DIY: IKAT wall decor

I did it!! Another successful DIY project!! I loved this one. It took a little more time because you have to let the paint dry in between layers, but it worked out fabulously and I can't wait to make another one!! I'm thinking these could go randomly throughout the house and no one would notice that I have the same thing all over the place. Or maybe they will but who cares. If they chose to say something I'll just to have to punch them in the throat.

This project was not difficult, but my little OCD and perfectionism came into play a lot. You will see I added to the picture at the end because I was not pleased with the size of the "diamonds". Usually what happens is I continue to "fix" things, and then I ruin them. I've been trying to hold back on doing that lately. haha. 

The original tutorial called for starting out by drawing a few diamonds onto your canvas. Ain't nobody got time fo' that, so...I just went for it. I definitely copied off of the color scheme of the original post but it matched the room I was going for so I figured why reinvent the wheel?? 

All I did here was make a diamond in the middle of the canvas and use short light strokes to drag out the brush strokes. Let that dry, and then do the same with the next color only a little smaller. Let paint dry after every coat.

When I got done 3 of my four colors I really wasn't happy with the size of the "diamonds" for the picture, so I just used the same colors to bring the outside strokes out a little longer. I was super nervous I would mess something up, but it actually worked out and looked a lot better.

The last thing I added was the mettalic gold. I really wasn't a fan of this gold when I added it to my canvas, but it's starting to grow on me. I thought it was a little too yellow/greenish, but even Mike commented on how nice it looked the other day. Truth be told, since I thought I was going to be changing the gold color, I didn't drag out the edges on this yet, but you might not ever know that if I didn't tell you. haha.

And here is the finished product!! I'm super happy with it and can't wait to do some more!

Also linking up for: Little Friday || Treat Yo' Self Thursday || Thoughts for Thursday  || Thursday Favorite Things ||  Turn it up Tuesday || Tutorial Tuesday || Let's Be Friends Blog Hop || Handmade Tuesday's || That DIY Party || The Creative Collection || Creative Inspirations || Create It Thursday || Creative Ways Link Party || Artsy Fartsy Link Party || Friday's Unfolded 

DIY: Tribal Chevron Canvas

First off, don't forget the Flex Watches giveaway!! It's over tomorrow!

Sorry I didn't post about this last week like I said I was going to. Those snow days made me super lazy and I pretty much did nothing other than go to the gym. And sleep. Mostly sleep. :) But, I'm posting about it now, so we're good.

This was super easy to do. I was a little nervous about being able to make the lines and not having paint get under the tape, but it actually worked out really well.

You're going to need:
• a canvas ( You can get them from Michael's, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, etc.)
• acrylic paints of your choice
• masking tape
• large craft brush or small foam "brush"

OK, start off by taping off the canvas. I made vertical strips evenly across the canvas. Then I started by taping off every 2 inches and creating the chevron. Don't do that. just eyeball it. It was way too complicated and that's the part that looks a little too diagonal on the one side. Once I started just eyeballing it it seemed a little easier to get even. And...it's DIY so you want it to have a little character.

Then the fun begins, make yourself a little paint pallet with your acrylic paints and then take your brush and start making wisps of color all over the canvas. Be careful not to press too hard because it might pull up the tape. I just did a few light wisps all over the place. Don't be afraid to mix a few colors and all that jazz.

When the paint dries, pull off the tape. And voila!! You're left with a gorgeous, homemade canvas!!

Linking up for: Handmade Tuesday's || Tutorial Tuesday ||

St. Patrick's Day Party!!

Let me just explain....I LOVE St. Patrick's Day!! And half the time I don't even celebrate. haha. I mean that's what happens when you're a school teacher and you have to actually be able to function around children the next day. I mean, honestly...why can't it be like Thanksgiving and you just choose a Friday or Saturday in March for this holiday. Bars would appreciate it, I promise!

And, although I'll probably just have a private little celebration with my husband, I still want to hear the ideas from you guys!! Who knows, maybe we'll party hardy together. haha.

So, because it's a holiday, I can eat all the sweets I want. And I found this gem on Pinterest the other day. It's an Irish Car Bomb Cake!! Who doesn't love an Irish Car Bomb?? And in a cake??? Yes, please!!

