It’s Not Just For Wrapping Meat

My household sister, Jerilyn, recently introduced me to the wonderful world of freezer paper .  In particular, the wonderful world of freezer paper stenciling.  Way back when, when we announced sprout numero three was on his/her way, I used this technique to get the numbers 1, 2, and 3 onto some onesies and a tee.

 

First, I traced the numbers by placing a piece of freezer paper over a Word document on which I had picked out a 1, 2, and 3 in a font I liked.  I trace really, really lightly so as not to damage our ancient computer’s screen (heaven forbid) and I also lay the screen back and flat so that I wasn’t tracing while holding the paper up.  Make sense?

Then I cut out each number and number sign with an exacto knife.  Remember that any pieces that are unattached/floating, like the inside of my number sign or the insides of a’s, e’s, o’s, etc, will need to be saved and set in place before ironing!!

Next up I whipped out the ironing board and it’s kin, laid the stencil over each article of clothing I was doing (a onesie in this case), and ironed it on by pressing on each area of paper for about 7 seconds or so.

Oh yeah, and I made sure to stick some wax paper in between the front and back of the onesie/tee so the paint didn’t seep through!

Once the paper cooled, I made sure it was completely stuck to the onesie and sponged some gold paint (Martha Stewart from Home Depot – the same paint I used on this mirror) onto the stencil.

I did all three numbers at once and ripped the stencils off right after I was done sponging the last one, while the paint was still wet.

The marvelous thing about freezer paper stenciling is that the options are ennndlesssssss…  For real yo.  And, the finished product is washable (assuming you use permanent paint).  So cool.  I’ll never use iron-on designs again.

Here are some outtakes of our little announcement photo shoot just for a giggle and to show-off those freezer paper wonders:
[What that “sexy” toss of the hair looks like mid-action.]


[Somebody forgot to tell C she was supposed to be involved in a staring contest.]

Turns out that pressing the self-timer button while holding a baby and then running to the scene of the pictorial in a maxi skirt in time to make a lasting shot isn’t my strong suit, Cecilia has two…nope, one facial expression (getta loada those cheeks!), and lighting DOES make a difference.

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So, anyone else have some freezer paper stencils goin’ on?  If so, on what?  Clothes, curtains, bags, hats…the medium and design options are endless and that my friends, is awesome.  :)

P.S.  The twins are ONE!!!  We went on a birthday excursion to the zoo because they are absolutely enamored by animals and it was oh-so-fun!!!  I’ll get a post up all about it asap!

Not Mythology, or Salad, or Big, Fat Weddings

Nope, even though I love me a good greek salad, this post has nothing to do with those and everything to do with the window seat in the girls’ room.  I’ve had it on my to-do list to paint it white for awhile now, an easy project that just got pushed aside. 

Then that “easy project” picked up a little more time and effort as I threw around stencil options and whatever else my brain could conjure up.  I finally settled on taping off a greek key design to add a little more pattern and punch to their room.

Per the usual, here’s the what and how:

First, I drew a big’ ole box close to the perimeter of the front of the window seat using our level to make sure my lines were on the straight and narrow.

Then, using 3/4 inch wide masking tape, I taped along the outside of my newly penciled box.

Next, I taped off the pattern as follows:1 – place one strip of tape horizontally and parallel to the edge of the big rectangle
2 – place another strip of tape parallel to tape strip 1
3 – place four strips of tape across strips 1 and 2
4 – mark the areas of tape that will need to be removed and cut them off using an exacto knife (the photosh0pped lines show where I cut)
5 – done!

And, in case you’re wondering, here are the measurements I used:

They’re the same on both the upper and lower half and on each side.  I might also mention that after I was done taping, I wasn’t happy with the spacing in the middle, so I ripped off the bottom half of my taped design and moved it down an inch or two.  The above measurements stayed the same.

