Bathroom Remodel: Staining and Painting

It is now time for another update on the progress I have made in redecorating our bathroom. The next step on my list of things to do was to stain the wood cabinets. Initially I was planning to paint the cabinets either a white or gray but after looking at pictures and inspiration online I decided not to paint the cabinets. But I knew I needed to do something to the cabinets. I wanted them to change and to be honest I didn't like the light honey color that the cabinets were already.

We stained the cabinets with a dark walnut wood stain and I'm so happy with the finished effect. The darker color looks much nicer and more finished than the light color it was before.



Next was the biggest task on my list, painting the walls. I have had plenty of experience painting so I wasn't overwhelmed with the job ahead of me. The ceilings in our house are really high so the hardest part when we were painting was reaching the high ceilings. The only way to reach the ceiling to do the trim was to cram our big and bulky ladder into the small bathroom.



After painting the first two coats I realized that because I chose such a light shade of blue there was a very high possibility that we would need a third coat. I cringed because I really did not want to have to paint the walls a third time. Fortunately we were lucky. Once the second coat dried and we looked closely at the walls we were happily surprised to find that it looked perfect.



The two main projects I had planned for our bathroom are done, the staining and the painting. Now comes the fun part. Decorating!

Bathroom Remodel: The Curtain

There is one room in our house I am just never satisfied with - our bathroom. It seems it's always a messy room with hair stuff always on the counter and wet towels lying on the floor. We didn't even have a matching theme for this room. As you can see it was kinda like a mixed and matched bathroom.

Well, I decided that this summer I needed a project to work on and I've always wanted to try my hand at house decorating. Our bathroom seemed to perfect way to start!

First thing on my list was to decide on the theme. I chose a beach theme since I adore the beach and have always wanted to make a beach themed room. We found the perfect curtain at Ross and some cute bathroom rugs that coordinated.



For the main colors of the bathroom I decided to do light aqua blues, mint greens, tans, and dark brown.

As you can see in the picture below our bathroom does not have a curtain. The first thing that needed to go was the glass door for our bathtub.



You would not believe all the dirty grimy gunk we found once we took off the shower doors. Ick! I quickly went to work on scrubbing away all the dirt and grime until my arms ached.

As you can see, once I finished it looked so much better. Nice and clean again!



After we put up the curtain the bathroom was already starting to look much better. My favorite part about the curtain is that it hides any mess you may have in the bathtub, haha.



I'm so excited to have this new project to work on. Already I am seeing so much improvement and I am having so much fun being the one in charge of decorating our bathroom. I will have more posts soon as I continue to make progress.

Have you ever redecorated a room before? What's you favorite room theme?

Birthday Time ~ DIY Wrapping Paper

Well, today was a very special day for a very special brother. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful brother and I can't believe that today he turned eighteen! He's officially an adult now. I'm not ready for this. Why does time have to fly by so fast.  Anyway, there is nothing I can do about the time but just enjoy each moment and make the most out of each day.

Last night I realized I still hadn't wrapped his present and as I was digging through all our wrapping paper all I ended up finding was piles of Christmas paper. We have all the Christmas wrapping paper we could ever need but when it comes to birthdays, well, the choices are very thin.

Of course it's like ten o'clock at night when I get the idea to make my own wrapping paper. Using my new Aquash Water Brush and my watercolors I created a simple design on a big sheet of paper.



Once the paper was dry I wrapped my gift with my one-of-a-kind homemade wrapping paper. Can you guess what my brothers favorite color is?



To finish off the present, instead of a bow, because to be honest, I'm just not a big fan of bows, I tied a piece of twine around the box and tied it in a nice little bow.

And Wa-La! My gift was all ready for my brothers birthday!

I think that anything homemade, even if it's wrapping paper which will only end up being thrown away in the end, is so special. It's just a simple way to tell that special person that you love them.

Have you ever received a homemade gift before? Have you ever given a special friend a homemade gift?