Doesn't it look phenomenal?? Ugh...I want that in my mouth right now.

And thanks to Alli at Cupcake Diaries, she came up with a whole list of foods you can make for a St. Patrick's Day party! Um, check out the Thin Mint Brownies. *sigh* I think I'm in love.

And as for decorations...you're welcome. I found some awesome ones!!! And they are all free or super simple.

How cute are these candles?? And you want to know what those green things are??? Split peas!!! How cheap and simple!! I might even do something like this for decor all year!! haha.

And another super simple decor option is this totally awesome canvas!! How easy is this?!?! I mean maybe 15 minutes worth of work?

And a few more....for these all you have to do is print. You can find them here, here, and here!!

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for!! 

THE DRANKS!! 

Shamrock Shooter!!

Tell me this doesn't look amazing! The recipe is super simple, too!! Most likely not everything you have in your cupboard, but it's St. Patrick's Day! Splurge!!

I knew for this I had to find a drank that uses Midori because it's the most beautiful shade of green there is. And Pinterest did not fail!

Midori Cosmo!!

The recipe for this, again, is really easy, but Midori isn't something a lot of people keep on hand. However, a Midori pineapple used to be my drank and if it's Halloween, you can always make one of my famous Dragon's Lair dranks!!

OK it's your turn!! Come link up your favorite St. Partick's Day party ideas!!

1. Follow Hopelessly Ever After via GFC or Bloglovin'.
2. Grab a button from below or my sidebar and put it in your post.
3. Write about your favorite alcoholic beverage.
4. Come back here and link up!!!
5. Get some new recipes or drink ideas for the weekend and make a new friend!!

Anyone interested in co-hosting email Kristin at: hopelessly_ever_after@yahoo.com

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*Update* DIY photo canvas

     A few weeks ago I posted this about creating your own photo canvas. I made another canvas yesterday and wanted to update with my changes.

     Here's the new one. Winter themed!!

     Here are the updates. 

          * This looks much better without painting the sides of the canvas. 

          * Walgreens has a white border around their photo. Cut that off before trying to place your photo. 

          * Make sure your strokes while "painting" on the Mod Podge go from the top of the page to the bottom. Otherwise you can see some of the places where you started your stroke when it dries. 

     Other than that this is another super easy project. 

Print your photo, Mod Podge the entire canvas, put the photo on and let it dry, Mod Podge over the entire photo and be sure to seal the edges!!

Photo Wall Decor

     I made this post a few months ago where we personalized some frames with our last name. I had another frame laying around in the basement so I decided to print some photos and hang it. After cleaning off all the dirt and dust I got to work finding the letters I thought would work.

     I had decided to use the word "Noel" since I didn't feel like thinking too long about any other Christmas-y four letter words and used the same site as in my previous post. I narrowed it down to these four letters since they had Christmas colors in them.

     After uploading them to my Walgreens account and picking them up, all I had to do was put them in the frame and I was done. Easiest project EVER!!!

     

Homemade "Believe" Sign

   

      I worked on a lot of projects this week. Some are finished and some not, but I feel very productive. We decided on Tuesday to have a Friends Christmas Dinner this weekend and I was not happy with our Christmas decor yet. Wherever Mike and I have lived in the past four years we have turned the entire place into Christmas. This year it took every single Christmas item I had just to halfway decorate the downstairs. It definitely did not feel like our usual Christmas house.

     So, I got to work on making a few things to decorate it up a little more and called Mom for some backup decorations.

     I saw on Pinterest how you can print out letters and trace them onto wood and the pencil or pen will leave an imprint in the wood. Then you can just paint inside the imprint and you have a sign with beautiful font. So...off I went.

    I already had a piece of wood that I could use so I printed off my words and got to work. I tried to take a picture of the imprint but it wouldn't show up. However, here it is after I painted a couple coats on the wood.

     I painted a few more, probably 4 total. Maybe one day I'll learn not to get the cheapest paint out there. lol. Then I decided it needed something more on the other side. So, I got to work looking for a print to use. I found a nice Santa image I liked that didn't seem too hard to replicate so I printed it out and traced it on the wood. I decided to outline this in black. 

     Then, I painted the Santa, again a few coats and added some holly to the corners just to add a little more pizzaz. Then, VOILA!! Done!! Here he is in all his Santa glory!!!