Pardon the interruption, but while I was taping I had the girls in the room playing and I looked over to see Seraphia clapping for the first time ever.  So, I snatched the opportunity:

Sooo, all clapping aside, here’s what the entire design looked like sans taping, cutting, moving down, and taping and cutting again:

Last, I rolled on one coat of white primer followed by one coat of white paint leftover from painting the stripes, took off the tape right after painting, and… …greek key everyone…and a free one at that.  I used things I already had on hand…love those kinds of projects!   

You might’ve also noticed we moved/squeezed in the second crib which means that the girls have officially taken up residence in their own room!  As a matter of fact, I snapped these pics right after laying them down for a nap that day.  Little angels I tell ya!  :) 

Well, the only thing left to do for the window seat is to make a cushion and that’s it.  I’m still hunting for some cheap fabric for that so it’s on to another project involving a mirror, some pretty paint, and some sticks.  Stay tuned!

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Anyone else used tape in creating recently?  How about painting a greek key pattern somewhere?  Speaking of greek key, how cool would it be to turn it up a notch and greek key an entire wall, the front/top of a dresser or desk, or a box of some sort, or the bottom of a tray, or around a mirror…the possibilities are endless! 

It’s A Shlaque!

A what?  A Shlaque!  A what?  A Shhllaaque!  Oh!  A shelf plaque.

 
That’s the only way I could think to describe this combo of shelf-and-plaque-in-one.  It used to hang in my grandparent’s “house in town” (that’s what we called their home while we resided on the farm) and once Christmas a couple of years ago, I spotted some decor potential in it and asked if I could have it.  I had some flowers painted on it but I had a different sort of paint job in mind, so I sanded them off right after I got it home.  And then it sat until the past week when I thought I’d hang it to the left of the off-center angel in the girls’ room:

And then I changed my mind, but not until after I took some tape and spray paint to it.  Here’s what I did:

I wanted the entire thing to be white, except an outline design close to the edge of the plaque.  So, I taped off the area I didn’t want painted: (Side note:  The shelf broke off in transport from Nebraska to here and so that’s why it’s missing some of these pictures.  A little Liquid Nail will come in handy to reattach it, which we still haven’t done.)

Then I drew a design mimicking the curves of the top and bottom of the plaque right over the tape:

Next I whipped out the craft knife I bought at Target this week ($5.50)…

…and cut around my penciled lines on each end.

Outside I went where I propped up my good ‘ole spray painting plywood, popped a nail in, and hung up the shlaque.  (I hung it because I’ve been getting annoyed with bugs jumping from grass to newly spray painted surfaces while my board is on the ground.  So, prop-and-hang equals no bugs, no sanding bugs off, and no post-bug touch-ups.)

I sprayed on one coat of white primer followed by three thin and even coats of white spray paint, doing the same thing to the unattached shelf. 

Then, after letting it sit outside for the remainder of the day lest it smell up my house, I carefully peeled off the tape and:

it went from old school to new and cool real quick like.

Except when I held it up next to the painted window it didn’t quite jive.  I’m not sure if it’s the color (maybe I should’ve gone a light coral or add a little distress or…) or adding more lines to an already striped wall but I’m not in love and so I’ve got another plan for that space.  For now, the shlaque is patiently waiting another wall home.

By the way, I’ve seen gobs of these things in thrift stores.  Go snatch up a shlaque for yourself and show me what you can do!

Have a great weekend!

T.E. Dious

For the past three weeks I’ve been working on the most time-consuming, am-i-insane project ever…but it’s done now and was “wall” worth it.  Let’s backtrack though before we get to the good stuff.

As you might recall, we’ve been transforming our master bathroom into light and bright over the dark and outdated it was.  So far, we’ve ripped up the laminate tile, laid down new, ceramic tile, painted the cabinets, and painted the laminate countertops.  Most recently though, I took to painting the walls and adding some accent wall flair with a stencil.  I’ve always loved the idea of having a tiled accent wall, using either some gorgeous glass subway tile or round penny tile in a bathroom but, on a budget, those dreams remain just what they are…dreams.  :)  But the next best thing is a free stencil, right? 