DIY - Miniature Wooden Crate

For as long as I can remember thrift stores have always been my favorite place to shop. First, you can't beat their prices. Secondly, it's basically a store that sells everything from clothes to furniture and all the in between.  I always find a new treasure whenever I go to our local thrift store.

My latest find was this darling miniature crate. I knew right away it would work great for organizing, not to mention it was just adorable.  For only one dollar how could I say no!

The only problem, I hated the color. It was a metallic silver. In my opinion it was a poor choice of color for the crate.  But I knew I could always repaint it to match my room.

I used the same paint I used for my last few projects (my Crackle Paint Picture Frame, and my Painted Mason Jars).  To get the same color  I used for my painted mason jars I added a little white paint to lighten the light blue paint.

 I decided to do the crackle technique with the crate so I painted the undercoat white.  It needed two coats of white paint.

 If you want a more detailed tutorial on the crackle technique using Elmer's glue check out my previous blog post here.

After I applied the glue I painted the crate with my light  blue paint. As it dried it began to crackle.  It still amazes me how this works. One moment it's just one plain color and the next minute it's starting to crackle and the undercoat is peeking through.

Can you believe this adorable crate used to be an ugly metallic silver?  I can't either.  Not only do I adore the new color of my crate but the crackle effect added a nice texture to the wooden crate.

 

I've decided that finding something that has potential and 're-painting' it to go with my room has become one of my favorite pastimes.  I hope you will find his post helpful and that it will inspire you to be creative.

Do you like to shop at thrift stores too? What kinds of treasures have you found and re-purposed?  

My Sewing Adventures - Pattern Drafting

  

Sewing has been one of my favorite pastimes for a long time .  Not just sewing, but sewing costumes.  I've come to a point where I am so familiar with a patterns that I find myself wanting to make my own patterns.  A dear friend of mine who knows the skill of pattern drafting let me borrow a few of the books that really helped her learn the skill.  I would highly recommend Designing Dress Patterns by Helen Nicol Tanous.  I found to my surprise that this book wasn't overly complicated, and  It really helped me understand all the tricks and techniques involved in pattern drafting.

The first step of my endeavor into pattern drafting was to create what is called the basic block.  The book Designing Dress Patterns gives you the measurements to make a basic block in size 14.  

I cut out, on a sheet of poster board, the basic block for both the front and back bodice, and the sleeve.  My basic block is pictured below.

Using the basic blocks I learned how to swing darts, how to "Slash and Spread" for adding gathers,  how to add the extra length for buttons, how to draft a pattern for the facing, and so much more. If any of those terms are unfamiliar with you I basically learned how to take the basic blocks that you see above and add to them to create whatever style I desire.

For my first official project I decided to draft my own prairie blouse pattern. Spring is here and the spring living history camp, Rock-N-Water, that my family works at is going to be starting soon. I've been busy sewing aprons and skirts for the upcoming season at Rock-N-Water.

As  I began the process of creating my pattern I found that pattern drafting is not as easy as I first thought.  I drafted pattern piece after pattern piece.  Using scrap fabric I would test out my pattern only to find that it didn't look at all like I had envisioned.  But after making all the changes that were necessary I finally drafted a pattern that worked.  

I created a blouse with slightly off the shoulder sleeves, a yoke with gathers, bishop sleeves, and with lace to fancy it up a bit. Below is my finished blouse.

Since my blouse turned out to be such a success I decided to make my sister one as well.  I made a few adjustments to hers.  She wanted a peter pan color and sleeves that only came just slightly past her elbow.  The finished blouse I made for her is pictured below.

Lastly, my mom loved my blouse pattern so much she asked me to make her one too.  As you can see, in the picture below, I made quite a few changes for her blouse.  I made the yoke a little bit wider and a little bit longer.  It was her idea to use contrasting fabrics and I think that was a great idea.  The contrasting fabrics really look nice on this blouse.  

