My newest project!

I just wanted to show everyone my most recent projects/crafts and a new one I've just added (as if I need any more). 

My first (small) project is this little picture frame. It was a muted pink that I bought for a few bucks at TJ Maxx back when I had a pink thing going on in my room. Well now it just looked out of place so I  decided to spray paint. Which is really pretty much all I did. 

I wanted it to match this frame.

Which it did perfectly. I want to transfer the pictures to black and white and put them back in the frames. However, the frame looked a bit too....polished. So I decided to distress it a little bit. I just took a sanding block and did the edges a bit. 

Perfect. 

Now I have another (more interesting) project I worked on. Last night, (again at 2 AM) I decided to go on a whim and do a craft I had seen in a pin. 

Take a cheapie dollar store lamp shade and personalize it!

Step 1. Draw a monogram (or make one on the computer) and Exact-o Knife it out. I freehanded mine from a pad of paper I had. 

Helpful hint: Leave all the little pieces on and cut them out one at a time.

Then tape them on individually. It should look like this before and this:

after. 

Another helpful hint:

Take down small edges and corner's down to make a more exact stencil. 

Step 2. Pick your paint color. I used the color from my room to make the stencil. It worked out really well because I didn't have to do a second coat. 

Time to start!

Its kind of hard to see, but it goes pretty well with the walls! It has a few mistakes, but I'm pretty pleased with it!

And lastly, I have my, by far, the biggest project of my summer!

This little beauty! I picked him up on the side of the road by my house. Someone was about to throw him away when he just needed some TLC! I don't anticipate it being a huge project. It needs a bit of sanding, maybe some nails to sturdy him up! I've been pinning some pictures of dressers for inspiration!

I decided to paint the inside of the drawers for sure!

And after looking through what felt like a billion pictures I finally decided on stripes!

How amazing do these look???

I can't wait. 

I decided I'm going to paint the whole thing white and add some gray strips on the drawers. I might add a gray damask pattern on the top. 

Oh but those knobs must be replaced. 

Oh the choices....

Happy blogging :)

Claire

Pinteresting Wednesdays!

I don't know why I haven't tried linking up sooner! It helps me have something to post at least once a week! (PS does anyone know if I'm linking up right? I'm a blogging newbie sort of)

My friend Blake actually pinned this and I saw it on her page, but I love the idea! I think if I made some stencils they'd probably be very easy to make. 

Some more monograms! I think this would be a easy craft that could add a lot to my room! I need to buy two smaller canvases though.

I love this little bird and wish I could paint something like it. However, I'm not sure I could do the fading at the end. 

And lastly this is my newest cooking experiment! Butterbeer cupcakes in celebration of my trip to Harry Potter World! However, I want to use some prettier straws instead of the plastic one. 

Like these! You can find these paper straws at Bibelot! Not a pin, I just think they're cute :)

Happy blogging

Claire

Pinterest!

I decided to link up for the first time with The Vintage Apple for Pinteresting Wednesdays! I found this link up/blog through one of my favorite blogs Keep Calm and Carry On. 

If anyone doesn't know what Pinterest is, its like an online bulletin board. You can pin anything you come across on the internet in one place. You can make different board and what not. 

Follow Me On Pinterest!

Anyyyy wayyy, Oh How Pinteresting Wednesdays entail posting some favorite pins!

This is a Siberian Husky (my third favorite dog) Pomeranian (fourth favorite dog) mix. My dad and I are looking to get a new dog and I feel like this little guy would be perfect! We currently have a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel and my dad already nixed my first two favorite dogs, Golden Retriever and Rottweiler because they are too big for poor little Thor. 

This is two siblings recreating a childhood picture years later. They also did this in Modern Family. Peter and I want to do it for my mom's birthday this year. 

Because my dog thinks I'm awesome. I want to frame this and put it somewhere in my room.

These are just old soup cans with holes poked and spray painted. They have a teal light in them to light them up and I want to do this for our apartment. 

Another apartment idea. One of my roommates, Blake (another Pinterest fanatic), and I love this idea. I found a window shutter that I could paint and hang, but I'm not sure if its too big. So Blake, if you're reading we have a shutter!

