DIY Archives - Page 10 of 11 - Farmhouse Chic Blog

Pretty, Painted Pumpkins

September 21, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: arts and crafts, craft paint, diy, fall, home decor, painted pumpkins, pumpkins, stencil 50 Comments

I’ve been so excited to do this project! We had just went to the pumpkin patch in the early part of the week and I could just barely wait to paint those pumpkins 🙂 I headed to Hobby Lobby to pick up my supplies for this project. I opted for a pearl finish, metallic silver, antique gold and midnight blue craft paints. These were 30% off at the time (making them about $1.15 each). I also grabbed a cute stencil in the same isle for $2.99 ( I will use this for lots of other projects!) I browsed the ribbon for something that really stood out to me. I didn’t find the exact color I was looking for, so I went with this navy blue and white design that will go well with my paint colors ( originally $3.99 but I used a 40% off coupon, making it $2.42).

Once I was back home, I grabbed a painters tarp and my two large pumpkins and headed to the deck. I sprayed these with a cheap, white spray paint I bought at Walmart previously for $.97. While those were drying, I grabbed a few paper towels and small tupperware lids and got to work. I like to use the tupperware lids for my paint because they wipe clean really easy and you can re-use them over and over! I started my first pumpkin with the chevron design. I used about a 1.5 inch piece of painters tape cut in half to arrange the design. The first color I used was the metallic silver, and I brushed it over the entire top of the pumpkin including the stem. I did the top of my small pumpkin with the silver as well. Once the silver was (somewhat) dry, I painted the bottoms with midnight blue. I grabbed one of my large pumpkins I sprayed white and tapped a stencil “R” in the middle. Let me tell ya, stenciling a pumpkin was a little bit of a booger! Any who, I also used the midnight blue for this; carefully remove your stencil. Feeling a bit discouraged from the previous stencil, I gave it another go and taped the designed stencil next to the “R”. For this, I used the antique gold paint and carefully filled in the entire stencil, removed and did it to the other side.

I was so anxious to see how my chevron pumpkin turned out, I started to remove the tape… It started to pull the paint off 🙁 Oh well, it’s not the end of the world and I decided to just go over it will the antique gold to blend it all together. I also painted one other medium pumpkin I had with the gold, as well as the middle of my small pumpkin. Next, I went back to my large initialed pumpkin and began to use the pearl finish as a glaze over the entire pumpkin. It gave it a beautiful glow!

I finished the pumpkins off by embellishing them with the ribbon I picked out! This project took me some time, but I’m happy with how there turned out! They aren’t perfect, but I didn’t expect them to be 🙂

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Up-cyled Play kitchen

September 11, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: Bejamin Moore, chalkboard, diy, fun for kids, furniture, kids play kitchen, paint, Target, upcyle 36 Comments

I’ve just fell in love with the adorable play kitchens I’ve been seeing all over Pinterest this past year. So, I had the itch to make one for my babies ( along with my hubbies help of course!) This is such a great way to up-cyle that unwanted piece of furniture you no longer need. Whether it be a bookshelf, nightstand, armoire, tv stand, etc! In our case, my Mother-in-law and Father-in-law gave us a media stand (he built it in the 90’s by the way!!) and I knew it would be perfect!

We headed to Andersons and bought Benjamin Moore’s paint in Cumulus Cloud. This is such a gorgeous color! It’s a light gray with a hint of brown, which goes with our decor! I opted for a light color so I could make it ‘pop‘ with the accessories!

