Garage sale find friday

Garage sales are still really spotty around here. Sometimes there are lots, other times, not so many. I did pick this gem up today though and I am totally psyched about it! My oldest son (11) plays guitar and is getting quite good at it. He still has a low end child size guitar that he got when he was 6. So when I saw this, I didn't think much of it, in fact, I was walking away from the sale when I decided to ask about it. It's a Fender 6 string acoustic guitar with a Martin hardcase. The case alone is worth what I paid for the guitar. I was so excited I had to call my hubby at work! The guy had the guitar listed for $50, and while the guitar is well worth it, I didn't need the guitar that badly to pay that much for it. I managed to get him down to $35 but after putting together all the cash I had, I only had $34 to give him. SOLD!

I think I am going to have one happy little pre-teen on my hands when he gets home from school today!

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Spa birthday party

My daughter just celebrated her 8th birthday with a spa slumber party. These are just a few of the pictures of the crafty things that we made for the party.


The invitation was a felt sleeping mask with details on the back.

One of the things we did to keep us busy was make bath salts and bath scrub. We also tied ribbons on to flip flops, but those were a bust!
I also made these tissue paper pom poms. I think they are so fun, but don't be fooled, they were frustrating to make! I'm not a perfectionist, but getting these to look the way I wanted them to was enough to just about push me over the edge!

The goodie bags were boxes from the dollar store. I simply glued on chiffon ribbon I had ruffled in my scrap bin. Each of the girls went home with their handmade bath goodies and flip flops. It was such a fun party! The possibilities with the theme are endless. After a night with a bunch of sweet little giggly girls, I need a trip to the spa myself now!

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Garden markers

I didn't plant a huge garden this year. Only green beans and sugar snap peas. It's always fun to have plant markers no matter how big your garden is, so I made a few. I found these two plastic stakes in my neighbors yard. They are from the guys who treat the yard and let you know that chemicals were put on the grass.

Then I took some burlap scraps, drew a rectangle and cut it out.
I thought I would try to use my letter stamps, but they didn't show up very well, so I just used my sharpie instead. That is, after I used my hot glue gun to adhere the rectangle. I just positioned it in place, glued the back part, and then flipped the burlap over the top and glued that part on.

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Pottery barn typewriter art knock off

I am so excited that I finished this project this week. I have been in the process of making it for a few weeks now, mostly because I needed some help from the hubby and he doesn't work on the same schedule that I do! I love this typewriter key wall art from Pottery Barn, and thought for sure I could make something like it for a fraction of the cost.

This is my version. I think it's pretty darn close!

I started by searching on-line and knew there would have been someone who managed to recreate this. I stumbled upon Nikki at dream.design.create and found her post here . Nikki even offered to send me the pdf file for the letters, which I think look a whole lot like the PB original. So that's where I started. Wasn't that sweet?! Nikki's blog is great, go check it out if you haven't already. I love their bingo art re-make and can't wait to try that too!

I had my husband print the letters/numbers off on 8 1/2x11 cardstock in a cream color. I couldn't figure out how to print cardstock on our home computer, so I am thankful that my husband could do it at work. Then I hand cut each letter out.

My husband picked up this board at Home Depot for me. It's 24x24. I thought for sure that I could use some scrap lumber for this project, but my husband insisted on getting a higher quality plywood. It cost around $5 for the board. Then he drew the lines on and used a saw to cut them out. Not sure how, I told him what I wanted and how I wanted it, and he did it! I love it when husbands do what they are told!

I then took brown oil paint mixed with odorless mineral spirits and painted the board. I wanted it a bit darker than the original, and focused on the edges to make a more antiqued look. I must say, this is the step that intimidated me the most. I don't use decorative painting techniques very often...o.k. ever, so it made me nervous. I used an old rag dipped in the mineral spirits to rub the paint down a bit and give it my desired look. In the picture below, you can see it getting started.

Don't forget to get a smaller brush and get inside the creases. I also wasn't sure if I wanted to frame the board or not, so I painted the outside edges too.

My husband then took the dry board and nailed black carpet tacks to each corner. He made the hole first with a regular nail and then was able to just push the tacks in. He's a genius isn't he?!

Can you believe that I haven't ever used mod podge before? This is my first jar and I fell in love! It's so easy to use.

I just took the letters and numbers, placed them centered on each square and brushed them down.

And here it is drying. What do you think, should I frame it or leave it frameless?

update: you can download the font for the letters here. 

