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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Clipboard Love Note and Temple Silhouette Art

Clipboards are one of my favorite decorating secret weapons. Clipboards are easy to find and they are really cheap. You can paint them. You can add a simple photograph. They can hang on the wall. They can sit on a shelf.

Seriously, clipboards are the best. They aren't just for taking notes anymore.

They are for leaving notes too. Love notes to be exact.

Love notes quoting the ever-dreamy Mr. Darcy to be more exact.

Just the best love note ever. This love note is simply clipped onto the clipboard. The great thing about this love note is that it is actually a photograph.

I made this love note photograph using PicMonkey. I scanned a piece of regular notebook paper into my computer. Then I opened it up in PicMonkey and used one of my favorite handwriting fonts to "write" up one of my favorite romantic lines ever. Then I just printed if off at a photo center as an 8x10.

right click on the image and save to your computer

The smaller sized clipboards are so cute. I just had to create something with one of them too.

The Hubs and I got married in the Salt Lake City Temple. I thought it would be nice to add a silhouette image of the the Salt Lake City Temple to a clipboard.

I cut out a stencil of the silhouette of the Salt Lake City Temple using my Silhouette machine. I stuck the vinyl stencil on to the clipboard. Then I used painters tape to cover all the parts of the clipboard I didn't want painted. I left a small boarder around the edge.

Then I spray-painted until the coverage was how I wanted. The last thing you need to do is let it dry for a bit and then slowly remove the painters tape and vinyl stencil.

With my clipboard art in hand, I can start decorating with it.

So much love and cuteness in the air I can barely stand it.

These clipboards would also look super cute in a wall collage...which just might be where they end up...hint, hint. Coming soon.

Now off I go to watch Pride and Prejudice for the 1,000th time.

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A Pinteresting Saturday: Engineer Print Poster

Were any of you wondering if my A Pinteresting Saturday segment had died??

Well...

It's ALIIIIIIIVE!

I have had this project done for well...forEVA. Seriously. I had it the poster done way before Bean was born. Alas, I have not had hardly any desire to get on this thing they call the computer. Gasp. Shocking. I know, right? So finally months later this project from my Pin Boards is making it's debut on the blog.

The original came from Sugar Bee Crafts--

Like her I had seen the tutorial on I Am Momma awhile ago...WAY before the glorious Pinterest. When I came across her refresher I pinned it immediately.

I just KNEW I had to do this for Oldest's room. I had the perfect idea for his Star Wars room.

We just happened to have a Darth Vader costume laying around. Bonus!

Dress up Oldest and start shooting photos.

Turn my favorite into black and white (the photos have to be b&w to print of an engineer print).

Then go over to Staples or a similar office supply store and ask them to print off an engineer print. They come in multiple sizes. I picked the one that fit closest to the poster frame I had purchased from The Mart.

Because I was putting mine in a frame I was able to skip her adhesive step...honestly probably saving myself quite a bit of hassle.

Once the poster was all framed I found it a home on Oldest's bedroom wall.  Yes, I know there are empty frames and THIS is totally missing still from the wall. I am getting there people...eventually.

The whole process was E.A.S.Y. Printing off this poster was also cheap, I mean cheapity, cheap, cheap. I am super thrilled with how it turned out and would recommend this project to anyone.

Oldest loves the personalized poster sized picture of himself.

Any one else singing, "duh, duh, duh, dun daduh, dun daduh..."?

The Nursery

Woohoo. The nursery got done. Insert a happy little jig here.

Thanks to many, many helping hands for getting the big things done...aka the board and batten and the painting.

I am still amazed that I got 99% of my projects done. The fabric pile was ridiculous...gorgeous, but ridiculous. My sewing machine is probably ready for a big ol' break.

Since I am pretty sure this is the cutest nursery we have ever had...I might have gone crazy with the photos for you guys...just humor the 9 months pregnant lady.

