Renter's Plight | ANOTHER GALLERY WALL

These gallery walls are just EVERYWHERE, aren't they? Well I'm going to throw another one your way, just in case you're still unsure of how you want to lay out your gallery wall. (Oh hey ladies, notice the sexy man in that "before" picture? You can look but you can't touch!)

My particular gallery wall hurdle this time was a variety of devices attached to our wall (some of them non-functioning). I utilized some three-dimensional boxes to cover those ugly devices and add some interest to the typical frame set-up. By the way, I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures. I wanted to get natural daylight in the living room but then all of my frames had glare on them. It was a sad day.

Here were my basic rules:
1. I used all black frames with an accent gold frame.
2. I created a top and bottom border. All of my frames touched one (or both) of those borders.
3. When I continued the gallery across to an adjacent wall, I maintained the same center line for those frames. (The border was less relevant since all the frames were tall enough to only stack one high).

To make this process as smooth as possible, I used two tools:
1. Brown paper. I cut out the footprint of each picture and taped the entire gallery on the wall before hanging anything to make sure I liked the arrangement.
2. 3M velcro strips. When used correctly, these things are amazing for renters. I've never had one tear a wall before and they are pretty simple to use. However, they add up in cost quickly, and our walls were kind of slick so I had to apply extra pressure for extra long to each strip.

I suppose I should call this more of a gallery strip based on its size and shape. Whatever it is, I like how it frames out our living room. If I had my choice, the strip would be about a foot higher and go all the way above/behind our TV, but that darn security alarm box forced me to place the gallery lower (to hide it). I have such rough first world problems.

Sew Awesome | FLOUR SACK TOWEL PILLOWCASE

I don't understand why pillows and slip covers are so over-priced. It doesn't make sense when you can make a pillow cover for about $2. In case you'd like to give it a go, here's how I created a simple white slip cover for a pillow!

I bought a couple of flour sack towels from Wal-Mart, which cost about $1 each. I cut off one long side and reattached it so the towel would be more of a long rectangle than a square. I used some of the scraps to make loops that would hook around the button closures. I sewed the closures onto one short end of the rectangles. I then folded the rectangle around to form a square that was overlapped on one side and sewed both sides closed. Once I flipped it right-side-out, I marked where the loops reached and then sewed a button onto each of those locations. I stuffed a pillow form in the cover and extended the loops over the buttons to close the whole packet. It was a super quick and easy project, and it looks great thrown on a chair!

Craft Confessions | SHINY CHRISTMAS TREE TOPPER

Can you believe it's already December? It's my favorite month, probably because it's full of my birthday, chilly weather, warm hot chocolate, sparkly lights, and Christmas! I'm somewhat obsessed with Christmas, and I've been anticipating it since about September, but My Main Man keeps me tethered and makes me wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up my Christmas decorations (little does he know I go crazy listening to Christmas music for four whole months).

Last year our tree was a little sparsely decorated due to our college-kid budget, but the day after Christmas I did some stocking up and found a nice assortment of red and gold ornaments for pretty reasonable prices. Before MMM had even gotten out of bed on November 23rd, I had our tree up and decorated to the nines...minus a tree topper. With all of our pretty new ornaments, this just couldn't be! Crafty powers of the world united, and I created a total failure of a Christmas star. It was supremely ugly and time-wasting. I was upset, and my husband suggested we just spend the $5 on a store-bought star instead of countless more hours.  Well, my stubbornness won out, and while MMM was at work I gave the star another attempt, with success! In case you, too, need to top your tree beautifully, here is a template and my step-by-step process to creating a sparkly Christmas star!

MATERIALS:
     - One large poster board
     - Masking/Painter's tape
     - Spray adhesive
     - Gold glitter (or whatever color you prefer)
     - Exacto knife (or scissors)
     - Bone folder

DIRECTIONS:
1) Decide how tall you want your star to be. Enlarge the template below so that the distance from point A to B matches half the height you want. (This template printed at 100% on 8.5 x 11 paper will give you a 10" tall star).

2) Print off the template, tape to your poster board, and carefully cut out four times. (I cut my sections a little different, so ignore the differences in the photos.)

