Wooden Bunny Project

My hubby recently bought me a jigsaw! Hooray!! We had borrowed a friend's in the past to get little things done here or there but we decided we needed to take the plunge and start investing in good a tool collection. I have a lot of scrap wood in my garage, from who knows what project so I decided to make myself a little wooden bunny for my porch! First I went on google and found a bunny silhoutte I liked then I blew it up, printed it and cut it out. Then I traced it out on some scrap wood and cut it out with my jigsaw! Easy peasy! I also cut out a couple of wooden eggs for my porch as well. One egg has a very flat bottom, ha! He's special! After he was cut out I used some paints I had extra off, primarily Swan Sea by Behr which is the wall color in my boys room! I love that color, and I've been using it a lot around the house for little projects. 

Thrift Store Find Turned Chic White Bunny

When I hit the local thrift stores, I have a mental list of the items I am in search of. They are mostly home decor type items that I can either currently use or will fit in to a future holiday/season scheme. Right now my home is decorated for the Spring/Easter season with a focus on cherry blossom branches and teals, white and pinks in varying hues. Some of you may have seen my DIY Pottery Barn Knock Off Easter Eggs post (Click here.) that I was inspired to make after seeing a Pottery Barn Ad! I absolutely love the collection of white bunnies underneath the centerpiece and knew I needed to start a collection. The Pottery Barn white ceramic bunnies are $29 a pop! Wow! That just doesn't fit in to my budget so I knew I would be going the DIY route with this! I did have two white bunnies to start my collection off, but my darling son managed to break the ear off of one so he is MIA and the second is currently occupying my Peter Rabbit themed hutch this Easter. I am a simplistic gal who LOVES me some white, especially white ceramic! My mind automatically jumps to "Paint that white!" when I see items i the thrift stores that wouldn't match my home decor. Just a tip, there are many an item you would easily look over because it was not the right color or maybe just plain ole' U-G-L-Y! But with a little creativity and armed with a can of your favorite shade of spray paint you can change the look and feel of almost any piece! I spotted this cotton candy pink, childish looking bunny in a local thrift store and paid $2 for it! $27 savings! However it doesn't quite meet my white guidelines, but I knew I could easily change that! I have many a can of spray paint sitting in my garage waiting to be used to transform pieces, so this transformation was just the cost of the ceramic bunny! Score! I happened to have Rustoleum Ultra Coverage in white gloss at home so that is what I used. Normally I would opt for Krylon as Rustoleum says "apply to wood, wicker, metal, plaster or unglazed ceramic" I had no issues though. When working in spray paint read all the directions in the can and work in even light strokes! Many thin coats is better than one or two thick, gooey, dripping coats! It took me about 4 thin coats to get the entire pink gal covered up and I am loving the end result. Here is a brief picture tutorial:

BEFORE & AFTER

Removed all stickers or in this case tape

Used my Krud Kutter to clean and remove any sticky residue left on

                                    

Handy dandy spray paint!

One thin coat

Two coats

Three coats! Almost there but still some pink peeking through in the ears

Four coats and finally done!

{QoK}

DIY Vintage-Like Easter Banner

{DIY Vintage-Like Easter Banner}

DIY Glitter Banner for Valentines Day

I am the type of gal who likes to decorate my whole downstairs floor according to the season/holiday we are in. We have been in our home about a year and a half  and this is the first year I have been going all out as far as decorating! Because we are one one income and I stay at home with the boys I DIY pretty much all of my seasonal decor! With Easter soon approaching I knew it was time to get started on some cute decor that would match with the rest of the colors and styles in my home. I have made two glitter banners for Christmas, and Valentines Day (See photo on right) which turned out fabulous but I wanted something with a little more color and texture this time around. While I love cute holiday and seasonal decor at the stores I also like to customize and DIY things for the least amount of $$$ possible! So when Hobby Lobby had 50% off of all scrapbook paper I scooped up a handful to make my banner! One sheet of paper will make two folded circles, so to spell out Easter I needed 3 sheets of each paper. Choose one paper as your larger background circle and another for the small circle you will place your letters on. I decided to do a solid for the back since I have TONS of teal in my home and I wanted it to be the primary color for this banner. I found a awesome chevron pattern with great Easter colors I chose are my smaller circle! I think I spent $3 on all six sheets of paper! Score! This project is super easy, but a bit time consuming!

