Enter to Win a Free Silhouette Craft Cutter!

Southern Hospitality is giving away a free Silhouette craft cutter! Seriously! Go enter! You may not know that you need it, but you do. And even if you don't, you can give it to me. :-)

Fabric Panel

Here's another project I made for our blank, white walls. My requirements were that it needed to be fairly large, cheap and easy (insert "your mom" joke here). A fabric panel would fit the bill!

I've had this fabric for a year or so. When I spotted it in the store, I new it was perfect for a purse for a friend, but I also needed some for myself. I bought 3 yards, I think, with no project in mind at the time.

Don't you love it?

With the fabric settled, we headed to the hardware store for 2 pieces of 1" x 2" wood and a 4-pack of brackets. I believe we spent about $5 at the store.

Because The Hubs jumps at the chance to use power tools, he put the frame together for me. The first step was to saw the wood to the right lengths. I wanted the finished project to be 3' x 4', so he cut 2 pieces to 3' and 2 pieces to 4'. Yeah, it would be an inch or two off at the end because of the way we put the corners together, but I was okay with that. No pics of him sawing, but I think you can imagine what that looks like.

The next step was to drill pilot holes for the brackets. Here's an action shot...

With all four brackets in place, we had a frame that looks like this...

Here's a closer look at the brackets we used...

With the frame assembled, it was my turn! I laid out the fabric face down, and placed the frame on top. Then I cut around frame, leaving a couple inches of fabric around the edges. I was not precise, by any means.

The next step was to pull the fabric over the edges of the frame and staple the heck out of it. I started with one staple in the center of each side and pulled it taut, then kept pulling and stapling until there was no more to pull and staple. Once it was all stapled, I trimmed off any excess fabric. It looked a little something like this...

Here's a look at the corners. Not very pretty, but that's okay. I'm all about cutting corners on things that no one is ever going to see.

And that is it! Time to hang it on the wall...

Just to recap, the cost of this project was about 5 bucks and some fabric that I had on hand. This was a super simple and fast project, but I love the impact it makes in the room! Because I left the fabric relatively in tact, I can always pull it off the frame and reuse it! I just can't get enough of those bunnies.

Linking up to the CSI Project. The challenge this week is Wall Decor. Why don't you head on over and see what people are making?

Color Coding

Let me begin by saying that I am a sucker for personality tests. Doesn't matter how lame they are. If you can tell me which Simpson's character I am based on a short quiz, I'm there. Which Hogwarts house would I be placed in? Please, tell me! What is my character profile based on my taste in eighties movies? I have to know! I take all of these tests for what they're worth: An interesting way to kill time. (I'm Slytherin, btw.)

With all that out of the way, I just took this neat one that determines your personality traits based on your color preferences. Here's what the test had to say:

You are 42 % extrovert and 58 % introvert.
Independently of any order of importance :
You are imaginative and creative, you have always new ideas, and you know how to apply them.
You are also able to have an in-depth thinking, you think before acting, and you know how to communicate your knowledge.
Finally you are dynamic, your actions are only directed by your own will and you know how to lead people.

There was more information about how awesome I am, but IE crashed and I lost my results. :-( I could retake the test, but... nah. If laziness wasn't in the profile, it should have been.

Anyway, this was a fun one. Try it out!

Ho-Lee-Crap

I want to eat these. A lot.

Thanks to Positively Splendid for the amazing recipe. I think The Hubs should add this to his baking repertoire.

Paper Blossoms

No new projects to report here, but look at this one from Lemon Tree Creations!

I love the simplicity of this project. It's so wonderfully pretty and easy to do. I can't wait to try this one out!

In other news, we're going to be moving in a few weeks, which has put a damper on the crafting and posting. On the bright side, I'll have a whole new place to decorate and post about.

You know, I started this post by saying there are no new projects, but that's not entirely true. The Hubs and I are officially looking to get knocked up! In typical Mel P fashion, I'm treating this like the ultimate DIY project, complete with extensive research and timelines. There's even a jingle, which I can't really share in this medium. Of course, I'm getting waaaay ahead of myself and looking into room design elements, but I've drawn the line at making any purchases before the bun is in the oven. Anyway, more on Project Sweeney-Baby as events unfold!

A Craft That's for the Birds

Wow, no post since Sofa Drama. I'll quickly provide an update and then move on to the good stuff. We bought a sofa and chaise from Ikea and we're exceedingly happy with it! Plenty of room for all five of us to lounge. (Two humans, two cats and a dog.) My plan is to post some pictures of the living room once I get a few projects done, so you'll see it then.

