Crafts | Like a Saturday - DIY, Crafts, Recipes, Shenanigans

June 3, 2013
by likeasaturday 9 Comments

Ditto DIY : Gilded Bookends

Hello, all! My sister’s wedding was last night, and I’m still away. It was a beautiful, fun, meaningful wedding…my sister looked gorgeous….we got them married off…we danced…we ate….we celebrated….we sighed a sigh of relief, and now…..we SLEEP! I’ll share some details {eventually} once we’re all recuperated! Until then….

I’m jumping in on the Ditto DIY Challenge with several fine ladies! This month’s challenge is to gild or paint something gold, and then incorporate that into a display. The photo below is our inspiration.

I’ve already talked about how I’ve been adding several gold details to our home, like the gold-dipped bar stools, woodland creature plates, my office chair, milk glass lamps, and drawer pulls on my desk. I make myself laugh, because I used to be so anti-gold and now it can be found in every room of our house. If I don’t stop soon, we’ll be one stop away from 1984. Gold and brass are definitely back, and I am like a lemming into the sea. {Except I haven’t boarded the emerald train….yet.}.

I was excited when I saw this month’s challenge inspiration, because I was already done before I began. In my pre-blog days, I saw this post from Cassie at Hi, Sugarplum and lemming-ed my way over to Hobby Lobby to grab the same horse heads to spray gold. I went with antique gold, instead of a brassy gold.

These guys now live on a small table right by our entryway. I have them holding up several vintage books. Vintage books are my kryptonite. I can’t not buy them when I’m out thrifting.

This little table has been with me for a long time. It has gone from natural wood, to white, to black, to charcoal. It is the perfect fit for the small nook area next to the entry way. I keep a bowl here {from Anthro} to toss my keys in when I get home. The lamp is from Walmart, from their Better Homes & Garden collection, and the shade is from Target.

This is one of my favorite corners of the house. Our entry way is still evolving, but I’m liking the direction we’re moving in.

Have you given way to the gold yet? What gilded items do you have in your home?

May 20, 2013
by likeasaturday 26 Comments

Summer Bicycle Wreath

Happy Monday! I’m running behind today! We spent the weekend in Austin celebrating my little sister’s graduation from the University of Texas {Hook’em!}. It was a fun, exciting, busy, exhausting weekend! You can bet on InstaFriday being very burnt orange this week. This was the first of 3 Austin trips I’ll be making this month….so, yes…coffee will be happening. A lot.

Can you believe Memorial Day weekend is already upon us? The official unofficial start of summer. It’s already feeling good and hot here as we’re already reaching temps in the 90′s, so I felt like it was time to switch out my spring wreath for a summery one.

I started out by wrapping a wreath form in some grosgrain ribbon in a red and white chevron pattern that I found at Hobby Lobby. I’ve made a few yarn wreaths before, but I had never wrapped one in ribbon. Oh my goodness – I am sold on wrapping wreaths in ribbon! It took so much less time!

I also found this metal bicycle at Hob Lob. They were running a 50% sale on metal that week, so I snatched it up with thoughts of yellow spray paint running through my mind.

Once I gave it a few coats of a pale yellow spray paint, I attached it to the wreath with some hot glue. The bicycle is pretty light weight, but I still wanted to reinforce it with some ribbon in case the glue were to come loose with the Texas heat. I had a spool of a thin matching ribbon. I discreetly tied each wheel to wreath. You can hardly see it unless you’re looking very hard.

I was seriously doing a dance around the house once I finished. I am IN LOVE. It’s definitely the quirkiest wreath I’ve put together. The colors and the addition of the bike scream summer to me !

Of course, one thing led to another, and I restyled the entire front porch for summer…but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see what I’ve done! I’m excited to share it with you!

I hope y’all have a wonderful Monday and I’ll see you back tomorrow for the porch reveal!

Update : Apparently great minds think alike! Check out Jen’s {from Craft-o-Matic} Summer Bicycle Wreath that she made! It is super cute!

May 13, 2013
by likeasaturday 12 Comments

Craft Caddy : Fun with Washi Tape

Did everyone have a great weekend and a happy Mother’s Day? May always seems to be a month full of celebrating! Graduations, birthdays, weddings, Mother’s Day….so many festivities!

Are there any other washi tape addicts out there? It makes me a little nostalgic of my Lisa Frank days. It’s just so much fun.

{side note : I still have my trapper keeper with this dog and cat wedding on it. It does not get anymore 90′s than that. Lisa Frank? Check. Trapper Keeper? Check. Full of my elementary school drawings and hopes and dreams? Double check.}

{source}

I tried washi out for the first time this past Christmas and added a some red and green tape to our Christmas card envelopes. It was really cute and added a little something special to the plain white envelopes. I hadn’t ever really thought much about washi beyond stationary and gift wrapping, but there is so much you can do with it! I bought a pack from Pick Your Plum a while back, and now I’m trying to washi everything. It’s a disease.

