Corkboard Thread Storage

Happy early Easter everyone!  It is Good Friday and I am on off from work today.  Unfortunately I have a nasty cold so I get to spend my 4 day weekend sick.  Yay.  But on the positive side this gives me time to write a blog post.

So if you haven't guessed it by now, I love my Silhouette Portrait.  I bought it last July and have already done so many things with it.  One of my recent projects was for a  pregnant coworker.  If you want to see more about how to create a project like this check out this post.

Now lets get to the real point of this post which also involved my Silhouette Portrait.  Ever since I did my craft closet upgrade this project has been on my list.  I have a growing collection of thread as I have been sewing for almost 2 years now and I wanted a way to store my thread that would also be attractive.  I've had this corkboard for a long time now.  When I lived in the dorms in college I covered it with shiny purple fabric and put pictures on it.  I took the fabric off of it a few years ago and when I was looking for craft storage ideas on Pinterest and saw ideas for thread storage I knew that this was the new purpose for this corkboard.

I started by taping off the cork and then painted the frame with a paint sample that I had left over from when we were deciding what color to paint our bedroom.  The color is Behr Smoked Oyster and it is a nice shade of greige.

Next I used my Silhouette to make a stencil from a transparency sheet.  You can read more about this technique in this post on my dining chair redo.  The shape is from the Silhouette Online store.  I used a gold Martha Stewart craft paint that I had on hand and a foam brush to apply it.  The gold blends in nicely with the cork so the pattern is subtle which I like.

I then took some nails and nailed them in at fairly even intervals.  I have to admit that I was lazy and just eyeballed it so it isn't perfect.

I only covered half the board in nails which allows me space for 54 spools of thread.  I have room to grow if I ever need it but I am doubtful that I will.  The other side can be used for photos and memos.  I also hung my fabric shears and pinking shears on the board.

I am in love with how this turned out but I am not in love with the purple walls in our office.  Someday I will get around to painting them. One project at a time right!

Vintage Spring Table Decor

 It is hard to believe that Easter is only a few weeks away.  I am so glad that I am done with my dining table and chair update since I am hosting Easter dinner for my family.  We finally had a really nice week here in ND (unfortunately next week is supposed to be cold) but before it got nice I wanted to bring a little spring inside my house. I put away all my winter decor so that at least the inside would feel like a new season.

My two projects today are quite simple.  First up: planting succulents in teacups.  My dad collects antique oil cans so this summer on our annual road trip to Oklahoma we stopped at several antique stores on the way.  I love vintage and antique things so it was fun for me as well.  One of the things that I was on the lookout for on these antique trips were teacups.  I found three that I really liked.

I love the minty green color at the bottom of this cup and in the middle of the saucer

I love the unique design of this one!

Originally, I wanted to make these cups into candles but my need to see some green after a long winter led me to the idea of planting succulents in them.  Off I went to one of our local plant nursery, Baker Nursery to find some succulents and I found these three adorable guys.

I then filled the teacups partially with dirt, removed the succulents from their containers and shook the dirt off of the roots, then planted them in the cups and added a bit more dirt on the top.

Now unless you are brave and want to try to put a hole in the bottom of your teacup you have to be careful about watering these guys.  There is no drainage so don't over water them.

Next up is a super simple project using my Silhouette Portrait, adhesive vinyl, wooden craft eggs, and a sharpie.  

 First I found some cute spring shapes in the Silhouette online store.  Then I sized them down to a small enough size to fit my eggs.  I drew a box around each shape.  Then I set my Silhouette to vinyl and cut out my shapes.

Then I weeded my designs and took the little stencils off of the backing and placed them on the eggs. I bought these eggs at Michaels last year.  It took a little bit of patience to get the stencil where I wanted on the egg since it is a little hard to put it on a curved object.

Then I took a metallic gold sharpie and colored in my design.

I let the marker dry and then carefully peeled of the stencil.  The nice thing about using vinyl is that it is reusable so you can make many of the same design if you want.

