Train Shaped Chalkboard for Little Boys Room

My little boy is crazy about trains...so I decided to make this cute train shaped chalkboard for his bedroom wall...he loves it.    All you need to make this cute train is some cardboard or foam board, chalkboard contact paper, a x-acto knife and some double sided sticky tape.  

I cut out the locomotive using a SVG file template from online and left the rest of the train cars plain rectangles to give him more room to write with the chalk.    If you are interested in a detailed tutorial plus a link to the template, click on the photo :)


Thanks for dropping by!

Jamie

Use Scrapbook Paper for DIY Home Decor

DIY Wall Art

The other day I ran across this gorgeous DIY wall art over at Jessica's Musings. It was made from a canvas and scrapbook paper! I think it's wonderful and I can't wait to make one of my own :)

I included this in a round-up I just finished.  If you are interested in more home decor projects using scrapbook or decorative paper go to:

20 DIY Home Decor Ideas using Decorative Paper


Thanks for stopping by!

Jamie B.

Invisible Disc Plate Hangers Tutorial - Great for Hanging Plates

Have you heard of the Invisible Adhesive Disc Plate Hanger? I have also seen them called Disc Plate Hangers, Invisible Plate Hanger, etc...   They are a made to stick on the back of plate for hanging on the wall.  Plate groupings on walls are very popular lately, I've been seeing them everywhere!    Here is what the Invisible plate hanger or adhesive disc hanger looks like:

Invisible Adhesive Disc Plate Hanger

What is so great about these hangers is they hang the plate without showing hardware like the metal old school plate hangers. The only thing I didn't like about them was the price so that's why I came up with my own version of adhesive disk hangers with some things I had around the house.   

Invisible Plate Hanger Tutorial

What You Need - 

 E6000 glue, a sturdy piece of fabric cut in a triangle, wire, sandpaper or a tool that sands and rubbing alcohol

I first made the metal loop by taking a piece of wire and looping it twice around a pen and then twisted the ends together.

I then determined on the back of the plate where I wanted the loop and right below that I sanded a rough area... with the stone plates, I used a grinding bit on a Dremel.  

I then wiped the roughened area with some rubbing alcohol. 

Then I put about a nickel sized glob of E6000 on the sanded area and stuck the metal loop ends into the glue while laying the loop on the plate in the position I wanted it.

Then I stuck the fabric triangle, right below the loop covering the glue and the bottom half of the wire.  I then gently pressed the triangle down and tried to smooth the glue out evenly under it. 

I sat it aside and let it dry for 24 hours.... and it worked like a charm!

For a more detailed tutorial with photos showing an alternate way to make these using jute go to:

DIY Invisible Plate Hangers Tutorial

Thank you so much for dropping by! I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial and will find it useful :)

For ideas and inspiration about hanging plates on your walls go to:  Decorating with Plates:Using Dinner Plates to Decorate your Walls

Decorating with Fabrics

Fabrics aren't just for clothes and curtains...Have you ever thought of using fabrics when it comes to decorating?? There's all kinds of different fabrics out there, in a million colors and prints!  The selection is amazing.. and fabrics can be used for so many different things when it comes to decorating your home.

Here's some inspiration for you:





How about a fabric covered wall??  I LOVE THIS and it's perfect for those who live in apartments... Just take it down when you leave and put it back up in the new place :)

Fabric Covered Wall @ MYAJADE HOME IMPROVEMENT

Look at this beautiful desk, partially covered with beautiful fabric with the matching chair!

Beautiful Fabric Covered Desk and Chair @ Brittney's Budget Crafts

Or you could do something like this.. One large fabric wall panel, or maybe a few..

DIY Fabric Wall Panels @ How About Orange

Look at these fabric covered bins, aren't they cute?!......Be sure to visit the link for the AWESOME tutorial!

Fabric Covered Boxes @ IHeart Organizing

There are TONS more things you can do with fabrics... I hope you are inspired!!    Have fun :)

DIY Decorative Letters- Cheap!

These beautiful letters that spell the word 'Dream' cost me about $6 bucks to make!  I am super excited and can not wait to do some more of them.   

