Living room photo arrangement

Two things prompted me to get my butt in gear to do the second part of transforming my living room. 1-I bought the rights to all of our gorgeous wedding photos and 2-there was a giant bare wall staring at me every time I walked in.

The first step was to find a bunch of frames that were similar.  No problem there...for some reason I ALWAYS have extra frames hanging around!  I don't buy them very often either, so I can't figure out why this happens... ah well, it serves me well in the end!  I did have to buy one frame though, our photographer gave us a few prints, which included one 11x14 that I really wanted to put on the wall.  I found a clearance frame at AC Moore (in the clearance section in the way back corner of the store--my fav place to shop!)  Plus a poster frame (for another project) BOTH for a total of UNDER $20!! Yay!

Now to choose pictures.  This part was harder for me, there were SO MANY great ones from that day!!  In the end, I narrowed it down to pictures to fill 6 frames of various sizes.  I included a few from our engagement session too, since I already had those printed.

Alright.  After I washed all the glass and dusted all the frames (like I said, lots of frames just hanging around...they tend to get dirty when they're just sitting in the basement, ick!) then I had to decide how I wanted to arrange them on the wall.  I traced each frame onto some brown paper I had from the packaging of stuff I bought online.  Then I payed around with different arrangements until I found one I thought I liked.

I taped them up on the wall to see if it worked as well there as it did on the floor.

Now I got to use my level!  I'm such a DIY/Crafty nerd, I was so excited when my husband brought it home for me!!!  Nerdy craft excitement aside, I started hanging up frames.  As I got them on the wall I moved the ones on the end around a little bit.

It actually stayed like this for about 2 weeks, the frame I originally wanted to use for that last spot ended up being very difficult to find pictures for.  Then I found a frame someone had given me (That must be why I have so many frames!!) that fit perfectly in the spot I had open.

So then I had to adjust the rest of the frames a little more.  I didn't like the way all the matted pictures were on one side and the not matted ones were on the other.  It was like I was segregating my frames or something...so I changed it, and ended up with this: 

I tried really hard to take a picture without the glare, but I have a BIG picture window directly across from this wall and I was too impatient to wait until later to use more indirect light.

My favorite part of this is that when people come over, they stand in front of the wall and actually take time to look at all the pictures.  I love pictures!

"I write you a blog post"

So my sister has been fascinated with being a 'guest blogger'  for my blog.  I'm not quite sure why, since I have a funny feeling she's really the only one who consistently reads this blog.  But that's ok, I love my sister and she does some pretty crafty things!  Here's one of her latest:

I'm always reading about these awesome developmental baby toys people make.  They look so... time consuming!  The last time I made one (a really cute teething ring!) I spent a whole day working on it, and for what?  Less than 1 minute of baby entertainment.  Now, I'm all for cute looking baby toys, but if she is more satisfied with a poptarts box (current favorite toy) I want to spend less than an hour making it.  

Last week I ordered some checks.  Four boxes, which my husband lovingly pointed out will last us more than 10 years (600 checks may have been a few too many!!!).  But I had these  checks boxes begging to be made into a cute baby toy.  So I decided that this was my chance to redeem my baby toy making career and create some fun sensory blocks!

Materials needed:

small checks boxes (or another type of small box that a baby can hold)

random materials to put inside the boxes

     some examples: rocks, screws, beans, rice, flaxseed, sticks

scrapbook paper

scissors

packaging tape

First I gathered 4 materials from around the house that would 1. not go rotten and 2. would make a variety of sounds

I chose flaxseed (from my "I'm going to be healthy" kick that didn't last long), rice, dry beans, and a few stones. I put each material into a box and tested the sounds to make sure they were cool enough.

Next I picked some pieces of scrapbook paper and began wrapping each box.  I taped the boxes closed to make sure the materials wouldn't escape with all the shaking they had in their futures.  I trimmed the paper and folded it around the box without taping it first.  Wrapping looks better with crisp corners, so after folding to see where the creases would be, I took the paper off and went over the creases with my fingernail to make sure they were crisp.  Then I proceeded to wrap them like presents.

This would be all well and good, but when you have a baby playing with something made out of scrapbook paper, its not going to last very long.  Now comes the slobber-proofing! (Note: these probably aren't waterproof, like, don't go making them a bath toy or something, but it will guard against the paper disintegrating in your child's mouth)

I wrapped 3 strips of tape around the middle of each block making sure they overlapped a tad. Now the middle is covered but the edges and short ends are still untaped.

Each end takes 2 pieces of tape, each about at inch longer than the box.  Put each piece of tape on the end so they meet in the middle (they are going down the length of the box) and fold them around the sides, Like this:

Then snip down each corner of tape.

and fold each of the 3 pieces of tape down.  You will do this 4 times, twice on each end of the box.

