Metal Star Redo
Remember when the metal stars were the big home décor must have? Yeah mine is still hanging in my entryway. I decided instead of just sticking it in storage I would try and update it. So I pulled out my scrapbook paper, mod podge, and paint brush.
I cut the scrapbook paper down to smaller sizes and just started gluing. After I had the whole star covered in paper and dried I wanted to age it a little bit so I pulled out my dark stain. I was thinking I would paint it on and then rub it off and let it settle in the cracks. Well silly me it doesn’t rub off like wood it seeped right into the paper and stayed. So I had to go over the whole star with the stain. It ended up being a dark brown instead of a light cream like I wanted. It might just end up in storage anyway but at least I tried.
Inspiration
Wow it has been few and far between! Things have been the usual crazy busy here but why so long? I seem to have fallen into some kind of crafting rut. Anyone else have this problem? Well, like most of us, I need inspiration from somewhere to get my creative juices flowing. There are SO many different places to get inspired I wanted to dedicate this post to the different places of inspiration!
TV – HGTV and DIY need I say more 
Online – Pinterest is huge hit and growing day by day with more and more pins. Did you know they even have craft shows online? Check out My Craft Channel Shelly from House of Smith’s has a segment on here.
Magazines – There is a magazine for pretty much anything from do it yourself projects to Country Style. Did you know that HGTV just came out with their own Magazine
Catalogs – Pottery Barn, Ballard Design, Anthropologie, Restoration Hardware are a few of my favorites and they are FREE!
Other Houses – I have such a hard time driving by model homes and not stopping. Don’t forget your phone has a camera on it, use it! And don’t be afraid to ask questions.. What color of paint is that? Where did you get the couch? I hope everyone goes to Parade of Homes. Utah County’s is coming up next month. You can buy tickets here.
Stores – Who can walk into Tai Pan Trading and not be inspired? Store displays are carefully thought out and easily replicated.
Blogs – This has to be my favorite! I have about twenty go to blogs that I check frequently for ideas.
I am sure there are a few that I missed but I hope that if you find yourself in a inspiration slump at least one of these will help. I know they did me.
Half wall redo
I have a half wall between my kitchen and living room. I have thought about just ripping it out but I actually like it for the separation of the rooms so why not use it as a décor opportunity? It is right by our kitchen table so anything that stuck out was not an option plus my son would just use it as a step over the wall in his Parkour course! So I decided why not just mount something right to the wall? The options are endless I considered wallpaper, fabric, art print, ever wrapping paper. I ended up going with wallpaper. I just cut two 32×22 pieces and hung them on the wall. I had to use two pieces per side since the wallpaper print was not going lengthwise. Just make sure you line up your two pieces and you don’t even notice. Then I picked up a couple pieces of trim at the home improvement store and painted them white. Hubby cut them for me and we glued them right to the wall. I used painters tape to hold them in place white the glue dried.
Let it sit overnight and pulled all the tape off the next day. If I get tired of the wallpaper I can just put something up right over the top of it. Or I can use it as a background and add some vinyl images or writing over the top of it. So fun.
Here is how it turned out.
Read MoreValentine Block
I decided to post this under Valentines even though it doesn’t really fit. I didn’t know where else to put it. I decided another wood store I wanted to try was Poppy Seed Projects in Sandy. Ended up getting a couple of block sets. One Valentine and one a LDS Temple block. The blocks are very simple to do.
First sand your block, dust it off and then paint it. One block I sanded the edges on the other one I didn’t. Really up to you and want you like. the Valentine’s block also had beadboard that I painted white and stained over the top of it. Applied the provided vinyl onto the the piece of tin and hot glued everything together. If I was making this from scratch I would have used a red vinyl to show up better on the tin.
The LDS Temple block kit all that was provided was the block of wood and the Temple picture. I used a couple pieces of my scrapbook paper to layer with the picture on the painted block and just Mod Podged everything to the painted wood.
So how does this store compare to the other two? Very small and not a big selection. But if was looking for LDS kits I would go here. There were some holiday selections but mainly LDS things to choose from. Everything from small little blocks like this up to 16×16 kits.
Read MoreLove Letters w/ Banner
Has anyone else noticed all the unfinished wood places popping up all over the place? I have posted before about the one I found in Murray, The Wood Connection which I fell in love with! I decided I wanted to go visit a couple of the other stores to see how they compared and wanted to share. First I went to Crafty Wood Cutouts in Orem. It was a lot like The Wood Connection in fact a lot of the same things and the prices were about the same. Wood Connection is a little bit bigger. I got a set of LOVE letters and some scrapbook paper.
Sanded my letters down, traced and cut out my paper and painted the letters red. Then went to my Silhouette machine and cut out some little pendants in white and letters in red and a couple of black hearts. Glued the letters and hearts to the pendants and strung them onto pink and white bakers twine. Mod Podged the paper onto the letters and let them dry. The small heart that fit into the big heart I painted red and then sprayed with the red Glitter Blast. Then I hung the banner from the L to the E
Would I pick Crafty Wood Cutouts over The Wood Connection? Probably not unless I am heading in that direction. I just might take turns between the two. 
End Table Make Over
On one of my many trips to our local thrift store I spotted this ugly brown particle board end table. It was not only ugly but unstable as well. But I knew a perfect spot for it in the Living room and for ten bucks I knew it was at least worth a try. I found a great tutorial for painting black furniture on You Tube from The Yellow Cape Cod and followed it. I did skip the staining part since I was dealing with particle board and not real wood. I was so excited when I got all my supplies that I forgot a before picture! I was SO sad cause it really was a beauty. I did get a half was done picture
I already had the primer and paint so all I needed to go get was a new handle and the wax.
Here it is all finished
and here it is in place. I love it! I want to paint all my furniture black! Maybe my kitchen table next… 
Clocks faces
Nothing like starting out the new year with a cheap, easy project. I had everything on hand and took five minutes to make.
Start with any old cd’s you have laying around the house. Then find some clock faces that you can print out on the computer. I found mine here at White Life print the one or ones you like on white cardstock. I found that if you choose to print them in 5×7 and uncheck make to fit frame that most of the faces fit perfect on the cd’s. Cut out the faces and Mod Podge them to the cd’s and you are done. I took a black sharpie to the edges so they were not shinny.
I could seriously go crazy with this one! I love clocks. 