Whitewashed the Fireplace!!

OK so we finally got our fireplace working after almost a year in here. We thought it was something serious and the whole time it was only a broken bolt on the flue. Yay!! Now we can enjoy a nice fire  every night!

Our house was built in 1928 so there is a lot of old charm. One of those is our fireplace. It has a gorgeous surround, but ugly brick and red tile around the actual fireplace. It doesn't exactly fit our style of clean lines and neutral colors.

So, Mike and I randomly decided on Saturday to whitewash the brick. We looked up a few YouTube videos and blog posts and finally decided our game plan. It seemed quite easy and everything we read told us to try it so....off to JBK we went to collect our supplies!!

The whole process was incredibly easy. We literally mixed white latex paint and water in equal parts and stirred it with a paint stirrer. Then, found a paintbrush in the basement and went to work.

Mike isn't very good at straight lines so I started in on the inside and he monitored my work. This is where our experimentation came into play. In one of the blog posts we read the couple wiped off the excess paint before it dried. In another, the blogger didn't mention this so we assumed she just let the paint soak in. The major concern of us was that our bricks were very smooth. Most of the things we had read about or seen had very coarse, rough bricks. So, on the first part we used a sponge. Don't use a sponge!!! It left too many lines in the paint and it looked awful. So Mike went upstairs and grabbed an old shirt and we used that to gently wipe off the excess paint.

This was definitely the better of the two and decided to go with it for the rest of the fireplace. We finished up the first coat and let it soak into the brick a little while we decided whether to put on another.

(In hindsight I kind of wish we had left it a little lighter, however, I'm still happy with the result) You can see the streaks from wiping off the paint but I'll tell you in a sec how to make them a little less noticeable. 

We decided to add another coat so I went at it. This time I painted the entire fireplace and let the paint soak in a little before wiping off the excess. When I wiped the paint off, I took the rag and gently but quickly wiped in the same direction as the brick. As you go there will be extra paint on your cloth and you can kind of go back and even up where you may have wiped too hard. This will also remove some of the paint from the cloth so it doesn't get too gooped up. 

That's it!! When that's done, it's done!! It was definitely super easy and we got the entire process finished in about 40 minutes. Just in time for the Ravens game!!! Too bad we lost. :(

Here it is!!

 and again...

and finally....

 

Here's the difference!!

DIY Photo Canvas

     Ever since Mike and I got our pictures back I have been wanting to make one of these canvases. I see the tutorials all over Pinterest and thought how easy it would be to do this. The prices of photo canvases is absolutely ridiculous and there is no way we can afford as many as I want around my house. lol. 

     So...I got the motivation up last weekend and asked my friend, Abby, to join in on this adventure with me. We both braved our sicknesses and took a trip to Walmart to pick up the Mod Podge and her photo print. Then, at about 10pm, we got to it!!

     The process was definitely not a hard one. Time consuming, yes, but only because of all the waiting you have to do for everything to dry. Other than that it was just a lot of spreading, pressing, and sitting.

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 16x20 canvas

Mod Podge - I got mine in matte

your 16x20 photo of whatever print you like 

sponge brush

Xacto knife or razor blade

WHAT YOU DO:

Brush Mod Podge all over the canvas fairly thick. You can spread it on the back of the photo, too if you would like. You want to do this fairly quickly, but don't rush.

Then, place your photo on the canvas evenly and press to stick. ** I used a print from Walgreens. It was a better photo quality than Walmart, but there was an edge of white all the way around the photo. Based on my experience, definitely trim off all that white before you place the photo on the canvas.** I turned mine over on a very clean table and put something heavy on the corners just to make sure they stuck. Let that dry........

     After the Mod Podge dries (I let mine dry overnight) you need to trim the edges. I turned my canvas face down and just lined up the xacto knife with the canvas and cut. With this photo paper I needed to press very hard so make sure you aren't on a surface where you could damage anything. Gently pull off the excess paper. Then Mod Podge over the entire picture/canvas in order to seal the photo to the canvas. 

Don't worry it will dry clear...

Once it dries you are done!!!

     My corners were a little jagged because of the photo paper, but it actually didn't look that bad after the Mod Podging. I sanded down the entire side in order to make it uniform. Next time, I'll keep that in mind.

