Sticker Decal Art

 

One of my boys' rooms is a Star Wars themed room. This room has literally been a work in progress since we moved here over three years ago. A big reason for that is the photo wall. My vision was to have a wall full of frames and different kinds of art that were eclectic yet fit into a more big boy Star Wars room. 

I have had THE hardest time finding things I like (that I can afford of course). I have searched. Slowly I am finding things I like. I also find myself thinking outside the box. 

Like this art for instance. 

I was walking around the aisles of The Mart seeking some creative revelation. I do that sometimes. Just walk around a store seeing what screams at me and what project is just waiting to be discovered.  Anyway, I was walking the party aisle and this sticker practically jumped into my cart.

Right away I saw a framed piece of wall art that could be added to the Star Wars photo wall.

I bought the sticker. I scrounged up a frame I had at home and I grabbed a black piece of paper.

How cool is this sticker?! Guys, this was just a couple of bucks. That is crazy.

In less than five minutes I put the whole thing together. After centering the sticker onto black paper, I cut the paper to fit the frame and mat.

Bam. Done. I love how it looks on the wall. I LOVE how easy it was to make.

The key to all of this...think outside the box when it comes to decorating. Who would have thought that a two dollar sticker would look so fabulous in a frame? This gal. Ha!

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Flour Sack Towel Euro Sham Covers

First off, please excuse that really ugly golden tan wall. In a stupid and vain moment I almost didn't share these adorable Flour Sack Towel Euro Shams all because the color of my room is not my favorite. Basically my room is a constant work in progress and part of me didn't want to share any little project until the whole room is done.

Well, that could take years. I didn't want to wait that long to show you these Euro Shams. They are delightful. I love them and they were so easy to make. So I decided to stop being a cry baby pride bucket and just share this Flour Sack Towel Euro Shams DIY.

I have wanted Euro Shams for awhile. I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted a vintagey striped pillow. I wanted it white with blue stripes, because I love all things blue. Eh...but...uh...these pillows are red and white.

Yes, well do you see that sweet red lamp in the photo above. That is Hubby's lamp. When we first bought it on clearance we were going to spray paint it. As time went on Hubby decided he wanted it to stay red. I tried to convince him otherwise, but as he pointed out, he probably should get a say from time to time. Haha!

So due to the lamp, a pop of vintage red needed to be added to the room. I searched and searched for the shams I had envisioned. Alas, they were no where to be found.

So when you can't find what you are looking for, you make it baby.

When I found these 28x28 flour sack towels at JoAnn's, I knew I had my answer.
 

Flour sack towels are inexpensive. They are perfectly vintage looking right out of the package. There are two in each pack, so I only had to buy two to make two shams.

Since I wanted my color to be muted and worn looking, I used regular craft acrylic paint. Normally you do not use acrylic paint on fabric without a fabric medium because when you wash it the color fades. Since I wanted my color faded I used acrylic.

I taped of the lines I wanted. I started in the middle and measure out equal distances. I used a wide tape for the first white stripe. Then I taped of another smaller area for the small red stripe. Tape off two of the towels for the two pillow fronts.

With cardboard beneath the towel, start painting with a foam brush. I roughly painted. Basically I didn't want to saturate the fabric. I let it look worn. Once you are done, wait a couple of minutes and then carefully peel back the tape. Allow to dry. Wash and dry each sham front. This will make the painted fabric softer and it will give it the faded worn look perfect for a vintage looking pillow.

I chose to make my shams close with a zipper. You could also hand sew them closed. I used a 24" white zipper. First attach one side of the zipper to the front of one towel, with the zipper tab down.

Then I did the same thing with the other side of the zipper and the back piece of the sham. After the zipper was attached to both sides, sew around the other edges of the towels (right sides facing) to create the pillow sham.

Clip corners. Turn out the sham. Iron. Insert a euro sham insert. I got mine at Ross for really cheap.

I really love the pop of red and I love the look of these Flour Sack Towel Euro Shams. Thanks Hubby for insisting we keep the red lamp.