Here is what you will need:

-3* 12" x 12" Paper for the larger circles (1 sheet makes 2 circles)

-3* 12" x 12" Paper for the smaller circles (1 sheet makes 2 circles)

-Glue Gun

-Scissors

-Ruler

-Glittered Letters

-String or Clear Fishing Wire
-3/8" Ribbon

Start by measuring and cutting all of your paper. I used the teal paper for my larger circle and the sheets were 12" x 12", so I simply folded them down the middle and cut them in half- 6" x 12". Your second set of circles need to be smaller to allow your other to show so I cut the paper to about 4.5" x 12". Once all your paper is cut it is time to fold! This process was time consuming but easy! Fold your paper in an accordion like manner using 1/2" folds as best you can until you reach the end. Then find the center and use string or clear fishing wire to tightly tie in the center.

 

 Begin on the end making 1/2" folds

Use a string or clear fishing wire to tightly tie in the center

Tie in the center!

Now you are ready to start gluing! Fire up your hot glue gun and run a line down the right of side of one of the ends of your folded paper (see below). Carefully using your hands, attach the glued side to the un glued left side of the paper and firmly press down making sure the ends meet and are lined up. Press down ensure that the two sides are attached to one another making a half circle form! Do the same to the other side and a circle is born!

Run hot glue down the right half of the paper!

  

       Firmly attach side together allowing glue to dry before releasing!

                           

Go through the same process until all your solid and patterned circles are complete. Use hot glue to attach your smaller circle to the larger and then get ready to begin lettering each circle! There are a couple of different routes you can go for lettering depending on your time and budget. There are ready made cardboard cut out glittered letters available at craft stores but they run around $7 and may not include enough of the letters you need. You could also purchase wooden letters and used glue to glitter them, but that is costly as well) I have experience creating glittered letters for my holiday banners in the past and I had everything on hand so I went that route again. This is time consuming but very low cost if you have the supplies on hand. I went on to the computer and chose a chunky font and spelled out "EASTER" and printed it on to some card stock! I used scissors to cut out each letter by hand, (this was the time consuming part) and used some basic Elmer's glue and glitter to cover each letter completely. After drying I use my BFF for this project, hot glue to attach the letters to the center of each patterned circle! I was debating on whether I should attack the circles to clear fishing wire like I have to banners in the past and opted for something a littler nicer this time around! I picked up a couple of coordinating shades of 3/8" organza ribbon and threaded them through the back so I was able to move and space each circle when it was hung on the mantel! To do so, I poked through holes through the back of the teal ( be sure to do this close to the center in a area that will be covered by the patterned smaller circle), larger circles making sure the placement of my holes would allow the lettering to remain as level as possible. I threaded the two ribbons together through the backs of each circle and voila! If you look super close up you can see the seams of the paper but it is hardly noticeable. All in all this project cost me around $6, because I had  some of my items on hand. I love the vintage like look of the banner and you can create the same look for any occasion! There are so many great scrap booking papers readily available at craft stores the possibilities are endless!!

{QoK}

DIY Pottery Barn Knock-Off Easter Eggs

Pottery Barn Ad

When it comes to any holiday decorating I do what most women do...spend countless hours on Pinterest and the Internet scouring for great ideas I can do myself for a fraction of the cost!*Insert one cheesy grin* Often I look to Pottery Barn for some timeless and classic decor ideas and they have yet to disappoint with countless sparks of creativity or ideas for blatant copying! This photo in particular stuck out to me as inspiration for a Spring/Easter themed centerpiece for our dining room table. I love the faux cherry blossom branches with the hanging eggs spelling out "Happy Easter" in particular.  Our dining room is the first room you set foot in our home and our dining table is one of the first things you see when you walk in so I like to spruce it up according to whatever season or holiday may be around at the time. In my ideal world I would be moderately wealthy and able to purchase anything at Pottery Barn to decorate my home to my hearts desire each holiday and season...Things would be set out and lovingly gazed upon without grubby chocolate covered fingers and the potential of being knocked down and destroyed by our sons. Actually, they are pretty good about not touching things or playing with my decor in our home but they are rambunctious and mistakenly bump into tables while running around racing cars or the like. 