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Garage sale find friday

Welcome to the 2nd Garage sale find Friday here at Holy Craft!

I have a super busy weekend planned with kids baseball games, soccer practice, a birthday slumber party, phew, I am tired just thinking about it! I did want to share one of my latest finds though. I bought this computer hutch for $30! Isn't it great? We are hoping to move this summer because we really have just outgrown our current home. Our dining room turned into a play room/office and in order to sell it, we need to turn it back into a dining room. This little beauty is my solution.

On the outside you can hide all that unsightly computer and office equipment, inside, you can stay organized and function without missing a beat. So we can put our dining room table back into our dining room, and tuck this little gem in the corner. I think it could pass for a little dining hutch don't you?!

And really, for $30 how could you go wrong?! It doesn't even need a coat of paint! LOVE IT!

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Pottery barn cork board knock off

I saw this bulletin board in Pottery Barn's catalog recently and knew I had to make a knock off. As a constant garage saler, I know that bulletin boards are a dime a dozen, I just had to wait until I found one. And last Friday I found one...for a dime! So with this pottery barn picture and this post for inspiration, I set to work.

And this is what I came up with! Isn't it amazing?! It's probably my favorite thing I have crafted so far.

Here is the before picture that I took when I was so darn giddy for finding this for a dime!

And a close up of the back in need of a cork board.

I knew I could buy cork, but decided to use some cardboard that I had lying around. I had my husband cut it to size. He doesn't trust me with large sharp objects!

I then covered it with burlap. I thought I would share my trick on cutting burlap. You find where you want to cut, then pull the thread that is there totally out.

When you pull it will gather, just keep tugging.

It then leaves you with a gap in the burlap so then you know where to cut and as a bonus, you get a nice straight line!

I then took the burlap and stapled it down. When I did the corners, I wrapped them like I would wrap a package. The more staples the better, you want it to be tight!

Then I used my super industrial glue gun on high temp, glued the whole cardboard down and put my husbands weights on it to help it set.

Then the fun started! The Pottery Barn board has postage stamp like designs on it, and I looked and looked for any clip art I could use or large stamps from the craft store, and came up empty handed. I finally just bit the bullet, and thought I would try to free hand it. So, I went on a little hunt around the house and used the above objects as my stencil. I just brushed the edges with black paint, pressed them down on a test paper to get rid of some of the paint, then put it where I wanted on the burlap.

Then I took my paint and free handed the things inside. I was SO nervous about this part because I didn't want to mess it up, but I think it turned out really well! And I love it, because each "stamp" has significance to our family. The T stands for our last name, there are 5 of us in our family, we live in the Seattle area, and the 3 is for our three kids.. I even put our wedding date on there!

Here it is before I put the wire on it.

You could stop here, but why?

I found some large gauge wire today in the floral section of JoAnn's. I put nails into the sides at 12 inches and 6 inches up from the bottom and secured the wire by twisting it to the nails. I even added curtain rings to clip things to.

Don't you love it? I do! Oh, and I forgot to mention, the space needle picture is on there because it's where we got engaged twelve years ago!

The back is still a chalkboard so I can put our nightly menu on it. Hopefully, it will put a stop to my tween asking every three minutes what's for dinner!

I am linking up to some of these parties

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Circle flower rose tutorial on a t-shirt dress refashion

This morning during my 5:30 (yes, a.m.) workout class my instructor informed us she would be moving this summer to London. Her daughter is also good friends with my daughter, so when I saw this t-shirt at Wal-Mart today (for $3 no less!), I snagged it and decided to make a dress for little Miss Molly. I thought it needed a little more snazzy touch, so I decided to make some circle flowers to embellish it a bit. Here's how to make them.

You will need several different fabrics (jersey and cotton work best). This project is perfect for those leftover scraps in your scrap bin. I start by finding a circle I can trace, then trace it onto my fabric. I use a sharpie so I can see it (even on black fabric) and just make sure I cut inside the lines.

I made three flowers, you will need about a dozen circles for each one. I like using coordinating colors.

If you notice, the middle 3 circles are smaller, just cut free hand smaller and smaller to get the size you want. After this gets washed, the edges will start to curl and add dimension.

Decide how you want to place them. In this case, I sewed them onto my dress. You could make just one and attach it to a hair clip or even a pin to make it removable.

Then I sewed each flower individually like I would a button, and then placed it on the shirt to sew it down on the shirt.

The t-shirt dress refashion tutorial can be found here

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