Play Bakery

Hey guys!  Today I'm going to show you my final entry for blog wars.  I also have the 3rd round coming up too, however, that is a tutorial so I will be posting that in the near future.  For the final round I really wanted to give all I could in the short amount of time that I had to give it. ;)  We found this entertainment center on craigslist for $30.  It was in such great shape!  I knew I wanted to turn it into something great for AB.  So I turned it into a play bakery complete with pretend cake pops, pretend cookies, and pretend sprinkles.

Below is the before and after picture.

As you can see below the bakery lights up! :)  It was hard to get a good picture of it in the daylight outside so we did have this shot of it before it was finished so you guys could get an idea of how it looks all lit. :)  I just love it!

I made the cookies from wood circle cuts from Michael's.  I bought a small and a large size disc.  I painted them and then hot glued them together.  and of course, cookies would not be complete in a bakery with out the cookie bags.  I picked up the bags and the embellishments as well at Michael's. The cake pops where also wood pieces I found at Michael's.  I already had the lolli pop sticks from making real cake pops so I used the left overs for this craft!  Aren't they so fun?  I just love the stand with the glitter tape from American Crafts.

The sprinkles are made out of tiny beads that I bought at Michael's.  I put them in clear salt and pepper shakers from the dollar tree.  (To make sure they didn't spill out, on the inside of the lids I put clear tape.)

The menu chalkboard was made from one of those laser cut wood frames from Michael's. I stained the frame using a light gray color. Then, I took the bottom part of the drawer from the entertainment center and used it as the backing for the chalkboard.  Then cut out in vinyl the Menu design I designed in illustrator. 

"The Man" made the shelves from spice rack molding and a small sheet of wood we had in the garage.

Most of all the accessories for the bakery were found at the dollar tree, (Glasses and baking sheets).

The sign was found at Michael's and I just painted it white and added the details on the side and cut the bakery out of vinyl with my cameo.

There is still a few things I would like to add to it to make it 100% complete.  I plan on putting a mirror behind the shelving in the door part. And I also want to add a back part with some cute bakery styling in the main play part of it.  We originally thought it would be fun to play behind it like taking orders and stuff, but "The Man" pointed out, "Who is going to put that huge thing out in the middle of a room so kids can play behind it?"  haha.  He's right! (Don't tell him that) ;)  So I will have to come up with something for the inner back part and something on the other side. :)  I'm open to ideas!!!

Until next time, keep creating, living, and obsessing!

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Pottery Barn Knockoff Tile Board

Hey Everyone!

Guys!!!! It's been SOOOOooo crazy lately!  The contest has kept me Obber busy on top of work and I haven't managed to put together my project posts as Blog wars was going!  I'm so thrilled that I made it through the first round and I am able to present my entry for round 2 of Blog wars!

This round in blog wars we had to use some fabulous fabric that Riley Blake Designs sent us and I decided to do a organization board for our family command center.  Our house is in need of one since we are growing and have more and more appointments and notices that need to be left in plain site.  I'm in love with the one from Pottery Barn that you can find here.  But no way would I ever pay $500 dollars or even close to that for a command center that I could make myself.  So I did! and for a Fraction of that price!! :)

The List

Your going to need 9 tile boards I made 2 of mine and the rest you can get at (JoAnn's, Michael's, Or any other craft store that may carry them)

• 4 Cork Tile boards 
• Calendar Tile board
• Chalk tile board
• White Dry Erase Tile board
• 2 Wood boards cut to size
• Fabric 
• Buttons
• Thumb tacks
• Mini Clothes Pins
• Magnetic adhesive Buttons (Walmart)
• Natural polished Hemp Twine
• 10 Eyelet Screws
• 2 8ft Natural Wood Molding 
• 4x4ft plywood sheet
• corner braces
• Hot glue
• Liquid Nail Glue
• Brads Nail gun or a finish nail gun (We used Brads)
• Paint
• Screws

The first thing I did was make a "Pin it" (Pinterest) cork tile!  One of my favorites of the whole board.  I enjoy puns! ;)  I designed the template in Illustrator and then saved it as an SVG. file to cut out with my Silhouette Cameo.  I pined it to the board and then traced it with a gelled white pen. My paint color was a light color so I wanted it to disappear.  It took 2 coats to get a solid finish because the cork sucks up the paint.  But I love it!! :)  I then took the other 3 tile boards and covered them with fabric.  I used the Grey color that Riley Blake had sent me for Blog Wars and the other was just some that I had left over.