Here’s what your going to need for this project:

Piece of furniture to up-cyle (as suggested above)
Preferred paint
Chalkboard paint
Circular saw
Bowl for sink
Caulk/Silicon
Scrap wood
Wood glue
Brushed nickel (or chrome) spray paint
4 knobs/handles
Scrap fabric
Glue gun, fabric glue, velcro

We did not prime our wood because the paint we bought had a primer already in it! This saved us a little bit of time 🙂 Start by removing any doors and hardware and set aside. My husband used a circular saw to cut a whole the size of the bowl we chose for the sink. He used a heavy duty caulking to attach the bowl. I bought all the supplies (bowl, small tins, silverware and chalk from Target dollar corner!). Let the caulk dry completely. We put two thick coats of paint on the entire piece. I couldn’t be more happy with this color!! While the paint was drying, my husband used scrap wood we already had and began to cut two “J’s” for the faucet and a rectangular piece for the faucet to rest on. He glued the “J’s” together with wood glue and and clamped together until dry. I layed out a piece of cardboard and begin to prime all the hardware, faucet and pieces. After the primer was dry, I used Kyrlon’s Satin Nickel spray paint, two even coats on all the pieces.

Once the cabinet piece we were using as the oven was dry we taped it off and begin to spray it with chalkboard paint. I would recommend two or three light coats of this (follow directions on bottle). We grabbed the two cabinet pieces we were using as the refrigerator doors and sprayed the handles with the satin nickel spray paint as well. We let everything dry completely overnight. The next morning we were excited to get this piece finished, and so were the kids!

We began to reassemble all the cabinets and hardware. We had extra knobs from when we moved into our house that we decided to use. The faucet knobs were yellow and white gingham, so cute! We still needed fabric for the “curtain’s” so we headed to Hobby Lobby and I let my son pick out a piece of scrap fabric he liked. We ended finding a super cute, scrolly design in ivory and orange. It was $2.69 for a 1/2 yard. I also picked up a roll of Velcro to attach to the fabric and cabinet. Once we were back home, I cut the fabric and used fabric glue to secure the loose ends. I used the same fabric glue to attach a piece of the Velcro directly to the fabric, and let dry. Heat your glue gun attach the other piece of Velcro together, and glue the backing generously. Attach this directly to the wood of your kitchen, pressing down until dry. There was enough extra fabric to use as a “dish towel” for the kids to play with!

Just add your accessories and your done! I bought two teal tins for $1 each from Target. One holds the chalk and the other holds utensils. I scored a wire rack from goodwill for .34 cents and spray painted it yellow gold. We also had some play food to add to the fridge, but plan to get more!

This was such a fun project to finish! The kids will have a blast playing with it this Fall/Winter!

The total cost for this project was well under $10 for us. Note, we used a lot of things we already had!

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{ Darling, Felt Headbands }

August 23, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: diy, diy projects, felt headbands, flower headbands, Pinterest 38 Comments

Can I just say, I love crafting!! I love when I have a fab idea, or come across something I can’t wait to make! I love making things for my kids to wear.. I’m already a super proud Momma, but I love to see my kids wearing things I’ve made 🙂

This week, I came across a wonderfully- detailed tutorial for making felt flower headbands on, shad and lizzie blog! I literally couldn’t wait to head to Jo Ann’s and get the supplies! This really couldn’t be simpler! Here’s what you’re going to need:

Pre-cut pieces of felt in desired color(s)
Elastic ribbon, also in desired color(s)
Scissors
Glue gun
Paper and marker

Jo Ann’s offers pre-cut felt in the craft section, in a variety of colors, and only .34 cents a sheet. One sheet is enough for two headbands! I chose silver grey and tan. In the same section of the store, they have pre-cut elastic ribbon as well. I ended up getting my elastic ribbon from the fabric isle and cut at the counter because I wanted a thinner, white elastic. For this project I only got one yard. That was also enough for two headbands!

Once you’re home, grab a sheet of paper and trace a simple flower design and cut out. This will be your stencil. Trace your stencil with marker five times onto your felt. Cut out each flower. Grab your, already heated glue gun and place a dot in the center of your flower, fold over and press down. Repeat this step for FOUR of your flowers. Save one flower for the end.

Take one folded flower piece and put a dot of glue on the folded edge and place another folded flower in the opposite direction. Alternate for the remaining two flowers. So it will look like this (below).

