{create} chalkboard vase

Update 8/2/11: I'm submitting this post to the Pinterest challenge, because before Pinterest was all the rage, I had this little project tagged on the site to remember to actually make it. And sure enough, a few weeks later, I actually did! I can't say all my *to make* projects have been successful, or even attempted, but I do love this one. Thanks for stopping by! And, if you'd like to follow me on Pinterest, I can be found here. 

Happy Monday all! Did you have a good weekend? I missed you all on Friday! But, the sun was out, the temperature hit 65 degrees in Portland and, considering this was the first nice AND warm day we'd seen since last October, I didn't have it in me to sit in front of a computer. So I went outside and played instead and it was completely lovely :).

Today, I have a fun do-it-yourself project to share. A couple weeks ago I saw that Terrain is carrying these adorable chalkboard vases:

I immediately thought: um, I could make that. Do you guys do that? I do it ALL. THE. TIME. In fact, that thought keeps me from buying a lot of stuff, even though I usually never do make said item. So, I guess that's my internal budgeting feature kicking in :). BUT, I LOVED these vases and I did actually make my own.

I think they turned out super cute, so I wanted to share a quick and easy how-to + couple ideas how to use them, so you too can have cute chalkboard vases this spring.

First, I gathered a few glasses, jars, wine bottles, etc. that we had lying around the house and gave them a good washing.

Then, I coated them with an oil-based primer. We haven't had the springiest-spring (see first paragraph), so I went with a brush and paint route, rather than spray paint. Either would work for this project.

For paint, I grabbed a couple Martha Stewart sample pots from Home Depot and painted a few coats of each on both the outside and inside. I really like the look of the painted inside and outside of the vase.

Then I just taped off where I wanted the chalkboard paint and painted two coats on each bottle. Make sure you read the directions on the chalkboard paint. It gave very specific dry and re-coat times. I was a little worried about pulling the tape off, but it came up great and neither the background paint or the chalkboard paint chipped.

So once you've made the vases, what can you do with them? Here's a few ideas:

1. Use them as a centerpiece.

Put a couple sprigs of flowers in each vase, group them together and you have an arrangement that's both springy and graphic.

This is how my vases are currently hanging out in our kitchen.

2. Place settings

I would love to use these as place settings at my next dinner party or family holiday gathering.

Each person could take their own vase and flower home, which would be an adorable gift to give your family and friends.

I think this idea would also work so well for wedding place settings/favors. They were incredibly inexpensive to make -- especially with the *recycled* glass. And, I, personally, would love to take something like this home from a wedding!

3. Give away to friends to brighten their day.

I've surprised a couple friends with flowers over the last week or so. They're a great *happy new home*, *thanks for inviting us over* or even just *happy spring!*

How would you use chalkboard vases?

{inspired} craft rooms & offices

Friends, I'm stumped.

See, the back bedroom that we just completely refinished serves as my sewing/craft room and our office. Plus, Chris' dresser and clothes live in the (smaller) closet :). That's a whole lot of multi-functioning for one, pretty tiny, room. Since we put so much effort into making the bones of this room look sharp, I want to make sure the furnishings follow suite. Plus, it's a craft/sewing room. It needs to be inspirational, or I'll never sew ;).

I thought I'd start with a mood board. Similar to the one I made for the back entry. But, I can't come up with anything! What's a girl to do? That's right, hit the great interwebs for inspiration. I'm not sure why it's taken me this long to write this post, but just looking through craft room photos and offices photos has been immensely helpful and inspirational.

Want to see what I'm loving for offices and craft rooms?

This lovely office has been on my radar for a couple years. What I especially like is the *L* shaped table that gives lots of counter space with a minimal footprint, and the big armoire for storage.

Flickr: VARNISH design

This room is gorgeous. LOVE that lamp. What really caught my attention, though, is the creative fabric *storage*. All my fabric is hiding behind closet doors at the moment. Having is on display is not only beautiful, but incredibly helpful for remembering what you have to work with.

Pinterest

Here, I am loving both the lights (chandelier lights in an office are so pretty!) and the HUGE table.

 Etsy

I don't have room for an entire wall of storage, but I like the idea repurposing a console or buffet into a large counter area.

BHG

This room is amazingly close to what I have in mind. Like the first picture, it's a *L* shaped set up. The photo is a little blurry, but you can see a sewing machine at one end of the tables and a computer under the window. Love this.

Martha Stewart

This room I love solely for the the color palette. Okay, and all the great storage boxes :).

 The State of Things

I'm thinking a lot about floating shelves, similar to this. I like how these shelves are customized and think a few of these a long one of the walls would be a great addition.

What are some of your office or craft room *must haves*? Do you have rooms in your house that do double or triple duty?? And, any ideas for creative fabric storage? There doesn't seem to be much on the internet about this.

{create} fabric silhouettes

Remember how I tend to ignore trends? This is another instance. I love silhouettes.  I've just never figured out where I could fit them into our house. Until recently. Since I *finished* our bedroom, I've been looking for something to put above each of our nightstands. I just had no idea what I was looking for really.

I mean, technically, the bedroom was great! But for some reason those two spaces were really bothering me. So I decided to put silhouettes above each of our nightstands ... you know, to designate a *his* and *hers* side of the bed :).

So I whipped up these babies in an afternoon.  Silhouettes are usually made with paper, but I wanted to add my own spin on the traditional silhouette and decided to make them out of fabric. I love fabric and stitching and think it adds a little more dimension than paper. Plus it's a great way to use up fabric scraps.

And here's the same space after they're hung! I love it. And I can finally let the bedroom be *done*. You know, for now :). I am still thinking about curtains for the windows ... but that's a story for another day.

