do it.  I just recommend using wood moulding.  3" -4" crown would look great.  If your cabinets have no crown and are similar to my micro kitchen cabinets you can take off that little piece of stop moulding at the top and put crown up there.  It really is a nice finishing touch.  And if you have older flat cabinets you can put on squares with some small profile moulding similar to wainscoting squares.

Here is an example of a kitchen with flat cabinet doors.  We glazed over them with a walnut stain to give them some character from the flat white look. 

prime (optional)- the reason I say that priming is optional is because if you sanded you probably do not need to prime.  Here are the circumstances that I may recommend priming.  First if your cabinets have a thick topcoat of urethane.  Urethane is an oil based product and using water based paints your paint will repel the topcoat.  This is usually the case if you have older cabinets that have been refinished and the homeowner applied their own topcoat.  You will need to use a primer in this situation.  Now if you have darker cabinets and you will be painting them white it may save you a couple coats of paint if you prime first.  Primer does cost a little bit more than paint, but if you will need less paint if may be worth the difference.   Both times I have painted my cabinets I did not prime first.  Sanding proved to be effective enough.  These cabinets have actually held up better than my cabinets that the manufacture painted.  Also with my green island I wanted the black underneath to show through when distressing.  I didn't want a white primer to show through as well, and they have held up fine.  My old cabinet bases are in my garage for my work bench and they are still holding up quite well.  

So if you do decide to do some texturing to your cabinets this would be the time to do so.

(I will add a post on how to do this later if you are interested and need some instructions.)

painting- okay, here we go!  Now is the time to get dirty!  When picking out a paint take some time.  Do not choose lightly.  Even if you are doing white there are so many shades of white.  My appliances are bisque.  I was able to match a color to those and that was my micro kitchen cabinet color.  It was a great slightly off white color. (American Tradition, Moonlight @ Lowes) So take into consideration your appliances and any other close furniture or flooring.  As far a sheen goes I reccomend using a Semi-Gloss.  Here is Bob Villa's explaination of semi-gloss paint "Semigloss paints have a slightly glossy appearance and are less reflective than gloss paints. They offer good stain resistance, are easy to clean, and may be a good choice if you have young children. Must experts agree that the highest quality semigloss paints are 100% acrylic latex paints, which also come in enamel grades."   You can find more info on his website by Clicking Here  So I prefer semi gloss because they make your cabinets cleanable!  Very crucial in a kitchen or bathroom.  You will need to apply at least 2 coats.  I have always brushed on my paint with a good paint brush.  I personally have not tried spraying it on and how well it would stick.  I do have a friend who is wanting to spray on her paint so I will update when I know more.  If you do want to try spraying I would recommend using a good sprayer, preferably airless.  Be sure to let your paint completely dry in between coats.  

Finishing up: 

Be sure to check out the Grunge it Up! post for details on adding  some "grunge" to your cabinets.

(note:below is an example of a raised panel door)

dents & dings-  in thicker/harder areas of your cabinets (I would not recommend doing on your recessed doors that have a thin wood panel in the door, just on the thicker frame of your door) you can beat your cabinets to add some fun distressing.

glazing- this method is most used on kitchen cabinets.  The heavy bodied glaze works well with vertical surfaces.  Also if you added some dents and dings to your cabinets the glaze will help those stand out a little bit more.

sanding/distressing- sanding is fun to add some character to your cabinets.  Sand the edges and any other detail you want to stand out.  If you have another color underneath this will be a good way to let this show.

top coat/sealing- if you are doing any type of distressing listed above you really need to apply a top coat.  This will seal in all of your hard work, so when you have to wipe down your cabinets you won't take off some of your glaze. I use a ploy-acrylic spray.

putting back together- at this point you will probably feel burnt out and ready to be done.  But just think, you're almost there!  If you have a previous screw hole that is stripped and your screw won't grip on the wood, take some wood toothpicks and put them in the hole with some wood glue, break them off to be even with the surface.  Let dry and you should have a good grip for you screws!

adding hardware- This is the fun finishing off point!  It is like putting on your jewelry, you do look good without it but you feel more finished off when you have some on.  Cabinetry looks so much more finished off when you have on some great hardware.  When you start to add your hardware make a template for the spot to drill,  then you won't need to measure it every time!  Drawers can be a little bit tricky since they vary so much in size, you will have to do more measuring.  If you have hardwood cabinets be sure to drill a pilot hole for your screws if needed.

Knobs and pulls can really define your cabinets as well.  Doing this will really set the them for your kitchen.  Do a lot of shopping around for knobs, they can get quite pricy so spend some time deciding what you REALLY want.  I found my knobs and cup pulls at Pottery Barn, sounds expensive right?  These were actually the best price for what I was wanting.  So check out those unexpected places too.  You may be surprised.  

Here is our kitchen after our remodel.  (I still need to glaze and put hardware on the upper cabinets, can you tell the difference?)  Originally the island was black.  I ended up not liking the black so I painted it and my desk this great green color and glazing it.  I had all of the supplies so it ended up costing me $3, the cost of the oops paint I used to paint them.  I really love the green in my house and I am so happy I did it!

