home decor Archives - Page 3 of 5

Easter Mantel, with the Epic Letterpress

March 20, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 25 Comments

Remember how I mentioned that my Epic came without a cutting mat? One call to the folks at Lifestyle Crafts and they got one out to me ASAP! I decided to use the die cut feature to make this Easter banner. I printed the damask background that I showed you here on several squares. Then, I used a square die with rounded corners to fancy them up.

I used a circle die to cut pieces of white cardstock. The lettering is black vinyl I cut with my Silhouette. I only did this because my printer was out of ink. My initial plan was to print directly on the cardstock and then die cut around each letter.

The letters circles are attached to the damask backgrounds with glue dots. I punched holes and tied the squares together with ribbons. And then I used thumb tacks to attach them to the mantel. I’m classy like that.

The grass came from Hobby Lobby in sheets like this:

I cut them in half and laid them on top of the mantel. I used a little bit of that white tacky stuff that I cannot think of the name of right now to keep them from moving around.

The wreath details are here and the chick came from Pier 1. The carrots are from Shopko. The plastic white eggs are also from Hobby Lobby.

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY to pick up your own Epic 6 (letterpress/die cut machine from Lifestyle Crafts for 25% off. Use code “BLOGCRAP” to take advantage of the deal!

Check back tomorrow to see a fun project using Silhouette’s new fabric interfacing and to get the details on this month’s Silhouette promotion!

Please follow and like us:

Filed Under: Epic, home decor, letterpress, mantel, paper, Pier1

Spring Wreath

March 15, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 12 Comments

This week is a little post heavy, I know. If you hate posts, I apologize. Winking smile

In addition to 3 posts here yesterday (Epic letterpress, Spring at Pier 1, and winner of the GiftCardRescue giveaway), I also did a guest post on the blog for Abode, a local consignment store. I talk about my love affair with shutters. I know a bunch of you have asked about the ones above my fireplace, so head on over to the Abode blog to check that out, if you’re so inclined.

****************

So, I mentioned that I got a couple of things for myself at Pier 1. I could not resist these mossy bunnies:

I picked up a grapevine wreath at the craft store along with some faux forsythia. That’s fun to say, no? And, I already had some hilariously awesome fake carrots. I don’t know what they’re made out of, but I got them at Shopko in a bundle.

I put it all together and came up with this:

I also found this chick at Pier 1:

The current state of my spring mantel:

It still needs a little somethin’ somethin’, but I’ve got time. Spring doesn’t start until Saturday, right?

Please follow and like us:

Filed Under: home decor, mantel, Pier1

You might spend too much time blogging if…

March 12, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 21 Comments

Your latest plan for your living room color coordinates with your blog header.

I’m thinking about making one of these pillows, just for comedic effect.

Image from infmetry.com

Please follow and like us:

Filed Under: home decor

Keeping It Real

March 9, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 82 Comments

You know…because I usually don’t. Winking smile

I’m in the middle of a couple of projects that are not turning out as fabulous as they are in my head. And I’m annoyed. I’ve spent way more time on them than I intended to. One of them is not even for this site…it’s a guest post I’m doing elsewhere, which only adds to the pressure. And the annoyance.

So, in an attempt to clear my mind and do something else yesterday, I headed down to my sewing room. My sewing room is in the very furthest corner of the basement (sometimes I go a week or more without setting foot in the basement), so it’s out of sight and out of mind. Plus, you can shut the door and hide the mess. Usually.

View from the hall

I can’t believe I just posted that.

And it gets worse. Let’s start with this mess:

I had 2 lovely IKEA shelves mounted to the wall. Only my kids decided to use them for doing pull-ups. And they spontaneously (yeah right) fell off the wall, bringing all the contents down with them. Did I mention I had tiny little drawer units full of needles, sewing machine feet, snaps, etc on said shelves?

And then there’s this situation:

I know. I KNOW!

Someone dumped out my scrap bucket…

Really? That’s the least of my worries.

P.S. The remote for that TV is missing somewhere in the room, so I can only watch the one channel it’s stuck on (local CBS affiliate).

I spent 3 hours down there yesterday. I spackled. I vacuumed. I filled an entire big black garbage bag and 3 boxes for DI. And it’s still not done. Not even close.

