Cheap Monday!!

Wallpapered bookcase. Easy way to class up an ikea find. :)

*Image via pinterest

Cheap Monday!!

This is a great little project that we just completed in our living room.

Steps & Ingredients

1. Pick out an accent paint color.
2. Tape of a section on your wall.
3. Paint inside that section.
4. Hang shelves on the stripe. (I got mine from Ikea)
5. Add a collection to showcase. (In our case it is sand from all over the world, from our travels and our friends travels. It is a great reminder everyday of our friends and our adventures.)

Cheap Monday!!

 Happy Spring! Try to make or  just get one of these great spring wreaths for your front door.

All of these wreaths can be found on Etsy! HERE

DIY!!

DIY Fabulousness!!

I saw this great idea on P.S. I Made This

I've seen these metalic pigs everywhere including the post below where Thom Filicia used it in a nursery.

Harry Allen Pig Bank $200

If you want one of these and don't have an extra 200 bones to drop on a little adorable pig; Do this:

 1. Get one random toy: Preferable plastic.

2. Get some metalic spraypaint.

3. Sray and done. Presto chango. Very luxurious and quarky metalic gator.

4. Style it on a bookshelf or mantle. It works with all kinds of animals. I think they are really fun. I can't wait to spray paint some toys! (I think a T Rex would be fun)

See more great ideas at P.S. I Made This.

Cheap Monday!!

Baby Mobile. I've been wanting to make one of these for my friend who is about to have a baby. There are tons out there in blog world and this is a really fun and easy tutorial. I think I'll make one for my sister too! Her shower is coming up and it will be a decoration as well as a mobile. I love those double duty gifts. :)

1.Gather your supplies: paper (I used scrap-booking paper), ruler, rotary cutter and mat, scissors, spray adhesive, craft glue, clear thread, needle, pencil, an embroidery hoop (I had a few sizes on hand to choose from), and a small plastic ring (I used one left over from some roman shades I made).


2.Cut your paper into 3 inch strips.

3.Cut the strips in half.

4.Fold each strip in half along the long side.

5.Using the spray adhesive (in a well ventilated area), glue 6 of the folded strips together along the folded edges.

6.Do not glue the first and last of the 6 folded strips together.

7.Fold the stack of strips flat and draw half of the shape you’d like the finished piece to be (I did circles, squares, triangles and diamonds).

8.Using scissors, cut along the line. (I was able to get 2 shapes out of each of my 6 inch folded stacks.)

9.Unfold and glue the last 2 sides together.

10.Repeat steps 2-9 with the remaining paper (I had 9 sheets that ranged in size from 8 1/2 x 11 to 12 x 12).

11.Using a needle and clear thread, poke a hole in each piece and hang from a loop of thread.

12.Hang the embroidery hoop from the small plastic ring using the clear thread. I hung mine from my dining room chandelier using a clothes pin to make it easier to work with.

13.Hang the shapes from the hoop at varying lengths.

14.Hang the finished mobile from the ceiling. Mine is not directly over the crib – I didn’t want to risk hanging anything that could possibly fall into the crib!

*This project is from Urban Nest.

Cheap Monday!!

This is a super easy DIY from Bryn Alexandra . If you can wrap and glue then you can make your own roman shade. One of the reasons it's pretty painless is that you start with an actual Roman shade. She recommends this because it takes all of the guess work out of the tricky engineering and you know it will always work. It doesn't matter what the shade looks like but she would recommend a neutral so it won't show through the fabric.
She started with this $30 roman shade from Overstock: 

For the fabric she used a remnant she already had from a past client. (On a side note: She wouldn't recommend using stripes because they are hard to line up just right.)

Next, cut the fabric so that it fits over the shade and can wrap around about 1/2" on all sides.
Step three: Iron like crazy.

Take all of your supplies outside and get ready to glue what you will need is spray adhesive and fabrictac. 

Starting from the top of the shade, spray adhesive the fabric onto the roman shade. Make sure the fabric is perfectly flat and there are no creases.

Once you spray adhesive all of the fabric onto the shade, turn the shade over and wrap the extra fabric (about half an inch) around the back of the shade and glue using fabrictac. Do not use the fabrictac on the front part of the shade. It will show through your fabric. She recommends spray adhesive for any part of the shade that shows. Fabrictac is preferred for the back because it is more secure.

This is the final project! It's beautiful and should only take you about an hour and a half with the cost of the roman shade of only about $30. That Bryn is a smart cookie.

DIY Chevron Rug

I LOVE this post from Little Green Notebook. This post was from her blog a few days ago and I had to share it with you.  One of her readers created this great chevron rug and I think we should all do the same. Here are the steps.

1. Find a jute rug either at Ikea or Homegoods (they are inexpensive and a good probability of finding one)

2. Start taping off a chevron pattern.

3. Pick out paint colors you like and start on your pattern. You can use just one color or as many as you like. This one has two colors and she is using a dry brush technique. I like the way it comes out.

4. This reader used clear tape to cover the places she left white, just in case of a little spill. Then let it dry and poof a new rug!

The total cost of this rug was about $36 dollars and about 3.5 hours of labor.

This little rug went in a nursery. I can't wait to dream up a space to put mine. What a great idea. Thanks Jenny at LGN. Here is the link to her story.