(sob story alert!  I would share with you a before picture but while backing up my photos one day my hard drive crashed and I lost 18 months of pics, including those from my remodel.  If anyone know a good place for hard drive retrieval please let me know!)

I will give you some fun tips to jazz up an island.  For the panels I bought some tongue and groove pine bead board at Home Depot.  The cabinet doors already were beaded, so the bead board panels really finished it off.  While planning my kitchen I looked into getting the panels from the manufacture and the price was outrageous.  Another example is the legs on the island.  I needed 3, the manufacture would have been $350 each.  I did some research and found these great hardwood legs at Outwater for $70 each.  What a great savings!  Outwater also sells hardwood knobs and all those neat wooden door racks to install on your cabinets too.  If you are doing a remodel I highly recommend using them.

This pic is of my desk.  Despite how the color looks bluer on the previous pictures this picture of my desk is a better representation of the color.  I also got the bun feet at Mesa Sales and painted them.  I kept the toe kicks black to help the feet stand out a little better.  Here is another kitchen savings tip,  If you cannot afford the granite countertops there are some great laminate counter tops that look a lot like granite.  I just recommend using a full round nose on the edges to make it a little more believable.  Also I asked to have backsplash removed and did a tile backslash.  (see first pic of my mega kitchen)   That laminate backslash is a dead give away that your countertops are laminate.  Now here is my reasoning.  countertops are easier to replace than cabinets.  So if granite does not fit into your budget with the cabinets you want settle for the laminate for now and you can upgrade down the road, hopefully!

I caught my friend Danielle just before she moved to snag these pics of her kitchen.  She first painted the cabinets red and then decide to paint them black.  That worked out great when distressing them.  The red shows through perfectly.  And her red bead board looks great with the black cabinets.

Here is a good pic to show the distressing.

This is a real fun idea.  I did this to my kitchen too, but I put in plexi glass.  The chicken wire is very cute!  If you have a recessed panel door and it is pretty thin chinky wood you can cut out the panel and add something else.  This makes for a fun decorative door.  

Here is another fun detail of the black.  I really do love how Danielle's kitchen looks, but I will tell you why I painted my island from the black to green.  Believe it or not, black is hard to keep clean.  It is not forgiving of dust and water spots like lighter colors are.  I felt like it was always dirty and frankly I am not the kind of person who wipes down my cabinets daily.  So if you are considering painting your cabinets black keep that in mind.

     

This is a little bit easier way to give your cabinets some pizazz!  Kim did her cabinets by painting chalkboard paint on the recessed part of her cabinet.  It looks really fun and can be versatile.

    

So good luck on this and hopefully this inexpensive fix can give you the kitchen you want.  And if you every want to send me some before and after pics of your kitchen I would love to share them on this post.  Happy Painting!

How to "Share the Love!"

Here is a great party idea!  If you have group of friends that you want a good excuse to share crafts and have a fun lunch you can "Share the Love!"

   

You can do this party for any occasion, Spring/Easter, summer, fall, Halloween, Christmas. etc. . .

Table Setting

Each place setting included a scrabble name plate personalized with a fun name!

Here is a goodie bag with fun magnets, some glass, a cute button and a fun Valentine button.

Click Here to learn how to make your own glass magnets.

These pastry stands are a great touch with all of the great tags.  All of the graphics were found on Esty.  Click Here to see these great Vintage inspired Valentine's Graphics.

Soup in bread bowls is a great lunch for a cold winter day.  A spinach salad with the strawberries cut like hearts is a great companion for the occasion.

These mini Cheese Cakes and Cupcakes (including red velvet, YUM!) are a great dessert.  Then you can take the large cupcake home in your pastry stand to share with your other sweet heart!

Here is what you would go home with:

  

Heart pocket CD holders to hold a CD full of a variety of love songs

 

A love box to share some of those special letters/notes that you don't want to part with.  

You can then have this box to open when you need a reminder of how much you are loved!

A heart topiary

A cute sign embellished with scrapbook paper

some "lovely" heart shaped pasta to make for your love(s) -your kids will love the pasta!

But when cooking it you MUST wear the included tiara and use the blinged out spoon.

A personalized heart bean bag and napkin

A Conversation Heart Wreath.  

These hearts were individually cut out of 1/4 plywood, painted and personalized with vinyl lettering.  Embellished with pastel berries.

These are some fun craft ideas, thanks for sharing!

Getting off Tract!

Yes, I live in a Tract home!

-Tract housing (also known as cookie-cutter housing) is a style of housing development in which multiple identical or 

nearly-identical homes are built to create a community. 

