Fun with Frames, and Printing on Fabric

For my daughters birthday I decided to make her something for her, and her husband's home. Been wanting to try my hand at printing on fabric too. I can't wait to see them on her wall! Thought they would look great as a grouping. :)

I bought some cute frames at Hobby Lobby (make sure it's the week they are on sale at 50% off!) that have no backings on them. I bought some scrapbook paper to match her colors, and cut them to fit 2 of the frames. Spray painted an "N" for her last name, then glued it on one of the frames with paper, and then printed on fabric for the other frame. Added some sparkles cause we all need some sparkles in our life! Cut up a cardboard box for the backs to keep them all in place (I was going to staple them in but I ended up taping the backs so she could change them later if she wanted to).

Ok, now my advice to you all on the printing. You must use an inkjet printer. Best fabric to use is Muslin or Linen type. I used Burlap and it worked well but not as well as the other types I tried. Now, I totally am warning you now, do not use Felt!! Umm....let's just say the fuzziness of the fabric drags along and smears all the ink. ;-)

To print, you will need your printer, card stock paper, fabric, and a spray on tacky spray like Rustoleum's tacky glue which worked perfect for this! You can find it in craft stores.

Take your fabric, cut it to fit the card stock, at this point you can cut it a little big if you want some overlap for the spraying purpose. Take it all outside (you want good ventilation for this spray) and some newspaper to put down for the card stock to be sprayed. Spray the card stock well around it's edges and all around. Then take your fabric and drap it over the card stock. Smooth out the fabric, it will be easy to get out any wrinkles at this point, then let dry for 10 mins. Now, cut around the fabric to match up the lines perfectly so the paper runs through the printer without snagging onto something inside and jamming it.

Put it in your printers tray by itself upside down (least this is how my printer pulls and prints onto my paper, if your not sure, mark a paper first and send it thru) then set up your graphic to print (make sure you tell the printer it's card stock going through) then print. Walla!

You can pull the fabric off the card stock right after, as long as you sprayed on the card stock and not the fabric it should be fine. I found though with me wanting to frame this I left it on the paper so it stayed smooth and taut.

This idea works for fabric you want to make pillows with, or quilting blocks. I am told you can wash the fabric afterwards in cold water, air dry. Let me know if you try this, would love to see your project! I have more to come because it's so darn fun and easy!

Have fun creating!
~V

One Item-used many ways to decorate

BOO!

I have a cake platter and dome topper I bought awhile ago from Tai Pan (love this place, but it gets me in trouble..heehee!) Best thing about this item is I can make it change with the seasons to decorate my home.

Here are some ideas:

Different kind of Door Wreath

I decided to do a new door wreath for my lonely door, and I sure love square or rectangle shapes more than the traditional round wreath. All of this cost me around $6.00 to make too!

Silverware Art

This was a fun project. I went to a local thrift store and bought different forks, knives and spoons. I also bought old frames from there too-to make this awesomeness!

Paper Craft

Something fun to decorate your walls with, or a party, or? You can use scrapbook paper, or tissue paper, basically any paper. These are simple.

Get into Spring with Flowers

I want to believe it's spring, but our weather is not cooperating, so I am making it spring inside.

I challenge you to put flowers (real or fake) into something other than a normal vase or pot. Like a teacup above, or.....

Re-energize your "Stuff"

Layer things together, add some fabric ribbon and enjoy!

I love using fabric as ribbon and adding it to just about everything! I like to take ordinary things around my house and re-energize them for a different style or look. Right now I am into the Vintage & Shabby Chic look so here are a few things I have done lately.



Take old frames and spray paint them, then add some craft paint. Do the Karate Kid thing and "Rub/Wax on, Rub/Wax off" to give that antiquee' look!

First coat going on, even looks good that way. (plate is a fun project I will show later)

 Use craft paint to give it that look, or leave it alone.

Starburst Mirror

When we gave Kenzie's room a makeover we knew we wanted to make this.  I found a great tutorial HERE, at Under the Table and Dreaming.