 .49 Eggs @ Hobby Lobby

Back to reality... the set is no longer available through PotteryBarn.com but I believe the retailed somewhere in the range of $15-$20 for the set. They are oh so adorable, but I can use $20 to buy a couple days of groceries or some new bow-ties for the hubby, haha. I just cant justify paying that much for fake eggs. So I went in to thinking mode and remembered the paper mache eggs that Hobby Lobby sells! Light turns on in my brain, I can make these for a fraction of the cost! They are a "true egg" size at 2 1/2 inches tall. Is "true egg" even a real description? *shrugs* They also have larger sizes available for more Easter craft fun! My local Hobby Lobby sells the 2 1/2 inch eggs for .49 a egg and if you go at a time when paper mache items are 30% they are a steal! 

Here is what you will need:

-11, 2 1/2 inch paper mache eggs

-White Spray Paint or Craft Paint

-Spray Primer

-Pearl Straight Pins

-Glue Gun 

-White Ribbon

-One Nail

-Print out of " HAPPY EASTER"

-Scissors

You need 11 paper mache eggs to spell out "HAPPY EASTER". Start by using either craft or spray paint to get a white base on the eggs. I experimented with Krylon's Satin finish in Ivory and thought the eggs were coming out too yellow. So, I re-sprayed all the eggs with a gloss white I had on hand. To do this I just threw them all in a shallow cardboard box and sprayed, let them dry turned them over and sprayed again. It probably took a good 2 coats on each side to get them covered well. I would suggest using a primer if you are going the spray paint route it will save you some time and paint! I would also like to take this time to talk about the awful stickers they attach to these babies and the PAIN IN THE BUTT they are to remove!! I tried many ways to remove them, knives, scissors, razorblades, dynamite, and there was no better way than to scrape them off with my finger nails! *Note knives, scissors and razor blades started to cut in to the paper and dynamite, well bon voyage egg!! It was a time consuming and annoying process but there was honestly  no around removing them with my fingernail... Insert one amazing, patient, and loving hubby who is willing to do this for you, such as my own did for me, and you can avoid doing it all together! Thanks hubby ;) 

 EXACT ribbon I used available
 in the fabric section of Hobby Lobby

I bought some 1/4" white satin ribbon at Hobby Lobby and cut 5" pieces for each egg. I thought I would easily poke a hole into the egg with my straight pin and be on my merry way to creating some Easter bliss but it took something a little stronger than a straight pin to cut through those puppies! I ended up using a extra nail I had laying around to puncture a hole in to the top of each egg so I could easily slide the pin in...is it weird I have nails and screws and random tool like items in a drawer in my kitchen for emergencies? Haha. Fold your ribbon in half lining up the ends as best as possible and slide the pin through near the edge and add a bead of hot glue over the hole you created at the top of your egg. Slide the pin through and hold down to make sure there is contact between the bottom ribbon and the glue to ensure a good grip! You could go the route of writing each letter on the egg with sharpie, but I wanted a uniform and more professional look that I know my shaky hand could not provide by handwriting each letter. You could modge podge each letter or use sticker letters from your local craft store, but I like to do things in the fastest, easiest way so I just printed out the words "HAPPY EASTER" in a 96pt size font. I picked a fairly chunky and bold font so the words were easy to cut out and wouldn't be prone to ripping apart before I even applied them. I just used my handy dandy glue gun to glue each letter to the eggs. *Once you lay the paper word on you CANNOT move it or you will rip the paper off the egg, trust me on this. Because of the roundness of the egg the letters aren't perfectly flush to the eggs surface but I am okay with that. The project cost me around $7 to make and I am thrilled with the results! I picked up two cherry blossom like branches at my local Michael's and hung the letters off to create a Pottery Barn-like centerpiece!

FInal Product <3

                                             {QoK}

New Crate turned Vintage Easter "Basket"

Every time I set foot in a store I am bombarded with a multitude of pastel reminders that Easter will be upon us quickly!!  Our two boys are the first grand kids on my side of the family, and with my brother and sister-in-law being stationed on the east coast we have yet to have an Easter egg hunt around here! In fact, our boys have no clue who the Easter bunny is and he supposed role in Easter. In all honesty we will probably never share that with them. Because it's not about the bunny!! We want all our holidays with our boys to be focused on Christ and the reasons that we as born again Christians celebrate them! Granted we aren't grinches and do intend to let them have divulge in some fun...just minus stories of false gigantic bunnies running around planting random eggs in our yard and leaving pastel baskets filled with far too much candy than humanly possible to consume, in the mornings.


