Dollhouse

At the end of August I started working on this project. I really wanted Katy to have a dollhouse but didn't like most of the ones from the store. My mom offered me part of a dollhouse that I grew up playing with. I was so excited to re-build and modernize a toy I loved playing with. I decided to removed the slanted roof and make it 3 stories.

We had some leftover MDF board from a previous project so that was nice to not have to go out and buy more wood. I took the whole thing apart and measured everything. Sean used his dad's power saw to cut the pieces I needed.

Putting it back together was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I used nails to secure everything and it is so hard to nail two pieces of wood together at a right angle! Eventually I got it rebuilt and painted.

And added new wallpaper and flooring with scrapbook paper and modpodge. The carpet is bathroom rugs.

And Popsicle stick baseboards :)

The furniture was sooo fun to make!

The couch and chair were made with thin pieces of craft wood and wooden spools. I layered thin foam for the cushions and covered with fabric.

 The big beds I painted and made mattresses with the foam.

 I also made blankets and pillows.

The toilet. It was so hard to find a dollhouse toilet!!! And there was no way I could make one that would be sturdy enough for playing. I found this beauty at the gas station for $1!

I cut the bottom of a bottle of Miralax for a tub and glued beads to the bottom for the feet.

Some scrap pieces of the MDF and dowels and Popsicle sticks. I also made mattresses for these.

I love the sinks! I cut and painted an iPhone box and used a condiment container for the bathroom sink. The faucet is a hook painted silver. The pink sink is part of a mini dollhouse Katy had.

 Blood, sweat and tears went into this project. I hope this is something Katy will enjoy for a loooooong time! She has seen the progress of the house but I keep telling her that I'm fixing it up for Grandma. There's not really a space for me to hide it from her! I'm excited to see her reaction on Christmas and to play with it with her! :)

Beadbaord!

I LOVE beadboard. If we ever get to build a house someday it might all be decorated with beadboard. Our TV stand has glass doors and it was bugging me that you could see everything stuffed in there and all the cords. I bought some beadboard wallpaper on Amazon and mixed some dark brown and black paint from Home Depot and covered up the glass. It's taking a while to get used to; it's just a big black box now! But man it's so cute. Yay for cheap upgrades!!

I forgot to take  a before picture with the doors on but this is basically what it looks like all the time.

I removed the doors and cut the wall paper to size. For a project like this that already had a wood frame, I had to cut the paper just a hair bigger than the size of the glass. The paper is hard to trim when it's soaking wet and has so much glue. It has to dry for 24 hours.

After!!! I am so happy with how it turned out! And the paint colors I mixed match perfectly! I'm amazed at how that worked out.

Family Motto

My SIL had this cute idea to make family mottos with gold foil/vinyl. I've never used it before but it is awesome and so pretty! We used my silhouette and each chose a short motto.

Here's mine:

Breanne's and Ashley's

Names of Christ Ornaments

Last year I saw these ornaments at Deseret Book and loved them. This year they were no longer available so I thought I'd try making them myself.

There were a few different ways I thought of doing these. I could have gotten a pack of star gift tags, or stitched on some felt. I chose to do wooden stars because I didn't feel like hand-sewing and the wooden stars were easier to find. I got 2 packs of wooden stars for like $2 each, a small can of metallic silver spray paint ($3), and puffy paint ($1).

I drew where I wanted the little dots to go and then used the puffy paint. Hand cramp!

Then I spray painted them. I learned that the vinyl doesn't stick as well to that metallic paint. I sprayed a coat of clear acrylic spray and then the vinyl stuck better. I made a couple extra ones with a nativity scene on them for a few of my friends. And one more coating of the clear acrylic spray. I hot-glued a loop of jute to the back and hung them on the tree. Yay!

Stencil Art

These stencil projects are so much fun. And they turn out awesome! I'm considering selling them on Etsy. I followed the same process as the bird art I did a little while back. I bought the burlap canvas at Walmart for I think $5. I also bought a staple gun to attach the ribbon. Hot glue just doesn't cut it. Having a staple gun opens up a lot more possibilities for me now! Plus I feel pretty awesome using a staple gun.

Entryway shelf Decor

Not exactly sure if this belongs here but I just love how this turned out and I gotta share. I have been searching and searching for the pierfect shelf/coat rack for our entry way. I needed something functional and pretty. I FINALLY found a great one at Joann's for half off. I made the doily jar (I used 4" doilies) and framed quote to go on top. I just love to look at it.

Burlap Canvas

This is a super simple and quick project. I used my silhouette to cut out a stencil of the bird and branch. Then I just used a little spouncer tool and painted it on the pre-made burlap canvas that I found at walmart. There are so many possibilities with this project. Tutorial found here.

Framed Monogram Letter

I think monogram is the correct name for this project. This was so much fun to put together. I found the cool shadow box and wodden letter at walmart. The burlap-type background "came with the frame." I painted the letter white and then mod podged scrapbook paper to the front. I added an adorable fabric flower (tutorial found here) and hot glued the whole thing to the frame. It's so happy!

Split panel Bird Wall Art

This was such a fun project. I love creating things that people love. Katy needed some kind of art on the bare walls of her room. It's pretty self-explanatory, I think. Katy got to help me glue on all the leaves and chose where the sun would go. She loves the pink kissing birds and all those sparkles!

Airplane mobile

For Christmas I got a Silhouette Cameo! I love it so much! I have so many more crafting options than I did with the Cricut. The Cricut was a great tool but very limited in what and how you create. My first project was cutting these 3D airplanes to hang in Brandon's room. I LOVE how they turned out!!! And it was so easy. There are so many possibilities for me now!

This is Brandon's view from the bed :)

Fabric Ornaments

Loved this project. And I got to use some of my cute Christmas fabric scraps and cover some of our existing ornaments. This cost me a total of $1 for the ornament hooks. Found the tutorial here. She says to use a 13x13 square piece of fabric but I thought that was a little big. I think mine were 10x10 or maybe even smaller. I'm considering recovering my music note ornaments with music fabric....

Burlap Christmas Wreath

I've seen burlap coming up all over Pinterest for home decor stuff and I just love it. And I LOVE this wreath. I wanted to do a burlap/lace Fall wreath but I ran out of time to do that. This was such a fun, cheap project and I love how it turned out. I bought a moss/grass wreath for $5 and wrapped it twice with some burlap ribbon ($3.50). Then I added some white poinsettia flowers, pine cones, holly leaves, holly berries, and ribbon ($3) with lots and lots of hot glue. I couldn't wait until next week to hang it up so, yes, it's hanging on my door now before Thanksgiving :)

Lamp shade makeover

I've had this table lamp for a little while and have wanted to recover the shade. It's in good shape but I didn't like the red. Not my style. And the more I looked at it the more I disliked the shape of it, too. So I chose to just buy one and dressed it up a bit. I bought a burlap lamp shade and a spool of ribbon for $12.

The switch was simple because this lamp shade just lifts right off the base

I marked 1/2 inch on top and bottom and used hot glue to attach the ribbon

Fold over the end of the ribbon at the seam

I also added an adorable bow!

After. I love it!