I printed up her TEMPLATE HERE but didn't glue it to the back, I was afraid the paper might come off the back.  The disk I found to use was about a quarter of an inch smaller than the template so I just marked the edges of the disk I used and then marked the template myself with a Sharpie.  Our itty bitty town doesn't have a craft store, at least not until this fall(squeal), so I asked at our new Lowe's.  When I showed her what I wanted to make she took me over to the garden center and found the perfect 6 1/2" circle for me, it's a coaster used for potted plants.  But this filled the bill perfectly!  I bought skewers from Walmart, .97 cents for a package of 100.  I picked up 2 packages so I could find the most even skewers.  I didn't use nearly as many as Under the Table did, but we didn't want a really full one.

Mix it up

While I hate to put anything up to push V's amazing wedding work down the page, I do want to do my part for the blog and I happen to have a smidge of time this afternoon. I've been meaning to write about this area in my home for a couple of weeks now.

This is the corner wall of my dining room. The thing I love about it is the mixture of rustic and elegant, warm and cool, expensive and bargain. That makes it interesting to me as well as a little sentimental ... lots of things here hold great memories. So I'll give you a little tour of these objects!

"Shabby Chic" Wedding Reception Decorating

Can you see the door with the vinyl "N" inside the crystal?

Everyone who has been to a wedding reception at a church gym knows it is hard to make it look like anything besides a gym. When my daughter announced their engagement we knew at the time we had no choice but to do it in a church gym because my husband had been without a job for 19 months, otherwise I would of loved to do it at a beautiful building.

Some day I am going to own my own building-least that is my dream- but luckily since I already had been decorating weddings for a few years I had enough things to do her's. I also did a lot of thrift store shopping, and went to a lot of yard sales to go with her and I's Shabby Chic Theme.

Fun with Vinyl on your Walls or?

Vinyl is everywhere and easy to get your hands on now, so why not have some decorating fun!

One example is words like the above picture. Just put them right on your wall and frame them with a backless decorative frame. Or buy a regular frame with glass, and use scrapbook paper too behind the vinyl. Or use a frame that has see through glass and put the words or picture on it.

You can take a decorative picture on your wall, and add some scroll work to give it something extra like this:

Do not limit yourself to just your walls and pictures, but add something simple to your doors:

These were done on old doors I used for my daughters wedding, but you could use them on your closet doors or regular doors too.

Use vinyl on windows, old ones for decorating-like this one we used for the wedding:

Or use some on your windows at home, why not?!

Just branch out, don't be afraid - the great thing about vinyl is- it is removable without the mess! Have fun!

What are you thrifting for?

Very often when I go thrift store shopping I have specific pieces I am looking for. Like right now, I specifically need a small bookshelf and a nice wood side chair for my bedroom, preferably with an upholstered seat. I also have my eye on a few not-so-needed pieces in my favorite thrifty haunt - a chair that will match the blue one in my living room, once I have them both reupholstered, and a 1940s vanity with a beautiful big beveled mirror. These things will have to wait for payday. I hope they are still there when I go back.

However, I can always squeeze one of these sweeties into my budget - midcentury serving pieces in either stainless or aluminum with wood handles or trim. I love them. The tiered dish was a bit pricey for a thrift item - I think $5.99 or so. It was made by Mirro. I remember dishes or something with these handles from my 1970s childhood - wonder where I saw them? They're fabulous in my book. The little tray, on the other hand, I got for 99 cents. Yes. It still needs a bit of spit and polish but I think it's a great companion. Someday maybe I will have enough of these to make a whole mid-century buffet.

The mahogany shelf with the little drawer where these guys are sitting, by the way, was an estate sale find - 30 bucks. Perfect in my living room.

Ana Montana

Bedroom makeover

We moved into our home about 14 months ago. You know how these things happen ... you work like crazy setting everything up, and there are odds and ends that linger. That last box of books still packed up because there's not enough bookshelf space, the food storage not yet organized, or in our case, the master bedroom still not really put together. Our problem was, the master bedroom is in the basement and we couldn't fit our box spring down the stairs. It's actually a nice room - spacious and calming with a couple of windows, a cozy gas fireplace, an attached bathroom, and a super walk-in closet. But we were basically camping in it, with our mattress on the floor and things placed in the room without much thought or care, and that was just silly.

I decided to set it up properly as a Valentine surprise for my husband. I started hunting for little pieces to complete the room. The round lamp from this post was one of them. Then I found this nightstand at a local thrift store for $10. It is solid oak and ... horrendous, right? Looks like somebody kept it outside for a few years.  But it has a gorgeous shape (love that slightly rounded front) and actually the wood is in decent shape - it's just the finish that was bad.