I snatched a metal utensil caddy from Target a few weeks back, thinking it would be a perfect caddy for craft supplies {They have them with the summer picnic supplies in the kitchen section. They had a few other colors as well.}. I’m a mobile crafter. Sometimes you’ll actually find me working in our office/craft space, but more often than not you’ll find me on the couch, on the floor, at the kitchen table…whatever works, yunno? I’m also a messy crafter. It’s pretty much incredible how quickly one spot can explode with hot glue and felt and paper scraps and buttons. And then, suddenly, it’s midnight and my eyes will.not.stay.open and the mess stays while I slip off to dream.

I needed some kind of caddy that I could keep items that are often needed, and also my work in progress. This utensil holder fit the bill perfectly! It is a really good size – it has 3 smaller spots to keep scissors, pens, etc. and then a larger area to keep my masterpiece in progress. I could easily throw my things in here when calling it a night or moving to a new spot.

It just needed a little pizazz! Enter : washi tape. I wanted to add a few stripes of washi around the middle to give it a little color. I started by taping of the top section with masking tape. I did this to help me keep the washi tape straight.

I decided on colors and a pattern and went to town taping, using the masking tape as my guide.

Once I was done taping, I removed the masking tape to reveal my final product.

The entire thing took me no more than 7 minutes, and that was only because I had a dog in my face the entire time. Washi taping is a really quick way to add some quirk and color.

A caddy like this would also work really well for kids’ art supplies or for a homework station. It could easily be stocked with what each child needs and moved out of the way when needed. Colors could be personalized to each child’s preference, and would even be a fun project for them to work on!

Are you a mobile crafter, too? Or do you stick to your desk or kitchen table?

April 17, 2013
by likeasaturday 4 Comments

Turquoise and Pink Bridal Shower : Decor Details

Hello all! I’m back to share some of the details from my sister’s bridal shower this past weekend. Like I mentioned yesterday, I decided to keep the decor fairly simple. I wanted it to spring-like, fresh, and not fussy. For the most part, I stuck with colors in the turquoise and pink ranges.

My favorite decor item was the photo banners I put together. My sister and her fiance are high school sweethearts, so they have so many awesome pictures together from their high school and college days. I used baker’s twine and mini clothespins to string the photos in chronological order. I hung both banners on the wall using pink washi tape. It was a neat way to look back and see their story beginning with their pre-dating friendship years all the way to their engagement. The hardest part was trying to only pick a hand full of photos to use!

For centerpieces and additional decor, I put together a variety of fresh and potted flowers. I arranged the fresh flowers in either blue mason jars {leftover from my wedding} or glass Dublin Dr. Pepper bottles. I bought a couple of bouquets of white daisies and mums and a bunch of greenery from the grocery store.

For the potted plants, I bought brown terracotta pots from Walmart with the intent of jazzing them up a bit with a distressed look. {hm – that sounded like an oxymoron}. I decided to try out chalk paint for the first time.

For my first venture into chalk paint, I chose Annie Sloan’s French Linen. A very little bit of this paint goes a long way, so I still have a ton left over {even though I was only working with a sample pot!}. You can be expecting at least one other French Linen post in the future, I’m sure.

I slapped on a coat of paint using a foam brush {I’m sure diehard Annie Sloan-ists are cringing at that sentence}. It hardly took any time to dry, and then I lightly sanded to create a distressed look on each pot. A popped a begonia into each of those puppies and was ready to go! Easiest project ever. This also double as a “thank you” gift for the ladies who helped me out by bringing some of the food items.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

P.S. My heart and prayers continue to go out to those affected by the tragedy in Boston this week. If you’re looking for ways to help in a tangible way, here is a great list.

March 26, 2013
by likeasaturday 21 Comments

DIY Small Ironing Table

Hello there! I hope your week has gotten off to a great start. Things are definitely looking up since it’s a short week!

My mom had this old TV tray table, and was going to put it in the donate pile. She’s also recently picked up quilting. I knew I could easily whip this table into something useful for her new hobby. I decided to turn it into a small ironing table that she could keep near her sewing table. This way, she doesn’t have to haul out the ironing board to press all of her quilting squares. She doesn’t even have to get out of her chair to iron! Talk about upping productivity.

I flipped it over and gave it a couple of coats of white spray paint.

Once the paint was dry and cured, I carried the table into the house to upholster the top. It already had a piece of fabric hot glued to the top, so I just popped that right off.

I had some batting on hand, so I layed that out and trimmed it so that there was about an inch of overhang on each side.

I pulled it taught and went after it with the staple gun until it was snug and secure.

Once the batting was in place, I did the same thing with a new piece of fabric. I had this scrap in my stash. I decided to go with something more neutral so that it would go with whatever decor she chooses and not draw too much attention to itself.

Voila! Quilting convenience at its finest. It doesn’t take up much room at all, but can easily be folded and put out of the way if needed.

I love repurposing things to give them new life. This project didn’t even cost me a dime since I already had everything on hand, mostly leftover from other projects.