3) Score the star pieces with the bone folder. On one side of the piece score only the connections from star tips to the center point (B). Flip the templates over and score only the connections from the star valleys to the center point (B).
4) Fold your star pieces in accordion fashion to shape star points.
5) Use masking tape to connect piece 1 with piece 2 for each side of the star. Then use the tape to connect the front and back halves of the star, beginning at the top point of the star. Leave the bottom 4 edges unconnected (you'll need an opening to stick your tree branch into). At the end of each star point wrap the masking tape into a sharp point.
6) In a VERY ventilated area (preferably outside), spray the front half of your star with spray adhesive. Liberally sprinkle glitter all over the adhesive-covered area. Repeat as necessary until the entire surface is covered in glitter and none of the poster or tape underneath show. Do the same for the other side of your star. Pay special attention to the edges of the star (they were a little tricky for me to glitter).

7) After allowing the adhesive to completely dry, place the star atop your tree and admire the sparkly beauty you have created!

Like I said, I love Christmas, and beautiful decorations really make me happy. This decoration is especially awesome because it reminds me of Christ and why we really celebrate:

"Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him...When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy." 

Matthew 2: 2, 10

Stay tuned for an easy tree skirt tutorial!

Sew Awesome | SIMPLE VALANCE

Remember when I showed you these easy peasy drapes here a month ago? Well if that wasn't quite challenging enough for you, I've got a valance you can sew for your smaller windows. I sewed all my window coverings at once, so I may have taken the easy way out and repeated a few pictures (sorry, folks). Ninety percent of this design came from Sarah and Cozy.Cottage.Cute in this post. (Her decorating tastes are really similar to mine, so I totally creep on her blog all the time.) I just made a few changes to hopefully streamline the sewing process and add some versatility.

Start with a single length of 36" wide muslin and 2 simple buttons. You will need two 3" wide strips of the muslin, plus a large rectangle to cover the window. The measurement of the large rectangle varies depending on your window length, but if you add 6-8" to the length of your window you should be in good shape.

1. With each 3" strip, fold in half and press. Then fold the rough edges under about 1/2" and press again.

2. Pin together the strip edges that you just pressed.

3. Sew a tight stitch along both long edges. Fold ONE end (on each strip) under twice and sew another tight edge. Create a button hole in that same end of each strip. Put the strips aside for later.

4. On the large rectangle piece, fold both rough edges over 1" and press.

5. Fold those same edges over once more and press.

6. Pin and sew along each edge.

7. This step depends on the thickness or radius of the rod on which you plan to hang your valance. Mine was a standard aluminum flat rod (probably the cheapest thing you can get) that the last tenants left behind. To fit this rod in the valance pocket, I folded the top half over about 3 inches. Place the two strips just under the folded-over lip with button holes facing DOWN or AWAY FROM THE POCKET (it would be a shame to hide away all that good work). Run one last seam over the folded over edge to create a pocket.

8. This part is tricky to describe, but important to grasp to sew your buttons correctly. In image 7, the side I show is actually the back side of the valance (the side that will face the world outside your house), and the side where you just sewed the pocked edge down. The side on the ground in image 7 is the front side, and the side where you will sew on both buttons. Sew these buttons directly opposite where the strips connect to the pocket.

To hang your valance, simply thread a curtain rod through the pocket. Roll or fold excess fabric up and pull the strips from the back to the front, attaching to the front of the panel via the buttons.

P.S. Notice how my buttons mysteriously changed colors? I have another tutorial headed your way in a few days on a really cheap faux antique metal technique that I used here!

Craft Confessions | CREATE PANORAMIC PRINTS

Our bedroom still needs a lot of work, but there is one piece of art we just added over our bed, and it totally makes my day to see it before I go to bed. My husband and I vacationed in Playa del Carmen, and we took a series of pictures while in the Mayan ruins at Tulum. Here's the full how-to from camera to wall:

1A) Capture your panoramic image. If your camera doesn't take panoramas automatically, take a series of 4+ pictures from the same exact spot, overlapping each image a little bit.

1B) Use photo software to merge your photos. I have Photoshop so I used the photomerge function, but here's another tutorial I found with software that may already be on many of your computers.