I sanded it down and painted it with some leftover ivory paint. My little kids helped and actually did a pretty good job. I just had to hurry and go over their paint work while it was still wet to even it out! I sanded and painted my nightstand, too, so it would match. It was from about the same time period, with the exact same worn greenish finish, amazingly enough! I got it from my parents, who got it from my grandparents. Yes indeedy, folks, it's a 1960s heirloom. Remember, my house was built in 1958, and I totally believe in respecting your architecture ... so it's perfect, actually.

I also wanted to replace the ugly Wal-Mart curtains (chosen and graciously left for us by the previous homeowner). They were shiny and green and ... oh, horrible. Also, they were hung on tension rods, which was just weird. I made new ones out of a sheet I got at Savers about a year ago. It has a Japanese-feeling print - ivory circles on a gray ground. They remind me of sand dollars and the beach, but in a very abstract kind of way. I hung the curtains on brushed pewter-tone rods with square finials. These, I will confess, came from Wal-Mart. (I have complicated issues with Wal-Mart, can you tell?) Still, pretty.

Wall art came next. I had enlarged a photo I took of an agapanthus bud in our yard in Merced. It is bright green, against a gray wood fence background. I love this photo - it's such a moment in time, just before the multitudinous lavender flowers burst out of this giant bud. Plus, it's kind of sexy. Framed it with a KMart frame, again in a brushed pewter tone. That went on my side of the bed. On G's side, our wedding photo.

So the next thing I had to do was get that darn box spring down the stairs. I had thought we would need to buy a foldable box spring and get rid of the one we had, but while googling for info on the foldable type, I happened on these instructions at instructables.com. Once I opened up the mattress I remembered I had had  to repair it before - the boards on the bottom were really cheap, flimsy pine, thrashed by my kids jumping on the bed, or something. So I had to take apart that repair job and then cut the box spring as instructed, then re-repair it. Actually I think it was for the best. In my garage there were some oak 1x2s left by the previous owner of the house. My box spring is now super high quality! My 11 year old helped me fold the thing and get it down the stairs. My 9 year old helped me unfold it. It had been in the garage all year so I scrubbed it down a bit, and then set up the bed. We have a metal bed I got from JCPenney several years ago using my credit card rewards. Got it all put together and the mattresses on.

I had also gotten G a new alarm clock, one that he can dock his iPod in, figuring it would make a nice change for both of us from waking up to the Christian Rock station that was the only thing his 25-year-old clock radio could receive in our basement. So far he is graciously not setting the iPod to play Pearl Jam first thing in the morning. I think I would die. So anyway, I set that up.

That's where I was when Dr. G got home from work on Valentine's Day. He was surprised and pleased.  I still wasn't done, but the big stuff was taken care of and I felt good!

The next day I moved the dressers and took pictures, resulting in the photo you see above with my little girl jumping off the chair on G's side of the bed.

Oh, and that gas fireplace ... it is the corner of shame. Eventually when we get a better TV for our rec room, we will move the old TV into this room to sit on top of the fireplace. Someday we will probably get some kind of sofa or loveseat there to make a good space for movies and cuddling for just us.

For now, it looks more or less like this.

Laundry to be folded, craft supplies to be organized, garbage to be taken out.

Just didn't want you all to think I was too awesome.

Ana Montana

Thrifty lamp

Gorgeous mid-century modern lamp base found at Goodwill for $6. This is the kind of thing you would find at Target for $19 or so, but it would be a Chinese-made aluminum or plastic reproduction. This one is stainless steel, very sturdy and high quality, probably from the 1960s. I guess that date because the cord is the old-fashioned kind; the plug has two prongs that are the same size instead of one bigger than the other.

The glass bulb cost me $7 at Ace Hardware, so overall I spent $13 for this new beauty by my bedside. I love its sophisticated shape and its diffuse, calming light - so perfect for winding down at bedtime!

Ana Montana

Decorate with Glass

Something simple and inexpensive is old glass serving trays grandma used to use. You can find them in your local thrift store for usually 50 cents to a $1. They can be used for any kind of decorating you can think of. Here are a few ideas for you:

1. Use them for on your dresser with your jewelry.

2. Use them by your sinks for your soaps, lotions, cotton balls (one below holding the cotton was an old candy dish I found for 50 cents!) or any other decor.

