What's Cookin' Sign

With my friends and my busy schedules it is not super likely that we will be able to sit down to a "family dinner" but I do plan on cooking as much as possible so I will need some sort of organization for who is planing on cooking and what each night. I will admit that most of the boxes will be empty most weeks but this is just a good way to make sure that everyone knows if some one is planning to cook a bigger dinner at some point during the week.

What You Need: 

• 16X20 Picture frame (I don't do anything to mine but you could DIY yours if you have one handy)
• Pencil
• Sharpies
• Ruler/Straight edge

Let's Get Started:

1. Aquire a frame.
   
2. Take the "picture" that the frame comes with out of the frame and flip it over. It should be white, but if you don't want to use it just buy or cut yourself a 16X20 piece of paper.
3. Measure out where each box will go and the space you give yourself for the title and mark it with a pencil.
• MY MEASUREMENTS:
• Boxes are 4X4
• TOP ROW: 0.5 inches from the edge and about 7 inches from the top.
• About 1 inch apart
• BOTTOM ROW: 3 inches from the edge and about 1 inch from the bottom.
• About 1 inch apart
• The 7 inches that I left at the top I used to write the title. Just make sure that you leave about 1/2 an inch at the top to allow for the frame. 
4. Draw what you are going to write in PENCIL FIRST. You don't want to mess up and have to start over on a new sheet.
5. Trace your pencil marks with your choice of sharpie colors. (I chose pink, black, and gold)
   
6. Put the paper in the frame.
7. You may now write on the frame's glass to tell your family/friends "What's Cookin'"
8. Enjoy!

Laundry Hamper

So the other day I found this really basic white wicker hamper for like $15 and had to have it. Now I am not a fan of all white wicker, but I figured I could give it some love and end up with a beautiful place to hide my dirty laundry.
For this project, I didn't really find a tutorial on Pinterest, so this one came out of my own brain: First of all, I am going to recover the lid cushion. Then I am going to spray paint the wicker brown, and finally, I will make a laundry bag to go inside so I am not lugging the entire hamper with me to do laundry.

What You Need:

• An old hamper to repurpose
• 2 colors of FABRIC (About five yards for each color)
• Lace (About 5 yards. Does not matter the width)
• Sewing machine
• Thread
• Fabric glue
• Rope
• Your choice of spray paint (I used brown)

Let's Get Started:

1. Aquire the hamper. 
   
2. Take the top off the hamper.
   
3. Spray paint the hamper bottom. (I recommend doing this outside. I just took the picture of it inside)
   
4. Make the bag for the hamper.
1. Cut the each piece of fabric so it is the same size as the perimeter of the basket with about a foot of extra fabric for the bag to fold over.
2. Sew the two pieces of fabric together leaving about 2 inches, so we can flip it inside out to get rid of the seams.
3. Flip the now sewn fabric inside out. 
4. Choose which side is going to be the inside of your bag. We are creating a tube and one side of the fabric will have a seam on it. 
5. Fold your fabric in half where the wrong side is showing (the side the seam will go and sew the long side and one of the short sides closed. Now you have a bag. 
6. Flip the bag right side out. 
7. Cut a slit out of the edge of the bag.
8. Sew about 3 inches from the top of the bag along the circumference of your bag to create the spot for your rope.
   
   
   
   
9. String your rope inside the bag and tie a bow.
   
10. Place the bag inside your now spray painted hamper.
11. Use the fabric glue to attach your lace over the seam you just created for the rope. 
    
5. Recover the hamper's seat.
1. Take the strips of fabric you cut off at the beginning of making your bag.
2. Line them up so they become stripes. sew them together so they are one piece.
3. Attach the same lace you added to your bag to cover the seams.
4. Staple the new fabric onto the seat by covering the top and attaching it to the bottom of the seat. (I just used the same fabric glue and it seemed to work fine)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Put the seat on top of your hamper with the bag inside.
   
7. Fill with your dirty clothes.
8. Enjoy!

Save Dobby Sock Holder

So as I mentioned before I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan so this project is another one of my Harry Potter projects. I was looking through a Buzzfeed article titled 33 Harry Potter Gifts Only A True Fan Will Appreciate and saw a sign similar to the one I crafted. Now there wasn't a tutorial linked so I just    winged it and I think it turned out pretty great.

What You Need: 

• Blank wooden sign (I got mine at Michael's but any wood sign will do)
• Wood Stain 
• 2 Cloths you don't need anymore
• Paint
• 2 Nails 
• Wire
• Clothespins

Let's Get Started:

1. So first we are going to stain our sign to make it a little darker than standard pine. You can skip this step if you want. 
   
