Rustic "String Yarn" Sign

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Hey guys!  How is the new year treating all of you lovely people?  Things have been crazy here.  "Then Man" Is getting a new job so we might be moving up to Seattle. We are also looking for a new vehicle for him because a drunk driver totaled his in front of our house a few days before Christmas. Insurance is taking….    f o r E V E R…..

.anywho.

Today I want to share with you all my Rustic Yarn sign I made.  You can follow along on how I made this.  If looking to buy one if you're not that crafty, I do sell them in my store.  Below is a link to the shop.

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The List
 
1 8' molding of your liking. (Home Depot)
1 Large Slat board from The Wood Connection
1 Roll or bundle of Yarn. (JoAnns)
3 boxes of Brass "Gold" Screws (Home Depot)
4 Small Flat corner Braces
2 2" Plate mending Plates (Home Depot)
Paint
Wood glue
Sanding tool
Stain
Brushes
Cardstock

Below is your board from the Wood Connection.  You will want to paint that first so that it can dry before you add your wash over it to get the primitive look.  You can paint your's any color.  I wanted my letters to pop out because I used a pale yarn color so I did White.

Once the paint is dry take some brown and a little bit of  black and thin the base out with water.  You want it really runny.  Apply in the cracks and edges.  Then take a towel while still wet and wipe in the middle of each slat like the picture below the "LOVE" template.

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Below is a frame "The Man" made out of molding.   We made sure the molding was the same thickness as the slat board.  It either had to be thicker or the same thickness.  If you have a skinny molding piece your board will stick out.  Measure and make the cuts needed to fit around the sign.  A great tutorial that I have found for this can be viewed here.

Once the Frame is made you will want to stain it.  I used 3 different stains and white acrylic paint wash.

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Once the frame was dry we attached the corner braces.  CORNERS ONLY AT THIS TIME!

Below is a template I made in Illustrator for the word I was going to put on my sign.  I cut it out on card stock using my Cameo, however, you can use scissors if you don't have a fancy cutting machine. :)

Once its cut you can tape it to your board and take a pencil or pen and mark along the edge about every 1/2 inch.  I gave a rough guess doing this.  I just made a small circle with a pen.  

*** DO NOT TRACE ALL THE WAY AROUND ***

A tracing line will show. 

Once your dots are done you can pull the template and get a drill.  You want to pre-drill your holes since we are screwing in screws.  You don't want any split wood cracks.

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Once your holes are drilled you can start screwing in your screws. Make sure to not screw through the wood.  I put a scrap piece under my board just incase because I was working on my dinning room table. :)  Once the screws are done and level with each screw, you can start wrapping your yarn.

What's great about yarn is you don't need to attach it to the screws.  You just wrap a few times and it stays.  There is no wrong way to wrap your yarn.  I just wrapped opposite from the screw I was on and did whatever was necessary to fill in around corners. :) I also bought a pretty thick wool yarn and that helped.

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Once the stringing is done you can attach the frame using the mending braces.  Refer back to the back of the frame picture above. *BUY THIS SIGN*

*BUY THIS SIGN*

Hope you loved this little tutorial.  It was so much fun making this and i'm so in love with how it turned out.  

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

Check out where I link up at!

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!

Check out where I link up at!

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!

Check out the parties we link to!

Easy DIY Lemonade Stand

Hey Everyone!

If you all didnt get a chance to checkout my tutorial on one artsy mama im posting it here for you all.  I wanted to do something that I think every parent would enjoy making while the kids get to reap the benefits! ;)  As it is the end of summer for most of us and school is just beginning, it's time for us to clean out our houses and garages for those end of the summer yard sales!  Whats not a better way then to have your kids join in and sale a little lemonade and treats? It gives your kids something to do and will also spike interest in garage sale hunters!

....So today I bring you...

First things first,

The List

• 2 Wooden "Drawer" Crates (JoAnns)
• 1 2'X4' 1/4" board (Lowes)
• 2 1"X2"X4' Side posts (Lowes)
• Elmer's Wood Filler "Natural" (Walmart)
• 2 Bags of 3/4" screws "#6" (Walmart)
• Jigsaw
• Drill
• Clamps
• Miscellaneous decor

BTW!!! Did you know that if you find a ding or a crack in any wood or craft items at JoAnns, they will  give you a discount!  I got 40% off just for this little crack on one of my crates! And it was already 25%! So on top of that I practically walked out of there with a free crate drawer unit!  Plus, JoAnns lets you use as many coupons you have all in one checkout! I <3 that store!

Step One:

Your going to measure the side of the crates.  ( I cheated. I took out my drawers and laid one crate down on my 2'X4' board and traced it.) Don't do what I did unless your good with eyeball dimensions.

Once you measure and trace out your measurements on the board, cut it out with a jigsaw. *Tip* Slow and steady wins the race.... "Just saying.."

Step two:

Then take your clamps and place the newly cut board in between your crates and place a  clamp at the top and bottom.  This will hold them in place when you screw into the wood.  Look below for reference to clamps.

*Tip* Lay the crates down so your screwing down instead of up right.  It helps the screws go in deep. review picture to the right for further tips......

Step Three:

 Measure the top of the crates where the table will be. It should come out to 9 1/2" X 24".  Draw it out on the 2'X4' board and cut it out with a jigsaw. (BTW, I should mention that you will be cutting 3 pieces out of this board so make sure your measurements count. If you have to make all the measurements before hand and draw them out before you do any cutting)  Once again, slow and steady with the jigsaw!  After your board is cut, sand the edges down. "We don't want our kids coming up to us with splinters!" Screw in the top board.  I went in from the outside with this one because the top piece is skinnier than the top of the crate. (Make sure you inset the screws.)

Step Four:

Take your 2 Long posts and screw them into the side of the crates. (Screw from the inside) It's nice to have someone to hold it for you while you screw the screws in. I was not so lucky since "The Man" is now on night shift. *Sad face* But it worked out great anyways because, "I have mad skills yo!" Use picture to the left for reference.

Step Five:

Measure the length from post to post and the length of how wide you want your sign.  I measured mine based on AB's height.  (Yes, I'm that mom that makes their two year old come out in the garage so I can have her stand behind the lemonade stand to get the right height for the sign!) Draw it out on the board if you haven't already and cut it out with the jigsaw.  Sand all the edges! And clamp it the the posts, one on each side.  Place one screw at the top and one on the bottom on each side. (make sure to sink the screw a bit, this will help with the next step)

 Step Six: 

Take your wood filler and fill all screw holes.  Let them dry for 15 minutes and then lightly sand them smooth.         Once that is done take one screw and Screw into one of the posts leaving the screw sticking out slightly to hang a sign on.  See picture below for reference.

And there you have it! A lemonade stand to decorate as you please!  

I have some very cool things to add to this to put all those other lemonade stands to shame! To see how this bad boy turns out check out our blog next week!  Hope to see you all there.  

Below are some awesome pictures of AB's First Lemonade Stand that I had made for her 1st Birthday Party.  Hope this gives you all some ideas for decorating your lemonade stands!

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