DIY – Page 12

Valentine’s Folding Cards

Published on February 8, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode15 Comments

Want another Valentine’s free printable? Sure you do! This time, we’re sharing fold over cards. If your kids have a Valentine’s party to attend, we’ve got you covered with a few cute (though I’m biased) tag printables.

If you’re looking to dish out candy, Nuts About You! tags are perfect.

Click the link, print, cut along the tick marks, and fold along the dotted line. Grab a bag of cellophane bags from the craft store (mine are 3 1/4 inches square when closed). Fill with peanut M&Ms (or another nutty treat), close, and staple the card over. There’s plenty of room for your little one to write a message to their friends.

If you don’t want your kids hopped up on sugar, give stickers instead. If your kids are anything like mine, they love three simple things: balloons, bubbles, and stickers. Any stickers.

Here’s Sticking With You, the girly version:

Or, we’ve got blue for a more boyish look.

Same routine. Print, cut, fold, staple to the package.

I couldn’t find stickers I liked, so I designed and printed my own.

But I had a problem. I printed the stickers on full label sheets. So I cut the designs out. Now I had to package them. A piece of wax paper cut to fit inside the same cellophane bags became a perfect backing for the home-made stickers. Just peel the label backing off, stick and seal.

I happened to have a mini stapler with orange staples, so I used that. Seriously, mini + office supplies = adorably irresistible.

You can make your own stickers to go with, too.

Print on full label sheets, then use a ruler and utility knife to cut apart, keeping centered between designs. Or, buy a big package at the store and divide up on wax paper sheets for a quick and sugar-free gift.

What Valentine’s cards have you given? Store bought? Hand made? Candyless?

P.S. This is the last Valentine’s project we’ll share. Pinkie swear.

Wear Your Heart on Your Garland

Published on February 6, 2012October 18, 2012 by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

When E takes his afternoon nap, I try to do a fun project with V. Sometimes we make a puzzle. Other times we color and practice our letters. With Valentine’s day coming up, we did a special project involving crayons. Before V could get started, I used a utility knife to cut crayon shavings. I looked for a pencil sharpener, but we don’t have one because really, who uses anything but a mechanical pencil now days?

Of course a little help is always nice, especially when the help is a cheesy-grinned four year old.

After shaving four different colored crayons (red, orange red, red violet, and flamingo to be exact), we finally got to the good part. We spread out a few sheets of kraft paper and one sheet of wax paper. V and I sprinkled the crayon over the wax sheet, trying to keep it as even as possible.

Cover it up with another sheet of wax paper.

And two more sheets of kraft paper.

Warm your iron to a medium setting and run it over the paper, melting the crayons.

Check as you’re going and keep ironing until the wax is completely melted.

Make a heart template, I recycled a flyer from the mail. Trace as many hearts as possible and start cutting.

To string our hearts, I used a needle to poke holes on both sides of each heart. Thread a small needle without cutting the other end from the spool. String the hearts on until you’ve reached the desired garland length.

I hung our garland in front of the living room window by making small loops on either end of the thread. Brackets are the perfect hangers.

And Dexter would have liked some of our red hearts, like this one that reminds me of his infamous blood slides.

What fun projects do you do with your kids? Do you remember making ‘stained glass’ as a kid? If I were crazy and needed another DIY light fixture in my house, I would most definitely make a faux capiz pendant using this same process. Just sub the hearts for a circle punch and sew the circles together. A wire wreath form would make a perfect multi-tiered base to hang the strands from. Can you tell I’ve considered this?!? Haha.

Cabinet Doors? Done

Published on February 2, 2012March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode25 Comments

Almost. I’ve got some touch up painting to do, but I’ll explain that later. On Saturday, Ben built eight cabinet doors including two glass frames. Details to come later, but you can bet I filled the doors right away. Sunday morning I sanded those babies down and filled a few areas again. While impatiently tapping my fingers waiting for filler to dry, I dreamed about installed cabinet doors. A few hours later, I gave the doors a final sanding and started painting with my two in one Behr paint. Love that I don’t have to prime.

I don’t know why, but Behr paint seems to dry faster than any other brand. Which is good news for me because I got two coats of paint on the fronts of the cabinets on Sunday. Then I flipped ’em over on Monday and gave the backs two more coats. Tuesday morning, I flipped back to the front for one more coat.

Once that coat dried, I hauled the doors up to the kitchen and propped them in place. You know, just to get a feel of what they would look like. Because I’m impatient like that.

That’s when I discovered a problem. The two glass door frames were about 1/8 inch wider than their lower counterparts.

Ben happened to come home to get his wallet during this and I pointed out the problem.

When Ben got home that afternoon, I ~~politely asked~~ begged, pleaded, and whined for him to install the cabinet doors. He ripped down the glass door frames to make everything even and flush. Then he started with the install of the fridge and bar doors. To install the hidden hinges, Ben measured and marked his the hole locations. He carefully drilled into the frames to hollow out a hole to recess the hinge in.

I admit, I was holding my breath while watching this. Ben is skilled (as you all know) but I imagined him drilling too far or popping a screw through the front. Luckily, everything went smoothly, other than one screw head breaking off. Then he popped the hinge in, used a square to keep it straight and put 3/4 inch screws in to hold it in place.

Handy Sammy was over for dinner, so he held the door up for Ben to hang. I’m too short, I can’t reach. Okay, I’m not that short, but it is nice to pawn a job off on an unsuspecting guest.

