DIY Vintage Sign

This vintage sign has been one of my easiest DIY’s to date.  I’d been holding onto a lovely piece of driftwood since I went driftwood hunting for my DIY Jewelry Holder. I finally got around to making something of my piece of wood, and it turned out to be such a simple project. As easy as it was, I was very pleased with my finished product. This vintage sign will be perfect for a small wall in my apartment.

Supplies needed

a piece of driftwood

your choice color of acrylic paint (mine is a peachy/coral color)

a pencil

a paintbrush

an old strand of fake pearls

a thicker strand of raffia

a staple gun

a glue gun

I stuck with the simple and slightly cliché ‘Love’ for my sign, because I needed a short word, and hey- we all need a little love, right? I traced out the word with a pencil before I painted it with a paintbrush.

I initially planned on leaving my sign as it was and simply setting it somewhere (isn’t it lovely on my DIY Window Frame Shelf?), but I decided I wanted to hang it.

I cut my strand of pearls and raffia the length I wanted the hanging part to be. Then, I tied my raffia to my strand of pearls with a tight knot on each side.

At first, I was planning on just twisting the pearls and raffia together, but the strands weren’t staying lined up how I wanted them. So, I twisted one section of raffia around the pearls and glued it with hot glue, and so on and so on down my strand of pearls.

 Next, I got out my staple gun and stapled the very end of the raffia to the back of the driftwood, on each side. I tried to measure the distance from each side of the wood to make sure my sign would hang evenly. And okay -- I got a little paranoid and may have exploded hot glue everywhere on the back to make sure my raffia-pearls hanger would hold.

And here is my finished product! 

-A

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DIY Mason Jar Luminaries

Yet again I bring you a project featuring shabby chic staples: burlap and lace!

A couple weeks ago, I bought two small shelves at an antique store, and I’ve been looking for something to set on them. I’ve got an abundance of mason jars laying around and of course some leftover burlap and lace from my Lamps on a String. So, I put the three together and made these babies! These would be cute for an outdoor event like a wedding reception; they’re romantic yet rustic. Or, you could use them as decoration on a table or shelf- like me! And, let me add, they are so easy. They probably took me 30 minutes total.

Supplies Needed:

mason jar/jars- mine were $1 each from the Dollar Store

lace fabric

burlap

twine or any sort of ribbon

glue (I used Elmer’s Craft Bond Multi-Purpose Spray Adhesive)

scissors

tea light/lights

Cut out lace to wrap around the base of your mason jar.

Spray one side of your jar and attach your lace. Keep spraying and attaching piece by piece until your ends of lace meet. Press down the edges to ensure they will lay down flat.

Now cut a strip of burlap the size of your rim. Spray your rim with glue and attach the burlap. I cut my burlap a little big and cut the extra off the top after I glued.

Tie your twine around the rim, and stick a tea light in. And viola! Your own mason jar luminaries.

 -A

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Mint Madness

I’m obsessed with the color mint green. Like it. Love it. Gotta have it. (Cold Stone Creamery reference, anyone?) So, I have a whole can of mint green paint left from my DIY vintage nightstand, and I’ve been painting everything in sight. I thought I’d share a few of my most recent projects.

First off, I recently found this small wooden ladder from a garage sale for $2! ( If you wanted to imitate this DIY, I did a little searching and found a similar ladder on Ebay for $11.24.)

 I painted the ladder with my lovely mint paint and distressed it with sandpaper. My paint is Walmart interior flat Norwegian Vintage Green. I plan to lean this against the wall in my bathroom and hang washcloths & hand towels on it.

Secondly, I distressed an old wooden frame and added some mint accents. I simply sanded the edges and crevices of the frame, dusted it off, and painted accents of mint (I used the same paint used above but acrylic paint would work for this too). To achieve the distressed look, make sure there is NOT much paint on your paintbrush. I used a paper towel to dab up excess paint or rub areas where paint went on too thick!

Lastly, I painted a cheap vase from the Dollar Store using a method I saw on pinterest. All you do is drip some paint inside your vase, and tilt your vase around to cover the inside. To fill in all the holes, just set your vase upside down and leave it to drip and dry. I touched up a few places on the top of mine after it had dried. I imagine acrylic paint would work just as well or better than the paint I used. I love the subtle mint with some bright flowers.

And that sums up my dose of mint for the day! 

-A

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DIY Crayon Canvas

I think the whole crayons-melting-vertically-down-your-canvas is really neat and all, but when I came across a different spin on the project, I knew I needed to go crayon hunting. Luckily, my mom has saved just about every single crayon we ever wrote with as children, so I had 2 bags full! This craft is so easy and I think it ends up turning out so neat! All you need is a hairdryer, a fork, a canvas, and some crayons!

Pick out your favorite colors of crayon, and take off paper wrapper. I probably only ended up using about 12 crayons.

Decide where you want your splash of color to be. Break off a piece of your first crayon. Stab your crayon piece with a metal fork and hold it over your selected area. Turn on your hairdryer directly above your crayon until the crayon melts and begins splattering. You can do as little or as much of this part as you’d like! Repeat with all your colors all over your canvas. Be careful about mixing certain colors that may yield brown!

You can even blow dry your splatters after you’ve taken your crayon away to spread the color out more.

And voila! Your own crayon explosion canvas!

-A


I linked up @ It's Just Called Spicy!

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Lamps on a .String

Another DIY post! I know, I know -- I’m addicted. Also, I’ve been itching to use my leftover burlap and lace from my distressed window shelf. Well, I found the perfect project! I saw a similar idea on pinterest, but I’ve added my own touch. :) I plan on hanging this cute little strand of lamps over my bed when I move into my apartment. I truly believe a room can never have too much light. This craft is simple and inexpensive. All you need is a pack of plastic cups, some fabric, fabric glue (I used the same Elmer’s Craft Bond Multi-Purpose Spray Adhesive as I used in my last post), scissors, and a strand of white Christmas lights (I actually found a 70 pack of white lights in the Wedding section at Hobby Lobby).

1. Roll your plastic cup on a piece of paper and trace a pattern. Cut out your pattern. You might want to make your pattern just a tad bigger than your actual cup, because it’s easy to trim later.

2. Pin your pattern to your fabric, and cut out as many pieces of fabric as you’d like there to be lamps. I made 16 lamps.

3. Using a knife or the tip of your scissors, poke 2 holes in the top of your cups- one hole on each side. Now cut 2 ‘D’ shapes in the top of your cups, leaving one strip across the middle.

5. Now that your cups are ready and your fabric is cut, all you have to do is glue the fabric to your cups. I sprayed one section at a time, neatly pressing each section down to reduce bubbling fabric.

6. Since I made my patterns a tad bigger than they had to be, I trimmed all my cups after I had glued the fabric on. I found that to be easier than trying to have an exact pattern.

7. Now, just string your new lamps on your string of lights. And there you are -- a new string of lights for any room!

-A

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