Speaking of glass containers-something fun is buying a salad/oil dressing dispenser and putting your dish soap in it. It works perfect for pouring out just the right amount, and looks better than just have the store bought bottle on your counter. :) Add tulle, and or ribbon to it too if you want, just be creative. Pick some up and show me what you did with them!

Above all-HAVE FUN!!

Refinishing A Trash Can Cover

This has been a project that has taken me some time. Not that it's hard, but I didn't have the motivation to finish it.

I started back in the summer months. And just finished it New Years Eve.

My parents bought this for me 9 years ago. It's made out of oak. It's been very sturdy through the last 9 years and 4 moves to 3 states. It's taken a beating. So I took it all apart and sanded it all down, used a sprayed primer (which I decided I really don't like to use cause it's gritty and you have to sand it down) then it sat and sat in my basement.

Since I didn't work for the week and a half the kiddos were out of school for Christmas, I decided to finish this baby!

So I took out a can of black paint and started painting. One quick lesson I learned......use tinted primer!! It took quite a few coats to cover the primer with black. Then I got the bright idea to lacquer it. This cover get all sorts of stuff stuck to it so I wanted to be able to clean it off easily. But lacquer in a basement equal all sorts of fumes! But I knew I couldn't take it outside with the snow and wind. Another lesson I learned...no project in the winter if they involve lacquer.

Now the hard part for me was the label of "TRASH". I do not own anything that cuts vinyl. And I didn't want to pay anyone to make me one. So I printed out the word in a font I liked, rubbed the back of the paper with chalk, dusted off the excess and laid it down on the lid and traced the letters. So it was a white carbon copy if that makes sense. I used a paint pen to fill in the letters. IOnce dry I wiped off the chalk marks and Modged Podged over the words, bought new hardware, reassembled it and put it in the kitchen, just in time for our New Years Eve Party!

That's it! And it's already needing to be taken out!

(the black on the refrigderator is NOT from the trash can, that's from moving it 4 times)

Laura

Tomato Cage Christmas Trees

Well girls, I don't have Victoria's sense of style or Jannet's craftsiness, but I can put together a bargain and this is a pretty good example. Most of us have tomato cages that we use in the summer for gardens. If we don't have them already, they're cheap to get when summer comes around! I spent a little more for mine because they were cute and red and sturdier than what you usually see, but the regular kinds work fine, too.

When it's time to decorate your yard for Christmas, turn them upside down, use a rubber band to secure the ends together to make a cone shape, and wrap them in lights. I used the net lights (blue bubble LED lights, to be specific, but any kind will work) and it was super easy. You can just intertwine them to hold them on, or you could use some tape or zip ties. I didn't need any. I set them on top of the big pots on my front porch.

I have seen these done with several kinds of lights on each tree and that's also really cute.

Almost-free tree shapes for your front yard ... my first el cheapo decor item for you. Enjoy.

Ana Montana

Giving Thanks

I tend to ignore the decorating side of Thanksgiving like so many, even last year when I decorated my Mother in Laws tables for Thanksgiving I did it in a beautiful Silver Christmas Style. This year I decided Thanksgiving should not be ignored and set out to make some fun, but cheap fun!

I took the little pumpkins we grew in our garden and spray painted them an off white color, along with two fake bigger pumpkins I have had for years that were in sad shape.

I added some burlap and button flowers I made to the top of the large ones-really to hide the holes in them. Hee!

I made a fun burlap, felt and lace garland, and a burlap bunting for their fireplace. I cheated on the "Give Thanks" lettering by making them on my computer, printing them off and just cutting them out and glueing them on the flags. One day I will have my coveted Silhouette machine :)

For the tables I just used some tulle and ribbon in the middle and put the pumpkins on it, I also added some old Thanksgiving postcards I found online and just printed off on my printer with some twine to the tulle and pumpkins. Then I used a few of my glasses as lamps, just put a flicker battery light in them and made some shades out of scrapbook paper.

For the kids table I just used some extra burlap, some different pumpkins and postcard. I also printed off some coloring pages for them, a tic tac toe cards and put some crayons in cups for them to enjoy!

I also found some more fun stuff on the internet to print off and framed them and put them around the serving tables and such

Decorating is about having fun, so go out and have some fun!