chalkboard painting

A long time ago I saw this on pinterest (of course) and wanted my very own menu board, for obvious reasons.  I put it on the list of things to do and eventual made my way to home depot and found a piece of wood of about the right width, however it was too long so it became two pieces.  I decided one would be a menu board and the other, a score keeper for games and such.

What you'll need:
--A piece of wood of desired size
--Chalkboard paint
--Chalk
--Craft Vinyl and/or acrylic paint and brush

Step One: Paint

Using your chalkboard paint, apply two coats to the boards, letting it dry in between.  

I used a small roller brush.

Step Two: Design

I planned out what I wanted for the design of each board.  I have a cricut and decided to use it and some craft vinyl because my free hand writing with a paint brush can be a little rough...

I tested out my design with regular paper to get the sizing and placement right.

Step Three: Cut & Place

Then I cut the design out of the vinyl on the Cricut - the pressure, speed, and size dial were all set to 4.

I stuck on the pieces to their appropriate location and smoothed them over a couple of times.

So that it looked like this:

Step Four: Season

I seasoned the chalkboard by rubbing chalk all over it and then wiping it off.

Step Five: Hang Up!

Now it's ready to go and inspire and be cute in kitchen!

*Score Keeper*

For the second board I did the exact same steps but I also used some paint to add polka dots and a tic-tac-toe board.

Ta-Da!

Keep crafting kids

xoxo

climbing high

I know it's been a while but the last two weeks have been too busy with work (lame). 

But before it all got hectic, Jonathan and I made Spoon a cat tower, because he likes to be high and check things out.

Supplies for the Job:

Power Drill

Screw Driver

Wood nails, long (2 1/2 inch) and short (1/2 inch)

3/4 inch plywood cut into three squares, ours were ~16 x 16 inches

2x4 post cut into three pieces, ours were ~24 inches each

100 ft sisal rope (not synthetic)

Carpet

Paint

Wooden Skewers 

DIY Details: 

The first step is to paint each of the squares, just one side and the four edges.

Next, wrap the sisal rope around two of the posts

(You can wrap it around all three but you'll end up needing another 50 ft of rope, so we painted it instead)

We attached the rope to the posts by screwing the rope to the post at the two ends. 

(Wood glue is also an option)

We then cut the carpet to match the squares and drilled the pieces to the unpainted side of the squares with the short (1/2 inch) wood screws:

The tricky part is then putting all the pieces together.

The first step was to attach two of the posts to the base:

After some (*much) trial and error about the best strategy to do this, we settled on the following approach:

1. Drill three holes into the square and then mark the post at the matching points and drill holes into the posts.  

2. Place wood skewers into the holes so that two pieces are lined up, like so:

3. Then, place the screws in the holes and screw in with a screwdriver as far as you can:

4. Drill the screws in the rest of the way

(What the bottom of the base looks like)

We ate some pizza at some point: 

(What levels one and two look like)

Repeat with the second floor, third post, and third floor:

**We placed the third floor in the corner of the second floor, but it doesn't seem to be enough room to jump between the second and third floor, though spoon can jump to it from the floor...

Total cost was about $50 and total time was about 5 hours, but we had some trial and error along the way. 

So far he seems to be enjoying it, scratching on it and hanging on the second floor.

xoxo

framing: pennies don't make the cut

Well I saw this on pinterst and wondered if it would indeed work.  

I didn't have any steel wool, but when googling around I found that pennies would work and give a blueish tint.  

This turned out to be untrue, but I did find a solution.

Originally, I combined 1/4 cup of ground coffee with about 1/2 cup of vinegar and all the pennies I had - let's say 33 cents worth.  I let it sit overnight, and then another night, and then a few more nights. 

Why so many nights? Because every time I tried to stain a piece of wood with it, it failed.  The pennies  had not produce the necessary reaction and so there was no staining happening. 

I decided I needed more metal so I looked around and found a handful of nails and added them to let sit overnight.

Ta-da! 

I totally nailed it! (get it?) But yes, the nails were enough react with the vinegar and produce a lovely dark stain.  I did two coats of it on the picture frame, letting it dry overnight in between coats.   I then sprayed it with two coats of mod-podge to protect it and let dry another 24 hours before calling it a day.

I really like the way it turned out:

Comparison:

A nice trick to jazz up some plain wood items.

xoxo

'grammed

Easy craft time:

Those chipboard/wood letters were on sale at the craft store so I picked up a 'g' thinking I would paint it and put it up somewhere. 

It sat in the to-be-crafted drawer for a while until I was in the mood for a quick craft. 

I kept it in line with the other colors of my bedroom and painted the base gray (with basic acrylic craft paint) and then after it had dried, used masking tape to make some stripes and paint them teal and gold (also with acrylic craft paint): 

And then I couldn't decide where to put it...I've been in need of something above the bed so I decided to frame it.

I put it directly on the glass of a frame (that I had already painted a dark gray) and then put a piece of ivory linen behind it, followed by the back of the frame.

I used a hammer to push down on the metal pieces to hold it all in since the wood 'g' is a bit thick.

All done:

And above the photo garland that is still in progress, of course...

xoxo

more yellow painting

the box for booze was crafted up on the day before my core exam started.  I took the day off from studying to clear my mind, so obviously, lots of crafting was done.

In addition to the box, I added some jazz to my coffee table.  I decided to just do part of the legs and the  lower panels in yellow:

It took four coats to get a solid yellow over the wood:

I like it but I don't think I'm done.  I might do the top edge in yellow too.  Ashley says I should add some gold...

xoxo

a box for booze

really I wanted a bar of some sort. But I'm poor so I did some reorganizing of the two shelves that store the alcohol and the cookbooks and painted this box to go on top.

I found the cute crate at Michael's and added two coats of yellow paint.

and then some grey stipes for good measure.

ta-da!

ready set mix.

xoxo