2) Buy canvases to hang your photos. I chose 16" x 20" because they come in really affordable multi-packs from Michael's.

3) Trim your panorama to match the dimensions of your canvas. We wanted to use four canvases in a landscape orientation, so I cropped the overall image to 16" high x 80" long. Chop your picture into units to fit each canvas (for me this meant creating four images that were each 16"x20"- see the images below).

4) Print your images on photo paper. Costco has pretty good print prices so I used them.

5) Prep your canvas. I chose to paint each canvas black around the edges, then I rubbed a silver paint roughly over the edges to create an industrial, rugged look.

6) Adhere prints. I glued each print down to a canvas, then mod podged the heck out of each print. I wanted to make sure the prints and canvas acted as one solid object, and I wanted to give those prints some longevity and ability to weather a long time.

7) Hang prints. I chose to hang the prints immediately touching so they would read as one image, but it might look good to put some spacing between each.

Anyone else interested in giving this a try?

Craft Confessions | WITCH'S LAIR (So excited for Halloween!)

I'm so excited for Halloween this year. The weather in Kansas City has been nice and chilly and crisp lately; I love it! In our new home, we have a little entry room before guests walk upstairs onto the main level of our home (check out some pictures below and you'll understand). We have a beautiful roll-top desk inhabiting this space because it is way too heavy to haul up our stairs, and because it makes a good drop-off place for our mail, umbrellas, motorcycle helmet, etc. I had tons of fun decorating the table by our front door last year (check it our here), and I couldn't resist the urge to do something similar but so much bigger with our entry desk this year!

Let me break this down for you. I have to give kudos out to all the great designers out on the interweb who did most of the heavy lifting for me. I just put their great ideas and creations together!

We have a small, skinny window that is usually covered by wooden shutters. I opened up the shutters and placed some trace paper over the window (so a soft, spooky glow will come out at night). Then I cut out a rat silhouette and glued it onto the paper. That ought to look good at night :). In the right picture, I have a lovely bouquet of dead leaves (stacked on some degloved Harry Potter goodness) and a jar of "bat skulls" (courtesy of Love Manor's amazing flickr page).

On the other side of the desk top, I've got a collection of ingredients for good witchy remedies. First we have a jar of berries and leaves, a bottle of snakes (label from Love Manor and rubber snake from The Dollar Store), and a little sign that says "Kick off your shoes and head on up". Granted, the sign isn't witchy at all, but the fonts and graphics match the lair's theme, so I left it up.  Behind the sign is a large candlestick (from my wedding centerpieces) and a dollar store candle that I made drippy with melted wax.

Across the mirror I draped a creepy looking cloth (also from the dollar store) and clipped a few witchy recipes on top (also printed from Love Manor). In the center of the desk top, I stuffed and labeled a brown paper bag (with an awesome free label from The Graphics Fairy- isn't she awesome?) and a candle I purposely melted on freezer paper.

On the writing level of the desk, I placed a few books covered with very spooky titles including "A Pocket Guide to Transfiguration". In the middle is an old college textbook of mine with a fake chapter on Cyanide (all text copied from Wikipedia) placed in the spine. These book covers and fake pages are created from scratch, but I've included them at the bottom of the post in case you'd like to use them!

On either side of the desk are awesome cubbies that I filled with more "utilitarian" items. The left side has paper bags, clothespins, mixing sticks, and a can of dead man's toes (with another label from Love Manor). On the right side are small glass jars filled with graveyard dust (dirt from the yard), witch hazel (a random plant from the yard), and blood (tomato juice).

I wanted the other corner of this tiny room to get some love, too. So I wrapped our monogram in a bit of spider web. (The picture on the left might help you understand the set-up of our house a little more.)

So here's where we started (the images on the left) and where we ended up. What do you think?

BOO!