Before Mod Podge

     

DIY Earring Holder

I have been trying to get this done for months now. My earrings are in a clump in a drawer in our linen closet. I hate searching for matching earrings so I end up wearing the same ones over and over. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy I am stuck inside on a schools closed day so, why not get her done?!? So easy, if you have the materials.

All I did was use an old frame and some chicken wire or whatever that stuff is called. Here's a close up...

I cut the wire to size and then used my stapler in order to attach it to the back of the frame. A staple gun would work MUCH better. ;) 

DONE!

I spray painted my wire a turquoise color, although you can't tell in the picture, in order to match our theme in the room.

Mason Jar Tiki Torch

I have been wanting to post this for a while but haven't for some reason. This was one of the easiest things I have ever done. It actually came about because a friend was coming over and I really wanted a porch night. The mosquitos were awful and I was going to try to set up the tiki torches outside of the porch screen but chickened out because I didn't want the screen to catch fire. I figured if I put them far enough away that it wouldn't it would be too far to keep the mosquitos away anyway so...

I just happen to be cleaning the porch of all the left over wedding stuff and came across some purple mason jars. I really wanted to do something with them so I put a few on the table. Just so happens that next to the mason jar sat the tiki torch insert. Hmmmm....so...I put one of the inserts into the mason jar and it fit perfectly!! Wonderful!!

A little suggestion....make sure you keep the wicks trimmed VERY low!! Otherwise you will get little black ashes all over everything including you!! 

Oh! And the mason jars I used were the bigger ones, just in case you're wondering why your tiki insert doesn't fit.

DIY Personalized Wall Decor

I will be the first to admit that I am a cheap frugal person. Nothing in my closet or in my house was bought at full price (unless that price was amazing!). I just refuse to pay in full when I know in a month those things will be on sale. Yes, sometimes I miss out on some beautiful items but I fully believe if I can't make it happen it wasn't meant to be. I love shopping at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Christmas Tree Shops, places like that. I know I'm always getting a good deal.

With that being said I also like nice things. For this reason, Pinterest has become my best friend. There are so many ideas on there that can be done at cheap prices but they are quality items. This summer I spent a lot of time decorating my house with ideas from Pinterest. I did an O'Neil wall hanging that represents us as a new family. I also did some bedroom hangings since our walls were so bare and the napkin hangings for our hallway. For once I feel like I'm actually putting my creative side to use. 

My friend just recently had a baby and I knew I wanted to give her something personalized and special. I feel like there are so many things that someone can give to another person, but when you make it yourself and do it from the heart I feel it gives so much more. You can truly share how much you care and how often you're thinking about that person. This project was very similar to the O'Neil frame that I did, only I used the birthdate of her son instead. 

As you might be able to tell they have a nautical theme to their nursery. I tried to go along with the colors they have, too. I found this frame at Michael's and it was on sale so I think I paid maybe $7 or something. The prints came from this site where you can download them for free. I had Walgreens print mine. The total cost of those was something like $0.60. Rose's had the bobber and blue rope. All I did was hot glue them to the glass. 

This was a simple, cheap present...but it had a lot of heart into it. I spent about an hour deciding which numbers would work perfectly for their theme. I also had to research how to tie a few nautical knots in order to add the extra blue rope. I just wanted it to be nice, and I hope I succeeded. 

My brother is also getting married this summer. He and his bride-to-be had their coed shower last weekend. I decided to do the same thing for them only I used their wedding date. I hope they hang this in their house one day and surround it with pictures from their wedding. I told Mike this and he said, "How come we don't have one??" so maybe that's next. 

For their frame I did something a little different. I cut out some of the flowers from their shower invites and added them to the frame mat. I thought it would be something they could have to represent their union for years to come, even if they don't keep the date in the frame. 

This turned out to be something that they really enjoyed. My soon to be sis-in-law noticed right away that they were from the invites. Their wedding had a very natural theme, if you get what I mean. She's doing burlap and wood, stuff like that. Therefore, I looked for some pictures that seemed to follow that theme too. I debated whether to keep the frames in their original color or to use a sepia color, but I figured with the flowers some color wouldn't hurt. Hopefully, like I said, this is something that they can keep and change with the different events of their lives. 

Here's the finished product...