Spread Christmas Cheer

The best part of the holidays is decorating, and one of the best parts of decorating is crafting the decorations.

Where I live we have a big sliding glass door in the kitchen. I knew I wanted to add something to the door as far as decorating so I searched pinterest.

That's when I came across this free printable http://atsecondstreet.blogspot.com/2010/12/merry-christmas-banner.html

I printed this off with 4 on a page. I then cut them out which probably took the longest. 

I found this twine at target for $1 and the cardboard ornaments from Hobby Lobby for $1.50 for a large pack.

I glued on the letters to the ornaments. Then strung them on the twine and hung them up!

A Touch of Gold

My bathroom at my new apartment has absolutely no storage so I've had to purchase a lot of random pieces to store everything. I bought a small 5 drawer tower that holds all my make up and hair stuff.
I also bought 2 glass containers that hold cotton balls. I decided this weekend I wanted them to look a little more put together.

Sparkle and metallic has become very popular lately. So I went off the the walmart spray paint section and bought a can of rustoleum gold paint. I already had the white primer on hand.

I took out the drawers and just painted the main part of the storage tower. Then painted just the tops of the glass container. I started off with 2 coats of white primer letting each coat dry for 30 minutes in between.

Then I added 2 layers of the gold paint also letting each coat dry for 30 minutes.

I love the little pop of color and shine they add to my bathroom and some how pull everything together. Because who says you can't be chic on a low budget?

Positively Pink

I have now painted 4 coolers and I have to say I think this one turned out the best. I’m slowly getting better at it the more I paint them.

This cooler was painted and put in a silent auction to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. After hours of scanning pinterest and the internet I came up with 4 great designs to each side. I bought the cooler from Target. I went with the igloo cube cooler. I have the same cooler and love it. It’s the perfect size just for me and it has a small compartment on top to put a few belongings like keys.

After finding the cooler I sanded a lot and then primed it really well. I used the paper to trace method to get the outlines on the cooler and paint the designs.

The two with the design backgrounds are the front and back. Then the other two are on the sides. I decided to go with a small just square type of pattern on each side of the designs to keep it cleaner looking all the way around.

Pink Pumpkin for the Cure

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month! Which means any and every way I can wear pink or spread the awareness I do.

My mom works in a hospital and is a Mamm tech so I decided to make her some pumpkins to put in the waiting room for the month of October.

I bought both these pumpkins at Target. The black one already came sparkly and was only $1. The white one was I think $8.

I painted the white one pink. Then glued some pink ribbons together and put them on the pink pumpkin. I free handed the word Hope and glued on some rinestones. For the black one I just added some pink ribbon to make them go together.

Cornhole Boards

I'm the TKE Sweetheart so I'm always trying to come up with small things for the guys. I decided to take on one large project and make some cornhole boards.
I can not take credit for the boards. I had someone make them for me. I just did the prime, paint and seal.
I started off by giving the top of the board a white coat. I knew I wanted to leave the tops whit so I gave them a good coat. Then painted the sides black.

After that I started to paint on the details. I had an "engineer print" made at Staples that cost $1.50 a piece. I laid this on the boards and stenciled on the design which made it so much either than trying to free hand.

After that came a lot of detailed painting and then a million coats of sealer...because these are going to boys and I know they will leave them outside over night at some point in time.

Every bathroom needs a sign

It's safe to say that I'm not Pinterest a lot. So when I came across a really cute bathroom sign I was all for it being in my new bathroom.

Here is the sign. It was on sale on Etsy but has since been sold.

I love Etsy but if you're even a little bit crafty you can buy/make some stuff on Etsy for less than half the cost people sell it for. So that is exactly what I did...made my own.

Bought the canvas from Michaels with a 40% coupon for around $5
Paint on hand
Polka dot stencil on hand

I started off by painting the canvas a coral color.

Then I roughly stenciled on the dots. Since it's just circles the stencil didn't have to be perfect. I mostly wanted it for the spacing.
I took the back of a paint marker dipped it in the paint and then dotted it on the canvas. It was really easy!

After a two coats of the white dot paint. I let it dry completely. Then laid out how I wanted my words. I very lightly wrote out the words on the canvas. Then used a paint pen to actually write out the words and make the font as think as I wanted.

It now hangs above the towel rack and adds a great pop of color to a very white bathroom.

Book Shelf Revamp

I just recently moved into a new duplex so I ended up buying all new furniture for my bedroom and getting rid of all the old random pieces I had when I was in college.
I bought a new chevron bedspread from Target that I love. It's a teal, yellow and gray pattern. All my furniture is black.
I need something to put my TV on and a place for some storage so I went to Target and bought a cheapo bookcase.
While putting it together I realized that it just had the cheap backing and I wanted to vamp it up a bit.
I primed the backing white and then painted it the teal color to match my bedspread.

I love how it turned out and gives a little pop of color.