I am very happy with my pattern.  I'm so glad I can say that it was a success. I am amazed at how I  was able to create three different looks by using the same pattern. 

Though pattern drafting was a lot harder than I initially thought, it is not impossible and this was only the first step, of many, to having a better understanding of pattern drafting.  

DIY - Painted Mason Jars

Recently I bought a set of water color markers and gel pens, but I didn't quite know where to store them.  

I'm in the process of adding ice blue/mint green accents to my room so I knew that I needed to either find something or make something in that color that would work for storing my art supplies.

I love finding things you can re-purpose for new uses.  Painted mason jars has been on my list of DIYs to try and they just happened to be a perfect solution for organizing my art supplies. Another plus is we always have lots of mason jars because my mom loves to use them for storage. So a trip to the store was not necessary for this simple project.

I found three mason Jars, two big ones and one small one, and mixed up some DIY chalk paint (I used the same paint I used for my DIY Crackle Picture Frame). I decided to mix some white paint into my blueish green paint to give my jars a lighter pastel color.  

I only did one coat of paint but if you want a smoother and thicker look to your jars I would recommend doing two coats.  I was going for a rustic vintage look with my jars.  

Once they are dry you can decorate them however you desire.  I used sandpaper to rub off the paint over the brand name. I also used white chalk and rubbed the chalk over the paint to add a little extra color and texture.  Lastly I finished off my jars by adding some burlap and lace to the big jars and leaving the small one plain.

Once they were all finished I divided my pens and markers into the jars and found the perfect home for my jars on my bed stand.  I'm really pleased with how my jars turned out and was surprised at how easy it was to make these jars.

This is a fun and easy project for anyone looking for creative ways to organize and decorate.  

DIY - Crackle Paint Picture Frame

I think it's about time for another tutorial.  My desk has kinda become a place for all kinds of clutter but I have also found that it's the best place for all of my picture frames.  Sitting on my desk the past few days has been a Bible verse "postcard" which I bought a few weeks ago. You can see it in the picture above.  

1 Corinthians 13:13  has always been one of my favorite Bible verses so I was anxious to find a place to display it in my room.

I searched for the perfect frame at the thrift store, because I'm the kind of girl who hates paying full price for simple things that you can find cheap at a thrift store.  I found a frame that had the right measurements but I wasn't too big on the paint job someone had given the frame (as you can see in the picture below).

I was about to put the frame back when I had a great idea! I figured it would be simple enough to paint over the frame. I purchased the frame for under five dollars and was excited to have a new craft project to work on.

I looked around online and I found some really helpful tutorials on how to make chalk paint and I even found a tutorial on how to make crackle paint. Since I was really in the creative mood I decided to have fun and experiment with these two tutorials.

These are the Tutorials I found helpful:

Chalk Paint Tutorial - http://www.clumsycrafter.com/2012/08/how-to-make-chalk-paint/

Crackle Paint Tutorial - http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/crackle-finish-with-elmers-glue.html

Below is my own tutorial of how I painted my frame.  

First I had to paint over the previous paint job. Since I decided to make my frame with DIY crackle paint the base color needed to be the color I wanted to show through underneath the main color.  I chose white and since white is such a light color my frame needed about 2-3 coats of paint.  

I added a small amount of plaster and water to my ice blue/green acrylic paint to make my own DIY version of chalk paint.  You can find the exact measurements for creating your own chalk paint in one of the links above.

I experimented with the crackling technique on some cardboard I found lying around in the craft room where I was working. I was skeptical at first.  It seemed too easy and I wasn't quite sure if it was going to work.  But to my surprise when the paint started to dry it crackled. 

To get the crackle effect all you have to do is simply coat your board, or whatever your project is, in my case a frame, with...  Are you ready?  Prepare to be blown away by how crazy simple it is... ELMER'S CRAFT GLUE!  You can also use any other less popular brand of glue that you are bound to have in one of your craft drawers or with the school supplies.