Want to know how to make your own fabric silhouette? I know the answer is YES! :)

First, gather all your supplies. You'll need: silhouette pictures, paper, fabric for the silhouettes, background fabric, thread, Wonder Under (this is a link to A LOT of the stuff ... you can find it at your local craft store for less quantity and therefore less expensive) or your favorite fusible web, foam core and frames.

First, take a side photo of your head. I blacked them out because I wanted to play in photoshop one day, but since you're actually transferring them to fabric it isn't necessary. Print and carefully cut out.

Next, take your Wonder Under and attached the fabric to the sticky side.  If you haven't used Wonder Under in the past, they actually give very specific directions on the roll for how to best use.  Next, trace your paper pattern onto the backside of the Wonder Under and cut out the pattern.  Take the paper off the back side of the Wonder Under and iron your silhouette to the background fabric. The Wonder Under is great. It keeps your two fabrics in place when you're sewing, and it keeps the cut edges from fraying. Fraying can be great in some projects, but you don't want something as intricate as a face fraying. You could chance looking like you have booger hanging out your nose. Bad news.

Next using a straight stitch, trace around the outside line of the head. I used yellow thread for the contrast. The best part of this is you don't have to use your sewing machine. I default to my machine, but I had to go so slow that it actually probably would've been quicker to hand stitch. Use whichever you're more comfortable with.

When you're done, you're silhouette will look like this. Except with your or your loved ones head, not Chris'. :)

And now for framing. Of course, I have 45 empty frames in my basement, so I grabbed two of the same size. Then I cut two pieces of foam core to fit the frame.

Then wrap your fabric around the foam core, as you'd wrap a gift. I've found that tape actually secures the fabric incredibly well. But, of course, now that I've discovered my staple gun, I'd probably use that next time. You know, just for fun.

Once up, I had a hers ....

.. and a his.

And art that adds a great amount of loveliness to our bedroom.

Thanks for stopping by today! I'd love to hear .... what are you up to this weekend? We'll be working on our girls and boys projects. Of course! :)

{create} flower garland

Last week when I featured my new awesome letterpress artwork, a few people asked about the flower garland I have strung across the fireplace.

I was going to simply direct them to the post I'd written about it, when I realized I've actually never posted about that adorable garland! So today I'm going to give a quick lesson on creating flowers and garlands. The best part about this garland are these flowers, which are super versatile, fun and easy!

First, gather all your supplies. You'll need fabric (I usually use two to three different fabrics), scissors, thread and a needle.

Next cut out three sizes of circles, with four circles per size.

Third, take the largest circles and fold all four in half.

Next, over lap each half circle as shown above. (Not sure how to describe that without confusing everyone!) Last, using a simple straight stitch, sew all the sides together. I use a diagonal cross pattern. I've found that it secures a little better.

See all the great ruffles you get just from this first layer?

Not just repeat with as many colors and as many layers you'd like. Sew each layer together individually, and then sew it to the layers it'll sit on. The more layers, obviously, the fuller your flower will be.

I've played around with a bunch of different ways to make these. You can cut ridges along the outside to make it look more like petals. I also like mine really poofy. There are a few ways to get there. First, make lots of layers. Second, use heavier weight fabric.

Third, sew two circles together before you start layering. I really like this way because it  not only adds weight and dimension, but you only see the front of the fabric on each side (see above).

As you can see these flowers are very easily customizable. Once you have the basic shape, there are a million variations.

I think they'd be really cute as pins to brighten an outfit, or even as some sort of hair clip.

But, to turn them into a garland, simply sew as many as you'd like onto a piece of fabric, ribbon, or in my case twine. These tend to get a little heavy, so make sure you sew the twine or ribbon on the top half of the flower. It'll help the flower not look droopy on the garland.

Last, just hang where ever you need a little color and a little festiveness!

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you all are having a great friday! :)

{create} coffee filter projects

Last week, Ez from Creature Comforts posted a coffee filter tutorial that was just so adorable I couldn't NOT make it. Immediately. Besides, it was perfect for the baby gift I was wrapping for a shower last weekend. And it turned out so cute that I couldn't not share it with you guys.

I started with the simplest of supplies. Coffee filters. Metal brads.

And after a few minutes folding and hole punching I had created this beautiful, full, ruffly flower. It's a perfect present topper! Ez also suggests that they can be stuck to a wall (cute!), or secure two to create a three-d flower to hang from the ceiling. Seriously great party decor friends!

Here's something you might not know about me. I come from a long line of professional gift wrappers. :) Okay, not really, but my mom is an amazing gift wrapper. She really does have it down to a fine art. Growing up around that level of perfection was bound to wear off on me a little. I love collecting paper and coming up with beautiful and interesting ways to wrap gifts. The combo, above, was my first choice for wrapping last weekend. Sadly, it didn't work out. Not enough paper to cover the box.

Orange was choice two. As you can probably imagine, my gift was the brightest of the bunch at the baby shower. Pastels don't really live in this house :).

And the finished product. I love that the flower was pretty much as big as the box. It made a huge wonderful statement. A small piece of paper in the center covered the brad (I'd go even smaller next time). 

You can get the full coffee filter flower tutorial here.

Now I have a huge amount of coffee filters! In a house with no coffee drinkers :). Of course there is always this amazing project. Or this one.

What about you guys? Have you run across any fun creative uses for coffee filters lately? What other everyday items are you crafting with?

Thanks for stopping by today and Happy Friday friends!

edited 2/8/11: I'm linking this project up over at Krafty Kat's Gettin' Krafty With it Link Party!