I bought a bird cage at Michaels awhile ago so I put some green grass that I had on hand in the bottom and placed my eggs inside.

I stacked some old books that I had on the table and placed the birdcage and teacups on them.

It feels so springlike in my dining room now!  I just love it.  The teacups with the succulents give the decor a whimsical feeling almost like Alice in Wonderland.  I hope you like it!

Shared on That DIY Party and the Silhouette blog's weekly challenge

Dining Chair Redo

*I've linked this post to That DIY Party on the DIY Show Off blog

The weather here in North Dakota is terrible right now and not springlike at all.  It makes me feel like Easter is never coming but I know that it is so I must press on with my dining set update.  This is part two of the project: the chairs.  You can see part one: the table here.  Here is what I started with.  My original thought was to stain them like the table but there was a lot of chipping of veneer on these chairs so I decided to opt for paint instead.  I kind of dug the vintage fabric but the colors were kind of clashing with my dining room.

I thought that I had come up with the perfect plan.  I would paint them grey since I still had grey semigloss leftover from the dining room walls.  I painted three of the chairs and ended up hating it.  The wall color has blue undertones and for some reason the color on the chairs was reading grey with green undertones.  I let the chair sit at the table for several days to see if it grew on me but I just wasn't satisfied.

So then it was back to the drawing board.  I decided to go with black and then I got the brilliant idea to add a stenciled patten on the fronts.

The process was the same as other furniture that I have painted.  Sand, prime, paint, then poly.  Pretty basic stuff.  I also reupholstered the seats with a purple velvety fabric to go with my Pier One chairs.  Reupholstering seats pads is a really simple process.  I used the old fabric to cut out the new pieces and then stapled them with my upholstery stapler.  I made sure to pull the fabric tight all the way around.

Now for a look at the stenciling process.  I actually used my Silhouette Portrait to make my own reusable stencil.  Silhouette has some new stenciling material that you can purchase here.  I didn't have any on hand though so after some research I discovered that you can use transparency sheets to make stencils.  Since I am a teacher I had easy access to transparency sheets so I picked a few up from school.  My original stencil idea was a damask pattern but it kept getting caught in the machine while it was being cut so I decided to go with the lattice design instead.  I set my Silhouette blade to 6 and set the machine at a thickness of 33 and a speed of 2.  My mat is getting old so I sprayed some Krylon adhesive on to help hold the transparency sheet in place.  

The stencil came out perfectly.  I used spray adhesive to hold it on the chair back as I painted.  I used a foam brush to apply the paint (which is Behr Suede by the way) to the stencil.  It took three moves of the stencil to fill the back.  I waited for it to dry to the touch in between so that made it take some time.  Later I went back and touched it up with some art brushes.  I wanted it to stay a little imperfect however so that I could get that Ikat look.  

After putting the chair seats back on the chairs look like this.

Here is a detail shot of the stenciling:

And finally here is a look at the chairs at the table:

At the end of the table you can see a peek at my next project: Easter/spring table decor.  Make sure to stop back in a week or so to check it out!

Handmade Baby Shower Gifts

I can't believe that it is March already!  This school year has been flying by. It will be Easter before we know it which means that I have got to get those dining chairs finished for when we host Easter dinner at our house. I painted 3 of them gray, the same gray that is on our dining room walls and I hated it so now I am going in a new direction and I am very excited about it.  I can't wait to share those with you but I have got quite a ways to go yet.

For now, I have some small projects to share with you.  Yesterday I attended a baby shower in Bismarck, ND and it was a blast.  I also had a blast making the gifts for the baby.  I gave a joint gift off of the registry with a friend but I also decided to make a few things as well.  

I made some onesies with fabric appliques using my Silhouette Portrait, heat transfer fabric interfacing and fabric scraps from my stash.  There are two types of heat transfer interfacing: one that is lighter hold that is used if you want to stitch around the edges of the applique and a stronger hold one that is made for just ironing on the appliques without using the sewing machine at all.  I had the latter kind on hand so I did not stitch around my appliques. The fox shape and North Dakota shape both came from the Silhouette online store.

