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Tealight Flight

May 6, 2011 By Taylor 46 Comments

*New Update* Thank you all for your comments, anytime that fire is involved, please be careful! Also, the tea-lights are in a metal container and I have never had a tea-light burn the metal. Also, this goes in my fireplace so even if it did, perfect place right :) If you are too worried then please don’t make this project

Taking junk and turning it into something beautiful, what’s not to like? The first thing that came to my mind was the huge bag of used plastic Easter Eggs taking up space in my pantry. It felt wrong to throw them away and I am glad I didn’t. After some brainstorming, I came up with…. The Tealight Flight. It was super simple and came out really modern and classic looking.

Here is how I did it:

I took 12 egg bottoms (which I only ended up using 11).

I spray painted the top side and waited for that to dry, then painted the bottom side. Make sure to use a spray paint that is specifically for plastic. It took me about 3-4 coats; waiting 20 minutes between coats.

I waited for them to dry overnight before I started the next step. Then, I found a piece of scrap wood in our garage. It was flawless looking and I didn’t even need to sand it or anything. Make sure your eggs are fully covered by the spray paint.

Start by gluing the center egg to the center of the board. I used E6000, which is super strong. Use a tiny dot in the bottom if the egg then use a dot on each side of the egg to connect the ones side by side.

Keep doing this until you have glued all of your eggs down.

Wait 24 hrs before you place your tealights in!

Find the perfect spot, I put mine in my fireplace…

DIY Anthropologie Flamenco Shower Curtain in Sunshine

April 7, 2011 By Taylor 61 Comments

Best Shower Curtain Ever

I have been eyeing these from Anthropologie for years…

But I have some problems:
#1 I don’t want to spend $118.00 on a shower curtain
#2 Those colors don’t match my room

So what is a girl to do… how about make one. And I call mine “Sunshine”. Anthropologie’s Shower Curtain has ten “panels” of descending color. I could only find nine fabrics that I thought really worked so mine has nine. Also, please don’t judge me on the TERRIBLE photos in this tutorial, my bathroom has no windows and it was a rainy day! That’s why I named her Sunshine.

What you need:
– 9 yards of solid fabric in a monochromatic color palate; light to dark
– light colored shower curtain to cover
– sewing machine
– serger (optional but makes it 10x easier)

Wash and iron all of your fabric

I am going to call each color a “panel”. So, each panel needs to be 88″ x 14″. Most fabric is either 44″ or 60″ wide. I was at Hobby Lobby and I found broadcloth in a bunch of colors that were 44″ wide. So that is why the panels are 88″ long. Cut your yards in half with the selvages on the short ends. Do this to all of the panels. (This is the longest & most boring part)

Now each panel has two sides, a top and a bottom. Serge the bottom of every panel.

Now it is time for ruffles and who doesn’t love a good ruffle? I used my serger to make them, and here were my settings, (click to make it larger). Do this to every panel. You will have to play around with your settings. The panels should now measure 71″ wide. If they are too long that is ok, you can “ruffle” them more when you sew them on to the shower curtain. If they are too short, you will have to pull the ruffle out a little.

Now we will sew the panels on to the shower curtain. You could just make one yourself out of solid fabric. The dimensions of a regular shower curtain are 71″ x 71″. Start with the very bottom panel and lay it down so that the bottom of the ruffle comes about an inch past the bottom of the shower curtain and pin it down. Sew this panel on. (These pictures make me cringe)

Now do the same with the top panel. Start the ruffle just under the holes in the shower curtain.

Now here are my lovely math skills… I’m sure there is a better way to do this but I like to eyeball. I measured from the “sew line” of the top panel to the “sew line” of the bottom panel and cut that number in half.

For example: The distance between my two sew lines was 60″. So half of that is 30″ so I marked 30″ with a pencil on the edge of the shower curtain and that was the middle. That is where I sewed my middle panel. Be sure NOT to measure from the bottom of the ruffle and measure from the actual sew line. Also maybe number your panels in order so to not confuse them.

You will continue with this method until you have added all of the panels. So again, measure from the middle panel’s sew line to the bottom’s sew line and mark halfway then sew that panel there.

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Bird Trio

April 1, 2011 By Taylor 10 Comments

I love birds. Not in a “pet” way but in a home decor way. I didn’t even know how much I loved birds until I looked around my house about a year ago and realized I have a ton of bird stuff. Now I actually seek it out. I have at least one “birdlike” piece in every room of our home. Here is my newest edition, the Bird Trio, they are going to go over my craft table.

my craft space is so depressingly small in a picture

This project is so easy, I just spray painted three matching black frames. Then I cut all three images out with my Silhouette. The image on the right is available in the Silhouette online store. There were so many cute birdcages, I could hardly choose. Then the image on the left is a Taylor Made original. I just found a picture of a tree and used the “Trace” option (I love it) which you can read about here. When you use the Trace feature in the Silhouette software, you have to play around with the options in the sidebar. The middle image is from a Martha Stewart printable. Then all I did was mount them on grey card stock.

Here are just a few of the other birds that “live” in our house.

Welcome new birdies…

Love Sign with a Fence Frame

January 21, 2011 By Taylor 7 Comments

I know, I know, this should be in pink and red… but its going in my bedroom and staying up all year so yellow and blue it is. You could actually write anything, I thought about our last name but I like the way “LOVE” looks. My favorite part of this project is actually the frame which my husband whipped up. I got the supplies and told him what to do (naturally, hehe) but he made the actual cuts so I will give him some credit. I think this project is so simple that I really didn’t even take any pics of the steps for a tutorial, just the final product.

My mom had some fence posts she was going to throw away so I kept a few because I liked that they were weathered looking. So Bryan cut them in half “lengthwise” and I gave him the dimensions and he made a very basic frame. (43 X 23)

I got a foam board from Hobby Lobby and cut it about a 1 in. smaller than the dimensions of the frame (42 X 22). Then, I painted the background yellow. When the yellow was dry, I stapled the foam board to the back of the Fence Frame.

I also picked up some chipboard letters from HobLob and some blue paper. You could paint the letters too but the paper is much cheaper than buying 4 different colors of paint. I just traced the letters onto the paper, cut them out and applied 1 coat of Mod Podge between the letter and the paper. Then I used 2 coats on top of the letters (drying 20 mins between). Glue the letters on to the foam board. (My husband walked in at this point and wanted me to measure the distance between the letters to make sure they were evenly spaced… poor Bryan forgot who he married)

Lastly, I got a picture hanging kit from Home Depot and screwed it in to hang my “work of art”.

This reminds me that I need to get to work on the Valentine’s Day banner that I have been dreaming up for my mantle. Lets see if it happens :) Have a great weekend!