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!