The North Dakota one is definitely my favorite!

I also made a card to go with my gift.  The cut file was a freebie from this post from The Thinking Closet.  

Lauren used Silhouette's new washi paper for hers.  It is a really cute new product and I really want to get some eventually but I just used some cardstock that I had on hand instead.  I used a sketch pen to print the writing on the front.

And of course I had to throw in a set of burp cloths.  I should have taken a picture of the second one in the stack because it had cute jungle animals on it.  The theme of the shower was safari so it went perfectly with that.  

I hope you enjoyed my cute shower gifts.  P.S. I won one of the shower games by not saying the word cute during the gift opening.  That was no easy task my friends!

Refinishing a Dining Table

*I am linking up my table project to the DIY Show Off's That DIY Party

My latest project has definitely been a learning process.  This is project #2 from this post.  I knew that I have wanted to refinish this dining set since I bought it on Craigslist over a year ago.  The set is made by Basic Witz furniture company and I am guessing that it was made in the mid-1960's.  We bought the set for $200 and it included 3 leaves (2 were homemade and warped so we got rid of those) and 6 chairs.  The table was in extremely good condition with only a few water stains on the table top.  My cat added a huge water stain to the table top, however, because he has a propensity to knock over any water container in his reach.  The chairs have a little bit more noticeable wear especially in the places where the wood veneer is chipping off.

I loved the shape of the table but I wasn't a fan of the orangy hue of it.  I considered painting but after seeing several other bloggers strip and stain dining tables I decided to give it a go.  The first step was to strip the table of the old finish.  The table has a wood veneer but thankfully it is nice and thick.      I used Citristrip, some scrapers, steel wool, and a couple of old t-shirts for this step.  I'm not going to lie, it was definitely some messy business.

Then I hand sanded the whole table with varying grits of sandpaper starting with a coarser grit ending with the least coarse grit.  After that I cleaned the table making sure to remove all sawdust.

The next step was applying pre-stain wood conditioner.  This step helps raise the grain of the wood so that the stain will be absorbed better. 

Don't mind my palm sander in the pic above.  I did not actually use it because I didn't want to damage my table.  Then I applied the stain. I used Minwax wood stain in Espresso.

After 20 minutes I wiped off the excess stain with paper towels.

Then I left the table to dry.  At this point I hit a bit of a snag because after more than a day it was still tacky.  So I wiped the whole table down with mineral spirits which left the table a little lighter than I had originally intended but I was still satisfied with the results so I decided to leave it.

I decided to add a fun little detail to my table and taped off the bottom 10 inches of each leg, primed, and painted them with leftover Martha Stewart Vintage Gold paint from this project.  My final step was to apply a rub-on poly coat.  I did two coats total.  Here is what I ended up with.

One other thing that happened in the course of this project was a giant diy disaster.  I decided to refinish the table in the dining  room since moving the table would be hard and it is cold in North Dakota at this time of year so both the basement and garage aren't very pleasant options.  I put a tarp under the table but I am wishing that I had selected a bigger tarp.  I accidently tipped over the can of stain and watched a giant dark puddle ooze all over my hardwood dining room floor.  I was kind of in a paralysis for a moment and then I was frantically wiping up the puddle with anything I could find.  Thankfully, I opted to buy the large jug of mineral spirits because I definitely needed it.  My socks were covered in stain as was various spots on my body.  It was definitely not a shining moment in my diy career. 



I think that I am happy with the results.  I like the depth that the stain added to the tabletop even if the job isn't totally perfect.  My next phase of this project will be to redo all of the chairs that came with the set.  I plan on painting these because of the damage to the wood veneer on most of the chairs.  I am also going to be recovering the seats.  I ordered some fabric swatches a week ago and found one that I think will work perfectly so I am excited to get the fabric in and start on those.  Stay tuned for an update of phase two of this project later this month.