Then let your child enjoy!

=)




Thanks sister!!

My New TV Stand, Part 2!

So here is where we left off in the dramatic transformation.  This sitting in the garage and me waiting on some inspiration.

And then I saw it.  It had been staring me in the face for months, but it took a while to put two and two together.  This is one of those wall decals, I got it on sale (plus coupon!) at Joann's.

I really wanted to try to get the same black & white, graphic feel.  So I searched google images until I found something I liked.  It was in the background of some picture.  So i took it and put it in photoshop, took out all the extra stuff (you know, the stuff that they actually wanted to show in the picture).  I measured the tv stand to get a rough idea of how big I needed to make the picture, I didn't write it down so I really don't remember... It was a pretty rough estimate anyways, I didn't want it to be perfect.

So I made my canvas size in photoshop that size and resized the image.  Then I printed it out on lots of pieces of paper and taped them together.

Then I had the conundrum of how to get the outline I just printed onto the wood to actually paint it...Then I saw it - I could transfer it using newspaper! Thank you livingwithlindsay!!

It came out really light...

So I traced over it with pencil to make it darker, so, you know, I could actually see it when I started painting!

When I did it on the doors, I had to kind of bend the paper around the curves to make it look consistent.  I bent it around the edges too, so it looks like the design goes all the way around the tv stand.

Then I painted in the lines using black acrylic paint and a small paintbrush.  Sometimes I missed and painted outside the lines, but since the edges are supposed to look a little funky I just made it look like part of the design instead of an oops.

Here's the base!

So I used spray sealer to seal it.  In retrospect, I probably should have used the kind you use when you stain a table, the kind you paint on.  Oh well.  It's all set up now, if I want to do it I'll have to wait until we decide to move the tv again.  So spray sealer it is!

So, do you remember when I said I sanded because I was afraid that the paint would slide off?  Well, apparently I didn't sand the front of one of the shelves very well.  I somehow got one tiny little nick in it and then this happened!

So I cut off the little piece of hanging paint, then lightly sanded and repainted it.  All is right in the world again.

Until...

So when you paint shelves...be careful about the drips on the edges...they make the shelf too wide for it's home.  More sanding!!

So it fit after sanding, which I hope was the last of the sanding for a while, cause, it's pretty tedious!!  I put the doors back on and put all the stuff back in.

Oh yeah, and we bought a new tv too.  It just happened to work out that we both got bonuses from work at the same time that I finished this project.  And what goes better on a $5 tv stand than a brand new HDTV LED TV!!

So there's the first step of my grand living room redo!!  Big things take time, at least that's what I'm telling myself.  Mostly they take money, and we just spent a lot of our money on a new TV.  Next on my list, displaying our wedding photos!!!

New TV Stand, Part 1

We moved into our house *just* over one year ago.  It sure doesn't seem like it's been that long!  Anyways, the previous owners left a bunch of furniture for us.  Some of it was nice, like the double bed with headboard and the two dressers.  Some of it was....not as nice.  Like this monster of an entertainment center.

I was pretty focused on the wedding, which was in May, so there it sat for a long, long time.  Every time I sat down to watch tv (usually HGTV, of course!) I would think, "ugh, that's so ugly!"  But like most new homeowners/almost newlyweds, I had neither the time or the energy to make anything happen.

I was, however, able to go to a ton of garage sales last spring!  I found this beauty for $5!!

(I have to remember to take a real 'before' picture of these things) 

This is after I gave it a good sand and had taken the two doors, all the shelves and all the hardware off:

 This guy sat in my garage for a good 3 months while I was busy planning the wedding and making things for the wedding and thinking about the wedding and pinning more things to make for the wedding.  I was so excited to get moving on this project after being so wedding focused for so long!  Anyways, it was originally that nasty, fake laminate wood stuff.  Not pretty.

Another not pretty, the molding along the top was loose.  It looks like someone tried to fix it but the screw (or the hole maybe?) was stripped.

Rather than try to fix it the, ahem, correct way (like, actually using power tools and putting a new screw in) I pulled out my handy-dandy contact cement.  I think I use it too much....this bottle is almost empty!

After I let it dry, overnight I think.  I took too long to write this post that I don't remember time frames.  I do know that I would do one step (or part of a step) and then I'd leave it either overnight or maybe for a few days...or a week maybe.  Hey, I'm busy!

Alright, let's get back on track here.  Next step, primer.  I bought glidden gripper primer and painted on 2 coats after sanding.  I think you can paint without sanding (I keep seeing it on Pinterest at least) but in my mind, roughing up the slick laminate will make the paint stick better.  I don't want to do all this work just to have the pretty new paint slide off!