1. Sand your sign so it's nice and smooth. 
2. Take a soft cloth that you don't need anymore and dip it into your wood stain apply it to your sign brushing it with the grain of the wood. 
   
3. Let the stain soak in for about 30 seconds.
4. Wipe the excess stain off.
5. Reapply the wood stain until you get the shade you want. (It gets darker the more you put on) 
2. Next we are going to paint the lettering. (I looked up how to write it in the Title font for Harry Potter but you can do what you want. There is a link for the font generator I used below)
   
3. I then painted the little sock because I thought it looked a little bit plain without it. 
4. To attach the wire I wrapped it around a nail and nailed that into the side of the sign.
   
   
    
5. Attach the clothespins to the wire and add socks.
6. Enjoy!

Gallery Wall

I got this idea when I saw a Free Printables for Gallery Walls pin on while scrolling through my feed. Now I, as I'm sure many of you do, I LOVE me some free printables, and decided to take a look. While scrolling through I, of course, decided that I needed to make a gallery wall somewhere in my apartment. Don't know where it's gonna go, but what does it matter, right? Any who, I picked my favorites 15 (I know its a lot) and found a picture of the Nashville skyline to remind me of home. Now these pictures just SAT in my downloads folder for a LONG time before I touched them again because, well, I didn't know where to start. Now I do:P

What you need:

• Your favorite prints
• Frames for said prints in varying sizes, colors, and/or shapes

Let's get started:

1. First you must find your prints. As I said before I got most of mine from this article, and there are many more linked on that page. You just have to do some digging.
2. DO NOT PRINT THEM. Just save them on your computer, or on a flash drive until you get the next few steps done.
3. Aquire your frames. (Most of mine I got from my mom and Michael's (the store)).
4. Measure the wall space you have for the gallery and mark that on the surface you are designing. (I will have a full/double bed so I measured out 5 feet so I would have about 5 inches between the gallery and the edge of the bed)
5. Arrange the frames on the floor, or other flat surface, into the design you want. 
6. Decide which prints you want to go in which frame and edit them so you are able to fit them in the frame.
7. NOW you may print the printables.
8. Place them in the correct frames.
9. Hang.
10. Enjoy!!
11. OPTIONAL STORING IDEA:
• I am taking these to the apartment with me at the end of the summer, so they will be sitting in storage for a while. In order to remember what order I put them in, I did this:
1. Take a picture of the finished design with the prints inside them.
2. Print said picture
3. Put the whole project in one box with the photo of the design on the top.
4. Put in storage.

Links:

• Printables Website

Mason Jars with Chalkboard Labels

So, I will admit I am a HUGE fan of the whole mason jar trend that is going on right now. I just didn't know what to do with them. Thanks to Pinterest, again, I was able to come up with not one, but two different ways to use them.
Now, for both projects I am going to be painting my mason jars with chalkboard paint and adding jute rope. I feel like once you get these painted, you can do anything with them!

What you need:

• Mason jars (as many as you want-I chose to do 8)
• Chalkboard paint
• Makeup sponges
• Painter's tape
• Scissors 
• OPTION ONE: Tea/Coffee holder for a "coffee bar"
• Jute rope/ribbon
• Hot glue gun
• OPTION TWO: Makeup brush storage
• Coffee, pebbles, rocks and/or colored sand
• Jute rope/ribbon
• Hot glue gun 

Let's get started:

Both of the ideas I am trying with the mason jars start the same, but I will split the tutorial towards the end.

1. Clean the outside of your mason jars and let dry completely.
2. Once dry, put your painters tape on the jar to form a rectangle
   
   
   
   
   
3. Now paint your chalkboard paint onto the jar with the makeup sponge horizontally.
   
4. Let dry for about an hour.
5. Paint a second layer of chalkboard paint onto the jar this time painting vertically.
   
6. Let sit overnight.
   
7. In the morning, remove the painters tape and see how it turned out. If you don't like it, wash it off and try again.
8. Now to seal the paint. Put the jars in your oven for 30 minutes at 350°F 
   
9. Take them out and let cool. 
10. OPTION ONE:
    
1. Wrap the jute rope on the outside of the lid of the jar hot gluing where needed.
   
2. Tie a bow where the ends meet. 
   
3. Fill with your favorite beverage mix/tea bags/coffee grinds
4. Write the beverage to be on the chalkboard "label" with chalk.
11. OPTION TWO:
    
1. Fill the jar halfway with the rocks/pebbles/sand.
   
2. Wrap the jute rope onto the tops of the jar where the lid usually goes and hot glue where needed.
   
3. Tie a bow where the ends meet.
   
4. Label the jars (face, eyes, hair, etc).
5. Place the corresponding brushes into the jars.
12. Enjoy!

Links:

• Coffee Bar (While there is no tutorial for the mason jars, this is where I got the idea)
• Makeup Brush Holder (I just made this with the mason jar)
• Chalkboard Tutorial 

"Grim" Teacup

My dear, you have the grim!