This post however isn't about what we will and will not take part in, but rather I wanted to share with you a tutorial on a alternative to the plasticky, or wooden bright Easter baskets that are available in our stores. First off, they are expensive...$9.99+ for a basket? One that is so specifically colored that there is no way on earth I could incorporate that in to my home decor to give it more use. Secondly, they are as I just stated very specifically colored. Thirdly, have you ever tried to store these things? They are such a odd shape and I can never find a great place to store them without them getting damaged or buried underneath random items in our garage or closets. So this year I sat, trying to think of an alternative to the traditional Easter basket. Something that looked great and I could incorporate in to my home decor, if I decided to. Or, something that would be functional the boys could continue to use all year long. Thus the Easter crate idea was born!

Here are the supplies you will need:

-Small Wooden Unfinished Crate -Bought mine @Michaels with a 50% coupon for $3.77
-Wax Paper
-Ink Jet Printer
-Damp Towel
-Miniwax Stain
-Old rag
-Sharpie
-150+ grit sandpaper

-Craft Paint

-Sponge Brush 

First things first remove the label off of your crate. It does leave a sticky residue that WILL NOT stain properly so I used some Krud Kutter to remove the residue and gave it a light sanding with 220 grit paper to make sure it was a smooth as a baby's bottom!!

 

 Now on to the ink transfer! Having not liked the fonts available to me on my computer program, Pages, I searched the web and found a plethora of free font downloads! I was torn between doing a very classic stencil font or something a little more vintage looking without being overly girly for my two boys! I ran across this font, Hawaii Killer, I am not sure what's so killer about this font, but I loved its vintage appeal!

After a green light from the hubby that it was not too girly, I proceeded to print some trials to get the sizing right! The first letter of their names was printed at 175pt font and the rest of their name at 200pt. Otherwise the first letter would not fit on to the crate correctly. Trial and error! Of course any font will do, so find something you love!

 Make sure to MIRROR your image before printing also! My program has flip horizontally button at the print screen, which took care of that! Easy peasy, as my four year old says!

For the actual printing I experimented with wax paper transfer! It worked the first time like a charm for my oldest sons crate, but I did run in to a few snags the second time around! So in the end I was able to print both names in two different ways which I will share with you.The first way was to cut a piece of wax paper the same size as a sheet of paper and tape it down to a sheet so the printer accepted it as one piece.  You do need to find out the way your printer will print the image on the paper, in my case I had to lay the wax side down in the paper feed for it to print on the wax side. I had no problems the first time I did this. I tried again this method and this time my printer ate it up!! So instead of wasting tons more wax paper and jamming my printer I printed the image on a normal sheet of paper and cut a wax piece a little larger than that and taped it on to another black piece of paper in the spot it would print the image again. I fed it in upside down and it worked perfectly! 

I separated the wax paper off the paper carefully and being conscious not to touch the ink in any way as it is very wet and WILL smudge if touched! I dampened the wood with a wet rag, just enough to help take the ink on to the wood darker. You don't want the wood to be sopping wet but just lightly run the dampened rag over it and it should work! Then just eye balling it I looked for the center and then lightly layed the wax paper down. I have seen many tutorials saying to use a credit card to transfer the words, and I did do that the first time around and it caused a lot of ink bleeding that I later had to sand out with the first crate. So I just lightly used my fingers to lightly tap down on the letters and transfer the ink.

I used a sharpie to carefully add any ink that I felt didn't transfer well onto the wood and sanded off any bleeding or markings I didn't want on the crate. Now you are ready to stain! I wanted a lighter, weathered look, but you can use any stain you prefer! I took my hammer and used the back part, I have no clue what the techincal name for it is... and made a bunch of dents all over the crate to give it a older look! Then I took my Miiwax, Classic Grey stain and used a sponged brush to apply. Make sure your words or images are completely dry to the touch before proceeding to stain!

Be sure to cover ALL your crate, for a true vintage look! You don't want parts of unstained new wood peaking out from the crevices! I gave my crate about 10-15 mins to soak in the stain and then wiped off the excess with a old rag. To give it some warmth I also used some brown craft paint I had on hand, and just wiped it on with a rag! You could also use some darker stain, but I was too lazy to go to the garage to retrieve it. I love the warmth it gives to the piece, and I think the colors really compliment one another.

 Be sure to seal your crate, I personally like buffing a layer of wax for a perfect finish! I love that my boys can continue to use these crates all year long to store toys or books in! I may add some caster wheels to the bottom that was they can roll them around the house as well! Good luck making your crates! 

                                   

{QoK}