Grab your last flower and put a glue dot in the middle of the flower and twist the center. This will be the center of your flower. Hold in place until glue has dried and glue to the center of previous flower pieces. Lightly pull felt for desired “look”. You’re almost done!

Grab your elastic ribbon and measure to 12.5 inches for newborn to 3 months and 13 inches for 3 months and older. Put a small dot of glue on one end and overlap about 1/4 of an inch, press down. Cut a circle with the remaining felt from earlier. Place your flower on the front side of the elastic over the seam and glue into place. Glue your circle of felt on the back of the elastic seam.

You’re finished!! I hope that wasn’t too confusing for you to understand! I can’t wait to make more of these 🙂 I will be making these as gifts too.. Soo stinkin’ cute 🙂

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Monogrammed Canvas

August 15, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: canvas, diy, diy project, little girls room, monogram, paint, pearls, pink, Pinterest 14 Comments

I have been taking it slow hanging things on the wall at our new house. As for Isabella’s room, the only thing she has hanging on her wall right now is her bow holder! I had a super cute name banner from her first birthday party, hanging above her crib and some how she ripped it down and tore it to shreds (ha!).

We were at Hobby Lobby yesterday and they had their two pack canvases for $5.99. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do with them but I knew I could do something fun! I bought two packs of scrap booking pearls in large and small. These are already sticky so it would cut out a step for sticking to the canvas! At this point, I had decided I wanted to write her initials with the pearls. Each pack was $2.99.

Once we were home, I wanted to spray paint the canvas pink. I already had Krylon’s Ballerina Slipper in Gloss. I made several even coats on the canvas, and let dry. I played around with so many different designs for this project. I used a beautiful stencil and tried to align the small pearls for the letter, it looked awful… I made a simple “I”, felt too plain… I added a small piece of burlap and added an “I”, didn’t like it… I don’t know what was coming over me, haha! I finally decided to embellish two of the sides with a short and long row of peals and paint her initials, which are ” IRV”. I had a sample of Valspar paint in a beige color. I started with the “R” in the middle of the canvas. I painted right over the stencil, and repeat for the remaining two letters. Once dry, I smudged a little bit of silver paint on the letters to give them a worn look. I put two small pearls between each letter, to act as a period for the initials.

I was happy with the end result, and it only took about an hour to complete!

Sharing this project on these weekly linky parties! Thank you for hosting ladies!

{ Silhouette Onesie }

August 9, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: diy, diy onesie, onesie, sewing, silhouette, silhouette onesie 40 Comments

I bought this beautiful fabric at JoAnn Fabrics a couple months back, for $1.99! I didn’t know how I was going to use it, but I knew I’d love to make something for Isabella with it! The same time that I bought her ruffle bloomers for her first birthday photo shoot, I bought a beautiful turquoise pair too! The color in my new fabric and the bloomers were a perfect match!!

I’ve been crazy about silhouettes lately.. So classic and fun! I searched google for a little girl silhouette, and found this one (here). Perfect for my little princess 🙂 I edited the size of the image to fit the page, and printed it, then cut it out. Next, turn your fabric over, design side down, turn your picture backwards and trace. Carefully cut your silhouette out. For Isabella’s first birthday onesie I used a fabric glue to attach the fabric, this time I decided I wanted to sew it on instead. This was a little interesting for me, because I’ve sewn very few times in my life! It was family movie night, so I hopped on the couch with my boys and got to it!

Some may not be impressed by it, but I was really excited with how it turned out! I think it’s safe to say this will be a hand-washed item, just in case my stitching isn’t super tough! I can’t wait for her to wear it. I will update with a picture when she does! 🙂

**Update** She wore it yesterday, and I got a few questions as to where I bought it 😉

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My NEW “OLD” Bench!!