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Stained Harvest Crate

Today is the first official day of Fall. That is nature's way of saying that I can put my sandals away and get my boots out.  Since Fall is here, I can also now buy all the pretty gourds and squash that I want. My front step is just asking to be all tricked out for the Fall.

Last year I just stacked them around my front step. This year I wanted something different.

I wanted a crate. But not just any crate. I wanted a Harvest Crate.

Good news is you can now buy unfinished plain old crates at almost any craft store. The bad news is that in all their new and shiny glory they don't look very old and harvesty.

We can fix that though. All we need is a little bit of stain. 

I found this spray paint stain. Guys, it is GLORIOUS. Glorious I tell you.

You just spray it on. I sprayed on two coats.

Then you wipe it off. You spray and wipe to get the look you want. Less coverage or more coverage. You decide.

Once the stain has dried, you can stencil it. I cut my stencil out of vinyl.

I painted a light and rough coat of white paint. I did a light coat because I want it to look weathered.

Remove the stencil while the paint is still wet. Let the paint dry.

Now it can be filled with all kind of gourds and set on your front porch.

I pretty much love it. Now all I have to do is add a few more touches to complete my Fall front porch.

Oh I am so happy it is Fall. This is my favorite time of year.

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Magnetic Bobby Pin Tray

Do you lose all of your bobby pins? Or is that just me? I swear! Or I want to! Where do they all go????? I remember very religiously always taking them out of my hair while in my bathroom...well almost religiously. 

Almost religiously should only lose me a quarter of my bobby pins, not all but one or two. Seriously, I think they are marching away and laughing at me from all the hidden crevices around my house.

So rude.

Feeling my plight, or annoyed at my need to keep buying more, Hubby came home from his favorite tool store with a solution. He brought me a silver magnetic tool tray. The manly tool purpose for this tray is to hold screws, nails, and other construction bits. He felt rather like a genius exclaiming that he bought it for my wayward bobby pins.

I couldn't deny he was a genius. However, the style of the said tool tray was a little lacking. It was just a plain silver tray. Blah. I can't blame the man though. Function over style is always his motto.

I like both style and function, so I had to pretty up the little boring magnetic tool tray.

A little spray paint and some vinyl and well, hello there gorgeous.

I cut out the hello from vinyl. I put it in the middle of the tray before spray painting. Then I spray painted several coats. I peeled off the vinyl after about 30 minutes of my last coat of paint. Do not let the vinyl stay there until the paint completely dries or the removal of the vinyl will also remove some paint. Wait about 24 hours before you use your tray.

Then load that beauty up with all the bobby pins you can find...or the ones you just went out and bought.

Now my bobby pins happily sit in this gorgeous little tray in my bathroom. I am happy to report that I haven't lost hardly any (let's be honest I am still probably gonna lose one or two in my purse). Seriously guys this is the easiest, cheapest, and quickest little project.

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Script Tee DIY

Script Tees are really rather lovely, are they not? I have really wanted one. Unfortunately I just couldn't find one I really liked within my price budget. I also made the mistake of imagining exactly what I wanted it to say. So then of course I couldn't settle until I had one that said just what I wanted.

You know what this means, right? Yup, it means I had to make one.

So make a DIY Script Tee I did. With the lyrics of one of my favorite songs too.

I'm no beauty queen, I'm just beautiful me...from Selena Gomez's Who Says.

I have a soft spot in my heart for this song. Prepare yourselves for the sweetest story to follow.

I actually had not heard this song when it first came out. Ask anyone who know me well, I tend not to be up to date on the current songs. So when Hubby came in and said he wanted me to listen to a new song I said, "Okay". He prefaced my listening to this song by telling me he wanted me to really listen to the words. He also said that the song reminded him of me and he wanted me to feel that way about myself.

Then I listened to the song. Then I shed some tears. Then I kissed his handsome face. Then I listened to it again.

I can't listen to that song without thinking about him and how beautiful he makes me feel.