I need IKEA. I need baskets and bins.

Or maybe I just need an intervention.

A bomb?

I WILL finish this. Hold me to it.

Please follow and like us:

Filed Under: home decor, organization, ramblings

Can Light to Pendant Light

March 1, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 47 Comments

Here’s the ceiling in my kitchen:

You see those rows of lights and then the one weird light in the corner? This one:

That light is over the sink and on a different switch than the rest. And we NEVER use it. Seriously…I turned on the disposal when I tried to turn it on to take these pictures.

Did you know you can buy a kit to turn any can light into a pendant light? Because you can. (Get it? CAN? Ha!) The kit looks like this.

I paid around $20 at Lowe’s.

You adjust the cord length and then just screw it in. WAY easy. You can buy a shade, but I decided to make one.

I picked up this metal Easter basket at Hobby Lobby. It was $4.50 (50% off).

The handle came right off with a little bit of wiggling. You’ll need to trace and cut a hole in the bottom. I used some of those all purpose kitchen scissors because this wire was flimsy. You could also drill a hole, if you’re using something more substantial than a wire Easter basket.

(I swear the hole is centered, the angle is just weird in this pic.)

I gave it a good coat of spray paint and then put it on the kit.

Cute, right?

And, uh, it’s really hard to take a picture of light fixture when it’s on.

So, if you have a can light (or two or three) you’re not loving, think about converting it to a pendant light!

Please follow and like us:

Filed Under: DIY, home decor, paint

Stenciled “Fabric” Bins

February 23, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 23 Comments

***February Silhouette deal info at the bottom of the post***

You know the cheap “fabric” bins you can get to fit square bookshelves? Like these?

Image from ClosetMaid

You have some, right? Us too. We have a bunch in the playroom and some in kid closets and I think there are even a few in my sewing room.

They’re practical and they’re cheap. They’re also a *little* bit boring. And, my kids never remember what goes back in which bin. I bet your kids are smarter than mine though, right? Winking smile

I saw this post over on Crafterhours yesterday and I felt my wheels turning! Keller’s new Utah Jazz inspired room doesn’t have a dresser…we’re using lockers instead. And in those lockers? “Fabric” bins.

I used some downloads from the Silhouette store for my clothing shapes…except for the underpants. I drew those on my own using the Silhouette Studio software.

I cut the shapes out of freezer paper and then stenciled using Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in Metallic Platinum. Check out my freezer paper primer for the basics on freezer paper stenciling.

Things you should do differently to stencil on this type of bins:
You’ll need to crank the heat on your iron way down to a wool setting at the very highest. I’d probably start even lower and then bump the temperature up a bit if the paper isn’t sticking. You’ll also want to place a press cloth or a scrap piece of fabric over the paper and the bin before ironing.

February Silhouette Promotion:

Valid February 23rd-28th

Silhouette SD
1 roll black premium vinyl
1 roll frosted vinyl
1 roll transfer paper
Home Décor CD

all for $225

Use code “CRAP” to take advantage of the deal.

Already have a machine?

Take 25% of Silhouette’s new Premium Vinyl using the same code (“CRAP”, in case you forgot. Winking smile )

Please follow and like us:

Filed Under: fabric, fabric paint, freezer paper, home decor, kids, Utah Jazz Room

My Master Bedroom

February 9, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 19 Comments

I’ve gotten some requests to see the rest of my house…a home tour of sorts. I can’t promise it’ll occur in a timely manner or even that I’ll get to every room, but I’ll see what I can do to give you a little peek every now and then.

And here’s my disclaimer: I don’t love my master bedroom. It’s not ME. Perhaps if I loved it I would have taken the time to move BC’s CPAP machine off of his bedside table? Winking smile

My master bedroom is large. It’s one of the main reasons we bought this house. In our old place you couldn’t even walk all the way around our queen bed.

I fell in love with the Farmhouse Canopy Bed from Pottery Barn

but I didn’t love the price (hint: well over $1600 with shipping).

Our bed came from The Wood Connection (a local unfinished furniture store) and is solid maple. We paid them to finish it for us and still came in under half price.

And, the other end…

Eventually we’ll get the outlet moved and the cords under control. It’s only been 7 years so far…

So what’s the point of this post?