We didn’t want the wood cabinet frames to split, so Ben used a small drill bit to make a pilot hole, followed by a 1 1/4 inch screw in each hinge to hold the door in place. After the two bar and two fridge cabinets, Ben called it quits for the night and took a shower. While I was in the shower, Ben did a little more work. I walked out to see two door knobs in the fridge cabinets.

Speaking of the knobs, I had a little trouble deciding on the placement. Like Goldilocks, one was too low; centered in the bottom corner.

Another was too high; the outer edge of the knob above the bottom edge detail.

But one was juuuust right. And Ben agreed. Centered width wise on the edge detail, but also centered on the cross edge.

Fortunately for me, this made measuring a cinch. I just lined my ruler up with the raised detail and marked 1 1/4 inch from the edge (because our banding is 2 1/2 inches wide).

Yesterday afternoon, Ben finished installing the doors. Where’d the microwave go? Oh, it’s hidden behind a cabinet door. Sneaky us.

And now you can’t see our pile of mail or the toaster. But you can see our pretty dishes!

Add a few sparkly knobs and we’re done. Wait, we’re not. I’ve got to paint the crown moulding, those MDF brown trim pieces we’ve added, repaint the edges of the glass frames, and, oh yeah. Get glass! Notice the lack of glare? Ben thinks we should leave the doors glass-less so we always have clean and clear glass that’s under control (not to be confused with the face cleanser).

And I’ve already made this a long post, so why not make it a little longer, all in the name of eye candy? Oooooh, shiiiny.

I did realize why the knobs were so cheap, though. Some of the bolts are bent. Nothing Ben and a little man muscle can’t fix.

Edit: Here are the pictures I promised to add. I’ll have to touch up the paint on the glass frames.

And, here’s something I really love. Ben bought soft close hinges. No more slamming doors.

We’ve got tons more storage on the bar side, too. So far, the only thing inside is Ben’s food dehydrator.

We used three hinges on these heavy guys.

Once we get the glass in the frames we’ll have a full cabinet building post. I’m just excited we’ve covered the gaping holes and you can’t see our junk. Before, it was like we left our zipper down, but no one told us. Well, we figured it out.

One more thing checked off our to do list, one step closer to a finished kitchen, but it’s finally starting to look finished. Just a little more sanding, priming, and painting… Of course then we’ve got organizing and little building projects to do, but nothing that has to be done.

What do you think? What’s your favorite part? Who’s excited to see some paint on those walls?

Worse for Wear: Painted Rug

Published on January 25, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode6 Comments

Wow, it’s been a while since our last Worse for Wear post. Let’s visit the chevron rug I painted for the boys’ bedroom. Just after I painted it in the summer of 2010, it looked like this.

Way back then, I admitted I liked the look of the rug, but not the feel of the crunchy paint. Because of the crunchiness, I thought we’d have peeling paint and more flakes than a dandruff shampoo commercial. Surprisingly, the painted rug has held up wonderfully. Sure there are a few small spots, but still nothing terrible. Like this little dot.

And this slightly larger patch where a little boy had an accident. Ben scrubbed the rug (hence the slightly worn paint), then poured baking soda to help with the smell (thus the white circle).

If you recall, I got the rug for $13 because there was an extremely run down section. I’m happy to report the paint is actually helping this part.

So, it’s staying in the bedroom until it’s trashed or we find a better rug.

If you’re thinking about a similar project, I can say this holds up better than anticipated. I think the key is using a darker rug and oil-based paint.

What’s your worst rug experience? A spill? Wear from use?

P.S. Ben moved into this house eight years ago today. Two and a half years after that, we got married and I started taking over the house. Haha.

Safety Dance; Safety Book

Published on January 24, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode15 Comments

One month ago, after meeting up with my blog pal Jen and local readers, we offered up a Goodwill Challenge. I bought a thick hardcover book.

I know, it’s not much of a make over, but I’ve always wanted to make a book safe. A 15 cent book is a good tester, too. Jen’s challenge was an even better excuse to get started.

First, I separated the first few pages and the front cover, keeping everything bound with binder clips. Then I mixed plain ol’ Elmer’s glue with a little bit of water and brushed it all over the edges of the book. Mod Podge would work for this, too, but I only had glossy and I wanted this to look as realistic as possible.

With the edges glued together, I put a few pencils between the front pages and the glued pages. To help the pages dry tightly, I popped Ben’s jug of wine on top. Twenty or so minutes later, the glue had completely dried.

To get started cutting, gather a pencil, ruler and a sharp utility knife. Draw a border on the front page (I used the text as my guide). Use the ruler to cut a straight edge, going through as many pages as possible.

Pull the pages out and keep on cutting.

Don’t stop now. Cut along the edges.

As I cut, my edges got messier and messier. This doesn’t matter. It will all be covered up.

After about 15 minutes of cutting, I had removed enough of the inside to fit my iPhone inside and close the cover.

Once you’ve hollowed the book to the depth you’d like, cover the inside edges with the glue mixture. Spread more glue along the top of the hollowed border and let one page out of the clips. Set the page down and cut out the inside for a clean top page. Put something heavy on top to dry. Now you’ve got a handy book safe to keep all your worldly possessions inside.

I have to admit, after cutting to the iPhone depth, my new camera arrived and I quit working to fiddle around. And I haven’t gotten back to cutting yet. But you get the idea.

Now, let’s do the Safety Dance.