Handcrafted Home–A Creative DIY Blog Hop

October 27, 2016

Today I’m joining a few bloggers for the Handcrafted Home DIY Blog Hop hosted by Jamala from Viva LaVintage For Your Home. And because this is a creative + diy themed blog hop, Jamala tasked each of us to transform an item using gold leaf.

Well, what’s a girl to do when the only craft projects on my mind are holiday related? Transform Christmas ornaments of course.

I dove into my holiday stash and found these two unfinished wood ornaments that I purchased from Hobby Lobby last year. They were the perfect candidates for a little DIY UpStyle.

After applying my gold leaf and adding a few vintage ornaments to the top of each wood piece, my ornaments went from plain to pizzazz!

This was a quick an easy DIY project and I love the way my ornaments turned out.

Tips for working with Gold Leaf:

Gold Leaf is easier to work with on surfaced that don’t have a lot of nooks and crannies. If you’re working with ornaments similar to mine, you’ll have to spend a little time smoothing the gold leaf on all the edges.
Wear latex gloves or put a few drops of talcum powder on your hands to make handling the gold leaf easier. This stuff is really clingy.
Use a soft bristle brush to smooth the gold leaf down. Smooth bristle will ensure you don’t tear the gold leaf.
Buy a high quality gold leaf paper and adhesive. I used the Gold Leaf Kit below (affiliate link) and think its one of the best out there.

Now it’s time to see the other fabulous DIY projects. Hop over and see how creative they got with their Gold Leaf.

Viva LaVintage For Your Home

M. Jones Style

Linda G. Loving Home

Fox and Finch Antiques

DIY Monogram Straw Hat

June 21, 2016

In a couple of months we’ll be setting sail on our 8th cruise to the Caribbean. This time around out ports of call will be Aruba, Bonaire, the Dominican Republic and Grand Turks. #soexcited

I’ve already started picking up a few new items for the trip, one of which was a new sun hat for me. A plain straw hat would have worked fine but I had to give my hat a little extra something-something.

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DIY MONOGRAM STRAW HAT

Here’s how the project started…

I bought this basic wide brim hat from Wal-Mart for under $5.00 ($3.35 to be exact). You can see that it has a thin brown cord as a decorative touch but the brown wasn’t working for me. Neither was the plain brim.

So I replaced the cord with a black and white striped ribbon and added my monogram to the back of the brim. Instant style!

All it took to replace the cording was a few snips with the scissors and some fabric glue to attach the new ribbon.

To create my monogram, I purchased some white iron-on letters from Hobby Lobby. These are the same brand of letters I used to make my monogram napkins.

What I love about these letters is they allow you to create a true three-letter monogram.

The only downside is the letters only come in white so your design options are limited.

I came up with an easier solution and all it took was a Sharpie. To get the black letters I wanted, I used a Permanent Sharpie Marker and colored over each letter.

All that was left to do was to position my monogram onto the back of the hat and iron it in place.

(before ironing, cover the letters with a piece of fabric so you don’t get ink on your iron or burn your letters)

This was such an easy update and now my hat that looks like it was made for a Mediterrian cruise.

The hat is available in four other colors so take your pick and make your own chic summer sun hat.

Handmade Inspiration

August 8, 2015

Happy Saturday! It’s going to be super hot in most parts of the country so I’ve round-up a few of my favorite DIY projects that would make for a perfect weekend indoors.

Enjoy and be inspired!

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You won’t believe that my friend Elle who write the Splendid Habitat blog made this gorgeous tie-die fabric was made using cooking spices.

If you look under craft maven in the dictionary you’ll likely see a picture of Amber. She is incredibly talented and crafts the most adorable things ever. Her latest obsession is shoes!

These just might be the most beautiful handmade baskets I’ve ever seen. So glad I discovered Alisa’s blog too!

I am so going to make some of this beautiful paper tape. So cute and so easy.

If you’ve got Christmas projects on your mind, you might think about making one of these pennant tree skirts.

Looking for something to do with those near empty bottles of nail polish. Here’s some really cool nail polish diy projects to check out.

I can’t think of a better way to spend a hot summer weekend than crafting. Happy crafting my friends!

Let’s Get Crafty: No-Sew Stripes and Leather Cosmetic Bag

April 21, 2015

The other day I was switching handbags from a leather piece to something with more spring style. As I was doing that I realized how unorganized the contents of my handbag were. I had items floating around in the bottom of my bag and stuff jammed in the pockets. Time for a fix and a quick diy.

Over the years I’ve found that the best way to keep my handbag organized is to have several cosmetic bags or pouches to hold all the little things. Since my current ~~stash~~ hoard of cosmetic bags wasn’t moving me, I decided to get crafting and make a couple of new pieces.

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