After priming.  Looking better, but not quite there yet.

Don't forget to prime the shelves and doors!

I primed the cardboard back too.  I knew I didn't want it open to the back so I just wanted to reuse this back.  If you look close you can see that I was too lazy to even take the little nails out.  I just painted right over those suckers.

After the primer dried, I painted.  It's hard to see but the backs are actually green, not white.  Both colors came from leftover paint cans in the basement.  Thank you previous homeowners for leaving all the paint colors that are in the house!! (Except the pepto pink you put in the dining room.  That I could have lived without)

And here is where I took a long pause.  I was waiting for more inspiration, since I knew I didn't want to leave it plain white.

So stay tuned for the rest of the magical transformation!!

So what did you do last weekend? Well, I made a basket. Out of blinds.

Remember when I made this?

Out of this?

So I had a bunch of the slats left over, and in my true "I'm sure I can use these for something" style, I kept them.  Finally last weekend, I was inspired.  I decided to make a basket.  I've never made a basket before, but I figured, why not? 

So I laid out 12 of the slats, figuring they're about an inch or so.  I hate actually measuring stuff.  Then I started weaving 12 slats the other way.  I found that it was easiest to put a slat under all the others, and then pop every other slat underneath, rather than actually weaving it in and out.  I staggered every other one too, to make it easier.  Then I just slid the one slat to the middle.

So it started to look like this.

I continued until I had 12 slats each way, and it looked all loose and uneven.  So I tightened it up, little by little, starting in the middle and working my way out to each side.  The slats like to slide around, but each time I slid them a little bit tighter.

So I was thinking that I'd bend each slat up and then start weaving a slat around the outside.

It was a good idea, in theory.  But in reality, the slats are pretty brittle.  When I bent them and then un-bent them, they broke.  Oh.  That's not going to help.  Then I got frustrated and took a break until the next day.  

I really didn't want to substitute non-broken slats, thinking they would probably just break too and then I'd run out of slats and then the whole project would be in the trash and all my hard work would be for nothing!!  Original plan, find some pretty duct tape to wrap around each slat on the bottom to reinforce and repair.  Search my craft stuff looking for duct tape.  Fail. Not even regular silver duct tape.  Not even regular clean packing tape!  Grr! Where did all my tape go!!

Insert impromptu trip to the new Dollar Tree I found near my house (which I was a little too excited about finding, btw!!).  No pretty duct tape there either.  I did find some green stacking bins and assorted other things for organization.  I picked up the duct tape, walked around with it, then decided that I didn't want my pretty basket marred by ugly silver duct tape and only bought the organizing stuff.

To plan B!  Use scotch tape to reinforce/repair.  Wrap fabric around slat so no one sees scotch tape.

I found this pink sturdy looking fabric in my stash.  Cut it into 48 little rectangles, sprayed with spray adhesive and wrapped around each slat over the scotch tape.  Hopefully this will help hold the broken ones together and prevent more breakage.

I ended up with this.  And very sticky fingers!! Spray adhesive gets everywhere but I still love it!

The next part was tricky.  I started weaving slats around the outside and bending the sides up as I did them.  It didn't want to stay where I put it, but I kept going, adding more and more layers up the sides.

I used binder clips to hold slats in lower 'layers' while I added the higher layers.

One slat by itself wasn't long enough to go around the entire circumference (big word, I feel smart haha!) of the basket, so I hot glued 2 of them together.  This was waaaayyyyy too long, so I had to trim them to fit better.

So I kept going.  The lower levels got tighter as I went higher.  I could just tuck the loose end in on itself without gluing it, it stayed well.  I just kept weaving and tightening.  Tightening and weaving.

So I got it as tall as I wanted, and used binder clips to hold the top layer on all 4 corners.  As soon as I would tighten one corner on the top, the other one would pop up!  Binder clips to the rescue!

To hold the top layer (without the binder clips, that wouldn't be very pretty!)  I put a tiny dot of hot glue to hold it.

Then I trimmed the tall slats level to the top of the basket.

To finish off the raw edge I hot glued a slat to both the outside and the inside of the rim of the basket.  I put the dot of hot glue on the woven part of the basket, waited a second or two, then pushed the extra slat on.  The glue is so hot that it makes a little melt mark on the plastic slat when it first comes out of the gun.  And it burns your fingers too, so be careful!!!  (yes, I am speaking from experience!)

Be careful, it's hot!

I did it on the inside too

The finished product!!  It is actually level, it's just on my couch so it looks all wonky.

The inside!

So now I have to decide, do I want to keep my masterpiece and use it, or do I want to try to sell it?  And if I sell it, that means I have to do research to see how much I should charge for it. Hmm, that sounds like a lot of work.  Maybe I'll just keep it.