Here is what I did:

I found these foam letters at  Hobby Lobby just the other day...  I had no idea they even existed-they are perfect!  

red and yellow 4 in foam letters

 Second, I primed the letters with plain white acrylic paint.. the colors they came in were way to bright for me. 

Then I painted them with a couple coats of flat black acrylic paint..then sanded and then added one more coat of black paint and VIOLA!! 

Gorgeous decorative letters for your walls, shelves or mantel!

For a more detailed tutorial with photos go to:

Learn How to Make Large Decorative Words from Cheap Foam Letters

P.S. If you know of any other places that sell these letters online, please feel free to share in the comments, as I am planning on buying and making plenty more of these!

 

Old Framed Painting to Fabulous Chalkboard

I happened upon this fabulous framed chalkboard today and wanted to share......

old picture makeover @ Positively Splendid

Can you believe this used to be an old picture painting. Visit Positively Splended to see the
before photo and how she took an old painting and made it into this pretty chalkboard for her kitchen!  I've gone ahead and tagged this thrift store makeover because even though she already had the painting, you can find all kinds of framed art at thrift stores!  This would be a perfect thrift store makeover :0)

More clever chalkboard paint projects, ideas and tutorials !!!

Thank  you..... hope you enjoy :0)

Inspiration and Ideas- Decorating with Photos

canvas photos @ tales from the crib

Decorating with photos really makes your interior feel like a home. I absolutely love pictures.. and always have. I remember the first camera I ever had. It was one of those 110 cameras and when I got it I was so excited you would have thought I had stuck gold.  Aww.. memories...

For inspiration, I've gathered some really nice home decor ideas using photos. You can never go wrong with using photos to decorate your home. 

Up first is this beautiful wall collection of canvas photos I found at tales from the crib and she was even nice enough to share the tutorial with us!  To look at it, you wouldn't think this was a thrifty project but indeed it is :0)

photo wall @ Felt So Cute

Felt So Cute posted this beautiful photo wall! I love this group of pictures.. it really looks great. There is even a great tip shared on how to plan the placement of the photos.  You can find photo frames at thrift stores, clearance sections of your favorite stores, Wal-Mart has pretty cheap frames and don't forget garage sales and flea markets.  Really you could just hang any pictures you want in whatever frame and it would still look nice but if you want to go all one color of frames, spray paint will do the trick. The black frames with black and white photos above look amazing!

Here is something a little different.  Do you have a wall that you can't decided what to do with? The photo above is a block poster that was printed at Block Posters.com.  You can make any size picture into any size poster... It takes the photo and turns it into printable PDF file of multiple parts of the image- all you do is print and put the image together on your wall. You can do it with borderless photos which looks like one big photo or you can do it like the photo above with the borders which looks more like a mosaic.  The best part about it is that it is completely free. Costs you nothing but printer ink which can be expensive but.. I still love this idea and can't wait to try it myself.


I hope you have enjoyed today's inspiration and ideas.. Have fun decorating!

Faux Metal Wall Decor Made from Empty Toilet Paper Tubes

@ Crescent and Lavender

Can you believe that the piece above is made from empty toilet paper rolls? I can not tell you how impressed I am! It really looks like a heavy piece of wrought iron.  These new spray paints are awesome to be able to make something like paper look like stone or a heavy metal.  Would you like to see more like this with tutorials? 

Clever Crafts Using Toilet Paper Rolls

Embroidery Hoop Wall Decor

belongs to mmadden via Flickr

How clever is this embroidery hoop wall decor I found on Flickr today?  I LOVE stuff like this.. Such a creative and clever idea!  For even more great ideas go to Embroidery Hoop Wall Decor Ideas. Included with a few of the ideas are links to great tutorials showing you how to make these for your own home. Super simple and pretty darned inexpensive, too!!

Frugal Wall Decor - Inspiration and Ideas

Here are a few things I found today that are really inspiring...

@ Frugal Design Girl

@ Centsational Girl

@ Our Family Four

@ India pied-a'-terre

Some of these blogs share the tutorial as well.. Have fun!