Unfortunately if you cannot afford a custom home or want to live in an older neighborhood in Arizona (and many other places), you live in a tract home. The beautiful shades of brown that all of the houses have just don't appeal to my pallet. In 2000 when we were ready to move up from renting we started looking for a house. I could not and would not live in a neighborhood where all of the houses were the same color and, to the untrained eye, identical. It really was a quite depressing venture. But then the compromise was found. At that time there was one builder who had the "different" style of tract home. They were perfect for me (or as perfect as I could get without building my own home) with the large front porch, shutters, smooth stucco, color, and some stone, brick, or shingles. It was the best I could find so we got it. It even had a decent back yard, for kids to play, a garden, trampoline, sand box. Yes, it was great. But then there was still a problem, all of the houses still looked the same from the inside. A sea of drywall: drywall accents, drywall niches, drywall entertainment centers, etc. . . It looked clean but had no personally. And the 2 1/4" baseboards were mostly hidden by carpet and painted the same color as the wall.
I will tell you at the time I was grateful to be out of a rental and to be in a house that the walls actually were clean when you washed them. The clean white was perfect for us then. So after a year had passed I needed color! The was the start of giving my house some personally and making it my own.  Going from Tract to Terrific!

Let me start of by saying that giving a home personality is a process. I feel that you need to live in that home to get a feel for what you want. Most of us need to take our time and stay in a budget, especially now in this economy. So take your time and hopefully you can learn to do some of the easier projects yourself and get more for your money. (Also please recognize that there are times you need to call in the pros.) So when you walk into a home that looks perfect to you, remember it took time.

Color- picking a color is not as easy as finding a swatch at Lowes and just buying it. Here is some advice I was given and I will share it with you. If you are trying to match something (sofa, curtains, artwork) bring it into the store where you will buy the paint. It is easier to match paint to your item than to find an item that matches your paint. Get a minimum of 5 different swatches of the color you want. Take it home and tape those swatches to your wall. Watch the colors in different lights (all times of the day for the sunlight and your home lights) and start to eliminate the colors that just don't work. When I did this with my reds, I was so glad that I did. Some looked orange in the late afternoon, and some looked to rusty, so eventually I found the color that was perfect for my room. And be sure to do this on more than just one wall. Light hits different walls differently so location does make a difference.  One of my followers, Amanda has some great tips for picking color in your home that she said I could share and I will post that soon!

*cheapskate tip! always check the oops paint rack.  You may find what you need for a fraction of the price.

Find your style- I always loved the shabby chic, cottage, French country influence. How did I know what my style was? I didn't at first, so what I did was look through magazines and looked at decorations. I found that I gravitated toward the same things. Then I would rip out the things that I liked. Have you noticed that you do react to different styles? Well you do. You just need to notice the style you react to as well. You can appreciate many styles. I can go into many homes and appreciate the good decorating and style, but when you find a style that soothes your soul and you feel comfortable and at peace in, THATS YOUR STYLE! (complication alert!) You may have a significant other who has a completely different style than you and an actual opinion. That does make things hard. But try to come to some compromise or call design challenge and good luck! I do have a friend that her husband was very adamant against her longings for a french country inspired home, but after time and convincing she is able to slowly make her house how she has envisioned it. So significant others, put some trust in your love! (especially if they are decorators!)

Use the sidebar labels to direct you to some help and tips to personalize your home.  So to get yourself going start making your IDEA BOOK and you will find your style and make your home Terrific!  Good Luck!!

Signs For Our Times

I love signs! I love old signs and old looking signs! When my friend Natalie at The Vintage Sparrow taught me how to make signs she opened up a whole new world to me. I have so many plans to make signs and all the wood in my garage to prove it.

This is the first sign that Natalie made with me. I love it and it has hung in my kitchen ever since.

With this sign I framed it out by nailing on some furring strips. Both were stenciled with 6" stencils.

Here is a sign that I made out of some barn wood that was perfect the way it was. I just free handed the letters to look more rustic. After a light sanding it needed nothing else. If you can find some wood that is perfectly distressed it makes your job a lot easier.

And this sign is my newest sign that I thought would be a perfect Valentine's Day decoration.

Now I will tell you that you can do the simple thing and use vinyl letters to make signs. And I will tell you why I personally do not like vinyl letters on my projects. DISTRESS. I need to have my signs look old and beat up. Then need to look like they have been through the elements and back to life. Vinyl is too clean and new looking. So if you like clean and sleek then you will love vinyl. To each his own right? So for the purposes of the Shabby Thing paint on your letters. You do not need to be artistic. If you can find the stencil you like you can just stencil on the letters (Very EASY) If you don't have the stencils you can trace on letters of you liking with carbon paper. Then you just need to stay in the lines! You can do it! And you will love it too!

Click Here to view/print out instructions to make your own sign.

Find your inspiration. If you see a sign you would love to replicate take a picture of it and just do it!

I have even used a cabinet door for a sign too. Those are great because they have a built in frame!

(both this sign and the roses sign were painted by tracing the letters on)

Now remember the sky is the limit with signs. Let your imagination run with this.

You can check out Al's Building Supply and Materials for some salvaged cabinet doors for cheap!

Here is a recent sign I made from some wood found at Al's

that was already painted with the great blue color with the red color showing through the chipping paint. All I needed to do was paint on the letters. It is a perfect easy sign that only cost me $1 and one hour of my time!