High Impact – Low Cost Wall Art (Deployment Projects #159 & 160)

 

I’ve been working hard on the kids rooms and I think I am finally ready to show you Charise’s!  I still have some details to finish up and I still need to add a few little “surprises.”  But all in all, it is finished.  I had the same policy with the kids rooms as I had with the guest room.  I didn’t want to buy anything for these rooms - - only use things that I had. 

Here’s what I came up with for one of Charise’s walls.

I had this picture hanging in our guestroom before I re-did it.   I knew I was not going to use this picture again – I’ve had it in three houses already - - it had served it’s purpose, but my style has moved on.

So I took the picture, matting and glass out of the frame…

I made sure that all the staples were removed, then gave it a coat of turquoise spray paint - - I used lot’s of this wonderful spray paint in her room!!

Next, I took a set of vinyl frames I had picked up months ago on clearance at TJ Maxx and put them on the wall inside the frame.

I let Charise pick out four of her favorite pictures and put those in the frames.

 

Did you notice that I just used straight pins to hold the pictures to the wall?

 

I also had some leftover vinyl birds from another project in her room, so I perched one of them on a frame.

    

A little sneak peek of the new picture frame on the wall!  Notice more of that turquoise spray paint?  I also gave her pink chandelier a coat of paint.

 

Now, for a second super quick super easy project.  We had these three hooks in her room before the re-do, but they were always falling off the wall and every time they moved, they left a black mark on the wall – not cool when you rent!  So, I took a board that we had in the garage.  It just happened to be this size, I didn’t cut it down or anything.   I gave it a coat of paint too - - then, with my white paint pen, I added a little white line detail.  I put screws in to keep the hooks on the board and voila!  I hung it on the wall, then added another one of the vinyl birds above the  hooks. 

Total money spent:  $0

Creativity Used:  just a little :)

Cute Girls Room:  Priceless!  Check back tomorrow when I share the entire room with you!

In Our Home (Deployment Project #158)

I saw this fabulous “Do” list on someone’s blog the other day, and I cannot for the life of me find it again.  In typical Amy fashion, I put it in my idea file, but forgot to make sure I had the link saved also.  So - - I know it is on one of your blogs - - if it’s yours, send me an email and I will link you to this!!

Here’s the wall that inspired my next project:

Don’t you just love it?  I love that it is a positive twist on a household “list of rules.”  I took the words and ran with the idea, making my own movable version.  That’s what we do in the military - - we make movable versions of everything.  That along with checking the weight of a piece of furniture before we purchase it!!

I plan on hanging this on the wall in the hallway outside the kids room.  It’s actually just leaning there right now until I can go and get the hardware needed to hang it.

 

Here’s the line that really sold me, “We do loud really well.”  If you knew my family, or hung around with us for any amount of time - - - especially if Handsome Hubby is around - - you would know that we do LOUD really well!!!  We joke that my husband has the laugh, “heard around the world!”  It’s true - - it’s really loud!  When we were dating in college, that would be how I would find him.  I would just open my dorm room window - - listen for a few seconds, hear his laugh, and head off in the direction I heard it!  I love that my man is such a happy person and not afraid to share that joy - - especially with his family! 

So, yes, we do loud really well!!

 

To make the sign, I dry brushed my blue paint on my board, used my T-square to chalk some guidelines on for writing my words.  Then free-hand painted the words on my board.  After it all dried, I used some sandpaper to distress the entire sign and added some white accents using my paint pen.  It was a quick and easy evening projects that serves as a great reminder to all of us of the things we, as a family, should be doing!

Guestroom Projects!

Welcome back to my guestroom!  Today were going to take a closer look at some of the projects in the room!

Did you notice those pictures on the wall?  I needed something to fill up that long white wall.  I had a book of shell prints, but no frames to fit them.  Remember, I was only using what I had in the house, so I had to get creative!  So, I carefully tore the pictures out of the book.

Can you see what I used to hang them?  T-pins.  Yup, I just stole them from my sewing table and pushed them in the wall.

I got creative on one and just added a little metal number tag.  It happened to be hanging out on my sewing table by the T-pins, so I just grabbed it and added it in.  I like to throw unexpected items in my decorating.  It makes people really look and be entertained by the details.

 

What do you think of my beach sign?    It makes me so happy!

 

I made it -- - in like 15 minutes!

I wanted something big for the opposite wall and I really wanted it to be my focal point.  It is the first wall you see when you look in the room AND this room is right at the top of our stairs, so you see it every time you go up or down the stairs.  I had the hooks and numbers sitting in the garage -- - I had bought them at Lowes a few months back I think the hooks were around $3 each and the numbers were $2.  So my total cost was $25

To make the sign, I screwed together three boards of slightly different widths and lengths.   I got the boards for free at a garage sale - - I didn’t cut even trim them down.   I left a little gap between each of the boards.  Then I quickly painted the boards with some blue paint I had on hand - - and when I say quick, I mean quick!  I just slapped it on there, letting the wood show through in some places.

After that, I sanded down the edges, screwed on the hooks, and nailed on the numbers.

To finish it off, I used my white sharpie paint pen (love it!) to write the word “beach” along the top.  It didn’t show up quite enough for me, so I grabbed my black sharpie pen and outlined the letters.

   

How about this little quick project…

 

Again, I apologize for forgetting about before pictures - - I get in the moment and forget to document, the creative juices are just flowing and I just keep going!   I had these fabulous family pictures and I really wanted to put them in the room.  Some people say you shouldn’t use family pictures in your decorating.  I say it’s my house, my family, and my pictures and I should decorate with what makes me happy!  And my family and my family pictures make me happy - - so dog-gone-it, I’m going to use them!