I then cut strips of the other fabric that Riley blake sent and some that I had and made Rosette flowers out of them.  You can find a great tutorial for that here. ( I used hot glue to make the rosettes )  I then took some thumb tacks and Magnetic buttons and hot glued them to my rosettes to make Thumb tacks and magnets out of them.  I also use the buttons that came in the Riley blake package and some others that I had in my studio and made thumb tacks and magnets out of those.

I took some of the fabric that was given to me and some that I had and made a fabric banner using one of the cute ribbons sent by Riley Blake. LOVE THOSE CARS!! :)  This was simply for decor.  I love to spruce up simple things. 

If you don't have 2 wood boards you can skip this step!  You will want to cut two boards to measure the length of your store bought boards.  Paint them however you want!  thats the fun part! :)  You can see I went for a whimsical rustic look. If you want to know how I did my painting technique, leave a comment and I will respond! :)  

Next is the frame around the boards! You will want to lay all your boards out and measure from top to bottom on vertical and horizontal sides.  this will be the inner part of your frame!  I had my handy man (The Man) do all the dirty work for me since I'm pregnant.  But here is a fabulous tutorial of how to build a frame from molding. and beside is a picture of my doodle I laid out for "The man" to follow.   Hopefully you understand what I was trying to tell him.  and it should make your frame building and measuring easier. :)  Once your frame is built you will want to paint it or stain it to your liking and then you will take your screws and screw in your plywood backing to your frame.  This will create your layout to hot glue your tiles to.  Before you hot glue make sure you have your layout all figured out.  where you want to place the tiles and what not. Then apply a large dot of hot glue in each corner of your tile boards and stick in place.  Start in the corners, then the middle sides, and finally the very middle board.  I can't tell you enough to make sure you measure and double measure. if something is wrong or off then your tiles won't fit in your frame!  So double check the double checking. :)

The very last step is to measure out the placement of your eyelet screws for your wood tiles.  If you did not use wood tiles you can skip this and enjoy the final pictures! ;)  For those of you that did,  You will want to screw them in according to the spacing you see fit.  I did 3 clothes lines on my top tile board and 2 on my bottom.  However you can do as much or less as you like.  Once your screws are in, take your twine and tie a knot and pull tight and tie a knot on the other side.  Cut away the extra twine and then you can repeat for all the lines you wish to create.  Then just add your mini clothes pins.

There you have it!  Now you can decorate your board with all the tacks and magnets you have created and add pictures to your clothes lines and such. :)  If you have any questions regarding this tutorial or project please send me a message, email, or comment below!

Until Next time.. Keep creating, living, and obsessing!

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DIY Chalkboard

Hey Everyone!

Today the round 2 results came in and I made it to round 3!  I'm so excited and can't tell you how thankful I am for everyone that voted!  There were some amazing projects out there and I was a bit nervous!  These ladies have some serious talent and I'm very grateful to be apart of the contest with them.  If you haven't got a chance to check out all the round two projects please visit this link here.  And if you want to see how everyone did with the results of round two please check this link here!

.ANYWHO.

So now that the voting has closed I get to share my entry that was submitted. This week was a hard one for me because I never have used mod podge other than for gluing purposes or as a sealer for burlap.  I really wanted to recreate a Anthropologie mirror,but it was a bit harder then I had originally thought and I had messed up the mirror part too late in the competition to get another mirror and redo it.  So I turned my mirror project into a chalkboard project!  That was the bad news... The good news is, I can do a tutorial on the mirror later on and you all get another great tutorial to look forward to! ;)  Now on to how I created this beauty!