July 23, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: diy, diy project, extra seating, rustic bench, rustic wood, sitting bench, wood bench 38 Comments

My husband promised to build a bench for our living room gallery wall (coming soon!). I was very surprised when I came home yesterday to him and our son building it!! He found two aged pieces of scrap wood that were perfect for this project, so that was our inspiration! Using what wood we already had, he came up with the design for the legs, based off of a specific style he was going for. It didn’t really turn out how he predicted, but we were both very pleased with the results!

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 pieces of aged wood (ours came from a skid!) 4 feet by 6 inches by 1.5 inches
1 8 foot piece of 2 X 3
2 8 foot pieces of 2 X 4’s
wood screws
stain and polyurethane
chop saw and table saw
sander

First, sand the planks to a smooth consistency. Next, we set the planks side by side and took a measurement. Ours was about 13 inches, width wise. Measure your 2 X 3’s at about 11 inches for your support braces. You will need three. Cut 8 2 X 4’s at 18 inches. Cut 6 2 X 4’s at 3.5 inches. With the 18 inch 2 X 4’s he made a chalk mark for an angle he wanted to make for the legs, then cut with the table saw. Now you will need to measure the angled side of the 2 X 4’s to know how far in to put the braces. Screw into place. Grab the 6 2 X 4’s at 3.5 inches and screw them between your angled legs. Three on each side. These will now be your sturdy legs! Screw into your end braces. Two 2 X 4’s at a 45 degree angle, serve as an additional brace to keep the legs sturdy. You’re almost done! Start staining your piece. We did not stain the top of ours because we loved that natural look. Once you are done staining, add a thick coat, or two! of polyurethane.

And there you have it! A one- of – a – kind piece you’ll have forever! I can’t wait to add some beautiful pillows and my gallery wall to really showcase this piece!!

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Mirror Makeover!!

July 16, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: bright colors, diy, diy project, kids bathroom, mirror makeover, spray paint 32 Comments

I wanted to do the kids bathroom with a fun, unisex theme! I didn’t want it to be too girly for my son, and vice versa! My color pallet for the bathroom was going to be brights!! I will do another post for the entire bathroom reveal 🙂 To add some character to the half bath downstairs and kids bathroom upstairs, I bought two mirrors for $25 each, to replace the boring, clean- line ones currently in our bathrooms. As, I had mentioned, I wanted the kids bathroom to be bright and fun! I headed to walmart to peek at the spray paint! I found this great color, called Blue Ocean Breeze. It resembles turquoise, and I knew it would be perfect for this mirror!!

Here’s what you will need for this makeover! :

Mirror or frame of choice
white or gray primer { I used Krylon Gray Primer }
spray paint color of choice { mine was Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze, Gloss }
clear gloss finish { I used Krylon Ultra Clear Gloss Finish }
painters tape
newspaper and/or plastic

First, make sure the frame of your mirror is clean and dry. Start by using newspaper or sheet plastic to cover the mirror, hold with painters tape. (This to me, is easier than taking the entire mirror out!) I decided to spray paint outside on top of plastic, probably wasn’t the best idea due to the fact that it was quiet windy out, but it got the job done! If you plan on painting indoors, make sure your space is properly ventilated! Cover the entire piece with primer, let dry and go over it again for any missed spots. Begin applying your color of choice in long, even swipes, back and forth, to every side until covered. Let dry for a minimum of 15 minutes, and add a second coat. Let this dry for, at least, an hour. Once you have determined the entire frame is dry, add your glossy finish. If you just want a smooth shine, a soft, swift coat will do the job. If you prefer the super glossy look, lather that baby on 😉 Once completely dry, peel your newspaper/ plastic away and scrape off any paint that may have leaked through and hang your masterpiece!!

I was so excited with how this project turned out! It is definitely the statement piece in the kids bathroom and so beautiful!