Now I am probably one of the hugest nerds out there and have wanted a mug like this for  a very long time. At my most recent goodwill run, I found the cutest little white teacup and I knew it was right for this project. I actually found this youtube tutorial (I know I know not Pinterest) for the project and edited it a bit myself.
My sister made me a mug for christmas last year, so I asked her how she made it safe to use/dishwasher safe and so this tutorial was formed.

What you need:

• White Mug
• Sharpie
• Oven

Let's get started:

1. Clean your mug thoroughly.
   
2. Start by drawing your grim head just using dots. You want it to resemble tea leaves.
   
3. Continue adding a few more "leaves" around the cup.
   
4. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350°F in order to set the marker and make it dishwasher safe. 
   

• Let cool and enjoy! 

Links:

• Tutorial video

Whiteboard Letters

So this one I didn't see on Pinterest. I actually thought of this one myself:P (I know so creative). My apartment mates and I decided that we wanted to have something on our bedroom doors that we could write on to tell the others what we are up to. I loved the idea of having the first letters of our names on the doors as well so this idea was born.

What you will need: 

• Wooden letters (I got mine for $1.50 each at Michaels)
• Same number of white boards as wooden letters (I got mine at the Dollar Tree)
• Various paint colors (I used what I had on hand)
• Mod Podge 
• Hot Glue Gun

Let's get Started:

1. Remove packaging and/or hangers from letters.
2. Sand the letters so the paint goes on smooth.
   
   
   
   
3. Paint each letter. (I chose to do a different solid color on each, but you can paint what you want on yours)
   
4. Let dry and add more coats of paint if needed.
5. When paint is dry, use a sponge brush to apply Mod Podge all over letter.
6. Let dry for 15-20 minutes.
7. Hot glue each letter onto the corresponding whiteboard.
   
8. Let dry.
9. Enjoy!

Cascading Paper Flower Garland

I had to photograph it lying down because
 I could not find my command hooks.

So I saw this tutorial on Pinterest in one of those Buzzed DIY Projects to Decorate Your Grown Up Apartment articles (what a mouthful) and thought the Garland would look really cool on my window. Sadly I did not take many measurements when I went to tour the apartment, so I'm basing the measurements off my bedroom back home. 

My window is about 4 feet wide so I decided to half the materials called for in original tutorial. 

What you need:

• 15 white prints
• 5 yellow prints
• 3 green prints
• Scissors
• Basket or bucket
• Glue Gun
• Twine
• Embroidery Needle
• 4 ft branch
• Ribbon (any color)
• OPTIONAL: 
• Loose Tea or Tea Bags (I used Lipton tea bags) 
• Pan with Boiling Water
• Paintbrush/sponge or pan for dying

Let's Get Started!

1. Print the FREE PDF prints (link below) onto the white, yellow, or green paper specified on the PDF.
   
2. Cut out the flowers/leaves (warning: this is REALLY tedious so be prepared to spend some time cutting), and put them in your basket/bucket so they do not get lost.
   
3. OPTIONAL TEA STAINING:
• I did not try too hard to find the perfect color green, yellow, or cream paper, so this my solution to have the color paper I want.
1. Steep tea in boiling water and leave until the water cools.
2. Place the flours in the cooled tea mixture, or pour the tea mixture on the flours in a pan. 
3. Dry flat or hanging.
• Note on tea staining: the more tea you steep and the longer you steep it, the darker the dye color, so if you are looking for a lighter color use less tea. 
  
4. Curl the uncurled/almost curled petals with the edge of your scissors or by hand.
5. Fold the leaf in half and curl both edges away from the center.
6. Glue tab on yellow flowers so the ends curl INWARD.
7. Do the same with the smaller white flowers.
8. Glue tab of bigger flowers so the ends curl OUTWARD.
   

   

   This is what they should look like when finished.

9. Separate yellow and white flowers, and make a separate pile for the leaves.
   
10. Thread twine through embroidery needle (put tape on twine end and pull through needle eye for easier insertion)
    
11. String the flowers onto the twine and integrate the leaves between some of the white flowers, cutting twine between each row of flowers. (I created different rows for the yellow and white flowers, but you can do what you want)
    
12. Tie one end of each flower row onto branch with equal spacing between rows.
13. Adjust flowers on twine and glue in place. 
14. Trim off excess twine, and tie ends.
15. Tie ribbon to each end of the stick in order to hang.
    
16. Enjoy!!
    

Links:

• Buzzfeed Article
• Original Tutorial
• PDF Flower Prints (Also on the original tutorial)