Speaking of projects, the living room is sorely in need of some color on the walls. Because we're renting, I don't want to paint, so I've initiated a couple projects to dress up the space. Enter the bird tiles...

These bird tiles are from Crate and Barrel's outdoor collection and I love them. At $50, the price is reasonable, but it's still more than I wanted to pay. In addition, they're the wrong color. I decided that, with the help of some paint, I could recreate something I'd be happy with.

With that, it was time for a trip to Michael's for 1'x1' canvases. Because they were running a sale, I ended up with 4 11"x14" canvases for $10 or so. The square canvases would have cost 4x as much! I have a bunch of paint left over from another project, so we were good to go.

The first thing I did was paint the canvases with the same turquoise/teal color I used for the coffee table. What coffee table, you ask? That's for another post!

While the paint was drying, I went bird hunting. Because of the purse appliques I make, I have a ton of silhouettes saved and waiting to go. I picked out 5 birds from a collection of clipart so they would match. (I didn't want a cartoony bird next to a realistic bird.) A google search for "bird silhouette" will give you tons of options. Using Microsoft Paint, I resized the birds, then pasted them into Word so I could print them all on one sheet of paper. Cardstock, to be more precise.

The print on the left was to make sure I had the right size (the birds are about 3" tall) before printing on cardstock. I also adjusted the color intensity to conserve ink. Then, I cut out the birds.

Here are my cut out birds atop a print of the original Crate and Barrel tiles. I would be using the picture in the next step... Drawing the trees!

Because we apparently don't own a pencil, I used a metallic gel pen, which worked out well. It stood out on the blue, but disappeared under the next layer of paint. Referencing the picture of the C&B tiles, I drew tree branches onto the canvases. I wasn't going for an exact match, but it did take some of the guesswork out of the composition.

Next, I traced on the birds. I chose to make my birds legless, by the way.

With the birds in place, it was time to paint the branches. I decided to go with white for a nice, clean look. I also figured it would show up nicely against the blue. While painting the branches, I was careful to paint around the birds.

I wrapped the branches onto the edges of the canvas to make it look more finished. You can also see in the next picture that I decided to add some curls to the branches.

Now it was time to paint the birds! Again, I already had paint from my big box of craft paints. I decided to make the birds orange and black. As you can see below, the birds required two coats of paint. By the time I was done painting the second orange bird, the first one was dry enough to paint again.

And here's the finished product!

And from a slightly different angle...

So! For a grand total of $10 and some stuff I already had at home, we now have some colorful birdies to adorn our wall!

I'm updating this post with some new pics and a link to the CSI Project! The theme this week is Frames, Art and Wall Decor. Go check out the awesomeness!

Sofa Drama

Blerg. This is going to be a long ranty post. Thought I should warn you ahead of time.

From a previous post, you may remember my infatuation with a certain sofa. My love for the sofa was so much that I was going to order two. Well, due to space constraints (and monetary ones), I only ordered one, but I was still super excited. It's a custom sofa, so I expected it to take awhile.

And then I waited.

And waited.

Seven weeks later, the sofa arrives. Because I was at work, my husband received the sofa and my anticipation grew. Finally, I got home and found... it was the wrong freakin' fabric. (I don't have pics with me, so I'll have to add them later.)

I'll stop here and mention that the sofa that they sent is gorgeous. But it's not what I ordered.

The following day, I called the company to inform them of the error. They were very apologetic and was able to track the problem to the salesman who had keyed the information incorrectly. So then he called and was very apologetic. The solution was that they would order the correct sofa (which would take another 6 - 9 weeks to process) and we would get to keep the other until it arrives. Seems reasonable enough, right? However, in order to start the process for the new sofa they needed to charge my card for the new order. I wouldn't receive the credit for the returned sofa until they picked it up. The problem is that I don't have the resources to pay for two sofas and, the more I thought about it, I shouldn't have to.

So, a week later they pick up the sofa. I'm now waiting for my card to be credited and then I'll be purchasing a sofa elsewhere.

My problem is not that a mistake was made. We all mess up now and again. How you handle your mistakes reveals your character and they've made no effort to make the situation right. No offer to reduce the cost or expedite the new order, which is the very least they could have done. So, while I love that sofa, the company isn't getting my money.

Well, that was a lot of negativity. Just to throw in something positive, I'll mention that we're going to a super-amazing flea market tomorrow. I've heard that the quirky selection and people watching makes for a good time. I'm hoping to find some inexpensive crafting supplies. Vintage buttons and fabric and the like. In addition, I'm keeping an eye out for a cheap coffee table to refinish. It should be an adventure!