I have no idea!

You asked and I like to encourage voyeurism?

Maybe you can make me love my bedroom?

Maybe this will motivate me to finally frame the TV and do something about the cords?

Maybe you learned that unfinished furniture stores are a great way to knock off Pottery Barn furniture for less?

See you tomorrow?

Open-mouthed smile

Please follow and like us:

Filed Under: home decor, ramblings

Valentine’s Day Bunting

January 19, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 67 Comments

The color palette was once again inspired by the same Target table runner that I used to make my Valentine’s canvas.

I traced a heart template (that’s mine, but feel free to make your own) on some fusible web (Wonder Under, Heat n Bond, whatever you like) 16 times. That’s enough for each letter plus a spacer heart between BE and MINE. I fused it to the back of the pink houndstooth fabric following the manufacturers directions and then cut out all 16 hearts.

To put the lettering on the hearts, I cut freezer paper with my Silhouette (the font is Madfont). Remember if you cut freezer paper with your Silhouette that you’ll need to put the shiny side up and reverse your text. I also have to use the green mat, but your mats may still be more sticky than mine are.

Then I turned Macy loose with some Tulip Fabric Paint and a sponge brush.

You could also use iron on lettering or cut freezer paper by hand or even paint the letters on…whatever works for you!

Next, I fused each heart (again with the manufacturers directions) to a 7” square piece of backing fabric. I ripped mine, because I’m lazy. And then I stitched the hearts in place.

Macy put a matching 7” square on top and sewed 3 edges (leaving the tops open) using 1/4” seams.

Then we clipped the corners…

and turned right side out and pressed.

Once all 16 squares were finished, I laid them out in order to make sure everything looked good. Then I grabbed some extra wide double fold bias tape. Decide how long of a “tail” you’ll want for hanging and mark with a pin.

Start sewing (I zig zagged) at the end and go until you get to your pin.

Stick in one of your squares and keep on sewing.

And when you get to the end, stick in another square, and so on and so on and so on.

After the last square, keep sewing for an amount equal to the “tail” you left at the beginning.

And then hang it!

Please follow and like us:

Filed Under: fabric, fabric paint, freezer paper, home decor, mantel, sewing, Silhouette, Valentine's

Valentine’s Day Canvas Art

January 18, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 87 Comments

So, if you follow along on Facebook, you may remember me saying that I was pretty sure I hated something I was working on last week. This is it.

I started with a 16 X 20 canvas (2 for $7.99) and some chipboard letters ($1.77 each).

I gave the canvas a coat of the same aqua paint I used to paint my piano (Watery from Sherwin Williams) and then laid out the letters.

I made some pencil marks (which were impossible to photograph)so that I could get them back in the same place.

I painted my letters using this table runner from Target as the inspiration for my color palette.

Then, I just hot glued them to the canvas.

It’s grown on me…A LOT. And, it’s way cuter with the bunting, which I’ll post about shortly. (Tomorrow, I swear. The post is done and scheduled already!)

Do you decorate for Valentine’s? Do you use the traditional red and pink or do you branch out a bit?

Please follow and like us:

Filed Under: home decor, mantel, paint, Valentine's

Shoe Storage Solution

January 13, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 22 Comments

Our previous “storage” consisted of a galvanized metal bin and people throwing their shoes in that general direction and leaving marks all over the wall. And me tripping over the shoes that missed (and cursing) at least twice a day. Strange that I thought we needed a change, right?

We made a trip to IKEA this weekend. And by “we” I mean that everyone rode there in the van and then Macy and Keller and I ran in to get the goods…less chaos that way.

I picked up 2 of these:

And my entryway now looks like this:

(Man I need a new rug. That one I spent $3 on at Target is sad.)

The original doorstop is under the cabinets, so we got one that mounts on the door hinge and adjusted it so that the door stops just short of the cabinets. It’s similar to this and was under $2 at Lowe’s.

We also have jumbo baseboards (6” or something) so the cabinets didn’t quite clear them. We mounted a 1 X 4 on the wall and screwed the cabinets to that to make up for the difference.

I posted a picture on the Facebook page when I got them installed Tuesday night and had a few requests for pictures of the inside. So, here you go.

2 pairs of men’s size 12 shoes in that one.