Painting Class

Yesterday my friend and I took an incredibly fun furniture painting class. We learned three different techniques. Distressed, Color Wash and Two Tone. I love distressing so I did it to all three sample boards. This picture is before the distressing. I chose a minty teal as my color to work with and Cassie chose coral.

We each brought a picture frame to paint as a mini project. My frame was black to start with and had goldenrod stars on it. (super country) I did nothing to it before painting it because it didn't really have a finish. I like how the black came out when I distressed it. I used my mint as a base then some emerald and coral accents. I love how it turned out! I can't wait to paint everything in our house! What an amazing DIY day that started with a painting class and ended with an auction. Check out the awesome accent moldings I scored. Those will be made over soon! 

                     

Easy DIY Crate Seats

Today I finally got around to putting my crate seats together for my classroom. They were even easier than I had anticipated. They are all over Pinterest right now and so they should be! They are super easy, super cute, super functional seating for your classroom, playroom or any kid space! 

Here's what you'll need: 

Crates - I used these from Target. 

I made 8 of them for my classroom @ $3 = $24

Fabric  - I used this fabric as well as other patterns from Hobby Lobby

I bought 5 yards because I wanted to use it for something else too. I probably used a little over 2 yards total @ $6.99  $4.99 a yard on sale = $10

Foam - I used a roll of upholstery foam, but a cheap foam mattress topper would work just fine, especially if you are making a lot. My foam roll was just enough to make 8 seats = $12

Wood - Lowes has PlyWood anywhere from $10-$40 for a 4' x 8' sheet and they cut it for FREE!

My board was $16 and I only used 1/2 of it, which actually got my 12 pieces = $8

Duct Tape - Lowes had colored Duct Tape for like $2 a roll and I barely used any. 

The total of this project was right around $55 for 8 seats. 

1. Lay the wood piece on top of the foam and cut the foam the same size or slightly smaller than the board.

2. Lay the fabric out on the floor wrong side up. (Be sure that your pattern is going in the direction you want it to when you lay your foam and wood on top.)

3. Lay foam down and then the board on top of that. 

4. Cut your fabric about 3 inches larger on all sides so that you have some to wrap around. 

5. Wrap the fabric, pulling tight, but not too taught so that it distorts the pattern and tape it to the back of the wood like you would when wrapping a package. I did the two long sides first and then the ends so that it made nice corners. 

6. I don't have this yet, but I plan on adding a ribbon, or possibly loop made out of the fabric, to each one so they pull out of the crate easily. 

It would have probably taken me right around an hour to put all 8 together, but I had a small "helper" at school with me today. I'm pretty sure my room was a son of a MESS when he got done! He basically took everything off the shelves and threw them all over the room! Here's a picture of Graysen's "productive" day as well! Needless to say, he passed out in the car on the way home, refused to lay in his crib when we got home, slept on me for a little while on the couch and refused to wake up for anything, which left him wearing ginormous crabby pants! 

His shirt fits today I guess, "Back off! I'm crabby!"

DIY Bulletin Board Ribbon Border

Sorry I have been MIA lately. I have been frantically busy getting my classroom ready. Summer School starts Monday! I decided to totally overhaul my classroom since I was switching it from the Kindergarten Room it has been for the last 5 years into a Title 1 Resource Room. The room had to fit students who range in age from 1st grade to 3rd grade this year and I decided on a teal and lime theme. (Our school colors are Black, Silver and Teal) I am LOVING it! Here's one quick and easy way I updated my bulletin boards. I cannot tell you how easy this is and how amazing it looks! 

First, I took a long piece of butcher paper (we have big rolls of it in several colors) and loosely folded rolled it up so I didn't have to cut long strips, I could make a short cut and it cut the whole length at once. (A major time saver)

I used a random piece of boarder that I had laying around so that I could make each strip the same size. 

Once you have your strips, bunch them, scrunch, them and make them very wrinkly. The wrinklier, the better! (Is wrinklier a word???) 

I then bunched and scrunched it on the board and stapled it in several places. Fluff it up and you're done! 

I have a huge "fake" wall on one side of my room that is actually a divider between my room and the room next door. Technically, you could open the divider and have one huge room, but we just use it as a big bulletin board. I have it sectioned off, so that is why you see two boarders with the paper ribbon.  Excuse the crooked photo. I took it with my phone. I have black plastic as the background instead of paper. It doesn't fade and holds up great fairly well...if you don't have a bunch of 5 year olds picking at it during Daily 5 Read to Self! :)
I will be posting an update on how the classroom makeover is coming soon!
MB

Easy Breezy DIY House Numbers

So...our house numbers were really cheap and pretty ugly looking to start with. They were there when we moved in and right in the middle of a random pole on our front porch. We took them down when we painted the porch from an extremely awful periwinkle blue, to white and we never put them back up. We  I had been debating on what to use instead. I saw this post on Pinterest and was inspired to make my own version. 

The numbers are from Menards and the wooden blocks were around $.50 each at Michaels. I already had the acrylic paint (Martha Stewart Brand from Michaels) and the foam brush. All together, this project cost right around $5.00 to make. 

I used my trusty E6000 glue to glue them to the bottom post of the front steps leading up to the porch. 

I really like the way they turned out and they go great with our green shutters.

MB