Giant script name

I had a clean slate after I finished painting Eleanor's room. It was great. I had taken down everything and I planned on nothing going back up for a little while, until I could think about things. I knew I wanted her name up on the wall somewhere, but I didn't really want to go with anything that was out there already. Then, one day, inspiration hit. I realized I wanted to cut out her name in some kind of script font in one big piece and hang bunting behind it. I really don't even know what made me think of it, but I went for it.

First, I had to think about how to get a template. I ruled out free-handing it almost immediately since I wanted it to be script and I just don't have the skills to do that, especially since there were 2 of the same letter (I figured being consistent would be a big problem). I thought about using an overhead projector and asked on facebook if anyone knew where I could get one. There were some ideas, but then a friend offered to print it on a large format printer, so that was taken care of. If that's not an option for you, I'm betting there's a way to print something that big in pieces using Photoshop or Illustrator or their free counterparts, Gimp and Inkscape.

The total size of the template was about four feet across and eighteen inches high (give or take). I taped it up in place to see how it looked and I loved it. 

Once I confirmed that the template was the right size, I took it down and taped it to my 3/8" thick mdf and traced it, then removed it. Handy tip: use a yardstick or other straight edge to correct any tracing mistakes made on a straight line.

 Then I jigsawed it out. The employee who helped me at Home Depot gave me another really great tip- he recommended laying my board on top of a thick sheet of styrofoam laying on the floor and cutting through both. I'm so glad I bought that styrofoam. Trying to maneuver this big sheet around on sawhorses and supporting the parts I had cut out would have been a real pain. Plus, now I have this styrofoam for all my jigsawing needs.

Another tip: make sure you get a jigsaw blade for cutting curves. They're daintier than ones that are for mostly straight lines and it really makes a difference with how sharply you can turn.

After it was cut, I used my Dremel with a coarse sanding drum to smooth out any rough spots around the edges, then sanded it lightly by hand. Finally it was just priming and painting and I was done!

Except for hanging it. I used these: 

and a laser level to make sure it was hung nice and straight.

And then...

Ta-da! I love it a lot.

Pinspired on wheels (a double whammy)

I realized that without context, my title sounds pretty much like gibberish. So here's your context, then.

Double whammy:
This pinspiring was brought to you by THIS PIN and THIS PIN.


I thought those clutter crates were totally a good idea and was totally (maybe?) going to get around to making some. And then, more recently, I saw the BHG drawers on wheels. And that's when the pinspriation hit. I totally had an old drawer in the basement that I had saved when we were demolishing stuff down there. I could get my clutter crate and not even have to build it!

So here's the drawer:

It's pretty big. There was some wallpaper in the bottom that just pulled up. I decided I wanted to put it back after everything got a good scrubbing, so I kind of washed the off the sticky side (which had a bunch of gritty dirt and cat hair on it) and then reattached it with a thin layer of mod podge on the bottom of the drawer.

 I also added blocks to the corners because the kind of casters I used had a post on them. I used liquid nails and it got a little bit messy, but I didn't really care.

After the blocks were secure, I drilled holes and attached the casters as per the instructions on the package. And....DONE! Super easy.

Here it is, all filled up and on wheels. Now my big girl can drag her blocks wherever she wants to.

{It's hard to see the wheels because they're sunk into the carpet a bit, but they're there.}

I'm so glad her blocks have a permanent place to go. I had them in an under-the-bed tupperware, but there were too many and it could be tricky to get them all in and still have it fit under her bed (especially for a 3 year old). No under the bed problem with this, because I don't want it under the bed. It's too cute/handy to be hidden away.

See how I made the blocks HERE.
My last Pinspired post HERE.

It's a sign

Like a literal, physical sign.

See?

{Do your best, fetcher.}

No cool reclaimed wood story- these were brand spankin' new pine boards from Home Depot. I just cut them down, did some distressing, painted, and then stenciled.

The LAUNDRY sign:
I fulfilled my Pinspired quota for this week (it was actually last week, but my project to blog turn around is not great) with this aging technique found HERE. (HERE's where I pinned it.) In the tutorial, the author says that the vinegar with dissolved steel wool mixture smelled terrible. I didn't think so, but it's possible that my sense of smell is a little weirder than most people's (banana smell makes me gag). Then I did a freezer paper stencil with my Silhouette, waited for the paint to dry, then used a fine grit sandpaper to wear it all down together.