So, using the same stencil (downloaded from Jones Design Company) I used to spice up these pillows last spring, I first penciled the stencil, then grabbed a small paint brush and leftover cabinet paint (Promenade by Valspar) and played Picasso.

Here’s the wall before I started:

   Of course, this is after I painted the entire room – Smoked Oyster by Valspar.  It’s a sort of dark grayish beige, or greige if you’re into mixing words like that.

This is in process…when I was questioning why I did this and also came to the realization that my hand wasn’t as steady as I had previously thought…:

 And this is done:

The whole process took me almost three weeks to finish, me working on it about 4 hours a week…yeah, for one wall, that’s crazy!  Tell me about it!  One of the reasons it took me so long though is because I used an el cheapo paint brush we had lying around.  It was not very short of a kids watercolor brush.  But, once I started with it, I had to continue because if I had gotten a nicer, stiffer brush it wouldn’t have looked quite as hand-painted…which I wasn’t necessarily going for but actually looks really good on the completely finished wall. 

Any imperfections are unnoticeable because when you look at the finished wall, your eye doesn’t know where to land so they just blend in…even though after I was done I did take some of the greige paint to fix a couple of “oops” spots.

I’m really happy with the end result even though I’m not sure if I’ll ever take on this stencil again…it made the $40 - $50 wall stencils look cheap and maybe worth it in the future.  But, when the day comes where I forget how long this took me but remember how cheap it was to do, I’ll probably stick my foot in my mouth and do it again.  :)

Just to jog your memories, here’s where we started:

And here’s where we are so far:

We have yet to add some floating shelves to the wall in between the two mirrors, make a roman shade to adorn the window, and add some other decor in the way of pictures and such before we can officially call it a done deal but the big projects are d-o-n-e.  Thank goodness, because the loveseat’s a-waitin’.  Look for a post on her next week…yes, we’ve made progress!  Until then, have a great weekend! 

And More Pillows

Like I said two posts before, I think I'm addicted to making pillows...or to my sewing machine at least.  Fabric stores are like candy stores to me now (they always kind of were but it's just escalated since I found stitch-witchery and received my machine).  A few days after I made my porch pillows, I got out my Bernina again and away I went.  This time though, I made pillows for our master bedroom.  The best part about these two stuffed squares though is that they only cost me a buck to cover...yep, that's right...one dollar.  That's because I used a Target shower curtain I found for $2 to make them.  :)

All of the inspiration and motivation for these pillows came from Jones Design Company, where Emily created and generously shared a beautiful stencil I knew I had to try!  She painted it onto her walls and I'm dying to try that avenue too (next house), but I tried pillow covers instead. 

Here's how it stenciled out:

First I made the pillow covers using half of the shower curtain using the same (probably unconventional) sewing techniques as my porch pillows. 

Then I pulled out the stencil I had just printed and traced onto cardboard.  In 20 minutes I had both covers stenciled and was bringing out the paint.

After contemplating what color to use, I ended up just going with the little bit of the blue-gray (Heaven on Earth by Benjamin Moore) wall paint we had left from painting our master.  It was free, it would match the room perfectly, and it would pull some blue onto our almost completely white bed.

So, after setting some newspaper inside the covers to ward off any paint bleeding that might occur, a-brushin' I went. 

I tried to be frugal with the paint use as all that was left was a light layer on the bottom of the can so I just painted a thin line over each penciled stencil.  After I was done, I realized and wished I had painted thicker lines since I had more than enough paint left but I was too excited to get them on the bed and move on so the thicker lines will beanother project for another day.

Here's our new, one dolla pillow covers:

I heart geometric prints!

On the flip side of my love-to-create life, I've been busy with all the things spring brings - Confirmation, babysitting, Easter planning, retreats, and more.  But I've still managed to fit in some projects here and there, including a minor guestroom makeover fit for parents.  :)  I cannot wait to reveal this one!  Until next week then, ta ta!