Once I coated my frame in a thin layer of glue I let it sit for about 1-2 minutes.  I was listening to music while I worked so I figured once the song that had just started was over, it would be ready for the next step.

You want the glue to still be wet when you paint over it.  I used my homemade chalk paint but just plain acrylics will do the trick just fine.  Simply paint over the glue. It's as simple as that.

Then the magic happens. It truly is just like magic. After as little as one minute you will start to see the paint crackling as it drys and the color you chose for underneath starts to show through.  

Once it was all dry I put my picture in the frame and found the perfect spot on my desk for my new frame.  I'm in love with my new frame. I still can't believe how simple it was to get such an amazing end result.

I hope that you find this tutorial helpful.  I always love being able to learn new things and I hope this is true of you too.  

My Second Cosplay ~ Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon

I can't believe this year is coming to an end already!  This has been a great year for me. One of my dreams has been to make a cosplay. I not only made one cosplay this year, but two.  I made my Astrid cosplay from 'How to Train Your Dragon 2' over the summer months and these past few weeks I have put together a Hiccup cosplay for my brother.  I plan on eventually making him a cosplay for Hiccup from the second movie but I needed a simple cosplay that I could quickly put together.  So here we have Hiccup from the first movie. 

Step one was getting all the materials for the cosplay.  I really didn't want to spend a lot of money on this cosplay so I tried to use what I had instead of buying fur and fabric.  I did have to buy the green fabric for Hiccup's tunic.  I used fur scraps that my sister didn't have a use for to make Hiccup's vest.  

For the tunic I used McCalls pattern 3658.  It's an out-of-print pattern that we happen to have because my mom found it at the thrift store a few years ago.  I modified the tunic by adding the eyelets and leather lacing to the neckline and the 'rip' Hiccup has at the bottom of his tunic.  I also added quite a bit of length to the tunic because my brother is tall (he's taller than me!). The belt is just a long strip of brown fabric that I found in our scrap pile.  It's simply tied in the back and the knot is covered by the vest.

The vest was the hard part.  Sometimes the cheap way is also the hard way.  We did not have enough of one fur for the vest, so I took all the fur scraps we had and cut them into pieces and sewed all the pieces together.  Since it's fur I had to sew it all by hand!  Not what you would call a piece of cake.  Because of this the vest does not look identical to the vest Hiccup has.  It's unique.  I think it has a more authentic look, since I used mostly real fur scraps.

My mom found some dark green sweatpants at the thrift store.  I had to basically turn them into leggings.  I had my brother put them on and I figured out how much excess to cut off.  Hiccup has a few stitches on his pants so I cut a few holes in the pants and weaved in the same leather lacing I used for the tunic. 

I was at a loss as for what to do about the boots because I was using the only boots we had that would work for my Astrid cosplay.  My mom found a pair of slippers at the thrift store that to my surprise fit perfectly for Hiccup.  the only thing I added to them was some extra fur on top to make them a little higher.

That is pretty much it for the costume part of the cosplay.  Since I have an ax for my Astrid cosplay my mom thought it be neat if we had a prop for Hiccup.  I agreed but I was in the middle of sewing Hiccup's tunic and wasn't really feeling like I wanted to take on more work.  To my surprise my Mom and my brother made Hiccup's shield from the movie (I am so lucky to have a Mom who loves to create stuff just as much as I do and is always helping me with my projects).

They made the shield out of foam sandwiched in between two pieces of cardboard.  My mom did an amazing job of painting the shield and adding the metal edges (which is actually just poster board cut and painted with silver spray paint).

There you go.  That is how I made Hiccup's outfit for my brother. My brother makes a pretty good Hiccup, if a I do say so myself. He is kinda in that awkward teenage stage still so he fits Hiccup perfectly.  The only problem is his hair is not quite long enough for Hiccup but at least it's the right color.

Since we still had a lot of snow outside, which is not going to be melting any time soon,  we both put on our cosplays and took snow pictures.  Below are a few of my favorites.