I had picked up this frame from Home Goods when we still lived in CA for $2.00.  I was white, banged up and had some crazy pictures in the openings.  I gave it a fresh coat of paint, cut scrapbook paper to fit the openings, and put one picture in each of the openings.  $2 art… You can’t beat that!

By the way - - -check out those pictures in the frame - - -are they not the best?!!  Those were our pre-deployment, pre-moving, family pictures done by the very talented Missie from Sunflower Studio.  We traded talent.  I re-upholstered a chair for her and she took our family pictures!

I still have some details to finish for the room, but really, the biggest thing I am missing for this room - - is guests!!  Whose coming for a visit?  I have 4 weeks to fill up before Handsome Hubby comes home for his two weeks of Rest and Relaxation (R&R).   Hoping these 4 weeks FFFFLLLLLYYYYYY by!

“Dear Jesus, Please make the time go by quickly.” Breaking 100 in the Deployement Project #’s!!

Along with their other requests and praises, my kids pray this every night before they go to bed.  They want the time until Daddy comes back home to go quickly.  I couldn’t agree more, but I do have to say that I believe God is answering their prayers!  I tell you what, the time is flying - - and that is a good thing, but I’m not sure if I can keep up!!  I did not even realize that my last post was two weeks ago!  Yikes!!

Thank goodness you all are patient, kind and loving readers!!  It is not for a lack of projects for me to post about, that is for sure!!  I have been sooooooooooo busy with projects, I feel like I have about a 100 to post (ok, maybe not 100 that might be an exaggeration) but actually finding the time to post seems to be the problem!!  Of course, tonight I am taking a project break while I  sit here writing a  post and  watching the Survivor Finale at the same time!!  Multi-tasking at it’s best.

So, here’s a Deployment Project Update:  (sorry, I didn’t take pictures of it all - - it’s that whole time management thing!!)

Since I last posted, I have made 14 pillows

 

Embroidered 4 more sheets

My mantra for now!  Keep calm and carry on!

Sewed 3 dresses and 1 shirt

Painted 2 more Station Signs

Re-upholstered 2 couch cushions

Sewed 3 camera straps

and Re-upholstered this sweet bench.

 

And - - through all of that I have taught school ( we are almost finished for the year - - wooohooooo!!!), kept the house fairly well maintained,  made it to they gym (although not as much as I would have like to!)  mowed the lawn (until the mower died, then I just gave up on that one!), chauffeured the kids back and forth to swimming, fencing, art lessons, guitar lessons,Awana,  and birthday parties, had my Mom and Dad visit for a long weekend to celebrate my birthday and Mother’s Day, had a great friend come this weekend and give me some “Design Intervention,”  picked up some sweet deals on craigslist (can’t wait to share those with you!) - - oh, and I even fed the kids a few well-rounded healthy meals! 

Whew!  See why there hasn’t been any posts lately?  That takes my Deployment count to 111!!!

I could sit and beat myself up about not posting as often as I would like, but I had a sweet new blogger friend, Linda, remind me in an email this week, “Looking forward to your next blog, but remember that your kids come first and your blog groupies understand that so we wait patiently.”    Thanks Linda!

Hopefully there will be more posts, more often, but I can’t promise that.   I can promise you that I do have some fabulous projects that I am currently working on and eventually I will post about them!! 

Painting (Deployment Project #7)

I like to paint, I just don't do it too often anymore.  When we were stationed at Ft. Campbell, KY I had my own buisness doing decorative painting.  It was fun, but I was never overly comfortable doing it for other people.  I like working with fabric so much better!!  Fabric is consistent and after a customer picks out their fabric, it isn't going to change.  It is concrete.  Painting is more about personal prefrences, creativity.  Needless to say, I don't paint for other people any more.   Except Handsome Hubby.  He loves for me to paint and he always shows a little dissappointment when I bring home a framed picture that I bought from somewhere.

As I'm sure you have noticed by now, every pictrure of my living room on here shows that I still have blank walls.  I just didn't have anything in my stash that fit the bill.  I wanted two pictures that worked together and were the same size to go over my two chairs.   I started searching for something, but when hubby found out I was looking, he went to Joannes and bought me two matching pictures.

Two blank white canvases.

Last night I decided to start the first of the two.  I knew I wanted a white flower with a blue background.  It didn't take me long to sketch out the flower and then I pulled out the paints.  Before I knew it, I had finished the entire painting.  I am pleased with how it turned out.  Now all I have to do is make another one for the other side of the wall!

A Night in My Father's Vineyard

So this past weekend, I was invited to my Mom's church for a women's dinner.  "A Night In My Father's Vineyard."  While my Mom read various devotional selections about vineyards relating to John 15:5, "I am the Vine and you are the branches..." I painted.  It has been a long time since I have painted and I have to tell you I was a little nervous about pulling out the brushes for the first time in 3 years in front of a large room full of women!!  But it all worked out well.  I painted a landscape of a vineyard and then one large grape vine/plant with lots of grape clusters on it.  I wasn't 100% sold on it the night of the dinner, but after a little tweaking and some repainting the next day, I am quite pleased.  The church is going to hang it in their "meeting room" and put a frame around it.  It is a very large picture 8ft x 6 ft so it should make quite a statement!  Here are some pictures of the during - and wouldn't yuu know it, I didn't get any pictures of it completed!  Story of my life!