My little guy taking pictures for Mommy 🙂

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Rustic Inspired Initial

July 2, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: diy, diy projects, fireplace decor, Hobby Lobby, initial letter, Pinterest, spray paint, wedding 25 Comments

For our wedding back in October 2010, I purchased two partical board initial “R” ‘s (similar to the ones sold at Hobby Lobby here for under $3!) I spray painted them a satin knickle finish at the time of our wedding. Well, anyways, I still use one with my living room decor and the silver just wasn’t cuttin’ it for me anymore… I want it to be the accent color I plan on using which is a burnt yellow. I headed to walmart and bought a color I thought would look good, it was Krylon’s glossy Bauhaus Gold. Came home, sprayed it and quickly realized it was too gold (hence the name!)

I had some metallic decor-art finish, so I grabbed a small brush and started dabbing the letter with the silver paint. It looked rediculous, but I still had some sanding to do, so I knew it wouldn’t look like this forever! Once the paint was dry, I began sanding with a low grain sandpaper. Most of the silver I had just painted on ended up coming right off, but it gave it some definition, and the silver that I had on it previously started peeking through! I’m really happy with the final product, looks old and rustic, yet it’s sentimental to our family!

My son added a ‘cars’ sticker around the time of our wedding,
I won’t take it off because I know it’ll make me smile when he’s older!

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Fun Garden Stakes!

June 25, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: diy, fresh veggies, garden stakes, gardening, Pinterest, planters, vegetable planters, wine corks 25 Comments

I think I might be a little late at getting my veggie planters started, but hey, better late than never! Since I’m a newbie, I decided to start out with just a few to make sure I can get them to grow (and keep them alive!).

I bought two cheap medium sized planters, garden potting soil, and a packet of oregano, leaf lettuce, tomatoes, and bell peppers. I really hope they turn out, because I would totally love picking fresh veggies right out of my backyard! I like the idea of using the planters because they’re easier to maintain and you can place them anywhere!

Now, I needed something cute to display the names of each vegetable… I was looking around the house for large Popsicle sticks, but couldn’t find any. Then, I remembered I had a stash of wine corks.. I grabbed those and wooden skewers. I wrote, with permanent maker, each veggie, pushed the cork onto the skewer and stuck it into the soil. It looks cute, gives it character and was free (from stuff I already had at home!). Once my plants are in bloom, they will look adorable peeking through!

Supplies

Hubby doing the dirty work, while I take pictures 😉

Cute!!

Hey, my lettuce is growing!!

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Carnival Themed { Sixth } Birthday!

June 17, 2012 by Fotini Filed Under: birthday party, boy birthday party, carnival theme birthday, diy, kids games, ombre cake, Pinterest, Shutterfly, sixth birthday party

My son is turning SIX this year, and I wanted to make his party special for him and his friends! I let him choose the theme each year and this year he chose a carnival theme. I was really excited about the possibilities! Lots of colors, fun foods and great games!!

For his invitations, I had free photo cards from Shutterfly, so I used those for his invitations and only paid for shipping, which was under $5! (Steal!!) The pictures I used were taken at our family shoot back in September and were perfect! With each invitation, I included a raffle ticket for each child invited! At the party, a name would be chosen and that kid would win a prize!

Now that our theme was chosen, I headed to the dollar store to see what they had. I was excited to find, they had plastic popcorn containers, large and small. I bought several of each to use as serving dishes. I also bought all the candy for the candy bar. Double bubble gum balls, cotton candy and twizzlers.

The kids had a blast playing all the different games! We had pong, bag toss and potato sack races!! After the games, there was a prizes table where the kids could chose small prizes and fun photo props! We had different felt mustaches, clown nose and two pairs of silly glasses. It was so fun watching the kids laugh and play with them!!

I made the cake and cup cakes this year! I was a little nervous to see how they would turn out, because I’m not much of a baker, but I was really excited!! I made a three- shade ombre cake. One of the main colors we used was a teal/ turquoise blue, so that’s what the layers consisted of, with vanilla icing. It was yummy, if I do say so myself 😉

For the kids “thank you” bags, I used brown paper sacks from the dollar store, $1 for 40, and printed “THANK YOU” on them. They included puzzles, bubbles, ring pops and whatever candy from the candy bar they wanted!