{Freezer paper stencils didn't bond super tightly, you can see how the paint seeped a little in this picture. I only used it on signs that I was going to sand and distress.}

The "wash your hands" sign:
You can't tell in the above picture, but the blue paint is a little streaky. I was mixing up my own blue and instead of mixing up the paints until it was all homogenous, I only mixed them together a tiny bit (it was a darker blue, a white, and a grey) and used a bristle brush to apply. The font for "wash" is Alphabet 05, found HERE for free. (hooray!)

{Love this font.}

"DO YOUR BEST":
I didn't use a stain on the board, I just used my vinegar/steel wool mix after it had sat for a few days. It was much more red and didn't turn the board grey like it did when I used the mix fresh (fresh=24 hours). I was just going to use vinyl lettering on this one, but then got it on and didn't like how fresh and clean it was, so I painted over it, let it dry, then pulled the vinyl off. Then sanded, of course. The font here is Market Deco (one of my new favorites) found HERE again. (also free!)

{These were actually drill holes. I was working on something else and I put the sign boards under it so I wouldn't ruin the bit.}

"You are my SUNSHINE":
Took a new board, added some nail holes in the ends (I did that with the other big signs, too), hammered around on the ends a little extra, then painted it white, then yellow. Then I used a stencil for the letters and sanded it all down.
This was the same process as for the other "DO YOUR BEST" sign, except with that one I did a blue layer, a red layer, another blue later, and finished with gray (because of a mistake I made, not because I really wanted to do 4 coats of paint)

{Probably my favorite sign.}

DIY Building Blocks

I try to focus on giving my girls classic toys. At least things that I consider classic, which I guess means anything I loved as a kid. And one thing I loved- my family's building block set. My parents still have the remnants of it (everything that wasn't lost/buried/destroyed) and Mim always loves playing with it when we're there.


She turned 3 on April Fool's day (I still can't get over what an awesome birthday that is) and we gave her some galoshes and some books. Then I thought about how we hadn't given her any toys, which just seemed kind of sad. So I made some blocks and gave them to her at her birthday party, which was just last Saturday.

I looked at buying block sets first, but it seemed like all the ones I thought were really cool were all over $100. This one from Land of Nod was my favorite. I love the colors. Anyway, I got to thinking- I mean, blocks are just cut up wood. We have tons of that. All I would need to do is cut it, sand it, then paint it. I got hung up on the painting idea- it would take forever, plus baby Elle would just be chewing it off in a few months (if she would ever get teeth instead of just acting like she's teething for months on end). Then I had a brainwave-

I could dye the wood!!

I've used dye on fabric plenty of times before. Like on these onsies. And I'd seen a pin where Rit Dye was used to dye buttons.

Here are the blocks:

{The alphabet blocks are not ones I made, if you were wondering.}

 She's played with them every day since she got them.

And if you care, here's the how:
1. Collect wood. I used some 2"x4" and 2"x2" scraps, some dowels (2 round in different sizes, 1 square one), and a 1"x12"x5' board.   I only had to buy the dowels.

2. Cut it. I went to my in-laws house to use the miter saw and my father-in-law ended up just cutting everything for me. I would measure, then hand it to him to cut. We had a good little system going on and it only took us about an hour and a half to cut 114 blocks. I'm really glad he helped- it would have taken more than twice as long by myself.

3. Sand. I used my little hand sander and got it done during my baby's morning nap, so about another 1.5 hours.

{Sanded, sorted, waiting to be dyed.}

{Before I dyed them, I decided what each color each block would be. Most sizes had 2 colors. Setting them out like this really helped me decide what colors I needed more or less of.}

4. Dye them. I used Rit brand. It's what I already had on hand and they seem to have the largest color collection. Plus, if you're brave (I didn't do it this time) they have this chart on their website to mix all the in-between colors.
The colors I used were scarlet, tangerine, golden yellow, kelly green, royal blue, teal, and purple.

{I used the stove top method, same as I do for fabric.}

{Rinse, rinse, rinse. I didn't want any excess dye coming off these babies when I handed them over to my daughter.}

 5. Dry.

 6. Play!

So here's what this 114 piece block set cost me:

$6 worth of dowels
$12 of dye, and there's leftovers. I already had about half the colors I needed- I'm not counting those in the cost.