Here is a little run down of what got done-

walls painted two different colors (hubby's parents)

board and batten put up in the whole room (hubby)

dresser painted a new awesome turquoise (me and sister)

bed skirt got a new dark brown bottom border

new crib bumpers

new pillow on chair

recovered stained chair cushion

canvas wall art painted

embroidery hoop wall art

curtains sewn

plastic elephants painted

ADORABLE chevron blanket crocheted (my mom)

added some new storage thanks to Target

Whew! I think that is it.

Okay here is my little photo gallery of Bean's nursery. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

There ya have it. Now all I need is a new, sweet, soft baby for the nursery and it will be perfect.

Soon...fingers crossed soon.

Guest Room Reveal

Our guest room has been done for a couple of weeks now. It has even had it's very first residents. I was so happy to even have an extra room to hold guests. Then I was even more excited when it became a possibility to redo the room into it's very own special and beautiful space.

I hemmed and hawed forever about exactly what to do with this room. My choice in how to redo the room finally came down to one major thing-WHAT DO I ALREADY HAVE? Basically what can I do to make the room cute by mixing what I already had and what I could find that was affordable.

Everything fell in to place when I decided to use this homemade quilt that Hubby and I got 10 years ago as a wedding present.

Then we found the black iron bed frame at IKEA. $149 people!!! I got all the rest of the bedding at The Mart. Really if you can overlook that you are actually at The Mart, it is one of the cheapest places to buy things for home decorating. Especially if you can think outside the box.

I had the black and white pillows from a previous couch. Then I just bought some fabric that I thought looked vintagey and farmhouse fresh, and I made some extra throw pillows.

I can't go without adding some plates to a wall. I know it is a sickness. Alas, I love how it looks so there will probably always be plates on my walls.

The curtains are two white flat sheets hemmed and hung on a simple white curtain rod.

I gathered up a lamp and clock we already had. Added the simple white teapot that I found at Ross. I spray painted an old TV stand a sunny yellow and turned it into a nightstand. I wasn't super thrilled with the paint coverage on the top so I used some scraps and sewed a tiny cloth covering for the top.

I added one simple frame that we had to the wall. Painted yet again another plate...that we had and hung that up. Then We hung up a mirror, again that we already had.

I am just about in love with this room.

Seriously, it is nicer than any or our master bedrooms have EVER been.

I could seriously just walk in this room and stare at it all day. Love. Love. Love.

Blame the Fumes of Paint

So I hadn't intended to be MIA this week. I had great intentions of picking up my posting since all the holidays are done. FALSE!

I had forgotten about my never ending list of things to do AND that painting several rooms was at the top of those list. Oh and I guess I kind of forgot that I am 7 months pregnant, slow and highly incapacitated. 

SO my plan for taping off a room and painting it's entirety in a simple day was foiled as I waddled up and down a ladder and then collapsed on the couch after one coat...not to get up the rest of that day.

So yeah, my intention of having Middle and Littlest new room ready and looking similar to how it did in our old house...you know like this...remember with fondness with me...

Did NOT happen...well it still looks a little like this...paint stuff out and about...

Rollers wrapped in plastic wrap (a handy dandy little trick that keeps you from having to wash your brush out in between coats...keeps the paint brush in usable condition).

I will say at least I did finally finishing painting yesterday...so this went away.

Due to painting I have been lacking in the ability to get my self presentable. Decided to keep it real and share with you how utterly fantastic I have looked for the last couple of days...

Yeah, I know watch out hot pregnant moms everywhere!

At least the tape is off and the painting is done.

I also managed to face-lift these run of the mill curtains from The Mart. I will share that later when the room is done.

I did accomplish a lot, but I still have to...

put the outlet plates back on

hang up pictures

hang curtain rod and curtains

arrange the bedding and get the bottom bunk ready for Littlest's move

and I have a little sewing project to do using this fabric...

Hmmm...will I finish? We will see. Since I was SO close to being done and all, my body decided to go and get a cold. Foiled again!

It will all get done...my nesting instinct will make sure of that! That is what I keep telling myself anyway!