Now you can understand why I wanted a scrip tee with the phrase I'm Just Beautiful Me.

Sigh. So sweet.

Anywho. I digress. Making a script tee is insanely easy. All you need is--

a t-shirt
a fabric marker
fabric paint
paint brush

Slip a piece of cardboard in the t-shirt. Write the phrase you want lightly with the fabric marker.

Then trace over your handwriting SLOWLY with a paint brush and fabric paint. Allow to dry. I speed up the process by using a hair dryer.

Then slap on some red lipstick and wear your new script tee proudly.

And believe you are beautiful.

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Disney Princess Photo Stands

I am so happy to be joining Rachel from R & R Workshop for her fabulous A Month of Disney.

One of the most treasured mementos from a family trip to Disneyland is the photos. The Disney character photos are like the best of the best. Now if you have a little princess of your own, which I don't but I have some princess nieces, then those princess photos are a special kind of precious.

You know what else is precious?

All the Fisher Price Little People Disney figurines. Could you die with from their cuteness??

I had this idea that these figurines would make a perfect photo stands. The cutest photo stands for the cutest princess photos.

They were really easy to make.

First you just need a few Little People Disney figurines, like this Ariel Aurora set. Then grab some cloths pins. I spray painted my clothes pin pink so they matched the figurines better. Next you just need to hot glue the cloths pin to the back of the figurine with the opening end up.

 Once they dry, they are ready to display your princess photos.

Seriously, how cute is that Little Aurora hugging Big Aurora being held up by a Fisher Price Aurora. Oh the cuteness.

Now your Disneyland photos can be prettily displayed. I am pretty sure my little princess nieces will be pretty happy to have these little Disney Princess Photo Stands.

Here is another Disney Project that I have shown on the blog before:

Toy Story Play Dough Birthday Present

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Be sure to visit R & R Workshop to see all the blog posts for #MonthofDisney

Check out these other A Month of Disney posts--

An InLinkz Link-up

Superhero Mask and Cuffs DIY

Do you already feel the world is a safer place just by looking at this photo? I sure do.

Yup. The safety of the world is in good hands. The good hands of the cutest Superhero in existence.

I have previously shared this ridiculously adorable...er..I mean...manly Superhero in Training T-shirt.

Today I want to add a couple of necessary accessories for the superhero ensemble...yes I realize a real superhero probably wouldn't  say ensemble. They would probably say crime fighting gear, or something like that.

Anyway you say it...here is a little DIY on how to make a few pretty awesome crime-fighting-approved accessories.

First, we have a set of Superhero Crime Fighting Cuffs.

You need felt and velcro. Cut two rectangles measuring 4" by the circumference of your child's wrist plus 2" from one color. Also cut two rectangles measuring the determined width by 1".  Cut a piece of velcro measuring 2 1/2".

Sew the skinnier strip onto the center of two of the larger rectangle.

Sew the velcro on one of the striped rectangles and one of the plain ones. Sew on opposite ends. Repeat with the other set.

Sew the striped rectangle to the plain one. The velcro facing out on each side.

Cuffs are done and ready to be worn.

All we need now to finish off the ensemble...er...crime fighting gear...is a Superhero Identity Hiding Mask.

To make the mask you just need the Superhero Mask Template some felt and some elastic.

Cut out two pieces of felt in the shape of the face mask.

 To sew the eye holes, I keep the template pinned to the two pieces of felt. Then I sew on the inside of each eye hole in the template.

Once the eye holes are sewn in, you can remove the template.

Measure a piece of elastic that will allow the mask to snugly fit your supers head and add an inch.

Pin one edge of the elastic between the layers of the mask on one side. Then pin the other end on the other side.

Sew around the outside edges of the mask, securing the two layers together and securing the elastic in place.

The last thing that needs to be done is to cut out the eye holes.

With mask and cuffs in place, our Superhero is ready to save the world.

Or at leas the front porch.

Superhero crime fighting gear that any Super would be proud to wear.

I hope your Supers enjoy them as much as my Supers do.

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