DIY Date Banner

D.I.Y. Date Banner

For my sister's bridal shower, I was in charge of helping with decorations.  In the room that we were having the food there was a huge blank wall behind the food that looked really plain.  I decided that a banner would look really great there.  Plus,She can even keep it and use it at her wedding reception by the gift table!

WHAT YOU NEED 

* 4 pieces of scrapbook paper (3 tan and 1 red for the hearts)

*  black acrylic paint

* twine

STEPS

1.  Print and cut out the numbers that you need for the dates.

2.  Place the numbers on the scrapbook paper and trace them with a pencil.

  

3.  Trace the lines with the black paint, and then fill in the numbers.

4.  Cut out 2 hearts from the red paper.  Punch two holes in each piece of paper and the hearts and string the twine threw. 

*I accidentally switched the 14 and 22 in this picture*

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Here is my final product!  

DIY Established Sign

D.I.Y. Established Sign

Personal bridal shower gift under $20

My sister is getting married at the end of November.  

As her maid of honor, I felt like for her bridal shower I should get her a more personal gift than just something off of her registry.  After looking on Pinterest, and many (MANY) Etsy shops, and not seeing exactly what I wanted, I decided that I should just make her gift myself.  After getting inspirations from those Etsy shops, I decided to make her an Established Sign.  They looked simple enough.  

I then looked on Pinterest for ways to make them yourself.  There was one tutorial that made it look so easy!  However, I later realized that way would not work for me, because I wanted to stain mine before adding the words. 

I got my board at Hobby Lobby for $8.  They had a lot to choose from, but this is the size and shape that I liked the best.  I also bought the stain from Hobby Lobby for $8.  It was in color Red Cherry.  Which had a hint of purple to the color, which I did not know until after I had started staining.  

   WHAT YOU NEED

• Board-$8
• Stain-$8
• Acrylic Paint-$1
• Sponge Brush-$2 (for a pack of 4)
• Old washcloth or rag

STEPS FOR STAINING

1. Find a cardboard box or something to put your board on while you stain to not get it on anything.  
2. Using a sponge brush, brush the stain on (going with the grain of the wood). You can either do two light coats of paint, or one dark coat. (both turn out the same so I recommend one coat with more paint).  I started out with too light of a coat so the paint looked purple on my board, so I had to do another coat. 

3.  After doing a coat, wait 2 minutes, then gently rub off excess paint with an old rag or washcloth.  Then wait 1 hour for the stain to dry.

4.  Either do another coat, or flip over and stain the other side until you like the color. (Make sure you also stain the sides)

Then I uploaded the picture on my computer and added the image to Word so I could see how I wanted the words to look on the board.  

Once I decided on the font and sizing of the words I had to convert the size so it would fit my board.

Then I printed, cut, and placed it on the board. 

Once I decided that this is how I wanted it to look, I cut along the letters and taped it to the board so that I could trace it.

Then I traced the letters with a pencil so that I could paint in the letters.

This took a lot longer than I originally thought it would.  My suggestion would be to paint the board the color that you want the words to be.  Let it dry.  Then print out the words and cut out the letters and set it on the board where you would want them, and stain over top of them.  Then peel off the printed out words.

Or

Cut out the words and put them on the board, stain it, peel off the letters, and then paint in the unstained spots where the letters were. 

Any of these ways should work, and look great!

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This is my final product that I gave to her. 

 It was a huge hit at the shower! (it received a lot of "Awes" from the guests.) It was a great gift that would be easy to put in any house and was more personal than just a gift from her registry.

T.V. Tray Makeover

This August I moved into my first apartment.  Two of my best friends and I were finally getting off campus and we decided that we obviously had to have the cutest apartment.  That meant Saturday morning garage saleing, and searching my house for things I 'borrow'.  One of the treasures I found downstairs were three T.V. trays that we used years ago before we replaced them for the new ones.

My family is one where we like to eat as a family...out in the living room, watching the next episode of the television show we were on.  Since old habits die hard I realized that I probably needed to bring a T.V. stand with me to school.  However, the ones downstairs did not fall into my idea of something that would make our apartment cute and trendy.  So, I decided to paint it to look like the ones that we have in my family room at home, which are a deep satin color.

First I had to clean the trays because they had been in my basement for a couple years.
Then I went and got spray paint that would have good coverage because I did not want to do many coats.  I ended up doing two coats on the top of the T.V. trays and one coat on the rest of it.

After spraying, letting it dry, spraying it again, letting it dry, finding spots I missed, letting it dry, and then finding even more spots I missed, I finally finished the T.V. trays.  And to my surprise they turned out better than I expected!