Here are my sources:

Love Manor

Graphic Fairy

My book sleeves and cyanide pages (some images from The Graphics Fairy):

Sew Awesome | EASY INDUSTRIAL DRAPES

I recently discovered a deep love for Restoration Hardware. The store's aesthetic is strong, neutral, timeless, and enduring. I think I could decorate my entire home from there and it really wouldn't ever completely be "out" of style. To ice the cake, I've been leaning towards various decorating styles that are very feminine, but my manly husband is far more happy with this style than any of my other recent obsessions. Obviously, we don't quite have the budget ability to shop from RH just yet, but I'm a pretty decent copycat. First quick and easy RH copy: industrial drapes.

Not only are only two simple ingredients needed, but only two lines of stitching exist in each drape! My windows sit above the ground by seven feet, and I wanted my drapes to gather on the ground, so I cut 8' (for each drape) out of 36" wide muslin. (Muslin is amazingly cheap and by using a width that fits my window, I can leave the edges alone and save myself work.) I also found some clips at JoAnn's meant to hold curtains. They were kind of pricey (I believe $10 for each package) but considering how cheap the fabric was, I didn't feel too awful spending that money.

After the edges were cut, I finished the top and bottom of each curtain. I folded each edge over twice, and simply stitched right across, with a reverse at each end to secure the threads. 

When I placed my curtain hooks, I made sure to measure out even intervals for each hook. (7 hooks over 36" means one hook every 6" if you want to avoid doing that algebra.) There were already cheap-o curtain rods over our windows, so I simply hung the drapes and voila! I would love to change out the rods some day, but these were already in place and do the job for the current time.

(Please excuse the fact that I had to use my flash for both of these pictures. It's really difficult to take pictures of these drapes from inside on a beautiful sunny day!)

Craft Confessions | CHAIR RE-PAINT WITH SEALANT FOR PENNIES!

In my efforts to set up my home office, I realized I was in dire need of a good chair. I previously used an inexpensive folding chair I purchased at Ikea, which totally did the trick, but then a certain family member of mine managed to crack the back support. The chair still technically works, but every time I lean back in it I can just hear the back support screaming to its other, slightly attached half, "Hold on for your life!" (probably in a pirate accent, just for effect).

When I was reunited with My Main Man in Kansas City, there was a sturdy, nicely detailed wooden chair sitting in our entry-way that had been left in our garage by the last tenant. I promptly adopted the chair, evicted the three spiders who called its underside home, and began my scheming. We're on a pretty tight just-spent-thousands-of-dollar-to-move-across-the-country budget, so I knew I really couldn't spend much, if anything. Luckily, I had a small can of interior primer + paint already on hand, and I'm pretty obsessed with white, so I went to town on the chair. I really didn't do anything special during that stage, so I'll spare you the boring details. The awesome part happens to be how I finished the chair. I learned this finishing technique from my awesome daddy, who happens to be a general contractor, and I used it on a conceptual model during my architecture undergrad. Here's the secret: candles! And really, I only used half of one candle, which I purchased in a set of four from the dollar store. After the paint on my chair was all dry, I simply rubbed the candle over all the contours of the chair, then buffed it out with a white washcloth. If I missed a spot, I simply repeated the process just in that area.

Let me tell you how much I love this finishing technique: SO MUCH! It seems so simple, but it works amazingly and the benefits are really too great to miss:
(A) It's so cheap. My total candle usage amounted to 12.5 cents!
(B) It's fool-proof. As long as the base paint color is a light color (or you can apply this directly to unpainted wood), you can't mess the process up.
(C) You don't inhale toxic fumes or have to worry about your kids/animals making a mess later with remnants of your finishing solution.
(D) It gives a nice, matte finish to any project, which I think is really nice and natural without being overbearing.
(E) The finished product is totally finished immediately! You don't have to wait for the finish to cure or dry before use. This sucker is ready to go ASAP!
(F) Depending on the candle you use, your finished piece might smell really good for a long time. Score!

Really, the only downside to this method is that it wears off slowly with use, so I may have to re-finish my chair in a year or two. But to be honest, it's so little effort that I'm still not deterred at all! What kind of projects would you like to use this process on?

P.S. Next week I'm going to show you the amazingly simple cushion I made for my rear to better enjoy this chair!
P.P.S. I'm in love with our new yard. Seriously want to build a tree fort between all of these guys, but they're technically not part of our property... or our state!