These are homemade moon pies. I was going to make some cupcakes or cake pops this week, but I decided I'm going to try these! Apparently they've very Southern and a lot of Northern people haven't heard of them. I'm not sure if thats true for Missouri since we're kind of in a weird limbo between North and South, but I bet some of my friends are fellow moon pie lovers and would enjoy these!

Well anyway, those are some of my favorite pins! If you want to see more check out my Pinterest and follow me! 

Happy blogging :)

Claire

Nautical bags and Satin flowers

Was my blog heading enticing? I decided I need to work on them so my posts don't sound so boring. 

Well I was going to wait and make one whole 'summer crafts' post later on, but I wanted to share this stuff with all 20 of my followers haha!

First, I have these cool flowers to show off. 

They're pretty easy to make, but include some fire. 

Here is the complete tutorial at Jones Design Company:

Flower Tutorial (click here)

You should just also go check out her blog in general. Emily Jones has great (and pretty easy!) tutorials and just regular blog posts that are pretty interesting. 

In the tutorial, she says that some fabrics ignite. I found that very vague and was worried I would spend a bunch of money on fabric that just sets on fire. However, I went to Hobby Lobby and got 'Poly-Satin' and it worked just fine. I bought a yard of a few fabrics and do not get a yard! You will not use all of it!

Anywayyyyyyyy

I made some of these flowers for my Dad's girlfriend's daughter's Spanish themed party (mouthful I know). She had tapas, Spanish ham and music and all that jazz. I made the flowers into barrettes and headbands so they'd look like flamenco dancers. 

(You can click the pictures to enlarge them)

The first picture is the barrettes I made. I just attached the flowers and some ribbon to those snap clips from Walgreens with some hot glue. Easy peezy lemon squeezy. 

The second picture is the headbands I made. I sewed the flower to a purple ribbon and connected it with a bit of elastic to make it difference sizes. 

The last picture is just some extras I made for them to put on the food table and make into crafts later. 

And now on to the more exciting craft! 

When I was making the shower curtain, my friend Lauren brought over some tote bags with the idea that we could paint/decorate them! I was a bit wary about the idea because those things don't usually turn out that well and look a bit tacky (with rhinestones and what not). We didn't get to the purses that day, but a few days later Lauren came over to plan our trip to Harry Potter World (yes, I'm going! I will be posting lots of pictures of the trip later!) with a tote bag she made it was so cute!

(I know they're sideways, I'm sorry for my horrible blogging etiquette.)

She monogrammed it and didn't use rhinestones and it was cute and classy and looked very artsy/professional!

Well anyway, she came over today to decorate another one for her boyfriend's mom (points!) and help me make mine. 

I absolutely loved this one. It looks very refined and like a shopping bag from an upscale boutique, dontcha think? If she hadn't monogrammed it I probably would have stolen it. 

Now, I am crafty, but I am not very artistic (difference!). I'm probably a little better than most people (mostly because I've taken art camp and classes every since I was seven), but I never took any time to hone or develop any skill I had. And Lauren is very artistic so I was worried mine wouldn't turn out very well, but I think it actually came out pretty dang good, if I do say so myself!

(I only included one picture because I'm lazy and didn't paint the back.)

Mine was not as perfect as Lauren's. The monogram is too small and a bit off center and I ran out of the paint  color on the stripes and made a new one that didn't quite match. You can't really tell in real life, but it really shows in the picture. Anyway, I can go back and fix the monogram by starting over and painting a new one, but I'm not sure if I will. I love the color though and I kind of did it by accident. I was trying for lime green but ended up with this nice sea glass cover and loved it. I bought the rope at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and Lauren made the knots. 

EDIT:

I forgot to explain how we made the tote bags! They're pretty simple, but I realized it might not be obvious. Lauren and I measured and put pieces of tape down to get the lines even and used something circular (I used the tape roll, Lauren used a lotion top) to make the circle. We also both just free-handed our monograms, but drew them with pencil first! Lauren also recommends painting the inside of the circle white so you can go back and use white to fix any messups! Perfect as Lauren's looks, no artist doesn't have a few mess ups! I had lots, but haven't fixed them yet. 

I told Lauren she should sell them on etsy and I think she might. What do y'all think? Would you buy one of her bags (I promise the monogram looks better than mine)? What options would you like? Stripes, polka dots, stencils? 

Happy blogging :)

Claire