About 5-6 hours of doing stuff. The dyeing took about 2 hours (still so much faster than painting would have been). If I did it again, it would be even faster. I wasn't expecting the colors to take to the wood so strongly and I was expecting more to rinse out, so I left the blocks in the dye baths for much longer than I needed to (I didn't want the colors to be quite so intense).

Not bad. 

I totally think it was worth it.

{This was at her little party- she opened them and then dove right in. I couldn't get her to look at me for a picture.}

Some miscellaneous things:

*All the stuff I used was pine/douglas fir, except for the dowels. I don't remember what they were made of.

*If you do this, use non-treated wood. Most dimensional lumber is, so it's not a problem, but it can never hurt to double check!

*Try to keep your sizes as fractions of each other- like this size of block is twice as long as the next size down, this size block is twice as thick as these others that are the same shape. I put some thought into it before we started cutting, but I wish I'd written down exactly what I wanted.

*Each of my dye baths was a couple quarts (I didn't really measure) and I used about half a package of powdered dye for each (like I said, I wasn't really expecting the colors to take very strongly, so I made a VERY concentrated dye bath). If I ever make a supplemental block set, I'll cut the amount in half, at least.

*To make arches, use a hole cutting drill bit. This is a note for me, for the supplemental set I bet I make in a year or two.

*Be prepared to make a big mess when dyeing. The picture doesn't do the disaster justice, but here's my kitchen after:

The sink was terrible, too.

Thanks for reading!

Scrawny to brawny: a mantle story

So here's the before:

This was last year for Valentine's Day. I decorated with candy and it was awesome/terrible. But if you look at the mantle itself, you can see that it's pretty plain (except for the diamond doo-dads). Awhile ago, I had a thought for making it a little taller and a little deeper and just a little bit more of a feature, I guess.

AND NOW!

{I chose a terrible time of day to take pictures- naptime. That, plus crappy cell phone pics kind of make this "after" shot worse than the "before." Ahwell.}

I like it a lot; it's pretty much exactly how I imagined it turning out. I also love how it makes my picture look like it was hung at the right height (I hung it too far above the original mantle, but there was no way I was going to rehang it- not with plaster walls). And I love that it's deeper. Another thing you can't tell in the before picture is that the base of the biggest apothecary jar is actually hanging over the edge a tiny bitty bit, which made me feel like it was going to topple over without any reason at all (I was maybe being a little paranoid).


So, if you think this is pretty cool and also have a scrawny mantle, this is what I did:

First, I screwed a 2x4 into the mantle a bit back from the edge:

Then into that I screwed my board/crown molding combo:

 I don't have any pictures of the crown molding and board before they're attached. The board I used was a 4" wide poplar (if anyone cares). I used Liquid Nails and little finishing nails to attach the crown molding to it.

 I screwed through the board and into the 2x4 to make it really securely attached to the mantle. Since the screws were right on the front, I predrilled the hole, then used a bigger drill bit to make it wide enough at the top for the head of the screw. There are drill bits you can get that do it automatically, but whatever. All the ugliness got covered with spackle anyway.

So you were maybe wondering what happened to this bit of board...

{Teehee- I added the text and box in powerpoint, that's why it looks terrible.}

 Well, I didn't think things through 100% and didn't realize I needed that corner gone (you'll see why) until after it was all attached to the crown molding. So I used our little Dremel to hack it off. It wasn't a very neat process and it made my whole living room kind of smoky, but we (the Dremel and I) got it done.

Here's the front view of that same step:

The next thing to do was make some supports next to the wall for the top to rest on:

I just used Liquid nails. I was going to screw them in as well, but with the fronts piece (Arrested Development, anyone?) in, it was really awkward and I decided they'd be fine with just glue (they are).

Adding the mantle shelf was the next step, but first I had to glue/nail in a little triangle here on the bookcase side so you can't see inside the hollow mantle.

 

 I put my Valentine's stuff up on the mantle between just about every step because I had a ton of stuff crammed on top of the piano (the only other place in our living room my daughter can't reach) and it was bugging me.

  

Here's why I had to cut off that little edge- so my little end cap could be a normal shape that would be easy to cut with a jigsaw.

 

{After I caulked the edges and filled in the screw holes.}

And then:

There it is. My new brawny mantle. HUGE HAPPY FACE!